mrbassky

What are the small weekly guntersville tournaments? Is there one on Sunday mornings at Goosepond? Mud creek on thursday evenings? Anybody know the times for these? Any open tournaments scheduled for May 15th yet?

Strike King Bitsy Bug are my personal choice I stay away from bitsy bugs these days. I used to love em but the bands on the skirts wont last long and the hooks will rust. :'( They catch fish but there are other jigs out these days that catch fish just as well and will last longer.

The reason they haven't caught on is because they are $7-9 for a bag of 3...I am a bit of a soft jerkbait connoisseur and I was thoroughly looking forward to these baits until they came out and I saw the price tag. It's just not worth it to me. Same here I can add weight to mine and save money. I figured they were made of superplastic and couldnt believe when they were not.

For the money the Matzuo popper is a steal. It spits better than any popper for that price. I cost doesnt equal better. All the cost means is it cost more to make. I try and get the best baits not the most expensive.

I am thinking that it will give the grass a slow start which should make this spring great. I love fishing submerged grass. What do you guys on Guntersville think? I could say the grass being perfect in the Middle of May when I head down there.

You need to try a staysee.

Watermelon Fluke-I always used white but lately I found Watermelon works better most of the time.

Looking for general just curious how the fishing is there and what the grass is like and what structure it has. We fish Mud creek alot and we like it but the pressure has gotten worst there the last couple years. On the map Raccon Creek looks like it has a better channel and may be better just curious about it. I hate to spend half a day on our 5 day vacation there if it isnt worth it. PM me if you dont want to post any info

This is another hot bait this time of year. For me.. Lucky Craft-my overall favorite these days and they offer several models in various sizes Smithwick-the Rogue is the only old style jerkbait I still use Xcalibur-I love thier little jerkbait it just catches fish for me Megabass-expensive but very high quality, pros use these alot and dont talk about it Jackall- :-X

I think 5 is enought to get by but to be honest most will own another odd bait or two. For me it would be.. Lucky Craft-probably the most diverse lineup hard to beat overall Strike King-The redeye shimmies when it sinks thats the main seller but the old diamond shad also is good, and its goes a little deeper than normal which is nice Sebile-the baits are just so unique I cant leave them out Xcalibur-kinda new but they make great baits, kind of a compromise in price between the cheaper stuff and luck craft Bill Lewis-Still a great bait but overlooked these days big time, Remember Duckett won in 07 with one (and he flipped some also) Other notables just missing the cut for me are Yozuri and cotton cordell for their big 3/4oz bait I love Never been a big fan of Rapala or Berkley for this type of bait

Weedless texas rig and work them like a fluke for me. Lots of ways to use them adding a little weight usually gets more bites if your not real shallow.

How about subliminal messages on the Lifetime channel.

My swimbaits inventory for starters is getting bigger these days.

You should read the post I made on the article sharing holes. Your right he was probably mad that you caught a fish he wanted to catch. Alot of pros do think everyone should stop fishing a lake when they do. But the best ones like KVD account for fishing pressure and adjust. As the stakes got higher attitudes have changed. I think its a sense of entitlement if a pro comes into a hole they get mad if someone is fishing it not in the tournament. But if somebody is fishing off the bank its all good. I would not pull in on a pro fishing but I wouldnt leave an area when one shows up either. I am not getting on pros either attitudes have changed for alot of people. This spring we were crappie fishing and a bass fisherman was in the pocket I wanted to fish so we started up and idled to the next pocket. The bass fisherman was heading towards that pocket but was 200-300ft away. As we idled towards the pocket I could see him giving us a stare so I held up the minnow bucket. When he made it to the cove he was angry and said "so I guess crappie fisherman have right away" I tried to explain to him I knew we were not going to get in his way since we were fishing the middle of the cove and he was beating the bank but it didnt matter. He said we tried to jump in front of him when in fact he sitting on the brushpile we wanted to fish in the first cove so we didnt have much choice. I say treat others like you would expect to be treated and I dont worry about crappie fisherman fishing different water than me. Point is with lakes getting more crowded people arent nearly as curtious these days all around. Oh yeah latter that day the same guy ran by us about 40 ft away on full plane in a no wake area and smiled. : But it was good because we got a good laugh out of the guy. Now thats are inside joke "so I guess crappie fisherman have rightaway" only we say that about anybody other than bass fisherman. ;D

Anybody read this? What were your thoughts? The article talks about a "beat the elites" tournament on Smith Mountain Lake the same time BASS is there. The writer is totally against the tournament. It says the tournament was started by people who were angry at BASS for getting rid of coanglers. While I wouldnt want to plan a big tournament on a small lake when BASS is fishing the article goes overboard. The writer calls the idea selfish. What is more selfish wanting to fish the same lake when the pros do or thinking no one else should fish a public lake when you do. You always hear pros say they fish against the fish not other fisherman well then why is it a big deal every other pro is fishing against the same added fishing pressure. Skeet made the best point. He basically said they were exposing the fishery and getting paid to be there and it could hurt the community because the public wont see the lakes full potential. It makes sense but I cant see it making a difference really. My guess is the top finishers would find patterns that were overlooked anyway and I dont see the added pressure hurting the total weight alot. Honestly its not like thousands of people planning a vacation are going to change their mind because it took 38lbs to win the tournament instead of 45lbs. Comparisons were made to sharing a keyboard for an editor or taking nails away from a construction site. I cant believe they think are vaild comparisons. First off its a equal playing field every pro is dealing with the same pressure. First place will pay the same and so on. I dont see how some locals fishing is going to make that much difference. While there are some good reasons to not have the tournament the article is over the top. Its not that big a deal. The article shows the pros as thinking that when the show up they own a public lake and no one else should fish there. Which I totally do not agree with. We plan a May trip to Guntersville we have for years long before BASS starting going there in May. This year we are going the week before BASS goes for work reasons. We also having a small club tournament there and I wouldnt feel bad at all if we instead fished the weekend the Elite series did. One more point the writer suggests they have the week following the Elite series notice he said the week following not the week before. Point is the article comes off sounding like they have first right to public water. I think people should be curtious and realize they do help a community and do what they can to help BASS but because someone doesnt shouldnt give them the right to get mad. I thought they took a stupid tournament and made themselves look bad. The only thing that I would have been said about the tournament is they dont like the idea and its going to make the fishing a little more difficult.

Division 1 of the KY Pond Hoppers will hold their 1st tournament this Saturday on Wilgreen Lake - Richmond, KY. Sign-up starts at 7:00am and the tournament starts at 8:00am. Division 3 will hold their 1st tournament on Guist Creek Lake this Saturday starting at 7:30am......for more information on division 3, contact Paul Hanley at (502) 845-5391 The Kentucky Pond Hoppers is a club just for small boat owners. We limit the size of the boat to 14' 8" or less and the outboard can not be larger than 15 hp. We hold a series of 6 Bass tournaments that enables you to qualify for a year-end Classic. At that tournament we pay out several thousand dollars in cash and prizes. The membership fee is $25.00 per person (per year) and the entry fee per tournament is $30.00 per boat, as a team or fishing alone. Please call Steve Riley at 859-533-5530 for more information.

I think match the hatch is not as important in bass fishing. It helps but its really more of a color selection thing. Show them something new is more about new presentations like using a swim jig. You can match the hatch and show them something new by using new baits.

Co Angler=camera guy He would have been fine they were using aluminum boats before when they had coanglers.

I lived in SE Kentucky and still live and Kentucky. If it was me I would go with the KVD swim jig or a regular arkie style jig. Either bluegill or shad color depending where you are. You can fish swim jigs deep but they are best in shallow water so it would be a spring time or fall thing on lakes like Laurel or Cumberland.

Its the truth BASS used to stand for something more. Now its a faceless corporation like other professional sports. The decisions now only depend on one thing $$$$. A few things I noticed. -Bassmaster magazine went downhill-the articles are smaller and in larger font with less info and fewer, the tournament coverage is terrible only 1 small paragraph so you have to buy BASS Times, the magazines are overall alot smaller, and the magazine only talks about whats big in the BASS tournaments (FLW is now a better at all of these) -Fewer tournaments this year same costs for pros and less total payout I think FLW is slowly getting closer to passing BASS. The worst thing to happen to BASS is getting picked up by ESPN.

It depends where you are on how much it costs. And if you split it with a buddy or two and have a boat that gets good gas milage then it would be alot cheaper. You can read what they used later. Not pushing following the pros vs. being in the boat I am sure being in the boat is better. But the point is they need people in the boats and right now they are not getting enough. My guess is this wont be the only tournament they dont have enough Marshalls. Wait and see there will be some changes next year.

Looks like they couldnt get enough for the field on Wheeler. I understand the idea I just dont think its worth it. The best part is you learn from the pros and learn spots but you may not get a pro who wants to talk much. And you can learn what they are doing and where for free if you have a boat and follow them. Some lakes will fill up quick others wont fill up. I think $100 is a little steep myself. Wait till they get a tournament where its really bad conditions and freezing. Or when they go up North where there arent as many people interested. We will see. : And dont assume you dont need Marshalls in every boat. There are lots of little things that I am sure you would someone there. Its not about tying fish up. Hooking a bed fish in the mouth, offlimits areas, boating violations, ect. I have seen some keepers let go in tournaments because they werent hooked in the mouth and people disqualified for boating violations who knows what happens if no ones around.

1.FLW 2.Bassmasters 3.Bassin 4.Bass Anglers Digest 5.In-fisherman I ordered Bass West but havent gotten an issue yet.

The lake was a little murky for it so I tried it in the pond just to play around. I used 15lb line and found it swims much better than with 20. For me anyway. I tried the floater and I was impressed. It works at slow speeds which was a suprise. Also when you jerk it dives and darts almost like a jerkbait. It is a finesse topwater swimbait for sure. I think this bait will flat put fish in the boat in clear water situations. I cant wait.

I have a few you have the Slammer, mattlure hardgill and Woody are my favorites. I only tried them out so far but they look great. I love the bass color of the Slammer. I also like waking a giron I caught several fish doing this last summer.