wdberkley

Only took me 2 months to get around to this, sorry for the late post. Took about 12 hours of footage and crammed it into a 3:40 video. Still learning, but as you can see, these cameras are pretty sweet. http://youtu.be/cJOFplmCF6c Tight lines fellas, WDB

Day 1 (today) weights at the Sturgeon Bay Open. Keep in mind this is a 6 fish deal. Another jaw over 8# brought in today. And one over 7#. Absolutely insane. http://www.sbobt.org/page/live-leaderboard/live-leaderboard-by-team-place/

That's a fact. The place we were staying at (not Big Cedar) had a whole slew of them boys come in on Friday - they were an interesting bunch. If I had to guess, they're the fellas BB was referring to......

Thanks! I've always been told if you're going to report what you did, have some pics to go with it. That GoPro makes it pretty easy. Good luck with yours, they're fun little gadgets.

Thanks! I hope you get some time to toy with it. It's an awesome tool, just takes some learning. Grab the editing software that GoPro offers too, it's pretty user friendly.

fish - from my brief experience messin' with it: I used the suction cup to mount it to the windshields, the motor, the side of the boat, the top cap of the gunnel, right in front next to the troller. I was a little hesitant about using a suction cup to hold a $400 camera in some of these places when they boat was on plane, but it's a pretty serious mount and it never gave me any problems. I ended up sticking it on the motor a lot because it gives a very broad view of whats going on in the boat. I also used the clamp to put it on the troller shaft underwater, as well as on the net, and had no issues. I didn't use any of the sticky mounts, the flexible arm that comes with the clamp, or the post mount, but I'm sure I will sooner or later. As far as battery goes, I have 2 and a 2 bank charger and was able to charge one while one was in the camera via USB on the radio in the boat. Depending on where you mount it, and what kind of charging options you've got onboard, it doesn't take much to keep a battery in it. I did plug it directly into the USB a few times when I had it on the windshield, that seems to be the way to go. If you've got a 12v cigarette plug on your rig you can get a pretty cheap 12v to USB plug and a longer cable, and you're all set. **I do use the remote/app on my phone a lot, and shut it down when it wasn't needed. That seemed to conserve a lot of battery power.** The other concern you'll have is storage. We fished 12+ hours a day, I probably ran the camera a total of 2 hours a day and filled 2 64GB Micro SD cards after 6 days on the water. Also recommend getting the GoPro App on your phone or tablet. It's pretty helpful.

Thanks! I highly recommend grabbing one to anybody who spends some time on the water. This trip was my first time using it, so i learned a few things, and i'm sure I'll continue to pickup on some stuff as the year goes on. The video is crisp and if you're computer savy enough, you can grab stills from the video that look awesome. There's no way in hell I could have gotten that last picture where I'm swinging a fish into the boat with any other camera. That was a still taken from a video. And the video link i posted was a 30 second grab from 15 minutes of footage. It's a pretty handy tool - it gives you the ability to fish and not worry about snapping pictures, plus you'll have some video to review when you're off the water that can give you a refresher as to where/what/how you were fishing when you caught a couple. They're not cheap, especially when you start adding accessories, but they're awesome. Mounted on the motor with the Suction Cup mount at 65mph under the 86 Bridge... http://youtu.be/9q25DY8M0o0

Fished Table Rock April 6-11, here's a brief run down of what we saw... April 6 - fished from Point 5 to the Dam. Water temps in the low 50's. Caught fish on a Wart and a couple on a jig. Nothing to write home about but we caught fish. Points (main lake & secondary) seemed to be key and if there was timber around, all the better. Caught more Smallies than K's or Largemouth, but only a couple keeps. I did hook into something BIG, but it broke me off. 8# Sunline finally failed me - or I failed myself having my drag set way too tight. Lesson learned - cost me a big fish and a $30 Wiggle Wart.... April 7 - Fished same general area, water temps low 50's and again, most fish came on a Wart. Best fish of the day was a Smallie that was a shade over 3.5# that absolutely ate a wart up near Indian Point. Again, steeper banks, chuck rock, transitions, and timber helped. April 8 - made a run up to the mouth of the James, fished a variety of different areas (Pea Gravel, Transitions, Points, Cuts, etc etc) caught a few on a Jerkbait, a couple on a Wart. Took refuge under a dock in the rain/hail that popped up out of no where, and then slowly worked our way back to Indian Point. By that time the wind kicked up and things were getting a little ugly, so we headed back to the resort. April 9 - Started the morning near Big Cedar, had a couple shorts on the wart, moved south into Long Creek, kept at it on the wart, but again, nothing spectacular. Lots of short fish. Water temps near the Ark/Mo border mid/upper 50's. Fish seemed to shut off around noon. April 10 - Trailered over to Shell Knob and found fish right away. Gradual banks (less than 45 degree) getting wind, smaller chunk with pea gravel mixed in seemed to be key. Timber didn't really matter, but did catch fish around it at times. Had 30+ fish in the boat with 12 keeps, biggest going 4lbs-13oz. All fish came on a 3/4oz jig. Seemed fish were schooled up - if you caught one you caught multiple. Days like that are nice, it's pretty easy to eliminate dead water. My partner had one that was much bigger hooked up and we saw it right before it came unbuttoned. (Remember to check your drag fellas, hooksets are more effective if it's set properly. Pretty sure that improper drag cost my buddy a 7+ that morning.) April 11th - Everyone decided to get Arkansas licenses and head south down Long Creek. Water looked like chocolate milk, but water temps in the low/mid 60's had fish pretty active. Fished transitions, points, and bluffs with some success. Biggest fish of the day was just under 4lbs 8oz and best 5 went just over 15lbs. Got some pretty cool shots/videos using my GoPro. If you guys haven't seen these things yet, check em out - they're amazing. As always, had a fantastic week on one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. Thanks to everyone who shares their knowledge on this forum - it makes things that much easier on us when we come down. ***While some of these pics were taken at our dock, all fish caught were released back into the lake.***

Don't let a few off color comments by a frustrated few overshadow what the majority said - it's a gorgeous lake, caught tons of fish, just didn't get that big bite. I for one won't complain if I run into 20-30 of those pissed off 2 lb spots every day next week....

Been there....and it ain't fun....

Lewis, we had a couple awesome nights in early April catching whites on Spooks @ the point in front of Crest Lodge 2-3 years ago at dusk. You'd pull up to the point, wait for a fish to boil, toss a Spook at the spot, twitch 'er once or twice and hold on. It lasted two nights - they were chasing shad - and then it was all over. But for those 2 nights we ate our fair share of whites. Haven't run into them stacked up like that since.

I throw mine on a Shimano Cumara Reaction 7'-6" ML rod paired with a Core 50Mg7. I really like the ML rod, it really lets the bait work and you can feel every last bit of wobble and or structure. It's probably a little on the light side for most guys, but so far I haven't had an issue with it.

Headin' down for our annual trip on the 5th. Hope to catch the final weigh in. There aren't any details up yet, but i'd guess they'll get around to putting them online this week: http://www.bassmaster.com/attend

This article from Wired2Fish is from a year ago, but it's a great read on a very effective technique.... http://www.wired2fish.com/dead-end-bass-fishing/ Bass fishing knows no bounds. It’s what we like about it. Certain times of the year the bass will eat the biggest baits you can find. Other times they won’t touch anything bigger than a pinky nail. Sometimes they’re roaming flat shallow flats and other times they’re on steep vertical structure. Sometimes they’re right on the bottom and sometimes they’re suspending just under the surface, soaking up rays and germinating the next garden of bass fry. What has always appealed to us about bass fishing is the puzzle. Understanding and gaining experience from different situations breeds confidence. Part of being successful is knowing how to attack the different seasons and the other part is knowing how to attack different forms of structure and cover. And then what tools best entice the fish given those two things combined yields success and fun days on the water. One thing readers have been asking about is how to attack bluffs, both visible above the water and concealed underneath it. The big mistake we see novice anglers make is making up their mind that they need to be fishing bluffs and not understanding that it’s like any other structure. You don’t just meander through a flat covered with standing timber, or start flipping matted grass in acres of matted grass. You have to figure out what’s going on in the area under the water and attack those intersection points. We talked to a very successful bluff angler recently and picked his brain about how he targets and effectively plucks off bass from them. FLW Tour pro Dan Morehead has had a bunch of success targeting bass relating to bluffs and was a little reluctant to let the cat out of the bag. “Bluffs have been my little secret for a while because it seems like not a lot of anglers are fishing the channel swings and bluffs above and under the water,” Morehead said. “It seems like when we get to the prespawn, everyone is targeting points and pockets and not really looking at what the channels are doing. I like to look for channel swings which are nothing more than bluffs underwater.” A channel swing is one of the most productive areas to find prespawn bass and yet many anglers still don’t understand this bluff creating option. A channel swing is simply an area where a creek or river channel turns, runs along a bank, then turns back away from the bank. At times it happens on a point, other times it happens on a regular bank. Sometimes you can see the noticeable change in rock on the bank. Some channel swings are far enough off the bank that the bluff is actually masked by further sediment and erosion above the water line. Channel swings aren’t the only bluffs anglers can fish. But often it can make finding feeding zones a lot faster because it offers distinct transition zones. Before the channel swings in close to the bank there will often be a flatter bank and generally smaller rock, gravel or even clay. Then as the channel swings in closer, the rock will change to large chunk rock, boulders or bluff rock. Then as it swings away again there will be another distinct transition from steep sheer faces to more gradual broken up rock. Obviously the cover on a bluff can have an impact on the productivity and fishing along the bluff. Many bluffs are lined with standing timber at various depths. You can also have rock slides that form underwater points, piles and other irregularities in the otherwise sheer contour. Obviously these changes in areas and cover can hold forage and more importantly offer bass an ample feeding zone. According to Morehead, other things clue him to better bluffs than others. The presence of baitfish is not only important but can be the tell when it comes to reading the bass’s bluff. How the baitfish position on the bluff can determine their activity level and what bait imitators will be most effective. “The baitfish will position in different places,” he said. “Sometimes the bait is suspending and that is where the fish will move in and feed. Other times the bait gets out deep on the ends and you have to fish out there. But it’s all about locating where the channel kicks in and kicks out. The wind will position the bait a lot of the time where you can target the bluffs.” One of Morehead’s favorite bluff lakes is Table Rock Lake in Southern Missouri. He loves the lake and has had some solid finishes there fishing bluffs. He’s also had great success on Kentucky Lake, Lake of the Ozarks, Beaver Lake and other highland impoundments and river systems across the Midwest and South. But Table Rock is where he’s had the fondest memories. “It’s taken me 15 years to learn a lot of spots where bluffs offer those swings and adjacent feeding flats,” he said. “I caught a 6-pound, 15-ounce spotted bass a few years ago in an FLW Tour event on Table Rock fishing a bluff. There was a bluff that came to a point and the channel swung away and right on the end of it there was a big ole cedar tree there. Those bluffs setup perfect. It was a good bluff, had wind on it, and a big isolated piece of cover that made targeting a bass on that particular bluff easy.” You can find a bluff on just about any lake. Obviously river impoundments will have a lot more, but many lakes have bluff type banks in the backs of bays that hardly get worked properly. Often that last swing of deep water in the back of a bay can be a secondary staging area that can really congregate bass. Terry Brown and I fished some bluffs and channel swings on Guntersville a few springs ago and had some banner catches and limits topping 25 pounds on several days fishing small isolated feeding zones along the swings and bluffs. One we literally found looking at a map after having success on another one. The thing to remember is that it may not look like a bluff above the water but if a channel swings in close to a bank, there is a bluff under the water somewhere. It’s knowing and reading that lip and stair stepping rock and using lures that can effectively cover the water column vertically as well as horizontally that will give you success catching bass on the river. Morehead will fish spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs, and jerkbaits have become his staple presentation when the water clarity allows, but his latest addition to the arsenal has become the Alabama Rig. Morehead targets those same suspending bass that fall for jerkbaits with 5 baits at once and loves the new found success on the castable umbrella rigs. Lifting and dropping jigs down steps of rock on bluffs and swings is extremely effective. Morehead recounted many trips where he was dragging football jigs out 30-40 feet deep on the flats at the ends of the bluffs where the channel turned away from the bank or point and catching wads of bass staging to move up when the water warmed. Crankbaits and spinnerbaits can be equally effective, albeit in different ways. When the bluffs get a bit of tinge to them in the early spring and waters begin to warm, colored water can make bass feel comfortable enough to rise up in the water column and get close to the faces of the bluff. This is when tight parallel presentations down the bluff can be effective crankbaits and spinnerbaits fished horizontally. Bluffs are often associated with gin clear water and fishing vertically. That can be effective of course, but we had a recent outing with Bandit 200 and 300 crankbaits where the water had muddied and there was a bit of current on the bluff corners and little points created by jutting outward rocks. The bass were right against the rock. In fact, you had to put the crankbait on the rock face and by the second or third turn of the handle you were leaning into a fish. Jerkbaits like the Megabass Ito Vision 110 have become mainstays in pro angler tackle boxes on bluff lakes like Table Rock, Beaver Lake, Lake of the Ozarks, Wilson Lake in Alabama, the canyon lakes out West and southern border lakes in Texas. The ability to draw bass from depths with erratic actions and sounds and then sit motionless, with a taunting scowl, has made them very effective on bluffs. Often targeting bluffs with cover like deep standing timber can be a very effective technique with the jerkbait. Often times the bass can be relating to suspending schools of bait hanging near the bluff faces. We often start working parallel down a bluff, then fan out as we get to the swings on the ends of the bluffs making multiple casts onto the flatter sweeping banks at the ends of the bluffs. Wind, overcast and sun can move the fish around on a bluff. Morehead recalls several times where cloudy days drove the fish deeper and he had to use things like jigs and drop shots to target the bass. Where on sunny days he’s caught big fish burning spinnerbaits high in the water column. Wind can position baitfish closer to the rocks, cause fish to move up higher in the water column and make them a little more willing to chase a little. So it’s wise to note the conditions and adjust if you’re not getting bites targeting one zone or area in the water column along a productive bluff. Bluffs are like any other target in fishing. Whether it’s humps, ledges, points, docks, seawalls, grass beds or bluffs, there are multiple variables to consider. Fish it all until you figure out the pattern inside the structure. Maybe the fish are up on the flat ends of the bluffs. Maybe they are holding on isolated pieces of cover or rock slides on the bluffs. Maybe they are suspending on the bait. Maybe they are up against the rocks because of wind and water color. Fish it all until you figure out the key spot along the bluff and then chances are you can run that key spot on several other bluffs. Closer to the spawn we’ll have a feature on bedding bass on bluffs.

I use a Spro #10 barrel swivel instead of tying a blood knot or something similar to join the flouro to the nanofil. I found that Nanofil has a slippage issue and using a barrel swivel allows you to tie a double palomar which seems to hold pretty well, not to mention it cuts down on line spin. Spro #10's are tiny, right at 1/4 inch, and are rated at 35lbs. I typically use a 4-6 foot leader, 6-10 lb Flouro depending on the application.

I'll gladly add myself to the Shimano Stradic CI-4 list. I've got the best Shimano makes, and to be 100% honest, for the money, a CI-4 is hard to beat. They're tough, buttery smooth, reels, and if you take care of them they'll last a lifetime. Also agree on the Nanofil with a flouro leader. I've tried mono, flouro, braid, and nothing can compare with the casting distance and sensitivity of Nanofil. You just gotta replace it at least once a year, depending on how much you fish because it starts to fray.

It works on some of the clear lakes up north, I've seen it in action. I'm anxious to give it a go this spring on the Rock......

That was fantastic. I'm still laughing.....thanks for sharing!

Man...I've got a dozen or so Pre-Rapala Warts, and I thought I had something. Some of you fellas are sitting on a small fortune! Thanks for sharing!

I can attest to those monsters, I netted em & took the pics! Smartest thing we did that whole trip was put the first one in the livewell for a minute - no one would have believed you caught 2 that big that day. (Both swam off to fight another day 5 minutes after this picture was taken.) And you're close...mine was 9# 4oz...and it was 17 years ago this April.

It can always be better! Past trips have been really good, with the exception of last year. It was just an off year for us, I think our timing was off by a couple weeks. And since we're limited to 6 days, this website serves as an irreplaceable tool for us - it gives us solid insight into what's going on. Everyone here is more than generous with the sharing of information, it's truly unprecedented.

Outstanding points Champ, as always. #1 especially. It's easy to get scatterbrained if you THINK you know to much. Pickup 3 solid techniques, one for each situation, and stick to what you know.

Slayer - thanks for the info. Whites are not our primary target by any means, but if things get slow or we stumble into them, they're awfully fun to catch! We've decided to stay down by the Dam again this year. (All apologies to Bill & Becky if our crew makes too much racket down in the Holler' this go 'round. Hopefully you can't hear us from up on the hill!) Probably end up trailering over to Baxter and/or Shell Knob if things aren't going well where we're at. Usually do well in Baxter, but we haven't been as far as Shell Knob, so that's unchartered territory...

That was one big let down last year - no whites to speak of. In prior years we'd sit on a point at dusk and wait for em to come in. They'd be chasing shad and all you had to do was toss a spook at em and hold on. It was a blast! Not to mention, they're pretty tasty!

I don't know if it's improved with the Gen 2 HDS Models, but the old standard was to add a GPS Puck to they system for improved accuracy over the internal GPS. http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/NMEA-2000/Point-1-en-us.aspx