Randall

If thats a Varner Bass it probably weighed 9.5 pounds. I saw two guys at the ramp showing one off to everyone a couple days back and keeping it out of the water way too long before releasing it. I tried to get it to swim off but it still wasn't doing too well when I left it and didn't look like it would make it. They pretty much killed it just so they could haul it around in a livewell with no pump to show it to the people thay passed and saw at the ramp. They never intended to keep the fish but just wanted to show it off.

I have never even fished a Shimano reel. I used Quantum Reels before but my spinning reels were only lasting a year so someone talked me into trying the Cardinals and I had fished the older Cardinals with good results years ago. My first Cardinal lasted two weeks and the bail broke. I fixed that and the handle part where you hold the crank came off. So , I trashed it and went with the 800 and the handle came off of it and the gears stripped within a month. On the 800 I was using braid at times and catching seven and eight pound fish almost every day but I expect a reel to hold up much better when I pay over $100 for it. I had a guy let me try his US Reel Supercaster on the day the handle came off the 800 and I liked it and bought one. I have been fishing it since June and have not had one problem with it other than it has a small spot between the bail spring and line roller which will catch your line once or twice a day which I fixed with one drop of glue and it performs better than both reels for $80. I may now be a fan of US Reel but I wouldn't have posted what I did about the Cardinals unless I had bought two of them and spent around $200 only to throw them in the garbage.

I am in a one fish tournament next weekend here in GA. One of the clubs here that fishes the small Atlanta lakes took all the big fish winners for the year and made a no entry fee big fish championship. I fished with the club one time on Lake Varner and won big fish but chances are I will have to fish a lake I have never been on before since they are going to draw the lake next Friday and I have never fished or just fished once on the other lakes the club fishes. Still should be fun though not having to fish for anything but one big fish. I have also fished the ***** online tournament at www.bountyfishing.com. They have an ad that comes up on this site. Its a big fish tournament that uses the length of fish instead of weight to fish for $1000. I have fished the tournament three times and won the LM bass tournament twice. The last week I fished I set a new record with a 27.5 inch fish and actually had first through third with three fish I caught but they only let you enter one fish. :(Its for all over North America and has different species of fish each week. Its a neat concept since its based on the length of a fish in a photo but there have been a few people who didn't follow the rules or tried to cheat but they were all caught as far as I know so maybe it will work out since there you can fish all week for one big fish. Its nice to know that you just need one big bite a week to do well there. Maybe there will be a lot more one fish tournaments in the future since it seems like there is a growing intrest in it.

Last two Cardinals I owned (3 and 800) just this past spring were not quality made reels. Both had bail and crank/handle/gear problems. I personally will never own either again. I had a three and upgraded to the 800 only to be disapointed again. I will admit to being tough on spinning reels but neither were worth the money.

Matt, Thanks for just putting my name in there. I did think about trying to enter and had lined up a boat to use and a place to stay if I flew out there for the tournament. But my wife just had a major surgery yesterday and the timing isn't right for me. I may try to get in the tournament in one of the following years though. Would be tough fishing against guys who know the California waters better but who knows what might happen. I always have wanted to fish California why not just start in a tournament. Would be kind of fun seeing the reaction of some of the Western guys if I could actually win the thing and bring that belt to the East coast.

To be honest I wouldn't fish Varner from the bank. I would go to Charlie Elliott instead. There is alot of bank area open at Varner to bank fishermen but its also the portion of the lake I fish the least. The rocks are all dry because of the low water but thats still a OK spot since there is some grass just off the bank before it drops into 20 feet of water. Around the fishing pier and down at the ramp are ok too. All the other banks are just steep banks that you should try to fish close the bank on.

Welcome to the forums. No way to really tell a person what they are doing wrong without knowing a lot more info. You may not even be doing anything wrong. Each lake is different and each day is different so all I can really say is to hang in there and try to learn all you can here. Lots of good info here and lots of good fishermen and people. Many of us are from GA as well.

Nice fish and photos. :)Nice to see you back at it.

Georgia has restocked lake sturgeon here and there are susposed to be some here in the 30 inch range but it is susposed to be 20 years before there is a real fishable population. Your posts about have me wanting to go try and catch one though. Anything that big has to be fun.

I agree with the fact that you have to have the perfect location. I looked at purchasing a tackle shop about five years ago and decided that where I live (Atlanta area) there was no way I could turn a profit. You have to have little or no competition in the area of the store and a high volume of fishermen coming through to make anything. Theres very little profit per item on fishing equipment.

Here is the difference. Most Jigs have an angled line tie and a Texas rig doesn't. The short version is each moves differently and has a different action. Now for the long version and I am sure I will leave something out. A jig or jighead like a Spotsticker , Shakey Head, etc. moves the bait in a more natural manner with the bait swimming more horizonal to the bottom like most things do in nature due to the angle of the line tie. A Texas rig moves up off the bottom with its nose in the air and then falls back with its nose down more often. I hardly ever fish Texas rigs for this reason and almost always use a jighead or jig. Of course there are jigs and jigheads that don't have the angle in the hook and in most cases they are no different than a Texas rig pegged. Also the angled line ties make the bait move through cover and across the bottom differently. On a jig or jighead the hook is almost always facing up and the angle can also keep the line protected more at times. A jig or jighead will also hook more fish in the roof of the mouth for this reason. A jig or jighead also catches on cover differently giving it a different action when pulled across logs, rocks, etc. There are some jigheads that are standup jigheads that stand the bait up off the bottom where Texas rigs can't but that is of the least important difference to me since most fall over if you give them any slack line and I believe that has very little to do with why a bass strikes a jig and has much more to do with marketing a jig toward what fishermen already believe.

My personal feeling is that there is a lack of enough large forage in the lake that the bigger fish need to get fat. The first fish was not as skinny as it looks in the photo. It was a muscular thick and very healthy looking fish. We were in a hurry to get back to the ramp before the lake closed and didn't have time to get good photos. The ten pound fish was skinny and most of the year this is how our bigger fish look. Our Department of Natural Resources here in Georgia has a policy of trying to control shad populations with hybrid striped bass which creates competition for the bass as well as keeps our numbers of large shad that these bigger fish need to get fat in the lake down. There are plenty of long fish in the lake that are 27 and 28 inches long but they just don't get fat. We catch a lot of 27 and 28 inch fish that are only seven or eight pounds. Last year we had a unique thing happen in the lake which kind of supports my theory on lack of large shad. Water all over the lake was 42 degrees after a cold week in late winter but after another week of warm weather water at the dam was 48 while water in the main creek on the lake was 58. Almost every shad in the lake went up into that creek to get into the warmer water and those fish in that creek were fat for the next month. Its the only time I have ever seen them this fat. They all looked like the fish in this photo. Thats normaly a three or four pound fish on Varner but that one was over six pounds. Almost every fish in the creek at that time was about two pounds heavier than normal for this time of year because it was loaded with shad. Most of the fish had big gizzard shad tails sticking out of their throats.

Here are some more fish from this week including the ten pounder in the top right corner.

Here is the JW Smith 8lber that hit a big eight inch swimbait on top and a good one that hit a toad bait over grass.

Well I have been in a slump over the past few months for fish over ten pounds. > Water levels are low at Lake Varner and fishing has been much different than in years past. We have had 100+ degree weather at the end of summer and a warm fall so far as well with no rain. Most of my big bass spots have no water on them and others have way less water than normal causing the fish to move off these spots and out of these areas. I have been looking for where these fish moved to nearby with no results. I had no problem getting fish up to nine pounds with lots of sevens and eights but the ten pound plus fish have been hiding. I have had a teen fish on twice but lost it both times. :'(Well late last week I decided to take a new approach and fish the lake like I was fishing a new lake and forget about all the areas and spots I have used in the past. This would mean finding new spots and a lot of time looking for things that hold the right combination for a big one. Two days of just riding around with the GPS in hand watching the depthfinder and very little fishing paid off. I found the fish I was looking for. First fish weighed 12lbs 12oz and was almost 28 inches long after it lost its lunch in the livewell and took a dump on me as I tried to measure and weigh it. I am calling it thirteen pounds. ;D Second fish weighed 10lbs 2oz and was also almost 28 inches long but a little skinny. Both fish hit trickworms on eight pound line which always adds to the fun. I also lost two fish that were nine or ten pounds and had plenty of smaller fish as well. Add to this the fact that I also fished at JW Smith for two days which has an incredible topwater bite right now where we had around 100 blowups and way over fifty quality size fish from two to five pounds in two days as well an eight pounder and a few that got off. I would say I had a pretty good week. Here is the big one it was almost dark when we went back to the ramp so the pic came out kind of a strange color almost like a black and white photo.

I am going to have to sort of disagree with my buddy Matt on this one bait. I am guessing the six inch and ten inch baits you are talking about is the Kickin' Minnow. Well, with a few easy modifications it can be a good swimbait. The ten inch bait out of the package is not very good but it can be made into a good bait in about one minute with a knife and some glue. If you decide to get one send me a PM and I can tell you how to fix it. The rest of what Storm makes will not compare to the baits that guys like Matt make and are a waste of money IMO but that Kickin' minnow will work and I catch big fish with it on a consistant basis when they are feeding on gizzard shad. The only thing about the Kickin' Minnow is that it imitates one forage species well for me and thats about it. For it to work real well your ponds would need to have big gizzard shad and big fish to feed on them. Most likely your ponds don't have gizzard shad so that may not be the best choice of bait. The rest of the time I mostly use Matt's baits and a few other hard baits. My biggest fish that weighed 15lbs 12oz hit one of Matt's bluegills as well as a bunch of other big fish over ten pounds. I have used his perch bait for big fish as well in a few lakes that have perch in them. I only believe in the big bait theory to a point. If the fish are feeding on big baits like big trout and big gizzard shad then throw a big bait. But, I don't think you need a big ten inch bait to catch big fish since I catch more big fish over eight pounds on Matt's bluegill and my best soft plastic bait for big fish is a trickworm not a big twelve inch worm. What I would suggest is finding out what forage is in the ponds that the big fish feed on if you do not know already and try to match it. If its big bait size trout then get a Huddleston. If its five to six inch bluegill, crappie or perch then get one of Matt's baits. Also don't think that just because you don't have big bass over five pounds that you can't use a ten inch bait. I have caught plenty of four pounders on a ten inch bait and often will catch more four and five pounders on a ten inch bait in a day than I will seven and eight pounders.

Best fluro I have used. When I was first trying it out last year around this time I landed a thirteen pound bass on six pound line in heavy grass. I was almost expecting the line to break but it never did. Its all I use now unless I am using braid. Handles well and unless someone has made something in the past few months better it has the strongest knot strength of any fluro on the market.

They are in all stores here that carry the Pradco Boxes that have a bunch of mixed lures in the Pradco box. All the Walmarts here in the Atlanta area Supercenters. They must have started making the bait again or had a bunch of old stock at Pradco they decided to put in these boxes to get rid of them. I live within 30 minutes of about five different Walmart Super centers and they all had these baits as well as a local tackle shop. I will check out the Walmarts next time I go and see if they still have some. If you go to a Walmart check for the Pradco box with a bunch of mixed baits and start digging. You may find a bunch in there.

There are a bunch of those at the Walmarts around here. I would guess its worth what the Walmart there is charging. I think they are $3.00 Not rare or old at all. How many of those baits for $15 dollars do you want? ;D

You can come to GA from out of State and fish for seven days for under $10. Resident is $9 for a year.

Not a knock off but something else to try that I was using before the Paddletails and still use some is the XPS Boss Baitfish in the saltwater section at Bass Pro. Its not a tube but a solid swimbait that swims like the Paddletails. Best part is they work and look great but don't cost like the Paddletails or other knockoffs. You can use the same weighted hooks and just cut a slit for the hook in the bottom of the bait to help with hookups.

What #'s are you referring to? I was wondering the same thing. Don there are guys here on this site who have big numbers of double digit fish on smaller size baits. They all have the photos and/or witnesses to prove it as well. If you are refering to your numbers it may be true for you. It may be true for California fishermen for the most part. I don't know since I have never fished there. But if you are looking for big numbers of big fish including double digit and a few teen fish caught on smaller to average size baits then all you have to do is look at some old posts on this site from people like George Welcome, Tom Redington, Catt, Doghouse, myself and some others to see that the numbers of big fish are there. I can remember that even Fish Chris and Fourbizzle have some big fish that came on smaller size baits. I try to read all these guys posts when I can because even though I do OK already catching big fish I have picked up a few things from reading their posts as well. But, the one thing I have noticed for sure is that I am not the only guy catching numbers of big fish on average size baits.

I have to agree with Catt on this one. Catching big fish is mostly location. I catch just as many big fish on skinny little trickworms as I do big swimbaits. Each day and lake is different and I believe in choosing the best bait/tool for the job. Sometimes its a big swimbait, sometimes its a jig, sometimes its a worm. Location, picking the right bait, and the way a bait is fished are all way more important than bait size. Also, the best two ways to learn to catch bigger fish is to either learn it from someone who already catches big fish on a regular basis or to learn it by reading or maybe watching a video tape. Learning it on your own is the hard way and could take years to learn what someone may be willing to show you in minutes.

If I am after a big one I would look for breaklines around these three spots. Really need a more detailed map with five foot increments but I would start looking here.

Many times lakes in Texas start to turn over before lakes north of Texas. Other times they may not. One of the reasons is that the hotter the summer water temps get the higher the temp of cooler surface water that can get the lake mixing to start the turnover process. All lakes don't start turnover at the same surface temp. Water doesn't have to be real cold to start falling to the bottom if the water is already very hot on the surface. The water just has to be cooler than the water just below it. For example if the surface water is 85-90 degrees it may start to turn over when the surface temp fall ten or more degrees after one or two cool nights in the fifties. If the summer water temp on a lake is 75-80 it may start to turnover only after the surface cools into the low sixties after a few nights in the thirties. Here in GA on lake Varner we always seem to have the earliest turnovers when we get summer surface temps over ninty since the water doesn't have to cool to as low a temp to start the turnover as when the surface temps stay in the low eighties. Too many factors involved also to make any kind of map or chart since wind, current, rainfall, etc. are all involved. Also many lakes in the South or North never turnover since they never stratify. Also some have deep thermoclines, some have shallow thermoclines, and some have more than one thermocline. Each lake is different no matter where it is located. Hope this makes sense.