Rattletrap Ramblings

I just got back to town from the BASS Open on Smith Lake and saw a lot water that I’ve never seen before. The depth finder reads 200 feet most of the time when you’re running and most of the docks are in a minimum of 50 feet.

I’m used to fishing 3 feet, so Smith Lake took a little getting used to.

I began practicing on Wednesday and recent rains had many of the buckbrush, willows, and laydowns submerged. The water was slightly stained in the backs of the creeks where I concentrated on for largemouth. Within the first hour of practice, I pulled in an 18 inch Kentucky with a spinnerbait and started feeling comfortable.

I began running shallow water and found them in a lot of places with a green pumpkin jig, sexy shad crankbait, a Revenge deep runner spinnerbait in chartreuse shad, and a green pumpkin lizard with the tail dipped in chartreuse JJ’s Magic Dye. It seems like all the fish like a little chartreuse for some reason. My guess is that the panfish actually have a chartreuse tail. I noticed it when one of them tried to eat my spinnerbait and followed it to the boat.

I tried different patterns there every day and caught literally 50 fish a day. The only problem was that most of them were under the 15 inch minimum and the bigger fish came from shallower water. For Smith Lake, shallow means getting into the back of creek where you’re sitting in 10 to 15 feet of water and throwing into about 3 to 4 feet of water.

The fish I was catching were just moving out from spawning and not all the way back in the creek. I had several places where I had caught a limit of 15 inch fish in an half an hour.

The final day of practice, I decided to find some places near the dam where the tournament would come out of to have a place to catch some last minute fish if I needed it. The way practice went, I didn’t think I’d need it but was checking just in case.

I found 3 points near the dam where the fish schooled every morning and caught them on an 1/8 spot remover with green pumpkin Zoom Speed Craw or Finesse Worm tipped with chartreuse JJ’s Magic Dye.

I told my co angler that we were gonna have a limit within the first hour. In the future I’ll keep my mouth shut.

The first day of the tournament I started on one of those points near the ramp and the fish were schooling everywhere. They wouldn’t eat my spook but I managed to catch a 3 pound largemouth on the shaky head. After the first hour, those fish turned off and I figured it was time to go shallow.

I ran to my first spot in a creek and started fishing where I had been catching them before. I should’ve noticed that the water had dropped a foot and a half and started further towards the mouth of the creek. I caught one keeper largemouth and proceeded to my supposedly best spot which was up river.

All the cover that I was fishing was out of the water here and didn’t get a bite. I run to the back of another creek way up river and catch another keeper largemouth. My co angler had a 3 pound largemouth follow his bait back to boat and just turn away. I forgot to tell him that a lot of my bites came from swimming a lizard back to the boat… oh well.

I run back down river and try a few other points for some Kentucky’s but couldn’t get another bite.

I end up with just 5 and a half pounds but it was still good enough for 48th place.

I came up with a game plan for day 2 and decided I wasn’t going to beat anyone fishing like a yankee. I was gonna spend more time flipping and try to beat everyone fishing the way I like to.

I started out on a point near the launch site for day 2 just like I did for the first day and caught another nice keeper on the shaky head. My co angler catches one on a clear Super Spook and I decided they were gonna hit topwater today. I start throwing my Sammy and catch 3 fish but they were all short.

By 9 o’clock, I decided it was time to flippin and proceeded again to my best creek but started more towards the mouth where the water was little deeper. I catch a nice keeper largemouth right away as well as my co angler. At that point, I decided I was gonna finish out the day here.

The only problem was that I started missing fish. I probably got 7 bites and lost all of them. They were just biting the lizard weird and my lizard would come back with the tail missing half the time.

They weren’t small fish neither. I moved a few of the fish on the hookset to see they were keepers. I had a guy named Shawn Strader staying next to us at the Super 8 and he mentioned that the shallow fish get real spooky when they drop the water real fast and I think he was right.

The water had risen 3 feet and stained when I first arrived at Smith Lake but was clear and lower by 3 feet when the tournament started. I need to keep in mind that shallow fish get real spooky when this happens. I do recall spooking a couple of three pounders when I’d pitch that lizard by the laydown. They didn’t want anything to do with it. They would attack that thing earlier in the week.

I probably should’ve made the audible and pitched a weightless white fluke or a green pumpkin senko. May I should’ve thrown parallel to the bank but landing the bait past the target and swam it back. All I can say was that they were spooky.

I had the fish located but things just didn’t pan out. I wasted so much time in Coon Creek that I didn’t have enough time to catch that fish my co angler left behind at the Bear Branch the day before and that probably cost me a check.

This is one case where a fast boat would’ve saved me some money.

The fishing style here is a run and gun style. It’s a lot different here in Florida where you camp out in a spot most of the day.

If I fish another tournament here I’d probably do the same thing. I’d find a point near the launch where I can capitalize on the morning schooling and then go find largemouth. I would however throw a lot more topwater than I did.

The topwater baits that worked the best were spooks and buzzbaits. I don’t know why it never occured to me to throw a buzzbait but I figured the spook was just as good.

Another thing I’d do is burn every moving bait I fished. It seems like they just liked everything fast.

I ran nearly the entire lake, but never did make it to Crooked Creek where Gerald Swindle was fishing for largemouth. He led the tournament for 2 days and says he lost a boat load of fish the last day to lose.

I also checked out the very north end of Ryan Creek the first day I got there but it was downright muddy. I had an inkling to check it out the day before the tournament but never made it back over there. It sounds like that’s where many of the top finishers including eventual winner, Andy Montgomery, fished.

One of the techniques I learned while fishing here is throwing a swimbait under a dock and counting down to 20 before retrieving it back to the boat. I gotta admit I was stumped on fishing docks that were 50 to 100 feet deep. You can’t throw a worm in there… it would take forever to hit the bottom. The fish were actually suspended in 12 to 15 feet of water under these docks and even if you didn’t let it sink enough, the water was clear enough that the bass would follow the bait out.

I also saw some things on my Lowrance that I’ve never seen before. When sonar hits rock, the surface is so hard that you actually see a echo. I’d never seen this before and thought my unit was going all out of whack for a while until I figured it out.

The fish here seem to relate more to long tapering underwater points with rock and this echo thing made it a lot easier to locate the right points.

It also appears that fish get on docks during the post spawn in Alabama. I was just stumped a little with them sitting in 5o to 100 feet. I doubt I’ll ever see it again but I’ll know what to do next time.

Another technique I learned was throwing a wacky worm into fry. It’s a great way to catch bass guarding fry. It worked real well in practice but never did get to utilize this during the tournament.

I really feel I had enough fish located to at least make the top 30 and blew it my making the wrong decisions. It also didn’t help losing all those fish on day 2 but they were just biting weird. I probably could’ve did something a little different to actually catch those fish but really don’t know for sure since they don’t have places where they drop the water a lot in Florida and I don’t have too much experience with it yet.

The only thing about Smith Lake is that I’m paying my dues. I got my butt kicked again but ready for the next event on Seminole.

I also met a lot of neat people.

One of them was my co angler from day 2, JJ Pollack of JJ’s Magic Dye fame. He’s a heck of a nice guy and fun fishing partner with lots of advice. He also gave me a Froggee Buzzer that I’m dying to try out on Toho. Spots love chartreuse tails and I went through quite a bit of JJ’s dye during the week.

There was also a guy fishing the tournament as a co angler who calls himself T-Money who offered to split gas and oil if I took him out when I pulled up to the ramp. I was broke, so I was like heck yeah… just be prepared to go sun up until sun down. He’s a little out there but loves to fish.

I also ran into Capt. Don Lewis who guides on Bienville Plantation which is supposedly some famous phosphate pit in North Florida.

There’s also Shawn Shrader who’s been at this game for a long time and staying next door. Every night we’d shoot the shit and knock down a few cold ones back at the Super 8.

I met a lot of neat people this week and got my butt kicked. I managed a 65th place showing which isn’t good for anything. There’s always next time.

One of these days I’ll show those pro’s who they’re dealing with.

I’m ashamed to report that I had a slice of humble pie this weekend at the BWS tournament out of Palatka. Somehow I managed to burn hundreds of dollars in gas and couldn’t catch a fish.

I caught fish here and there during practice but never really put anything together as far as a pattern..

I gotta admit, I was totally lost out there.

I spoke to my friend Danny who won the tournament and he was nice enough to tell me how he caught them. For most people, I’d take that kind of advice with a grain of salt but he’s a pretty straight up guy which you don’t find too often.

I’d say he’s almost too nice, but nice guys win every once in a while and he proved it this weekend.

Even though I got skunked, I figured out a valuable lesson in fishing the river this weekend.

It’s totally clear to me now when I think back to the schooling fish I’ve been catching on Johns Lake of all places and also Lake Monroe. I’d share more but I don’t want to give away my buddy’s river fishing secrets.

The water temperature is about 80 in the shallows and mid to high 70′s deep. The fish are still bedding at this temperature which is a total shocker to me and now I know how to find them in the river.

You can catch fish deep and shallow right now. I gotta remember this in the future.

I believe there’s a bass migration associated with the shad run. One of the cool things about fishing river systems is the shad. They’re everywhere right now near the top and Duh…. bass like to eat on top this time of the year, go figure.

Anytime there’s a bunch of shad, you can get them on shad imitators like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, buzzbaits, spooks, etc.

Some fish are still bedding and some are post spawn so there’s a lot of ways to get them right now. All I can say is, if you can catch them on top, I will. There’s no way to have more fun fishing than topwater and you get big fish this way.

Me and my buddy Walt fished the ABA 150 on Sunday and wacked 15 to 16 pounds running this pattern and we lost an 8 pounder by the boat. The only problem was that supposedly the check in time was changed from the usual 3:00 to 2:30 for some reason.

We came strolling in about 2:40 thinking we had time to spare and the tournament director said don’t bother weighing in unless you have 30 pounds. It totally blows. They should’ve given everyone something on a piece of paper that said the weigh in time was changed.

Anyway, it was still fun catching fish after fish and I learned a little about fishing the St. Johns River.

From spawners to schoolers, this is probably one of the most fun times to fish here in Florida and especially on the St. Johns.

Sure wish I had this knowledge before the tournament.

This is a reminder to myself. When the water temps reach the high 70′s on Johns Lake, the fish will be mostly post spawn and will start schooling in the channels. I’ve caught literally 5o fish in a few hours the past few days on a Bomber Fat Free Shad in Citruce and a Super Spook when they start schooling on the surface.

When you start having the Spook knocked 3 feet in the air, it’s hard to fish anything else. I’ve been resorting to doing a couple donuts in my boat to stir up the baitfish and get the surface schooling to resume. It’s uncanny how they start schooling right after the water settles down.

Another way to get the surface schooling activated has been to get 2 or 3 on a deep diving crankbait and they start surface schooling again. It’s pretty cool.

I’m sure you can catch them on  a c-rig, trap, or fluke, but I like to get them on top when it’s possible.

These aren’t tournament winning fish but there are some 4 and 5 pounders.

Note to self…. start thinking post spawn & schoolers when the water temps reach the high 70′s right around Easter.

I’ve been sight fishing pretty much exclusively the last few times on the water because it’s been warm and I’m just flat out tired of going out in cold weather. My fishing partner likes to fish beds with 15 lb mono and long worms which makes me worried. First of all, when you’re fighting a fish over 8 pounds in close quarters it’s awful easy to get hung up in some kissimmee grass, pads, or something else gnarly and lose that fish. Also, bedding fish love to just bite the tail or just one corner of a bait so it’s easy to miss a bunch of hook sets on long plastics.

My fishing partner is old and set in his ways and he’s also convinced that certain baits work better than others on bedding fish.

Me on the other hand only fish small baits which usually consist of a Gitem Sugar or Bug because of their compactness usually on 65 lb braid. I don’t want take any chances and don’t think the type of bait or the fact that the fish can see the line makes any difference.

When she’s ready to eat, she’ll eat no matter what. My partner hasn’t broken off any bedding fish on a tournament yet, but I’ve been on him pretty good to stop using that 15 lb non sense. It’s just a matter of time before you break one off on that crap. I hope I’ve got him convinced he needs at least 20 lb test and still working on him about those long baits.

One technique I’ve been using quite a bit this year is using small hops when the fish noses up to the bait. For some reason, they don’t like the way the Gitem Sugar or Bug falls and it’s not long before they knock the crap out of it.

I’ve been thinking about my chances of doing well in the BASS Opens this year and it’s not real promising since I did so poorly in the first event on Okeechobee. The one thing that I did learn over this past spring is that you gotta plan on a cold front coming in because it’s probably gonna happen.

Cold fronts will mean bass move into thick matts near spawning areas and if the wind gets out of control, it’s usually gonna be out of the northwest. At some point in practice during spring, you gotta find fish that’ll be protected from the wind and make sure you’re gonna be able to get there when the wind gets out of control. I’m talking 5-6 footers and that ain’t no fun in a bass boat nor is it safe. You also gotta find where the fish will go if/when it gets cold.

At least in Florida, flipping a craw into thick matts in 2 to 4 feet of water and rattletraps on the outside edge of grass in deeper water is the way to go when the cold fronts come in. Flippin is probably better, but the traps can be the deal depending on the situation.

I’m also now a firm believer that the snell knot on a straight shank hook is the only way to go on a flippin rig. You just get way better hook ups and lose far fewer fish.

The best weight for flippin kissimmee grass and reeds is a 3/8 ounce, a 3/4 or 1 ounce for hydrilla, and 1.5 ounce for the really thick stuff.

Every once in a while, a shell bed is a good bet during cold fronts as well and a big rattletrap or a carolina rig is the way to go here.

I learned not to get too confident catching fish when it’s warm during spring because everyone else is probably catchin’em too. If it stays warm, I think my strategy needs to be sight fishing for at least half of the day in Florida anyway.

Also, those real shallow fish that are so easily found during the spawn are affected the most by cold fronts.

If I had planned for these things prior to the first Open on Okeechobee, I’m sure I’ll be sitting in good shape in the standings but I never claimed to know everything.

I’ve also learned that finding my own spots is the way to go. Some information on a general pattern, baits, and type of vegetation and depth helps, but I need to find something on my own for me to do well. Depth and type of vegetation probably helps me the most.

The next Open is on Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama and I don’t believe I’ve ever fished any place that’s that deep or clear so it’ll be another learning experience although I still have high expectations for myself.

There’s gonna be a lot of big names in that event, but I’m learning that I just need to focus on catching fish and not worrying about what everyone else is doing. I figure if you can catch’em, then the rest will take care of itself.

What can I say, fishing is a tough game to figure out. I fished the Bassmaster Weekend Series on the Harris Chain and squeaked out a check with 12 pounds.

In 2 days of practice, I caught one fish and had no clue what to do going into the tournament. The water temperature was in the high 50′s on the main lake but in the 60′s in a canal I checked out.  I found a 3 pounder on bed the last few hours of practice and figured I’ll go there and pick that joker off so I don’t get a big fat zero.

I go to that fish first thing in the morning and it wasn’t there. I look around the corner and there’s a 6 pounder on bed with a buck. I told my co angler Dana Foster that it won’t take long to pick these fish off and after 5-10 minutes they were in the livewell.

Dana was a great fishing partner and we had a good time just being out on the water. He caught a fish on a trick worm with a 1/16 ounce Spiderhead worm hook made by a company called Slider so I asked him if I could get one. I tied one on and caught a nice 4 pounder a few casts later.

The tournament director forgot to get exemptions so I already had a fish over 22″ and the other fish were gonna take quite a bit of time to coax so we did some running and gunning. We hit 2 spots and told my co angler that either you or I are going to catch a fish in one of these spots as we idled out of the canal we were fishing. Well, my co angler pulls in a nice 3 pounder with a rattletrap and I got nothing.

I think I could’ve gotten one of those other ones I was looking at to bite but it could’ve taken a few hours. I may not have gotten them at all. There’s always some second guessing about these things but all in all it was a fun day on the lake.

One of the cool things about fishing these tournaments is that you meet so many cool people that’s as crazy about bass as you are and it was like being out on the water with a friend just enjoying a day on the lake.

I just don’t get it. I have a good practice and do bad in a tournament. I have a bad practice and do good in a tournament. It shouldn’t be this way and I gotta figure out how to make the two correlate.

I’m currently down here in Clewiston practicing for the FLW All American on the Big O and practice has been phenomenal. The weather’s been warm and fish are moving shallow in droves.

I’ve had practice like this before and I could’ve caught over 20 pounds without even trying too hard today. The only problem is that the temperature is supposed to drop and the wind’s supposed to change directions the day of the tournament.

I hope my fish hold up through the change. We’ll see.

I’m already in over a grand and better at least break even after all this work. I’ve got a game plan and it better work out or I’m gonna be really disappointed.

I’ll report back shortly hopefully with good news.

If you read my last post, you’d know I was pretty excited about the Xtreme Tournament on the Harris Chain yesterday. I had numerous 8 pounders locked on bed and an area where I caught 20+ pounds on Friday shaking most of the fish off. I mean the ones I hooked were huge with the smallest being 3 pounds.

I was so excited, I had to get a few drinks in me so I could fall asleep with delusions of grandeur.

Saturday rolled around and everything changed.

I went to my bedding area first and the bedding fish were in a different mood. What was once a lock turned into a struggle of wills. They would pick up my worm and take it out of the bed on Friday, but on Saturday they’d spook off as soon as I clicked my reel.

After about an hour of this, my partner and I went to Griffin where we caught all those fish the day before and there were 3 foot rollers on top of a spot that only had 2 feet of water.  The fish were still biting although you could barely stand in the boat and we had about 9 pounds before we decided to head back and if it wasn’t for my Kistler rods, I would’ve never known I had a fish.

We decide to go to the bedding fish again but they were still spooky and never caught any of the big ones we were looking at. It’s one of those cases where the fish won, but they better watch out. I only wonder what could’ve been if there wasn’t 40 mph winds and a drop in water temperature by 2 degrees. I guess that’s why they call it fishing.

Once again, a perfect practice turned into a meager day of fishing come tournament time. I can’t think of any adjustments that I could’ve made to salvage the day so I’m dumbfounded at the moment.

Everyone that did well in the tournament focused on bedding fish and it took over 25 pounds to win. I guess I should’ve gone to some other bedding areas to see if those fish would bite. The only problem was there were 6 foot rollers I’d have to battle to get there and that didn’t seem like a good idea at the time.

Oh yeah, did I mention a boat capsized during the tournament? I don’t know if I would’ve capsized but it would’ve been a bumpy ride.

I went out to pre fish for the Xtreme Tournament on Harris today and it was on like Donkey Kong today. I caught over 20 pounds by 10 am and saw some giant fish locked on beds. I get so excited when I throw something onto a bed and they start lighting up. Those puppies are locked on and some of them are huge.

I probably shook of most of the fish that bit but hooked a few to see what size they were and the smallest I saw today was 2.5 to 3 pounds. It’s usually not this good on the Harris Chain but I hope it’ll hold out for another 12 hours. If it does, I’m worried about the 22″ rule since the Xtreme doesn’t give exemptions.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day of practice and now it’s time to bring it. I’m gonna have a tough time sleeping with images of the giants sitting on bed I saw today rolling around in my head.

I won my club tournament on Johns Lake this weekend with 15.11 lbs and big fish of 6.10 lbs. I love winning.

I started out the day throwing a junebug Gitem KO and a gold Rapala in the northeast corner of the lake. By 8:00 AM I had a limit of small fish. At about 9 AM, the 6.10 hawg blew up on the Rapala. 

The morning bite died so I went to my flippin area and the skies opened up. I had been out in the rain so much, I decided to beach my boat at the ramp and sit in my car. I tried ordering a pizza but they wouldn’t deliver to the ramp.

The rain finally died and I head back out about 1 PM. It was pretty slow going until I threw the Gitem KO onto a stump with a 4 pounder sitting on it. That fish was the one I needed to finish off my sack.

There was an Xtreme tournament going on at the same time and I would’ve won that one too. I should’ve fished that one because I would’ve made more money. 

Well, at least I got the job done today.