Needemp

It is a public area that gets a lot of pressure. PM me and I will tell you. It doesn't take much to strip a public lake like this of its big bass, so I hope you understand why I don't want to publicly mention it. But I don't mind telling you in private.

My internet was down. I didn't get to see this post. I would like to request entry, but rules are rules and I understand. Please let me know.

I have only fished around Stl so far this year :'( But I have done fairly well. Jerkbaits were pretty good last month. Jigs have been good this month, but crank baits have been the best by far. The water warmed up quick around here and that got the fish more active than usual this year. I caught this 7.4 20 minutes outside of stl last Saturday http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1240081433/0

I got this 7.4 just outside of Stl on a crank bait last Saturday. I love spring.

Caught this beauty 20 minutes from Stl on a crank bait. She weighed 7.4

Nice greenies!

How was the fishing?

So... what happened?

I had success yesterday. I went to a lake over in Waterloo, IL. Water was 48, but it had been cold for several days, so the fish were not real active till about 4pm. That was the magic time. They moved up on the riprap after the sun had been out for a while. I tried to force feed them with crankbaits, spoons and jigs at first. Then I forced myself to throw a LC SK 100 jerkbait and fished it real slow. I caught 5 in an hour, biggest was close to 4 lbs. I refished the same bank on my way back to trailer the boat, but this time I threw the LC RC 1.5DD and caught 3 more. I felt pretty good about the day because it is a heavily pressured community hole and I have never really fished a jerkbait that slow before.

I hope to make at least one of those tourneys, but Sundays are tough for me. Anyway, if it is at all possible, give us a report on the results.

The finessing I plan on doing is drop-shotting and doodling. For the most part it will be with my depth-finder. In tough conditions or on deeper structure I am going to use the bait fish, find the bass on my graph and then go vertical for them. I have done a little of this, but I didn't fully understand how to read my electronics. But at the end of last year, things really began to click. I will use this technique for suspended bass as well. I also might trying other finesse tactics, but not sure yet. I like to keep it simple. I also incorporate the Senko's at times and have done fairly well with them.

Hey Dink, What will that do for tournaments next year? Has there been any discussion about that?

Doesn't sound too plain vanilla to me. In fact seems like it might be overwhelming. Here is what I learned from Mike Iaconelli three years ago and hopefully this will help. I limited myself to learning one lure per year. I started with the jig and fished it about 90% of the time in 2007. I got real comfortable and familiar with it. I now have my selection down to a few colors and I am familiar with when to use what head and which trailer to use. I had a lot of success with the jig and I now have a ton of confidence in it. I caught my 8.3#er with a jig and won several tournament with it. In '08 I wanted to get familiar with crankbaits so I used them most of the time. Since I limited myself to CB's, I now know which CBs deflect off of wood best, off of the bottom the best, and which ones go through rip-rap the best. I also know how deep they usually run on various line diameters. I also know the wiggles and wobbles of them as well. I have about 3 or 4 brands I use and 3 or 4 colors I use. I again had a lot of success with them and I have confidence in them. This year I am going to learn swimbaits. I have big plastic Castaics, Sebiles, hollow bellies, Mattlures Bluegill, Storms and some others. They range in size from 3" to 8". I am also going to learn finesse tactics and I am going to learn how to catch the suspended bass as well. I figure there will be times when the swimbait will work, finesse will work and there will be times where I will have to go after the suspenders. Following Ikes plan has really helped me. I had never really had success with the jig until 07. I never had any confidence with CBs till last year. And I don't have a lot of confidence that I will be successful with swimbaits, finesse or catching suspenders. But since I forced myself to fish jigs and CBs, I learned how to have success with them. In 07 when I determined that a jig was non-effective, I switched to something else. The same last year with the CB. There were times last year where I tried to force a CB bite, but couldn't do it. So i went to the jig and caught fish. Hope this gives you some ideas.

That sounds like a good plan. What 5 or 6 techniques are you going to limit yourself with?

So who's all fishing this year from Stl? When is your first trip out and where will ya go? Any goals for the year?

It's a very tough fishery. I haven't been there in a couple of years, but I have not heard any reports that it has gotten better since then. The best advice you can get is to keep your expectations low. Use finesse tactics if the water is clear. (That might mean small crankbaits or spinnerbaits to cover water fast.) Also run-n-gun. Seriously, fish at the good looking spots and then run to the next good looking spot. Don't waste your time with the in-between areas. Good luck and let us know how you do!

Don't make the mistake of dismissing one method over the other. These are two different techniques. "Crashing" is more of a power, fast reaction method and the "stopping on contact" method is more of a finesse tactic. There are times when crashing is more effective than stopping on contact. This also applies with vegetation and rocks. I have had times in vegetation that I could not get a bite by ripping it out, but I was very effective stopping it on contact and letting it back out of the vegetation. Same with rocks, especially riprap. I have had amazing times letting it rip hard through the rocks and I have had good times stopping it on contact. Put both methods in your repertoire bag!

Jaheff, good question. The first thing I would do is get a topographical map of this point (preferably not a Hot Spots map) and look for good structure to start with. It doesn't matter what it looks like above the water if there is nothing below the water. That point you are showing could be nothing but a huge slow tapering bottom with no breaklines, cover, baitfish, etc. If that is the case, then Sanother siteBASSER would be absolutely right. It wouldn't be considered a point (as far as fisherman are concerned) Question: is the state of Florida considered a point? I use that extremity to prove a point! Sanother siteBASSER's response offered a key piece of evidence that could revolutionize your structure fishing. Eliminating the worst fishing areas and the hardest areas to catch fish (such as useless so-called points) and finding the easiest and best places to catch fish, instead. Good luck Jaheff

I did! But I think I might get rescued here soon.

Has anyone used this stuff? What is your opinion about it?

Hey Weezy. I'm in the south county area. Where do you fish at normally?

How clear is the water at Baldwin? Does anyone know?

Are there any Christians in St Louis that love to fish? If so, pm me. Thank you

I am having trouble with my depth finder at high speeds. It is mounted in back of the boat. When I get going at high speeds it stops reading the depth and goes blank. Is there any advice yall can give me? Thank you in advance.