Chris

The problem you will find with wind is that it makes it tough to feel the bait and inturn feel the strike. You need to use lures that you have direct contact with the bait at all times so that you can feel the strike. Some use heavy weights to achieve this in the case of soft plastics (c-rig)or jigs. Others use crankbaits and spinnerbaits. (both have a thump or vibration pattern you can feel even in wind) Good Luck

I tend to target points because it is a highway to deep water. Fish tend to stage on them and move up as the water warms up. On some water they tend to use the long tapering points and other water the points that are short but steep. I target the bass with either a wacky rig senko or either lipless crankbaits or other crankbaits depending on the depth or how steep the point is or how active they are. (if they are less active I will target them with a jerkbait) If I find that the bass are still deep I will use a jigging spoon to pick them up or a dropshot. Good luck

A lot of commercial shiner catchers bait an area the night before with hog pellets and net the area the next morning or afternoon. You can also catch them with a hair hook and a small bread or dough ball.

x2

Actually where your fishing to be honest if you want to find active fish and tons of yellow tail shad lock out into the river. Right on the rip rap at the mouth of the lock on the river side Alton Jones won a tournament drop shotting a yum dinger in the summer. There is also a hump out in the middle of the lock channel (unless it got washed out). Above towards the dam is a small dock where the shad ball up and most cast for shad and herring. Down river at the bridge the shad ball up at the down current side and the bass stack up there also. If you continue down river there is a pipe line that crosses the river that has rock all over it and bass. (it holds big smallmouth) It is marked by a sign just don't anchor to it. Down from there on the right there is an old creek channel that forms a "y" out from the bank with a deep hole on either side which holds good fish also. If your fishing later in the day or at night right on the public boat ramp there are several vehicles that got dumped into the river. I say fish it at night because it is a busy ramp.

lurecraft.com bobstackleshack.com del-mart.com shawncollinscustoms.com bearsbaits.com alumilite.com zornmolds.com dlmolds.com clearwatercustomtackle.com

The shallow fish will move up with the water hanging on just about anything. Your deeper fish might just hang on the same cover or move up to the old shore line. Fish suspended in trees or brush will tend to suspend above the cover much like they would on a underwater hump or just adjust to the added depth by moving up higher in the water column. If the rain was heavy enough to dirty up the water try to find the cleanest water you can because the run off will mess up the pH and make fishing tough. The good news is sometimes the rain will lower the water temp and can turn on the fish.

Yes it is an advantage because you have control of the boat positioning and the trolling speed. If your in the back sometimes your bait may never hit the bottom or hit the cover at the right angle to be effective. Good communication between you and your partner changes that.

If your fishing shallow flip heavy cover. Bass that where hanging on the edge of cover will be in the middle of it during a front waiting for better conditions. If your fishing flats speed reel and rip traps. Sometimes you can make fish bite using reaction techniques during a front. If your fishing deep (fronts effect deep fish less) scale down a tad and fish.

7 1/2" ribbon tail worm or a gator tail style worm would also work and pick off the fish that miss it. I like to use a wide tail because it tends to act like a buzz bait. Rig the hook threaded so it sits in the middle Texas rigged. Most of the bass will aim in the center when they strike. If a bass misses it the bait will tend to drop in the the hole the bass created on the strike and the bass will come back and nail it. You can also use a weighted tube just weighted enough to stay on top of the stuff. Just to give you other options

I have also caught spawning fish flipping a zoom horny toad in beds and letting it sit. Just give the fish a half second because sometimes they grab the legs first.

They have a high pitch single BB rattle. They are a well thought out lure that does make it a little easier to get into places and they do catch fish.

When you have a buzzbait that squeaks the the vibration patterns is off which translates to a bass thinking a baitfish that might have issues. If you bend the blade making it spin odd it draws more attention to the bait because the vibration pattern is different and the blade spins different. You can add weight to part of the wing blades (like a suspend dot) which also throws off a different vibration or bend one of the blades different. You can also drill out the front hole causing the blade to wiggle and wobble more which throws off a different vibration. You can also bend the arm so that the blade strikes the head as it rotates which changes the vibration pattern. Many "Pro" fishermen do this in muddy water because it puts out more pressure waves. Clacker blades do the same thing but put out a different tone than the blade that strikes the head. With the clacker it spins and clacks intermittently unlike the blade that strikes the head. When the blade strikes the head the entire bait chimes. When the blade strikes the clacker it also chimes but not as vigorously as it would if the blade smacked the head. Blades with holes in them create a bubble trail. If you file the edge of the blade thin it makes a different noise and the surface of the blade picks up more water on the rotation because the water sticks to the roughed up surface. Notching the blade causes the blade to spit water. A buzzbait straight from the box acts like a healthy baitfish and sounds like most of the other guys who throw a buzz bait.

The good news is that bass don't all spawn at the same time so you might still find active fish schooling.

Catching the larger fish right after they spawn gets interesting because they take some time to recoup. They are not in much of a mood to eat but it gets better over time. Once they school up and chase bait you want to find places that bottle neck the bait.

I don't know about best but they where under rated strike king tube lizard. What I liked about the tube lizard was it pushed more water than a tube when you pitched it. It also was a great deep water bait to fish around structure.

spinnerbait-twin tail grub, pork chunk, swim chunk, twin curl tail. swim jig-pork chunk, swim chunk, twin curl tail, curl tail

Crystal shad shad assassins, chrome blue back trap, shad or watermelon pepper tube gitzit, junebug plastic worm or pumpkin seed ribbontail or paddle, floating worm lime green black stripe or white. Fish the worm weightless or light weight to keep it from digging in and a insert weight for the tube so it falls flat or on a jig head insert fished like a crankbait. That's what I would use.

They work well at night, when your fishing muddy water and in cover when your trying to draw fish out. It throws off stronger pressure waves than a regular buzzbait.

What stage are the fish in? prespawn, spawn, post spawn?

Fish the fish and how they want to bite not the way you want them to bite. I say this because it is easy to say if you want to learn a bait fish it till you get the hang of it but the truth is that bass may not want that presentation and some water fishes different. You may be doing everything right but because of how the fish are positioned, food source, water conditions, activity level, and mood they may not pay much attention to your presentation. Many times anglers get caught up with the idea that if it works for angler x,y,z it should work for me or if it works for this lake it should work for that lake which may not be the case. The fish you caught wanted a horizontal presentation and rejected the vertical. You should have expanded your horizontal. What teaches anglers new stuff is when bass want to eat what your doing. It is frustrating to use something and find that it isn't producing and then you second guess the technique. The best thing to do is give part of your day learning and trying out new stuff to try to figure out when is the best situation to apply a technique. Many chalk up a bite from a lure like a spinnerbait or crankbait that the bass must be active and that was the reasoning why they hit it which may not be the case either. Analyze how they hit it and at what point. Where was the fish positioned and what was the bait doing when the strike occurred. You can have a group of fish that will hit a lure the same way which leads into patterning fish but bass tend to be made up of a group of individuals that may bite different depending on how they are positioned on cover, structure or even depth. This means that sometimes it takes different presentations to turn on certain fish or to make them commit to a bait.

When the water comes up the fish will be relating to the old shore line but will be suspended higher in the water column. They do this mainly because of comfort because the thermocline has changed. If the water becomes more muddy because of the influx of water the fish will move shallow. If the rising water is a slow process the fish have time to adjust and will relate to the older shore giving that the water clarity has not changed.

I agree 100% deet is the best also skin so soft works well and smells beter.

In many mussel beds fish spawn on them, algae grows on them drawing crawfish, grass shrimp, and shad. Shellcrackers eat them among other fish, and in many older waterways it is the only hard bottom area.

#1 bait for this situation is a wacky rig senko. This is the situation when I mainly use a senko and it works like a charm. I generally drop down to the smaller size bait for this.