Swampstud

I have noticed that alot of hooks arent as sharp as the one I had 10yrs ago. That being said I carry a nail file and if I get a couple hits without hookups, I check my hooks and sharpen if necessary.

I love SB fishin. I have noticed though clear shallow water seems to not be favorable, stained water has proven its worth, same thing with cloudy windy days. How are you fishing it? Cast out n retrieve, yoyo,slow roll even a sink and snap can excite them I always have a color matching trailer and trailer hook. A trailor hook I think is very important especially with that grub trailor. The fall seems to be the better season to me, altough when I fished them in years past I was able to catch em all year long by changing blades, ooo thats another thing certain blades do different things.

I got this girl swimmin a strike king white soft swimbait. Im not going to lie, im slowly becoming a SMB addict!

The rapala dt series would be a nice fit, cover several depths. I like the shad raps too

Something ive learned this year is if your serious about bass fishing pay attention to the seasonal pattern and the weather. ill explain since im goin fishing today actually, its spost to be cool 70's, high bright skies and not much wind, its fall and ive been catching them on a shad/baitfish pattern. Since its calm and sunny ill start out with my strike king soft swimbait, drop shot w/ tube, or im thinkin a wacky rig senko. All in a shad color/white. If the wind kicks up im throwin my white spinnerbait, hardbody jerkbait, maybe a shallow crank. Now ALL summer long I could only catch em on my flippin rod w/ 1/2oz jig, or texas rig rage craw, drop shot robo worm. When it got a lil windy I got a few on cranks and spinnerbait, but nothin like the jig. I always have several rigs ready before I start fishin, 6 as of now and usually I may change a color or lure to adjust to what the bass want. Hope this helps.

The skill is knowing what is/should work to catch them the luck part of it is catching fish even more specific catching lunkers repeadtly. Anybody can get lucky and catch a fish or 2, but experiance brings skill and luck hopefully to follow in catchin the bigger fish consistently like kvd. Kvd is thw man to learn from in SB fishin IMO, ive cought quite a few after learning to pause for a sec, or twitchin my rod tip to give the blades a different flash for a split second. Even changing direction from holding your tip from side to side has cought fish for me. I ALWAYS use a white color, if its crystal clear water a clear/white color has worked great for me. I wondered if my trailer was causing short strike.... But its the differance between catching and fishing for me so I use a trailor hook. Also once I had a short strike a couple times before and I visuallt saw it the last hit I saw him open his mouth so I slowed my retrieve right then to get him to swallow, just a tip.

Yep id of lost it after trying to be polite and getting told. There are some WHACK jobs here in ol michigan. ive been tryin to get the gf to move north! Its not that difficult to find another spot 30-40 feet away. Ive had one guy harass a buddy and I for fishing his dock, in a boat with no one around but him and he starts givin us crap, screw you buddy heres a few more pitches to your dock, you gotta a problem call the dnr. More was said than that but lol. Ive always had kids approach and I dont mind that heck ive even shown 4 n 5yo kids how to use my fish finder on the ice to give somethin to do. Disrespectful adults dont get that tho, and darn jet skiers...... Argggghh if they cant be courteous why do you have to be back. I mean if you were fishing from a dock n I pulled up in my boat and fished right off your dock. Thats bogue

Man I really need to learn the lipless crank as I cant catch squat with em. I however love my spinnerbaits, and now jerkbaits.

A lil secret of mine is to buy skirting material and bands to make skirts. Make you a clearer color with some white on bottom. Bands are like $4, skirting is $3-4 a color. The hooks do suck so sharpen,. I even tried a bluegill color had one fish short strike 2x then inhale the 3rd. Trailer might be good too for a slower presentation.

Bad back but a nice bass, good job! Ive been hesitant to go back out too. Last trip out fishing I put mine out again, trying not to fall out lol. my situation may be differant since I have a birth defect where the lil ear thing thats on the lowest vertebre is like 3x the size and touches another bone beside it when out, it falls out every single weekend I go ice fishing too. But ive found that daily stretching, and not sitting in my recliner dramatically helps heal. Instead of a doctor try seeing your chiropractor. Reason I say that is --MY-- dr pushes pills (maskes the problem) where a chiro can fix the problem! Strecthing for me though seems to keep my back inline alot, although co workers give me weird looks haha, it helps tho

Figure out what lake, fish it until you KNOW the pattern and lures that will work. Watch the weather as it can change your fishing day to day. Dont expect to win but if you do be humble about it and move on to the next lake. 2-4 times a week is good, are you catchin em consistently? If not, what can you do to do so? Learn several techniques under different conditions.

Also color choice has become critical to me too depending on water clarity, and bottom composition. Confidence is key too but is something that will come with experience on the water. For instance I take my gf out from time to time, well I started nailn'em on SB and JB, I bought her some smaller one for her spinning rod, same colors,lures line size. Whatever I could do to get her a few fish. Well we go out and under windy conditions I fish main lake points or where one lake dumps into another. I cought 4 she cought 0, we move on and im pointin out where she could possibly hook up, but never did. We are goin along and I catch a small one, she gets upset and says shes done, my very next cast I hook into a nice pig, it shoots at us, jumps and tosses the hook. As shes amazed she also gets upset and grabs the rod and casts out a few more times and nothin, puts her rod down and wham I set the hook just bout fell outta the boat lol. this happened 3 or 4 times that trip. its more than just tossin a lure out and reelin it in is what im sayin.

Ive been fishin since I was 4, hooked into my first keeper bass at age 7 too shortly after I got hooked into tournament fishing. Not too much longer did I discover the bassmaster trail on tv. I knew then too that I wanted to compete. Im 28 now and am still rippin lips. Much like your buddy said its fairly easy to catch them under prime conditions, to me though you really do need to go catch em consistently under bad conditions. Such as a high bright skied day, post frontal days, basically when the bass would rather hide out than feed. Reactionary bites is the key I think. IMO you goin out with those guys in the tourney may be a bit much. If you have a few techniques your comfortable fishing stay with those, figure out when they work and when they just dont at all. You basically have to find your style and perfect it, when you do that only fish that technique in favorable conditions, and figure out a different one for when thats not workin. For instance all summer long ive had a heck of a time catchin any on a spinnerbait (my fav technique) I got 2 all spring and summer, after a few trips out I FORCED my too learn to finesse fish (my biggest weakness or it was!!) I bought ikes dvd, infishermans finess dvd and learned the drop shot rig ( I love it ). Started catchin fish on that when conditions prevailed. When that didnt work I started making my own jigs and learned how to pitch/flip (highly recommended) now ive hardly rarely ever fished jigs in years past but im tellin you ive cought 80-90 bass this year alone. I also recommend you watch or buy the seasons of the bass pros, as ive gotten alot of new info there aswell. They teach so many different techniques that its an educational investment for me, there a lil cheaper on ebay also. Figure out what lakes are being fished in that trail, go out and fish just them. Under all conditions, good and bad. I havent competed in 10 yrs but life took me down the wrong road until this year. Ive fished a chain of lakes thats farrrrr different than any lake ive fished before, and learning a few new techniques has put ALOT of bass in my new jon boat. It wasnt until literally 4 trips ago that ive started to nail'em on a spinnerbait, even then ive had to learn jerbait fishin to combine with my spinnerbait fishin. But all summer long ive just been flippin/pitchin or drop shottin to catch em. Weather has alot to do with lure choice for me also. I hope this helps some.