Amen to Custom Lures Lethal Weapons…basically all I throw. I’ve caught so many fish on his swim jigs as well as his rock jigs. In my opinion, both styles are essential on the river. Owner hooks, hand tied, custom colors of your own design…Scott does a great job.

We’re not in it today, but just fished the area Friday. My bro has a game tonight. Looking forward to some camaraderie in the near future with these tourneys, though.

Hey Kevin,

My brother and I are planning on getting in a couple of these, but it’s been busy with baseball. We just picked up the info sheet at Ace and are looking forward to our first tournament experience some time soon. We fished Goose for the first time today and took one 17″ largemouth, so that’s a start and perhaps competitive if we can get another in the tournament situation.

Yeah, I was actually! Was that you at the landing?

I think you will do well on 7…was up there Saturday morning early, and our 3 biggest fish were 18-20″, 3-4 lbs. It was my personal best for smallmouth. We were hanging around the channel and got ’em on plastics.

Hey Curt!

Yeah, the countdown is on. Beautiful weather out today, pretty warm for the time I was out there which ended up being only from 1-3. I caught one little largemouth in the Black River. Ugh…time for a new spot next time out. We have to fix the winch on our trailer now, too, so I’m technically out of commission as well.

Keep an eye out for a red Lund boat down there Thursday or Friday mid-morning to afternoon. That’ll be me!

We fished up around the dam area on Pool 8 today from 11-2:30ish…nothing, nada, not even a bite. It was cold out there. Anyone else been out lately?

Last week, we fished down in the Bluff Slough area. There were some shad down there, but we didn’t see too much action. I’m not sure what the deal is right now, to be honest. I’m going to be out Thursday and Friday this week as I have the days off. I hope it gets a little warmer!

65 fish?!?! Man, I sucked today. I had like 5 footballs out on the channel. What was the deal?

Great post, Slop. Thanks for the extra effort and knowledge!

I like the idea of two weigh-ins, smaller limits, or shorter tourney boundaries. I hope that at least some problem-solving comes out of this.

Speaking of assumptions, I’m curious why many people have this underlying anger with the DNR. Seriously, is there not a decent number of people who seem peeved by the DNR no matter what happens, as though their sole purpose is to suppress outdoorsmen?

Also, in response to the earlier posts about the penned fish (brought up by Cade, et. al.)…I also questioned the penning technique and took the tournament side last year when they did this. However, as James has clearly explained, blaming the penning is weak. Though James pretty much refuted this completely, I would also add that, as far as we know from the article, none of the control group (fish that were also penned) died. Therefore, though other factors are at work (like the inherent higher stress levels of the tourney fish), I believe we have at least basic evidence that penning is not skewing the study.

If it looks like dog crap and smells like dog crap, it’s probably dog crap. To me, it’s very clear that tournaments in hot weather are causing some problems. We should move on to figure out how to solve them, whether through changed rules, increased info on how to hold the fish, banning mid-summer tourneys, whatever. Dialogue is a starting point.

Nice work on the wing dams! They seem like the place to be with the water low. Was it tough to branch out of your stomping grounds, Goose Island?!

Nice fish, bro! Hey, I finally made my first trip to Goose (well, first since I was really little) with my brother a few weeks back. We caught them in the slop. Definitely some good water down there. Do you run into shallow water a lot with your boat when you’re trying to check out different spots around Goose?

Does the cut itself attract fish, then? Do they hold right up underneath there?

What is a cut bank? I think I have a general idea, but certainly haven’t tried to spot one on the river.

Did you say Hougie? This reminds me about something I’ve been meaning to post. I’ve been visiting this site since it was fishtheriver.com, and I was wondering what ever happened to that Hougie, or Steve Hougom I think his name was?? He seemed to be the original fishing guide and operator of that site. I never really knew who owned and ran these sites or how it transitioned to IDA.

I had the same question. Go to Bob’s Bait and Tackle and Scott will hook you up. The best rig is a 5/0 jig hook (though Zoom has their own line now, I believe) with a hitch-hiker put on the eye of the hook. This jig hook is like a big wide gap hook without the offset part by the eye. It just kind of angles off the bend about 25 degrees. A hitch-hiker looks like a little spring, and you just end up putting the nose of the toad on the hitch-hiker and burying the point of the hook into the body of the toad like a texas rig.

Nice work! I’ve been out the last few days…had a mixed bag of smallies and largemouth in some side channels on 8. By the way, I was also throwing topwater yesterday morning (Wed.) and drew blow-ups but no strikes. I switched to a Fluke and hooked up immediately. Might want to give that a try when they do that to you.

Thanks for the map link! I’m going to print that out for next time, though I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. We didn’t catch a thing–no bites. Hit the slop and the outside weed line, but it was mostly thick and brownish weeds minus the pads. Skiing was good though

“without looking like Jimmy Houston”

Ha ha! That’s just funny…I totally remember those boxes he put over his eyes!

I don’t mean to pry, but I was wondering how we actually define the term sand flat??? I think I personally have been throwing that term around loosely in the past. For instance, is it just a flat, any old flat, like those in lakes? Or, is it a specific river term? In other words, when we refer to sand flats are we talking about something in the main channel or major side channels with current?

Thanks! Before I posted, I was wondering if the gear was just a link away on this site, but I looked only at the “Menu” part on the left side and the bars way at the top (boat dealers, resorts & lodging, etc.) My check will be in the mail soon!

I think, though my memory is fuzzy, it was a big dark Chevy truck. Black, possibly dark blue. Was that you? I was in the Geo metro next to it getting run over…ha ha!

Important note: I in no way drive a Metro

Hey Guys,

Just thought I’d chime in with what I did this weekend. I also went out Friday morning. We started out in Target Lake and only had a few small largmeouth in the weeds. Next, we ran down to Lawrence Lake. I had two nice largemouth outside of the Lake on some wood. They took a spinnerbait. Inside the lake, we only got one northern. There were several other bass boats in there. Afterward, we hit a little point off an island that is right by the main channel. Had 2 largemouth on cranks. That was about it for us. The area South of the 7th street landing yielded no fish on rip rap and docks.

Then, yesterday, my brother and I fished up by French Lake. Had one nice largemouth in some duckweed along a bank up there, but that was it. Not one other bite on duckweed there or in the shallow wood. There were tons of bass boats up there, though! Saw one guy take a decent largemouth off a dock. Well, that’s it for now…I’m still searching for a real good fishing hole. Probably be back out next weekend or possibly one evening this week. Oh, also caught a HUGE sheephead…it was hilarious!! He was on some rip rap across from Riverside Park. For the record, that current is definitely quick…picked up one smallmouth on that rip rap, but I’m not planning on coming back there.

Does Bassmaster come on the shelf these days? I used to subscribe as a BASS member and that was the only way to get Bassmaster. However, I stopped subscribing cuz I had way too much other reading for college. Just curious if that’s changed…I wouldn’t mind picking up the occasional issue off the Barnes and Noble shelf.

Slop,

You seem to be the voice of experience here, so let me throw another question at you about hook size, if you’d be so kind. How do you guys know which size to throw? By my estimation, even a #4 EWG hook looks to big for a Horny Toad. Same applies for those new Super Hogs. I was tossing one of those on like a 1 or 2/0 w.g. hook. I think someone mentioned at least using a 4/0 in that other Super Hog thread here on the board. Also, how do you guys get those horny toads to stay on the hook? The one time I threw one, it kept sliding down the bend.

By the way, I’ve healed emotionally from my last two outings (which were posted basically as rants LOL) and may venture out onto Pool 8 this week or weekend!

They were right in the middle? What’s the deal with that? How deep was it? Nice fish…well done my good man!

Is Gibbs Slough in Pool 8? I have never heard of it. Forgive me in advance, cuz this probably sounds like massive spot stealing!!

I think all of us here on Pool 8 (La X area) should all go out on one massive fishing outing and figure out what in the blue heck these bass are doing!!! LOL Can you imagine the learning platoon of boats all going out, like 7 boats, and hitting the same spot at once! Get ’emmmmm!!!! Grrrrrr!!! ha ha ha

You know, I had a C-Rig tied on one of my rods and I didn’t even bring it to try!! (I opted for the crankbait) I’m still learning the deep water fishing thing. Let me just throw this out there to you guys: I was fishing the Black River today and I again thought about all the humps and drops on my way back to the landing as my flasher jumped up and down all over the place. Are those things worth fishing? How do you choose the good ones? I’m such a cover lover that I normally stick around that plus points. Random drops just confuse me, in all honesty.

Bigfish, was your spot in current?

Thanks for the dialogue, fellas. By the way, I agree with the post about sharing/learning…very insightful. I most definitely learned today, but I’m not sure exactly what the right answer could have been, outside of those humps or some other deep spot.

We definitely fish some weeds, so I think I might pitch one of those Brush Hogs in there instead of the usual tube or jig. Thanks for the info guys! By the way, I got a 20″, 4 lb. largemouth this past weekend up at Holcombe Flowage…pics coming eventually, though they have to be developed. That’s my biggest fish, and it was a thrill!!