fishingtx

What's your opinion?

What might that one be?

Ohhhhhhhhhh you're gonna like this one. Me and my partner were fishing a two day high school championship and doing really well. On day two we pulled up to our morning spot in a very very small creek. There was angler already at our side of the creek that produced the biggest fish the day prior so being the nice person I take the bank opposite of him. Me and my partner are fishing our water covering it pretty quickly. We picked up a limit and even culled a few times before we had fished the entire cove up to this angler. Since I had seen that he was now fishing the bank in my direction and I in his, I cranked the trolling motor to ten and gave him a good 100 yard buffer on either side of his boat and began to try to fish the water he had just fished. Well, this kind gentlemen did not like that, he also cranked his trolling motor, spun around and attempted to race me to the water I was going to hit. I beat him because I have a garmin force on my boat and he had an ultrex. But when I got a good distance on the bank ahead of him I began fishing, this man drove his trolling motor within ten feet of my boat and proceeded to cuss me and my partner. He cussed us for quote, "cutting me off and fishing my stretch". I asked him nicely what his stretch was and he pointed from the back of the creek where I had just come from (about 600 yrds) away to the large main lake mouth of the creek about a half mile away. I just laughed and kept fishing.

More than likely you breaking the reel😂

Although I don't have any pictures I've achieved this 3 times so far this year. Twice was in a tournament winning first place both times and a third in practice for one of those tournaments. In those tournaments my weights were 21lbs and 9oz and 23lbs and 13 oz. In practice was a 20lb and 3oz stringer.

It's so weird to me that y'all are ending your seasons, I don't mean to brag when I say this but ours down here never really end. Sure the weather gets bad like 25-30mph North wind and 30 degree highs but that's still fishable weather.

I recently went smallmouth fishing for the first time. I caught a ton and noticed some behaviors of the smallmouth that just seemed unusual to me. But this was the first time I'd ever fished a large rock only deep lake. These behaviors may have just been normal for that type lake or the conditions, it could also be the fact that there was clear water and I could see the fishes reactions. Like I said though it was completely foreign to me. The behavior I noticed is lots and lots of fish would follow and never commit like 90% of the fish would just follow the bait with very little signs of aggression. The second most notable thing that I noticed is the school mentality. I mean this by saying I didn't see or catch a single fish that was alone they all had others that would either follow the hooked fish to the boat or I would catch the others. This is something that I see in LM as well but it was wayyyyyy more frequent in the smallmouth. Do they always act like this, was it the fishery type, or was it just clear water and clear sky conditions? I appreciate the help.

Is this a large body of water? Based off of the yes or no from that, that would determine my first move. If all else fails given your location in the country I would assume that every body of freshwater has at least bluegill and crawfish. If you can't determine a forage, which I don't know how you wouldn't be able to, throw soft plastic swimbaits in neutral/natural colors or throw creature baits in the same type colors. This covers basically anything the forage could be. Change the baits/colors up until you find one that produces the best results then figure out what that bait best resembles, but by that time you will have already "matched the hatch" so it doesn't really matter what you think the bait resembles.

As the title says, what's the best bass boat overall. This is bound to be biased, so just give a little bit of reasoning. I would have to say the BassCat Couguar FTD. The reason being, out of all the boats I've fished in different conditions this boat brings the best from all of the others that performed well into one boat. It brings speed, fishablitity, control/handling, durability, and style into one boat. Like I said I've fished out of many and this one is the best I've ever fished from.

He got me guys............The bait monkey got me. I've got multiple orders coming in. The first from Woo Tungsten. I got almost every size of non chip punching weight they have. I bought a few of their weights a while back and have really been pleased with this company's tungsten. The next order is from Hook Up tackle. I'm not gonna say what I got from here because they are already hard enough to find. To make it short I got a ton of swimbaits that are discontinued or not found in the United States. The third and final order comes from Shane's baits. I ended up buying an Upper Blades of Glory and a Lower. I got a few other things from there as well. The bait monkey hit me hard this week putting me out $500.😭

You hit the nail on the head with this one.

They wouldn't have left the ramp here in East Texas. I've heard guys threaten to shoot each other dead over parking wrong during a tournament. They'd come up with some creative way to get rid of these guys.😂

He's just a little different.😂 Currently ordering some glide baits so he doesn't have to.

These dudes just plain out suck. https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/walleye-cheater-accused-of-poaching-deer/ https://www.fieldandstream.com/fishing/walleye-cheater-charged-using-counterfeit-money/ What's yall's opinion?

Yessir, I completely agree with this. That is what I meant without going into depth by saying "promoting yourself".

I'm not one to toot my own horn let that be said right off the bat. I felt the need to start this thread because about three years ago when I first found this site I was looking for what I'm about to say. So I consider myself a semi successful competitive high school angler, I have qualified for BASS Highschool Nationals once (last year, freshman year) I have qualified for THSBA (a Texas high school and junior high league large in Texas) state for all 4 years I've fished competitively. I've fished 2 high school leagues with a payout nearly ever tournament. I also fish countless working man's or weekly tournaments with success there as well. I have joined a few companies and I don't know if the rules say that I can't list them so I won't. These are companies that are pretty large in the fishing industry but not huge. The key that I've found out with getting these deals is too promote yourself. I mean dong this through social media, in person relations, and on stage. Once you have built up your own reputation, you can approach companies. BE POLITE, RESPECTFUL, AND CONFIDENT! Companies may not get back to you, that's fine they've probably got better investments. Some companies just might not offer a pro staff opportunity to young anglers that's fine as well. If a company excepts you, go above and beyond in promoting that company. Show them that they did not make the wrong decision in choosing you to represent their brand. Most importantly, remember that you are not only trying to expose a brand that supports you, you are also tying to bring yourself exposure. This will create more opportunities to better you as an angler, representative for a company, and will teach you people skills. As I said at the beginning, I'm not trying to act like I am the best, because I am not. The only reason I listed my accomplishments is to establish my credibility so you don't get useless advice. I hope this advice helped you. Good luck guys!

I don't mean to sound rude, but I know plenty of people personally that fish in the BASS Opens that do, so I really don't know. I sure hope it doesn't, but I imagine if it does those guys will be able to figure it out.

I don't really know what to think about this. I like that the amount paid is increasing and the quality of coverage............. but what about the guys already fishing the league. What if they don't qualify for a year, isn't it at that point already to late to qualify for any other large league? Does this mean that those guys are screwed out of a living for that year? Also I think this will aid their competition, (Mastercup Fishing and BASS), by pushing more competitors to those events. Is there something that I am missing that might would answer my questions?

Cast past the brush/ structure and reel a balsa crankbait through there hitting every piece of cover that you can. My other approach would be throwing a 3/4 oz chatterbait cfl with a rage craw trailer in there and slow rolling it on flourocarbon line. So slow that you can just barely feel the vibration in your rod.

Chatter bait: It really depends what I'm doing. The chatterbait is by far my most used and consistently producing bait. Saying that, I fish this bait every way possible. For pitching and flipping a chatterbait in shallow brush, I like a rage craw to obviously match craws. For pitching and flipping docs, rip-rap, and other structures that you might pitch that have a high concentration of shad I like a big bite suicide shad. Take into consideration that depending on water color, water temp, or wind, these may change. Sometimes the fish want a chatterbait to be reeled fast and have a slower sink, then i use something with tons of drag. If the fish are very active and feeding I'll throw something that closely resembles the action of the bait that they are chasing. For skipping, I only use one trailer for my chatterbaits, this is a beaver style bait, the obvious reason is because they are very flat. And finally for covering water quickly, purely trying to get a reaction strike, I'll throw a suicide shad. But mainly the thing to remeber is to do trial and error for whatever specific situation you are in and find out what those fish really want, lots of drag or barely any. Spinnerbaits: I have no clue, they're useless in my opinion. I can do more with a chatterbait and get the same fish to bite.

Thanks I appreciate the help. I appreciate the redirection. @Catt However I have watched many of those guys and am even friends with Mr. Ken Smith. This relates to a pattern that I was tipped off to and has to be found either on the water or looking at maps. I have spent as much time as I can right now on the water with minimum results. I know that what I'm looking for does exist though. Like I said I appreciate the help bc any is better then none. Benjamin

I personally always use rod socks when transporting rods. I have used Rod Glove for quite a while now and am pleased with their products. Are there any other companies that you may prefer for similar products? Do you use these types of products at all? Thanks for your input. Benjamin

I know this is a big thing in other places of the country and that it has been explained quite a few times here, but what is a free rig?

We are looking at the west branch, Angelina/Attoyac. I know the exact type of spot I'm looking for and I know it exist, however I am having trouble finding it. I figured I'd get some outside perspective to see if there's something I'm just not seeing on the topo maps. So what I'm looking for is main lake humps/flats/points that have a North or North East side touching or in close proximity to the rivers. I'm looking on the north side of these places trying to find hard bottom/flat bottom next to drop off. I've come up with a few places on Navionics, but I think I'm missing a lot. The ideal depth range on the top of the hump/flat/hardspot/point is 18-28 ft. The lake is 4.5 ft low rn so you have to account for that. I'm not expecting a ton of feedback but any outside perspective helps. Thank you. Benjamin

I know that lots of people don't have these yet, but how do you guys plan on rigging them?