BigEbass

I vote Jig, worm, lipless crankbait, spinner bait, or jerkbait as all good options - oh I know you cannot wait till that water warms up ;D

By the way, here is a photo taken by my lovely wife of one of those feisty beauties!!!

Great point - while I was out in "open water" - it was still 5-7 feet deep in the area so it it wasnt deep. As a relative beginner, I do find a bit of lacking confidence going out there and trying to find what area makes since to fish - when the blow ups were not occuring, I tried to look at my depth finder (which is REALLY basic) to find something that was unique that may hold fish, but was not really successfull - I could not seem to find the fish in between so that kinda didnt help my confidence really - but it was my first time out and I am gonna learn the structure with time.

Anyway, I thought it was an even more dramatic example of how people can ignore everything except for the bank - which I have been guily of in the past - this just seemed like a dramatic example - happy monday everyone!!

First off let me start by saying that I took my boat out on my own for the first time really - my first time going to Lay Lake without the help of my more experienced neighbor. I went fishing for 3 hours just around the way from paradise point - couldnt get a bit for a bit, but then I noticed every 15-20 minutes or so a bass would blow up on some shad - I remained on high alert and ran em down when that happened and nabbed two nice 2 lb spots (god they fight). I was so relieved - I can catch fish all by myself - I know its silly but it gave me more confidence now to go by myself - on a downer note, I could not catch them in between those blow ups....anyway... I thought of this form while I was fishing though, specifically the talk from people about "bank beaters". Well, while I was out there in the middle of this inlet chasing down those blow ups, there were 5-6 boats in that area slowly traveling the banks casting. I was really worried that they would start to target "my" blow ups - instead these guys had blow ups in their facinity and once right next to their boat....and ignored them, even after seeing my catch those 2 nice ones. My wife (who was riding with me) was helping me look out for breaks and she would say "over there" - and that would be pretty close to my "neighbor" - and I would not go after it cause I woud be casting close to and right at him. Those guys didnt catch anything the whole afternoon and ignored those blow ups that were happening along side or behind them, which I am glad they did

It has begun indeed - its that magic time of year and what a day you had!!!!! I went out for 3 hours on lay lake yesterday and caught a couple really nice 2-3 lb spots and just reveled in it really - I would have fell out of the boat with those fish you have caught - great job!!!

I am sold man - going to buy my SI unit some time this week and try it out this weekend on Lay Lake!! ;D

it was worth it though eh? God I am glad my lakes dont freeze over - I dont know how you live with that - you need an ice-breaker-boat or something! Or you need some global warming!

Sweet!! Thats what I wanted to hear - I will check out the yahoo site too. I cannot wait to get one!

Well, If I could see even say 30-60 feet left and right it would be a great advantage...?

I keep hearing about this "el salto" - man I gotta get there! Anyway, for me I am pretty much happy if I dont have to wear gloves and a hat or I am not dying of utter heat exhaustion and am catching. But if I had to choose....I would say the very very early morning in early to mid summer her in Alabama - fog on the water - and some good ol topwater fishing in some shallow weeds with my weightless trick worm on top - BAM - it wont be long!!!!

While fishing a small lake sunday (which I caught my first 5+ lber, then right after that caught my second :)) - I got to thinking about the side imaging a bit - The water is really shallow in this little lake - 1-7 feet - mostly 3-5 feet in depth. The water was murky so you cannot see the bottom really...so my question is how would SI do in that shallow of water? Would it show good detail and how far laterally would it show detail at say 2 or 4 feet. Thanks (PS - you can see my fish in my photo )

Cool video!! Man I cannot wait to get it - looking to buy one in april.

Ditto. And if it were to fall out during driving, I believe it would simply fall in the floor - I do need to put my extra key though in my truck just in case.

So get ready to laugh at me ;D I was riding with my neighbor during that day in the jon boat with just a trolling motor on this small lake - after catching these three lunkers in a row I was so d**n excited....when we pulled out the biggest one - my neighbor realized he had left the electronic scale in his truck....he suggested we kick it back to weigh my fish....I hesitated and told him to just forget about it cause the fishing was so hot and I didnt want to waste the window of opportunity....I wanted him to catch a big-un too - and wouldnt have minded catching another one myself - and why not - I had already caught 3 essentially back to back 4+ pounders.....So I got greedy - in retrospect I wish we had gone back to the truck (probably would have taken 10-15 minutes) since the fishing turned off after that...but I would have done the same thing again...cause when the bite is on like that you cant waste it!! So....moral of the story....I will NEVER not bring my scales on any trip as well as my own quality point and shoot camera - I love the fishing line idea...I got to thinking that I will bring a tape measure all the time now in case I catch a 10 pounder in order to make a proper replica and release the fish back

OH YEAH - FEELS GOOD DOESNT IT!!! ;D

BTW - if you could take a peep at my bass photo posted in this same forum that would be great - now that I look at your photo, I am wondering if my catch was not bigger than my guess (we forgot the scales that day) and have have very little experience with these big bass - tell me what you think.

Unfortunately we did not have our scales with us yesterday - my neighbor who has been fishing for a long long time said it was probably a 7lber....man I wish we had the scales - I know it was 7 lbs, but I wonder if it was 8 or 9..?? No way to tell in just the photo I am sure - he was long and his belly was broad....either way it was a huge bass for me so I will just need to shake off the question mark :-/

Dude, you post right after my post just shadows it big time!! Its all good though ;D great catch and what a day 70 fish! That 250 bucks was worth it! My neighbor caught his only double digit bass at that same lake I recall.

Yep - I am still on a high from it ;D Now I have to break the 10lb mark

Well, I will keep reading, but at the moment I am sold on HB - I have seen more people with customer service related issues and reliability issues, and none from HB so far on the net - will be buying in april so I will keep my ear to the ground - I CANNOT WAIT TO GET IT - I need to get the boat-monkey off my back soon - its haunting my dreams

wow, hopefully that water will soon warm up more - hard to believe its that cold south of my location - the water at this lake today is likely much warmer than other places being that it is such a shallow lake.

So I have only been bass fishing for a little under 2 years. And of the times I have went fishing, I mostly go with my neighbor who is an experienced bass angler (68 years old been doing it since he was a kid). The "big" one has always alluded me - seems that when someone caught a 5 plus lb'er, it would be my neighbor of course right where I had just casted with the same darn bait - some of that is experience I am sure....but today was my day to shine!!! We started fishing out of his Jon Boat on a small lake in Marion, AL - feb. 28th, blue bird skies, mid 50's, water temp 54-57, started fishing just after 11am, and at 11:30am I landed a 4 lber on a bright orange lipless crankbait. Way to start the day!! We moved past that spot (a point) and worked around some shallow weeds, but came back to that point in 15 minutes - casted the same bain in the same facinity, and my rod loaded up, thought I had a snag for a sec - ended up landing a 5 1/2 pounder!!! I was so excited I could have fell out of the boat screaming. Took a photo and quickly made another few casts back to that area and again hooked something...barely got it to the boat with it just barely hooked in the lip - 7 lb'er - I could not believe it!! There were a few others bank fishing around the lake, they probably thought I was crazy holding that monster up screaming. And yesterday I fished a small lake in McCalla I had never fished before and caught 9 small bass. I hadnt caught many fish this winter - really struggled at times - my confidence without needing to say it, is quite "unthawed". YEAH BABY, YEAH!!!! However, after those catches, we could not stir up many more bites after 1pm - there were shad jumping a few times and we could not get a taker - there were no bass hitting the shad - its a very shallow lake - max 7 ft. deep near the d**n, mainly stuck with lipless CB's most of the time, but also tried spinner bait, worm, craw, and shallow crank bait, oh and tried a jerk bait on that same point for about 20 casts....all in all I caught 4 bass, neighbor caught 4 pretty nice ones (2-3 lb'ers) - not bad for a chilly/windy day in feb ;D ;D ;D Not really sure how I could have approached the rest of the day differently to stir up another bite.....one thing we could have done but didnt do is just use a jig real slow on that point - hmmm, that could have been really good

Cool, that gives me a good idea of what to go on as I had no idea about the bottom features - I can work the flats, the steep edges and weeds - should be able to catch some - Ill let you know how it goes in may. Going to lay lake tomorrow

Thats the annoying thing about technology >