merc1997

as tom mentioned the old metal lipped bomber was about the forst square bill that i remember. after that i would say that fred youngs hand carved square bill plugs were the next breakthrough in squarebill technology. of course, cotton cordell made the big o in plastic and the rest is history. others copied the big o of course. the next popular square bill in our area was the bagley balsa b'. you had to buy about a dozen of them to find one that would run right though. i still have some big o's, and still catch fish on them every year when condition are right. i still feel that the big o's come through cover every bit as well as the newer version square bills. bo

those were originally designed by joe bennett, and they were called jobee's hook. not for sure if i spelled that right or not. i know a bit of the background of the hook, and i am not for sure that the manufacture in question came by them quite honest. as far as the hook set up itself, i have not used one. to start with, i am not a fan of that style of hook, and it is a flimsy hook. from my own experience, a stouter hook will penetrate with less force than a flimsy one will. bo

a long time ago dr. juice used to put a test square in magazines that you could put your finger print on and send it in and they would measure some kind of count the fish smell in your system. according to them the best fisherman such as bill dance and roland martin had very little of this substance in their system, and that led to being part of why they were so successful in catching fish. my fishing buddy thought we should send in a sample to see how we rated. his thoughts were that i must be very low like roland and bill, and that is why i catch so many more fish than everyone else. so, we each sent in our finger print on the treated test square. when we got back the results, i was the one that high levels of the substance that was a negative to bass, and my buddy should have been another roland martin. my buddy's conclusion was that our test blew their theory all to thunder(he had a more colorful explanation). i would suppose that if you were begging a bass to bite, perhaps scent might be a help. on the other hand, there is nothing like the scent of the real thing. so, why not just fish with live bait. i have always based my fishing efforts on first, fishing where there are fish. second, fish the right depth. and third, fish the right speed to get a reflex strike out of the fish. i know that others use different methods and that is why fishing is such a great sport. there is always more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. i guess that my style of fishing does not lean itself to scent being a factor. bo

read the thread on jerkbaits without rattles. bo

it is easy to see why this country is in such bad shape. we have 535 idiots working for us that need to be fired. ever wonder why poly sci students are lawyers are not in business?? because they would starve to death. and, that is what we have up in washington, for the most part, running a the business of government. another good reason for term limits. bo

i would be worrying more about putting my bait in front of a fish a whole lot more than what my hands smelled like. i have never put too much worry about scent. bo

the key to catching fish is to be fishing, of course where there are fish, at the right depth at the right speed. most of the time you have to trigger a strike, and that makes speed very critical to success. bo

here is another tip that i still use on some on my jerkbaits. i drill a hole in between the front hook hanger and the bill. fill the desired amount of water to make bait suspend, rise, or sink, as desired. seal back up with a dab of clear silicone. this is actually the for runner to the baits that have the weights tracking back and forth. on the cast, the water goes to the back of the bait, helping with casting. on retrieve, the water will go from one end of bait to the other, giving it a more random pattern of movement. i still use these baits also. be sure to drain out the water when not in use, and they are stored where they might freeze. bo

i have plenty of suspending jerkbaits without rattles. i know everyone is sitting there trying to figure out how i have something like that when there are basically none on the market. my collection is old spoonbill rebels, short bill rebels before rattles were put into anything. and as for the suspending part, i started doing that back in the late 60's. some of mine have lead strips glued to the bottom, some have lead wire wrapped around the hook shanks. i still catch fish on them every winter and spring. and, most of my collection are handpainted by me. i am just one that hardly ever uses a bait as it comes out of the package. bo

simplfying which lure to use is somewhat difficult. i might tend to put lures into catagories such as search tool or probing tool. lures such as spoons, crankbaits, and spinner baits to me are search tools. they all cover water quickly and will elicite a reaction bite. once fish are located, a more probing type of bait might catch more fish. probing baits i would list as jigs, t-rig, c-rig, and drop shots. if you are not sure where the fish might be, a search bait will help to more quickly eliminate water. on a given day, search baits might be the lure of choice to stay with. but, many times after a school has been located, other presentations might catch more fish, and particular catch the bigger ones. hope this will make some sense. the main thing is to spend as much time on the water as possible. experience is a great teacher. take notes of each trip. go back and look at your notes. things will start to fall in place. learn from each trip. good luck. bo

i have never depended on scent. i know there are many that swear it helps, but i still fish lots of plastics that have no salt or scent of any kind. if scent makes such a difference, i have yet to have anyone, that i might be fishing with, catch way more fish than me. if that did occur on a regular basis, i would change my thinking. when the scent craze began to occur, there were many of the market that had lots of oily substance to them. since people began to hook more fish, their thinking was that the bass are actually holding on to the bait longer. the reality is because their lure was slicker, they are getting a better hookset because they are able to move their bait in the fish's mouth better resulting in more and better hookups. this is just my opinion, and if using scent helps anyones confidence in catching fish, they should keep on using it. confidence is one of the best lures we have in the tackle box. bo

here on table rock, there will be a shallow pattern developing and a deeper pattern too. i prefer going after the deeper pattern, and a spoon will be the best tool for this deeper pattern. a spoon can catch them from top to bottom, and i do not know of any other lure that can put them in the boat as fast as a spoon can. bo

i bet all of us would like to be able to fish in the fish tank, . bo

hi hootieif you are referencing the comments about turnover, turnover does play a major factor in success rate during fall fishing in many areas. you stated in your beginning post that your success with jigs had fallen off. a number of factors could be having an affect on your success rate going down. on most bigger resevoirs as the water starts to cool down from its summer peak, bass tend to scatter from there summer locations. that in itself makes them much harder to catch. many of these bass will suspend and begin to chase shad and herd them up into bigger shad schools. this usually occurs out in the main lake and the bass will then begin to drive them to the mouths of creeks or coves. the bass that are doing this can be very difficult to catch on a jig. many other baits can be a better choice to catch these shad chasing bass. now there will be some bass that seem to just hang shallow. these are the ones more prone to catching on a jig. but, in fall we do have to contend with turnover. when turnover occurs on a stratified lake, the bottom layer of the lake comes to the top and it diminishes the o2 content of the water. sometimes turnover will occur over a period of two to three weeks. it depends on the weather. if we have some cold spells followed by warm weather for an extended period of time again, the process takes longer. as long as turnover is going on it makes fish catching much more difficult to deal with. so you see, turnover does have an affect on your fall jig fishing. here are some things you can do to deal with turnover. fish an area of the lake that turnover is not occuring. fish the very back of pockets and creeks, as they will be the first to turnover. fish where there is current, as current will mix the water and you will not have stratification of the water column to begin with. hope this makes sense and will help you with your fall fishing. i fish table rock lake most of the time, and we will begin to have a great jig bite for small mouth beginning anytime. but, you have to figure out where to find them when turnover starts, as it will move them to different locations. good luck. bo

my favorit worm is whatever i can get them to bite at the time. bo

i had a great chuckle when i read your comment about having a diver out there. it could be he is related to bill dance. just sayin', hahaha. anything to make the show look good.bo

the red light makes sense. good reason that flashers at night do not bother your vision like the liqud crystal units do. i might have to look around and find a red light to use for tying on. i usually retie in the dark, or use the blacklight. bo

hey goose, dispite what has been said about the 50 degree mark, in our part of the world, turnoever happens more often between 60 to 65. since you mentioned seeing other sediments and clumps floating, i think you are on the right track that at least some turnoever is occuring. if you get out while the lake is slick before the wind picks up, do you notice lots of bubbles coming up all over?? you will also notice it on an lcd screen. you will see diagnol lines extending from the bottom to the top. this is from your electronics showing the bubbles coming to the surface. one way to tell for sure is to measure the oxygen content from top to bottom, and water temps. i am already seeing turnover starting in the back ends of coves here on table rock. the upper reaches of kings river was bubbling all over this afternoon. the water was very off color, clumps of sewer slime floating all over, and not one bait fish of any kind present. pretty good sign turnover is occuring.bo

bigal basser here is another tip that i have hardly ever shared with anyone other than very close fishing buddies. many times bass will hit a smaller profile bait or jig, but the depth the bass are holding in or current, as in your case. if you increase the weight of your jig to effectively fish deeper or deal with a swifter current, you many times will be presenting a bigger profile to the bass that they very well may not touch. how do we solve this problem? it is an easy fix, and one that i have used for years. the fix is to add a slip sinker on your line ahead of your jig. use as big of a weight to adjust your fall rate where you want it. you are still fishing with a small profile jig, but now have the weight to get where you need to be. the other advantage to using this method is that when you stick a bass, it just has the weight of the jig in its mouth to sling around, and the extra weight of the slip sinker is slid up you line. give it a try and your will increase your catching rate. bo

a 3/8 might be enough weight. really do not know just what your current is. one thing to remember when you go up in weight with your jig, you are also making the profile of your presentation bigger also. bo

hey are you fishing dixie lake?? i used to fish it when i was in school at missouri. i am guessing the lake turned over. will take about two weeks for things to settle back down. back of pocket will turn first. current will help if the lake has a feeder creek. jigs can be a good bait to be throwing during the fall. sometimes it might not be the best bait to be throwing depending on your particular lake, and exactly what the fish are doing. but, i have found very few times that i could not catch something on a jig.bo

crappiebasser gave some great tips to amke your own depth finder. i have used similar setups back in my youth. he brought up trolling also. very good tips. bo

bream reaper i had to notice the sunfish in your picture. sunfish are bass food too. if you are calling natural matching the forage base in your particular water, there is quite a diversity of colors, hues and sheens. another good example is a threadfin shad. when you move them in the sunlight, you will see purple, pearl, and green. try as we might to figure out colors, it still boils down to let the bass tell which one they prefer. putting your lure in front of a fish is still the most important thing. bo

i was reading tom's comments about usually needing the hair to flair out on the jig. in our region, and fishing in water temps 56 degrees or colder, i have found that the hair needs to be tied so that it does not flair out. warmer than 56, i agree the hair needs to flair out. my theory on having a slimmer profile in the colder water periods is, in our, region the bass seem to target smaller crawdads more often. when water temps are above 56, i go to the full bodied hair jig, tied so the hair flairs out. my pork trailer preference in the colder water temps is an 800 uncle josh spring lizard pup. the old straight eels work, as well as a split tail eel, but i have had better luck with the 800 series. during warmer weather, i like no. 11's, 1's, and 25 uncle josh. when the t-rig plastic worm is working well, i will often go to the full bodied hair jig with a worm trailer. bo

there is a company in our area not that has a black light on the market that seems to be a really good light with good coverage allowing you to see you line a long way from the boat. i believe it is called the table rock black light. bo