bigbassjim

I have taken a couple of these and this is what I have learned. To help them get a base line and a feel for who a person is they ask questions like "Have you ever lied or mislead anyone in the past 15 years for profiet or gain" (A used car salesman would have trouble here) and "Have you ever lied to anyone who has trusted or loved you" and another example is "Have you ever lied or cheated in a fishing tournament for the purpose of winning" or "Have you ever lied to anyone to avoid or get out of serious trouble" The examiner will ask these questions first before he even hooks you up. 99.99999999% of everyone I know will have to answer yes to at least one of the above questions. The Key is to tell the truth. Then he will modify the question, "Except for what you have already told me Have you ever.............) Now you can answer without trying to hide anything. Another flaw is if you dont know you have violated a rule then you dont know you are lying about the question. I have seen anglers violate the rules and not know it and pass the lie detectors test. That is why they also have a written protest. the last thing I know about it is there is a differance between cheating and a rule violation. If I become Disqualified because I forgot to hookup my kill switch just one time during the day that is certinly not cheating. Here is a situation. You are fishing a tournament for 10,000.00 first place. You Win and now you take your turn in the hot seat. During the day through you got ready to move to your next spot and you zip up, buckle up, start the motor, put it in gear. You look over at your partner and he doesnt have on his life vest. You immediatly shut down and let him get his stuff on and ready but its too late. You have just violated a rule to cause yourself to become disqualified. Do you throw 10K away and tell on yourself, try to pass the lie detectors test, what would you do?

All great advice. Be careful not to disqualify yourself. My two grandsons are fishing JR BASS as well and there is a fourteen day off limits period for fishing and a 7 day off limits for soliciting specific information about fishing conditions or fishing reports from any source other than another competitor. That said bass are moving this time of year towards the back of creeks and into main lake coves and pockets. Find the bait and the bass are going to be near by. When you find the bait then look for some type of cover the bass will use to hide around or under. Crank baits, and spinner baits are great search baits to find feeding fish but if it's a tough day remember to slow down and down size every thing. For example, if you are catching them on a 5 inch senko in practice and on the tournament they stop do the same thing but with a three inch senko. If you cant get a bit on a crank bait try a jerk bait, if they don't want a spinner bait try an in-line # 3 or 4 Mepps spinner. One time I found schooling bass feeding on shad in open water and messed with them for hours before I figured it out. I threw everything at them then and finally I tied up a small single blade ¼ oz spinner bait and burned it across the top of the water as fast as I could and that's when I started catching fish. In that same situation I could have had used a zoom Horney Toad Texas rigged with a ¼ oz bullet weight and burned it across the top and then killed it and let it sink. If the fish are aggressive buzz baits, frogs, and poppers work all day long even when its sunny. I hope this helps young man and good luck. Let us know how you do.

I just received 3 new HML rods I ordered from Cabela's. 140.00 On Sale for 100.00. They came packaged in brand new tubes stenciled with Cabela's on ea. They have quick release caps on each tube which is really cool and each rod was individually wrapped in a beautiful Cabela's stenciled nylon rod case. I have bought a lot of rods in my life time and have never had any of them go that extra mile like Cabela's; and for clothing there is no question CABELA'S. For terminal tackle and bass baits BPS.

On my lake I'v noticed that the big bass (6 plus) come off of isolated under water branches that have fallen or have been moved away from the main pile, so what I do is use a single branch cemented in a cinder block cut to the right height and I drop them off to the sides of known brush piles.

This is Mr Whittman. I am the grandfather of Josh and Jon Moon. Are you the same young man that joined the OCHS Bass Club and fished LOA this past weekend?

I am new to the board so I want to say hello to every one and also add in another factor. I fish Lake Anna VA throughout winter and have caught a few bass out of 40 plus feet of water. Water Temps about 38 to 40 degrees. I did not know how to bleed the air bladders back then so instead of releasing the fish I would take them home and eat it if it couldn't swim by the end of the day. Were talking about just two or three a year. One of the things I noticed was as early as Christmas in some of these fish the eggs were very well developed. I believe the fish that have been very successful hunters in the fall and throughout winter and have good developed eggs sacks will be the first to want to spawn and will push outside the traditional envelope to hit the beds. I start looking for them at water temps of 55 to 60 degrees in areas of the lake that have had an abundance of shad all winter long. I know how to bleed bass now so not to worry.