SWVABass

@12poundbass never thought of that. No I am greatful for catching fish always am. I guess I should have been more clear he did ask where I thought we should fish since he was struggling to find them. He did go to the area, but was wanting to fish the wrong structure and cover. I could not find a good way to say I meant over there. With out telling the guy he was fishing dead water. Like I said I had a great time just wondering if and how anyone would approach it.

So I’ve fished as a non boater for almost 5 years now. In the past I’ve had excellent boaters, never been “back boater”, asked for my input and discussed with the boater of we were being effective. my last tourney I got paired with a new boater. Nice guy fun to fish with. But he could not find a pattern after I had boater four fish behind him. He blindly kept going to areas that had fish two weeks ago. My question is how would you go about making a suggestion that we need to change up and not fish where they were but where we have already found them? We wasted a ton of time fishing dead water. Thanks guy

For me prespawn to spawn t-rigged has caught me my better fish. Post spawn and summer wacky rig has out produced the trig. I love fishing a wacky worm along bluffs and standing timber for both large and Smallmouths. Hope this helps

When did you pound them on a 5xd. Because of that was last year I think it would be hard to replicate it right now. For me to find a big fish in a 1 day tourney has been to cover water. Put yourself in the high percentage spots when they are biting and to fish cleanly.

I have everything covered except that boat..... one day soon I hope love it though!!!

Was 84 here today, and we need rain. They have dropped our lake 5’ since the start of March. Fish are still trying to figure out if they want to spawn. So I’d trade you 20 degrees for some of that wet weather right now!!!!

Just wondering what part of the country are you in?

I would say pick two techniques to start with. When I got back into it I was trying it all at once and learned nothing. Once I picked two baits and committed to them I saw my productivity pick up. Then I started learning new ones and still trying to today!!! Good luck and have fun!!!

My home lake I have not done well with a bluegill patterns at all. We have a surging population of both threadfin and gizzard shad, along with a healthy crawfish population. Largemouth and smallmouth seem to prefer Shad patterns most of the year post spawn to late fall.

If you fish competively at all, by joining your state B.A.S.S. NATION (old federation) I’m pretty sure B.A.S.S. times are part of that membership plus added benifits of being a nation member.

Just reading through and having looked at tin boats one thing I found is people have financed the living hell out of them. Low like payments little down payment means they are upside down and trying to recover that cost. Maybe that’s my local area here and our economics but has seemed to effect boat prices here.

Slow down, I use to fish a worm as topwater because I thought that bite would happen on the initial fall. Took three years of fishing behind more experienced anglers to really see what they were doing. There is a time and place to cover water fast, but slowing down and truly fish the cover or structure has done me well. Follow what @A-Jay and @CroakHunter said.

I ran into this as a non boater in my last tourney. My boater insisted on fishing trees. I was catching fish off rocks behind him. He went through a handful of baits but when he finally cast to rock he boated his first and a keeper. We then proceeded to fish dead water for 5 hours and he kept saying I can’t find the right bait, I didn’t have the heart to say we were on the dead pattern from two weeks ago.

Haha sorry no offense meant!!

You Texas boys are spoiled. I wish our fishing was that good up here. Good luck out there this weekend!!??

Take @A-Jay advice fish that senko and if you don’t get bet Texas rigging it, wacky worm it.

If it has smallmouth but even large mouth throw a silver buddy or something similar.

So I first want to say you show a ton of respect for your quarry and I respect you for that. I do not believe what you experienced today would be the normal when topwater fishing. I would say keep with it, look at the alternatives for hooks and lures that may provide you a peace of mind that treble hooks don’t. That looks like a 110 or possibly 130, but my perception might be off as it’s hard to gauge the size of it in the photo.

To overcome this i joined a local bass club. It helped to quicken my learning curve. Made three good friends at the same time as well. I totally understand the work requirements, and I piled two babies 20 months apart. But it’s worth it man!!! Good luck!!

I believe it is

So about five years ago I really got back into fishing. I read asked questions here and applied the knowledge I gained. But what helped me most was fishing with some one more experienced. The ability to bounce questions off them, observe what when how and why they did something. Also it got me off the bank and opened up more water too. So if just throw that out there find a fishing mentor that you can get on the water with.

So I had to use them to replace hooks on a megabass Jerkbait, as they were the only hooks I had access to on short notice. I had no problems with them at all. ??

What are the water temps, primary forage type in the lake?

From the reading I have done it’s the photoperiod I believe. This translate to hours of sunlight. Most animals are triggered by this. Water temp, fronts, and moon phases probably effect to a degree the amount of activity we see, but they are on beds roughly the same time every year. Any later the young of the year would struggle to survive the winter to soon the eggs don’t hatch as they don’t receive enough sunlight.

Looks like it won’t happen at all this week. Orange is also canceling the river festival as well. My brother in Tyler, Tx has been getting pounded. Good call by bass