BassChaser57

I only to to the mats when the bite is slow and easy. When this happens I pull out the best, most sensitive rod I have with 20# Fireline with a 4' 20# Florocarbon leader. This line has zero stretch so with this combination you will feel a fish sneeze at 30 paces. Yes line watching is a must but you won't normally feel a bite, the bass will simply suck in the jig and sit there. The jig will feel heavy as the ole big girl is just sitting there still with the jig in her mouth. Again, for me the fish are in a negative mood for me to go to the mats so this is what I experience. Of course slow is the order of the day in the mats for me We all love to burn Rattle Traps, buzzbaits, or spinnerbaits, trouble is the fish I hunt like it slow way more often.

Most man made lakes have a dam with the ends of the dam down into the lake being almost a "V" where it meets the main shoreline. If you will stand at the end of the dam and look at the middle of the lake, draw a mental line then get some branches in piles along this line. You will have shallow, medium, and deep piles. It will not take much to draw and hold all kinds of fish if there is no other cover in the lake. Do this, give it 2 weeks and go catch fish. It will work, good luck.

There are probably lots of guys here who are better anglers than me but I pull back from the spawning flat to the first sturcture or the first drop and work all cover there. The big girls go there to wait to spawn then return to rest up, return to spawn again, then back to rest again. If that does not work go the the last edge of cover nearer deep water and they often will be there. Sometimes they will be in between but my best shot is always the first or last cover. I go slow with a natural colored jig and brush hog or downsize with a natural colored beaver bait on a weighted hook. I will Texas rig it but these bass have seen the fall of a T-rig 1000 times and the 1/8oz weighted hook with a yum wooley hog in watermelon red flake or green pumpkin fall differently and are my go to baits.

Big bass live on big structure in big water. What that means is you rarely will find a big bass on a shallow flat or on the bank. They got this big by living deep. Spend some time looking for cover on structure in water over 10 feet deep and the larger fish should be there. I have found that if I am catching bunches of dinks then I have to find a different pattern to find the larger fish as the old big girls and the dinks generally do not live together. In my opinion, 85% of catching bass is the right location. 10% Presentation, 5% bait selection. I saw a 53" Muskie caught as she was cruising to deeper water. I saw her and told the back boater to cast toward that log, he put the 3/4 oz spoon (bait) in front of the fish (location) and did not have to do anything (presentation) to get the bite. Most any bait will work if the location and presentation are correct. How many times have we seen one guy say the spinnerbait bite is really great and another guy says oh no--it is a plastics T-rig bite that is working for me? Give me the proper location and I will figure out how to catch the bass with presentation and bait selection, you can too.

HERE ARE THE PICS!!! Close your eyes, imagine a nice fat, wet, hawg with fat belly and pretty green colors and if we are imagining---the guy with the big grin holding the hawg only looks like Brad Pitt--really it is me. Seriously, I need to have an 8yr old kid go with me to photograph and post all the goodies as he would be better at the computer stuff than me. I get to go back in a couple of weeks so I will try to do better on the report. I like the sound of this---remedial fishing--can I go to summer school too? 8-)

I have fished Rainey for several years and clear Heddon Zara spook with the blue back always produces. Rapala X-raps #10 in the ghost will get them also. For Northerns a red and white or 5 of diamonds spoon brings em in, I like the 3/4ox size. Good Luck

Our Lake Fork trip was one of the best on record with lots of action and some nice fat bass. The weather was nice for the most part with air temps ranging from 50 to 85 and the water temps 55 to 69. The water was high and the gates were open so we had to deal with a falling water pattern along with stained water below the 515 bridge. There were some different patterns and baits that worked. Early and late we worked the grass and picked up some nice bedding buck bass in about 4-5 feet of water which was about 10 feet from the shore. With the stained water and visibility about 2 feet there were FEW bedding bass visible so we would blind fan cast hoping to connect, and we did. Toward the end of the trip we did find some bedding bass in 2 feet of water so we loaded up on those. Watching the bass pick up that bait and move it off the bed is always awesome. The lighter bass (up to 5 pounds) were the shallow visible bedding fish and the bigger bedding fish were deeper. As the morning progressed we would target the pre and post spawn mamas that had pulled off the shore waiting for the next wave of spawning. We would start at about 20 feet and work our way into about 10 feet flipping every visible bit of cover. With as many as 6 boats covering ¼ mile of shore we knew the poor shoreline bass would be way too pressured to be active. We saw very few shoreline bass caught except early and late. We actually caught our shallow bass at and after dark with us being the only boat we could see anywhere. Another pattern that worked was to pull off to the main lake points in 30 feet of water, look for shad balls on the electronics, and target bass laying in ambush under the shad. We had some great action but did not connect with big fish with this but caught up to 4 pounders so it was fun. We did this in post frontal conditions with high skies and still water so the deep bass were not as skittish. The baits that worked well were jigs and plastics in black/blue, and watermelon red flake. Flukes, lizards, and creature baits in shallow with the jigs being the best producers in deeper water. We would catch on the fall and swimming the bait. Texas style and weighted hooks both worked well for the plasticsl. There were lots of fish 11+ pounds caught in the local area and a share-a-lunker caught while we were there. This trip produced bass up in the 8's for me and some good numbers so it exceeded expectations. My wife Tera enjoyed the trip so much we went home, bought an rv, and leased an rv lot on Williams Branch. We are headed back for two weeks in May and will be staying there starting in October for much of the winter and spring. Lake Fork is still lake lottery to me as I know I could hit the jackpot of a lifetime with the next cast. BC57 < : )>><< P.S. To The Mods--You may want to move this as I did not know which place to post this.

I work out of Chicago and it was blowing over 40mph on Tuesday when we were leaving for Japan and Korea. That could blow your skirt up. 8-)

I want to be a professional lottery winner but since that won't happen I suppose flying is as good as it is going to get for me. I have the time to go play and fish at great lakes during the prime times. It looks like the wife and I will be getting a place on Lake Fork this year so airplanes will stay in my future so I have 2 weeks per month to jerk some lips.

It sounds like you have so many blugill that they are eating all your bass as they hatch leaving none to grow. If all you have is large bass then your spawn is failing. Blugill will spawn on the full moon every month without an "R" in it so there are lots of hungry bluegill to feed. Take out lots of blugill and see if you get a productive spawn. You will either need to do this NOW as the bass spawn is underway in many southern states. If you miss then you will have to wait until next year to see if you had a successful hatch. Your bluegill are stealing all your baby bass. Good Luck

How about the warning on the package of Preperation H suppositories-- "Remove foil before insertion" OUCH- who tried that one??

Thanks for the funny read. 8-)

Yeah, looking at some of those before dinner is a great diet. 8-)

Thanks for a good one. We used to have several good joke threads but everyone got serious for some reason. Wish the jokes would return. 8-)

Hook and Look is a great program with some cool underwater footage but I thought this one did not turn out as good as some of the other episodes.

OK Glenn here it is--- Bill Dance is my favorite for being entertaining. His bloopers are fantastic with my all time favorite being when the snake landed in his lap. How do I get a back seat in his boat???

KVD says that for plastics he starts with a color somewhat similar with the bottom. This should narrow the starting point to pumpkin or watermelon in most areas. According to "Knowing Bass" Dr. Jones studies indicate cranks with silver sides with black back is the number one color for bass. Of course there are unlimited colors but this is always a good starting point as these guys are way smarter about bass than I am. Good Luck 8-)

There is no doubt I was given bogus info and believed it. Oh well I should have spit the bait but got hooked instead. Maybe I will just be weighed and released instead of having the fillet kife put to me. 8-)

Please, bore us! Most people who enjoy the outdoors realize wildlife and fish are on the move prior to a quick change in the weather. The animals and fish have a built in survival mode realizing a meal may be difficult to get tomorrow. For deer, elk, turkeys, ect, they somehow know they need extra food to get thru the bad weather coming. Bass are the same as the food chain grinds to a halt with a passing spring cold front (these reasons can be debated later). My wife even knows when there is an approaching front as after her leg surgery her leg throbs. She is also a great indicator of an approaching cold front and when to go fishing. The simple explanation for the jet contrails indicating an approaching cold front is that the high level winds may be moving at over 100mph. This causes whatever is to the west/northwest (exceptions on the east, and gulf coast) to show up in the upper atmosphere first. What this means is if there is a spring cold front approaching there normally will be moisture associated with the front. This high altitude moisture will be blown ahead of the front 24 to as much as 48 hrs depending of course on the speed of the front. With this high level moisture (even unseen) when a jet flys thru the frozen ice particles they get heated and turn into a visible vapor. Again, all the contrails indicate is high level moisture, and high level moisture is normally only in the upper atmosphere in the U.S. in a prefrontal condition. As the front gets closer you will normally see cirrus clouds which look like whispy "horse tails." As the front gets close you should expect to see thunderheads on the horizon. If we agree fish are more active in prefrontal conditions in the spring, contrails means it is time to fish.This is more accurate than the Channel 12 weatherman. I talked to the owner of Lake Fork Taxidermy about weather and catching fish. He said when the anglers would bring a photo of the trophy to get the proper coloration, they would most always be wearing their rain gear in the photo. Maybe not raining but they had it on. Interesting. On Tom Reddington's photo of the 10+ lb bass in Feb he said he got hailed on. It had been in the upper 60's, as fast and violent cold front approached, he got his 10lbr. Tornados everywhere and an ice storm followed. What a day. When there are jet contrails in the sky I am either making them or in my boat watching them.

I realize you would rather have a 21foot Triton with a 250hp and I understand. I fish mainly for fun and some local competition so "Sparkles" works great for us. If I can be of assistance in ANY way just let me know. Keep in touch Kevin

Here are a couple more. I realize you are interviewing for admission but the principles are the same. They want the right people and you have to convince them you are who they are looking for and that you will be successful not only in their school but in the working world. That is really all they want. Politeness and a professional conduct are required. 1. Do not sit without first being invited. Stand by the chair and expect a hand gesture or verbal invitation. If you do not get one, ask - "may I sit down?" 2. Body Language is everything! a. Smile b. Do not cross your legs c. Do not cross your arms d. Do not talk with your hands e. Hands lightly clasped on your lap is best f. Look them in the eye (don't stare)when either are speaking g. Casually nod in agreement or understanding on occasion h. Feet flat on the floor i. NO leg twitching or jerking ABOVE ALL ELSE ASK FOR THE POSITION--TELL THEM YOU ARE THE BEST PERSON JOR THE POSITION. YOU WILL WORK HARD AND YOU WILL MAKE THEM HAPPY THEY ADMITTED YOU IF THEY WILL GIVE YOU A CHANCE! Not asking for the position is the #1 reason people DO NOT get hired! I know this is alot to remember and it may seem somewhat silly but I have never been denied a position or admission when doing this. Good Luck

Prepare and have your answers rehearsed to the questions you expect. Remember the story answers do not have to be exact. 1. Why do you want to work at XYZ company? 2. What makes you a better person than the others interviewing? 3. What can you bring to this company? 4. Tell me what you know about our company? 5. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a supervisor? 6. What is your biggest accomplishment from your last position? 7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 8. Tell me about yourself? These are just a few of the stock questions asked at interviews, but you will be asked at least 5 of the 8 questions. Good luck

Hi Glen, If you do not get anything closer you and your wife are welcome to my boat. I have a Stratos 285 which is 18.5 feet long with a Johnson 150. Loaded light I have had her running close to 70mph. You can reasonably expect somewhere in the upper 50s loaded for a big day. She is in perfect condition and always in the water or the shed. She has an Eagle 502c (color) at the Console which has the navionics gold lake/topo chip in it so it has sonar plus the GPS/lake map. She also has an Eagle 480 at the bow. New batteries and a powerful trolling motor. Single console. She is metalflake green (my wife named her Sparkles), new tires and bearings on the trailer-- READY TO GO!! Let me know what arrangements need to be made and if you need it, you have it! Keep in touch Kevin

Yep, Current River is largely fed by Big Spring and cold year-round. The above is right on the money. Small tubes, jerkbaits, jigs, worms, or Senkos in the slack water JUST off the current breaks, behind rocks, and eddies. The largest Smallie I ever caught locally was at the downcurrent edge of a riffle. She was laying in wait of some morsel getting washed thru the fast water. Good luck and let us know how it went.

There are lots of different opinions on why spring cold fronts slow the bass fishing so drastically but on the other hand it is normally some of the best fishing days with an approaching cold front. If you watch the sky and see jet contrails it is a great time to have some of the best catching. There are lots of weather related reasons why this is true but I will not bore you with them here--just get out there when the contrails are in the sky and mow the lawn later. If you are going to Lake Fork, PLEASE spend some money on a guide until you get it figured out. Lake Fork is my favorite and I spend time on it. I have caught several hogs there but I have been humbled to where I could not even catch a cold there. My wife and I will be going back on the dark of the moon the 1st week of April and will be looking for a place on the lake. You know you have a great wife when she wants to move to Lake Fork!!! Hmmm, Basschaser might even be a good Lake Fork Guide Name. 8-)