Homer Sloan

[Bill Babler]

The Homer Sloan Tourny out of Shell Knob had 58 boats and I will tell you, I don't think it could have been any harder. Like SK had said the other day the bite around the Knob is pretty tough.

Top 3 Places were

Buster Loving and Bob Tindle 16 pounds

Fann Brothers 15pounds

Babler and Beck 13 pounds

Buster and Bob caught and released 3 limits of keepers, from a spot about as big as your living room, and fished that hole the entire day. The fish would just turn on and off, come and go.

Fann's, just good fisherman saw them on some bluffs and then deep flats

Beck and I caught our fish one at a time from 6 different trees. We only had 6 keepers and 9 fish the entire day. Our fish were 32 over 70. Buster caught his on a jig 35 ft on the bottom.

We started on the FB and just wore it out with nothing.

Great time at Shell Knob.

[Don House]

Bill, congrads on your 3rd place.. Those are some big sticks in the top three!!!

Good Fishing Everyone

Capt. D

[Crappie5]

Bill, we also fished the Homer Sloan tournament Sat. It was good to fish against you and Beck my partner and I consider you guys to be some of the very best on the Rock. I wanted to introduce my self at the dinner and got side tracked. We only beat our selves all day. We weighed in two K'S at a total of 4.81. We lost enough fish to have our limit. 20 minutes before weigh in my partner lost a solid 5lb fish. We fished the biggest part of the day around the Baxter area hitting all brush piles and could not catch anything but real small fish. We ended up dragging a football jig in 30' of water to start catching larger fish. We caught approx. 20 fish draggging a jig. Just before weigh in we caught our keepers in the Knob area at the end of boat docks in 32' of water and they were both right on the bottom on football jigs.

In the end we still had a great time.

[Bill Babler]

Crappie5, Thanks for the kudo's. Wish you would have came over and said howdy.

In all rights, you should have won the durn thing, as you all had more bites than the entire bunch of us.

We only had a dozen bites and Buster only had about 20 bites. We wore the paint off the FB and could't get bit. Had a couple of bites on a rig, but most all our fish were suspended.

Don't know how you lost your fish, but if they were jumping you off on the FB, that is quite undertandable. They will do that alot. One great tip is to put up prussure on the fish, instead of lowering your rod to keep him from jumping.

When you lower your rod tip into the water in creates horizonal prussure on the fish and I believe it makes him come up. By putting up prussure in forces him to pull away and lets your rod keep even prussure on the fish. IF he does jump, continue to put huge prussure on him. I will sometimes pull him 10ft. thru the air and hop him right into the net. If fishing a dropshot and the fish skyrockets keep winding and catchen up with him and when he comes out pull him right into the boat. I do this everyday.

We vary seldom loose fish unless we are careless. As Buster said," When you stick one on a FB, wind as fast as you can until he is in the net". "Play him, if you want to lose him".

We are all using 10 to 15 lb. Floro, and for the most part, these 3 to 5 pounders, just can't break that no matter what they do. Maybe a big smallie with a quick last minute dive at the boat, but a largemouth or a K is pretty much helpless against that line, if you are using a 7 ft. rod and your drag is set properly.

Catching and holding fish is not 1 big thing, but a multitude of small minor tweaks that are very simple if you do em all.

A short heavy rod is just a clear bad plan. It has fair hook setting ability, but it cannot keep the constant, EVEN PRUSSURE that the 7 to 7.6 ft. rods, will do for you in almost every situation.

I also remember, it was not to many years ago that we took a pipe wrench and cranked our drags down to beyond tight, so they would not slip on the hook-set. Not necessary today. My drag, will slip a tad on every set, but the hook, is so sharp right out of the plastic wrap, it dosen't matter.

I can remember when we used to hone all our hooks. Now if you put a hone on these chemmically sharpend hooked you will do more damage than good.

Unless you have bent the point, or damaged it. Most times now you just throw it away and tie on a new jig.

Sorry you dropped those, it can really be frustrating. You however, had a much better day of fishing than either BB and I or Buster and Bob had. It's great fun to have that many bites on the rock.

Good fishing in the future and next time come and say Hey

[Crappie5]

Bill, thanks for the advice. I believe all the fish we lost were on the football jig and most we lost came up and threw the jig. I once trimmed all the weed guard off and felt like it helped. It just seemed like we could not get a good hook set. One thing I did not mention was the wind and we dealt with a lot of boats/jet ski activity. seemed like everytime you got a good bite you were dealing with the boat moving all over the place. The 5lb fish my partner lost was tough, when he set the hook hew fell back because of wake from a huge boat that just went by us. The fish came up 20' from the net and simply came off. Do you drag a jig much at all? Does braided line possibly help when dragging 30 water as far as hook set. I guess we did not break any off. Anyway all advice from you Pro's is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Bill Babler]

C5, Shell Knob is marketed as the quiet side of the lake Maybe 15 years ago. Since the invention of the jet ski and the 36 ft. Cobalt times have changed. Skinnest water on the lake and lots of good timers.

Boating activity on Saturday was tremendious. I can see how you had a hard time. It was just tough to stand while fishing the main lake from the Knob to the C-point.

Yes in cap's I am a jig dragger and bouncer and shaker. Have not tried the braid, I just flat hate that stuff. Nothing but problems for me as it is impossible to tie, cut or work with.

One thing that seems to help is an extreme high speed reel when fishing a jig. Most people don't see this as the bait is a slow mover. Reason, on the strike the line pick-up is better and allows you to take slack out fast before the set.

Best reason is you can keep up with the fish no matter how many crazy dido's he tries to preform.

When that fish comes out of the water, I am completely tight on him and reeling and pulling like a man possessed. The high speed reel allows me to really keep up with him.

The 7 ft. plus rods pick up slack and also work better than the heaver shorter rods for the same reason fly fisherman use 9 and 10 ft. rods, to set the hook and keep the slack under control.

I don't fish the jig rod in a high position. I usually fish it no higher than a 45 at the most. I don't pull the jig and then reel out the slack. I keep the slack out at all times. When I feel the tug or the tip gets heavy I don't drop the rod wind in the excess slack and hammer the fish, I set from the position the rod is in. The hook set is more of a lift as I want the rod to load rather than snap back and then spring forward. On the lift I am reeling as fast as I can to keep the rod loaded and the tip bent with all the prussure that I can.

Not an expert, but it seems to be working. Buster is an expert and I have fished hours with him and the FB. His set is almost rig like as a lift or drag, rather than a jerk.

Don't know how old you are, but I was taught to cross his eyes. With the equipment we have today, the eye cross just does not work as well as the lift and reel. Guess an old dog can learn a new trick or two.

Good Luck

[Whodat]

Well I am glad somebody caught some good fish.Pope and I was boat 41 out of Campbell Pt. and found people on the first two spots we went to. I did start catching fish on a c-rig in about the water you all is talking about 30-40. Would catch 4-5 then nothing. The boat that was on the swim area I don't think moved allday.Been there and done that in the past with lots of fish coming and going as Bill mentioned in just a small area. Still was a good time,good people and good food!

[lakebumb]

What kind of jig setup are you guys using. I can't seem to beg a fish dragging a jig.

When you talk about dragging a jig are you dragging it with the trolling motor or just moving it slow after a cast?

I really don't understand the whole jig dragging thing.

Thanks

LB

[captmac]

I fished the Homer Sloan also drop shot up around the Baxter area caught a lot of very short fish and only two keepers, o well another day on the Rock.

A plus however my partner saved my life, at the dinner no less, I choked on the steak and he had to hug me a bit to dislodge it. I suppose I will have to fish with him again.

[lakebumb]

Captmac,

You know you have a good partner when you have spent the whole day in a boat fishing with the guy and at the end of the day he still wants to save your life.