Randall

Here is our biggest fish from a tournament where Doghouse and myself placed second. The fish weighed over five pounds.

Here are a couple I got on a jig the same day.

Here is one of the cold nasty days but Doghouse and myself managed to find a couple of good ones. Here is Doghouse with a good one on a crankbait.

Here is the other guy I was fishing with with another Varner hawg.

I took these two guys fishing in the next two photos and they had the time of their life. There best five went around 35lbs and every fish they caught was over three pounds and most were over five pounds. Every fish of the twenty five they caught was caught on the same spot where the boat sat anchored for five hours without moving. It was just an incredible day of fishing.

Last couple of weeks we had periods of unseasonably warm weather that really turned the fish on at Lake Varner. Then just a few days ago we had a flood followed by multiple fronts and very cold wind that really turned the fish off. :'( We have a forcast for this week for it to warm again into the seventies that should get the fish going again. :)This is usual early March fishing at lake Varner and its usually on or off and nowhere in between. Here are a few pics from the days when the fishing was on. On good days we were catching 20-30 fish a day with best fives going 15-35lbs with most days best five going around 20-25 lbs. Best baits for big fish have been swimbaits in six inch and ten inch versions. Other baits that have been working also are jigs, jerkbaits, rattle traps, spinnerbaits and trickworms. The big fish in this photo were caught on ten inch swimbaits. We also had a eight to ten pound fish that got off this day also on a big swimbait. Doghouse fished in the same place where we caught these the same day and also had a 20lb+ sack of fish. This spot was loaded with big fish which is why the background is erased.

I have a new favorite swimbait to imitate gizzard shad that I just started using. It's the Storm Kick'n Minnow. I have tried a bunch of swimbaits including some of the ones that are in the $30-70 dollar range. I prefer this one that is under $6 to imitate gizzard shad over all the others. It has a wider swimming action than most other swimbaits which makes it swim more like a gizzard shad. It may not swim like a perch but it is cheap. I do know they make one in a perch pattern. To imitate perch though I would get a Mattlures perch. Matt's baits are a little more than the Storm baits but have a lot of detail and are well worth the price. I also think the baits that swim with the tail like Matt's may look a little more like a perch when swimming.

I guess I should have explained it better but since mine is a low power unit and I only do this type of fishing for the most part in winter when there is very little plankton to cause clutter on the screen I can turn it all the way up and only see fish, bait and lures when fishing this way. But, you will have to turn the sensitivity down to remove clutter caused by plankton, debris, mud particles, etc in other situations. I do have to adjust mine down in summer when there is more plankton in the water which causes clutter on the screen.

I do a lot of finesse fishing in weeds. I use two rigs 90% of the time. The first is a splitshot rig with a 1/32 or 1/16 oz bullshot weight placed one to two feet up the line. The second rig is a jighead and worm. The jighead I use is a Spot Stalker jighead which has a head designed like a grass jig. With the jighead I use a 1/16 or a 1/8 oz jighead. Most of the time I use a trickworm on both rigs. What you want is just enough weight to get the bait down to the top of the weeds and not so much weight you hang up in them.

At that depth I like the 1 1/2 oz Ledgebuster.

You don't need an expensive graph to see the fish eat your lure. I have seen fish eat and follow my jigging spoon an Eagle Cuda that I paid $50 dollars for at Bass Pro. You just have to have the fish symbols turned off and the sensitivity turned up enough to show the bait and the fish.

Its been my experience with swimbaits that more times than not they are going to swallow it if they can. I have never felt I needed a stinger because usually when I get one it is hooked deep in the mouth. May be different with spots or smallmouths or when LM are locked on beds I may add one sometimes but for the most part with LM it holds true. I am also like you in the fact I don't want to kill any big fish in the lakes I fish. I catch some big fish multiple times because I always try to put them back alive. I just usually take my chances and go without the stinger and take what I get. I personally don't feel like I miss enough to attach a stinger and I think the bait looks more natural with out it.

I am guessing about early to mid March. The sinker is good down to around five or six feet or so and right now the fish are just too deep but it won't be long. I did get one around six or seven pounds on one of my test baits that was a little different than this one and didn't swim as good as this one.

PM Lightning Rod. I think he has used them some in the past.

Since we are talking swimbaits I thought I would post one I made. With all the swimbaits out there I couldn't find one that was priced right and had the action and profile I wanted so I decided to design my own. The action and profile of the bait looks alot like a big gizzard shad instead of a longer skinny trout design like most swimbaits have. I have made it in a sinking and slow floating gliding topwater wake bait. Thanks to Whittler who helped me out by saving me a lot of time with getting the gliding turning action out of the bait seen in the first part of this video. http://media.putfile.com/swimbait-1 Here is a photo of the first bait I made also. I might in the future change the design of the bait around some and give it a different finish and change the shape of it a little to where it looks almost exactly like a shad and give it a better joint that looks a little better. But to be the first bait I have ever made even though I have modified plenty. I thought it turned out pretty good and IMO it has better action than most of the other hard swimbaits out there that I would have to pay a bunch of $$$$$$ for.

Thanks Whittler. I may have to try that on the next one I make.

A question I almost always get from people who fish with me for the first time is why I fish the hook I do on a trickworm while fishing. To most the hook looks to short for a longer worm like a trickworm. I use a 2/0 Owner Rig'n hook which has a short shank but a wide gap. There are plenty of hooks which will fit the worm well and have a longer shank which in most peoples thinking will hook more fish since the fish doesn't need to have as much of the worm in its mouth to get the hook. There are also plenty of larger hooks with a wider gap that will hold a big fish once hooked. But if I use any other hook than a 2/0 Rig'n hook the number of strikes and fish landed will go down because the action of the bait is not as good since more worm is free to move on the short shank Rig'n hook than with any other hook of the same gap size. If I go to say a 1/0 hook I will lose more big fish and miss more hooksets because the hook gap is too small. Choosing the best hook or number of hooks is very important to me and there is such a thing as too much and too little hook.

Anytime I see subjects or articles like this in a book, magazine etc. I try not to even read it. It will just cloud my mind with information that I am better off without. I did read your post and admire the thought that went into it but don't think I should think about fishing this way to be better at it or gain a better understanding of catching fish. I choose to keep it simple because at different time most of those things are important or most important. Sometimes those things including depth, which was most important, matters very little. Breaking things down like this and giving them numerical values causes over thinking simple things (at least to me) and what I call knowledge constipation. Knowledge constipation is having so much #?&% in your head that you can't get anything useful out of your head to use to catch fish. A success formula that causes this much thought will cause me a lack of success. I personally take all the information I have learned through years of fishing and make everything as simple as possible. That way my thoughts and decisions are clear and I have more confidence in the decisions I make since they were easier and quicker to make based on my simple thought process.

I remove the rear hooks on lipless crankbaits and replace the front hook with a larger hook. One bigger hook will land more fish than two small hooks. Fish don't normally short strike a rattle trap anyway when the water is cool which is usually when I throw it most often. When it comes to big fish over six pounds it will cause your hook/land precentage to not only go up but skyrocket.

Check out previous topics titled Javallon. The swimming shad is just a copy of the Javallon.

Best hook for the smaller bait is an Owner Rig'n Hook. It has a short shank and wide gap making it fit perfectly since the shank isn't too long and the gap is wide enough to come through the thick head I believe I have used both the 4/0 and 5/0 for the bait. I am sure the 4/0 fits pretty well.

Mike, nice looking bait. Not near as ugly as mine. :)Is it wood or made from a mold?

Some lakes are better topwater lakes than others. The lake I fish most Lake Varner here in GA is not a good topwater lake but I can catch topwater fish there because I know when and where to throw it. The reason is that most fish will not move a long distance to hit a bait there. There is a lot of bait and no reason for thm to expend the energy to move very far if they don't have to. What you will have to find on a lake like this is cover where bass are holding near the surface. The best example is grass growing near the surface but timber and laydowns will work also if the fish are close enough to the surface in them. I fish with a lot of people here in GA who fish Lake Lanier which may be the best topwater lake in the US. Fish at Lanier will come from 15 feet down and hit a topwater bait. These people cannot believe that they can't catch a topwater fish when they come to Varner because they are catching them like crazy on Lanier just a few miles away. The lakes have different forage and types of bass. Different things work on different lakes so it doesn't surprise me that a guide told you they won't hit it there. If you see the guide again ask him how good the topwater bite was before they stocked grass carp there and ruined the topwater bite. You might be surprised at how good it used to be before.. The reason is the grass carp ate all the cover near the surface and killed the topwater reaction bite. Just try the middle of the day when there is less forage fish shallow and a bass may move a little farther to feed, and throw it where bass are holding near the surface in cover.

The only hook I will use is an Owner rig'n hook in size 2/0. The reasons are its the only offset hook that I have found will not catch grass where the hook comes out of the head of the worm, it has a short shank and wide gap so there is more worm trailing behind the hook for more action, it is a strong wire hook but still takes very little force to go deep into the jaw bone or mouth of a big fish because of the cutting point. On a size 1 or 1/0 I just miss to many hooksets on a trickworm so a 2/0 size is what I use.

I see a crawfish as an easy bait to catch and swallow. The bass can just swim up slowly and suck it in. no energy wasted chasing it around. I use jigs as well when the conditions are right for them. My fishing partner Doghouse got a 10lber yesterday on a jig.