Needemp

Is anybody planning on fishing the winter tourneys at Coffeen Lake this year? Just curious.

You should never limit yourself to just a couple of cranks. I like a lot of them. But my favorite is Lucky Craft RC 1.5 and 1.5DD. The deflection and digging of this crank is phenomenal compared to even regular LCs.

Yum baits scent has not been as effective for me as Powerbait and Gulp. Berkley puts a lot of research into thier baits. I have definitely noticed that fish hold on to them longer. That doesn't mean they will get you more bites. It just means they will hold on to it. I have noticed that time and time again, especially compared to Zoom and Yum.

I study hardcore during winter. Although I will be fishing a winter circuit this year, I also use the down time to practice casting and flipping accuracy. I almost won a flipping contest this week but lost in the tie breaker :'( But seriously, learn as much as you can with your free time.

This was the first year I club fished or tourney fished and ended the year on a good note. We had a 2 day tourney (er day and a half) at Shelbyville Lake. I had never been there till last weekend. Got a good map, found good spots and talked to a few locals who gave us some helpful hints. We prefished last week and caught three keepers in about 4 hours of fishing. We only found one pattern that worked. All weekend there were some tough conditions. Saturday I caught my limit with 11 pounds anchored by a 3.66. Sunday we only had 4 hours to fish. The winds were treacherous before we even got on the water. Normally I have good luck in the wind, but it shut everything off (except the Muskies ). Fished 2 hours with the trolling motor on high. Nothing. Finally at about 10AM they started moving up on standing timber, but by then we had 45 minutes to fish and we were far away from our spots :-/. With 10 minutes to go, a guy pulls up to a laydown close to our ramp and sticks a 4.5 pounder to beat us as a team. All in all, I had first place individual, second place as a team and the biggest sack of the classic. Not bad for a rookie.

Thanks for the help guys. I won first place individual, second place team, and I got a check for the biggest sack. Thanks again. ;D

I see. But it seems weird that they would use SW's name when there is already a SW

I am a little confused. In St louis we have a BPS store and it also says it is a Sportsmans Warehouse. What's up with that?

Don't let anybody tell you that educating yourself is not necessary. Experience on the water is huge, you need it, but if you don't educate yourself it will take you a lot longer to learn things. Can be quite a bit longer. You study then fish, then study, then fish, then study, etc. Gotta have both. That education can elevate you pretty rapidly. In-fisherman, Bill Dance and BPS has some good videos. But don't forget to read. I read anything that is written by the pros. They don't reveal everything, in fact they don't reveal a whole lot. But the one thing I have noticed is that they speak differently than the ordinary fisherman. They get it. They have to be good fisherman or they have to get real jobs. Almost everyone of the big name pros have admitted that at the beginning of their fishing, they studied everything they could get their hands on. They learned tons from their hero's in fishing. KVD, Ish and Ike just to name a few. Mostly what they teach is basic stuff. But that is good. They do teach some advanced things, but they mainly just give a couple of pieces of the puzzle and you have to figure out the rest. Although redundant at times, it is repetitiveness that is a key to learning.

There is a place here called Sports Authority in St Louis that has Stanley Spinnerbaits. But I did not notice any painted or striped blades. But that is easy to duplicate.

For Poison Tails and football heads, check out www.harshmancustombaits.com He can custom make colors that you want. He also offers the Poison Tail with a straight shank hook if you don't like EWG's on jigs.

I use to use a sharpie to mark them, but it is not necessary any more. After awhile you figure out with lip size, angle, buoyancy and where the line tie is how deep it will go. Then you do as Glenn said and get one deeper than the area you are fishing. But knowing the depth can be critical when banging off of standing timber, docks or anything else suspended off the bottom (good late summer/early fall pattern).

Depending on a lot of factors, I would look for cover in the red areas and fish there. And if you are in late summer/early fall and have shad in this lake, I would target anything that will hold bass on the main lake on the outer edge of cover (the green areas). They lay there waiting for shad to swim by. If it is full blown fall pattern, I would look towards any flowing creeks and/or pockets that contain nice shallow flats next to deep water and fish fast moving lures. Unfortunately your map is in 20' depths and that makes it a little harder.

Thanks guys

Another thing Jaskoh, you also will get into when to use a shorter shank trebles or a longer shank, and as Stringjam brought up, light wire vs thick, stronger wire. There is a lot that goes into it.

I found Muddy. He just changed his name. Sneaky sneaky sneaky! But where is Reel Mech?

Just curious why they are X members? Was it a technical error or did they really leave?

I second that!

Jaskoh, it is best to stick with the same size hooks that the bait was made with. Your tighter wobble baits were designed with the exact size hook to make the lure have the correct action. Putting a bigger hook or even a Sureset hook will mess with its action. The Suresets act like a rudder and weaken the action of tight-wobble bait. On the other hand, Suresets are fine with wide-wobble cranks because there is a ton of action with them. I know you fish RC's, don't mess with those hooks. Even when they go dull, change them with the same size and type. Those are precision cranks designed for that exact hook. My suggestion would be not to mess around with different hook sizes until you get more familiar with crankbaits. Your just starting out with them and it's probably best to learn and understand them exactly the way they are made. Then you will have an educated idea why you should change hooks and sizes. Remember it's not just knowing what to do, but why it should be done BTW, PM me on how you did at BW tonight.

Thanks for the help. When you say big spinnerbaits, I am curious how big?

I think it is also worthy to note that they compared it to only one brand and type of mono. Hardly a concrete comparison in my opinion. And also, although I am a big Berkley Powerbait fan, I am not a fan of their lines. To me the article and testing is very incomplete. I say that also because I have used InvisX all year and I love it.

Hey CJ, how often do you use football heads on rocks? I get them hung up quite a bit. I switched to a bullet head and I don't snag as much. I am just curious as to your thoughts and reasons.

You have to remember that those are just guidelines. All jigs are not created equal. Some 1/4oz jigs weigh more than 1/4 and some less than 1/4. Also thickness of strands and the number of strands plays a role on a jigs fall rate. Plus your trailer as well. But that is basically what it comes down to, the fall rate. Lighter jigs can be better in colder water due to slower fall rates. In warmer water a faster fall rate can be better. I have noticed this several times this year. Keep in mind that it is a general guideline, but not a rule. Use what you are comfortable with, and when you are catching lots of fish, experiment around with heavier jigs to see if they keep biting.

I use Powerbait trailers and custom built jigs. If you find that you like fishing jigs, check out www.harshmancustombaits.com He custom builds quality lures in almost any color you prefer.