Brian_Reeves

If you're looking at the Xpress, don't get your hopes too high for anything other than a Yamaha outboard. From the sounds of it (talked to quite a few dealerships in Louisiana) the only engine that Xpress wants on their boats are the Yamahas...which is fine with me. That may vary from area to area though or your can always just buy the hull and motor seperate. Maybe I just called Yamaha/Xpress dealerships. Who knows? I am hoping that when I'm done with this deployment to Iraq, I'll be stationed at Fort Polk. I've had enough of Fort Hood. I'd be closer to family and as a bonus, I'll be able to regularly fish Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend...not to mention Lake Vernon and Anacoco. Pretty exciting area of the world for a guy like me lol. Changing to a lake like Toledo Bend that has everything you could ever wanna fish from a place like Stillhouse Hollow (which is deep water crap only) is going to be a challenging and exciting change and hopefully the final touches on the beginnings of an FLW carreer. I am going to have to remember to think out of the box like that if I am ever going to stand a chance at out-foxing guys like Gary Yamamoto and all the other fellows of that level. Denny Brauer (sp?) must be a hero of yours. Y'all got a lot in common. He's a jig guy and he has jumped beaver dams in his bass boat to get to the isolated and unpressured water during tournaments. Wonder what PETA thought of that? ;D

Bring a machete and a weedeater ;D I'd probably stick to working the outside edges or more than likely, pull out of that area and fish the grass flats of Toledo. What you're talking about is an interesting way to fish though...getting into water that no one else wants to and catching a bunch of good fish. I don't have a boat at all yet and the next (and first one) that I'm buying is going to be an Xpress 18ft Limited Edition with a 150 on it. I probably won't be able to pull that kinda thing off. It's just as big as the bass boats. With the rig I just mentioned, I'd probably work the brush with either carolina rigs, a big swimbait, or crankbaits until I got into where I could see pockets or 'trails.' Then I'd work that hard with weedless texas rig style jigs and big, funny colored tubes. If that failed, I'd check for pre/post spawn fish on secondary lake structure with jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. There's a million and 10 things you can do in a place like Toledo and have a good day of fishing. Going that distance that you did is a good way to win some quick cash on open tournaments though. Something to think about. Also, if you like pegging T-Rigs or working jig and craws, you might wanna try these: http://www.jigfish.com/catalog.php?homeinclude=catalog&category_id=6&parent_id=6 For the jig/craw, I use a Yum, Kinami, or GYCB Hulagrub on that jighead, but you could easily use a tube, lizard, or worm. If the EWG hook is too big, I recommend the Spot-Remover from buckeye lures. www.buckeyelures.com

my mistake Matt. I could have sworn that I saw you talking about Texas somewhere :-[ Opps >< Also..question for ya Matt. When swimbaits are not producing, what is your other favorite go-to on tough bite days?

None of my bigger fish were caught while I was "big bass fishing." I was just fishing. Most of the time that I'm out, I'm looking to put together stringers in excess of 15lbs or more just to see how I'm sitting for future tournaments. Most of the time I get that accomplished farely easily, though some days.... I actually think that swimbaits would do better for me than jigs on Stillhouse Hollow Lake here in Texas. Matt's a Texas guy if I'm not mistaken. He might actually have experience there to back that. I know there are some places in the back waters of Louisana where your only choices of baits are senkos and weedless jigs. Even skirted jigs would have a rough time in some of the muck that I fish in occasionally. I think that it really all boils down to, as previously stated, picking the best lure for that location and correctly presenting that lure. Swimbaits are so great at producing because they can cover vast areas of water quickly, but can also target structure. Jigs are big bass producers because they can get into crankbait hell and come out with fish. I guess it all depends, but I can see how swimbaits have an advantage because they can cover so much more water so much more effectively.

Oh, I don't doubt that one bit. I just haven't had a good opportunity to work with swimbaits. What I'm aiming to do is after I get back from Iraq (next fall) I'm going to convince my wife that I need a few mattlures for Christmas I'm going to start using them in prespawn and keep one rigged up throughout the year. Short of fishing Queen Cocaho (sp?) minnows for redfish, I have never used a good swimbait with success. I'm actually going to use that same minnow on a spot remover as well. I have a lot of re-learning to do with swimbaits and I don't wanna do that with a $3 pack of Storm garbage. I am already sold on Matt's stuff and ain't gonna settle for less lol. I know that jigs (particularly spidergrubs the Title Shot jighead) will remain a mainstay in my arsenol, but I also know that swimbaits are big bass producers. Big bass help a lot when it comes to winning tournaments, which is what I wanna do more often lol. I'm all about trophy hunting and I'm willing to feed the trophy fish what they wanna eat.

It's a tossup for me. Cobia, redfish, speckled trout, or crappie. Tough one.

The only 'drug' you need while fishing is caffine. Mountain Dew rocks!

Seven Eleven just dropped Citgo this week, so the company as a whole is going to diminish significantly. That's probably well over 2,000 stores, which serves probably 20,000,000 people. The company may or may not be able to rebound from that. The mom and pop shops will just sign contracts from some other seller. There are several around here that went from Citgo within the last 2 weeks because of that incident. One of the owners had to pay a breach of contract fine (and it's rumored that his new provider paid the cost for him) because of the switch. Whether that story is true or not is one thing. I just heard it from the lady that I was buying a Coke from. As far as Hugo Chavez is concerned, I would really like to see some sort of revolution. That would solve a lot of problems for the U.S. providing some certified psychopath isn't what takes over. If he keeps it up, we all know how Bush will respond and I'll end up getting deployed there. What's the weather there this time of year? ;D

When I have to resort to flipping and pitching it means that the bite is tough to get for that day. On those days, I'm downsizing my jigs to 1/4oz. Pitching the smaller bait decreases splash on arching casts and even moreso on flipping and pitching. I fish clear water, so I'm having to get it out there accurately and quietly and I can get that done at about 35-45ft, but I am more comfortable working about 20ft from the structure, depending on water depth. I also don't have a traditional "pitch" that I use. I have this ugly, funny looking south-paw underhanded sidearm thingy cast that works for me. I suck at pitching the correct way. I'd say if you can flip 0-15ft and pitch 25-30ft, you're doing pretty good. After that, it's showing off Most of the time when I'm fishing though, I'm fishing water that's 10+ ft deep and 95% of the fish are suspending or on the bottem. I usually don't worry about splash unless I suspect that the fish are holding high or the water is shallow. Just something to think about.

I never worry about it. I don't get cut too often fishing though. Most of the time I use needle nose pliers to do the de-hooking for me.

I clicked the wrong one. I picked large natural but it should have been large man made

That video would be funny if the guy had a pet cat. ;D

rofl keith! I'm with everyone else. If she wants to eat baby bass, give her baby bass. Pick up a swimbait, baby bass colored action tail worm, or baby bass colored mann's baby 1- crankbait. Give her baby bass and give her a variety. Get your trophy! If that fails, then change up the colors just a tad.

Mark Davis' catch and release method actually makes a lot of sense. When divers come up too fast, they end up in a decompression tank where the pressure is put at x (depth the diver was at) and decreased to y (regular pressure) slowly. If a fish is yanked up too fast, unhook him, admire him, then send him back to the depths where he came from. Smart dude.

At most tournaments there are trained personelle that will handle this for you. On an all day tournament though, it would be wise to know how to do it. I don't really know how, but I intend on getting someone to show me before I start fishing FLW amateur tournaments. Right now, all I fish are after work 4 hour specials I know I have seen saltwater fish get pretty jacked up when pulling them in from around 75-125ft. I don't recall catching anything deeper than that, but from those depths it looks like the fish went through hell by the time he gets to the boat. Worse comes to worse and you can't save the fish's life, eat it.

Deadstick a brush hog on a standup jighead next to grass, laydowns, timber or logs. It's slow, boring, and taxing on your mind, but it does pay off.

With a traditional pitch, don't load the rod up. I've gotten to where I've eliminated traditional pitching and flipping from my casting techniques. I just use a small sidearm or a 'wrist flip.' But my friend says I have the ugliest cast in bass fishing. Hey, whatever gets you the no splash and accuracy right? Play around with everything and learn to cast with either hand. Eventually you'll find a technique that works for you. A good way to practice without going fishing (HIGHLY important for married guys lol) is to take a small plastic bowl to the backyard. Set it up 15-30ft from you and practice keeping the bait as low to the ground as possible and making it inside or hitting the bowl. Invite your fishing buddy over and make a game out of it. Me and Clay practically play horseshoes and drink a few while having this really stupid competition. The practice shows when we fish standing timber or grasslines though and it's a reasonably fun way to practice. I recommend doing it while BBQ-ing.

All of my big fish (big=8lbs or better) have come off of jigs, spidergrubs, or shallow cranks.

Xpress X22LE with a 300hp yamaha vmax engine. http://www.xpressboats.com/series/xclusive/le.html

Yeah...a jig or soft plastic hookset is the same as attempted murder with me. I try to kill them on the hookset. ESPECIALLY if I have a jig with a fiberguard.

So far, I'm agreeing with two people 110%. LBH and Matt Fly. You can't get a better "sonar" than a C-Rig to figure out what the lake looks like. But as Matt said, if there are tell tale signs above or near the surface, that makes life easy. We have some small lakes here on Fort Hood that we fish. We (buddy and I) don't have electronics, so we just had to learn. My best technique for catching quality fish out of a small lake is the same as a big one. I fish the channels and dropoffs of coves (if any are present), visable grass lines and 'holes' in the grass beds, points leading to deeper water, and matted vegitation. Flipping a jig around the cover, searching with a C-Rig, and slow-rolling a big spinnerbait are great techniques for clear to stained water. For muddy water, I prefer slower, bigger baits like spinnerbaits, big rattling crankbaits, and rattling jigs. I've talked to you a lot over email and I know you know your colors, so I guess I won't waste your time giving you that spill. I'd go with a jig (you know my recommendation ), carolina rigging a brush hog, running a mid depth or lipless crankbait, and a multi-bladed, bulky spinnerbait.

I agree with spotaholic. Simplicity and confidence > than complexity. It's hard to go wrong sticking to the basics, which is why I fish a jig everywhere I go. A spotremover or other weedless standup jig head are good choices, though I prefer hulagrubs over finesse worms. Personal preference there though. A white chatterbait wouldn't be a bad idea I suppose, but I am not well versed in chatterbait fishing. shallow to mid cranks in bluegill, shad, or craw colors will work as well in clear water. I prefer bluegill colors, but thats me. Same goes for lipless chrankbaits and spinnerbaits. If you like skirted jigs, stick to either brown, green, or blue/black. Those 3 colors will work almost anywhere in the country. Sure, some other variations of the colors will work better, but one of those 3 will almost always get you bit. Spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and a form of jig are pretty much all you need to bass fish on any body of water. One of those will almost always catch at least fish or two (NOTE: ALMOST ALWAYS). It's important to be versatile though and be ready to throw things like finesse baits, senkos, fat ikas, or certain rigs like C-rigs.

No-Doz, Coffee, and mountain dew. Apparently you are not supposed to go to sleep when you don't want to. I've went many mornings after late nights and mountain dew and no-doz works great.

Donate the bass to cabelas or bass pro. That way you have an excuse to go there. You have to show the kid the fish ;D

I've gotten to where I only use topwater if I see a lot of baitfish busting the top of the water, schoolers, or irresistable places for frogs. Everywhere else I'm usually tossing jigs, ikas, spinnerbaits, or shallow crankbaits. Between those 4 styles of baits, I can cover the entire water column pretty effectively and establish patterns without having to use topwaters as a search tool. Unless a topwater style IS the pattern, then it really shouldn't be used too much during a tournament. They just aren't as reliable in most cases. On new water, jigs are my first choice 10 out of 10 times.