No I'm not a guide, and would like to think of myself as a common guy. I have been fishing the stretch between 16 and 4 for about 6 years now. Unfortuneately I have gotten into a rut and always seem to fish the same patterns and areas. I have started to change that some with a little success. I throw 99% artificials with a spoiler shad being my go to bait. I also throw a lot of plastics fished slow. I don't always fish the seen cover of brush or rocks but key in on current flow.

Dave

Here's a few pics from some recent trips. And yes, I purposely distorted or cut out as much of the background as I could. I don't like to get to my spots and see a crowd... Don't mind sharing my baits that I use but not my spots.

Late one evening during a light shower...


Nice medium bass...


Dave

Fish it all. Any structure, rock shelf or ledge, brush, rapid, dead water, what ever. I believe the floods made some changes to the river channel as well as creating newly fallen tree and brush in the river. The old go to spots that have been there for years are still there but Ill bet there are some new spots that are being overlooked.

Absolutely there are John. That's the good thing about a river, it's always changing how it fishes. And that was what I was saying that it is easy to get used to fishing the same old spots year after year when you may be going right by better productive water. One other thing I suggest is to fish where others don't all the time, namely the first mile and a half below 16. Looks like a traffic jam in there sometimes and those fish NOW get a lot of pressure.

Dave

Hmmmm... seems all the nay sayers have gotten quiet? If the fishing isint' good, you're just looking in the wrong spots...

Dave

I don't know about anybody else but I'm quiet because I'm overwhelmed by all the humility.

Another recent one...



Dave

I should have posted my pixs of the 4-8 inch bass we caught in two days and called it a good trip I guess! Heck, I caught fish; they just weren't anything compared to years past In comparison to trips past; I can say that my previous trips have sucked! Hawk; glad to know you're on em in the river b/c the majority of people on here are not. Just look @ the posts in this section and compare to what we've seen in the past. Guys just aren't catching as many. That means we have to adapt. When you fish 10 miles of a river and fish every rock and limb; you wonder how much more adapting you can do? Realize that if you're in a kayak on the river behind PK; you have two choices; put in @ 16 and fish up to 4 or put in @ rochelles and fish downriver. I haven't fished down from 16 this year so maybe that's were the fish are. If you have a boat or access to private land; you can fish far more areas than someone can in a yak. I'll say this; if I do get in to em some time this year; I'll post pics w backdrops of every rock and bush on the river. What do I care if someone sees the tree behind me and says "man I need to go fish that tree" I think people are fooling themselves when they talk about how good the fishing is on the river still but won't post a backdrop of the scenery behind them.

Th next time I go to the river I'm gonna take a printed off picture of somebodys fish and compare the trees to the scenery like those kids did on Goonies when they had that map of One Eyed Willies Treasure.

haha

Let me say that a big reason why guys like Shane catch fish is because they know the river better than any of us couple hope to.

I think it's ridiculous to expect for them to tell you exactly where to fish. If you want to know some of these spots, you can pay for his services and he will show you in person where to catch fish.

What they are saying is that there still are places on the river where the fishing is good, even though it may not be as great as years past.

Keep in mind these guys have spent many many years of hard work finding their honey holes and I don't think they should be chastised for keeping all the details to themselves. All they can do is lead you in the right direction, but you have to do the leg work.

Where has anyone asked them to tell anyone where to fish? Does posting a pic w/ a backdrop automatically mean that 100 people will be there? Not hardly! It's a freaking river and you can't just jump in and be there in 5 min. via kayak or canoe. We've fished down there for 10 years ourselves so I'm not new to the river. I don't think this post started out by asking anyone where to fish. It was a post about a recent trip we took. You'll even see that in a recent post; I asked for pics and patterns but not spots! Cropping out the backdrops on a river that stretches for miles and miles seems odd. I just said I won't spend the time to black out a rock or tree. It that rock is 10 miles down from the the place I put in and I did well there; then haul a*s down there and get you some for all I care.

Calm down Junior! If you would of done some leg work yourself you might of realized that nobody is asking for Honey Holes man! What in the Sam Hill are you talking about??

Why did you bring up the one and only Yota?
I've got Shane's number so maybe I'll see if I can get you an autograph...

I'm glad Hawkpuppy's catching fish, I've actually met him and think is a really nice guy, that Goonies movie comment was just a joke. But the facts are this; A very very selected few are catching good numbers on that stretch say what you want about whatever but that's just how it is right now.

Sorry guys, I didn't have time to thoroughly read through...maybe I was talking out of line.

Shane is a friend, so I was jumping to defend. I'll go back in my hole now.

Ummm I have paid for his services and those spots arent producing any fish since the GA bloom. I caught 1 catfish in 3 days when I used to catch 15-20 fish in 8-10 hours every time I used to go.