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Another thing you can try is to change your retrieve. I next to never use a steady retrieve while throwing a spinnerbait. I add rod twitches, pauses, jerks and will sometimes kill it during the retrieve. I have found that I can draw more reluctant bass into biting this erratic retrieve than a steady one.

I don't so much look for individual fish at first. I start out looking for schools of bait fish. I pay attention to the depths that the baitfish are using and key on areas where structure intersect those depths in areas that are seasonal specific. (Ie. Summer time would be main lake points and humps as would winter. Fall and spring would be more in creeks and coves.) Second method that I use is to I.D. the thermocline depth as almost all fish will be at or above this depth in warm water. Then I approach it the same way.

If I remember correctly, Javelin boats are made by Stratos in the same factory just opposite sides. The one drawback might be the motor. OMC had problems with alot of their motors about the same time they were forced into chapter 11. They filed in 2000 if I remember correctly.

If you can afford the price tag go for the Optima serise. The glass mat batteries last longer and can withstand more charging cycles. If not, then I will say that Wal-Mart Everstart Max is a good choice also. Go with the biggest one that they have. It is $69.00 if I remember correctly. They are MFG by Johnson Control, which is the same company that makes Optima Batteries. I also have a 74lb Minn-Kota and can fish all day with plenty of power to spare.

Here is an article on smallies from Bassmaster. You will need to go all the down to the "stealth" section of the article to find the info on sonar and it's effect on smallies. http://espn.go.com/outdoors/tips/s/b_fea_bm_0406_dogdays.html

A man was approached by the warden while fishing with dynamite. The warden said to him that it was illegal to fish with explosives and the he would need to see some I.D. So the guy lights one more stick and ask the warden to hold it for him while he gets out his wallet. The man turns around and picks up his wallet from his tackle box and looks back at the warden and ask, "are you going set there and hold that all day or are you going to fish!"

Sharpen the lip so that it wil run deeper. Just be careful not to take off too much as it will become to brittle.

Before you let it get you mad, 100% catch and release can be just as bad. You may have large quanities of fish, but you will not have the quality. Knowing what fish to keep and what fish to throw back in some case can be vital to a small body of water or even an large over populated resevoir. Here is a link to a good article on the topic: http://bassresource.com/fishing/catch_and_release_bass.html

Also a secondary point is normally in a feeder creek instead of on the main lake.

After reading your post, I got in touch with one of the local stores that sell gortex locally and they said that it can't be brought back to "new" status. However, you can buy a silicone spray and use it to seal it back up. It won't last forever, but it should work they said. I personally have used a product called "Silicone Water Gaurd" on my camping gear and have had great reslts with it. You can find it at Wal-mart in the camping section.

The only problem that you may experience would be the possability of electrical interference when you engage the trolling motor. If you have an analog motor, it will have a higher chance of this happening, but doesn't mean that it will. The amount of draw that a LCD will place on your battery will be small. (Less than 1 amp)

I've had luck with a slow walking spook before they get on there beds some. Other than that I agree with everyone else said also. One of my favorite things for when they are on the bed is a horizontal dropshot. Throw the whole rig up on the bank and drag it back in so there is no splash. Start dragging the rig back untill the lure is in the nest. Keep a little tension on the line and make it bounce up and down in the nest. Then let it settle to the bottom for a few and then repeat. All this activity in a bass' nest will make it so mad that it has to bite something. I normally use about a 4 feet seperation between the weight and the lure. I also use a heavier weight to help hold the lure in place. If the weight moves forward then the lure will come out of the nest.

I thought I was at the wrong site first thing this morning. LOL ;D

Here in NC I can get my sportsman license for $40.00. This includes small game, fishing, trout stamp, big game tickets and gameland permits. The only thing that I can't do is hunt duck with the sportsman license. Still have to buy the federal duck stamp to do that. If you but the fishing seperate it is $20.00 per year from the date you bought it.

Useing the drop shoot rig with a horizontal presentation is very effective for several reasons. One is that the lure will have more life when you twitch your rod tip with out the weight of a sinker in front to deading the action. One of my favorite methods during the spawn is to cast it all the way up on the bank, then drag the whole rig back into the water so there is no splash. Pull the rig untill the lure reaches the nest, and set the lure down in the nest. Let it set there for a few seconds and then make it bounce up and down in the nest a few times. Let it set back down again and repeat the same process. A bass gaurding a nest really can't stand this much activity in it's nest and will get so mad that it has to bite something. You have to be sure not to pull the weight forward or the lure will come out of the nest, so I use a heavier weight for this set up. I also use at least 4 feet of line between the weight and the lure to give it plenty of action. Another method is the reverse of a carolina rig. This way I can hold the lure above the weeds and shake it in one place or make it dart in and out of the weeds by allowing slack in the line.

I have the x-125, which I am sure you know is just one step down from the 135. I have been extremely pleased with the preformance. You can't go wrong with either model of the two. I don't think you would need the 135 unless you are fishing water that is extremly deep. There isn't going to be that much difference in the picture quality with the 135 having more wattage. All the other features are the same on the two of them.

Jt, what about saddles? Would that be a good place to look also?

I will have to keep the humps in mind. I normally have tried to work the points as the water is falling. Almost all of the banks that are near the main lake and feeder creeks are on a hard slope. Most 45 degree or more. So that is why I have just pulled back on points. They almost all go to deep water quickly. Once things have stabilized, I have been spending my time in the creeks and coves. The water temps here are 4-5 degreess warmer than the main lake channel, and they are still in 30-40 feet of water. As far as the rising water goes, I am on about the same thought line as what you described. Seeing as this is a resevoir that is located in the foothills, almost all of the banks are defined untill it gets close to full pool. Then things slope off gradually. I normally try to go with places where the rock is transistioning from rock to clay or changing composistion from one rock type to another. I normally hammer the willow bushes all through the summer and can normally pull fish from almost every trip out. I also go back to places that I photographed during draw downs that look "fishy" so to speak. JT and D. Taylor thank you both for your input. If you see anything else that you think could be improved on in this post let me know.

JT, I would like to pick your brain for a moment if I could. I would like to see how you would fish a resevoir that goes through a major winter draw down. It is an old resevoir and has no aqutic vegitation because the drawn downs prevent any from surviving. There is some hard cover in the forms of lay downs and a few stump fields, but at full pool the majority of the stump fields are under 40-50 ft of water. There are flooded willow bushes and few other types of trees that get flooded when at full pool as well. Most of these are in 3-8 feet of water. What makes this bad is the lake is coming up as the bass begin going into pre-spawn and spawn. It really is hard to pinpoint where they will end up when the water is coming up sometimes up to 5 feet in a day. When the resevoir hits its lowest point during the winter drawdown, it has been pulled from 40-50 feet. Now the only things that are left to fish are points, rocks, sloping banks, humps,creek channels and the likes. So my question is where do you start? Both during the drawdown and the return to full pool. I have never seen any article that addressed how to fish during these severe drawdowns. So I am curious how you would handle this. Coming back up isn't anywhere near as bad as going down. Once it stablizes it is not too bad either. This is only one of the lakes that I have to fish. One of the other ones gets pulled close to 80 feet in the winter and is even older and has less cover than the first. I wont get into it though. Thanks for any info you are willing to part with.

Any store that sells fish will have them. They come in a bottle with small little cubes inside.

I would go for some freeze dried shrimp to start, then small insects. As they get bigger move up to small shiners. As they grow you can increase the size of what you feed them.

As long as I am on the front deck of my skeeter, then it fills like home to me.

The way I fugure that I am on a pattern, is to catch a few fish in one spot. Let's just say on a secondary point 1/3 of the way back in a feeder creek. Let's also say that I am using a DT-10 crankbait. And for the sake of argument the lure is hitting the bottom and running at it's maximum depth. O.K. now I have caught 3 fish from this location and I want to see if this is a pattern on the whole lake. First I would move a little bit further back into this cove to see if I can draw a strike. If not, then I would look on my map and find another secondary point that has close to the same water depth, and same distance in a cove or feeder creek. If I go to this cove and I catch some fish here as well, I would find a third spot to test as well through the same process. If I go to my second spot and I do not catch fish, then I would have to look back at my notes from the first spot. Verify that water temp is the same at both locations, bottom composistion. Did I see bait fish at one location but not the other. Was there some type of isoloated cover on the structure that the fish were holding on at the lures depth. If there was a stump row near the end of the first point in 10 feet of water but not the second, then I would try to find some type of hard cover on a secondary point in 10 ft of water. Now if I can go to a spot that has the same charecteristics as the fist and catch fish, then I am establishing a pattern. If I can go to a few more spots that are simular and catch fish, then I am on a pattern. In order to pattern efficently, you wil need to take all the information about the first few fish that you catch in a spot and remember it. Also you need to do it quickly, because if it as early in the morning when you caught your first few fish and late morning approaching noon when you find your second spot, the fish may have pulled tighter to cover or pulled out a little deeper. If this has happened, then they may not bite at the time that you are there, because they may not be as active. Then you would have to find the pattern within the pattern. All the secondary pattern may be is just switching to a deeper or slower bait or actually having to hit the cover in order to draw a strike. It may mean that the lure has to pass on a certain side of the cover in order to draw the strike. This is how I would do it for a tournament. I would not want to stick every fish on the point before the tournament began. If I were fishing for pleasure, I would stick every fish I could before they stopped. Then go to the second spot, and so forth and so on. Then later in the day I would return with a different lure to see if more fish had moved up or if some of the other fish were agressive now. Patterning a lake is not that hard, but it does require you to think and act quickly once you are on fish. Finding the fish the first time would probably be the hardest part of it, espsecially on a strange lake. I am only stating my opinions and other folks may have different ways. Take all the info you get and use what you can and disregard the rest.

Go to last link on page for ice fishing mpeg. http://www.barnzee.com/funnyclips/?C=S%3BO=A

A pool thermometer looks like a 1/2in plastic tube with a glass theremometer in it. They are incased in plastic in order to protect them from the concrete that surrounds the pool. If you drop one, it want break. Has a rope tie on the end. You can pick them up at Wally World in the pool section.