I mainly fish cedar creek and i've read to fish the humps for sand bass and only liftthe slab barely off the bottom. but i am having no luck. how long do you wait to move the slab off the bottom? Is your line verticle or is this as you retrieve? Should the boat be still or is the boat moving while using the slab? Are you only fishing humps that mark fish or does it matter it you see fish on the sonar or not? any help would be appreciated, i read this all the time but havent had much luck yet. i do want to hire a guide at some point but as a teacher i dont have a lot of extra cash right now.

Well early in the year you dab the bottom only pulling up about 1 foot and as fast as it hits pull up again.Other times you drop it to the bottom pull it up 3ft. Some people drop it to the botom reel or burn it fast about 3 to 5 reels. Then drop it again. Best way to find fish is drift over a hump starting deep and drifting shallow. Keep slabing. When you see fish on the graff or catch a fish throw out a marker and then use the trolling motor to stay on top of them.
Some times fish will be holding 20ft deep in 30ft of water. Drop your slab about 25ft and slab like hell up and down

I would like to add one of my favorites, that is fishing schoolies. Using a 1 oz slab, cast out over the school and real through at a slow pace, if you dont get bit stop your retrive and let the slab sink. You almost always get bit on the down. You will tend to catch the better fish that are hanging around under the thrashing fish.

Go to TNT Slabs website, Bryon has some good advice on there.

Fish On,

Mario

Tie a fly or crappie jig on the line about 12" to 18" above the slab. That often gets more fish than the slab itself.

thanks for the info guys, this site has been the best help for me since i've moved here. I will diffenetly try this stuff.

CJG, in answer to some of your questions, I wouldn't start slabbing in an area unless you're seeing fish on your graph. Once you're in an area and catching fish, seeing them is less important but it's hard to stick with it until you become a "true believer" so pick your spots. Take your time cruising around looking and you'll eventually find some fish and likely you'll be able to find other schools at the same depth. If you see something on your graph like this, you're probably in a good place to start.


Throw out a buoy upwind of your fish and try to hold your boat still while fishing vertically. I like using a 1 oz slab, sometimes hopping it a few inches off the bottom, sometimes just lifting it a few inches up and just holding it there feeling for a bite.

One tip that can save you some time - hook the treble onto your line, drop the slab into the water and see how that feels. They'll occasionally snag like that and you're not going to catch any fish when it's snagged up.

Something you might try also until you get the knack of feeling the bite is to use a 1.5 or 2oz slab. The extra weight will help you feel when the fish hit the slab.

The way I teach people who are new to fishing slabs how to feel a bit is to take a 2oz slab and an unstrung rod, lay the rod across the deck so that you can lightly dangle the line to touch that rod. Then lift slowly until the slab bounces off the rod. This is about how the bite feels.

It's all about practice though, once you know how to feel the two or three types of bytes you'll be catching them left and right.

CJG,

If you graph looks like this

Drop a slab and slowly raise it, until you get a hit. The fish are holding and are in thick, so some movement is needed to entice a bite.

If your graph looks like this

Drop your slab to the bottom, raise it 1 -2 turns and hold it steady. The fish are moving, so you want to present a steady target. If you see marks up higher, simply raise the slab to that depth and hold.

The warmer the water temps get, the faster the movement should be. Don't stick with one presentation, try different speeds, depths and movements until you get a hit. I'll change my presentation several times, until I figure out what it is going to take to get the fish to bite. That is, if they are even biting

If birds are working and/or you can see surface activity, toss out a slab, count to five and slowly work it back in or simply drop it to the bottom and slowly raise it. If you don't get a hit increase or decrease your retreive speed, until you get a hit. Good luck and happy slabbing

bunch of good tips- i had never seen the 6og tips before

Everything mentioned above works. The challenge to slabbing is discovering the day you are out on the lake what presentation they want. Along with that is trying to match in size what they happen to be eating at the time of year. If it is late in the season and the bait is large, using a small 1oz slab may not produce like a 1.5 or 2 oz slab. The least important seems to be color although that's probably the hardest to believe. Lakes can also be peculiar. Some shapes will absolutely hammer the fish, while that same slab at another may perform but with lackluster results.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

At Hubbard, I've always hammered the fish with TNT slabs but at Texoma those cheap Fle-Fly slabs always seem to catch my limit like TNTs do at Hubbard. Part of it is confidence in the lure also. The finish of Fle-Fly's is beyond extremely poor. The reflective tape will peel after two hits and the paint will start flaking off after about 6, but don't let that fool you. When the lead starts showing through, that's when they are just getting good. I have yet to find a really good slab for Ray Roberts but I rarely go there.

I was at Texoma early fall and the Striper were stacked like one of the graphs above. Fish all over the place. I tried every thing I knew about slabbing and couldn't get one hit UNTIL, on accident, I allowed the slab to hit the bottom, give it a brief rest and then just barely pick it off the bottom. Had my limit in 20 minutes.

With the info above you have a good start but do not limit yourself to those techniques. Combine them, modify them, create new ones.

Two things I didn't see mentioned. While the slab is going down ALWAYS maintain contact with the line. You do not let a slab free spool for two reasons. First when it hits the bottom if you have even a half decent bait caster, it will continue to spool out line and you may have a fully decent birds nest on your reel. The second reason is that many hits on the slab comes on the descent. As the slab is going down GENTLY, EVER SO GENTlY keep you thumb on the spool. If the slab stop going down and you know you aren't on the bottom or the line goes slack, mash your thumb on the spool, start retrieving the line and set the hook all at the same time.

Secondly, weather at anchor or drifting do not underestimate the value of an idiot stick. Look at the graph and see what depth they are stacked at, strip off enough line to get you in the middle of them, crank the handle to set the reel and then set that rod in a holder and keep an eye on it. You will miss more fish on this rod than you get, but you will get some. You'll forget about it sometimes and then hear some racket, look up and see the rod bent over.

I think it is a bt early for the fish to be stacked for great slabbing. You'll catch some but not like in the warmer water temps when they stack up. The hardest will be hooking up the first time. After that it's easy. Give Varner a call. I have been with about a half dozen guides. I had all these slabs and could never catch a fish on them. I called John and told him he was really irritating me with all those Hubbard reports catching fish on the same slabs that I couldn't get a hit on. IMO he has been the all time best guide as far as teaching me different techniques for using slabs. On that afternoon trip, we probably caught and released near 100 fish or more and he thought it was only a fair day. Before that day, I hadn't caught fish one on a slab.

Well, I have nothing to add... My work is done

Any Lake Lewisville Guides you folks can recommend? I've never had a guide on this lake and live very close, so I may as well get a guide for the lake I fish the most.

Thanks,

FFK

No John, you are not done yet.

Sensei!!