D.Cox

2003 fish a Southern Open in Alabama, I was in 7 place as a non boater after the 2nd day. The final day fished with Mr. J and he was fishing a jig in deep water. About 10 he made a statement that he had run out of fish. He had 2, I had 1. I told him I knew where some good fish were, but we needed wind to catch them. He asked how far, I said about 2 miles. We went to this spot, that my 2nd day partner had showed me, he did not make the final day and told me to fish it if my boater would. He had showed me where every stump way on 300 yards of back. Mr. J finished out his limit on a jig. I had 2 by this time. I switched to a jig and caught a 2 pound spot, we went down to the best spot and I threw in on one side of a rock pile and him the other. We both go bite on the fall, both of us had spots on between 5-6 pound. Mine came straight to the top wallowed, then straight down to some brush and broke me off. I had 12 line on and it cost me. I fished 4 and won $1700 and missed out on a $32,000 boat by 1.5 pounds. Mr J. finished 2nd and had big fish of the day a 5-9 spot. I can still see the image of the spot wallowing in my mind 7 years later. Dow

I am coming down to fish Okeechobee as a non boater in the Bass Southern Open next week. I will be flying and limited on what tackle I can bring. Is there any must have baits for Okeechobee? If it is something that you don't want out on the forum, just PM me. Thanks, Dow

Water temp 48-55 Jerk Baits, any that suspend 4-8 foot. Rouge, Luck Craft, Husky Jerks. 53 and up, Spinner Baits and crank baits. Need bump botton or tree ect. Jig with trailers are good any time. Swim Baits any water above 52 deg. Here in East Tenn, we do not have any grass in the water. Some of the other can work a times. If you are from Knoxville West, you may have grass. And Rattle Traps, chatter bait might be a good option.

No the water color and temp have been good. The temp now is 55 and we have had a lot of rain fall. We had a few days that it was muddy, but most of the time it is clear to lightly stained. This lake has a ton of shad in it. It was at full pool this year, it has been low the last few years. One thing I have noticed is that my live wells do not have the crawdads spit up in it after a tournament. This could be because the like is high for this time of year. This lake drops 25 feet from summer pool to winter pool. Dow

Fished today with a friend from 7-12 on Cherokee. We started off with buzzbait and did not have a bite on top. My buddy caught a one on a Rattle Head Jig and I started fishing a jig also, by 9:30 we had 4 keeper in the boat. We tried a few other things and probably should stayed with the jig the whole time. The fish did not want to chase anything, tried spinner baits, crank baits, spook and rattle traps. Only accounted for one small fish on a shad rap. The water temp was 55 and overcast . Cherokee usually produces more nice fish, but this year the fish have been skinny. I have caught 2 in the last 3 weeks that should be 7-8 pound fish and have big heads, long and skinny that went 5 to 5.5. These fish look healthy, but look like that have just spawned out. This lake is full of shad, even the smaller fish don't have bellies. Tournaments weights have been down this fall. Anyone have any Ideals?

I figured Alabama.

Got out with my 6 year old son for 3 hours on a East Tennessee Lake to try out some new spoons that we are selling now and could only find 1 16 inch small mouth but caught 2 good hybrids. These things pull like a freight train. Pictures and netting by my son, I asked if he got us in the picture and he said yes. When we looked at them at home and I asked what happened. His reply, I got the fish. Hope this great fall weather holds for awhile.

Glen was correct on the picture I posted.

Lost 2 today! My buddy lost his, we turned and looked in 2 foot waves, must went under and when we got to our next stop. Mine was gone. I was setting on it. I can deal with the loss of the hat, but not my Costal Del Mar sun glasses. Have donated at pairs few! But we had fun and caught fish!

When I use the calculator http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html I get a different wieght. What forumla is the calculator using?

Fished Patrick Henry Lake 9-12-09 from 8-12 with our 6 year old son. It was foggy and we threw top water with only one bite. Around 10:30 I started throwing a Jig and caught 3 and missed 2 more. My son had fun netting the fish. The 5+ pound fish he said was too heavy to lift in the boat. Water was light stain, about 70 degrees and a beautiful day.

Also works on cats, if you can hold them down!

Thanks for the input everyone. Now, I have a lot more things to think about. And, after 25 years of fishing, the more I think I learn about fish, the more I realize that I do not understand why fish do what they do. I just like to catch them! Burley, yes I was fishing the Bloomingdale club. Avid, I have noticed the same in the deep south ,(TN, SC, AL, GA, FL, TX), If it is bright at night in water above 55 deg, the morning bite will be slow and pickup in the afternoon. Cat, I have not thought about the moon rise and set, but I will pay more attention now. WRB, thanks for the link, interesting, would like to see study like this one on Guntersville! Matt, I was looking at my fishing logs, I was fishing Boone about 12 years ago. This lake is a highland reservoir controlled by the TVA by a dam for producing power. The water temp was in the 82-84, clear water and I had been catching Stripe bass before the ski boats started around 10 am. I started before daylight and at 9:30 the fish started schooling, and I caught several. The next day they started schooling around 10:30 and I caught them again for about 45 minutes. Both times the moon was directly overhead. Just something else to think about.

My thoughts on what happens and why. About 10 years ago, I had a 55 gallon fish tank and started catching crawdads from different lakes and watching them. I had 3 different types and up to 6 in the tank. They were in the tank for 2 years and I did observe that during the few days before and after the full moon was their most active time. They would come out of the rocks and move around the tank. The only other time they were this active was when they were fed with fish food. I would notice that during peak lunar times some crawfish would come out of their hiding place and roam around, but not always. For example, during peak times in the day they would be at the top of the holes or entrance, you could see the antennas but during non peak times they were not visible at all. This is why I assume that during the full moon, plus or minus 3 days that the bait are more active and as a result, the bass are more conditioned to chase a faster moving lure. I have also noticed that the shad will spawn on a full moon, but I think most of the shad have finished spawning here; we have thread fin, gizzard shad and alwie.

Got to fish Patrick Henry Lake in TN from 7 PM-3AM the last 2 Fridy nights. Last Friday night the Spinnerbait bite was great with the full moon. We caught a lot of smallmouth between 15-17 ¾ on spinner baits but had only one keeper that was 18 inches. The large mouth, hit a black buzzbait good late in the night and several others that had good fish came on a buzzbait. The jig bite did not happen at all last weekend. We finished 2 nd in this event with a lot of limits. This weekend was completely different , the Jig bite started off good, had 2 keeper largemouth before dark, then it slowed til 10 pm. Caught a 19 inch Smallmouth on a jig. She was big fish for the event. I only caught small large mouth on the spinnerbait and buzzbaits and all were less than 12 inches. We caught one more largemouth on a jig and caught 2 keepers on a worm. We finished 1st in this event. We had about the same wieght, but caught different ways. The water level were the same, water temp- same, water generations- same and weather: calm clear skys, the only difference was the moon. Do any of you have any ideas why the moon makes these nights so different?

Nice catch and great write up.

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The answers that you got are correct, there is a written description on the card behind the baits and we have a video on our site that show how it is used, high speed recommended. Click Video\Sound File page. Good luck and good fishing.

I encourage you to check the Sworming Hornets out. Rick Steckelberg, the owner, is a great guy and one that has been most helpful to Dow and myself in Starting our company.

The lake here are at winter level, Boone drops 30 feet from summer to winter. We have 5 lake within a hour drive of the Tri Cities area and all the are drawn down for winter. Douglas can drop 50 foot and all the lake are TVA controlled. This is the head waters of some of the rivers that feed the Tennessee river, we do not have locks so they use the water up here to keep flow in the tenn river. It has been dry up here for 08 but Boone was full for summer, some of the other were not.

Got out with a fishing buddy and fished from 8-12. we caught 5 good keepers and lost 2 big small mouth at the boat. These 70 degree days feel great and I am ready for spring. The fish are still in there winter pattern and fish were caught 17-30 foot with a water temp 47.

I have had one of my best days when the water temp was 36 deg but usally this temp is slow. I live in East Tennessee and as a general rule the following applies. The lake here are TVA lakes with deep water over 100 foot and not any aquatic grass. When the Temp reaches 49- 45degs, the jigging spoon, silver buddy and the float and fly will produce. This bite is very predictable and a 20+ pound bags a common. When the temp drops below 45 the bite slows and a spoon or float and fly will work the best. When the Temp gets to 43 degs, a lot of the thread fin shad die off and it gets hard to catch fish for a while. Fish can easily feed on dyeing shad early in winter. Our lake temps in winter are 45 mild winter to some ice over in cold winters. In late winter I catch more bass when it gets over 43 degs and the temp is steady or rising. The fish will get pretty active. All of my winter fish is on deep structure, points and bluffs and usually happen from 17-25 feet, but on cold winter 25-35 foot. The large mouth feed good down to temp of 45 and get hard to catch below 42. When it get below 43 I catch more small mouth than large mouth. In a couple if ponds, I gave had some great days on small jerk baits or suspending spots. These pond might be 6 foot and were 39-45 degs. Had to let the baits sit and make short jerks and pause, caught 40 Large mouth from 3-6 pound. By the way it was a deep ditch that had the deepest water 6 foot. If you find a sweet spot in a lake, they will be there every year . I have some spots on the GPS and I can go there and catch 5 that weigh 15 pounds and never move the boat. But some of these spots probably took me 40 hours of fishing, and they can be great! I keep a log of water temps, lake level, weather that day and few before, good day and bad Hope this helps.

Fished for half of a hour on a East Tenn lake after picking up my boat for service. Fished a white buzz bait on flatts and caught this 5 LB large mouth and lost another about 3 pounds. It gets dark to early now! My 5 year old was throwing the same bait, but his stayed on the bottom more that the top. We had fun and that was the main thing.

I laughed when I read this! ;D My husband knows exactly how you feel. A couple of weeks ago, we took our 5 yr. old son bluegill fishing and instead he caught a 4+ lb. bass on his little beetle spin.

ICAST showcases fishing products from all over the world. Also, all products in certain categories, such as terminal tackle and hard lures compete against each other, regardless of whether they were designed for different types of fishing, i.e carp, musky, striper, or bass, etc. If you look at their website, they don't bass fish. Their main fishing if for carp or whatever they call them over there.