Chris

I fished a tournament one time that had 30mph winds and 5ft waves. My trolling motor would not hold me any spots even on high. When you cranked up to move from spot to spot you where jumpin waves. You felt like you where on Mr. Toads wild ride. Fishing the main lake was next to impossible so we ducked into the coves that kept us out of the wind. We took 2nd in that tournament fishing crankbaits and missed 1st by ounces. With a large field of tournament fishermen 2 fish where caught. If you gotta fish then get yourself a drift sock. This will slow you down or anchor up on a spot. But if your in a boat that only has a trolling motor and no outboard and your trolling motor isn't fighting the wind very well I wouldn't go out.

About where the egg sack is on a worm start there and turn your hook over after you push it through and push it back into the worm to make it weedless. You want the bend of the hook about a inch above the screw in weight.

My biggest was 28 1/2 inches long with a 26 inch girth. It was 17lbs 8oz (oh no bubba is in the lead now I know someone has a 19 or 20 pounder)

Back in the early 80's myself and a friend had a bass in a tank in our tackle shop. We took a creme worm and rigged a florida rig screw weight and screwed it in the head of the worm and texas rigged the worm backwards. we watched it in the tank and noticed that the tail was postioned straight up and when you shook the bait the tail wagged. We later used it in spawning beds and worked like a charm. I talked about the rig on this forum on one of my posts. Great name I like it

We have had a few posts about live bait. Roadworrior fishes live bait a lot and always touches on the topic from time to time. I grew up slinging wild shinners myself.

use the force young jedi be the fish be the fish! Bring your mojo

Last spring I pitched a watermelon in bass beds. I just got me some white ones to fish my tournament next month. I was going to use it like a buzz bait.

You can make color selection as complex as you want or as simple as you want. It like this how many colors is a shad. Maybe white with a gray or bluish back. Then why is there a ton of different color crankbaits if a shad never really changes colors? Under different conditions certain colors are seen better. If a bass can see all colors all the time then shad and other bait items wouldn't have a chance. In clear water most people try to match their colors with natural colors. The match the hatch theory. Well, in clear water any color would work because fish can see all of them. The more stained the water is the less light can penetrate it and some colors are harder to see or they fade to gray. Even in clear water after 20 ft of water most all of the colors appear gray. Sunlight is not able to penetrate that far deep and light reflected off a color is what makes color. Blue is the only color that even at 20+ ft of depth still appears blue. There is the easy answer or you can dig at some of my other post if you want to get more indepth.

I went bank fishing today I brought two rods and two lures. One crankbait rod and a spinnerbait rod. Usually I just carry with me one rod and a hand full of lures. I generally know what kind of lake I am going to fish so I bring stuff that works for that depth or cover. Sometimes I just bring what I feel like fishing. If I have not rat fishing in awhile then thats what I take for example. If I am fishing a heavy weedy pond then I take a soft jerkbait, buzzbait, spinnerbait 1/4 oz, tube, floating worm, grass rat or a frog. Ponds that are a little more open or have some depth I take a 3/8 oz spinnerbait, jerkbait, crankbaits, rattletraps, spitt'n image shad topwater, and a creature bait. I just bring the right tools for the job.

I use Gambler floating worm lime green with a two black stripes, orange crush, pink, charteuse, white, Creme worm natural (night crawler), black, junebug, and black grape. Where these baits shine is scattered weeded flats. You can spook it or swim it or a combo of both. I fish them mostly in the upper part of the water column but sometimes they can be a heck of a drop bait on the edge of grass. Wacky is another great way to fish them. This is a great summertime bait.

I think a lot has to do with how your fishing it. You can fool conditioned fish into biting a tube even if everyone has been hammering the bass with them. A tube can be identified by a bass as a crawfish, baitfish, or just something invading their territory. Most people just pitch the tube into an area and hops it twice then moves to another spot. Well if that fish has seen this a 100 times they kinda get wise to it. You can fish it weightless or fish a fat ika which falls different and slower. You can use a heavier weight which falls faster, you can pitch it to a spot and leave tention in your line so it swims away from the structure. You need to give the fish a different look. Try a different style thats fatter. Put it on a dropshot with foam in it anything that will give the bass a different look. Pitch it into a spot and just quiver it in one spot for a minute or two. Think outside of the box

The stone jig has a flat side to its head and is easier to skip under overhanging trees and under docks. Its like tossing a flat rock. You can skip any jig but this jig is easier to learn with. Also if you put your plastic chunk fatty side up and thread it on the hook instead of hooking it like a pork chunk it gives the bait a flat surface area that skips even better.

Early spring through to early fall I fish a 1/2 oz jig. Let me explain why. With a half ounce jig I feel I have more control over my bait. My bait will get to the bottom in a hurry and will pick up a reaction bite. I can feel my bait in deeper spots and shallow areas and can break though cover without changing baits. Its a larger profile and your always in position for a bigger fish. Speed is another factor with a half ounce bait. You can cover water efficiently without waiting for your bait to hit the bottom. They are easier to control and feel in wind. Late fall early winter I switch gears. I go to a lighter jig and I beef it up. I use a bait with a full skirt or double skirt and I use a large trailer. Let me explain why. This time of the year I want my bait to be big to displace water and with that bulk on a lighter jig it will slow down my fall. With the colder water fish are not as active. So you are using a big slow moving easy meal. This lighter jig will force you to slow down. Try it out you might get a few more bites. ;D

There is a tournament fishermen I chat with often on the net that we spend time bouncing ideas off of each other about bass fishing. Sometimes we give each other input on what we should do in up and coming tournaments and such. One tournament he had and he said he didn't know what to do. So I gave him the "just do it" talk and some pointers I'll be darned if he didn't win. He had a tournament not long ago and we where looking at maps trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I went through my tackle box and mailed him a selection of lures that I thought would win the tournament. Well, second place had 9 lbs something and the guy won the tournament with 18lbs something and big bass. He said all his keepers but one was caught on my lures and he caught one keeper on a worm. He said that his draw partner offered to buy one of my Bill Norman lures that I painted for 15 bucks. On this site myself and others try hard to teach you something new. We try to help you become a better bass angler. You need to understand that for years anglers kinda kept information to themselves. If you knew a lot about bass fishing you didn't tell anyone. They never really took time to teach the next generation of anglers. The other side is if they did teach anything it was generic answers without details. I post a lot on this site because I hope that I can help you become a better bass fishermen. I hope that you can take something out of it that brings you to the next level or maybe helps you catch a few more fish. I hope I make a difference for the next generation. Thats why I do it. So I hope you learned a lot from this dummy ;D

Fish below the algae bloom. Sometimes you will find fish just under it. Look for places where the bloom isn't as bad like in coves. Fish deeper! I fished a lake last year that had a bad algae bloom and between 3 boats and fishermen only one guy had a great day. The other two people fished the same areas they always fished and turned up empty. In this lake when the bloom happends everything shallow don't hold fish. It changes the ph of the water and fish move out of these areas. On the first day I caught fish swimming a jig under the bloom. The next week I caught them using a DT6. I caught fish suspended out in the main lake and in the deeper coves. You don't need to fish super deep but just deeper than the bloom.

Here is something I do a lot when I carolina rig I put a swimming rattle like the kind on a jig above my swivel. That way no matter if my weight and glass bead are rattling my swimming rattle I know is rattling. Also those no snag lindy rigs isn't a bad deal when having to fish deep stumps or rocks. It gets through the stuff great. Roller jigs or a football jig with a spider grub on the bottom with a worm dropshot above it can be the ticket on long sloping sand points.

or different size

lol ;D

I was talking about flipping but it don't matter. In clear water on deep humps and points I throw a tube on a jighead and let it spiral down and hop it.

Green is a summer time color.

The problem with crankbaits is that people fish them like idiot baits and chunk and reel them in. They don't fish them. Its a baitfish imitator,....Make it look alive not mechanical. If a fish follows it they don't see anything wrong with the bait so they don't strike. Your crankbait didn't have fear so why would a bass hit it? Any other baitfish that bass has ever eaten about filled their pants at the sight of him but your crankbait has no fear. Keep that in mind the next time you go fishing.

C4 Jig or a flipping tube?

;D

Ok whats the answer?

This is the time of year to break out the flipping tubes. The shad and everything has spawned and the fish should be feeding small baitfish and this is tube season. In case ya didn't know ;D