Raul

Many questions like this one can be answered by you using a little logic, if the water is muddy the fish can 't see squat, now imagine for a moment that you are blind and can 't see squat, if you can 't imagine being blind then a blindfold will help. Blindfold yourself, sit on a chair in the middle of a room, just sit there and do nothing. Suddenly you realize that after a while your hearing gets quite good: You can 't see----->ergo----> your hearing gets better, BINGO ! in the case of poor visibility SOUND let 's you know where things that emit sound are. Therefore: in muddy waters use baits that emit sound----> RATTLES ! Now, you can 't see anything, your hearing gets better but imagine for a moment that you posses a sense that allows you to "touch" at a distance. You can 't see but you posses a sense that allows you to locate ----->ergo-----> you can feel things that emit vibration. Therefore: in muddy waters use bait that emit vibration-----> BLADES and FAT BODIES ! You think out the rest.

Yeah Low Budget, there 's nothing like getting a good kick on the rear end once a while from the lake that you know better than the palm of your hand.

From the 4 lakes I fish the most on 3 I know the terrain just because there was no lake, the dam was built and the terrain flooded a long time after. On the fourth I 've seen it reduced to 1/4 of it 's size so I know the terrain also.

Sinaloa and Tamaulipas. Mexico 's best big bass lakes are there and you can saltwater fish also because they are in the coast.

And the answer is: a regular 1/2 oz Rat-L-Trap sinks at a rate of 1 ft/sec.

Hey Roger, I think I can dress him up for the ocassion, he likes being naked but if the ocassion is worth it he can even wear a tuxedo.

I can send a nice video of the BaitMonkey.

Better think it twice when you look at those monster baits thinking they are too big. Bass have bigger mouths than brains:

A 3/8 oz single colorado gold blade white & chartreuse skirt beacuse I can fish it at any water level at any speed I want, it 's practically snagless and I can cover the most water surface with it, not because I like spinnerbaits.

Ok, here 's my take. Daiwa reels are great, so are Shimano reels, but Shimano always gives you something more for your money, let me give you an example: when I purchased my Chronarch 50 Mg the reel came in a nice box, with a vial of oil, 2 sets of extra weights, the wrench and a very nice felt cover to protect the reel, when I purchased the Alphas Itö ( a limited edition reel for starters ) it came in a regular box ( nothing like Shimano 's box ), with a vial of oil, a wrench and......that 's it ! no reel cover >, c 'mon you purchase a more expensive reel and they won 't "spring" with a 2 dollar reel cover. :

Back when I was young dinosaurs roamed the earth and cameras were not invented yet, it wasn 't until the Flintstones arrived when we got cameras.

Then I 'm sure you ain 't my wife under a ficticious name......she would never reply the way you did, more like : "tell me right now how much you spend !." I used to spend a lot, something around a 500-600 a month, just for the pleasure and here I am with a big bunch of tackle I don 't even use gathering dust so I made a trascendental decisssion: no more tackle purchases and selling all that stuff I don 't use, not that I need the money but with the money I raise from selling all that stuff I 'm going to get me some REALLY KOOL gear like those obscenelly priced Megabass and Evergreen lures and rods. I 'll be back !

Don 't think I 'm rude or something like that but what makes you think I 'm going to tell you how much I spend in gear ? I don 't know who you are, you can even be my wife under a ficticious name trying to obtain information and later rubbing it in. How much we spend is priviledged information and taking it to the worst case scenario the Fifth ammendment comes in very handy. Now, If you want to know my present tackle junkiness status all I can say is that it 's on hold, I haven 't purchased a single new lure, rod or reel for over a couple of months, on the contrary I 've been selling the excess tackle I don 't use which is brand new. Also I 'm going to sell a lot of used tackle which is almost as new, I 'm downsizing in gear to manageable levels. Once I 've got rid of all that stuff that I don 't want and don 't need.........it 's going to PAYBACK TIME ! I 'll be back !

Avid the only time we rednecks are articulate is when we talk bout fishin ', huntin ' and campin ', we ain 't exactly Shakespeare. ;D

That 's exactly the point of the discussion, if it 's working use it but do not limit yourself to fish only with it. The problem is what EW mentioned, that when it 's not working many anglers don 't know to fish with anything else, they can 't even discern the moment the bait is no longer working, they stick to it and let the world roll. I 've got senkos, lots of them, I catch fish with them but for that matter I also catch fish with a lot other baits so senkos are not my everyday bait, I seldomly fish with them. I was born into bass fishing in the presenko era, I belong to that generation of anglers of the slugo era, I learned to fish all the baits the hard way, by tying them until caught fish consistently with them, that 's why I 'm as a good fishing cranks as I am fishing spinnerbaits, I hate fishing with soft plastics, it just doesn 't fit my nature, but I can also be lethal with soft plastics when the time comes.

Bacurato ( Baccarac ) produces the biggest, El Salto produces the most; Huites and Guerrero produce lots of fish in the 8-11 pound class Roger. Speaking in terms of quality, if I wanted to plan a trip for a lake where I may not catch many but I would catch fish in the teens ( high teens ) Bacurato would be my number 1 choice. If I had the itch to catch me a 10 pounder like many american anglers do ( those who have never caught a 10 pounder ) then I would seriously consider El Salto. The catch with those lakes is to plan the trip at the right moment of the year, February and March are the months to catch a bigun, another time of the year is around late June-early July, that 's when the lakes are at medium pool and most of the cover is visible.

Who cares about El Salto when you 've got Lake Baccarac in the same state Roger ? Mexico 's record, a 19.2 behemoth came from it 's waters, nowhere else in the world with the exception of Cali fish get that big and there have been reports from recreational divers that there are even bigger fish. And no minners pleez, I 'm an artficial lure only fisherman. Call me stubborn but I won 't touch live bait, not even for saltwater fishing where it is common to use live bait.

I 'm also one of those guys that catches his big fish in the middle of the day when the rest of the people are looking for a shade to chill down. It 's great to catch big mommas at 110-120° under the blazing sun.

Absurd.

I don 't think so :. It 's not the wand......it 's the magician.

The difference between a consisitent anglers and non consistent one is the way those itsy bitsy pieces of information are put together, you are the one who makes a good day. Each piece of information you see means something Redtail. Water temperature is a crucial piece of information because it rules the methabolism of the fish, bass can tolarate a wide range of temperatures but bass has a comfort zone, the temperature at which the fish will be at it 's own, bass feel at home in water between 19-22 °C, lower than that the fish will be less active, higher than that fish will also be less active. In the practice: if you are fishing let 's say a flat where the water temperature is above 22°C most probably fish won 't even be there, and the ones you can find will be where the water is cooler, like undernearth weeds or on the shady side of objects. What to do with the information: why bother in casting right and left all over the flat if the fish are hiding where the water is a couple of degrees cooler ? cast to the shady side, cast to the holes in the weedbeds. That 's one of example on how one piece of information ( water temperature ) tells you where you are going to find the fish. The more variables you add to the equation the more defined your pattern will be. For example let 's take rain: why do you think it will make fish more agressive ? will it make them more agressive all throughout the lake ? what does rain do that activates the fish ? where you will find the fish ? Normally, unless it 's a downpour fish become active with rain, this doesn 't necessarily mean it will make the fish more active throughout the entire lake, it 's the areas where after the rain or if it has been raining for several days in a row where the fish will be more active, specially in those areas where the rainfall enters the lake in the form of a spring, creek or river; why ? because rain creates great conditions, it washes away insects with it, bluegills and other forage fish eat insects, where their food is they will be, bass prey upon bluegills and other fish therefore where his food is he will be, also not only insects are washed away with rain, soil is also washed away, the water will become murky or muddy, perfect place to ambush. What are you doing on the other side of the lake wasting casts trying to catch fish that are not there ? go the where the river or creek is !

To establish a "pattern" the first thing you should do is: when you arrive at the lake sit down and look at the lake, heck grab a smoke, grab a sandwich, grab a Coke; puff, drink or eat and take your time to analize what the lake is going to tell you before you tie anything. 1.- What 's the temperature of the water ? 2.- The wind is blowing ? from where to where and how fast ? has it been blowing for the last few days ? 3.- Is it cloudy or not ? what kind of clouds ? 4.- Has it rained lately ? how much and for how long ? 5.- Is the water clear, muddy or murky ? how much visibility there is ? what 's the color of the water ? 6.- The forage base is formed by what: shad, minnows, bluegills, carp, crawfish ? Etc, etc, etc. It 's in the information in those little details that tells you where the fish will be, how active they will be and those determine what you should fish, where you should fish it and when you should fish it. If you don 't listen to what the lake is telling you you are going to fish by "luck".

Why are so many people scared of snakes??? Cuz where Bigtex lives that rattlin sound you hear 3 ft away from yer feet ain 't exactly the rattlin bait you,s got tied to yer pole. If you,s were here where I,s live I would say the same thingy adding beware of the scorpions, beware of the fire ants and beware of them 2 inch red wasps that chase you.

Ok I exaggerated......... 99% is too much, let 's make it 98%. ;D

False, completely false. The BaitMonkey is not against you purchasing or making a lure retriever, not carrying a lure retriever is just plain dumb and a complete lack of financial resource management. On the contrary, the BaitMonkey strongly suggests that you should carry a lure retriever, no lost lures means money saved, saved money that can be used to purchase more stuff.