Chris

trout, catfish, shad,

If you want to cheat a little take a bobber and put enough line on it so that it will reach the bottom and still lay flat and have a weight on the end of the line. Then drag it along the spawning flat until the bobber tips up and then use it as a marker to pitch to. Tie the bobber on an old crappie pole.

(I am trying my best to keep it G rated) In the quest for more fish myself and a fishing buddy went to a "toy shop" and bought a buzzing item. We built a rod with it in the butt of the rod. The idea was that I could pitch a jig into a spot turn the buzzing feature on and cause my lure to vibrate in one spot on a tight line. The problem was that when it was turned on you could not feel the fish grab your lure. What I did find was that it was killer on bedding fish. You could place a lure in the bed and raise the line tight and tease the fish to hit. The longer the cast the less the line was able to transfer the vibrations. Total cost under $5

If you mark fish at 10 ft on a hump you want to throw a crankbait that will run about 14 ft. You also need to make a cast that will give your lure enough room to get down to that depth. Its a game of angles. So much line out on a cast with a depth range of a given crankbait on x lb test line. Now figure in the at what point of your cast will the bait loose depth to reach your boat. Some baits reach their max depth in a hurry some slowly get there. Spinnerbaits and other drop baits can be counted down. To figure out the fall rate cast your lure to a known depth and count it down. If you using a jigging spoon drop it next to your depthfinder and watch your graph. You will see a solid line arch. When you reach the depth hop the spoon to make sure its in the range you want. With spoons try to keep your bait above the fish not under them.

You get more fish gut hooked with a single hook but less with a circle hook. With a crankbait hook most of the time the fish is hooked on the outside of the mouth but some people rip the hooks out which cause damage.

If you get to go ...GO! You will save a ton of money on the sales.

A fish will be on a bed roughly a week then they guard the fry for about another week.

I bring Gatorade, a jug of water, and some jerky

One year we had a mild winter and I caught bass on minnows just a thought.

yeah it sounded like a perch to me too

200 if not more

I would rather catch dinks all day because I love catching fish and catching fish of all sizes.

I have sat in the back of the boat pitching a kreature bait while the front guy pitched a jig and I smoked him. I have also sat in the back pitching a jig while the front guy cranked and smoked him. I have pitched a senko while the front guy pitched a jig and I matched fish for fish with him. I have sat in the back and throwing a spinnerbait through the trees that the front guy just jigged and jerked nice fish behind him. Maybe this will give you ideas

Every year I go through my whole box tuning baits and a few days ago was my day. If you get one that runs in a circle and tunning don't work add a few suspend dots on its belly then start the process over with tunning until it tracks straight. Also look at the bait hook loops for any paint that might be on it and chip it away. If the hook loops are bent in the wrong direction it will act as a keel and throw the bait off. If the split ring is in the position where when the bait pivots and catches on the split part of the split ring it will throw it off too. Check the line tie loop and see if its loose this will cause it to get thrown off. Some crankbaits are made with two sections glued together. Sometimes they don't match up and you need to file down the difference on the tip of the lip. You will have one half longer than the other. Some baits the lip is wider on one side than the other which will throw it off or the tie eye is glued in an off position which tilts the bait to one side or the other. Sometimes the lip is not glued in right and shifts before it drys.(Under extreme cases)Make sure you look and make sure that this is the case before you do this~>Take a knife and shave the side of the lip. If the bait is running right shave the left side of the lip. If its running left shave the right side. Be careful because if you over do it you need to shave the other side to straighten it out. Do it a little at a time.

You might want to thin out your catfish. I would bet that they might be eating more than the puppy chow.

10am-2pm sounds about right I think for me the reason why is because the sun is high and the fish are positioned in or around cover and most of the time I am fishing in and around cover. Some spots produce more than others. If you fish a given lake and you know of a few areas that you caught large fish before make sure you target these areas in the prime times. I try to bounce from spot to spot and I try to hit them often during those times.

They really need to make a law saying that they need to take up their nets at first light just for safety reasons. I think on the same show or it might have been a different show they had a DNR person stating that the bass populations are not hurt from the nets which I really don't believe.

Rapala has a pair of pliers that have a tuning slot on it that works great. What you want to do is cast the bait out and reel it back and watch your lure to see if it runs right or left. If the bait is running right you need to twist the line eye slightly to the left. Bend it a little at a time and make a new cast each time you bend it to make sure that its not bent to much. If the bait is running left bend right. If the bait is tunned correct the bait on a straight cast will run almost under the boat before it turns to the surface. The bait should run flat not tilted to one side or the other.

About a year ago I had all my prized lures stolen. You know the ones that you thumb through about 200 to find just one. I stopped into a gas station and someone took my tackle box. The sad part is who ever took it really has no idea what they got. So anyways sorry to hear it been there done that. >

Well if you ever take the time to look down the list of any tournament you can tell from tournament to tournament what the major patterns where based on who placed where. If a jig bite was the major pattern angler x,y,z place high. If you look down the list and anglers a,b,c placed high then it might have been a crankbait or spinnerbait bite that was the major pattern. Some tournaments play into anglers stengths and it shows at weigh-ins. If you want to place more often you need to be more versatile. There is not one lure that is going to work all the time every time. So you can either live and die by a bait or survive with being more versatile.

Crankbait or a wacky senko these are the only two that I know will catch fish any time any where day in and day out.

How far are you looking to motor around? I would think that you would have more than enough fuel without bringing another tank. I think you might be going a little overboard if you brought more fuel. I wouldn't think you would even need it. I could understand if you where talking about a two day outing. If your just out bass fishing your going to use more trolling motor than your big motor. If you really want to know watch your fuel gauge and figure out how far you can go on a tank. Go out far enough to burn half a tank then run back to the ramp. If you carry an extra gas can you might be asking for trouble. I wouldn't do it. If I really need to travel that far to catch fish I would use a different launch ramp.

A bass will eat anything that it thinks it can catch. If you see alot of fish breaking the water you might want to try topwater lures.

I fish alot of small ponds from shore mostly because they lack a boat ramp and they hold great fish. When I get to a new pond I kinda hunt around to figure out what kind of cover it has and mainly to look for fish of any size. I identify what kind of bottom it has hard or soft and cover. I also pay attention to the bank slop and if I see any points or any other prime structure. Bass are object oriented fish so I kinda look for areas that might hold a bass. The object could be weeds, trees, bushes, rocks, laydowns, stumps, lake dam, whatever. I start there and use the right tool for the job. But the key is using the right lure that maximizes your chances to catch a fish, works the depth zone you need to fish at, and have the ability to fish it where you need it effectively. Just look at the conditions you are faced with and ask yourself what lure would work here. In ponds I use basically the same stuff I use in a boat in some cases just on a smaller scale because of depth.

I would switch to a 4 inch senko, 4 inch cuttail, watermelon or greenpumpkin or a 4 inch slider worm baby bass, watermelon, or grape on 6 lb test line. Bass are either going to hit a vertical presentation or a horizontal one. If its not one then it might be the other. If they are in the mood to feed on the bottom then they are not going to look up and if they are feeding up they are not going to look down. If the fish are keying on crawfish for example how many crawfish do you see zooming by in the water column. By the same token if they are keying in on shad they are not going to be rooting around on the bottom to find one. Sometimes they have a one track mind that tells them that the last positive feeding experience was a crawfish on the bottom so if they root around enough they might have another they can eat. If your holding their attention then they might be in the feeding mood they are just in the mood to feed on the bottom and your presentations don't fit their mood. If this don't work then it could be like D. Taylor said and your dealing with fish trying to find a place to spawn.