Over on the BFHP (see acronym post below for details) a couple days ago, someone mentioned something about Skeet Reese.  Imagine that.  Well, as is typically the case on the internet, it was a rumor, or possible mistake turned rumor, that someone posted regarding Skeet’s BassCast camera footage on Day 1 at Guntersville.  Apparently, said poster mentioned he saw Skeet cull two fish upon catching one and throwing it in the box, thus having 6 fish in the boat at some point. (A rule violation on the Elites obviously, among most other trails)  The scenario played out as this, as I read into it:  Skeet caught a fish.  He went to the ‘well to cull.  He pulled (a) fish from the box and tossed it back.  Two splashes followed the toss.  Skeet said something like “did I just do a bad?” to his marshall.  Marshall said “Huh?”  Skeet made another cast.  Marshall ate a sandwich.  End of story.  Obviously, such a violation would be means for a DQ, and someone of Skeet’s (high) caliber would realize the wrong and call the officials.  And on that note, apparently BASS officials looked into the issue and realized Skeet was in the good and made a mistake just by culling a larger fish than another that he’d kept, at that time.

So Skeet’s in the good here, but what about guys at your local events?  Have you ever been in such a situation?  How’s it go down, and what do/did you do?  I try to avoid this problem by using cull clips on every fish and only keeping 5 clips on the boat. Period.  But while this method has (luckily) worked for me and avoided issues, what are some other innovative culling techniques to avoid mishap? Bill Lowen, Bobby Lane, please don’t reply. (Story on that here)

So in the recent years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of big bass events — tournaments in which there are hourly prizes for the biggest bass weighed — across the country. Naturally, these events have taken place most frequently in Texas and California, states known for their big bass factories and anglers passionate about throwing huge baits to catch them. But if you haven’t noticed (see 3rd banner ad to your right for starters) these events are spreading across the country in a big way. Currently, the Oakley Big Bass Tour is about to host events on both Lake Norman in NC and Table Rock Lake in MO. These lakes, while known for producing very respectable 5 fish limits, aren’t known to be big bass powerhouses like Falcon or Fork. With that said, however, a big bass is a big bass in relation to the other bass in the lake (or on the scales, in this instance) not in relation to what’s posted on the internet. So to get to the point, it’s a possibility that someone, or maybe even a few people, or maybe all of the winners, will weigh in a 2-or-so pounder this weekend at the BBT on Norman and take home the hourly prize(s); or better yet, a new boat!  That’s an awesome possibility. In contrast to the typical tournament, an event such as this lets someone fish the lake in a potentially totally new way to take home some (hourly) cash. Of course, at the same time, someone could totally luck up and catch the only fish of their life to win a new boat, but hey, if it happens to be you, you won’t be complaining, right?

So to sum up, I think this type of event and it’s spread into new areas and lakes with a smaller sized average bass is a needed diversification in east coast bass events and something I’ll definitely look forward to becoming more involved in in the future. Is this type of event in these types of areas something we’ll see continued growth in? Based on the reception of the Oakley tour thus far, I think so.

With Skeet’s victory at Guntersville, I think it’s safe to say that 2010 is the year of domination in the bass fishing world.  Never before have we seen a season where – not just one – but two anglers are absolutely dominating their respective trails.  Obviously, Reese is turning the Elite series into the Skeet series, but less frequently noted over on the FLW side, FLW Tour Pro Bryan Thrift has yet to finish outside of the top four three events deep into the season.  Thrift is atop the FLW AOY points race by 21 points and is in place to follow Skeet’s pattern to round out his own 5 consecutive top-5 finishes.

What is it about this year that is enabling these guys to dominate to this extent?  Dave Wolak recently noted in a Bass Cast (on www.basseast.com) that he saw this sort of consistency from Skeet in the making 5 years ago, and all of his confidence and experience has finally built into an unstoppable machine.  But what about Thrift?  He’s just four short years into his FLW Tour campaign, and has bettered himself each year (with respective AOY finishes of 28, 5, 5, and 1 from 2007 to current).  What is making these guys such studs this year?  The coming weeks will show us how the seasons will play out, but I’m going out on a limb (risky, I know) to say that we’ll see continued domination from both of these guys in the coming events.

So it was recently mentioned in Clark Reehm’s latest installment on the homepage (www.basseast.com) that another angler (name not mentioned) potentially cost Clark some cash at Pickwick.  Clark mentioned that another angler had encroached his area and fished a similar pattern, thus costing Clark some fish (and weight, presumably).  Apparently, this goes on in the Elite series to a somewhat significant extent, and we all know it’s a fairly regular occurrence at a weekend level, particularly in the northeastern US.

With that said, what’s the right thing to do?  If someone is fishing a spot you found in practice do you drop in and join the party or head the other direction?  What’s the wrong thing to do?  We’ve all seen and heard some stories after an event involving some denunciation going on during the day, but is it due to a sheer lack of respect from that particular angler, or is it something that’ll just be more frequent among younger generations?

One of my favorite times to be on the water is during the post spawn. On any given day you can catch them on anything from a topwater up shallow to a big football jig out deep. If you are a versatile fisherman that likes to fish a lot of different baits and catch a lot of fish then it’s a good time to be on the water.

One of the first things I look for if I want to get in on the shallow bite is to look for the fry. I don’t know how many times I’ve caught fish throwing topwaters like buzzbaits into pods of fry up on the bank to just get it smashed. During the last BFL on Truman Lake the bass were up guarding fry and I was able to snatch a 3lber up doing this that ultimately helped propel me onto a 12th place finish in the tournament. A lot of times a topwater will be better than something else like a spinnerbait or a crankbait in this situation because the spit you get out of a topwater creates a lot of havoc on the surface and gets the fry to dart triggering strikes. When you a fishing a buzzbait do not forget to have some sort of follow up bait ready on another rod at your side. If a bass blows up and misses your buzzbait you can almost always pick up another rod and throw back into the boil and get the fish to bite again. The key is to be prepared. One of the best follow up baits for me has been a texas rigged Sweet Beaver.

If you don’t want to hit the shallows take a look at the points at the mouths of the spawning pockets and structure next to spawning areas. A lot of anglers will continue to pound the banks because there will be fish up there but if you can get out off the bank and use your electronics you can get into big schools of fish that will eat almost anything. A good fish finder is a must for exploring long points, humps, and creek channel bends in search of bait. When the fish finder lights up that is when you need to drop the trolling motor. A lot of times these fish are very hungry and it doesn’t take long to load the boat when you find them. As far as baits go start out throwing a deep diving crankbait making sure to bump the structure. After you catch the active fish off the spot you can slow down with a big football jig or a shakeyhead and milk the area for fish that didn’t want to chase down the crankbait. A carolina rig is something that I hate to throw but make sure you have one on to finish up because there will be times when they want something hovering a little off the bottom. For crankbaits I really like the Strike King Series of crankbaits, the Norman DD22′s, and Smack Tackle’s Gizz 4. When it comes to football jigs the OMEGA Pro Mega Structure Jig as heavy as 7/8th oz and the OMEGA Derek Remitz Signature Series football jig in 3/4oz work great! An OMEGA Shakeyfoot with a Senko is another great set up. On my carolina rigs I usually have good luck with lizards and brush hogs.