RHuff

Been studying this and have learned a lot lately.. A couple of questions for the veterans on here.. 1. Has following this theory made you a better angler? 2. Is this a reliable resource for tournament fishing success? 3. Do smallmouth also follow this theory?

Tom is the man! Appreciate all of your hard work and willingness to help others become better fishermen

I like the Berkley Fusion Finesse Wide Gap #2 or the VMC Wacky #2.. most of my hooksets with these are right in the top of the mouth… The Berkley hooks are sticky sharp.. Some like the VMC Neko for wacky but I have resulted in too many gut hooked fish..

Shhhhh lol Also.. The Rapala DTs and OGs are silent balsa

Some general questions about bass traveling routes… 1. Do bass winter on the deepest end of a long main lake point or in a creek channel or both? 2. Do they travel the creek channels from the end of the points onto the backs of the pockets or creek to spawn or do they travel along depth contours paralleling the banks? (I know they stop at particular stopping points)

Tom you're a wealth of knowledge and a wonderful asset to this board.... I appreciate your insight. I've learned a lot from you and others like you on here..

5 fish limit.... total weight..... Unlimited sonar/live scope usage during practice....mark as many waypoints as you can...do your homework... get yourself as prepared as you can possibly be on where to fish and what to fish.... Tournament Day - ONLY GPS/WAYPOINTS permitted..... No sonar usage permitted... You can use your graphs to travel and set up on your waypoints you have marked, but you are not allowed to use any type of scanning on tournament days... Only GPS/Waypoints; Depth; Water Temp is available on competition days

Correct, but only around 2 hrs before weigh in and only because I had not been bit yet .....I spent the majority of my day in those same areas..... and when I moved it was only a short distance down river but still in the same general section

I fished a tournament yesterday as a single boater on a man made lake on the New River.. Smallmouth dominate this river and lake with occasional largemouth mixed in… The water on the main lake was very murky from rain the previous evening.. I made a long run up river to seek clearer water. The main lake was 60 degrees and the water up river was 57-58 degrees.. Clearer, cooler, swifter water was my target. Being fall time and shad being the key forage this time of year started off in 5-8ft of water (clearest water) with a bandit 200 shallow crank in bone. I was running this sucker on the bottom occasionally ticking the rocks in the bottom… I switched to a 3.3 keitech in smallmouth magic.. nothing… I switched to a frittside 5 in ghost morning dawn no takers… i slowed down and threw a dropshot with maxscent flat worm brown back and a green pumpkin maxscent general wacky rigged… No bites.. I fished all of these baits around bank cover and on the current edges out in the river channel.. Not a single bite.. I ran down river a bit to an inside turn with a steeper bank, rock and wood cover, and deeper water around 12-14ft. 3rd cast with the wacky rig a big smallmouth choked it a 3.22 keeper.. I fished about a half of mile same bait no more bites..and reran the same area a couple of times.. The water in this area was a little more muddier and about a degree warmer so I tied on a chartreuse and black back frittside 5… nothing… a white swim jig.. swimbait.. nothing… a spinnerbait… nothing.. a jerkbait… nothing I finished it a single bass 3.22lbs.. which is the quality fish I need i just can’t seem to ever get 5 of them… The winning bag was 15.8 2nd was 14.6 3rd was 12.4 Big bass was a 5.8lb smallmouth.. All three bags including the big bass were caught on the same stretch of water up river on moving baits… I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.. I feel like i’m making the right choices just not getting results

Been fishing a few tournaments here and there and really this year was my first full season of fishing tournaments.. Good news.. I didn’t skunk except for one tournament all year.. The problem is I feel like I’m stuck in a rut.. I either catch 5 dinks that get beat like a drum or only one or two “quality” or”winning” fish but can’t seem to get 5 bigs in the boat no matter what I do.. Help lol I feel like i put a good game plan together and find fish when i prepare for a tourny and will catch one or two of the right fish but it always fizzles out…and the winning bags are caught doing similar things that I do… what do I need to do to fix it? lol

This weekend has me stumped.... Water was 55 degrees and slightly stained.... saw fish both on the bottom on drops and suspended over the channels.... NOTHING seemed shallow.... I drug and hopped jigs down the ledges, in the channels, and in the drains of pockets, cranked and hopped a lipless crank on points, worked a deep diving jerkbait over points, channels, and drops, and even made long casts with a blade bait working points from the bottom of the point up to the bank and from the bank back down into the channel.... Zip, Nada.... it was like there was no bass in the lake.. Got frustrated and went shallow and threw a frittside 5 and wacky rig around shoreline cover...... zip, Nada... Out of answers

Thanks for clarifying what I meant...... Yes I just mean your complete confidence baits.... maybe I should have worded it differently.... my bad

That you feel like you will truly catch fish on any time, any place you go onto a lake.. I have two really.. 1) Berkley General Maxscent 2) Berkley Frittside 5

Care to share anymore of those tips LOL

I’ve had many of bad dude bass shoot out from floating docks like a rocket to hammer a spinnerbait a burnin by the corners of the docks

What the #1 bait type is for the 2022 season according to earnings.. I bet anything it would be the jig or wacky rig worm…

The guys that fixed mine charged me like $120 and did a great job.. if the bunks are aligned correctly then it shouldn’t be an issue.. i love mine.. I can take it in about 2ft of water.. easy to pull and easy on gas… i put the new motorguide tour pro on it with pinpoint it makes all the difference… you’ll run about 32-33mph with that 60 HP on it..

I have a 2007 model.. I did have to have both of the seams on the bottom of the hull reinforced and welded... I figured out the reason was that when the boat was on the trailer the bunks were about 2 or 3 inches short and the transom was overhanging.. Right after I had it repaired I launched it and tied it off at a dock and took the trailer bunks off and turned them around... Now I have an extra two inches of bunks past the transom to fully support it... No issues since.....Check that on yours to see if that is also an issue..... IMO it was a defect from the factory when the trailers were built... Those boats were outsourced by Triton (built by another factory - Crestliner I believe but not 100% sure) and slapped the Triton stickers on the side

Swimjig, swimbait, bigger squarebill like a 2.5

I d**n near won a local tournament this past weekend on a wacky rig.. missed winning it by three lbs and I only had 4 keepers all smallmouth… Biggest was a 3.10… Around here that is huge

Red Craw produced my PB biggest smallmouth 4lbs 2oz

I would upgrade the trolling more before anything else... I bought the new Motorguide Tour Pro with Pinpoint the year before last and it's been amazing... It has completely changed how I fish

Backs of creeks means the far end.. I always try to divide them into thirds.. 1/3 is from the mouth of the creek where it meets the main river channel into the creek.. 2/3 is the middle and 3/3 is the very back or end of it

I have noticed too that may be the issue on one of my local lakes....It's like everything offshore is just slime and muck stuck on hooks.... So you're saying what you do is identify the thermocline or depth zone (so lets say you've got bait balls in 8-10ft... you'll parallel the bank fishing that depth zone? I'm guessing making long casts with a DT 10 or a deep diving jerkbait, for example?

I have done something in my settings that will not allow any tracks to show up.. I can’t figure out how to make them appear again.. Any help? I don’t want to factory reset my unit unless it is a last resort..