mixermarkb

Welcome! Good to have another guy posting on here- ill be on the water tomorrow.

So it ends up as a top water/jerkbait box, a spinnerbait box, a wart box, a deep crank/trap box, a jig/trailer box, a jig head/hook/weight box, and one soft bag of plastics.

Been there. I pared things down a couple years ago, then just spent a few hours Monday doing it again. My wife laughs at me when I say I need to restock my tackle, but it is true. I'm mainly at the point where purchasing tackle is replacing things rather than buying new. I've added a few new techniques, I did go into the A-rig for winter, even though I held off and fought it for a long time. I've also been getting into deep cranking, so I've bought some fat free shads, DD-22's, and rapala DT series cranks. I'm thinking ill settle on the DT series, but I haven't made up my mind, so I do have more choices of deep cranks than I'd like. I now try to pick one style of bait, in a couple of colors, for each technique. My system is loosely: _________ lure- in a color for clear water, bright skies, clear water overcast, stained water bright skies, stained water overcast. Jerk baits are megabass, 110 and 110plus, no more than 4 colors. Wiggle warts, same kind of deal. Same thing with soft plastics. The less choices the better. Jigs are pretty much 3 colors, in 3 weights for depth/fall speed control, with one of the colors for after dark. Are there times I feel like someone might fine tune a color or something that I'm not equipped for and get on em good? Sure. But for me, taking away choices of baits has made me a better fisherman, because I have to work harder to find fish. If I am near fish that are going to bite, I have *something* that I can get them to eat, even if it isn't the exact *best* bait. I'll take active fish, vs a "magic" bait any day.

Thanks for the report! I'm stuck in St. Louis this week, so I won't be able to go annoy any of the bass, but it's good to hear someone is getting after them.

Bull Shoals is fickle. I've been fishing it over half my life and I still get stumped pretty bad sometimes. Swimming a grub or dragging a tube on pea gravel flats has been good all spring, but that bite died pretty bad for me this last trip. Topwater and spinnerbaits picked up though- The best thing I can say on Bull is don't be stubborn. Fish the wind, and fish the fish. Remember someone is catching them if you aren't, don't stay on a pattern too long if it isn't getting bites. Yeah, I know, easy to say, hard to do- Post Spawn topwater can be unreal though, come back sometime!

Cool, thanks for the shad rap tip, that sounds like something she can get into. My father in law had a really nice 24" walleye when I was down last week on a grub, but as far as really targeting the eyes I have no clue..

I'm hoping its on as well. I'm not sure if I'll fish up near theodosia, Oakland to Music Creek, or put in at Buck Creek and go up the lake from there- I'll have the wife with me, and she wants crappie and maybe a walleye, so I'm really not sure of my plans either.

I have 2 champions. A 99 and a 98, I keep the gold boat at theodosia but its having a starter issue. Had it replaced then it failed again, and it's not fixed yet. I'm towing the boat that I keep up here in St. Louis down to fish. I meant to sell the 99 after I fixed it up, but can't bring myself to do it, because the opti gets so much better mileage.

I'll be down tonight thru Wednesday, should be fun. Ham, I'll probably be in my burgandy and gray champion this time, if you see me out feel free and come over and say hello-

Yep, thanks!

I think GNS is maybe onto something. How high is your rooster tail at WOT, full out running?

Yeah. I hope Brandon can just go fish tomorrow. He's really really good, I think he's just having some issues keeping him from just being himself. We all overthink things from time to time, I'd like to see him just relax and have fun catching bass. I feel for him, been there before in my own (non-bass fishing) career.

Exactly! 20 pounds of smallies would be a tall order, but if they move off the bank some, 12-14 pound bags shouldn't be that hard to come by. Idk. I'm far from as good as those guys are, so I know I'm playing armchair quarterback, but suprised at how many guys tried to stay with bedding fish. Lots of big fish spawn in 15-20' on bull anyway- I'm not so sure sight fishing is ever all that wise of a game plan- but what do I know.

I'm sure the rivers are running in muddy. The mid lake is always clear, last year was a really weird water color, haven't seen anything like it in 20 something years of going down there. Almost like a tannic color. Really odd, not normal muddy rain color.

Cool, how bad hurt was your baby? Did they get her back on the water for you?

I disagree. The CPA deal was a surprise to me, because those were the guys that kicked my butt all year long in the winter bass-o-thon. I had a great day. At least 15-16 pounds. I would have sworn it would take 20+ to win the CPA. I think it will take close to 20 a day to win this deal. These guys are really that good, and they fish the conditions. They don't have hours on the lake and lots of spots they have caught fish this time of year in their heads to confuse them. Some of them will find them, and catch some big bags. The fish are there, they haven't gone anywhere, and at least a bunch of these guys are really good. There will be more skunked than last year, but some guys will catch them really well.

The weather is going to make things interesting. Looks like active weather for practice, with clouds and maybe rain. Tourney right now is looking like post front high skies, we all know how Bull fishes on high skies days. Watching the pros make the adjustment and seeing who is able to stay on fish they find as the weather changes will be interesting!

The fish are there. I think the pros will have some 20 pound bags for sure. It won't be the same crankbait bite it was last year. The lake is very clear, and we are mainly pre-spawn, so I don't think it will be a sight fishing derby. It will be fun to watch, but there are too many good fisherman in the elites, someone will figure them out. My money is on Palanuik and Evers. I'd love to see Palanuik repeat, and Edwin Evers is a really consistent fisherman, who is due a win.

We were having a ball on the grub, but I had a 5 pound LMB last Monday on a wart back on a creek channel swing, so I wanted to blow a few minutes making sure I wasn't missing anything special with the clouds and breeze we had up shallow. I wasn't, so back out to the flats I went...

FWIW, we didn't get started till 10AM, so I doubt it will hurt you too bad. Had our best run around 1-3PM.

I had my friend Joey with me, he's a catfish and crappie guy who has caught the bass bug, he had 9 with 4 keepers. Get a guy a keeper smallie on 6 pound test and he's an addict for life!

Hey guys- Fished yesterday, had 30 plus smallies, with a 19.5", and an 18", and several 16" keepers. Typical grub deal on gravel banks mid lake. Water is SUPER clear, and our fish were coming out of 12-16 feet. Was a thrill seeing those brown fish come up out of that green water and watching them fight most of the way in. Caught a few football K's in areas with bigger boulders mixed in as well, would have had around 14-15 pounds on our best 5, maybe a bit more, I'm trying to guess on the low side. No love for me on the Wart or Arig, had one keeper on a fluke in the back of a main lake pocket. Water temps mid 50's.

Fishinwrench, the experience you are having with champions is mine, and the typical one. However, some people are putting jackplates on them, mounting transducers, etc, and not sealing holes well. A few of the late 90's boats have also had problems with water getting into the transoms under the metal trim that runs across the top, at least a couple boats made it out of the factory with no glass between the wood of the transom and that metal trim. When the silicone gets old, water finds its way under the trim and causes problems. That's extremely rare though. Most older Champs are very solid boats.

You might also check out the Champion Board on Bass Boat Central. Lots of good info over there on how to use heat lamps to dry out the older Champion transoms after water intrusion.

I don't know them personally, but Championship Marine in Spokane I believe is who I would take my Champs to in the area if they ever had problems. I don't think Kelly Powers is still involved, but from what I gather there are several ex-champion factory types around that shop. I'd give them a call first.