Matt Fly

One thing I've noticed at night is to move baits on bottom slower than you do in the day time. Hookem Matt

Raul, Nice post as usual, text book to the "T". I always have great respect for your answers. Hookem Matt.

Nice job, in my opinion, didn't care for Zona then, but have started to like him since his time has been limited on Saturday. I guess he's grown on me. Did anyone see that skit with Dave Wolak last Sat.? I thought that was very cheesy and stupid. But it doesn't mean I won't watch anymore. Thats the stuff I didn't like about Zona, stupid, cheesy antics. I want fishing, if I wanted entertainment, I'd watch a movie. Just me.

Reading the mornin stories off another site, they say Bass Center has been cancelled immediately. I haven't seen Charlie Moore since this new guy took over in June. I have been enjoying the current lineups. Some good segments have aired recently.

Was part of this thread deleted or did it start on another thread? Wheres the picture? And Big Tex, In my honest opinion, its sad to see a nice bass end up skin mounted. Replicas last longer and look better if you go to the right person. What if the genetics in that bass was meant to be the next state record? It just needed to meet the right male down the road. Oh well, we will never know. Hookem Matt.

Aint Texan, This weekend was big bite weekend. The moon and the storms had them biting. Was out with about 50 guys, and we had lots of fish over 8lbs, biggest 11.02. Night bite was good. Stillhouse can best the best of them. I'm a jig man on StillHouse, nice and slow. Can I ask what type of line you are using. The house is always clear, some lines don't seem to work there for some reason. Never had good bites with braid, P-line, or anything over 17 lbs test. Throwing jigs in heavy grass(hydrilla) with light line was never a consideration, but the house brought me down to smaller lines and Big Game green 15-17 lb test made a difference in my jig fishing. Hookem Matt.

I have seen lakes that had hard winters and major shad kills only to see massive shad spawns and too much bait in the water to get good bite going. Hookem

Mine are so popular, bass are on them all the time. My brush piles get 5 star ratings from the bass them selves. Hookem

One more tip, putting cured limbs out will cause the need to use more weight. Thats why I like fresh hardwoods for, the added weight helps sink the pile.

Biologist say "fish are missing the part of the brain", the neocortex, that allows them to feel pain as we do. I try to keep all my hooks sharp to get good penatration. No torture on my part with dull hooks. Rip some lips, go fishing and let PETA find their own data. No need for us to help their cause. HOOKEM, no pun intended! Matt

Currently, the thermocline has set up on most of our lakes in Texas. Fishing on or above the thermocline is where I'm targeting the midday deep bass.

Did you know that some gamewardens police forums. Not to long ago, a guy on another forum was busted for a pictue that displayed to many ducks. Of course the guys asking more questions on how many hunters, and did you know you guys where over the legal limits and of course he said yes and was soon busted at his house. Becareful of what you post. And this isn't condoning what you did, just think about what you say. Matt.

Best day of fishing as my Dad explained was anytime you get to go. Nothing gets broken, including bones. No one hurt. Just a time to reflect on the outdoors and how lucky we are to be in a postion to fish alot. Catching fish was just "icing on the cake". Willie and I were on Fork recently, we spent over an hour and half watching a nesting eagle in the trees above the water with out casting, just watching. Pretty good day when you see an eagle that migrated down to nest for the year. I took a young man, 10yr old, Caesar out for his first trip last year, never fished at all, well, least not in water that had fish, my pool doesn't count, he was practicing casting with his spinner bait and batman rod I bought him. He caught his first two bass ever, first trip out. His smiles gave me that great day feeling. Hookem Matt

To answer the question, its simple, for the ones who don't fish or can't fish due to weather, they get to listen to us, the ones who do fish thru the winter. Post counts double in the winter. Don't really know that, just figure you have more time to kill since you can't fish. Hookem Matt.

No comments, I'm not putting a "hex" or "jinx" my self. The next 8 weeks, I've got some good tourneys coming and I've been waiting every since the boat got damaged in the spring to start back on the tournament trail with the opens starting up. Hookem Matt.

Algae grows on vertical and horizontal surfaces. What made you think its dead plankton? Plankton are tiny blooms that are pushed across the water by current or wind. These organisms are not visible to the human eye. Why do you hear the advice, fish the wind blown banks and points? Planktons are blown and stacked up on the wind blown points and banks, and shad feed on plankton, so were do you think the shad will be, in that same area, where do you think the bass will be? In the same area. I posted articles last year on plankton and shad. Raul, as some of us call him Dr. Raul, posted numerous threads on Know thy Prey I, II, and III. They won't answer your questions of why up hill, but will give you understanding on some biologics. Bass locations are seasonally predictable, getting them to bite is another thing. Hookem Matt

If your talking about Blakemore road runners, most comes with bucktail or grubs already on. Water clarity and food source would be nice to know. Can't go wrong with white, white/chart. wh/blu, blu/green . It all depends on what type of baitfish is present.

fishingJ, First off, Welcome to the forum. There are so many scenrio's when reeling in your lures. Can you give specific details. The type of lure, structure/cover being fished, ie....grass, lily pads, boat docks, trees. Time of day, what was the cadence of your retrieve? Each time you catch a bass, you try to analyze what just happened, or what did the bass just tell you. Example- You just cast past a boat dock by ten feet using a Mann's -4, While retreiving, you run your lure into the boat dock pole under the water and continue to retrieve with no success. You make the same cast, this time when you hit the pole under water, you stop the bait, or pause it as we might say, and after a 5 second pause, a bass clobbers it. The bass prefered the bait to be stopped, so I might want a stop and go retrieve, and even look for another way to deflect my baits off of objects to entice a reaction strike. The more information you can give, the more response will follow. hookem matt.

I think cheap hooks takes awhile. Just think about the quality hooks being sold.

In the bend of the channel.

Some lakes that don't have topos that are man made will have maps available thru the Core of Engineers who built most lakes. Some of the offices I have visted at area lakes have photos of before and after. Very nice to see. Hookem Matt.

mistatubbs, Welcome to the forum, as you can see, there is a vast wealth of knowledge in Glenn's library. Hookem Matt

I think the most I pay is around 10.00 for what I think are good maps and bottom end is 5.00. I love multiple maps by other map makers. You will see some things on one and not the other. Tire reefs, borrow Pits, old buildings on one map and not the other. I will look at different maps so I can detail one map with all "structures". After you read the above posts, if you have any specific questions, just ask, someone will be by shortly to answer them.\\\\ Hookem matt

In clear waters, I like the translucent (clear) colors. Pumpkin seed by Culprit, cotton candy by zoom. I like to let these worms sun in the window to fade them clearer. After a month of fading, these really do well in the rusty clear waters. Its the flake in the worm that I'm looking for after its fades. So, I am looking for green, pepper, green and blue, red, and purple flakes. Find the combination and when that combination of flake works and you will unlock the door. Hookem Matt

Shad_Master. If you look at your baits blades, they can be bent down, cupped-in in small increments. By doing so, they bite into the water more, giving it more gurgle, splash and noise. If you look at the bait out of the package, the blades can appear or are basically at 90 degree bends, you can open them up wider to give less splash, less noise, and it cuase the bait to run slower or faster because of blade position. Some people drill holes, tiny holes in the blades for more bubbles. I also do that and put scotch tape over the holes and remove it when I need that added change, ie..... noise. Some buzz baits you can bend the wire frame down towards the lead head to make the blades hit the lead head when the blade turns to add more noise. Some blades won't physically hit the lead head ever, some will. You just have to know what your looking at the store when you want those subtle features. I always try to buy buzzbaits I can modify on the fly with out re-tying. I use quick skirts from Terminator spinners for fast color changes. I never see a reason not to have a trailer on a buzz bait, or even two trailers, after all, its top water!!!!! Hookem Matt.