Matt Fly

The closest LBH and others have come was a mesquite smoked brisquett. I love working submerged mesquite flats with spinners. Ivey has been very good to me up in the river where it backed up once flooded. matt.

Flys rule #1 Never take a female outdoors who has white skin year around. Sun and them don't mix!!!!!!!! Never will!!!!!! #2 Don't date women without tans, it shows they don't like the outdoors and sun and no need to waste money on dating to find out the hard way. #3 Don't date women with fake tans, rule #1 & 2 applies. If you are lucky to find one that endured the heat, cold, and still keeps coming back, disregauard any advice other than RW's, to most fishing is about catching, and they haven't slowed down enough to enjoy the outdoors for other reasons when the bites are slow. Good luck on catching a "keeper". Matt.

I see more double hooksets with people c-rigging or using spinning gear. With a baitcaster, I rip some lips the first time. Matt.

One of these days, I'm gonna just write this and keep it on file so I can paste it. I always buy the 80lb bags of sacrete for around 3.oo. Cinder blocks average around 2.00 a piece at Home Depot. I have collected the one gallon plaster buckets, I can make 7-8 weights per bag for 3.00. I'm not sure that using wd 40 is a good thing, you will have petroleum residue that might chase fish off for a while. I only have to tap on the bottoms and my weights come out. The roll of utility wire, like bailing wire, is also about 3-5 dollars. I use a coat hanger to make eyelets to wire to in the weights. Stronger wire. I like to use a mixture of hardwoods like oak because they last a lot longer than Xmas trees and softer woods. A mixture of both, I like willows, cedars and hardwood in the same pile. It provides some dense cover for baitfish to hide, yet larger woods for bigger fish to hide. I will spend hours and days watching how anglers approach areas, once the piles are planted, they are public, first come, first serve. Alot of mine are for future use and tourneys, so I try to graph out a part of the creek channel that might be staging for spawn, or late summer haunts that just doesn't draw alot of attention. Points humps, drainage ditches, ridges, edge of flats next to deep water. Ever had great morning bite in the shallows turn off and wonder where the fish went? I try to plant something to hold them in the next depth closer to deep water that might hold those morning fish that was shallow at the next stop, my brush. Hookem Matt.

I often slow roll big spinner baits in the winter. From personal experience, I have caught just as many fish on a 3/4 trap as I have a 1/4 oz trap when burning them above winter grass in Tx. And thats kinda of reaction bites. Larger bass would rather eat one good size meal and save energy than eating 3 smaller meals and working for it. Because of this, my belief is still "bass are very opportunistic in the winter and will take ANY easy meal that is put in their faces for easy dining. I always slow down in the winter when working plastics, and as most say, when you think you've slowed down, then slow down even more, which sometimes means letting your bait set for a minute before the slightest movement is imparted to the bait. In winter time, we add a 2nd skirt to alot of jigs because the bulkiness slows the fall rate down, but offers a larger profile, and we add pork instead of plastic trailers, pork give more life to the jig in colder water. I think you should stick to what your confident with, or what has worked for you. Slower I agree with, going smaller is preference. Your best bet to catch your PB is when the females are developing her eggs for spring, and winter is a prime time for big trophy bass, and I like bigger baits for bigger bass. Matt.

Risk Kid, I knew that, spaced it out, but thats two teams out of the top 5 or 6 and Arkansas was predicted to be non-contender as normal, they are surprise to every one. Also, with the BCS, alot of teams know what must be done to get the BCS points, thus, that is why Texas schedules Ohio ST a few years back, for the BCS points, look at USC over the past few years, they have put them selves into a position in the BCS polls by non-conference games, the only problem is to win them and they did for the most part as seen by their record. Florida just got back to playing one of their in state rivals, not sure whether it is miamii or Fl. St. Again 8 teams have been basic whipping post for years in the SEC, and that leaves the 4 teams to beat up on each other. Why did Auburn go undefeated and not get a piece of the pie a few years ago? SOS, strength of schedule. Florida is BCS ranked 4th, and they will have had 8 home games out of 12, there only loss was a road game....... Georgia played in Jacksonville and that is supposed to be home for Georgia, I don't think so. I wanta see Florida play Michigan or some other possible top 10 out of their conference to see how they do. First off schedules are written years in advance, so the teams who want a shot at being elite and BCS bound will have to play tougher schedule. Boise State has great record, and been very good, but gets no respect for not playing larger schools. Utah ST with Alex Smith got no respect BCS wise for not playing anyone, the same for TCU a few years ago. You can be undefeated and not play the right teams now days and not get the points. So Texas didn't get stuck, they arranged the schedule for strength of Schedule and BCS points. You never know whos gonna be strong when the games are scheduled, but Big XII has been playing Pac 10 teams, some times they are good and other times they are so so. UCLA was tough last year and so so this year, look what happened to OU vs Oregon. Colleges that want or seek the National Title as in years past, can no longer get it done by past program experience, ie......the Elite programs may be ranked by AP and so on, but the Computer doesn't see them as Elite, and Strength of Schedule is very key in recognizing strong programs. matt.

I'm a Biomedical Engineer, In short, I am responsible for repairing, calibrating, and doing maintenance on every medical device in our hospital. Imaging included. I'm even licensed to calibrate all scales, my friends ask me to certify their personal scales all the time, I will check them and calibrate, but will not give them full cerification because of using hospital test equipment would be conflict in hospital business and personal interest. Matt.

When in Rome, do as the Roman's, or like KVD, use that spinner bait to emulate shad. One thing Kevin Van Dam does is find a food source, he loves his spinner baits and pencil thin jerks. Matt.

Excellant point by RW which I have failed to mention. Voting is not limited to Congressional seats and Presidential race, you have just as important role in helping decide your local government seats. matt

bump.

You woud be using an underwater speaker vs ordinary speakers. ie.....waterproof. Matt.

Tired of having to go back and find this thread. Found on page 70 something. bump. Matt.

Short and sweet, VOTING IS A RIGHT AND PRIVILEDGE, exercise your rights as you see fit. Matt.

BASS uses the 300 point system. Matt

I know KVD is sponsored by Biosonix, Biosonix web site said 14 out of 105 boats on the Elite series used them this year, I'd like to know which ones so we can compare their success rates as to others who didn't have one. Matt.

I'm with Catt on this one, but I like to say I go with confidence baits that have worked well in the past. Matt.

Bass Snatcher, Pt. 2 is an example of what shad do during warmer months. It is normally agreed that there are 3 good biting period in a day. Early morning shallows, afternoon bite, and late evening bite. As Pt 2 shows, in the warmer months, as the sunsets, shad migrate to the shallows for safety in some sort of cover, thus the late evening shallow bite. Bass know the patterns of shad and they will wait along the migration route to ambush the shad as they come in to the grasses from ditches, tree lines , creek channels and other contours or structures. The early morning bite occurs has twilight occurs, again as reports normally read, throw top waters early, and that usually shuts down as the sun starts to rise and shed more light upon the shallows, the reports say, work the sub surface until that bites shuts off, and start backing out to deeper water as shad leave the shallow for the comfort of deeper water during the day. Know that shad migrate to and from deep water in low light conditions explains why shallow bites early and late are prime times. Beng able to track them to deep water is key on finding active fish during the day. Hope this helps, learning where they should be takes the element of searching out of the game sometimes. Cloud cover could keep bait fish in shallow and experience will teach you this also. Matt.

I searched for Part I and could not find it, some help please. I did find Pt. 2, but one is just as important. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1134662267 Bass Snatcher, I am a firm believer that if a person knows the habits and seasonal migrations of shad and other baitfish, finding bass and unlocking the pieces of the puzzle becomes second nature. I hope this helps. Matt

Tell me other than Arkansas who played an indicator game? A game like OSU and UT played. A game that could take you out of the national title hunt early in the season. Arkansas is the only one from the sec. Who has better non-conf. schedule than USC? Ark. Nebraska is not a Rice or Florida Atlantic, Notre Dame. When the SEC plays some other teams to gauge the talent on, maybe I'll be a believer. Have you physically looked at the SEC's non conference schedules? Its a joke! So just because they beat each other in the SEC means they are good. Big XII moto, "WE EAT OUR OWN". No excuse for the Big XII, KSU lost old coach, new coach at Okla St. U. New coach at MIzzo and Colorado, and that happens when your coaches are successful and move on, or get fired. Notre Dame plays a pretty tough schedule also. Early in the year, I said WVU played soft schedule, well, it came back to haunt them also. I do agree that as long as money is involved, the fan won't get what we want. Look at who Florida has played and then the teams they beat in the SEC and their non-conf. schedule. Not impressed with all the SEC teams. Matt.

Didn't hear about them this year did we? I don't think they allowed them on tour this year. Its not cheating when everyone has access to get one. I don't think they should be allowed personally, but also don't have anything against them either. matt

Also, fish sometimes shy away from the weight on T-rigs, they feel the weigth and drop it. C-rig gives the bait a weightless approach in deep waters that takes to long to get into the strikezone. C-rig can and is used in brush piles. C-rig stays in contact with the bottom, it is widely used to better learn the bottom as you drag it. Each are just tools and different approaches, each has its own uses. Matt.

Cotton Cordel's Hot Spots was around before Mr. Lewis' Traps. I still use the Hot Spot with lots of success, and I think its due to larger bb's and a different sound. Matt.

I have had nothing but praise for the Storm Wild Eyes swim baits. The warts have with stood time and still produce, the thunder sticks, well, there just too many other good jerk baits out there on the market, so I haven't given them a shot because I didn't need to. Matt.

Rule of thumb for cranks is, as water gets colder, it clears more, in clearer water, tighter wobbling cranks catch more fish. We don't have the bitter cold water temps yet in Texas and -1's are working, but is that the best choice? Fish don't follow the rules always. There are numerous baits out there that are suspending models that will do the same job as the minus one. I love the minus one after spawn into the summer early when bass are up or on cloudy days when the bass are still up closer in that zone. Matt.

I got schooled by a rookie. His catch rate was 3 to1 over my traps. I also give the Yozuri's a thumps up. Not sure of the cheaper cost as compared to traps and other brands. but if the few extra dollars gets me more fish, it is worth it. matt.