Randall

It's been a long time since I fished the lake but I always caught more LM in the backs of creeks and more smallmouth around deep rock points, deep rock walls that drop straight down into deep water etc. The farther out of the rivers and creeks you are the more SM you should catch.

My trailer is on the lake bottom when I launch but you can back in and push the boat off the trailer pretty easy. Would be nice if the hurricane leaves us a little extra water.

Key to both lakes right now is knowing how to fish grass and offshore structure. Horton is the Atlanta areas number two big fish lake right now. It has a lot of eight and nine pounders if you can get them to bite. The fish in the photo came from Horton last week and was over ten pounds. The fish at Horton are in a lot of the deep timber on the lake as well in the grass so you have two choices on where to fish but best spots for both are way offshore. I have been fishing jighead worms, crankbaits, jigs and swimbaits over the past few months. Topwaters and big topwater swimbaits are working on cloudy days and early in the am. In a couple weeks there should be a lipless crankbait and small swimbait bite that should be great as more fish and shad move shallow if the ramps stay open. Kedron has a deep grass pattern going right now on offshore structure. Humps, channels, long points, old under water bridges etc. all hold fish. The normal numbers for Kedron though are about twenty 10-12 inch fish for every one good fish so be prepared to go though a lot of small fish to find a good one or two. A 1/8 jighead with a worm on the deep grass lines always catches fish here June -September. Also you can go to www.lunkerville.com to see the "Georgia On My Mind" episode where I fished with Mike D on one of the hottest toughest days I can ever remember fishing on Kedron.

It's true down here too. Most of my better fish in August and September are 10 feet or less. The big ones here often suspend over deep water near big flats about eight feet down over fifteen to twenty feet. They like it over or near deep water but are still pretty shallow and can be tough to catch.

Last week I caught a bunch of three and four pounders on plastics and swimbaits but had a hard time getting a big fish. Late in the week I fished one lake in the AM and another in the PM looking for the lake with the best big fish bite . Got a 9.5 pounder then switched lakes and got a 10 pounder right at sunset. Both were caught over deep grass beds on a 9 inch Mattlures Woody. Neither fish hit hard but just sucked it down. Here is a photo of the biggest fish.

Rebels have a longer lower lip that pulls the bait down. To get better action out of it you will have to sand the lip down like this one.

Here is the way I rig some of the knockoffs. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1216323177/8#8 On Matt's baits I use a 4/0or 5/0 Owner Rig'n Hook and the same type of pinch on weights.

I'm diggin the Plasma Point hooks with the screw in the front. 5/0 http://www.***.com/descpageTERMRSTRIKE-RSPPH.html If you go into a tackle shop that has the Plasma Point hooks look closely at the point of the hooks on about ten different packs of them. My guess is you will instantly see what I am talking about and no longer dig them. Around half of the packs in three different tackle shops here in GA have bent points. They all ordered at different times so it wasn't one bad run with a problem.

Mattlures minnow for a four inch bait and the Basstrix for a larger bait. Matt's bait has the profile of a threadfin shad while the Basstrix and others don't. None of the basstrix copies I have tried swim like a threadfin shad without some modification.

No wrong way to fish it. It works any way you rig it as do most worms but my favorite way is on a jighead for that style of worm.

This fish was caught eight times that I know of out of my boat and I have had friends like the ones in the photos that have caught this fish as well. This isn't the only DD fish I have caught more then once. I had someone ask me how many DD fish I had caught a few months ago and I counted this fish twice since it was over ten pounds twice when I caught it. Now if I caught a ten pounder off the bed twice in a one day I probably wouldn't count it twice. I don't feel right about it if its on a bed but do if it's not.

Last week I had some time one afternoon to do some afternoon fishing at Tribble Mill Park. Senko77 lives nearby so he came out to see if he could get a swimbait fish. We had a hard time getting a swimbait bite so we fished some worms and got some good fish on worms. Pretty soon though we got some clouds and a little breeze blowing and the fish turned on. So we threw the swimbait for about thirty minutes until the sun and slick water came back later. About five minutes after throwing the swimbait we both caught a fish. As many times as Ryan has been fishing with me this is his first swimbait fish!!!! It wasn't huge or even big by my standards but now he knows how to catch one so I know he will get some more. Another swimbaiter is born! Here are photos of our two best fish from the trip. Not bad for a hot summer day.

Welcome back!!!!

What usually keeps people from catching swimbait fish in dirty water is that they don't get the bait in the smaller strike zone of the fish. In clear water fish will move over a longer distance to hit a swimbait. In dirty water the bait has to be closer to the fish. I have caught some big limits on swimbaits in murky water but it takes knowing exactly the depth and location the fish are at and being able to keep the bait at that depth close to the fish. All the fish in the photo were suspended in murky water but if the swimbait was running higher than the fish were holding you didn't get bit. Get the bait down to the exact level of the fish and you got a strike.

For $60 you can get two Mattlures Woodys. 3:16 makes good wake baits as well. You could also get a Tru-Tungsten bait and have a sinking bait also without buying another bait.

If you want to go real value based and spend about fifty bucks Tsunami makes a saltwater rod I use that is good for big swimbaits. Downside is it is only seven feet long so you lose some casting distance. I use it for short pitch casts in areas with overhanging trees etc. so I like the shorter length.

;D Here's a link to Matt's Woody. ;D ;D ;D http://www.mattlures.com/woodwaker.htm

Thanks Matt!! That means alot coming from a guy like yourself. It is in my future plans to enter one of the HBC tournaments but not right now. Maybe the tournament will come to Florida, SC or GA sometime.

The only ABT I use any more is the Hard Wag-Tail. Its different in the fact that it wakes the surface with just tail movement like many soft swimbaits. Another hard swimbait that is affordable is the Mattlures Woody. 3:16 wake baits are good also but cost a little more. I like the Tru-Tungsten baits as well.

I had one before they were King Kongs. ABT made the first baits and Strike King put their name on them later. They will catch fish and will catch big fish but I prefer others now. There are way too many baits in the same price range that I like much better now. My suggestion for a bait that is made in the same style as the King Kong (floater with a bill)but swims much better is a Mattlures Woody for around $30.

Here is the big one.

Here is the second photo.

One of my favorite lakes has always been at Tribble Mill park. I used to fish it all the time but haven't been there during the summer since the hydrilla started to grow in the lake. It has made the lake a great summer lake since the fish stay active in the grass during the heat of summer. Funny thing is everbody still calls it Tribble Nibble since the lake has a reputation for nibbling small fish but I have never had that problem. ;D I had an hour or two to go check the lake out since I was over at Stone Mountain which was just a few miles away. I threw a big perch colored swimbait at Stone Mountain and got one fish that weighed around seven pounds. We were just looking for a big one there and didn't try anything else. It was the same way at Tribble Mill throwing mostly a big 3/4 oz jig and a few big swimbaits on my favorite big fish holes. I did catch a couple small ones on worms as I moved from spot to spot around the lake. Got there around 3pm and started catching them pretty good around 4:15 and got them figured out. Then it was time to pull out the big baits and the swimbait rod and see what would happen. By 5:15 I had put some good ones in the boat including one in the 7-8lb range and one that was right around 10lbs or over. I didn't have my scale with me but here are the photos so you can be the judge since I just guessed. I had about ten three pounders like the ones in the first photo that hit a bunch of different swimbaits on the surface and sub surface. The lake has always been full of three pounders and still is. The second photo is one that hit a Mattlures Woody on top after following it for about half the cast. Swimbait fishing takes some good nerves as you see the fish following the bait but will not hit. I tried a little trick and got it to hit. The last photo was the big one that exploded on the Woody. Nothing like seeing a big fish explode on a topwater swimbait and trying to fight it to the boat with water being thrown everywhere. Best part was there were some bank fishermen and fisherwomen cracking jokes about my big baits and the splash they were making for my first few casts with them. They pretty soon stopped laughing and started cheering everytime I hooked a fish on my shark baits and tuna rod. Also, these were just the fish I landed. I had three more big ones come off after they got in the thick grass. Here is the first photo.

I agree and would use Tim Chandler or Spinnerbait Kid as a guide. Tim has more experience and many of my clients have gone out with him in the past and were happy with their trip. You will save a little money with Spinnerbait Kid but he is good and always seems to be on good fish. Guntersville seems to be the hot lake this year in the South and will still be good at that time with all the grass in the lake.

I believe I noticed on the Mattlures site that Matt is selling Woodys again. Its a must have double jointed wake bait. I use the trout color and don't even have trout in most of the lakes I fish. Tru-Tungsten bluegill is a must have as well. Also a must have is a slow sink lipless bait with double joints like a BBZ, Kong, Rago etc. Just get the bait of these three that matches the forage in your lakes best. I don't use my King Kongs anymore since there are so many other baits that do what the King Kong does better.