Champ188

Nothing to see around Viney. Move along, please,

Best wishes for a great summer, rps. Always enjoy keeping tabs on the upper White by reading your comprehensive reports.

Pretty sure I heard denjac say he thought he could crack 9 pounds after a promising practice last weekend, so I'm going with 9.18.

Couldn't agree more, dblades. Then I'm always coming from the west.

Like Edwin, I am not a fulltime fisherman or guide, but I'm slightly north of age 50, meaning I've been fishing better than 45 years now. I've learned most of what I know the hard way and wouldn't trade a minute of the effort it took to get where I am now. That said, in fishing pro-am tournaments and talking with/observing my back-seat partners, I think the biggest mistake I see is they get too wrapped up in particular lures or techniques and they forget the most important thing --- you gotta know something about the dadgum fish that you're trying to catch! Techniques are important and at times it is downright critical to be throwing the right lure, but the one constant in bass fishing is that no matter what lure you have or how good you are with it, you can't catch squat if you aren't around the fish. Learn their habits, their seasonal patterns, and as much as possible, learn WHY they do what they do. Hot lures and techniques come and go with the wind, but learning the stuff above will serve you a lifetime. And I couldn't agree more with the guys who recommended hiring a guide. Just be sure and hire one who wants to see you learn something and who isn't out there to impress you with how much HE knows. Bill Babler would be a heckuva good choice.

I would suggest keeping a bait in the water that the fish are truly apt to bite under just about any conditions. My picks would be (water 50 deg and up) a watermelon candy or green pumpkin finesse worm on a shaky head and 6-pound line — or in water cooler than 50 deg, a 5/16-ounce finesse jig in PBJ or green pumpkin/purple with a green pumpkin Zoom Lil Critter Craw trailer (yes, use the green pumpkin craw on both color of jigs). There is nothing like getting bit for the ol' confidence level. Plus, those two lures will tell you whether you're around fish or not. There might be other lures that would do a better job of catching bigger fish, but you can experiment after you first locate some fish period. With those two lures, you will locate fish.

Got that right.

Gotcha, Gone Fishing. In your case, it could be very well be worth the investment.

It costs Donna and I around $1500 to fish one of these derbies. That's leaving town early Thursday morning and coming home Sunday. Entry fee, truck gas, boat gas/oil for four days, lodging, meals, tackle, incidentals, etc. With only 30 entries, I'd absolutely have to win the pro side of the pro-am derby on Saturday to get a check for $1500. Same goes for the team derby on Sunday ... only first or second place would produce a break-even check. Gone Fishing, if those guys indeed won $2300 in the last team derby, they had to split that, so each actually won $1150. By the time they subtracted expenses, there couldn't have been much left. Can't speak for others but it just isn't a good investment for us.

One tip on a Fin ... throw it on nothing less than 17-pound line. Nearly any topwater tends to work best on heavy line because the bigger the diameter, the better it floats. I would throw mine on 25 except at some point, you lose casting distance. And with today's smaller-capacity reels, you're limited as to how much big line one will hold. My personal choice is 17-pound P-Line mono. That's my contribution, other than to agree with Bill ... the World of Fin is not so simple but can be one heckuva fun (and profitable) deal if you are willing to put in the time and money it takes to figure things out. Then again, that can be said for any aspect of fishing.

Be sure and holler next time you see us. We slowed our derby fishing down the past year or so but are getting the itch to get serious about it again. Planning to sell or trade the Champ this fall/winter for something new ... not sure what just yet but looking strong at that Nitro Z8. I am 110 percent committed to fishing that BASS Central Open next year on Table Rock, provided they come back, which is pretty much a certainty as long as BPS is presenting sponsor for the Open series.

Donna and I are in. Paid yesterday. Me trying to catch a big bass on Beaver should make for an entertaining day.

Glade to have ya in the hood, Dwayne.

Glad you had an extended stay at the lake. Really enjoyed and appreciate your reports. Sorry it had to end.

Good on you for not telling all about those bedding fish. I think some of us can figure it out.

Great bag indeed, Jason. Nice job.

Alex, your time and money was anything but wasted. Very few guys ever do well in their first big tournament. You learned a LOT more than you might think and when the time comes to do it again, it won't be 100 percent new to you ... the registration, pairings system, morning launch routine, etc. Just being familiar with that kind of stuff makes things a lot easier. Be thankful for your supportive parents, keep your confidence up and give it another run first chance you get. I bet you will do much better in terms of fish caught. Above all, don't give up.

LOL Edwin. OK, you started it with the golf commercials. This one is darn near impossible to find anymore. But it's a classic. http://adland.tv/commercials/nike-golf-tiger-woods-frank-nice-irons-2004-030-usa

OK, I'm good with The Idaho Kid winning the Elite Series last week at Bull Shoals. Seems like a good young man and I'm all for him making a career of fishing. But to my fellow "journalists" -- and I use that term very loosely in this case -- can we please turn off the sunshine pump and bubble machine? That goes especially for the one known as DB, author of the much circulated "An Open Letter to Brandon Palaniuk" on the web, and particularly on Facebook. And yes, I am fully aware that DB is battling cancer. I'm a cancer survivor myself. Again, Palaniuk seems like a great kid. And yes, he sleeps in the bed (with camper shell) of his pickup most of his time on the road. He also bunks with buddies in rented houses at times, as described in a recent Bassmaster magazine article titled Road Warriors. No one seems to have pointed out that he tows a new $60,000 boat around the country with that equally new $40,000 Toyotal 4WD pickup and that in order to do this for a living, he had to shell out $50,000 or more in entry fees before the season began. So we're at $150,000 and haven't pumped the truck full of gas yet to even get out of the driveway, let alone the boat. Nor have we purchased a single piece of fishing gear, and do NOT make the mistake of believing that all tackle is provided by sponsors. The owner of our local tackle shop in Rogers counts this very week -- when the FLW Tour is in town -- as his make-or-break week out of the entire year. I have spent more than 30 years following and writing about this sport. If there is one thing I have learned, it is this ... you don't make it without money. You don't even get started. And more now than ever, sponsors are not providing big-ticket items like boats and trucks for free. So to DB and the rest of the sunshine pumpers, how about telling the whole story next time? Might keep some poor schmuck from up and quitting his job and hitting the tournament trail. Not likely, but it might.

Hang in there, Bill. Just a few more days and the derby swarm will be gone. You are right about dtrs5kprs reports. They are always worth a good read and right on the money. Much appreciated.

The BASS Central Open on Table Rock is this coming week, April 26-28. The BASS Elite Series on Bull Shoals was this week, concluding today.

Numbers are awful. Got to the point Donna and I couldn't afford to fish. Costs us at least $1,200 for a Thurs-Sun trip counting entry fee, truck gas, boat gas and oil, eats (no peanut gallery comments) and a decent place to stay, plus tackle and other incidentals. No more boats than they are drawing these days, we'd have to win to break even. That's not a good gamble in anyone's book.

It's just that time of year, Bill. Gotta lay 4-5 rods out, put your foot on the TM and just go junk fishin. Throw what the moment calls for. Blade, little jig, Fin, shaky head ... you know the deal. Everyone is up shallow gettin freaky. Not a good guiding scenario, I know. They'll be done soon and start schooling up back out there where you like em.

Those bedding fish have to be seriously flaky for Robbie Dodson not to be high on the leaderboard. Seen him catch some ungawdly sacks this time of year on TR. Nobody always catches em anywhere but I would have bet a fair chunk of money that he'd have made both cuts to fish the last day.

I don't like fish being taken from their nests either. Hate it. But the bottom line is that these guys are fishing for their mortgage payments, electric bill and grocery funds so you can't very well blame them for catching a fish any legal way they can. As long as state agencies and tournaments allow sight fishing, our fish are gonna get plucked off their nests.