Randall

I really hate this time of year since the days get shorter and I cant get my fifteen hours of fishing in a day before it gets dark. :'(

Some of the jigheads I use have Hookerz hooks in them and I have had no problems with them. Even caught a few 10lb+ bass on them.

Except at Lake Varner here in GA. That lake has some of the longest bass many of us have ever seen. It is unreal. There's always and exception. I was thinking the same thing when I read RW post. I wish Varner fish were that fat. Most Varner fish are almost two pounds behind those weights most of the year.

When bass are schooling and spitting out shad like this they will work for schooling bass when almost nothing else will. Thats a shad on my finger tip and the fish it came out of hit a snap bean in the smallest size. It spit out about twenty of these in the boat and a bunch more in the water. The fish was about three or four pounds and was eating tiny shad by the mouthfull.

They are looking for bluegills and using the shoreline to pin up the bluegills so they can feed on them easier. Cast a Mattlures Bluegill ahead of the fish down the shoreline and fish it back as close to the shore as possible.

Looks like Lightninrod has the same luck as I do when I fish with Randall...

Dan, Its all just timing. Had you been there the next day at the right time it would have been like fishing a different lake. All those fish on Thursday came from the same spot the five pounder came from when I fished with you on Wednesday. The other big fish came from the spot the seven pounder came from the trip before with you. Monday , I fished with Doghouse after the front had passed and we couldn't get anything over four pounds and we didn't get anything off the big fish spots. Just keep on fishing and you will get the timing right and get a big one or two.

The snake was still trying when we left it. I was a little fatter (10-15 lbs) but I also had three or four layers of clothes and a rainsuit on. It was a very windy(40mph), cold rainy day for April.

Here is the snake trying its best to swallow the catfish.

Here are a few more big bass caught Friday and Saturday, my broken rod, and the snake.

Here are just some of the fish we caught last Thursday.

The past few days at Varner have been great. Earlier in the week fishing was great with trickworms and jigs bringing in best five limits over twenty pounds two days in a row but by Wednesday water temps got back up around 84-86 degrees pulling the fish out of the shallows where we could see fish suspended over deep water near flats where we were catching them the days before. We were still catching fish but most were smaller fish that were chasing bait. Wednesday I went out with Lightninrod and a buddy he had that drove up from Jacksonville. Fishing was pretty tough for larger fish but we did get one five pound fish and around ten smaller ones. Thursday we fished most of the morning with nothing but smaller one and two pound fish but what remained of the tropical storm got the big fish going in the afternoon and we started catching big fish on swimbaits and trickworms. Some of the fish we caught are in the first two photos but we caught four or five more four and five pounders that we didn't photo. I also shattered a rod on a big fish that hit near the boat on a swimbait and missed a few more on the hookset. The rod shattered and the fish was still on but it straighted out the one hook that was holding it on the treble it was attached to and came off at the side of the boat. It looked around seven or eight pounds. Friday we threw a swimbait all day and caught around ten five and six pound fish but lost two big ones that hit. Saturday morning was a quick morning trip we fished until the clouds cleared looking for big fish with swimbaits. We got a seven pounder in the boat and lost one that looked around ten pounds. Had quite a few follow the bait to the boat also but we just couldn't get them to take the baits. Looks like this nice Fall weather is going to stay for a while so the swimbait bite should be good in the coming weeks and more fish should be moving shallow in big schools following bait. Best baits this past week have been trickwoms, rattletraps, senkos, jigs and swimbaits fished in five to fifteen feet of water. Water temps are in the low eighties and should be falling a little more in the next few days with the cool night temps. I also posted a couple of photos of a snake that tried to eat a catfish. The snake bit the catfish in the water and tossed it up on the riprap. It then alternated between biting the catfish in the midsection and trying to swallow it. This kept up for a while with the snake never being able to get past the spines on the pectoral fins to swallow it. It was still trying when we left it.

I started reading the book then put it down, skimmed through it and finally gave it to someone. So, I can't tell you much about the book other than I wasn't getting much out of it. I personally don't totaly buy into the big bait theory. I throw big baits up to twelve inches but throw them less than I do smaller five and six inch baits. Big baits have a time and place as do the smaller baits. I have over 100 swimbaits from four inches to twelve inches all have a time and place but most of my biggest fish were caught on five and six inch baits. My biggest was a fifteen pound twelve ounce fish caught on a Mattlures bluegill and I hooked a fish twice that was around that same size on a six inch bait just a few days back and lost it near the boat twice in one day. There is a lot more to catching big bass than just throwing a big bait. You have to be able to pattern bigger fish and know where the areas bigger fish are likely to be and then be able to pick the best baits for the area, lake or day. Also, what works on one lake for big fish may not work on another. All lakes are different in forage, size of fish, structure, etc. These fish in the photo were all caught on a ten inch bait so I have had sucess with big baits in the South. But the ten inch bait was just a tool that matched the conditions at the time. Notice the blacked out background. Location is the hardest part of catching big fish. If you want a suggestion of a bait to start with get a Mattlures bluegill. I have yet to find a lake in the South it will not work on and it caught the fish in up in the left top corner by my name.

Fish are most likely suspended in open water just feeding on the baitfish when the bait comes near since there are so many bait fish and the water is clear. If you can see down 8-10 feet those bigger fish are going to be in deeper water in most cases. Ride around in open water and look for bait or fish on the depth finder.

Second biggest myth in bass fishing is that if you leave a hook in bass it will rust out and the fish will be fine.

Biggest myth in bass fishing is that a pressure change and bluebird skys force the fish deeper.

Two weeks ago we had three bananas in the boat ( I didn't know until later in the day) and had five bass that went around 40lbs. ;D Here is the biggest one. I heard that the banana thing started with sailors that got sick from something(maybe an insect or spider?) in the bananas and died as the bananas were shipped across the oceans.

Shallow water in the middle of the day through the afternoon with swimbaits. I am catching all my fish over four pounds in the middle of the day into the afternoon on swimbaits in 90+ degree surface temps Some wind and clouds help the bite. What makes fishing in hot water tough on most small lakes with hot water over 85 degrees is the fish are shallow but suspended over deep water moving into shallower water only to feed then moving back out over the deep water to wait for the next feeding oportunity. The key to catching them is to be there when they are feeding which happens less often during the day when the water gets hot.

Thats it.

Trickworm on an 2/0 Owner Rig'n hook is the perfect bait and hook for a splitshot rig. It catches numbers as well as big fish. Sometimes in the spring I will fish a lizard on it and in summer through fall I will use a fluke at times but its hard to beat a trickworm.

That was either a very hungry or very horny fish. ;D Thats what I was thinking. I once had a salamander holding onto the back of a plastic lizard I was fishing. It held on all the way out of the water and wouldn't turn lose. ;D I had to pull it off.

Nice fish, boat and story.

Thanks. Its an ABT Gladiator.

Its the one in my avatar. 15lbs 12oz and over 31 inches long on a Mattlures Bluegill. It was already pretty much spawned out and would have weighed more had I caught it a few days earlier when I saw it going on a bed.

That photo was just for you. No, you can't have it back. ;D Thanks for the great deal. Only problem is now I have to go buy a few more.