Randall

Have you been videoing at all this season? That 8 lbr on video is priceless, we need more! My wife borrowed my tripod and I haven't really been in the right situation when the big fish hit to have the camera running. I will try to get some in the next couple of weeks when I am out. It will be easier to get video when my guide service slows down some this winter and I get out fun fishing more.

It's a six inch ABT/Strike King swimbait. I cant remember which this one was but ABT makes both baits. ABT calls it the Titan and SK calls it the King Kong. Its the most affordable hard swimbait I could find that still had a good action. I am still saving up for a couple Triple Trouts and maybe one or two more hard swimbaits. After throwing some soft swimbaits for a few years I am really starting to like the hard swimbaits better than the soft ones.

Has anyone thrown their "HARDCORE DRUM" lipless cb as well as thrown the Rattle N' Vibe? Im wondering if their DRUM series is worth the five extra bucks if anyone who fished with them both could fill us in.

I almost forgot. If you look at the 10lber pic you can see where it missed the bait on the first cast. It has two marks on its side that match up exactly to the hooks on the swimbait. Looks like I almost snagged it.

Here is one more photo of the 12.0

I call Doghouse and tell him the fish are biting so he shows up in his boat right after they shut down and get lockjaw. I stop throwing the swimbait and pick up the lipless crankbait again and fish for a while with no strikes. Doghouse has been throwing a DT-16 out behind me where I had lost a couple of good fish on a spoon but he decides he wants to catch a fish so he pulls out his favorite lipless crankbait and fishes down a bank and I follow behind him in my boat throwing the same type of bait. Its been a while since I had a strike so I am getting ready to leave the spot or go back to a worm when my bait comes to a complete stop. I yell to Doghouse for help but he is too far away to bring a net over. The fish tried to jump but never got its head up. It did however spray me with water a couple of times with its paddle size tail as it came to the surface. I got it to the net and scooped it up and almost lost it since half of the fish was still outside the net. It had what looked to be an 10 to 12 inch worm passing out its rear. I guess someone must have lost it and is telling everybody how big it was and nobody believes them. ;D Doghouse came over and photographed the fish on the scale and it weighed 12.0. Maybe Doghouse can post the photo of the fish on the scale.

Fished today at Varner looking for the BIG bite. Front was getting ready to come through and water was 58 deg. Perfect for throwing a big swimbait for a monster. I started off throwing the swimbait with no takers. I had to get the day going so I switched to a lipless crankbait and caught some three and four pounders then I threw a worm for a while and caught some one and two pounders. OK now I am warmed up from catching some baby fish. The fish seem to be getting more active so I go to a proven big bass spot that has produced a few ten and eleven pound fish for me over the past few months. I start casting the swim bait and see a flash just under it but it misses it. I make three more casts with the swimbait trying different retrieves to try to trigger a better strike from the fish. On the third cast I burn it and stop it and the fish takes the bait as the swimbait stops in front of the fish. I wish I could tell you the fight was a good one but the fish jumped one time and I skipped it all the way to the boat on heavy braid as it never got a chance to get back into the water once I saw I had both sets of big trebles in the mouth of the fish. It was still fun though since I saw the fish take the bait after missing it on my first cast.

Best thing to do is get your weight down by losing FAT to right at the weight you want to be at so before practice you weigh 135. Then you can lose the water weight during practice the night before a match where you are going to have to make weight so you are under the weight you need to make. Then weigh all your food and water intake between the time of the last practice and the match so you cant be over but still have enough food and water to maintain your strength. It sounds crazy but it works since you cant gain anymore than you take in. It used to work for me but I looked like a drug dealer carrying a scale with me in my backpack to weigh my food. ;D

If I remember correctly you are from Western NC. What High School do you go to? I wrestled at Tuscola High and at UNC Pembroke. I also coached at Waynesville Junior High (Waynesville Middle School) Losing weight is simple, eat less and excercise more. Nothing else really works. A bunch of small balanced meals is best. If you starve yourself it will shut down your matabolisim and keep you from losing weight so you have to keep eating but eat smaller portions. When I was in College I never had a problem keeping weight since I worked out so hard and had good balanced meals. In high school I had a slack coach my last two years and nobody on my team to push me good in practice so I just decided to wrestle over my normal weight until the end of the season so I could maintain my muscle through the season and lose the weight slowly.

I heard that some Fairy Dust got on a ten pound fish Fluke caught and made it a little light. Last I looked it only weighed 8.98 pounds (getting lighter all the time) and was about to fly off the scale if some of the dust hadn't washed off in the live well. Got to get rid of that Fairy Dust if you ever want to catch a ten pound fish.

Avid, KVD uses the snaps because the bait will have more action with the snap than when just tied to the line. I sometimes fish a number five shad rap on twenty pound line over heavy grass. If I tie directly to the bait with 20 lb line the crankbait will not even wiggle at a medium retrieve speed but if I put a snap on the line it will still have close to its original action. KVD uses the Berkley because it won't come open like the Norman. I used the Norman's for years with no problems then one day I had two big fish jump and the snap came open twice with two different snaps so I havent used them since. I now use the Berkley snap in a number three (75lb test) since KVD suggested it to me a few years back while talking about crankbaits In BPS.

If he hasnt changed brands he uses Berkley Crosslock Snaps.

You might find this article useful. http://heartlandtackleservice.com/spooning.stm

The brand of spoon matters the least as long as you have the right weight. What more important is finding the right group of fish that is feeding. When you find the right fish they will hit any brand so I use the CC spoon most of the time you can get two or three for the price of one. Think of it as fishing for fish schooling on top but it is happening under the water. They could care less what brand you have in most cases since you are fishing for feeding fish. Most important thing is finding active fish feeding on bait and being able to determine which fish to fish for and which ones to leave alone by looking at your depth finder. I do more riding around looking for the right fish when spooning than actual fishing.

I think there were twenty teams invited. I think one team didnt make it because they broke an axle or something on the boat trailer.

At least he had his hat on this time and didnt burn the top of his head. ;D

Doghouse and myself placed fifth at the JBAIT State Championship which is a tounament for the best small lake anglers in GA. We fished hard all day but in the end came up a little short losing one big fish that would have put us close to first that pulled away from me taking drag the whole way before the hooks pulled out on a rattle trap. We still placed fifth which isn't bad considering the tough competition we faced. We ended up with a little over 10 pounds on a tough day with post frontal conditions and Doghouse landed the nice 4.65 lb fish in the photo on a trap. Winners had eighteen pounds plus and second had 16 pounds plus. Second place team had a big 9.94 Hawg and also took home big fish. Most teams that did well were fishing a mix of soft plastics and rattle traps on shallow flats and thats what we did as well.

I have caught fish swimming it over underwater grass and on the surface. Has less tail action and takes a little more speed or weight to get the tail going than the big dead ringer. Tail is also smaller than the big dead ringer tail. My favorite swimming worm is made by taking a zoom speed worm and welding a fat albert grub tail on it with a candle. It will swim well at slow speeds without too much action and holds up better and is a little smaller in size than a Yamamoto big grub. I like the G-tail body so I am going to try the grub tail on the G-tail body next time I get a chance.

I may have landed a bunch of big fish (6-11 lbs) on DT-10 and 16s and have never had a lip pull out. Part of the reason the bait is so good is that it has a thin lip. Also, I throw these baits a lot and have never broken a lip. I am sure they will break if they hit a rock, dock, etc. on the cast.

I have known for a while that fish in cooler water will almost always get a moving lure deeper in the mouth while during summer I will hook a higher precentage outside the mouth or on the lips. The sight thing might have something to do with it.

After reading this post a few times to make sure I understood it before I replied I will say the rankings have very little to do with a bait catching fish. The enviroment of a fish has way too many varibles that allow some baits to work and others not to work on any given day and set of conditions. You can't take just the level of sound, vibration, etc to even get a good starting point. The best way to figure out how to catch fish has always been the same. Spend time on the water suceeding and failing with different lures under as many different conditions as you can so that when you encounter near the same conditions again you will have a better idea of where to start depending on your strengths and experiences.

I will agree also. Number one is location. Number two is throwing the right lure for the situation in the right location. In a lake in California stocked with trout a swimbait may be the best lure for the situation and location but go to another lake and there may be a better bait for the situation. Thinking that one bait is the best big bass lure for all situations and locations will not catch as many big fish as finding the location of the big fish then fishing the best lure for the job depending on the circumstances.

No doubt about it in my mind that the intergrades (F-1 hybrid) has different feeding habits and is more affected by fronts. Unless transplanted and isolated from any northern genes I dont think there are any pure Florida bass except in South Florida. I once fished a pond that had what was susposed to be pure Florida bass that had been brought to Georgia and I found them to be extemely difficult to catch after a front. I fish a bunch of different lakes. Some have only northern strain and others have the intergrade. In tough conditions the northern strain lakes have more catchable fish than the lakes with the F-1. Northern strain bass also have a larger strike zone and will move a longer distance to hit a bait than the F-1. Of course all of this is just based on my personal experience and observation. I have no idea what the scientific reason is and have never found anyone who could really tell me.

I dont fish the lake right after it fertilized any more. It gets tough to impossible for a while. If I had to though I would go find fresh water coming in the lake and fish there. I have seen it cause fish kills twice on the lakes I fish. Some of the toughest conditions I have seen were right after a lake was fertilized.

Just to add I have heard from reputable sources its not uncommon in lakes that have a shortage of females for some males to start developing female charateristics. It may not be caused by pollution at all.