smallieking

10lb flouro for most all my cranks. sometimes 20 when im throwin a squarebill in super shallow water. the 20lb flouro keeps the bait up in the water column and out of the junk on the bottom

the bass are already wet, they don't care if its raining or not. go get a good rain suit and hit the water!! a buzzbait is an amazing bait in the rain.

crankbaits on abnormal rock. if your fishing a lake with no grass the no brainer thing would be to pick apart wood. well fishing a tournament on a lake with no grass all your competition is going to be hammering the wood. and the big bass are not dumb they usually do not hang around wood in lakes with no grass because they know there will be fishing pressure there, they prefer big rock. so find some boulders with your graph and bang a crankbait into them and get those big bass to react and you will have much better success in a tournament where rock and wood are the only cover in the lake

well if you want good fishing stay off the rivers lol. theyre awful. a good little lake not far from Pittsburgh is crooked creek lake. its up 66 north past Apollo. probably 45 min from downtown. its full of both smallmouth and largemouth and have already caught them over 6 pounds in there. im not 100 percent sure if theres musky in there but I would have to bet there is. its an unlimited horsepower lake but its quite small and some of the best bass fishing is right out from the launch going up towards the river.... another excellent lake is loyal hanna lake. its out 22 towards Blairsville. this lake doesn't have any smallmouth but some of the best largemouth fishing in the state. its full of great big ones.. and its also stalked with musky and I normally catch one every trip there..

The Carolina rig Is by far my favorite thing to throw when im fishing away from the bank. you can throw it into anything, rocks, stumps laydowns grass patches. its a great search bait and the bait really tells you what the bottom is made up of, small or big rocks weeds mud stump field. the key to the rig is the weight. 90 percent of the time I throw a one ounce tungsten weight on 17 lb flouro carbon line. that weight and line combo will keep the weight on the bottom and that tungsten will give you amazing feel of the bottom and any bites you have. then you put on your favorite swivel. the hardest part of the Carolina rig is determining your leader length. if the fish are feeding off the bottom I like a longer leader, 24 inches or so. if they are right on the bottom I use a 6 inch leader. I always go with 12 lb mono leader. mono keeps the bait up of the bottom and if you ever get snagged the mono will break not the flouro so you wont lose your expensive tungsten sinker. as far as baits are concerned, you can literally throw anything on it. ive thrown hollow belly swimbaits already on with great success. but my favorite baits for a crig would have to be a 7 inch powerworm, a lizard or ragetail craw always pull the rod to the side when retrieving the rig or setting the hook. pulling it to the side on the retrieve will keep the weight on the bottom where it needs to be to bang into whatever is down there. if your hopping or pulling the rod upwards over your head your picking the weight off the bottom losing your contact with the bottom which would defeat the purpose of a Carolina rig. also the sweeping hookset picks up more line than an overhead hookset and when a big bass bites on a really long cast you def want the best hookset you can get..

I like rubber t stops.. theyre super cheap they don't hurt the line at all and best thing is I can still move the weight anywhere on the line and have it pegged. theres been times I texas rig and move that weight up the line a few inches and start getting bites, that rubber t stop allows me to peg the weight wherever I want, whether that's right on the bait or up the line. I like that cuz I can be very efficient and versatile to figure out what the fish want. bobber stops cant do that. Where im from in pa a lot of lakes have sparse clumps of grass, I can take my flipping rod and put that pegged weight right on the bait and flip right in the middle of the grass and then when I get off the clump and on my way up to the next one I can slide that weight up the line, cast and work it like a Carolina rig. great way to figure out a plastic bite.

what lake?

well upstate new York is much different than the bodies of water here in pa I fish but I love to fish after a heavy rain storm. most of the lakes here are crystal clear and the fish live super deep, when it rains it puts color in the water and the bass move to shallow wood, most guys stay out deep on their spots but I follow the fish to the bank and I spinnerbait and flip jigs into banks with a lot of wood. I like to find a bank with a lot of cover close to deep water. all the lakes here are reservoirs so lots of rain results in current and it turns the fish on like crazy. When this happens the fish are moving in and out, coming up feeding and heading back so once I find a bank that produces I will stay there all day catching fresh fish.

Its always awful... its the ohio river. lol I fished ten mile twice this year and it fished the same as previous years. I never fish the ohio cause its just too tough, tournaments I have on the rivers, I venture up the Allegheny because that's the only river of the three I can get a 2 pound bite. What part of the ohio produces a 15 lb bag!? I find that extremely hard to believe someone caught multiple 15lb bags. the pa bass federation state classic on the rivers was won with 13 lb and that was 10 fish over two days.

sounds like spinnerbait or chatterbait conditions

3 inch green pumpkin junebug big bite baits yomama

black spinnerbait with Colorado blade and black jitterbug. if the fishing is slow try a 7 inch black powerworm

when I head out on the lake for the first time and getting ready to have an event there im going to try to find possible schools of bass.. im not big on map reading because eventually youll find everything looks good and youll spend more time trying different areas than trying to figure out the bass. so what I like to do is find a few good looking areas, somewhere that has a lot of contours, points and close to both deep water and shallow water bays or coves. Once you get to the lake go to these areas, turn on your electronics and see what it has to offer. up here in pa I find the best way for me to catch fish is to find deep grass that others might miss out in 8 to 25 feet of water. if its anywhere from postspawn til fall its the type of spot that should hold a bass. so I will work it over with my baits until I find a pattern. everytime you get bitt look at everything u can, how deep the water was where that fish was laying, if it was in grass how high was the grass, was there a contour line close to where that fish was. did it come off a point or hump. was there more than one type of cover there. I also have an underwater aqua camera that I use in practice just to see what fish are holding on. once you get a pattern in one or two areas you then can run around the entire lake looking to match that scenario. Its never a good idea to fish a tournament on a lake you never fished before. find some time get to the lake and figure out a little something and come tournament time expand on what you have learned. I hope I helped you alil

by far for a deeper stump field throw a Carolina rig. Crankbaits work really well but you will get hung up way to often to be efficient... try throwing a 1/2 ounce Carolina rig with either a worm, grub or lizard and I promise youll have some fun

I fished smith mountain so many times and have caught huge smallmouths but they are so random its hard to say exactly what to do different for them. ive caught them on swimbaits, jigs, crankbaits and spinnerbaits on that lake. if I was to target big smallmouths on smith mountain id find some deep rock or rocky contours and throw a dropshot around. but like I said I cant get a consistent smallmouth bite going there so when I make the trip to that lake I fish for largemouth

hey im not much of a frog fisherman but one tip id like to offer is to play with new frog before hitting the water. I use the broneye frog and for years the new out of the package frogs didn't hook fish as well as my older wore out ones. so what I do now when I purchase a new one I take the frog out of the package and squeeze and play with the plastic making it more pliable and softer. ill sit there and work the bait with my hands for 30 minutes or so; so I know its nice and soft and easy to flex for when a bass comes up and eats it. now I rarely miss a fish on them

they are way late this year. still not in bay yet. fished there last week and ended up leaving bay and found smallies out in the lake in 34 feet of water prespawn. they should be moving in very soon tho

I go for the big ones out deep with either heavy jig or Carolina rig

Hey guys im looking for a qualified tournament angler to fish as a partner with me for several tournaments in PA. I live in Johnstown, PA. right now I own a 2007 Stratos 19.6 foot boat with a 175 evinrude e tec and a 17 foot alumacraft with a 40hp. im lookin to switch out the 40 motor to a 20 hp on it so I can fish Lake Author, Glendale yellow creek and pymatuning. Im 25 years old and have been fishing tournaments for 8 years. I fish with the Patton Bass club and looking to start fishing a lot of the KBBC tournaments and Jims Anchorage tournaments for money but don't have a qualified partner right now. so if interested in fishing with me feel free to look me up on facebook (Jesse Jodon) or send me a message here.

let the fish tell you. sometimes digging a crank into the bottom will trigger bites. a 6xd in ten feet tho would def dig a ditch in the bottom and youll snag up a lot and pick up a lot of debris from the bottom(leaves sticks garbage). And the crank will have no swimming action that is built into the crankbait. I believe the crank has to make contact with the bottom but just enough to make the bait deflect here and there, not too much. I can get a strike series 5 down to ten feet on ten pound flouro line. this may be a better set up for you. if you want more bottom contact but less than the 6xd try a series 5XD on 15-20lb flouro. the 5xd can get down to 15ft, but with the heavier line it will make it run shallower somewhere around 12feet which would bump the bottom a lot in 10 feet but still have decent swimming action. and with the 5xd your not losing the profile of the bait unlike switching to a 3xd. the 3xd is a much smaller profile which for me never produces the big bite im looking for when im cranking.

perfect white spinnerbait conditions

Great piece of advice.

im a huge chatterbait fisherman. they do work and catch fish. but im not a huge fan of them. lake fork live minnow with a paddle tail is by far the best swimbait for chatterbait trailer. super natural action and much more water displacement over a sick fish.... I do love the sick fish tho as a stand alone swimbait or on my a rigs

By far my favorite bedding/ sight fishing bait. I throw them on a light texas rig and the bass cannot stand them on their bed. works for smallmouth and largemouth. its the only time I throw them. never had any luck other than when sight fishing... I find the Big Bite Baits real deal craw a much more versatile and effective. it has the same action as the warmouth but different profile the bass like. I fish it mostly on a texas rig but occasionally I throw it on a c rig or a biffle hardhead.

swimming caffeine shad by strike king