RichardE

If you find the citation is covered in the regs book as it appears to be, you may consider going to the prosecuting attorneys office prior to your court date and talk with him/her. They may be able to work with you on the appearance, unless you want to challenge it. As mentioned above, if that rule is applicable in that stretch, they probably do look for that violation. I think ignorance of the law will not help in court, the judge will smoke you. Be careful in dealing with the judge, they hear a lot of stuff and can most can see through steel. A conversation with pros. may help, also you can get the case continued/rescheduled to accomodate your school schedule if you ask. Good luck. I have learned in life that sometimes its best to not sweat the small stuff.

Finding fish is each boaters task, if I were to take a person out to give them an opportunity to get on the lake and they went to spots I found I would be upset. I suggest you do not burn your buddy, just look for other places. Your friend will continue to take you out. This can be a pretty touchy deal and friendships will be damaged if we don't use wisdom.

I finished 12th of 170 boats. Shoot me a pm if you are planning to go soon and I will try to give you some specific areas to check.

Welcome

Hey Peter, me again. I fished a BFL there two weeks ago. The fish had not moved up then, but it could have changed since then. The nearby water I fished this weekend was 62 degrees so Weiss so be close to that or warmer. It was very stained when I was there and we just had a lot of rain so it may stained again. There are tons of docks and lots of wood to throw to . As for as forage that lake is packed with shad, I don't recall seeing that much bait anywhere. The threadfin shad are about 3 inches long right now. We caught fish on blades, rigs and got a few good jig bites. What little grass is there on the shore was barely in the water but may covered better by now.

I believe that comes from the hooks. I have baits with that and it does not appear to affect the fish, at least that I can tell. On my favorite bait I get them and continue to catch fish on it. I would not suggest reducing hook size to correct, to me it's not worth the loss of hook potential. Just my opinion.

The soft plastics are a good option. Try the green pumpkin color lightly stained water (you can see your bait about 12- 18") If the water is very dirty consider Junebug color. If you hang those and can't get to it, it doesn't hurt so bad. By the way, the closer you cast to bushes,trees and docks the better the chances to catch one. They hate it when cast our lures there. Be patient and stay after it, that is what we all do. Good luck

I live in AL and the bb bite is just strarting to warm up. Water temps are in the 62 degree range. I find that this bait is most effective early in the morning or during cloudy days. Obviously when the bass are shallow for spawning or feeding is the most bites I find. I suggest a trailer hook as sometimes it is a hate (reaction) strike vs a feeding strike. Be prepared with a follow up bait if they are slashing at the bait and missing it. I like a worm or spinner bait as a follow up. A good adjustment to make is to squeeze the rivet to flatten it some to add to the noise. Bump cover, dock poles, they hate it when we do that. Just a few thoughts on some basics.

Hate to bust up this BAMA/Auburn love fest as I an LSU fan. We have lived in AL for 18 years and love it here. This is a great place to live if you enjoy the outdoors and nice landscape. AL has some great lakes, when you list them it is a pretty long list. Maybe we should plan a fishing get together. I have a huge pot and can throw in some shrimp, corn and taters for a low country boil. We can come in off the water, tell fishing lies and eat with our hands. What do ya'll think??

I solved the lost lure deal with the lure retriever. It was a good investment for me. Concerning the Sexy Shad, the more you fish it the more you will like it. It is a go to bait for me, tough to get sometimes, the lure retriever will help keep it in the boat sd well. That first trip out is great if it's a been a while!! ;D

We fished a BFL 2 weeks ago on Weiss. Some fish moved up but not many. The water was pretty stained so it was tough to look at em. I worked docks pretty hard and found a few bites. Got bit well on white blade and carolina rig. The water temp in this area is warming to the mid 60s. If you go up the Coosa River you will find lots of docks/cover etc. A word of caution for that lake, stay within the channel markers. If you run north just above the Alabama Bell, there are some nasty stumps in the middle of the river about1/2 mile up. Then the channel is pretty decent running. Hope this helps, let me know if you have specific questions, I will try to help.

If you have not used the pitching/flipping technique much I suggest setting up a rig and practice getting a feel for it around the house. Practice setting the bait down with a light touch. It may save some frustration on the water when you are working to slip the jig into some nice brush. The target fishing is the part I enjoy about the jig, you are usually pitching to cover. The good part about a jig bite is that is can be very distinct which helps with bite detection, the bad part of a jig bite is that it can be a very lite bite also, which is common with a larger fish. Confused yet? You may consider a soft plastic texas rigged as they hold on to this type of bait a little longer. This can help you catch fish until you develop a good feel for a jig. I like the Chompers brand Spider Jig. That is all I got to say about that

Wedowee is in Alabama. I fished there a couple of weeks ago. The water was 50 degrees and I hear is has warmed to the upper 50s lately. The better question may be where are they biting as in their location in their migration in. To that point I suggest pockets and creeks in 5-7 feet of water. If the water is muddy/stained hit the cover with jigs and consider junebug color. Chartreuse blades may be the ticket in colored water with this warm weather. If water has decent visability green pumpkin is a good option. Good luck, hope this helps.

I am partial to the Spro Bronze eye frog. I have found great bites fishing them around wood cover. The back of the bait is flat which increases the hook up ratio tremendously. I like throwing the black one in muddy water starting in the spring. I fish them on a fliping stick with braid. They can be cast into laydowns and fished back out slowly, the hate it when I do that. ;D Man, just talking about it makes me want throw one. Give it a try.

I use and sale the Netbait T-Mac 7" worm. The Bama Bug color is my go to color. If you are not familiar with that color it is green pumpkin on one side and junebug on the other. Those two colors are the best selling colors alone, it kinda made sense when they combined the two. Brent Ehler won the FLW Championship two years using that bait along with a couple of others.

I tried taking them out of their bags and had a mess. I prefer to keep them in the original bag and store them in Rubber Maid type boxes and have satisfied with that method.

I use these baits Texas rigged when the fish are little tight lipped. I prefer the Green Pumpkin and in stained to muddy water I go with Junebug. I went out a couple of weeks back and could only get bit with the junebug, my two buddies saw the difference between the Vibra Craws and their baits, the craw caught fish...

Can't we just all get along?? ;D Back on topic, I don't use clips on baits that require a jaw breaker hook set such as soft plastic/ frog etc. I like the clips for the hardbaits though.

I have used the snaps ( not swivels) for a couple of years on CBs and had not had a problem. I have caught 5- 7 pound fish with no problems. When I am trying to find a bite they are very handy. I think one reason they are effective is that we generally don't horse in a fish with a CB so allowing the rod to work the fish absorbs the pressure a fish applies. The snaps are like anything else, you have to check them to make sure the are rigth, check and re-tie as you would normally do etc. I can smoke my buddies who don't use them ( or had not before we fished) when changing baits etc. I guess it is like anything else, give em a try, catch a bunch of fish and put them to the test and let us know how it goes. I'm sold.

To help with the depths you may want to write the depth on the lip of the bait when you take it out of the box. This will help you until you become familiar with them. I also use snaps on my crankbait rods. This helps when changing baits. And I have not lost a fish with them. As far as color I am sold on the Sexy Shad by Strike King. I have caught fish with this bait from the first day I fished it, it is a bait I will not leave home without. The sizes are also pretty easy to manage as well. They start a 1xs for very shallow and then run 3,4,4s,5 and 6 which run the deepest at 15 feet. I suggest you purchase a lure retriever as well. When you fish these baits you will get them hung. With a CB you definately want to bang to the cover.

Hey guys, here is the number for the TVA to get the water release schedule for Guntersville. 800-238-2264. The dam above is on Nick A Jack. Also, the full moon for March is on the 21st. Snowed in AL today. Temps dropped and I am sure the fish are sitting there with their eyes crossed wondering which way to go. I thought this may help for the upcoming trip.

What time of year are you planning to go? I was there last week. We caught some 4 pound fish. The weather changed everyday. The TVA dropped the water 2 feet overnight Friday night, gotta love that. Nothing like looking for fish that relate to grass in a 69,000 acre lake with grass everywhere, constant changing weather and the bottom falling out of the lake. Get to see lots of pretty boats with 2-3 major events each week in the spring. The water temp was 47 and jumped to 50 on Saturday. Right now most folks are ripping traps. Shoot me a PM if you need some info I will try to help. Later

Well, I've got everything but the nekkid photo of my cousin. Thank God for that... Want one?? ;D

1/2 s will be ok, I would bring a 3/4 in case you find some thick patches. I did find some very thick milfoil last week but it was very scattered. The patches other wise will be just getting started. Grass is still very prominant so plan on dealing with it. Spinner baits and even the Chatterbait would be good options to get them to come up out of the grass. Green Pumpkin should be a good option color wise as the grass will be influencing color. The bottom is mostly sand with some red clay. Last week we were ripping traps through the grass. The average fish in the lake is larger than in most places. I have seen a lot of 4 pounders and the 5-6 class are pretty common as well. Figuring them out is a challenge, for me any way. The grass and flats are everywhere so finding structure within the grass is key to narrowing the focus.

I was on G last week. Right now the water temp is running around 47 and did warm to 50 Sat. afternoon. The grass (milfoil) is starting to grow, you can find patches of thick green grass under the surface in some areas. By April it may reach the surface but I would not expect mats. Frog colors I have used with success is white, black works well on cloudy days.