Bluebasser86

Yeah, fished by myself. It was pretty slow but the quality kept me interested.

Fished Jacomo last night from about 11-6. Bite was a little slow but caught some decent ones at least. Black and blue bladed jig and a 10" worm on a swinging football head was best and I got one on a slammer for good measure. First picture was 4.29, biggest one of the night.

That's almost without a doubt a 1st place on a Wednesday nighter this time of year

Well late notice but my back seat just came open for tonight. Haven't decided 100% where I'm going yet but I'll be leaving around 10pm and have to be home by 7:30 AM if anyone is interested.

Both. I usually cast it and rip it back to the boat and fish it vertically under the boat for several rips before I reel it in and cast again. If you can get on top of a school without spooking them, fishing it vertically is the easiest way to do it and you snag up a lot less.

I like the 5/8oz War Eagle, either silver or white. They come prerigged with a swivel and a good EWG treble hook in a 2 pack for around 5 or 6 bucks. If you're in shallower water you might be able to try a flutter spoon also.

That's going to depend a lot on the body of water for me. Not going to use the same rods in a lake VS a river and the size of lake is going to have an influence also. For around here I'd probably have to go with a couple spinning rods in the 6' 6"-7' range, one ML/F and one M/F. That would allow me to jig, cast cranks and jerks, and pull Lindy rigs. If I was going to a bigger lake I'd want trolling rigs to pull bottom bouncers or cranks though. On a river with much current I'd want a little heavier spinning rods to handle the heavier jigheads I'd need to get to the bottom.

I wouldn't use anything over 8lb for carp. They're very smart and sensitive fish and will most likely either see your line or drop the bait because of the memory in line that heavy. A treble hook is also a big no-no for carp unless you're using a tiny one, which I still wouldn't advise. A long spinning rod with a parabolic bend, strong 6 or 8 pound test, and a high capacity spinning reel are your best tools for carping. A slip sinker rig with a single octopus hook in a #8 should do the trick. Canned corn works fine, but don't salt it. Carp have a sweet tooth though. Some of their favorite flavors seem to be vanilla and strawberry. Might try opening a can of corn and soaking it in a can of strawberry pop to sweeten it up for them. I'd use the canned corn for chumming too and no need to freeze it. Never used cream corn but I imagine the sweetness of the cream may have some drawing ability? Only one way to fine out on that one.

I wish I could say I'm over that fish since it was almost 10 years ago, but I still think about what I should/could have done differently. Would have sent me to Mexico and Lake El Salto for the end of the year big bass challenge too. I was fishing a bank that was a mix of gravel and chunk rock where the channel swings in close to the shoreline. There was some brush or something on the edge of the channel and as soon as my jig came over a limb she knocked slack in my line. I was sure it was a catfish and put more pressure on her than I should have and never asked my boater to get the net. As soon as I saw the fish she was on the surface thrashing around and I was sure she was going to toss my jig so I tried to horse her too much and the line broke when she surged back under the boat.

Any ambush areas. That fish came out of a clump of grass with a stump that had the trunk of the tree still laid across the top. I watched her stalk the bait for a few feet before she T boned it. As long as there is some shade, even big fish will stay shallow on bright days when they're active and that's where they need to be to eat. Running them over the top of deep ledges is a great place too, even if there's no shade. A big fish will move a long ways for what they perceive as a big, easy meal. Running them along the shady side of docks is a great way to catch fish too.

I've got a bunch of Zman plastics in all sorts of styles, all great baits. Really excited about their new popping minnowZ and the jig trailer they're coming out with. Their Palmetto Bug is an awesome flipping bait because the back stands up after it hits bottom like a craw in a defensive stance. They're baits are great on a C rig, split shot, or drop shot because they float off the bottom. Some days with their finesse worm on a drop shot all you have to do is let it sink to the bottom and sit there on a slack line for a minute, close the bail, reel in your fish! The bait floats and flows with and current or the tiniest movements in the water so it really looks like a live worm or minnow moving around. Keep them separate from your other baits (I keep a binder just for Zman plastics to avoid problems), and don't dip them in dye unless it's says it's safe for Elaztech baits. They're a bit of a pain to rig but they last so much longer that it's worth it to me.

What does chartreuse or bubblegum colors imitate? No idea, but I know they catch fish, same thing with firetiger. One of my favorite colors in dirty water but can also be surprisingly effective in clearer water too, just something they never see I'm sure.

Spoons would for sure be on my list for deep, schooling smallies. Aggressive rips and let it sink on a slack line. Usually don't feel a bite, they're just there next time you try to rip it. I've caught tons of smallies on a C rig. I like creature baits, stick worms, and craws. The Zman baits work great on a C rig because they float off the bottom. The ZinkerZ and FattyZ are 2 of my favorites. If they eat tubes well I'd probably be fishing one with a heavy insert head too. A hollow belly or boot tail swimbait like a Keitech Swing Impact on a heavy jighead would be another option I'd for sure have on the deck. Either a regular jighead or something like a fish head spin or swarming hornet.

I checked Douglas last night, it's a 5 fish per person bag 13"-18" slot limit, so we'll be sticking with Douglas for the 7th. Fished for about 30 minutes and caught 2 that would have been short keepers. Water was nice and clear and 81 degrees. Looks like lots of vegetation along the banks right now that might produce a good frog bite

Floating swimbait. Keep pulling it past them with different retrieves until you get some interest from a fish. Chances are if you can get one to look you'll soon have the whole school moving towards your bait, then it's just a matter of getting one to commit. Even if they're mostly inactive, a big, easy meal is hard for a fish to pass up sometimes.

Big fish don't follow the rules. That and being smarter than the other fish is part of how they get big. My biggest slammer fish to date plowed a 7 incher around lunch time on a hot, nearly flat calm day last summer.

Doesn't every plastic bait have built in obsolescence? Never fished the toads but the craws and the menace are 2 of my favorite baits. Your comment about the Sexy Dawg is exactly how I justify buying expensive swimbaits. Given that I don't do something stupid and lose them, they can easily last me a lifetime. A $100 bait really isn't that expensive when you only have to buy it once and use it your entire life . At 6-8 dollars a pack, I could spend $100 on Senkos in a couple months very easily.

Tannic water is often very different from stained water. You can usually see through tannic colored water for quite a ways, it's just the color of tea. I seem to have a lot of luck in tannic water on gold colored baits. Either spinnerbaits with gold blades, gold colored cranks, or plastics with gold like golden shiner or sand colors.

Last time I fished LOZ in October I did really well around PB2. Had several really solid keeper fished and culled a few times. I shot myself in foot twice when I had a 5lb class fish pull off a jig and I busted off a monster at the boat on a football jig that my buddy ended up catching the next week off the same spot on a really similar football jig (she weighed 8lbs 2ozs and still had my jig in her mouth ). Most of my keepers were caught on a shakyhead or a jig, with the bigger fish coming off the jig in 5-20 feet of water, I was nowhere near any docks either.

Didn't forget about it but it didn't really fit into his request for suggestions of a good "hardbait style" swimbait

jigs, 10" worms, and bladed jigs, preferably after the sun has gone down

Havoc The Jerk or YUM Houdini shad.

H20 CRS, KVD 1.5, LC 1.5.

Small hops or drag them. Sometimes one retrieve works way better than the other. I like a T rig for the hopping retrieve, C rig or swinging football head for the dragging retrieve.

Provided you aren't holding him way closer to the camera (which it doesn't appear that you are), the fish looks like it's about as long as you are wide at your chest. Might be able to measure yourself and get a general idea of how long it was. I've seen way smaller looking fish bump 15" in a tournament, wouldn't be surprised at all if that fish was 15.