What Pros Don't Tell You About Offshore Bass Fishing | Lake Hamilton Tournament Day December 2019

In this video, I fish my “tournament” day on Lake Hamilton in December and share some hard truths about offshore bass fishing. I also give tips and instruction on how to approach bass fishing tournaments and winter fishing. Hope you enjoy!
-Jonny
Video Mentioned:
How Current Positions Winter Bass | Lake Hamilton Practice Day
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[@tomday17]

Bass fishing is like playing the stock market....hard to predict on the front end what will really happen, easier on the back end to explain what occurred. I appreciate your honesty with regard to your plan and what eventually happened. Keep it up!

[@bassshakertv5443]

I love you content, its so unique.... dont hold anything back, you show your faliures not just your success. That my friend makes you great 💯💯 You've become the top person i watch on KZbin now. And ive only watched a couple of your videos. Thats saying alot about you 💪🏿 Shakem'Up Bro Tight-Lines

[@mitchellweiss9040]

I have a local reservoir which kicks my butt on a regular basis. Thank you for showing me that you can fish for 6 hours and not catch a fish and still learn from it.

[@Hmoob828]

yessir, now this is realistic applicational content. Keep it coming, tourney fishing and having to adjust for upcoming, present, and ever changing water and weather and pressure condition is terrific content. Adjusting and catching them when it matters: Fish the Moment.

[@RaySmithWeb]

Great narration style and a realistic look at the effort required to get fish in the boat. Outstanding work, Johnny.

[@davefletcher3878]

Just got a garmin livescope ice bundle here in Wisconsin and have been fishing offshore basin areas I’ve never tried before. It is awesome being able to precisely access un pressured fish, many times in schools. I can hardly wait to attach it to my boat in Spring. As a tournament fisherman, you might want to put one in your budget. Thanks for your videos.

[@turdferguson5300]

This is exactly why I moved over to fishing for crappie back in the 90s before it became popular. I would have 4 small fish days mixed with some good days. At the time very few people in my area knew about fishing docks, spider rigging, or trolling. They would drown a minnow in a blowdown and that was crappy fishing. I took what I had learned bass fishing and applied it to crappy. I had to make a lot of the rod racks and long dip net because it wasn't available. It the time the limit was 30 10" fish which wasn't that difficult and this river wasn't known for crappie.. I didn't keep them because ya can't use that many fish. It was like being a kid again, fishing wasn't work it was fun. The one thing I learned is to be successful you have to be doing something different that everybody else isn't. With social media it's extremely hard to be different today.

[@peterher3791]

People would be better at fishing if they watched your videos more. Very unique content that goes in depth on how you fish. Keep it up!

[@Mjones8383]

I fish current lakes also and on days like that, even without wind I take a spinnerbait and burn banks. Our fish scatter out in calm cloudy days. It's pretty consistent on catching fish . Definitely not alot of fish but bigger than normal.

[@waterdoglures1352]

Great video Jonny. Glad to see that it’s not just me having tough days. Really enjoy your channel and learn a lot!!!

[@michaelprice8222]

Excellent breakdown of the day with the video. You have the best continent demonstrating your thought process. Seems this day was kind of the opposition of “fish the moment”... “had the worst possible conditions to fish offshore... so I fished offshore.” Sounds more like “fish the plan”. Gotta figure out the adjustments to make to get those fish in the boat. “Hope and Pray” isn’t really the answer... but hindsight is 20/20 and if it were truly that easy, there’d be a whole lot more people catching big bags of fish. Keep up the good work.

[@BluntTruth7]

I fish Shearon Harris Lake, NC which is my nemesis during the winter time. Hardly anyone is catching bass during this season due to lots of rain, cold water temps (High 40's to mid 50's), and muddy water. At least in Hamilton the water looks clear compared to what we've been fishing in.

[@dwightstephenson_fishing5150]

Brian Miller I fish there too and that lake is certainly difficult most of the time. Lotta big fish but they’re weary and smart. I’m gonna get some this year though. Determined.

[@BluntTruth7]

@@dwightstephenson_fishing5150 yep, I caught a lot last year from end of Feb thru Oct. I'm not going to let this lake beat me during the winter time. I know there are some lunkers in this lake and they're itching to bite. I'll have to try something they haven't seen if and when all this rain stops...

[@JacobSchmittDeerHuntingSchool]

I just fished a tournament there yesterday. Just under 21 to win it. Glad to see your fishing the BFL. Your going to be fishing against some Arkansas hammers. The top two yesterday will be fishing there Saturday. I struggle on this lake too and to make it worse yesterday at take off my steering helm started slipping bad (basically went completely out). Only caught 2. Good luck next weekend on Hamilton!!!

[@scottarivett496]

Hamilton’s a tough one. Next time do what a friend of mine used to do on tournaments there. Have someone waiting at another ramp somewhere, load up, go to Ouachita, catch your fish, go back to Hamilton and weigh in.

[@NuteDobbs]

Another sick video from the mad scientist himself!!💪

[@aaronkusmits4718]

Love your videos, best information out there. I am a novice bass fisherman, can you please tell me just a few bullet points. Sunny or cloudy Pressure rising or falling What side of the lake when windy Thank you and keep the video's coming. You should make a few videos on all grass lakes. I fish Portage lakes in Akron Ohio and our lakes are nothing like yours

[@grhodes3536]

Great video, so much more realistic than most. I agree dropping the spoon can sometimes get those zombie schools to waken up. Txu!

[@hopalongjohnny9797]

Great info! You are a good teacher, I never thought about fish roaming in cloudy weather...Just thought they wouldn’t vote period. Love your channel!

[@leeyarbrough9636]

Another real time video , I never seen what the weather was that an was in after a cold front or during one seems high pressure with bluebird sky’s move onto of you. Great video. Maybe one day you’ll get to pickwick lake again would love to see you down here after them big brown fish. Good luck an sorry for your lose of your father , lost my father about a year as well. Good luck to you.

[@dangerously72]

It's called 'Fishing' and not 'catching' for a reason! :) Love the videos..keep up the great work.

[@carriewheeler2745]

I have to remind my friends that about every 20 min while fishing...yea i need new fishing buddied

[@jeffward4511]

On those days stick with what works. You cought fish working the bank they were small but you might have got a few big ones had you stuck to it.

[@SDGCustomLurecraft]

Maybe you did and didn’t show it in the edit, but I’m curious why you chose not to flip all the docks you cruised by, especially if you were after a quick limit and there was evidence of fish in that area (I.e. up shallow despite the winter time). Docks will hold some level of fish almost year-round, all the more-so in the south I would think. Just curious. Great video!

[@BudjetBassin]

Great video bro!Always top notch information from your channel!!!👍👍👍

[@Tacklebox22]

Great channel, love your content and effort

[@robhand7205]

You know you are hardcore when you refer to Christmas day as December 25th. I need to be more dedicated. Haha.

[@darryladams519]

@Michigan Fishin Unless WE THE PEOPLE start pushing back

[@darryladams519]

@@jholdd True, they don't know exactly the month and day Jesus was born. But that day was/is (also) used to symbolize his birth. So don't be so pragmatic about the symbolizing of it they are pretty sure it was 2019 years ago give or take.

[@robhand7205]

@@darryladams519 Don't take life so seriously. It was a joke. Christmas is great. Even if it obviously wasn't the day Christ was actually born, it is a great excuse to get together with family.

[@JoobyFoo]

@Michigan Fishin Get over yourself

[@chaddrumm6809]

And the winning pattern was???? The guy going down the bank lobbing the idiot rig (A Rig)! Lol Great vid! I really liked your thought process! And props to you for not throwing in the towel and just aimlessly lobbing the A bomb all day! 👍🏻

[@Crankinstien]

I would love to see you go back to lake tenkiller. It’s 6 FT ABOVE. Just got home and got 1 bite!! 1 man. It sucks.

[@jimb6683]

Learned a lot even with our fish catches. Good stuff dude

[@jimb6683]

With out catches

[@tcoop616]

It's funny, it always seemed when I used to fish tournaments that the people who were on them offshore were the ones least affected by changes in conditions.

[@ShacksOutdoorAdventures]

no one explains fishing strategy like you. If you ever in or near Cincinnati, would love to collabe!

[@txhuntsman]

"The curse of not being able to catch anything over 12 lbs". LOL. Enjoyed the video.

[@lukerville]

jayhwk01 I think he’s talking about a 12 lb bag of 5 fish. “Tournament weight” Threw me off at first too..

[@txhuntsman]

lukerville He was it just sounded funny.

[@ericraleigh2255]

I have a lake that is my nemesis as well...this just gives me hope that I will unlock it someday lolol...keep that line tight!!!

[@12ernie]

Great video! Always great content! Lots of information!

[@Fixitall3]

Love your content it's so informative especially on my home lake. Keep up the good work and we need to go fish sometime.

[@ReelJedi]

Ive found some fish suspended like that not feeding and got them to bite a 1 ounce jigging shad. It was still a tough bite tho. Got to work hard for it

[@bassmasterbrewski7392]

Bought your offshore playbook a month ago. Good info. Just had one question that you’ve probably answered. If you find a school of bass offshore do they usually stay in the same area for days? Weeks?

[@carriewheeler2745]

Great question id Also love to know the answer

[@BackwardsNelsons]

The pros don’t tell you... it’s freaking hard!!! I can’t ever figure out off shore fishing Lolol

[@dangerously72]

Yep...everytime i try offshore fishing, after about 45 mins of nothing, i go back to beating the banks/shoreline...lol. I'd love to get better at figuring out the offshore methods tho.

[@BackwardsNelsons]

Woods2Waters and fishing in the wind, man if I could do that I wouldn’t eat so many cheeseburgers lol

[@Crankinstien]

I need help fishing dirty water, the lakes in oklahoma are all dirty. PLEASE do a video on cold dirty water

[@fadethenoise9704]

Just curious if you dragged a jig? Because that’s what I would of resorted to and still I wouldn’t catch anything. LOL

[@LoopKnot]

Didn't happen for you that day..... Still a lot of great information.

[@deerhunter2862]

Hey man I have a question. I went out to DeGray lake near Arkadelphia this weekend and could not figure anything out. Did not catch a single fish. We tried everything and everywhere. We graphed a few fish and bait balls on the western end of the lake but hardly anything on the east side. We noticed the fish we graphed were all hanging around 20 ft of water. We threw A-rigs, traps, crankbaits, jerkbaits, drop shots, shakey heads, jigs, and a few more things. We tried points off the main lake, islands, deep, shallow, rocks, coves, and bluffs. We graphed a few brush piles but there were no fish on them. That lake is really deep in spots. We fished mainly from 10-40 ft, which the highest I saw was 130 ft. Where do you think they would be this time of year? The main lake was relatively clear with about 6 ft visibility and the coves and creek channels where about 2 ft visibility. Water temp was around 48-50 degrees. We noticed other boats around that where 50-100 yards off points but that is the same thing we were doing. We talked to some guys that did not catch a thing either. Just wanted to see if I could get an input on what the fish are doing right now. Nice video and I have learned a lot from your channel

[@lonniehall9006]

Great show, thanks for going out with me on table rock. From Kentucky

[@danielwood5510]

Loving all this new content !!!!

[@rickfxxzcstevenson9674]

Good job young man

[@OuachitaOutdoorsMan]

Can you recommend a more economic version of the jerk bait your using

[@donhershfeld9930]

Echoing the kudos of others here, no doubt. But speaking not as another offshore-addict (may God bless us, every one, lol), but as a former fisheries biologist and aquatic ecologist? THE supremo law of all angling, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, boils down to one very simple reality: fish are either active, or they are not active! And as a practical matter, there's not really all that much we as anglers can do to change their most fundamental status. It may help our psyches to learn to apply the 'serenity prayer' to our outings, and realize that fish are NOT like us in this key regard: a fish does NOT become active in order to feed (which me do, sooner rather than later). But active fish feed. What does that mean? It means we can't project our M.O. on our targets, that's what! There is a cumulative theoretical scope for activity, which might be thought of as a minimum set of environmental threshholds (including such ever- varying factors as light intensity, wind speed and direction, current speed and directios, dissolved oxygen, all to be considered in the context of cyclical weather patterns circumstances, along with the presence or absence of disturbances - as well as directional trends thereof) which either satisfy, or do not sufficiently satisfy the fish's instinctual programming, in order to 'flip its behavioral switch' from 'OFF' (which is NORMAL in stillwater environments, for cold-blooded creatures) to 'ON' (at which point, assuming our efforts supply appropriate and necessary triggering, a fish at least becomes catchable (for an indeterminate time). Yes, that's a mouthful. But that's what it takes before we ought even expect before we 'get bit'. Any angler worthy of that title has had this switch-flipping experience. Perhaps without our changing a thing we are doing or where we are doing it (i.e without changing our lure presentation or our location), suddenly we can do no wrong (or vice versa), right? True, the fish may have just appeared on the scene, but for many species (being less mobile in non-tidal freshwater settings), odds are they were more or less present the entire time, and simply had a change of attitude ('somebody's home, and now their lights came on/off'). They did not all of a sudden up and swim on or off from the other end of the lake, although it might be prudent for us to considering cutting our losses of time/effort/energy/resolve and relocating to a place where the environmental cards being dealt at the moment ARE more conducive to fish activity (which might be as simple as merely switching to the opposite bank, where a ripple is present, or may require a wholesale change of our program. Point is, we can only control what we can control, and coming to terms with that (between our ears) is essential - not merely in any competetive context, but simply in terms of enjoying our recreation. What i love about this guy, is how neither his egi, nor his accomplishments, eclipse his enthusiasm for the sport. He's honest about fishing being what it is: the pursuit of catching, and that there are unavoidable dues one must be willing to pay for objective success to follow. The one thing we can control? Accepting how no matter what, doing what what we can in order to fish well (with or without there being a high degree of catching 'in the moment'), may as well be considered its own reward. Slow to non-existent bites happen to everyone who wets their line routinely (even if in a pond we may know like the back of our hand, where the fish are corraled! ). And that's what keeps playing the game interesting. Glad to have this young man sharing his God-given gifts!

[@nathanhubbard2016]

Hope the tourney has a good purse, cause you burning some gas! ⛽ No current, when the fish scatter, stick to jerkbaits, and finnesse style baits. And fish slow

[@nextleveljb]

great video

[@randydjr1]

Love the videos man and they have really helped me. 1 question I have is do you have any suggestions on information I can learn more about the Lowrance elite 9ti fish finder I have? Love the content and Thanks for all the info.

[@anothersomebody8195]

He uses an older finder but has a video on setting general defaults for most all finders. I found it helpful, but it might not be what you're looking for

[@ouncesthebasssnatcher5255]

@@anothersomebody8195 Look up lowrance elite tutorials and you will find a number of videos to get you started.

[@MrBigBoy4Life]

SMH! I woulda been killing those bass with a wacky tricky worm against those banks and boat slips!

[@lakemeadguy5621]

I love my lowrance electronics as much as everyone else, But I beleive there is a time when electronics like live scope takes alot of the skill out of fishing. Nothing wrong with technology but I feel live scope would be more like catching Bass out of your swimming pool. I enjoy the challenge of finding the right structure and seeing fish on that stuff but not actually using live detail swimming around with exact locations and watching yourself dangle a drop shot on its back. Just my opinion.

[@carriewheeler2745]

My buddy says the same thing all the time he said what's the fun In putting a jig in between it's eyes everytime lol n I kinda agree kinda don't I suck at fishing so I need it but most Guys don't it just depends if you honestly need it

[@LKNDIY]

Subbed. Dope content. Thank you.

[@andrewthomas4399]

I guess 2D sonar wouldn’t work for those fish suspended in the creek channels?

[@jake-yp2eo]

Andrew Thomas I haven’t even watched the video yet to know which fish your talking about 😂😂 but you have to remember, 2d sonar is all the pros had for a long time. Just food for thought.

[@exodusfivesixfivesix8050]

Why do so many anglers cast with right hand switch hands and reel with right hand?? Why not cast right hand and reel left hand?

[@KrummyProductions]

They sell right handed casting reels like that. I’ve tried to switch after 30+ years of fishing and my mind doesn’t like it. It would take considerable practice, but it would save energy and time if I could do it. I get annoyed switching hands every cast when “power fishing”.

[@mattnash5159]

Hey Johnny I'm curious what jerkbait were you using in this video? Also what is your go to jerkbait(s)?

[@carriewheeler2745]

FLICKER MINNOW BRO!!

[@BluntTruth7]

Also, what tournament association are you fishing with that allows using an Alabama rig? Thought this rig was illegal to use for pretty much all bass fishing tournaments.

[@anothersomebody8195]

I think he said tournaments in air " ", so I took that to mean he is treating it like a tournament even though no one else was competing against him. I think he threw all the fish back too

[@anothersomebody8195]

I guess you meant why practice with one if it wouldn't be allowed huh?

[@BluntTruth7]

@@anothersomebody8195 I missed that "tournament" quote at the beginning. As you said, why practice with an Alabama rig if you can't use it during a tournament. I understand he was trying to locate fish with this rig, but this to me would give you a false sense of confidence if that's all the fish are biting.

[@anothersomebody8195]

@@BluntTruth7 yeah, I see what you're saying. I've never fished a tournament, but based on my recent luck I would need an A-rig! 🤣

[@JacobSchmittDeerHuntingSchool]

Some of the larger tournaments in Arkansas were he is do allow an a-rig.

[@OhKee12]

I have a video from Lake Hamilton, it might help or give you a different perspective of the lake. If you fish it again.

[@richardhamilton3163]

Please send to [e-mail] I would love to compare. Thanks for the hard work Jonny!

[@JacobSchmittDeerHuntingSchool]

Which video are you talking about, is it the one 3 years ago with you fishing out of the kayak?

[@OhKee12]

Jacob Schmitt yes that’s the only time I’ve fished Hamilton. Although there has been some time it still gives a different perspective of fishing that lake. Some good and some bad. Good luck 👍

[@JacobSchmittDeerHuntingSchool]

OhKee12 yeah I watched it I was just wanting to make sure that was it.

[@OhKee12]

Jacob Schmitt obviously there is more footage I was fairly new to fishing at that time and broke off some large ones, but if you plan to fish it let me know and I can break down the areas that held the larger fish for you.

[@purewaterswva.5409]

Are you seriously getting back into tournament fishing?

[@mr.skeptical3071]

Did he throw that fish back at 5:50?????

[@FishtheMoment]

Yes I always catch and release

[@jasonlong3929]

Great video I hate Hamilton lol

[@Vetteman6363]

Agree Hamilton is a hard lake for fishing.

[@carriewheeler2745]

I have a lake that on a good day I get like 3 or 4 fish Max and it's crystal clear I'd love to finally get into them

[@dirtlegchaser2424]

i think bass have gone extinct in lewis smith Al

[@garyheath6257]

I've sent several emails with no reply!!! Guess money has to be involved to get a reply.

[@dirtlegchaser2424]

duh

[@curtcollins6659]

I'd rather use live bait than a jerkbait. ugh.