Steven Bennett : Fishing Forum Posts

What happened to the Mark Zona video on confidence baits?

Search for John Crews. Great video of what you want Mapping a new lake. He talks about the set up and "Crewses" around pointing out cover and structure. You could also click on the "categories" tab and scroll down to the Electronics section. Lots of good videos for this category - both on water and lecture. Paul Mueller also has a couple of good on water sonar videos, including fishing what he finds.

Thank you. He's one of my favorite lecturers/ personalities.

Did you leave Bryan Thrift's Frog Fishing video at ICast?

Thank you!

My church sponsors a tournament every year and this year it was supposed to be February 29. I watched all of the Dean's videos on finding prespawn bass. After watching the videos and a few on muddy water, I went to practice last Saturday. I fished a few spots and then decided to go to Nancy Branch. I graphed the creek all the way to the back where it got about 3-4 feet deep then started fishing docks all the way out of the creek. I fished from the back to the front of the docks and finally got a couple of good bites in the last third of the creek on the front of the docks. I used a jig, spinner bait and a nail weighted senko, just to make the Dean proud. I went home and did more research on bass tournaments on Lake Sinclair near Milledgeville, GA and found the Bassmaster tournament from 1997. It seems there was an young, upcoming angler from New Jersey that did well in the tournament. I enjoyed that and was looking forward to the tournament to see if my preparation would payoff and they postponed the tournament because it was to cold and muddy. I'm sure things will be different come April 11. Thanks for all of the information anyway. I feel like I was prepared to do well.

No. That isn't me. I have only fished my church sponsored tournaments each spring here in Middle Georgia - either Lake Sinclair or Lake Oconee. The first year was 2001 and I had no clue about bass fishing but my best friend did. I asked him if he wanted to enter. He was interested but he was more of a pond fisherman and so we had to learn about finding fish in a lake. After about ten years of fishing a couple of times a year and being a detriment to the team, I subscribed to Bassmaster magazine and bought a several CD's to try to learn as much as I could. Once I found Bassu.tv, I was hooked. There might be a few Icast videos I haven't watched, but other than that I have watched every one of the others and most of them multiple times. Thanks for a great learning opportunity for someone that doesn't get much time on the water. I am much more effective when I do get the chance.

I couldn't stand it so I went Sunday after church. I couldn't get bit. The water temperature was still in the mid 50's but the lake was down a foot or so. I figured with them being on the outside of the docks, they would still be there. There isn't a break off the bank any where (defined creek channel etc) and no real structure. I'm not sure what I should have done. I went to an old tried and true pocket that has a little grass in the back and got a couple of 1-2 lbers. Any suggestions? Very stained - about 6 inches. Water 55-57. I hit the front to the back of the docks just trying to locate where they were.

Did anyone explain to David Dudley that a chess board is 8X8 and there is no D9?

I've only watched it 5 or 6 times so far. If was was in a different earning category I would have him and the Dean coach me on the water. The are both excellent lecturers, so they must be awesome on the water.

Bernie Shultz interview 15:55 "It might have been jerk bait season here had we not gotten all that rain."

https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/david-dudleys-approach-to-color-selection
David Dudley gave a lecture regarding color selection. Excellent presentation. He makes a reference to Magnus Carlson playing blindfold chess and references how many positions a grandmaster had memorized in his head. I've watched the video he referenced on Carlson (current world chess champ) also because my other hobby is chess.

I have experience and feel comfortable fishing small ponds for largemouth. My wife and I are headed to north Georgia next week and the place says they have smallmouth and it looks like about a ten acre pond. Do you have any suggestions? I have never caught a smallmouth. I am guessing a black Senko might work, but what size? I intend to try a Ned rig after last week. What baits would you suggest on a carolina rig? Crankbaits? Any help would be appreciated.

Also, Jordan Lee was using an "unnamed" jerk bait. Bone or some kind of white. Any suggestions on the jerk bait for Hartwell? I have a few days left on the Tacklewarehouse discount.

The next tournament for my club is a night tournament on a like I am somewhat familiar with but I have never fished at night. Do I only fish docks with lights? Can I fish other areas (ie blow downs or pockets that sometimes hold fish)? Any suggestions?

That was some interesting videography on Greg's video. At 38:50 his hand totally disappeared and at 41:01 you could see the plant through is shoulder! All smart comments aside, it was a great video. I have been throwing it more and caught a 7 14 in a pond on it. He jumped a couple of times but stayed pinned and I was able to land it. I have swapped one of my wife's rods from a texas rig to a drop shot and she caught her biggest bass ever (5 13) and a total of 20 bass at a friends pond. Thanks for the great content.

Thanks for the tips. I tried fishing by myself from about 9:30 to midnight and caught a small keeper and a short fish so I rode with another club member. I changed up the baits I usually throw to try to adjust for night fishing and it didn't work well. I retied my texas rig and caught one on a spot he took me to with no lights. Then we I swapped the dark colored crank bait for a sexy sunfish color and caught a second bass and a hybrid. Other than the 30 minutes under the bridge during the thunder storm, we had a great time.

I enjoyed the lecture on targeting bream for large fish by Clabion Johns. He gave some specifics on some of the lures but never mentioned the specific jigs he fished. I am trying to get better at jig fishing, but sometimes my vision when looking online is not exactly what I end up with. I will be fishing Lake Eufaula, AL shortly after the full moon in May and would like to purchase a few jigs to try his methods. He indicated that he buys his jigs the colors he likes now and I would appreciate it if someone could help me with the specifics. Any tips on Eufaula wouldn't hurt either. I only have a Garmin 73SV on my console and nothing up front, so I usually fish shallow. I do have a couple of buoys if I find something deep. Most of the guys in my club have the forward facing sonar, so I will leave the brush fishing to them.

My academy has both green pumpkin magic and watermelon magic in several zoom baits. I use ole monsters and ultravibe speed worms and both colors are available for these baits.

Thanks, Dean. I have listened to his lecture quite a few times. He even mentions not talking about patterning Redear because it is a complete pattern in itself but it is a huge deal at lakes like Eufaula and Kentucky. I missed out on that one. However, he won a BFL in 2019 at Eufaula between Cowikee Creek and Florence Marina. My wife and I stayed at Florence Marina State Park about seven years ago and I had some luck in the creek right below the park so she and I are going to try that area Friday before my cllub tournament. We are staying at Lakepoint State Park for the weekend so I will see if I can find a few spots between the two parks. If I have no luck, I might try fishing the area south of the railroad tracks which seems to have plenty of docks. Hopefully they will be pulling a little water. Thanks for the suggestion. There is also a lot of grass around LakePoint in the mouth of Cowikee creek I can try.
I think Clabion is becoming my hero. In my research I have discovered that he only has two sonar units on his boat, no forward facing sonar and no GPS anchoring. I only have one Garmin 73SV on my BassTracker, so I need to learn his style of fishing. Half of my club have forward facing sonar and spot lock and most of them are sticks any way.
Thanks for all of the informative instruction and videos available. Please let me know if you hear anything about the jigs. I have looked at several sites and can't find similar jigs or just skirts. I have some green pumpkin jigs and can get close. I did pick up a new killer gill frog for my small collection.

I had a good time fishing but couldn't find a keeper. The first point I fished had water willow and I caught four fish on an Ol Monster, the longest was just under the 14" limit. I got to watch an alligator swim around me headed to the pocket and later heard a gator growl at me for the first time. I moved out deeper on the point and didn't get bit cranking, spinner baiting or drop shotting. I fished a couple of other points and I caught another small bass and a bream. I fished the second point a little deeper with the chatter bait (I pulled the two ears of a z-hawg, dipped the flappers in dye and turned it sideways-see, you can teach an old dog new tricks.) and a spinner bait, but no luck. They were not pulling water, but I went under the causeway (caught another small fish in the tunnel under the causeway) and fished a row of docks with no luck. Ran across the lake and fished some grass and shade lines in a creek with no luck (well, one lost fish on a poor hook set). Quite often, advice from some of the videos came to mind and helped me make my decisions. Wasn't a good tournament, but last year I only caught three short fish. This year I doubled that and added a bream. Thanks for all the videos and help. We are going to Seminole in July, so any suggestions would be helpful. :-)

Am I the only one that can't access the Keith Combs video?

https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/driving-a-bass-boat-safely-efficiently-john-crews
This is a comprehensive video by John Crews that you will enjoy and learn from.