GobbleDog

QUIT FISHING, while you still have some money in your pockets. :-/

;D Now that's an appropriate ritual! We all do that every time we go fishing.

No. But I partly blamed that bad day on the red shirt. After that, I intentionally wore white shirts and now it's become a habit.

I'll only wear white T-shirts while fishing. I once wore a bright red T-shirt to a tournament and didn't do well. Since that day (about 3 years ago), I only wear white shirts. "Look at me! I'm a cloud!"

I definately get most of my bites right after the cast. Not always on the initial fall, but within reeling less than 1/4 of the line back.

I've heard that too. You'd think darker colors would disappear in dark water, but not true. The outline of the worm becomes easier to see.

Color doesn't matter..... much. But the general rule is: stick with natural colors in clear water and flashier colors in darker water.

I hate dead fish smell and I really hate dealing with dead fish when I get home. I'd rather eat a sammich.

I can get ALMOST everyhook out with a good set of needle nose pliers. Sometimes you have tear up the guts a little bit, but overall I think the fish are better off having it removed. Cutting the hook itslef would leave some in, but in some cases that kind of fish surgery might work. For me, it would have to be one heck of gut-hook before I'd resort to that. Alot of gut-hooks look worse than they really are. Everone should own a good set of extra long needle nose pliers.

BREAKING THE LAW !!!! ;D

This is a divided topic among bass fisherman. One side thinks it's better to remove the hook at all costs, and the other side think it's better to just cut the line. In my opinion, hooks take entirely too long to rust out in freshwater and a high percentage of the fish with hooks left in their guts will die from lack of food or infections from the hook. I've read articles that agree with my thinking that most gut hooked bass do eventually die, sometimes months later.

(cut and pasted story of George Perry) The most coveted record in fishing was was set almost 73 years ago - in Georgia . Despite the best efforts of 60 million anglers nationwide, it has weathered the challenges of time. George Perry was just 19 years old that morning - June 2, 1932 - when he cast his only lure into a blackwater lake in remote Telfair County - and landed a place in history. Fatter than a fully inflated basketball - and 32 1/2 inches long - his 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass eclipsed the previous world record by more than two pounds. Perry, a poor farmer, went fishing that day only because the fields were too wet to plow. His fishing spot, Montgomery Lake , was little more than a flooded oxbow off the nearby Ocmulgee River . In a 1969 interview with Sports Afield magazine, Perry recalled the famous strike: "All at once the water splashed everywhere. I do remember striking, then raring back and trying to reel, but nothing budged," he said. "I thought for sure I'd lost the fish, that he'd dived and hung me up." The mammoth bass must have been quite a sight as it sloshed toward the homemade boat Perry and his companion paddled among the cypress and tupelo trees that dotted the dark, tannin-stained water. "I had no idea how big the fish was, but that didn't matter," Perry said. "What had me worried was losing the lure. It was the only one we had between us." The lure, a perch scale Wiggle Fish, or Wigglefish, manufactured by the Creek Chub Bait Co., survived the battle, and the squirming bass was hoisted aboard. Later that day, Perry and his companion, Jack Page, took their catch to the general store in nearby Helena , where the proprietor - a notary public - weighed and certified its dimensions and weight. A customer mentioned a Field & Stream magazine bass contest, and encouraged Perry to enter his fish, which also was weighed and measured on certified scales at the town's post office. Needless to say, the George Perry bass easily won the contest - and its $75 in prizes that included a rod and reel, and a new shotgun. Perry's modesty prevented him from the incessant bragging that could have accompanied a bass half the size of the one he caught that day. In fact, he never even bothered to photograph the fish. Instead, he did what most Depression-era anglers did with their catch: he took it home and ate it. Perry later moved to Brunswick , Ga. , where he became a self-taught pilot and businessman. He died in 1974, at the age of 61, when the plane he was flying crashed into a hillside near the Birmingham , Ala., airport.

You're definately going to make some endorsement money if you catch a 22+ lb Largemouth Bass.

I don't catch and release because I'm Mr. Conservationist / Nature Boy. I release fish because the last thing I want to do after a long day of fishing is deal with a dead stinkin fish. But a Record Breaking Bass? Dead or alive, that fish is coming home with me! I've got a few reasons: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, MY NAME IN THE RECORD BOOKS, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, Giant stuffed Bass on my office wall, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, and more money.

Hey Phishing Phool, how's ole Lake Harris been treating ya?

I liked the link with pictures. mi low iq I gues. :-/

In my years of Florida bass fishing, which consists of a lot of rain fishing, I've noticed I do great BEFORE the rain, and I do alright AFTER the rain, but I never catch much DURING the rain. ???

I bet you're using mono and a short light rod. The heavier the rod, the easier it is to work bait through cover. And with braided, nothing stops it. I use 10 lb Power Pro and a medium-action 7.5' rod. With that I cast Trick Worms and Flukes into the thickest of Florida cover (including VERY thick lilly pads) and pop-it through just fine.

Nothing! hooks hurt fish. :'(

I have always heard of people using old X-mass trees, but didn't know exactly how it was done. Makes sense the way you described it. Drilling holes through the base of the trees and inserting them in the cinder block holes. I may give that a try.

Interesting article. Basically says bass do learn to make correlations which help them avoid getting caught. They also have a proven long term memory in some aspects. One thing the article didn't mention, which I think is a reasonable assumption is that Bass can probably read each other's body language to some degree. After witnessing a few fish get caught, I think it's likely that other Bass can sense the stress and danger.

This question reminds me of a relatively small lake that I know, where there's 4 big brush piles in different parts of the lake. When you first pull up to one, you can't help but catch fish. After an hour or so, the bite gets slow and eventually you have to move onto the next brush pile. By the end of the weekend, none of the brush piles are producing consistent bites. From my eperience, fish definately react to heavy fishing preasure.

I don't know which trees work best. At my parents home in Florida, I go around collecting fallen pine trees and all types of big tree branches and pile them up alond the shore. Once they're waterlogged after a few weeks, I'll drag them off-shore and sink them. I've also taken entire fallen trees and tied cement blocks to them and sunk them off-shore. They make great fishing cover, but people dragging anchors around can snag them and move them some.

Like everyone else, when I first started fishing, I mostly fished little ponds and whatnot. It was a GREAT way to learn the art of catching bass. And the fish were pretty easy to find and catch. Years later I bought a boat and joined a local fishing club. I had to learn how to find the fish in the big lakes. At first it was a little intimidating, never knowing where to start. It's always tough when you've never fished the lake before. You just have to look for things that you already know how to fish. Like open water hydrilla patches, or flippin into thick stuff or finding drop-offs or grass lines or moving water and stuff like that.

A Carolina rig is a good way to get the best of both worlds - finesse fishing while covering water. I Carolina rig a Senko type bait when I'm open water fishing the hydrilla.