Mattlures

Yep I agree. Bass dont just eat bluegill all day long. alot of the time they coexist close to each other. Then something triggers the bass and the feed. the gills know when its time to run. I have seen bass hanging around gills many times as a kid when I was fishing for the gills. The bass would seem uninterested untill I hooked a gill and it struggled. Then the bass would take notice. Most times they would just look but other times they would crush the gill. Sometimes the fighting gill would see the bass and play dead while it was on my line. I like the analogy Creastliner used with the lions.

I wish my waters were untapped! One thing about big swimbaits is they show you big fish. You get a lot of big bass that will just follow thw bait. there are many theorys as to why they do this. I think it because they sence the fisherman. No matter why, they do show themselfs. Sometimes you catch them on the swimbait and other times you can go back and hit that same area knowing there is a big fish there.

Randall makes a good point. It varries from region to region. WRB is not to far from me so we see the same thing. Another reason that our Socal bass get biggest in pre spawn is because the lakes get stocked with trout durring the winter months. Plus our winter is the perfect storm for bass to put on weight. The water is not too cold to slow them all the way down and its not to warm to make them burn a buch of calories. Add the trout and the eggs and they are at their heaviest just before they spawn.

Bluegill swimbait, Jig, small dropsot minnow. In that order. Start agresive and back off as needed. Learn to read the fish

The eggs dont add alot of weight but the females go on an eating spree before they spawn so they can fatten up and store energy. So they have extra fat weight plus the extra weight of the eggs. This is why they are at their heaviest just before they drop their eggs. Once they start the actualy spawn they dont eat much if at all so they loose body weight and egg weight. This is why the look so deflated after they spawn. they can go from their heaviest to their lightest and the rest of the year they weight is more consistant.

Mike L is readily availible on his facebook page and He is starting up a website.

Capt G posted this pic on another site and I had to share it. This bass is from lake Biwa and is only 21 1/2 inches long. It weighes an incredible 11 pounds, 5.30 ounces on a certified scale. That is the thickest bass I have ever seen. Imagine that fish at 28-30 inches

Randall, you sir are a bad man. You catch too many big fish! I have a bad memory and I thought that fish was 16 and change. I apologize and I was givving props not trying to call you out. After I just reread my post it kinda sounded like that but its not what I meant. I have had 2 fish that I distintly remember spitting out big trout durring a fight. Both times it dropped my fish to below 10lbs and I knew they were both over. Each trout was between 1-2 lbs. Its is a sucky feeling when you see a big hunk of fish flying out of your fishes mouth. You know your gonna get robbed. I especialy feel for you because it happened on your PB.You got double robbed! I think you might need to make a bigger version of your bait! 31 inches is incredible. I have never caught on close to that. If I did it might just beat the world record. I didnt measure my PB but I would guess it around 27-28in Your 31 looks old to me your other fish looks younger. Maybe you will find it when it gets to 30+ That would be a monster!

Randall wasnt this fish 16+ lbs that you caught off my bluegill? Ha ha I think you catch so many momsters you forget some Here is mine, also caught on my ultimate bluegill This was a bed fish that was tucked under a huge round boulder. I was laying on my belly pitching it under me. All I could see was part of the tail. I had no idea she was soo big. After I hooked her I scrambled to get off the rock and on to shore. I admit I was a little rattled when she first broke water. She weighed 17.2lbs

They have a quick tail action. You lift them up off the bottom and they dart back down swimming because they sink prety quick. Just about like what a real goby does

I probably went bass fishing 20-25 times this year. I targeted big bass all but maybe 5 of those trips. I averaged about 1 big bass a trip. Big being 7+lbs. When you have been doing it for a long enough time you can cherry pick your trips. You know when a certain bite should happen at a certain lake. After you put in enough time and figure some things out, It gets easier to prdict or at least stack the odds in your favor. I had to change my entire mentality. In my mind I treated it like a big bass was an entirly different species of bass. Kind of like large mouth and small mouth. I learned to target big bass, much like an angler can target smallies or largemouth when they live in the same lake. The worst thing to think is.....I will chatch a big bass someday as long as I keep fishing. While this may be true, It doesnt have to be and it could take years and even years again to catch another. Its actualy easier to learn to fish for big bass. The hard part is to stop fishing for small bass.

I agree with Sir snook. Its a technique. You cant just go swinging or lifting the fish. If your breaking rods, your doing it wrong. Its called highsticking. If you high stick the rod you are putting most of the pressure in one small area of the rod and when the weight comes down it, the rod breaks. Saltwater guys know how to bounce a fish over the rails because they fish from high railed boats or jetties etc. I fish a good amount of salt and I have a salt boat so I learned how to do it. Its a timing swinging transfer of weight thing and the fish does not have to land hard. I have swung 8lb bass up but thats about my limit and thats not realy the norm. A 6lber, no problem, if the situation calls for a swing then I will. If not then I lip or net.

The only benefit I can see for a 308 is that the ammo is cheap and availible. However the 30.06 is also cheap and availible. The 308 makes no sence to me. The 30.06 out performs it in every way. I used to hunt with a 30.06 but I have changed to a 300 win mag. I can shoot 180 grn faster and flatter then my 06 shoots 150grn Hornady light magnum round. I think it is important to get real good with one gun instead of pretty good with several. Plus I am not a good tracker. Where I hunt the terrain is thick and it looks like your looking at a camo pattern. A wounded deer can disapear even if it only runs 100ft. Soo I brake them with my 300 mag and I always take out 1 front shoulder along with the lungs. soo its a 300 mag for me.

I have caught plenty of northern strain on swimbaits. I actualy think they are more agresive and will hit a swimbait better then Florida strain. The difference might be the age and size of the two strains. You get a big northern and that fish is probably old and wise. The same size florida could still be a young fish that makes more mistakes. I rarley fish huge baits. I generaly stick to 4-8in swimbaits and I have no problem getting bit by either strains. I am sure a lot depends on the lakes to. Each lake fished differntly.

Non negativity. The Mods keep a close eye out for negative posts that arent warrented, especialy personal attacks. The Mods also allow guys to speak their mind without over sensoring. This breeds a friendly atmosphere. That is the single most important factor that an established forum needs. That keeps guys posting and particapating. It also encourages new members to sign up. In a nut shell, this forum is run better then most.

Thank you retiredbosn. Yep I just crossed a big elk off of my bucket list!

I drove 13 hours straight to Nm and blew out a tire and tore up the side of my truck on the way Had to buy a whole new set of tires @ $1400 OUCH! But it was all worth it. Goy my bull on the 2nd day. Glassed him from far away and put a sneak on him. I though I lost him as I snuck up right to where I though he was. I started glassing the oposite ride thinking he snuck out but then he buggled and he was litteraly 30 yards from me bihing a large juniper. I snuck up to 20 yards and waited for him to move. He must have caught my wind and he bolted about about 75 yards and then slowed down and turned and looked to see what he was running from. He never should have done that. should kept on running

i am jelous! Mule deer are my #1 favorite game animal. i have yet to kill a trophy. That one you got there is a nice buck, congrats

I embed all my soft bodied treble when ever I can. I try to do as many thing as I can to make my lure look as real as I can. I will never match the real thing but the closer I get, the more and bigger bites I get.

Go fish a Huddleston or other realistic swimbait without any hooks at all. Then use one with the trebles hanging down and you tell me if it makes a difference. When using swimbaits (real swimbaits) in most cases you are fishing the bait slow. It is NOT a reaction bite. Ususaly the fish get a good look at the bait when they eat it. Those big visable hooks absolutley can cause fewer bites. Sometimes they dont care and just blast it but Many times they turn away at the last second, or just follow it. It may or may not have been the hooks but something wasnt right to them so they didnt bite. Every swimbaiter knows exacty what I am talking about. Deep my point is, bronze or black dont stick out that bad but white is the worst color for a hook thats not up against the belly of the bait. In other words if you have a white painted dangling treble on a hardbait, thats just drawing attention to the hooks. When I use a hook that is imbeded into the belly of a soft swimbait, I like to paint the shaft and a little bit of the bends to match the belly. It hides the hook well. If the whole hook were white you would see white points sticking out from the bait defeating the purpose of camoing the hook in the first place. Of course It all depends on what hook you use and how it sits against the bait.

You should only paint the shank of the treble white and leave the bends alone. The shank should only be painted if it is going to lay against the bait. If you have any part of a treble painted white that is not up against the belly it sticks out bad. I use a pearl powder paint. Its a pain to do but it lasts.

I use what gives me the best chance at catching a big bass. I ocasionaly use live bait but I catch more big bass on artificials. If Live bait produced more big bass for me then I would use it more often. Crawlers is my live bait of choice. I dont care if guys think less of me or less of my bait caught fish. I have caught plenty of big ones on lures. I do think in general live bait is easier but it still takes plenty of skill and many times its not the best choice

Ok I dont have a diagram but hopefuly you guys will get what I am saying. First you tie your hook with a palomar knot and leave a long tag end. Now take the tag end and thread it downward through the hook eye all the way to the knot and pull the knot through the hook eye. It kind of pops through. Now the hook will be sticking straight out and it will stay like that. Then attatch the weight. Its fast and simple and it works!

The paddletail baits (Bastrix and their knockoffs) are kind of like a compromise. They tend to catch bigger fish then most guys are used to catching so guys are satisfied with them. They also occasionaly catch a trophy fish as all baits occasionaly do. Also "real" swimbaits do catch small fish wich gives fuel to the argument that paddletails work just as good. However if you could take he average size of bass caught on real trophy producing swimbaits and compare it to the average fish caught on paddletails or any other bait, the real swimbait would by far have the highest average. It is not uncommon to catch an 8-10lber on a real swimbait. I would classify paddletail type baits as kicker fish baits. "Real" swimbaits are harder to define then they used to be. It doesnt take a huge bait to make it a proven trophy catcher. It takes cacthing trophies with it. With all the "swimbaits" out there there are only a few that are proven producers of trophy bass. The Hudd is probably the all time trophy producing swimbait and I have no doubt that since it came to market, in that same time, it hase produced more trophy bass then any other bait including jigs and woms etc. I also think That my gills (soft and hard) are high up on the list of trophy producing baits. There are several others to, that just seem to have the IT factor. Big bass like to eat small fish. That is always there main forrage if given the choice. Many guys will say you dont need "real swimbaits" to cacth big bass. That the paddletails work just fine because they catch plenty of big fish with them. The difference is guys Like Butch and Mike and Fish Chris arent fishing for 10 lbers in lakes that have 20lbers. They are targeting the biggest fish in thier lakes. They are using the baits they feel give them the best odds at catching that upper 1%. There are guys doing this all over the country and world with the same "real" swimbaits. The biggest fish in thier lakes may be 10lbs and thats what they are targeting not just a bigger class. The Jappanese throw huge baits at those monster bass. When I target trophy bass I want a bait that matches what I think they want to eat. I want the right size, color, and action. I want a guy standing 20ft away from me to not be able to tell that my bait is not a real fish. If it will fool a human, it will fool a fish. I can spot a paddletail from 100+ ft. Swimbaits are not always the best choice but alot of times they are. I still fish plastics and jigs and I know Mike does to but most of the time its "real" swimbaits. Oh and BTW paddletail baits can be alot of fun. They are just a different tool that produce different results.

There is a reason they are overstocked. All the stores that carried them also have them in the bargin bin. I dont believe I have ever seen a Huddleston trout in the bin. This is not the same as buying a cheap jig or senko knock off. There is a HUGE difference.