bighed

Chatterbait, black or black and red.

Your going to be retiring that topwater early anyway. Just take the 4 and swap out a little when needed.

We fish all our local lakes year round unless it get's really cold. If it get's down to 40 or so then we are forced to fish the power plant lakes until it warms up a little. big

Can I use my car battery as a second battery, or is that a terrible idea? Been there, done that, walked to the gas station to call for help.

The 7" floating in Aarron's Magic on a spot remover gets it done for me. Like RW, never a big fish but good numbers which is what I need at times during a tourny. big

Fished my little club tournament today with my son in back fishing as a Jr. The lake was a small 2k acre city lake at Bonham, TX. Most of the lake is shallow, mud bottom, with very little cover other than cattails and a few docks that are in shallow water. The morning started out nice and overcast but biteless as we fished some of our old faithful spots with nothing to show for it. Tried fishing rattle traps on a flat along a creek channel, DLN's on the dam's rip rap, and shakey heads around a few of the deeper docks. Mid morning the wind kicked and made boat handling tough. Started hunting through the cattails and found a nice stretch on a windy bank that was holding a few fish. Flipped some weightless watermellon black flake senkos into pockets and pulled a couple keepers out before the wind got BAD. Texas rigged the senkos and kept on flipping. Pulled out a nice 6 1/2 just before the cloud cover blew off and the bite shut down. Ended the day with four fish for about 13 pounds. Chad had one for about 2 pounds. Next weekend, back to Lake Fork

I bought about 4 packs of these about a year ago because they looked so darn good. I've fished them several times now and have yet to hook anything on them. Durning the same period I've done quite well on the GYCB flat tail and cut tail worms so the BPS's are close to being kicked out of the boat.

Hush...........ya'll are making me hungry :'(. I'm at work with no Bah Bah Que in sight, lol. As a member of the 300+ pound club I can say I've had some great Que from all across the US. One should savor the regional differences and enjoy them all. From chopped pork sandwich with coleslaw on top in VA to pit cooked mutton in KY to slow smoked beef in Texas I've loved them all. A few favorites are Moonlite in Owensboro, KY. They put on the BBQ lovers dream buffet. Stubbs in Austin, TX for slow cooked beef brisket. Our local hole in the wall is Hutchin's BBQ in McKinney, TX. I'd put their pork ribs up against any I've ever had. Now I got to go find a napkin to wipe up this slobber!

I take a full set of DD22's, DD14's, and DLN's to every tourny. A total of about 40 Norman's. That's what I think about them. big

Chad and I made the drive down to Amistad Sunday morning. It was an uneventful 500 mile drive but the last stretch from Sanora to Del Rio along the Dry Devils River was really pretty. Deer everywhere, turkeys, awsome vistas. Not another car on the road besides us made it even more enjoyable. It was a busy holiday weekend at the lake with lots of tubers and jet skis around. I'd been studying up on the lake but was unprepared for the amount of structure and cover this lake has. We got on the water around lunch time and headed out. It was bright blue bird conditions and what I'd read said to go probe deep grass with heavy jigs which is what we did. Starting in the area North of the dam we hit main lake points with pepper grass on them and worked them over good with the heavy jigs and RTR's. Picked up one fish around 4 lbs. on an Oldham's 1 1/4oz red/black grass jig. Though it was going to be easy but never got another fish all afternoon. Late in the day we hit the railroad tressel and HWY 90 bridge. Hung a DD22 up fishing the riprap and motored over to get it loose. Looked down into the super clear water and saw a huge bass about a foot from my bait just looking at it while I was trying to jerk it loose. Of course she hauled butt when she saw the boat not to be seen again. Had a nice dinner at the local steak place and decided to regroup for the next morning back at the hotel. Reviewed my research and decided the grass was not the right kind, we wanted hydrilla and in deeper water. Awoke Monday morning to a steady rain. Had breakfast at Lakeview lodge and met a local guy about to head out with his daughters. This was a lucky break as he clued us in to where we should start looking. Following his advice we headed for deeper water in places I'd have driven right over and found the needed hydrilla. I stuck with the grass jig while Chad picked up the DD22 and started working the grass. Chad hooked up a couple around 2 lbs each before I could swap rods. We ended up picking up about 5 or 6 each fishing the cranks and a couple on jigs during the day. Nothing real big, 2-4 pounds was about it. Did pick up a few dinks on topwaters during the day and a couple more at dusk on shakey heads. It was a long wet and cool day and the rain had the bilge kicking on all day. We were both soaked to the skin by the time we got off the water, luckily the wind was not too bad. The rain was worse Tuesday morning so decided to cut our losses and haul for home. I can't wait to get back and try Amistad again! big Click the pics for a bigger image

Dave, these were a largely overlooked bait that came a couple years after the sluggo. They had the same slow glide through the water as the sluggo and that reflective insert that would make bass just CRUSH them. Red and green inserts were the best for me. Fished weightless they were great, fished on a C-rig with a long leader they were better. Even at that time there was alot of pressure on the fish and this gave them something they had never seen. Cast to a road bed or creek channel and given a jerk they would pop off the bottom and slowly glide back down. I'm not sure that there's anything available that has as good of a dying shad action. I think there was a problem with them in their manufacture that caused them to get gooy after a while. Anyway, these thing ended up in the dollar bin in most places around here not long after they came out. Smart guys loaded up and fished them a few extra years. I've seen them as recently as two years ago so not sure when production stopped. I think they left as quickly as they appeared for most folks when the next great bait took over, the Bass Assassin Shad Assassin. Anybody remember the Phish Stick?

Looks like you got the right answer so I'll just add a little story. Back when Lake Ray Roberts opened around 88 or so these baits were just coming to peoples attention around here. There were two kinds, sluggos and chatterboxes but both were basically the same and both very much in demand. The word got around that this was THE hot bait so me and my buds went on a quest to find some. None of the Dallas tackle shops had any left but we finally found some in a gas station out by lake RR. There was a price of $1.50 on them and when we carried a few packs to the counter we were asked how many we wanted??? They were selling them for $1.50 for EACH bait!!! I couldn't believe it, almost fell over. I dug deep and got out all the cash I had and bought four or five of them. We headed for the lake and loaded my Coleman Crawdad (little plastic boat) in and decide to try my new bait while waiting on the rest of the crew to get there bass busters put in. First cast fish, second cast fish, third cast fish all from the shore. Within half an hour all my baits were gone and I'd caught a dozen or so bass. Didn't catch much the rest of the day on worms and such. They are a great forgotten bait. Since the coming of the senko most people have moved on. Now let me tell you the story about the glass shad.....................

A tough bite says down size your baits. Look for structure with cover, so a drop off with a dock on it would be great, a rocky point with a brush pile wold be great, etc. Sounds like I'd reach for a drop shot or shakey head. Good Luck, big

Muddy, you didn't have your team mook shirt on when all this went down did you?

Depending on water depth and size of the shad I like a DD14 or a Bandit 300 series. White with black or grey is my best color. Good for fish relating to schools of shad in water to maybe 25-30 feet deep. Sometimes a drop shot fished below the school pays off too. I like a GYCB flat tail worm for that. big

BM's been whispering in my ear every night this week. It's the same thing over and over. "Zooms 30% off and Cara's for $99 at Academy". "Go use that Cabelas card you got in the mail". "You know you want a few of those pretty reels bighead". I'm about to loose my mind. Got to fight it but I'm getting worn down.

Lots of good advice given. I've been through it with my son, fishing with him since he was a little squirt. Now he can load the boat on the trailer for me and out fish me from the back seat a good bit of the time. At first it was frustrating. I was hung in that tournament mind set where every second would make or break the trip. Digging out a backlash or getting a lure out of a tree would really get my blood pressure up there. I found that if I'd back it down a few notches and let the trip take it's own direction it was much more fun for both of us. Bass not biting? Get a few minnows and catch a crappie. Crappie not biting? Let's look for frogs. I had to remember that I was making a long term investment in my boy so that he'd grow up right and we'd share something we love. So far it's worked out well but he's just reaching his teens so I hope it sticks with him. big

I bought a 42" Samsung HD DLP TV back at Christmas time for about $800. It's got an awsome picture with very vivid colors and is light enough for one person to carry. Watching Discovery HD on it is a real pleasure! A coworker bought a high end LCD at the same time for more money and his has crapped out already. I got mine at Best Buy here locally. They had a whole room off to the side (Magnolia ???) full of real expensive HDTV's most of which were the DLP's. The guy in there said DLP was the best bang for the buck. He also said the cost of replacing the lamp (covered by the $100 extended warrantee) was no more than the increased electric cost of a plasma. big

Baby Brush Hogs for me. There's one in rootbeer w/green and black flake that is my favorite.

Yep, too dang hot! Went back to Lake Fork Sunday with my son Chad. Got on the lake by 7:30 and by 9:30 I was dripping like a leaky faucet. By 10:30 I knew I couldn't drink enough water to keep it up so headed for home. Got home and had to go work on one of my truck's tires for a few minutes. By this time it was 104. While unbolting the wheel I could smell the rubber burning in the sun. I'll take a little break until the temps drop back into the 90's I think. big

That will work for me muddy. Put my two in one package and use the leftover $ to get one to one of our guys overseas. Great idea bighead

Rod, come on down in Nov. and we'll go. I'm usually off early in the week, Sun-Tues. I'll be busy as heck in Oct. I've got a 4 day tuna trip out of Fourchan, La, two club tournys, and prep and tournament for Chad at Amistad. Nov. fishing is usually good with good numbers of fish caught as the fish are feeding for winter. YaHoo, if it wasn't for the breeze it would have been smokin hot. We'd tuck in out of the wind at times and it wasn't long before I'd get us back out into some air. It's easy to forget about when the bite is hot. ;D We went again today and the bite was off and we were crying more than before, lol. The fish seemed to have gone into hiding today, much tighter to cover. Chad pulled a nice one out from under a dock skipping a spot remover. That kid can skip it in one side and all the way out the other side. I try but end up with a birds nest. Here's Chad's best for today, around 5 or 6 pounds. bighead BTW, that dock area behind Chad produced about 10 nice slot fish and a few dinks the last two days.

Made it back out to Lake Fork for some summer break fun fishing with my son and his friend from school the last two days. The weather has been mostly sunny, highs around 95, and a bit on the windy side. Water temps have been running in the lower to mid 80's. We we're able to pick up on a pattern yesterday and it held up today as well. Fish were suspended in 16-25 feet of water and relating to large schools of shad on humps and points, and particularly between two humps that were only about 70 yards apart. Throw some timber in the area and you were a cast away from a nice fish. We ended up with about 30 fish caught over Sunday and Monday, all very nice fat fish. The dinks were not present, almost all our fish ran from 3-8 pounds. Other than a few jig fish, all were caught on Norman's DD14's in any color we had that included white. Here's a few pics. bighead

Took me a little while to get this done Matt but here it is. Bass fishing kids are a little hard to come by. My son is an avid bass fisherman but has only one friend that likes to fish as much as he does. That young man is heavily involved in sports so they have only been able to fish local ponds an hour or two at a time. We've invited him to join us several times but he's always been busy. Well today I was able to get it done. Myself, Chad, and his friend hit Fork for a full day of bassin. I didn't have much expectations for a 95 degree blue bird August day but the boys kicked butt! We started out in No Name and only picked up one fish shallow so decided to hit some deep points and humps. Ended up graphing a TON of shad on the Dale hump so stopped and hit it with DD14's and DD22's. Between the two boys they put around 12 bass in the boat from 2-5 pounds. Chad's friend had the hog of the day on, around 8-10 pounds, but it made a jump and spit the DD14 back at him. It was a great day of fishing and a great challenge. Thanks Matt!

Chad's TX JR. BASS state championship is on Amistad in Oct. I'll be down there at least a couple weeks in the next two months. I'll get the lowdown on rentals and places to stay, etc. should the decision be made to choose that lake. big