Mattlures

Thanks I kinda figured they would get bit just because they wobble through the water. I doublt them looking like grasshoppers helps. I have never seen one swimming through the water. It must be a reaction bite. I dont know about those red billed baits. Maybe that big red bill would trigger strikes? Either way I am prety sure I wont try them.

Ok I just opened my new bass pro catalog and I was looking at some of the lures. I know these arent knew but I was just wondering if they work. I am talking about the baits that look like grass hoppers but they are cdrank baits. The Cicada type cranks and the ones with the jitterbug bills. Also I saw some crank baits wityh red bills. Have any of you guys used these baits with good success? I am not a crank bait guy but I am curious.

That book is a great read. I was not able to put it down until I was finished. Monte Burk, the auther did exagerate in the chapter "The San Diego Zoo" His intention was to dig up dirt on some of the guys and get them to talk bad about each other. He went with Mike Long and kept asking him question about the other guys. He was trying to get Mike to say something bad about them. Mike got anoyyed and broght him back to the dock and ended the interview. In the book Monte does not paint a very favorable picture of Mike because of this. Mike also tried to "kill off" that big Dixon bass by telling everybody he found a huge floater. While this was true it obviously was not the same fish. This is what made Jed Mac and Mike W mad. They didnt want people thinking they had mishandled the fish. They didnt realize Mike L had done them a favor. He relieved some of the pressure from the lake and was trying to save the world record club, but that part didnt work. Also just for the record after Mac caught that same fish(now 25.1) they were all at the lake the next day and were talking and shook hands. The heated fued the Monte greatly exagerated is over.

Shtucka, there is a little chalenge to catching the males. It can be fun. Anybody can cacth them though. If you catch enough of them you will start to learn more about the females. I used to not even try for the big girls because they were to hard. Now I have learned how to read the fish, both the males and the females. It is an important step in learning how to cacth the big girls. I assure you catching the females is a huge challenge and definatley a contest. Of course there are always exceptions and every once in a while I will stumble across a gimme. But this is not the norm. JT each fish(I am only referring to the females) is diferent and diferent baits will get diferent reactions. Drop shotting is a technique I will use when my main go too's arent getting the reaction I am looking for. It does have its time and place. The biggest problem I have with it is, the males can too easily defend it. They can and sometimes do completly prevent the female from even getting close. Thats why I never start with it. However I have ended with it I prefer the fat Ika over a lizzard though.

sounds like it broke. If its the little 10lber than there is no breaker. I dont know about the other sizes. I would contact the store that you bought it from. I have broke one before but It had several years of use before it finaly gave out.

Allen you make a valid point that has been debated to death. The truth is spawn fishing has little impact if any on the fishery. We have no seasons here in Cali. You can catch and keep bass anytime of the year and the bass populations are always high. Water dropping hase a MUCH bigger affect on the spawn then fishing for them. People do catch and keep them but most prefer to let them go. The advise I gave was to help cacth the females. If they are caught and released quickly the male will continue to gaurd. He is the main defender. I rarley tell anybody my whole bed fishing technique because There are those who will keep the big girls. I dont want to help them.

The title does not say its ok to use bad grammar. It simply says spelling is over rated, meaning there are other things that are far more important in getting sponsored than the spelling of your resume. Cart I think you got it and didn't even realize it. ALL SPONSORED FISHERMAN ARE SALESMEN!!!!!! Nobody pays you or gives you product just for you to fish. They expect something in return. You need to benefit the company somehow or you're not worth the "free" product. This is reality My getting sponsored has nothing to do with the world record living here. I used their products and spoke well about them. I recommended them and they heard about it. I mentioned them on my website. My swimbaits have become one of the more popular brands of swimbaits. They are in magazines all the time and have been on TV several times. I am a good bass fisherman but I choose not to compete because I simply do not have the time. I am sponsored because I am useful to the company that sponsors me. I provide a service. I help test their prototypes and I do use their products and recommend it to others. Does this mean that this would work for everybody? No it's just an example. Glenn's post says it all. There are millions of guys out there fishing tournaments that will never reach the elite level. Unless they learn how to "sell" themselves first and a product second then they will never get or keep a big sponsor. I am helping the youth by telling them about this reality. Like I said before I get many resumes sent to me and I basically ignore them. There are certain guys who I seek out to give stuff to. These are guys who I feel would be most beneficial to me. As far as spelling and grammar goes, get this in your heads. Nobody is going to sponsor you based on your spelling and grammar. They may decide to NOT sponsor you because of it though. So yes it is important to use good grammar and spelling on you resume and you should. BUT if you want to become sponsored you need to make yourself marketable first. You need to be a "salesman" Every big pro is a salesman! If I get a couple resumes a week imagine what Berkley gets. They must get hundreds weekly. You are competing with thousands of other hopeful sponsories. Why should they pick you over everybody else when 98% of the other resumes are well written? That is the question you need to focus on. That is my whole point. BTW Mr. Cart I have no hard feelings towards you. I obviously struck a nerve with the spelling thing. GOOD that was its intention. I wanted people to realize that the resume should be sent AFTER the potential applicant has made himself or herself marketable in some way. If you read all of the post you will get the point. I believe it would be extremely difficult to get any real sponsor on just your fishing credentials. Only very successful anglers carry that kind of weight, but even they have to be able to "sell" I also did a spell check just for you

alot of pigments will work to color plastisol. The dyes and powders that you buy from lurecraft, MF etc are fairly inexpencive and mix well. I have experimented with many types of pigment and have found its just easyer and cheaper to use the pigments that they sell. Now with that being said the best way to learn is to experiment and see if the oil paints will work. Because they are oil based they should work. A few things you will need to check for is 1. does this stuff mix with the plastisol 2. does it stink when heated in the plastisol This was usually why most of my coloration experiment failed. 3. do the colors bleed or fade after a while. I am guessing that your oil paint will probably bleed but other than that should work but this is only a guess

A while ago he sent me an email telling me he was talking about my baits in one of his seminars. In this email he attached some photos. The photos showed a slide show with Mike in the front of the room speaking. On the screen was a photo from my website showing my baits so he was obviously talking about them. He also showed from the back of the room that the room was packed. So before he ever sent me an email, he did something for me....FIRST!!!! When he sent me this email he didn't ask for anything. Guess what I did? Well I'll tell you what I didn't do. I didn't go over his email with spell check to make sure the spelling was correct ;D ;D ;D . I was impressed. I get at least 2 resume type emails a week and sometimes more. Normally I just don't respond. They don't impress me. Its not that there is anything wrong with them, but if I gave something to everyone who asked I would go broke. Triton Mike's example is a perfect one that supports my entire theory. My response to Mike was, I gave him some free baits as a thank you. He never even asked but I still would have given them to him if he would have. I also plan on letting him test new prototypes when I have them ready for testing. Why would I give him free stuff if he were already "selling" my product? Because of all the guys asking for freebees he went out and did something first. I don't care if he has ever won a tournament. He filled that seminar room and he was talking about my product. I am sure he mentioned several other too, maybe even my competition but I don't care. People should follow his example. Look at who has sponsored him. It works with big companies too! To all that took the "spelling" thing too seriously, understand that was just to emphasize my point. If my poor grammar and my misspelled words affends you I apologize

Cart I don't think you read the entire thread. If so, you missed the point. The reason I posted the title is because I have seen a lot of posts in the resume section about how a resume should be perfect and how it should have proper grammar. Why is this a problem? The problem is the guys think that the resume itself is a lot more important than it really is. Like I have said many, many times, companies care more about your ability to sell their products than anything else. You say that just makes you a sales man, well Yes and no. You do not actually have to go out and literally sell product but there are many other ways. The reason for my post (WHICH YOU SO OBVIOUSLY MISSED !!!!!!) was to encourage guys to go out and do something to get a sponsor. Go out and get that company a few accounts, right an article and get it published, get people to use the company's product before you contact them. My whole freaking point was to not focus on a resume. Of course after you do something that gets their attention you should use proper grammar in any email or letter you send them. I don't know how you missed this. Maybe you were too busy with you red correction pen to actually read what was posted. You may not have heard of me but many have. I have big name pros picking my brain when it comes to swimbaits. I am sponsored because I do occasionally catch a big bass but most importantly I get hundreds of emails from guys asking my advise on rods,reels,line,teqhniques etc. Why do they ask me? Well first off I am approachable and friendly. Second they want to learn about swimbaits. You must be an English teacher or something similar to get so worked up over grammar. And if you think I have wronged the youth of this site by telling them that spelling and grammar is not important you are nuts. First I only said that in the title to get attention and if the youth follow my advise they may actually get a sponsor instead of waiting their time sending out a perfectly written resume! Class dismissed.

Needemp I have to disagree with some of your statements. First you said a 15 lb Cali bass is equal to a 7-8 lb Mo bass. No way!!! There are very few 15lbers caught here each year. I would geuss that there are less than 30 caught each year in Cali. Also consider that some of the greatest bass fisherman in the state are obsessed with catching these giant fish. Where in most states thier best hone in thier tournament skills. Its geographics. If Mo had world records swimming around in their lakes then guys would spend their most of their lives chassing them like they do here. Comparing a very rare 15lber to an 8lber is taking away from the acomplishments of guys who catch fish that big. If you were to say a 10lb MO. bass I think that would be a much more accurate comparison. This reminds me of dear hunting out here. I am verry good at it but we have a small mule deer/blacktail subspecies that are very small and have small racks. I take deer that are considered big by our county standards but they are tiny comparred to a big utah Mulie or a big MO white tail. I would never try to say those guys who shoot big deer are nothing special because they have bigger deer than me. You come accros like its no big deal and nobody shoudl apreciate a big Cali bass. I dont think you realize how few real monsters are caught. You also might not realize that our lakes are considered the most pressured lakes in the country when you consider who many fisherman are on such small lakes. Something else you may not realize is that the elite trophy hunters dont go days and weeks with out catching fish or getting bites. They go days or weeks without catching a BIG bass. The guys who are real good catch a lot off of of swimbaits and other big fish techniques. These guys are good. I am not that good. I will steal what Supermatt said. I am not the best but not the worst. You may have though I was being arogant when you read my earlier post about who was better. I honestly believ that top tier profesional bass fisherman are the best most skilled bass fisherman there are. There is just one exception, one man who happens to be the best of the best at one aspect (trophy hunting) and he is also verry good at the other aspect(tournaments). This guy is just a freak. a Michael Jordan or Tiger woods if you will. I just dont think you give the "hawg hunters" enough credit. Guys like me arent that good so dont deserve it but there are others who are rediculously good and catch absurd amounts of huge bass. They are that good! You are correct about comparring apples to oranges. Its not quite that diferent but its close. There are some things that can be comparred. I just feel you dont realy know whats going on over here so you make assumptions. We all do it. Just so you know I know and am friends with most of the more famous trophy hunters and I also know and am friends with a lot of the top pros. I have great respect for all of them. they have all risin to the top. I am impressed with greatness wether it a guy who catches a lot of Giant bass or the guy who hold up all those Giant checks. they are both impresive.

Cabela you almost answered your own question. One of the biggest reasons the best of the best trophy hunters like Mike L are so good is because they know there lakes so well. Mike has Topo maps and he takes picture and makes notes of the lakes when they are super low. That is part of being succsesful at Trophy hunting. A tournamt guy needs to find keeper fish. There are many more places that hold this sized fish and there are more of them so a good tournament guy has an easier time finding a pattern. The biggest bass arent as easy to find so it is critical to know every piece of structure that hold the biggest bass. Only with a ton of time on the water can they consitantly locate and catch the largest bass. Could Mike L go to another state and break records. Absolutly but it might take him a while to learn the lakes. His learning curve would be short though because he could use all his past experiance to learn the lakes. Its just like asking if KVD could come to your local lakes and win tournaments. Of couse he could. Give him enough time and he would beat all the locals. KVD, Ike, Aaron, Clunn, they are the best at winning tournaments. they can go anywhare and do it. Mike Long, John Kerr, Butch Brown, Bob Crupie(Crupi is still great) these guys are the best at catching huge fish. they could come to your lakes and catch the biggest class of bass in there. The diference is it would probably take them a while to learn the lakes but once they did they would catch the biggest fish. There might not even be a lake record swimming in some of your lakes but I know they would be catching the biggest ones in there. SuperMatt hit the nail on the head. most of them have one goal and it lives here in the lakes they fish so why would they want to go somewhare else. Trophy bass hunting is a lot like big game hunting. Do you think if you took the greatest big game hunter ever and relocated him that he couldnt kill trophy animals. Of course he could, he would just have to learn the land. Same diference. its just two diferent sports that rarly cross over. It takes diferent mindstes and diferent aproaches. The top pros are the best at what they do. the top trophy hunters are the best at what they do. People might think that they are both just bass fishing but they arent. Its two totaly diferent sports and each have there elite.

Your picture tells the story of why you arent getting the females to bite. If the male cant do his job she will do it for him. It may take a little while for her to see this but once she sees he is failing she comes in and helps. By placing the bait over and over into the bed and if it is the right bait she will kill it. The only time I ever catch the male is if its the absolute last resort. this has worked twice for me out of hundreds of bed fish, TWICE. When ever I have accidentaly caught the male 99 times out of 100 the female is spooked and becomes very dificult to catch. You must learn to read the fish, they all have something that will get them to bite you just have to put enough of the peices together to figure out each fish.

It almost seems like someone is looking to stir things up. I'll bite. Fisrt off I believe that the biggest diference between Tounament anglers and trophy anglers is their goals and expectations. Tournament guys are fishing against the clock and other anglers. Trophy hunters are fishing against the fish and many times other anglers. not always bass anglers either. Many times the shorelines are filled with guys soaking powerbait catching trout, they can be a huge obsticle. T guys are not tyring to catch big bass and Trophy guys arent trying to catch keepers. Its almost like they are pursuing two diferent species. To say a trophy hunter isnt a real bass fisherman is very ignorant. It is my opinion that the trophy hunters are the purest form of bass fishing. They are only seeking the largest possible fish. This of cource takes nothing away from the tournament guys. I Just had a long phone conversation with Rick Clunn. I have always looked up to him and I think he is a verry cool person. Believe it or not he asked me many questions about how to fish swimbaits becuase he felt he needed to add them to his arsenal. He also asked me how I bed fished and I told him my formula. Pretty cool that the "greatest bass fisherman" was asking me how I do it. I felt not worthy but I definatly gave up the goods. I am also Friends with Mike Long who is considered the best trophy fisherman alive. Mike is also a very dominate tournament fisherman winning many team tournaments by himself or fishing with his young son. He does have a regular adult partner and they win the W.O.N team AOY award every year. His Partner who is also a great trophy hunter John Kerr has won the US open. This event is fished by practicaly every major pro in bass fishing, I think Aaron won it last year. So believe me the best trophy hunters can and do win T's its just not their biggest passion. as far as who is better. I think that the elite tournament fisherman is better then the elite throphy hunters with the elite trophy hunters being better than all the other Tournament guys. The exception is Mike Long I honestly beleive he is the greatest bass fisherman who ever lived. His numbers are absolutly staggering. The last I heard he had around 60 bass over 15lbs and hunreds over 10lbs. He has a few 19+lbers and a 20+ and a 21.5 caught this year not to mention many Tournament wins in both team and solo events. these arent club tounies either these are big semi pro event that often have big names in them. Its where Rojas and Martins started. Now do I think that all trophy hunters are better than tournament guys of course not, there are only a few trophy hunters that I would consider elite. I am not one of them. It is just too completly different passions. Some HUGE misconseptions about the Trophy hunters are, Only picking the best days. there are no best days. these guys fish any chance they get and if you knew what the best days are you would see that your argument is weak. the best days are usualy in miserable weather. Thinking that big swimbaits only work here in Cali is just absurd. I have caught MANY 3lbers on large swimbaits and there not always trout patterns. All my biggest fish have been caught on Bluegill paterns. I would geuss that there are bluegill in MO. Iget photos and guys thanking me from all over the USA. One thing that was said that is corect is that size is relative, however a 16lber would never be equal to an 8lber. A 10lb MO. bass might be a more accurate comparison. One other thing to consider is that there are verry few succesful trophy hunters. Why because its too hard for people to change the way they think and to force them selves to relearn how to fish. Only a few are consistant. You might see a lot of pictures of huge fish but they are mostly from the same small group of guys. Just like its the same small group of guys who consistantly win the big tournaments.

If you want to catch the female than you must MAKE her bite. How do you do this? throw a bait that represents the biggest threat to the bed and make sure it is too big for the male to defend. If she thinks he cant do the job then she will do it. If he does get the bait out of the bed, put it back in and MAKE her bite it.The trick is to pose a serious threat with out spooking the female. This is usually because she is aware of the angler not your choice of baits. I honestly beleive if I can keep the female from leaving the bed I can catch her, EVERYTIME! there are a few that are soo spooky that no matter what will leave if you get within 100 ft but if they even look at a bait they are catchable.

It just depends on the agreement you have with the sponsers. Smaller companies who NEED the recognition will give more and expect less than larger ones. Also just because you are the most famous fisherman ever doesnt mean you dont work for your sponsors. KVD has to do apearances and seminars, so does Ike and all the others. If I was to seek a sponsor I would look for a company or product that I could promote with little effort. For instance going to the local tackle stores and getting them to buy the sponsors product wouldnt be a lot of extra work if I visited those stores anyways. I have some friends that have to do 2 shows a year in wich they pay all their own expenses just so they get a discount on St Criox rods. The work does not seem worth the discount but they were going to showes anyways so it ends up being worth it. Mr Bagwell is right again. In many cases it is not worth it for the "free" product. You just have to be creative and figure out how you and your sponsor can both benifit with out you spending countless hours of promoting. The question , Why to get sponsored? One of the answers besides a little financial help is ego. We want to say that we are sponsored, We want to look cool like the guys on TV with all their patches and boat wraps. We want to be recognized by others as great anglers who should be feared during the tournaments. It is human nature. This is one way that a compny will sucker in a potential "prostaff" member. They get a lot of advertising and foot work just for a discount.

Beleive me there are not plenty of guys who have caught 16lbers in cali. Maybe plenty of guys who have CLAIMED to. Plus our bass can live a long time. That 25lber is estimated to be in its late teens, almost 20 years old by now bassed on Scale samples that Mike Long took when he caught her at 20lbs. Any bass that is considered a trophy is relative to its location. For most of the country 10lbs is the norm. Out in Cali 10lbs is not as impressive but its still considered a trophy.

You guys rule! thanks for the kind words

JT you are right. I imagine the huge companies dont go out seeking the fisherman too much, however my sponser is Okuma and they are the second largest reel manufacturer in the world. Second only to Shimano,yes they are bigger than Diawa. Them calling me whas what I meant was probably not the norm espicialy since I dont fish tournaments. I am furtunate! BASS fisherman I think if you contacted them and they sent you product then you should be obligated to help that company out, after all you asked and they gave. It also depends on the amount they gave you. You and that company should discus what is expected. I think all deals should be win win with both parties benifiting. I have seen post were companies are seeking prostaff members and they sure seem to be getting the better end of the deal. The poor prostaff guy has to sell x amount of product just for a small discount and if he sells a bunch, he might get a shirt. The guy is definatley getting the worst end just so he can be called "pro staff" I would stay away from those deals as much as possible

JT I only speak from my own experiance. If I have a guy send me an email asking for some free product I almost always dont even respond. If that same guy has contacted a few stores and they want to or have placed orders thats a diferent story. I will gladly give them freebees as long as the store orders are big enough to warrent free baits. I dont mean they have to buy hundreds but I also dont mean have a store buy 2 or 3 baits(even then I would give them a discount). That person has showed me that they can and already has promoted my baits and I want to encourage them. As far as having a sponser contact you, I imagine this is not the norm but thats what has happened with me. I guess I am officialy a prostaff member but this is not like the other prostaff deals I have heard of. My deal is great. My official job is to test prototypes. Rods and reels. I am told to try and break them under normal fishing conditions. I will take freshwater gear and use it in the salt, I will throw big swimbaits on gear that is not designed for it. I basicaly fish the gear xtra hard and try and break it. Then I send them a report. That is my job. If I do manage to break something they send me a new one to keep or to keep testing but I always get to keep all the gear I test. On top of that I have a yearly budget Of free gear of my choice. If I wish to buy more gear than my budget, I get it at wholesale cost. I only pay shipping on the gear I buy after I use my budget. So by definition I would consider them a sponser even though they classify me as a "2nd leval prostaff" I have no other obligations to them. I recomend them because I believe in their products and I do post about them on the boards when sombody asks about them I give my honest opinion. BUT I was doing this before they ever contacted me. I have recieved two other very high end rods from diferent companies for me to fish. both of these comanies hinted that they wanted me on their prostaff but I am loyal to my sponser and I wouldnt do that. They both told me to keep the rods. I understand that the reason companies contacted me is because my baits are popular but my original sponser contacted me before my baits were as known. The reason I started this post is to help guys get sponsors and I firmly believe that if they go out and get those companies a few accounts than they will have a hard time saying no to them. I am not talking about wearing patches or puting stickers on thier boats. That does nothing for me. I dont even have stickers or patches. I prety much dont give away stuff for nothing but if you have already helped me I have no problem helping you. On a side note I go to 1 or 2 huge shows a year and have met most of all the big named pros. I dont give them free stuff either but I do give them discounts. If they talk about my baits on TV or write about them in an article than they get some stuff for free. This is how I do it and I have many friends in the industry (some little and some major companies) now and they pretty much do it the same way. I am sure not all of them do it like that though.

a year and a half ago at lake Dixon I got broke off by I fish I could not turn. the fish jumped like a dolfin and I got a good look at it. It was at least 20lbs and very well could have been that 25lber.

Craig you are right and you are right. I know I am sponserd mostly becuase of my baits but it is also becuase I can sell their rods and reels. I agree it looks lazy and your spelling and grammer should be proper. My main point is that if somebody is trying to get a sponser it is soooo much better to have already helped that company by way of sales than it is to have a great resume. I am sure big companies get resumes every day and ignore most of them. For instance if I wanted to be sponsored by Micromunch I would first go to all my local stores and convince them to carry your products. That would take some work and good sales skills. I dont even think I would send a resume, I would just call you up and tell you who I was and how I just got you some accounts. I bet if I asked for some free product and a patch you would say yes. I am just saying that the emails I personaly get asking for sponsorship and the resumes dont impress me much. I will say this when big pros email me or call me I give them discounts. On a side note Rick Clunn called to buy a bunch of baits but would not let me give them to him. I had to talk him into letting me give him a discount. He is just a good person!

Bizz beat me to it. I highly recomend Okuma swimbait rods but for the size of baits you mentioned you dont need one. A regular hvy bass rod will do just fine.

You sir are absolutly right. My original post about spelling was not the main point. I am just trying to say if you want to get sponsored show the company that you can be usefull to them Before you ask. It would be very hard for a company to say no if you are already selling their product. In my case they actually contacted me.

Ok so I got your attention. It seems a lot of you think that spelling is important to getting a sponsor. Well I disagree. I have a Major sponsor and I cant spell. A lot of times I am too lazy to even use spell check and I dont realy care too. You guys are who are trying to get sponsors need to understand , THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO A COMPANY IS, CAN YOU SELL THEIR PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!!! Not how well you can spell or how many tournaments you have won. If Joe Blow askes me for a sponsorship and he has already had stores place orders for my baits guess what? I am going to give the guy free stuff. I am willing to bet that most other companies would also weither they are little like mine or Huge like the second largest manufacturer of reels in the world. I know because I am sponsored by them and I cant spell and I have never even fished in a bass tournament let alone win one. Why would they sponsor me? Its simple, When sombody asks my advise on swimbait gear I recomend them. Not because I get free stuff but because its what I personaly use and believ in and I was doing this WAY BEFORE they ever contacted me. Please dont think I am bragging because I am not I am just trying to emphasize how important it is that you can sell their products. I will say this though, If I was going to send a resume I would do spell check on it. It couldnt hurt.