Sprint21fter

Thanks, I will tell the fish to stop jumping and just get in the boat. Its fishing, we all go through ups and downs and unfortunately, I am just not landing key fish. I have no excuses as for the equipment I buy I know it works. Good luck to everyone.

Have been floating around on the lake that last couple of weekends trying to muster a decent tournament pattern for this past weekend and it has been very "fickle" Anyways, fished memorial day weekend up the rivers and had 1 nice day throwing a mid-depth diving plug off of points with brush 12 keepers pushing 13-14lbs. Would have been 14 for sure if I would have landed a 4lber on a buzzbait early but was optimistic and kept watching the lake levels to decide my next move for this weekend. Fished a club tournament out of Big Indian and ran to the river and caught small fish on the plug and tricked 1 keeper on a buzzbait that was at 9:30. Went a couple of hours without a bite throwing the plug. Noticed alot of fish suspended and seeing blowups just outside of the bushes on flats and decided to move in with a squarebill and fish the outsides of these and started catching small fish and then one of those precious 4lbers decided to eat with 12ft of line out and I played him every which way he was taking me around the front of the boat and only to have him come off before he was turning to come towards the net. Later, threw the buzzbait at a prime laydown and a 3lber exploded on it and sticking him more than 1/2 way to the boat he jumps off! Well, just kept grinding and nabbed 2 more keepers on the square bill and threw up over the middle of a bush and unluckily got snagged on the end of a cast and was trying to pop free the bait and watched another solid keeper eat the bait and pin himself to the bush and just lay there. Meanwhile I have the trolling motor on 100 trying to get to him and after the fish got unstunned he went crazy and unfortunately for me he got off. Looking forward to Yesterday just hoping to land those money makers, I changed out hooks and all that crap to get that out of my mind and was ready to seek revenge. Withing 10 minutes of our starting spot I had missed 2 solid fish on a popper, 1 on a buzz-toad, and another on a buzzbait. That set the stage for the day of missed opportunities on the topwaters until 11:00am. Went flippin the rest of the day and landed 3 keepers with a few small fish mixed in. We had several opportunites at nice keepers in the morning, if we could have stuck them and got them into the boat we would have a fun day with at least 10 keepers but it didn't happen. I will give them heck next time. Good luck to all. Water temps 71-72.8, water visibility 5ft.

It is bite marks, most fish in the lake are predator fish, walleye, gar come to mind since they have teeth.

I think of T-Rock as a woman. Very beautiful and awesome everyday that I get to see her. However, she can tick you off quicker than a hook getting into your finger. Also, she can turn you on when you least expect it. Take the good days and smile. Bad days happen more often than not. Just remember you are "fishing" and that is all that needs to be said. Good luck next time.

Things will change this year! WOO PIG SOOIE!!!

Adapt or die. Fish move every year, I predominately fish 20ft or less when the water is 50 degrees or warmer. The main thing is to find bait find the fish. I think the fish are feeding at a different time right now when there isn't a whole lot of people on the water. Hence, 2am-5:30am or 6pm-8pm (except for the night guys) The last campbel point night tournament a buddy of ours caught a 6.60 and lost big fish to a guy that had a 6.80 and another twinkie with it. Table Rock is fishing like it has back in the early 90's where 16-18lbs will be a strong bag. The fish are still there but we have to outsmart them.

Launched out of Aunts Creek and decided to head towards the dam and see what was going on down there since I haven't fished the area since December. All I have to say is if you get a big bite take advantage and get him in the boat. Unfortunately, if you don't get a chance at one you will be behind in the check line. Anyways, our first spot we landed 2 keeper largemouth and a handful of smaller fish all in a 30 yard stretch. Ran to another location to try and duplicate a "possible" pattern but that didn't work. Never had another bite for 3 hours. Pulled out and ran back towards James River and fished some "draggin" places and caught 1 keeper smallmouth on the first drop and then caught 3 smaller ones on consecutive casts. Had enough of that and kept going further up the James where the water color changed a smidge and filled out our limit on topwaters like we started with in the Dam area. However, they didn't break double digits for a whopping 9.89. I last heard 14 plus pounds won. For 75 plus boats and some darn good teams to be fishing in this derby the fishing was very off especially with the weather we had. Rain, wind and dark clouds all day. Expected someone to break 16lbs. Be back at it on the 30th and 31st. Good luck to all! It is just an absolute crap shoot out there. You can get bites anywhere on the lake but those 3lb fish or bigger are laying low.

I am glad that the winner was a youngster, goes to show that anyone has a chance. This is what makes bass fishing awesome.

I didn't say shaking and screaming loudly. There is no way holding a trophy fish or smaller fish verticle can hurt. The jaw is open but you are not twisting and and pulling the mouth and head sideways like a lot of anglers get mad at. C'MON MAN!

The fish kill period of fish had a fungus/sores on them as well but they had discoloration in their gills. The bass virus kills them thru their gills. When it hit though all sizes of fish were killed instantly. Before the massive outbreak you would see a few floaters in certain sections of the lake. I don't recall remembering any nasty puss or things of that sort.

If you hold a big fish verticle it doesn't hurt the fish either.

I am predicting 6.45 will win. However, with the water level and it stablizing before the tournament averages might be higher. There are tons of 4.5-5.5lb fish swiming around. Flippers will rule the 1st day, maybe a mid-deep crank bite will surface as well.

Before my last funked up tournament, I was landing 8/12 keeper bites and they were all better than average nothing over 3.25lbs. Since then, my average is 1 for every 7. Not good when money is on the line.

Even though it is very heartbreaking, I think they need to show alot of fish that get off on the Ion or Go pro videos and see how much one fish makes a difference for one person. Also, when this happens most of the time the fisherman doesn't do anything wrong. As the saying goes: "Wasn't mean to be" I don't really by that but I guess "when things go right they go right" wait that sucks to. Oh well I am done again. This is why I enjoy chasing these green suckers! "love em one minute, hate them the next." Ok, I am really done.

Champ, I feel sorry for the next fish that bites my line. We shall give em heck next time.

Same deal was going on around KC about the beds. We didn't see any new fresh beds at all anywhere. Hopefully, the water temps will get past the mid 60's and stay there between now and the next club tournament, see ya then.

Had been on a solid fluke bite the last couple of trips fishing from KC-Campbell point. I found solid largemouths that have been pulled off the bank in 8-10ft inside spawning pockets and creek arms 1/2 way on secondary points. I had been watching alot of fisherman fishing way to fast with a fluke or other baits running to backs. I am power fisherman 90% of the time but when I am not getting a bite on moving baits then I will unfortunately pull out a spinning rod that I do have in the boat. Rigged the fluke on 10lb braid with a barrel swivel and 2ft 8lb flurocarbon leader and would throw to 5 ft and pretty much dead stick it until it got out of sight and give it a couple of little twitches and do the same thing over and over with it falling into that 8-10ft zone. The slower I fished it without moving it before it would get to the bottom I would get better quality bites instead of small keepers or short fish. Anyways, fished in a benefit on Saturday for Wounded Warriors and everything just went to plan and caught enough to win with just under 13lbs. Didn't have a kicker at all and thought that would be the difference in a good finish or not. A very big meanmouth won the big fish that weighed 4.26lbs was said he caught it on a crankbait. Confidence was good going into the AIA yesterday. Knowing that my pattern wasn't getting good until after 11, my partner had been on a little morning bite around some docks. So we had a game plan and in 45 minutes we had 1 keeper and several shorts and I had a nice bite on the fluke but he pulled off. No big deal, so we went up lake after fishing around KC for a couple of hours and running my pattern. Ended up missing 8 solid bites, instead of just sitting there with it in there mouth and eating it they would hit it on the fall and absolutely run off with it and unfortuntely when I would set the hook I would have them on for just a little bit before they would pull off. After every bite we would mix in a lizard or shakeyhead and work that area very methodical and wouldn't get another bite. Ended up boating 2 keeper spots. Fishing can be the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Hopefully, all of these fronts will get out of the way and temps will rise and get this funky spawn over with and they go to eating again. Will have to continue and adjust and stay positive. Good luck out there.

I fished a meeks tourney last wednsday and was seeing plenty of bass on beds but nothing over 2.5 lbs. We fished the dam area and struggled with a small limit of spots all 14 inchers. We normally can find a couple of good smallies fishing humps and longs points but didn't run into any of them. 15lbs won it and 11 ish was the cut for a check. If someone can average 14-15lbs each day they will run away with it. All the lakes in this area are in there spawn/funk stage with these cold fronts blowing thru and east winds it jacks things. At this rate we will have spawning fish well into May.

The pro's can't take any information from anyone outside of the your fellow tournament competitors once the lake goes off limits.

Off camera, Ike is a normal guy hard working guy. Talked with him and his buddy Pete Glusek at the BASS CAT on Sam Rayburn a couple of years ago for a few hours it was great. The biggest thing that they both said was that fishing is dominated between the ears. These guys fish off of instincts after establishing a pattern and find another pattern within the pattern.

I throw mine on 17lb flouro. I like to bust there chops when I can.

Diddo Ham, looking forward to Bull Shoals but when it goes to G-Ville we will be going a few days before and enjoy the lake and hopefully some good fish catches.

Fished AIA on saturday and chose to fish up towards Baxter where the water wasn't very dirty. We caught our limit in 45 minutes to start the day fishing wiggle warts. Water temps ranged from 53-57 by the end of the day. Having our limit that early took some pressure off but we knew we needed to find a couple 4lbers or bigger to get into the check line. So we continued to hit spawning areas at the mouthes and half way back in the feeder creeks and continued catching 2-2.25 lb fish. We flipped jigs to bushes, spinnerbaits around bushes and docks and even some a-rigs. We all caught fish on everything we threw. However, we never could run into a 3-5lb bite. Ended the day with over 20 keepers and 12 lbs for our best five. We only had 1 largemouth in the bag. 2 nice smallmouth and 2 16.5 inch kentuckies. Top three bags were 20lbs. Fishing is very good right now but if you are fishing some tournaments a difference maker or two will put you in the check line.

Don't add a trailer at all unless i see gizzard shad for a bigger profile.

I was going to ask where was the moon was at 1am. At 8:45 last night it was overhead so I figured that the night bite might start to happen.