Gatorbassman

One thing that I have started doing is taking a Minn Kota portable thermometer that I got a Wal-Mart. I hook a 1oz sinker on it and mark every foot of wire from the sensor to the unit with a piece of tape. I drop it down a few feet and leave it there for a minute or so to give it time to read properly. Then I drop it a few more feet. I am looking for a temp of between 70 and 78 and that will be the depth I will fish for that day. You might be surprised by how shallow that you find that temp. Just the other day I was fishing 91 degree surface temp and I found 75 degree water at 5ft deep.

Stronger line is a must. But some times you can't avoid the weeds. I actually love to catch bass in the weeds. They are fun. What I do when they hang me in the weeds and I can still feel them is I keep just enough tention to keep the hook in the fish and I go after them. I will drive the boat rite into the weeds all the way to the fish. Then I will reach down and grab the line and remove the weeds as I am pulling the fish in. Alot of weeds around the fish is not a bad thing. It will keep the fish calm and make it easier to pull it in by hand. You can only do this with stronger line. I never use anything less the 12lb test when fishing the weeds.

I love spike it. One thing that I learned thought is it weakens your plastics. I was fishing a tourny as a guest in January and I was catching my fish on a white grub with the tail dipped in chartruse. If I dipped it to far up the body of the bait it would split and fall off my jighead.

Originally I am from Covington Ga, so I fish there alot. Now I live in Evans Ga. Just a few miles from Clarks Hill. I find myself on the water 3 to 5 days a week. My boat trailer is always hooked up to my truck.

This same thing happened to me on Wednesday. I got to the lake (95 acres) at 3pm and the water was 91 degrees. I spent the first hour looking for cooler water. When I couldn't find it I got took my portable water thermometer that I got at Wally World, hooked on a bell sinker and dropped it down until I found the comfortable temp of 75. The depth was just 5ft. I then picked up my jig and tossed it towards a point and started to work it out to 5ft where I caught a nice bass. Out of the next 10 casts I landed 4 fish. The rest of the day I concentrated on 4 to 6 ft. And had a great day.

Now that number sounds more like it. I have been working on increasing my casts per minute this year only when conditions warrent it. I have found that the most important thing isn't how fast I get the bait back in the water but how accurate that cast is. I have been pitching and flipping alot more and I can now hit a coffie cup a 30 ft one out of five times. Just like everything else. The more you practice the better you become. I still have trouble skipping though, but that's next.

fishinaz, Have your ever heard the term "Outside Weed Line". This is the edge of the Milfoil that is in deeper water. This is a good place to start. The grass has several attractive features that bass love. One is it holds little fish for dinner. It gives shade to hide in and it produces a large amount of oxygen. You can fish with crank baits, spinner baits, jerk baits, or anything that you want to use. Cast parallel to the weed line and work it along at various speed. Also, I forgot whose quote this is but it is a great one to fish by. "Start fishing where the shallowest water is closest to the deepest water."

I only use them on my flukes and sometimes when I am fishing a C-Rig in very clear, shallow water. But I have yet to see the difference on any other soft plastic. I also use a red treble on my Hub's Chub. (Top water bait)

Ben, There will always be a few guys on this site that you just have to ignore. They feel as though they know everything and their information is always correct and anything anyone says to contradict them is offensive to them. He said it himself. He has never used one. Therefore he hasn't had the opportunity to experience the advantage a depth finder is and how much it would elevate his ability to catch fish. It's like a new food. How do you know you don't like it until you try it?

I wouldn't be caught dead without mine. I have two in my 14ft jon boat. One on the trolling motor and one on the transom. I fish a 71,000+ acre lake and I find the bigger fish on deeper structure so I am blind without one. I used to have a 12ft boat that I loaded in the back of my truck and I made a bracket much like MisterGuru. I clamped it on my boat using a c-clamp. It worked fine. Just make sure the bottom of the transducer is 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch below the bottom of your boat.

Nice fish man

This is when many hours of practice come into play. Every Monday I find myself in the back of Spotaholic's Boat. I have been trying to make less of a splash than him on every cast. He still catches more fish than I do but I have begun to catch my share. It's tough to beat the front man to the fish but it's always possible to be quieter. Try it and I'll bet you see the difference.

Many times the fish will grab the soft jerkbait from the side without ever getting the business end of the hook in its mouth. There are a few things that have to happen at the same time for this to happen. I'm assuming the bait is a fluke type bait with flat sides. The fish grabs the bait and it turns with the flat sides up and down. You feel the bite and set the hook as the fish is turning away from you. If you are using a 4/0 or 5/0 hook the first soft spot the point of the hook finds is the eye socket. This will not kill the fish but it may have trouble seeing for a while. I might be shooting blanks on this one but I have seen it happen plenty of times in the bathtub clear water I fish.

I looked at that fish finder. com to see what kind of prices they have. You might want to compair their prices to BPS and Wal Mart because they are ripping people off. For example I use a Eagle Cuda 168ex. It sells at Wal Mart for $117 and BPS for $120. On fishfinder-store.com they have it on sale for an all time low price of $196.

Next stop for Glenn. Politics!!!!!!!!!! ;D

Hip, That's funny. I had a snake chase my boat around in circles the other day. I had to kick it into high to get away. Yea up shallow. Keep your rod tip high and start reeling before the frog hits the water so it won't sink into the grass. Stuff your Scum Frogs with small pieces of worm to give them some weight and make your casts longer.

Hip, I just relized that in the background of my picture is the dam between Bennett and Margery and you were fishing on the other side of it. That was just after we met.

:'( I'm touched. :'(

Chris I went out today and thanks to you I was alot more careful of how the lure entered the water. I sure could tell the difference. I boated 15. Thanks.

Able is rite. I was engaged once before I met my wife. I broke it off when I realized that this woman would have put an end to my hunting and fishing and "in no way would she ever let me hang my deer heads on her wall." I would have been miserable, and the marriage wouldn't have lasted very long.

Man, I have it lucky. My wife's father fishes and hunts allot. So she grew up with it. But, she still needs to be shown that I appreciate all she does. I have a dream job where I only work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. I am off from Monday morning till 10pm Friday night. I fish well over 150 days a year. This morning is a prime example. She had a scrapbook party so I put the boat in the water at 4:00am and fished till 9:00am. I got home at 9:30 just in time to watch my two boy's ages 1 and 3, so she could go to her thing. When she got home we put the boys to bed for their naps and we went out in our back yard and worked on the landscaping together. The key is to compromise most of the time. Fish as much as you can. Not as much as you want. Continue to remind her how much you appreciate her.

I have an old one that really breaks apart how to find fish deep, and how to find that spot within a spot. It is called Advanced Bass Fishing by Jon Weiss.

I love bubble gum, but it just doesn't work very good on my home lake. But Mathiolade just slays them.

UB-Mike must have his own site..... Well let's just see.... Oh here it is..... What the cr*p are all these adds!!!!!! Ok Mike you have a good site. Just a little to commercialized for me, but I guess you have to pay the bills. It's very different from this site though. This site is dedicated to teaching people how to become better at catching bass. No matter where they stand in their knowledge of bass fishing. Yours seems to be primarily focused on those people who have been fishing for some time and want to step into tournament angling. Be it by clubs or circuits. This is a great site because it has great people who write great articles, who are courteous to others who post, who are more than willing to divulge everything they know about bass fishing. It is a site that is easy to find information about almost anything pertaining to bass fishing. It has a great moderator who is very good at keeping the site clean. It is not very commercialized which is great in my book. Your site is good, perhaps even great. It has won allot of awards. (Congrats) Opinions are great and they are welcome on this site. We respect yours and you should respect ours.

One thing I like to do when I fish deep structure and drop-offs is I put a Super Fluke Jr on a Jig head like this one. I just yo-yo it up and down while I move along the structure. This works good in the winter along deep creek channels and ditches on my home lake.