Leaderboard

Just got a little package from Japan I felt was worthy of a post here. Time for ice off!!

Not many people Bass fish that way intentionally, though I could certainly fish that way with shiners for big bass. If expanded to fishing in general, if you can no longer appreciate or get even a little excited about seeing a small float go running off as it slowly gets pulled out of sight beneath the water, then you've lost a small part of yourself, a part that makes this sport so great. That simple fascination should never grow old. -T9

Got the Whopper Plopper 130 Bone along with some Hydras that were on TW sale.

Working on the crankbait situation

There were 14 (or 15 depending upon which story you read) guys that met and formed the initial company/organization back in 2009. That group, including KVD, Ike, Tak, E2, Ish, Skeet and Rojas, selected Duckett and Klein to be the leaders/representatives of the organization. Duckett worked the business side while Klein developed the tourney format. The actual "product" was launched a couple years later (2011).

Finally got to get out on the water for a few hours. Was hoping the fish were still stacked deep but the stretch of warm weather has them scattered around. Was tough today with only 2 fish for me (5lb and 3-1/2lb). Both were caught in 30ft on seiberts 3/4 football jigs and rage lobster in falcon craw. This lake has a very large population of big bass. No foreign boats only rentals....Fishing out of a John boat with paddles only is a pain in the rear but an anchor helps. My triton is getting jealous of the time I'm spending on a tin boat, lol.

Hi everyone, I'm new to this website, and this is my first post. I have been fishing since I was about 5 years old and now I'm in my mid 60s. Although I was an avid bass fisherman for many years, like so many others, I have returned to my childhood love of fishing for sunfish, primarily Bluegill and Redear Sunfish. Lucky for me I live close to Lake Perris here in southern California that has world class trophy-sized Bluegill in it. The Florida coppernose sub-species was stocked here way back in the late 1970s and they have adapted very well, spawning and growing to unusually large sizes due to the very fertile lake that has abundant aquatic insects and lots of thread fin shad for the fish to feed on. I like to fish from a float tube, but occasionally go out in a boat to fish. We used very light tackle and 2 lb test on our spinning reels because of the clear water, and fish with tiny hand-tied jigs or spoons. Large fish are released to help keep the lake a trophy fishery.

Today was pretty miserable weather wise, windy and rainy with air temps in the low 40s, but my little brother and I decided to take the boat out to see how our new fishfinder would do. We went 3 hours without a bite, and he finally landed one on a blade bait. From there we pieced the puzzle together and managed to land 9 largemouth, and a bonus walleye! I also discovered that largemouth will still hit the Alabama rig even in 40 degree water, which is encouraging. Had to call it a day when our fingers weren't functional enough to change the trolling motor battery . Wet, cold fingers and wind are a bad combo!

Tourney fished for 25 years, then spent the next 10 writing about various aspects of the sport as well as being a personal friend/mentor to one of the current Elite/MLF guys... -T9

David Fritts stated they rate the Berkley new deep divers using .011 dia line and thought that was important to note. IF Fritts is right about the new designs they will change how deep diving cranks are designed, smaller size with less water resistance that dive deep, can't wait to give these a try out. Tom

The following list are baits that are for me, legit 20 ft plus deep divers. There may be others, but these are the ones I've got experience with. They are almost all fairly larger baits that I can & do throw on 30 lb braid (suffix 832) and believe it or not, on big (20lb) mono. Bill Norman DD 22 HD Crankbaits Duo Realis Crankbait G87 20A Lucky Craft SKT Magnum 120 Mag DR Crankbaits Strike King 8XD & 10XD Crankbaits Some are pictured below ~ and just for a size reference, the top bait is a 10XD FYI @riverbasser - be fore warned - regardless of what some claim, I'm here to say, 8 hours of chunking & winding these baits can test anyone's intestinal fortitude. A-Jay

Nothing wrong with any of that. Ill swim a jig anytime tho as long as their biting it.

Definitely having some influence in the industry, and I expect more to come. It's putting some of the anglers in more of a position of leverage with the larger tourney orgs. I'm guessing BASS took a little offense to the initial moves, but has since accepted and is playing along. The pros tried something similar many years prior with the creation of the PAA (which ultimately failed). This go around, they got everything right, and created an ownership based and profit sharing vehicle very similar to the NBA and the NFL, albeit on a much smaller scale and with limited membership. The best part is MLF is a stand alone entity, so no matter what happens at BASS or FLW, it has no effect on MLF.

What many people refuse to do! I do it with traps to

Beware of lure mfr claims of deep diving lure depths. The depth may be possible to achieve when trolled with specific line type and diameter behind a boat traveling at optimal speed with 100+ feet of line out. Casting ant deep diver over 150' and retrieving it to dive to maximum depth is nearly impossible. What is interesting about the Berkley 21' & 26' deep divers is they are only 3" long. Take a look at a Scrounger jig, it sinks to whatever depth you need to reach. Tom

“Catching larger fish in a school of dinks” It seems that I've dredged-up an old, but thought-provoking thread Short Answer: Bass innately school according to year-class, so in my opinion, the best way to catch a trophy bass among immature bass is to move ‘away’ from the school of juveniles. Longer Answer: Juvenile fish don't willingly intermingle with adult fish, and there are 2 good reasons why: >> First & foremost, immature fish instinctively sense that they fit nicely in the mouth of a big predator. >> In addition, immature fish are faster and more energetic than adult fish which are unable to compete with juvenile bass. In deference to Timing & Territory, trophy adults and runt bass either eat at different restaurants or eat at the same restaurant at different times. WELL, as a rule Same Restaurant / Same Time In saltwater, we’ve often found slammer blues (bluefish in the teens) lying on the bottom beneath a school of busting choppers (2 to 6 lb fish). Although the mature and immature fish might be separated by 15 feet, any crippled baitfish and fish chunks that flutter to the bottom are vacuumed-up by bottom-hugging adults. This same scenario can play out with freshwater bass too, but to a much lesser degree. Since bass have no teeth they’re forced to swallow their prey whole, which will leave the occasional cripple, but no residue forage. Roger

The bass does look like a well trained pet bass since it eagerly ate the baby duck. There's a lake I fish where I have seen bass eat baby ducks, but I have only seen bass eat baby ducks 2 times in this lake. Have heard big splashes at night time and notice less baby ducks the next couple days in this lake, so something must be eating them.

I got this stuff today. Ordered it from jpangler in Japan on Saturday night and rcvd it Wednesday! Kazu from JPAngler also replied to 3 separate emails of mine within minutes.

I caught more fish on lipless cranks this year than ever , the Strike King Red Eyes though .Largemouths , white bass , channel cats , blue cats and drum . Every single fish came from 10 to 20 foot deep along the bottom . Sometimes I would just raise the lure off the bottom and hold it there for a second and lower it slowly , hop it like a worm , rip it or reel it in slowly then kill it . I hope it wasnt just one of those fluke years because it was a whole lot of fun .

Yeah trout. Found a state park Lake showed up the day of the stock. They dropped the trout and about 30 mins later it started to happen. There was discovery Channel style straight carnage for the next few hours. Ended up with two fish. 6.9 was the biggest. The second pic was a smaller fish but still had a trout in her throat. It was one of the coolest days I've had on the water. P.s. I wasn't kidding about the total carnage. It triggered Bass behavior unlike anything I've ever seen.

Whenever anyone asks about what color jig to throw or what they like to throw you always here - Black and Blue, some type of Green Pumpkin, maybe a Missuri Craw or PB&J thrown in. But I rarely (almost never in fact - other than @Catt it seems) mention Black and Red. It's a great color for hardbaits (traps, cranks, etc in Spring/Fall) when we are imitating a crawfish among other things - so why not a Black and Red jig?

It happens quick. Short and sweet. This is why I love bass. Kind of reminds me of a buddy of mine... Not picky.

that Z limited is absolutely sick i would love to have one of those but man that price is steep

I like throwing the smaller sizes, especially in rivers or when the bite is tough and/or they are feeding on tiny baitfish .

Ive never heard of the Berkely Dredger . I'll be sure to give them a try this year . Interesting lures . They have a weight in the lip like the old rebel Double Deep Wee R .I'm not one that has to try a lot of new lures but I'm going to get one in each size , probably all in Fire tiger . lol

Maybe you got a couple bad ones. I use these baits a lot and have never broken one, and I have had to do some real surgery and magic tricks getting them out of the back of large pikes throats. Now that I re-read your post.......I'm confused, are you breaking the body of the bait it self? Or the hooks? If it's the hooks, then yeah, the stock hooks are pretty light wire on them, I switch them out before they even hit the water with 2x strong Mustad KVD short shank triple grips....#4's on the 200, they DO NOT negatively effect the performance of the bait, and you need a plasma cutter or bolt cutters to bust those hooks.

I often fish alone. What should I do, hire a photographer?

I saw it once on the lake and it was pretty amazing to see.The duck was injured.Not sure if the bass had been hitting it to mess it up but the next thing was a splash and do more duckling.

Here is the finished product with the dressed single hooks. Igotwood is a super cool guy, he did these for nothing. I originally planned on having the hook point up but they look better down.

Plain black.

I had a co-worker that hunted a lot but had only fished a few times - the usual bobber & crickets or worms. I was always talking bout fishing & he kept asking how I could fish so much since it was so boring. I kept telling him that's not the way I fish for bass - that it was actually more like hunting. Fast forward a few months & I get him on the water at a small lake with a phenomenal top water bite on buzz frogs. Needless to say, he was hooked. Didn't even wanna leave that day. A week later I was meeting him as Bass Pro to help him buy a rod, reel & some lures. ?

Good strategies all... Me, I gave up on trying to calculate cast lengths or otherwise figure out how to apportion out a filler spool. I have my "brands" selected for braid and flouro and I buy bulk spools. I fill the reel completely full with the braid or flouro and then due to trimbacks or whatever I'll get to the point where I'll add backing to bring the reel spool back up to full. Eventually, after adding enough backing, on a long cast you will hit your backing knot. At that time, I pull the remaining line off the reel; the remnant of flouro goes in the trash, the remnant of braid is used as backing.

There aren't too many vital organs in the vicinity of a fish's mouth (I hope you're kidding) More to the point, 'rippin lips' is not as innocent as it might sound. Roger

I agree it is not as fun but I would still fish just not as often. probably save a butt load of money too

Where are your fish pics?

If the water starts rising, you better follow it up. Those fish love new water!

Sshhh... Don't let the cat out of the bag! In all seriousness, I kind of like that fact that not a lot of people throw black and red compared to black and blue because I throw a lot of black and red baits period. Particularly soft plastics.

I didn't fish Tuesday but fished 3 hours in the rain Wednesday. Caught 10, biggest was 3 lbs. broke off on another. Those 2 were in 17'. Caught the others on suspending jerk baits & tx rigged swamp hog jr. Lost another on rattling bait crawfish colored. Spent my time around north Toledo state park. Probably head out after lunch unless I hear thunder.

Well, try this recipe: Begin with a cedar plank and soak for at least one hour. Remove soft tissues (guts and gills) and wash the fish thoroughly. Lightly season the cavity with salt & pepper, then stuff with lemons and finish with basil. Place the fish on the cedar plank and grill over hot coals for 30 minutes or until the plank begins to steam. Remove the fish on the cedar and let stand for 5 minutes. Throw away the fish and enjoy the plank! Bonappetit!

So, after 3 pages of suggestions you bought a swivel and a weight? I think this thread is done. Good night Irene.

I'm going to make a suggestion. Leave the center seat out. I have a Nitro Z-8, bought new. After five years, I finally pulled the seat out, and made a step to the rear deck. There are two small step pads between the seats for doing this, but not very compatible with older fellows, such as me. The new Nitros do not come with center seats, though they may be an option. If I need it, I can put the throwable pfd on the step. The non-skid strips are peel and stick. Available at Home Depot in the paint department. They are two feet long, six inches wide, and come with a durable grit, and the yellow stripes. I cut one in half, and rounded the cut corners to match the radius of the existing corners. Any holes which show can be filled with these. Available at most hardware stores. Makes access to the rear deck a breeze.

Shhhhhhhhhh......... ?

I've seen a red tail hawk take out a stray cat. Made my day.

That's not buyers remorse, that's called the bait monkey, and you have already been bitten. There is no known cure. Best of luck.

Twice in my time - 50yrs apart - I've seen a bass jump and take a red-winged blackbird out of the air.

I think people do it backwards. I fill the spool with braid and when I run low then I add backing. Granted I have spare spools and some don't so an extra spool helps. I also flip the line at the same time so the fresh line is on top.

You want to learn this knot if you want to drop shot. Otherwise, skip the technique altogether. Always remember, if you're cinching the knot down by pulling the main line, you're doing it wrong. If your main line to the hook is crimped or curly, you did it wrong. This is VERY important with lighter lines, and finesse terminal rigs. Lear to tie a good Palomar knot, and you are way ahead of many other anglers.

The minus 1 is killer at alot of ponds around here. Water depth is 2-4ft where they are hitting. There are bluegill, yellow perch, crappie and pickerel in this pond.

I saw that you picked that up in another thread. I have been basically blown away with this bait (especially the deep one) Please know I have a ton of LC baits and you'd have a hard time getting me to say that the KVD bait isn't better. Especially this fall. Good Luck with yours Blue. A-Jay