aclark609

My favorite and most productive topwater lure is the Zara Spook. Regular monofilament line or braid is a lot easier to work the bait than using fluorocarbon. To get it to walk back and forth, also known as "walking the dog," keep your rod tip as close to the water as possible while twitching it. Make sure the line is slack when you go to twitch it. Once you twitch the bait on slack line crank the reel a little bit. It takes a little bit to get used to this twitch and wind rhythm, but you'll be walking the dog at any speed before you know it. I love to walk the bait as fast as possible and then kill it for a few seconds. Sometimes they want it walked fast, slow, steady, and sometimes they won't hit it unless it's paused for a good period of time. Just experiment around until you get a bite on it.

Wish I knew! I live in Harrison as well.

A shakey head can always pull a bite for me. I can't hardly get my dad away from it either lol. I always have one tied on.

Good piece of information. Thanks.

Whoever says color doesn't matter is wrong in my opinion; however, color isn't as important as understanding the current conditions and applying a bait that suits those conditions well. Just experiment.

I fish Table Rock on occasion (If that is the lake you are speaking of), and I fish Bull Shoals about once a week. I'm no professional by any means, but I might be able to help if you can give me some info on how you are trying to find and catch these fish. Q: Do you own a boat? A: If you do, that's a definite plus seeing as how Table Rock is quite a large deep lake and would be kind of difficult to bank fish, or at least, much less productive than in a boat. Q: Do you have a sonar on your boat? A: Bait fish can stay pretty deep in the White River Chain of lakes and sonar would definitely help in locating them. I have seen schools of baitfish up shallow, however, in all parts of the day. Q: What type of structure/cover are you targeting? A: Table Rock is completely absent of vegetation; therefore, points, channels, drop off, and rock transitions are the mainstay for finding bass. Find a place with all of these combined and you got a year round winner. Topo maps are great for finding these areas. Particularly the ones that show or draw out the creek channels. Apply this to what vapredhunter said, and you WILL find fish. Q: What type of bait are you using? A: A lot of times it's not that you aren't finding fish. It's the fact that the fish you have found just don't wanna bite your lure. I find myself going finesse a lot with some great results. Don't count out power fishing though. Ask for local advice. I can tell you, along with about anyone else in this area, you don't leave home without a War Eagle spinnerbait for fishing docks or buckbrush around the spring time, or any day where there's cloud cover and/or some wind. In closing, there isn't one easy thing you can do to locate fish when you are out on the water. If it was simple, there wouldn't be any bass in the lake! Good Luck!

Hmmmm . . . Vertical presentation makes sense to me even though I never fish a drop shot that way. The fact that it's light makes little difference to me seeing as how I learned to cast a baitcaster with 1/8 oz grubs on the creek, and I usually fish 3/16 - 1/4 oz dropshots anyway. So I guess the only significant thing about using a spinning reel for dropshotting is it's easier to drop it straight down below your boat? Naaah . . . I think I'll stick to the baitcaster for the finesse side of bass fishing as well. I have much better casting control and subsurface control with a baitcaster. Thank you for the replies.

I'm just wondering what the significant advantages are for fishing drop shots, shakey heads, and etc. on spinning tackle? Why not use a casting set up? I have a spinning rod set up with a drop shot on it to try to notice any difference in performance, but I can't find one. What are your thoughts?

You cast your crankbait as far as possible then troll in free spool until you have like three hundred yards of line out then reel it all the way back getting your crankbait as deep as 35 feet. I think it's a little silly.

I haven't tried the " I-Motion " technique,but I have tried the I-Shad. Works really well using a technique called bottom bugging. Pretty much you just reel the bait slow and steady on the bottom. Definitely gets bit, but not so durable. One, maybe two fish per bait. The I-Motion technique sounds like a killer for dock fishing though.

I get what you're saying. For me, a stiff rod is recipe for heart brake in almost every situation. I've never owned the rod you have but I can personally vouch for Dobyn's and Powell rods. They have similar lengths and the actions are quite similar. Just enough bend to keep em pinned but not wimpy by any means. I'd check out the diesel series by Powell if you don't wanna spend over a 100 dollars. Also, when it comes to braided line, I'll never use anything but Sunline ever again.

Ask some locals. Look up your lake on the web. I don't know where you live, but it's almost guaranteed that any public lake or pond has bass in it. Good luck.

Sounds like you need to loosen your drag a little. Keep steady pressure on her but always have your drag loose enough to allow her to take a run if she wants to. Don't hesitate to loosen your drag mid-fight either.

Ask some locals. Look on websites etc. Crankbaits are a regional thing a lot of times. One thing I would say for sure is to work your spot from every angle possible until you find the right angle that gets bit. This may sound senseless but a lot of times it's just about the angle with crankbaits.

1. Fish as much as possible 2. Do your homework 3. Become very good at casting/flipping/pitching 4. Become versatile

just keep the line tight. That's it!!

I'm no expert, but I don't think matching the hatch is as important as everyone believes it to be. Choosing a bait and the proper color in regards to water clarity and depth along with the water temperature seems to be a more productive rule of thumb for me.

I've fished creeks since I can remember and there is one important thing can make or break wether you catch fish or not. That thing is current. Don't worry about bait choice as much. Just grab a single tail grub, tube, or any other cliche small bait and find places where there could be a current break. If you are fishing a creek chances are you are fishing for small mouth bass. Although they can be found anywhere in the creek you want to focus on high percentage areas. Eddies are possibly the best place for a guaranteed bite. Look for an area of 'rapids' and where the rapids drop off into a deeper hole there will be some area where the water sort of swirls around into a still area. Drop any bait in green pumpkin into that area and you are almost guaranteed to catch a fish.

Don't know what lake or any details about the lake you are fishing, but I have run into a similar situation lately. Last week I fished jerkbaits all day around likely prespawn areas covering lots of water and ended up catching lots of smaller bass, especially spotted bass, with no luck on the bigger ones. Went out two days ago and fished creek mouth points and points in the creeks cause the water was too dirty back in the creeks and caught considerably less fish but all of a larger size. I was fishing a 3/4 oz football jig and wasn't trying to cover water like the other day. Even caught a 4lb walleye on the jig. I guess what I'm trying to say is focus harder on high percentage areas and throw something you have confidence catching a big one on. Hope this helps.

When it comes to a pond, you can fish the shore all year round. Fish super slow and make repeated casts to likely targets. 57 degree water temperature is not really what I would call cold water. Try fishing weightless plastics. Something with little action like a senko would be a good idea. Maybe try a jerkbait as well. The biggest bass I ever caught out of a pond was on a jerkbait in about that same water temp. Let it sit a while between jerks. A jerk pause jerk jerk pause jerk is the only cadence i've ever used and works quite well.

Yes bass can live in a pond of that size. I had an ex girlfriend who had a pond with almost those exact measurements and it had bass all in it. Some pretty big ones too.

First off, how heavy is the jig you are throwing? I wouldn't throw anything 1/2 oz or over on anything less than a heavy power rod. I also like a longer rod for jig fishing as well. I always have a 3/4 oz football jig tied on a Dobyns 734. (7'3" heavy power rod). Also that Winch has a really slow gear ratio making it harder to keep pressure on the fish once you hook em. A faster gear ratio will also allow you to reel down quicker before you set the hook if one bites when your rod tip is high. Also, with a jig, don't be afraid to swing for the fences when you set the hook and keep it tight. Don't give em any slack.

I have some pretty old electronics. Even though I plan on purchasing something much nicer here in the near future, I still would like to understand the shad's day to day habits better. I fish Bull Shoals Reservoir in Northwest Arkansas. The main species of shad that populates the lake are Threadfin and Gizzard. Bull Shoals is a fairly deep (avg. 75ft.) fairly clear reservoir that is about 5 foot up as of now with water temps in the mid 70's. There are lot's of creeks feeding into it along with shorelines absolutely lined with brush due to the high water. My question pertains to anything to do with how the shad will behave in this lake. Should I focus more on the Threadfin Shad or the Gizzard Shad? What are some ways I can predict the schools everyday routines? Any suggestions pertaining to or any suggestions of what I need to know about shad in general would be much appreciated.

I'm about to take the boat out tomorrow and was wondering how the fish will react to all this rain. I figure some fish were starting to move up to bed with the water temperature being about sixty, and then the rain came pouring down for the last couple of days and the air temperature dropped 15-20 degrees. What would be your method for be catching em? BTW I'm going to be fishing Bull Shoals Lake in the Peel area, if that helps.

If fish are shallow, they will bite a frog. Even in the winter, just not as aggressively as other months, bass will bite a frog. Just go out there with confidence and throw it like you know it will get bit.