coots

Hey guys! Our local bass club does an "away" tournament twice a year, one in the spring, one in the fall and this year they've decided to make our fall away on Pickwick Lake. My dad and I have never fished this lake in our entire lives. They had a tournament here once upon a time on this lake and some of the members were ho-hum about it. Said we had to be careful on the water etc. Anyway, the Tournament is middle-late October, but I'm doing some scouting around on the web and asking anyone in this community that knows anything about the lake to share some knowledge or at least some spots to check for some bass. I'm not asking for your lunker holes, so please don't be offended. I am simply asking for some spots that may hold enough for us to limit out on some fish. 5 each. We will be in town that Thursday night, practice all day Friday... Tournament is that Saturday. Any help is greatly appreciated. I did find this website here and was wondering if anyone could confirm some of these "spots". http://www.pickwicklake.net/Pickwick_Lake_Info/Maps/Bass_Fishing/bass_fishing.html

Thanks for the replies guys! I think I like the looks of those Culprits... Is there a reason y'all stockpiling Culprit? And is there a reason you guys don't toss colored tails to much? I mean, granted, before this we used to throw black A LOT! Always caught some fish on them... but no monsters. Seem to be catching more sized fish with these colored tailed ones... going to have to start taking notes on that.

I know there isn't a lot of difference, so I've read, in worms. I live / fish on Lake G in Alabama and Texas Rig'n a worm is hot pretty much year around. I'm looking to buy some nice 10" worms to toss. I used some from my local wal-mart called Pro's Choice.. hooked me a 4.6 ouncer on one of theirs Saturday. Black with a blue tail. Tore them up Saturday on it. A guy in our club said that's a nice worm, we were ripping them on Black with purple tail. So I went and looked for Black with purple tail, nothing to be had. So I'm online looking at worms now, if nothing else, just for more variety of colors... and if I'm being honest... I won't stray far from Black Just wonderin' what a good soft plastic company would be? Oh and I hardly ever throw a straight worm.. almost 90% of the time it's the u-tail or 'curly' tail.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I fish a tournament once a month and other than that dad and I hit the water maybe once a week.. once every two weeks at most. So, it's not like I'll be putting it through it's paces. I think it'll hold up fine for what I do.

I will second the Abu Garcia Veritas. I got me one for my birthday back in June... absolutely love it.

I'll be hooking the big daddies out of Lake Guntersville... flipping and pitching into the holes in the Hydrilla. That said, Medium Heavy or a Heavy? Nobody has mentioned the Extra Heavy yet... so now I'm leaing 7' Heavy... or 7'6 Heavy...

I am wanting to get me a Duckett rod. I am going to try to get dual purpose type deal so I can do a little of a couple things right now. Eventually I'll change it to a single purpose only. But right now the dollars are what they are and I can get one. My main purpose for the rod will be Flipping and Pitching. Secondary purpose will be some top water work. Hollow body snagproof frogs, SPRO frogs etc. I am leaning toward the 7' 10" Extra Heavy. http://www.***.com/Duckett_Micro_Magic_Split_Grip_Casting_Rods/descpage-DMCA.html And before the "there are better rods for the money than the Duckett" thing gets brought up. I am set on these because they are white and they are 25% off at a local store of mine, so I'll be getting it for around $125 out the door.

My wife signed me up about a month ago... I still haven't gotten anything from them. Besides an eMail and my first magazine. No membership card or nothing.

Hey I'm talking about look here. The guy who runs the business that I asked a question about answers on the thread... yeah.

By the way.. I fish Lake Guntersville / TN River (where I live). It's full of bream, blue gill, shad, some perch, crappie etc.

Oh man.. decisions DECISIONS!

Shoot.... thought that is where I put this thread. No wonder I couldn't find this thread earlier haha. If a MOD would change it to that forum I'd appreciate it. I mean.. that Blackout Jig just looks crazy in the water on their video.

My father and I are going to start really trying to learn how to fish Jigs... more pitching boat docks... grass etc with them. I haven't read to much or thought about 'swim jigs' really. Just fishing them like I would a texas rigged worm... anyway. Also we are going to start fishing spinnerbaits some as well. I've asked before about Spinnerbaits to buy and got some feedback that Megastrike is really good. Anyway.. I am so torn on which one of the companies to put my money into. They both have some really compelling lures in their respective lure area. Northstar.. the Blackout in the water in their video looks insanely awesome... but Megastrikes technology looks awesome as well. Both companies Spinnerbaits looks really good. I need some guidance here. Also, what colors do you guys like? In my area I have always heard guys talking about pitching black & blue jigs... but on both sites.. all these colors look awesome lol....

Corretion: I got it now. Boy that was a pain to get out the first time. Holding the screw out while turning helps a lot too...

It would be real nice if I could access the braking system on the thing lol. I loosened the screw on top of the reel, the side plate still won't come off....

Thought I'd come and brag about the wife for a minute. Our local club tournament is actually before my birthday.. wife surprised me with a Abu Garcia Revo-S 6:4:1 Abu Garcia Veritas 7' MH 1/4oz - 1oz. lure weight, 12-20lb test rod. I am jacked up! Hitting the water in the am to give 'er a go!

We've still got some tru-turn in the boat. We use the gamakatsu's mostly these days though.

Just saying that would leave you $60 to try and hit the Flea Market here to snag you some reel someone is getting rid of. I picked up a Bass Pro Shop Johnny Morris Signature Series for $80.00 to my door. So if you hang around and be patient... you never know.. someone may put a BPS PQ on there for sale pretty cheap.

A rod to look at that is getting decent reviews for their price range. http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Bionic-Blade-XPS-Micro-Guide-Trigger-Rods/product/1209290947195/

So I have done a fair share of reading and listening about choosing the proper color of spinnerblade blades, skirts, colors for crankbaits, etc. Do these same principles follow suit for plastics? One of my favorite techniques is t-rig'n a 7.5" worm and working / finesse the worm a lot. I have thought about how 'stuck' I am to some certain colors and thought to myself... do the same principles I've learned by reading topics and articles here, apply to worm fishing as well? Clearer bright sunny days do I choose a more natural color? (Greens / Browns / Black) Cloudy days do I try to throw something bright like (Merthiolate. bubble gum, chartreuse, etc.) Any help on this is appreciated!

Hey guys, it's all "good in the hood"! We're all here for the same reason, gain knowledge and share our experiences. Brag about the big one we snagged up out of the depths. Thanks to all who have made mention of some of the rods around, I'm def. going to look into them. Has anyone got their hands on one of the BPS Bionic Blade XPS. Talking about this one: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Bionic-Blade-XPS-Micro-Guide-Trigger-Rods/product/1209290947195/ For $60 BPS XPS vs. $99 for a Vertias, $89 for the Skeet Reese, $149 for the Duckett's... and someone mentioned the red Dawai... any thoughts on those comparisons?

Hey man, I just appreciate the idea and your thoughts. I am actually in Alabama, about 30 minutes ride to be in Tennessee River. But the river comes right through my hometown.

I fish the Tennessee Rier, due North of Lake Guntersville (Lake G is about a 10 minutes boat ride for me). On a map I guess if you look at it, we fish the entire area around the BB Comer Bridge and down toward Lake Guntersville. There is fish here, the pros hang around fairly often We fish mainly around the Goosepond area, several coves etc back in that area as well as a creek (Roseberry Creek), that comes out into the main channel. That's where there was the swarm of boats where we couldn't fish really. The thing that got me was the bait fish being everywhere.... literally everywhere just flapping around on the top of the water. It's like... come on now.... you know there's bass up in here! The place where they were was back in a cove we fish, it has a really deep pocket in it (23-24ft.) Down in that pocket is some brush etc. I dunno... I've made notes though. As far as asking the guy who did well today in the club.. that'd be a no-go.. He's the former FLW guy and he is as tight lipped as they come. He did tell me once what kind of rod he used... that's about it.

Very interesting. Do you think this would affect the sensitivity or adversely affect the rod in anyway?

So we went and fished our bass club "tournament" today. The biggest fish that was weighed in was 5 pounds even. Most boats didn't even put 5 keepers in the boat, most blanked had just a couple two or three fish, no size. So I'm trying to make note of what conditions were around, water temps, what was happening and most importantly WHERE should I have been looking for the fish. We do have a former FLW fisherman in our club, he had 5 nice fish weighing in over 16lbs. So me being the guy I am, start thinking to myself. Where did he go, what did he fish, what was he doing different than the rest of us. Then, how do I implement that with dad the next time we go out in these conditions. What i do know. The BFL is in town on our part of the water this week, so the fish will be REALLY fished or pressured, whatever u want to call it. We went to one spot where dad had caught a few nice keepers during the week, there was literally 8 boats on it. At 5, yes five in the morning. Anyway, we had some storms roll through late yesterday. So I would take that as a post-front type situation. It was nasty / cloudy / stormy all afternoon yesterday. This morning it was foggy, cloudy, semi-windy. Water temps are around mid 70's and higher in certain areas. It's post-spawn so the fish should be moving out. Talked to a couple other buddies of mine said they've been catching fish 8-12ft (which is where dad caught those keepers earlier in the week) on spinnerbaits over underwater grass. We couldn't buy a bite today. I landed one fish all day (5am - 12pm) and it didn't measure. Dad landed two all day that barely measured 15in. Reading the article on the front page of the website. It appears, following that advice about 'shallow to deep', we could have done a few things differently. We fished some banks, docks etc to see if we could get those few hanging around - nothing. One of my big questions is this though. We went up into a cove that has produced for us in the past. There were baitfish EVERYWHERE. Slapping top of the water... flapping around having a good time. It just seemed like.... there just has to be bass in here somewhere. We threw jigs, t-rig worms, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, different colored everything. Just simply couldn't get a bass anywhere. Just kinda wondering if we should have moved out and followed the advice on the front and started fishing 'summer strutuce' already.... Just a hard day out there.