Leaderboard

While volunteering to help out veterans during a fishing tournament I had an interesting experience. During the tournament I was fishing from the back of the boat and trying to find a pattern and trying to find fish while the veteran was in the front also fishing. He had asked that if I got a bite not to set the hook so the fish could drop it then he could have a chance to catch it. Well this happened 3 times. Once on a spinnerbait and twice on a shaky head. The length of time these fish swam with my bait floored me! I would just stand there and watch my line move for 20-25 seconds! I never realized how long they kept it in their mouths. Maybe it was because they were river fish and aren't as pressured as lake fish? It was just an overall interesting learning experience that I thought I would share with you guys. Not being able to set the hook was the hardest thing I've ever done! Lol

I wrote about this in the blasphemy post, as I've intentionally spent entire days doing things like this, usually to learn and prove to myself just what you can get away with. If you think not setting the hook was a learning experience, wait until you try things like tying on baits and leaving 10" of tag line, spraying bug spray or sunscreen on your lures, or forcing yourself to change bait colors after every fish, never repeating the same one. So many wives tales and theories, so little time

Haven't been able to get out too much this season and last due to work related injury that has really put a damper on my life.....dealing with workmans compensation has been nothing short of a nightmare......in the few trips I have been out this year, I just try to make them count...

First off, good on you for volunteering. Secondly, sounds like you had the right bait(s) around fish with the right attitude. And as for not setting the hook, that's a tough one. Don't know if I could have pulled that one off, and I'm a veteran ! j/k A-Jay

This is my Heddon Super Spook. There are many like it, but this one is mine. WolfyBrandon

The red drum were running late one night off the coast of Cape Hatteras and about 15 people, including the 5 in my group, had nonstop action on trophy fish for about an hour and a half. It was the most incredible night of my life, even though we didn't have enough big rods to go around. 4 of us 5 caught trophy drum; the only reason we didn't go 5 for 5 was that my sister wasn't strong enough to land/keep up with the ones that bit her. She did get a puppy drum though. Mine went 32 pounds and 46 1/2 inches. I would imagine everybody on the beach combined probably landed 10-15 fish around that size, although it was hard to tell because it was pitch black. Several puppy drum were landed as well. It was about as close to nonstop action as I've ever witnessed; when you factor in the 5-10 minutes just to fight the fish in and get it weighed and measured and then get rerigged and pass the rod along to the next person who hadn't caught one, it was basically as fast as we could get a line in the water. There was a bite on almost every cast. It's big enough to get a citation from the state of NC for a trophy fish. The pictures are crap but the memories will last a lifetime. Fighting that sucker on a 13 foot rod and still having it overpower me was the craziest feeling I've ever had.

Well we didn't get a big limit today but we managed to stick it out in some adverse conditions and bring in 10lbs 1oz which was good enough for 6th place! This makes our second National Championship qualification as freshmen, we will fishing in B.A.S.S.'s in August (Bemidgi Lake, MN) as well as FLW's (unannounced) next year. Not to mention that we have done it out of a 17' aluminum boat that tops out at 37mph. This week was an absolute blast! I was already a spotted bass nut, so the Coosa River was pretty much a dream location and I got to fish for a week on it! In three days of practice and three tournament days, I expect we landed between 150 and 200 spots, it was pretty insane! We caught nearly every one of them on a 1/2oz finesse jig with a zoom ultravibe speed craw as a trailer. We threw the jigs on 7' MH rods with 15lb fluorocarbon. Our pattern was to look for banks with current breaks on them, in 8-15FOW. We would drift with the current flipping the jigs to the current seams, and almost stroking them back to the boat, ripping them up about a foot or so off the bottom and letting them fall straight back down. Since the boat was also moving, you could cover a lot of water just drifting and working your jig in this manner. When we got a bite, it was almost always a school of them, and we would use the trolling motor to hold our position in the current and usually have a flurry of 3-10 bites in a few minutes before the group of fish would either disperse or shut down. Either way it was a very noticeable change from a bite on every drift through the spot to no bites at all once they were done. In practice, we would do this, but shake the fish off on our jigs and mark a waypoint on our gps. For the most part either the schools didn't move between practice and days 1 and 2, or the spots just held a lot of fish. Over the course of three days, the river dropped 5' and slowed way down, so we had to adjust to it. On day 1 we fished fairly close to the banks, the water had dropped about a foot and was still flowing hard. On day two it was down about 3' and moving slower, this eliminated about half of our spots because they either didn't have enough current on them or were too shallow. On the spots that did hold fish, we had to back off and fish deeper in the current. Any type of depth change on these spots that provided a current break on the bottom usually held fish, and just like the day before, you could have a fast and furious flurry on every group of them. We landed over 40 bass on each of the first two days, we would try to count but when you start catching them on every cast and having double hookups, things spin out of control! Today was considerably tougher, the river was now 5' lower, eliminating all of our areas, the fish simply weren't on them. We fished two deep areas that we had been finding nice schools of 17" plus spots on, but they yielded only a 13"er. We also had to start throwing a deep diving crankbait, the fish were able to roam in the slower current and were keying on shad, we saw sporadic fish on the surface chasing them. We saw one area with periodic breaking fish, and managed to fill our limit there by holding the boat in place with the trolling motor and throwing DD22's downstream and bringing them back towards the boat. After that, we headed to completely new water closer to the dam where we found stronger current and grinded it out with jigs managing to cull our way up to about 8lbs with one 13"er still in the well we needed to get rid of. This was interrupted by some drama, the boat wouldn't start when we were getting close to making the 40 minute run back to the ramp, but after some phone calls to the tournament director and then to dad, I managed to get it started. Left it idling as we fished one last stretch of bank, and I managed to cull out that little one with about a 2lb fish. If you made it this far, good job, here are some pics! If someone can figure out what is going on in this photo I would sure like to know

I bought a new 5 weight fly rod a couple of weeks ago and I think it came with some mojo. Some noteworthy catches so far include some of my biggest crappies and trout, and my first carp!

Put a twist in the straps. Reduces the noise dramatically.

here is a couple of cabinet pics I made for my shop. rustic barn wod

Last week I finally landed a gar on an artificial. The fact that it got hooked on a DD22 still amazes me, but it happened. And the best part, it was when Ronnie Moore with Bassmaster was taking pictures, so the whole thing is documented!

Amazing day at the lake caught a total of 9 fish putting my total fish count of 19. Also got a free lure. Fished for about 5 hours. Used a shallow crankbait and a Texas rigged senko.

I recently had 2 Megabass Vision 110's break the bill off on the first outing. on one, i catch a fish first catch, catch one second cast, third cast feels really weird and when i get the bait back the bill is completely sheered off right at the bait???? second bait i cast for a while, end up catching a fish on it. fish it for a while later and on one retrieve it comes back weird again and the lip is broken almost in half, vertically! i contact megabass on their website and 1 hour later someone emails me and says they don't really have a warranty, but they review all the baits on a case by case basis. i sent both of them in and about a week later received a notice that the replacements had shipped. They arrived with a hand written note which i thought was pretty cool considering that people rarely hand-write anything at all. just thought i'd share another great customer service experience. now if i could only figure out how to get megabass USA to replace my broken JDM destroyer!!!!!

a few things i picked up when i was in the TW retail shop in Cali, the keitech custom leach really intrigued me for some clear water drop shot days. then some specialty tackle z-75's for deeper cranking and another s waver.

Mixed in amongst a bunch of "dinkos" (dinks-on-a-Senko), a couple of fat ones 18" and 17" this morning bright and early. On a KVD 2.5 and a...Senko:

Your results are definitely not uncommon. We tend to give fish too much credit for their intelligence. There's only so much that goes on in their brain that's the size of a pea.

For what it's worth, I use VMC, Owner, Trokar, and Gamakatsu. How do I make my choice? It's simple for me - it depends on what's available at my local store. Being a twice-a-week fisherman, I can't justify an order of hooks since I can't predict what I will need. All have served me well; however, because I like the screw-in bait keepers, I do prefer Owner. If you compare the keeper on an Owner with other brands, you will notice that the Owner bait keeper has a centering pin which helps align the bait with the keeper.

Mrs Bull landed 2, 4 ponders on her first time out..... Think that means I need to buy more gear ?

What a crappie day

Here's a 3.77 lb. smallmouth that ate a Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. Ned (mushroom) jig head worked slowly at a depth of approximately 20'.

Less than a week from Japan to my door, awesome.

A pencil, run through the spool of line, clamped in my toes. Never have to look to hard to find it.

I came back from the Ohio trip with my family. The fishing was phenomenal although I didn't manage any outstanding fish over 3.5 lbs. I had about 15 hours of total fishing time, but I'd guess I landed 100+ LM bass, which for me is really good. I can't even imagine how many more I would've caught out of my kayak. The theme of the trip was SB crankbaits smacked off rocks near docks in about 3-4 feet of water and soft plastic jerkbaits twitched along mid-depth weedlines. The biggest heartbreak of the trip was a 4+ lb bass choking a DT Fat crankbait. I got her close to the dock and I could see a little blood coming from the gills. Since she took the crank so well, I decided I wouldn't rush this one since I don't like flipping 3+ lb fish on medium powered rods. Right as I went to belly land the fish, the crankbait popped right out... I learned a lot this trip, and I'm even considering buying a place for the weekends in this section of Ohio, the fishing opportunities are endless. Here are a few pictures of the short trip:

First and foremost, welcome to Bass Resource. I would first definitely use some type of line conditioner on the line before spooling up as it will definitely help you with the overrun issue. The second possibility is the power you're using to throw the bait. What type of bait are you throwing and what does it weigh? The reviews that I've read on this reel indicate that people are able to cast long distances so perhaps the spool spins a lot faster than others to get the extra distance. As such, you may have to thumb the spool a little bit to to ensure that it doesn't spin so fast as to result in a backlash. Final suggestion would be to change your line. Seaguar is my go to, and I'd use AbrazX around cover and InvizX around light cover or open water. Cheers!

New plastics.

The Missouri conservation dept starts out by adding bluegill and channel cats to a new pond then a year or two later they add bass . Like Yeajray231 said , its probably a good idea to get forage started first .

When it comes to the SUP people, I think I kind of agree with allowing the person to decide whether to wear one or not. We don't require surfers to wear one.

Agree with A-Jay...good on you for both aspects... 1. Volunteering 2. Being disciplined enough to not set the hook Now...what an interesting observation. I am guilty sometimes of attempting to set the hook too fast...however, it's becoming easier to wait the more I fish. It's all about discipline. When I have a bite now...I physically say "There's a bite..." and then I reel down and set the hook. Part of it is the fear that the fish will spit my lure back out before I have a chance to set the hook. Thanks for sharing your experience. It just made me a better fisherman.

I've lost the tail on them on the first bite without catching the fish. I've also had them last 20+ fish. They have to be soft or they won't swim right. Make sure to coat them good with a slippery attractant, and have plenty of Mend-it on hand for any tears or rips. Obviously no help when the tail is gone, but for future use. You might look at Savage Gear or Real Prey if you want a soft bait that is more durable.

Ripped up plastics comes with the game.Sometimes the game wins.They don't last forever.Sometimes I get one fish out of a bait,sometimes 5 or 6.

Bummer but it's part of swimbait fishing. Not necessarily a good part though. A-Jay

Been fishing a lot lately. We spent 5 days on Basswood by Ely, fishing both LM and SM and a little bit for walleye in the evening. We caught quite a few fish up to 20" in both species. Great trip. Since then, we had a tourny on Forest Lake and fished Bald Eagle and Big Marine a few times. The tourny could have and should have been better. Both me and my partner lost big fish that if landed would have put us in the money. Hopefully we learned lessons that will convert those key bites. On the other lakes we spent time scouting water and looking for good spots. In one lake I was focusing on milfoil beds. They are not the dominant weed and are scattered around the lake and vary in size and depth. I think that makes them key spots. The other lake we looked for fish where they were that day and also where they might migrate to a month from now. Techniques have been mostly t-rigs with a little jig/worm and jig/craws working best. I always throw a swimbait along weed edges - inside mostly this time of year, but it hasn't been producing that well. A KVD squarebill worked best tourny night, but the fish weren't taking it good and didn't really get good hooks into them (= lost fish). Lots of things to work on.

Everyone would like to buy 25 hooks for the price of 5 and get a premium quality product. Inexpensive hooks are never a bargin. Mustad and VMC offer mid price hooks, good hooks. Gamakatsu and Owner changed the hook business with high quality hooks, Eagle Claw/Tokar offer the highest price hooks. I use both Owner and Gamakasu worm hooks, the majority today being Owner because of a boarder variety of styles, all excellent hooks. Straight shank round bend #5100 or 5103 hooks for standard size worms, mosquito or #5133 down shot hooks for finesse worms, 5140 off set EWG for thicker body creatures and 5172 weedless wacky hooks for Senkos would the basics. Tom

Yeah, we nearly had my 4th 100 fish guide trip of the year, mostly on the 110 and 90 Plopper, but I'll keep trying to figure them out

The ratings are arbitrary so there's no formula or anything. Line weights like that I'd guess 1/4-3/4. You might be able to stretch it on either end. Probably a little light powered for pike and Muskie unless you're targeting smaller fish.

If you are drop shotting with 6 to 8 lb leader and 20 lb braid with the drag set at 2 lbs the braid and FC/mono leader strecth is the same with or without a leader....set and trust the drag you paid for. Tom

Gamakatsu is my brand of choice. I use 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0. I use EWGs for just about all of my soft plastic fishing.

Someone was having trouble finding a 15 inch Tennessee grip. To easily make one buy a straight cork grip from Mudhole, cut the tenon off, put your reel retention rings on, then add a fighting butt to each end. Look at the Mudhole straight taper fighting butts and buy two, then cut off so the OD at the smaller end matches the OD of the straight grip. Piece of cake, looks good.

Story behind the pic. My dad met me at the ramp at my favorite panfish lake early afternoon. It's a small lake, maybe 200 acres. I had already been fishing for a couple hours and it was extremely slow. We left the ramp and trolled around the entire shoreline casting docks and weed lines and picked up a couple gills and perch. We were within spitting distance of the ramp on our way in when we found the honey hole. There was a small downed tree against the shoreline. All the crappies were caught in a 10' x 10' area. in 2fow.

STOP! I want to take bass anglers (or is it fishermen) seriously, but ya'll make it hard. Expressing the weight in lbs and fractions of a lb has nothing to do with the metric system, nor is it in any way more accurate than using lbs and ozs. It enables one to express the weight using one unit of measure instead of two and forgoes having to use fractions of an oz if the same degree of precision is desired.

Just a hair above 38" per turn.

I'm sure the decimal system came into play because that's the way electronic digital scales display weights. The majority of scales are used in the grocery business to weigh meat and produce for retail sale. It's easier and more accurate to calculate the price of an object using decimals than fractions.

Many tournament trails use decimals instead of lb-oz becasue it decreases the likelihood of a tie, since you are more precise with the weight. Our trail still uses lb-oz becasue that little bit of 'gray' area helps to negate the tiny things like more/less water in weigh bag and other similar small details. I'd hate to lose a tournament by 0.01 lbs, that's like a few extra drops of a water in the weigh bag. Doesn't bother me outside of a tournament scenario.

ive never used KVD (or other line conditioner) on braid. i use it on FC and mono every time. what benefits does it give braid?

... the pattern is real. Jerkbait and square bill crankbait again. 5lb4oz and 4lb1oz. The 5lber had the best fight out of any bass I've caught. Every 4th time I tie on a new horny toad, a gar immediately rips its legs off.

My new setup is finally complete. Got to take her for a test drive the other day and it was just as good as I had hoped. My DC735 + Zillion SV TW and DX704 + Shimano Exsence DC setups have both been demoted from my top rod combos and replaced with this guy. There will always be a special place in my heart for the DC735 (probably one of the best overall jig rods I've used), but this new one takes the cake. I got some HedgeHog Kattobi spool bearings on their way too for this guy. Already put new bearings in the handles when I changed them out.

Yours truly, circa 1980 +/-

got sick of tackle being unorganized in the boat so i grabbed a couple planos and a couple boxes to store everything. then i spent part of my night re organizing everything

Before you get too wrapped around the axle about what you think is working, let me give you some suggestions on trouble shooting electrical problems. First, throw that test lite back in the tool box and get a voltmeter. Test lite will only tell you have a voltage, not how much. Second, never depend on the voltage reading you get from an open circuit, they will lie to you. Always do voltage checks with a load on the wire you are checking. A bad connection with no load can show full voltage, but as soon as you put a load on it, the voltage will drop to almost nothing. I once had a customer's equipment that was down for three days and he replace a $2,700 controller because of a blown fuse that was showing good voltage until you applied the drive load, then it dropped to almost nothing, and his maintenance guy was only checking it with no load. He was not a happy camper when I got there and in five minutes had it fixed. I told him to look on the bright side, at, least if the controller did go bad, he had a spare now. Third thing, always remember it takes to connections to make a circuit, the positive and the negative (ground, as some call it). I've seen tons of people check the voltage to something like a bulb that's not working and say it's good but never check for voltage on the negative side and continuity to battery negative. Also, remember most vehicles today use a diode interface block to connect four prong trailer wiring to the vehicles wiring. Those diode interface blocks can go bad and cause you all kinds of problems. I will also say, 80% of trailer light problems is caused by bad ground connections and people not connecting the white wire to the frame of the vehicle and the frame of the trailer.