Randall

My three biggest fish all over thirteen pounds have all hit a 1 1/2 oz spinnerbait. Two more over ten pounds have also came on a big spinnerbait. I have caught numerous fish over nine pounds on crankbaits as well. But I hit every fish on the head which means it didnt move far to hit the bait. I caught them on stumps, rocks, or brush just after hitting what they were holding on. In the lakes I fish big fish dont chase bait often so a fast moving lure will get them if you get it into the small strike zone of a big fish. Finding them is the hard part but I have found most people can land a six pounder but once it gets bigger than that more and more fish are lost. Most people panic once they see a big fish and this alone causes them to lose the fish because they get so excited they dont know what to do. Also I have seen a lot of big fish lost due to a poor hookset on stretchy lines and rods without enough backbone to set the hook. So the right equipment is a big factor as well. Big lures will work but I catch plenty of big fish on medium size baits as well.

Topwater where the weeds are just under the surface all day long and toad type baits where there is grass on the surface. Also swim a worm with a light weight just over the grass. If there is any kind of channel running through the area pitch worms , tubes , and jigs to the edges of the channel with enough weight to get down in the stuff. Use a larger bait as well there should be a few good ones in there. Senkos should be good there to fish when you need something slower and they wont hit surface baits.

Agree with Matt 100%. The best way to catch a big female is dont catch the males. I even leave males alone if I dont see a female with them. It might be different somewhere else but on the lakes I fish you cant win a tournament without catching a big female or two off a bed during April. Try other ways to catch them and you will usually catch 0 big females. I know the big females still feed off the bed because I catch them with huge shad in their throat but they arent that catchable by anglers because when they arent on the bed they are suspended over the closest deeper water. They are still shallow just over deeper water. These suspended fish are the toughest fish to catch not the ones on the beds. The other thing I will add is that catching a big female has a lot to do with timing. Triton Mike and Doghouse can verify that I told them both when a big bunch of females could be caught on Varner this year. I went out the next day and caught five fish that weighed 47.4 lbs and none of these five were males because I watched the males with Doghouse go out to a ditch where the females were suspended and get the females the day before. When the males went out to get the females and were trying to get them on the bed the females werent real catchable. They would cruise around on the flat and go back to the ditch where they would suspend and wait on the right male. The next day after they had deposited eggs the afternoon and night before they were catchable although harder to catch than the males.

There are still plenty of fish still shallow at Horton but there are some deep as well. Last Saturday we caught over twenty and most came from long shallow points (way offshore but shallow) on topwaters and on a splitshot rig with a trickworm. Almost all were good size fish. We also caught our biggest fish around four pounds from around 15 feet of water on an old road bed. I will be fishing there the next two days and will leave a report on Saturday or Sunday after I win the tournament. Splitshot rigs and topwaters have dominated post spawn Horton tournaments for years. The splitshot rig always works.

I noticed you live in Fayetteville. Are you fishing any of the smaller lakes like Horton there?

What I am finding is that this heat wave is sending some fish deep but they are scattered and you just get one here and there. If the heat lasts another week or so I expect these deeper fish to bunch up more. I have also found some fish still shallow and they are bunched up in small areas. The only problem is that 90 percent of shallow water doesnt have hardly any fish. Two weeks ago you could throw anywhere shallow and get bit. Now the fish are just using the very best shallow structure but they are bunched up on it. Find the sweet spots and you can still catch a bunch still shallow on the lakes I fish. Dont find them and you would swear all the fish have gone deep. Keep in mind that all lakes are different though. On the lakes I fish there are a lot of shallow fish year round. On others the majority of fish live deep year round.

Its been my experience that no one can tell you how to do it and keep you from backlashing with a baitcaster. Each person uses different reel settings, casting techniques, etc. Its all in getting the settings right on your reel for your cast with the brake and magnets and getting the feel for it. The first thing I would suggest is to go with someone who can do it and let them teach you. If that isnt possible then get a reel that the adjustments for the brake and magnets are all on the outside of the reel. Start with the brake adjusted to where the bait will not move after slowing down and hitting the water. This way a backlash is imposible Turn the magnet all the way up and back off each a little at a time until you get the settings right to match your cast with out backlashing. Some people cast hard and others cast easily to get the same results so setting differ for each person. The other part of the secrect is to keep the trajectory of the bait flat and low to the water and provide a little lift with the rod at the end of the cast while using both the rod and your thumb on the spool to give just enough lift to keep the bait on the surfacebut not off the surface or under the surface. The only video that I know of that shows how to do it is Denny Brauers "Jig Fishing Secrects". It really doesnt go into detail though. Maybe I need to make a video and sell it. :

Today there were no clouds in the shy and 90 degrees at mid day in 30 minutes we caught seven fish and had a big Hawg hit a topwater so hard it came a foot out of the water. Its all about knowing how to adjust to the conditions. That was half of our fish for the day even though we started at sunrise. It can be the best time to fish.

At that water temp my first choice is flipping a tube. Second choice a tube. Most of the time I find that wont be good frog/toad water until it gets a lot warmer. A senko on the edges and over where it dont come to the surface might be good also.

All the above replies are correct in one way or another but also chartruse does appear as a very bright white to fish in certain depths and colors of water. As water gets deeper or more stained certain colors are filtered out while others stay. Blue is one of the last colors to get filtered out which is why in summer crankbaits with blue backs are very popular. Red is one of the first and turns black in deep water which is why red hooks on a deep crank are a waste of time. To a fish living in deep water the color chartruse is filtered out and it appears as a very bright white which is more visible to those fish living in deeper water. So on a deep crankbait that is chartruse with a blue back the fish sees a very bright white with a blue back. To fish living in deeper water looking up at a chartruse spinnerbait going over top of them they see a brighter white lure so it has more visibility and can call fish up to strike it from a farther distance than just plain white which starts to appear more greyish or a dull white than plain white at deeper depths. Think of fish living in deep or stained water as living in a black and white world for the most part. Another way to see kind of what a fish sees in chartruse is to take a black and white photo of the bait and look how bright the white color it turns is. Also red shad worms and plain black worms look just the same to fish in deep or stained water. So some people fishing black and red shad dont always need both colors.

Yes. They will be pale in dirty water and have clear distinct markings in clear water. Deep fish can be pale also while shallow fish in clear water will have the best markings. Has a lot to do with the amount of light that hits the fish I guess.

I do well this time of year slowing way down but only hitting the best parts of the structure I am fishing. I dont fish an entire point but only hit the sweet spots with a very slow presentation. Yesterday I got two big fish by fishing a senko weightless in ten feet of water off a points. Thats slow fishing but I was only on each point for five minutes of so. I only made about three casts to most points. I also caught eight fish on a dropshot. I also use a dropshot to get a slow moving bait straight to the target area fast and leave it there for a few minutes while working it real slow. I concentate all my efforts fishing slow on only the very best places and moving around alot more than I normally would. I only got one fish on any one place I fished but caught ten with a couple of good ones by not wasting time by putting my bait in less productive areas.

Chris, the most reliable place to fish on the lake is going to be anywhere there is a channel running through the lake where the fish can go as the water drops. I would fish by any of the culverts since they have current as well as a channel for the fish. Steeper banks will also be good since the fish can move up and down with the water level. The worst places to fish will most likely be flats. My guess is that most of the fish are out of reach from shore and are out in the middle on humps and channels since most of the lake is flat. How low is the water now? I want to get some photos while the water is low enough for me to see some of the good stuff.

Georgia- The first choice and thing I always look for is weed flats. They will always hold fish and I feel It is always the best cover for bass at all times of the year.

Most people look for fish to stay on the bed to catch them but most females only stay on beds when they are dropping eggs. After that they will roam on and off them but still want to protect them. They may also put eggs on two beds when they are close like that. The best way to catch that fish is to put a lure on the back side of the bed and wait as long as it takes for the fish to swim over the bed. I have left a tube as long as 30 minutes with out moving it waiting for a fish to swim by or come back. As it swims over bring the lure at the fish. Do this as many times as it takes to get the attention of the fish and get her to stay on the bed longer. Once she gets to where she is looking at the bait and staying better you have a chance to catch her. My guess is you have already lost your chance but I have seen females stay for as many as five days in colder water. As the water gets to the upper sixties and seventies the stay is much shorter. Most stay one day in 70+ degree water.

I have said a bunch of times that there is no way to tell from a photo. But, if I had to guess I would say 8.5 to 9 pounds. Nice fish!

Sounds like those fish are spawning to me. Only way to catch them is to watch each individual fish and figure out which area he is trying to protect. It is usually where he stops and keeps coming back to when he circles. Once you find what you think is the spot then cast past the fish and bring the worm, lizard, tube etc to the spot and see what the fish does. Do not cast at the fish if it leaves the spot you will only delay it coming back to the spot where it will strike. If the lure isn't in just the right area the fish will not strike anyway and your cast will only chase the fish away. Also look for cleared areas on the bottom which may give you a clue to where a bed may be.

Here is my general rule of thumb. High winds buzzbaits and propbaits work best. A little ripple spooks, small propbaits and Pop-R type baits. Slick and sunny Lucky Craft Gunfish will out perform every other topwater made. Slick but no sun try them all but Lucky Craft Gunfish is still the best bet.

I just got an email from a buddy with a link to an article on what happend that day. From reading the article it seems that two wittnesses say that the trio of anglers tried to act like they had caught the fish legal until the two witnesses told them that they had seen them snag the fish. Anybody else heard anything like this? The article is at fieldandstream.com. It would be a shame if the account of the days events turns out to be true. It would explain alot though.

If you can afford it I would get a Minn Kota Maxxum 74 variable on the front first and then add motors and batteries as you want more speed and distance out of the boat. I fish both Kedron and Lake Peachtree most of the time with one 44lb motor on the back and one 82lb on the front because the lakes are small and this is the most efficent set-up out of the motors I have. When I fish Horton I want more batteries and motors since the lake is larger.

Actual speed depends on a lot of different variables. LBH is both right and wrong depending on the length and weight of the boat, hull style, number of batteries used, weight of contents of the boat, type of trolling motor etc. I have done speed tests on different boats to help myself as well as some buddys decide how to set up boats. From research and actual tests this is what I have found to be the facts. Each boat has a hull speed which is the fastest theoretical speed that a boat can achieve with out getting on plane. To get this speed you multiply the hull length by a number (which I cant recall right now). I do know that a 14 foot boat can reach a hull speed of around 5mph and a 16 foot boat can reach around 6mph. But you also have to keep in mind the other variables such as a v-hull will be faster than a flat bottom jonboat and two 50 lb motors will not be faster than one 82lb thrust motor since the pitch of the props are different and the motors put out different RPMs. With all that being said I could give different situations and give you close to the best way to set it up. But back to the LBH comment. If you put two 16 foot semi-v hull boats with six group 29 batteries going down the lake side by side and one has three 82lb motors and the other has four the one with four will be faster. I know this because in our first tournament this year we were running side by side for about 3/4 of a mile with a boat that was set up with six batteries and three 82lb motors. We turned our fourth motor on and slowly but steadily pulled away from them so they couldnt get the spot we were going to. For the recreational angler that extra motor is really probably a waste of money but if you need to beat someone to a spot two miles away its a big difference. I have also done the GPS and the extra motor made a difference of around one mph. It was a difference between five and six mph. If you didnt have another boat right next to you or have a gps you wouldnt know the difference. There is a big difference between two and three motors though and you can tell the difference.

I was looking one time at length measurements of some bass one time that were all 15-20 lbs and realized that Varner has bass that have the length to weigh that much but they just dont have the gut that those fish do. I have seen and caught a bunch of 27-30 inch bass but they just dont have the gut that California bass do. Last June I caught a 30 inch long nine pounder. When its head came up I thought I thought I had a fish over 15 lbs. Then we brought it in the boat and saw it had almost no gut. I dont know if trout are the answer but fatten those fish up and Varner will compete with any California Lake. I didnt notice the fish getting real skinny in the summer until alot of the Hybrids started reaching 10+ lbs. Maybe the big bass needed the Gizzard Shad that the Hybrids were stocked to control.

I would throw a crankbait. But then again I hardly ever use a c-rig. A jig might be a good bait as well on rocky banks with wind blowing into them.

Some things I have learned about big bass is they are predictable and efficent. They always use the best structure in an area to feed and live. I rarely catch a really big bass by casting as I go down a bank. They are almost always caught on the sweet spots they use to travel, hold and feed. They either hold in the best cover on the best structure or suspend over deep water near the structure where they are inactive. IMHO if you are not a good structure fisherman then you will have a very hard time catching really big fish even in shallow lakes full of good shoreline cover. Big bass always use structure to move and feed. The one thing I have also noticed about big fish is they know how to conserve energy. They dont chase food they stalk it very slowly and when the time is right they use a burst of energy to eat what they can in one gulp. This means that 99% of the time they are inactive and hard to catch. Thats my theory on how they get big. So, I think there are only two good ways to catch a big fish. Get a reaction strike from the spot that it is holding while inactive or catch it where it feeds at the time it is feeding. This goes back to you have to be a good at fishing structure to know where the bass will hold and where it will feed. As for the best time of day I think big bass feed at two times. When the bait cant see them well(low light periods) is the first time they will feed and when they can see the bait the best (mid day). As for the size of bait I think it need to be good size but doesnt have to be huge. It has to be worth the effort to a big bass. The slower and easier your bait is to catch the smaller it can be. If a big bass is going to chase down a meal it needs to be a little bigger. Slow and big is the best but not so big and slow as to look fake. For example a big spinnerbait needs to be fished fast enough to fool the fish while a big worm looks more natural and can be fished slower. Just some of my big bass theorys. I havent read the BBZ book yet but I think I may have to read it. I have heard a lot of good things about the book.

It is neither. Its the guy who can do both as well as catch the ones in between.