Shad_Master

A hypothetical answer - maybe I don't get to do much smallie fishing these days, so I couldn't really weigh in on that - but I have always set 8.5# as being a LMB that I might consider hanging on the wall or having a replica made. I think a lot of it has to do with where you are fishing - around here, 6# is pretty rare (although there are lots of stories that never seem to get backed up) but in south Texas for instance, 10# might be considered average. It's good to have a goal, but don't let other people influence what you are striving for, too much. Take stock in your situation and go from there.

Well, I don't know that I can solve your dilema - been there/done that many times myself - but what the old boys keep telling me this time of year is to go deep - you mentioned fishing all the cover you can find - it by "find" you mean see with your eyes, you may want to "look" for cover you can't see - brush piles, grass edges, etc. down around the channel or in deeper pockets. Fish these areas with T-rigged worms (june bug is a good summer color) or jigs - if that don't work, it will at least get you that much closer to fall

I don't always do this - but the best buzzer I ever had was one that I "tuned" - tied it on the rod and let it hang out the back of the truck in a strong wind until it was squealing like a stuck pig - I caught lots of fish on that buzzer when others wouldn't work. The other thing is, I never throw the buzzer when the sun is touching the water (either early morning or late evening usually, unless it is a real cloudy day). I have seen other people catch on buzzers in bright sun, blue-bird skies, but I have never had any luck with that.

Well you certainly can't go wrong with GULP! - but another option besides color (you'll probably get a lot of suggestons on this) is to use a bait with lot's of vibration like a chatter bait or a spinner bait with large blades.

How heavy a jig are you using? the only suggestion I might make is to use a heavier jig and punch through the grass rather than pitching to the holes. Also, I always have a jig tied on, but don't throw it until I know that there are fish in the area - you can spend a lot of time jig fishing in a non-productive area.

I've had this same problem for about the same length of time - I have three suggestions - two of which have already been mentioned: 1) Pottasium - if I feel the cramps comming on in the evening, I take two tablets - sometimes helps 2) water - can't get enough of it 3) check with your Dr. about restless leg sydrome - I did and he gave me a prescritpion that is a miracle drug - after taking, I had the first night's sleep w/o a cramp in probably 20 years

For me it has to do with the water I am fishing - if I am on rip-rap or rock piles - I will allways have a jig on. If I am fishing grass, I will always have a T-rig. When it comes to brush piles or fishing buck brush or willows or such, I will alternate between the two. It is mostly what I can fish effeciently and what the fish want.

I guess I have a little different take on this - I often fish a particular drain pipe that flows from a golf course - after a rain the water is rushing through and this causes the fish to stack up in the flow - I have found that if I let 'em run for just a few seconds before setting the hook I have better results. I pitch my lure into the flow on slack line and let it wash out until I see the line move and then engage the reel.

I was always of the opinion that you had to twitch/hop a frog and this was frustrating for me because I like to fish (too) fast - until one day I was fishing with a guy who caught a frog on a really long cast - after unhooking him and throwing him back, I was surprised to watch him swim fast and steady back to the bank - he looked just like a Horny Toad when being steady retrieved - now I use this on a regular basis with good results. The only exception is when I am throwing up on the slop - then I do the twitch/hop and wait for the explosion.

Thanks for the reply - PM sent

this particular one was May of 1999 - the "tip" being suggested had to do with tying a surgeon's loop at the end of the tag line and then attaching a split shot to avoid losing your "bullet sinker, glass bead and swivel clip". But it also indicted that having a loop knot at the end of the tag gave you a place to attach the rig to your reel when not being used - this makes a lot of sense.

... a "Yankee rig" aka "upside-down Carolina rig" - I bet you have and probably don't know it. Here's the deal - my wife and I have been cleaning out our basement and garage and I discovered a box full of old BassMaster magazines mixed in with a bunch of other stuff that I had forgotten about. I pulled them out and started looking through them last night while she was watching the Bachelorette In one of them was an "inventive idea" submitted by a reader - he referred to it as a Yankee righ or upside-down Carolina rig - I looked at the picture and discovered that what he was talking about was a "drop shot". Now being an old southern boy (if I can still claim that after living in the Mid-west for 30+ years) I probably would have glossed over the yankee part but I had seen this used as a "drop shot" about 3 years before and it was being hearlded as a California technique. This was sort of like an early Christmas present, finding those old magazines. If you have any laying around, it can be fun to go through them and see what was "hot" back then and how things have evloved.

A really good question - this is probably my biggest downfall as a fisherman - I get really stubborn about my lure selection and tend the think the fish are too stupid to bite, when I know they did last time :-[ I have tried to make myself be more versatile in what I am presenting to the bass and have a variety of set ups when I start out - but then I still get hung up on those set ups. Last week I fished with a guy who had a timer on his watch - if he didn't get a bite before the timer went off, he immediately changed his lure (from a black/blue to a green pumpkin, etc.) not the set ups just the lures on the set ups. I though he was being crazy until I looked at the cards at the end of the day - although I had my limit - he had culled several more times than me. "Things that make you go hmmmm?".

Boo on you J Francho! Your'e trying to introduce logic into this conversation - what fun is that? You are absolutely correct and quite frankly in the long run none of this really matters. It has been a fun discussion though and thanks to all of you who put your $.02 in.

You may be right - I don't know the gentleman - however, the original question did not have to do with catching big bass consistantly it was simply about catching a big bass. If you can show me someone who never snags a dink and only pulls in hawgs in the "big bass" class (what ever that is, I suspect it varies from place to place) - then I am willing to concede that luck is not a factor, but until then I will continue to carry my lucky coin, rub my rabbit's foot, etc. until I manage to "out skill that really biggun".

And they never eat the same things the dinks eat, huh? So to keep them pesky keepers from ruining your day of Hawg!! fishing, just avoid using them there dink baits 'cause your skills far out weigh the average fishermen that would think they had a good day loading the boat with dinks. I guess that's why the BASS and FLW guys never have to measure their fish to make sure they are legal before putting 'em in the live well. 'cause they got all them skills and don't rely on luck. I'm sorry if this sounds snotty - I just can't get over the fact that so many people have problems letting "luck" into the equation. Of course it takes skill to be a consistent fish catcher - but you can't catch 'em all and some are gonna be bigger than others. Even Mike Long, that has been mentioned here, probably has days when he hooks one that is less than 10 lbs. But that doesn't take away from what he has accomplished - by the same token that guy who caught the 8#+ on his first day ever should be rewarded for doing something that some of us only dream of, although he may never do it again. LBH calls luck - odds -- sure the more you fish the better your chances of pulling in a monster - I have been fishing for over 50 years and have several 6+#ers in my memory bank but that is it - part of it does have to do with location - I can't help that - I fish where I live most of the time. But even those 6#ers had some luck attached. Does that make me less of a skilled fishermen than some other guy - maybe, but it makes me more skilled than lots of other as well and lucky enough to have been in the right place, doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time when them 6#ers decided to show up.

Okay, let me try this another way: If it's skill that catches the bigguns - then it must be unlucky when a dink hits your line :-/

I'm going to be in the general area of Greers Ferry the week-end of July 11th and 12th. If you generally fish this lake, I would like to thumb a ride in the back of your boat. Failing that, is there a marina that rents boats for a reasonable rate? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Another thing I like to do with my buzzers, when I can, it "tune 'em" - my favorite way to do this is to tie one on on a real windy day and just prop the rod up in the back of my truck and let it spin all day. I stumbled on this by accident when I was planning to go fishing and found the winds at gale force - I was so disgusted I just left everything in the back of the truck and the old buzzer was going crazy - as the day went on that buzzer began to put up a racket that could be heard all over the neighborhood - I probably caught more bass on that "tuned" bait than any I ever had.

I think if I was going to summarize what I have learned from reading this discussion it woud be: "Skill catches the bass - luck catches the bigguns"

Wife said: "yard needs mowin" I said: "bass need catchin" Wife said: "yard needs mowing!!!" I said: "try not to get overheated doing that" Dr. said: "bandages can come off in a day or two" (old joke I know - but so true)

Catt's right about the buzz bait bite either being on or off - but just one word of advice - the more you throw this the more agitated the fish get - once they start hitting it, the more hits you will get - don't short change the aggravation factor of having this thing swimming overhead. The action of the bass blowing up on the buzzer is well worth the time spent provoking that first bite.

Dude!! Home Improvement was invented by peope who don't fish

A couple of interesting questions and I'm sure you will lots of good answers - unfortunately they may not all be the same (LOL) - first of all, on your spinner bait - are you bringing it through a lot of grass? If so, that may account for the tug on your line that you are feeling - if so, you may want to down-size and go for a 3/8 of 1/4 spinner bait or try fishing it out on the edge of the weedline. As for the buzz-bait, work this in the same areas in lower light conditions - when the first bite happens for you, you will be sold on this presentation. My rule of thumb is to throw them first thing in the morning until the sun touches the water and then I put 'em away until the shadows come in as the sun is going down. This is not to say that you can't catch fish with 'em any time of the day - this is just my style. Good luck and post pictures of the lunker you catch with these lures

Paul Roberts and WRB - this is why I was really interested in this topic - the guys who consistently win the big stringer do not necessarily always catch the big bass - it is more random. I guess to put it into perspective for me would be in a head-to-head situation - - two guys in the boat, fishig the same stretch of bank or the same brush pile - both fill their limits with keepers, but one guy has the big bass of the tournament - does that make him the better fisherman or just lucky?