scaleface

I went yesterday and my plan was to fish a rip rap dam last . The wind had been hitting it hard all day and the water 6 to 8 inches visibility . I figured there would be some bass willing to hit a spinnerbait or crankbait there .I didnt have enough battery left to fish it . I ran it dead fighting the wind while fishing points but caught a lot of bass doing so .

The 17 wasnt bad I'm sure I could have launched it if I could have gotten away with an overhand cast . The 20 is too big for this rod , the same as the Strike King 6XD . i use them but cant get the distance . I need a 7'6" rod that will work for pitching too . I only take 4 combos in a jon boat so they have to be multi function .

The 14.5 was a joy to use .They have a small profie but are wide and heavy . I was fishing into a stiff wind . This was a small lake and i had to run the trolling motor on high to get to the spot . I actually ran the battery all the way down and barely had enough power to get back in . The 14.5 casted great into the wind . I used a low trajectory side arm cast on a 7 foot med powered rod to get it out there . The bigger baits did not cast as well on my equipment . I need to get a different rod for them . The 14.5 is already one of my favorite lures and if you had to buy just one , this is the one I recommend . There was a boat fishing the spot before I got there . So I went down a cove and pitched cover waiting for them to leave . When they left I moved in . I dont know what they caught or what they were using but they went across the lake to fish . They saw me catching bass so they parked under a shade tree and just watched for an hour before leaving too a different point to try . They didnt have sonar and were not using buoys. Its hard to stay on fish without them .

The four I used ran perfectly . One more note on the Dredger . I cant tell for sure that they have a steeper diving angle but they seemed to stay in the strike zone a long time. I would have the lures close to the boat and still banging bottom and catching bass . ...and the hooks are wicked . I had a heck of a time tying knots because the hooks were continually stuck to my fingers . I was double careful removing hooks .

I dont see how wind blows baitfish toward the shore . They are under water, the wind doesnt touch them . The wave action stirs things up . Baitfish are attracted to that . This is off subject but the wave from boats do the same thing . On the Mississippin river I've watched first hand waves from barges dislodging crayfish . Barge waves slapping against a rip rap bank often causes a short lived feeding frenzy .

Gave the Dredgers a workout today . I caught my first bass of the year plus 66 more . All but about 25 were caught on Dredgers , the others a texas rigged worm . I caught fish on the 10.5 , 14.5 , 17.5 and 20.5 . The 14.5 caught the most . All the lures tracked true . I was using 12 lb Big Game and the 14.5 touched bottom at 14 foot . the 17.5 touched at 17 foot . They dive as advertised . The fish were spread out in the water column , a lot of them were caught when the lures were not touching bottom , then a lot were caught on bottom . I did not try the 25.5 . About 10 of them were 15 inch keepers, 3.5 lbs the biggest

Here a new video by Glenn that will help answer some of your questions .

It appears you are hooking big bass and you need stouter line .

Wave action will often bring the fish shallow . The waves dislodge and stun bait . I like to parallel cast the banks with various lures . It can be a tiring day trying to keep the boat in position and not running ashore but the fishing can be spectacular .

Search bait is kind of a vague term . I'm searching for fish I hope to make a cast or two that will steer me in the right direction . I might stick with the same bait or change . I'll make that decision when it happens not now .

A lot of new anglers dont recognize a good point on a map or on the water . I was one of those . I fished short steep points . The longer tapering points are the good ones . When you're a long way from the bank and still at a fishable depth , with deep water on both sides , that spot has potential . Bass like to set up here . It gives them a bottom to relate to where they can intercept passing schools of baitfish . I spend a lot of time studying a depth finder on these places looking for fish , cover and irregularities .

I want the hook gap twice the diameter of the lure . Usually I will be using a smaller hook than most . I see no advantage in using a 4.0 wide gap hook on say a Trick worm .

At a pond covered in the stuff I caught a lot of large bass using a weightless worm with a heavy flipping hook buried in it . I'd just plop it along on top and pause it at pockets .

I do a lot of dead-sticking every time I get a new reel .

The bass usually bite better early and late in shallow water . There are a number of things to try .Fishing deeper into cover . Search out structure . Go junk fishing and hope to make a cast or two that leads you in the right direction . If you get a hunch try it . I was fishing a club tourney and couldnt buy a bite and time was running out . I got the crazy idea that bass were lure shy and getting too good a look at the lures . I took a Bomber Long A Minnow in silver flash and casted it past a stump on the shady side , then retrieved it as fast as I could . An Ogre swallowed it . Did the same thing to a nearby stump and got another . Those two fish weighed l3 lbs and won the tourney . Keep plugging away and sometimes a pattern is stumbled onto .

When I was fishing local tournaments the 6 inch Lizard was my number 1 bait . They caught a lot of those so valuable three lb fish .

Last I looked the local farm store had some Uncle Josh pork products in packages , not jars and labeled meat .

When I was starting out I read Bassmaster cover to cover . I credit it , In-Fisherman and Fishing Facts as my number 1 bass fishing teachers . The guys I fished with were bank beaters and didnt know what a pattern was . BassMaster and the others taught me too pattern fish and find bass off-shore .

I keep ziigging when I should be zagging . I had Kennedy for three straight tourneys and had him picked for this one then switched him for Klein . I had Ike then switched him out for Combs . Switched Reese for Rook . Then kept Shaw Grigsby for the third straight tourney in which he hasnt made a cut . I wont pick Grigsby next time so he should finish in the top 12.

It has a metal weight in the lip . That should ID it .

Go to the thread at the top of the page "A rare insight into crankbaits " and read the first post .

I originally stayed with the same team as last tourney with one exception . Four of them are in the top 16 Oops .

Give a detailed description of the water , conditions and location of the area you are fishing .

When I'm having a 70 plus fish day its usually on a crankbait or a T-rig worm .

Theres a lot of animosity toward tournament type anglers , especially from those stupid perch jerkers with the dog in the boat .