ABA CAST CHAMP 2006

I'm not very mechanically inclined and finding someone to rebuild the carb would probably be more expensive than getting a new one, BUT it is a small engine which would seem relatively easy to tinker with. I also have a basic tool set. Would that be enough to complete the work you've advised? Thanks.

Went to KY Lake today out of Kenlake State Park. Water temp was about 45 degrees and was slightly stained. Caught 21 bass, of which 19 were largemouths, 1 spotted bass, and 1 smallmouth. Had 5 keepers out of all those. The big one was a 4 lb. largemouth and second biggest went to a 3.5 lb. smallmouth. Also caught about 10 drums and a 5 lb. chain pickerel. Productive baits were 1/4oz. shaky head worms, 1/4 oz texas rigged tubes, jerkbaits, and a "kentucky rig" (the suped up version of the drop-shot). Today was much better than last week when the water was only 40 degrees. Oh, what a difference and increase in water temperatures can cause! Hopefully the water gets close to 50 degrees by next week. Then the action will really start to pick up and the fish will start feeding heavily for the prespawn.

Hey everyone, went out to the lake today for about the 10th time this year and had a little problem with my engine flooding with fuel. I have a 1999 25hp Mercury 2-stroke engine. Here is what happened. I started the engine right up at the ramp and let it warm up a couple minutes. After that, drove down the lake for about 10 minutes, not at full throttle, but close. Shut the engine down, dumped in a fish attractor and tried to start the engine again but no luck! The engine turned over, but I instantly picked up a strong fuel scent to see a little bit of a gas slick near the engine. I tried starting it for about 2 minutes with the key while choking the engine and still no luck. Tried pull starting it for another minute or so, and nothing. So I fished for about 30 minutes toward the ramp, and started the engine right up again. Drove back to the ramp to pick up another fish attractor, shut the engine down, and had the same problem starting the engine again. Let it sit for a while again and it started right up. This is the first time in the 9 years of this engine's existence that it has had any problems. Has anyone had a similar experience with a 2-cycle engine??? Can anyone give me advice on what the problem might be and how to fix this problem???? Thanks in advance for the help everyone!

Yeah, there's a lot of the tournament coverage like Burley says, and it is a very informative magazine. Although, I find that Bassmaster will pretty much rehash a lot of their past articles though because I keep a few big binders full of bass fishing articles from the magazines I'm subscribed to. In the way of bass fishing though, it's hard to beat The In-Fisherman even though it features one largemouth and one smallmouth techniques article per issue. Plus it's got information for other species of fish that Bassmaster doesn't cover, which can be altered to a bass' taste and can really help develop new ideas for targeting bass that other magazines wouldn't consider. 10,000 pardons for the length of this 2¢. Good luck on your magazine choice too, being that there are so many good ones out there.

Depends on the water clarity and how much current there is, but usually you can find bass staged somewhere around wherever the shallower area drops off into the creek channel.

Tubes if the fish are biting vertical presentations. Jerkbaits and spinnerbaits too.

For our tournaments, the directors ask that the non-boater offer the boater half of the fuel costs for the day, and at the minimum $20. I've entered tournaments as a boater and as a nonboater, and the guy with the boat ALWAYS spends more money. So, it's a good idea to at least make the gesture, especially since the boater has to spend so much in order to have the boat ready for a nonboater and in good working condition.

Flipping jigs and creature baits at the bases of the cypress trees and right into the middle of submerged buckbrush bushes is tough to beat if the fish are there. Definitely use braided line in this stuff.

Finally got my rod, a 7' medium light Shimano Compre. Also got a cheap Abu 102 spinning reel and some 8 lb. test line for it. It feels and casts 100x better than the setup I previously used for the tubes. Thanks for the help everyone!

The bigger fish will usually survive if you release them immediately. If the fish has been hooked through more than one of it's gill rakers then the fish is less likely to survive. It's kind of like hearing about not removing a knife if a person has been stuck deep even though it might still be affecting other bodily processes. If you take the knife out then the blood comes next. Depending on how badly the fish's gills are damaged and your care of the fish afterward should be the determining factors in how long the fish lives.

I fish 3 different creeks around here and the main consensus among the smallmouth is that they don't really care how light the line is since most of them are still unfamiliar with a lot of fishing pressure. I use 12 lb. test fluorescent line on a spinning outfit since me and my buddies have caught a few over 4 lbs. For topwater lures, a little Sammy knockoff would work wonders as well as the Booyah Pond Magic chartreuse shad buzzbait. Every now and then they'll go bonkers for smaller spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. For plastics, texas rigged tubes are probably the best thing going for me, but trick worms, smaller flukes and crawfish pattern baits also work very well. If we want to catch every kind of fish known and unknown that would hit a lure, then we'll throw little Roostertails in white, black, yellow, firetiger or trout color. Also, the greatest creek bait of all time usually gets a workout, the 4" Creme Scoundrel "live" color spinner worm fished weightless with really slow horizontal movement and slow fall w/ tiny rod twitches. The fish don't seem to care what colors we wear so long as we move s-l-o-w.

I like the regular treble hooks because as long as there is constant pressure on the line the entire time then your odds of losing the fish are very slim. Also I've noticed with the EWG-type hooks that they tend to skin hook the fish more often than regular trebles and rip out of the skin since the EWGs don't seem to go behind/around the lip as much as the regular trebles. As for the Shad Rap, the hooks that come on those are very very sharp and sticky. I assure you as my periodic carelessness has led me to catch myself a few times. Those things are hard to get out even using the fishing line method to remove the hooks.

Yeah, those things are creepy. My mom was raised on a cattle farm and she said they got those nasty bot fly larvae out of the cows by squeezing the little terds out of there like a pimple and that they just pop right out. YUCK!

Yeah, when fish see spoons they say, "I'd hit it." Spoons are tight. Split rings work well when using a casting rig, and on spinning rigs a swivel keeps the twists out of the line. Steady pace works most of the time. The stop and go works well too. I jig them sometimes when the fish aren't real active. My favorite colors are chrome and the yellow w/ red dots spoons.

Is your line breaking at the knot or above the knot? If the knot itself is breaking then you could probably add a little super glue to it to add support and strength to the knot. If the blade is cutting up your line, then it might be a good idea to change to a more abrasion-resistant line.

Jerkbate, you've got a great idea going. I hope you get this class going. It's always fun to introduce more people to the sport and teach the techniques. Here's a few ideas: Topics: The basics like rod, reel, and line choices. Lure types. Tuning lures and reels (baitcasters) for personal preference. In-class pitching/flipping demonstrations and and in-class student practice in these techniques. Fees: Not sure how much I'd pay to attend the 10 week course. Would the university offer it in their course catalog? If so, then the class price would probably be covered through tuition costs and added fees on the tuition bill. Materials: Expenses should be deferred to students because chances are, many of them will already have some tackle. No opinion on text books for bass fishing. Max Class Size: 20 students Demonstrations: Classroom/outdoor demonstrations would probably suffice. Also, a weekend camping trip where everyone would be able to have a good time and to practice what they've learned from the shore for a couple of days. 10 Week Sessions: One 10 week session would be enough to cover the basics of bass fishing. Maybe offer two 10 week sessions if you have two different classes, one might be Beginning Bass Fishing, and the next one could be Advanced Bass Fishing.

I'd be interested to hear about what truly causes this abnormality and what effect it has on the reproduction rates. The article said that they'll study the effects on reproduction this spring. Hopefully after they test their hypotheses on that subject, then they can fix the problem.

Yeah, the Chatterbaits are dyn-o-mite in the spring for prespawn, spawn, and postspawning fish, and they work at pretty much whatever retrieve you decide is right. The fish definitely haven't smartened up to this lure yet!

Thank you for helping with the rod, reel, and line question, Bud. Also, it was not my intention to get anyone fired up about the cover situation in KY Lake. When I mentioned the lack of cover on KY Lake, I was referring to the main lake, where I'm sure you'll agree that there is a lack of crappie traps. Most of those are in the creeks from what I've observed, and there are a few scattered crappie traps throughout the main lake. Also, the part about who "backlashes are caused by"...I'm not sure exactly how to take that. So I won't dwell on it, but the backlashes on very long casts using a big baitcaster with 3/16th oz. tubes is a problem for me. That is why I posted this topic, so that I might find a way to do away with the problem altogether.

This sounds strange, but I guess stranger things have happened. So, do you mean that these fish have both types of reproductive organs? If so, are they able to fertilize their own eggs, or is it necessary to have a spawning partner? Is this a very common occurrence in the rivers you mentioned?

If you bring a friend with you to a creek, then you can use a seine net to catch plenty of nice sized shiners. These things take some practice too, but it would only require the use of one of your shoulders and one shoulder of a friend. Remember, the best place in a creek to get the shiners and big minnows is right at the end of the riffle where it dumps into a little bit deeper section. Also, scoop the seine net into the current, across the bottom, and all the way up the face at the drop at the riffle's end. I'll bet that you'll probably pick up tons of crayfish doing this too.

I had the same problem as you with the bait. I was using the live bait for catfish, but the same general principle applies to catching live bait for bass as well. Run by your local Wal-Mart and pick up the 3.5' or 4' radius casting/throw net for about $15 I think. It comes in a box with a page of directions on how to throw the thing. As for where to find bait, I suggest going to a stream/creek/shallow river that leads into the body of water you'll be fishing so that the bait you catch will be a native species. Wade out into the pools, most of your large minnows/shiners will be in the deep spot right at the end of the riffle sections. This works pretty well and you can usually cast right back in after your first batch of fish comes out of the net and pull up another net full of fish. If your net gets hung up on the bottom in some rocks or sticks, jump in and untangle it by hand because the mesh will tear and ruin the net.

I'd assume they'll work just as well as the original Ribbit. Overall though, I prefer the Bull Ribbit just because it's huge and any size bass will make an attempt at it, but it floats a little higher in the water than the 3 1/2 inch Ribbit because of its surface area. The action on the Ribbits is awesome and the fish love these things when they're in or near vegetation.

3/16oz. slide in jig head. Helps the small tubes fall at a more natural pace. I've found that most of the smallmouth bass on KY Lake will spawn closer to the main lake than the largemouth bass would spawn. So you can use a jig head without a weed guard and not worry about the weeds.

I wish that someone could make me a lizard that actually resembled the colors of a real lizard, something like the fence lizard which is very common across the nation: http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/lizards/Sceund4.jpg (that's what the mating colors look like in the spring time and http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/lizards/Sceund6.jpg (that's what they usually look like) I think the fish in clearer water would really go for something that actually looked like the real thing rather than just some general color.