paul.

don't know the water temps 00. i do know that on one of the little lakes i fish, on saturday i had to back off and fish the creek channel before i caught a decent fish. but it is the full moon and the spawn if at full swing here. usually the biggest wave of spawning happens around here right about easter (there is always a full moon on easter). and Steve, you are right about one thing, i have put a lot of work into that lake and kept my fingers crossed. nice to see it pay off. as far as me looking skinny, you might be stretching things a little there.

i've never known live bream to stop working permanently. like any other technique, sometimes it will work, sometimes not. but if it's no longer working, try hooking them differently so they swim differently. for example, if you used to hook 'em in the lips, hook 'em in the tail. also, try fishing at night if possible.

all phases of spring fishing to be found at my favorite little lake. some haven't gone to bed yet. some are there. some are finished. even saw a fry cloud. located several on beds. got the nice picture fish on a big o brush jig and rage craw. hope this one lives a while and keeps that greedy appetite. nearly 7 lbs. at less than 21". if she keeps those proportions, i'd love to see her again down the road at 24"+. returned later to fish the beds i found with low light on my side using a secret thumper worm technique. started conecting with fish left and right that had snubbed other presentations earlier. great to see the fish doing so well in this lake. i had given it up for dead 2 years ago.

no, not pitch black. the sun hadn't fully come up yet, but there was some light on the horizon. started catching little ones early. then the better fish moved in to feed and it was mayhem. bad day to be a shad.

when you've got a slow boat and there are a bunch of tournaments on the river, you better get up early. so that's what i did. up at 4:30. sitting on one of my favorite spots by 6:00. culling by 7:00. got this nice one and plenty of other fat keepers. headed home by 9:00. before i left, i saw a couple of kids near my spot in a little jonboat. asked if they were fishing the tournament and they said no. told 'em where the fish were. bet they have a great day. all fish came on the red eye again. that used to be one of my least favorite rattlebaits. now it's moving up the list pretty quickly. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

From about 2:30 to about 6:30. but i was culling after about 20 minutes. and here's the red eye. http://www.***.com/Strike_King_Red_Eye_Shad/descpage-SKRES.html#multiview

yesterday was wild!!! found a huge school of bass and they were going nuts. 66 fish. majority were keepers 2-3 pounds. couple of 4's. one in the 5 pound range. all on the red eye shad. had 2 fish on the bait at the same time TWICE. might be the best day of fishing i'll have all year. it was just insane. funny thing was i tried to get all of my buddies to go with me and none of them could. so i had to catch all those fish by myself. hate it.

good 'un!!! love those spinnerbaits.

y'all smoked 'em! great job!!!

i feel your pain man. nothing like trying to deal with equipment problems while you're trying to fish. SO frustrating. better luck next time.

great fish man!!! was your buddy using the ragetail ____________ too?

heckuva story. that's amazing man. good catch.

gorgeous fish Dwight! Love it when they're shaped like that. great job.

too bad man. but there's always tomorrow. sometimes their mood can change dramatically in a day and a fish that wasn't catchable can suddenly be caught. did you try sneaking the bait in behind the fish then popping her in the tail when she was looking the other way? they will sometimes just come unglued when you do that. anyway, good luck.

There's a little lake i used to just love. It was full of big fish. It was seriously nothing to go out there and catch 3 fish over 7, sometimes in less than a half hour. But with the devastating floods of the past few years, the lake was reduced to nothing. Many big fish washed out through the overflow. Then it happened all over again the next year and finished the big fish population off. The only consolation was that the lake had a decent bluegill population and i knew it would grow big fish. So i bit the bullet and worked with the landowner to fix the overflow issue. I stocked the lake with all the decent fish I caught at the river this winter. This is a risky proposition in a lot of small waters. There's no guarantee that big water fish will grow in small water. In fact, usually the opposite happens. First, they have to adapt to a totally new environment. Second, they have to adjust to still water instead of current. And last, they have to figure out how to eat something besides shad. But i really felt like I could pull it off in this particular lake since it had such a healthy forage base. Fast forward to this afternoon. I decided to go check 'em out and see how they were doing. Things started off slow with only a few small bass. But as the afternoon wore on, the fish became more and more active. And they got bigger and bigger. And they were flat out smoking that red eye shad. Finally, right before dark, I got the one i was looking for. Here she is. Look at her picture from this winter at the river and compare it to now. She is recognizable by her broken dorsal fin and the little sore on her side. Looks like she's packed on a little weight doesn't it? I figure she's gained at least a pound. Look at the small head compared to her body. She's got "future double digit" written all over her if she continues to thrive like this. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'll know more about how the fish are doing in this little lake when they spawn in a few days/weeks depending on the weather. Hope y'all are catching some too.

great story and really cool pix. the proportions on that first fish are incredible. when expectations are low, you've got nowhere to go but up - and y'all went through the roof with this trip.

dirty water and rising temps will put the fish up shallow. i'd leave the main lake stuff alone. fish creek arms all the way to the back of the creeks. pay special attention to secondary points, cuts/pockets, and any shallow wood. a good rule of thumb with dirty water is that the water that dirties the quickest will usually clear the quickest. so if you have any inflow of water in the backs of the creeks, that's a good spot. if you know where fish have spawned in the past on this lake under these conditions, start hitting those areas. starting where you think the beds are going to be and fishing "backwards" until you find their staging area is sometimes a good tactic. they might not be fully comitted to the shallows yet, but you can bet it's coming quickly. once the fish decide to move up, it's amazing how quickly things happen. be the one who finds this, not the one who hears about it, and you will have a banner day. plenty of good bait choices already mentioned. of course if all else fails, try a new body of water for a confidence boost.

we're barely into march and the big fish are already up shallow here in TN munching on spinnerbaits. i figure we are at least a month ahead of last year's schedule. at this rate, there will be fish trying to spawn in 2-3 weeks if the weather doesn't do anything crazy. didn't have any way to measure today, but i'd almost guarantee that water temps were high 50's. caught both of these today in less than 3 ft. of water along with plenty of other quality bass. looks like i might be taking off from work some next week. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

great baits. great fish. good job man.

yes. that and a distinctive spot on her lower jaw you can't see in the pics. some other things too, but those are the main ones.

oct. was high 7's. don't remember exactly. today was 7-3.

i guess this fish just loves ragetails. but don't they all? started to second guess my choice to fish in a jonboat with 20 mph winds today until this ol' gal came along to see me again. water was stained so i needed something with a big profile and a lot of movement to get their attention. black and blue smokin' rooster got the call and she just had to have it. or maybe she just missed me and wanted to say hi again. either way, i'll take it. now check this out. here she is in october after eating a jig and rage chunk. and the pic below is from this evening. same fish. recognized her almost instantly when i saw her. in over 100 acres of water. interestingly enough, i caught her on the opposite side of the lake this time, well over 300 yards from where she was this fall. ain't that crazy?

is that lm blind in one eye? if so that is an absolutely incredible catch. to reach that size that far north is amazing by itself. but to reach that size that far north being blind in one eye, that fish has defied all odds. wow! both are great fish and a big congrats to ya.

great job Cliff! i know you are HYPED! not surprised though. you are a great fisherman and that jig is MONEY! big congrats.

great fish, both of 'em. but the proportions on that first one are amazing. that fish has been eating right for sure. huge congrats!