Troy85

I agree. I fish them pretty much exclusively. Fish usually bite good on falling tide, pretty good on rising. Slack tide can be the killer, and you can't really trust the tide charts in SE LA, chart could say falling, but if you get a moderate south wind, it will usually cancel out and you will have very little water movement.

I generally fish my chatter bait like a spinner bait, but I only use it when the water is muddy. My favorite is probably swimming it over Eel Grass.

Practice skipping, a lot of low hanging cypress trees.

Average about 8-9' and it gets deeper near some feeder creeks. Most of the shoreline is pretty consistent with the sharp drop off. There are a few creeks that feed into the canal and a couple ponds attached, At the far end there are some old gravel pits that are 20'ish, the water back there is usually very clear. At lock one is where they do a Thursday night tournament, so all the fish get released there.

Yeah, mine didn't either at first. I checked that site a couple times a week for about a month or 2 before I found the boat I wanted.

https://www.carolinasportsman.com/lpca/index.php?section=classifieds&event=view&action=list_ads&cat=BO The Louisiana equivalent is where I found my boat. Hope it helps.

I'm assuming its Lock 1 Canal side. Last tournament I fished there, the guy that won told me that the navigational canal is the closest thing to a reservoir in SE Lousiana. He says if you can find a pattern you can catch them up and down the canal.

I know some of the guys will fish the marsh first(South of the hwy 90), because there are more numbers down there, but smaller fish in general. They will get a limit south, then move north of Hwy 90 or fish the West pearl to try and pick up some kickers. Everyone I talk to around there says the closer you get to the West Pearl the bigger the fish get, the biggest fish being in the West Pearl. The down side is, the West pearl is usually the muddiest and has the most current of all the others. Also, I'm not sure what your tournament rules are, but I know for some of the bigger tournaments in that area that don't have an off limits, some of those guys will run all the way to Delacroix to fish. I just started fishing the Pearl river system about a a year ago, so I'm far from an expert. The above is just what I have learned reading and talking to guys who fish the area.

Do you fish the Pearl River system?

I throw crank baits more when the water is clean and spinner baits when its more stained.

One of the places I fish, I notice that I catch consistently bigger fish using a swim-bait rather than other baits, but only when the water is clean. I like the pre rigged Berkley Swim Shad.

1. Yes. Allows me to learn bass patterns in different environments. In my case its Tidal bass and River bass. 2. No 3. N/a 4. No

Speaking of Tournaments. Anyone ever do the Sealy Big Bass splash in May? I thought about fishing it this year. Is it worth it, or does the lake just become a complete madhouse?

Top left, next to your forum username you will see a little down arrow. Click that and select profile from the drop down menu, that will load your profile page. Near the right side of the profile page you should see a button that says "edit profile".

Seems like every time I think I have a few things figured out, the bass prove otherwise

Average water visibility is probably about 1-1.5', I don't consider 4" to be the norm for this body of water. I threw my chatter bait a good bit at first, but without a weed guard it will get snagged in heavy cover. I'm going to invest in some bladed jigs with a weed guard so I get back in there and make some more noise next time.

Nice! Make sure he's spooled up with Berkely Trilene, the most dependable longest lasting monofilament line in the world.

I don't. I do check my line after every catch or snag. I only retie if it looks frayed or damaged.

I have them both. They are both great reels. I agree with poolshark, if your just using it for moving baits I'd save the money and get the Curado. If you wanted it for lighter baits and more finesse presentations, I'd shell out the extra money for the Chronarch. I use the Chronarch mostly for unweighted worms and senkos.

Where do you think bass go in muddy water? I've always heard that the shallow fish will move up and sit close to cover. What about the fish that are further offshore? The ones hanging along a deep weed line or on a ledge. Do they just stay put or will they move shallow as well? Water was very muddy yesterday(Less than 4" visibility). I flipped wood cover shallow water with jigs and soft plastics and only got 1 bite. I thought about fishing along some drop offs, but blindly casting along a drop off in muddy water is just not something I have confidence in.

I used to have the G3 1756. It had the 14 gallon live well, it does look small but I never had trouble keeping 5 fish alive during a tournament. It also worked fine for keeping live shrimp when I was salt water fishing(shrimp are pretty fragile to).

If it helps. I bought my h18 used with the Yamaha 115. I never have an issue with hole shot with 2 people, I fish some pretty shallow water too. I can pull skiers, tubes, etc without issues. Top speed alone with fishing gear is about 48. With 1-2 passengers it maxes out at about 44mph. Overall the performance is fine, but if I was gonna buy brand new, I'd put the 150 SHO on for sure.

I have an Xpress H18 and I love it. Hyperlift hull rides smooth and handles the areas I fish without any problems. I looked at both the H18 and H19, main difference was HP rating. As far as the layout, its pretty much the same between the H18 and H19. I'm sure the 19 will handle waves just a tad better, as its a longer boat. Overall, I'm more than happy with the 18.

I prefer Amber

I wish I lived close so I could go there more and at different seasons. Its about a 5 hour drive for me, so I usually only make it up there about once a year. Since I can't get up there very often I generally try to go during the spring.