CadeWompus

This is the 2nd time recently that I have heard of this. Guess I will have to get in the habit of checking lugs, hitch pin, etc every time I get back to the ramp. What a shame...

Sounds like a good day! Thank for the report. I am fishing this weekend and that is encouraging. Wondering what types of banks you had the best luck on?

Thank you! Did not know about that ramp.

Where is 3 Hills Ramp?

Great Site with Great Members! Happy to be a part of it!!

Thanks for that, Jim. That helps. I doubt I will go much past Springfield Cove. On one of my maps they called the larger creek between Greenfield and Springfield, Mutton Creek. Afterwards I realized Mutton Creek known by most is by Point 8.

That is what I thought. Fished above Greenfield without much trouble last year. Wanting to explore the other way this time. Guess I will stick to fast idling.

Hi Guys...If I put in at Greenfield, how tricky is it running down towards Mutton maybe even Birch for someone unfamiliar?

Besides the Ned, Dave willingly offered up useful tips and information to help me with my recent tournament without being asked. It was much appreciated.

Nothing but respect and appreciation for the info you local guys put out there. Makes it so much easier to try to maximize our limited amount of time for our annual 3 day trip. Thank you for allowing us out of towners to crash your forum. What a great commuity you have on here. I hope to be a local someday down the road.

I also fished in the tournament this weekend with basscatfan. We were lucky enough to finish in 2nd place behind them. We fished in the Indians on Friday looking for fishable water that wasn't chocolate milk. Caught a couple solid 3lb largemouth and a 3lb smallmouth all on different baits...wart, swinghead, and spinnerbait. All were caught where the water transitioned from murky to clear. Then we went out on the main lake between Baxter and Big Creek and hit some grub spots. Immediately caught a keeper Kentucky on the grub. Went to another spot and I caught a 3.5lb largemouth on the grub. Hit some spots in Big Creek with the swing head and just caught shorts, but it was getting late, so we headed in. Decided to start tournament Sat on the main water since I had some good spots that we didn't hit Fri. Our thought was that with the cold night, the main lake fish may be less affected by the cold night than the fish in the shallower dingier water. Our plan was to fish some dingier water in the afternoon after it warmed assuming we had time. We hit a jerkbait spot that was a channel swing bank first but just shorts. Found a good area with a couple points between Baxter and the James that was holding fish. Caught our limit of 15inch spots and a 6lb largemouth all on the grub. Lost another good fish in a tree. It took us until afternoon to do it. We ran back towards Big Creek to his some of those main lake spots. The spot where I caught the bigger one yesterday on the grub by Big Creek was overtaken by the dingy water making its way downlake, so it wasn't fishable with the grub. We tried a couple other spots before heading in. Ended the day with 5 keepers that weighted 14.20lbs. Second day proved tougher with the grub. We switched to the spot where we caught the better fish on Sat and started throwing the jerkbait. Partner caught a solid smallmouth and then I hooked up with a 3.5 largemouth. We kept milking the spot all morning with various baits and ended up catching another largemouth and a 4lb smallmouth on the grub. That made 6 solid keepers off of a spot of about 40yds in two days that included a 6lb largemouth and 4lb smallmouth. Awesome spot! We couldnt get our 5th keeper there and the wind shifted off the spot, so we decided to end the day back in the Indians in the warming stained water. We hit several good looking areas but just shorts. So we came in with 4 keepers weighing about 12.5lbs giving us about 26.5 lbs total for 2 days. 2nd place out of 15 was a good finish for us, but basscatfan really humbled us. Good job to them for putting together two good bags that would do well in any of the tournaments on the lake this weekend. Our grub fish seemed to bite well in the clouds and low light conditions. Bite suffered in the afternoon sunny days. What happens to those fish? We tried adjusting by backing out, counting deeper, etc. Even fished on the bottom some with split shot and ned. Couldn't seem to get them to bite, but we know they were still there. Btw, almost all of our grub fish came with boat sitting in 30ft and 5-7count. At least a few scattered trees were critical.

Anyone heard of fish still being caught on the Arig? I am fishing a club tournament Sat/Sun and if they will bite it still, I guess I better have one rigged up. I would much rather throw a grub. I have heard that the grub bite has been good, but it doesn't make sense to me why they would bite a grub and not an Arig unless the rig is just not subtle enough. But if that is the case, why do they bite the Arig in the dead of Winter? Sometimes I wonder if I overthink stuff lol

Only Rock Crawler I own is Spring Craw...evidently it is less popular as it was the only one in stock when I ordered. Wondering if this would be an effective Table Rock color. I expect it would prob be a dirtier water color.

Are you just stretching it and kneeding it with your fingers?

You have convinced me...I will probably take the suspend strips off. I am not going to have much time to waste on an unproven theory this weekend. I may leave some lead wrap on the front hook just to give it a little extra depth and slow the rise a bit. Thanks for the input guys.

Not sure if this is the best thread for this, but seems like we have several crankbait guys, so here goes. I know some guys who swear by weighting the newer warts so that they end up with a slow rise. I have some of the old suspending warts and they are my favorites, so I gave it a try. Haven't gotten them wet yet, but here are my concerns. First, it takes a LOT of weight to achieve this...4 suspend strips and 9 wraps with .030 lead wire on each hook to be exact. I am worried that this will kill the action. Also, I did my best to camouflage the strips on the bill, but they are still pretty ugly. What do you guys think about this? Sorry if this an old topic.

Ah ha

Forgive my ignorance...fins?

Haven't heard much on the swing head jig...another option for "wart" banks?

Thanks for the replies on the Bandits. Hard not to just pickup a wart, but sometimes I like to show them something different

Anyone using a Bandit 300?

Thanks for sharing!

Kind of what I am thinking

Good to know...Thanks Seth