Nick

My experiences on Northern Lakes from 50 acres all the way to Lake Champlain is that Northern bass absolutely love and crush jigs around docks or in deep weeds. If your lake has a distinct breakline or weed edge, take a blue jig with a black plastic craw and cast it in around the edge of this weedline (summer pattern). Let the jig fall to the bottom, hop it slowly two or three times, wait five seconds and recast. Don't make each cast more than 25 feet. If the jig is not getting fouled by greenery, but hits the bottom, say 6-12 feet deep, that's good. If it gets hung up in th vegetation before getting to the bottom, keep pitching it into any holes that you see. These could be shell beds or sandy spots and both can hold real good bass populations. Keep moving the jig into new spots at least 10 fet from the previous one. If you get bit, chances are that more bass are near. Mark the spot, stop the boat and work this area thouroughly. The other option up north is in the presence of docks, pitch your jig all around any of the shaded areas. Again put your boat within 25 feet of your target and make repeated casts if necessary. These docks could be from 1 to 8 feet deep. The bass will tell you if they are there. Every jig bite I've ever had in natural lakes is a distinct thump, so I think you'll know when you get bit.

A loaded question for size, esp. for us who fish north of the Mason-Dixon line. Anyway, I have fished eight days in Florida, and I get get a 9lb. 9 oz. at Okeechobee in the FLW this year. At my motel pond there, I raised one that may have been even bigger. A question of how close to your state's record have you come could be a better measure of lunker catching prowess.

Yes, most floating worms are fished a few inches to a few feet below the surface. I fish mine like Curado, and they are very deadly just before the bass have settled on nests, and also when they do spawn. If you see bass cruising shallows in the late prespawn looking for potential nesting sites, toss the bubblegum worm ahead of them. It is also possible to C-Rig and T-Rig them the same trick worms.

I have fished, guided and tournament fished for many years in Missouri and nationally. I author 15- 20 articles per year for Heartland's Competing Angler magazine, and have qualified to fish for the championship each year that I was able to fish the enitre Heartland tour. I have written for Heartland for five years now. I fish the FLW tour as a co-angler, and qualified for the championship finishing 21st in '04. This year I fished in four FLW events taking a top ten at Okeechobee, Florida. In 2002-3 I fished the Northern Division Everstart tour as a boater and qualified for the championship my first year. There I placed 38th. I retired after 25 years of teaching in a public school to be able to spend lots of time fishing. I also guide on smallmouth streams here in Missouri when time permits, and I have conducted seminars fishing in our area. The lakes where I compete regionally are Lake of the Ozarks, Truman, Table Rock, Bull Shoals, and Grand. Next year I plan to fish FLW again along with Heartland. I would like to try some of your tubes, jigs, and worms to see how they perform. I will give you an unbiased report within weeks of receiving them. If I like them, I can certainly promote them for you. Nick Hamra

If water is running into the lake or their is pretty strong current, fish the points nearest the channel. I look for a good spawning area in a large cove or bay near the channel point. Bass exit the nursery and set up summer homes on the ledges, channel swings and points nearby. I would throw a deep diving crankbait particularly in practice to cover lots of water. The DD22 is good if you have faith in this way of fishing. Also a heavy jig will do the trick and I would recommend an Eakins 7/16 oz. with a craw trailer hopped along the bottom. Cover as many places as you can looking for those sweet spots from 10-20 feet deep for starters.

For $500, you are very close to getting one with a GPS combo built in. If you fish big waters, the addition of a chip that shows contour lines are invaluable for finding creeks, humps, and other fish holding features quickly. You'll have to purchase a chip for your region, but many like the Lowrance with the 480 x 480 pixel count unit. I think it can be had for around $600. If yo fish small waters, forget the gps idea.

Go back to that lake tomorrow with a finesse worm or a Senko type worm in a green pumpkin color usign 10 lb. test or lighter and make that cast. I think you'll catch at least one of those bass if the conditions haven't changed. Having fished a variety of smaller lakes for many years, I find that summer bass are often pretty darn lazy chasing a crankbait. Once they see it, they lose interest quickly. I'll bet you kept casting that same bait with absolutely no response from the bass even though they seemed terribly interested at first. If your lake temps are past 80, slow down and downsize with plastics to catch the bass. I don't know of a way to keep throwing the same crankbait repeatedly to the same fish in a lake with decent vis. and get them to hit it. If you did not make the bait deflect off something, I would try that next time if I only had one bait, but do stick a couple of pl. worms in your pocket!

If your lake has fairly clear water, the low light conditions favor a topwater approach. If the lake has two feet or less vis. I wouldn't rule out topwaters later in the day. Now for jigs. Unless you are swimming them, be prepared to make lots of donations to the rocks. I favor a very light worm weight Texas rigged. or a sinking worm without a weight. If you have some wind blowing in, or parallel with the rip rap, try both a crankbait and a spinnerbait. Don't try to hit bottom much with either bait unless yo have developed a great touch to know how much rock you can hit and still get the bait back. I really love rip rap, especially in the early spring and late fall when those rocks help warm the water. If your rocks get a good covering of algae, they become magnets for baitfish. Yours is not quite facing the right way, but certainly do keep in mind fishing yours in early spring with a slow moving crank or a suspending bait. I have also found on a couple of lakes that the fish do have sweetspots on rap, like a place where the rocks might be placed over an old channel, a bend in the rocks, or a deeper area of rocks. Search for these sweet spots and let us know how you do.

I'd say five pounds is correct. All the ones I catch weigh five pounds egardless of their length. lol Seriously, if I catch a 20 incher on a float stream in summer, it may not go 3.5 lbs., but out of Lake Erie in fall, it may go over five pounds.

When you return from a weeklong exhaustive tournament, but get up the next day early to check out the "pet bass" in the subdivision pond!

Darker tubes may resemble crawfish also. Tube fishing has been good for me as soon as the craws starting moving in the waters that may be just barely 50. Work them slowly along the bottom, or hop them occasionally. (Not that tubes swam around docks don't imitate small fish in summer.) Tubes are very versatile! You should enjoy how the smallies tear into them during the spawn too.

No. but since it was first displayed at the World's Fair in Knoxville, you might want to try it as a "voluntary" effort. Pardon the pun.

Winter: suspending jerkbait, hair jig Spring: jig, floating worm Summer: walking topwater, T rig plastic worm Fall: spinerbait, buzzbait

Night fish. Try everything esp. single spins and pl. worms with very light weight or senko. If you can't stand night, wait tila good rain comes and fish in that with spinnerbait/buzzbait. If you really want to stack the odds, plant some brush on or near the better drop offs. It will produce within days.

Five bass has fished much like so many good night anglers do. In summers' heat I think most bigger bass are caught out of brush piles in 10 -25 feet at least in the clearer Ozark impoundments. Yes, the lit docks can be a pattern unto themselves. I really don't think there is a dependable shallow water migration from the depths. We have plenty of statistics on night tournaments with 50 plus boats in them, and without fail, in July and August, fish come from the deeper brush piles with a 10 inch worm or other plastic.

Caught a 9-9 largemouth in an FLW event this year. I haven't weighed smallies from the great north, but around 5-5 would probably be right.

On both local clubs that I fished, (one just twenty members, the other 125), I won angler of the year each of the four years that I competed. Mark me down as a 10. Then I moved up to regional and national events, and I immediately realized that I was a middle of the road angler compared with the real pro's. Move me down to a 5. I fish the co-angler side of FLW and truthfully, I think I could have outfished about 1/2 of the 22 pro's I've been with these last 2 years. Even so, that's not saying I could go make a living at it. Most guys on the tours are losing money even if they do make it to an occasional championship. Some of the very best anglers on a particular lake don't stray too far from it, so when you fish against them in regional events, they are tougher to beat than the touring pro's especially in a one day event. So, overall, I'm talented about half the time.

My observations tell me that the majority will leave if the water temp declines by 4 degrees or more. Last year after a strong cold front in my private laboratory pond, of 8 pairs (or trios in two cases) of bedding bass, just one female stayed locked on. She relented after about 60 hours of cool down, and left the nest. I don't think she laid her eggs before she vanished either. Never did see her again return to that bed, nor did I see any fry. I think that cool front really hurt a successful spawn. I saw very few fry in '04 after a great '03.

I know just one Ike story this year. At the FLW event day 1 at Toho, he was disqualified for being late to weigh in. He misjudged the lock through time. He ranted to his co-angler and then threatened to pull out of the event. Not once did he take reaponsibility for his actions, and never apoligized to his co-angler. Both Ike and his co-angler had fish to weigh in. but arrived about 12 minutes late. I don't dislike him, but I think he needs to grow up.

I try to fish every winter rise in my bass streams especially in winter. After a 3 foot rise that nearly muddied up the river last night, I caught the snot out of them today. Five bass over three pounds and 16 others both smallies, Kentucks, and Largies. I just love the good ole boys that tell me "That river's not in shape!" I tell them I'm just running out the old fuel in the tank! I have never seen another boat trying to fish i9n these conditions.

Got up to 43 degrees last Thursday so I took off for the river for some stream bassing. The largemouth bit well considering the 40 degree water temps. The strikes were strangely crisp! Got 23 bass, but just four smallies. Largest five would have pushed 15 lb. A good day full of solitude and decent fishing. A good warm up for next week's FLW on Toho.

Met my intended 31 years ago. Not once has she told me I couldn't go fishing. What a woman! And I go about 80-120 days a year.

The one that will get all the answers to the Tony Christian controversy!

For Canadian lakes: chartreuse spinerbait with willow blades cranked about as fast as is possible over vegetation and rocky banks, dragging a green pumpkin with purple and gold fleck tube on an open jig hook on rock piles, humps are near vegetation. For rivers: buzzbait, smaller blade, white skirt around cover and current breaks. These are summer patterns of course.

I know a pro who wrapped his boat in camo last year and swore he had moe good bites close to his boat than ever before. He fishes clear Ozark waters, and believed that those that followed a crankbait bit a lot better at the end of his cast than he ever had seen previously. I've always opted for a cream to gray hull with blue if possible just to make my boat blend in with the sky. Bass can see above the water pretty well in clear water. If you have ever tried to catch a big shallow fish fairly close to you, you know how important it is to keep that rod low to the water to make that all important cast. A high rod position will often spook the fish. Of course, if they are bedding, it usually doesn't mater as much.