lknbassman

Dinkman, the scenario you are describing is typical fall fishing. The bass, bluegills, crappie, etc are now all "opportunisitic" feeders which means they can eat when they want to most of the time which then means your opportunity to catch them this time of year is conditional and limited to that window unless you can fool them or aggrivate them in to biting. So now what do you do? Those fish are either suspending or getting into or under cover which means if they are suspended that's about as tough as it gets because a reaction bite is going to be tough to elicit. If they are on cover (wood, rock, etc) then you have a shot. I'd find out if they are on the cover by fishing it THOROUGHLY and I mean wear it out with cranks, jigs, worms, etc and beat every inch of it that you can. If you do it enough, you'll tick one of them off and it'll bite which is how KVD gets so many bites, he makes them bite most of the time with a reaction vs a feeding bite. They are predators and mean by nature so tick em off some how which means be right in their faces and they'll bite. If you can't then fish when they feed and that's usually first thing and right before dark at least on the reservoirs here in NC and most everywhere I've fished as that's when the shad are most active.

Thanks guys. I have some Ika's and have not tried them on smallies but will. I rig them backwards so the skirt is up near the line tie. I usually fish them weightless in cold clear water, is that the way these brown fish like em or do they like it weighted so it can fall faster and dart around a little more? Thanks much for the info gents.

Senior BassResource.Com writer Triton Mike Bucca is featured in this months edition of BassWest magazine discussing the Float n Fly technique. I know from first hand how much Mike knows about this as I have used the knowlege learned from him on this and many other techniques to become a better angler and for that I am very grateful. It is so great to see Mike get the press he deserves in BassWest as I personally think it's the best bass fishing magazine hands down that I've ever read. It consistently has the best content and page quality and for that I subscribe to it and look forward to it always. Anyway, congrats Mike on a great article and for the exposure you so duly deserve. Great article, now just get them to be more predictable with when they ship BW magazine and all will be perfect!

I live on Lake Norman and know Brian Huskins. He tests most of his baits out here since our water is so clear and our fish so finicky due to pressure and lack of natural cover. The guy is a mechanical engineer and a flat out perfection freak when it comes to building baits. His quality control is second to none. The baits are great. They are all expensive but they are great and will last if you take care of them. I have 2 flat Bees which are what I call finesse crank baits. They run in the 6-8 ft range. I have them in the cricket finish (blueback and gizzard). They are fantastic, have an ultra tight wiggle and run true. The little B is a great bait also but I'd rather throw a Thundershad 306 or a Spro Little John depending on if I want a rattle or not because they cast better all things being equal. Usually not here; again due to pressure. The B 18 is his most popular bait bar none and is a true 18' running cb. It's legendary around the Catawba and Yadkin chains and gets talked about a lot due to the fact that it works. Action, it's a typical deep diver, it goes every which way, deflects nicely, and being balsa, has it's own rise rate but all of his baits are leaded so they rise properly and not too fast. I also have 2 prop Bees which are incredible baits. Have them in #2 and #3 in bull bream and purple shad. They are as good of top water bait as there is which is why they are so highly regarded. I also have the "Vee Bee" which he designed for KVD prior to he and Strike King doing the whole Strike King custom shop thing. That bait in the VS#8 (very sexy shad) caught me a load of fish this Winter and won me some money here on Norman. It's a bigger bodies flat sided crank bait that runs about 6-8' and it just gets hammered. That is my favorite of all of the baits he makes for sure. It's a big bite bait due to its size but it just gets crushed when it does get bit and I use it for finding kicker fish. His dumptruck jigs are very good also and if you are goiing to use his stuff pay attention to how he says to rig them and what line to use. Izorline XXX co poly is terrific with balsa baits due to the lightness of the baits and the line behaves well with that. I'll throw the little bee on a spinning rod with 6 or 8lb test co poly if I'm not throwing a shad rap #5 on that same rig and the Spro little john or the Thundershad #306 on a casting rod usually with 8lb floro or co poly. They are expensive but I am now a true believer and formally a balsa bait fan. You pay more for them but in clear water they always, always, always outperform hard baits due to the more subtle/tighter wiggle and not having a rattle which I've yet to find in hard baits. Having no rattle is key here on Lake Norman where the pressure is intense year round and the fish get their heads caved in by thousands of anglers a year beating the docks for them. My reccomendation is to try a couple and see what you think. You can get them direct from his web site or call them. If you do tell him Chuck Daymude from LKN sent you. You can buy them retail at the Great Outdoors in Cherryville, NC also. Other favorite balsa baits are the Rick Clunn designed Thundershad #306, #312, and #406 (hard to find but if you do....oh man!) Also, Mimic has a nice balsa bait out that's in the $12 range which is low for that quality of bait. Look for mimic crank baits. Here's a web site that can help with some others. On the line crank baits and WEC both make some nice ones too. Jeff Coble of the Bassmaster Weekend Series (legendary angler) is a WEC guy. http://www.bubbajackstackle.com/ Good luck & have fun

Many thanks! If we find ourselves without current or there is no water being pulled to position the fish, do they scatter and become hard to locate or do they typically exist in the same areas seasonally? Again, all general I know but it'll help me start putting the puzzle pieces together. Thanks again!

I have both also. My success has been with the LC baits over the Jackall but I have faith that the Jackall can work here too but have had no success as of yet with it. The pointer 78 is the top producing jb on this lake (norman) due to our small forage which may explain why the squad minnow does not perform as well. My all time favorite however is the Spro McStick, it has outfished the LC's for me 10-1 and I own a lot of pointers, slender pointers, and stacey's. I've yet to get a bite on the squad minnow and I have 3 of them @ $15/each... They are for sale if you want em for a lot less, I'll buy more Spro's they are really great. PM me if you are interested, the squad minnows I have are in the sexy shad color scheme. The one new bait that I really want to try is the new LC Silent Pointer which I think will be terrific. My only hesitation with it has been that it's available in the 100 size only not the 78 and that profile is big for here but no rattle and suspending makes me want to give it a go anyway. There's no doubt the bait monkey will ring my doorbell yet again and I'll get one in clear chart and start throwing it when we get down in to the 50's water temp wise. He stops by here quite a bit and then the UPS man stops by after that...

I live on an impoundment full of LM and Spotted (KY) bass and have a ball catching them year round. Our water does not get cold enough to freeze which I really enjoy. I can catch these fish pretty much when I want to (although not always big ones) but I don't know anything about small mouth bass as they don't swim here. We have an impoundment with super clear water that's river fed and very mountainous within 2 hours that does have them and I'd like to give it a go to catch my first brown fish but short of jerkbait fishing or topwater, don't know much about where to begin to hunt for them. So my question is about the general behavior differences between smallies and LM's? Depth - generally speaking do they prefer the lake floor in general, ie are they used to feeding "down" or looking down for forage? Are they generally more structure or cover related, or is it a matter of baitfish/forage location with them first? I've read up on forage types and understand craws to be of great interest ie the great success tube fishing can bring as do shad imitations. Knowing the forage in the impoundment I'm referring to is both shad and crawfish based with a lot of crawfish, would a bottom bouncing, dragging, hopping approach be better in general? What about structure? Points? Secondary? Flats? Not talking about spawning periods, just in general where do they like to hang out? All real general stuff I know so I apologize if it's too vague but if you can shoot some "start with these" types of ideas my way, I'd be very thankful. Thanks guys!

Thanks RW. Would you steer away from the Flappin Hog in clear water then where water displacement is not as much as a help as it can hurt at times and go twin tail in Winter? Our water is super clear year round and just ridiculous in the Winter with regard to clarity. You can see a white bait in 15' sitting on the bottom with no problem at all in the right light conditions. That being said, does the hog have an advantage over the twin tail or vice versa base on your Winter fishing experience? I had a lot of success on the twin tail because I gave the bait a ton of action and was swimming it a lot around boat docks here which is a great Summer and Fall pattern on this lake due to minimal natural cover and vegetation. If you are in a cold clear coverless (except boat docks) lake which one would you reach for first? Thanks again. -CD

Been fishing the jig a lot this year with a lot of success from Spring - Fall and now we are getting in to Winter temps here in W. NC and my jig game is a little shakey. Looking for any guidance on fishing this bait in the cold water other than "slow it down" which is obvious. My inexperience with Winter jig fishing is more bite related for cold conditions. The fish hammered it in warm water which made line watching or simply feeling the bite not that tough. I'm not sure what I'm looking or feeling for in this cold water; ie. what's a bite feel like typically and when will it typically get bit (falling or once it's on the bottom). Will they hit it on the fall? Will they pick it up and sit there, swim with it, etc? I've caught some great crank bait fish recently and they were like reeling in grocery bags and put up very little fight as our temps fell severely recently and the fish got stunned I think as they are all just super slow moving but still eating. Thanks for any help/guidance you can send my way on catching them in Winter on the jig.

I read the thread on jig trailers for Winter and have had a lot of success using the GYCB twin tails in warmer water but ours is getting cold now and I was wanting to know if the flappin' hog had an advantage over the twin tail in cooler water for some reason as I've not used the flappin hog yet. Can you enlighten me as to why I might use it in the cold H20? Thanks gents.

Bites been slow lately and I'm thinking of trying out some light weight soft plastics on the split shot. Have not used that rig much so I'm not real sure which weight size or shot sizes are ideal. Thinking of 4" worms and size 1 or 2 hooks. What weight would or do you use? Thanks.

Heard a lot about grinding/sanding the lower lip portion on Pop-R's so they perform differently than they do out of the box. Got any info on what all the discussion is about and what it's intended to do to the bait by modifying the lip? How much are you taking off if you do mess with it?

I have 3 of them. Bass, a handbook of strategies - By In Fisherman (really good) Bass Location - By In Fisherman (fair to good) Bass Wisdom - By Homer Circle (excellent) Also, Bassmaster Magazine (love it), and the Classic Patterns DVD series avail at Bass Pro Shops (the most informative bass fishing instruction ever in my opinion other than being in a tournament with a good pro who will talk with you).

Up at 04:45 and on the water at 05:15 but I live on the lake so it's a little easier for me to get it going. When traveling for a tourney, I'm up at whatever time I need to be so that I can be on the water 30 mins prior to take off and get rigged, go over my plan, get my head right, etc.

There isn't any harm in that at all friend regardless of what you hear. Our friends at In Fisherman who are the most conservation minded fishing organization that I have ever come across speak regularly to the notion of "selective harvest" which means taking the 1-2 lb bass out of the fishery and allowing the other fish a chance to grow. You'll never catch them all so the fishery is not at any level of risk by doing that. On a seperate note, not sure if you are a believer in God or in Jesus Christ but if you are then you'd know and agree with the fact that God gave man "rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth". Genesis 1:26 So there is that angle too to quantify your eating some bass. Not a bad thing to refer to if you are a person of faith as am I. Deer management organizations take selective harvest very seriously so they can grow trophy bucks and doe and not have massive starvation and malnourishment issues among the population. It is what it is, and it's OK. Eat a few and enjoy them.

Your ethics of C & R are good, however bleeding bass die. The solution to your problem is as stated; set the hook immediately whenever you feel a tap, see line jump or move slightly. Bass do not have hands and can only put the hook in their mouth before swallowing the soft plastic. If the bass is deeply hooked and bleeding, put it on ice and take it home for a meal, instead of feeding the turtles and birds. You really need to be careful handling bass when dehooking through the gills, the gills damage very easily. The IN-Fisherman article is a good method done properly. Bass can't breath air and must be put back into water every 30 to 45 seconds to keep them healthy, gills wet and slime intact. Over handling the bass trying to get the hook out is as damaging as bleeding. If you think the bass is in poor shape, it is. Set the hook quickly or keep the damaged or bleeding bass. WRB Totally correct. Went through this earlier this year with TX rigged Senkos and unpegged tungsten bullet weights. It's like a mini carolina rig and detecting the bite is hard to feel with or without flourocarbon and a GLX rod... If they are bleeding they will die from the injury so it's best to take it home and eat it because it will not survive.

The problem with a lot of fisheries anymore is catch and release fishing. Nobody takes anything home anymore and the fish can get way overpopulated and undersized. I personally am a catch and release man but we shouldn't discourage people who want to keep the occasional bass. That's 100% correct. Our friends at In Fisherman (arguably the most conservation friendly fishing group in the world) tell us that "selective harvest" is good for the fishery and that we should be doing it. So yeah, keep a few and cook them the way you like. I like to fillet mine and cut those into chunks and deep fry them in a shore lunch batter mix that I buy in my turkey fryer. I have a shallow pan with a basket for doing things like fish, onion rings, etc. Any time I get an excuse to use that thing to cook I do. But hey, I'm from the South and we like to fry stuff so that's shouldn't surprise anyone. Enjoy them!

Yup, it happens. When it happens to me and I know it's happened meaning gill hooked and lots of blood and un responsive fish. It goes in my livewell and gets fillet'd and fry'd. It's an agreement I have with the fish. I fish for sport but I won't waste the resource. I don't fish for food (bass anyway) but if I kill one unintentionally, then I pony up and eat it. My thinking is God gave man dominion over the birds in the sky, the animals on the ground, and the fish in the sea so it's my place to respect that and not waste what's been given to me. Makes me feel better anyway... RW is right, it's a blood sport and dying is part of it sometimes. Eatin' em is just fine, try it out sometime. Might make you feel better about it when it does happen because it will happen.

The guy is just on a whole different level. He's in that Tiger Woods zone of both skill and mental capability. He's beaten most of the guys before the boat ever touches the water. He's the king of homework, lake research, and reading situations/conditions. I met him on Lake Norman last year at Ryan Elliotts NASCAR charity tournament and he just has a look in his eye that says "I know what's up and that's about all there is to it". He by the way literally on foot chased down and killed deer with a knife that had been hit by a car on HWY 150 in front of the tournament launch site simply to put it out of its misery as it was busted up pretty bad. Surprised? I was til I saw the pics on a buddy's camera phone. It went down and it was a humane thing to do. That's a classy guy right there because he wasn't being "showy" he was doing what was right and was willing to get dirty doing it. The guy is a sportsman, a true competitor, and a champion. He's the real deal so to not acknowledge him and pay the respect due is just disrespectful and doesn't hold much water. People might not like him but they can't deny him. It's fun to be part of his era and learn from the best.

Indeed. Do not miss these episodes when they get back on the air. I have several of the DVD's that I purchased at Bass Pro Shops and every one of them is first class in all regards. Cinematography is top rate, audio is top rate, the anglers are of course world class, and the situations are TOUGH and yet they produce. I know about one of them first hand as I fish near Lake Wylie where Jason Quinn did the Summer Patterns episode and that isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. I think he boated over 50 fish that day.... Amazing stuff. Watch them, you'll learn a lot.

Nice avatar... Yup, get a handle on your DVR because they are worth watching for sure. I understand Classic Patterns may be coming back this year too via Joe Auten and crew so keep an eye out for those. Not sure which network will air it if they do make it back on the air but I'd bet it's Fox Sports South, VS, or Outdoor. What's a goodfella?

Man ain't that the truth!

Yup, stay clear of the Storm baits. That's $4 just going down the drain. They are junk. Lots of better options out there for you and that's for sure.

Yeah, you're good with that rig. The reel is more important than the rod in the setup so that you can retrieve the crank at the right speed. I personally use 7' rods simply because the allow me to cast farther. There are a lot of 7' 6" rods out now just for cranking which are great as they let you throw it that much farther and the new rods are super light so you don't get as fatigued. The key to the right crank bait rod you have already addressed and that's a medium flex with a soft tip. Too stiff and you rip the bait out of the mouth of the fish. Line is a factor too. I use 12# flourocarbon on my mid size and larger cranks which is mostly what I throw because it gives me better feel, sinks, does not bow much if at all (that's the feel part), and has no stretch which I account for with my rod. If you don't go with flouro, try a co-polymer line as it's better than mono which gives the least amount of feel but the most stretch. Good luck.

Yup, happens a lot. Particularly with a Colorado Blade more so for some reason (can't say why). Slow roll that spinner bait along the bottom nice and steady and there is no telling what it'll catch. Mostly bass and catfish around here but no, it's not uncommon to land a cat daddy on a SB. Worst part is the slime the put all over your line, they are nasty creatures in my book but do fight like there is no tomorrow.