james 14

To second what Catt said my advice would not be to try a certain technique or lure but to focus on different patterns. You can throw a certain lure until you're blue in the face and not learn a darn thing except for lack of confidence in that lure if it doesn't match the pattern at the time. I would study patterns and try and figure out what the bass should be doing at this point in time. There are MANY things to consider so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work at first. There are enough TV shows and youtube videos out there to show you when and where a certain lure or technique should work. Yes they require practice so your goal should be to practice those where they fit with what the pattern should be...or what you THINK it should be. I just started throwing crankbaits seriously for the first time last year. In FL they're not something that's always been used very much due to the amount of grass. I had a tourney in the Fall where the pattern seemed like shallow cranks along a wind swept bank would be the ticket. I caught my first fish on a shallow crank that day and many more. We won by 12lbs. Lures are tools which have a time and place where they're most effective. Learn the times and places first and pick a tool to get the job done.

I saw an episode where one of those "pros" showed how to get the hook out without damaging the eye. I can't remember how he did. I also saw a show where a guy caught a 7-8 lber which was blind in one eye...so they can live with an eye gone.

I wouldn't be so sure that the battery isn't the problem just because it was hooked up to the charger. The charger isn't sending the same amperage a fully charged battery does. If the battery is also 4 or 5 years old I would place the odds at 100 to 1 that it's the problem more than the TM.

Oh yeah...motor has to come up as high as it can go without causing the prop to cavitate and ensuring you still have water going in the pump. Also...I could be mistaken but I think you could still squeeze a few RPM out which would mean a prop change, however, I would wait until after you raise the motor to see what that does first.

I guess this is what I'm asking. If I'm flipping hyacinth mats or hydrilla I know they'll stop fighting once the grass covers their eyes but in stuff like maidencaine or lily pads where they can wrap up it's a different story I believe. I know it's better not to pull against 20lbs of water-logged hydrilla but my instinct is to horse them out otherwise. I really just wanted reassurance that I'm not going to "rip the fish's mouth" in an effort to keep them moving through the grass rather than wrapping up and getting leverage against the hook. The real culprit here, I believe, is the drag and the fact that I had to reel back down after losing line to the fish. Perhaps I shouldn't have reeled down but it was instinct after about getting pulled out of the boat.

I use these on all my buzzfrogs like the horny toad, ribbit, etc. http://www.***.com/S...age-SKTGTH.html The plastic on the hook eye keeps it from sliding down and it is surprisingly weedless. The only issue I have at times is the hook will mess with the action if the legs get looped over it but that doesn't happen often, is fixed easily and is worth the extra fish hooked by the trailer. All those times I used to get a legless frog back after setting the hook are no more. I don't know how it'd work with a pre-rigged from like the Spro, etc. but it's worth a shot. I thought for sure I was going to have issues with it being weedless but was pleasantly surprised. Apparently my link contained a naughty word. Look up Strike King Tour Grade Trailer Hook and you'll find what I'm talking about. Size is 2/0

I'm using the 8ft Skeet Reese (which IMO is NOT a heavy action rod and I would take it back and exchange it if I could) with 50lb braid. No it's not 65lb but I've never broken any braid on a fish and the 50 is what I used on the big gars in the river that would pull my boat upstream. This fish got a solid hookset but you can bet that, from now on after feeling this one, every fish I set the hook on will come out of the water if it's under 5lbs....AND the drag will be checked before every outing. It was already pretty tight...just not enough for this fish. Live and learn. And I will convey the message to my friend that he should rethink his technique.

So is he wrong to think he might rip the hook out of the fish's mouth?

Hooked into possibly the biggest bass I've ever had on the other end of my line today. Never saw the fish but he put to shame any of the 7-8 lbers I've caught before. I was flipping a kissimmee grass (maidencaine) line. He hit it on the outside edge as it was falling, I reeled down and laid into him and was nearly pulled into the lake. I had a brief image of a gator on the other end but knew that was quite unlikely. He felt like some of the 15-20lb longnose gar I used to catch on the local river. Anyways, as I pulled back up on him to keep him out of the grass my dragged slipped a bit and he got just enough to get in the grass. I reeled down a bit, thumbed the spool and pulled up with all I had only the get back a hook covered in grass. Heartbroken to say the least. Besides the obvious suggestion of checking my drag to ensure it's as tight as possible when flipping with braid what else could I have done? I'm using a 6/0 Trokar flipping hook with a snell knot and have solidly hooked every fish up until this point. My partner had a similar situation on smaller fish losing him in the grass. I told him to pull him out as hard as he could and he responded with "I don't want to tear the fish's mouth out." So do you try to rip them out with all your might or hold pressure and hope he's still there when you get down to him? I've never in my life had a bass turn on me like that. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that he was out of the grass when I set the hook so he had room to run...just wish he would've run under the boat instead.

Start with a completely loose spool with the magnet set all the way off. You to tighten it up a bit...so which one do you start with? The tension knob or the magnet?

A local phosphate pit was drained two years ago to do some repair to the dam and levees. This place used to have a good population of big bass and I was wondering how long it might take to recover. They didn't drain all of the water out so, unless there was a fish kill, they should all still be there. They also restocked it with something like 100k bass, bluegill, crappie, etc.

I hope it works out for you. I have a 12' jon with a 50 and wouldn't go any lower at all.

Scratch that...do NOT get the P'max 170. Mine has started going out as well where it only shows the temp but reads the depth as "0". It's like the sonar is working correctly. It's only happening intermittently but this has now happened on two different boats with three different units.

If any part of the hook has already been swallowed the line needs to be cut and the hook left in the fish. You can't get it out without killing the fish.

You got a picture? I have an old MotorGuide mount I'm currently using so I have experience messing with one.

They're no good at all. You better send them to me.

I like this jig! Thanks for the suggestion earlier. I've tried a couple different trailers but I'm liking a watermelon red grub with the tail colored chartreuse. I caught a bass shortly after tying it on the first time but since then I've only caught 3 pickerel. I was thinking the same thing as far as technique is concerned. I like being able to use the jig to fish a little slower...especially through weeds and brush. Me too. Unfortunately I can only cast one rod at a time but I will likely have one of these tied on in addition to the spinnerbait from now on.

So you're out fishing and you have to decide which to tie on. Let's assume the cover being fished allows you to fish either bait effectively. What conditions are you looking for to make your choice? Water clarity, cloud cover, fishing pressure, wind and water temp all have something to do with it I'm sure. There should be situations where one shines above the other. I'm curious if anyone has figured that part out yet.

You ever fish Istokpoga? Gonna be down there a lot this coming week and haven't been there since I was a kid. Planning on a shad spawn situation with most of the bass in a post spawn mood. I'm going to look for some beds but I'm not holding out hope on seeing too many with fish on them. The only fish I've seen on bed this year were in December. Only saw empty beds in Kissimmee...what beds I could find or actually see.

Standard practice says to look around the Northern shorelines for bass that are spawning. This year the predominate wind directions have been out of the South and I was wondering if I should've looked more on the Southern shorelines to find fish that were trying to stay out of the wind. I know the Northern shoreline warms up quicker but water warmth hasn't been a problem this year. I saw very few beds this year so it got me to thinking...especially considering the weather we've had.

I've tested a few knots and the surgeon's knot would never break for me. The palomar knot on the hook would always break first. A uni knot is probably the smallest knot and it's very popular so it can't be too bad. It would break below the line rating for me in my tests but that's probably to be expected with most line-line knots.

I'm sure I already know the answer to this. Let's say you wanted one of these $2500 graphs for your boat. Of course you have a 18-20 footer where you need a bow and a helm unit to be able to see what's under you while running and fishing. Am I correct in assuming you would have to buy TWO of these $2500 units to give you a display at the front and the back? If so, what are some other options?

Me and my tourney partner both have HB Pmax 170's on our jon boats. Mine has been great. He had something wrong with his where it wouldn't show the depth at times and he exchanged it for a new one. You could hear that the pinging wasn't correct if you put your ear to the transducer. He's had the new one longer than the old one and both of ours work great. My only problem is that, probably due to the riveted jon boat hull, the transducer gets air and gives a 200+ft reading. This is only while using the outboard...never with the TM. After learning to read it correctly I can tell when it's a hard bottom, structure or a school of baitfish. It's leaps and bounds better than my previous depth finder...which was none at all.

If its tall enough to hold 10" or so of water without sloshing out and allowing fish to jump out that should work out well. That's roughly the size of a 120qt cooler (if I remember correctly last time I measured mine).

We were on a good school of fish hitting a shad spawn first thing in the morning and didn't want to stop to cull while we were getting bit heavily. Once we hit two limits we had to stop and cull and a couple of fish were not doing so hot. I don't remember how long we had it full but it wasn't more than a couple hours. I would not normally have that many fish in the well and we learned out lesson to cull immediately regardless of what was going on. It's not fun weighing in dead fish...even if we did win by 12lbs.