Tfsh4bass

Point made..it is your guys forum and you are all buddies. I knew if I said anything against one of Bill's comments it would go down this road. I will just lurk like I always used to instead of posting. Also, concerning my pics you might reread where I posted the pics and you will see I posted those after quoting dtrs5kprs...nothing to do with you and I don't care if you fished up there or not.

Does this bring back some memories?

Nothing personal Bill and not sure why you had to make it that but I figured it was coming. I know guiding is a completely different animal and I am friends with several. I am just not much on black and white comments when there are several ways to do things. Again I know guiding is different but I am obviously not a good enough fisherman to be a guide.

I wouldn't say trouble and I just want what is best for the fishery where we have the best lake we can. I just look at Bull Shoals as an example...the high water the last few years let that lake have great spawns and it limited the site fishing as well. That lake is the best it has been in years and I had some early spring trips that were unbelievable. Also, you see a ton of small bass swimming around which are the hatches from the last couple of years which tells me that lake is really going to explode the next 4-5 years.

Bill I really enjoy reading your post, and thank you for the forum, but I disagree that everyone has to "move out" to catch bass especially in June. I had a solid bag yesterday throwing a swimbait on flat points with timber and my boat was never deeper than 16ft...mixed bag of blacks, smallmouth and spots. When I can't get bites anymore I will just move up the rivers and continue to fish shallow with square bills, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits...some of us like to fish shallow while others like to move out BUT there are fish to be caught both ways.

I have fished from Mill to the Dam 5 times the last 7 days and there are plenty of fish up shallow on main lake points and even creek secondary points. Now it is has been mixed which type of points they wanted and yesterday it was flat with timber...last couple of trips it was gravel/chunk transition types. I have been catching them on a swimbait but I am sure they will hit grubs, small cranks, senko, flukes, split shot, etc. I have been keeping the boat in 14-16ft and just fishing inside/outside then moving on.

We only caught yellow perch in Pelican I agree MN is a different animal but just look at their DNR website and you will see how important their fishing resources are to them...Texas is very similar. Also, MN gives out a limited number of tournament permits each year per lake which I think is another good idea. Just an example of 1 lake break down http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=48000200 I have never been impressed with our conservation department and I think our lakes are good in spite of them not because of them. No offense to any conservation department member and I realize you work with the funding provided...I have just never thought we have done enough in our state to promote/improve fishing.

Minnetonka had something like that...they had signs on the bank and a couple out in the water at the entrances of some bays that said something about being a restricted area from June 1-30 for the bass spawn

There will always be pros and cons to everything but after going to Minnesota every year the last 5 years it is easy to see they have it figured out up there. Smallmouth are catch-n-release statewide from Sept-Feb (some lakes have special regulations where they are catch-n-release year around)...Largemouth are catch-n-release from Feb 28th to May 28th every year. Also, it isn't about fishing small waters because I fished Minnetonka, Mille Lacs, Pelican, etc. that are all good sized lakes. They have catch-n-release for long periods of time for bass and even special regulations on Walleye (Mille Lacs has a slot where you have to release all Walleye 18"-28")...BUT still have resorts all over the lakes and boats everywhere when I fished up there. All you have to do is go up to Mille Lacs one time and catch 100 3-6lb smallmouth in a day to figure out it isn't a bad thing. Also, I would add the 16-24 slot doesn't seem to hurt Texas fishing...guides, tournaments, resorts, etc.

WAY up the White on a mop jig in around 8ft of water

I am saying making it catch-n-release only on bass for those 4 weeks...similar to what Minnesota does in some areas. Everyone can fish like normal just release bass as soon as you catch them.

My issue is more with boat traffic not the time of year because I love fishing in June. I caught 17 keepers in 2 days with 7 over 3lbs and that was good for zero checks...3.5 or less got 12 checks out of 70. It was borderline dangerous running around out there especially running back and forth to one weigh-in location which is why early April would be better plus there won't be any site fishing then.

Grand is just a great lake and I wish I took the time to fish it more. Speaking of off-topic big tournament weights check out the Bass Champs tournament results from Feb 20th 2010...5 that weighed 25lbs was good enough for 47th place plus they had 4 bags over 40lbs. http://www.basschamps.com/basschamps/results.cfm?tournament_id=96&type=team&yearSelected=2010

I will always complain (and many others do)about any tournaments during the spawn and I wish the state of Missouri had a no tournament rule from 2nd week of April until the 2nd week of May...which would cover things most years. Catch-n-release only during those times would make our lakes even better IMO and I consider myself a good site fisherman. BUT you are right there will be plenty of tournaments site fishing and I will fish the KVD regardless of when it is.

Thanks for coming here and I really enjoyed the event. I have a couple of suggestions... 1 - Come early April because there are usually bedding fish the last part of April depending on the year and having 300+ guys yanking bedding fish isn't a good thing IMO 2 - Put a digital clock up right before the waiting tanks and if you don't cross the line past it you can't weigh your fish for that hour. I heard some grumbling at weigh-in because some fish got weighed after the hour and one guy told me he got bumped out of the top 5 with a fish that was weighed 7 minutes after the hour. Having a defined line with clock that you must be past with fish in bag will eliminate any doubt. Again I had a great time and looking forward to next year.

Honestly, I don't worry about it this time of year because low to mid 80's water shouldn't be a problem for bass. For the KVD thing I had 3 in the well all day both days culling with all fish fine just doing recirculate and some Rejuvenade. I imagine the difference is more about deep fish vs mine that came out of 5-8ft water.

I have had luck with Rejuvenade and running my recirculate all day. I usually fill my livewell first thing in the morning because the surface temp is the coolest it will be...I add Rejuvenade at that time and then add a little more when I put fish in there. I have never weighed a dead fish with that combo but I also don't fish deep.

I was fishing a point across from point 7 today and turned around and counted 27 pleasure/ski boats in my line of sight...freakin nuts. After that mess today I have decided tomorrow I will fish back in creeks all day and see what happens...just fishing for 1 bite and figured I can do it just as easy back there. Good luck in the AIA and be careful!!!

A little surprised at the weights today but I know I had a tough time catching good ones. Still with 255 fisherman I was pretty shocked there were only 2 over 5lbs weighed in. I caught 11 keepers today but 3lb 4oz was my biggest and that wasn't worth anything today...would have been close in the 10am hour but I was up at Campbell Point at that time and didn't have a clue if it would have been worth my time to drive to weigh in. Caught fish all day but man I hate being on TRock on the weekends in the June-Aug...there are so many more big boats than there used to be and it was brutal running from Kimberling City to the Big Cedar area. If you guys ever come back please do March or April

I took a guy from Minnesota fishing last August and I was catching them up the river pretty good on shallow cranks and he didn't really have any. I offered him one of mine and he asked what I thought about throwing a smaller husky jerk. I was like well it might work they are hitting shad up shallow...he ended up catching 7 with 2 of them being good 3lb blacks which made him very excited. Most fish hit him right up on the bank on his first twitch. I fish with them from Oct-June just about every year but I never would have thrown one in August that is for sure. On your topic it is easy for me but a little bit of a gray area as well because there are many variables...BUT there isn't a day I go fishing where I don't have a spinnerbait and a crankbait tied on. Spinnerbaits range from 1/2oz to 1oz and from 3/3.5 blade combo to 4/7 blade combo. Cranks range from shallow to DD22 types. I usually throw blade on 7' MH Diawa LT rod with 17lb line and I crank on a 7' M LT Crank rod with anywhere from 8lb to 20lb line. I am a cover water type of guy and those two are always on deck. So far this year I haven't thrown any type of soft plastic or jig but I am sure I will have to shortly...or I will just run up one of the rivers :-)

If the water is in the bushes there will be fish up shallow on Table Rock even in the clear water...doesn't matter the time of year IMO. Also, it is post-spawn and they are feeding up pretty good right now and there is a ton of bait up shallow. I fished yesterday up around the dam and with a very light wind and mostly high skies I caught 22 bass with 13 keepers ranging from 2.5-4lbs in 5hrs of fishing...never had the boat deeper than 16ft and caught a majority of my fish in less than 5ft on topwaters and spinnerbaits. I will admit though I am stubborn and always fish shallow whether I get 5 bites or 35 bites. I just took 1 pic yesterday because all I had was my stupid cell phone.

Low 6lber on a spook or big crank...anywhere on the lake wouldn't surprise me One thing I will add is I bet it takes around a 4lber to get a check each hour especially if they get their 500...probably even with 300

Not sure I understand your statement because culling at 5 doesn't matter if one person on the team caught all 5 fish in the livewell...still breaks your rule

SOLD!

How does that work with your rule about having 3 fish in the livewell per competitor?