logan9209

I agree with MaineBassfishin. At the same time, though, there should be pockets which are areas that aren't as high as others or just isn't any weeds in those spots. You can work you lure through those pockets and slow down in them. Bass are in the weeds for three things oxygen, to stay cool, and to launch a surprise attack on bait fish or other foods. So they will come out of the weeds to get food. Just have to figure out what will make them do so.

I've had plenty of days where I've put pressure on myself. Because of that I forget to have fun and as the day progresses I get more frustrated. The pressure for me is because I want to learn as much as fast as I can so I can go pro. I'm 35 and I feel my "window of opportunity" is slipping by too fast. A couple of things I have to remind myself is: 1) Having fun while fishing is more important and key to having more success and to learning. 2) Fishing is one sport that is for all ages, race, and gender. 3) You can't learn it all in one day, month, year, or even a decade. Most pros will tell you that fishing is a life time learning process. 4) The attitude you have can and often times will affect your day of fishing. The more positive you are, the more confident you get. The more negative you are, the less confident you get, you're more likely to give up quickly, and you're less likely to get the lure in the strike zone. 5) Patience is vital to fishing (and life in general). Being in a hurry and giving up quickly will cause you more problems in the long run. Glenn posted yesterday a link to an article by Hank Parker. In it, Hank talks about how Takahiro Omuri might not have won the Bassmaster's Classic on Lake Wylie if he had lost patience and given up. 6) Life is already hard enough as it is. Don't make it harder on yourself. Take the good with the bad. Enjoy those great moments every chance you get and push through the bad days when they come.

I have to admit that the problem I have with Gulp is that all of their stuff smells the same. Which translates into more catfish and less anything else. I got a jar of Gulp! Earthworms a few months back and was trying to fish for sunfish (bream). I caught a 5# catfish. No hits from the bream though. I said caught, technically I did get him to the bank but once there he snapped my little hook off my 4lb line. Fine with me, heck I didn't want him anyways. Haven't heard of the swamp crawler. I will have to research that. Thanks guitarkid.

Yeah, I'm already picturing the tons of sunfish trying to eat the worm not to mention those dang turtles. It'll be interesting to see in the water. Maybe I will do that today.

I've not had the pleasure of hearing about this guy until today, but I hope that his family finds peace and joy knowing that he lived a full and rich life. RIP Homer.

Oh, I did have one person who was walking her dog say "You know there's no fish in those buckets?". Naturally being the polite person I am I said "Yes there is!". To be great at what you do you have to sometimes take extreme measures. Anyways, I had my back to the road so other than her, I didn't notice anyone else. It was a fun experience for me and it gives me another "weapon" in my arsenal against big mouth momma and her cousin small mouth momma.

It's easy not to hit the ground with your rod. Now they recommend using a 7'-7'6" rod for it, but I'm using a 6'6". After I wrote the OP I practiced for another 3 hours. Got so good with the 15' bucket that I moved it to the 30' range and just practiced with 25' and 30'. I actually found my self going past the 30' bucket a few times. So it can be done. My yard needs mowed and I have some weed like plants (dandelion?) all over it. If I can pitch through all of those into buckets at that distance then pitching from the bank will be easy. Another thing about the rod tip is I don't let the rod tip drop below my knee level. I rely on the pendulum effect where I let go of the lure somewhere near chest level as I'm quickly bringing the rod to the 10 o'clock position (11 for longer distances). I, also, opted for turning my breaks off and having no tension on my spool. Out of the 4 hours I practiced I only bird's nested one time. This way I'm not only learning a new technique, but I am learning to use my thumb to control the spool. When you are dropping the 1/2 ounce jig into a bucket with very little noise then you are doing good. As far as neighbors go......I could really care less what they think. They see me out fishing in all kind of weather and a lot of hours of the day, so they are used to me being "dedicated" as some have put it. I can't allow what other people think hinder me from being the best bass fisherman that I can be. Besides, it's far better than trying to practice in my house where there are breakable stuff.. The really cool but odd thing I found was that even though I cast and reel with my right hand (I know that some of you just groaned), I found pitching with my left hand and holding the lure with my right to be extremely natural. I also found that holding the lure just a little bit higher in comparison to the reel helped with those longer pitches while just a little lower helped with the shorter pitches.

Thank you both. Like I said, I understood the reason for it, but couldn't see how the occasional fish chopping wouldn't ensue. I take it that the blades don't turn all that fast and really aren't all that sharp. One of these days I will have me a boat and be able to fish a different lake. Anyhoo, thanks again.

I take back everything I said about pitching and flipping from the bank on my lake. Until today, I had always thought that pitching and flipping was for trying to get to cover like under docks, next to stumps, next to trees or under limbs hanging out over the water, and lay downs. Brief history, this afternoon I was watching KVD pitching soft plastics. I had seen the vid before, but then I would go try it out for maybe 5 to 10 minutes and quit. However, today I realized (especially after I practiced for an hour) how crucial and beneficial it would be for me to learn and master those techniques. There are so many areas that previously I could only take my spinning gear (trees beside, behind, and above me). With the pitching and maybe the flipping techniques I can take my lures to places that I wouldn't normally be able to with my bait caster. Like I said, I practiced for an hour (it is hot and needed to cool off) and as I was practicing a bass tried to take my jig. Wasn't expecting it and I didn't set the hook, but 2 or 3 times he started to go after it. I didn't let him, because I need to focus on the techniques. If I allowed myself to go for the bass, I would then be side tracked and stop practicing. When I get cooled off some, I will set 2 buckets at different distances (15 and 25 feet) in the yard so that I can practice without the distraction of the bass and having to take muck off my lure every other pitch. Also, many thanks goes to those who took the time to write the articles on pitching and flipping and helped me to realize that I can pitch and flip to "non-traditional" areas.

Thanks for the info, Glenn, and thanks to Hank Parker for doing the article. According to it, I have about 1/4 of my obstacle out of the way. LOL! Seriously, for starters I am always in competition with myself. I am always looking to beat last months total and then figure out why I did or didn't beat it. George, my fishing buddy, is almost always ready to give up within the first 5-15 minutes. Not me. While there have been days that I haven't caught anything, I go with the mindset that I will at least catch one and I try not to leave until I do. Now, I do live at the lake (almost literally) so Life can cut things short for me. Patience and a positive attitude (or the lack there of) can greatly affect your fishing day. George is impatient and quick to break his rod at the least little snag or he'll just quit fishing for the day. I have even heard people like KVD talk about pitching or flipping to something that they know should hold a bass 15-20 times. I think that summertime fishing is very similar to winter or even parts of springtime fishing. Sometimes those bass just don't want to move or use any energy and you have to do things that will tick them off to get them to bite. It might take a couple of times or it might take 20 times. Also, if you go fishing with the attitude that regardless of what happens you're going to have a great day and have fun, then your confidence is going to be higher and you will produce more than if you went it with a "loser" self-doubting frustrated attitude. Don't get me wrong. There have been days that I've come home and swore to my wife that I was retiring. Lovingly she would say that I wasn't and about 10 minutes later the fishing bug would hit me and I would either go back out fishing or I would watch fishing stuff on YouTube (we don't have any type of "cable" t.v. yet). But, you have to find ways to get over that mentality. Having supportive loved ones and people like on the website is a big part of getting past that.

I recently watched a video on YouTube done by CouchsCampers that had Mike Iaconelli doing a seminar. In this particular one (part 3), Ike was talking about using a Gulp! Wacky Crawler wacky rigged on a drop shot rig. I looked it up on BPS and *** and they do have them. But apparently Berkley isn't producing them any more. Which sucks because I was hoping that either wally world or my local bait shop might have them. So the question is would a trick worm like Zoom's 6" Trick Worm have the same effect? I know it wouldn't have the same scent, but I can apply that myself. But, bass primarily uses sight and sound, then smell, right? I'd appreciate any insight. I'm not wanting to buy a bunch of them (which what it would take to justify paying shipping) when I might be able to use what I've already got.

I don't have a boat or anything, but I'm always watching fishing stuff on YouTube when I'm not fishing. I noticed that sometimes when they are bringing in the fish they are working their trolling motor too. Being ignorant of the workings of a trolling motor, is it not dangerous for the fish to work it while bringing them in? I know why they use it and I know it goes at a slower speed than the boat motor, but are the blades not an issue?

I thought about teaching either that one, the improved clinch knot, or the reverse clinch knot. I've recently started doing the reverse clinch knot. It's so easy but strong. The problem is that he's 21 years older than me and has bad eyes. Which means he's too stubborn to let me tie it for him and I'm concerned that if I try to teach him with me only bass fishing for 7 months and him since he was a kid, then he'd get miffed. Not to brag but I catch bass in situations that he says can't be done, catch them on a worm color that swears isn't any good, and get most of my lures out of trees when he'd give up and lose his lure (not including breaking his rod over his knee). Point being, that while I am still a novice in most areas of bass fishing, I've passed him up in knowledge because he still holds to old wives tales and such. So, a novice teaching some one who's been fishing for 40-ish years.......I'm not sure that would go over too well. It shouldn't bother him because even the pros will tell you that bass fishing is a never ending learning process.

Now, if I was having dreams of "fishing" with Jessica Alba, Angelina Jolie, Helen Hunt, or Milla Jovovich then I wouldn't mind.

LOL. I might do the mosquito hawk that way, but not the worm. It's too thin. Can you toss shaky head jigs in weeds, because that's about the only cover I see for at least 50 feet. Sometimes I hate my lake.

I'm guessing that I would rig the worm with the extra appendage off to the side?

Cool! Thanks for the info. I just got done doing both. Open the faqs page in one window and flip back and forth to pass the quiz.

Cool. I can take a guess as to how to rig that one, but the worm has me thrown for a loop.

Somebody gave my friend a bunch of lures yesterday and my friend gave me a couple. I need to know what one is and how to rig them. They're both made by Mann's. The worm is a 6" v worm. The other I have no idea what it is. I don't know how to rig either of them. Here's the pic:

For me, I would go with the trick worm, fluke, or weedless wacky Senko. For the Senko, stick the hook through the center like usual, but this time turn the hook toward the head and bury just the tip into the worm. Use a 2/0 or a 3/0. T-rig Senko works great too. Concerning top water, frogs aren't my first choice. The reason being is that on my lake it's like they don't know what to think of it. If, there are nice size pockets on the surface to about 6" below then try lures that make some noise to draw the bass out (poppers, buzzbaits, etc). Down size the lure to get in those areas but upsize the hooks. The bigger hooks will get hung up just the same as the smaller, but imo break through the weeds a lot easier. One very important thing to remember, once those bass realize that they are hooked they are going to run for the weeds. When they do, the weight that you're pulling against will be much more. I had a 20# channel catfish duck into the weeds and I didn't think I would ever get it out. In other words, I suggest leaving your lighter tackle at home. If you're worried about your smaller lures being usable, I would go with braid that's the same diameter of your lighter line (30# braid is same diameter as 8# mono). Otherwise, use a minimum of 17-20# test line. Work those weeds slowly, but work those submerged pockets even slower. This is where lures that have a ton of action even when you're not doing much comes in handy. Use scents and something with a little chartreuse in them. Anything to get that bass's attention.

Mine was on the floor.....but that's another topic.

A couple of months ago my baitcaster started messing up real bad. Apparently what happened was that sometime before that I took my reel apart to clean and grease it and left a part off. I'm usually good about keeping parts the way they are supposed to be, but not that time. Well when it messed up I realized I was missing the part but didn't know what part it was. Keep in mind, I am not that familiar with the parts. Last month I had rearranged my living room and found a random part lying on the floor, didn't know what it was so I thought I had put it up just in case I eventually figured it out. Some how the dern part made it back to the floor and I found it after rearranging the living room again. This time God gave me the wisdom to know what the part was (my bearings) and what order to put it back in. So, my baitcaster is cleaned, greased, back together, and tested. It works like new. Now I have 2 b/c. Now to get my Quantum Lite rod fixed. It needs 2 line guides.

Ah, so that explains why at my lake the bass will hit a chartreuse pumpkinseed lizard on a bright sunny day with clear water. That must mean that there's something wrong with my presentation with the chartreuse/blue back cranks....but that's for another post and another day.

With soft plastics I am stuck on the same basic retrieve: 2 small light jerks, pause while reeling in slack, and repeat. It's a slow process but it's worked for me. Then again, it's not good to get hung up on the "It worked last time.....". One way may work some days or even a couple of hours while other times the bass may be wanting it faster or slower, small hop or ripped up and flutter down, dragged, or even swimming. If your knowledge and gut tells you there should be bass there then experiment with it until you get a bass. Remember that retrieve and keep using it until the bites drop off and go back to the drawing board sorta speak. I've actually had a few times where one bass would nail it on the short hops and then the next bass would nail it on my retrieve so I could cast back out.

I have to disagree with some people: 50% of bass that I've caught have been a thump or a thump thump. That being said, I am so glad that I'm not the only one missing hook ups some times. The other day I was using a tube. The bass grabbed it, I got excited (hadn't had a bite in days) and pulled it out of his mouth. He went back after it. Same thing. The third time I didn't realize he had it in his mouth and when I thought I was twitching it a bit, he took off with it. Missed him again. The last two times I actually saw it take place and know that it was a bass. The problem turned out that I had the hook buried too deep in the tube. Since I disagreed with some people I will now agree with most people. Panfish and turtles will go after many of the same baits we use for bass. I'm still amazed by the small size fish, any fish, that will try to wrap their lips around a lure 2 times their size. Panfish are notorious in my lake for ripping pieces off of a ribbon tail worm. Turtles......it's funny and sad to watch them chase frogs, spooks, spinnerbaits, and poppers. Also, there have been plenty of times that I have missed a hook set and just let the lure sit for a few seconds to give the bass an opportunity to have a second (or third) go at it. It works. If they get the hook the first time then there's a slim chance it might go after it again, but not likely. Remember when fishing soft plastics, for the most part it's a game of patience. What usually triggers bass to hit a soft plastic is the way it moves and not how fast it's moving. Start with a very slow pace and if that doesn't work then tinker with the speed and let the bass tell you what they want. And if the bass are traveling in schools, when one sees your presentation so will a couple of others and then there's competition to see who gets to it first. Make sure you have the right hook size for the job. I catch a lot of bass lately with Yum Dinger 5" black/blue flake t-rigged on a 3/0 or 2/0 hook. I use those so that the worm will still flutter down. Then once it hits bottom, with your rod, it jerks up then flutters down. It still retains most of the wacky rig motion but it's completely weedless which is great for my lake. Anyways, hope you got what info you needed.