Ozark_Basser

If you get them unpainted with weedguards already molded in, you will have a hard time powder coating them yourself without really messing up the weedguard. You can buy (or make them yourselves) some sleeves to put over the weedguard so you can heat the head without the guard fraying out too bad, but you wont be able to heat cure the paint.Either way I'm not completely convinced the fish care if they are painted. So if you want to leave them unpainted its okay. I do it all the time. It's just fun to paint them so they match up and look pretty lol.

I have heard good things about the Elks River as well. I'm planning two trips this year, one for the Kings and one for the lower Buffalo where it meets the White River. Both will be multiple day floats where I'll have to camp on gravel bars. Lookin for that five pounder or at least another four lol. Can't wait.

I'm no pro lol, and as a matter of fact, I'm only two years older than you. I live in NW AR, and the farthest south I've fished is the Arkansas River in Little Rock. What I can tell you that will help is to find places where bass can spawn. These places need to have a hard bottom. Pea gravel, lilly pad root systems, etc. Do a lot of research on that and compare it to the cover or structure you have available in your lakes. That is the first step. I would then look for breaks outside of these areas such as points, grass lines, transitions such bottom changes (boulders to chunk rock), humps, ledges, etc. These are the places where the big females will stage up before moving in to spawn. As to when they will be staging in these places is hard to pinpoint. A general way to figure this out is by water temperature. Generally, but not always, they should be staging at around 55 degrees and moving up on beds at about 60 degrees. Again, this a general observation to be taken with a grain of salt. They might move up when the water is cooler or warmer. Also, they tend to move up in waves, not all at once. So there will be some early and late spawners. The only way to know for sure is to get out there and catch them and observe what the bass look like. A female full of eggs caught on a break outside a spawning area is obviously in prespawn. Make a mental note of conditions. Better yet write it down for later reference. A female with her tail scraped off and bloody is obviously on a bed. Again make a note. Baits are really subjective if you ask me. I prefer to use a search bait like a crankbait, jerkbait, chatterbait, top water, etc to probe likely prespawn and spawning areas. Then work the area thoroughly with a bottom contact bait like a jig if I think I'm on some fish. If I see them on beds, I prefer a bait I can see well, a white jig or soft plastic usually, so I can see if they eat it or not. Sometimes they can suck a bait in and spit it out way before you ever feel it so a bright color helps to be able to see them suck it in so you can set the hook. Do a lot of research and try this link to see if you can learn a thing or two about the structure in your lake. http://webapp.navionics.com/ It might not have a topo of your lake if its real small, but its worth a shot. Good luck.

My pb smallie was just over 4 lbs on a hanging scale and was caught on a black spro bronzeye frog. I was skipping it under an overhanging branch in a shaded area with a bunch of wood cover underneath it. That four pounder came up and went, gulp! Didn't even make a splash. However I wouldn't go around trying to pattern smallies in heavy cover, but I'm not complaining.

...seven!!!...???

I think that means he was banned. Whether that's for a period of time or indefinitely I don't know. I wish he'd come back. I appreciated his input.

Where are you fishing? What lake(s)? I would start thinking about prespawn and spawn patterns. I would take a map of the lake and take a look at all the creeks and look for staging areas for prespawn bass such as points, ledges, transitions etc. And pattern my way around the lake where I caught fish.

Reapers t rigged or on a split shot.

7mhf jig rod, 7mf plastics rod, 7mhmf cranking rod

Temple fork outfitters signature series in 7mh or 76mh is only 100 bucks. I've been fishing with my 7mh for about six months and I like it a lot. Has a super soft tip but with a lot of backbone. More backbone than most mh's.

Why do you think we will not see a 20+ from Florida?

A nice one? More like THE nice one.

Depends on the bait. Baits like spooks or jerkbaits (especially vision 110's) I just buy one or maybe two. I can make spinnerbaits last a long time as well. I'll usually buy more than one of the same color crankbait, and I make my own jigs so I don't worry about that as much.

I'd guess g Loomis nrx, but if you went custom with a Phoenix k2 blank with micro recoil guides, split grip eva, and a Toray mvt reel seat from alps, you'd probably have the lightest set up out there.

Bait clicker let's you know something has your bait. That way you can set it down and when you here the clicking noise you can grab your rod, engage the spool, and set the hook.

Jigs in heavy cover has caught all of my good fish lately.

Here is a couple I did with supplies from fishingskirts.com. Everything except the lead and hooks were bought from there.

Ike's blue herring

This is a good option. I like to cast it out, let the rings settle, then give it a good hard jerk pulling it underwater. A lot of times they'll bite it right when you jerk it or when it floats back up. I usually just repeat this process with not so hard of jerks all the way back to the boat.

I guess, but I wouldn't compare what larger bass are doing to what the dinks are doing. I'd say you were missing something else other than the bass not wanting to be fed big baits, if that was the case.

How big was that bass he caught? If it was just a dink, then I'd say thats why you didn't catch one, and he did.

If you upload your photos to photo bucket then copy and paste the image URL to your post, it will make the image much larger and easier to see.

I bet it will work fine. I'm a huge fan of GYCB hula grubs in orange. Works well even in the crystal clear streams of the Ozarks. Caught a 21" smallmouth out of the Little Buffalo River with one.

On my lake, if the wind is howling (preferably <20 mph) you are really missing out if you're not throwing a moving bait.

Sounds about right. I've found that when one big one bites, a lot of other big ones are biting. When I caught my PB, I lost one that might have went seven, caught one around five, then caught the 9 lber. Were the other tournament weights pretty close, or was it a blowout?