Chris

One school of thought is to find ambush points where bass can pin up the bait. Bass tend to gang up in areas where they can ambush prey like the bridge itself the rocks you spoke of, points, humps, etc. These bass don't actively chase around the shad and set themselves up in the high percentage area and wait for the opportunity to feed. The second is fish the bait if you find active bass chasing the shad on your graph or when they push the shad to the surface. Bass do use the surface itself as a barrier to ambush shad. Most of the time unless there is something else structure or cover wise these bass will be schoolers who do follow the school and feed from time to time. Because they are moving with the school it is a timing deal...be at the right place at the right time when the bass are active enough to push the shad and feed....otherwise you don't cash in.

Fishing is fishing for the most part. You do need to look out for others when casting more in a boat than shore and don't forget the lip of the boat when pitching depending on what kind of boat you will be fishing out of. Some people tend to mine their own business and forget about the other guy who might be skiing lures behind them instead of fishing so yell if your not able to fish the way you want. Tournaments you might have less wiggle room in that area. Electronics are a blessing in a boat and it is worth the effort to learn them because it will help in locating hidden cover or structure changes. Also a lure knocker would be a wise investment.

This might help a little For me it took awhile to figure out a jig. 1. Do not set the hook on a jig bite like you would on a plastic lure. If you think something is different even if the bait took less time to hit the bottom than normal or something is just different set the hook HARD. Don't worry about coming up empty when in doubt set it. This will help teach you the difference between fish, cover, bottom. 2. It is all about the fall and rate of fall. Depending on the weight of the bait and the kind of trailer you use and line to a degree it will effect the fall of the bait. Use how thick the cover is, depth, and activity level of the fish to determine how fast of a fall you need. 3. After you make your pitch or flip strip off some line so that the bait falls straight on slack to simi slack line. Many times if you let the bait fall on tension the lure will swing away from your target. 4. After the pitch engage your reel (if need be take up some slack with your reel) and raise up on the rod to about a 2 o'clock position and feel for your jig or anything different (refer to 1) 5. work the bait either hop it, drag it, shake it, without moving the bait far and repeat step 4 6. If your fishing targets in cover pick a new target and pick it apart using steps 1-5. 7. You got to believe in it and put time into it soon it will be hard to put down

1. I use mono because I want to break off the lure without disturbing the area and spooking the fish. When I am fishing I am more worried about loosing the opertunity to get the fish than loosing a lure. (yes lure companies love guys like me I think I should have stock in some of them) 2. When I am fishing deep for the most part I am fishing like a point or brush pile or some other item on the bottom. I cast beyond the object and bring the jig to it. I am not looking for a vertical presentation. 3. If my aim is for me to get in the general area where my cast ends up I do strip off line so that the lure will drop more vertically. The problem is that it is hard to get a lure to drop exactly where you want it 100% of the time. 4. With tention you risk the lure swinging away from your target on a cast. With slack line or stripping off line for a more vertical fall you still need to either be a line watcher or be good at figuring out if a fish is on your jig on the take up when you put tention on your line. 5. There are times where I sweep the jig off the bottom and let it swing and swim to the bottom and other times where you want to let the jig to swim or swing through a like a thermocline or area that the fish are holding. 6. If I am getting bites before the lure hits the bottom then maybe the bottom isn't where I should be fishing. I have no doubt that you might be missing fish I think we all miss them mostly from human error me included. The only way to curb this is to pay attention on every presentation so that your more aware of what your jig and the fish are doing. If you have a hard time feeling the bottom or strike go for a heavier jig or a more sensitive line.

This is FL and apparently our fish are tempermental<---that would be 50% of it and the other 50% is your fishing pressured fish. You mix both with the fact that there is a bunch of places for bass to hide in most Florida water ways and it paints a good picture of what Florida fishing is all about. You get a cold front and you get the "Florida lock jaw" which is always fun to deal with too. Nevermind when the state desides to do a little weed control...the bass love that. Learning to deal with fishing pressure and how it effects bass would help along with learning how to deal with the above would also help.

If you lay the pork chunk fatty side up and tapper the front of the trailer with a knife so it looks like a wedge you add more flap to it on the fall which also puts out more vibration and resistance which also slows it down a bit. I use mono for casting a jig mainly because if I hang it up it is easier to break off when needed. When I am casting I put enough tention on the line to stay incontact with the lure because I don't need the slack for a fall presentation. If you fish it like a worm you will be missing fish.

But if you put a chunk of a floating worm ahead of you pork chunk to keep the chunk from slipping up the hook it also helps slow down the jig. The link speaks volumes to what counter balancing can do to a jig and saves me typing so easier to post then to type. Personally I have never owned that product and I have known about it since the 80's but I do take the lesson learned from the concept and use it.

ok go look up so-slo jigs wrb http://soslo.com/triggerthestrike.html point is those other parts of the jig to include line that are a factor and if you know what your doing can be a major factor in the fall rate and how to tune up what the fish want. With a jig it is all about balance and counter balance meaning your either balancing out the jig for size (over all profile) to what the bass wants and or counter balancing the weight to get the fall rate you need. Btw that is a jig that suspends up in that link.

Limitations meaning that when a crankbait dives it will reach a point where the pressure put on the tail of the lure is so great that it changes the angle the lure is diving by raising the lip. When the lure is raised this way the lure stops diving and lays flat. Depending on how quick it took to reach it's max depth depends on how long it stays in the lay down position before it stops and looses depth. Depending on how the lip is designed and at what angle determines how fast it takes to reach it's max depth. Line drag, reel drag slip, lure floatation, casting distance, and lure design are the factors working against a lure reaching 20 ft or more.

Are you casting the lure? If you are your going to be hard pressed to reach that depth because you wouldn't have enough running room to reach it. You also have a line drag problem that will hurt your depth and the limitations of getting a floating lure to dive that deep. For me the answer is a sinking crankbait or a crankbait that is attached to a carolina rig or you put a bullet weight on tie line before you tie the lure. I also have some crankbaits either built for me or doctored by me that are weighted to be counted down to any depth I wish but also keep inmind that from time to time you need to stop these lures and count it back down to depth because of line drag that raises the lure from its counted depth.

Also how much stain the water is will effect how fast it cools or heats up. Some parts of the lake will also be a different in temp depending on how protected it is.

Anything I can throw where I can still feel either the difference in vibration pattern when a strike accures or something I can stay in contact with and can still feel the strike. Lure options for me are based on that and cover/ structure/ depth options. I say it like that because there is a vast difference between the lures in your box and what you can still feel or pick up on when the wind is blowing.(for example) It is simple to say throw a crankbait but more accurate would be to throw a crankbait that has a vibration pattern that is strong enough for me to still feel in a strong wind.

A football jig lays flat on the fall so it don't dig into the rocks as much as a nose down flipping jig would. The head as mentioned is built wide so that at rest the hook stays vertical. When you drag it like a carolina rig it hugs the bottom and acts like a crawfish. Alot of fishermen use them on ledges because when the jig falls off the ledge (with slight tention) it swings in a horizontal flat posture and looks like a shad swimming off into open water.

Change the bulk of the skirt to get a faster fall rate or change the trailer to a trailer that is more streamline. To me it isn't the head size that really maters fish at times key into the fall rate or they key into a overall profile size or bulk of the jig. Sometimes just a change in line size can help with speeding up the fall rate along with the other things I mentioned. Something else to consider is when you add a slip sinker to a jig you also change how the jig reacts to cover when it comes in contact with it. the weight might be changing the action of the jig because it slightly hangs on weeds or the it acts like a slip sinker worm and the bait is in one area and the weight in another. When your crashing cover think of it like crashing cover with a crankbait but verically. Each branch changes the direction of the jig slightly much like a crankbait or spinnerbait would. That change in direction along with speed causes a reaction bite. When you make a few pitches and the bait acts different on each pitch because how it is deflecting off of the cover it sends a signal to the bass of live prey. In heavy weeded areas I tend to pitch a flipping tube because it will change directions on the fall much in the same way is a jig does in hard cover. I am not a big fan of throwing jigs in weed cover because I feel that plastics do a better job....but that's just me.

"post turnover" = after the lake has turned over and the warmer water is on the bottom colder water is on top thermocline is in the middle.

Yes they will and you can rat fish for them on top or flip them with a sweetbeaver or flipping tube. Myself I don't like flipping a jig in heavy weeds because I hate fouling up my jig and picking weeds. Swimming a jig in weeds is a whole nother story. Another great bait to flip is a paddle tail worm. You can also swim it to pick off fish in your deeper areas.

The fish should be where the thermocline starts. It is where the cold water and warm water mix. It is that band of mixed water which will hold the most bass because the food and bass like the temp. That band of mixed water could be at any depth depending on the lake your fishing. So their is no right or wrong answer to where they might be because it depends on where the thermocline is which can change from day to day and some cases during the day. A good place to start looking is the first drop off or change in depth but really you need to be a graph watcher looking for the mixed band of water.

where the thermocline starts

1. I would motor around to all 20 docks and check out what is different. Diffence in depth, how close it is to deeper water, what the dock is made of, size of the dock poles or dock, change in bottom or hardness, change in weed types, any brush or stumps or rock that might be there (even if it is under the weeds). In doing this your narrowing down areas that will hold a larger fish. 2. Move out from the bank and look around. Sometimes you might find your needle in the haystack. IE. something different that will draw and hold a bigger fish. 3. In some water your bigger fish like to suspend or roam either because of food, ph, thermocline. 4. Sometimes there is a change in weed depth like an area that the weeds top out more that will draw fish. 5. In weedy lakes I like to use flipping tubes, spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits if you want lure options.

Smithwick horse fly

It is common that a creek would have low numbers of bass. Also that the bass would run small mainly because of food source and the amount of water they live in. Usually creeks are easy to fish and bass are in classic ambush areas. I have fished one creek that had tons of shad and bass and others that you had to hunt to find a bass so each creek is different.

I generally use either a Fat Free shad or a Bandit round bill in deeper tree's. I choose a Bandit because it has (mine do anyways) tripple grip hooks that are harder to hang up. I choose a Fat Free shad because of the counter rotating excalabur hooks. The hooks do a great job with getting though the timber. With both I am fishing the trunk of the tree deflecting off the limbs going with the grain of the limbs. If the tree like a jungle other lures might be a better option or fishing the edge where it is less jungle. I would beef up with 14lb mono or better. Hung up lures can be gotten back with a bow and arrow technique if not as said before lost lures are just part of the deal.

Welcome Home!!!

C-rig a fry or senko.

I fish them like a worm for the most part or C-rig. Reel it down to the depth and pause then sweep it.