Team9nine

You can tell by the sky in the background that I was out today as a decent front was working its way into the area. It completely moved out the shad from the areas I was fishing a couple days back, and subsequently, many of the bass. I did find a couple in some shallower areas upriver, so it wasn’t a complete shutout…and the high hit 70, which is nearly 20 degrees warmer than the next couple days are supposed to be. Maybe we'll finally drop water temps into the 50s which I think would help the bite.

I bounce between amber and midnight blue. If I had to pick just one, I'd lean toward the blue. Everyone's eyes are different though.

Looks like the Seaguar or Lefty Kreh Knot (I've seen it referred to by both names), but with one extra twist (most instructions suggest 3 twists).

A really good afternoon on the reservoir, but it could have been great. Caught 2 dozen bass including several better quality fish, but lost one that might have been much bigger than anything I landed right before dark. Played it for 2 or 3 minutes, but it never surfaced. Finally got it near the boat and to the leader knot twice, but never saw it. One last surge and the lure just popped out. Not seeing it was probably a good thing, as I’ll never know for certain what or how big. Sigh…😮‍💨

I’ll try modifying one of my existing rigs into a mini version to play with

Haven’t caught a single bass on an U-rig since I moved here - lol - but they’ll follow it. One of several bites I’m still trying to figure out 🤔

Looks like a slightly modified Yumbrella Ultralight rig, which measures just 6.5”. Even if not, I’d think you could easily adapt it to be what you’re holding. Still sold.

Gary on Yamamoto Baits start, and how/why the Senko came about: Spoiler alert - It was a BIC pen 😎

See this recent thread. Patent discussion starts toward end of page 1 and carries into page 2. Long story short, seems like it might have, at least in part. Patent thread

Always fun when you get the bite dialed in, even if just for a single afternoon. A few of the better fish out of about 20 landed. Still biting crankbaits.

Only got a couple hours in tonight after fighting a failing alternator in the truck all weekend, but it was enough time to catch a limit of greenies on crankbait. Felt good being back out on the water.

Correct - but I don’t have your unit. I’d have to believe it works just like you’re thinking. I did it all the time with Garmin and Humminbird units. The first mark usually isn’t perfect, but close enough that you can refind it and mark it more definitively easy enough.

When trying to return to the new waypoint, idle directly by where the icon on your screen is using your side imaging. If you didn’t go right over it, it will show you just how far off to one side and what direction it actually is. There is a calculation offset due to depth and distance from the transducer that frequently results in a position error when placing the icon on your screen. Another option would be to drop a marker buoy on a known underwater object, then idle back by it using your SI from some distance off and try placing a waypoint on the screen and see just how far off from your buoy you end up when returning to the icon/waypoint you just added.

I was able to see your picture. I did some searching through old newspapers but couldn't turn up anything about the jigs or the trolling motor modification/company. The Footrollaid was both TM'ed and patented between 1986 and 1994. You can see some pictures of the design here: Footrollaid patent I did find some info on one of the inventors...fishing pics and catches from the 1960s into 1971. It appears he (McCaghren) owned a machine repair shop in Decatur, so no surprise he might have invented something like in the patent being an angler himself. I'm not certain about the tie-in with Westmoreland. Billy was tying his own "hoss fly" jigs well before then, and his smallmouth book came out in 1976, a decade before the foot motor deal. I'll keep digging, but this one might stay a mystery. I loaded the picture (below) in case someone else might recognize them. It looks like Charles McCaghren passed in 2017 (age 82). His partner on the FooTrollaid patent, Jack Mullican, passed in 2023 (age 85).

Small keepers are better than no keepers 🤣 at least in my book. All on crankbaits again. Cool bonus fish was a blacknose crappie. Water still needs to cool down more to fire the bite up, I think.

For me, my short list would be: jerkbait crankbait minnow bait Ned No great ideas on how you hone LS skills without being on the water and using it. You can hone settings by watching lots of videos on how pros and guides set theirs up, getting you pretty dialed in with some degree of confidence right off. Beyond that, just remember it’s an amalgam of seeng fish, seeing breaks (cover) and breaklines, and controlling depth and speed, all in near real-time. I’ll add, some great advice above by @casts_by_fly. I fish reservoirs without submerged vegetation, and this year, outside of the recent trolling bite, I’ve probably seen/watched 80% plus of all the bass I’ve caught on screen.

Nothing big, but trolled up a limit of greenies and a few shorts on cranks this afternoon. Water temps still fluctuating, back up to 67-68 with our warming temps.

Yeah, he’s probably all excited now that he knows as a professional angler on the Elite Series, he can win at least $500 if he can just make the Top 40 cut 😉

Yeah, this is going to be a disaster after all the dust settles and reality hits after a couple years under this system (IMHO)

Looks like a lot of “nothingness” from the map, one of those old, flat, and somewhat silted in bodies of water where shoreline cover dominates patterns. The dam is always worth a shot, as well as a few of those points on the lower end. Beyond that, I’d let water color, water elevation, what cover or breaklines you can actually locate when you get there, and local weather conditions dictate my approach. Guessing water temps in the mid to high sixties or close might lend itself to a shad bite with lots of roaming and scattered fish activity (if shad are in this body of water). If so, covering as much territory as possible early on might be a good strategy, then pick apart specific cover options as the bite progresses and clues you in.

Didn't break it down by cover types or retrieve style, etc., since I fished the lake so frequently, but you can cover an awful lot of presentations in a myriad of cover/situations with just a basic jig design or two. I was never a "worm guy" when I tourney fished, as I figured the jig was always more efficient (and had better 'feel'). This was a typical stained water flatland reservoir with no submerged weeds, so my choice/outlook might have been different if I fished clearer water and more weed growth. I had a select few plastics I'd take and use on specific water bodies or under specific conditions, but soft plastics were always more jig trailers than primary baits for me with just a few exceptions (like Stud Fry's).

Bass Pro Shops now long discontinued soft plastic. Smash-Tech eventually resurrected the bait with a near knock-off. Haven't looked to see if they're still around. My buddy and I bought 260+ bags of the originals from BPS when we heard they were discontinuing them, so we always fished with originals Super versatile little bait.

I would speculate that reason #1 probably is one of the larger contributors to what you're experiencing. Add in things like seasonal variability, temporary water condition changes, etc., and that could account for some of it. How many events this is based on could also play a large part. If this is just something like 6-8 events a year, I'd expect to see a lot more randomness or variability to the data. I kept a detailed record of catches on what was my home lake at the time over a period of 6 years and more than 100 events. I only included data from events that I cashed in, because I wanted to see just the most financially productive baits/patterns to focus on, as just numbers or random catches that didn't produce a check didn't really mean anything to me in the big scheme of things. I cashed in 56 of those events, and caught 377 keepers on those tourney days. When I graphed the data (below), what became apparent was that a jig accounted for an overwhelming majority of my fish over that period of time, year after year and season after season. Then you had just a handful of other baits that you could consider fairly consistent producers to compliment it. Was the lake just a good jig lake? Was it just a confidence bait I fished more than others? Was it a bait that a lot of other guys weren't fishing or the fish weren't seeing? Did I have a "magic" color combination? Or was I just a better decision maker on the water - have a better rotation more times than most? Hard to say, but the bass apparently never really tired from seeing these presentations over an extended period of time for whatever reason, despite like most lakes, all the best areas or "spots" were all well known to the locals competing, and everyone beating up the same stuff week after week, showing the fish anything and everything in the way of baits and techniques (for the time).

Fun few hours on the water this afternoon. Surface temps 65 degrees, and the cloudy skies broke and gave way to some sunshine pushing high temps up to 65 degrees. Very light and variable east wind, and the fall colors are probably near peak. Ned did most of the work today.

Change your mindset. An east wind will protect areas that normally aren’t, allowing you greater boat/lure control, or be hitting areas that are normally protected, which could spur activity. Fish each appropriately. I’m looking forward to heading out today with an east wind forecasted!