bagofdonuts

Down here for river lm the cordell big-o is tough to beat. I also like norman middle n's they have a good subtle action , wiggle worts are also great crawdad imitations.

Your right. I would say though the main forage is different (shad in fall , crawfish in early spring) so the bass might position on different cover types in the same area.

Try the gambler little ez on the sk hack attack. the blue gill jig w/copperfield little ez is a killer.

Kentucky lake in the fall and a broke spinnerbait. Sounds like your having fun.

I love fishing with buzz baits but alter everyone I buy. You can make them much easier to cast by pulling half of the skirt strands off , tune it to run at slower speeds by opening the curve part of the blade, I also crimp the rivet at the end of the wire arm so it doesn't move and rough up the face of the rivet where the blade hits it to get the right squeak. Finally I almost always add a trailer to slow the sink rate as most hits seem to come on the first couple cranks.

I like the sk hack attack swim jigs. tried lots of different brands and none have a skirt that flares like the hack attack. i hate it when the skirt just lay back on the trailer when swimming.

Zoom ol monster- candy bug gambler ez swimmer and big ez-copper

I always just use a loop knot with no split ring

Prop type baits (devils horse/boy howdy)work well in cold water. give it a tug and let it sit for long periods (i start at 5 seconds and go up from there). kinda the top water equivalent to the jerk bait. the blade will move while it sits and the bass suck it down.

did you try any shallow spots? don't know what its like there, but this time of year I would start looking shallow(real shallow) in the backs of the creeks and move out from there. when i say shallow i mean where you'd think there backs would be sticking out of the water.

Nice one. I'm afraid your buddy's got you beat tho.

Having same problem lately on the arkansas river. big schools of shad everywhere. went yesterday and big bass were blowing up all around me. threw everything i had at them and caught two dinks. the big girls had nothing to do with me. next i'll try a worm or jig in the middle of them.

me too. here in arkansas fishing is year round hobby just fewer people on the water once deer and duck season starts.

i use mh fast action falcon bucco. I'm with lendiese, most of the strikes you see. I'm usually fishing them in shallow grass and they blow up on it. problem isnt detecting the strike its resisting the impulse to just jerk and giving it a moment to make sure they have it.

I used to like the keitech but got tired of going through too many and at that price. Switch to gambler little ez and will not go back, they are much tougher, and have a side-to-side rolling wobble to them that just gets bit more. try the copper field on the blue gill swim jig and you'll like it.

i broke down and bought one a couple of weeks ago. So far, I'm not a big fan. fish trow it easily and it gets hung on everything. for me i'd rather use a buzz bait, or a pop r if i want to go slow.

Someone please delete this thread. I read it yesterday before going out yesterday afternoon. I havent had a backlash in a while. It was pretty windy and I had one so bad i had to cut it out. I'm blaming it on this post. I don't remember last time I had one that bad. Fish were blowing up all around me and im picking at a reel. Its like talking about shanking a nine iron. It's just something you don't talk about. As soon as you do... look what happens.

The plain old white big o is killer down here on the arkansas river.

Don't forget a squarebill its deadly in the fall.

I take quite a few begginers fishing with me. One bait that almost always produces is a curly tailed grub on a lead head jig. My son regularly wears me out with a white grub. just throw it out and slowly reel it back. You can also put a worm on it and drag it along weed edges. they're cheap so if you get hung in the trees just break it off and tie on another. Plus you can down size and catch any thing that swims. thats were i always start if a new fisherman or kid is in the boat with me. anytime of year.

follow the bait. when the shad start moving to the backs of creeks the bass wont be far behind. you can usually see clouds of bait fish this time of year even without sonar. look for birds, dark clouds of bait, bait flipping on top.

Be sneaky. Pretend your hunting, sneak up to a good looking spot and try to make a long, soft cast. Your first cast is by far the most productive, so be ready. The bigger bass in a small river will get out of there real quick if your stumbling into the spot and splashing down a large spinner bait. Stealth is the ticket.

That sucks. I love my falcon bucco crankin rod and would hate to loose it. If your in the market I bought a crankin rod from Academy Sports that i now like more than the falcon. It was their brand (i think its called x20) was about $70. Now my favorite square bill rod.

Ft Myers is right at an hour from lake Okeechobee. Probably the best bass fishing in the US.

I like floro main line with mono after the swivel. I usually use 15lb.