bigbill

I been using the copolymere ever since i had problems with my mono breaking(cheap rivermist line) the dollar stuff whe3n i first started bass fishing. The lighter test silver thread copolymere has been awesome for so many years now i been using the 4lb, the 6lb and 8lb test at first. But i slowly switched to Cabelas brand copolymere which seemed as good as the more expensive silver thread. Then i went up to the 10lb and 12lb test and now i'm up to 14lb and 17lb. I lost a big hog that struck like a torpedo on my bps topnocker only to dive into the deeper weeds and i lost it with the lighter line. She was my record breaker from what i seen of her. I found the yo zuri line on clearance for $4.99 for 600yds. I hate putting too expensive line on my setups but now its time to change. I'm losing the bigger bass, the porkers. I'm shore fishing and i have as many rod setups as you do from a boat. My buddy's make fun of me but each different weight lure and lure action requires a different line weight and rod for the lure action to be correct. I bank my shore fishing success in the past to doing this. The topwater and my carolina rig setup doesn't matter as to where my crankbaits/inline spinners and spinnerbaits do. But the larger diameter line surely bit me you know where. Bill BTW; I went from trout only fishing many years ago to bass fishing using the light trout tackle. After a few wornout reels from catching the heavier bass i got into better reels. I also went from the cheap 99 cent fishing line which worked well for trout didn't work too well for bass, so i went with excaliber silver thread and my line problems were solved. Then i tried the cabelas copolymere and found it to be just as good as the silver thread only cheaper in price. Then using the larger diameter line with the heavier weights hurt me. My next move is to the fluorocarbon line. My point is i/we can make any reel and rod work no matter what it is but our fishing line is the weak link. No matter what brands of rods/reels we use we need a good quality line.

A few seasons back i experienced a few lost really big bass. I been using silver thread copolymere 8lb test on most of my rods for crankbaits and topwater baits. Due to lost fish and lures I upsized my line size to larger sizes/weights. I been using 14lb test on my topwater rod and 12lb on my crankbait rod. Now my fishing has been way off the past two seasons and i can't figure it out till now. I think its my line size because the fish can see it much easier. With line so expensive its hard to change my ways but i'm going to try. I just picked up some Yo-Zuri Hybrid fluorocarbon polymere alloy line to try out. It was very affordable and on clearance. It arrived and feels very plyable and tough. I hope i made the right choice? This is a big change to me. Bill I'm hoping this is why my numbers have been off lately.

I had to switch to evening fishing to night / early morning fishing to get away from the crowds in the evenings. I'm fishing from shore. I have noticed there are more fish in the evening when they turn on at dusk but there smaller in size. I just can't get passed the 3lb to 4lb bass in the evenings. Lightly stained water conditions. Were talking borderline colors between natural colors to brighter colors. I like to try the 2" baits with normal colors first. If nothing happens I switch to a bright color next. The trick is finding the correct presentation(speed) for the mood and the water conditions next. I fish from night to early dawn. Now i normally go out at 3:30am or try to be there while its still dark. One thing about fishing at this time is to be very quiet, more stealthy because the bigger gals are right against the shoreline ambushing the bait fish. I find them as close as 2' from shore in 2' of water. Do not coff or clear your throat too because this will spook them too. I've done it and watch a big gal swim away right after. I'm very quiet when i handle my rods and put my tackle boxes down too. Do not step on any rocks while your walking too. The little rocks sticking up on top of the ground sends shock waves into the water letting the fish know your there. Its there natural radar. At this time i use a bps topnocker on topwater in the total darkness or i go with a Rebel BIG claw crawfish crankbait that dives 10' at the time the sky just starts to light up, first light. The channel i fish in is 10' deep along side a weedline on both sides with two rocky points on both sides of the low bridge that i fish from. I have it all with no boat. With the rocky points i can fan cast and go from the deeper part of the point straight up to the shallows or cast across the point and play it slow from the slow side of the current into the faster moving channel water. I like to use the BIG claw along side the weedline with a long cast and bring it back in the channel slowly trying to attract something from out of the weedline. I also like to jig with a jointed shad rap of rapala jointed minnow off the bridge too. Just drop it down and twitch it. As it gets light i switch to a 1/8oz carolina rig with a senko type bait wacky rigged. I cast it out and twitch it as it falls or just keep the line tight and wait for a strike. I move it and repeat. I have also jigg'd with it straight down in the channel too. I have also used the orginal rapala 2" in blue. I use it two ways one is reel it slow just under the surface in the channel or speed it up and keep it deeper in the sight line. The fish can be very finiky at times and will hide in the sight line its below the surface were we can't see them and they can't see you. If the fish are there and you use a crankbait or spinnerbait and fish the sight line you will have success. Its not just night fishin its knowing how to fish that area too and what the bottom structure we have too. We can fish it all to our advantage too. The most important thing is to be very very stealthy when your out at night by yourself. I alos find that during the day in low light conditions it can be the same as night conditions too. I find the fish at both times in the same haunts. I find the fish will move to deeper cover as it gets lighter from a dark situation to a dawn/early dusk. For me the bite lasts from darkness till around 8:30am till 9 am then it falls off probably because there moving to deeper cover. At this time we can start fishing over the submerged weeds. I like to use a floating crankbait like a bomber in redapple craw. Its the same color as the crawfish here. I use it as a topwater bait but twitch it over the open spots / holes in the weeds. If the hole is big enough i will crank it and make it dive into the weed pocket. At this later time i have also found the bigger gals to be hiding there too. There ya have it my best tactics from shore so far. Its only fishing backwards from a boat but its all good and works both directions. Everyone has an equal chance at success. It not luck in fishing its skill. Bill BTW; My very first cast is in the channel/open water, along side the weedline. I will soak my BPS topnocker with scent and cast it as far out as i can. Then pop or walk the dog slowly to spread the attractant to exceite the fish. After that is done its just fishing normal after that. Does it work? I seem to have better action when i scent the water first. Now with my carolina rig with the senko i use no scent on my very first cast. If i miss a strike on the first cast one squirt of scent is a 100% hook up on the next cast. The fish will grab it and won't let go. Fishing in low light conditions during the day, over cast. The fish can be like us when we were in school as kids during recess. Then can be all over the place away from cover. One day in this condition i caught 19 bass from shore in one spot fan casting the whole place. My point as dark becomes dawn and its still low light or over cast as it gets later don't be afraid to tie on an inline spinner or spinnerbait and go to work.

I mainly fish and love to fish all the smaller places. I find that the bigger fish have different feeding times. I have caught a lot of decent sized bass in the evenings and many of them in numbers but no really jaw dropping big ones until i went out at 3:30am and fished till sun up. I found at this time the bigger gals are near the shoreline ambushing baitfish. I nailed a 10lber who was in two feet of water in the weeds at 4:30/5am. The bigger bass are there but there feeding at different times than the regular sized bass. There like ghosts and only come out at night and at first light there back in the heavy cover till its dark or low light again. Fishing for bigger bass is totally different. By uswing a portable fish finder that we can cast out will tell us the bottom structure too and were the flats and drop off's are and then we can adapt to that. If were fishing from shore don't talk, don't coff, don't make any noise at all we need to be very very stealthy. One out of [place noise will send them swimming away from you. Do not step on any rocks while walking up to the body of water too. The rocks can send sound waves into the water. I watched my buddy who has a small pond with gold fish and as he walks up to them he taps a rock on the ground about 10' away from the water and they come right up to the shore to eat. In the wilds the fish go the other direction because the sound waves say danger. Don't bang your tacklebox down, don't drop your rods on the ground. I coff'd to clear my throat one day and watch a big gal swim away. Remember to be stealthy. Bill

If its slow i like to just sit and practice all my different presentations with every lure. A fish will always interupt me sooner or later. Bill

If your leaving the house saying were not going to catch anything, i say stay home then and watch fishing on TV. Stay focused, Stay motivated, Keep going as long as you can. When the trout season opens i bass fish at 3:30am everyday for as long as i can 24/7. Till i get burned out probably by june/july. I'm disabled and push it as much as i can. Sometimes i fish for an hour or two but i'm out there not giving up yet. I use only lures so it me upgainst the little brainers. One day i stayed with no fish bitting and went thru my tackleboxes of lures twice changing my presentations, sizes and colors till i caught at least one fish before going home. The manns loud mouth in fire tiger broke my trip home from getting skunked. Trust me after a sore ram from casting i went home proud as a peacock from at least catching one bass. It was too late in the morning and i was running late but i stayed focused and motivated. Bill

While our 3' to 4' snow is almost gone the ice seems to be never ending. We must have had 30"+++ of ice on this year. In the past cold years from Dec 20 to jan 5 i've seen the ice go from 3" to 24" in a short time. Ok while the ice is melting i'm thinking about bass fishing, starting to watch my bass fishing video's trying to refresh. I'm really looking for ward to bass fishing this year. I just turned 60yo and don't have much time now to break the state record left in me. I know its out there i have seen these big gals already swim by me. I'm all stocked up with lures but i may change my line this year to flurocarbon. I went up in line test because of the bigger bass i'm losing. But so far my fishing has been way off the norm so it just maybe my line size, they can see it more. Bill BTW; I'm going to hammer the smaller places and gun and run if nothings happening till i find a place thats turned on. I'm fishing from shore and its fun to fish in all the smaller places.

With all the wet weather all winter(snow and lots of it) in the northeast(CT) and all the rain were having now it just maybe a rough start to fishing in the spring. I been worried about the winter kill with so much ice cover for so long now. Its mother natures way of controlling the over population. We did have a really bad winter kill about 10 years ago here. There was big bass frozen in the ice all over the place seen while ice fishing.

I fish mainly from shore and i carry 5 or more rod setups with me. Each lure thats different requires a different line weight and rod action. I switch setups all the time. I can see my two buddy's smirk at me at times for they just don't get it. Topwater action 6' 5'' to 7' heavy action rod with 12lb to 14lb test. I've lost too many bigger bass using the lighter setups. Plus there not line finiky with topwater lures anyway. Crankbaits 6' to 6'5'' medium action rod with 10lb to 12lb test. Worm/Plastics/Carolina rigs 6' med action w/17lb test with 14lb leader. Fishing from shore the 1/8oz brass bullet weight works awesome with a 3' adjustable leader. With smaller 4" / 6'' senko's to the larger BPS 7 1/4" sticko's it works great. Inline spinners/spinnerbaits 6' light/med action rod setup w/10lb to 12lb test up to the #3 to #5 mepps and up to 3/8oz to 1/2oz spinnerbaits Smaller rapala's/ smaller cranks/ spinnerbaits(1/8oz) 5' 6'' light/med action w/8lb test were talking the #2 inline spinners/ 1/8oz spinnerbaits to the 2 1/2" rapalas max. I also have a 5' light action rod i use for crappies but also for smaller bass baits too. I have a 7' heavy action rod setup for bass/pike and its actually light saltwater tackle. I throw the larger 9" trout lures with it for big bass. These seem to work the best for me. If most of the fisherman would actually read the directions on the lure package they will recommend what line size will give you the best sction with there lures. Line size also determinds how deep the lure will run too and how quick it will dive too. I think its overlooked how important the line size and the action of the rod setup really is to the action/presentation of the lure. If your using one rod right now that we can "say does it all" I say just try adding one more rod setup and try it. If your present one rod setup is in the middle just try a lighter setup with the smaller sized baits. Then with that success i'd go to the next larger setup. It will catch on with most fisherman when they see the improved success. But remember it also depends on where were fishing too wether its from a boat or from shore. After all its the same between the two only were fishing backwards. But we can apply the same tactics. Example with a rocky point from shore we fish up it from the deeper part of it to the shallows. From a boat we fish from the shallows to the deeper part of it. Like i said its just backwards but we can master it from both directions. Just bring your lure straight up the point and fan cast it from shore. Then move a little and fish across the rocky point at different depths too. We can also fan cast that too. A deeper,faster diving bait is good in the deeper part of the point too. It gets in the zone faster. A lighter wt line will make it dive even faster too. I have a rod setup for this too its a 6' rod with 8lb test. I cast it out and yank my rod tip back so the lure dives faster to its depth. Then i crank it slow so it stays at that depth. Its the little tricks thats added to our presentations too that matter. Its no different from a boat. Either way we can have success no matter were we fish from. Now i have lost some really record breaking bass because of my tackle being too light on my topwater setups. This is where the line size and the action of the rod doesn't matter. I can make longer casts from shore with the longer rods. I say to go up in line size until it shortens your casts then back off your line size until you achieve the farthest casts you can. From shore the longest casts are better because you can reach out farther than most shore fisherman. Your lures are going to areas that no one reaches. When the fish are breaking topwater and near the lilly pads/ surface weeds i stay away about 10ft to 15ft from them when i cast not to spook them. I try to also cast past them and bring my lure near them not into where they are. This site fishing is like playing with a cat/kitten we need to exceit it then it will attack/strike. It may take a cast or two but it does work. We need to be stealthy too and very quiet. I've worked the weedlines along the channels many times this way with success. My point is its not only our rod setups its how we apply it to the different conditions too. Its not luck in fishing, luck is at the casino, its skill in fishing, having success in fishing is all about skill. Godbless; BigBill

There's 3 of us who fish the same places everyday every year. At these three places i'm sure the fish learn our baits(lures) too. What was a killer lure lastyear won't catch zip this year. But not all my lures are like this. My old topnocker from BPS still works in these places. But my other crankbaits have stopped or slowed down. I mentioned this before here in the beginning of this awesome forum that were like a baseball pitcher and need to do a change up with our lures every year if were fishing the same smaller spots. I have noticed that one key change is the color. I picked up a cheap odd spook in orange on clearance one day. I think it was 99 cents so i had to buy it. The three of us were at our usual spot and i caught 4 bass right away on 4 casts. I did notice one more thing too, my buddy who was down stream caught a big bass at this time too. I figured the scent i used helped him out too. Thats my only problem with using scents it will turn the fish on in that whole area so most of them will catch fish too who are close to me. So my advise is to use cranks(example) but change colors year to year. And to try the cheap / different lures too. You will find that the new stuff will work next season. I say park the old stuff to try next season too. But down the road they will work again too. The fish will forget what they have been taught by you. Bill Remember i'm talking about the smaller places we fish from shore. And this i what i notice too. now i approach it this way; I go thru my ritual of hotter lures, if nothing is going on i practice my different presentations with the same lures again. If zip happens again i will throw every bait in my tacklebox again practicing every different presentation again. Its when i focus on making my presentation exactly the way it should be i find this is when the fish will interupt me. I just have fun with my lures and presentations if its slow. Trust me when we stay focused and motivated it works too. Just toss the lures you never use and watch what happens.

I tried the 6.3:1 reel on my spinnerbaits and by the end of the trip i was really tired. I went back to the 3:1 reels. I only use lures and i'll bet i'm between 600 to 1,000 casts per outing. I'm thinking this is were the pro's really make / earn there money. I fish so much i can't afford to use livebait.

Sunny bluebird days? 1.Clear water conditions? Smaller sized, natural colored baits, fished faster 2.Slightly stained to stained water conditions? Smaller/medium sized, bright colored baits, fished slower 3.Stained/muddy water conditions? Medium/large sized, brightest colored baits fished very slow. Sunnydays natural colors Overcast days / low light conditions, brighter colors Nightime/dark conditions, Large and dark colors Using a rattle and scent is a plus in any condition.

They talk to me all the time i have most of there video's to watch all winter when i browse the catalogs too. When watching there video's, listen but watch how they work the rod/reel too with the bait there using. We can learn alot if we pay close attention.

Nice work. For some reason the orange bottom colored cranks seem to preform better but i'm not sure why.

Shallow to me is 0' to 1'. When most of my shore spots are 0 to 10' the 0 to 1' is shallow. I can work any floating crankbait slowly to work in the shallows when there any deeper depth bait. A floating bomber that goes to 13' can be used slowly so it stays higher. But remember the bass strike upwards and we can work any floating crank topwater tooin the shallows and over submereged weeds. They love the bomber FAT A 05 in redapplecraw over the weeds. You can also speed it up to make it dive into the open weed pockets too then let it pop up and go back to a topwater bait.

My very first "hot crankbaits" were and still are; Lure Rapala orginal floater blue #7 (nicknamed bluemax) Rebel popr blue Manns baby 1 minus Browncrawdad (plain not shiney) (This is nicknamed the Hank Parker special because we first seen him use it in NH on tv.) Bomber cranks darkbrowncraw redcraw darkgreencraw firecraw silvershad firetiger Some bomber colors/sizes are being discontinued. Norman Thin "N" cranks Reddear Bluegill ect there all hot BPS TOPnocker in chartruese

After being a logger and selling firewood for around 35+ years I notice sometimes the white grubs inside the tree trunks can be as big or bigger than my fingers in diameter. This is why the white grubs work so well. I also purchased some larger white grubs that are for salt water that i want to try on the bigger hogs someday. There silly big but just may workout. What about using the white crankbaits? Time of day? When i was a kid we would put a pork trailer on a plain hook with a bobber. I would throw it into the wet swampy areas around the trees/tree trunks were you couldn't use any other baits at thye time it was LBSB (life before spinnerbaits). I had many strikes and it was frun to watch the white strip being swam around by the fish in the low light. Fishing LBSB man i got old so fast.... ;D It was so long ago i was fishing with the cave man.

I just purchased a new plano 9600 tackle box. I filled it with all my topwater lures completely. When the fishing is slow i will use and practice my presentations with every lure. Then a bass will always interupt me the nerve of them when i'm practicing. BigBill I just ordered another plano 9600 for my cranks. I can go from 6 tackleboxes down to maybe just 3 or maybe 4 tops. You can never have enough tackle.

Wait till your out there at 3:30 am for 3 or 4 months straight everyday till you burnout. I did this for many years. I would not fish in the later months because i was so burned out. This year instead of trying it in the spring i'm going to get in the everyday at 3:30am mode soon and fish until it snows. My one of my biggest fish was hooked and lost in late november when it was snowing. Of course i was all alone but not cold. Yup i went thru the catalog thing too after every fishing trip. I have a tackle room bigger than most mom and pop fishing shops. Now i tell the misses i lost a lure to get more new ones. : My point is it only gets worse trust me i know. Its not luck in fishing its skill.... ;D

Each place i fish is a tad different with the presentations. I think its because of the layout of the points and the way the water flows in certain spots. My normal presentation is the 3 twitches and pause like using a spook. this is hands down the best success. But at other places if nothing happens i go into a make it dive under, swim it under then pause let it pop up and pop it just a little so it almost stays in one spot and pops. I have a whole set of topnocker colors but the two that are most successful are the two in chartruese, one is chartruese and the other is a firetiger its actually a chartruese with black lines. Most of my places i fish are slightly stained to stained water most of the time. I run thru my hottest baits but the topnocker will call the fish in with the noise. Plus i can cast it out farther than any other lure. This way i can spread the scent too. I'm right were the river feeds into the lake so my scent is going straight into the lake. As the fishing gets better if it does i can say its the scent attracting them. A few days in a row i'm catching bass were there was nothing before. I'm there everyday at 9am to 9:30 the place is open at 8am(gated). I went back this afternoon and missed two strikes. I'm using the point to my advantage too by fan casting it. Remember i'm a shorefisherman. My most success in the past on each fishing trip was 6 to 8 bass per outing most of the time. Unless i hit the frenzy that occurs with the weather front and the moon phases hit at the sametime causing a fish after fish frenzy. But well see if i flood the place with scent if the fishing gets even better this week. I tried the joesflie in the 1/4oz bass size and a bomber redapple craw crank with nothing happening. These always work awesome too. Tomorrow i'll throw the rapala in blue/white i call it the "Blue Max" its been a killer too. Fishing each new place is another nut to crack once we figure out the bottom structure and what lure to use. I need to breakout my hummingbird portable fish finder watch too. This will tell me the exact bottomstructure and where the deeper parts/dropoff's are then i can adjust my fishing to it. Fishing from shore is only backwards from a boat right? My point is you can shore fish and still have good results. Monday 1 bass(9am), tuesday 2 bass(9am), this morning 1 bass(9:30am) this afternoon missed two bass. I got to get out there at 8am.

I don't see them on there website anymore so i emailed them and they told me the manufacturer discontinued them. If they did bring them back i'll buy a few more. I gave all my extras to family members who also are having awesome success with them. I use them like i use the spooks too. Today i casted over a small patch of weeds and brought the topnocker up to it and stopped then another 2-3lb bass just attacked it. My line just went slack and i seen the line going so i set it. There's something about the loud knock plus the firetiger green like color. Its the best topwater bait i have ever used so far with the mister twister top prop a close second with spooks third. With my health bad now i get to fish for an hour at least so i have to make good time of it. I try to run all my hottest lures in Ct as quick as i can on my mistake days(pain). I love bass fishing its the best..... ;D

The BPS topnocker was discontinued but no one told the bass yet. I'm fishing very heavy pressured places. I ride around seeing my favorite spots busy like a mickey d's drive thru. When someone leaves the spot another arrives to fish it again. I'm fishing very used water but it depends on what time i get there too. Today on my second cast i nailed another 2lb smallie and by my 5th cast the second smallie was caught. I used the BPS Topnocker in color #25 for about an hour today. I feel very fortunate to be catching bass since there are so many fisherman fishing the same spots. For me to catch fish when i see no one catching anything i give the credit to the lure. I vary my presentations during each cast too. I walk the dog by making 3 twitches, then pause, then hold my rod tip down and reel it making it dive for a few quick turns of the crank, then pause, then i pop it on top so quick it stays in the samespot going up and down in the water, then i make 3 quick twitches and repeat. By varying my presentation during one cast it seems to be more successful. I mush be driving them crazy because my line all of a sudden goes tight when i have a fish on to my surprise. I was fishing across the deeper part of two points. We talked about fishing the points before. I only got two fish today but i had fun and its getting better. I'm fishing the place were the big pike is but no sign of it today it was just bass. I switched rods today too. I was using the 8lb test instead of the 17lb test on my topwater rod setup. I'm wondering if the size of the line has something to do with the success i'm starting to have? Does line diameter make a difference? I'm using excaliber silver thread line. Can the fish see the larger line in the water over the smaller diameter line? Does it spook them? I think ever since i went to heavier line my success has dropped off a little. I now wished i purchased 10 BPS topnockers now. Its the hottest topwater lure i have ever used and its discontinued. Its just silly that they would discontinue it. My old puter is running on borrowed time now and my new warp speed puter is do any day now so i can post pics soon. I'm running without some functions right now. So sorry for no pics but i'll catch up soon.

Match the shad??? I was watching the smaller pickerel going thru small schools of baby bass just tearing them up. I had to save the day of course. I put on a rapala to match the size of the baby bass and started putting my hooks into every pickerel i could till the action stopped. Match the baitfish as close as you can. But when the daylite starts to go away as dusk approaches the game changes thats when i go to a brighter colored lure in the samething/size.

There all related there inbred. ;D

Been there before we had a micro burst come thru and were heading out and all of a sudden the dark clouds rolled in and were in the middle of it with 4' waves. My only thoughts were the stuff in my takle boxes which took me many years to fill them. I could swim if i had too but my tackle? We were full steam ahead to the boat dock, we were the last ones to get out. I kissed the ground. I got caught once before with a micro burst on my street legal twostroke dirtbike. I was flying all the way home. There were trees down all over the place too.