senile1

If a big one spits the lure, I'll get over it. On the rare occasion of a breakoff, what concerns me is can the bass still eat and live with a big lure stuck in his mouth.

I agree with FiveBasslimit's approach for lighter line, and I agree with Mattlures approach if you're using very heavy braid. I rarely use heavier than 20 lb braid and since I'm accustomed to using the old approach of playing the fish I rarely manhandle and drag them in. Plus, watching the fish fight is a major part of the fun of fishing for me, even if it's a big one that I don't want to lose. I do try to keep the big ones from jumping by sticking the rod tip down into the water.

I'm not a licensed mechanic but I performed all of the work on my motocross bikes in my younger days. From everything I've read, and from most mechanics I've spoken to, using TCW III certified oil of any type is fine for your outboard. Regarding the breakdown of oil, in a two-stroke the oil doesn't really have time to break down since it flows through with the gasoline and is burned off. Since a four-stroke has a sump for the oil, it cycles through the engine constantly and does break down eventually. There might be something to the breakdown argument with a four-stroke engine, however, if you are changing your oil at recommended intervals on your four-stroke this problem should be of no concern.

Josh, Are you stating that you can see the bass chasing baitfish at a 20 foot depth? If so, this sounds like very clear water. Rapala countdown minnows would be perfect to imitate the baitfish at 20 feet as would a spinnerbait with willow leaf blades. Norman DD22s would get pretty close to this depth also. However, if the water is this clear, and the fish are actively feeding, you wouldn't necessarily have to get down to this depth to get them to chase a baitfish imitating lure.

Rattlinrogue, when I specifically started fishing for bass only, the Rapala original floater was my favorite lure and that was on a Zebco 33 also. These are the bass I remember, though they weren't my first. I wonder how many anglers our age started out using this spincast reel with rapalas or some other floating minnow immitation.

For the life of me, I can't remember my first bass. It would have been more than 35 years ago when I caught it. When I first started fishing my buddies and I would fish ditches and creeks with night crawlers and we would catch anything and everything. I'm sure one of those fish was my first bass, but at the time I didn't care what kind of fish I was catching.

A lake that I fished back in the 70s is filled with the thickest coontail moss you can imagine. I still occasionally fish this lake when I visit my Dad. The coontail was so thick they introduced grass carp in the early 80s to try to control some of the growth. My Dad and I fished this lake this spring and caught a number of healthy 2 - 4 lb bass. It has always had a healthy bass population for as long as I can remember. I don't think carp cause problems for bass, because, otherwise, the Missouri department of conservation wouldn't have introduced them to this lake.

I'll bet for most of us, we'd like to learn all of the techniques and lures. I've already posted on this thread and I have my weaknesses and techniques and lures that I prefer, but this isn't because the other ones aren't for me. We're all proficient with the techniques and lures that we were started on. I want to learn them all. I'm sure I'll still have favorites, but it can only improve my fishing ability by adding more tools to the arsenal.

At this time, this thread has been read 796 times with 50 posts, this one being 51. Obviously, Bill Dance has had a tremendous influence on a number of us or there wouldn't be so many responses here. Taking into consideration everything that has been said, in the final analysis, you have to admit that Bill has been good for bass fishing. Just look at the posts. Even many of those with a negative bent state that Bill taught them something.

Cart7 said: Wow, that's pretty close to my list. I would add spinnerbaits and walking the dog to the favorites and move buzzbaits to something I'm comfortable fishing. Deep Crankin' is on the line of being a favorite. I've never used a drop shot rig. I'm just now at the point where I'm proficient with the c-rig. The drop shot will be next. I don't own a chatterbait or swimbait either.

Ben had good information on motors and boats. I'll miss his posts if he is gone.

Jim, I've had the same thing happen. I've copied segments of my own posts here and some deep GPS/Sonar/mapping series articles elsewhere, ran the segments through Google, and found the whole thing word for word elsewhere under several "author" names with minor editing removing reference to one of ya'll or a specific lake name, etc. It used to bother me, and I even joined clubs just to expose the plagerism by showing a link to my articles here and elsewhere proving an earlier posting date. I stopped doing that because I was immediately castigated by friends of the plagerizer, accused of lying, then banned as a troublemaker. You just don't go in there bothering the more popular writers in a club forum and come out being popular. But sometimes it comes back the other way. I've posted ideas that came up in the next month's issue of Bassmaster or another magazine a couple months later, for instance, widely accused of plagerizing them. I find it interesting I mostly post concerning current seasonal stuff or get into the next season so folks can be thinking about that, which always seems delayed in most magazines. Sight-fishing articles were coming out in them while I was already posting on pos-tspawn while post-spawn was deepening, but people don't read closely or process facts enough to see a wrong done in journalism. It doesn't really do a bit of good showing who wrote what first. It's actually quite complimentary for someone to adopt my writing as their own, apparently OK on the internet. It isn't affecting my pocketbook anyway, so I just move on. Jim . . . . uh, I mean Ed

Welcome to the forum, Chug Bug and Tiger! LBH, good eye on noticing that 114 guests were online.

Well, I found this answer at this link: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdriveboat.html. Upon further research, I found this at http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/43031. So I guess the last quote is saying we put the steering wheel on the same side as the side where most sailors steered from in ancient days.

I respect your response to ***, LBH. Muddy, I've never been a tournament fisherman nor have I been in the fishing business so I've never considered having a sponsor. If I were to ever have a sponsorship, I could only accept one for something that I actually use and believe in. I have no use for those with no integrity. An angler may be able to make some bucks by touting a product that he/she doesn't really use, but eventually I think what goes around comes around.

KU_Bassmaster, It sounded like a good idea to me, but then the more I thought about it the more I had questions. I was thinking the same as you that if I keep the bag wet it would probably be the best way to get a weight. I just wondered if anybody else had more definitive information on the subject.

Well, I'm torn on this. Maybe somebody can straighten me out. If you use a plastic bag to weigh a fish doesn't it rub against the slime coat and remove it? Is it better to punch a whole next to the bony lip or to remove the slime coat? Or maybe we should use plastic bags with water in them as tournament fisherman do. Weigh the bag with the water, then weight the bag with water and fish, and subtract the weight of the bag and water to get your true weight. Or is a plastic bag so smooth that it does little damage to the slime coat? What do you guys think?

I like Bill Dance. I think most of the people on here are just joking about him. I enjoy his show and I have learned some things. He goes into alot more detail these days than he did when the show first aired.

The problem with places like this is which location do you start with. If you have acres of a 3 1/2 foot deep lake covered with Lilly pads and grass, the bass have a great number of places to hide out and since the depth is the same, it makes it very difficult to choose a likely spot. Under these conditions, I agree with Alandis311 that you should look for something unique such as a breakline between grass and pads or some other type of weed. You didn't mention any timber so I'm assuming there is none, but are there points or slight variations in depth that you could take advantage of? Also, in a lake this shallow the bass will seek the heaviest cover in the heat of summer. Keep this in mind as you seek a location. When you think you have some likely locations, any number of lures should work in a lake this shallow. In summer, I'd try to punch through the pads and grass with a t-rigged worm, fat ika, tube, etc. I'd also try a jig and pig. I think these would be your best baits, but weightless plastics, spinnerbaits, frogs, and surface crankbaits and flukes should work at times too. At dusk and dawn, I'll bet you would have a ball with a chug bug, jitterbug, etc.

If I had my druthers and it worked for every situation I would prefer a bassboat. However, we all know some ponds, rivers, and small lakes are better fished from numerous other options such as jon boats, canoes, kayaks, or float tubes. Whatever allows me to fish the area in the most productive manner is what I want to use.

Well, once again, there's not much to add to Jim's (OachitaBassangler's) first post on this thread. I'd say this about covers it. This really helps to clarify what we're all trying to do when we approach a new lake or even a new section of a lake we already fish.

Excellent advice, Avid. I found the same thing to be true when I first fished a jig. It was much easier for me to detect bites with a tighter line.

Great example!! ;D CJBasswacker, that's a good rhetorical question to get a conversation started. I don't think we can emphasize enough the importance of studying a lake and taking the time to locate bass holding areas before we make a cast.

I wanted to go out fishing on Saturday before the rain came through but I had too many honey-dos. It rained two inches up at Smithville Lake, Saturday evening. The only time I had available Sunday to fish, was from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. The water was quite murky after the rain and the wind was gusting up to 35 mph on the lake. There were whitecaps everywhere. The Carolina rig has been good on points and channel ledges in 10 - 15 feet of water here, so I started with a Zellmander on a c-rig. I also thought that some noisy, flashy lures might be useful in the wind and the mud. Before I left, I tried a slow-rolled spinnerbait, a rat-l-trap, a weightless watermelon strike-king zero, a wacky-rigged senko, and a t-rigged black culprit. I caught only two dinks, one on the c-rig, and one on the rat-l-trap. I couldn't believe how windy it was. I had a heck of a time getting back to the boat launch from the cove I was fishing. The weather report had stated the wind would be 10 -20 mph, but I knew by the whitecaps that it was higher. When I reached home I checked the Smithville Lake conditions online and the report stated wind gusts were up to 35 mph.

Thanks for the response, Flatfish. I've never had a crack in a trailer before and I wasn't sure what to do. I'm waiting for a callback from my boat service department.