merc1997

one other thing that i wanted to add. i noticed that tom mentiond bass moving horizontally in winter. here in my area, in the winter, bass tend to begin using more vertical structures and move more vertically to feed. bluff walls hold bass, and so does steep walled creek channels. winter bass here tend to just elevate up and down instead of the more horizontal migrations of summer time. i am sure that different geographical areas can be different. bo

one thing that i noticed several times in this thread is that several people have mentioned that their catching has slowed down going into fall. next, they are wondering if they need to slow down their presentations. my first thoughts about not catching fish right now would be that you might be dealing with turnover. once you get through turnover and the water o2 levels stabilize back out, you should see the bite pick back up. also, remember that as bass break up their summer schools, they tend to be scattered for a period of time until they settle back into their fall patterns. tom gave some very good advice about seeing at what depths the bait fish are holding. remember it is not very often that you will find bass without food. there are times that you can find bait and not any fish, but very seldom will you find bass without food nearby. bo

there are some variables to consider here. the first thing that comes to mind is whether you are dealing with nlmb or flmb. florida bass are notorious about taking longer to take a bait. with this said, there are many times that you can not just put and take a bait and catch very many flmb. i had to learn this very lesson myself in dealing with falcon lake bass. but, even nlmb can be very contary sometimes. just the other day i flipped into the same place in a log pile 5 times before gettin a bite. so, there is not any set rule. just have to experiment until you arrive at the right combination for the day. bo

here in the ozarks area, the lizard c-rigged after the spawn is proven bass catcher over the years. i often use what many of my friends have named a missouri rig. it is something that i came up with many years ago. i use a three way swivel. on the short drop, i use on of my jigs. it can be dressed as a traditional jig, or use the bare head with a lizard. on the long lead, use a lizrd or bait of choice. you are giving the bass a look at two baits. plus, with the missouri rig, you are in direct contact with both lures at all times. you will have much better hook up ratios also. bo

i usually go with a rubber skirted jig down to about 58 degrees, but there are times when hair will catch more bass for me above 58. below 58 i go to hair jigs. the weight that i throw will have a lot to do with the depth that i am fishing. if bass are below 20 feet this time of the year, i use a 1/4 oz. jig with a 1/4 oz. slip sinker added to the line. now you have at least 1/2 oz. of weight, but still have the smaller profile of the 1/4 oz jig. i know that many will scoff at this combination, but give it a try. it is deadly. plus when you hook a bass, it only has 1/4 oz. of weight in its mouth instead of 1/2 oz or more. less weight to dislodge the hook. hope some of my tips or methods will help you catch more bass. bo

i really do not believe eyes make any difference. here is a case in point. one of my retired fishing buddies buys up all the old wiggle warts he comes across. everyone one of them, he spray paints the entire plug, bill and all, refrigerator brown. those solid brown wiggle warts catch bass like crazy with no eyes. all of my jerk baits, i hand paint, and i do not paint any eyes back on them. i catch lots of bass on them every year, and have won lots of tournaments on those eyeless jerkbaits. if eyes give you more confidence, than the eyes have it! bo

an easy way for anyone to test to see if your scale is somewhere in the ball park is to use water for your weight. remember the old saying," a pints as pound the world around". very true statement. use a quart ziplock, dump in a pint of water, and you have a fairly accurate one pound weight. remember most of the digital scales people use only have stated accuarcy of plus or minus 2 oz. one other post stated about getting different weights each time on the same fish. that can be attributed in not keeping the scale stright up and down. when not straight up and down the chain coming out of the bottom on the scale is rubbing or dragging on the side of the hole. in doing so, it prevents an accurate hang. bo

if you are fishing right now, the first thing i might ask is, "what is the water temp"? it could be that your particular lake is going through fall turnover. when this happens, fishing is very difficult for about two weeks normally. also, if your lake has a good population of shad, many bass are offshore, suspended, and not on the bottom or bank. there are not any secret baits. the same basic tools we have always had will always catch fish. the key is to be fishing where the fish are first. then we must be fishing the right depth at the right speed to make the bass strike.bo

i like paul's post. marketing is how lots of things are sold. many are really not good products, but we are told how good they are. there are lots of claims in the fishing tackle industry that are not backed up with any scientific evidence. i have always been one to look at the science and physics of things. there are so many soft plastics on the market. anyone of them on a given day will fill the boat. i still maintain that a "whole lot of fish catchin'" boils down to putting it in front of one. bo

i catch fish basically year round on jigs. i also use a variety of trailers. the exact trailer that i might use depends on "what the fish want". forage that the bass are keying on at the time will factor into my choice of trailer. a jig is one of the best tools each of us have in our tackle box. if you get stuck into just using one type of trailer, one size of trailer, ect., you are diminishing the use of your "best weapon". a jig does not always have to resemble a crawdad. a hair jig with a slender worm type trailer more mimics a shad than it does a crawdad. there are many times, especially in the summer here, that the hair jig and worm is a combination that just can not be beat. also, table rock has a very good population of smallmouth. there are times that the brownies are favoring a very small offering. in these cases, i will many times use a 1/4 oz. hair jig without a trailer. with all that said, i let the fish tell me what style, size, color and type of trailer that i use. i want to get all i can out of my best tool(jig) in the tackle box. get more out of your jig by being more versatile. bo

i would think that whether or not you use crankbaits rarely would depend, most of the time, on the type of waters you fish. i will use myself for an example. i fish table rock lake most of the time. there is a small percentage of the time that a jerkbait of any kind is productive. that has a lot to do with the depth that the bass are holding. here, a crankbait has an application for a longer period of time. if you are fishing shallower lakes, or lake with good vegetation that would tend to hold bass year round shallower, jerkbaits would have a long period of applications. as far as crankbaits, i would assume that there might be some application even in vegetation. with all that said, as for me personally, whenever the opportunity exits on any body of water at any time of the year, for a shallower bite, i always give a jerkbait a try. bo

here are some tips that work on table rock. in the earlier part of the fall, bass here relate a lot to the creek bottoms, and most often will be bottom related. when these bass are 35 feet or shallower, we catch more bass casting and working the spoon back across the bottom. another pattern is flipping shad schools. bass will be suspended underneath these schools of flipping shad. a flutter spoon is usually a better choice for these bass instead of a jigging spoon. however on any given day one might produce better than the other. when fishing the flipping shad, cast the spoon right into the middle of the school. let spoon fall a few feet and then pop it up and let it fall back through the school. do not reel in the slack, but keep working the spoon deeper through the school. when spoon reaches 25 feet or bottom work it back to boat and repeat. when the bass here begin to get 30 feet or deeper, they tend to start suspending following the bait fish schools. when they get in this mode, which usually starts around 58 degrees, we try to stay right on top of them and fish vertically. believe me this as a game of chase because when they get on a school of shad, they are like a pack of dogs, and they run those shad silly. you will spend a lot of time idling around trying to catch back up with them, stay on them long enough to catch a dozen, and then fire the big motor back up and start circling around to find them again. this spoon pattern will usually work down to about 49 degree surf temp. here on table rock once the temps get to around 54 surf temp, there is a great deal of the lake that all the bait fish and bass are 50 feet deep or deeper. lots of stretches they are 70 to 80 feet. hope some of these tactics might be applied to your tennesse waters. bo

bass are just like us. they keep on eating, and i will keep on fishing. bo

great explanations as usual tom. bo

spinner bait science is somewhat of a very difficult critter. typically a single blade spinner bait will have more feel of the vibration than when using two blades. the next part of the equation is to figure out whether a single or double is the order of the day. when using double blade, every different combination give off a different vibration and flash. i have fished days when i caught fish early on a single blade, later in the day go to a double willow, and then again have to change later in the afternoon to a combination of a colorado in front and a willow in back. i would guess that because gettting the "right" blade combination is sometimes so hard to do is why i throw a so much. not so much to worry about on a jig. just the right weight and your basic color. however, there are times that the blade is the bait ot be throwing. on the water experience is a great teacher on learning when to use single or double, and what combinations. bo

you did not mention time of year and water temp. those variables would make a difference.bo

deep, there has been lots of information on here. i did see some that say to never let your bait rise. HMMM??. i have fished "jerk baits" since back in the 60's. i have caught tons of bass with a bait that would slowly rise. also, i have done the same with one that sat perfectly still, and with them that slowly sank. the fact is you have to let the bass tell you what they want on the specific day you are fishing. you can kill them one way one day, and go the next, and have to go with the bait doing something else. same thing goes with how you are moving the bait too. i have jerkbaits that slowly rise, sit still, and sink, and i have them marked accordingly. another factor in the science in jerkbaiting is water temperature. you might have one of your jerkbaits that is slowly floating, and use it two weeks down the road, and that same bait is sinking. water density changes. let the bass tell you what they want. there is not any rule set in stone as to what will trigger a strike from a bass on any given day. bo

an 8 pounder is sure a dandy. lots of people have fished many years and have never even caught a 5 pounder. now you have set the bar to fish more to get a bigger one. bo

with a 6 to 8 inch worm, i tend to just use a 2/0 hook. i have noticed that many use a much bigger hook than i do. just from my on personal experience, the smaller hook you can get away with the better action your worm has, and the more strikes you get. a 12 inch worm with some diameter to it, i will typically use a 4/0. as for the colors of 6 inch jelly worms that i used. i used black grape probably more than the rest. bo

here in the ozarks, we fish at night all fall. sometimes you have to handpick your nights to go. as the water dictates, we fish the same banks and use the same methods that we did in the spring. our first coice of bait is a jig. until the water reaches below 56 to 57 we will use a rubber skirted jig. below that temp we go to hair. spinner baits work well and also a crankbait. i would imagine if you live in new york you have some vegetation to deal with and the crankbait might not be an option. bo

here are some pics of some of the twin spins that tom young and i have used. tom's are picture with skirts. mine do not have skirts on them to show actual design of bait. also, the round head is the older model that i used. the black painted head is the one that i currently use. it is more weedless and hooks better. bo

a twin spin is a great early spring bait to throw. it will catch those bass that are suspended out off the bank. on say a 45 degree bank, throw to the bank and slow roll back to the boat. the twin spin will slowly gain depth on way back to boat. it takes some trial and error to find the right retrieve speed, but it is a great technique to really sack them. another great bait for this technique is a clevis single spin. a clevis single spin is something that i have never seen available to buy. a clevis single spin has a single blade that runs on the shaft instead of on the end of the shaft at the end of a ball bearing. when fished properly many bass will come when the blade is merely swinging back and forth on the shaft and not rotating all the way around the shaft. bo

the one that you are showing is either a 3j ez rocker or one that is copied off of it. i have made my own twin spins since the late 60's, and i have a rocker head design also, but one that the head hangs in the balanced position while hanging. the twin spin is truly a big bass bait, and kentuckies also have fondness for it. it is just a jig with attractors.bo

when all else fails, try some night crawlers. it is amazing sometimes how many fish are in an area when you put the real thing in front of them. you did not mention if you ever see any evidence of fish. examples would be perch, minnows, crawdads for a food source. is there any surface activity early or late? how big is your lake, and can you fish different areas of it easily? bo

those are couple of dandies!