Tough weekend Jim. Glad you were able to get some of the keepers in the boat at least. I do like the in depth description of what you were thinking and doing. Thanks for the video.
You have something with your videos. Tons of similar videos but these are honest and detailed. Really gives me someone to root for. You also don't have a lot of subscribers but quite a few views in comparison. Probably means your getting some loyal fans. Keep us tuned in to what's next. Thanks
Well dang, you were on some fish. You keep me laughing and interested with these reviews of the tournament. You take us along. Lows or highs it is fun and I think we learn something from it. Great story teller.. I remember the Rayburn story and it was tough. Please keep doing these. You tell the truth, the whole truth, and no one else does that. Thanks again.
This is one of your best videos. Thank you for taking the time to make it and your honesty. Tight lines and good luck! I hope you make the championship!
Hi Jim, thanks for the deep dive. With the incredible pressure that bass are hit with in that lake, I bet that they are less committed to a top water and they want to mess with it to build their confidence up before hitting it.
That was an enjoyable 41 minutes. I rarely hang with a YT video for that long. Your recap struck me in a few ways. First, I'm a worm fisherman. I have to hand it to you tossing top water for two days. Second, your story about misses rings true in two ways. I fished a club for one year and then got too old. But in the first tournament in January I decided to almost exclusively fish a red rattle trap. I caught a five fish limit but I guess I missed another six or eight keepers. Those fish would take the bait, I'd set the hook and I could just watch them come to the top, shake and see the RT fly out of their mouths. Those smart bastards were using the weight of that bait along with the lever action of the split ring on the bait to toss the hook. It was exciting but I never depended on a RT again. Finally, I live on an East Texas lake and I decided last February to fish most every day I could until the end of April. At the end of April I caught one just under nine pounds. But I lost so many large fish. Probably other nine pounders. Whether the line broke or they threw the hooks or swam under the boat to break the line or into my trolling motor. They beat my ass. I feel your pain. I'll spool it up again next pre-spawn and even this fall. I hope you fish again next year. I enjoy the stories!
From the locals that I know that live on the lake, that also fish my tournaments was saying ya needed to spend severial days finding all the brush piles that was possible. And simply pitch your flipping jigs and dead stick till they bite. No depth zone was any better than the rest.
If the fish keep hitting my top water, I have another rod with same lure but smaller size...I just throw right back with smaller bait and works for a hookup lots of the time..Sounds like a tuff tournament for sure..
I usually open the hooks up with pliers and work the walking baits faster when they hit like that. Did you try a Rattle trap as the wind picked up. I know what l would have thrown behind you or as a back up to your missed fish. Love to get with you this winter after October to go fish for a week. We could meet up in Arkansas
We all feel your pain, Jim. You are certainly due for a big win soon. But what are you doing in that parking lot?..get out there somewhere and fun fish! :)
I have a brief story for you about my dad. When I was young I fished several tournaments and of course many bad days happened. I would have boat trouble or I would find a money winning spot pre fishing. and the weather or something would change you know the rest of that deal. And I would struggle to catch a couple of pecker size fish! As a result the drive home was pretty gloomy. During the ride I would talk to God, my ancestors, the fish ancestors, everyone I know that had died, the truck, the boat, even my cats that have passed asking for help. When I finally got home Dad come out and guide me up the driveway and he would walk up to the truck and say one word. WELL ? that's it. And like any good fisherman I would give him 125 to 127 excuses explaining why the Gods didn't want me to win. He would say "it could be worse it could have happened to me". That is so F***d up I couldn't help but laugh! His second answer was "I'd feel for but I just can't reach" I miss those days.. Well Jim it could be worse
Uh Huh, interesting, it's what Bradley Hallman often called the patterns within patterns, or the multitude of parallel bites that can all happen together (even in an area of a lake that isn't large). The double willow blade spinner bait is interesting. But I wouldn't have matched the color used by the co-angler. I'd have just thrown whatever spinner bait was tied on the rod first, and then look at rotating through other color, blades etc. Just because an angler 'catches' fish on a type of blade, color doesn't guarantee that he's dialled in either. When there's a bite on say black spinner baits, it's still possible to catch fish on other colors, without having the right thing tied on. I think when there was that attention on top water baits, similarly it's not a guarantee it's a bait that's going to put fish in a boat. What the black top water did was 'show' a lot of fish. My hunch is, the reason that bass won't bite the top waters properly is they need something with less action, less movement. My hunch is that throwing a decent sized 'hair jig' could have caught a lot of those fish.
Where one is getting fish to show on the black top water (a great tool to search with, a top water because you can track exactly where the bait is at, and where fish 'hit' the top water on it's pathway). What I'd do is have hair jigs that are over-dressed, and the jig head is under-sized (that's a jig that will 'hang around' the surface similar to a top water, but will stay beneath the water surface). Other times, it's the opposite. You want a hair jig that's slightly over weighted at the head, and somewhat under-dressed (for example, if I'm on current and want my jig to start fishing at depthmore quickly). Casting to the type of water where fish are showing to treble hook baits such as top waters, you want your under-weighted jigs, with a bit more dressing. And you can suspend your hair jigs then, and fish them in tandem with your top water on those shorelines.
That's basically what happened with those fish caught on the out-of-line spinner bait lures . . . The double willows, and silicone skirts were suspending the bait high in the water, long enough that bass took interest in it. Again, there you could have under weighted your spinner baits and over bladed the blades, to suspend it long enough. Those fish were hitting baits that presented themselves for enough tume, but just sub surface. That's also why your wake bait lure showed out to some extent. If one had a large enough plastic worm, if it was Texas rigged with a small enough sinker on, my hunch is that in right color it might have played. That's the awesome thing about a Texas rig I think, the plastic thing enables one to simply rotate through 'some' colors, to understand if color plays into preference or not of the fish. Again, it doesn't mean one might weigh a lot on soft plastic, but it could definitely allow one to dial in color faster. Come to think of it, forget the skirt color to the spinnerbait, a fast thing would be to put plastic worms on the spinner bait (especially a smaller hook, on a smaller spinner bait). And now one can 'rotate' or cycle some colors, using soft plastic. And use a small bladed spinner bait, a light weight spinner bait to hold the lure in the strike zone for long enough.
If one had got a worm on a small bladed spinner bait, it would almost be like Texas rigging the worm. Except, one could over size the worm, cycle through one's colors. Meaning the bait might hold longer on top of the water, near to the surface. And my hunch is, lots of these fish had been 'lateral line' feeding too, my guess is the might have sighted a plastic worm, and nailed the bait closer to the blades. I've no idea if this method is used (I know, small mouth anglers use the under-spin blades with swim bait riggings). A smaller spinner bait rigged in this way, with the buoyancy of a floating worm as a trailer is a bait that one might think, could be paused or slowed down enough? Still operating enough as a retrieved lure, to get minimal action from the willow blades too. Dunno. Something like this might present some vertical drop of one's lure, combined with some horizontal retrieve, and occassional pause or suspension. Would these bass hit a longer profile worm bait as a trailer? Like how then hit the hard plastic top water? I know myself, that even changing to 'jointed' hard plastic lures, as opposed to single solid hard plastic can be enough, to change missed takes to actual takes. A more 'collapse-able' thing like I described might have been sucked in. The fish knew they weren't as able to suck in those top waters, so they nose bumped them instead (some returned and ambushed the same lure a second time). You needed something large enough in profile, more collapse-able, and that created noise or disturbance too. So getting the right weight of spinner bait, with right trailer type, may have been a key thing.
Randy was using a speed craw on a jig Jim, and swimming his jig tobsome extent in the shallow depth. So that's my sense, I draw direct line between your black or white top water baits, and the zoom craw trailers to those jigs fished slower. These aren't exclusive and different bite patterns, they're really one in the same pattern (wake bait, spinner bait, topwater stick bait, jig and trailer are just different tools used to try and reach many of the same fish). And overdressed hair jigs is my guess, could have out performed everything, even though I reckon not a single bait of that kind was even thrown (with right rod, line and reel you can get over dressed hair jigs to even walk on water). If one puts closed cell foam strips in there, it's possible. There's a 'Knucklehead' design, Brian Wise that's interesting. Sort of a jig and top water combined.
I thought you were going to make it after day 1, and then I saw you had a better weight...but when I looked at guys that were not weighed yet...I thought...uh oh. Gave it a good run though, sometimes the breaks just go the other way.
You are a PROFESSIONAL BASS FISHERMAN!!!
Right, but not everyone agrees.
Thank you for the recap.
I enjoy your videos
Glad you like them!
Tough weekend Jim. Glad you were able to get some of the keepers in the boat at least. I do like the in depth description of what you were thinking and doing. Thanks for the video.
Thanks 👍
You have a great positive mental attitude. As Swindle calls PMT. Never give up. I like your videos. Good luck in the future.
Thank you!
You have something with your videos. Tons of similar videos but these are honest and detailed. Really gives me someone to root for. You also don't have a lot of subscribers but quite a few views in comparison. Probably means your getting some loyal fans. Keep us tuned in to what's next. Thanks
Thanks for watching!
Well dang, you were on some fish. You keep me laughing and interested with these reviews of the tournament. You take us along. Lows or highs it is fun and I think we learn something from it. Great story teller.. I remember the Rayburn story and it was tough. Please keep doing these. You tell the truth, the whole truth, and no one else does that. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching!
This is one of your best videos. Thank you for taking the time to make it and your honesty. Tight lines and good luck! I hope you make the championship!
I appreciate that! I finished 45th in points, needed 25th or better.
Hi Jim, thanks for the deep dive. With the incredible pressure that bass are hit with in that lake, I bet that they are less committed to a top water and they want to mess with it to build their confidence up before hitting it.
I agree that is part of the situation, especially when I'm fishing within close proximity to the number one tournament site on the lake!
That was an enjoyable 41 minutes. I rarely hang with a YT video for that long. Your recap struck me in a few ways. First, I'm a worm fisherman. I have to hand it to you tossing top water for two days. Second, your story about misses rings true in two ways. I fished a club for one year and then got too old. But in the first tournament in January I decided to almost exclusively fish a red rattle trap. I caught a five fish limit but I guess I missed another six or eight keepers. Those fish would take the bait, I'd set the hook and I could just watch them come to the top, shake and see the RT fly out of their mouths. Those smart bastards were using the weight of that bait along with the lever action of the split ring on the bait to toss the hook. It was exciting but I never depended on a RT again. Finally, I live on an East Texas lake and I decided last February to fish most every day I could until the end of April. At the end of April I caught one just under nine pounds. But I lost so many large fish. Probably other nine pounders. Whether the line broke or they threw the hooks or swam under the boat to break the line or into my trolling motor. They beat my ass. I feel your pain. I'll spool it up again next pre-spawn and even this fall. I hope you fish again next year. I enjoy the stories!
Glad you enjoyed all 41 minutes!
Well damn, I was rooting for you
Thank you!
From the locals that I know that live on the lake, that also fish my tournaments was saying ya needed to spend severial days finding all the brush piles that was possible. And simply pitch your flipping jigs and dead stick till they bite. No depth zone was any better than the rest.
I gave up on brushpiles in practice after fishing like 50 of them with having caught zero keepers.
If the fish keep hitting my top water, I have another rod with same lure but smaller size...I just throw right back with smaller bait and works for a hookup lots of the time..Sounds like a tuff tournament for sure..
🙂👍
I usually open the hooks up with pliers and work the walking baits faster when they hit like that. Did you try a Rattle trap as the wind picked up. I know what l would have thrown behind you or as a back up to your missed fish. Love to get with you this winter after October to go fish for a week. We could meet up in Arkansas
I like the idea of working the baits faster.
We all feel your pain, Jim. You are certainly due for a big win soon. But what are you doing in that parking lot?..get out there somewhere and fun fish! :)
That's where I slept the previous night.
I have a brief story for you about my dad. When I was young I fished several tournaments and of course many bad days happened. I would have boat trouble or I would find a money winning spot pre fishing. and the weather or something would change you know the rest of that deal. And I would struggle to catch a couple of pecker size fish! As a result the drive home was pretty gloomy. During the ride I would talk to God, my ancestors, the fish ancestors, everyone I know that had died, the truck, the boat, even my cats that have passed asking for help. When I finally got home Dad come out and guide me up the driveway and he would walk up to the truck and say one word. WELL ? that's it. And like any good fisherman I would give him 125 to 127 excuses explaining why the Gods didn't want me to win. He would say "it could be worse it could have happened to me". That is so F***d up I couldn't help but laugh! His second answer was "I'd feel for but I just can't reach" I miss those days.. Well Jim it could be worse
Thanks for sharing!
Uh Huh, interesting, it's what Bradley Hallman often called the patterns within patterns, or the multitude of parallel bites that can all happen together (even in an area of a lake that isn't large). The double willow blade spinner bait is interesting. But I wouldn't have matched the color used by the co-angler. I'd have just thrown whatever spinner bait was tied on the rod first, and then look at rotating through other color, blades etc. Just because an angler 'catches' fish on a type of blade, color doesn't guarantee that he's dialled in either. When there's a bite on say black spinner baits, it's still possible to catch fish on other colors, without having the right thing tied on. I think when there was that attention on top water baits, similarly it's not a guarantee it's a bait that's going to put fish in a boat. What the black top water did was 'show' a lot of fish. My hunch is, the reason that bass won't bite the top waters properly is they need something with less action, less movement. My hunch is that throwing a decent sized 'hair jig' could have caught a lot of those fish.
Where one is getting fish to show on the black top water (a great tool to search with, a top water because you can track exactly where the bait is at, and where fish 'hit' the top water on it's pathway). What I'd do is have hair jigs that are over-dressed, and the jig head is under-sized (that's a jig that will 'hang around' the surface similar to a top water, but will stay beneath the water surface). Other times, it's the opposite. You want a hair jig that's slightly over weighted at the head, and somewhat under-dressed (for example, if I'm on current and want my jig to start fishing at depthmore quickly). Casting to the type of water where fish are showing to treble hook baits such as top waters, you want your under-weighted jigs, with a bit more dressing. And you can suspend your hair jigs then, and fish them in tandem with your top water on those shorelines.
That's basically what happened with those fish caught on the out-of-line spinner bait lures . . . The double willows, and silicone skirts were suspending the bait high in the water, long enough that bass took interest in it. Again, there you could have under weighted your spinner baits and over bladed the blades, to suspend it long enough. Those fish were hitting baits that presented themselves for enough tume, but just sub surface. That's also why your wake bait lure showed out to some extent. If one had a large enough plastic worm, if it was Texas rigged with a small enough sinker on, my hunch is that in right color it might have played. That's the awesome thing about a Texas rig I think, the plastic thing enables one to simply rotate through 'some' colors, to understand if color plays into preference or not of the fish. Again, it doesn't mean one might weigh a lot on soft plastic, but it could definitely allow one to dial in color faster. Come to think of it, forget the skirt color to the spinnerbait, a fast thing would be to put plastic worms on the spinner bait (especially a smaller hook, on a smaller spinner bait). And now one can 'rotate' or cycle some colors, using soft plastic. And use a small bladed spinner bait, a light weight spinner bait to hold the lure in the strike zone for long enough.
If one had got a worm on a small bladed spinner bait, it would almost be like Texas rigging the worm. Except, one could over size the worm, cycle through one's colors. Meaning the bait might hold longer on top of the water, near to the surface. And my hunch is, lots of these fish had been 'lateral line' feeding too, my guess is the might have sighted a plastic worm, and nailed the bait closer to the blades. I've no idea if this method is used (I know, small mouth anglers use the under-spin blades with swim bait riggings). A smaller spinner bait rigged in this way, with the buoyancy of a floating worm as a trailer is a bait that one might think, could be paused or slowed down enough? Still operating enough as a retrieved lure, to get minimal action from the willow blades too. Dunno. Something like this might present some vertical drop of one's lure, combined with some horizontal retrieve, and occassional pause or suspension. Would these bass hit a longer profile worm bait as a trailer? Like how then hit the hard plastic top water? I know myself, that even changing to 'jointed' hard plastic lures, as opposed to single solid hard plastic can be enough, to change missed takes to actual takes. A more 'collapse-able' thing like I described might have been sucked in. The fish knew they weren't as able to suck in those top waters, so they nose bumped them instead (some returned and ambushed the same lure a second time). You needed something large enough in profile, more collapse-able, and that created noise or disturbance too. So getting the right weight of spinner bait, with right trailer type, may have been a key thing.
Randy was using a speed craw on a jig Jim, and swimming his jig tobsome extent in the shallow depth. So that's my sense, I draw direct line between your black or white top water baits, and the zoom craw trailers to those jigs fished slower. These aren't exclusive and different bite patterns, they're really one in the same pattern (wake bait, spinner bait, topwater stick bait, jig and trailer are just different tools used to try and reach many of the same fish). And overdressed hair jigs is my guess, could have out performed everything, even though I reckon not a single bait of that kind was even thrown (with right rod, line and reel you can get over dressed hair jigs to even walk on water). If one puts closed cell foam strips in there, it's possible. There's a 'Knucklehead' design, Brian Wise that's interesting. Sort of a jig and top water combined.
It’s fishing not catching!! Lady Luck comes n goes jimmy 👍
Everyone fishes (Mutton) released fish...😅
🙂👍
You beat the great local Randy Bucket sponsored by Bridgford too or was sponsored.
A legend in his own mind. lol
He still is sponsored by Bridgford.
Randy blowcut sucks
I thought you were going to make it after day 1, and then I saw you had a better weight...but when I looked at guys that were not weighed yet...I thought...uh oh. Gave it a good run though, sometimes the breaks just go the other way.
Thanks for watching!