Wayne P.

That buzzbait was made that way to make it more difficult for the bass to throw due to the reduction in leverage afforded in a longer bait. That same guy makes another version without the split ring that just has the wire looped through the jig eye. That version was made for fishing in weeds since there are less bulk involved in the head wire. I can post a picture of that type if you are interested. Split ring bait does use a common split ring.

If the water is not subjected to any wind, then the NW corner is the warmest on a sunny day. Anytime the air temp is warmer than the water temp and the wind is blowing, the downwind part of the lake is the warmest. Rainwater runoff areas will usually be warmer also in the late winter to early spring periods.

I just talked to the sports dept manager at the local Wal-Mart. He said not all stores will stop selling firearms, this one will continue to do so. Just the ones that don't have very many sales of firearms, especially in the Northeast will discontinue. He used the number 700, but I don't remember if that is the number of stores that will continue or if that's the number that will stop.

The prespawn/spawn period is when the Chatterbait got it's national attention being used to win in a tournament at "O" in Florida.

I heard a quote from Ray Scott once about stocking a lake. He said if you want a good bass lake, do not put crappie in it. They compete for the same food (minows)

Those size 2 hooks would be good for fishing minnows in cover for crappie. Just bend the wire towards the hook shank enough to reduce the resistance to a light hook set. They might be usefull dropshotting in cover also.

This is my favorite in 1/4oz and 1/2oz. Custom made.

FIN-S-R, the tutorial on the Lowrance web site about how a sonar works will show how arches are shown.

Both of these are the 1/4 oz. The left one is a Tarantula and the right one is a Scorpion. The right one almost survived a battle with a 50# snapping turtle. The blade arms show the two different types used (straight and slightly bent).

An equivelent of the BassBuster Scorpion was the Bumble Bee Spinnerbait of that same period. The only difference was that the Bumble Bee had a thinner wire frame. Here is an article where it is mentioned: http://www.jimporter.org/lakes/wheeler/

Lard_Bass, yes I add weight. I use the rubber core sinkers, remove the rubber and them mash the lead on the wire attached to the head.

Dan, check your personal message.

I've had the best hook up ratio with the Snag-Proof Bobby's Perfect Frog. The hooks are a little larger and a little more upright than any other hollow bait I've tried.

Structure: is the bottom of the lake from the deepest part to the shore. Breaklines: is a change in the bottom--humps, roadbeds, ditches, dropoffs, creekchannels, etc. Cover: is fish hiding objects such as logs, rocks, trees, placed objects such as brush piles Thank you Buck Perry

They were seeing the fish on their sonar units. You don't need a high priced unit to do it. One of my units is the Eagle Fishmark 320 and it does pretty good in depths up to 35'. I usually leave it set on automatic and then zoom in to the depth the fish are holding. I also have an old Lowrance X-70A that works OK. A higher resolution unit would be even better.

Attempt at a larger picture:

I just found some 3/8oz. Scorpions in my stash. The photo shows both models in the 3/8.

The Scorpion is my favorite spinnerbait and I still use it. When I found out it was being discontinued, I bought the entire supply of Scorpions and Tarantulas at a tackle shop (175). The Taratula was identical to the Scorpion except it had a skirt with less than a dozen strands. I have used up all of my Scorpions and now just remove the skirt from the Tarantula and put on a fuller one. I also remove the chrome blade and put on a gold one. I still have about 30 of those. No, I'm not selling any of them. Basically they are just a short arm spinnerbait. Some have a small bend in the blade arm and some were just straight. The short arm and heavy wire makes hookups easier and produces more felt vibration during the retrieve. I'll post a picture late today.

I fish for the fun and sport of it. When using live bait, the bait does the fishing.

My biggest so far is 4# 11oz. from Briery Creek Lake, Va. on January 6th. The water temp. at cooling pond dike #1 on Lake Anna this past Sunday was 64.8 degrees.

If you want the keep them close to the surface use braid. If you want to fish them effectively, use fluorocarbon or a little less effective use regular mono.

I am going for a 17 lber. I hooked it three times last year, two pull-offs and one break-off, same fish, same submerged tree, saw it once on the surface. I got the address, just need to complete the task.

Lake Yojoa in Honduras for bass fishing.

Wacky rigging a Trick or finesse worm anytime the water is not hard. I've caught around 3 dozen bass total for two trips this week in 45-48 degree water with that technique.