Leaderboard

The annual family trip to the Outer Banks was this week, which means non stop fishing for my brothers and I. The fishing was tough and it took us a while to find a decent bite, but we found some fish to catch. The main target species for us were sheepshead, they are an absolute blast to fish for and are great eating. We caught a total of 21 sheepshead, with one of the being a 22" 6.2lb stud that my little brother caught. As usual when fishing for sheepshead, there was plenty of heartbreak when fish would run around pilings and cut us off, or spit the hook. We also caught a few small tautog, 6 of them I think, while sheepshead fishing. Near the house where we stayed, a few people had underwater dock lights in the sound, and every night there were hundreds of baby 8-12" stripers that would school up and eat glass minnows in the lights, so we fished for them a little bit and it was loads of fun! One night we had a few larger fish start feeding in a light, and they turned out to be seatrout. They were very picky and you had to make a perfect presentation with a weightless live glass minnow to get them to eat, even then they would sometimes swim right up to the bait and refuse it! The only other fish that we specifically fished for and had success in doing so were these huge gar-looking things called houndfish. They would swim around in schools ranging anywhere from 5 fish to 100 fish, and a live mullet or strip of cut bait was rarely turned down if you got it in front of them. They aren't the best fighters but on light tackle they would make a few short runs and jump a bunch. 5 trout we caught fishing a dock light, the biggest two were 17 and 18" A good mess of sheepshead My little brother with his 22" 6.2lb giant A couple of sheepshead I caught An 18" striper that my brother caught while sheepshead fishing, the wad of bandaging on his finger should be a testament to why you don't use a brand new filet knife to trim a tag end of a knot on a boat while running on plane in choppy seas. Here is a big houndfish, over 40"

I need me one of these!!

Well I took a buddy out on the local reservoir with me today with hopes of hitting a section of the reservoir that I've never had my boat at. The whole way there my buddy kept saying lets stop here and fish and I kept telling him lets just get where we're headed and we' fish the whole way back. Going to this area was a gamble to begin with since I've never fished this area from a boat, and I have other areas that I know produce. So I had one voice telling me to go where I know the fish are and another one telling me to stick with plan A, which was scout out a new area. Well we get to where I want to go and we start fishing out on this point when all of a sudden we start hearing someone hollering something but we're not sure what they're hollering. Well after fishing across the point and getting closer to the person hollering, my buddy says to me is that someone in the water ( which is illegal here ). I then realize the guy is in water up to his chin and he's screaming help, so I get to him as fast as my 2-55 lb electric motors will take me. The whole way to him I'm thinking he must have his foot stuck or something, when we get there he begins to tell us. He's been lost there for four days now and hasn't had nothing to drink or eat for four days. He said he went there scouting out spots on the bank to fish from when he got real dizzy fell down and couldnt stand back up. He said he tried crawling on his hands and knees trying to find his way out, but was unable to get out so he laid there for four days before he seen us. Needless to say we pulled him into the boat and called 911 and made a plan of where to meet DNR Police. We took him to the closest easiest place to off load him on a basket so the paramedics could take him out on the back of a side by side. Come to find out he has severe high blood pressure along with some other medical issues that he needs daily meds for, but didn't have them. I don't know if he would've died there, but when we rolled up he had the fear of God in his eyes, he said he tried to crawl into the edge of the water. The only problem is he crawled off of a drop off and was immediately in 6' of water, and didn't have the energy to get out. So the moral here is don't run off into the woods with out a phone or letting someone know where your go cause that fast it could be you.

Still need to paint the seams, add eyes and epoxy. Going to rattle can paint and hopefully won't screw it up. I used decal paper and it was pretty easy. So far I like the look of them. Will look better once I add epoxy. Never painted a lure. Hope to catch a few on on these.

Brand new video posted this morning! Enjoy! http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/wacky-rig.html

You take away information that fits you and your style of bass fishing in regards to equipment. It's the big bass behavior gems that are hard to find. Bill Murphy for example has some unique presentations and techniques, however it's his big bass behavior knowledge that makes his book worthwhile reading. Murphy was a very tight lipped angler for decades, sharing nothing, his book was a complete surprise to me that he shared so much. Matt tends to get a caught up with self promotion, however he has a guide business, so keep that in perspective. The subject video is post #54 in the "teener" thread. This video is long and covers soft swimbaits, glide baits, swim jigs, craw jigs, pork ring jigs, night spinner baits...lots of good topics. Tom

He was last online yesterday at 3:43PM so I'd say he's still around and probably still cantankerous as always

In the last 10 years or so since I have started to get serious about deep cranking, the overwhelming theme for me is.......................something with a little (sometimes a lot) of chartruse in it it out fish's any other deep crank color I have had by a wide margin. I have also found that the colors I like for shallow, mid depth, and lipless cranks, are next to useless in deep cranks, and vice-versa. About the only color that works for me in ALL cranking situations isChart. Sexy Shad, .............then again, I tend to only have success on that color shallow cranking in dirty water, but deep cranking it works fine in dirty AND clear water...go figure. My best producing shallow cranks are bluegill/perch/sunfish and red/orange craw colored baits, yet deep cranking they haul water (most of the time). So through a long trial and error process, I now only carry and use (I own every color of the rainbow...I'm just as much of a tackle junkie as the next guy LOL) for deep cranking these colors for these situations......(all SK 3xd's, 5xd's and 6xd's BTW): Chart. Sexy Shad: #1 go to color anytime, any where, if they are not biting this, they are likely NOT on a deep crank bite. Chart. Blue/Back: This is my change up bait when they ARE biting on #1, before I declare the bite is over, I like to run this around for a bit in the areas I was getting bit on #1... Chart. Belly Craw: When I am tossing a deep crank into the weeds and ripping it out, this bait seems to shine over the other two for some reasons I don't know, but I can't argue with what the results,so I roll with it. Sexy Ghost Minnow: Ultra clear water stuff when you have to "burn" a deep diving crank. It is translucent, so they don't get that great look at it or big splash of color in their face, but has just "enough" chart. in it to keep the theme of "chart = deep cranking success" theme going. And the one odd ball to my whole chart. based deal....Rootbeer.............smallmouth love this freaking color. NOW..............after that long winded post....I'll add this....these are the deep cranking lessons I have learned on my home waters, and apply to the late spring- late fall period. For some reason, early spring, or in the fall after the water has gone into the low 50's..........the chart. based stuff tapers off, and that's when the red or orange craw colored deep cranks (despite what I said previously) have a little window of jumping ahead of the ones listed above.

4th Quarter 2015. Its not like I have been researching already..... Rotfl!! Also around 12 color combinations. And... 2 sizes

Before the discussion into techniques & baits, I think it may help to know & understand two important concepts: 1). How, where & why LMB live out their lives in the Summer months and 2). How that relates to the water your fishing. During the pre summer to summer time period, bass will make one of two distinct movements, some of the bass population will head towards the protection of the shallows and the slop often found there and bury up for the summer months. Or they will head towards the cooler deeper water, only moving briefly moving as shallow as they need to to feed. How and when they feed in your water is important as is what prey they prefer or what is most available. This can at the very least offer some confidence in where to start. Clearly to learn this takes effort & time. You'll need to be there, on the water, or the bank trying different baits in different areas and at different times. It's not something one needs to speed up or rush because this is called Bass Fishing and that's what we do. I guarantee you, that after you figure some of this out, on your own, the confidence to keep learning and the satisfaction of putting it together will fuel you to new highs as an angler. btw- I said "some of this" because unless you where born with gills, there will always be gaping holes left in this puzzle. There are several good Summer Time articles here on BR. Good Luck A-Jay

My best had been a 3+ then I caught this one yesterday about 5:15 Weighed in at 6 pounds...

Been waiting 25 years for this. 8lbs weighed at Forty Woods bait shop...

Hasn't been a great year, but there have been some decent fish. Still waiting for the big one.

If I caught only one fish for every 12 hours on the water, I'd be pretty sure I was fishing the wrong spots or at the wrong times, or both.

HEY YOU GUYS! I'M RIGHT CHEER! Fished Friday and Saturday. Didn't do so good Friday. Got stormed out. Saturday was another story. Caught 6 bass ranging from 13" to 16". Hootie

These are all of the notable fish I have caught in the past 2 weeks. I know this is a bass forum but I didn't see any reason not to share! 15 pound bonitos+light tackle=20 minute fight

Oh man my pocket is in for it now haha... I'm just glad megabass doesn't make 'em!

On the island. Hitting some golf course ponds tomorrow morning as well as the lagoon

Try it, you might like it....or you might not, but at least then you can form your own opinion based on actual use. I have spent years....YEARS....cranking with braid and will never go back to mono or fluoro. Add an abrasion resistant leader if you need to. But what do I know, I have only boated 1000's of bass cranking with braid, and not re-hashing "internet wisdom" of how you need stretch, or any of the other garbage people spout off about it. If you don't like braid.............fine.........some people don't, I don't like like certain things that other people do, but issuing blanket statement of "No braid for cranks" treads into the realm of idiocy and ignorance.

A little Megabass action.

I can empathize Jakob, we deal with that situation a lot during Florida's hurricane season Unlike most aquatic plants, "coontail" isn't rooted, but stays in place via hold-fast hairs. Instead of yanking it up by the root system, high winds generally relocate coontail. Some situations are best remedied by "time", which ultimately heals all wounds and wounds all heels ;-)) There's a pro guide on the Stick Marsh who actually encourages his clients to take a rain check when the water is turbid (Jim Porter). In addition, A-Jay's summation provides a lot of good insight. Roger

Mercer is a very good salesman....

Not trying to start a reel war but at least with the abu if you ever needs parts which is very rare you can get them the rest of the reels life and yours.

G,g,g,g,g,g,giant bass!!!!!!!

Mother of god....I want one

I wanted to but this guys just takes up all my play time. A-Jay

As long as there is cover (weeds, logs, bushes) present it is never too shallow. I have caught dozens of 4-6 pounders in less than 6 inches of water punching & frogging. The most important thing when going this shallow is you have to go into stealth mode or you will spook the bass.

Looks like I'll be mowing the lawn tommorow if its dried out then lol

very cool looking! and ditto on the "good salesman"

Senkolover, thanks for this post.

I would try braid. I switched to it on my casting setup recently, and I love it! And I would be throwing a spinnerbait, frog, bladed jig, and t-rigged plastics.

This bait caught my attention. LiveTarget comes out with interesting top water stuff every few yrs.

Oh yes I want it. It is to pretty and to cool for me not to have it. Plus the trokar hooks on a frog style bait sound awesome.

I googled around and looked at black tips and black tip reef sharks they have a more distintive black tip also more than one fin has a black tip so I'm not sure what it was but it was a fight I will never forget! I caught a 86 inch sail fish 2 years ago in ft lauderdale also next time I Wana do some inshore next year!

Thanks for sharing, I love fishing with gill!

I like to use owner ST36 or if you want a heavier hook I will use ST-41. I use the same size usually but sometimes go up one size on the rear hook keeping the front hook standard size.

I really need one, that thing will kill it where I fish

Chunk man congrats!

Looks great! I just hope it's better than the shad walker- the tail really got in the way of the hookups. Definitely will buy though... I've been waiting for something like this for a long time- and I have never had a bad frog from LT. This should be really REALLY good!

The bubbles!!

OH HELL YEAH!

I want one!!!!!! I saw it earlier today!!!!!! The bass in the pond I fish live off of sunfish! ~Kevin

I wonder how the hook ups would be considering the smaller hook gap from a regular frog.

That's a fish worthy of the hawg trough! Nice catch.

Darren I went ahead and just ordered a trough by Frabill. It floats, its adjustable, and it ran me $13 from Amazon with free shipping.

The trough does work great, but they can be "brittle" as they're not the strongest things out there. There's one by Plano that is a bit more sturdy, can find at Walmart. I've got one though I don't use it much at this point. Have had to repair my trough a number of times. All that said, they hold fish great...

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ Nice fish there in the photo - Don't see many pics of bass in the garage on here . Congrats A-Jay

C'mon cat! You know better than that. Take it all back apart, go spend the whole $14 on new inner and outer bearing and race sets with a new seal and do it right the first time. sanded the race.... Of course I'm just bustin your chops but seriously go get all new bearing sets and a seal and you should be good to go.