Eric Buck

Where is the confidence?

I can find bedding bass no problem. Just finding the females are the hard part. The wagon wheels are fish attractors such as rebar stuck in the water or a christmas tree that was sunk. They don't hold to many fish for some reason though. I think there is something to the puzzle that I am missing.

I believe that your first year struggles is going to be learning new waters that the veterans have fished before. However, if your dedicated enough and know what to look for you could survive. I think I could survive to get invited back the next year.

I think once you learned how to use the electronics you would do far better than you would think. I know there is a lot of knowledge involved with the pros, however the electronics these days that most of us can't afford paint a very vivid picture of where the fish are!

If you had all of the equipment that the pros have and you were fishing the 2012 Elite Series, how do you think you would do for the season?

Where did you guys watch it at on the computer?

Thanks!

This introduction is a little past due, however I have been enjoying myself surfing through the articles and trying to take in the abundant amount of information that is present on this site. To bad I didn't find this site earlier in my fishing career. Anyways I am in the Army and Stationed at Ft Stewart, GA. I am currently deployed and I will be back in action for next fishing season. Please feel free to ask me any questions and I have posted some pics of my success throughout the past couple years. Thanks for all the information and Good luck to all of you!

Nice boat!

I have fished almost every pond there. Let me know which pond you are refering to and I may be able to help you catch some more fish. Also let me know how the fishing is going there as I am in Afghanistan right now.

Wow nobody fishes on Fort Stewart on here?

Here is my dilema. I have been fishing Pond 1 at Fort Stewart, GA for a couple years now and have been unsuccessful at bringing up a fish over 4lbs. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but it's definately not working. I have beat the banks with everything and although I catch quanity I don't catch quality. It's not that there aren't quality fish in there, because there are. Look at Fort Stewart's fishing pictures if you don't believe me. Here's the setup. In the back of the lake is a shallow flat where I have caught a few pound to 2 pound fish but not as many as I catch in the front of the lakes. Mostly I catch the fish on a fluke near the grass beds, however I have caught them on everything else. There is hardly any deep water structure. There are a few tree's thrown in the water but they don't produce that many fish for some reason. When I throw a crankbait and try to make contact with the bottow of the lake it gets filled with slimy moss that kills the action on my crankbait. I am not sure how to approach this lake in regards to finding big fish. Any Ideas? I will attach a picture of the lakes layout.

I bought the swim bait mold off that site and planned on making those while I was over here. I am going to get some jig trailer molds and work out those also. I want to make my own colors that I know will work and play around with it. Happy memorial day to all you guys!

I am doing this on my deployment ot Afghanistan. Starting to sound like it was a bad idea to do it over here.

How is it dangerous?

Thanks or the warning.

Looking at those tournament results you need to catch 5 QUALITY fish to get you anywhere. 5 two pounders might get you in the top 50 but thats not going to get you money. I think you need to come up with a strategy to catch get you a limit early and start culling those fish throughout the day. Do your research and pre fishing. Locate a pattern and go with that. During tournaments we tend to get so wrapped up on catching anything that we lose sight that we are not catching winning fish. I would suggest get you 5 quick keepers to build up your confidence and then go to where you KNOW some big fish are at and use bigger baits to try and lure them in. Spend the time to know the waters and what baits and colors have traditionally produce bigger fish. Fish with confidence and have fun.

Thanks for the comments. Of course quality and performance will always have to outweigh cost. I guess my biggest thing that I want to achieve with making my own baits is matching the hatch with color. I think that will give me an advantage in tournaments that I fish if I can make a bait specific to the waters that I am fishing rather than trying to use a little of one color or another to see if they like that. I think that will be the rewarding part for me if I can use it to catch more fish during tournaments and improve my odds of winning.

Just on here looking for comments in reference to fishing on Fort Stewart. Trying to figure out everyones favorite ponds and/or baits to use. There are multiple double digit bass pulled out of these waters, and I am curious to hear some stories on how and where they did it. Also they have started fishing tournaments and I was wandering how those were going and what seemed to be working during those. Thanks for any and all input.

I appreciate the heads up. I plan on screwing it up, that's why I am trying to minimize my hiccups by asking people who have done it before. I appreciate you looking out for me though.

Thanks for the reply. I am in Afghanistan right now, and that will be how I spend some of my free time when I am not talking to the family. I bought an electric burner to heat it up so I won't have to use a microwave. I'm just worried with the swimbaits because It will be another 7 months before I am able to test them out. So if I make a bunch of them and they don't swim right I guess I will just melt them down and try again. Once I get this down I plan on getting some POP and replicating some of my favorite soft plastics.

I have been reading and trying to understand how to make my own plastic baits. I want to do this so that I can eventually "match the hatch" and also save money by making them in bulk for a cheaper price. After doing research I decided to order the starter kit through www.lurecraft.com. I'm looking for any tips or tricks in order to make this successful. I have never done this before, yet I am very excited to get started. Thanks for any advice in advance!

I fished a tournament where the pattern was suspended post spawn bass. I caught a limit throwing a KVD 1.5 crankbait up on the shore and cranking it straight back to the boat ripping it right through those suspended bass holding on structure. I would make long casts and vary my angles but the casts were always perpendicular to the bank. The tournament however was won by catching a couple females that were holding to tree stumps in the deeper water near the spawning areas. That gentlemen was ripping a crankbait through the stumps and hooking up with some nice ones.