skeetermike

It was a cool 64 degrees this morning. I had set some trotlines late yesterday evening and planned on running them and chasing some bass. I caught around 20 bass today. I caught bass on about everything I had tied on. I found a new spot...they were there, really there. The only problem was they weren't very big, less than 2lb. I never found any big fish today but fall seems to be just around the corner and the fish seem to know it too. I caught fish on 2 new baits today, rage tail anaconda, and money minnow. Both caught fish. I planned on doing some cb fishing, but never caught one on that. I'll be back out after them this evening, maybe the big ones will bite.

Sounds a lot like whinning to me. In those match fishing deals someone needs to throw the ref. overboard for some of those cross the boat cast calls he loves to make....give it a rest dude! I can see where Aaron got miffed about that crap. Someone being on your fishing hole, that sucks too, we've all been there. So could be whinning or could just be stressing too. Still kinda sounds like whinning to me though.

I know fishing pressure is a whole lot greater where I'm from. I also know that by the large pods of bait I'm seeing that has to be a factor too. A big fish would only have to open his mouth and swim into a ball of bait like that 2 or 3 times a day to fill up. No wonder the numbers of fish caught are less now days. I see bait in the summer time but not too much in the winter/fall though. I'm wondering if the hatch is significantly less during that time of yr. and maybe that is why the fish seem to bite better. I know they are down deeper but you would expect to see them surface every now and then.

Re: B-Hogs are too soft now?? Reply #17 - Today at 2:25am I've gotten away from zoom brush hogs because the pour isn't very consistent. there are always dents and divots in the baits. I've gone to the *** version for most of my fishing unless there is a particular color I want from zoom. I totally agree with this statement! I've seen them in odd shapes a lot. I may go back to using the Berkley Power Hawgs as they work well too. I do like the fact that Zoom gives more color selection though. The new Rage products have kinda caught my eye also. There Space Monkey to me doesn't resemble a crawdad much, but the lobsters may be the ticket.

We decided to make a trip back to the recently found bream lake today with rain due to move in late in the day we got an early start. We caught 63 in a little over 3hrs. The expected rain moved in a lil earlier than expected and we called it or that number could have been much larger! I only bass fished one time in the 3 or so hrs we fished and didn't catch anything. I did have my line broke by a bass today though... 4 LB spinning reel that he snapped as if it weren't there. I"m guessing it was a bass. Those bream can really be fighters on light tackle and dont' taste too bad either when fried up!

Live shad hooked in tail!!! Ok, top water is a 5" chug-bug or a big ol spook. Underwater presentations the big worm, the bigger the better, works for me. DEEP diving CB's can produce some bigguns too. Still hard to beat live shad though, he, he, he.

Glad to see i'm not the only one who thinks they are too soft. There was talk about salt vs floating. Secret to getting a floating bait I feel is make it, or portions of it hollow and then lay the salt to it. I dip my pinchers on those hogs with spike it dye, then also spray craw scent on top of that... trust me you can't get enough. Like someone said earlier, it's all about hold time.

It seems they are making them way too soft now. I used to could catch way more fish per Hog than now. All they wanna do is fall apart. Maybe it's a sales tactic? I'm telling ya if they could make a bait that was heavy salt, with anis oil/crawfish impregnated that was light enough to float up off the bottom but in small and big sizes for the diff. times of yr. it would be the next big thing. Course the color patterns are very important too. Maybe I need to go into bait manufacturing, he, he, he! I like the powerbait scent but they could use to make more than just good worms and in some more color patterns. Zoom apparently don't understand the importance of smell as their products don't seem to have much smell even though they are salt impregnated. I've noticed the Rage products seem to have a coffee smell... maybe something to that who knows.

Almost forgot the DT-22 CB's were doing well down there too!

Thats one of the lakes I've been wanting to try, it and Sardis lake both are w/i 3 or so hours from me. I wish I had some info for you but I don't. I would try my ol fav. the C-rig and a big worm around structure anywhere from 8'-even 25' as this is a deeper lake. I'm guessing brush at 15 to 20' would be best but don't rule out 8 to 10' water as I caught them in Pine Creek lake that shallow recently.

I like to fish the B-Hogs with the football head/stand up I may try the rages. I still have yet too see those smokin roosters out there though. I don't have any pad lakes around where I live and the one lake that usually has grass beds was so high for so long earlier in the yr. they didn't grow out very good. So the swim/topwater type stuff rage makes wouldn't be as good. The spooks and chug-bugs still do the trick round here.

I wouldn't bank making a career outa fishing even though it would be awsome. My folks and wife all think I'm crazy for fishing as much as I do now. Boat gas is high, fishing is so much more competative now days and the fish have seen it all seems. I still encourage you to fish all the free tourns. you can and enjoy it. What would be cool would be to get in with one of the major bait companies and get to fish for free in a lota tournaments, test new baits, go to siminars ect. You could fish all those free tourns. learn the lakes, then do some guiding. With guiding you don't have to beat out all other competitors only put clients on decent fish and sometimes put them on great fish.

Yeah, congrats but what did you catch him on? Tourns. are always the best time to catch ur PB too!

Yeah, I haven't seen those roosters myself?

Their Rage Craws aren't worth a flip in the spring though cause they don't float up off the bottom. I haven't tried any since. Yum makes a craw that even out caught the brush hogs earlier this spring! I'll have to give them a try again now that conditions are diff.

Wonder if the ol golf cart would pull a 12 to 14' jon boat with trolling motor N battery?? Course, you may want to wear a helmet and dawn all other PPE you can think of. Those golf course ponds do seem to be the ticket if ur privaliged enough to get to fish them. Great fish dude!

Yeah, we don't have quite that calibar of fish on our lakes either. I noticed you guys were using the big serpents!! They're always a fav. of mine. I think the bigger and the darker the better too. Course today my dad was throwing one bout that size and I had 4 fish boated on my bread and butter, the C-rig before he finally switched. You get to where you know when they take the bait how big they are, nearly. I like those that swim out to deeper water, even though they are hard to catch up to. Or those that give a healthy thump then go to the side with it. I lost a giant the other day on a big worm myself. So fat she couldn't get outa the water very good!

Yeah, the same bait in each pinky finger... how the ****! All in all mine wasn't that bad I guess, it just looked bad and was sore for a couple days. Now u can't even tell where it went in. The ol I thought about going to church on Sunday morn. and the fish flopped story was exactly the way mine happened. We were camped on the lake and my buddy stayed the night in our camper wanting to go out fishing early so what could I say. We went out this morning and caught 7 all around 2lb range. I was really hook shy with each one!! Makes a guy think twice about grabbing a fish with a mouth fulla hooks now!

While camping on the lake we are setting some trotlines. We go out each evening to catch perch to bait with. Yesterday we found the big bream and ended up cleaning 60 late last night. This morning I went to run my lines then to out bass fishing hole that we barely got on before others began trying to fish it also. No big ones there, but we found the bream again. we left there and was on a mission to bream fish when we seen black bass and white bass schooling on bait fish along the way. We shut the motor down and my buddy opened up the rod box only to pull out a spinning pole with chug-bug and said theres another one in there with the same thing tied on. I pulled it out and the 1st cast hooked about a 2 lb black bass. When I got it in I began to take the hook out and the fish flopped throwing a 4/0 treble into my left little finger!!! Ouch! It was all the way to the bone. We ended up cutting the line and ever so gently unhooking the fish. Once the fish was released I fretted about what to do next short of an ER trip. In desperation I told my buddy to reach into my pocket and get out my knife. He began trying to cut it out with a dull knife without success. I finally just took the needle nose pliers and pulled really hard on the hook and it came out finally. :-X I made a trip to the ramp where my wife met me with 1st aid supplies and we ended up catching around 60 more bream. All i all I was pretty lucky. Had 3 cats, 2 white bass, 60 bream, and no ER trip. It was a good day only now I have a sore finger and hoping I don't get an infection. He said it was a new hook he had just put on the plug. Anyone got a hook in hand story similar to this one??

The lake was Pine Creek. As for those that don't believe the water down deeper looses O2 then tell me why when I set trotlines out every perch past about 10' comes back up dead and bloated? Why do minnows do the same thing when minnow fishing? I've seen it before typically in late summer but not this early. I didn't fare so well today but I was trying to find new spots and didn't fish the places I had caught them in before. It was trying but thats the only way to find the new holes.

Well update time. I never pre-fished that tourn. and placed fish in 3 of the 8 hrs. I made $160. My partner, my dad, caught the biggest fish of the day at 5.3 on that lake and won $100. Now let me explain this tourn was on 3 lakes at one time. you simply chose the lake u would fish even though you compete against the guys on the other 2 lakes. It's only a big fish tourn/hr. I guess that goes to show u don't have to pre-fish if you know the water. I was beat outa money twice by a total of .05 OZ! I lost 30 bucks one hour by only .01 OZ! :'( SUCKS!

GOOD QUESTION! I don't see that many big fish being caught in bass anymore but even a little on can do a head shake and put those trebles in a hand. We need the nets back, it's safer. Nearly all those pros fish with baits that have trebles now too. That bs about slime comming off in the net is lame. The stress of being hauled around in a livewell, then kept outa the water and placed back into a diff. spot is the worst.

IT'S MOBY DICK!!! 2.85 now where's my darn prize?? Now what apperhended that pig? Let me guess worm?

Me and the wife have been camped on one of the ARK lakes for the last week and all I did was set catfish lines, but did catch one 3 LB bass in about 30 min. In 4 days I put up 9 Gallon bags of catfish.... thats why I spent so much time setting lines! We moved to an OK lake yesterday and I got out early bass fishing this morning. I figured up in a 5 fish limit I had around 19 LBS! Biggest one got off.... he was 6 or better! I did catch a 5 Lber and a couple 4's though. What was weird was the fish were up in 6 to 8' of water. The surface temps down here are in the high 80's. Never would have thought that but I'm guessing the water has no oxygen down deeper and that may be why they are up so shallow. For those interested one was a cb fish and one was a T.worm fish. All others were off that darned ol C-rig. As Arnold would say "I'll be back"! probably spend at least a week here at the lake or so since work (construction) is slow right now. I've got to get some pics on here though. I'm outa boat oil, outa brushhogs, need ice and have had boat probs so I gotta get into town. Anyone else finding fish in shallows with the surface temps so hot??

The problem was minnows dieing once they hit the 86 degree water temp. The aerator helps but not a perm. fix.