IdahoLunkerHunter

You hit it right on the money fluke. Most of the time when bass are short striking a bait or missing it completely it is more a reaction strike than anything. To get them to commit try changing color to match water and downsizing bait. Also when you see a boil I will toss a jig trailer combo and work it over slowly through that area and guaranteed you will get bit.

Try and give bigheadcaps.com a go

X2 I keep track of PB's and that's about it lol

Depending on what lure I am using I would say most of the time I cast beyond the object I am fishing. I drag or retrieve the lure through the shadow rather than throwing or pitching on top of it. You cover more water and hit both places, sun and shade. I do agree with Snook. Most time bass will be suspended higher in the water column in the morning because the water is warmer and will move deeper or find shade in the day as the sun gets bright and hot.

Three year old 8lbers. They must be like my bass up my way. I saw a couple last weekend laying in bed watching Simpson's drinking beer and eating porkrinds... freaked me out too!

Nice fish... I'm sure pulling the first one in made a great day but pulling the second one in made a freakin' spectacular day!

Nice work Idaho! Givin' a shout out from the north.

Thanks all. Ya gotta cut the locks for the summer, head was gettin to hot

oops Fixed hehe here is link

When I scout places to shore fish from I look for four main things. 1. Rip wrap transitions to gravel. 2. Wood or other cover. 3. Access to deeper water. 4. Some kind of water movement, weather it be a creek, culvert, etc.

grats on the great looking trip!

Big thumbs up to you both!

It's all good! I thought about what has been working when I go out and what my boater did different. Speed. When I go out I might spend 15 minutes at one dock hitting every angle. We only spent about 2-3 casts on every dock and he didn't pay much attention to structure changes, IE. Ripwrap to pebble to mud etc. We came up on a 100 foot breakwater concrete wall I knew there was fish on but we only stayed there for about 6 casts. If I was fishing it I would have worked every foot of that wall. When I come to think about everything, I fish really slow and precise and sometimes making 30-40 casts on the same object. I will be fishing with the high school buddy tomorrow on my little jon, will keep you updated on my progress PS: Thank for the healthy encouragement!

It wasn't the anaconda

Nice job Wackin' em, Gratz!

Well, i got skunked . Oh well, I didn't know much about the lake, first time fishing it, and my partner didn't pre-fish of course. There was only 3 out of 25+ people who caught their limit, I guess this lake is extremely heavy pressured. Winner won with 16lb bag. Partners finders weren't working correctly and marking temps 4-6 degrees above water temp and I didn't find that out till at weigh in. Water temps were saying 53morning-56.5 afternoon and it was actually 49morning-53afternoon. Spent a good amount of time retrieving his lures from trees, docks, and rocks and fishing in the wrong places. Good thing is I saw an old high school friend that I didn't know still lived in my area and he is going to be buying a boat and wants me to be his partner for next years series. Oh well, I tried to make the best of it. :-/

Judging from your posts, you've had quite enough of it already. Seriously though, how about we just put a sticky up and then delete all new threads on this? Oh, BTW: Anyone ever try using JJ's on a Senko? Does it interact with the salt in an adverse way? JJ's goes on every trick stick. ;D

When I am searching for cover I usually just idle an area and mark the brush piles as I go over and don't even fish them at that moment. I will go back after I have marked a few. On my finder brush piles look like an unusual lump 2-6 feet high with a pretty solid line on the top and a fairly solid fill. When you go over one you will often see small lines or marks above them indicating bait fish. I will double mark these as bait fish piles. When you go over a pile that is not as thick it won't be as dark filling and it will be almost like a blob. You have to remember that even though you don't see a fish on the pile there are fish there. You just have to poke your way around and get your bait into their home. I turn off all auto-featuring on my finder and set up a dual reading with the larger side the zoom. You get a better resolution reading. Also turn off the fish icons, you will learn how to read your finder better. I would start by locating structure changes around spawning flats that have a quick drop and try to find anything that looks like cover on your finder. Let it be rocks a tree branch or anything fish will be there. Thats how I tackle it and hope that helps. ILH

I'd rather spend the time out fishing than trying to re-create the wheel of two products that work awesome!

I use a card box with a foam cut out to keep the bottles in place. I took a photo for reference Run ya a couple bucks at walmart and about 15 minutes.

Can you say dream day! Nice work

hehe, thanks LBH. I can't re-iterate enough how much I learned on road-trip. I will be attending every year! There is so much knowledge that is presented and I am still basking in the knowledge, the people I met was a bonus LOL. It was a little spendy for me as I had to fly across the country but anyone who has the chance, it's definitely money well spent!

Great going!

X2, I dip JJ's in everything and megastrike goes in every tube!

A Bass's Memory is 15 minutes. They do become susceptible to seeing a bait a thousand times but IMO it doesn't matter much.