bayouXpress

i also fish solo 90% of the time but thats just because I have a young family and most of the time its a spur of the moment and i'm low on time. On top of that my young daughters love to fish but at 6 and 3 its not really what you would call fishing buddies even though i take them out and the drop of a hat. My wife likes to fish also, but getting a babysitter is not always easy and when we do get one we usually end up out on the town or a dinner date. I have a 13 year old nephew that starting getting into fishing.. take him out often to try to teach him a little, but hes getting to that age with his buddies sleep over and getting into girls and movie dates. Its getting a little hard to get him out without him tagging a friend along i really only have a couple fishing partners that i fish the most with. Come to think about it I actually only have 1.. He's usually down with anything and dependable. I have another real good friend that we talk fish, life, gym, etc all the time but he's got a busy work schedule and when we do fish he has a tendency to be late and he's a speed fisherman and i'm a flipper. But I have no problem with it because hes a real good friend and as much as I hate being late I love to be on the water and enjoy it with others. I have another couple friends that I gave up on. Just not dependable. I got one that will tell everyone what they want to hear and never do any of it. My problem is with my family I have to plan everything a head of time. If we plan a trip and you back out the day of or night before, i'm screwed. He does it all the time and I gave up on him. My other buddy was at my house with my family everyday after he split with his wife. My daughters love to play with him and we fished a good bit. Well his wife lured him back in and the dude doesn't even call me anymore. Pretty crazy what women can do to a man. I also have my lil cousin. Actually a good fisherman, but got a head on him like you wouldn't believe. He IS the BEST at everything, you can't do nothing better. His stuff is better than anybody, etc.. I kinda just tune him out, but we fish very strong together. I also fish with a bunch of guys from work, but thats mostly saltwater and i'm usually in there boat. We always have a good time and beer is welcomed.

yep, i agree with a lot of people here. unweighted fluke, senko (wacky rig) and a ribbit.

did read in the live blog that yesterday when chapman moved about 100yrds from one of his buoy markers someone motored in marked a waypoint and took off, then another spectator pulled up and started fishing the marker.

i used one for the first time this weekend and could not believe the difference it made. We have some saltwater rodeos that last for several days. After being in the sun for 10+ hours a few days in a row it can get miserable. Especially down here where it gets 90+ degrees and 90+ humidity before summer even starts. That paired with a good sun hat and long sleeves, i never broke a sweat. Definitely will be a part of my fishing attire for years to come. The sun on your skin is what makes you hot. The Buff head wear is very breathable, thin, and you don't even feel it on you. ITs like your fishing in the shade. The only thing is the fogging of your glasses when its up on your nose.

what about feet.

the stealthiest way is to drift. You are at the mercy of the wind, but sometimes it actually puts you on a spot you would have not normally fished and actually catch from it. If its real windy and the grass is sparse I like to drag an anchor. If its real thick and the wind is not enough to drift, use a push pole

baby brush hog watermelon candy with 1/4oz tungsten Dip the tail in some chartreuse spike it die and its on. if i could only carry 1 bait thats what it would. The best creature bait thats came out IMO.

swimbaits

chatterbaits, swimbaits, and poppers oh and spro frogs gave up on the chatterbaits and working hard on swimbaits.

no i'm talking about yourself. I just purchased 8' x 25' of 20oz for 265. Basic materials Glue, remover, pins for lids, tape, razors etc around 100.

well the best way is to catch some fish, clean them and check there stomachs. you will be surprised.

well we hydroslide, ski, and swim in the bayous and lakes we fish in so its not an issue. I had to go in about 3 weeks ago in a grassy bay thats about 4 deep with a foot of mud. I had my swimbait setup go in some kinda way. My only mistake was to not go in right away and wind blew us off spot. I jumped down and hit a waypoint. Got down to undies and hopped in. After dredging for about 20 minutes I found it. Was getting worried though. It was a Revo Inshore on a veritas rod. just got to get in and don't think about it. My buddy wanted to film and put on youtube.. told him you bust out that phone and your coming swimming

yep with quality carpet and materials you could have it done for < 350. Just started tackling it myself. Just get the right tools for the job and take your time. Don't expect or try to complete it in one day.

strap them to the deck of the boat. if i drive to launch to meet someone, i'll lay them down in the back of my truck with the reel handles down so the reel is not laying on its side. I'm not too worried about boat rash/scratches on my equipment. Even if they are 500 dollar combos. I do try to handle carefully though. Its hard to avoid and when you do worry about it you tend to get stressed about it.

I've been devoting at least 30 minutes or so every trip and have not got on a top water bite yet. Very surprised too with the way they were biting last week.

During the spawn i release everything. Out of the spawn anything over 3.5-4lbs i also release. If i catch one between 6-9 i will get it mounted. if the gods ever shine on me with a 10+ i will get a replica and let the fish go I do keep my legal limit of fish often. It all depends on if i have enough to clean, have time to clean, if I feel like cleaning, etc. I love grilled bass and so does my family, but its the small ones that taste the best and I'm always within the law. what gets me is the people that keep and eat everything. I do not see a reason in keeping 2 or 3 5-6lb fish and bring that home to eat. Let those go. There are plenty of smaller better tasting fish.

not to be picky but chevy does not have a 5.1. You may be thinking about the 5.3 i towed my 18ft express with 4 cyclinder toyota 4 runner, a chevy 5.3l and now i pull it with a chevy 6l. Luckily I live on flat land but lots of large bridges and that poor 4runner would struggle going up the bridge. in the 5.3 it was totally different in 2 aspects the power and the weight of the truck. It was well enough to pull that boat. However when I pulled my cousin's 201xl stratos I could feel the boat back there and it affected how much throttle I had to put in it. Now with the 6L I can't tell his boat is back there. I think a v6 is fine for towing a big boat around town especially on flat land, but if your pulling 100+ miles round trip in hills and mountains you might be putting to much strain on it.

if you catch a trophy bass you can do whatever you want to it. I see absolutely no problem with having a real life mount or even 2 or 3. you won't affect the population what so ever. I know if i catch a 6lb-10 its going on my wall. I let go anything over 4 and nearly everything during spawn. I do keep a good bit of the little ones to eat and I believe that is what helps the current population of the area you fish produce bigger fish. Now with that being said If i ever catch anything over 10lbs I do believe I would get a replica. But I don't think thats ever going to happen.

I've recently developed this in my non casting arm. Had it for about 4 months now. I'm a gym rat and started wearing a compression sleeve on the elbow. In the gym its really not bad because i'm an advocate of a good stretch and always warm up. Its when i'm doing normal things that it will give me issues since i'm not focusing on it or warming up. Things like grabbing and liftinga gallon of milk, or catching a good fish on the first few cast of the trip. Its definitely more painful with the overhand grip picking up things as posted. I'm going to get my chiropractor to work on it my next visit.

Starting with a topo map on a lake is probably the best place to start. Spend time learning how to read the map. If you can read the map online and get some gps points then you can transfer it to you unit on your boat. Then when you get out on the lake you can fine tune your waypoint when you get on the structure

Question We want to visit the lake at a time of year were the weather is a little more predictable. I want to be able to get out on the main lake and start finding structure. Our last couple trips we have gotten pounded by the wind. When is the weather the most stable on the bend?

thats where we launched on the friday. It is where we caught our bigger fish and they all seem to come off that roadbed that looks to be named cattail crossing on the map I can comment on that backlash. Not sure if it was part of that catch or not. We were in separate boats.

good to see you back catt!! this was my buddy's toledo lunker

boy what a weekend of weather to get on a fishing trip. We arrived Wednesday and the forecast was BAD. Lots of rain and wind. Well we got on the water thursday fighting the wind a little but was able to stay dry for most of the time. Ended up with about 55-60 fish. Hit a school of spots that at least 16-18 fish came from and i believe we had 12 keepers. Spots was in about 9 ft of water on a ridge between 2 islands. Sacalait was busting on minnows in buck brush all morning in the back of palo. Most of my fish were on a lucky craft pointer in ghost minnow. but better fish were off brushhog and spinnerbaits. But caught fish on traps, flukes, cranks, senkos. You name it. Everything but topwater. Thursday night the storm rolled through. Lost power at 3am and have no clue when it came back on. Water got in my storage compartment and messed up my radio. It was Windy and COLD friday morning. We ended up fishing a cove in indian mounds and some north coves in housen and ended up in carrice. I think we ended up with about 12 fish with 3 keepers but much better quality. All were in the 3lb range and 3.9 was the biggest. Carrice had enough boats to walk around on. Saturday we took a break from bass fishing and got on a sacalait guide. Complete failure. I thought they would have been moving up shallow at this time but he put us on some of his brushpiles in 25-28 feet of water. We caught 1. That afternoon we ended back up in palo and it was pretty slow. I think we boated 6 fish and all were 13 inches. we were somehow lucky enough not to get poured on, but the wind and cold sucked. Couldn't hit some of the spots I wanted to. I started with points and ridges out of the coves in 6-10 ft then followed creek channels and ditches into cove targeting grass beds and major stumps. Really no pattern established. It was tough, but we did manage a few fish.

for me right now is reading a contour map and translating that onto the body of water. I'm starting to get the picture with the maps with the creek ditches and finding humps and flats and how the bass use these little highways to come up stage then spawn, BUT when your on that big ole body of water its not as simple.