Lance34

I'm not really the guy to ask about the present dock bite right now. I've been sticking to cranking every trip. If the dock has deep water around it, should be good all year. There is a row of docks that troll by everytime I go out that the outsides sit in 30-40 foot of water and I run my cranks right along them and catch a few as I pass. Always can count on picking some off through there.

Spider rigging.... Pushing silver bullets or jigs out the front of the boat.

Heck yeah bud pencil it in.

Got out between 9-1 yesterday. Water temp 78-79. The past three week have been hit or miss. Either the big ones bite or you are catching ton of shorts. Couple weeks ago cold front moved in and not a single keeper, just shorts. Last week sunny, hot and big ones were hungry. This week again tons of shorts, several 10" that I tossed back, and 5, 12-13" that I kept. Still think hot days has something to do with it. Pretty much doing what I've been reporting each week. Picking an contour line along the flats and channel with 55 feet of line out over 15-17 fow at 1.5-1.7 mph. Their there. just matters if a toad wants to eat or not. Cranking season I think is about done. Going to start rigging soon mouths of coves and see what that produces. Pic below. Past couple weeks their starting to show a belly. Take care out there, God bless, and fish on!

To save the life of my marriage and to spend the rest of the day with my wife, to celebrate 10 years together. I quit with 8 in the box. Fished from 8:30 to 10:30, WT 81-82 Same as it's been all summer. Pulling Bandit 300's. Flats/River. Channel edge 15-18 FOW. With 55 feet line out. Go get em Bill! That's where their at... God bless

Awesome day yesterday. Sticking to what I've been doing all summer just keeps paying off. River channel/flat edges 13-20 fow with line out this week at 55-80 feet back at 1.5-1.7 mph. Still caught tons of shorts everywhere but ended with 11 in the box. Fished from 9-12:30, water temp 80-81. Overcast with spouts of rain until the end when the flood gates opened and sent me packing. Been doing the ice, g-juice and little bubbler deal I use when pushing minnows. Don't know if those bubblers help or not but for the most part unless hooked deep my fish have stayed good. Pics below, God bless and fish on!

Sure... Anytime guy, just ask

Thought I would share how I troll so guys that maybe want to give this a try have a starting ground. Those that are already dabbling into this, feel free to maybe chime in too tweak some things. This is how I do it. What I've read and made it work for me. Always still open for suggestions . As you can see in pics below I use my rigging rod holders and just turn them sideways so that my rods go out the side. First rod the one on the left is a 12ft pinnacle limit rod. It's a composite rod that you can get for under 20 bucks. They also make a 10 and 8 foot one as well. I turn that rod to where the reel hangs on the bottom to make it give more when they hook themselves. The rod on the right is a 8 foot graphite BnM Pro Staff trolling rod. That one runs about 30 bucks and I have no complaints with it. Eventually going to add a 16 foot rod as well to get even more coverage. To me and what I've read pulling from the front works best if you have 4 foot rod length separation. The reels are Okuma Magna Pro DX line counters. You don't need them, it just makes life simple. If you have spinning reels or bait caster reels just measure 1 and 2 foot distance from the reel and mark with tape. The line I use is 10# Red label Seaguar fluorocarbon with 10# mono as backing. I haven't had any issues with the line, it works as it should. Some people use 20# braid with leader. I know a couple guys use 40# braid with 10# diameter so they can stay with the dive charts. I almost went to braid a couple weeks ago for longer use, but change my mind. Why change something that ain't broken. To help avoid line twist, easy lure change, and for the lure to still be able to it's thing down there I use a size 3 snap swivel. I've mostly use bandit 300's. That's what I find they key on the best for me as I've learned to pull cranks. On the graph I use a Lake Master chart. Set the water level offset for that day. Zoom it way in to know exactly where the boat is at. As well color code the target depths around the flats along the channel to pass. Speed I stick to 1.5-1.7, the rods tend to load up too much to my liking any faster and plus tend to miss a lot of hits any faster. Sometimes tilt the big motor in or out of the water to dial that speed just right. Lure depth I'll run the longer rods shallower and the shorter rods deeper until figuring out what depth is getting the most fish and then put them all there. It's been a consistent 55 feet of line out at around 12 feet deep over 15-20 feet of water, so I don't really even play with it that much right now. If there's one thing I could add is an wireless trolling motor. Just be nice not to have my foot on the motor the whole time, plus to keep me on my pass better. I think that is every thing to the process. As for Friday fishing. Got out earlier and started about 9 and haven't even really got started and caught 4 out the gate. WT was 83-84, with gusty wind. Long story short I quit counting shorts after the first hour.... Tons of them EVERYWHERE!! Ended at around 1 with 8 keepers. Hope the above info helps... Take care and God bless Geez sorry for upside down pic. I new I should of used the better camera. But you get the idea

Sure... Pulling between 1.5-1.8mph with 55 feet of 10# line out the side is getting them down 12-13 feet. I've been thinking about starting a thread on my setup if y'all would like. Just thought it would save a guy a lot of trail and error that maybe wants to get started.

Yes sir, pulling four rods at once at the front of the boat using mostly these colors every time. You can get a 6 pack deal of your choice of colors from grizzlyjig.com, shipping and all for under 40 dollars.

For sure the wind gets the oxygen moving and gets them movtivated. What I've learned the hotter it gets ,puts them on the move along the channel looking for cooler water and cover. Plus eating along the way.

Most likely so... Just have had much better days mid day than early mornings..

Yeah, getting to where I'm becoming a firm believer from that advice given by my uncle that lives and fishes in East Texas. Fished from 11:00am-2:30pm. Water temp 87-89. The first hour was dead with only one catfish caught. Had me scratching my head but, then got a little ripple on the surface, water temp went up a couple more degrees and they turned on like a light switch. Started catching them all along the river flats holding mostly in 15-18 fow. Boated 20-25 crappie and went home with 8 good keepers. Still running Bandit 300's at 55 feet of line out the side. Y'all be safe out there. Couldn't believe what I saw yesterday, with some goober on a jet ski, loosing control or not paying attention and dang near running into a bluff wall. Then to top it off, came back by about 30 or so minutes later standing up on the thing stretched out on one leg at full speed. Geez Pic below, God bless

Sweet Danny! Great to see you back at it bud!

Sweet Danny! Great to see you back at it bud!

Slow Slow Slow yesterday, They bit in spurts. I would go across an area and get 2-3 real quick hits and then nothing for awhile. Caught 12..... 6 good keepers and 6 over achievers. But, the highlight of the day was catching me a TOAD!! A Beaver Lake PB for me. Bumped close to 16 inches. The way I fished was pretty much the same as previous weeks. Got started about 11:30 yesterday and fished until 3:00. Pulling bandits 300's about 12 feet deep in 15-20 feet of water around the river flats and channel edges. All fish where released. Put a couple of Pedialyte's and several waters in the cooler and have a good weekend out there. God bless.. Pic below

The last 3 weeks pulling cranks have just been a blast. Got started yesterday about 11:30, water temp was 87. Trolled the same line passes down river I've been doing the past few weeks. At the start it was over cast with a good gust of wind going. Felt great actually! But, made boat control a booger. It finally calmed down and all was good. The first 4 fish I caught where all on both lures running 12 feet in 13-20 feet of water so, I put the Arkies 350's, at 57 feet out and the bandits 300's, at 55 feet out. Boated 18 crappie, with 11 good keepers, a dinky striper, and a couple Kentucky's that will stain the grease up just fine. I started getting cooked about 2:30 so, I shut her down. Lures used was an Arkie 350 chrome clown, bandit 300 pearl with a chartreuse belly and Sardis Gold which also has a chartreuse stripe on the belly. Starting to think this summer time fishing ain't so bad.. Y'all have a good weekend out there and God bless. Pics below with one of them hanging on by a thread!

Finally got to put some time in on the water. The past three Friday's have been frustrating to try and go fish. I had a dead cranking battery and I didn't know it was done until at the ramp ready to launch. Geez Then stormy weather fronts pushing in at the time I could go. So, yesterday It was great to see it clear off by the time I was able to meet up. I had a long time family friend in town for his work , who loves to fish and drags his boat everywhere he goes pretty much. We used his boat dragging crankbaits down the river over flats and channel edges like I've been doing this time year when I go. I just like doing it this way in the summer. Much more tolerable for me than sitting still on a pile getting cooked. Just pop in a GPS card and use it as your guide on where they should be at and go. We boated over 30 or so crappie and several bass. Between catching up visiting we just lost count. We used several Bandit 300's and flickers with mostly everything being caught on Bandits between 80-110 feet of line out moving at 1.5 to 1.7mph staying in 15-25 feet of water. Hot colors where bandits chrome with blue or black stripe on the back, or different variations of bandits with a white belly or white belly with a highlight chartreuse stripe on the belly. Just couldn't ask for a better day. Not extremely hot and catching fish with good company. We ended up with 15 good keepers with the rest being tossed back for my girls to catch again. Here is a pic of one of the good keepers God bless, take care and come on next Friday.

http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1681783-how-to-keep-bass-alive-in-livewells I posted this in the other thread, but was asked to post a new topic about it. I thought this was good info about keeping your fish alive.

http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1681783-how-to-keep-bass-alive-in-livewells thought this would be helpful for everyone.

Ha! Yeah Danny I got tag about this last night on FB. I think it's great that a group is forming and I want to be apart of it when I can. It's just bad timing for me this go around since that I'm consumed on a lot of weekends with my little girls. Maybe I'll hit another one further down the road.

Got out mid day yesterday. Dragged flicker shads down the white on the edge of flats around the river channel looking for big slabs. Boated 5 small crappie between 11-13 inches, a couple of whites, and scratching my head on this one.... Caught a striper? lol He was a peanut, but tons of fun on a 8ft crappie trolling rod. Pulled size 7 pearl, white/chartreuse, chrome/black back, fire tiger, and orange tiger. Once I got to clearer water the bite started to picked up some but not much. Man was it hot! Have a good one out there. God Bless

They where biting really light yesterday and on and off. No hard thumpers either. It was kind of like a lite tug, lift, or just felt a little weight change. When something just didn't feel right with the line in my finger I would set the hook. Honestly think using a 15#braid with a diameter of 4# helps me a ton. Yeah i usally just turn my spider rig holder size ways and use 2 of my 12 foot rigging rods and right behind them are some 8 foot BnM PST rods. You need 4 foot rod length differences to avoid tangles. Everything else is pretty much the same. Pulling flickers with 10# fluorocarbon 80-150 feet out the side at 1.5-2mph But, I'm going to keep giving pushing a try for now. Its a lot easier to control depth, not having all that line out and no wide sweeping turns.

Great to be back on the water yesterday. Got out about 11ish but didn't really get start until about 12. On my up to Edens I came up on a boat that had a mother with a couple of kids. They where out tubing and blew the engine apparently and needed a tow back to Hickory. Told her to pay it forward at Hickory as I flipped around and headed back. I didn't know how much time I had to fish being the threat of storm possibilities so I ran up to Edens to try out a new 9 foot jig pole I got from Southern Crappie Rods. If your looking for a new crappie rod, look them up. I felt at one point I was cheating with feeling the bite those black crappie make. Boated 10 off of one pile. Using Electric Chicken baby shad with a 1/8oz green and lime jig head and a pearl baby shad with a 1/8oz red jig head. The top of the pile is about 16 feet down in about 23 feet of water. I vertical jig down about 14-16 feet. After a bit of trying different spots with no success I decide to do something I've been reading about and wanted to give it a go. Here goes: It's pushing a crank bait using my my spider rig set up. What you get is a 3oz in line trolling weight and tie it on about 3 feet above your crank. I placed out 4 rods up front like normal, just not using the holders directly in front of the trolling motor. What I've read is if you keep your lines at a 45 degree angle you'll keep your baits at the depth you want. I was wanting to push baits around 12 and 15 feet deep. So from where the weight touches the surface I count down 20 feet of line for 12 feet and 22 feet of line for 15 feet. Moving at 1.5-1.8 mph. After spending a good amount of time rigging and making adjustments to my holders I was ready to give a try. It really does put a bend in the rods and I know guys passing by where probably thinking what the heck is that goober doing and I admit I was too. But then I caught about a 14" slab pushing a size 7 pearl flicker shad. It does make staying on your targets and turning easier. I'm not completely sold on it yet though. Mainly concern with the rod bend. I feel I'm not going to get a good hook set and miss bites. Plus doing it in clear water. Going to keep giving it a shot for a few trips. Again great to be back sling fish aboard. God bless and have a safe time out there. Here's some pics