Felix77

Things I learned 1. “We don’t get many of Y’all down here!” is how I was greeted at Bass Pro (Shreveport) when I bought my license. That sentiment repeated itself over and over again down here. J 2. Clear water is relative. What the guys described as clear water to me was stained. One thing we could agree on was muddy water. J 3. Watermelon Red works in “stained” water. I could barely see it when the lure was in the water BUT when push came to shove that was the color to use. Confirmed with one trip to Toledo Tackle where all the good Watermelon Red baits were plain off the shelf. 4. Never order decaf in the South. They looked at me like if I had my head cut off. LOL 5. Weight was a key to my catches. When flipping and pitching I tend to go heavy. Drop it hard and fast for reaction bites. That scared more fish than I can imagine. Dropping down considerably for me (1/4oz) was the key to getting some bites. A subtle fall with a nice soak was got their attention. 6. Switched to fluorocarbon – get more bites. On day 1 Bighead was fishing with fluoro, I was using braid. Over time we were puzzled why I wasn’t getting bit. We worked over the setups one section at a time. First the weight, second the lure and finally the line. Once I got to the line I started getting bit. In that water clarity we were both convinced that line color wouldn’t make a difference. FWIW it did to us. 7. Never order a baked potato past 7pm. 8. When looking for tackle stop by any gas station. They got their priorities straight down there! Shout out to Toledo Tackle which puts any of my Albany shops to shame. 9. There are gators in Toledo Bend. Did not know that. 10. There are Alligator Gar in Toledo Bend. Tried catching a few to no avail. 11. Travel rods are a GREAT way to save money when flying. Carried 2 3-piece rods on and bagged and tagged 2 two-piece rods which counted as standard luggage as opposed to oversize. 12. Shooting through weeds around a cypress tree to catch bass is FUN AS HELL. 13. Riding over a submerged stump rattles the unexpected. 14. Riding down “boat lanes” and seeing a marker WAY off course also tends to make you pucker just a bit. 15. Who knew … “boat lanes” We don’t have these on Lake Champlain. J 16. No matter how much tackle you bring you will ALWAYS not bring the lure they were biting on. Uhm … lizards. 17. Boudin Balls are delicious!

Day 1 Fishing – Friday – Gunk all over the water With Bighead - Overcast, water in the low/mid 60’s. Water clarity was around 2 fow. Struggled to keep up with Bert who was a master flipping and pitching to Cypress Trees. Part rust and part advanced pitching I struggled to catch 2 fish. The fishing was difficult for me to start. Both my fish were caught the same way – Wacky Senko (green pumpkin) in less than 10 fow by a retaining wall/large dock area which seemed to hold fish no matter what the conditions. No treble hooked baits due to all the stuff in the water. Day 2 – Saturday – Rain, Rain, Rain Bighead and I ventured out to some other areas. We explored fishing the inside and outside weedline of this Alligator Grass. This stuff was thick. Practically impossible to get lures out of this stuff. Snapped off several 15lb test t-rigs to this stuff. Caught 1 on a mojo rig on the inside weededge in less than 6 FOW. The other two were caught on a rage craw one on the outside weed edge in about 9 fow; Key was the weight. Fishing heavy weights (1/2oz) for a reaction strike was not happening. Spooked off a few fish doing this. Dropped to 1/4oz to flip the edges. Day 3 – Sunday – Better but the water was muddy! With Bighead ½ day AM – Caught 1. - In around 4fow in very shallow water which was d**n near impossible to get to. Needless to say my pitching technique was getting better too. Pitched in through the weeds of two cypress trees for my first one. Pitched in there, let it soak, felt weight and set the hook. Bites were not terribly aggressive. My best of the trip. Around 4lbs. With BassnChris ½ day afternoon. All less than 10FOW. · Soft Jerkbait – Weed edge. – x1 · Drop shot – the smallest of the bunch. Open water. x1 · ¼ oz T-rigged senko – by the retaining wall. X2 · Rage Craw – x1

I will leave it to you to find a way to put that into your MegaStrike scent. New and improved garlic scent! LOL

Sometimes you feel like a nut ...

The club I belong to fishes out of there quite regularly. There are 5 things I always carry with me when I go up there. 1 - Weighted senko (usually at around 3/16 to 1/4 oz) - T-rigged 2 - Mojo Rig - Green Pumpkin finesse worm (1/8oz - 3/16 oz weight) 3 - Chigger craw - 3/8oz + T-Rigged 4 - Spinnerbait - white 5 - Jig - Black and Blue with a chunk trailer. The name of the game in general is the weeds. Find the weeds and you will find fish. When you get closer to that time PM me as well and maybe I can help. Good luck. Love that place! Hopefully the ice will be out by then.

Bighead and I had a field day out there regardless of the weather. I am on my way back home where it's a balmy 21 degrees right now. I would travel twice as long to get together with this crew again! Great times, great stories and great fishing!

Congats! Someday I will be posting the same ... someday.

The Bass Pros and MLF.

Got the boomerang as a gift. Love it!

I swear by KVD L&L for FC and Mono. Never tried on braid.

I don't combine them either. 50lb braid on my Bama setup. 15 lb FC with a Carolina Keeper for my C Rig.

I toggle between 3. Rage Craw Chigger Craw Paca Craw

Flying down now. Feel like a kid on Christmas morning!

Lol. I laugh because there were 2 things I knew when I got into fishing. 1 - I enjoy competition 2 - I enjoy fishing To me it was a no brainer to join a club and just do it even with only a few months experience fishing altogether. Two wins and a few "in the money"'s later and I have no regrets. Learn, compete and have fun!

Guess it depends on the type of cover and type of jig I am fishing. I use a 15lb Braid as my main line If it's a heavy gauge hook then I tie straight Braid. 10-12lb leader FC otherwise. Kind of answers your question.

Not a big fan but my kids are into basketball. With that said we tend to focus on our local teams. University of Albany made it to the dance for the 3rd year in a row. Unlikely to go far BUT still exciting for this local community.

To answer your question I would use 12lb.

Yup. They catch em. Love my Cavitron.

I can see my driveway already. Soon ...

I went to two of them while working in Pittsburgh. Not impressed. Have a long way to catch up with the others IMO.

Line snapped on me too many times. Switched to Red Label and never looked back.

My favorites Strike King KVD 1.5 colors below 1 - Sexy Shad 2 - Chartreuse/Black 3 - Chartreuse Perch 4 - Green Gizzard shad

http://mikeiaconelli.com/ikefoundation/index.php

ASAP ... some of my biggest bass come from the bank early in the season up north.