Bass Central Open Thoughts?

[Quillback]

One last thought from me, sometimes people forget that it doesn't hurt to be a little stealthy.  Had a boat come full speed into Viney, guy cuts the engine while still on plane, runs to the front and drops the troller in, I mean DROPS it.  This is about 50 feet down the bank from me which I thought was a bit discourteous, but I had already worked that piece of bank over.  Anyway the giant 2 foot rollers crash into the bank, and the guy makes 4 or 5 casts with a crank right on the bank, pulls the troller and U-turns out at practically full throttle.  Back seater didn't even get out of the passenger seat.

[merc1997 Bo]

1 hour ago, Bill Babler said:

Seth, both you and Quill were spot on.  I was pre-fishing a BFL guy last week out of his boat and I just literally kicked his tail throwing out the deep or back side of the boat.  I just kept telling him, I'm not doing you any good when you see me throwing out the back side of the boat and catching them out there.  You are positively wasting your money on me.

  I fished him two days and he weighed in 2 keepers in the BFL.  At times we were in under 4' of water, fishing the dam area.  One day I had 9 keepers fishing the back side of the boat and he had zero.  Still just could not force himself to get off the bank.

bill that is the difference is being a fisherman or a fish catcher.  fish catchers are the ones that can go anywhere and put them in the boat.  there are places on table rock that you can catch them in nothing at the right time of the year and in the right area of the lake, but those opportunities are far apart.  right now there are a few places on the lake to catch them up in nothing, and here champ is working and missing out.

it will be interesting to see how things go today.

bo

[Bill Babler]

Kenny, very astute comments about Long Creek.  A few years ago during I'm thinking a high water period I believe a FLW was won on a jig up there fishing a 100 Yrd. stretch of bank in front of Delmonico's.  Might have been an Elite, I cannot remember now.

At high water Long Creek fishes much bigger.  With what is up there now, it fishes extremely small in comparison   You can bet Long Creek and Brushy spanked some bottoms up there yesterday.  Probably the reason so few ventured that way today.

I would suspect that is fishing much better today

To Quills point, running and gunning is very common in these types of derbies,  Trouble is, it is probably to fast.  The guy that rammed Quill could have guessed he had just fished that location, or just got that feeling that we all have gotten.  I don't know how many times and I bet we can all agree to this that I have pulled up on a very good location, and just felt it was not right.  I don't care how many fish I have caught there in the past, today just does not feel right.

The other option of course is stupidity.

[balsabee]

50 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

A few years ago during I'm thinking a high water period I believe a FLW was won on a jig up there fishing a 100 Yrd. stretch of bank in front of Delmonico's.  Might have been an Elite, I cannot remember now.

 

Brent Long FLW March 29, 2012

Flipping a Black/Blue Jig in high dirty water up Long Creek

[Champ188]

2 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

I was pre-fishing a BFL guy last week out of his boat and I just literally kicked his tail throwing out the deep or back side of the boat.  I just kept telling him, I'm not doing you any good when you see me throwing out the back side of the boat and catching them out there.  You are positively wasting your money on me.

A lifetime of being around these derbies (whether I wanted to be or not) has proven time and again that open-style events attract a good amount of guys with far more money/time than brains. Some can't learn because they already know it all. Others can't quit fishing the history book even though the particular chapter they are stuck on was written at a far different time and place. And still others are ... well, just plain old stupid.

[Champ188]

And before this turns into yet another shallow-fishing bashfest, I have a couple of things to say.

One is that there are pretty much always some fish shallow. Yes, even on the White River lakes. My wonderful dad introduced me to fishing and I love him beyond words for it, but my biggest influence in learning the finer points of bass fishing is a guy with three world championship rings (two Bassmasters Classics and a Forrest Wood Cup). He also happened to be best man in mine and Donna's wedding nearly 23 years ago. This guy couldn't feed his family a decent meal with ALL the fish he's caught deeper than 15 feet in his life.

Where people err badly is when they group every shallow water fisherman they come across into a single group of unintelligent bank beaters. Yeah, there are a lot of those out there. Believe me, I see them all the time. Usually catching nothing and just messing up good water.

A good shallow water angler has to be a lot of things --- perhaps the most important on big highlands reservoirs being able to read the water and recognize where fish are gonna be holding. You need shade and/or wind, along with forage and cover. And more times than not these days, cover doesn't come in the form of wood. Our lakes are aging and the wood is getting sparse. Moreover, what's left gets beat to death.

There's so, So, SO much more to shallow fishing than just the little bit I've mentioned here. Just don't automatically assume that every guy you see fishing skinny water is a shallow-minded bank beater.

[abkeenan]

23 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

And before this turns into yet another shallow-fishing bashfest, I have a couple of things to say.

One is that there are pretty much always some fish shallow. Yes, even on the White River lakes. My wonderful dad introduced me to fishing and I love him beyond words for it, but my biggest influence in learning the finer points of bass fishing is a guy with three world championship rings (two Bassmasters Classics and a Forrest Wood Cup). He also happened to be best man in mine and Donna's wedding nearly 23 years ago. This guy couldn't feed his family a decent meal with ALL the fish he's caught deeper than 15 feet in his life.

Where people err badly is when they group every shallow water fisherman they come across into a single group of unintelligent bank beaters. Yeah, there are a lot of those out there. Believe me, I see them all the time. Usually catching nothing and just messing up good water.

A good shallow water angler has to be a lot of things --- perhaps the most important on big highlands reservoirs being able to read the water and recognize where fish are gonna be holding. You need shade and/or wind, along with forage and cover. And more times than not these days, cover doesn't come in the form of wood. Our lakes are aging and the wood is getting sparse. Moreover, what's left gets beat to death.

There's so, So, SO much more to shallow fishing than just the little bit I've mentioned here. Just don't automatically assume that every guy you see fishing skinny water is a shallow-minded bank beater.

 

Two Caddyshack quotes/posts in one day! Must be nearing golf season!

[merc1997 Bo]

1 hour ago, Champ188 said:

And before this turns into yet another shallow-fishing bashfest, I have a couple of things to say.

One is that there are pretty much always some fish shallow. Yes, even on the White River lakes. My wonderful dad introduced me to fishing and I love him beyond words for it, but my biggest influence in learning the finer points of bass fishing is a guy with three world championship rings (two Bassmasters Classics and a Forrest Wood Cup). He also happened to be best man in mine and Donna's wedding nearly 23 years ago. This guy couldn't feed his family a decent meal with ALL the fish he's caught deeper than 15 feet in his life.

Where people err badly is when they group every shallow water fisherman they come across into a single group of unintelligent bank beaters. Yeah, there are a lot of those out there. Believe me, I see them all the time. Usually catching nothing and just messing up good water.

A good shallow water angler has to be a lot of things --- perhaps the most important on big highlands reservoirs being able to read the water and recognize where fish are gonna be holding. You need shade and/or wind, along with forage and cover. And more times than not these days, cover doesn't come in the form of wood. Our lakes are aging and the wood is getting sparse. Moreover, what's left gets beat to death.

There's so, So, SO much more to shallow fishing than just the little bit I've mentioned here. Just don't automatically assume that every guy you see fishing skinny water is a shallow-minded bank beater.

yep champ,  catching bass anywhere in the lake is much more mental than anything.  there is much more to it than chunking and winding.

bo

[Hog Wally]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

One last thought from me, sometimes people forget that it doesn't hurt to be a little stealthy.  Had a boat come full speed into Viney, guy cuts the engine while still on plane, runs to the front and drops the troller in, I mean DROPS it.  This is about 50 feet down the bank from me which I thought was a bit discourteous, but I had already worked that piece of bank over.  Anyway the giant 2 foot rollers crash into the bank, and the guy makes 4 or 5 casts with a crank right on the bank, pulls the troller and U-turns out at practically full throttle.  Back seater didn't even get out of the passenger seat.

Sounds like me on the river. Lol. 

[mixermarkb]

Ok, this is admittedly gonna sound cocky, but what the heck are those guys that are pre-fishing and still not catching 5 bass on the tourney day out there doing? I normally only get one day to figure something out. A few times a year I might be able to string together 2 or 3 days on the water, but by a few hours in on a normal day I've gotten a bite or two and start to put together some sort of idea that is driving the rest of my fishing.

Are those guys just stubbornly doing the same thing, not getting any bites pre-fishing and not getting any bites in the T? Or is it nerves causing them to abandon whatever meager pattern they've put together thinking that "a limit of keepers won't cut it, I've got to find a big bite". I won't claim to be able to do it on a grass lake in Florida or on Lake Erie, but I'm pretty confident given two days to figure something out on any of the Ozarks lakes, that I can bring 5 to the scale in a day. I'm under no delusions that it's gonna be the right 5 to compete against some of the sticks out there, or even on this forum, but I can pretty consistently catch 5 keepers. 

What gives? What am I missing?