Gangley

Soft plastics are great, and most of the decent generic soft plastics (ZOOM, Berkely) can be bought at walmart for cheaper than Dicks, BPS, Gander, Etc. Check Walmart, they have Gamakatsu hooks as well. Worms and Lizards to keep it simple first. Get a Bomber or Bandit crankbait in a couple different depths. Get quality line as well, and learn how to tie a palomar knot, its simple, quick, and very strong. Should be able to get a large variety of soft plastics, a few cranks, and good line for 50-75 bucks.

This works: Have her fish with a weight only, no hook, no lure, nothing. Have her drag it through brush piles, rocks, stumps, etc. She wont have to worry about identifying a fish on the line, and she will learn how things feel through the rod. She will learn what inanimate thigns feel like, and how they hold and release pressure on the rod. 5-10 minutes of doing this and she will have a general idea of what common structures things feel like, making it easier telling a fish from a branch/rock/whatever. If she wants to be able to tell the difference between bite and structure, then she first has to be able to identify one or the other. Once she can tell whats not a fish, she will be much more confident with identifying an actual fish bite.

I havent yet got to use and of the lures from the lure pass. I will give the snakes a try once it warms up a little more and I can get back out to the secluded spot. The Model B is sitting in the box waiting as well, I just want to wait a little longer before throwing it out. Otherwise, the fish are biting good right now on most everything that I have tried.

I may have lost 4-5 lures in the past year. A rattletrap, a spinnerbait, and a few horny toads. I am very careful with presentation and using what i feel is appropriate lures for the occasion. However, I still have no clue how i snagged the spinnerbait, that was a first for me.

My father and I were fishing on my grandpa's pond that he stocked with Catfish. I put some chicken liver on my hook, reared back, and right about the time i slung the rod forward I hear my dad yell "STOP", but it was too late. I looked back and saw my father sitting there, face turning red, mouth full of chicken liver, and a hook sticking cleanly through his upper lip. The look on his face as he held the tip of the hook on one hand while spitting gum-ball sized chicken livers out of his mouth was priceless. He could have killed a goat with that look.

I remember fishing as a kid and putting 20 lbs test on a zebco 33 for perch fishing on a creek behind my house. Figured that an overhand knot was the tightest knot you could do, so since they kept breaking off, it must be that the line was too weak. The second one as a kid was putting field crickets (approximately 1 cm long) on 5/0 worm hooks because the bigger the hook, the bigger the fish I could catch.

Time to go swimming in my book Odds are you would probably find a few more lures on that tree

I lose a lot of Lake Fork Live Magic Shads, but never to structure. Its almost a garuntee that if i hook a fish with one, the fish will be of decent size, but the bait will always be missing. A majority of the time I will see the lure fly off the line during the bass' first jump. Its ridiculous, but the bass love them here and so I continue to buy them. Not sure how many Lake Fork jig heads are lying in my terminal box that came from Magic Shad combos, but I know I dont have to by any small jig heads for my creature baits for A LONG time. Like mentioned above, its the toll you pay to play. I seem to snag a lot of jigs as well, but the LFMS takes the cake.

thanks again for all the replies guys, VERY imformative

WAAAAY over thinking it, simply pull in the opposite direction of the fishes travel. If he is going right hold your rod to the left. If he is going left hold your rod to the right. If he is swimming upwards and about to jump hold your rod down into the water. If the fish dives down deep hold the rod up high. Its very simple, hold your rod opposite the direction of his travel, and 95 percent of the time you are doing it right. That last 5 percent can't be taught, it has to be felt, and you only get that with experiance. As far as drag is concerned: Set your drag to 1/3-1/2 of the lines breaking strength. Once you set the hook, start reeling in. If the fish starts pulling line out, quit reeling and let it run. They usually dont run long, and once it finishes running, start reeling in. Often times, when they get close to shore, they will do a second run, so just let him run again without reeling. This will tire him out. Once the drag has done its job and the fish quits pealing off line, start your retrieve again.

X2

wow, thats a great picture!

12 lb Big Game Mono. Not many weeds. I will remove the weed guard entirely and resharpen the hook to see if thats the issue. The more I look at it, the hook seems awfully dull from the factory, won't even scratch my thumbnail. Really surprised that its that dull from the factory.

I trimmed it back before ever using it. I am not fishing weedy areas with it and there was no need for a weedguard so I trimmed it down pretty short before ever making my first cast. Thats a good guess though, I was thinking maybe I should remove it all together because I dont really need it at all. Maybe thats the problem...hrmmmm.

I've done this as well, really helps keeping you on track and avoids you second guessing things.

Interesting

I've recently had great luck with KaRu's Vibrashock, and several Omega Pro Structure Jigs used as swimming jigs. I have been using a medium/fast rod and have had no issues what so ever with hooksets and have had maybe 1 or 2 fish in the past two months jump off. When simply jigging though, I prefer a MH rod, but swimming the jig I have found that the medium rods are perfect for me because I can feel what the jig and trailer are doing at all times. Often, I wont feel a bite, I will just notice that the rod quit vibrating/pulsating like it normally does, and I will set the hook and have a bass on the end. I have had no issues with either lure when swimming them with the medium rod, but I recently bought a Booyah SWIM'N JIG, and I have missed 3 fish in a row. I feel them, I set the hook, the fight lasts for maye 3-5 seconds, and then its over. My line goes limp and thats it, no fish. My trailer has no marks in it from teeth, so I know the lure is being swallowed whole, so the hookset should be doing the job, but its not. I don't feel as though it is the rod because I have'nt had these issues with the two other jig manufacturers, and my hookset is the same. The package says that the hook is a "TX3" so are they just crappy hooks, do I need to adjust my hookset, or is my rod too soft? If it's the hook, whats the best way to sharpen them, are their actual hook sharpeners that you can buy, or are they just fine grade files? Any information is greatly appreciated

if it says "SR-(Any Number)" then it is the balsa. The plastics have SRRS for Rattling & Suspending or SRSH for SHallow. It may have changed recently, but I believe if it is anything other than simply SR, then it is plastic. Somebody correct me if I am wrong

great advice. I have never fished a 10 inch worm until yesterday. I never had confidence that something that big would catch anything on the waters I fish, and yesterday i caught a really nice bass with one. The fishing is good right now, everybody should try something new and see what happens, you never know if that new lure will be your new confidence bait until you give it a whirl.

Yeah, I use the 4/0 Gammy offset RB for my 7" worms and have a few 5/0 laying around so I will give them a try. Thanks again for all the replies guys

from what i understand, the flipping hooks did have issues at the beginning of production, but those issues have been addressed and there are no longer any breakage issues. I will never buy them because the are out of my price range. However, if i could afford them, I would probably try a few simply for the confidence of knowing that I have the sharpest product made, and if any hook can penetrate the mouth of that monster bass, the Trokar can.

I keep everything seperated. I am fanatical about it. I have Creatures in one, frogs in one, Chunks in one, worms in one, craws and craw trailers in one, jigs in one, hard minnow lures in one, shallow cranks in one, deep cranks in one, and terminal tackle in one. I have a small box you can see on the bottom left that I carry by itself sometimes and it just has 1-2 luires of each type i plan on using that trip. My fishing backpack carries 6 boxes, but I generally carry 5 at the most, knowing before hand what I might or might not use. I dont have enough room to keep lures that dont work for me and so I don't take them unless they have been proven to work for me on the waters that I fish. I will generally carry one bag of something that I have not had success with, and try that while Im out fishing. If it lands something, I find a spot to place it in one of the boxes, if it produces nothing then it goes back to the tub and will be given another shot later. The lures that aren't in boxes and are lying next to the boxes are lures that have not produced for me yet. The money minnow has produced for me though, I just keep them in their own package.

I have a lot of 5/0 and 4/0 hooks, but I have read where some people prefer larger. What is the general consensus on hook size for large worms?

This is a good topic since many of us fish from the banks as well. Most of my time recently has been from the banks and so I have had to consider this very question a lot recently. The first thing i did was find a large backpack to carry things easily and not have to use my hands to hold anything but the rods. I keep 5 trays in the backpack at all times, and decide which 5 trays to take depending on what waters I am fishing. When I am bank fishing, it usually goes something like this: 1. terminal tackle 2. jigs and trailers 3. creature baits(Brush hogs, Crawdads, Lizards, etc.) 4. worms 5. shallow cranks (1'-10') I carry two rods generally: MH with a 5.1 retrieve for worms and jigs and creatures M with a 6.3 (I think) retrieve for cranks, swim jigs, chatterbaits, etc. I keep a small digital camera in the side pouch for photos

I have had great success with the KaRu Vibrashock. It is a great chatterbait and has held up remarkably well. I have had the best luck with it in slightly murky water with 2 foot of visibility at most. I use a Blue Gill pattern with a ZOOM Fat Albert grub as a trailer which i believe simulates a blue gill's tail best, but I could be wrong. I actually caught a rather large drum on it this past friday in the middle of the afternoon of all things. I have had the best luck simply retrieving it at a steady medium rate retrieve. Just keep throwing it, it will become a confidence bait quickly.