Brian Needham

will do Jeff. local lake yesterday on what I thought to be the perfect spot........hump between a point and island top was 9 foot and dropped off to 20 with the biggest ball of bait I had seen all day, plus a little wind blowing through it. First cast hauled out a 3.5 pounder off it, then nothing. I was really surprised. I am really looking forward to learning this, as I find it to be a REALLY fun way to fish. meantime, I am googling up some stuff to read.

whatever you choose make sure you get the 580G, don't settle for anything else. also, make sure you try on several different frames to find your perfect set.

CHOOSING A LENS COLOR Blue mirror: 10%percent light tranmission made for open water delivers maximum contrast and color in full sun while elimineting glare. 400G,400P,580G Green Mirror: 10% light transmission. offers enhanced visual acuity for fishing inshore, flats, rivers, and streams. 400G, 580G Gray: 12% light transmission. perfect all around choice for sports on water and land. Maintains color saturation and natural contrast in medium to bright sun conditions. 400G, 400P, 580G,580P Sliver: 12% light transmission. optimize light transmission and enhance colors. Perfect for sight fishing or any outdoor activity with variable light. 580G only Copper: 12% light tranmission made for sight fishing, driving, and everyday activities. Cuts glare and enhances contrast and color, providing eye comfort in any conditions. 580G, 580P Amber: 12% light transmission. Excellent all around lens that delivers the brightest field of vision. Great choice for fishing, driving and activities where high contrast is needed. 400G,400P, 580P

I like this idea!

I am trying to get more into it and do more offshore work. So far, at the roadtrip and since, it has been fun. its a great feeling to find em, see em, then catch one! plus the quality of fish is better too. but there in lies the issue....I will find them and turn around to throw at them I mostly only catch 1 and on the first cast??? Its weird.....I chunk a big jig out there and first cast WHAM, fish on!!!! but after that, nothing..... so what gives? I know there are more down there, I see them, and surely that 4#er aint sitting in 20fow all alone. so what do you think?

well I caught a MAGIC FISH, 3.96# today, I think I will just count it ........what's .04 between friends and scale variances, right ? I have to say, I know I smiled so big when I first saw the fish, knowing it was a "big un" and the kids were my first thought..........fishing is going to be extra fun this year for this fact alone. tight lines guys!

Bighead, I should preface that comment better......also I don't want to speak for gene in any way. Here is my guess, I asked gene that while he was fishing just off the river channel, or not far from it, which were the same ledges I idled over looking for fish/baitfish. The current was so strong there, you could cast in front of the boat and by the time you reeled up slack and hopped a 3/4 oz jig, it was behind the boat! to the baitfish not being there, I also believe the current pushed shad around so much that fish hunkered down and just waited behind any current break to be found..... as I followed a couple of huge baitballs for 100s of yards in a short amount of time. with that being said.....depending on how/where your humps were in relation to the main "current" channel, those fish could have indeed been visible on a graph. Or at very least, they dart up to the top/side of the hump, grab a snack, then lay back down. That is only my guess, and probably should be taken with a grain of salt, lol. I totally agree, the best part about the trip was learning something new. I learned something from everyone I fished with, and a better fisherman for it!

We need pictures of these waterfalls.....

what would even make someone THINK that was even possible.... so he got up them, my question is how does he not rip off the lower unit agian coming down the fall???

the catching end of it is the easy part of the equation......yes bold statement, let me explain. Pros, take one bite and build the entire day around it and refine it through the 3-4 days of the tournament. Pros have to "manage" their fish, while we get lucky to catch 15-20#s on a saturday afternnoon. All fine and dandy but can you do it thurs-sun? we can all catch fish, as it is the easy part.......finding the active fish in 50k+acre impoundments that will hold up over 4 days, thats the hard part. Running down the bank catching 12#s aint gonna cut it when the pros are pulling 20#+ off a small little cut 200 yards offshore. Those guys that fish for a living are nutso good.... they are so intune with the lake and notice stuff that the normal guy never even thinks about, much less notices. and thats just the art of "being at one" with the fish, and doesnt even begin to cover casting to "teacups" no matter how thick the cover...... JMO

best attractant is a jig and rage craw on the back of it. everything else covers scent more than anything. That said I love JJ's and megastrike

I am with rhino, as I know you wanted to attend the roadtrip. It looks to be the chance of luck you didn't. Take 'er easy and get better!

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/gallery/album/751-pickwick-roadtrip/ here are some pics. I think my bruises on my rib cage are starting to heal now, Powerbomb hooksets all week jig fishing is hard work.

Zip, your son is AWESOME! Great time meeting you BOTH!!!

LOL, I don't think it could have fit in the camera!!!! I am trying to post a bunch of pics but my files are too big....

and from the opening evening sorriee to the telling everyone goodbye it was a total blast. I did not meet anyone the entire week that was not a complete gentlemen or lady. The eats were great, the fishing was great, the nightly speakers were awesome. You owe it to yourself to try to make one the trips. Pickwick is now my new favorite lake! There are MANY great people here on the boards and I am glad I got to meet and fish with some of them last week. Thanks for a life long memory!

Road Trip Chronicles Get there Wednesday morning and meet bassinisaddicting. We get on the water at 8. Make a short run to the dam and immediately start catching fish on a jig. Wind kinda blew us out and I was still jittery. Make a short run to a creek catch fish, and a gar. We replicated this throughout the day. Met up with 00mod and fished a windy bluff to knock some out on shakeyheads………the pattern begins. Total fish: 19 with several 2#s and big fish of 3 ½ # Highlight of the day: Jon catching his 1st ever jig fish (he’s hooked now) Quote: “don’t let there be a jig bite up in here…..” Thursday Fished with 00mod. We start at dam again and knock out 23 fish in 2 hours. Ran some creeks and points but got on some bluff walls with current breaks and started to find quality. Bite dies down so we run to a big open bay and catch more fish…..pattern getting stronger. Graph deep fish on points but wind too much…. Total fish: 49 lots of 2#ers and a few 2 ½# smally big fish 3 ½ Highlight of the day: jeff catching his PB drop shot fish. Quote: "these buck bass are just cruising these shallow, looking to munch on my drop shot." Friday I fish alone, as there is a strong chance of rain and I didn’t want to pair up and then not fish. I decided to head out later….run the history spots from the last 2 days and pick up 4 fish. On the way in I notice a point in the protected marina cove the depth I was looking for. I sidescanned the flat/hump/point and saw bait and predator fish. I dropped a buoy, turned around and caught 3 out of the first 5 cast all solid 2#ers. I saw swabby and Jon idling by and told them to drop trolling motor cause I felt like we were going to knock their lights out, as these fish seemed more active and bit harder…..naturally the bite goes cold….I follow the pod down a ways and catch another one. Only fished for 3.5-4 hours Total fish: 8, all pretty good ones. I feel now we got a solid pattern if the weather will help. Highlight of the day: catching my 1st “offshore structure” fish. Finding them, marking them, and turning around to catch them was an awesome feeling. Regret of the day: Not running more water and staying out to fish longer. I needed a nap. Saturday I fish with Glenn. I really felt confident we could catch offshore today, as the FLW boys were knocking out lights on blackbass. I ran to some spots I caught earlier in the week and other spots I wanted to check….. never really found what I wanted, and I got impatient really quick…. Thank goodness Glen had a solid shallow fish pattern. We run to his spot and Glenn quickly starts kicking my head with a senko. He figured out with a quickness that they wanted a subtle do nothing fall, and color didn’t matter. Total fish about 40 with Glenn catching at least 25 of those, with plenty of 2#ers mixed in. Highlight of the day: Hearing lots of great info from Glenn and getting a senko lesson. I feel confident on how to fish a senko now. THANKS GLEN!!! Quote of the day: “Needham, I wish you knew what this felt like.” As he was outfishing me by at least 8-1 at the time. I quickly rigged up a senko. (edit: change "some" to "plenty" of 2#ers, since I know how to judge tn river fish now) Sunday I fished with Kerri. Started off slower, as I was trying to fish deeper fish. We started to flip trees and picked up some fish in the next few hours. We ran into Gene and Jon and asked why I couldn’t see fish on the graph. Gene informed me with so much current they were flat on the bottom and you had to trust they were there. We looped around them and headed back into a cove. Flipped more trees and bush and caught some fish albeit slower. Coming out of the cove I threw across a rock point I just “hunched” had a quick drop…..then it happened. Rock, rock, rock……..THUNK, rod load! 3 ¾ in the boat!!! Few mintues later another, then Kerri boats a 2 ½ . I really thought we had found a school of 3#ers. We beat that point up for an hour until we had to go. It was really a classic textbook spot, a point with 2 rock ledges with milfoil on one side. TOTAL BLAST and great feeling to know they are there but more importantly to understand WHY they were there. Those fish either just came off the bed or waiting to go back in, either way they were looking to chomp on a ¾ ounce jig. Total fish: about 25 Highlight of the day: finding the big bite and understanding why Quote: “get the net, I got a SEA BEAST!” Regret: having to leave. I really think we had them pegged from that last spot and given the chance I REALLY think we could have put the beatdown on some big fish.

Pickwick Lake elevation: 416.78 ft. and rising at the time of this report. Last week’s and weekend’s rainfall has raised lake level about 2 feet over summer pool. For bass, anglers are catching good numbers of fish, but the quality bite is a bit tougher to come by. 40-60 fish days are common right now, but most of the fish are less 15 inches long. It took 23lbs to win a local team tournament this past weekend. The spawn is continuing, but fluctuating lake levels has hindered it somewhat. A variety of lures are working right now. Some anglers are reporting a decent buzzbait bite in some of the backwater areas where grass and bushes are flooded. Others are throwing weightless and T-rigged soft plastics for those more lethargic fish. Some anlgers have resorted to using shakeyheads to catch some of these fish as well. ^^^^^ this was the fishing report published on 5/1/13, Wends. of the road trip. And basically EXACTLY how it went down. Glenn, Rhino and others were on the senko bite Gene, 00mod, myself and others were on the shakeyhead/ jig bite and Bassinisaddicting Fishydaddy and others reported a topwater bite Are we good as a group or what????

I had the pleasure to fish with both Glenn and Kerri at this year's roadtrip. I have a pretty good pulse for who in the world are genuine good people, and these two fit the bill. While fishing with Glenn, I was able to hear the story of BassResource and its beginnings. I also heard the beginnings, motives, and accomplishments of Tackle the Storm. I was moved by the concept and thought behind it, to know what can be achieved in the heart of a child. Simply the smile it must bring knowing they have lost everything, but in some small way reach towards normalcy by fishing. A sport we all love and ourselves would hate to lose. As I told Glenn, the world is a cold, cruel, evil place and that's not going to change. But to know that I can somehow change that for a child for the price of a pack of plastics or crankbait......well I am all in. so here is what I am going to do, I hope you may also follow suit. For every "big un" I catch this year I will donate to Tackle the Storm, enough to purchase a child a rod and reel. Everyone's "big un" will be different, as everyone's water is different, so you decide. I have chosen 4#.

I had a blast all week. GOOD TIMES! I am going to try to get a full report up with pics in the fishing reports section in the next few days.

all said in and done forecast dont look that bad....http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Pickwick+Dam+TN+USTN0397:1:US This time tomorrow I hope to be on the water, see ya there!!!!

I use vmc spinshot hooks, but that's not the point. If I am getting bites but not landing fish or hooking fish in the bottom lip I will change colors. The bites tell me I have the bait and profile. But fish coming off or hooked in bottom lip tells me they don't like it enough to inhale it. You can also add scent it will help as well Just my opinion and experience

the Joe Thomas show adds a "zing" with every hookset. but the Faircloth hooksets and this seasons of major league fishing is just good ole singing braid.

long mike, I just had a friend get that warning on his truck last year (chevy avalanche).. I just text him to see what fixed it. He said they had to get a new wiring harness, I don't know which one, but I wish you luck and hope it is a quick fix. see ya on the water!