Skeeter6598

Nope! I live on a 89,000 acre lake in Oklahoma, and they don't even have a good tackle shop around here. The best one is on the other side of the lake from me and it's an hour drive to get to it.

Wal-Mart considering it's close. Only 15 miles but I do make a lot of trips to Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine Texas which is about 120 miles away!

Never heard of a Dick's store!

Well I leave your fish alone if you'll send me some of those Fat Ikas! LOL! just kidding Went to Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine Texas Saturday and they didn't carry the Fat Ikas in the store. All the carried of Yamamoto's stuff were Senkos and Creatures. I was disappointed. Guess I'll just have to order some direct!

You could always use a paddle! LOL! just kidding! If you can only use the trolling motor then that's about the best way to go about it!

If the water temp has been cool like it is now I'd fish in the very back of some shallow creeks. Especially ones with deep water near by. Those bass may move up out of the deep water to mill around in the sun baked shallows. The reason I'd try the back of shallow creeks before just shallow flats is because of the rain. The rain washing down those creeks may have run hard enough to wash down baitfish and crawfish with it. This very pattern won me my first tournament several years ago. Fished creeks and shallow water drainages with spinnerbaits and the fish were stacked in everyone we went to. We'd catch fish out of one creek or drainage, leave and come back and more fish had moved in. We were culling 3 1/2 and 4 pound fish by 11 that day!

Where are you from Fisher of Men? If you don't mind me asking. I live on Texoma and there not spawning yet! About another month or so. Some of the small ponds around here have some buck bass up hunting for and making beds but the females aren't quite ready!

WOW! where to start. There are many different ways to fish laydowns and many different types of laydowns. Slow rolling a spinnerbait around and along side a laydown works. Fishing them with either a Texas rigged or Carolina rigged, worm, creature, lizard, etc.. works well. Flipping and Pitching a jig around laydowns works. Topwaters, slow rolling a crankbait, burning a crankbait or spinnerbait! The list goes on! There really isn't any way NOT to fish a laydown. Every way works when the fish are relating to them!

When unloading alone I leave the winch strap hooked and back the trailer in the water and then crawl on the pickup and then into the boat. Unhook the winch stap and pull the boat up on the bank or at the dock then walk over and pull the truck out of the water. When loading alone I either park on the bank or the dock, walk up and back the trailer in the water. DRIVE the boat onto the trailer and with in still in gear but at low idle I walk up and hook the winch strap. Walk back turn off and trim up the motor and crawl from the boat to the truck, and away I go. It helps is you have a boat ramp that can accomidate multiply rigs or someone might get upset! LOL! I tell them that if they'd give me a hand this would go a lot faster. Most people will help out!

I like a partly cloudy day or overcast, in the upper 70's to lower 80's with a water temp around 60! winds light around 6 to 12 miles an hour!

My biggest Largemouth was 8.02 and Smallmouth was 6.18. My best stringer in a tournament was 21.9 but the funnest stringer me and my buddies caught was the smallies and 1 largemouth in the picture under the thread Smallmouths that I posted a couple of weeks ago. The 5 biggest fish went just over 20 pounds!

For an all around knot I like a palomar knot! Seems to work pretty well!

I LOVE THEM ALL, but really like watching a huge smallmouth get airborne! (When I'm not tournament fishing) When they do that in a tournament my heart stops and I just wanna cry! LOL!

That's what I learned. I told her a day early and it cancelled all of my plans for the next morning. I've learned now that I'm not saying a word until I'm loading the pick-up!

Texas rigging the ZOOM worms with the Gamakatsu hooks will be good for starters. If you're completely new to the sport of bass fishing then you've come to a really good place to pick up on tips and techniques! WELCOME!

Well I talked with the biologist about it and he says that if you place a ton of crawfish in these ponds here (which are primarily a soft dirt) that too many crawfish can burry into the dam causing it to become week over time. There are however crawfish in the pond naturally.

Feel the same as you, but unfortunately fishing bass tournaments you have to take a few off their beds. They do get released back but usually nowhere near their beds so I'm sure it's hurting a little.

Good point on the gizzards! I didn't think about them getting to the sizes they do. But right now I'm just putting small numbers in the pond and trying to keep them from reproducing at this time. Doing this to keep things in check. Thought about importing more crawfish but if I do that crawfish a reek serious havoc on a pond d**n over time!

flippnfish Do you recommend the Thread fin shad? I perfer the Gizzard shad because they're a little tuffer when the colder months hit. Thread fins seem to be a little weaker and harder to keep alive. Or at least they are this way in Southern Oklahoma!

This is the ponit that he was making. He says it worked great on bedding fish. Sometimes your really have to pester those bedding girls for a long time before they get ticked off enough to bite. He was saying that it was improving his catch time on these bedding fish. And to elaborate on the All-Star rod. IT'S NOT A TRUE ALL-STAR ROD. He buys the All-star BLANKS and building the rod off that. I'm still undecided whether or not to try one.

I have a smaller pond but have the same problem as you. What I'm doing is taking a lot of little fish out of the pond and stocking other people's ponds that I've talked to, or eating them. The pond is over loaded with fish and there's not enough food to support all of them. Crappie can be a big problem in a pond if not managed right. Crappie's eggs are toxic to other fish which in turn leads to a high hatch ratio. And bass alone can only eat them until they reach a certain size before they become to big. Put some flathead catfish in your pond to help with the crappie because they'll eat them when they're grown. (If the catfish are big enough) Flatheads primarly feed on crappie, and perch, but in lakes also feed on bait fish. As for the bass, like I say either find some one that has a pond that you can stock bass in out of your pond. (Check with state laws about transporting fish and size limits First) Or take some home and eat them. The goal is to thin out a few of these fish. My pond is loaded with 10 to 14 inch bass. And we're still catching some over 14 inches. I try to keep or stock other ponds with all my little bass. And if possible and legal in your area catch some bait fish to stock in your pond. Don't over stock the bait fish, but enough to keep the bass with plenty to feed on. These are some of the things I'm doing and it's starting to show some nice effects. The bass I'm catching still aren't as big as I hope they'll become but are A LOT HEALTHIER, then they were a couple of years ago.

My dad know's all of the six old geezers! My dad is a guide here on the lake. He guides for stripers and catfish but when he first started he guided for bass also. Yeah Texoma is a big lake and to me one of the hardest lakes to pattern fish. May just be because it's my home lake and I sometimes get stuck on my go to spots even when they aren't producing. Yeah when you get ready to come up just let me know. If you'll go to the sixoldgeezers website and on the left side scroll down to Alberta Creek Marina, click on it and then go to GUIDES. My dad has a website with a phone number there. His name is Curgus Lowe. Just give me a call on that number and we'll talk it over. My name is Cody Lowe. The first week end in April I'll be gone. I have a tournament at Pine Creek Lake in eastern Oklahoma, but the rest of the month I'll probably be free!

The whole point of this topic is WOULD YOU BUY A ROD THAT BUZZED. Do you think it would improve catch time on bedding fish, or cause a reaction strike from a fish that isn't real active at the time? Where they're made isn't the point!

HAHA! thinks for the tip boys! Now I have a reason to order a couple. ;D

Well personally I like All-Stars rods and have had no trouble with them, regardless of where they're made. These rods are made on All-Star blanks in, I believe, Amarillo, Tx or Lubbock, Tx.