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Dave Thanks for all your info about this topic. I'm wondering if anyone would have any good info on developing a patteren during all seasons. I guess I'm asking for pre-fishing techniques and stragities in general. What is the best way for get on board with ledge fishing: Finding productive spots, lures, and catching the fish? There seems to be alot of knowledgeable people on here and just thought I'd see if anyone could help out a little.
Jignpig, Dave is the expert on ledge fishing. It would be money well spent to book a trip with him. I have hired guides for years some like Dave have been a wealth of information others not so much. That last question covers a tremendous amount of information with an endless list of possibilities. Not trying to put you off or speak for Dave just adding my 4 cents
:-) :-)
stratosjoe, I've been out with Dave a couple of times, once a fun fishing trip, and the other a lake familiarization trip. Really looked foward to the lake familiarization trip, but weather wasn't permitting much in our favor, so we had to do alot of map marking. and my north ky map was marked well, but it blew out of the boat not too long after our trip during a night tournament. Dave is a wealth of info, but with my job situation its been hard to book a trip again. I would love to go out on the water again with Dave, just having scheduling conflict after scheduling conflict. Thanks again Dave was a great guide and I would highly recommend him to anyone. He knows bass, and he knows the lakes very well.
Josh I am sure there are a lot of knowledgeable folks on here that will chime in on this for you...but understand you are covering a lot of territory here and overall hard to address typing on a discussion board.
That said, I do a number of specialty type guided trips...one of them I call a "lake familiarization" trip. It could be called "how to eliminate water during the different seasons" or a number of other things because of the way the trip is layed out. Basically we start this trip with a class that takes anywhere from one to one and half hours..what I teach you in this class is how to eliminate water before you ever get on it by teaching you how to recognize and find high percentage spots for the different seasons by using your topo map...ie...eliminate about 80% of the water before you ever get on the water. After that we run around an area of the lake(s) (these are two big lakes so we can only cover so much in one trip) and I show you some of the better spots for the different seasons. Of course during all this we are discussing techniques, lures etc.
This is a pure teaching trip....we don't do a lot of fishing..what we do is a lot of learning. What you learn in my opinion on this trip is worth more than any regular just for fun, let's see how many fish we can catch guided trip. What you learn is the basics of how to find fish. The class is generic and can be applied to any lake that has shad as a forage base.
If you want to get more familiar with how to find and fish ledges I do another trip that is more intense on this. On this trip we start with the same class but instead of spending all day running around looking at spots and discussing lures, techniques for all the seasons, we focus only on the ledges. By the end of this trip you should be able to not only pick out the different type ledges that should be higher percentage for you but also how to find them (without gps), search them out for cover and learn the techniques to fish them.
Anyway, if you ever decide to try a guided trip, I thought you might be interested in one of these.
This having been said, I am scheduled to be at the Lexington Boat Show in February this winter and I always have a lot of free time on my hands when at the shows and would be more than happy to discuss your questions while I am there...it isn't like going out on the water on a guided trip but it is free...lol.
Dave
Josh...after having made my other post I realized that you have been out with me before, then I read your post here...lol. I go out with so many folks I have a hard time remembering what we did on those trips without looking it up in my records. Anyway, about that map you lost...either mail me a blank map of the one you lost or see me at the Lexington show (probably better so we can talk about it) and I will mark you another one. I see from reading your post your lake familiarization trip was more class than on the water due to the weather..probably a lot of wind....that happens to me and my clients here sometimes on these type trips. Anway, maybe we can get you out on another one of those type trips....give me a call and we will talk about it.
Thanks for the kind words Joe.
Thanks for the info Dave, when is this boat show scheduled? I would love to attend and hear the seminars. When is the best time overall to try to book a good learning trip with you dave?
Thanks for the other post dave. Dad and I went out with you from KY Dam Marina. It was an enjoyable trip, but like you said the weather makes it rough sometimes. I'll try to contact you and get an address or see about setting up and going out for a day. Thanks again for all your help.
The Lexington Boat Show is Feb 1-4. The "lake familiarization" trips can be done at any time of the season. My season is from March 1st until the end of November...I sometimes do a couple of trips in early December if the weather cooperates. I can do the ledge teaching trip anytime also but it works best if you do it in late May or June so you can get more hands on by yourself out there the rest of the summer.
One thing about my teaching trips...I do tend to load you up with a lot of information. It is best to be prepared to take some notes or I have even had folks bring a tape recorder with them...you won't be able to remember everything I go over with you on one of these trips..but I don't have any problem if you call me after the trip to go over things again if you have questions about something you can't remember.
Dave
Hey Thank all you guys for the replies to my post. Dave you was a big help just talking with you. It seems I could talk fishing all day long. My wife swears I'm setting hooks in my sleep. LOL Wish all you guys luck this season... God Bless