Brian_Reeves

If you are pitching to a target and that target is the only thing there (IE: a lone tree on a flat), then I'll retrieve after I hop it away from the tree a few times. If the area is loaded with grass, rocks, timber...whatever...then I'll SLOWLY reel it back, keeping the jig a few inches off of the bottem and occasionally letting it hit the bottem, kicking up mud. If I hit a tree or some other thing under the water, I'll kill the jig and hop it through the cover. Most of the time, my jig is moving. This technique is pretty fast and efficient and have accounted for most of my jig fish. For starting out with jigs, you might wanna try the Strike King Bitsy Bug. It's a 1/4oz jig that has pretty good skirt colors and a decent, but small hook. You'll have to play the fish some if he's big. Use your buddy's technique or my little slow swimming method in 10ft or less water. That should get ya bit. My favorite colors emulate sunfish.

When I was on vicodens (the big ones) for my back, I had forgotten that I had just taken an ambien (spelling). It took about 10 minutes to knock me out. I was playing on the floor with the kids and passed out. I didn't wake up til the next morning. Thank god my wife was home.

Awesome catch CJ! Thanks a million for participating. I really don't know what to say each time one of y'all put up a picture. I know I sound like a broken record, but it is an honor for me to be a part of this. Thanks man and thanks BassResource.com!

Last year I couldn't fish because I was in Iraq. This year I can fish because I'm not in Iraq.

Army Infantryman. Job title: Rifleman, Team Leader, Grenadier. I am done with that though. I start my new job on the 28th. And I can't tell you what it is :

I like a twin tail hula grub on a jighead (* *). That is a confidence go-to lure in most situations where fish are shallow and unwilling to hit more aggressive jigs or lures. Those things work. I should probably use a hair jig more often, but I'd have to tie my own. I always get aggrivated with the ones I get from Wal-Mart. I should probably buy higher quality hair jigs, really. They work great, especially in clearer waters. Either way you go, you'll catch fish.

When bass ghost me, especially after I've been on them, I move to an area that I know is full of cover or structure. From there, I work deep to shallow, then shallow to deep. I'll search for them the same way you'd search for a TV remote in a poorly lit, messy room. I just kind of wander around and start hitting structure and cover with a variety of lures and rigs. Usually this "lost in the sauce" method (as my dad calls my wandering) will put me back on the fish. Of course there are those days when they just disappear altogether. I don't know how much science that involves, but I know that if I can locate bait on the graph or start combing deeper structure, usually there are fish there. I REALLY hope dad gives me his bass boat this summer when I get out of the Army. I'm putting a side search sonar on it if he does. That should help control my nomadic tendencies.

That's not a bad idea at all. I'm going to start my first rod around august or september when my next big bonus comes through. After I screw up the first two or three, I want to try to tackle a split grip, spiral wrapped Lamiglass or G. Loomis. I'll be starting a thread to bother flechero, Alpster, and ReelMechanic soon anyway ;D

Depends on where you are. I've had a few of my 8 pounders strip drag and make runs to cover. I've also had a few that I caught in colder water or in the post spawn that felt like reeling in 8lbs of weeds or dead weight. If you want some serious fighting, big fish, you should look into lake Falcon on the Texas/Mexico border. It might be a bit of a trip for you, maybe a vacation in the future or something, but lunker bass are a very high possibility there. And they all fight like there is no tomorrow.

To me, jig=skirted jig with a trailer jighead= a jighead with no skirt or trailer Shakey rig, Alabama Rig, Jig and worm, jig and craw= jigheadwith soft plastic trailer, no skirt

I used to use casting spoons for redfish back a few years ago. I haven't been after reds since I've been in the Army though. I think my favorite casting spoon was made by luhr johnson, but I could be mistaken. I really don't remember much...but I know that you need a good casting spoon. A bunch of companies make the weedless kind. I recommend tipping the hook with a finesse worm for a little extra action. Fish it just like a fluke. Thats not much advice, but it's all that I really remember. It's been like 6 years...

When I was fishing tournaments regularly, I would put a frozen 20oz bottle or two in the water during the heat of the day. That just made sure that the water stayed cool. It wasn't enough to drastically change the water temperatures, but it kept it from turning into a boiler. The livewell's I've used also had water replenishment and recirculation.

The price of oil is a hotter topic right now than the presidency or the war in Iraq, both of which are disallowed by the rules to really be talked about on here. The title of this thread is way off...way way off and should be called "Oil Price Discussion" or something along those lines.

Mine has 6 inch renegade worms, keel weighted hooks, trick sticks, flukes, manns baby 1 minus crankbaits, strike king 3/16oz spinnerbaits, rage tail craws, spot remover jigheads, round jigheads, and the small beavers from *. One of those lures is almost guarenteed to work.

Congrats man!

Crawfish. That's the only bait I will bother catching/buying if I'm looking to do some big bass hunting with live bait. That doens't happen too often though.

Don't tell anyone, but skipping the shad under a boat dock and reeling just fast enough to keep it on the surface might pick up a strike or two here and there...

1) Banjo Minnow 2) Kick Tail Shad 3) Walking worm 4) Helicopter lure 5) LED light minnow bait ;D

Salt makes soft plastics sink, masks odors, adds flavor, and makes you drink a pepsi when you have to bite the head off of a worm. Of the topic tip...wash your hands with table salt after fishing to get rid of the fishy smell.

I'm not a picture smudger, but I do hide some of the baits that I use. One reason is because I develop and test lures for a few different people and companies. The other is because I'm sitting on a rig that will win me some money in some local and hopefully a national tournament as a co-angler. I'd like to get a cut on the cash before someone else runs with what I'm calling my idea. I don't know of anyone else doing exactly what I'm doing right now and I'd like to keep it that way for a bit longer. I don't think that is unreasonable at all. As far as picture smudging, I guess that depends on the lake and fish. If I caught an 18lb bass, I probably wouldn't even tell anyone what state it was caught in, unless it took 1st place in the record books. ;D Fishing is a funny hobby and sport. I like sharing information, but some stuff should be confidential. I can sit here and tell stories about Iraq all day, but I can't share some of that stuff either. Some is classified and I legally can't talk about it and other stuff I am just unwilling to talk about. Same goes with fishing, oddly enough.

Ahh ok. So it's jig looking, but not really a jig per say. I don't see why they wouldn't work then. I'd probably treat it like a jig on the drop shot though. I'd think about adding a strike king bitsy chunk trailer to it. Those things are pretty small and would give you a bit more action. On a lure that small, it might be hard to keep the crappie off of it which is NEVER a bad thing

I think I should run when I hit 35. I'll lower the cost of lucky crafts, make Brent my director of natural resources, put a Rage Tail/Bass Resource paint job on Air Force One, starve OPEC, and make OPEC pay for the annual road trip to Brazil for peacock bass fishing. Do I have your vote?? ;D

Granted, I fish out of a canoe now, but when I was tournament fishing a few years ago...it was the same deal. I own a good bit of rods and reels. I only take 2 out with me MH 7ft baitcaster MH 6ft 6in baitcaster If I have a bunch of rods, I end up fishing my one or two favorite ones anyway. By the end of the day, I'd have 2 flukes, 2 jigs, and two hula grubs on anyway. I'd look at my rods and be like "what in the heck happened to my crankbaits and spinnerbaits???" So I just simplified it. An everything rod and a heavy cover rod. Works for me.

As soon as I pay off my truck, I'm buying an electric car for my wife. My new job pays for gas, so I'm not worried about me at the moment. When technology will give me an electric, or water, or whatever powered 4x4 truck, I'll buy that. What I don't buy is that oil production will increase, because OPEC is making sure that they don't, which is leading to their incredibly high profits. Unless the US enters into the market with the aforementioned reserves that were found then OPEC will continue to control the price of oil and thus, the quality of life for everyone in the Western world. You thought terrorism was bad. If they get a grasp on how much they could torque the rest of the world, it could get really ugly in a much more sinister way. I've joked about bombing Saudi for the prices, but that won't really do anything. But we could put serious pressure on OPEC...and this is no joke. They might make it too costly for us to drive a car, but we can make it too costly for them to feed their country. A huge percentage of food comes from the US farmer that these jerks are intentionally screwing. You want to see a country of people turn against a government and cause some real change, take food from their mouths. The OPEC higher-ups will never hurt for food, but when people see them rolling around in their palaces while the commoner is starving half to death, there will be a change. I'd love to see farmers sell exported corn for $50 an ear while us locals eat it for less than $1. How's that for poetic justice.

Haven't seen those yet. They look good. Power worms are never a bad choice on the water.