RHuff

If I'm fishing around a lot of wood and hangups are an issue..... I texas rig a senko with a 1/32oz worm weight with a size 3/0 finesse EWG hook. I may or may not have gotten that idea from a John Cox BassU video

Blade Baits, underspins, shaky heads fished deep..... Frittsides and Lipless burned midrange and shallow... wacky worms up super shallow

Randy makes a valid point also that fish deserve a chance to sanctuary in open/deep water and FFS is depriving them of that. He said down the road it's going to affect the fish and fisheries in some negative fashion. He may be on to something with that. I do agree with him that FFS does take a lot of the fun out of fishing but if your competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars and your livelihood depends on then you gotta do what you gotta do and it's every man for himself.... I personally don't have livescope... #1 I can't afford to drop $3500 on a new graph and unit and #2 I don't want to spend every day I fish constantly staring and casting at targets on a computer screen.

Not sure if that was sarcasm or a joke, but nobody said every fish was or is supposed to be at the exact same depth across a body of water. It's crazy to think that they are. We're just trying to help each other learn how to key in on high percentage areas that can help people learn to catch more and bigger fish, and the method I described above is one of many ways to do that.

If I see a large or multiple schools of baitfish on my graph in say 12-14ft of water suspended near the bottom, I would locate areas at 12-14ft where a creek channel meets the main channel, long points, or ledges and look for some type of cover in that area such as brush, stumps, rocks, or grass that bass will be holding near. The depth you see the bait will clue you in to the depth to look for the "cover" on the "structure". Locate as many areas like that as you can and fish each one of them until you find the bass. If you find 8 spots like that mark them with waypoints and fish one and move the next and repeat the cycle. 8 spots fished 3 times each is 24 different spots ( I say different because time of day and changing conditions makes them different) you've fished. If you can catch one solid fish off 5 of those 24 spots you have a nice limit. I don't know of any other way to rephrase it other than that.... On the other hand, if you see baitfish up high in the water column in the early morning, on overcast days, late in the evening, and you see fish under the bait balls you better try to cast at the bait because that is active bass feeding on baitfish at that time... Granted - saying all of this and doing it is two different things.. but that is what I try to do

Berkley by far. I love maxscent and the frittsides

My number one combo by far has been a terminator spinnerbait in "silver shiner" with silver willow leaf blades with a pearl white swimming fluke as a trailer.....

I had some free time today so I spent it researching and taking notes.. so I put together a compilation of info found on these boards by various posters regarding forage.. I did my best to organize it by season.. Feel free to add anything you want. I just wanted to make a little “cheat sheet” to study up on this winter.. Winter (48 degrees and below) – The primary forage for bass during the winter is crawfish. Bass are cold blood animals and eat less in cold water and more in warm water. They want to spend the least amount of energy possible to eat the food highest in protein. The baitfish and crawdads are also cold blooded, and their behavior and location are key to where the bass will be located. Crawdads are good winter to late pre spawn and fall bait. LMB tend to target the baitfish more during summer and fall transition. In general terms, bass eat less often in cold water below 50 degrees and prefer small size prey or high protein. Crawdads do not hibernate, they go deep in winter, but are still available as a food source. I see smaller crawdads in daylight hours, I see larger ones in low light conditions or dark. Depends on temps, but normally its about 3 weeks to hatch. Most hatches occur from the middle of May to the middle of June, again, water temps dictate that. Example, Toledo Bend normally has its annual mudbug hatch sometime in June, more in the middle to third week, the mudbug hatch is on. In winter, after 3 nice days of warm water, the jig and or craw is the best ticket. After 3 nice days of warmer weather in the dead of winter, break that Jig n pig out and soak it slow, slow enough to watch the hook "rust”, that’s a bit longer than "watching paint dry". Watch the line, jig bites in the winter for me is constant line watching. This is the time of the year, that a bass inhales or sucks that jig up, it’s not a thump most of the time, and the only time you really feel that bass is on the exhale and it’s too late. Pre-Spawn (48-55 degrees) – Bass begin to move towards spawning areas from deep winter haunts. They will stop at structure and cover as the migrate across the migration routes. They will begin to feed on any prey that it can fit into its mouth. In warm water above 50 degrees, pre-spawn fish are hungry and will look for whatever is an easy meal. Spawn (55-68 degrees) – Food isn’t on their menu. Beds and Fry are their top priority. Bass will not strike out of hunger during this time, only out of protective instincts. Bed fishing is a classification of its own. Post-Spawn (68-72 degrees) – Bass will leave the nests and seek out safe harbor to rest from the spawning process. During this time, after bass leave the nests, bluegill and shad will both begin to spawn. Bass will eat small bluegill under 5" if nothing else is available. Bass know thy prey, they know they are shallow, EASY, and protecting their nests. Bass seek these meals. They are tired, and recovering from a long-drawn-out process and chasing prey is the last thing on their minds when they know where the easiest prey is. Bass will enter the shallows as early as February for pre-spawn and will not set up deep after the bluegill spawn until the beginning of June. This don't mean a bass won't go deep, just they aren't far from prime EASY feeding areas during this time frame. Those areas are the shallows where multiple species have already spawned, and fry are all over the shallows. I'm a firm believer that bigger female bass cruise the shallows at night looking for the easy targets during post spawn, the perch. Threadfin shad spawn in shallow water coves from late April into July, depending on the surface water temperature. The optimum spawning water temperature is 68 degrees. Summer (72 degrees and warmer) - Summer is the easiest time of year to pattern bass. It is when the weather finally stabilizes. Fall and winter has the winds, temps, and barometric pressure changing frequently, this makes for changing conditions which leads to tougher fishing as far as stable patterns goes. Summer also brings shad into my equation as well. Shad are creatures of habit as well. As mentioned, shad seek cover in low light conditions. Shad don't adjust to those low light conditions like a bass does. A bass would rather ambush its prey from a low light position, like shade from a tree for example. When the sunrises, the top water bite fades due to shad leaving for deeper waters for the day, just as evening arrives, shad move back to the shallow cover for safety and the evening topwater bite turns on. The summer pattern is normally good from mid-June until Sept. All Shad species hide in cover at night. Shad prefer one side of the lake it would be the wind-blown side because the plankton drift with the waves or current. The shad don't go up streams, they stay in the lake. Its only real limitation is its intolerance to cold water. It likes calm, shallow water and it rarely exceeds three inches in length. Both threadfin and gizzard shad are silvery-white in color and have distinctly forked tails. The threadfin's tail, however, has just a shade of yellow while the gizzard shad's tail does not. Both species often have a distinct black dot on the shoulder, behind the gills.Threadfin shad live primarily on microscopic plant and animal life, phytoplankton, and zooplankton, which is why they are often found around rock riprap, bridge and dock pilings, and areas with gentle current where algae grow or is washed into the system. They are more surface-oriented than gizzard shad, and frequently move in huge schools just under the surface, sometimes migrating for miles each day. The schools of shad are nearly always followed by schools of bass. It is now well-established that massive concentrations of threadfin shad seek shoreline cover each night. This cover can take the form of grass and moss beds, logjams, or even standing timber and brush piles if that's all that's available. This cover provides them with some semblance of protection from predators like largemouth bass. Early in the morning, generally shortly after dawn, the threadfin leaves this shallow water cover for deeper haunts where they may disperse slightly for the balance of the midday period and early afternoon hours. The threadfin then re-group and return to the shallow water cover late in the afternoon, frequently by reversing the same exit route they used that morning. The shad have already moved in for the night or have not left for the day. Why does the morning action frequently end just after the sun peeks over the trees? Because the shad have left and the bass are following, but not necessarily feeding on them. The best thing to do is immediately check any areas where you see and experience surface activity between bass and shad with a depth finder to determine what's on the bottom. The shad may be following a ditch, small creek channel, or some other specific terrain feature you may then be able to backtrack to their nightly hideout. Fall (10 degrees below the year’s warmest water) – Bass key in on small shad usually no larger than 3 inches. Shad will begin to move into the creeks and pockets in search of cooler water and will be surface oriented. Look for balls of bait. Where there is bait, there is bass. Use specific shad colors based on water clarity.

You just described my tournament season to a T. I did well in tournaments where I could catch them on a shallow crank or stick worm around cover, but that wasn't happening that day I got my butt kicked by guys catching them suspended or offshore...

I have to say I can relate.. I feel like I'm fishing blind sometimes...

Is it better to be universal as in being able to throw pretty much any type of bait or do you think one would be better suit to learn only 3 or 4 or 5 techniques and learn to fish them well… I’m thinking of cutting back next year and simplifying everything I feel like I’ve spun out at the end of the year.. I’m thinking of going wacky/texas stickworm, crankbait, jig, and drop-shot all year.. fished shallow or deep

Some of my local lakes goes down 60-80ft… Smallmouth tend to go deep. Largemouth though tend to stay shallow longer. Look for areas where there are pockets or small creeks drained down to little narrow “ditches/streams” sometimes 8-10 ft wide and 3/4 ft deep. I’ve caught good largemouth sunning in those little ditches after a drawdown slow rolling a spinnerbait or cranking a shallow running crankbait through them..

Anyone ever fished where the river runs in around I-85? Looks like a lot of shallow, dirty, backwater. Never been but thought about hitting that area up for a long weekend. Anyone wanna share their experiences?

I prefer the Berkley Frittside as my first choice with the Shad Rap coming in second..

double uni no breaky-breaky.. So far I couldn’t be happier.. It’s a booger to learn to tie, though…

What’s your favorite head weight and flatworm color?

I didn’t get bit on it today but man it looked good in the river that slow fall nose first and standing up on the bottom bouncing off the rocks.. I’d eat it if I were a bass.

Do you let it spiral down or drag it on the bottom

I do have some quiver worms I may give that a go. I've only hooked one fish on a drop shot and it broke me off. Granted, it was a really nice smallmouth. I do most of my damage on wacky worms and jerkbaits.

Have you guys tried a Berkley Maxscent Flatworm on a ned rig? Thoughts? Those that have fished it, did you let it float and sink/spiral down like a regular ned rig or did you let it go to the bottom and drag it across the bottom? Or do you always fish a ned rig on the bottom?

Just wanted to update you guys..... I switched from the palamar to the double uni knot and have seen a great improvement. I even bent out a hook after getting hung up without breaking it off....

Wacky rig with two 1/32 oz nail weights in each end to speed up the fall rate

Steep banks, ultra clear water, bass holding in long laydowns an brush in 8-12 ft deep off the banks, slight wind pushing a moderate current, sunny, blue bird skies..... Got any ideas?

I've always used "please release me" powder and it has always performed well for me....

https://majorleaguefishing.com/press-releases/major-league-fishing-2024-general-tire-team-series-costa-qualifier-presented-by-toyota-wraps-production-in-west-virginia/ Visits Stonewall Jackson Lake and Summersville Lake...... I will say they came and were gone with the wind before anybody really knew about it..... Stonewall has nice fish but can be very finicky..... Summersville is a tough deep, clear lake that draws down almost 100 ft in the winter. 9lbs of smallmouth usually wins most single day tournaments there... It will definitely be interesting to see what the pro's do on our local waters here in West Virginia....