Champ188

+1 ... don't make a Tinker Toy's difference what color they are ... Tim, the guy at Baitwerks or McGilvrey at Fall Creek Lures can bling 'em up right for ya.

Yo Mama (the "first lady" to use the term very loosely) is socking it away for another round-the-world vacation trip on Air Force One.

Plus one here. Don't complicate the simple things. There are plenty of harder things to figure out in fishing than which line to use for crankbaits. Get a quality 10-pound mono like P-Line or Trilene (XL, XT or Big Game - take your pick) and spool it up. Get you a Wart or Bandit 200 or 300 series and go fishing. Incidentally, I wouldn't go out there winding on a crankbait just yet. Water's awfully cold. Needs to get back up in the mid to upper 40s before that bite gets going again.

Not enough fish up shallow. Can't fish the thing much more than 12 feet deep. Maybe 15.

Only way I could beat the ride of my 2004 Champion 188 Elite was to go to a Ranger. So I did. Haven't been sorry a day so far. Loved the old Champ. Love the Ranger more. That's just me.

I'd bet Cabela's will have them soon. They carry other Koppers stuff.

Really good stuff, QB. Thanks much.

Here's my 2 cents' worth. Bill makes some very valid points ... (1) This is a conversational site of tremendous value to those of us who frequent it. In my opinion, it is without equal in the world of fishing forums. Heck, it's probably without even a rival. We share more information here in ONE DAY than most internet sites do in a YEAR! Don't believe it? Go try to find even a smidgeon of this kind of reliable, local information anywhere else. (2) The unwritten but well understood standard here is that any fishing reports are reasonably fresh and include a time element (i.e., when the author of the report went fishing). (3) Finally, I don't think anyone, including Bill, is saying we shouldn't have these video reports. Fact of the matter is, Pete Wenners does give a time element as to when he was last on the water; Eric does not. Common sense should dictate that you read what you will into that. It sure appears that Eric's report is more commercialized. Again, let common sense be your guide. (4) Bill is our moderator and the leading contributor of information, hands down. He does not EVER advertise his guide business on here so I think we can safely deduce that he doesn't view these video reports as a threat. His interest is simply in "keeping it real" in every sense. Enjoy the video reports, but if you are viewing them for take-it-to-the-lake information, do so judiciously. Thanks for letting me have my say.

I'm with dtrs5kprs on letting it fall back to the fish. I have caught a lot of TR fish doing that with a shaky head, especially spots. Seems like they'll come back more often than not. Of course, sometimes I have to grab the handle on my Lew's Speed Spin reel that is mounted to my St. Croix Avid rod and wind my Zoom fiinesse worm (and Bass-X Screwball head tied to 6-pound P-Line mono) back to the Mercury Pro XS-powered Ranger Z-119. Of course, before making another cast, I make sure to glance at my Humminbird 998C and make sure I'm still in position; if not, I step on the ultra-quiet Minn Kota Fortrex 101 before throwing back out there.

OK, OK ... you guys are a tough crowd. I'll revise my comment to say that none of the really good anglers I've known over the years were scientists who spent thousands of keystrokes attempting to educate/impress others with deep-dive debates about atmospheric minutia.

Happy birthday indeed, you old coot

Probably smart to stay ... guys like Babler and Beck are excellent hands at catching suspended fish around bait balls. I'm like QB ... not my cup of tea. Gotta work on my skills in that area.

+1 ... I've known a lot of excellent anglers in my time, none of which were scientists.

I can't digest the idea that the slow bite is due to cold water because (a) the water gets cold every year and ( it's still in the lower 40s and upper 30s. That's not too cold to have a pretty decent bite. For some reason, there is a sh**load of shad across the region. It reaches at least down to Broken Bow, Okla., because I have a good friend who guides down there and no telling how far in other directions. Tons and tons of shad offshore in 100 feet of water, suspended at 50-60 feet, and I believe that's where our missing basses are. There is no reason for them to eat our junk when the real thing is so readily available. Besides, most of them aren't anywhere around the places we are presenting our junk. That's just how I see it. Could be dead wrong.

Now that's funny.

None of them work worth a crap. Throw them away.

You said a mouthful right there. Problem with a lot of people is they don't spend the required time with a technique to really learn it ... I don't care who you are or how good you get at a certain technique, you are still going to spend more time fishing than catching. But you can maximize the catching time by picking a few techniques, gathering the best equipment you can afford, gleaning the best info you can get (quality, not quantity) from reliable sources, then getting out there on the water, rolling up your sleeves and going to work figuring it all out. This is what a true fisherman enjoys doing. Hooking and reeling in fish almost become secondary to the joy of the pursuit ... learning things, applying them, the long process (at least for me) of putting it all together and becoming something of a master at a few techniques. I tend to catch most of my fish on just a few lures ... a spinnerbait in spring and fall, a Redfin in late spring/early summer, a jerk bait in winter and a shaky head just about anytime other than the dead of winter. I'm not a Wiggle Wart expert like some of you, not a jig master like others (although my partner is ) and I don't excel at plying the really deep water with a drop shot or spoon. Most of you will kick my butt in a tournament if the bite is on those techniques. But when the ball lands in my court, you'll probably have to catch em pretty good to beat me. That's all to say (again), Richy has it right ... learn your techniques inside and out. Don't try to be a master of everything. You'll fail. Epic-ly.

I wouldn't discount that top-left on a good ol' dark cloudy day ... they tend to bite something with some chartreuse in it on those days.

Hard to beat warm runoff in the spring. Those are the days when you catch so many, including big ones, that you wonder just how dumb you really are the times when you fish your butt off all day for three bites. LOL

I like em. Bottom-left especially looks good.

And if Niggemeyer can catch em ... OK, OK, I'll be nice. :

Mark, First, let me apologize for the tone of my initial post. I can certainly see where you could take it as an attack, and in part, it was. I do have considerable experience being around big-bass events on the lakes near my hometown of Hot Springs, AR, and they didn't leave a very good taste in my mouth. That was during the 1980s when the McDonald's events were popular and trust me, there was little thought/effort put into fish care. Frankly, that particular Texas promoter was rightly thought by most to be far more interested in his pocketbook than the well-being of any of the fisheries he visited. Yes, it was his living, but it didn't have to be made without regard for the very resources that were providing it. I am confident that your events are different, and given the total numbers of fish weighed in last year, I will admit that the effect on the spawn was likely not significant. And I'm sure that you go to every effort to ensure that the fish are well cared for while in your possession, and hopefully that extends to your participants. Donna and I will certainly consider your invitation to participate this year. If a particular pattern has developed by then ... not sight-fishing LOL ... I'd say the odds are very good that we will come join you. Thanks abkeenan for your post. My concern indeed is completely for this fishery that we all love very much. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Impressive, to say the least.

The day before the ice storm it blew so hard out of the south that the local news reported that night that several bass boats were sunk. Donna and I were in my 18-foot Hydra-Sports at the time and I was not one bit comfortable until we got that dude on the trailer. We had to make a little 2-mile run back to the ramp and were fortunate that we had a pocket to duck out of the wind until it started swinging around to the west (and eventually the north) which let the swells settle down enough for us to make it back. That was pretty close to the happiest I've ever been to get on the trailer.

Haven't been to Fork in several years. Last time Donna and I went, we set off a record ice storm. Fished in shorts the first day. Woke up that night with sleet pelting our tin-roofed cabin. Spent the next 2.5 days huddled up before it finally melted off enough to get the boat in the water. Fishing was slow but we did managed to catch an 8-5.