Randall

After looking through 100s of photos on my computer I have decided the red tails like that are common on colder water fish over nine pounds whether they were in livewells or not. This one was never in a livewell at all.

It could also be the difference in fluro vs mono. With fluro being much harder its much tougher to nick with soft lead but mono is much easier to tear up not only with splitshots but everything else in the water. Its the main reason I only use mono for topwaters.

I have landed bass up to 13lbs on 6lb flurocarbon line with Water Gremlin Bull Shots which are grooved. I have never once felt like I had a line break because of the split shot with grooves. I personally think the smooth ones would be more likely to damage my line because they slide up and down the line more and take more pressure to hold in place on the line. Most important thing IMHO is not to crimp the shot on the line so hard it damages the line. I put mine on with my fingers and get kind of nervous when I see people put a splitshot on with pliers.

I have always used wood because it was less expensive, easier for me to install, and I didnt really care about the extra weight. The extra weight actually helped my boat be more stable and it got blew around less in high winds so for me the weight wasn't a bad thing.

Here is one more fish from Saturday. I didn't weigh it but I am guessing it was around eight pounds.

This fish was caught Saturday and was way bigger than it actually looks in the photo. It weighed 11lb 14oz and was shaped like a torpedo. Long, lean and solid muscle. It fought for a long time on eight pound line but finally gave up and came into the boat for a photo and release.

Here are the guys I fished with Sunday with the best three fish we caught including the odd shaped 10lb 2oz fish.

I have had two tough days of fishing at lake Varner. Bright bluebird skies, high barometric pressure, and cool unstable water temps. From the pics you can't tell it was tough but it was. Saturday I fished for five hours without a single bite but in the few minutes the fish did bite the two guys I was fishing with and myself made good of it putting three big fish in the boat that weighed almost thirty pounds. We had a 11lb 14oz fish, an eight pounder and a nine pound seven ounce fish all caught on jigheads with a trickworm attached. Sunday we once again went for hours with out a bite then hooked three hybrids in about one minutes time on spoons but only landed one of them. Caught a small LM bass on a spoon just a few minutes later. Then we went for hours again without a single bite until we found a couple big fish willing to bite including an odd shaped 10lb 2oz monster of a fish that had a huge head and wide back but no gut. The two big fish hit trickworms on a jighead. We also ended up catching a few more small bass just before dark. Just goes to show that after hours of no bites your next cast could be the one. The fish in this pic was 9lb 7oz. I had to borrow a camera after draining the batteries in my camera so the pics a little small.

I would have been up the left creek arm with a flipping stick and a jig for sure. ;D All that rain must have stired things up.

Fish ain't got no hands so I am guessin the worm is in his mouth. If he can't get it all in his mouth he ain't worth catching. ;D

Have a way to get back into the boat and a way to warm back up if you fall in. There are ladders on the market now that roll out and roll back up to attach to the boat. I carry dry clothes as well as a couple of lighters, fire log or cans of cooking fuel in my boat during winter to start a fire and warm up if I need to.

Yea, thats one of them but there are a few more that are like them out there now. Deps has one called a Killer Compass that just hit the states also. It will swim around the angler in a circle. I saw another one or two that were sinkers somewhere that would sink and swim off at a 45% angle instead of coming straight back or could be pulled up on the surface and twitched like a wacky worm. Theres a lot of very cool different baits in Japan right now I have been looking at. I have used some glide baits before that have been used in the US by musky fishermen for years. Its something bass here havent seen and they work great on big fish. The glide baits made in Japan now are really nice and starting to come to the US and appear from some of the videos to work a little better than anything we have here. I see these type of baits starting the next craze here as the next "magic bait" that everyone has to have.

Matt, I have seen a couple lures like that but I am not sure its the same one. You got a link or photo. The ones I am talking about are like a swimbait/jerkbait but act like a wacky worm since they have a hinge in the middle and you tie on in the middle.

I agree. Thats actually about the third time I have seen a head come up and shake and thought this is it. Then the fish gets in the net and you pick it up and cant help to be disapointed since the fish should weigh more. Almost all the fish in the lake start getting in better shape by late December so I will just have to catch her again then. ;D

The official lake record weighed on certified scales is 15lb and 3 or 4 ounces. I personally weighed a fish that was 16lbs 8oz for a guy a couple years ago and the same guy showed me and a couple other Varner regulars a photo of what was told to be an 18lb fish he suspected was the same fish that weighed 16 lbs although there was no witness to verify the 18lb fish. You know you got to have a witness for a fish like that. There was a fifteen pounder found floating a couple of months ago as well. Is the record held by one of the crew? Not yet but we are working on it. All we have to do is catch one of these long slim fish after she decides to go on a feeding spree while full of eggs. ;D

Then get out of the woods!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice fish! Its always hard to tell from a photo but it looks bigger than five to me too.

Doghouse had a nice fish too. We ran into him out on the lake and he had this one to show us. It was a little skinny as well

I just got back from Varner and fishing was slow for numbers with only eight bites all day. But, who cares when one of them looks like this 30 1/2 inch long monster. The photo doesnt do this fish justice. It was skinny and long but the head on this thing was massive. Mouth was huge. Caught on a jighead and trickwom. I wish this fish had been eating a little more since it only weighed 11 pounds 7 ounces but had plenty of extra room in its stomach for a bunch more weight.

As long as the water is above 45 degrees I am good but even if it falls below that I will still fish. Winter is big fish time. I am in Ga.

I have had some for a while. I mostly throw it in grass where there is surface grass that would foul the hooks on a regular treble hooked bait. It will also skip under objects. It has a skipping bait fish type action that a frog doesnt have.

I would add a chatterbait in there as well.

Sounds like a jig, rattletrap, or spinnerbait situation to me.

The thing about Varner is that the big bass aren't loners there. There are enough eight to ten pound fish in an area to make a school of eight to ten pound fish. If you catch one, with the exception of spring, there are usually more the same size around with it or near it. So what I do is work a spot over and over after catching a big fish there until I get another one or two. It may take a week or the next cast may catch it.

It was actually a $11.95 at Bass Pro Hardcore Drum with a $1 hook upgrade. ;D