focused fishing

You're all correct, low stretch, helps the baits to sink and it is stiffer so the they tangle less.

Hey Guys, Bill asked me to post some info on an alternative to the A-Rig that I have been throwing for over 20 years. I had written an online article about it about 15 years ago but could not find the original article so here are the highlights: Double Fluke Rig: A double fluke rig allows you to fish two separate baits on one rod, it is most effective in the spring but has produced winter through early summer. The rig can be fished weightless when fish are suspended in shallow water or high in the water column or by adding nail weights, split shot or belly weighted hooks I’ve had success as deep as 25’ deep. The beauty of the rig is it’s slow fall and weedless properties. It is very effective when fish are holding in and around the tops of cedar trees and other cover where A-Rigs and jerkbaits can hang up. It’s also cheap, all of the components cost less than a buck or two as compared to $25 jerkbaits and $15+ all in on A-rigs. The draw back to the rig is it doesn’t cover water very quickly, much like fishing a jerkbait you have to be patient for the rig to be effective. It falls slow, even when weighted and the retrieve requires patience, allowing the bait to fall between jerks or twitches. Rigging You’ll need a couple of 4/0 EWG hooks, a couple of small crane swivels about 36” of 10# fluorocarbon and a bag of flukes (I like white, but whatever you have confidence in). Take 12” of fluorocarbon tie a hook on one end and a swivel on the other Take the remaining fluorocarbon and tie the other hook and swivel on the ends Run your main line from your rod (more on the rod / reel / line in a minute) through the eye of the swivel on the shorter leader. Don’t tie it to the line allow it to slide up and down the main line. Tie the main line to the swivel on the longer leader. Rig your flukes on the hooks and you’re ready to go A weightless rig will sink about a foot every two seconds, with nail weights about a foot a second, small split shot a little faster. (all on 10# fluorocarbon main line) I like to use a 7’ medium heavy rod with either a fast or very fast tip, high speed bait cast reel and 10# fluorocarbon line. Working the Rig Cast the rig toward the bank or cover, allow it sink to the desired depth on a semi slack line ( you’ll get a lot of bites on the initial fall) then retrieve with a series of twitches and pauses back to the boat. In warmer water work the bait faster in colder water slower. When you hook up take your time playing the fish, if there are other fish in the area there is a high probability of doubling up once fish is hooked. The bait is most effective in the spring but I have had success in the winter around trees and other cover and again in the heat of the summer around large boat docks. A double fluke rig is a good alternative to an A-Rig, I personally have used it in tournaments that don’t allow A-Rigs but make sure to check with tournament officials before using it.

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Here are some performance facts not word on the street. During a photo boat in Florida 3 weeks ago the Z21 GPS hit 72 with 2 guys full fuel and medium load. Hit 73 as it ran fuel out. The boat pops out of the hole with a heavy load and turns great. Nitro believes performance is not just top end speed, although low 70s with a 21'2" boat is very acceptable. Brian Snowdens boat had similar results and the 65 mph load was with 600 lbs of people(3), 150 lbs at the very nose of the boat, full fuel, live wells full and 150 lbs for gear. Absolute worse case scenario. With 2 people full tank and average gear they saw GPS speeds of 70-71. The boat goes into production in mid March and won't see boats offline until end of April to May. Guides were not offered Z21's nor did they turn them down, they were encouraged to run the Z9 this year until full production begins. These are the facts not scuttlebutt.

Gentlemen, First off, thank you Phil for sharing my video on your site, I do appreciate it. Trying to get a new website up and running and appreciate all the help we can get. I did not ask Phil to post my video and in fact have asked him not to post anymore videos in the future because of the response on this thread. Your gain or your loss you decide. It has been almost four years since I have visited or posted on this site and would not have today if not for a friend mentioning he saw that one of my videos had been shared here. Unfortunately I was reminded exactly why I never visit. Apparently there is some question about the accuracy of my report, part of the reason I decided to do my videos on the water was to reassure the viewer that I was actually fishing. I’m not sure about you but I don’t go to the water and not fish. Whether a guide trip or for fun, if I’m on the water I fish. My reports are done after a day of fishing and reflect how we caught fish on that day. For example; the report Phil shared was shot this past Sunday at the end of a trip to the lake with a friend. We caught a total of 14 fish that day, 6 were keepers. We caught 2 on a stickbait, 1 on an umbrella rig, 7 on a jig and 4 deep between a spoon and dropshot rig. Most of the keepers were caught on the jig with one better fish on the Umbrella rig. Not a great day but not bad. I do not go into that much detail because of time constraints of the video. The feedback I have received from my regular viewers is they would prefer more detail on the baits than a replay on the number of fish so I explain the brand, color and type of bait and include a picture. The videos are usually posted within 48 hours of shooting. If the patterns I detail in the video is ineffective in a couple of days my apologies. Someone else posted reports should be a guideline or starting point that is what they are a guideline. Personally I have had a decent winter on Table Rock, not as good as in years past but still catching fish every time I go out. Maybe I’m just lucky. Yes I do work a second job, unfortunately I have to in order to support my family. I did 174 guide trips in 2013 (Apparently that doesn't qualify as full time) and worked approximately 36 - 44 hours a week in the evening. During June, July and August last summer I averaged 109 hours of work a week between guiding and my night job. If you have a problem with someone working a second job rather than putting his feet up at 2:00 in the afternoon don’t hire him as a guide. Most of the guides on the lake have something else they do to earn a living. Yes my videos do promote my guide business. I am a small businessman and started doing these videos to share information with other anglers and to promote my business and the business of two other guides I partnered with. As a small businessman it is what I do. Sorry if you don’t like it, in the real world if you don’t promote your business you won’t have a business. I also promote my sponsors, they support me I support them it’s a mutual agreement. Much like the ads on this web page. I DID NOT POST THIS VIDEO OR ASK THAT IT BE POSTED Phil did this as a courtesy and again I appreciate it greatly.

Most of the bites come on the fall dead sticking the bait. It seems that when you move the bait they ignore it. It's a blast when you find 'em willing to take it, you can catch a dozen or more fish in a small area. A couple of years back we caught spots off the 86 bridge piers for two hours strait on every cast doing it. Really kind of freaked my cient out catching fish over 100' deep on his rig, we still talk about it every time he calls. EP

Sore Thumbs, Like Bill said I do use the wacky rigged finesse worm from time to time in the summer, can't take any credit for comming up with the idea a client I have from TX turned me on to it a few years back. Here's the deal: Usually use a green pumpkin 4" finesse worm with chartreuse tail, rig it wacky style with a #1 or 1/0 hook and then put a nail in one or both ends to help it sink. Throw it out over an area holding suspending fish, bridge pilling, dock, or tree top then let it sink on controlled slack (feed it line as it's sinking). Pay close attention to your line if it stops falling set the hook, if it goes tight set the hook, if it seems the least bit funny set the hook. The bite can be really wierd. If the fish are really deep, 30'+ I will use a 1/8th or lighter jig head, the only draw back is it can make the bait fall too fast at times, just depends on how aggressive the fish are. It's a blast once you start catching them this way, they are usually schooled up this time of year and catching one will turn on the whole school. Good Luck, EP

Tim, The Guy from Nixa (Mark, Anglers' Tackle Box) is now in Rogersville on HWY 60 just east of town.

Absolutely, the incoming rain on Monday was a plus and the wind on Weds as well, anything to move up bait and in turn fish has helped the shallow bite. Just like Terry pointed out the bite was not nearly as good on Saturday, limited cloud cover and wind plus the boat traffic hurt the shallow bite. Had a half dozen fish with only one keeper shallow and then bailed for the deep bite by 7:00. Deep fish are still there if the boat traffic will let you fish.......... ARRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

Guided Mon - Thur out of Kimberling and the Dam area, the drop shot bite is about as good as I've seen it in years. Most of the fish are coming on flat gravel points and flats 28' - 35' deep on Robo Worms or Chompers in MMIII or brown / purple laminate. The fish holding close to the bottom until you hook one, then the bottom explodes. Jerry from southern Il was my client on Tuesday out of Big Cedar, we fished flat points and islands around Big Cedar for four hours, had 20+ fish with over half being keepers. Had one of my regular clients on Monday and Wednesday, Bobby Conely from TX, he hates to drop shot so we fished shallow. Found a mixed bag of smallmouth and KY's on gravel flats and points in the Kim City area 10' - 15' deep before the storm hit on Monday. Not a lot of quality but allot of fish, would of had a limit between the two of us that would of weighed around 13 or 14 pound but that included a nice 4+ pound smallmouth. All of these fish came on either Jewel 5/16 oz spider jig or 3/8 oz football jig in PB&J with a GP J tail or Paca chunk trailer or a shaky head with a finesse worm. All of the baits had to have a little chartreuse on the tail to draw strikes. We had 40 fish in 6 hours but only 8 keepers on Monday. Wednesday the bite was a lot tougher shallow, we did have several fish early on a spook in the few calm pockets I could find on the south side of the lake, all main lake pockets with little or no wind, the wind made it tough to fish a spook on the north shore line. Once the topwater bite died off we went back to fishing jigs and shaky heads and found the fish a little deeper from 12' - 25' deep on the same gravel, again not alot of quality but good numbers. We would of managed a small limit around 11 - 12 pounds, total of around 35 fish (half came early on the spook) and 6 or 7 keepers. Thursday went out of Indian Point, had Tom and his son from Iowa, Tom's boy Brandon is 12 and eat up with fishing. Fished flat points from Indian to around Rice camp 28' - 35' deep (the wind sucked, had to try to hide from it whenever possible) with a drop shot rig using Chomper and Robo worms or crawlers. When we found the fish it seemed we'd find the motherload. Had 30+ fish in 4 hours with 14 keepers, most around the 2.5 - 2.75 in the FAT KY flavor. Good week so far, gotta thank Jim Bruffey for letting me borrow his rig while mine is getting fixed. Good luck out there. EP

There are several things tournament anglers can do in the summer to limit mortality here are a few: 1) Make sure your pumps are running all day on manual, not on a timer. 2) Keep a very close eye on the water temperature in your live weel. I use a floating pool thermometer (think I paid $4 for it at walmart) and keep the temperature at or below (not more than a couple of degrees) the surface temeperature using ice. Also, carry a white towel in your boat and cover the live well lids with it, you'll be suprised what a difference it make compared to the dark carpet on most bass boats. 3) Open the live well lids from time to time, this needs to be done all year, bass like all animals breath out carbon dioxide, if it is not vented from the live wells the fish will be oxygen deprived. There is some debate whether to fill your livewells in the morning and periodically add fresh water or add fresh water all day, I personally add water (and oxygen) all day and rarely loose a fish, but if you are a fill it in the morning guy don't do it at take off, wait until you are out on the lake and there are less emmissions (exhaust, oil, gas, etc) in the water. I like to use U2 additive because it helps to heal hook wounds, rebuild the slime coat and removes any clorine or nitrates from ice added to adjust the water tmeperature in the live well. Finally, if you know you are going to fish deeper than 25' deep you better know how to fizz your fish. I can tell you how many guys bring sick fish in at a weigh in because they are fishing deep and don't know how to fizz them. Seriously, don't fish that deep if you can't take care of your fish. A side note on night tournaments, I think a lot of the fish that die during night tournaments or after night tournament weigh ins are coming out of deeper water than the anglers realize, just because you caught that fish in 20' doesn't mean it was just in 30' or deeper and moved up shallow to feed. Fish will move up in low light rom much deeper depths and don't have the time to adjust to the depth change when caught. Again, know how to fizz your fish and this isn't a problem. And do we really need 12 hour night tournaments??? EP

C4F, Usually when I'm skipping a fluke it is on spinning gear, too many things can go wrong when you skip it under a swim platform, etc, you just never know what the fluke might hit and with a casting reel you'd have a mess. I do throw a fluke a little bit around docks with a bait caster but I use a rod designed to fish a weightless bait, Falcon makes a weightless worm rod (Clark Wendlendt signature) that works great. As for over cables I usually use heavier line 15# - 20# fluoro. Tim Sainato told me about 10 years ago; "you can't loose 'em if you don't ever hook 'em". You will usually loose a few, but I carry a net with an 8' handle and a good size hoop if I'm fishing docks, you'd be surprised how far back in a dock you can reach and if you slip the net under the fish when he's pinned on a lift or whatever and then slide him back to you with the reel disengaged you'll land quite a few. It's not easy to do but with a partner or some practice you can land 85%- 95% of the fish. Jackie, I was answering a question about how to fish docks not necessarily while guiding. I do have several regular clients that are capable of fishing this way and we've had a ball this spring skipping around docks. But your right 90% don't have the skill to fish like this. EP

Anytime guys, hope it helps

Brett, O.K. here ya go: Fluke: I fish it weightless on a 3/0 EWG hook and cast / skip it in any every hole, slip, under walkways and boat lifts. I will gennerally allow it to sink 3 - 5 seconds and then start twitching it back in a twitch pause retreive. I stay about 20' away from the dock and make retreives parallel to the sides of a slip or swim platform. If I'm confident there are fish under the dock I will allow it to sink longer and even add a nail weight to get the bait deeper if I'm not drawing strikes. Also, I will throw back in as many as ten times if I know there is a fish under the dock, trying different angles, a fluke will dart in different directions on every retreive so just because they didn't hit the first couple of times doesn't mean they won't the next time. It's a confidence thing. Jig: I look at a dock as a giant laydown and concentrate on shady areas around the dock, if fish are holding deeper I will allow a jig to sink to the bottom and work it back along the bottom. If they are suspended I will swim it back in at the desired depth. I use an Eakins jig 80% of the time and a 1/2 oz Jewel football jig the rest of the time. When fishnig a dock with a jig remember fish can and will be anywhere there is shade even under the walkway from the shore in clear water. Also remember if it is difficult to get a bait in a spot most likely those fish are much less pressured than those on the edges. Most of the time I use 10# fluro but will switch to 15# if I'm throwing over alot of boat lift chains, cables, etc... I fish tubes, shaky heads, Texas rigged wahtever, etc the same way. Spoon: Heavy line 15# or 20# fluro, fish the deeper portions of the dock, pitch the bait in and let it fall on controlled slack. Just like the fluke and jig try to hit every nook and crany. Know how deep the water is and if the spoon stops short set the hook. Work the bait back up with a series of hops at different depths. 80% of the bite I get are on the intial fall. Hope this helps, EP

Chief, That is a live release statistic. According to Gene Gilliland of the OK Fish and Game (A national authority on bass mortality and tournaments) on average delayed mortality is three times the number dead at weigh in. With that in mind 4.8% of those caught thoughout the season would have been victims of delayed mortality vs. 100% of those breaded and thrown into hot oil.