Brian_Reeves

My plan is to have 4 poles rigged with 4 most lethal baits for whatever lake on whatever day under whatever conditions. I like the Quantum 6'6 Tournament Grade combo from wal mart lol. They are super versitile, accurate, and have tons of speed and backbone. Instead of ripping baits off and trying something new, you should get a few poles rigged up (2 horizontal and 2 vertical or 2 power and 2 finesse or whatever) and switch regularly between your confidence search baits. Then once you establish a pattern, you can downsize, change, or whatever you feel you need to do.

My buddy and I rarely leave the marina. The fish seem less pressured, are less easily spooked, and are generally larger than the ones caught on the main lake. Granted our Marina is like a harbor. It's tucked away from the main lake. Once you locate the bottem structure around the marina, many times it will be some of the hottest fishing in the lake.....plus you save gas. Just last saturday we never fired up the outboard and caught 17.5lbs of bass (11fish) in a few hours and didn't burn an ounce of gas. Can't really argue with results.

To me it all has to do with the amount of water efficiently covered in a period of time. Jigs can be both power or finesse, as can spinners and worms. Cranks are pretty much power while dropshots are always finesse. I like switching to finesse tactics after I locate a pattern. Usually it pulls in more fish that way. Locate, fine comb, pick up and try again over and over. You really need both to break away and stop being a run of the mill angler.

Chop pretty much depends on what kind of topwater I'm throwing. If it's really rough, devil's horses or torpedos. If it's moderate, buzzbaits. If it's slick, poppers or sticks. That's my general rule of thumb if you rule out every other variable that goes into the formula to make topwaters work on a given day.

We could form our own group...like FULL Fill Up (my) Livewell (with) Largemouths!!!!!!!

I bet PETA really dislikes my new Mr. Twister Electric filet knife. Get 'er done!

I think it would be funnier to foul hook their robo fish, shoot them, then sell the fish on ebay.

I don't see why people hate him other than the fact he's annoying. What I don't understand is why people REALLY hate Mike Iaconelli (#6 most hated athlete in the world). That guy rocks.

I don't fish buzzbaits during "traditional times." In the early morning or late evening I've had more luck on poppers or walk the dog style baits. Buzzbaits are strictly a spring-fall mid-day reaction strike type lure for me. I've always used them that way...not sure why, but it's always worked. I consider myself a topwater fanatic regardless and I've put together a long list of patterns that work well together with times, clarities, wind/wave factor, and current. So far it's held really dead on with me. I do know that the biggest fish I've hooked into (who flung my bait back at my face) was hooked on a topwater...but not a buzz. It was in low light conditions on a Spitin' Image over recently flooded bankline. Buzzbaits are really successful in the heat of the day providing that there is ample cover and relatively shallow water. I've never caught a fish on a buzz in water over 12 feet deep.

That has to be the ugliest bait I've ever seen. Got another one?

They should be out between 55-60 degrees depending on water clarity. In muddy water they will come out a bit earlier. Rocknfish....that sounds like a trip of mine when I caught a bullfrog on a topwater frog Strange things happen on the water sometimes. lol

I just bought a pack of Yamamoto Senkos in watermelon with black flakes and then I bought a Tiki Stick in Smoke/Shad. Anyone have any luck with Smoke/Shad Senko-type baits?

Just wondering if anyone has tried making poppers or walk the dog baits with balsa wood. If you have, what did you use to paint it? I don't wanna use a paint that will always have an odor but I don't want something that is weak and chips off too easily. Any suggestions?

A good way to tell is watching what you're depthfinder is telling you. Use GPS, terrain association, triangulation, or whatever you can to put you in the right spot. Find where the ditch and the drain meet up at and watch you're depthfinder. If there is a change in density on the bottem with a slight change in depth, you're on your mark. Back up off of it and start fishing or drop a jig/dropshot/whatever straight down. We (my team) used this to find a submerged bridge, creekbed, and road. We found where all 3 met right before we ran out of fishing time > but now we know what to look for and where to go. It's on next time!!

As an active duty infantryman in the Army, I can honestly say this guy motivates and inspires me. Stuff like that means more to soldiers than most realize. He has my respect.

Thanks! I'm going to apply a lot of that to my own hunt for sponsorships here in the CenTex area. Good post!

Name: Brian Reeves and Clayton Carver Location: Central Texas-Killeen/Fort Hood Area Occupation: US Infantry with the 1st Cav. Both of us are young combat veterans and have suffered mild injuries from a tour in Iraq. Team History: The "Ain't Texans Outdoors Association" started as a humorous retaliation to the insanely proud Texans in this area. Neither Clayton or myself are from Texas, so we thought the name was both comical and honest enough to actually stick. We have only had time and finances to fish two local tournaments. We did not win either. We have been fishing together for well over a year now and have pulled in nearly 200lbs of bass from on-post lakes and Stillhouse Hollow. Considering the little amount of time that we've spent on the water, it should show some of our determination and growing skills as a team. Goals: We would like to become full fledged tournament anglers in the FLW. We are currently pursuing that goal by expanding our knowledge, skills, versitility as a team. We should be fishing our first tourney this year pretty soon. I'll update as soon as I know how that turns out. Sponsorships needed: Anything would be appreciated. Both Clayton and myself are fathers of newborns, so getting out on the water and spending a ton of money on lures and tackle is out of the question. We're working with what we got and refining old techniques. Financial, lure, tackle, apparal, or advertising sponsorship would be highly appreciated. For our sposors, we are willing to advertise however you (the sponsor) sees fit. We'll wear the hats, put the stickers on the truck, and decal the boat, wear the shirts and make sure that everyone sees that your products can catch fish. We're looking to become really close to smaller companies at first, since the nature of this sponsorship isn't world class. We're small town anglers locked into the Texas area because of the military. We're working hard to advance our knowledge and skills to a point of excellence for when we leave the service, we can start fishing hard and heavy on larger tournament trails. Even though we're looking for small companies, we'll gladly offer the same advertisement opportunities to the larger companies if any are willing to help us out. We can't do much but we'll give 110% at everything we can do.

The kinds that catch fish Nah...I'm usually my team's topwater "expert." I have a nack for getting skittish bass to explode topwater with some "finesse" tactics. My buddy is a soft plastic kinda guy. Worms, flukes, etc. Those are our primaries for late spring/summer/fall. For spring and winter, it's almost all soft plastics. Of course we also get fish on crankbaits and jerkbaits. The lakes we fish seem anti-spinnerbait so we rarely use those unless we hit up the muddy water, though when we fish smaller places, we like to throw spinners a lot. To classify it into brands...I guess I'll say we use Zoom, Rebel, Bomber, Booyah, Berkley, Hart, and Mann's merchandise the most, but we have a little bit of everything. As far as what I can offer to potential sponsors, I'll have to go edit that later on. Thanks for the pointer.

You could always match the colors of that bluegill to a tube, lipless crank, soft or hard jerkbait, or whatever and blaze them over the postspawn beds for some great action. Perch of anykind eat bass fry which kinda upsets big daddy bass. Explosive strikes make the postspawn my most favorite time of year.

The fish will be one of 2 places. They will either be moving up regardless of the water temperature like they tend to do in northern lakes or they will be holding to winter patterns until that magic 50degrees is hit. Since the water temp is supposed to be around 50, I'd start off with either a deep diving jerkbait like an X-Rap or maybe a pointer around primary lake structure. (IE points, humps, and things of that nature.) Anywhere where a submerged road, creek channel, or gravel meets up with grass, deep water, access to shallow water, or bends close to any of the above is a good, good place to look for prespawn bass. If the jerkbait doesn't work or the fish are holding too deep, try a SINGLE colorado bladed spinnerbait slow rolled close to or onto the bottem. Shad or crawfish colors would be a good bet. You also won't be able to go wrong with a carolina rigged anything or jig and pig for deeper water or more subtle presentations.

Share Lunker program is the way to go. They (the Sharelunker folks) will come get your living fish and give you an exact fiberglass replica in exchange. Then they take your fish and breed it with other large bass to try to develop a strain of larger and more active fish. From what I hear it's been working out pretty well, though the program is pretty new. It might be a TX only thing though....I dunno. I do know that it's for all bass 10+lbs...so think about that option next time you get a hawg. Brian -Ain't Texans-

Do you know how incredibly lazy a bass that size would be? You'd probably get more fight out of a 12pounder but not nearly the prestige. Good catch dude...whoever you are. Brian -Ain't Texans-

Drop shots are quickly becomming my go-to bait when conditions get tough in these clear water lakes in cen-tex. Finesse seems to be the way to go in a lot of situations...though we are generally getting smaller fish, which is why I don't use the derned thing all the time. Dropshots work and they work well...though they can be a pain in the neck when it comes to getting the lure in the strike zone. (IE 50 ft of water, fish are suspened at 25ft on a dropoff. It can get hard to get it in the right place and keep it there...especially if it's not completely vertical) Brian -Ain't Texans-

Now you see why I'm in the infantry and not finance or something Thanks Brian

If you're anything like me, you hate finesse fishing but know that it's worth doing to pull up a full stringer...especially during tournaments. I guess I might be trying to add too much of my power side into my finesse tactics but I honestly believe it's worth a shot. Brian -Ain't Texans-