here we go again

[zooker]

went fishin to day at tillery-not my favorite lake- was raining off and on some times heavly. air temp was 53 at 7 am water temp at 8:30 am was a balmy 49 degrees lots of thick fog.fished hard with a spinner bait-daves-.switched to a jerk bait and started catching fish.ok so the first 2 were shorts.my partner snaggs a short in the back fins with a jerkbait-his second-my 3-4 were keeper sized fish. the 5th one was something of a suprise snagged a bass round 3-4 pounds in the top of the tail. fought like a 8 pound flat head. my partner caught big slab crappie on his jerk bait -tossed him in the live well- and a white perch.. the lake was semi clear but loaded with trash-logs, canoes,wood park benchs,and assorted nasty floating crap- met bassnman and others while headed in.. i have to work next weekend so i can't prefish then..

zooker

[JB]

Whats the average water temp these days on your fav lakes zook?

Has it been in the upper 40s very long? Won't be long till its 52 or so and then
some happiness should be 'happining eh?

[zooker]

jb it has not dropped below 40 yet this winter we should be starting the warm up. but i have the feelin that we are going to eat it hard in late febuary.with a sudden and very nasty winter. to be honset the bass seem to still be on the fall pattern and locations.. nomally we are at our coldest right now, not reaching 55-60 every day. we have only seen 1 day of sub 20 air temps.was 70 2 days before that. this has been weird weather even for nc...

zooker

[Fishie]

Hey Zook I feel that coming too. Went out today and got 11 on dropshotting mainly small worms around docks biggest was about 2lber though but this was the little fish lake. Last saturday on this lake I zeroed so at least things are improving. If I get a couple of warm days and a cloudy day to fish it seems like I can make it happen. If the weather continues for another week or so some magic might take place...( not that kind mind you)

[1FASTLASER]

BEWARE OF MOTHER NATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got a feeling ole mother nature is gonna do just like the zookster has forecatsed. She is gonna rear her ugly head and give us hell in February. She ALWAYS does here in ArkieSlaw.

[bassnman30]

Zook, The weather on Thur. was worse than yest. on Tillery. Had to fish around Cook's for a couple hours. About 12:00 it cleared up and we were able to catch some descent keepers. (I had 4, up to appx. 3 lbs). Would have limited out if I was by myself. Partner caught 2 small keepers. Loads of shorts.

[lovinfishin9]

Fishie, Where do you live??

[Fishie]

Mo...........

[WTL]

Yep. I keep hoping that what we are seeing is the beginning of spring - it was 70 at 10 at night yesterday - but in reality I know we are gonna get at least 1 good hard cold snap before the end of feb.

[1FASTLASER]

Hey fishie where at in Mo. I lived all over that state and am 99.9% sure gonna make the move back up there in mid summer. Maybe the others from Mo and anyone else that can get together for a tourney on a centrally located lake.

[1FASTLASER]

Well if yesterday was any inclenation of what ole mother nature has instore for us WATCH out. Rained all day Sunday (talk about a major BIT#$ at work) and was still raining when I hooked the bass missile up yesterday morning. Still caught seven with some very short uninterested strikers and 43 degree water temps. Down 4 degrees from last Monday. Hopefullt tommorrow will be better as far as the time on the water to bite ratio.

[bassnman30]

Zook, The water temp at Tillery on the 28th was still about 46, the same as it has been for weeks. The fish are shallow and willing to bite.
Thats "if" you know the right spots.
Don't ask, cause you'll get no info from your's truly !

[bassintom]

everbody posting that they are catching fish..nobody says what they're using..why bother posting it then?when i give a report i usually mention what i was using and how i was fishing it and other pertinent info.if it's going to be kept secret then i will also stop posting that info..is this board not for sharing anymore?
and not to be rude but why is saltwater fishing being posted on tips & techniques....???????maybe nobody else cares,but i do believe this is a bass fishing board....or has that changed?

[Fishie]

I been catching them dropshotting worms on creek channels.

[bassintom]

sorry but that don't tell me a thing...thanks anyway.

[zooker]

first of all tom i have to fish AGAINST bassnman next weekend. and i know him well enough that he don't tell NO ONE what he is using. and to be honest why should my self or you hold these young hands baiting there hooks for them.. nah almost all of them need to learn some things on there own..you, me,reb,lizard,flfireman,and a dozen others all have paid the dues. we all spend more time than is healthy fishing. i am all for getting out and fishing every possible mintue i can.what i mean is these young guys need to stop yakin on the puter and start chunking baits..

zooker

[bassintom]

i kind of agree with you on that zook...but..what worked today will not work tomorrow(most of the time)especially this time of year.i know that guys from my club have been of here lurking,but you know i really don't mind telling what i've had success with.
i don't think giving out information can hurt.ok,so give water temp,rig used,air temp,bait used..so what..when it comes down to it,TECHNIQUE is the biggest factor.
there have been many times during a club t,where i had a good limit and have actually given a competitor/friend my spot the bait and told them how to fish it and i still kicked their butt.
it didn't kill me...in fact it makes me a better person to help others when i can.
i refuse to be the "keeper of secrets"....except for the grubbin zook.and i have given many of these away,,,i'm still here catching fish and winning.

[Basspro wannabe]

Originally Posted by bassintom

i kind of agree with you on that zook...but..what worked today will not work tomorrow(most of the time)especially this time of year.i know that guys from my club have been of here lurking,but you know i really don't mind telling what i've had success with.
i don't think giving out information can hurt.ok,so give water temp,rig used,air temp,bait used..so what..when it comes down to it,TECHNIQUE is the biggest factor.
there have been many times during a club t,where i had a good limit and have actually given a competitor/friend my spot the bait and told them how to fish it and i still kicked their butt.
it didn't kill me...in fact it makes me a better person to help others when i can.
i refuse to be the "keeper of secrets"....except for the grubbin zook.and i have given many of these away,,,i'm still here catching fish and winning.

Ok lets just spit out our secret lures, Zooker's up first

[JB]

I tend to agree, you can explain an explain techniques , but till you get some hands on experince on the water, some of it won't sink in till you get to do it yourself(trail and error).
And... I know most competitve anglers don't want to let out all they know about when , where, and how they caught, most talk in generalaites when sharing info....thats what makes it so sweet when you have a edge on catching them, why let everyone know what is happening when they fail to try for themselves the "learning curve" of bass fishing.
Its always about adjustments on the water. As I have stated many times, you can prefish a body of water to death, and the actual day of the tournament seemingly nothing has changed weather wise , but for some reason the fish aren't where they were all week OR not biting the depth or lure you had been killing them on all week prior. The thinking mans angler will recognize this and make lure, depth, and presentation adjustments and CATCH fish, where as the others that keep "waiting on the fish" , in other words , the anglers that won't change tactics, will come to the scales probably with one "dink".
I have seen countless times guys will not have any luck with there pattern that worked all week, and thier only solution is to just tie on everything in the tackle box for 5 minutes and going to the next lure, with little luck.
I have always just sat back and observed the guys that are fishing with some success, and try to anazlye what they are doing dif...different depth, slower presentation, smaller profile lure etc, and then make the necessary adjustements to my own game.

[zooker]

bass pro
put down the crack pipe..cause it anit going to happen.

zooker

[KenDammit]

a tournament for big money or whatever, I can kind of understand. Fishing for any other reason, there really isn't any reason to not tell someone what you're using and all of that. How confident can you really be in your abilities if you think the sole reason you're winning or catching more fish is because of the lure you're using? If you read a magazine, or get tips from a messageboard, or whatever else, aren't you also getting help instead of doing it on your own? Just as in JB's example, whats the difference in watching what someone is doing and asking what someone is doing? All of it is the same, just getting information in a different way.

Personally, I don't care because I enjoy discovering things on my own unless I'm at a very, very dead end with something. I'm a firm believer in the fact that theres no "right way" or "right bait", ever. I think a lot more people would have a lot more fun fishing if they weren't so caught up in "what the next man is doing" and more caught up in thinking about what they can do themselves.

[bassintom]

i hate that word "luck"....if someone asks me if i'm having any "luck",i say no..but i'm catching lots of fish.....put luck in with santa claus and the easter bunny.....notice i did not mention the jersey devil...he lives in the pine barrens.

[Fishie]

Zook, crackpipe.. lol lol lol..

Why would I tell you guys EVERYTHING?




Seriously I do things pretty basic.... believe in k.i.s.s.

[1FASTLASER]

Ok I see alot of good points being brought up in this post. I judt replied to a post not 5 minutes ago about jig fishing and one of the remarks I made was"IF YOUR PAYING ATTENTION EMPHASIS ON ATTENTION WHEN FISHING YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVREY ......Did I mention EVERY TIME YOU GO FISHING and this includes young old and ancient. I will tell you what when and where I was catching on but YOU have to put the rest of the puzzle together. I certainly agree with zook on the ponding away at the keys to get info but get your butt out on the water and really LEARN it. Just because say JB said he caught 15 bass on a series 3 crawdad crank in 10 ft of water on a creek channel dont mean I am going to be able to duplicate it or do I want to. I always ask Catch any....answer....Whatcha catch em on cranks spinners etc etc Then I put the ret of the puzzle together. Even though there are several of us that can teach a young angler more in one day thsn he could learn from reading all the posts since this board was made he STILL HAS to GET THE FEELING or GET IN THE ZONE or the Zen or whatever you call it. Thats the beauty of this sport. Every one who practices can catch a fish on a jig. To excel at jig fishing you gotta FISH IT or whatever lure you are using. I enjoy the feeling of and can remeber thousands of smiles put on a face cause I helped a young angler catch his first or one of his Biggest but I always tell em YOU DID IT and thats the greatest feeling ever. You helped a young angler to a point then his own mind took over and he really is the one that got that basses interest and caught him.

[bassnman30]

JB,
Your point ref. fishing a lake to death holds true at least for me. I've had tournaments where all week I caught good fish from certain areas however on tournament day they were gone. I won't fish the same good area for at least 3 days before the event.

Now, Zooker I've been catching Tillery bass on RC 1.5's and LV200's. Most in American shad. Gold may work where the water is muddy. Some fish have bit a DT-7.
Spinnerbaits "don't " appear to produce, at least for me. You may catch a bass on a twitch bait. Been there done that.