bigbill

I think of it this way were a baseball pitcher with a arsenal of baits. I throw a variety of baits and presentations till the bass let me know what they want. Topwater, shallow crankbaits, minnowbaits (rapala), spinnerbaits, c-rig senko/creature baits, split shot rigged worm, inline spinners, spoonfuls, etc till I get action. Change colors, change your speed don't fish too fast. Get in the zone, focus on your presentations. When you get the presentations right the fish will let you know. Using a bass scent too. Wash your hands before going fishing. Do not handle gasoline nor the gas pump before going fishing. I fish from shore. I have the droppoff's with man-made dams and roads. In the early dawn I use Topwater, shallow crankbaits, as it gets lighter I spinnerbaits, jigs, as the sun is up the bass start to move to deeper cover I go to c-rigged plastics. I try to follow them as they move. Don't be afraid to switch up baits. There are no rules. Switch colors. Chartreuse can be your friend. When in doubt try chartreuse.

Overcast, light rain? Inline spinners, mepps, joesfly, chartreuse spinnerbait(small). I notice the bass close to the surface in the rainy conditions.

Walmart has those thin but strong wire leaders with the eye to eye swivel at one end and a locking snap swivel at the other end.

In night fishing I have heard body slams that sounds like humans jumping in the water at night. At one spot I can toss a spinnerbait just infront of the tall weeds. I draw the bass out that way. my neighbor in vt has a bass pond. We were catching frogs and feeding them to the bass. The frog would freeze and suspend, but fall very slowly. All of a sudden old bucket mouth came out of the darkness to hit it. Every frog did the slow falling act. these videos show it's a war zone in the water. If the bass grew any bigger they would be nam eaters

Be aware of the rivers that have dams upstream. They can release a flow of water anytime. Many fisherman have died here fly fishing the housatonic river in Cornwall,ct. it can rise ver fast. ive noticed the river fish fight harder. Maybe because there fighting the current all the time?

I collect old fishing lures and old fishing rods too. Some stuff has no value like the early plastics and steel telescopic fly fishing rods but theses a unique story about the steel rods. But I collect everything. Even the old early steel tackle boxes. Watch your local VFW for tag sales.

I was going to each town that had a Walmart to look for discounted fishing stuff. Every Walmart stocks different fishing stuff. The Best Buy's follow the holidays in January to when they restock for springtime. Just stay looking. Hank Parker story,, it was February and I'm watching Hank fish that big lake in NH. He's using a manns baby 1 crankbait in brown craw. It was snowing out but I was destined to buy that lure it worked so well for smallies on the show. I went down to Walmart and bought the whole rack of them. I found this lure was just as hot for me too. I gave one to each family member.

Draw a map of the bottom structure that's showing. Make note of the rock formations. When the ice ice is on here we put old Christmas trees and scrap lumber piles on the ice so it makes added structure too. You could do it when the water level is low.

He's been eating or mama has been eating that chemically engineered corn. When the deer eat it, it gets passed on in the meat. Crazy stuff happens. Lol but think about it.

I have a 1994 Remington 700 in 338win. mag. It's never misfired. the problem is you never point a gun at something you don't want to shoot. Never trust a gun safety anyway.

I perfer a shoulder holster lined with suede. I ccw a ruger Redhawk in 44mag with a 5 1/2" & a 7 1/2" barrels I switch between them summer and winter. With two speed loaders. Most of the time. I do carry handgun with a in the pants holster covered up just about anywhere. When fishing the cz82 in 9mm mak is my partner. I been packing heat since 1975. Back in 70's when they stabbed that night fisherman near boston I feared copycats but never gave up fishing. I was packing a 1911 with seven magazines and a box of ammo in the car. "NO FEAR" just fished.

A ruger Redhawk in 41 or 44 magnum with a 5 1/2" barrel. A cz 75/85db in 9mm parabellium/ Luger. just two is a tough call. I like the 357 magnum too, plus i have a 1911a1 in 45acp I built as a low budget race pistol. It's been tested and reliable and ready to ccw carry. Built on a norinco platform. I enjoy tinkering with gun smithing. I had a new 1911a1 that stove piped in the safe since 1990. After purchasing every DVD on how to work on and build a 1911 I built the norinco first. I then took out the jamming 1911 and fixed it in 15 minutes. The extractor was unsprung. She shoots flawlessly now. This was 15 years ago. I'd rather learn how to fix them too. Being a class A machine builder I can build anything from CNC machines to the tower of terror at Disney.

Don't forget the Czech cz82 in 9mm makarov it's a surplus military pistol. Same as the cz75 similar but shrunk down. With a 12rd mag it's another ccw gun. We also have the cz83 in 9mm mak, 380acp, 32acp also. It's been discontinued but I'm sure there are great used deals out there.

We have a pond that's in the middle of the woods. It's off a trail. If you didn't know it was there you would walk right by it. I stand six feet above the water and I see black lines that move in the shadows. I figured out there large bass. Now the water is gin clear. I started playing with a rebel bumble bee and twitching it. I had a big sunfish on. As I reeled in the sunfish a large bass went after it. I pulled out the sunfish from the water just in time to save it. Then I remembered big bass eat sunfish. I just wasn't thinking. This place is quite a walk.

A bluegill, sunfish etc makes circles. A pickerel makes darting runs, I've had bass like the 6.1 # in my pic gave my lure a tour of the small pond before she came in.

Bass feed shallow, near the shoreline in low light conditions. As it gets lighter they move to thicker cover. Try a split shot rigged black or redshad colored worm 6".

I have a CZ85db in 9mm. She's a amberdexterious cz75. On you tube it gets a high rating as one of the best 9mm pistols. Using 3' of Kentucky windage I can make pin point shots on rocks on the berm at 100yds. I really like the double action first shot. I did go up two sizes stronger on the recoil spring. Wolf gun springs has them. It cut down the recoil, cut down the cycle timing.

The CZ 75 in 9mm Luger/ parabellium is one of the best pistols today. It's little brother the CZ 83 in 9mm makarov, 380acp, 32acp is a smaller compact pistol. The CZ 83 in 9mm mak holds 12rounds? To me a pocket gun would be a CZ 50 or a CZ70. A small revolver like a H&R in 22lr or in 22 war is another choice. Your could consider a in the pants holster too. Clips on your belt. I carried a 44mag for over four decades.

I perfer the YUM Money minnows still. Bomber cranks are my number one choice. Norman thin N's are good too. my bait monkey has bit me hard I'm buying up what was stolen from me. That bites but its reality. I did have some stuff I can't replace.

Small bluegills and sunfish is the main diet of the bigger bass next to crawfish. I find my bomber size 5 fat A in redapplecraw with the orange bottom is one of my best producers, there's a baby bass with the orange bottom that's offered too. I buy any hardbait that has the orange bottom. The other colors work too but I go with the orange bottom first. I once purchased a discounted orange spook on a whim. I tossed it one morning and I was on the bass bite for a while. I'm a firm believer that colors matter. Don't limit yourself to just certain colors. I fish in small bodies of water if it works for me it has to work in larger bodies to water. if your not catching anything change what color your using. I toss different baits, colors and sizes till I get action. Don't stay with one bait the whole time for nothing. I find it funny I was on a bass feeding frenzy where they only hit the rebel big claw crawfish crankbait and nothing else worked, I'm catching bass after bass. A guy walks by with only a spinnerbaits and caught nothing. He says to me your having a good night? Vary your baits when it's slow. i like to see everyone catch fish. I'm no pro I'm a nut who loves bass fishing. this is for the younger fisherman who are limited to small ponds. Remember everything we learn at one body of water applies to every body of water. It's your skills and knowledge of fishing that you learned that stays with you the rest of your life. It's not luck in fishing it's skill.

Have you ever noticed what crankbait bottom color works better than the others? I have noticed my crankbaits and topwater lures with the orange bottoms seem to be better fish catchers. Even my orange spook is a hot color too. Ever notice this?

Another point is we can have different water conditions in the water column horizontally. On top it could look clear or slightly stained but as we go deeper it gets darker. A chartreuse colored bait can be your best choice when no action is happening. I notice this in the smaller places I fish at.

I'm going to try to explain about using the sight line to our advantage, I'm a shore fisherman, just a nut who's crazy about fishing. My advantage is I'm in no rush to fish I try different stuff I read about. I'm going to explain this the best I can. I fish of man made dams with road beds and low bridges were I have the same visibility you have from a boat maybe more to watch my lures action. lets say I have two feet of depth of visibilty in the water. Two feet and up is line of sight were I can watch my lures action. Now below two feet is below the sight line that's out of sight of our vision we can't see the lure below two feet. i find during an active bass bite the bass will come up above in the two feet of sight to strike your shallow or surface lure. Now below the two feet out of sight they can be shy or sluggish to come up to strike. I slow the bait down so it runs deeper. Example, Within the two feet of sight we see the spinnerbaits in full view. Now we slow the spinnerbaits down so it runs below the two feet of our vision, it's out of sight but in the basses strike zone, like in there face. They won't strike in the first two feet but they will strike when our bait runs deeper. Get it? i hope I said it correctly.

First scents/attractants do work. In the beginning of my interest in bass fishing two decades ago I wanted to test every bass scent/ attractant that was offered, I built a mini wooden carpenters tool box to carry some. I started out with the orginal baitmate bass scent. It works great. Baitmate garlic another good one. Most of the scents I tried worked. The yum, snake brand ect. It's not only an attractant but the bass hang on longer so we can set the hook. i carried a orginal bass scent, garlic scent, craw scent, livebait worm scent for plastics, Shad scent, etc. my trick for using salted plastics on my c rigs I use no scent on the first cast, it I get a nibble and the keeper on my weedless hook comes up open I'm sure it was a hit and a miss. One shot of scent on the next cast is a sure hookup it's a given. fact, i was tossing a crankbait with a shot of scent while reeling it in a guy walks up to me and says do those lures work? but before I could answer I reel a bass in. He says I guess they do, I give that crank a shot of scent and toss it out, he says does that spray work.? Again before I could answer I reel in another bass. He says again I guess that works too? he asked me to give his spinnerbaits a shot of juice too. I did. i believe in using everything in my arsenal bag of tricks. A baits that rattles, a scent, use the correct size and color per water conditions. matched with the correct presentation. Everything works together and gives us an edge.

A pond is a pond anywhere all the rules apply. I find most small bodies of water are or were unfished here. The larger areas aren't fished correctly. Any of us here would have a blast from shore. I see most locals try but there using the wrong stuff, fishing way too fast, some use inshore saltwater baits, the livebait users I see throw 2oz sinkers. They leave tired and beaten up with no results. everything I learned in the past decades applies to anywhere I fish. It's like so many jobs I had in the past building machines when I leave one job that knowledge leaves with me, I apply it to the next job, and so on. I'm open to learning anything new and different. it is location, location, location. A cast out portable hummingbird fish finder will tell you the depth, bottom structure, the location of points, where the flats are, droppoffs are, were the holes are, plus look for fish. From shore it's a big help just learning about the layout of the body of water. I was popping holes in the ice while ice fishing to learn the bottom depths and structure. But now we have portable electronics. Now we read the water conditions as far as clarity and look for action on the surface, if the topwater action isn't on we go to shallow cranks. my old topwater bps topnocker is my search and destroy bait. She has lots of tooth marks on her now. I wish they were still offered they are the best topwater lure I have used to date.