Sam

Welcome, Sonny. Glad to have you with us on the Forum. Lots of posts about rivers so use the search feature and see what you can find. Now, dumb question: is the river a tidal river? If so, you fish a tidal river different than an inland current river. Let us know and we can give you better advice. Also, as far as the thermocline goes, if a tidal river it makes little difference. If it is an inland current river it can make a big difference. Looking forward to your input on the type river you are fishing.

Brew, you hit on the $64,000 Question. Wish I had the answer. It boils down to confidence. Confidence in your knowledge of the body of water, water conditions, weather, forage, the types of techniques you have faith, the rods and reels spooled with the line that you think will work best and the baits you think will be successful. 100% confidence along with gut feelings. Your question is the reason we keep 500 pounds of plastics and 1,000 hard baits on our boats or we drag around 50 pounds of plastics and 200 hard baits as we bank fish. The less confidence we have in what we decide to set up and the baits/techniques to use means more unnecessary plastics and hard baits we will take with us. So yes, usually have everything set up for the first cast the day before we venture out, with the understanding that if it does not produce strikes you have to be flexible enough to make a change. I usually start out with a white buzzbait followed with a Monkey Butt Whopper Plopper and then it is open season for my RICO's and Sammy's. Depends totally on my confidence in these baits. Sometimes I make the right call; other times I don't. I then go to my drop shots, Senkos/stick baits, shaky heads, baby brush hogs, lizards, spinnerbaits, jigs, swim jigs, crankbaits and creature baits. I am on the hunt for 1) where are the bass and 2) what are they feasting on at that moment to try to create a pattern. So it is important for you to do your homework on the body of water you will be fishing, the weater conditions, water clarity and wind direction to set up your rods and reels and baits to match your confidence level. And remember, be ready to make changes on the run. Once you find the pattern it is guns a blazing and lots of fun. Have fun and be safe. P.S. Keep a log on your adventures so you can refer back to it when you fish the same body of water I the future.

Over your head and have it high in the air. Like throwing a baseball when you don't know how to throw a baseball. Another option is to go with a MOJO rig. Look it up and consider throwing a MOJO rig. It is a poor man's Carolina rig and works great on spinning rigs.

Join a local bass club if they are taking nonboaters. If you can't find one, then do the following: 1. Find a local guide and go out with him for a day and ask him questions about baits and techniques, etc. Well worth the money if you can find a good one. 2. Join BASS and get their monthly Bassmaster Magazine and make sure you subscribe to Bass News, too. 3. Subscribe to some good bass magazines, like Bass Angler Magazine or the FLW magazine. Go to your local Barnes and Noble and look to see what bass magazines they have and select two or three to subscribe. 4. Don't get caught up with brand names in the magazine articles. The pros are hawking their sponsors products so you do not need a G. Loomis 7 foot medium heavy fast tip rod. You need a lower priced 7 foot medium heavy fat tip rod. Just as long as it is the same style and power as what the pros use but not at their expensive prices. 5. Go to your Bass Pro Shop or a local tackle shop and speak with the guys who are bass fishermen. They can be helpful. And consider the BPS line of products that are very good and not expensive. 6. Try to find any DVDs or books by Kevin VanDam or Ike or other pros. Read what they suggest. 7. Check the Outdoor Channel on TV and watch the bass fishing shows. 8. Read, read, read and read some more. "Like" the Forum on Facebook and get their posts. They are excellent and Glenn shares some great information to help us all be better fishermen and fisherwomen. Check out specific topics on YouTube. 9. Go to the pros' web pages and read their tips, if any, with the understanding that you do not need to purchase their sponsor's products. If you check out Woo Daves' web page it is has some great tips that are still valid today but the companies he promotes are no longer around. 10. Go to any fishing expo in the greater Chicago area and meet the movers and shakers in the local Illinois fishing industry. They will love to speak with you; give you tips; and help you in any way they can. What is great about bass fishing is that you never stop learning. And don't invest too much in your rods and reels as you grow in the sport you will change to other brands and techniques that you have confidence. Good luck and all the best on your journey through the waters of bass fishing where that little green monster can humble the biggest, strongest and meanest guy you know.

Wow! My light is an XPS Extreme Performance series 2000 lumens handheld model. It does a good job but yours is dynamite. Of course, we don't have to be on the lookout for gators in Virginia, only fools on the water.

As you all know, Rahlow just had tipple heart by-pass surgery and is recovering at home. He is a valued member of the Bass Resource family and he is involved with the Warrior Project Custom Rod program of which I have one of these beautiful rods hanging on my wall. So please take some time and send him a Personal Message of good wishes, stories, what you have been doing, and anything else you want to share with him. Keeping his spirits high is necessary for a full recovery and we want Rahlow around for many years. Come on guys and gals, let's flood Rahlow with lots of PM's to help him through his recovery.

I'll set up the topic for him later today. Have to run to Walmart, Sam's Club and our storage locker now and then move some stuff into my wife's new "cubby" to sell stuff we don't need. Sam

Ohboy, I keep a very powerful spotlight in my Ranger that I can get to fast if I see another watercraft around me and they are not paying attention or doing something dumb. Even in the daylight that spotlight gets their attention and they know I am where I am and to stay away. I also have a small hand held blast horn that I have no problem blasting. That can get some attention, too, plus make for some good conversation back at the ramp for those who heard it and wondered what happened. When necessary, I blow that horn when passing another boat. And yes, the guys on the other boat usually give me a one finger salute. But everyone is safe. Some guys get upset that I "blinded" them for a few seconds. But they stayed away from my boat. And nothing personal, but going 45 MPH at night is dangerous. Not necessarily for other boaters but for what is floating in the water. A floating stump, log, branch or sand bar or flat can cause some strong heartburn, even on waters you know like the back of your hand. Plus the fact that critters come out at night to hunt and so do the knats and flies and mosquitoes and no-see-um's. Glad you are OK but that was a close call and someone up there is giving you a warning. Please listen to the man.

Fly...keep it a secret. Moccasin Blue is a killer on the Chickahominy River in Virginia. I have loads of the finesse, curly tails, dead ringers, and trick worms. The blue in them must mimic the bluegills and crabs that are in the river. The bass, crappie and crabs on the bottom love them. I had a friend who is now deceased who would throw only one color on the Chick: Moccasin Blue. He was a guide and an old pro and he said you can throw any color you want on the Chick just as long as it is Moccasin Blue. I am with you 100% on this one. Stay cool this week.

Thanks, North. I did not know pike were in the waters. I was fishing the Potomac a few weekends ago and it was so hot my buddy and I parked the boat under the train bridge in Aquia Creek to get some relief. I flipped my Senko at a bridge piling and something hit it hard and kept going. Could not turn her. Probably a snakehead or a big catfish or a striped bass. Line popped and she was gone. Of course, a steel leader would have kept her on the line, but no respectful bass would hit my Senko if I had a steel leader. But I am still concerned about having pike hit a small smallmouth bait and would think one would get more strikes from smallmouths than pikes when throwing smaller baits. This is what makes bass fishing so much fun and open to discussion. What works in Michigan may not work in Virginia. Thanks for the input. Now go out there and nail some of those green monsters.

Right, but the writer was seeking advice on how to improve his bite ratio and the use of the specific color and asked how come the bass like his cinnamon Senko and do not hit other colored Senkos thrown by his buddy. So in defense of my statement, I offer the following as stated in Keith’s Jones’ book, Knowing Bass. Take it or leave it. But at least read the data and come to your own conclusions. Water is much denser than air and thus it scatters much more of the light traveling through it. A much smaller portion of the light the bass see reaches them in a direct line. This means the bass are presented with a weakened image of what they see. The bass must see through a haze and this limits their distance and image they can see. Dr. Don McCoy of the University of Kentucky conducted studies on bass’ vision and he proved that bass can see colors between red and blue, but not equally across the board. The fish quickly learned the colors between red and green of the spectrum but struggled to differentiate shades of blue. So the bass can see well from red to green but weak in the blue and violets. The highest color discrimination is around yellow-green and yellow-orange. To continue, Frank Brown at the University of Illinois noted that bass have good color vision in the areas of red and green. Intense yellows could be noted but pale yellow and pinks appeared to be interpreted as light and the bass often confused dark shades of blue and purple with heavy shades of gray and black Since objects underwater appear brighter or darker in contrast to their surroundings, differences in brightness degrade as you go lower into the water column. So the beautiful Bluebasser blue jig is no longer a beautiful blue when it hits bottom, depending on the depth, water clarity, and light conditions. Add to this the fact that motion signals life to a bass and the possibility of food. If an object is motionless it can be classified as non-living and ignored. And the bass get accustomed to specific moving objects that they can catch and eat even though their vision in the water is blurred. Motion grabs the bass’ attention and almost everything else is ignored. And we know bass are sight hunters, always looking for something to eat or attack. This means bass evaluate lure shapes according to how well they fit visual criteria without considering whether the shape is natural or not. But bass do get accustomed to certain shapes that are considered food and that is why our baits take the shape (or close to the shape) of what the bass can see as a moving target. In Dr. Jones’ book he lists the strike response to color that he found in his studies for Berkley (Pure Fishing today) from high to low and here is what the published: Silver/Black Back Dark Violet Black Green White Yellow Light Blue Orange Red Don’t see cinnamon on the list. But where TCBass fishes the bass like this color. No idea why but they do and it works. So you throw what you know works and you have confidence. Wish I could find the secret color on the waters I fish so I don’t have to bring 500 pounds of plastics on the boat with me. But I digress. Color is a major factor where bass are known to feed heavily on a preferred prey such as threadfin shad or crawfish. So we must match the prey color as closely as possible to what they eat. And remember, in very muddy waters, reds, oranges, and yellows are about the only colors of light available and it is pointless to fret over the exact shade of a blue lure when all the blue light is gone. Now, with all this input I still use blue and white on the Potomac, firetiger and green pumpkin on the Historic James River, blue on the Chickahominy River, 194 and 297 Senkos all over the place, Junebug all over the place and white and some other colors I have confidence. So using cinnamon is a great color if you have confidence in it. But if you use it and don’t get any bites then you are using a wrong color for the forage and water/light conditions. Up there in Minnesota the bass like cinnamon. Down here in Virginia you will not find a lot of guys throwing anything cinnamon on a regular basis, if at all. So no one is right and no one is wrong. The beautiful blue jig Bluebasser throws would be dynamite on the Potomac or Chickahominy Rivers due to the influx of crabs and the amount of bluegills the bass are used seeing as blue colored targets. But throw that beautiful blue jig on Lake Anna or Lake Chesdin in Virginia and you could be wasting your time. Keep chucking that cinnamon Senko and let us know when you catch your personal best!!!! Good luck and tight lines.

The replies are truthful and some are funny but the fact is that you have to "match the forage" in the body of water you are fishing,. For example, a white colored bait to mimic shad colored prey works great in the Potomac River. So your cinnamon colored bait has to resemble a color the bass are familiar with and equate to something to eat, like a crawfish or an earthworm. For a listing of some of the colors you can consider for plastics check out this link and you can note all of the colors offered which will put you in a mental institution. But the Bait Monkey will love you! Good luck and keep chucking that cinnamon Senko. http://virginiaguidebaitco.com/

Letting the fish swim away from a snag. Letting the fish fight longer to tire itself out.

A steel leader? Are you fishing for redfish or speckled trout in Louisiana? You do not need a steel leader to fish for smallies or any bass lure, be it a spinnerbait, Chatterbait, buzzbait, Whopper Plopper, frog, toad, and all other bass baits. In fact, the smallies are probably thinking "who is this crackpot, presenting a bait with a steel leader? Must have taken the wrong turn at the Gulf of Mexico." Think small. Go with the following and see if your luck changes: 1. 5'5" to 6' light or ultra-light spinning rod. 2. A small spinning reel, not over a size 1000. 3. 4 to 6 pound fluorocarbon line. 4. Find a pack of 1/64 jig heads in the fly fishing department. Gold or silver will do. 5. Get yourself some one-inch white grubs with curly tails. Spool the small spinning reel about half to three-quarters of the way on the spool. Do not overfill the spool. You don't need all that line. Overfilling will destroy your setup when the line flies off the spool. Then, using a Palomar knot tie the small jig head to your line (after you have run the line through the rod's line guides). Put the one-inch white grub with a curly tail on the jig head. Curly tail can go in any direction. Be watchful of line twist. It will happen. If it does, remove the jig head, pull the line off the spool, and then using your thumb and forefinger respool the line tightly back onto the reel. Then retie your jig head. If you get a bad twist you can always change out spinning reels so take a couple for spares. Cast out - let fall- then reel back to you fast. Or slow. Or in between. Go with a stop and go pattern. Let the grub fall in front of the fish. Run it through any beds you see.The smallies will tell you what they want. If you want to have some fun with steel leaders, hit the Potomac River out of Aquia Creek and fish for snakeheads. If you8 want to have some fun with fluorocarbon, fish for smallies. Just be mindful of line twist.

Thanks for sharing. I think all 70,000 of us on this site will pray for his successful and fast recovery. We could flood him with cards if we had his address but I think sending best wishes to him on this site is enough. Ghoti, with your permission, how about we set up a special topic just for sending get well wishes to Rahlow? Let me know or set it up for us. Thanks.

100% correct! Todd, you know how the bait feels by itself and when it feels different you set the hook. You can go from a snag to a new personal best. But you set the hook. To add what Catt penned, Hank Parker always says, "It doesn't cost anything to set the hook." I do the same thing you do when the bait feels "different." Better to be safe than sorry. Just be careful not to set the phantom hookset too hard and knock yourself out of the boat!!!!!

Hey guys, I was reading the June, 2018 Consumer’s Reports today on cell phone and Internet scammers and there are two very important types of scams out of the seven discussed in the article we all should be aware. First, don’t’ click on any link sent to you in a text without first checking that it’s from a trusted sender. Also, if a text instructs to push a key to “opt out” of future messages don’t do it because any responsiveness may mark you as “in play.” Instead, forward that text to 7726, which works for the major phone carriers, so that your cell phone company can block the caller. And ask your carrier for help blocking robocalls. The second tip concerns Facebook when you come across a posting that tugs at your heartstrings, like photos of adorable puppies or a cute little girl who did not get any happy birthday wishes. You instinctively click the “thumbs-up” or add a comment like Happy Birthday and may even decide to share the posting. You may be the victim of “like-farming,” a post that’s engineered to generate attention so that it will continue to show up in more and more people’s news feeds. Once the page creators have generated a certain number of likes and shares, they change the content of the page and promise something more nefarious, like an ad for a bogus business or a too-good-to-be-true product you can buy online. The best defense against this is to “think before you like,” and be suspicious of any shared postings that seem designed to elicit an emotional response – especially ones that promise a big donation to a charitable cause. Always be cautious about what you share on social media and decline invitations from any and all strangers who may not be the person they are posing as. These are just two of the seven fraud schemes going around on our cell phones and the Internet. So be careful when you receive any Facebook postings about free fishing tackle, baits, etc. If it is from a bass professional then go to that pro’s Facebook page and check it out. Same is true for any companies promising us free tackle or goods at or below wholesale prices. Just thought you all would be interested in this information.

Hey guys, changes are expected. BPS will probably phase out Cabela's products over a specific time period. The improvement I see is that the BPS guys know more about bass fishing than the Cabela's guys. Of course, the shoe is on the other foot now and then with a specific Cabela's staff member, but for the most part, the BPS staff is more knowledgeable and actually are bass fishermen. We may be able to make some great purchases as BPS has Cabela's sales to reduce the Cabela's stock to be replaced with BPS products. Got to go call the Bait Monkey to get him ready to rock and roll.

After missing a topwater a bass will think they injured the prey so by throwing a Senko/stickbait back to the strike location the bass will believe the meal it missed is injured and hit it. A slow falling Senko/stick bait will look like an easy target. Ant that's the way it is.

Darren, not really, but the only time I will watch soccer is in the World Cup as the players are the best in the world.

Stinky, it doesn't matter. You won't catch anything anyway. Oops! I got you confused with Woody. Sorry to be late with the reply but I do have a life outside of bass fishing. So here is what I would have told you to do: Chick Lake Nice, clam waters with great baitcasting and finesse fishing targets. Easy to get to if you have a GPS that can direct you to Ed. Allen's via your GPS off Route 60. Not fished heavily with bass boats but lots of kayaks and canoes. Good current and you don't have to be concerned with the tides. An easterly wind will not kill the fishing. Chick River Check out the tide charts as you need a good falling tide. Lots of tournaments so be ready for a lot of other bass boats screaming up and down the river. Tournament blast off times are around 6 AM so if you arrive after 6 AM you will be at the back of the pack. Easterly wind kills the tide and the fish will turn off. Lots of creeks to fish, along with all of the other Saturday tournament and regular guys who will be fishing the same places before you. Route 5 ramp will be a disaster between the pros and armatures launching and trailering their boats. River's Rest is an option to consider. You have to hit the dam area ASAP along with every other boat on the river. Hard to find shaded places to sit and eat lunch or take a nap. If you take Woody be sure to have him show you how far he can cast his favorite bait with his Lew's reel. Maybe this time the line won't pop and the bait can be reeled back to the boat. So let us all know what you did and how you did. Have a great weekend and take a kid (like your son) fishing.

J, this is long but it is worth printing and framing and hanging on your wall next to your desk. So here we go. Keep a log of every outing. Note the sample fishing log under "Tools" in the green bar at the top of this page. Make copies; date and time each; complete as detailed as you can for every outing; and put them in a three ring binder for each body of water you fish. Go into greater detail with these forms, that is...add the footage off the bank where you got the strike; the depth of your bait when you got hit; snags and where they are; and any other details you want add. Then, map each body of water by walking around it and making a diagram. Use your spinning rig with light braided line (6 or 8 pound test), a tungsten weight (half or one-ounce to keep it on the bottom) and cast every five feet or so to feel what is on the bottom. You can also use the "fan" pattern to feel the bottom, casting left to right and then right to left in one foot segments. Add (draw) all data to your map. Braid + tungsten = excellent feedback on what is on the bottom. And if you get snagged, great! That is what you want to do. You want to get snagged as that is where some structure is located and where the bass will hold. So don't get angry that you lost your $50 tungsten weight. Just cut the line and put on another one and keep at it. You do not fish when you do your mapping. Your goal is to map the body of water where you fish as best you can. And that is the goal for the day or week until your mapping is completed. Yes, it will be difficult not to give into the urge to fish, but you will learn so much as to what is on the bottom that you had no idea was there. Always wear polarized sunglasses when fishing and mapping. Always walk about 50-feet from the bank when you move to a new location when fishing. Be a phantom. No noise or vibrations when moving along the bank. Float like a butterfly. Keep the noise and vibrations when you move from place to place as low as possible. You will be surprised as to how many bass you can startle by walking 5 to 10 feet off the bank, causing them to take off. Never throw your shadow onto the water unless you have no option. If you can see the bottom or any fish in the water, they can see you. If they see you, they will scatter. If you see them first, drop a wacky Senko or a finesse worm within five feet of them, with a quiet water entry, and odds are they will hit it. Remember, they are aggressive animals that are inquisitive, too. Wear dark colored pants, shirts and caps. Bright yellows, whites, pinks, greens and the like will be seen easily by the fish. Be a phantom. Think "quiet." Be like in class when the teacher asks a question that no body has any idea of what the teacher is talking about and you sink down in your desk. Watch where you walk so you don't step on anything and get it angry. As for forage. Try to determine if the basic forage is bluegills, bream, crappie, minnows, or crawfish. Now, for part 2....how do we figure out what to throw, in no specific order: 1. Gut feelings. From experience and your fishing logs information. Plus any information you get from others who have fished the same waters. 2. First, you throw to the top water level using top waters, be they buzzbaits, Whopper Ploppers, Sammy's, RICO's/poppers, spooks, frogs, or an unweighted trick worm, usually pink or white in color. (NOTE: When throwing unweighted trick worms on a spinning setup, put a curve in the bait to make it move like a snake. Also, if you want, you can purchase a #1 or #2 cork stopper (Joann Fabrics has them or a wine shop), cut it's tip into a small 1/4-inch section, use a nail to make a hole in it for your 6 to 8 pound monofilament line, and put it in the front of the trick worm using a bobber stopper to keep the cork in place. This will help keep the trick worm on to top of the water. Way old pros trick dating back to the 60's and 70's. Of course, I was told this as I am only 29 years old and never have seen it used much these days. Keep it a secret so the other guys won't know about it.) 3. Then throw to the middle water level with spinnerbaits, spy baits, jerkbaits, 1.5 square billed crankbaits, lipless-crankbaits, Chatterbaits, flukes, tubes, swimming jigs, toads and other baits of your selection using those colors you believe will mimic the forage in the water. (NOTE: Sexy Shad is always a winner) 4. When the top and middle water columns efforts fail, you go to the bottom column, with the understanding that your mapping will show you where the underwater structure is located. You throw your wacky rigged Senkos/stick baits, trick worms or Swamp Crawlers on shaky heads (Provider shaky head jig heads are fantastic), drop shots, Texas rigged finesse worms, lizards, creature baits, Biffle Bugs, Ned Rigs and anything you have for bottom fishing. Use spinning gear as you are now in the world of finesse fishing for bottom exploitation. And consider using a 1/0 or 2/0 weedless hook to avoid snags as best you can. Mustad and Eagle Claw have some good ones. 5. Use scent. It is a confidence builder. MegaStrike is very good. Any scent of your choice is good. 6. Use a lime colored Spike-It dip or JJ's Magic for the tails of your plastics. Lime can work better than yellow but keep that to yourself, too. You do not need much color on the worm or plastic. About a quarter of an inch will do on its tail. 7. Throw to a target about 10 to 12 times. 99 out of 100 times nothing will happen. But that 100th time you could nail your personal best. In other words, don't throw to a target once or twice and give up. As Woo Daves says, throw into the kitchen, then the front room, then the bedroom, then the den. Hit the target a few times. 8. Plant your own brush piles. Throw in dead bushes and Christmas trees. Don't walk into the water to do this. Put some weight on their stumps to keep them in place and throw them into the water. They will be fish attractors in the future. Map their locations, too. 9. As for plastic's colors, here are three basic colors you need: Watermelon for clear water; Green Pumpkin for stained water; Junebug for all water clarities. You can expand to watermelon red or green pumpkin with black flakes, or any colors that you wish or that work. Just keep a log as to the water conditions and water temperature for each color you use and its outcome. 10. Weight. No, not your weight, the bait's weight. Learn how each plastic feels while on the bottom. If it feels "different" or "heavier" you SET THE HOOK. 11. Put a dollar in a Pat O'Brien's hurricane glass every time you set the hook and nothing is there. You will have a great college fund started for girls and parties. (Check out the Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Glass on the Internet and get one) Remember, it is you against those little green monsters with brains the size of a pea and you usually lose. You are entering their world where they can see, feel and hear better than you can. All you can do is hold a finger on your line and try to figure out what is going on in the water. The bass have the advantage and all you can do is fish, fish, fish and fish some more and make notes, notes and notes so you will know what works and what doesn't under specific weather, wind, sun, cloudy, water clarity and water temperature conditions. And always keep an eye on your line. If the line stops after you cast it but not far enough to hit bottom, SET THE HOOK. If you feel the "tap tap" (other than for a frog) you SET THE HOOK. If you see your line starting to move from left to right or right to left, you give them two or three seconds, reel in the slack, and you SET THE HOOK. If the bait feels heavier than normal, you SET THE HOOK. So take a week and map the areas; start your fishing logs; and experiment. And in the immortal words of one of our great leaders of the century, Ike, "Never Give Up!!!!" Good luck. Have a great summer. And go out and nail some of those little green monsters who are now laughing at you.

Suggestions: 1. Use Provider jig heads. 2. Use weedless hooks. 3. Cast randomly along the bank and at anything that is out of the normal, like a grass point, a patch of pads sitting by themselves, a stick-up, opening between pads and grass, wood in water, rocks, changes in the grass, skip under trees and bushes, throw next to bushes along the bank. Just put your bait in the water and be ready for a strike. 4. There are was to prevent your bait from sliding down or off your hook. One is from Glenn. Rig your plastic Texas style and bury the hook's eye into the plastic bait. Take 10 to 20 pound mono and jam it through the plastic, through the hook's eye, and out the plastic's other side. Cut off the excess mono on both sides and your plastic ain't going anywhere. Or, if you want, use some super fast drying glue and glue the head of your plastic onto your hook's eye. Messy and you lose both the hook and plastic but it works. Give the above a shot and see if it helps.

Believe it or not, each bass is different. Some will sun themselves along the bank and then float leisurely into deeper water. Some will just swim around with nothing to do but go from structure to structure along the bank or along grass lines or on their milk run. Others will go deep. Many will hold against anything they can find to just hover in place looking for a meal to float by, moving from place to place. So on cloudy days hit them with crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, buzzbaits, Whopper Ploppers, Sammy's, RICOs, poppers, swim jigs, and even jerkbaits until you decide if you have found the pattern. You can throw stick baits like Senkos, drop shots, shaky heads, and Carolina or MOJO rigs. Jigs can prove to be a very valuable bait to get them to bite on cloudy days. Just remember, on cloudy days they can be swimming all around and you have to find where they are and the pattern. Have fun.

Outstanding! Sometimes I feel like a dog...running happily into a room not knowing why. We will all do what you penned as we get older.