Brian_Reeves

Using a bullet weight, I'd recommend starting by hopping it off the bottem. If that doens't work, drag it or swim it. If that don't work...play with it.

Most predominate craw colors I've seen are as follows: red/black orange/black orange/brown green/brown blue/black blue/purple brown/black With jigs and soft plastics, I generally stick to blues, blacks, reds, and watermelons on my crawfish imitaters. Blue and black has been the most successful for me in a broader spectrum of waters and conditions. It has produced in everything from gin clear to pitch black night. It's a good go-to color, at least as far as jigs are concerned. All of my craw imitaters are usually spider jigs (hula grubs from gary yamamato on a mann's stone jig head) or regular skirted jigs with a plastic trailer. I don't really focus on getting a bite on a jig on the fall...I have other weapons that preform better at that anyway. I use jigs to crawl and hop around on the bottem, looking like a traveling, feeding, scared, or injured crawfish. There are some good videos on yahoo somewhere in their video section that will show you how a crawfish moves in nature in a few different situations. Might be worth checking out. I've started catching more fish since I've been imitating the critters mroe closely...but I am also fishing in super clear water. Oh yeah....always use a rattle.

Talked to a guy with a Chevy colorado with the I-5 engine extended cab Z71 4x4 (which is exactly what I have). He pulls a 19ft Triton with a 175 so yeah...you should be fine. I'm going to be getting a 17'9 Nitro when I get back from Iraq and pull it with that Colorado. You should have plenty of power for that boat.

How many bass have seen a live spinnerbait before? Or how about a rattling crawfish swimming at 60mph forwards instead of backwards? Or a falling worm that barely wiggles 500 yards from land on a submerged grassline? Even if there aren't craws in your lake, baits like that might be the key. Bass have a brain the size of a fingernail clipping. They bite out of hunger or reaction (aggressive or defensive). If it looks like food or something worth eating, they'll eat it. That's why you can get away with fishing oddball baits like a brush hog and a spinnerbait. The only reason I'd attempt to locate or catch a crawfish is to match the colors. That does make a difference on tough days when nothing else will work. It's hard for a bass to pass up an easy meal like a slow, meandering crawfish barely moving around the bottem. I match colors based on that theory and it pays off more times than not. If the water is clear then you should definitely learn the color variations of not only crawfish, but bluegill, perch, and the shad as well for those tough days. Other than that, keep experimenting with baits....even if they don't represent anything living on earth because bass might be able to get fooled into thinking it's one of their other favorite meals. (IE: Fat Ika, Spidergrub, skirted jigs, and baby brush hogs)

I normally don't keep fish. Heck, I normally don't even take pics of the fish I catch...but SOMETIMES I gotta kill a few. Usually it's fish that get a hook in their eye, too deep down in their gullet, or their jaw gets broken. Those fish end up in the frying pan, provided they are 14inches. If not, then something else will eat them.

Both are great...but nothing fights like a redfish ;D That fish doesn't try to fight you, it tries to rip your arms out of socket. But between the bass species...smallies fight the hardest pound for pound.

I think that a foot controled trolling motor is a must have for anyone who is going to move a lot while fishing. It takes some getting used to, but I love them. As far as powerfishing vs finesse....I don't do either. I have a pretty weird blend of things I do on the water that could go one way or the other. Some of my cranking is more finesse based and then I'll powerfish a senko. All depends on what I'm seeing on the water. I'm probably one of the more unconventional fishermen on most lakes on any given day. I do weird things.... ...and they pay off.

Nothing finds brushpiles better than a slow rolled Rat-L-Trap ;D

I wanted to know who y'all trust to make your soft plastics. Who's plastic, additives, and molds are the best? I'm looking into starting to pour senko, fluke, spidergrub, grub, and u-tail worms. Who do you put your trust and money in? Thanks

The good thing about soft plastics is that you can't fish them wrong. All ya gotta do is find the right color/forage and keep trying retrieve techniques. I try to hit each piece of cover/structure at least 10-20 times with different lures and colors until I establish a pattern or get skunked ;D Most of the time I avoid the skunking but have problems establishing a consistant pattern. I hate summertime, clear deep lake fishing

I'd throw a fluke first and foremost. Topwater frogs, floating worms, or a styrofoamed tube wouldn't hurt either. To punch through, I'd go with Jim and get a 1/2 or 3/4 oz jig. Cast it out, let it bust through, then rip and shake it to clean it up. Sometimes acting like an idiot with the rod trying to clean up a bait will get you bit. It's a technique that's worked for me in the swamps of LA. Good luck and hope this helps

I've been looking for some wooden topwater "walk the dog" baits for awhile. Those look great! Let me know if you ever get to where you wanna sell a few of those. I'd pick one or two up.

My personal best (8#s) came out of a 2 acre lake. Most of the time, I fish Stillhouse Hollow, a reservoir and I usually don't break 5# there. I like smaller lakes better for fun.

Stillhouse, belton, and on post lakes/ponds here on fort hood

Anyone know where I can go to find out the colors of crayfish living in my area? I'm in central texas but don't have the time to go and start turning over rocks before a fishing trip. I've been using watermelonseed as my go-to color, but I wanna throw a change up and see what happens with something a little more crayfishy. Thanks for the help.

On a flip, you don't have to reel. A pitch is an actual cast, but just short, accurate, and quiet. As far as the effectiveness...that depends on cover and water clarity. If the fish can see you, it's hard to get them to bite.

Matt, you talking about the east/south side of the island with the roadbed, rebar tree, and submerged bridge? If so, I've vertically fished that sucker until I couldn't stand it anymore. What are some techniques that get those jigs into the strike zone? How far out do you cast or do you just drop it overboard? Do you constantly troll or bump and go or just drift? How long do you keep the bait in the water before you re-cast? Do you fish the weedlines or the grass beds? Sorry I'm asking so many questions but I can't seem to get this right. Thanks for the help.

How do you locate, mark, and effectively fish deep hydrilla weedbeds in the heat of the summer? I'm having complications staying on the weedline and picking up strikes. I know that 9 fishermen out of 10 here at Stillhouse use brown or green jigs so I went with a watermelonseed hulagrub on a stone jig head to show them something a little different, but I can't seem to get bit. Should I be fishing the jig vertically next to the boat or making short casts to the weedline (once I get some marker bouys to mark the weedline)? I'm at a loss. The water here is as clear as you can get and the depths range from 6ft-30ft along the weedlines. Thanks in advance for any help.

I must be a barbarian. I plug in the Mister Twister and go to town. They don't flop so bad after one side is done. ;D

I'd go with one of those great big senkos on a carolina rig if the fish are holding deep. If they are blowing up, try using a stick minnow (like a floating rapala.) Try deadsticking it in the center of the swirls. If that doesn't work, I'd try a Rebel baby bass Pop-R (med sized) or a baby bass excalibur spit'n image. If all else fails, do like Roadwarrior said and go deeper with ikas and senkos.

American Sportsman. I watched that the other day. It's about training duck dogs, getting to be a better shot, fishing for stupid things (like bone fish in the carribian), hunting, and picnicing with Yogi Bear. I guess ESPN doesn't view fishing as a sport, even though it's growing at a faster rate than anything else right now on an international level. Someone else will pick it up and ESPN is going to lose out. I wouldn't be surprised to see FX start carrying some. They seem to come through for us guys with a lot of their programming. Free UFC, kill 'em all and blow it up movies, and pretty good series stuff. Hopefully they'll pick this up too.

Ironically I was thinking of posting about this topic later today. Once again, Jim comes through with the answers I'm looking for. Quick question though. Are most decent fishfinders capeable of detecting thermoclines or does it have to be a $1500 Navy submarine sonar mounted to a bass boat?

Thanks to the positive remarks. Good to know that I make sense and ain't getting laughed at for comparing to modern day warfare with fishing lol.

14lb Silver Thread pretty much exclusively, but occassionaly use stren clear. I never go over 14lb test but never under 8lb. Question about those jigs. What type, size, color, and how in the heck do you fish them? I've used brown, watermelon, pumpkin, and green pumpkin from 1/8 oz to a full oz. I've tried booyah, stone jigs, and justice jigs in every concievable configuration with trailers ranging from chunks to senkos. I've never caught a fish on a jig at stillhouse. My newest experiment is a watermelon seed hula grub on a stone jig head in 3/8, but I think my location, casts, and presentation are completely wrong...ESPECIALLY on grasslines. I'm starting to hate this lake Thanks for any help you can give Matt.

Cover and concealment. As an infantryman in the army, we hear these two words used all the time. Understanding the differences is extremely important to us because these two things can help keep us alive among other things. This stuff has saved me more than once in Iraq already and will probably do so again when I make my next deployment. Ironically, cover and concealment apply to fishing as much as it does for frontline warfare. Understanding these differences and targeting them accordingly has paid off for me more than once on the water. First off would be the definitions in my understanding and training. Cover is something that you can completely hide behind. It is a solid object that stands between you and your opponent. It could range from a hill or a tree. A rock or low ground. The next is concealment. Concealment is basically a hiding spot. It won't stop a bullet but it will hide you from the enemy for awhile...at least long enough to keep you safe until your next move. Shadows, thin grasslines, isolated structure....starting to see how this ties into fishing yet? From what I've read here, saw on the water, and had some successful experiments, fisherman (like the good ole infantry) have to adapt to the types of topography and vegetation that is around them. When fish hold up tight into cover, we have to break out the soft plastics, jigs, and flipping baits. They have to be able to bust through the cover like a HEAT round from a tank and get to where the fish are. When they are hiding in the shadow of a dock, we can crank and spinnerbait them to our livewells and stringers. I'd call that suppressive fire. Everytime I hit the water, I add up as many factors as I can. I look at the air and water temperature, wind direction and speed, sunrise/sunset, and cloud cover. In determining how I approach a certain spot, I am thinking of how I should place my casts. Does the cover or structure that I am fishing cast a shadow? Are the fish going to roam around it or hold tight to it? And obviously, what should I throw to get their attention? Figuring these situations out quickly has allowed me to waste less casts (critical when you're on time constraints like myself.) And by casting the correct baits, I stand less of a chance of ruining a spot by hanging up a crankbait somewhere I should be fishing a T-Rigged tube or a jig. On the flip side, I can cover shadows and whatnot much more effectively with a crankbait instead of trying to finesse a place to death with a carolina rig. Obviously you have to go with what the fish are telling you and what your depthfinder is saying, but thinking about this kind of stuff beforehand can help improve your chances of catching fish even before you hit the lake. A quick glance at the weather and fishing reports, some time during the commercials on TV to tie up your rods with the correct baits, and a little bit of mental prep can help you adapt to changes on the lake much more quickly. I hope this little bit helps somebody out there that has trouble telling what type of bait to use and when. Good luck!