The Duke

Andy Buss - pleasure to be a part of your community! Like you all, I'm a ***atic, and smallmouth are my favorite and I tournament fish a bunch. My experiences have taken me to many states, FLW Costa Opens, and BASS Opens. I've been blessed to have a bunch of opportunities and am committed to sharing them with others. It is my hope to share and learn in this community. Thank you for allowing me to join!

Thank you for your thorough reply. Great advice. I'll take it, apply it, and learn from it!

On a resume, do you include current pro staffs and sponsorships? I've been told that the more pro staffs you're on the more desirable you look. Also, this past week I spoke with a company and one of the first questions they asked was "how many other sponsorships/pro staffs are you a part of?" So, if you do include them on the resume, what information do you include? Company name obviously, but what else?

This time of year, yeah, probably pretty deep. Pick up a blade bait and don't put it down until spring when the water hits 50 degrees.

Is there a way to just download a Microsoft Word or Adobe document onto this link? I've written a resume I would like to get some comments on, but copying & pasting just isn't going to give the effect I want.

Catching lots of fish now. Small, dark lakes have fish shallow, while the deep, clear lakes have fish stacked up at staging spots - only a matter of time until they come up too!

I blame the state. They determine what legitimate creel limits are and if the state is concerned that an X amount of fish killed throughout the year, month, event, whatever, they need to lower the limit on that lake. Isn't it their job to figure that out and enforce it? What the state of Texas is telling me, is that they aren't concerned before or after this event. They have creel limits and anglers can keep their catch of X amount of fish to eat or whatever; rather that is a tournament or weekend warriors using live bait. I am not suggesting for a second that BASS and tournament officials and anglers shouldn't have done more, but remember that the state agencies set creel limits to preserve current populations. Texas knew BASS was coming to Falcon Lake last year; apparently, they weren't concerned. You can't tell me the state biologists didn't know BASS was coming and what kind of impact a tournament that size could have.

Anyone from Indiana catching the fish?

Which tournament are you participating? Seems like a long drive from PA??

Fished from 11:30-4:00 and ended up with 11 between my partner & I. Our first few spots were dead. This included a flat w/ rocks and a few humps. We hit depths between 6-24' It wasn't until we hit a flat between 8-12 FOW we began catching them on silver buddy & grubs. Those 11 fish included 2 walleye; 18" & 22" I was almost as excited about those than the bass. 3 fish were short largemouth, while the rest were smallies. 4 of the smallie were between 14-16" What impressed/surprised me most about the fish we caught were their bulging stomachs. They were definitely eating. Many of the fish had the baits deep in their mouth, but others were barely hooked. I examined the throats of the fish we caught and saw nothing, but the walleye that were cleaned later revealed a few small (2-3") perch in the stomachs There was a stout wind coming out of the southeast and the water temp. was 38 early but ended up between 40.0-40.5 degrees. We were in an area that had warmer water and the fish were definitely relating to the sporadic weed beds. In fact, when were got hung up in weeds, we expected a bite. I felt if we would have stayed out we would have continued to have gotten biten. It was nice to catch more than a single fish in an outing and I feel with the weather coming, its only going to get better! The season has officially begun!

Fished this stretch between 8:30-3:00 and to say the least, it wasn't a good bite. First spot produced 8-10 strikes on Wiggle Warts, but they were not hooking up. They slapped them, sometimes hard, and that was it. I wish someone could explain to me what is happening in this situation. I've experienced this several times before, but typically can figure something out. I tried jerkbaits, other crankbaits, and plastics but those didn't even get sniffed. Does anyone have an explanation for this? I'm certain they're smallies. Finally about 1:00 I caught a 2# smallie on a tube off some rocks on a break. It was nice to get him; actually warmed me up a bit. But that was the last bite of the day. Water temp was 39 when I showed up and 41 when I left. I had ice in my guides until nearly noon. The current is quite swift. However, what surprised me, was the clarity. Clarity was about 4 feet. I expected muddy conditions. Saw several large shad up shallow and even snagged a carp. I tried shallow and deep and hit a dozen spots.

I was told by a buddy today that the water is 11' above summer pool and the water is chocolate milk. Maybe I won't make the drive...

I'm heading down here Thursday to get away from our ice-infested bodies of water. Does anyone have information on the current conditions here? I'm not looking for spot, baits, or anything like that. I'm just hoping to find out the current water temperature. But I'll take anything else you can give ;D

Gee, you're not asking for much are you?

Does anyone have any experience or advice for this lake they'd be willing to share? I live in N. Indiana and I'm going to make the 2.5 hour drive to fish here this upcoming Saturday. We still have a lot of ice here and don't anticipate open ice for another 2 weeks. I have to go fishing! I doubt I'll be back there this year again and never plan on fishing tournaments there.

Of course it could be better! Of course, it could have been a ton worse. I'll just say I'm glad ESPN owns BASS and not Helen Sevier any longer.

And that's better than giving them their own circuit (Women's Bassmaster Tour) and exposure?? Sorry, but that's just ignorant. I guess I'm speaking out of my element a bit on the Junior Championships. None of you made a great argument that FLW's is better than BASS's b/c you all fail to point out the major differences. I do understand and support the beef of taking traveling money away after it was promised (I'd like to see where it was promised though). But I cannot speak 1 is better than the other, but you've sorely tried to prove your point. Since when are 15 amateurs competing in the FLW Championship? Realize I'm talking about club fishermen, not weekend series, etc. B/c naturally the BASS count would go up as well. I'm talking about Club Fishermen and last I checked only 1 fished it as opposed to BASS's 6. The FLW package for TBF is not any better than what BASS gave. Someone please explain otherwise. Don't simply tell me so... As far as the pro's go. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but out of 200+ fishermen on the FLW circuit 25% (Top 50) make $10,000 or more in each event. That is awesome! I truly think FLW is a fine organization. But BASS events give 50% (Top 50) out of 100+ $10,000. Let's do the math people. I think the Stren Series is certainly more friendly to the average layman than the BASS Opens, but its meant to be that way. The Opens for BASS are created to find the next pro's for the Elites. Face it guys; FLW is second to BASS. There are no if's, and's or but's about it. But thank you for the ignorant responses. And please do not send me PMs to argue. How immature can we get?

I'm taking the boat out this weekend.

Apparently, we're quicker to criticize than to find legitimate complaints. I asked someone to explain to me why FLW is better than BASS. No one has done this yet, I've been called uneducated in my assessment. I guess I need explanation on this too. Someone please tell me about FLW's junior championship... Is that better than what BASS offers? FLW lied to TBF b/c they said they offer more & better than BASS does. I'm still waiting for an improvement for the members. They offer nothing more. In fact, the only difference is that BASS sends 6 federation members to the classic while FLW sends 1. Someone enlighten me what they offer that is better than BASS. Some of you bite so quickly, but forget to realize that BASS made it clear that the professional division (Elite) is their primary focus for now. And it should be. But they still send 6 amateurs to the classic. So try to remember their primary focus before huffing & puffing over other issues. Many of you should read some books from the professionals. Check out Iaconelli's. He clearly states that ESPN has made MAJOR improvements to BASS & fishing altogether. And forgive me, but I take his advice far more seriously than yours. Why is Mark Davis returning to BASS??? And why aren't any pros leaving BASS since the inaugural Elite Series??? By the way, what has FLW done for women in bass fishing? FLW is a fine organization and I hope to see them grow more. They have my full support. But they are in the back seat in comparison to BASS. I don't know why this upsets so many of you, but it is the reality of the situation.

I don't get it; Blue & gold? Yes, I am a Notre Dame fan if that's what you're getting at. I imagine you're bitter at BASS for something, like a lot of others. But I've never heard a legitimate reason. Maybe you can enlighten me. There is not one thing FLW does better than BASS; except lie to the TBF. FLW is much better at that.

I rank BASS ahead of FLW in nearly everything. I'm not mad at them at all, not sure why many others would be either.

What section of Michigan? That will determine a lot. The northern half will be completely different than the southern. Plus, what lakes are you going to be around? I can give you a better answer if you give me that information. God bless you and all of our armed forces! You're making America very proud!

Good for Mark. Now he can show the world how good he is again. Maybe some instant competition for KVD & Skeet.

Keep It Simple Stupid Right now you must recognize you're not overly skilled and it appears you realize that. I commend you for that. This sport will humble everyone even KVD. Speaking of KVD, he had a great quote once, "The difference between pros and amateurs is we use everything in our tacklebox." In other words, he may prefer spinnerbaits, cranks, etc., but he can and does use everything. Eventually, you'll want to be comfortable with 40-50 techniques. Thus my suggestion is as follows: learn the seasonal migrations of fish and master the use of 2-3 popular techniques for each season. Don't over-do it; you'll confuse yourself. Take pride in gaining confidence in a single bait, then a second, and third, so-on. The last thing you want to do is try to master 35 techniques next year. I would suggest jerkbaits & rat-l-traps during the pre-spawn, jigs during the spawn, jerkbaits during the post-spawn again, pop-r, senkos, & jigs during the summer, and jerkbaits & spinnerbaits during the fall months. But ultimately, keep it simple: master the technique now and absolutely pay attention to every detail when you catch a fish. I truly think becoming comfortable with a couple of techniques while paying attention to the seasonal migrations will lead to the ability to discover more complicated patterns in the future. Lastly, check to see if you can join a local club. That will be the best thing you can do for yourself. Start off as a non-boater and as you grow in confidence start going boat. As far as fishing shore. I would always prefer fishing from the boat especially since you're new to this. But if forced on shore you can still practice such as casting accuracy and you can throw baits you're not too comfortable with and just focus on learning that bait. A jerkbait would be great at this. You can also throw jigs and focus on the feel of it. Eventually you'll learn the difference between weeds, rock, wood, sand, marl, et. One last thing: Have Fun!

I'm planning on going to Klinger this weekend. I hear there's a tourney there THanksgiving weekend and I'd like to fish it. Should be a different bite than I've been experiencing. Everything was shallow last weekend, but with the cold front that water temp may be below 50 and backed those fish off. We'll see.