merc1997

tom enjoyed the read. tells a lot about just how old we both are! i had bill haddock make me some of those barrel jigs long ago, and still have a few somewhere. bill also had some soft plastic baits that i used. i still have a bottle or two of pedigo trailers stashed somewhere also. bo

at least from my experiences, bass at different times of the year, seem to have a distinct preference for big baits. here in the ozarks, this seems to occur in the hot part of the summer. big bass especially do not want to expend more energy than needed, and with the summer water temps a bass's metabolism is faster and requires more food. it certainly never hurts to experiment any time of the year though. bo

i most definitely use all my senses fishing. in fact, i do not like even a hood over my ears when it is cold. i know that i do not fish nearly as well when i do have to cover my ears up. bo

wrb gave you some very good advice. however, sometimes a fish coming off because of a poor hook up has more to do with bad hooking mechanics of what you are using. example, almost every spinner bait on the market uses the same type of minnow looking head. this head has a very slim profile, and is always going to turn your hook over flat when the head comes out through the lips on the hook set. this means that most of the bass you do manage to hook on that spinner bait are hooked in the side of the mouth or edge of the lip. this will result in several lost fish after hook up. bo

each have a time and place. bo

often times a muck bottom is not really conducive to dragging a jig. do you have vegetation growing?? if so, perhaps swimming a jig through the vegetation might be a better option. i fish table rock and surrounding lakes, and we do not have muck botoms to deal with. in my youth fishing ponds, i learned quickly that fishing a lure right on a muck or mud bottom did not produce. bo

i read all the comments about getting all these taps, but what about when there is not a tap, but the bass has it. in all my years of fishing for bass, most of the time, there is not that traditional tap that everyone talks about. i love those times when the bite is that good tap, but that just is not the norm. most of the time, there is just something different happened that should not have, and i set the hook without thinking or feeling. i know it is a bite than many struggle with. flukes are the same way. most of the time, bass that i catch on a fluke are nothing more than a change in the pressure on the line underneath my thumb. hooksets are free. anytime something feels different or happened different, set the hook. you will be amazed at how many bass you hook. bo

i might add that i have used catch and release for years, and it definitely helps keep your bass in good shape while in the livewell, providing you handle your water temps and o2 levels properly. bo

someone had good thoughts about weighing the bass on the water and immediately release instead of hauling them around in the livewell. one of the drawbacks to that would be during spawning season, and most are caught sight fishing. a lot of times, the same bass can be caught over and over. not really quite right, and it is hard on the bass. perhaps there could be a way around that point. weighing and immediate release would be good, but the public weigh-ins are another source of revenue and exposure for the tournament and contestants. got to push the sponsors names somehow. bo

how is it that they know where the bass came from??? bo

fishing something such as a fluke sometimes the bass will just nip at it. my best advice is to set the hook immediately when you feel a bite. if you are missing, then wait until you feel them towing. as for jigs, set the hook immediately any time something different happens. however, when dealing with bass that are picking the jig up off the bottom, many times the first feel you get is the bass pinning the jig to the bottom, and the next feel you get is them taking the jig in. so, again, if you miss a few on the first feel, then make yourself wait to the second feel before setting. when fishing cover, the longer you wait to set the hook the worse your hook penetration will be because of all the things the bass has pulled your line through, and then you have to get the bass all the way back through whatever it has swam through while you are waiting. bo

a worm hook with a piece of shredded nylon line. we were fishing for gar, and i caught an 8lb. bass on it. go figure. bo

Spoons are a great fishing tool. one that can be fished any depth. very simple, but very effective. we have on a few occasions had the opportunity on table rock to utilize spoons such as the johnson silver minnow in flooded brush and vegetation. i can not think of anytime of the year that i do not have some type of spoon tied on a rod. bo

i did a search and tom is dead on. there is a #3 hawaiian wiggler that is just a weedless spoon with a rubber skirt. the 300 series is a spoon type body with a sputter blade in front. tom, it amazes me how you remember the actual model numbers of all those old lures. i did go dig through my old stuff and found my old one with the spoon body and sputter blade. bo

i am pretty old school, and usually fish a trailer of some sort on a spinner bait. i have seen way too many times that when using a trailer it eliminated bass slashing at the blades. i just feel that the trailer concentrates their attention to the business end with the hook. i have seen many bass caught without a trailer, but for me personally have had a lot more success with a trailer. bo

Spoons are one of the fishing tools that you do not leave the house with. bo

you mentioned that the water you were fishing was moving moderately. are you fishing a stream?? the type of water you fish and time of year would make a difference in lure choices. you can basically catch bass on anything you would use in the daytime. type of water, clarity, and time of year will make some differences in best lure choices. bo

catt had a very good answer, and that is fall rate. depth and speed control are the two major factors in triggering strikes. when fishing during an active feeding period, speed often times is not as big of a factor, but those in-between times, speed is critical. one other thing to consider is as the jig get heavier, the profile does also. any times when bass are wanting a smaller profile, but a heavier weight is needed, i will a smaller weight jig, and add a slip sinker on the line to get the fall rate required. bo

the old standard sproat straight shank worm hooks have a horizontal eyelet. so does the standard offset, and the offset ewg. why did they not just make them with a vertical eye?? to answer catt's comment about a bass' mouth, when a bass uses the cheek muscles to shut the tongue up against the roof of the mouth, two pretty parallel surfaces are created. this is why when they crush down on your jig, it will end up laying flat. bo

take any jig and squeeze down on it between you hands, and you will see that the jig always ends up over on its side. bo

you are quite right about strike detection. having one of those days that you actually get that tick is sure nice, but that is not the norm. one other obstacle to over come is the grip a big bass can have on your lure. it take lots or power to move the hook, and because a bass can grip so hard, is another reason to get a second hookset in. bo

all hooks, whether bare or in any jig will end up flat when a bass bites down. with a vertical eyelet, you are still pulling from the center of the ring on the hookset. with a horizontal eyelet, even when the hook is flat, your line of pull is still fron the top of the ring, thereby having more leverage to stand the hook back to vertical. i have even made the same jig with each type of hook. i kept very detailed records of where bass that were caught were hooked. the flat or horizontal eye hooks, had a much bigger percentage hook up ratio in the roof of the mouth over vertical eye hooks. everyone is free to use whatever hook they have confidence in. i was only stating what i know from many hours of study on hook up ratio with different hooks. there actually is a video that is very detailed, and with easy visual demonstrations about the actual mechanics of various hooks, but i can not post it. hook mechanics is a very interesting subject. bo

one thing to point out about using a vertical or horizontal line tie is where the line of pull is. the vertical eye, the line of pull is from the middle of the ring. with the horizontal eye, the pull line is always from the top of the ring. what difference does this make?? it is hook turning leverage. those few degrees of height that is gained from pulling from the top of a horizontal eye will result in better hook ups because you have more leverage to turn your hook back to vertical in relation to the roof of the mouth of the bass. bo

center based weed guards always have and always will cause hooking problems. the why is because they will always force the hook to a flatter hooking angle. can you catch fish with a center based weed guard?? sure, but you will also lose some due to the flatter hooking angle, and there will be times that the jig will pop out of the mouth with the hook flat, and not ever hook anything. the good news is there is better technology out there to fix that problem. bo

you just need to treat grass as cover on structure. also, in bowl type lakes, the edges, depression, and tops of your grass is the structure. with that said, then treat the grass as any other cover. you may need to fish on or above it, or down through it. in lakes that have multiple types of vegetation, bass might have a preference of one over another at different times of the year, just as here in my area, there are times you need to be fishing where there are cedar trees, and at other times of the year, hardwoods are preferred. bo