jb_adams

That's what I was thinking. Looks and quality goes to Booyah but rad lure does thump harder and if you burn it back to you, it will dart around and act very erratic. It has the most action. I have not tried a Gambler yet so I can't comment. I'm not sold on the chatterbait yet because I haven't caught a fish on one. (that I remember anyway) My partner has caught several on a white chatterbait but I don't seem to have that luck. Short strikes have been a problem for me. I use a trailer now for when I use them again.

I like you analogy avid!! Yes, you are right, it would be that tight!

Beaver Lake has 110ft. river channels from the original White River basin. After the river was flooded to form the lake, there are sunken churhes, buildings, cemetarys, etc. So the main channel can get deep. Currently, the lake is about 8 below normal pool but that's still deep water. Since I can see my dbl. willow leaf blades turning about 8ft. below the boat, I'd say that shallow water fishing in the fall is not the best scenario unless you can cast really far and quietly. The fish tend to hang around 10-20ft. on clear days when their active and they appear to be going into deeper water up to 45 or 50ft. to hide out when the fronts come in. I have yet to try dropshot techniques but I can see that I may have to if I want to catch bass on this lake in any weather condition. I'm going to try finesse worms at 40 ft. with a 3/4oz. - 1oz. egg sinker off the bottom. If this doesn't produce, I'll just wait till spring when the bass are back in shallow water and actively feeding again!!

OK, I asked a local guy that knows the lake really well and he said that we should have tried the dropshot when the cold front moved in. My partner and I have never tried this technique before because we have heard that it is extremely boring and very challenging. The bass we found were anywhere around 30ft. on drops to 45ft hanging tight to structure (trees). Anything else was at the very bottom around 60ft and I don't think it was bass. We couldn't even find fish in 8ft. of water. The wind drove them into deeper water. Is this a must have technique for cold front fishing?

I've never heard that before. Here the fish seem to vanish from the shallow water when the weather changes. I mean you have a hard time finding a decent size brim or crappie in 8ft of water in a back water creek. The water is clear and the fish are just not there when the weather changes from a cold front. They quickly go back to deeper water around 30-45 ft from what I saw this weekend. Of course Beaver Lake has river channels over 100ft deep too with the upper end average depth around 60ft.

I'll say this.....it slow! The weather seems to change from 40 to 75 within a week. Evertime the weather fairs or stays constant for 3 days, you get a small window of opportunity to go fishing. It's really got the fish confused. It's cold at night, windy and cool during the day, the moon is playing tricks on them, etc. It's just plain tough. Sat., me and Jolicious hit the lake for a long 10-11 hour trip and had the hardest time finding fish. The weather was great early that morning but about noon, everyone started going back in. Now I know why. We caugh one dink on a crankbait and after that, we couldn't find the fish. When we did, they were tight to sunken trees and drops and scattered all around. No schools or active fish anywhere. Personally, I think the fish are scattered all around on hour and then when the weather fairs, they are all grouped together in clumps feeding. It's tough fishing on clear water lakes with these conditions.

Thanks for the tips guys. Rolo, I like your information you gave. Thanks! That seems to fall into what we experienced in our trip today. Between me and my partner, I caught the only fish of the day out of 11hrs. (you're thinking.....WHAT?) Yep, 11 hours of searching casting, searching, casting, searching, etc. We had the hardest time finding fish. When we actually had one cross the Lowrance depth finder, they were usually scattered and relatively small. The larger fish were by themselves and scattered far apart. We saw the best groups early this morning when the skies were sunny. The water temp was around 65.5 and the one fish was caught in sunken tree structure in about 12-20ft. The water is clear to about 8ft. with a greenish tint. The air temp. was low 40's and warmed to about 50 then after the clouds rolled in a few hours later, the temp dropped back to the mid 40's and the wind came too. After many hours of searching deep water, shallow water, feeder creeks, etc. No fish. We'll keep trying.

Don't feel too bad like you're the only one in a funk. Me and my partner can't seem to get a handle on the local lake. It's huge, full of fish but it is one of the toughest lakes to fish because the stripper keeps the size of the largemouth down to under 18" or less. If you ever find one up to 4-8lbs, it's a rare fish from what I hear. We have gone out several times this summer. We are both somewhat beginners and we've fished everything but a kitchen sink with a blade on it. You name the color, we've tried it. Name a brand of worm and I bet we've got it or close to it. Spinnerbaits? We have plenty of colors and sizes. My partner hates crank baits but I caught the one fish out of an 11 hour trip. A front moved in and the fish disappeard. When we did find any hanging tight to structure or drops, they were 30-45ft. down. Only way to fish that with high winds is a dropshot. We've never dropshot fished so we passed that up. We used jigs instead and a yo-yo type but no dice. All I can say is hang in there and keep at it. The clear flourocarbon line makes a big difference. Also be as quiet as possible, don't bang the boat, cast as far as possible. Seems like every fish I have caught have struck the bait well away from the boat. NEVER near the boat. I think the trolling motor may be spooking them.

My fishing partner would love going fishing with you Chris, he says I swap baits too much as it is! (ha ha) You just re-assured my suspicions on what to throw. I was already planning on using a fire tiger rattle trap burned under the surface close to structure, using the spinnerbait, using jigging spoons for deep suspended bass, and a c-rig for the when the wind gets bad. Now I need to get past the curse of lost rattle traps. I buy em' & loose em' next trip out......every time!! If I can use a rattletrap without loosing one and catch a fish, I will stock up on them. Somehow, I always have bad luck with them. I've gone through about 6 this year. None of which have been used and lasted over two trips. All other baits are not as big of a problem except for lipped cranks. I still don't loose them as bad as rattletraps. Not my fishing method, just bad luck! I think the baitmonkey has a rattletrap fettish! Thanks again Chris! ;D

I like your explanation Chris. That seems to agree with many other things I've read. I just couldn't remember what the 3 day rule was. I guess I could see how it affects the fish physically. They may or maynot swim drunk but I can imagine that it would definitely shut em down into a defense or survival mode. With hunting, the three day rule doesn't apply. Before and after the front moves through, everything becomes somewhat super active. Deer and other wildlife will go crazy foraging for food before the front and settle down during only to stay close to their bedding areas until the front leaves or something forces them to another location. Once the front moves through they go back to normal business and they are usually more active. With fish being of a totally different type of species and classification, (plus they live in water), I can easily see how fish would be affected by water temp, surface temperature, wind conditions, etc. Thanks for the tips! OK, now for my next question. What do you suggest for really windy days on the lake? Around 20mph winds, etc.? I was thinking spinnerbaits buzzed below the surface of the water to imitate erratic shad but I'm thinking deep diving cranks along main points (blocking the wind), or plastic finesse worms around structure and cover.

I found a few more pictures of him so you'll know him nex time you see him. Here he is in advertising... And here is the "Dirty Harry" baitmonkey for when you try to resist temptation....

I read somewhere here that you can almost always bet on fishing the 3rd day after a cold front, a good rain, or a full moon......or something like that. Some people swear by this. What do you guys think? Also, a cold front come through here yesterday and dropped the temperature down into the low 40's with rain, wind, & overcast. Today was about the same without the rain until late afternoon the clouds broke up a bit. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. Saturday is supposed to be sunny, lows in the 40's with high winds up to 20mph. and a high of 70. Will this 3rd day after front theory produce good fishing weather based on the forcast above?? What do you think?? Opinions welcome!

Don't make him mad.....he's furocious when he's angry!

Here's my son holding one of my PB's.......don't laugh guys! I just started bass fishing this year. I've fished as a kid and a little in the last few years but this is the first year for me for serious bass fishing and not recreational trips. It weighed 2.25 on my old spring scale but it's not very accurate. I think it weighed closer to 3lbs. It was my first keeper bass at 15in. Here's another one that I snagged on a chartreuse buzzbait on Labor Day. It weighed about 2lbs I'd guess. It was around 14-15in.

That's about what I was going to add. I think Greenpupkin with your choice of flake color is the hands down winner because almost 90% of everyone has mentioned it so far. It depends on location, time of year, and water color to me but I agree with these selections. If I had one to choose, it would definately be greenpumpkin or something similar to it like pumpkin seed. They are about the same thing.

Odd to that you say that. Trout usually carry diseases more easily than any other fish far as I knew. They should be tougher! There is truth to this fish touching thing though. I have read it many times.

I really don't see how the mojo could be more needed than here in NW Arkansas. Beaver Lake is the toughest in the state. Between local tournament anglers, weekend anglers like myself, and everyone else that fishes clear water from that lake, it's just plain tough. Me and my fishing partner Jolicious have been having a tough go at it this year. We hope to improve by next year so send it our way. We can use all the help we can get! ;D

You guys just make me feel stupid..... Reading Fisheries Journals, light spectrum analysis....gives me the shutters. I think I'll do like my fishing partner and just say, "you tell me what kind and what color and I'll throw it!" (ha ha) Seriously, this is a great thread guys. Keep it going.

I hold high respects to both Matt Fly and ouachitabassangler. Both really have good points and an obvious amount of knowledge. But I have to say.... Get em' Jim!! ;D Matt lost me when he started talking about laser spectrums and b-i-o-l-o-gical something or other....my brain was hurting after reading that explanation. Jim's is just pretty straight forward. Red produces period. I would have to agree on that. Whether a red trap is good or bad in the summer, I wouldn't know. I have a severe case of the "trap curse" this summer and I have not been able to use them enough. Everytime I throw one, I loose it in some fasion. Whether it hangs up or I threw it too hard and snapped my line. Only with this one type of bait have I lost so many. I lost 3 blue and chrome 1/2oz. rattle traps in two weeks. I gave up after that. I'll try again this fall with the red trap and see what happens. I bet a bright trap in red or dark speckled blue produces well at night.

Welcome! I have a friend from Lake Charles and he knows a lot about redfish and bass too. I think he was born on the water. Anyway, there are lots of good articles already listing the basics at the BassResource.com homepage. Here is a link. http://www.bassresource.com/fish/tipsindex.html Here is another one. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/features.html And another. http://www.bassresource.com/beginner/beginner.html OK, one more and that's it. http://www.bassresource.com/bassfish/linklist.html I'm sad to say that I have always gone straight to the forum to ask questions. There is a lot of good info within the links above. If I would spend more time reading the articles, I would have obtained a better grasp on the subject. Then my questions could be more finely tuned to specific things. I think there is a point where a beginning angler is overwhelmed with information and one day, it all lines up and starts to fall in place. Then the big "OOOhhhh" factor comes into play. I'm am just starting to reach that point so I am starting to read more of these links myself. Remember, everyone has an opinion on what works for them. When you're a beginner, you don't care what works for them. You need basics and standards to learn from. Going to the forum will often yield mixed results but starting with the standards and then going to the forums makes you more proactive in my opinion. Anyway, I think you get the idea. I wished I would have spent more time reading these months ago. Maybe then I could really make my fishing partner look bad by catching all of the fish! (ha ha) Tight lines!! ;D

I've had luck with finesse worms in green pumkin flake and green pumpkin, motoroil, 6" fire tail (black with pink twirl tail), and trick worms too. I would say finesse worms and any worm under 6" would work. I really like the twirl tail because when you jerk it a few times, the bait swims back to the bottom like a little helicopter. It waives it's little tail and gets the attention of the fish. I've had many strikes after it settled and then I twitched it again. I've also used a slow retrieve and let it work itself across the bottom. It works great with small rocks and probing the bottom.

Do you think that baitfish think? Of course not, only figuratively speaking. I was only referring to think like as in "if I were a fish, what would I like, how would I react, what are my instincts, what does my diet consist of, how would I act under certain weather conditions and water color / temp., etc. Not, if I were a fish, I'd be thinking about that stupid angler in his fancy Ranger bassboat with his $15.00 Lucky Craft Sammys and his $300 GLoomis rod.....(I'm joking here). Yes, fish are behavioral much like many animals, reptiles, and other species. Only figuratively speaking in the metaphorical sence. By the way guys, I was not referring to clear water or stained water specifically. Yes, water color and clarity does matter and that does change the color of bait presentations. I think Jim explained it to me the best by stating that clear water requires almost transparent or natural colors. That makes plenty of sense. Now to be specific. In muddy water, what colors are prefered?? My instincts tell me that something bright is best. White, yellow and possibly chartreuse, or maybe black and blue. Am I right? I would also think that red and orange would be good colors for muddy water in late summer / early fall.

I think you misunderstood. All of us are only referring to the term "think" figuratively and not literally. If they could think, we would all be screwed because they would all be too smart to fall for most of our bait presentations. ;D And I agree about knowing more. I think Jim has tapped a few good sources for info. Gross as it may be, they are still good sources. A fish's stomach.

Thanks Jim! If I could only download your knowledge of fishing.....

Now I know that Jim simply knows too much. Man I was trying to eat lunch when reading this post.... ;D By the way Shad_Master, that's a pretty interesting tip on the brush piles. The more you think like a fish, the better off you are I think.