Catchabiggen

I fished the Aunts Creek derby and skunked out. Had a few keepers on thursday in Little Indian on the stick and a few more on friday out of the lower James on a spinnerbait. Some of that water in lower James looked as nasty as I've ever seen it. Saturday I ran up the Kings past Jackie Hollow and worked my way back. Its was so crowded up there I couldn't hardly find a place to fish and when I finally did I had a pontoon boat full of senior citizens pull in about 50ft in front of me and drop lines. I couldn't believe it. I came back down and couldn't get anything going in the way back either. All weekend we threw jigs, rogues, pointers, rebels, wiggle warts, spinnerbaits, and grubs on about 25 different spots and went through several shorts but no keepers. Whats up with the chunks of moss floating up from the bottom? The lake looks like it is turning over in some parts - ?

Might check out the Cabela's "E-Glass" fiberglass rods. VanDam used these before BPS put out his own model, or at least that's what I gathered from reading his books. They are only about $20 and used to be "buy one get one 1/2 off" too - 2 for $30. Looks decent for cranking but I don't know how heavy they are and how fatigue may come into play. for $30 it's worth trying a couple though.

Good storage tips. I usually don't use line that's more than about a year old and especially fluorocarbon. I've had some real issues with about every type of fluorocarbon that I've used and now I use it strictly for a few leaders only. Seems to get brittle and break on me, especially in colder water. Any advice is appreciated on that. This may help somebody - I used some "Ande" line in Florida a few years ago and it was the best mono I'd ever used. Fished 20lb test for 3 days on a spinning reel and really abused it fishing tules, dock pilings, and wood on St. Johns, Lake George and Rodman Res. The line stayed relaxed the whole time (no coils ever) and was very very tough. Since then I have used it on everything - never had a fish break me off in 3 years, and you can get a big 2500yd spool of the saltwater mono for only $25.00 through Cabela's (it's lime green in color though). Later on this week I am trying their new clear freshwater line at T-Rock which cost a little more - 1250yards/$25.00. I hope I'm still blessed with the same results because (knock on wood) this has been great mono at a bargain price for me. I'll report back on it in a week.

The bass already ate them all and were still hungry lol

I didn't hear of any meanies last year. Those brownies seem to be doing outstanding. I remember tons coming in back in '08 after the flood and I saw a monster brownie chasing shad in the shallows across from the dam last fall. Naturally, I got hung up in a bush that was about a foot below the surface. Should have been throwing the spook anyway. That meannie in my right hand there came out of basin hollow so they must be spreadin pretty good throughout the lake. >~)))>

Been a while since we've had a new record meanmouth hasn't it?

Yeah, fun bite to fish. When the water gets really dirty some of the guys probably think i'm out there muskie fishing with the blades I throw. I stick with the channel swings, points and any flat gravel I can possibly find. 1/2oz w/white or chartreuse skirt, copper and brass blades... and hang on!!!

1) a chrome Spook because I won't spend the extra for a gunfish. 2) Live Pointer 80D2R in Bleeding Shad in calm water and a black / chrome Rogue worked pretty violently in choppy water (when it warms up into the 50's). 3) Eakins Jig in Hot PBJ, or Punkin/Green flk with a Luck "E" Strike Bass Magic Fighting Craw Trailer (check these out!) I use to not spend that much for a jerkbait but I found a live pointer on sale at Cabela's last spring and then caught my biggest bass on it the next weekend. I took the winnings back to Cabela's and bought 10 more after that. I plan on giving those a pretty good workout over the next couple of weeks. >~))))>

What do you guys make of this? http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/news/story?id=4975762

Late March and early April have been the best for me in the past for the biggens but I've caught some big late spawners up shallow in May too. My preference though would be to fish a jerkbait in water that's about 51-54 degrees - even if I have to run to the other end of the lake to find it. Just add a little wind and some cedars and you'll catchabiggen =)

Looks like it has chartreuse sides with a purpleish back. I guess it depends on the brand. Strange you brought that up. I could swear I bought some Pointers in table rock shad last year that were white side / black back.

Under normal conditions for any given season I'd feel confident with these: 1) Mix of finesse and FB jigs in 5/16-3/4oz - punkin/grn fleck w/zoom lil critter craw trailers in same color 2) Lucky Craft live pointer in bloody ghost minnow for less choppy water and Rogues in blk/silver/orange for more choppy water 3) a few Wiggle Warts in a variety of colors 4) 1/2oz Spinnerbaits w/clear skirt, painted red head, single #4 silver willow blade 5) 5/16oz drop shot rigs w/ a couple bags of 4" finesse worms in shades of green, brown, and purple.

2 of us fished below Baptist on Wednesday for about 5 hours and could not figure out the bite. We saw some feeding fish including a rainbow probably in the 24" range with 2 others about 20". They kept feeding on something on the surface but i could not figure out what it was. I had 1 follow an elk hair caddis out but didn't take. Then it felt like a front had just blown in and they completely shut off. I threw my whole box at them and they would not take. We found a brown about 5lbs but couldn't get it to take either. Tough day out there. There was a group of 4 vehicle up around Tan Vat with 1 from MN. I bet they were there for at least a few days and were working it over pretty good. The river is in good shape.

You didn't miss much. It was the ultimate junk fishing contest. I went as a back seater and for 2 days, about 16lbs won it and I think fish were caught on about everything and every type of place you could imagine. (I don't recall the exact weight but it was in that ballpark). If you wanted to fish deep the schools of fish on the main lake would be here today, gone tomorrow. The creek channel fish didn't seem to move as much as the main lake fish but you couldn't hardly get a keeper bite out of them. Out of 76 anglers NO limits were weighed either day. My day 1 boater won it today and only had 3 fish per day (Bobbi Carlton from Team Concepts out of KC). Nothing caught over 4lbs on day 1 under the bluebird skies. Had good cloud cover today with a light rain in the afternoon. Today a 5.06 LM was weighed in. Congrats to Bobbi. It was a tough one. Exciting trip nevertheless. Broke 2 rods, broke a good fish off on saturday, traveling partner blew a trailer tire on the way home, got pelted with 1/2" hail on thursday... and on and on. Could've been worse - my day 2 boater had his non boater stick a 3/4oz football jig in his cheek when he was making a cast. Ouch!!

I had a couple of the small Curado's before the change (100B's?) and had to have them rebuilt every year. I used them mainly for cranking, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits and they got a good workout. It was always the bearings though and Shimano doesn't warranty bearings. I'm done with them. Switched to another well known brand and had 2 reels with bad bearings right out of the box, and another one completely locked up fishing a jerkbait and when I opened it up a bunch of parts fell out. I bought those from Cabela's and was very satisfied with how they handled the situation. I'm Trying Daiwa now and only spending about $60 per reel which means I can afford a few backups. That's not much more than what it cost to rebuild a curado and these are working great so far.