bquittem

i run a stratos 386XF with a 175 mercury optimax what boats/motors do u guys use??

the first tournament ive ever fished in was on a lake in MN, about 2000 acres or so. it started out I drove me and my parents new startos and when i was backing in this new rig, i forgot the trailer key so the brakes lock and im just stuck i can even go backwards at all. so i pull up and try again and finally i get it into the water after like 5 trys. there was a huge line and everyone waiting to put in at this launch. by this time i look like a jackass so when we are all waiting to start, all the old guys gave me crap and a certain guy really gave me a hard time. when i was entering the big bass for an extra 5 or 10 bucks i cant remember. he wanted to go into another big bass pot just between me and him. I didnt have much extra money with me so i delcined. he said another comment like "too bad i woulda loved to take your money" so now im just ticked and really wanting to beat that guy. i only know of a couple spots and none of them where to hot, it wouldnt of mattered any way because i was drawn last out of like 40 boats. so i just settled with a stretch a docks, i started out good, 3 keepers about 5 lbs. nothing special but in the first hour i was thinking good. i lost a 4+ pounder so i was steaming. the my trolling motor didnt seem to work right, i later discovered it wasnt holding its charge. i left those docks and tried a little bay where i saw a nice lily pad patch i started fishing in there not noticing how shallow it was getting. it was windy so i really couldnt controll myself. got beached and had to use my net to get out, the finally escaped that and when i was motoring out of the bay i hit a sandbar and broke half of one of my blades on my prop. by this time i could only go about 15 miles an hour and that was running at about 5000 rpm. after this mess i just kept fishing wondering if anything else could go wrong. i finished the tournament at about 25/40 which i didnt think was so bad after everything that had happened and it was my first tournament. the guy who really insisted on giving me a hard time didnt catch a single fish the whole day. sorry for the mouthfull, i had fun remembering the whole day.

thats a crazy story chris ive never heard of fishing so tuff.

i also jump on some docks for most lakes. The tournaments i fish are mainly ono lakes between 1500-300 acres, most are closing to the 1500 range. when we have up to 50 boat tournaments most of the obvious spots like docks get nailed many times by the end of the day. so if i have to resort to docks, which i dont like to do, i downsize and use something most people havent used. i go places i dont think other people, or at as many people have gone. like going to the backside of a large dock system and just fishing different parts. i like centepedes or smaller versions of senkos, somtimes i throw a bitsy jig from strike king.

thanks for the info i usually get my fishing tackle at the gander mountian near my house, they dont offer the large selection that uncle josh has to offer. the phantom craw is looks exactly like the plastic trailers i like. Ill have to get some of those and try them out, they look great.

i dont care about what u say for only pork on your jigs. i have used both, i think pork is better for certion situations. like water temp dictates whether i use pork or plastic. i use zoom super chunks, or 3.5 inch craw bugs. i catch more fish with these trailers than any other. i think pork is more of a hassel, so maybe i didnt give it a fair shot, but with my expierence im better with plastic. i use a few diferent sprays to add scents. if u have any definate reasons for only using pork id like to hear them, i dont think that only pork is possible, but neither is only plastic.

i also have started melting together parts of different plastic to form some modified creature baits of my own. for instence... last night i started with a strike king Jr tube lizzard, then connected a spider grub to the back to add more appeal and added arms off of it. all this connections were from a lighter.

i use a variety of baits when im deep texas rigging but day in and day out the most consistent bite has come off the Black/Saphire zoom brush hog. This could be because its an awesome bait or partially because i have confidence in this bait so i fish it harder, its hard to tell. Either way i recomend it.

i also swim jigs in the fall. i usually swim them along rip rap or steep banks. i also almost always use white, and i use a white super chunk plastic trailer, im not a big fan of pork. i use a rise and fall method and somtimes a faster jerking methods depends on the mood of the fish i guess.

i like fishings heavy spinnerbaits like maybe 3/8 to 3/4 once around docks. i flip them under and on the fall i pick up reaction strikes, this works very well when ur on a stretch of deeper docks or when u know u will be on some good fish. once it hits bottem i just slowly crank leting the blades barely rotate.

i also learned the jig during one of the first tournaments this summer. i started fishin as a non-boater because i didnt get my stratos until later in the year. the boater i was fishin with was using a black/blue jig on a large mainlake point and he was just hammering the bass. i was using my favorite deep bait a texas rig'd zoom brush hog. its not that he was catching many more fish than me, but it was the fact that hes limit was over 15lbs and mine was only a little bit above 7. this really made me want to start using jigs. i started watchin him and learned the basics. the next weekend i had off so i bought some jigs and started using them. they are now my favorite bait.

i live in MN, i fish tournaments throughout the open water season in MN and WI. im part of the ABA (american bass anglers) which is a trail of tournaments competeing for money and points which are used to go to nationals. there are many districts throughout the USA. if u have a chance i would try fishing in these tournaments there very fun. 55 entry and top 8 get paid and with about 40 people payout for first is usually around 550 or so.

that same thing happend to me during a tournament this spring. it was one of the first couple times i had to charge it of the year. and during a tournament, my trolling motor wouldnt hold its charge, so i had to keep my lower unit running just to get the trickle charge off of it. it really hurt my day but i still managed a small limit. after the tournament i found out it was only the bad connection i had, they must of gotten loose and they just wouldnt hold the charge.

i dont think a lipless crank can be beat when looking for a reaction strike, they are very noisly and can have alot of flash.

im in a boat so i dont usually get out and clean up shorelines

i often fish slop on my home lake in MN. when i know im gunna be fishing some slop that day, i will bring a rake a clean a few pockets to come back to and fish, its sounds wierd but it really works. another good idea is to make the frogs rats jigs or worms that u throw a little bit custom. for an example i started puting a jingle bell into the center of my frogs to give it some more noise. i think i have increased my catch with this modification.

im with chris the heavy line is good for sure. when u use braid it has more sensitivity and with 30 lb test power pro, which i use, it has a diamater of about 10 lb mono. it help to yank the lunkers out of the think cover. the only thing u need to watch out for is when the line frays, because when that starts your line is really weak at that spot and u need to retie.

flippin is shorter distance pitchings is a little different and a word for a longer flip. u hold line of your reel for more momentum. help me if im a little off

about missing alot of fish it will happen, when i started it took me a whole weekend of 5 hrs fishing time at least to catch my first bass, all with a jig. the best advice i can give u is get a rod with a very light tip and pay attension to what ur doing because bites can be so subtile that u might not even know. set the hook at every tap, otherwise u will miss them. u have to be quick on ur sets and i reccomend braided line because u get better feel. Other then that u need to get on the water and practice its the only way to get better with the jig. dont give up if u miss alot because if u get good with it its very deadly on big fish. if u want more help just say so

first of all im only 16 and learned to fish jigs this summer, u have to learn this deadly way of catchin bass. Its now by far my go to method when im in tournaments, jigs are so verstile and bass will never get conditioned to them because they resmeble the crawfish to well. they also catch big bass so well. they arent like some lures that catach alot of fish but mainley small bass. the jig gets the job done day in and day out. But for my favorite setup would have to be my Gloomis 7ft rod with a flueger president high speed reel, with 30 pound power pro or some 17lb original stren depending upon cover. The jig of choice would have to be a 3/8 oz black/blue denny brauer pro model jig with either a 3.5 inch black/red yum crawbug trailer or a yum super chuck black emerald tralier.

i live in MN, and i caught 5 bass over 5 pounds on a lake which im not going to mention, but 4 of them were on an offbrand of senkos which are way better called trick sticks made by big bait bites. the other was on my favorite black/blue denny brauer pro model jig with a super chunk trailer