KU_Bassmaster.

I have a 10.5 ft 2 man Bass Baot and I only fall out 2-3 times a year ;D. I built a home made casting deck and that was incredibly un-stable. I just stand up in it now with out the casting deck and it is pretty stable (unless you hit a stump.... you're probably going for a swim).

I've always heard by their eye color. Light brown is a male, dark brown is a female. I think. Maybe somebody else can re-confirm this.

I am a little slow to try things out of my comfort zone. I fiinally have given the wacky rig a fair try and I must say I am hooked. I have caught a ton of bass on this rig the past two weeks, but I have also missed a lot. I feel like I am not getting a good hook set. I have had a ton of bass swim off with bait, I set the hook, he is on for a good 3-5 seconds, and then all of a sudden it's gone. I feel this might be due to line stretch and not having a stout enough rod. I was using 8 lbs. Trilene XL and M action moderate action rod (actually my crankbait set up). I think I am going to switch line to 8-10 Floro. What types of rods do you "wacky" guys fish with or is the missed fish just something I am going to have to deal with? I am actually thinking of getting a whole set up just for wacky rigging. I am going to get a Curado 200, but I just don't know what rod to pair it up with. I know a lot of guys use spinning gear to fish wacky rigs, but I can cast weightless rigs with no problems with Curados. I like to use bait casting gear when ever possible.

Yes that was me that posted that link above and it WORKS!!!!! T

I agree big time with rule #1!!!!!! The only way to become a better fisherman is fish every day not just days when the conditions are perfect. Try and learn something everytime you go out.

WARNING: This book is probably 75% biography and about 25% technique (the technique portions are pretty basic stuff). Still a good book in my opinion. I also used to think his antics were kind of an act, but after reading this book I can see where it all comes from and I think that's just the way he is.

I am not exactly what you call "a person that likes to read". I read the book in three days, could have read it in one day. Good book IMO.

I actually think it's because they are eating something or have just ate something and they are streching their jaws out kind of like a snake. I noticed this while bed fishing this spring. a bass would take my bait in, I wouldn't set the hook in time, and then it would circle the bed "yawning".

I am experiencing the smae type of conditions you are right now and the fishing has been pretty hot for numbers and size. The big girls are up in the shallows gorging themselves on bluegills. I agree, follow the water up and fish as deep back into fooded areas as possible.

Nevermind........My first choice is ball_coach's trip. That would be a blast.

1st Choice - Amazon River and fish for Peacock Bass 2nd Choice - Somewhere to catch a Blue Marlin 3rd - Lake Fork in Texas for Largemouth (which I did this last March and it lived up to the hype)

When you set the hook using top water baits, make sure your rod is loaded up (meaning there is a bend in your rod and you can feel some weight on the other end). A lot of times bass will just swat at top waters in hopes to injur water you are using. Always keep a soft plastic jerkbait handy when fishing top waters. If one comes up and swats at it and misses, throw the soft plastic jerkbait in the area that the boil was. The pros say 90% of the time you will hook up, I say more like 75% of the time you will catch them. Top water fishing can be so exciting so letting the rod load up is very hard to do, but it is so critical.

Do those number's include short fish though. I don't think they do?? The total number of fish caught should go way up, and also if you read RW post he is not just talking about bass. I think when he says "200 lbs." I think he is talking about stripers. I have been pitching docks the last week and on average I would catch 3 fish an hour and about 1 of every 5 of those would reach the limit (15 inches). 2.5 cast per minute = 150 cast every hour 50:1 for all Bass 250:1 for "keeper" Bass I think these numbers also reflect what type of bait you are using. My numbers reflect using a YUM Beaver tail and jig-n-pigs. If I was to throw a 4 inch plastic worm I think I could have caught a whole lot more, but MAYBE 1 out of 15 would be of legal length.

My #1 pre-spwan bait this year was the fluke. Boy I miss the prespawn and the spawn. ENJOY!!!

First of all you can't think of them as "FISH FINDERS". They are depth finders, structure finders, and bait finders. I have a portable one that I use on my two man bass boat for pond fishing. I mounted the transducer on my trolling motor. They have kits for it and it has worked like a charm. In my opinion it has been a very good investment.

Learning to adapt to the situation. Until 4 years ago, I would go out to anybody of water, at any time of year and beat the bank with a 4-6 inch plastic worm T-Rigged. Maybe you would see me throwing a Popper or a jitterbug. One day I realized that I must be missing something. I wouldn't hear all these great things about jigs, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits if they weren't true. So I finally dug through some Bassmaster magazines did a little reading to get a little info on when and how to use these different baits. Then time on the water and learning from every outing has help me become a pretty versitile angler in my mind, but I am still a work in progress. Developing patterens has also been another big thing. I have started to pay attention where I catch every bass and then try to look for places that duplicate it. When you can develop a sucessful pattern, fishing can ALL MOST become too easy..........lol. This summer I am really going to concentrate and hopefully master the art of reading maps and electronics.

Comes on around 9:00 am on Sat. in the central time zone, but there are a bunch of other shows before that that start around 6:30 am. I used to watch them all religously during the winter, but if it ain't raining then I am fishing.

I try to be a little realistic. I don't think there is a world record swimming around anywhere in Kanas or Missouri where I normally fish. Next spring when I go back to Texas though......... 5:20 every morning............. well first I will go for 5:15.

This is a wierd one: I set my alarm clock according to the biggest fish I think I can catch the next morning of fishing. For example, on my trip down to Lake Fork earlier this year I wanted to catch a 10 lber. ...... so I set the alarm for 5:10. It worked. I caught the 10.5 lber in the picture. It's worked a couple of other times too.

I traveled about 2 hours to a little lake that only allows electric motors so I took my two man bass boat. Got to the lake, put the boat in, got my rods, and my ..................... :otackle box ..................... whoops left it at home in the garage. Not wanting to waste a trip, a trolled around trees looking for something I could use, found a spinnerbait and a crankbait that were hung up and made a okay day out of it. Actually boated a few so it wasn't all that bad of a trip.

Yes, spinning tackle and 8 lbs. test.

I've heard you can tell by eye color. Females have dark brown eyes and males have light brown eyes.

Classic Patterns DVD's. There is a show on OLN called Classic Patterns and I believe they are only previews to the DVD's. KVD has done at least two that I know of. They are very very informative and show the ways a pro goes about tackling a new lake and shows how they try to establish a pattern. Gerald Swindle, Mike Ike, Edwin Evers and Skeet Reese are a few others that come to mind. You can buy the whole package, which is a little pricey, or you can buy them separately.

http://bassresource.com/cgi-bin/bass_fish/YaBB.pl?board=gen_bass;action=display;num=1111458633 I actually tried this last week on two my dad caught (he waits FOREVER to set the hook). One time it did work, one time it didn't. The one time it did though, it just popped out pretty easily.

Black 10 icnh plastic worms work well for me. Stick with dark colors like black, dark blue, junebug, etc. I basically like big bulky dark baits in muddy water. Brush Hogs come to mind.