Nick

Sorry I didn't get to your post sooner. I have fished several FLW events as a co-angler, and often I have waited at the lauch ramp to get a ride. Pretty comnmon deal. About 1/2 of those who are fishing solo will allow you to go with them. Always offer to back their rig, offer to pay for practice gas, don't bring a ton of gear, and generally look intelligent while waiting. (Now, I never did master this last requirement!) Anyway, you might actually learn more in practice than you do in the tournament. Be careful this year to read the rules! Co's cannot provide any fishing location help to the pro's. Good luck and cash a check!

I like Lake of the Ozarks too, so I have decided to buy a place there this year. Prices are pretty darn good too. I'll have to invite some of you guys down who have about the same number of bad habits as I have.

For all you feckless Flukers, I wish I could take you out for a day of catching. You could really improve your technique, because success with the Fluke is based on several angler initiated movements, many which are overdone or not done at all. Far and away, the fluke does its best in warm and shallow water worked close to cover. Many days in clear, moving water, it may be the best lure choice.

It's always a good thing to set goals while fishing, but do remember that you are not fishing the same places that KVD is fishing. Most of the Elite tour events are staged at the prime fishing times for the waters being fished, and the pro's do get three days to prepare for each event. Please note that most Elite anglers also catch a limit every day barring a penalty or mechanical issue. So often it's the quality of the limit that often dictates the success or failure of a pro angler. Occasionally, a big tournament is held on an average body(e.g. Beaver Lake FLW nearly any year) of water in a slow period (winter) and the limits for most pro's are tough to come by. I'd like to see BASS hold a few off season events for a change, but they make for poor TV and deflated egos. I know that I could not begin to catch a limit of bass around my county for 58 consecutive trips with the weather and water level extremes, and I doubt anyone in the country could do it either.

Joe, I went to the Brainerd area last summer to fish the Mississippi but encountered some high water which shut down the river pretty much. As a back up plan, we decided to hit numerous lakes within 20 miles of Brainerd and all of them had good to great populations of largemouth more than ready to hit jigs around the numerous docks or fished around the outside weedlines. These lakes really saved our trip and my only recommendations would be to fish the smaller ones when the wind is expected to blow pretty good, and fish the larger ones when the winds are manageable. Sunny days were awesome because the bass went to the shady docks! Good luck.

River Rat, When I get my Lake Ozark vacation home this fall, I'm going to invite you down for some sring or winter fishing. I think you have a great playground for bass fishing right out your backdoor on the Mighty Miss! I live very near St. Louis, and much of what folks read about our alarming violent crime stats are the result of the counties surrounding St. Louis not being factored into the crime numbers within the city itself. For the entire metro area, we rank on a par with just about every other top 50 metro area in America.

Global, I was fooled, like nearly everyone by P. Tormanen, but I'm not so sure why you are taking shots at me for something that happened several years ago that have no bearing on this tournament. A little twisted *** here? Anyway, it was Mark Tucker himself that didn't believe Tormanen was catching those big sacks legitimately in Heartland Tournament Pro-Ams. (I just thought that Mark was somewhat envious. But then he explained some strange happenings about the way Tormanen prefished that alerted him that cheating was going on.) And one more note, Tormanen was so sly that a camera crew filmed him on Truman Lake tht year landing giant bass tied up to trot line, and the camera guys didn't suspect a thing. Tormanen was so slick that he also fooled every co-angler that fished with him over a seven or eight tournament stretch. And the stories that he conveyed to me as a writer covering Heartland, I completely swallowed. So now you know quite a bit more about Tormanen's con job, (and he was never forced to give back any of his winnings!)

Hmm, vertical or horizontal. Why not both? I'm stumped by this thread. I like to make my my Superfluke to fall vertically nose down so it gets down a couple of feet quickly. It then levels off after a tiny rod twitch, and that's when it gets blasted often. Too many anglers try to do too much with this bait. The more it falls, the better it is with just a bit of rod snap.I fish it with just the weight of the 4/0 hook and flouro. Guess I'm out in left field on this entire thread.

Cool and off-colored water. Don't know if this is what he's doing. He told me tonight that he wasn't throwing a jig, so we'll just wait and see how he caught them.

Probably the best jig fisher in off colored/cool waters has taken over the lead at Lake Lewisville in the B.A.S.S. Central open. His 16-10 bag put him just a few ounces ahead after Day 1 of this three day event. With a Classic spot on the line, Tucker is gunning to make it back. He is not fishing the Elites this year, so a victory at this Open event would be awfully sweet! Go et 'em, Tucker.

Love it. And thanks to so many like Sam who don't, it gives me free run of the places to catch them. Just me, the eagles, mink, deer, turkey, and the smallies. By far the best time for big fish for me: no crowds, no mosquitoes, no blazing sun. A good day is 20 smallies over 2lbs. and often I get more and bigger. Cold, cold temps knocked us out of most of Jan. and part of Feb., so I'm raring to go this week. Advances in cold weather gear really add to the positive experience.

Felt like April both days with the highs in the 70's. Watched all the ice melt on Wed. evening and fished both Thurs. and Fri. Water warmed to near 41 in the coves with the bright sun. Bass still lethargic coming out of 8-15 feet with weighted jerkbaits. Best to keep boat over 20 -30 feet of water depth. Water has dropped to 655 so the steeper banks about 1/2 way backs in the creeks hold the most shad and the most bass for jerkbait fishing. Did not try a jig. Keep moving until you locate decent shad ball on your electronics. All of our quality bass were caught within 50 feet of the shad schools which primarily were over 20-30 feet deep suspended about 10 - 20 feet down. Probably best to parallel the banks with a bigger lipped jerk or ones with a bit of extra weighting to get it to sink. Water is fairly clear by the dam and gets some color in the creeks due to snow run off, and maybe wind as one get to the 10-14 mile marker. In the dirtier waters the louder colors with chartreuses and orange bellies worked better. Generally at least a five second pause followed by a pretty aggressive snap tended to trigger strikes. We caught mnuch better quality on Fri, with the bigger fish coming in the a.m. Good luck if you get a chance to take advantage of the warming temps.

Yes, and what other brand names does Pure fishing produce , if any?

Go to animatedknots.com for a real nice instruction. You can choose the Albright, or a surgeon knot to suit you.

Good article. Can we deduce given the limited number of manufacturers, that many brands of flouros are duplicates or nearly so? Hope to hear from others in the know.

1. Where are flourocarbon fishing lines made? Specifics of plant locations or names helpful. 2. Are they really made differently or are different labels slapped on in the same factory? Is one brand the same as another? Is it like TCW-3 oils that have miniscule changes in recipes to make them comply with governemnt regs for infringement? Pleae don't guess, but do tell us if you really know the whole story for at least one brand of flouro.

Silver Thread flouro and Cabela's flouro rank up there with the best.

finesse jig w/small trailer when they don't look up for meal.

In my state catching a bass that way is illegal. In MO a bass is legally caught if it is hooked inside the mouth. Yeah, I would have been angered into action had I witnessed it.

As far as the spooling process, there is no correct way to put "non-braid" spinning line on unless you take the reel spool off and then get the spool to rotate just like any baitcaster spool which never has line twist when spooling. To accomplish this you can rig up a spooler at home with a varialbe drill, a drill bit and some shims to place around the bit. Depending on what size spool hole diameter you have, you'll have to play around with the size of the bit. I often wrapped some tape around the bit to thwart any damage to the reel spool. The shims, bit and tape hold the spool in place while the drill is turned on forward. Slowly fill the reel spool with line that comes of the bottom or top of you new line spool. Placing a bit of weight from a book or magazine over the line between the spools may help you along the spooling process as well. This process works and will never result in any line twist whatsoever. HOWEVER, inherent in the casting process with spinning tackle is the dreaded spiral created by the casted lure flying without much resistance, or the twist caused by some lures such as spinners underwater. For this ascquired line twist, one has to pay attention, allow the lure to spin a couple of times after each cast, and always close the bail by hand. Last, for spiiners use a quality swivel.

No.

Senkoman, It's apparently a different world betrween NY and MO in more ways than one. Looks like it certainly is concerning spawning bass. The best two tournament spawn time anglers on Table Rock will usually travel miles upon miles the days leading up to the Saturday event to target the big fish that they find. Most of thee are largemouth and the trick is to find them where others won't or just don't see them. Often these fish are just deeper than most folks look. Both of these anglers, as seasoned, and as good as they are will often spend two hours or more trying to catch a single fish if it means the jingle of cash in their pockets. Occasionally, they can catch one on the first cast, but 15-45 min. is more average for big females, and some never do bite on the day you would like them to. These guys will not play with fish in practice because that makes them often harder to catch. Every move a spawning fish makes must be analyzed to get it to strike many days. It's far from easy on the White River Chain. These guys usually have a generous smorgasboard of baits ready to use at any time. Bucks being more aggressive tend to complicate matters, but generally they are necessary to hold the interest for the big girls to come nearer the nest. Having fished Champlain, The St. Lawrence and several lakes in MN, I would concur that the spawners up your way are often more protective and easier to catch. Like you I wish we had a closed season although the biologists tell us no harm is done catching spawning bass. The Corps of Engineers can, in a few days destroy most of the spawn in any of our reservoirs when they pull the plug at the wrong time. And it has happened often.

I've often wanted to fish the Finger Lakes region. I imagine that you have far less competition for bass fishing than we have here. I say that because of the number of limits weighed in in your tourneys compared to ours. We don't see too many largies mixing with the smallies on beds, but I have seen it. Brown bass around here are often bedding deeper than greenies. You really catch them with Band-Aids?

It's a lot of fun. Once I even won a prize. A last second change I made cost me first place. Oooh, that hurt. I still think one should get a bonus for picking anyone in the top ten. It's very easy to get 5 top ten finishers this year and win nothing. That 500 point 1st place bonus is golden and necessary to win nearly in all cases.

Last year often, but no issues on days one and two.