bighed

Yes, here in my area we sometimes have a second spawn in the fall. It's not every year, not all lakes, and it's not nearly the size of the spring spawn.

Thanks for sharing some wisdom with me. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and let time slip by you. I agree on the bigger baits. I've come to think of the shakey head as a numbers bait rather than a quality bait. I've caught hundreds of fish on the things but only a few over 4 or 5 pounds. No tournys this weekend but will prefish Texoma for the next. The waters cooling here and the shad are stacking up real good but in deeper water at Texoma. Lots of folks go to the jigging spoon and I've used it with some success. Dam boring fishing though. May try the dropshot in it's place for those 25-35' deep fish. big

Thanks for the replys guys. I can accept that I won't win them all but do struggle with the fact that a couple guys spank me at just about every tourny. Sometime I have a great day or night of fishing. Catching, culling, and still come up short by a couple of pounds. It's all part of the learning process but after five years of regular tournaments I wish I was doing a little better. In hindsight, FBL hit it on the head. All my culling of small fish probably gained me less than two pounds. This lake holds good quality fish and it usually takes a 5lb + for big bass. One kicker would have put more weight in the boat than sorting through the little fish all day. I easily had half the day to find those one or two bigger fish. I'm a beliver (now) that the big fish don't hang out with the little fish. As far as baits used, I caught a few on a white spinnerbait and a couple on a wake bait but most were caught on the spot remover/7" robo. big

Last weekend I fished a club tourny on a small local lake of about 2K acres and max depth of ~40'. Water temps were low to mid 70's. Bonham city lake has tons of reeds around the shoreline but the lake is down about 3' leaving most of the reeds in a foot or less. There are also a fair number of boat houses which draw alot of attention from anglers and were also affected by the low water. The dam is about a quarter mile of riprap and there are three small bridges also with riprap. Several decent main lake and secondary points also can hold fish. In prefishing I had located a strech of shoreline that was holding a good number of 15-18" fish under schools shad. The wind had pushed the shad into a cupped shoreline and the bass were taking advantage of the situation. I was not able to reproduce this pattern on any other windblown shorelines that day. Tournament day there was a slight shift in wind direction but I was still able to boat three keepers just above the 14" minimum from the spot in the first hour. The numbers were not here like they had been a week before and the shad were not as thick. I had noticed some surface activity across the cove so decided to give it a try. The spot was a secondary point dropping from 2' to 8' with the wind blowning right into it. There shad were thick and so were the bass. In the next few hours I had a ball boating around 40 fish filling my limit and culling up four or five times. The catch was that there was nothing over 17" in the livewell and most were 15". My running tally said I had around 12lbs max and that was less that what usually would take the win. With about three hours of fishing left the wind changed direction. The shad scattered (I think)and I went to hit some boat houses that usually produced. Nada, nothing. So tried one of the bridges, same. Hit some of other secondary points and caught a couple but no keepers. Time was winding down so I went back to the honey hole and caught a few more but nothing I could cull with. At weigh in I had 11.3, about 4lbs. short of the win but good for 3rd. So what could I have done differently to take the win? I thought of leaving fish to find fish but decided to spend alot of time in one spot hoping better fish might move in. They never did. How long would you stay on a school of mostly 12-15" fish before moving on? Do you think that bigger fish avoid areas where many smaller fish are feeding? The wind shift in the afternoon killed the surface activity. Do you think the fish stopped feeding when the shad scattered or did they just follow the bait somewhere else leaving me behind? Any thoughts on finding that kicker fish? Thanks for your input! big

If you have not given Izor XXX a try you should. The best mono I've tried to date and I've tried lots. Hint: If you usually fish 14lb. get the 12 and so forth. It's strength is under rated quite a bit. Very limp, casts well, very low memory, good knot strength, pretty cheap for a quality line. Bert

for being honest about the price with the clerk. Sounds like the deal of the century to me!

What Raul said. I've come to hate spinners for the line twist and rarely use one for bass fishing. Not much that can't be cast on the TDZ's with the right line and rod. The Stella 8K and 20K with braid works great on the tuna though.

Usually not less than 5 or more than 10. Whats tied on depends on where I'm fishing, time of year, etc. Less rods if it's not a tourny, maybe 4 or 5 to keep the clutter down and the deck open.

Good baits, good price, plenty of colors and sizes. What's not to like except the Made in China on the box.

Never seen the pic but seen it at the lake a couple times.

Was the guy that bought it named Scott? Dual console. Nope, must be a different purple Stroker.

Storms are good looking boats but I've never seen one other than in pictures. Here in TX it's the land of the Skeeter. Locally made and locally very popular. Not many Strokers at all around here but quite a few Bullets and Blazers.

That sounds like the boat I sold a few weeks ago. Didn't know it was running already.

Yes I have one. Yes, a faster boat will catch more fish all other things being equal. A slight chop should not have even been felt if running on pad. If anything it should have run better. The boats are trim sensitve and tend to porpoise at lower speeds. To stop this the motor has to be trimmed almost all the way down which could lead to a rough ride. Not a problem if you don't try to cruise around at low speed. The only problems I've had were in large cruiser wakes. While slowing down the boat begins to porpoise and then hit the wake making it much worse. As for going fast, Strokers do not drive themselves like a Skeeter or a Triton. They require alot of input from the driver. I've had mine less than a year and am only starting to scratch the surface as far as top speed goes. Yes, it's a thrill airing one of these out. Feels kind of like it's flying about 4' above the water. By the way, what color is your friends?

"Suckiness" is a relative thing. I think the young dudes take some of these old bands out of context. Which sucked worse the BeeGees or Aerosmith, Billy Joel or Kiss. That's the usual mix the "rock" stations were playing at the time. Whether or not Metallica sucks more than the Stones depends when you were born.

Be safe guys! I'll be down in a couple days to see if we can find my buddies Twin Vee.

Izor XXX, nothing else is even close.

Very cool story Glenn. What bass angler doesn't dream about an afternoon of hangin out with a guy like Mike! BTW, good looking Ranger. big

Wow, what a great read! We're lucky to have such a great bunch of folks keeping us all together.

That's the kind of crap that will ruin a otherwise good club. Can't let them get sloppy on the rules or everybody will try it.

I hate paying for the spot removers, but for me, the rest don't cut it. Try Roboworms on them and you have the killer setup. big

Wave Killers, Fluids, and a pair of Deep Blues for offshore.

Welcome back my favorite mook!

Hi Coach, I was in your shoes not too long ago. My son is my tourny partner and at 14 he's getting pretty good. Don't worry about learning the boat, just get out there and get with it. You might want to avoid the most popular ramps on weekends until summer is over. Is it harder to catch fish during tournaments? Can be. They force you out of your comfort zone and cause you to fish lakes you have not been to on days you might have decided to stay at home due to the weather or season. My kid never had nerves but would usually fall asleep at some time during the day. Here in N Texas bass t's are very popular. Lots to choose from on almost every weekend. We fish a small club out of Sherman that is very laid back. You can choose to fish one day from fri-mon on tourny weekend. Entry is only $15 each plus side pots and we rarely fish far off. Texoma, RR, Bonham, Fork are the usuals. You would fish with the adults and your son the kids. It's a great place to get your feet wet. Also, check texasfishingforum.com for lots more local info. big

Your fishing jigs on a short medium spinner??? That could be the problem with loosing fish right there. Also, what line are you using?