merc1997 Bo

could not stand to pass up a full moon and the nice air temps. put in right at dark. started on the bank in a cove with a SpinJig and caught 4 keepers right off the bat. hit a small bluff end pocket and jay caught a nice 4 lber. the pickings were far between from there and were mostly small kentuckies on a jig. i really thought with the weather that is moving in they would have stayed active all night feeding. i think there was one point they were, but it was all out in the middle on top or fairly shallow. all the bait fish were up on the surface, but way out off the bank. we did move out and fished rattle traps, buzz bait, jerk bait, and SpinJigs through the off shore bait fish, but never did draw a strike. we could see lots of fish movement on the graph. so, it did appear that these fish were actively feeding and we just could not come with the right method to catch them. it appeared that right at dark there were some bass up shallow on the bank, and then shortly moved back off shore. even at night many times most of the bass are offshore feeders. i have not really unlocked the keys to catching them at night when they are out in the middle feeding. i keep trying though because there will come a time that almost all feeding activity will be done off shore while suspended. that is just how table rock is evolving. a bass is just as comfortable suspended out in the middle of nowhere as it is on the bottom. bo

it is the working it back to the boat. you develop the rhythm of when it is time to lift the lure again to maintain an exact depth all the way back to the boat. you need to be lifting the same time the lure hits the bottom each time. you can maintain the same rhythm and spacing all the way to the boat, but off the bottom, then you can begin to be able to swim you lure back all the way to the boat, and maintain the same depth. the reason of practicing this is because as your lure get closer to the boat you line angle steepens and there is an adjustment to the amount of time your lure takes to get back to depth. the other factor you work on while doing this is keeping the boat sitting right by the buoy that you are casting from. remember me talking about exact boat positioning? work on this on a windy day. you will get more efficient with keeping the boat in place with the trolling motor and fishing at the same time without thinking about it. i have been in the boat with many bassers that would improve their catching ability if they could fish and run the trolling motor all at the same time. most are either fishing or running the trolling motor and if you are not doing both at the same time, the boat is hardly ever exactly where it needs to be to properly fish your lure to catch the bass you are trying to catch. even chunking and winding boat position makes a difference. i forgot to mention that the length of time a lure reaches depth when it is cast out is slightly longer that when dropped straight down from the boat because of line drag, which can change drastically because of wind. bo

60 degrees. bo

dealing with suspended bass takes practice for one thing, and exact boat positioning for another. vertical applications is pretty self explanatory. count or measure your line down to the depth you need to be at, and that is about it. when you have to cast to the bass, that is an entirely different ball game, and it takes lots of practice. you have to know the sink rate of what you are fishing with, and be able to maintain a depth while fishing back to the boat. right now, you have to cast most of the time. the bass just will not bite with you sitting on top of them. here is a good practice to be able to swim a bait at a specific depth. take two buoys and get on a flat. drop one at a depth of 30 ft. move off 100 ft. and drop the other one at 30ft. sit by one and cast to the other. count your lure down to bottom. now, you know the time to get to 30 ft. now fish your lure back to boat and count the length of time to touch bottom each time. you have to repeat this same process while off the bottom. this is how to maintain a suspended depth. so, if you are dedicated enough, you can teach yourself this method of fishing. the one fishing the lure is the only one that can control and maintain a proper suspended depth. a sinking lure will not do that for you. takes lots of practice. the grub swimmers can chime in on this one. bo

put in today around noon. a bit on the windy side, but the bass were still biting. depth was still pretty much the same 35 to 42 ft. ended up with 13 keepers and more numbers of better quality bass than yesterday. only one keeper kentucky. all the rest were largemouth. fished big m to shell knob today. the bass were pretty bottom related this afternoon. caught very few bass suspended. we did catch a few really big whites today also. bo

fished down toward cambell point today. put in around 11. caught them from 35 to 42 ft deep. tried some shallow fishing, but did not have one bite. put all the shallow stuff up and went looking out deeper. final tally was 15 keepers. at least three were 3 lbers. the rest were 15 1/2 to 16 inch keepers. these fish are still favoring a flat. caught a lot of them at 35 ft. suspended over 45 to 50 ft. of water. you have to go looking everyday. they are never in the same place twice and the activity levels changes daily. on the right cloudy windy rainy day these same bass can be right up on the bank. and, they sure enough are at night. bo

had to do some work on my outboard and needed to run it to see if everything was ok. good excuse to do some fishing also. j was nothing like yesterday. managed 4 nice keepers, and they were hard to come by. everything was really scattered today. at least every place that i looked this afternoon. someone told me that mud was coming down the kings. might to get over there and check it out. guess we had better get ready for some colder weather. i have been liking it just fine the way it has been. bo

that was the type of bite i started out looking for, but did not find the dirty water. really nice fish. bo

we were fishing in the area, but never did see a boat. nice bass. bo

got on the water around 11 with the intent of fishing shallow in some mud from all the rain. WRONG! there was none to be found. had to switch gears and go looking around shell knob. the wind really made it difficult on keeping the boat where it needed to be, but ended up having a great trip. 18 keepers, one around the 4 1/2 mark and lots in the 3 lb. range. most of them were suspended. caught between 20 to 25 feet over 45 to 50 feet of water. did catch some late this evening on the bottom 35 to 42 ft. we did have 4 or 5 keeper k's, the rest all lmg's. i sure thought there would be some mud from the rain and get to do some shorter lining for a change maybe there might be some come down the james river. seemed like it might have rained more north of here. it is encouraging to see the nice quality blacks coming along. it would be nice if they got up on the bank a bit shallower for a change though. but, you just have to chunk where they are instead of where you want them to be. bo

i can tell you after years of fishing the tounaments, that you can think fishing was a difficult as it could be to get a bite of any kind, but you will always get your eyes opened at weigh-in. somebody figured them out and caught plenty of them. like i said before, if it were easy, we would be like champ and take up golf. bo

nice job!! catch them where they are, not where you want them to be. flexibility and thinking outside the box leads to success. bo

champ, it reminds me of way back in my very early years. my dad took me fishing with a friend of his. we did not hardly get a bite all day trolling for white bass. when we came in the guy at the dock said "you should have been here yesterday. they really tore them up". my dad's buddy got right up in the guys face and told him, "yeah, well that is how all the lies get started"! it always seems that when one can not pick and choose their days, it just always seems like you should have been there yesterday. but hey, a bad day of fishing beats a good day of working anytime. right? bo

nothing like an all day top water bite! that is what keeps up coming back. bo

quill it is interesting just how much the bait is moving up and down in the water column in the upper white. like i posted in another thread, you just have to go find them each trip. i have not caught any bass in the same place on any trip. by all rights, there should be a pretty decent shallow bite going on. at time, there is plenty of bait up on the surface, and on a windy day, one would think some of those should be blown up on a bank somewhere with feeding fish. as i always say, that is why it is still called fishing and not catching. amazing how a critter with a pea sized brain can be so darn hard to figure out. if it were easy, all of us would get bored with it and take up golf. wait a minute. haven't i heard champ mention playing golf?? bo

started today around 11 am. pretty hard day of dealing with the wind. good day for the chunk and winders. ended up with 9 keepers. two were around the 4 1/2 range, two just keeps, and the rest nice 2 1/2 lb. chunks. that put the best 6 in the 19 lb. range. best depth today ranged from 21 ft. to 32 ft. the shallower bites were suspended, and the deeper ones were mostly on the bottom. thank goodness for a 1 oz. jig. the roll off on flats is a good place to go looking. you will spend some time and gas looking, but can be worth the looking. almost forgot, i did have a bonus 27 inch walleye. not for sure what walleyes weigh just looking at them, but i would say it was in the 7 lb. range. i am sure rps can give us a better weight according to the length. bo

a fun day of catching. bo

got out for a bit this afternoon in the upper white region. was not too bad of a trip. had a dozen keepers or so. best 6 would be a pretty easy 18 lbs. most consistent depth was 30 to 35 ft. did catch a few at 25 ft. really had to do some looking to find them. they still had "frontitis" and were somewhat hard to get to bite. maybe they are waiting to feed tomorrow while everyone is out chasing deer. bo

it is so windy that the rocks can not stand up. bo

well,chief, while you were doing all of your research, with a couple of clicks of the mouse, it could have been on the way, and you would save the gas money for the trip, and put less carbons in the air, but then again, it is just nice to get out of the house bo

something else came to mind about brick and mortar stores. going into bps is pretty much like going into wally world. you can go in for a year and never have anyone help you with anything. the cabela's store at rogers, ar, almost always has someone meet you and see how they can help you find anything before you get too far into the store. i do not mind paying more for an item when you get personal service, and the person that is waiting on you actually know something about the products. when i have to basically wait on myself, i can do that on-line, or the store had better have some better pricing to go with the lack of service. we had an auto parts store for over 30 years, and no one got very far through the door without at least being greeted and acknowledged and told they would be waited on just as soon as someone was free to help them. true customer service is what a true brick and mortar store should be about. self- service just does not count for one, at least for me. just my opinion. bo

really nice to see more bass showing up way upstream. bo

upper white bo

speaking of zebra mussels, i am pretty sure i brought one in saturday. i really don't think we want them in the lake, but i do not know if there is any way to get rid of them once here. bo

linda and i got out for a while saturday, and she is not an early riser. at all. got several shorts and 6 nice fatties right off the bat, and then it was over. bass seemed to scatter, and bites were none existent the rest of the afternoon. similar to those stories that you should have been here yesterday, this is needed to have there earlier. caught them around 30 ft. deep. did take time to throw the new crappie jig in a tree top laying on the bottom and came out with a crappie. guess where it was hooked. saw some eagles, and that made it a great day to be out. bo