deep

Very cool. So many baits, so little time to fish them all. I need to put trophy-hunting on the backburner for a while, and just go fishing.

I've been trying the Dirty Jigs California Swim Jigs the last few times out. They are at least as weedless as a weedless hudd. They (Dirty Jigs) also make all other sorts of jigs, but they're kind of pricey.

So other than a score of jigs, about fifty bags of plastics (including jig trailers), some hooks, a couple of spinnerbaits, and some swimbaits, this is ALL the baits I got. Let's see what else you think I need to catch bass? (just trolling!)

Hey BC, have you tried the Powell spinning rods? Just curious.

Looks legit!

I sure would love to fish where you were fishing! Glad you beat the skunk.

I have had that happen to me too. In fact, that's how I caught my first soft swimbait fish. I was burning back a mattlures softgill because I had a made a (very) wayward cast over an area I already fished. The bait wasn't even swimming, but skiing over the surface. Bait comes out of the water at the end of the retrieve, and a little 1.5# comes flying out after it, lunging at the bait. He clean missed it. I threw the bait right back into the water a couple of feet away, and fish ate it.

Yeah, I still like the Luna. But I don't see what's the fuss about all these Daiwa reels. It casts big baits (3 oz+) just fine, but seems kinda finicky with lighter baits (matt's gills and 6" hudds). I don't like it any better than my Curado 301E, that's for sure. If I had the choice, I'd have a Curado 301D/ E over the Luna. Beggars, and college students, can't be choosers though, I guess!

Here's my suggestion: An used Curado 201B or Citica 201D/E from ebay or one of the several fishing website flea markets/ ebay. If you look around hard enough, you should spend no more than ~$60. An used BPS PQ would probably be slightly cheaper. I like the Shimanos slightly better. A gear ratio of 6.x:1 would be useful, but shouldn't be a deal-breaker. For the rod, Bass Pro and Cabelas have some house-brand rods, which are decent. TW often has some rods on sale too. You're probably looking for a medium-heavy power fast action rod in your favorite length (6'6" to 7"?). I personally about kinda leery about buying used rods- I baby my equipment- but I do understand you can save a lot of money if you buy used. Good luck. EDIT: sent you a PM with a couple of links.

You guys should be grateful that you have the bait monkey on your back, and not a swimbait monkey LOL.

That's so cool! WTG! Thanks for sharing.

That's great 00mod. I hope you catch a (few) new PB(s).

Look good to me Rudie. Just add water now

Sorry for the late reply. From the first pic, you might be able to figure out how big of a hook you need. Then there's some talk about rigging and fishing big tubes. EDIT: Sending you a PM with a link to another forum. You might be able to use the info.

Fished the rat for maybe 20 casts today. One blowup and one hookup. The big one- seemed to be about 3-3.5#- missed the bait, and the little one hooked up. Ironically, those were the only bites, and that was the only fish I caught today. Wish I could have stayed longer. It's amazing how this bait is getting me some good bites, it's equally amazing how half of the fish that are committing to the bait are clean missing it. I'm not talking about swipes or nudges or swirls either, all the strikes I got yesterday and today, whether I hooked up or not, were really vicious. Midday topwater for the win. Barely a keeper:

I have no idea about hooks or rigging, but Bill Siemantel talks about big tubes in his book The Big Bass Zone. If you're interested, I could refresh my memory, and give an extract of what he wrote about big tubes. EDIT: http://thebbz.com/articles/tubular%20thinking.html Here's a start. I hope posting that link was okay. If not, I apologize in advance.

Mattlures MH swimbait rod/ Shimano Curado 301E/ 15 lb Yo-Zuri hybrid/ 2 joint wood PB rat. No new personal best, but I had a ton of fun this afternoon with the PB rat. I was doing pretty much what Matt Peters and his crew were doing with the Nezumma and Slammers in STE. Find a bluff wall with a tree overhang, and a bunch of laydowns. Since the slope of the land was so high, there was deep water very near the shore; ideal big fish hang-out in summertime. The technique I used was to cast past my target, and then work the bait as much as possible with very little forward movement- thanks to Wayne C. for the tip. Casting room was quite scarce at most times due to trees and such. I pitched at least as much as I casted. Caught three fish in about 4 hours, and had three more blowups. Biggest fish was 5 lbs 2 ozs, the second biggest was 3 lbs 7 ozs, the third was a dink. No pics, because I knew I'd be doing more hiking than fishing and the terrain was pretty rough to put it mildly. Taking care of an 8 foot swimbait rod is bad enough. so I left the camera in the car. Forgot to mention the best part. I managed to rescue my real prey trout that I snagged and broke off on a stupid laydown last week. Water level is almost 4 feet down from last week, and I could barely make out the outline of the bait, still snagged. Stripped down, swam out, dove down, and got the bait back, no problems. I had the devil's own time trying to unsnag the hook though. I had to make a return trip to get my nail clippers to cut the rigging off. All in all, a great day!

Can't speak for others, but I have seen and read too much to have anything against live baits, especially when big bass are concerned. I'm fishing the tool that gives me the best shot at catching the fish I want to catch. But you can't catch an artificial lure fish on a live bait, and vice-versa!

I have gotten into suspended schooling bass the last couple of times I was fishing regular bass stuff. I'd catch a few yo-yoing rattle-traps (red-eye shads to be specific), and then that bite would die off. I'd pick up a couple running a crank that dives 10'-12'. And when that bite would die, I caught a few dropping a weightless senko. Find another school, and repeat.

Great fish. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

How about this, use nightcrawlers for 50% of your fishing time, so that you're still catching fish, and you know that the fish are in the location you're fishing at. Take *one* kind of artificial- pick your poision- and use it for the other 50% of the time? P.S. The original Rapala floaters in F7, and the X-Rap XR-8/XR-10 caught me a ton of small bass, bluegills, and crappies when I was trying to learn artificials.

Wow Fish Chris! You never fail to amaze, and inspire me. A trophy fish of any species is a trophy.

If you already have a reel, I'd say just use it. At the very worst, you'll have to reel a little faster, or a little slower. My casting jig setup has a souped up Citica 201D with 7:1 gears. The spinning setup which I use the most for jigs has a Symetre with 6.2:1 gears, but I believe it brings in ~32 IPT..

Found these guys on the bank of a local reservoir yesterday- 7 of them in fact. I never caught anything other than bass, bluegills, and crappies from this lake, ever. I think there are some catfish in here though. I wonder if the fish species, whatever it is, actually belongs to the lake, or was used as bait. Never seen these here before, either dead or alive. Mattlures bluegill (5 inches) for scale. Thanks,