fireandice

Right on, Toxic. I've been a pretty die hard jig fisherman for a lot of years. I make my own and hardly ever miss a set. Just figured with 6 hooks, this thing should never lose a fish. Lol

Just had a 5-6 lb largemouth spit out my new Fat Free Shad crankbait. I was hooked up well and keeping him low coming to the boat. One small jump and he tossed it. Killed me to lose it. Just a fluke thing, or does anyone upgrade the treble hooks on these? Full disclosure... I hardly ever fish crankbaits, so I don't know if they tend to get spit out.

I have not but I'm ordering one as we speak. Did you ever get it? Can't go wrong with an IM6 blank for $27 on Amazon right now!

Wife recently bought me a Quantum Code reel that has the pitching/flipping switch. Great reel for the $$. You can buy one of these for around $80. Very low and smooth profile. I have it mounted to a St. Croix Bass Mojo 6' 6" MH rod. What a great all-around combo. I can throw almost anything with this setup. You could be into this rig for under $200, including a spool of braid or flouro. I like this reel as much or more than my Curado's. That's tough to admit, but it's true. No, I'll never bee a full on Quantum guy. My son bought 3 different Quantum Smoke spinning reels before he got one that would work past the first week. Just my .02.

I'd name it "Flub" or "Flubber." And I used to talk smack on my teenage stepson when he would make "ghetto baits" out of a bunch of crap in his box. I stopped making fun, when he outfished me twice in a row. My opinion is that you were throwing something that the bass had never seen before and hadn't been conditioned to ignore. Well played!

What is everyone's favorite frog these days? The jig is my go-to bait of choice, but with all of the great frogs out now, I have jumped on the bandwagon just a bit. I found these Lunker Frog's at Wal-Mart. Wow. Drag this dude over some lily pads, and DANG. Just saying. So what is the best in your opinion? Spro, Lunker Frog, KVD ?? Colors?

Nothing but respect to you Choporoz. To each his own. I can understand why.you want a reel that works well. I guess even my worst reel I would consider to be good equipment. I just tend to reserve my smoothest casting equipment for making long casts with Carolina rigs or light baits that need to go a long distance. Either way, I'm glad you are a fellow jig thrower. I appreciate your take on the subject. I'm no guru by any means. Lol

Jig = Best bass lure of all time in my opinion. My tips for success: Leave everything else at home Find a jig mentor - I didn't realize how wrong I was doing it until I fished with someone who had it mastered Watch your line !!! - Most 5 lb+ fish I catch take the jig with a very light gulp. It may only appear as a line twitch Set the hook hard and fast. If you're not sure it's a bass, at least you didn't miss one for failure to set the hook ! Throw that thing up on the rocky shore and drag it off twitchy. Some of my biggest fish appeared to be sitting in 2" of water! Colors: Black, Brown, Green, and I carry one that most folks do not... White (for bedding bass in early spring or very bright days and clear water) If you're fishing heavy cover, use a jig that handles it well, such as the Denny Brauer Pro Model Jigs are expensive. Find one you like, stick with it, and then buy several colors and sizes of trailers instead of buying 10 kinds of jigs. Use heavy line for pulling fish from heavy cover. I prefer 14 or 20 lb. Trilene XT or Berkely Big Game mono for heavy cover. Buy a quality rod! Do not cheat yourself here. Throw away the Ugly Stik and spend $75+ on a good rod. You'll be amazed at what you can feel. The reel is not that important! Any decent baitcaster will work. You don't need a $600 Calais to pitch a jig all day.

Fish for Bass long enough and you'll eventually learn that you usually get what you pay for. You can catch bass on a $1.00 spinnerbait, but if you are a serious fisherman, you'll learn save up and buy the good stuff. They usually have cheezy wire, clunky swivels, cheap plastic skirts that can melt or turn to goo, etc. I am currently fishing a Terminator that's on it's 3rd season and still fishes like new. It tracks straight, hook is still sharp and not rusted, heck it still has 50% of the paint on the head! I've probably put a skirt or two on it every season now and it's still going strong. Tell me that it wasn't $6.00 well spent and I'll argue all day long. http://www.terminatorlures.com/spinnerbaits/

I am the sole heir to a beautiful piece of property just south of Toronto Lake with two huge, spring-fed ponds. They have always been great bass fisheries, but now the ponds are overpopulated with bass which has caused the fish to become stunted. You can catch a bass almost every cast, but they're all 10-14 inches in length. I would like some educated response if possible, not just a guess. Should I start thinning the schools out, or should I introduce a predatory species like pike or stripers? I'd really like to turn this into a future trophy bass spot. I also have a parasite that affects the whole population. It's a larvae of some kind that infests the fins and even the body of these fish. I've been told that they don't hurt the fish and you can still safely eat them, but I'd like it gone if at all possible.

Caught this 4lb. 7ozer today throwin' a 3/8oz. tandem chart/white Terminator in the wind. I've been doing well with these this fall and a double willow in the summer.

On the Senko, I've caught: Largemouth, Channel Cat, and Walleye. Funny, I can't remember catching any Smallmouth on a Senko, but surely I have.

I have a fishing guide book that relies on the solunar tables, mixed with some other key factors for our area. It's written by an elderly man, published by him and his wife out of their home, and I almost swear by it. Granted he can't predict the weather, but he couples past weather trends with the solunar table, and then gives a guide that ties the barometric pressure into it. If you follow his guide, it seems that it almost always produces for me within 30 minutes of what his peaks are. If there's a dead spot on the day, I don't seem to catch much if any on that timeframe. To prove to myself that it works, I make sure not to look at it now before I go fishing. I record or remember the highlight times of my day, then compare it when I get home. This guy is a genius fishing predictor for Kansas. I'm sure some of you have heard of him... Bill Scheffler. I have contact info. if anyone want's to PM me for it.

I'd try and find some easy small ponds to start with that don't get a lot of fishing pressure from ski boats and weekend warriors. If you can get hooked up with someone on some low pressure water that holds bass, then just about any technique on this site will produce fish for you pretty quick... even if you're no good at it. It's definitely a learning process. My good fishing buddy and I have been at it for about 20 years now off and on, and when we go out now, we still find ourselves learning from eachother. There's got to be someone in your vicinity that can teach you/take you fishing with them where they know you can catch bass. Ask everyone you know. Some friends uncle or cousin or nephew will surely we willing to take you, and if not, get out and hit the tackle shops in your area. They will probably give you 4 or 5 spots to try just from asking them.

Okay, so I guess Basspro48 has been rummaging through my "secrets" book! Everything he has posted here is great JIG info. After fishing quite a lot the last few seasons with a tournament winning JIG fisherman, it is now always the rig that I grab first, and has consistently been a big fish producer. Take this mans notes and store them in your brains hard drive! And yes, JIG is in all upper case. Here in my little KS fishing click we now say the word, "JIG" with a deep, long pronunciation that sounds like the hawgs that it produces.

Great thread guys, keep 'em coming. I haven't seen any of these baits before. It's nice to know that you could find some stuff that not too many fish have seen even on fairly pressured water. I am a sucker for the old standby's but I could definitely see how some of these baits would work well. If I find any of my own, I'll post as well. The only unique bait that I throw is a 3/8 jig with a sort of chatterbait blade added to it. Not much different than all of the new chatterbaits, but it falls a little faster and has a tighter wobble if you swim it.

Soft Plastics: Strike King 3X? Yellow bag bargain bin at wal mart. It was like trying to put gummy worms on my hooks Rods: Durango from Wal-mart and yes... the UGLY STIK (wet noodle) Spinnerbaits: Wal-Mart $1.00 broken wires, crappy swivels that don't turn, and blades not matched to the weight of the lead. The entire bait would rotate and twist my line on retrieve. Reels: Hmmm. My Quantam 1310MG has lasted me about 15 years now, but maybe that's because I don't use it much since the STUPID button is on the SIDE of the FREAKIN' reel!

I understand. That is a little frustrating. It might help to just pick up on what the other guys are doing. You'd be surprised how friendly and open fisherman can be sometimes. I'd troll close enough to talk to them sometime if they're having a slow period and just see if they're willing to talk or give you any pointers. I did this the other day, and the guy was actually honest with me the other day. I just really wanted to confirm what I was seeing him throw and what he was catching. We had the exact same setup and he was killing me as far as numbers go, so I guess he was just more experienced with that kind of bait, or different presentation. It was making all the difference. Sometimes it's very subtle differences that will get it done, especially on water with fishing pressure. Find out about the main forage in the lake and try to imitate that, and if that doesn't work, keep bangin' away at it. You'll figure it out eventually. Good luck.

Alright. Kind of what I figured. Thanks guys.

Well, some more info. would be nice... we don't even know from your post, what time zone you're in. What part of the country? What were air + water temps? How experienced are you? You can't judge a lake or pond in one outing I can answer that much for sure. Maybe you just weren't hitting it, maybe they weren't actively feeding, maybe you're imitating the wrong forage, etc. Maybe it's full of stunted bass, this happens when no one regulates a body of water, and people keep all of the large fish. Don't be too fast to judge, keep hitting it, try different presentations, baits, etc. Take someone fresh with you. Sometimes a new fisherman can open up lots of possibilities. You caught fish, you should be happy. I go to choice water sometimes that I know holds big bass, and may not get bit for 2-3 hours. Enjoy mother nature, and your fishing buddy. I take a radio for the slow times if I just don't feel like racking my brain trying to figure out what the heck those bass are thinking.

Has anyone actually done all the requirements and received thier free fishing kit from the top left of the BassResource page? I was just wondering how much they ended up spending on all of the promotions to get thier fishing kit?

I have only had my Pinnacle for 1-1/2 seasons now, but I like it almost as much as my Curado. I fish a fair amount, but this reel was recommended to me by a Bass tourney fisherman with a lot of time on his gear. He's on his 3rd season with 2 pinnacles being his top two setups. One is a jig outfit that he always uses, the other is a spinnerbait setup. We've both been happy with them so far. Now wether or not, they last 5 years or more is hard to say at this point, but we're happy campers so far. He bought the $50 ones and I went for the $60 pinnacle with 1 or 2 more bearings. I love it. I can't comment on the Garcia's, although they sound like they have good support from several guys. I tried one of the Bionic BPS combos and wasn't too impressed, but I was trying to cast light lure with Power Pro Braid on it too. Just my .02 cents.

Sounds like a nice boat Buzzman. I hope you enjoy it. Champion makes one helluva nice boat and they hold their value well. Good luck and tight lines my man. Go get a 10lber.

It sounds like it should be a good boat. I'd have it checked out closely by someone who knows what to look for. That sounds like a decent deal if it is as sweet as you say, but I have a friend looking to sell a 1999 Ebbtide Dyna-Trak that is tourney-ready for the same money. Just something to think about. It never hurts to shop.

Well, Just returned from fishing a piece of private property in Wichita, KS. I can't really disclose it according to the guy who took me. Let's just say for a dog day of 100 degrees we did pretty well. There were fast times and slow, but overall, I'd say that we probably boated 50 largemouth in about 7 hours. We both had a ton of fun, and learned that when largemouth are feeding on millions of shad, you can't really get them to think about any other kind of food. It's almost like that is the only food that they are aware of. They would take nothing resembling a craw or worm. After throwing everything in the box, we found the best two shad imitators were a 1/2oz. tandem spinner bait w/trailer hook, or jerking a smoke shad or white pearl Super Fluke very quickly through a ball of shad that was getting hammered. Oh yeah, a Storm Wildeye bluegill swimbait did well also. Oh what fun, sight fishing in the heat of summer, it was almost more like a hunting trip. We averaged 2+ lb. all day with the largest about 4-5lbs. Here's a pic of a decent one that we actually STOPPED to take a picture of.