CJ

Great looking fish! When you start understanding how fish are relating to structure or in this case cover, you usually won't be denied. I believe you have understood this for a long time. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Roger! Chris

As mentioned docks can be good but I think it takes a few days of those conditions before the fish get on them good. Regardless I have found fish to suspend on days like that. I've caught them in the past by lifting a finesse jig or shakey head trick worm way off the bottom. The fish will hit them on the fall very lightly, bites will be nearly undetectable. Depth and structure types can be key and submerged brushpiles are the cover I would look for.

The BFL weights were way down yesterday. 16-11 won. The fish are in a major transition phase right now and they are scattered as bad as I have seen them in a long time. My advice would be to go to Barkley if possible.

I'll share something that has happened twice during post spawn to a former partner and myself. We were fishing a spot that I nicknamed the dinner table. It is a flat that is 12' on top and drops off into 16-18'. We were fishing that spot during a tournament one day and had been there for about 15 minutes when I broke off a smaller fish (maybe 14-16 in.). That little fish kept coming to the top trying to throw that big crankbait over and over again. All of a sudden, we started catching fish nearly every cast...good fish, while the little fish kept coming to the top jumping and rattling the lure like crazy. Maybe it was a coincidence but it didn't seem to scare any fish off. This happened again a couple years later on a different spot while jig fishing. I will say one thing I hate to see and that's when I catch a fish on deeper structure and the school follows the caught fish up to the boat. It's neat to see the other fish but for some reason the bite seems to always die once that happens.

I'm in! Good luck to everybody!

Pretty sure that is an Xcalibur

That was cool! I wonder if she will let him feed her by hand again?

That's cool! BTW, Thanks to all for the complements!

You're coming at a good time. The Elites will be here then and the fish should be fresh on the ledges!

You need to keep in mind that one day you will have to sell yourself to companies to get sponsored. A college education will give you an edge. Most of the elites and hundreds of other pros, keeping in mind they're not all tournament fisherman, spend more time doing seminars or publicly speaking, writing articles, etc., than actually fishing. Some pros have fished their way to the top because they were that good but they were also lucky more than once somewhere down the line. First and foremost, you have to be a great angler but with new technology being incorporated into a booming industry I believe a college education would be very wise. There are thousands of anglers out there that are good enough to fish at the top level. The anglers who are fishing at the top level had an edge somewhere, sometime. They also went all in and got a lucky break or two. If you really want it, you can do it but you better be ready to go all in. You can factor out the luck some by giving yourself every edge and a good education is a start. Good luck! You can do it if you really, really, really want it!

Nice video! Looked like the fish were feeding pretty good. Way to break the ice!

I'm still kinda beside myself after yesterdays fishing trip on the big pond. It doesn't get much better than getting out with a great fishing buddy and really a great friend. Paul (yes, the Paul) and I got out for a little while yesterday to see what we could do with high water on Ky. Lake. It's nice when you got a fishing buddy that is innovative and open to suggestions with you. When two die hard bass addicts get together and gel by sharing their experiences and knowledge, you will eventually figure something out. It didn't take long for us to start setting the hook on several keeper fish which made for a lot of fun. We caught several nice 2-4 lb. fish. It seemed like everywhere we went, we caught fish. Then when I felt this one bite, I expected it to be another nice 3 lber but I didn't turn this girl as I did the others, she turned me! When she came up all I could think was, "WOW, she big!" After a great fight and Paul reached down and lipped her for me, I already knew I had a new PB! 8 Lbs. 13 Oz. Thanks Paul, couldn't of thought of anybody I would rather been with me for this catch!

It was definently an eventful day! I was fishing the north end of KY Lake when Paul called me at noon and ask me to come down and go fishing with him. When Paul calls, I go! So I hauled hind end back to the ramp, dropped the boat by the house and headed to some beautiful country in Tennessee. I'm really grateful to have such a good friend who has taught me a lot about catching big fish. Speaking of someone who has shared their knowledge....hey Roger! I'm glad you still get on here. The bass still make it nearly impossible to make theories out of our hypothesis. It's still fun to ponder.

Ice coffee w/creamer must be an aquired taste. I think a couple 3lbers in cold, muddy water is impressive! Way to go!

That's a nice chunk Paul! Glad to see you haven't lost your touch bud.

Too cool Big-O!!! I love the looks of that bait!

The best structure all depends on the conditions like the season, the weather, and most importantly the current. Everything I fish offshore will almost always feature a point, turn, or horseshoe somewhere nearby but the sweatspot is usually the nearest cover. One thing that always holds true on my home lake is that it needs to have a hard or rocky bottom and bait must be present.

I say get one and wear it. Bass Resource does give to everybody that logs on here, that is everybody who comes on here with the right intentions or mindset.

WOW!!! Great stories and pics on this thread! My best day happened in March 2013. I was fishing a small tournament on KY Lake with a good friend of mine. I knew we were on some good fish but a mega school of smallmouth pulled up on my spot this day. While our competion was out slinging A-Rigs, I was jerk-pluggin' 4-5 lb. smallies and a couple of big green fish showed up for the party too! We ended up with 5 fish weighing 26.82 lbs. We threw around 20 smallmouth back ranging from 3-4 lbs. I did have 2 fish straighten the hooks on my jerkbait and 1 broke my line.

Hey guys, been awhile since I've been on here. I glanced over the responses and didn't see mention of the Megabass 110 Vision +1? RW and Dwight, ya'll better add one to your arsenal! Brownfish really like em!

If I would have been your partner, I would have got the fish out for you too bud! Then I would have unhooked it, told you I dropped it, then put it on the end of my line! HAR!!! Just playin' Big O! Nice fish and way to go!!!

I did. At 3:30-4:30 into the video, he shows a rig with 4 dummies and one lure featuring a hook. He says it's legal beens it features only one hook. I do see where he is saying you can't have 2 dummies plus 3 hooked lures. I think they are leaving some gray area. Still I'm wondering how BASS is going to interpet their rule as far as the use of dummy lures on the rig when they fish where it's not prohibited.

That's a good video for the TN anglers RW. I would say a must see for TN anglers who are planning on fishing the rig. Still it is saying a rig with 5 lures but only 1 hook is legal (3:30 into the video). Also noticed how they were saying the umbrella rig was killing stripers yet they haven't noticed this to be a problem with bass.

I would say somewhere in Texas. If I was thinking of the "capitol", I think it should feature a fishery where an angler could experience all the different techniques to locating and catching bass. Plus it would need to produce quanity and quality.

I do stuff like that all the time. I've been wondering myself how exactly the rule will be written. An A-rig that would only have one hook would still be a great lure. Most of the time when I catch just one fish, it will be on the center swimbait. Plus I've noticed when it gets short struck, if I'll kill the rig the fish will usually come back for it. To me, what makes the rig so deadly goes back to how efficient a mature bass is. One baitfish may not be worth a chase but 5 of em'? I wonder if it will be legal to put dummy (hookless) lures on the rig. This would also make the rig much more weedless.