Champ188

Hey Edwin, when the water gets REALLY cold, I take my putter and a sleeve of balls and practice my putting during pauses. I use the extra pedestal hole in the floor of the boat to practice those devilish 3-footers. When I've holed all 3 balls, I pick up my rod and twitch my bait, then lay it back down and go back to my putting.

Happens to all of us, Quillback. Might've happened to the guy you talked to at the ramp, too, only he wasn't as honest as you about it.

I'm also a fan of the medium power, fast action rods for jerk bait fishing. You want plenty of "give" both when hooking and fighting a jerk bait fish. And dtrs5kprs brings up a good point ... my 6-8 or 10-second pauses are for water temps of 45-50. Below that, you'll want to increase your pause time to 12, 15 even 30 seconds if/when water temps dip down into the 30s. I simply can't pause one any longer than 30 seconds.

Ultralance12, if you want to eliminate the worry about throwing the right bait, here are two that you can throw in full confidence the fish will bite them under just about any conditions. First is the original SPRO McStick 110 in the blue bandit color. Second is the Luck-E-Strike RC Stix in the Pro Blue color. Sprint is telling you right ... get on steeper chunk rock banks and bluff ends, preferably with shade, wind blowing in or both. Throw your bait as faaaaaaarrrrr as you can on 10-pound or even 8-pound line, then reel it down hard for 6-8 turns, finishing with a couple of hard twitches to quickly get the bait to its maximum depth. Then let it sit for 6-8 seconds and twitch it sharply but not too aggressively a couple of times. Wait 6-8 or 10 seconds and twitch it once. Wait 6-8 or 10 seconds and twitch it twice. If you don't get bit in a few minutes, change your cadence up a little. Stick with those two baits and stay within 75 yards of a bluff end or point and I will BET you will start getting bit soon. After that, the confidence will come and you will be another jerk bait addict like the rest of us.

Maybe I'm off base, but it seems a little extreme to me to ask someone to warranty a two-year-old fishing lure. When I buy a TV, computer or microwave, it comes with a one-year warranty unless I choose to pay extra for extended coverage. I can see right now that I'd have never made it as a customer-service rep.

Agreed, Edwin. That ol' Fluke is a proven fish catcher.

dblades is right. You want regular 2D sonar. Both side imaging and down imaging require constant boat movement in order to get a true reading. By nature, they are "scan" units that operate not unlike a CT scanner used for medical purposes. Besides, you won't purchase a side-scan or down-scan unit for $450. I won't go so far as to recommend a certain model because there are folks here who know far more than I about such things.

Soft swimbaits seem to be coming into their own as a wintertime staple. The obvious advantage over a hard jerkbait is they can be rigged weedless and thus worked in and around heavy cover such as cedar thickets. The Keitech Swing Impact and Berkley Split Belly swimbaits are good choices.

Hope you hammer em aarchdale. I have some friends who have been catching limits and then some on Beaver.

This pic may help ....

Good stuff, guys. May try your trick gitnby and see what happens. If it doesn't work, I'll default to wrench's suggestions. I especially like the ones about the tree and the courtesy dock. Sounds like great entertainment.

The balls have probably built up rust on them. Pitch it in the nearest refuse receptacle. You got two years out of it. That's better than some.

Yes, huntest ... go ahead and Texas-rig your worm in normal fashion, then poke the hook on thru the worm completely. Then pinch the worm upward slightly and reinsert just the hook point back into it, making sure the worm still hangs straight. That will give you a bit of weedless protection but will also make it easy to pop the hook home when you get a bite.

Methinks some folks do more fishing here than on the lake.

Good question huntest and maybe I'm contradicting my earlier advice, but I pretty much always Tex-pose my shaky head. The difference there is, shaky head worms are small (thin) in relation to a swimbait and require little pressure to drive a hook thru. Also, I rarely throw a shaky head that I'm not around some kind of cover. Also, the shaky heads that I use exclusively have the little wire spring extending below the line tie and are therefore designed to be Tex-posed.

Haven't used them myself but have generally heard good things.

Thanks, Quillback. Donna and I fished four hours Sunday from Eagle Rock down to Big M and found things just about the same. Think we had four total with three line-bumper keeps. That area is just fishing tough right now. Also, we started out upriver from Eagle Rock near the state line and the temp was an even 40 up there. Got warmer as we came down toward Big M. Think we're going to Tenkiller this Saturday.

Open hooks are always the best choice in open water. Never put plastic between a hook point and a fish unless absolutely necessary. Tex-posed belly-weighted hook when fishing around cover.

My choices are: Topwaters, spinnerbaits, buzz baits: P-Line mono in 17-pound test Football jig, C-rig: Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon in 15-pound test, although I've recently tried Cabela's Fluorocarbon in 14-pound test and have been very impressed with its sensitivity and strength. Jerk bait, finesse jig: Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon in 10-pound test green tint Anything on a spinning reel: BPS Excel 6-pound test in green tint I will say that back in the 1980s, BASS pioneer pro Ricky Green introduced me to the advantages of fishing a jighead worm (shaky head) on 2-pound test line. It's crazy how many more bites you get as opposed to 6-pound test. In fact, I'm going to have to do some of that this coming year when not fishing derbies.

Good point, F&F. Even now, people need to be really careful when using those concrete ramps. If the water is clear enough, give it a visual glance before launching. Even then, the driver should back up SLOWLY in case to prevent backing off a steep drop and damaging a trailer.

I wouldn't put much stock in anything that's said or posted publicly as to how those fish were caught. Frakes has been fishing and winning tournaments a long time. He's smart enough not to put much info out there for public consumption.

Prize money was paid to the top six teams. All teams listed weighed a six-bass limit. 1. Nick Frakes, Andy Benson, 21 pounds, 2 ounces. 2. Larry Walker, Jared Gobel, 17-12. 3. Warren Edwards, Allan Shannon, 16-5. 4. Rocky Hopkins, Jerry Ray, 15-15 5. Tony Anderson, Scott Patton, 15-14. 6. Jason Mitchell, Sheldon Vinson, 15-6. Congrats and good job to all on a miserably cold day.

Sorry, posted this to TR forum instead of Beaver but might be of interest anyway. Prize money was paid to the top six teams. All teams listed weighed a six-bass limit. 1. Nick Frakes, Andy Benson, 21 pounds, 2 ounces. 2. Larry Walker, Jared Gobel, 17-12. 3. Warren Edwards, Allan Shannon, 16-5. 4. Rocky Hopkins, Jerry Ray, 15-15 5. Tony Anderson, Scott Patton, 15-14. 6. Jason Mitchell, Sheldon Vinson, 15-6. Congrats and good job to all on a miserably cold day.

Nice of you to say, Pour Dennis. Back atcha, pal.

You are right, Fins. Left mine out for a couple of days once to dry out after fishing in an all-day rain and the Nazis had put a note on my door within 48 hours.