Contest Question of the Week Archive

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Week of 12/22/99 #113 It’s been a breezy day and the fishing has been good. You have been beating the wind blown shoreline with a white spinnerbait with chrome willow leaf blades. Things along this shoreline have been pretty much kicked up with the strong westerly wind. You have caught about seven or eight fish with this pattern over the last five hours or so. You go about an hour and a half without a bite when you notice that the wind has died down considerably. You continue with the pattern for another half hour but it seems like it’s time to try something else. By now the wind is all but gone. Water temp is in the low seventies and the sun is shining. What would you do? Winner - Alan Rusk I would back off to the first channel break line off of the bank. Look for any structure on the break, like stumps, brush, or rocks. Maybe even a contour change off the break line, like a little point or bend in the channel in about 8 - 12 foot of water. I would slow down by using a carolina rig lizard/worm. I would change the lure until I found what the fish want. They will not be in the mood to feed, but will take a lizard out of pure meaness! Week of 12/29/99 #114 It’s late spring and you are fishing a medium size reservoir. It has been raining since early this morning. The air temperature has fallen almost 20 degrees in the last six hours. You caught a few fish early in the morning near shore on the surface using a Zara Spook. That pattern has seemed to stop, probably because the surface temperature is falling quickly. You have switched to a spinner bait and then to a plastic worm to no avail. What would you do to get the bite going again considering the tough conditions? Winner - James Loser I would move my boat into the 8 to 10 foot range. Making long casts towards the shoreline I'd work a buzz bait. A buzz bait in the rain gives a great target the steady retrieve is what they need in order to clue in on the bait. Then I will work large flats that have weeds and brush because these are places that bass love to spawn on. I would also have a 7.5 Culprit worm Texas rigged with no weight so when I missed one on a buzz bait I'd pitch it in the same area that I missed the fish always smart to do. Week of 1/5/00 #115 You approach a secondary point which you are familiar with. You know that the point extends about 100 feet under water to about 12 feet of lake bottom. One side of the point stair steps down gradually. The other drops abruptly on a 45 deg. angle. It is pre spawn. Water temperature is 60 deg. F. It is late morning and the day is partly cloudy with brief periods of strong sun. What is your approach to fishing this point? Winner - Donn Norton I would start out with a jig and pig at the side of the 45 degree angle and as the water warmed I'd move to the other side of the point and throw a Lucky Craft Pointer 78. Week of 1/12/00 #116 It is early springtime. Water temps are in the 50’s. You are fishing some rip rap on a bright sunny day. Because of the strong sun the water along this northern rocky stretch has warmed considerably during the morning into mid afternoon. You have been catching some largemouth along this rip rap with a brown tube bait. You have a 1/4 oz sinker pegged and you are working it along the bottom. Bouncing it along the small rocks. As the day progresses the sun yields to clouds. Before long the bite stops. What happened? What do you do now? How do you get that line stretching again? Winner - Craig Higgs I would tie on a small mid running crank bait in a crawfish color. Fish it very tight to the bank and work it slowly over the rip rap. The key is getting the bait close to the shoreline and making sure it hits off of the bottom. I would also try this techniques parallel to the shore. This way I could keep the bait in the strike zone which I believe is tight to the shoreline.   Bass Fishing USA Home Page