Clark Stewart

I was just about to post a similar question. In Alabama we hit 2 days of 70 degree weather with mid 60s on either side, then a cold front comes through like last weekend and dumps us from 70 to 45 yesterday. Now it's supposed to be 65 or so today! I fish a 4 acre pond that might be 15 feet deep in the deepest part, and I'm wondering if the water will ever hit 60 degrees! I keep trying to fish a couple days a week there just to keep track of the effect the weather has on em. So far I can't tell much difference in the bite - can count on 5-8 bites a trip. My bass have busted lips where I assume they're running crawdads. If we can get a stable week in the high 60s I hope that will put em in full-blown prespawn mode

I once dove into neely Henry for my cast net that got hung on a tree top in twenty feet of water in April. Nearly drowned that day...

Atter talking with more and more people who really throw these baits regularly, I am convinced they will produce numbers (hopefully) - If it stands up for me too in the next 1-2 years - I am gonna start a campaign - big baits catch many fish....I swear, I was scared away from even thinking about trying these tactics for so long because of the rhetoric of "you will not catch anything day on day and wait for that one bite all day long". We will see how I do with them here - but hey, gadsen aint from from B'ham, its gotta work for me too Big fish eat smaller fish everywhere in the world. Alabama is far from an exception. Like was said in the other thread, you will likely gain more knowledge from Bill Murphy than Bill S, but that is for you to decide. If you're "keeping it in the BBZ" with the rhetoric and mindset, you will likely get some strange looks. Way too out there for me. For pete's sake, its only fishing. ;D I agree totally. If I learned anything from last year it's that confidence is key - as cliche as that is! I got lots of funny looks from guys when I was chucking a buzzbait in 90 degree weather at high noon, that is until I got at least one or two bites every single time I did it!

Yeah you don't get that fancy with h2o baits! Here's a pic of two of em I bought. You'll notice that the bluegill has some paint scratched off at the end of the gill plate so I wouldn't hold out huge hopes for the longevity of this lure, but at 8 bucks you won't jump in the lake when it gets hung either!

I've never had any issues with H2O Express baits from Academy, but then again I'm much more likely to lose it on a snag then wear it out. Don't know what ROF stand for (range of forage? hell i don't know) so I can't help you there. I'm sure a lot of folks will bash H2O products, and surely a lot of them because their second mortgage consists of G-Loomis and Lucky Craft! I've always been impressed with the fit and finish of the lures, and I've spent my fair share on them in the past. I have several of the deep diving crankbaits they make. The citrus shad caught me over thirty 3lb bass last summer at Guntersville! We were joy fishing and found a grassy ledge that dropped from 4 feet to 15feet in a short distance. We were fishing it when all of a sudden the bass started schooling around it. For the next 3 hours we would catch about 3 or 4 in 10 minutes then they'd submerge for another 15 minutes then start back up. Poor guys up the creek finally came by and asked what we were using. They started cussing because they were fishing the annual Spro (I think) Frog tournament and could only use the topwater frogs! In short, one citrus shad H2O crankbait caught me over 30 bass with no complaints. Still looks like new in my tackle box. I can't speak for the customer service with these baits as they're made exclusively for Academy (it's their house brand along with Tournament Choice) but for the price if one breaks I can't complain. I will say the swimbait I bought looks great in the water. It sinks like any other swimbait of comparable weight, not terribly fast, and has rattles. You can fish it super slow, but when I burned it back to me it stayed true in the water instead of starting to roll like a rattle trap will. When I raised my rod tip it would act like a wake bait, and I caught a couple that way. I caught about 5 on that one swimbait, in about 1.5 hours. When the bite finally slowed I switched to a cotton cordell 1/2oz rattle trap in craw color and caught 2 more. Then I decided to try out a Rage Tail smokin' rooster for good measure. I had it tied on a 7foot spinning rod with a fast tip, which sucked for me. I lost three fish in three casts, one of which hit the lure 3 times on the way back to the bank, but the action of that rod made it too limber for me to set the hook well! The last fish to hit and drop it made a wake like a bass boat near the shore. Almost cried. On a side note: Is it just me or is it incredibly difficult to set the hook with a spinning outfit? My favorite setup is one that literally washed up on the river bank - a 6'6" tourney special broomstick of a spinning rod with a cheap zebco spinning reel attached! From then on if I buy a spinning rod it has to be incredibly stiff or I can't do anything with it. This rod on this trip was a gift which I will probably swap reels with my tourney special and sentence this rod to a life of crappie fishing!

Picked up some swimbaits from Academy Sports last week. Below are the bass caught on an H2O Sunfish jointed swimbait ($7.99). I highly recommend academy lures in general, but for this price you have no excuse not to start fishing swimbaits. Granted this is not the typical 8" variety that a lot of guys consider true swimbait fishing, but when fishing farm ponds full of bluegill this thing is deadly. My personal best for the first time out with this bait is probably 3-3.5lbs. The other all went 1-2lbs each. and here's the bait: http://i26.tinypic.com/24oomyh.jpg

Anybody know if books a million might have a copy of bill siemantles book? I could get it online but I'm all about instant gratification

Taking this in a new direction, and hijacking my own thread, what do you guys think of a website devoted only to sharing fishing logs? I know there's some guys out there who've been keeping journals for years, and I'm sure we'd all love to learn a little from them. Maybe have sections devoted to regions and even lakes. I'd love to eventually have a database where you could plug in your conditions and get best lures, techniques, etc

Apparently I don't know how to quote! The last paragraph is what I tried to quote!

What's funny is I bought a giant plano box full of custom jibs from C&B on ebay a couple years ago but never use em! I guess I kinda thought swim jigs didn't make much sense cuz I thought the whole point was to go slow with em

This is my favorite pond where the above bass came from: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=33.907461,-85.933948&spn=0.002035,0.003449&t=h&z=18 And this is the golf course where the giants can be found. Unfortunately no boat access but deep water of 15 feet can be had off the greens in some spots: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=33.887482,-85.926304&spn=0.016281,0.027595&t=h&z=15

Loving where this thread is going. Hope it hits 20 pages! I'm not new to bass fishing, but I am new to fishing worth a dern for bass! Last year I buckled down and tried to pay attention to my presentations. I had my best year then. Patience is still hard to obtain when you're not connecting, but I'm working on it. Thinking of taking my headphones along to listen to my iphone while fishing so I don't concentrate as much on not getting bit! I find that I've got the skill down enough that I can get bit when i'm deep in thought - call it muscle memory or whatever. I learned that confidence is key last year. I thought that was cliche until then. I started using the Rage Tails and the shad and craw became my friends. Havent tried, but do own, the eeliminator and rooster. I don't know how to fish a jig very well at all, and on the ponds I fish the scum on the bottom has discouraged me - can you still get jig bit by hauling in slop like a snowplow? My biggest problem with bass fishing I feel is that I like to be able to feel my bait at all times. In other words I hate finesse fishing because I can't feel my weightless senko and thus I over fish em. I think Roadwarrior posted an article a couple years back about getting a bite every trip using a senko and fat ika fan casting. If you have that handy I'd love a refresher course. I'm going to try to deadstick a senko this year. I think the iphone will help with this because I kinda plan to cast, let sit, and time my retrieve to take as long as a song does to play - 3min. or so. What do you guys think? Let's keep the spitball going!

Man, glad I didn't waste time on a poll! Go Big being the consensus how do ya'll propose I do that? How do you plan to break the state record?

Went to a local pond I fish over the weekend. Saturday I caught 8 on a craw rattle trap. Sunday I got skunked by my wife's uncle, Semi-Pro, as I call him (he fishes stren, and bfl, and gets sponsored for the wheeler B.A.S.S. tourney every year by Advance Auto) He caught the attached bass (we think around 9 pounds). Well now I'm inspired to go for the big fish. I've got access to some local places with huge bass. One golf course that has a 14lb bass in it (There's a 13.5 on the clubhouse wall). The dilemma: Do I go for numbers and hope to get lucky, or do I go for broke for big momma? How would you guys go about getting the huge fish? In Alabama now's the time for the really big ones. What baits, what techniques should I be practicing? Where to start? ANY insight is appreciated.

I guess to rephrase: what is the mono equivalent of 8lb power pro braid? I know braid is way stronger than mono.

What is the true strength of this stuff? Is it really 8lb test or is that more a diameter measurement. Like flurocarbon will have 30 pound test that is the diameter equivalent of like 10 or so. Is this truly 8lb test?

Anybody tried these yet? I picked em up at Academy on sale for like 2.99 a few minutes ago. They look interesting. Fat ringworm body with two ringworm hollow tails that float. Looks like a craw imitation, but I bet I can get a few bites on a shaky head. The video is on the stanley jigs website. Looks good.

Caught a nice tree bass of the pine persuasion with the biggest dang zara spook they make (three treble mama) Lure comes loose and lands ever so elegantly in my right forearm. All three hooks, all three trebles for a total of 9 puncture wounds. I just clipped the line and kept fishing. It was so deep it was past the nerves! Thank God my buddy's dad knew the line around the treble trick. I didn't feel a thing.

Anybody use the hotmaps or after the catch apps on the I phone? Reviews welcome. I'm jonesing for better fishing days and these have tided me over but I haven't hit the water yet.

I'm glad this is going well for you guys! Keep it up. Looks like this thing is flying

Yeah just send it back to me. I don't want to muddy the waters with Fishn's Pass he's starting. Clark Stewart 755 Walnut Street Gadsden, AL 35901 Thanks in advance for taking care of it. I agree with the moderators completely. I've spoken with Fishn' Hard about his pass, and he knows where to find me concerning any help he needs regarding it. I encourage anybody who wants to try to get involved. I've done a lot of these in my day and while unfortunate events happen they are few and far between. Call it Murphy's Law in this case. Call it whatever. I have pm'd Junior and posted here that I'd like to get my box back so as not to let it go to another guy in Fishn's pass. I don't want some poor guy getting stuck with 2 boxes that he has to pay to ship out again. That being said I applaud Junior for his efforts in making this up to me and the others involved. To junior- just pm the tracking number when you ship the box. Don't bother posting it here. Frankly it's no one else's business what happens to it. Good or bad I won't mention what happens to the box on this or any other forum. A man's character is spoken through his actions, not my words or anybody else's. To the moderators I humbly ask that you close this thread to further posting. I feel I've said enough for everybody. Clark

Hey guys I guess my pass is dead - no more contact from Junior. A ton of folks have asked for it so here is my address: Clark Stewart 755 Walnut Street Gadsden, AL 35901 Nobody feel obligated. I'm not really comfortable with the whole charity thing but I truly appreciate it anyway! I'll send fishinhard a pm but if you check this post then no I won't be involved in lurepass number 2. I'm starting up a law firm on November 9th, and though the business won't blow my doors off I don't want to have to worry about getting a box in and out when i'm stuck in court for something. I don't want your pass slowed down on account of something personal I may have going. That being said I applaud your efforts and hope you had better luck. If you need anything from me in the way of info or how I set it up send me a pm and I'll help out. Again thanks to the honest guys who made my pass fun while it lasted. For those of you who get in on fishn's pass remember: COMMUNICATION IS EVERYTHING. POST ON THE BOARD AND PM FISHIN SO EVERYBODY KNOW'S WHAT'S GOING ON!!! Good luck to all! Clark V. Stewart, Attorney at Law

I've made contact with him a few times. Suffice it to say a lot of promises have been made. H1N1 has been also listed as an excuse. At this point if wagn wants to start up a pass then i'm down with that. Get with me for the guys addresses from my pass. If the box ever makes it back to you then i guess just send it to me. that way seems fair and nobody has to pay 20 bucks to play (10 for mine and 10 for yours). Just let me know. Hopefully my box will float back out but who knows. If it doesn't i'll let you know and just put me on the list to ship to and it'll come back to you in the end. I agree with everybody there's nothing saying we have to let one member screw this up for everybody else. I'd love to see this become a sight where these passes are constantly going on. Peace to all!

Guys I'm still around. Been trying to get my office in order. I'm starting a law practice next month so I've been over there every waking second getting things ready. I guess I'll have to call Junior about this. Looks like all the naysayers can relish in their negativity at this point. Looks like I got screwed. I'll update as I hear anything.