Randall

Here is the swimbait fish from early last week.

I have been fishing Horton for a few days over the past week or so. The fish there are fat and healthy and feeding well. The Hydrilla is starting to get up in shallow water and there are a few other types of grass growing out to eight to nine feet deep. Last week we did well on a bunch of different baits. Topwaters and surface type swimbaits were working early and as the clouds came in. There was also a little schooling action down near the dam around mid morning. After the sun gets up there is a good deep water bite on crankbaits, jigs, and jighead and worms. Friday I had five fish that went around twenty five pounds in about ten casts after finding a school of big fish on a channel ledge. Some of the long points with deep timber are also working later in the day. We also got a few big fish early in the week on swimbaits fished on shallow creek ledges. We have been fishing anywhere from one to twenty feet and catching fish. Sunday my tournament partner Adam Stanton (aka Doghouse) and myself fished the JBA tournament at Horton. It was tough early and our swimbait and topwater bite didn't work out so we moved out to some deep timber in twenty feet of water and put three fish in the boat on a splitshot rig. Then we decided to move to a creek ledge as rain and storms moved in. We didn't get anything on a crankbait at first but put on worms and caught over twenty fish and got soaked as the rain fell hard for the next few hours. We finally culled up to a fourteen pound limit which was enough to win. Second place was around thirteen pounds and they also caught their fish from the same area we were fishing. We missed big fish by just ounces as a 4.25 won big fish and ours weghed 4.10. First photo is our two best fish from the JBA tournament. Second photo in the next post is a swimbait fish from early last week. Didn't have the batteries for the camera with me on Friday when we were really wearing them out and had six or seven big fish over four pounds.

At the time I figured out how to make the Strike King/Lucky Strike baits work better the Berkley baits were just getting ready to be released. Since the Strike King baits had different sizes including the big one I never tried the Berkley baits and we were killing them on the Strike King baits. But, Looking at them in the store it looks like Berkley did the best job and made the baits much closer to a Basstrix.

I had been fishing the Basstrix swimbaits for a few years. But after word got out about how they caught fish and the small local tackle shop I had been getting them from couldn't get them anymore ,due to Basstrix policy of only selling to one shop, I had to find a substitute. Then all the knockoffs started coming out but most were different in one way or another and didn't have the same action or catch fish the same since they were missing the hollow body, right size tail, appearance , etc. So, I started looking at different modifications I could do to make use of these knockoff baits. Out of the knockoffs I found the Lucky Strike/Strike King bait was the only one that could get close in appearance and design at the time but they made some major mistakes when making the bait that caused problems. The tail was way too large to get the right swimming action and the body was way to thick for a good hookset. I soon started cutting on the tail to make it smaller and trying different hooks and rigs. I soon figured out the weighted hook makers didn't know what the baits needed to work and they were doing the same thing the swimbait knockoff companies were doing which was just getting something on the market fast and not doing anything new to make the baits better. They just took big hooks and added weight. I knew what I needed in a hook to work on these baits but nobody made it. Then one day I went fishing with Tom Branch who is the Prostaff Manager of Fish Harder Companies (Picasso and Tru-Tungsten). Tom gave myself and my tournament partner Adam Stanton some baits to try one of which was the big Ish Tube which came with a Picasso 12/0 tube hook. I looked at the hook and thought I had something I could use but didn't have time to try it. Funny thing was we were discussing the mistakes companys were making trying to copy and make Basstrix type baits and then he handed me the tubes. I saw the hook and a little light bulb turned on in my head. So, that afternoon I took the 12/0 hook added a 1/8 oz weight and put it in a the biggest Lucky Strike swimbait with a cut tail and it swam perfect. Now the problem was finding hooks for the smaller size baits. I went to Bass Pro Shop and looked around and found that my favorite hook company makes a hook with the same type design. So Now I had an 11/0 Owner oversize offset worm hook for the 5.5 inch size baits and a 7/0 for the next size bait down. The longer shank would give a better hook set and tighter action to the bait. I also had pinch on weights to add weight and could use heavier or lighter weights to adjust the speed and depth I wanted to fish. Here are the photos of what the finished bait rigged should look like, the cut tail, and the hook. This is the 5.5 inch bait with an 11/0 Owner. I used super glue ,pliers and pinch on weights to add the weight. Just cut the tail like the one shown in the photo. You can experiment with how much tail you want to cut off since different amounts cut off will change the action. Notice how the hook comes out of the head with no bends in the way to catch grass. These are deadly over grass but it's a pain to fish most other swimbait hooks with weight added because they catch grass where the hook comes out of the head. See how when the hook point is farther back there is less plastic in the way for the hook to get through and past since the bait is thinner here. Its also father back when the fish overtakes the bait from behind or just gets the tail. My hook-up ratio is very high since I started using this hook. More than doubled the number of fish hooked. The longer shank hook and cut tail together get rid of most of the roll over which was a problem on many of these baits. It has a nice tight kick and allows for a lighter weight and slower retrieve to be used. I often just use 1/16 oz weight on larger baits and no weight sometimes on the small baits. I know Tackle Warehouse carries the hooks of both brands if you want to try them. There are a few companies that make the pinch on type weights. I got mine from a local shop. This should help you catch more fish and stop wasting money on hype and things that don't work. I have caught five twentyfive pound plus five fish limits off of this setup this spring and summer so this works for me. Now the Basstrix are a little easier to get then they were a few months ago but I have decided I like these better with this setup.

I have had a wake shad since the first king shads came out. ;)I heated up the bill with a hot knife in the back until it melted and bent down the bill so it would wake. Works much better that way. Looks like my secrect got out.

That's sick! Post up the pics! Mattlures bluegill caught this one out of Lake Varner which is east of Atlanta last year.

What lakes do you fish? What types of forage do the lakes have. I know what works as far as swimbaits on most of Atlanta's lakes. Fishing here is different than fishing in California but I do catch fish on big eight and ten inch swimbaits. They are not always the best baits though and I catch plenty of big fish including a fifteen pound twelve ounce fish on baits six inches or less. I am as low budget as they come but it's the biggest waste of money to buy something cheap that don't work. You might need a swimbait rod and you might not. You might just need to fish a different lake or a different location in the lake and use a worm or jig to catch a five to ten pounder. But a swimbait is a good tool and often the best tool when used in the right place and time to catch big fish.

I am still here. Just started back fishing this past week after we had the baby. Spent two days down in Henry County at Towaliga and caught over thirty one day and over fifty another day. Caught them on swimbaits, soft plastics and jigs. I will get around to posting more reports soon. It's just been real busy with a new baby.

The producer of the Video was Jud Bender. You might try his phone number at 318-747-9641 to get a copy. It's a good video.

I know some of you here were wondering if my wife had decided to have the baby yet. Well, here is another future fishing partner for me in the Kirkpatrick family along with my other two best fishing partners. She weighed 6 pounds 14 oz and everything went fine with both mom and the baby. Her name is AnnaBeth Joy Kirkpatrick. Notice the outfit she wore home from the hospital has a fish on it. ;D

No thanks. We don't have those around here but if I remember correctly their food poisioned or killed some people at one time. At that point I put a reminder back in my mind somewhere that if I ever saw one not to stop and eat.

I disagree. Flurocarbon is the best line for feel on long casts with a bow in the line. Braid is the worst for feel. Braid is only sensitive when it is pulled all the way tight with heavier weights. At all other times it is the least sensitive line with almost no feel at all. Fluro is dense and the bite transmits up the slack line much better. Mono and braid are less dense and have less sensitivity. But even with fluro you will not feel some fish on semi-slack line. First thing after the bait hits bottom don't think as the first movement of the rod and reel being one to move the bait but just tighten the line and feel for the fish. The bait will move anyway as you feel for the fish all the way back to the boat or shore.

We didn't have a working reliable scale with us that we thought was correct (old batteries in mine) and didn't want to stress the fish in this hot weather to find a better scale. Cheap scale said only 9lbs. Bass Resource weight calculator says over twelve pounds at 26.5 inches and 18 inch girth. I am going to say the fish probably weighed between these two weights somewhere. The head on the fish was huge though and I would like to catch this fish when its fat and full of eggs in winter or early spring.

Here are a few photos from my last few trips to Varner and one from a new lake I fished called Towaliga. My favorite time of year to fish is the first couple weeks of June. All the bass have recovered from the spawn and have bunched up on structure. The fish are predicatable. If you know what to look for you can go to a big fish spot and call your shot on a big fish at times. Pull up to the spot and just say the big fish will be right there. These photos are from the last five trips. And there were many more fish in the eight pound plus range that were lost. It's hard to land all the big ones on light line and spinning tackle but it's fun. We didn't just get the big fish either. Many of these trips ended in twenty to fifty fish being caught as well with a lot of three and four pound bass. Most all of them were caught on split shot rigs with eight pound line and a straight tail worm. I did get into a big bunch of big hybrids one day with swimbaits and had eight over six pounds. Last year this bite lasted until late July before it slowed down so I hope it works out that way this year. It's been fun and I can't wait to get back out there.

????? Does your "major in biology" qualify you to make such a statement? A degree in biology alone is really not that impressive to me. There are total idoits that get a degree. Just because you get some knowledge in school doesn't mean you can use that knowledge well to perform in the real world once you get out. I don't think it would qualify me for really anything other than to go apply for a job somewhere that just wanted that piece of paper. I chose not to go that route and do something that depended more on performance. I have learned much more about fish and their enviroment since leaving college as well as the fact that much of what was taught as fact was not true or just unproven theory. My job every day depends on the fact that I can help my clients catch fish under all conditions in all seasons in many different types of lakes. Rarely do I fail at this and I have been doing it for a while now. It's been my experience that most fisheries biologist just use what they have been taught and take it as fact whether it is right or wrong. Blueback herring would ruin all the Ga lakes they were in according to biologists in GA just a few years ago. They just based this on what they were taught and told. Now if you were to fish Lanier or Clarks Hill before the bluebacks and after you would realize how ignorant the biologist who made the statement was. Lanier became the best spotted bass lake in the US after the bluebacks were introduced. And Clarks Hill became a great LM bass lake. I could go on and on with example after example of unproven stuff that is taught and used by biologists that is just as wrong. From all my days on the water I see and learn way more than they could about catching fish and how fish live in their enviroment than most can at their job. I am not saying this is true about all biologist but it is true of many of them. Most, unless it is in a competitive enviroment, don't have to perform well to keep their job. So, they just keep doing things the same way whether it is right or wrong.

Exactly, Just my feelings on the subject. If anyone wants to go learn all thay can about the scientific side of things then thats fine with me. I am just relating my experience from both sides of things.

Knowledge Constipation and Detail Head. I heard a motvational type speaker use these two terms years ago and he called them the worst two failure diseases. This applys to all things we do in life and not just fishing. Being a biology major in college and trying to learn all I could about bass biology since then I have a lot of knowledge about bass and their ecosystems. There is nothing wrong with that and I have used that knowledge along with a lot of trail and error while fishing to come up with a simple system that I use to catch fish to catch fish. The thing is that my system is simple and none of the complicated details of bass biology are running through my head while I am fishing. It all comes down to forage and bass location and how they relate to each other at different times of the year. If you try to make it more complicated than that then your head will be so full of crap that you will not be able to get any information out to use and your confidence suffers as you fail. You will be confused and thats called knowledge constipation. You can also be so consumed with unimportant details that you will be confused and not be able to do the simple things right and that is called detail head. Both things will lead to failure. My other problem with the scientific approach to bass fishing is that much of the science you hear from biologist is just wrong. If you listen to all of it you will fill your head full of lies that will hurt your fishing rather than help it. Fishing as I know it is nothing more than a belief system that we use to try to catch fish. The more simple you can make your belief system the better. There is nothing wrong with taking new knowledge to refine your fishing belief system to make it better as long as it stays simple. There is something wrong with making your system so complicated with biology it confuses you to the point you can't catch a fish.

Only true to a point. If its an easy meal and worth the effort abig bass will eat it. Sometimes big baits can be harder to capture and swallow and big bass will not touch them because they have learned to be efficient. I personally catch more big bass on 5 to 8 inch baits than I do on nine inch plus baits. But, I will at times throw a bigger bait when I believe bass to be feeding on larger forage.

Best time of the day to throw topwater is midday. ;D "Topwater only works in the am" is a myth. Its only true for those who don't know how to adjust the the conditions and keep on catching them on top. In the extreme heat of summer (over 100) with a 95 degree water temp I went out fishing with Mike D of Lunkerville and caught shallow topwater fish at high noon. It was hot and the fishing was slow but the fish still hit on top. You can see it in the "Georgia on My Mind " show at www.lunkerville.com. Clear baits, fast retrieves, and fishing close to cover are all tricks I use to get strikes on top in the middle of the day. I even have a top secret buzzbait I make for the middle of the day. It will not roll over at blazing fast speeds and it has a clear skirt. The best topwater bite on deep spotted bass and smallmouth lakes here in GA is almost always at mid day on bright sunny days with just a little wind. I often fish shallow weedy lakes in July and August and tell the people I am fishing with just to bring topwaters and that there is no need to start before 11am. The big ones don't bite early. The best topwater bite I see all year for big fish is in July and August in less than five feet of water in the middle of the day. Now with all that being said early in the am or at night aren't bad either.

Fiberglass or aluminum boat? If you epoxy the transducer inside an aluminum boat with that model or probably any model it will not work well. Had a buddy try it after I told him not to and he had problems much like you are having. Its always best to mount the transducer outside the hull.

The pattern I fished with spawning fish will just about be over by this weekend. Most of the fish should be post spawn in that area. I would try plastics and topwater.

Not True.

None of the knock offs swim like the original straight out of the package and most of the weighted hooks being sold out there don't help the action any. But, after using Basstrix for a few years and suddenly not being able to get them anymore I have learned to modify the Shadalicious and Bass Magic to swim as good as if not better than the original and you get way more sizes to chose from. The Berkley one is the closest without modification and the Mattlures minnow swims great but is a different bait all together. I will post a modified bait with photos of how to do it sometime in the next couple of weeks since it seems like it's what everyone is looking for and I have had a few people ask me what I am doing different to make mine work.

Varner still isn't bad and is still one of the best in the US for big fish but it's just different than past years. The lake just keeps changing year to year and the grass carp even in the very limited numbers is making the lake fish much tougher for most since the bass are deeper. The hybrids just keep the lake and LM bass from their full potential since they compete with the LM for the deep water areas I will say if they continue to stock more grass carp until all the grass is gone and continue to stock more hybrids it will be over as far as producing 10 lb fish. Burley the Dinkmaster would still be happy there though since nothing would change for him.

Here is his eight pounder.