lure junkie

I've had good success with the baby paca texas rigged,with a 1/4oz. bullet weight and tube rattle inserted in hollow body cavity, with 3/0 ewg hook. Tiny paca paired with 3/16 pro Spot Remover standup finesse jig head. Alabama craw as a general universal starting color choice.

Jeff Kreit's squirrel tail worm. Absolutely sick.

another one based solely on personal experiences would be establishing realistic expectations

using too many different baits or changing too often

Well we fished Saturday in a local tournament utilizing the advice and suggestions as given here. After a solid 3 hrs. of fishing the results were not good,one undersized fish. Having said that, a desperation move to the main river was made to where a small feeder creek intersected. This area suprisingly produced 3 keeper smallies with largest going a eye popping 5-3, basically a trophy for the area, with a total weight of 10.55, it was good enough for 1st as well as big bass honors. a tournament a week ago was won with 19-3 taking 1st. place honors. Go figure?

Thanx again for the responses. From what I learned after doing some research, those fish were caught from a warm water discharge pumping out 70 degree water in a otherwise 50 degree environment. Also a six fish limit, but still very good for the area. I picked up the in-fisherman book on lm bass because of it's chapter on bass in rivers only to find it echoes the theory of aversion to current, and finding suitable backwater areas as mentioned here first. Nevertheless still a excellent read. We're heading out this Saturday to put the info into practice hopefully with better results.

this season I've paired up with a new partner that predominately fishes rivers, specifically the Illinois river at the Morris pool. The bulk of my fishing knowledge stems from natural clear weedy lakes. We fished on Sunday 4 hrs. managing 1 keeper. A local tournament produced a winning weight of 19-3. on the same day same pool. Ironically using the same bait (rat l trap) that we used . there is a obvious,glaring disability regarding location selection. Had we been in that tournament it would have been more of a donation than a competition.The advice I seek pertains to river dissection, water temps @ or around the 50 degree mark. Are any sloughs ,and or harbors away from the main river channel absolute paramount for congregations of fish,or would current breaks on the main river channel be a better overall selection with respect to seasonal movements/

my only addendum to the mix would be a shad or crawfish colored #7 shad rap,or a white ZOOM brand fat albert tail on a 3/16 oz. head in that order.

no.1 Thanx for the reliable expierienced feedback. This kind of revelation spoke volumes against the "book" . the more time on the tools you have the less you truly know. For instansce how much noise and or water displacement does a crayfish or shad actually have and yet still manage to thrive as a prey species

The book say's clear to moderately stained water, I saw a guy win a tournament fishing a clown colored x-rap in high muddy not to mention cold river water. This destroyed my text book thinking regarding the use of jerkbaits

check out shimano.com. there is a photo tutorial specifically for curados as well as reel schematics

attended the Chicago fishing show featuring babe and Ike as featured seminar speakers in a elegant ballroom at the rosemont convention center in Illinois. personally i came to see ike but both anglers went over their time allotment as far as speaking was concerned,then made sure that everyone who wanted to meet them, get an autograph,or a picture had a opportunity to do so. by the way,the seminars were free with price of admission. babe on patterning fish,and Ike on finesse techniques. should that be expected i don't know ,but both anglers clearly went above and beyond in my opinion, thanx

checkout strike zone lures they make one called the grass buster starting @ 3/8 oz & up. they also make ledgebuster spinnerbaits

reliability and trust in the advice and information given absolutely priceless. nuff said.

remembering that i should always enjoy the experience and never take it for granted