MFBAB

Yes, I saw the show. Squarebills in general are pretty good to throw up in shallow cover, you will be surprised what you can bring this bait through. When I am in shallow water around cover, where most would throw a SB I would almost always rather throw a squarebill. SB's obviously work great for that too but the squarebill is just my preference.

If you have permission try to find some larger branches (bundled) or laydowns and tie 1 or 2 cinder blocks on them, then throw them out on the points into the water, wherever you will be able to find them later.

The phrase "Pearls of wisdom" comes to mind

That's one I'd like to read. KVD does a great job of demonstrating techniques on the Bass Pros and other TV shows I've seen him on.

There was a shad kill last year on the TN river and I don't think there was an adverse effect on fishing because of it. The bass I caught on Pickwick and KY lake were fat and healthy as usual last year, also looked like the weights were normal during the BASS events on those lakes. I'm interested to hear what others think about it too....

I can't wait to watch it. A 10lb margin in shared water is pretty strong, it will be interesting to see whether there was any tension b/w the guys sharing that little patch of water and also whether they were using different techniques.

Wow.

Man, I bet it was mean, wind was in the 15-20 range here in Memphis today.

+1, Planos

Why not just tie a Clinch opr Trilene knot? This will probably solve your problem, experience talking

The first two things I would look at is the current weather pattern, pre frontal, post front, stable, whatever. The second would be the current water color in the pond (assuming we're talking about a pond if no maps are available). If you know those 2 things you can make a decent guess about whether they should be shallow or deep, active or inactive, etc. and pick your baits accordingly - at least for a good starting point. For example - If there was stable weather and stained water color, I would expect to be able to find some active fish reasonably shallow, I would tie on something like a spinnerbait, squarebill, have a flipping rod handy, shaky head, basically be ready to work the 1-10' zone. From there, just start trying to run that pattern on whatever variety of structure or cover you can find in the pond until you either get some bites or feel like it's time to move on to plan B. Good Luck!!

Makes me feel better about not being able to go this w/end, I bet we'll have a few reports next week though.

I use them in the 1-2/0 sizes for crappie jigs, they are awesome for that. In those sizes I would be concerned about using them for bass though, the ones I use are light wire and they bend a little which is great for crappie fishing because you can get them unsnagged but probably not so much for a big bass I'm just guessing though, I haven't bass fished with them.

If I'm fishing with my wife or when I'm trolling, YES!! The rest of the time it's the nature channel

I use 1/8 oz heads more than anything else, I stick to the natural end of the spectrum on colors for the most part, a pretty good rule of thumb is to match the color of the bottom.

Pretty much similar to what you listed, maybe add craws to the list.

I catch some in the creeks on their Hellgramite.

Memphis store: February 25th, 2011 @ 6 p.m. - Spring Fishing Classic- Ron Shuffield (Special Appearance) Ron Shuffield, 15-Time Bassmaster Classic Qualifier, will be giving a seminar on "Staying Versatile". Do not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to hear tips from one of the top professionals in the fishing community. February 25th, 2011 @ 7 p.m. - Spring Fishing Classic - Fred Roumbanis- SPECIAL APPEARANCE Fred Roumbanis will be giving a seminar on "Power Finesse Fishing" on February 27th at 7 p.m.. Don't miss the chance to hear from the Bassmaster Elite Series Pro. February 25th, 2011 @ 8 p.m. - Spring Fishing Classic- Mike Mcclelland (Special Appearance) Mike Mcclelland will be giving a seminar on "Sticks & Stones (Football Jigs & Stick Baits). Don't miss this great chance to hear from the 8-Time Bassmaster Classic Qualifier.

Well its not the norm everywhere. Up here where Im at my circle of people that I know Im the only one that C&R. They think Im crazy and waisting my time for not keeping anything, even my wife. If they catch it they keep it. I see lots and lots of fish kept out of little local lakes/ponds here. Ha, I guess it isn't 100% but I'd say there's no question it is much more prevalent than back in the day. I was over at Wheeler dam a couple of months ago (see avatar pic:) )and a lot of the locals were throwing those nice smallies in coolers there, kinda cracked me up. I never met a legal crappie I felt like putting back but for whatever reason I treat bass differently unless I'm on a pond that actually needs some removed.

+1, shaky head.

That looks nice, I mostly use Ziplocs

Pretty much 80's and earlier (mostly way earlier) here.

We got warmer weather all week, if you go by the formula of averaging the highs and lows for previous 3 days, this Saturday should show WT's in the 50's somewhere. Kent, you busy?

I wouldn't ever rule out live bait if you're into that sort of thing....

Knowledge, willingness to leave a marginal bite to search for something better, keeping your mind open to other possibilities, experimenting on how to react to changing fishing conditions. I think you can make this about as complicated as you choose to