DDbasser

NAME: Daren W. Lewis Contact Information: DDbasser40@sbcglobal.net Personal Information: 40 years old Machinist /3rd Shift Baker Oil Tools, Tulsa Ok. married - 21 years 2 children ages 20 and 18 Club Memberships: B.A.S.S. FLW Oklahoma Anglers Unlimited (OAU) Triton Team Trail Tournament Anglers Guild (T.A.G.) Cleveland Bassmasters (TBF/FLW) Goals: My ambition is to build a long and successful career in the fishing and tackle industry. In the next five years, I wish to purchase a house on one of my local lakes and start a guide service in order to supplement my tournament income. Boat: Triton Tr-186 with a 150 hp Johnson outboard Motorguide trolling motor Lowrance electronics. 2006 Tournament Schedule: February 2006 1st place Cleveland Bassmasters Skiatook lake 2-12-06 6th place Sequioyah County Bassmasters open Tenkiller 2-25-06 March 2006 131st place Triton Team Trail Grand Lake Ok 3-5-06 31st place Hog Hunters Tenkiller Lake Ok 3-11-06 74th place TAG Skiatook Lake Ok 3-25-06 4th place Cleveland Bassmasters Fairfax City Lake 3-26-06 April 2006 161st place Triton Team Trail Eufala Lake Ok 4-9-06 5th place Cleveland Bassmasters Hominy City Lake 4-23-06 11th place (won big bass) TAG Skiatook lake Ok 4-29-06 May 2006 4th place Cleveland Bassmasters Skiatook Lake Ok 5-13-06 27th place TAG Skiatook Lake Ok 5-20-06 128th place Triton Team Trail Grand Lake Ok 5-21-06 June 2006 10th place Cleveland Bassmasters Hudson Lake Ok 6-11-06 9th place TAG Skiatook Lake Ok 6-24-06 July 2006 Cleveland Bassmasters Carl Blackwell 7-9-06 TAG Skiatook Lake Ok 7-29-06 August 2006 Cleveland Bassmasters Keystone Lake Ok 8-13-06 TAG Skiatook Lake Ok 8-19-06 Sept. 2006 TAG CHAMPIONSHIP Skiatook Lake Ok 9-2-06 Cleveland Bassmasters Navigation 9-10-06 Channel Hwy 33 Landing Triton Team Trail CHAMPIONSHIP Grand Ok 9-23/24-06 Oct. 2006 Cleveland Bassmasters CHAMPIONSHIP 10-28/29-06 ( Lake TBA ) My Offer: In advertising, the more people see a companies name or logo the more name recognition the company receives and the more product they sell. As you can see from my schedule, I will be traveling a lot of miles to and from tournaments. My proposal is to use my tow vehicle, boat, and tournament shirt as a mobile billboard. This will give your company a lot of exposure on the highway and at the tournaments that I will be attending. I will be available for promotions and seminars in my area. Also, I have volunteered my time to Casting Kids events with Cleveland Bassmasters In return: I am looking for available money to offset the high cost of entry fees, fuel, outboard motor oil, and tackle. I would also be interested in a Field-staff or Pro-staff position. In closing: Thank you for taking the time to read through my resume, any consideration is greatly appreciated. Daren W. Lewis

Or, you could just do what I did. Teach her to fish and take her with you. Been married for almost 22 years, the wife loves to fish more than I do!!! She also is addicted to the bait monkey as bad as I am, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday this year, she said a new Falcon rod. I am so blessed!!!!!

I do fish tournamets, but I still consider myself a recreational fisherman. I'm always looking for something different a new technique or lure to give my self an advantage over the fish. It's all about the fish, and what I have to do to be more successful at catching them, be it in a tournament or when I'm just out for a day on the water. If I wasn't fishing tournaments i'd still have all the rods, reels, lures, sonars, boat, a dozen magazine subscriptions and other equpiment that I have. Obsession/Addiction, theres a fine line seperating the two, I just can't seem to find it!!!!!

(1) suspending jerkbait (2) slow pausing several seconds (3) 10 ft (4) Main lake points (5) channel bends near main lake points Instinct and personal experience.

I have a question that begs to be pondered. What is scientific and what is biological? Several of the posts in this thread including mine elude to the know your prey and their habits and habitat is that science or biology? Others including mine talk about ph, moon phase, and barometric pressure. Is that science or biology? Thanks

If i'm not catching any fish, I know it's me. There's some subtle piece of the puzzle that I'm not picking up on, when I realize this I stop and recall all I've done that day and usually I'll realize what it was that I was missing and go catch some fish. The fish are always there, and if I can put my lure in the right spot at the right time then I know eventually i'm going to catch some fish. I've learned that it's all about fishing those high percentage area's for the season or pattern that the bass are in. I would also add, that just because you're not catching any fish does'nt make it a bad day. Make it positive, you learned something from that day that you will be able to use the next time you are on the water. A "bad" day of fishing is better than a "good" day of well, anything else!!!!!

Basshunter12, Not sure what State you live in, but most states have laws against cheating in bass tournaments. If you truly believe this to be the case(that it was a holding cage for a cheater) which sounds pretty obvious from your post. Then I would call the local DNR and alert them to the fact that this is going on. BTW never remove anything like that, even though you were doing what you thought was right it only implicates you. Like was said above, mark it mentally and immedietly contact the authorities. I've never understood how someone could cheat to win and be proud of it. Scumbags like that should be hung publicly!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, I pay attention to the water conditions, level, temp, current, and clarity. I don't get into the ph balance, or feeding times charts or some of the other scientific studies out there. I don't think the bass can read them anyway. I do think that it is important to understand how bass utilize their underwater world, how they find prey, relate to structure and how they move about. I rely on my knowledge of their feeding habits and the way that bass relate to structure to entice them into biting my lures.

Man do i feel sorry for you guys!!!!!!!!! Wev'e had such a mild winter that I haven't had time to get cabin fever!! We've been on the lake every weekend except one since the last weekend in December!!!! SORRY BUT I HAD TO RUB IT IN JUST A LITTLE Oh yeah, AMEN!!!!!

Switz, check out the Oklahoma mini bass association, they have a website and fish several tournaments each year. There are some other mini bass clubs out there as well.

Man you guys are great!!!!! There are a lot of good points and some real good information flowing here!!! This is the kind of stuff I was looking for. Now, this is kind of a bummer!!!! I talked to my partner yesterday evening, and instead of fishing the jackpot that we've been fishing we are going to go fish an open tournament on a lake that I have never even seen before and that he hasn't been on in 2 years. We have a club tournament on it in 2 weeks and this coming weekend is the only time that we will be able to fish it. The good new is that it is real similar to the lake that we have been fishing and after looking at the map I picked up yesterday, I see a lot of structure that is laid out very much like the spots that we have been fishing. The other good thing is that it's a little further south and they didn't get the snow and ice that we did and they warmed up a few days earlier too!!

Welcome aboard!!!! Maybe we should start an organization BAU Bass-Aholics Unanimus!!! LOL

Boy, I'm in your court with both feet! On more than one occasion when I was wished "luck", I anti-socially replied, "that's really not what I'm looking for". Differently put, our job as anglers is to factor out as much luck as possible. DDbasser, if you learn anything during your tournament, please fill us in. At the risk of sounding ambiguous, the Best of Luck Thanks Roger, I used to say I'd rather be lucky than good!! But not any more, I'd rather be good than lucky!! CJ Pick any lake , I'm not looking for specific lake information just general information. I was wondering whether or not the melting ice and snow running into the lake would drop the water temperature a quite a bit more than if it hadn't snowed and the colder air temps had been the only variable.

Thanks Hook'em Let us know what he found!!!

Rolo, I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for, not really an answer to my question but more along the lines of general information. I've been fishing as long as I can remember, but it was just go to the lake and start casting. As I have gotten into fishing tournaments, the informational side of fishing has became more important than just going out and casting blindly, it's no longer enough to catch fish, now I want to know why I caught that fish and how can I repeat it. All the replies have been great so far!!! The main reason I posted this question is that I have a tournament Saturday on a lake that we have been fishing almost every weekend for 6 weeks, I know that this snow and ice has affected the water temp but not sure how it has affected the fish, and with my work schedule there is no way that I can get on the water before the tournament. Thanks and keep the replies coming, I'm soaking it all in.

Bassin is my favorite mag Advanced Bass Fishing by John Weiss is my favorite book and I like KVD's books as well. I don't have cable or satellite tv, but I do buy a lot of DVD's KVD's are my favorite Woo Daves video's are a close second. BUT, I get my best information right here on this site!!!!!! ;D

Let me clarify my thoughts!! Our air temp highs have been in the mid 60's to mid 70's with lows in the 40's and 50's. Then a MAJOR cold front moves in drops 3"s of snow and ice and temps have been in the single digits for lows and only in the low 30's for highs for the last week. Now, we are starting to warm back up and the snow and ice is melting and running into the lake. I know that there are always some fish shallow, this is my strength (shallow fishing), and I know they probably don't move deeper but instead just shut down. My question should have read will larger fish that have moved up from deeper water up to the pre-spawn staging area's return to deeper water if the water temp drops 5-6 degree's or will it take a more significant decrease?. Or will they just sit tight and shut down and make you work for them? Sorry for any confusion and I'm not looking for a debate just some answers for some questions that I have!

Over the past 2 months we've had unusually warm temps here in Oklahoma. The water temps were starting to climb into the high 40's and low 50's, and some fish were starting to move up to the pre-spawn staging area's. Now we've recieved about 3"s of snow and ice, it's starting to melt and the temps are supposed to be back into the 60's by Wednsday. Now, here's my question if the water temps drop by 5 or 6 degree's will this make those fish that had moved up retreat to deeper water?? Or will it take a drop of 10 degree's or more or, will they stay in the area and just not feed as well as they had been??? Thanks Daren

I prefer to keep them in their original bags. I use net bait, powerbait, and Gene larew, they each have their own scent and I don't want to get them mixed plus, I've had worms and other plastics melt in the plano boxes. I use a Falcon FTO large worm bag, it holds up to 40 bags of plastics.

I've talked my wife into babysitting my partners kids so we could go fish a tournament. I'm sure there will be more times that I have to come up with something to cover my butt while I go fishing!!!!!!!!!

Paparock, I use State Farm for all my insurance home, auto, and boat!! I called a ton of different companies and State Farm was the best deal I could find. I've never had to use the boat insurance, but my wife wrecked my truck and they sent an adjuster out to my house and wrote me a check for $300 more than the estimate that I received from the body shop. My boat insurance runs me $245 a year for a 2001 Tr-186 Triton, 150 Johnson with a $250 deductible and I also have $300,000 liabilty for tournaments.

Glad no one was hurt!!!!! thats for your boat!

I would try a weightless fluke t-rigged on some light 6-10 pound flurocarbon. You can use a crankbait, you need to figure out how deep the tops of the weeds are, and get a crankbait that will run deep enough to tick the tops of the weeds. I would use the same 6-10 pound flurocarbon for crankbaits.

I don't know about the Olympics, but the USA has a fishing team. I read about it in a magazine at the dentist's office, I can't remember the name of the magazine but it talked about match fishing and there were teams from all the major countries USA, UK, and most of the European countries were represented. The fishing was for any species and they used poles that looked like graphite cane poles and they had assigned areas they could fish.

Contact your local DNR or wildlife dept. and ask them for contact info for the area fisheries biologist for the lake or lakes you are interested in. They'll know exactly what forage is in the lake.