Thad

In short you want to find a hard bottom. Basically anything that isn't soft can hold spawning fish. Like you mentioned, rock, gravel, and clay are good examples. If you can find an area like this with stumps or lay downs for cover then that makes it a lot better.

My opinion is yea, worms and jigs are enough. I actually thought about this some today. I went down to the river today for just a couple hours and took one bag of lures, River2Sea's Stand'n Yabbie. I caught fish and had a good time. Then I think about my tournament a couple weeks ago where I spent over $1,000 on the trip. It's amazing how I can think so simplistic when it comes to fishing for fun and then how technical I can make it when tournament fishing. If you're just fishing for fun then soft plastics and jigs can cover every situation you encounter. Now I think tournament anglers do need more variety, like things that cover the water faster, but for fun you're set with what you have. If I was you I would just concentrate on learning what you have, especially your jigs. You can catch quality fish on them and you can fish them in just about any situation.

Haha, I've been there before and never noticed that. I guess the guy that does his website doesn't like him too much.

Thanks guys. When I read Dave's post I was a little bit surprised. It took me a long time to cut out a stencil for that and I thought it looked pretty decent. I guess I could put them closer together and add more but I thought it looked pretty good, especially moving in the water. By the way, I had been looking for some good stencil material and found the plastic that is used to cover the lure in their packaging is perfect for me.

Here is my Baby Bass Chameleon along with some more Chameleon paint jobs.

Yes, we're fishing the series. We were told that we had to fish 2 of the 3 to qualify for the championship and since it costs so much for us we are going to skip the first one on Neely-Henry. We will be at the rest though. Look forward to seeing you down there.

Well I would think the swimbait bite would be ridiculous the next year or so. Seems like they would crush the thing since they won't get as many meals next year. It's like spending a week from my girlfriend. 8-)

At times when I want to get a crankbait down and also want to make it a little less weedless I will remove the front hook and replace it with one of those tube insert weights.

Thanks man, I added you on facebook. Yea it was our first tournament on waters we've never fished before. We learned a lot and really look forward to this coming season.

It doesn't hurt that he has Jason Quinn, his friend, to act like a "Pro Staffer".

I just saw these last night on the internet but can't remember what site they were on.

I've looked at those two lucky crafts but haven't found them online for sale. Where do you get them?

Looking for your suggestions for a better shad rap type crank, basically one that casts farther is what I'm looking for.

Not sure what you're talking about. If you're talking about a restaurant out budget was the dollar menu.

He's a good fisherman and he enjoyed the tournament and I guess that's what counts, for most anyways. I have been playing sports my whole life, I played football in college for my first two years before getting hurt. I now coach high school football and fish for my college's club, both for the competition. Fishing is perfect for my desire of winning, I have been fishing since I was two and have enjoyed the sport just as much as all the others I've played but ever since I've felt the rush of tournament fishing it has taken over all other passions in my life. To some it may seem bad but it isn't enough for me anymore to just go catch fish. Don't get me wrong, I love fishing, but nothing compares to winning a tournament. It sounds dumb but I really feel like the saying in Talladega Nights, "If you ain't first you're last." So it's hard finding someone with my desire in our area.

I haven't had much time to post but to say the least, it was a learning experience. During practice we found a pattern that was around 10lbs and we didn't really think it was enough but it was all we had. So on the first day we went with it and ended up with 4 fish at 6lbs and some change. We lost one near the end that was in the 3 to 4 lb range. The leader that day had 13 something. That night we were talking to some local people and started hearing about stuff way up the river. We knew we were a long shot to win without some big fish so we went up river to find some bigger fish. We fished it for about 2 hours. I broke off on 17lb flouro but that was the only bite we got up there. As soon as my partner decided he wanted to go back down the lake our other team found the shad and caught a quick limit. When we got to the same place we fished the day before we did catch several but only two kept. This was our first tournament together, my partner and I, and it was the first one on a lake we had never fished. No excuses though, I'm extremely competitive and came in to win it. My partner was happy beating our other team, so we have some mental things to change for the next tournament. We learned a lot, like don't look too hard into what you hear from local guides and what not. Get a general idea from them and fish your strengths. I'll also never go somewhere I'm not familiar with during the actual tournament. Looking back I'm really not satisfied with how hard "we" fished though. I know this was my partners first tournament but to drive 800 miles we have to get more serious. But it's hard to say anything when you're fishing out of their boat. If anyone has a suggestion for how to talk to them about it I'm all ears. Are there any videos out there of team tournaments?

I appreciate it five.bass.limit and the rest of you guys. We're sitting in the hotel right now getting our stuff together. We got here about an hour ago. It's 3:18 here and we're getting up at 5:30, so going on little sleep. Hope we have a good practice today. I'll let you guys know how we do. Thanks

I brush mine on so I don't get any on it. I'm guessing you must be dipping yours. Its ok to get a little on it if you are dipping.

Thank you Catt, I really appreciate it.

We have two teams going, so the game plan for the practice day is to split up and try each. Hopefully one of us can get something going.

Well me and three other guys are going down to Alabama to represent Radford University (Virginia). We're fishing the Auburn Fall Classic on Logan Martin the 21st and 22nd. We just found out about it about a week ago so we have been scrambling for info and stocking up on tackle. We're pretty confident in the game plan we have going into it even though we've never fished it. It should be a lot fun and a great experience.

The water temperatures have been around 60 but a big cold front has pushed it down to 55ish. Suppose to stay cold with bluebird skies. You're on a reservoir in the South and you're launching in the middle of the lake. Would you head down the river towards the dam for the deeper water or would you go up the river towards the shallower water? For those that care I'm talking about Logan Martin.

One thing you can do when you get to a hard part like that is go ahead and give it a clear coat. Once it dries go back to painting and if you mess up just wipe the paint off gently with water if you're using water based, acetone if not.

I just bought some paint in 2 oz. bottles for over $30 a bottle. Worth it though.

I didn't, I saw that info on Matt's site from the earlier link. Thanks for the help and I'll give it a try this weekend.