scaleface

Fish more .

Learn how to back hand cast . I'm horrible at it .

My avatar has two nice bass in it and I'm guessing I was about 10. So around 50 years .

I fish spinneraits from top to bottom , fast and slow . I fish chatterbaits , wait , I havent fished them yet but I have some . I just havent had that day where I thought to myself "try a chatterbait ." They must be pretty dang effective as popular as they are .

You have sonar and know where the channel is , now marker buoys would come in handy .

I add blades to jig heads the same way . Instead of a piece of tube i use a disc made out of a plastic lid and a hole punch .

Water temp in the 40's is a game changer . The tactics above were used in much warmer water . A-Jay needs to weigh in .. He slays them in cold water .

I will hop the Red eyed shad like a worm or swim it a little bit then let it drop . The RES is fantastic . When it is falling , it shimmys and makes a clicking noise . If the fish stop hitting it I then switch to a silent model . My biggest bass of the year came on a silent RES chrome and blue hopped like a worm 20 foot deep . If the fish are on known good structure I spend a lot of time there before giving up . Maybe thirty minutes . If the fish are just on a featureless bottom I will usually make just a few cast with a crankbait then move on . One day this summer I got on a large school on such a bottom . After the action was over I scanned the area and found a creek channel nearby that I didnt know was there . You can bet I will hit every inch of that channel next summer . I will mark it with multiple buoys , fish it , then move them . I cant wait .

I cant explain how the sonar picture looks very well but I fish a lot of deep water fish that I spot on my depth finder . I just see activity . Baitfish in the area , larger fish and straight lines that indicate moving [ feeding] fish . I usually toss a marker buoy and quickly fire a crankbait that will hit the desired depth . The red eye Shad bounced on the bottom has quickly became one of my favorite baits for this type of fishing . I have caught hundreds of fish this year with the RES targeting deep fish found on the sonar The T-rigged plastic worm is often the best lure . Its important to know the running depth of your crankbaits . I keep it simple and generally use these four crank baits and worms . 8 to 10 foot a Norman deep little N .10 to 13 foot a Rapala CR14 Crankin rap . 13 to 17 foot a Strike King 6xd .The Red Eye Shad and worms will cover all depths . I get a lot of dry runs but when I connect , it can be a bass on every cast for several hours .

WRB stated that a quick way to find a pattern is to fish an area with a lot of variables . When I fish a new lake , I study a map and try to find precisely such areas . Areas with lots of zig zag lines so I can quickly fish different types of water .Its been a good strategy. I also look for the obvious structure that everyone else can easily find and gets fished to death . Now lets look at the past three years on the lake I fish the most . My two largest fish this year have came off the same point . One was caught at night on a plastic worm about 5 foot deep the other during the day 20 foot deep on a RedEyed Shad . Last year my two biggest fish were caught on this same point at night on a shallow diving crankbait . Two years ago , my two biggest fish were caught shallow during the day, one on a spinnerbait the other a buzzbait in a cove that the same point connects too . I milk that spot shallow , deep and the coves its connected too and try my hardest to get on a pattern .

I'm always skeptical ,this day and age , when pros can make milk runs on hard to find spots on lakes they have little experience at . Maybe someone supply's them with waypoints .

I've landed a huge drum , flathead and channel cats in tourneys .

I dont think I ever pulled that one but I can picture it happening .

This is pretty much my routine .

Ive been using Fat Raps for a long time and never had a FR7 .

A Rogers Big Jim that I picked up at an antique store caught more bass for me , than any crankbait I ever had . I was parallel casting a bank and lost high in a tree . That lure had "it" . Second from bottom . You can see the lure in the mouth of these three bass but it caught many more .

In a pinch I've used a willow leaf spinner blade .

There is no way I'm going to be tightlining live bait and trying to cast lures at the same time . Its either one or the other . My uncle use to drag a bobber and bait behind the boat while we were bass fishing , it always ended up being a PITA .

Spots vs an area . I usually try both .

I catch drum often while bass fishing . They feel huge at first because they turn their body sideways , catching a lot of water like a sail .

Spinnerbait tip . Go small when bass quit hitting regular baits . The bass will know its there . I've seen them charge a tiny bladed bait from yards away in murky water . Buzzbait tip . Squeeze the rivet with pliers to keep it stationary and make it squeal more . I also like to squeeze the lip of the prop and rivet with needle-nose pliers to create tiny grooves . Also bend the those lips for maximum contact . Crankbait tip . Use baits that dive a couple of feet deeper than the water depth and keep them tuned . When a crankbait goes straight and ends up directly below the rod or even under the boat then you have a good one . Crankbaits that dont run straight I do not use . Those baits are delegated for areas where its highly likely they will get lost , like below a large dam . Texas rig tip . The lure must be kept straight or it will twist line . Hooks are the main culprit , i bend them slightly to get the worm to lie completely straight . River Small mouths love big grubs buzzed on top . Large waves , both natural and man made will start a chain of events in the food chain and bass take advantage of it . If you're on a waterway with barge traffic be sure to be onn a good spot when one goes by .

Haha . I fished a lake stocked with muskies one time. I used a Musky Jitterbug and my biggest spinnerbaits for a few hours and nothing . I switched to bass fishing and Texas rigged 4 inch French Fries . I caught two Muskies on them .

The moving logs , I believe would have a positive effect .

I'm voting for a six inch Texas rigged Manns Jelly Worm .

I dont use trailers . I use to put pork frogs on weedless short arm spinnerbaits and drop them in cover but I havent used them in many years . Its a good technique though , its just one of those things I have gotten away from .I have added a shot piece of Senko on something like a SK Mini Spin for added weight .