gloomis7

I picked up a pack of these new Zoom Fork Tails in a grn. pumpkin the other day at one of my local tackle stores. I rigged them on a C- Rig and caught 11 keepers in about 15 minutes around stump beds in about 13 feet of water. They were awesome! Needless to say i will always have a couple of colors of fork tails in the boat with me at all times but i was wondering if anyone else has used these and if so what was your most productive way of rigging it? IF you haven't seen one before, it looks like a little drop shot worm with a small fork tail except its a little larger than a drop shot worm and has the body of a zoom Mag II. Definitely worth a try!

Lucky Craft CB-100, without a doubt, Bandits are ok but they hang up too much. This CB-100 is almost snagproof in heavy cover and runs great. ;D

I'm in Louisville (Ft. Loudon) i don't even know where Palmersville is. :-/

I was wondering if any of you wonderfully intelligent bass fisherman could tell me what would be the easiest route to enter into the business side of the fishing industry. I"m a business major with a focus on marketing and I would be interested in almost anything having to do with fishing, I absolutely LOVE IT! Some of my wedding pictures were in my boat and i took it on my honeymoon with me. Haha I was looking on the FLW website to see if i could get any answers and no one has emailed me back since yesterday. I'm almost out of college now and I would love to begin a career that i enjoy. The only problem is that i'm in East Tennessee and i haven't been able to really find any oppotunities close to home. I wouldn't mind a move just not too far away. I know Strike Kings offices are in Collierville (outside of Memphis) but thats on the complete other side of the state (Tennessee is a long state!) Any help would be most appreciated. Tight Lines Chris

I just went online and purchased a couple 5" Perch swimbaits to fish in my local lakes. How many guys\girls in here (not from California, No offense) have caught fish on a swimbait and how? I really want a lunker and a swimbait is something that I don't think many people around here are throwing. I know a ton of fish are caught on a swimbait in California and other places but I'm in Tennessee and I really think it would work I just need to know how to fish with one. Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks in advance to all the great tips I'm sure I'll get! ;D

Thanks for the advice guys I'll make sure to let you know when I get to use all these tips

So really in muddy water the only thing a person should change on his shakey head setup is the color of the bait, right? Ok, I just thought since i wasn't getting the bites I normally got in clear water was because the fish couldn't hear or feel the vibrations off that small worm. I know i normally throw a terminator spinnerbait (lots of vibration) or a wide wobbling crankbait (lots of vibration) if thats what the fish are on. I just thought that the small profile of the shakey head was too small for the fish to pick up on their "radar". Thanks for the info senko77 i'll make sure just to keep plugging away.

what the general setup you start out with? Large line...larger jig head...larger worm?

I recently visited a West Point Lake in Alabama to fish a weekend tournament and I had a lot of success on a shakey head for spots and Largemouth. My question is, the lake that I call my home is always muddy and I have an aweful time catching shakey head fish in that muddy water. I'm talking 3 inch visibility. I love the shakey head I just want it to produce without having to drive to Alabama....?? :-/

buckdawg A jig is my absolute favorite thing to fish with i use mine as a search bait, I flip with it in heavy cover and i throw it on points and ledges and I only use mono. Others may have differing opinions on this but I think mono is as sensitive as you'll need if the fish bite you'll still feel it. Promise. Braid is too much of a hassle when dealing with backlashes and flouro makes a jig fall too fast sometimes so i just stick with BPS Excel 17lb test.

watermelon jig with brown paca chuck trailer

9.2 Fort Loudon Lake, July 16th 06', 10:30 AM Flipping a Black Sapphire Baby Brush Hog

I think the lake should almost be completely full by then, they've been bringing it up a foot a day for the last 2 weeks. That'll improve the fishing a lot on Douglas. Stay deep and find brushpiles.

I"m not sure about that, I know there have been a lot of tournaments on Cherokee so far this year. My club fishes on Cherokee every other week but I don't want to make that far of a drive so i really don't know what the water is like. Also those were surface temps so the actual water the fish were in wasn't that warm.

I plan on trying to follow around a couple of them on Thursday if I can, I'm so pumped about the FLW coming here, i've already got my VIP tickets!

yes SHAD you do need to let the rod swing the bait out of your hand, what I do is when i get ready to move my bait towards my target i just kind of tilt my hand and let my lure start the swinging motion on its own and finish with the rod tip. The backlashing part is probably due to the way your reel is set up, because i like to flip 1/8oz. jigs and I don't have a problem with backlashes at all unless I'm the one that messes up. Just play around with it, you'll get the hang of it and then you'll never stop. ;D

S.H.A.D- When i first started teaching myself how to flip I filled up a 5 gallon bucket of water and tried to keep my jig from even making a ripple on the water when it went into the bucket. As far as delivery goes- everyone has their own style. My dad, who kind of showed me how, has a completely different look to the way that he flips. When i start, my hand that is holding my rod (my left hand) is even with my chest with a relaxed elbow, (its all in the wrist, for me) start with your bait in your other hand and point your rod tip and your target and use your wrist to bring your tip up and swing the bait forward. Don't keep your thumb on the spool but keep it right above it because in order to get the soft entry you'll need to gently slow down your jig with your thumb and lift your rod tip slightly to about 10:30 or 11 o'clock. Its a lot easier to teach in person but i hope that i might've helped you a little because this is my absolute favorite thing to do when i'm on the water and an awesome way to catch fish. Everyone here is right, practice is the main thing, when you get mad just keep practicing, you will get it. Once you can hit the 5 gallon bucket 10 out of 10 times take it down to a flower pot or something smaller to get better at your accuracy. Chris

Place: Douglas Lake Time: 7am-3:30pm Weather: Sparse Clouds and Cold 37 degrees, water temp 52-60 1st Fish 13" Largemouth; 8:00am; Shad colored Rat-L-Trap; 6-8 feet of water around a bluff bank. 2nd Fish 4.5 LB Largemouth; 10:45am; Homemade Spinnerbait Chart. and Green; 6-8 feet of water around a bluff, caught on the trailer hook. Overall it was a pretty tough day on the water, the fish were very spread out and hard to locate. In retrospect we could've concentrated on certain areas all day instead of running all over the lake. The winner of the tournament had about 12 LBS there were only two other boats besides mine that had fish to weigh in. Finished third. Wish I had some pictures to show you guys but my camera's on the fritz. Not such a great day but a pretty good start to my tournament season.

Thanks for all the great advice guys. Now the only excuse i have for not catching more smallies is if they come unhooked. Thanks a ton! Chris

Once upon a time quite a while ago my dad and I took a trip down the New River and we caught over 200 smallies in 2 days and I was HOOKED! I love to catch smallmouths the only problem is that since then on my home lake the only time I ever catch a smallmouth, its by accident (fishing for largemouth) and it seems like whenever I go with purpose to catch smallmouth I don't even get a bite. I don't know if I'm going to the wrong spots or what! I'm 21 now and fish almost religiously and i would like to be able to increase my ability to catch smallies. I know we have a lot of smallmouth experts here and would love some advice. Fort Loudon lake in east Tennessee is my home lake. Really dirty water with lots of rocks. Please advise...Thanks for the help in advance.

Definitly a D. I stayed up all night sunday so i could see who won and at MIDNIGHT after a 10 minutes spot on the weigh-in i went to bed. I was very dissapointed, for something that is soo huge they really didn't do anyone justice except toyota and purolator. Very Sad. >

Hitormiss, I fish in a lake that has tons of laydowns and underwater brush, in the beginning, i couldn't help but hang up on stuff. Like Raul said, trial and error are key. One way that i keep from getting hung up is by going really slow while working through brush when I feel like i'm about to get really stuck just let some slack in your line and shake it a lot of times it'll fall back through.

Lure: Generalist- In the lakes I fish I think someone would have to be in order to excel, due to the different situations there are to catch fish. I have favorites like anyone else but reall I fish a lot of different lures at a time. Water: Generalist- I especially enjoy shallow flippin and pitchin but I definitly wouldn't call myself an expert. Angler: I would be about 60% Power and 40% Finesse. p.s. Great Question, it really makes you think. :-?

kwchnl89, Last summer I fished in a little gathering of guys that fished that way- changing the rules every week. It was fun, it was always cool to show up at the ramp and know something will be different than it was the last week. One night we would just fish for one big fish and the next we'd fish for a 5 bass bag. It was up to the director. We did one in July that was whoever could catch the biggest fish the quickest, the director waited at a certain spot and the anglers had 6 hours to come up with a big fish and make it back to the director who weighed the fish and then called the other anglers to let them know who was in the lead. That was really different and fun. P.s the clubs that i've been a part of have never said anything about liability....?

Thats cool DWB I actually just mis-pasted the wrong name at the beginning of my reply. haha