dhami013

Surf tackle is for salt water fishing. The baits are bigger, the tackle is different. Usually most salt water don't work for freshwater applications. Fish prefer different things I guess. Right now at Dick's there is a Bomber crank bait kit for 10 dollars. You get 3 cranks. One in Foxy Shad, which has been my most successful. One in a light brown and orange crawdad, then one in a black and green crawdad. They work for all colors and times of day. You can vary which ones to use for which conditions. Throw the crank, let it sit for about 5 seconds, then start your retrieve. Start with a slow retrieve then move it faster as you deem necessary. If you start catching fish, continue that retrieve. You may even want to try retrieving, then stopping, then starting your retrieve again. Go to the topic titled, best of bassresource, go to the one that says Guaranteed to catch fish. And it is guaranteed to catch fish. It's in the General forum. Also read the forum that says I just can't catch a bass. That's very helpful as well. Good luck, I'm glad you got your girl into it. I'm working on it with mine.

The saying goes that fish hold in 10% of the lake. I've also heard that structure don't always hold fish, but fish are always next to structure. Sometimes even the most prime looking spots won't hold anything. My hummingbird picks up when there's fish. It gives off an alarm to let me know if there's a fish underneathe. But when fishing a good looking spot, I've received good advice to turn off the electronics. Even when I do some good structure, even if I do see some fish down hanging around it. I still use a search bait like a chatterbait, spinner, or crank. Then after a fish or two I slow it down with a finesse technique. Like a shaky head worm, or a jig. Good luck

Several plastics have a multitude of different fleck patterns. Blue fleck, black fleck, red fleck, purple fleck, gold fleck...etc. What is the difference and what is the impact? Thanks all.

This happens to me from time to time. It's usually because I've let some slack on the fish. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the fish if they're swimming fast towards you, then they'll jump. Another thing, when they do jump, my Pops always told me to point my rod tip towards the fish. That way they can't throw it as easy. It's worked for me. So I keep doing it. But I mean we can't catch every fish we hook into. It's just that way sometimes. Good luck to you

My man I would wait to get a boat in the winter months. It's the off season and if you can hold out just a little longer I can almost guarantee you will find a good deal. I waited 'til this past winter and got a 14ft jon boat with a 32lbs TM, a 2.7hp motor, has 2 comfortable seats, life vests, an anchor, a small battery, and a minnow keeper all on a trailer for $400 bucks. I got extremely lucky. But I saw tons of other decent deals that I don't see now because it's summer.

Cranks, spinner baits, green and brown jig with a green pumpkin trailer, Throw the cranks, let them sit, slow retrieve. White spinners have done well for me, I'm fairly new to them. Green and brown jig, throw it, let it sit, then vary your retrieve from hopping it and dragging it on the bottom. Also at Dick's they have a 3 crank bait set. It's by bomber. Look for it. It's 3 cranks by bomber for 10 bucks, talk about a deal. The Foxy shad has been killer for me lately. Good luck my man

1. Brush Hog 2. Jig 3. Cranks

I definitely agree with this statement. I rode back seat on a handful of tournaments early this year, and I learned a lot. Mostly just by watching. Luckily the guys I fished with were both successful and really great to get a long with. Which I've heard is very rare. Joining a club is guranteed to improve fishing capabilities. And if it catches fish, how can you really discount it's value? If you're getting bang for your buck, how can you complain? It's all preference anyways. Don't look down upon another fisherman for what technique he's using, that's just arrogant and narrow minded. At the end of the day, he that has more fun wins, not he who is seen as the most sporting because he strays away from using a certain bait. If you wanna use senkos, I hope you slay em, if you wanna use live bait, I hope you slay em. Fish, share, and educate others. Don't leave a brother in the dust, especially one who has the same passion as you. Good luck on your goal my man, I wish I could fish that many days in a row. Experimenting with different baits is always a plus. And if experimenting isn't producing then go to your confidence bait. Like someone said before, keep a log book. I just started this year and it is definitely useful. Try to be as specific as you can with details in your log book. It truly pays off. Even when you're just fishing leisurely and not tournament wise. Keep it all down. You learn a lot more that day. Make sure you make note of the conditions and the presentaion you were using that produced, and what didn't produce. I'll get off my soap box now. Take care

Soft plastics. Shad colored cranks. I fish the plastics in deeper water when it's hot. I usually run a crank that goes about 4-5 feet when retrieved. I slow it down when the temperature is really high. If you're fishing morning, I've recently been doing well with a spinnerbait and a chatterbait in the later parts of the morning. Any where between 8-11am. Once the heat of the day comes out I slow roll the spinner or switch to shad cranks and fish them relatively slow. But plastics are a confidence bait for me, so if things are really slow I'll always make the switch.

Thanks for the input, I'm definitely gunna give it a try the next time I head out. We'll see how it goes.

A while back I saw a post about someone using the anaconda as a jig trailer. And I'm not sure why but I started thinking about it today. Do a lot of people use plastic worms as jig trailers instead of the usual crawfish looking trailers? I'm curious to throw some old ribbon tails I have in my tackle box to use as trailers. If you do use them, how do you fish them?

Would you be willing to share some of the angler initiated movements? I've never used a fluke, heard of people doing really well with them.

I use them as jig trailers. I usually cut them in half and use either side depending on what I'm feeling. Sometimes I'll use the whole grub as a trailer when I want a beefed looking presentation.

I'll have to be on the look out for that said grub. I got a twin tail grub fron gander, it's got a skirt on the grub, it looks like a GY grub but I cut them in half for a smaller profile and keep the skirt if I want it beefed.

I've heard it both ways, I've heard if you're fishing privated lakes you don't need a license and I've also heard that you do. Just needed some clarification. Granted I have a license I was just curious. Thanks

Yeah I like using the bitsy bugs. I feel like I can beef them up with a good sized trailer if I want a bigger profile or you can keep them real compact.

All this is good advice. Just be patient and get a lot of time on the water. When the fishing is slow I always result to plastics. The bite always picks up. Go to the pinned thread the best of bass resource and read the one that is guaranteed to catch fish. It is guaranteed to catch fish. Once you start getting the hang of it, don't be surprised if you get hooked on it. I started only fishing ribbon tails, but changed up to fishing tons of different plastics. The Zoom Baby Brush Hog is an excellent plastic choice. Go with earthy colors. It is a fish slayer. Senkos are always productive. You'll soon find yourself buying and trying out tons of different styles. My preferred method, is casting into a good looking spot (i.e. structure or cover) letting it sit, then begin hopping it twice, pause, hopping it three times, pause, then two times. Then start over. When I was learning how my Pops told me to cast it out, let it sit, then just raise my rod tip from 3 o' clock to 12 o'clock. Then letting it sit. Then repeating. Like many have said, pay attention to any irregularities. Have a sensitive rod, I find that flouro is a sensitive line, plus it's nearly invisible. Good luck to you. Post some pics.

If you're fishing a lake or pond with a bunch of gunk on the bottom how would you fish your jig? I usually try to hop it relatively quickly or swim it.

I think the scale is off, it's the spring one it was real close to 9. She didn't quite have the length but she definitely had the girth. She was fat.

Just caught my PB tonight on a white terminator spinner bait, between 8-9lbs. My scale is kinda old and the spring holds a little too tight. I think it may have been more. But it was a shock to catch such a big fish on a new bait. I was stoked. Thought my Medium rod was gunna snap. Such a great fight.

Brush hog. Plain and simple. I've caught my biggest bass from using those bad boys. Caught some big ones sight fishing with brush hogs too.

Too true, I strayed away from anything but soft plastics for awhile and have began to pick up my cranks again. I'm doing pretty well. And I actually caught a fish on a spinner the other day. Though it was a chain pick and not a bass. It was a good fight, and now I'm enticed to fish them more. I plan on going to buy a couple tomorrow before I go out. If I could get spinners down, I'd have a pretty good skill set going.

Conditioning remains for as long as their memory of the stimulus lasts. How long it's been since they received the stimulus. They are conditioned to the stimulus which causes them to be hooked and experience discomfort. So that could be whatever they tie it to. Most likely the color and presentation. I know there are bass in a pond across the street from me and they're huge. They won't even consider any type of artificial bait. They only go for live bait. As far as becoming reconditioned, it happens a lot quicker than the initial conditioning. Nothing can really completely return from to their unconditioned state.

Caught something a spinner bait, I caught a chain pickerel today. Also had a lot of luck on crank baits today. Bought a 3 set of bombers cranks you can get it a Dick's for 10 bucks, which is pretty cheap. So I got suckered in and bought them. So glad I did. I was killing them on those cranks. And the colors are great for all day. You've got one for each part of the day.

I've heard good things about shaky head rigging it. Also just regular t-rig.