CJ

You pretty much said it Mike. It's even dangerous in a 21 ft. bass boat, yes even in a Ranger. : I lost a cousin 2 years ago due to high winds on the lake. If it gets over 20 mph out of the south or north. Don't get worried though. The bay that the Moor's is located in is as big as most lakes and hold plenty of fish. It is protected from high winds in most spots. Another thought is that you can always load up and drive over the dam to Barkley. The north end of Barkley runs east and west. It's where I go when the wind gets up on Ky. and I'll probably be doing a lot of fishing over there anyway. Barkley has more shallow cover than Ky.

I haven't read all the replies in this thread so I hope I'm not repeating this. I'm sure the new KVD crankbaits are good for what they're made to do. I did notice that the young guy from the Federation was throwing one of my favorites, a Bandit 100. He caught some giants too.

It really depends on the way I feel about the strike zone or the fish behavior for that day or time. Reasons I would make the same cast multiple times: I feel I'm getting reaction bites. I feel the fish have a short strike zone. If I'm fishing very dense cover. If I have found a sweet spot that is loaded!

Hey Scrutch just seen this. The shad kill will have no effect then. Matter of fact the effect is all ready over. But for kicks, this is what happens. Threadfin migrate up here from the southern part of the TN. chain during the warm parts of the year. They cannot live in the colder water up here so they die once the water gets so cold. Ever fish in the lake gets fat. I was out today for a while looking around. We had a big rain a couple days ago and the bays are muddy. Nikki did manage to catch one on a trap and it looked like a football!

Man those are some bigguns'! Way to go Matt on your new PB! That's a beautiful fish! Woosh! Looks like you was on! Great job!

LOL! I warned Paul we would get persecuted for the senkos. In his defense, He mainly stuck with the jig. It was me using the senkos. These fish have been suspended around pretty deep brush. I was trying something with a slow fall rate and the senko paid off with the numbers. The best fish were all caught on a jig. Thanks guys!

WOW! You're really on to something! Way to go Goose!!!

Sounds good to me. Pending on the species you're targeting and some other features that could come into play, the cover on the ledge is usually the sweetspot. Most important is using your electronics to locate the bait. They almost always dictate where the bass will be.

Did you come up with that all on your own or did you forget to credit the person who actually said it? Martin H. Fischer ;)

Man that was a tough day. Sounds funny but I got to say,"way to go!" You got that bad day out of the way for the year!

I've had some good days in the winter but I've had much better days in the spring and summer. Honestly, in the last two fishing trips, I have completely hated winter fishing. We had a big shad kill a couple weeks ago and that makes fishing very tough.

That is a really nice fish Big O!!!

Avalonjohn, had my same thought. Switching presentation can be better than switching lures. Nice fish Rhino!

First and foremost it takes dedication, time on the water, more dedication, and more time on the water. What helps is going to different lakes across the country. Many fisheries, if not most, have techniques that work best most of the time due to the features involved with that fishery. Toho, for example, really favors plastics and topwaters. Your not going to learn much about deep diving crankbaits there. Fisheries that have more features like those on the Tennessee chain of lakes will allow an angler to gain confidence in more techniques. Then there's conditions for any given day. Be it a bluebird day that may cause bass to suspend or a post cold front day that buries them in the brush. You can't go fishing only on favorable days and become very versatile. Then learning what adjustments will render best results if you find that the fishing changed. Examples, their feeding status, depth in the water column related to the bottom, have completely relocated, or a combination of these. If they have become negative to a presentation that previously worked, learning to decide on finesse or reaction techniques. When you talk "versatile" it's a deep realm.

Yes, I love Toho! It was weird for me there. It's kinda a surprise where the lake is. Felt like I was driving in an old downtown area then there was the lake. I'm used to a couple miles of a nice scenic road before I see the lake. LOL

Well I was about to post a topic about upgrading a Hummingbird and a Lowrance but I think I'll take them to the boat place and let them do it. I'm so stupid to modern tech. Plus, it looks like the cords will cost more than it would for them to do it a couple times.

An important thing to think about is what kind of water and from where are you fishing. Lake, pond, river, etc.? From bank or boat? I see you live in IL so I'm guessing mostly wood cover and some grass, unless you're planning on traveling. I've fished a few places in IL, Wren, Smithland Pool, and Shelbyville. Some of my favorite affordable ones: SK 6 XD Bomber Fat Free Shad Bandit 100 and 200 Rapala DT6 and DT16 Rapala Flat DT7 (Rapala's are starting to get pricey)

What is the most important, single piece of advice you would give young anglers who are wanting to pursue a career in the fishing industry?

Silva would have to drop a lot of weight. Remember Silva went and beat everybody at 205 and then dropped to 185 to beat all of them. I don't think he'll drop to 170. Silva has got the right to showboat. He is proving to be the best ever. A lot of people hated Ali for his mouth but when you can back it up......... I think Jones' real test is next. I'm surprised to see him get a title shot this fast. He did dominate last night though. Shoggun is a big step up from Bader.

Yup I did. Was kinda let down with the overall action. The kick Silva landed was sick though! Hope Belfort gets another shot at him.

I saw a TV show last week talking about the same study. I find it very interesting. Similar studies have also shown this to be true with other predators such as coyotes. I wonder how similar studies would go with prey animals? Perhaps it's part of how mother nature is balanced?

....

If you use ice, you don't want to exchange the water.

Lund, the fishing for smallmouth is better on the lake. It has been tough to target just smallmouth the last few years. At least they haven't congregated in the Spring as often as they did in 2004-2006. But, a lot of times when you find one, you find a good one. I would start with main lake pea gravel points. Then again, we'll know better when the time comes. Maybe it will be their comeback year? Bring some 3 1/2 in. tubes in green pumpkin with 1/4 oz.slide in heads if you wanna try them. Not a bad idea to bring some tubes anyway.

I think it looks like it's gonna be a better jerkbait style lure or a ripping lure and possibly one that's gonna offer something a little different. I hope they'll put off close to the amount of vibration a trap does. I'll be giving this lure a go!