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| Week of 10/20/99 #105 |
| Question: You are fishing in a small farm pond. You have heard from the locals that it harbors some really big bass. You are fishing from the bank. The water has a visibility of about three to four feet. Exact water temperature is unknown but you guess that it’s around 65 degrees. The pond’s bottom appears to be bowl shaped except for one end that has a small built up dam. What is your approach to fishing and why? |
| Winning Answer: by Dan Walker. What I would do is start right where the Big Bass would be. Big Bass like structure, and that structure would be at the dam. I would start with a top water bait around the area where the dam is. if I do not get any hits I would use a 6 inch red shad slug'o and fish about 4 to 5ft down. After that if I get no hits, since I would have started early morning I would slowly walk around and fish the banks popping my red shad slug'o so that it slowly pops itself out of the water and let it glide back under until the big one hits. If I still get know hits I'd take a Carolina rig with a black plastic worm, lizard or crawl...probably a crawl since its a pond. I'd fish the very middle of the pond where the deepest part is, since its a bowl shaped pond, because if the bass are not at the dam or around the banks then they are feeding and laying in the very middle. |
Week of 11/3/99 #106 |
| Question: You have been out on the water for several hours without much luck. You notice a fisherman pull up to a buoy, throw a couple of casts all around the buoy. He fishes for about five minutes, catches two bass and leaves. You see him stop up the lake a bit at another buoy. He again stays about four or five minutes. Makes several casts with a couple of different rods, lands a bass and moves up lake to the next buoy. What is this fisherman doing and why? |
| Winning Answer: by Chad Kiser. This fisherman is making the most of his time on the water, he has found several fish around the buoys on this lake so he is not wasting time searching anywhere else. He knows where they are and what they're biting and he'll probably weight a limit of fish. |
Week of 11/10/99 #107 |
| Question: It’s been a tough day. Air temperature is 85 F. Water temperature is 80 F. You have been fishing shallow in shady areas and under docks. You have tried plastic worms and Jerkbaits as well a jigs and spinnerbaits. No luck at all. You feel and your fish finder indicates that there are bass in these shady areas. What would you do now to get them to bite? |
| Winning Answer: by Ralph Storey. I would try a wacky worm. I prefer the Crème Scoundrel in the eight inch size, with the nose and tail weighted slightly to give it a gradual "nose down" decent. For weighting, I use a large sized paper clip. Just stick the desired length of the wire in the nose or tail of the worm and clip it off with your pliers. The nose usually takes about twice as much length as the tail. For lethargic bass, sometimes this very slow fall will be the trigger. This presentation would not be at the bottom of my list, but near the top however. |
Week of 11/17/99 #108 |
| Question: Wind, wind, wind. It’s one of those days. You have tried to fish the windy shore of the main lake but it is just impossible to keep the boat in position. It’s a partly sunny day with large clouds rolling in and out. The water temperature is in the low seventies. You feel you have to find some protected area to fish. What would you look for and how would you start your fishing? |
| Winning Answer: by Rory Franks (Nip). During the day as the wind will generally be gustier I'd move to the wind blown main lake points and keep boat position on the side of the point being sheltered- I would not want to leave the current from that strong wind that can stack bass at 8-12 ft depths-I'd attribute the lack of previous fish from poor boat control and loss of concentration to properly present the 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz FFShads I am tossing, By allowing myself the control I can hit the top of the point and the structure around it where the suspended fish can turn into a feeding frenzy- those fish aren't there by accident either- the wind I'm hiding in brings forage over those points. I would also want to try any humps in the main lake , especially as the day went on and the wind calmed in the evening - dragging my cranks at steeper breaks using the wind as almost a drift but still cranking slowly , with slow tugs and floats and dragging on key areas. |
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Disclaimer: The answers to these questions are very subjective. There certainly are more than one correct answer to each of these questions. The Bass Fishing USA staff's decision is final. By entering this contest, if you are the winner, you agree to having your answer and name published on this site. |