Jigfishn10

cadman, if you're still having problems, FL can PM me his e-mail and I can reply with your e-mail address? Just a thought.

Friday and Saturday I was able to do some topwater bank fishing and had some really nice results. Saturday I hooked into one I knew was a quality fish, I'm guessing in the 3-4 lbs range when I saw her at the surface . When I hooked her I knew I had to get her past a wall of weeds about 1' - 2' below the surface, so I tried to skate her in fast and kept my rod tip low so she wouldn't jump. Well, she dove on me and got me in those weeds. I tried everything to get her out, but she unbuttoned on my spook jr. I was trying not to apply too much pressure while she was in there, but, well, it was too much pressure. Any suggestions as to what I could have done differently? Fish, weeds and treble hooks is not a good recipe.

Gotcha... Good luck topwater fishing this year!

I personally think they could see all but one side of the lure at rest, but once that lure gets moving I think its bottom only. They will more than likely see a silhouett of the sides of the bait, but with all the surface disturbance that lure is making, I personally think they see the botton more clearer than the sides.. You can make the arguement that because a topwater would have roll to it, then they would see the nice detailed side, but does that seriously matter? To be perfectly honest with you, topwaters are tail weighted. A bass would see all but the head of the lure at rest.

SausageFingers is dead on. A bass can drop a lure faster than the transmission of the pick-up runs up to your rod tip. If a curious bass picks-up, it may not always have a good grip on it. If you ever sight fished you would see things that would amaze you. Pick-ups you don't feel. Pick-ups at the tail section of the lure and the hook not even close to it's mouth. Pick-ups on the fall and you don't feel it until it swims off and even then you don't know if it was a solid pick-up. So be careful if you get a pick-up and swing for the fences and find a lure whizzing by your head.

I'm not sure what part of Houghton's Pond you fished, but right now bass are on the southern and western part of the pond. East and north are loaded with pickerel right now.

Lurenet.com is distributing the Zara Spooks for Heddon. I use a constant retrieve. If you want to make the lure veer off to one side, try a half step instead of bending the line tie and fatiguing the metal. 1 full pull followed by a half pull. Basically, the full pull will bring the bait to one side and the half starightens it out, next full pull brings the bait to the side more causing the lure veer to one side. I know you didn't ask that question so this one's on me...LOL EDIT: After fighting a fish, check your line tie. Sometimes it slides up towards the top making it harder to walk again. Reposition and your good to go.

If you feel the pick up, tighten down on the line a bit, they tend to clamp down a bit more or even try an get a better grip on the bait while they are running with it. You'll know when to set the hook at that point. It appears to me that this happens more in the spring and late fall, but that's what I've learned anyway. Hope this helps.

I don't see where detail is important at all. Dog walkers and chuggers (to a certain degree) are moving and creating a disturbance in the water, how does a fish see the top and side of the bait? I think they see just the bottom of the bait and the sides and top are blurred from the distrubance. Bone white for me during the day and black or some sort of dark color at night. I think topwaters are total reaction strikes. Heck, Zell Rowland will tell you that if a fish is short striking a buzzbait, then take the skirt off and fish it naked, just hook and lead head. That tells me that it's a total reaction strike.

You don't sound very confident using this lure, but I maybe reading your OP wrong? For me and deep fishing without knowing the depth you're fishing? You can't go wrong on a black and some type of green watermelon color. White loses it's color very fast in deep water. JMHO

I posted in this thread early on and forgot all about it, but I just read thru it all again and your're 100% correct, it's being at the right place at the right time with the right lure!

I've never thought of that. Great post Bilgerat!

Going against my doc's advice, I hurt my back in my early twenties. I kept "playing on" like I was superman. Well in my mid twenties I got degenerative disks. Raw, cold and rainy days are the worst. Try having a kid you want to hold in your arms and can't do it for an extended period of time? Try playing ball with your kid but have to cut the session short because your back is shooting pains up to your brain? It's not fun and I wish I had a second chance, for my kids sake. Just remember, brains over brawn always win.

I thought Cabelas had them in their crappie section (no pun intended) or walleye section? If you can't find them, PM cadman, I bet you he has the mold and can make them up for you.

Mushrooms or mescaline? LOL

Send me a PM, I'm 6 miles from there, maybe we can meet up someday. I'll show you some spots where the hogs hang out...well from time to time they hang out.

Thanks philsoreel, 4 bass and crappie on a spook jr today. I'll take that for my first topwater outing of the season. I'm just like you, man, I gotta retrain myself every year, I see the blow-up and my heart pounds all the time. After about 3 or 4 outings I get used to it again.

Well, one of your questions got answered...LOL Besides you inspired me to go topwater fishing today for my first time this year.

Hey Bass Protege. First, welcome to Bass Resource, glad to have you aboard. It doesn't sound like I'm very far from you. I fish Houghton's pond a lot in Milton, as a matter of I fact I recently caught my personal best (PB) large mouth bass ever out of there. It's a bank only fishing pond, but there is a path around the pond with a lot of accessible holes to fish out of. It has a very good bass, pickerel and trout population. Not far from there, you can go to Ponkapoag Pond. There is access there to fish from a canoe and has a very good population of bass and pickerel. You can hit Ames Pond in Stoughton. Same species as above. Buckmasters in Westwood. I used to fish there a lot, but haven't in the past 2 seasons or so. Norton Res in Norton. Big bass in there. I should be hitting that soon with a buddy. There are more, but those are on top of my brain right now...LOL

I generally fish it like River Rat316 mentions, but if you're catching fish the other way, then keep going until the fish say change it up.

Well I got some dog walking practice in today...1 on a Spook Jr. Casted 3' off the bank and retrieved it paralell. That fish exploded on it with no hook up. Went back 2 more tiems, same thing. On the fourth cast to the same spot I was able to button up...LOL First topwater fish of the year...FELT GREAT! EDIT: Went back and got 3 more and a crappie...

Just came back from Lexington. I spent 2 hours there and saw 5 males guarding beds. Got 1 buck on a jig & grub and enticed one 3 times, but took my jig and moved it.. He was 8' in front of me. Three times I pitched to the bed and let it sit there. Twitched my rod so that the jig moved about an inch, after about 5 tritches he moved it off the bed, never really having a good grip on it to set the hook....LOL...I left him alone after that.

The lure I was having problems with was a 3" spit'n image. It's an older one when excalibur produced them back in the very early part off the 2000's. I had a lot of trouble walking that as mentioned above. I use a Medium Heavy Power - Medium Fast Action BC rod. I have 15lbs spooled up and in order to get longer casts I drop the lure about a foot or so below the rod tip. The softer tip allows the bait to whip out at the cast and provides a nice shock absorber during the strike. Because the bait is light any additional hardware on the line tie - split ring or snap - pulled the nose down just enough to make the bait harder to walk. So now I tie direct. I wouldn't say that this bait walks a lot faster, because JF is right, smaller baits do walk faster. It does have a tighter side to side action than longer dog walkers I've used. Good luck, I hope you find your mojo with the ones you're trying to fish with.

Good luck.

I actually had problems with a small dog walker. Same thing, you stopped cadence and it was hard to get going. I took off the split ring at the line tie attachment and it was like I rediscovered my dog walking abilities. Line is also a factor, thicker line line 15-17 lbs is ideal (for me anyway) for dog walking. 10 lbs test tends to sink too much for me and will make the bait sink like a seal. Maybe try the above and let us know how you make out. Hope this helps.