RHuff

I like to wacky rig and neko rig a maxscent general. I've had many big 3-4lb smallmouth crush a weightless wacky rig while it's floating with the current near laydowns. The flatworm on a drop-shot is deadly. My secret is a 3 inch max scent meaty chunk threaded into a finesse jig.

Frogs or Jigs dragged across the top, flipping a weedless t-rig or jig right in the gaps, or throwing moving baits parallel to the edges is how I do it.... a wacky rig on the edge of an isolated patch of lilly pads does dangerous dangerous things.....

Say you start with topwater or power fishing and then switch to finesse and you can’t even get finesse bites - what’s the next move? Let’s say going home isn’t an option and you have finesse fished the lower end, mid-lake, and the river and are still having a hard time… what do you do?

I've fished both areas. Lots of traffic coming out of Rich Creek from Dayton to Hiawassee River... Possum Creek gets a lot of traffic... Chester Frost is a zoo.... Last time I was there it was 200 boats out of Dayton and 150 boats out of Chester Frost plus recreational boaters. I caught a lot of fish around the islands outside of Harrison Bay and a few off of docks in CF. A lot of big fish are caught around skull island and a lot of the community holes near the power plant. Between Dallas Island and Sequoyah seems to be what wins tournaments...

I usually carry four rods that includes a fast moving bait, a slow moving bait, a finesse bait, and a jighead minnow to try to get them to feed up such as... 1 crankbait 2 football jig 3 neko rig or drop shot 4 jighead minnow This usually covers all of the bases for me to target aggressive fish and inactive fish both...

When the wind is blowing and water starts moving on my highland reservoirs I have noticed two things.. in the afternoons bass seem to follow the baitfish a little more so on windy days I try to locate the schools of bait and the bass will be generally near the area... in the early morning and late evenings if I think bass are shallow I try to target points and banks that the current is blowing in to..

The maxscent generals on a wacky rig and the magnum hit worms are dynamite on a neko rig. Only you can determine what you're willing to pay for something...

I've seen several local guys out filming. One guy once stopped me and asked me how to get bit because he needed content of a certain bait by the end of the day and he was getting desperate for content. I didn't look like an enjoyable time to me. I've read Zona and others say that it takes about 12 hours of footage to edit down to a 30 minute episode. I know most trips he films he fishes for 2 or 3 days and they edit it into one 30 min show

always thread a chunk on.. esp on finesse jigs.. holds better and makes more compact.. My go to are Berkley Maxscent Meaty Chunks

Only 2 of the 10 are southeast yet most pro tours visit mostly southeast I wonder if that tournament pressure has anything to do with it?

LOL Fair Enough Not saying I totally disagree with you, but I do disagree with the zero skill or human intelligence part. 1. it takes human intelligence to design, install, and use FFS... It's not like you turn on the screen and the fish are there... You still have to locate schools and fish and know what you're looking at... 2. It still takes skill to rig and cast and make the right presentation to get fish to commit. Just because you see a bass on FFS doesn't mean you're going to catch it... I'd like to know what percentage of people on here have a firm stance against FFS that has never used it. If someone has used it, caught fish with it, decided it's not for them, and chooses not to use it then fair enough that's their decision and I respect that... but it's hard to listen to people bash it and call it the devil to the sport when they have never even used it before.....

How did you get the followers to bite it? I have a lot of suspended fish that will follow it down on the bottom and hold over it, but won't seem to take it.... they'll hold right on it until I move it then swim away...

Does sidescan, downview, and traditional sonor belong in the garbage too? what about gps? gps trolling motors? powerpoles? 250HP outboards? just asking…

There was a study done by someone I forget who maybe one of the youtube guys and basically it’s known that suspended fish will eat the jighead minnow a lot more frequently in cooler water as opposed to warm water. In warm water they will chase and follow it but sometimes it’s nearly impossible to get them to eat it, whereas in cold water they will aggressively eat it.. Now, the million dollar question is why is that the case? Is it that baitfish die and spiral to the bottom in cold water and the bass key in on that? Is it that their brains aren’t functioning in cold water and they simply react instead of analyzing anything? Nobody knows…

I don’t know if they are traditional or not but my #1 baits for FFS are a jighead minnow for suspended bass and a neko rig for bass on or near the bottom…. If I am having trouble getting bit on the neko i’ll go to a drop-shot.. For me that’s about all I carry on the deck any more.. I feel like if I don’t get bit on those three then it’s time to make a move and i’ll try to locate other fish…

Thanks guys I usually use a 1/16 tungsten with a Nekorama in Matte Green Pumpkin.. I may order some 3/32 oz and a junebug color or something similar and see if that helps..

My #1 soft plastics that I have caught more and bigger fish on anything else combined are the Crush City Freeloader and the Berkley Maxscent General

Not gonna lie Livescope has definitely changed the way I fish, but because that's how I prefer to fish now. What I do is I use my mapping to identify areas I think may hold fish. I then use my side scan to scan across those areas to identify brush piles, rock piles, drains, etc. and I mark them. Then I use livescope to see and cast to exactly what is there.... As far as techniques, obviously I use the jighead minnow and the neko rig much more than I did before. I still like to flip heavy cover and laydowns and I don't use electronics really for that except for mapping. I still like to toss a wacky rig around up shallow, but by far livescope as changed my method of finding fish and has brought me new techniques to use to catch those fish. It also makes you way, way more efficient by eliminating dead water.

they follow it straight down and hover right on top of it lol

soft bottom a lot of times it's fish buried up in grass... like you can barely see them on the FFS screen but when they move you can tell they are there..... I mostly throw green pumpkin because our craws are dark green and we have lots of bluegills....

So I know a lot of guys are talking about using the Neko rig with FFS which is what Drew Gill does as a staple and Easton Fothergill did to win the classic. There are also several of the youtube guys talking about it. Basically on suspended fish or fish down near the bottom you cast your neko rig to these fish and they will follow it down to the bottom and "hold" on it. They say if you deadstick it long enough sometimes 5, 10, 30 seconds the fish will eventually bite it. Well, I can't get a fish to bite it at all. Almost all will follow it down just like a textbook but hardly any will pick it up and eat it. I've been using the Nekorama, a 6 inch Roboworm, a 5 in Maxscent General and can't seem to get any to commit doing this. I've even tried using a ned rig and they won't follow it down like they do the bigger worms. Does anyone have any advice to help me catch these fish?

I have a Triton Aluminum VT-17 with a 50HP I can run 28 with full tank and two people and around 31 by myself on slick water..

So how is everyone getting these warm water, bottom relating fish to bite?

Any suggestions on a specific one, Tom?

I can see your point about leaving the school and coming back.. Let me ask you all this… Do you feel I was using the right techniques? Days like this even makes me question if I’m even in the same stratosphere of doing what is right… Lemme again explain the conditions and yall tell me the first or second technique that comes to mind.. High stained water (2-4ft visibilty) on a usual clear lake, lots of boat traffic and current moving, clear and sun, fish hugging bottom on long tapering points in the 15-20ft ranged.. Baitfish were present in most areas too… My top three was dropshot, neko rig, and jighead minnow… like I said, no bites..