Raul

Jigs imitate the way darters and crawfish move when hopped along the bottom, whe swimmed they immitate the way baitfish move. Which sense are triggered ? the most important two ones: the hearing and the lateral line. When hoped along the bottom it emits sound when it hits the bottom, to us it may not make any sound but to fish it sounds like a thump when it hits a rock it emits a very audible clack, we can 't hear it if we are far away from the bait but under water it 's hearable. In second place the as it moves the hair or silicone/ rubber strands emit pressure waves that are detected by the lateral line, add a trailer and more waves are emitted. Add a rattle and you add more sound. When swimmed the same thing happens pressure waves are formed and they are detected by the lateral line. To us it 's difficult to understand, you can 't see or hear or feel pressure waves, we are not used to, we can only detect pressure waves when they are really strong. To make it more clear when a bomb blasts the most damaging part of the blast is the pressure wave, it moves faster than the sound and in water, 835 times more dense than air, the pressure wave travels very fast. That 's the principle behind depth charges, to destroy the submarine with the pressure wave. You can see that herons and other ictiphagous birds dip their beak in a very particular angle when fishing, it 's the precise angle where the target fish can 't detect the pressure wave fast enough to escape, if they don 't do it at that angle the fish can detect the incoming pressure wave as the beak penetrates the water, it 's cuetion of angles and miliseconds, the wrong angle and the fish have extra miliseconds to escape. Bass determine when to strike when they feel that all is working in unison, when all the sensorial indications are in the exact position. They will not do it before, it 's a waste of energy. Color is important in deep water because UV light is capable of reaching very deep, fish see more on the UV spectrum than we. Maybe you have read about all those discussions about red, that red does this, that red light is the first one to dissapear from the spectrum bla, bla, bla, red under UV light GLOWS red. So all those discussions are mere hypthesis because nobody has taken the time to see how colors look at a particular depth under UV light. Green turns florescent green under UV light. One should use a rattle predominantly when the turbidity and water clarity impair visibility, the fish can target a silent bait extremely well with the lateral line alone, but it doesn 't hurt to give the fish another element to target the bait on the contrary, it 's like giving the an extra reference point. To put it in other words: I can give you my adress, with that you have all the information you are supposed to need, but it doesn 't hurt if I tell you that 2 blocks away to the north of a Home Depot my adress is. Personally I don 't use scent in my baits, never have done it, I don 't need it for the fish to locate my bait, but when the conditions are of poor visibility scent is another added feature tothe adress, lets return to the adress example: you know my adress, you know that my adress is two blocks away to the north, how about if I told you that my home is white ? that reduces more the search. The same thing happens with scents, they are just an added feature, but don 't put all your confidence in them. Target the primary senses; hearing and the lateral line and add features as you need them. Baits fool the fish because they give the fish a wrong impression, it makes the fish think they are targeting a live animal, a bait is only a chunk of wood, metal or plastic.

It 's because current is everything in rivers.

3.- Smell There 's no doubt that fish can smell, some better tha others and depending on how important the sense of smell is to the fish you will see variations. For example pike have only one nostril, this means that smell is less important to them because they hunt by other systems, bass have two nostrils located above the mouth, this means that for bass the sense of smell is more important than it is for pike, the extreme would be catfish, catfish not only posses two notrils, they have came to the point where they even have olfatory and taste buds on the tip of their whiskers. In the specific case of bass; bass can smell quite well, in a scale of one to ten taking pike as 1 and catfish as 10 in the order or importance we can catalogue bass in a 4.5, it does have 2 pair of nostrils, but it doesn 't have as much olfatory buds on the nasal mucosae and the olfatory bulb is not very large, so bass are not preciselly keen on the smell side, but they do smell. For us as angler it means that scents do have a place, in the short range because in the long range they are as good as nothing. Besides, all that junk talk about a scent trail is just that, junk, after 5 casts in the same place there 's no scent trail, just a huge mass of dispersed molecules that overwhelms the sense of smell. 4.- Taste Talk about something as controversial as taste and scent. The truth is: the sense of taste in fish like bass is so poor that adding flavoring to your offerings is like throwing your money to the garbage bin. Fish like bass can detect mildly salty flavors and bitter flavor but the ammount of taste buds is so little that is almost non existant, they are not like us. 5.- Tact Oh yeah fish can touch, you can bet they can, but opposed to us where our skin is the most important organ when it comes to the sense of tach in fish the most important place where tact is located is inside the mouth, why ? beacuse their skin is covered in most of them by large scales and covered with slime, so the sense of tact on rest of the body is very poor. That 's the reason why soft plastic baits are very effective, they have the same "feel" live animals do. 6.- The Lateral Line This is my favorite sense, it does so many things and is so sophisticated that it 's a true marvel of nature 's engineering, too bad for us, we don 't have it. The lateral line is located along the body about in btween the dorsal fin and the anal fin, some fish have one continuos line others have "broken" lateral line, but the purpose is pretty much the same. What does the lateral line do that it 's so important ? Well, a fish without a lateral line is as good as a dead fish. The system is formed by nervous terminals that emerge from the spine connected to the exterior through holes in the scales above them. The system does many things, part of the terminals are chemoreceptors that detect chemicals dissolved in the water, it also detects variations in the pH and very important for us as anglers, it detects pressure waves and low voltage electrical signals. Living animals emit electrical signals because our muscles work with electricity generated in the nervous system, fish can detect in lower or greater way those low voltage electrical signals. Pressure waves are generated when objects move through water, the lateral line can detect such pressure waves, it tells the lateral line te size, spees, size and direction of the moving object. The most extreme case of this kind of adaptation can be seen in electric eels, not only the lateral line detects pressure waves, it generates a an electrical current, the recptors on the lateral line can detect distortions in the electrical field, if the distance is appropiate the system generates a high voltage current stunning the victim with an electro shock, that 's how electric eels hunt. So as you can see bass don 't need the eyesight to hunt, with only 2 systems ( hearing and the lateral line ) is very capable of targeting a prey with pin point accuracy, not even our most sophisticated targeting systems can do that.

Why do artificials work ? some are going to say: " bass can see them", "bass can smell", "they imitate food", etc, etc. but that doesn 't mean that you know the mechanics and physiology that implies a fish to strike a bait. To me, bass are fine tuned eating machines and to be fine tuned eating machines everything in them has to be perfect, the way the body is built, the way fins are placed, the way the mouth is conformed everything in them is designed to fill that big mouth and empty stomach. Well, we are anglers, our purpose is to catch fish but many of us don 't realize that in order to catch fish you must be able to undertand how that fishing machine works. When we tie a bait we take things for granted because somebody else ( the designer ) has done all the guesswork for us and we assume that the bait will work, true......to a certain point, because we can be doing things wrong and later we blame the bait for not catching fish, who 's wrong in the first place, you or the bait ? I bet that most of the time the answer lies on the you side of the equation. Why ? because the bait is designed to to certain things but not all of them, the bait is just a lifeless piece of wood, plastic or metal and it is you the one who gives "life" to it. What is the bait designed to do ? the answer is quite simple, the bait is designed to attaract the attention of the fish, period. What makes a bait better than another ? it 's the ability to attract the attention to it. How does a bait attract the attention to it ? well, one way or another the bait attracts the attention to it by attacking the SENSES of the fish. What are the senses ? the senses are the mechanisms ( anatomical and physiological ) that are used by the body to connect itself with the surrounding environment. So which ones are the senses of bass ? fish posses the same 5 senses we have: smell, tact, ear, taste, sight plus one we don 't have, the lateral line, but the senses in fish don 't work like ours, in first place we are no longer aquatic creatures, our ancesters, the amphibians, left the water millions of years ago so our senses evolved and adjusted to living in air rather than living in water, that 's why we terrestrial creatures don 't understand fish and how they work. THE SENSES 1.- Eyesight Fish have eyes in most cases, but there are species like the Mexican Cave Blind Tetra that no loger have eyes, their eyeballs have been subtituted by fatty tissue so the don 't have eyes. Eyesight in fish is quite primitive, they don 't have the ability to see the finer details like us, their eyesight is poor compared to ours, what they see is most definatley what we see. Fish can only see the outer shape and even so they see a spot, they can 't define the shape but they can see the shape moving. Fish in shallow water can see colors, if they couldn 't see colors we would not have fish in such vast rainbow of colors as we have,but UNDERSTAND ONE THING, they don 't see colors the way we do. They see colors just the way we see them under light with a spectrum more in the utraviolet side and with polarized lenses, if you want to understand how certain colors look to fish get an aquarium lamp used for keeping live corals, put on sunglasses and you will be amazed how different colors look under such lighting conditions. Fish can see very well under low light conditions because fish possess tapetum lucidum, the tapetum lucidum is a shiny coating of cells behind the retina that refracts light inside the eye, this constant refraction of the available light enhances and augments the ammount of light inside the eye enabling the fish to see under low light conditions; we DO NOT HAVE that coating, we can 't see well in low light conditions, fish can see under low light conditions like we do with night vision systems. The fact there are fish without eyes means that in fish eyesight is not the primary sense like in us. 2.- Hearing Fish can hear very well, they don 't own outer ears because they don 't need them, outer ears are an invention our ancersters made to concentrate the sound waves in the air, but the same structures found in our inner ear are the same structures found in fish. Fish can hear very well well because water is denser than air, 835 times denser, don 't look at the number, we are so used to numbers that 835 means little to us, to make a true comparison of what 835 means compare a 1 dollar bill against a pile of 835 1 dollar bills. What does this mean ? it means that sound travels faster, to a longer distance and with enhancement in water than trough air. The inner ear in fish is located at both sides of the head in the bones that form the craneum and connected to the brain by the hearing nerve, to the outside it 's connected to the head by a bone. The inner ear is formed by two different parts: the cochlea ( the hearing part ) and the maze ( the equilibrium part ). When sound waves traveling through water hit the fish the craneum vibrates sending the sound trough the hearing part. Fish possess something that we don 't, the natatory bladder, this organ is located above the kidney in the abdominal cavity separated from the cavity by a muscular wall, this organ is formed bey a very thin membrane that forms a balloon filled with nitrogen gas. The organ serves two purposes: it 's part of the bouyancy system of the fish, but also acts like a drum, when sound waves hit the body it vibrates so fish can literally "feel" sound.

There 's no such thing as the "best", every lure is designed with a specific purpose in mind and all of them work when placed in the right conditions, it 's more important to know how to choose the right one for the moment and how to work it properly. Buzzbaits, walk the dog type, splashers, spitters, poppers, gurglers all of them catch fish at one time or another. Buzzbaits, walk the dog type and gurglers are excellent to cover large ammounts of water fast. Splashers, spitters and poppers are excellent for pin pointing small or tightly close spaces like pockets. Minnow shaped even though they are not true topwaters work as topwaters and super shallow runners.

There are certain guidelines that help you to narrow down the choices Bassman: Murky/muddy water---->low visibilty: Colors.- Flashy ( metallic finish or with metalflake ), Dark ( dark browns, blacks, watermelon, green pumpkin, purple ) Hot ( bright orange, chartreuse, firetiger ) Profile and size.- Large and bulky, the bigger the better Rounded body ( more hydrodynamic signature ) Noisy ( rattles ) Vibration ( lipless vibrators, blades in spinnerbaits, C tail shape in soft plastics ) Wide wobble Clear water------> high visbilty Colors.- Natural ( greens, light browns like pumpkinseed, silvers, rootbeer, whites ) Naturalistic finishes ( shad, shiner, baby bass, bluegill ) Size and profile.- Medium size Slender body and profile It can be noisy or silent Tight wiggle Curly, paddle or no tail

1.- It depends a lot on how strong and intense and for how long the rain lasts. Obviousley that 's very difficult and uncomfortable to fish in the middle of a downpour. But there 's that kind of rain, you know that soft rain that only dapples the surface of the lake that I like to fish. Rain is like a dropping a nuke on flying insects, it just drps them on the lake which triggers bluegill activity since they are insect feeders. After the downpor has passed creeks are prime bass hunting ground, strong rain washes away insects from the surrounding terrain into the lake, alos it washes away soil from the surrounding terrain into the lake, besides it cooler water enters the lake and decreases the water temperature. All this means: food for the forage base ( terrestrial insects ), less visibilty ( washed away soil ) and cooler temperature-------> prime bass hunting conditions, after the downpour you have to be where the creek enters the lake. 2.- Some conditions overrun others, sunny after several days of rain; several days of rain overrun sunny conditions, if the current is strong enough all the area will be active, if the current is not strong shady side will be the place to be. 3.- When bass form wolf packs to attack schools of fish usually the bigger fish will be below the average fish of the pack, they use average size fish to "herd" the baitfish, they leave the dirty work of stunning fish to the smaller ones to later feed on those stunted fish. Will the lure make a difference ? you can bet it does, use sining lures an allow them to sink to fish for the bigger fish. Rarely surface lures attract bigger fish, on very rare ocassions that I have fished when the hunt is on I get big fish with surface lures, the only exception is the spook, walk the dog lures draw the attention of big fish, normally the lure is too large for smaller fish. You 're welcome !

Ok another brainstorm The question: What made you tie that particular bait in the first place ? Baits are tools Bassman, you have to select the right tool for the job. It doesn 't mean that you will only end up with only one choice, it means that several of the tools in your T-box will do the job, there 's no such thing as a universal tool. Selecting the proper tool is done AFTER you have analyzed the infromation that the lake is giving you, never BEFORE you have done your anaysis, because the conditions dictate which tools are the appropiate ones required to do the job, not the way around, tools do not dictate the conditions. After I have analyzed the information I come up with a selection of which tools are in my opinion the best suited to perform the task. Many of us have favorites, I do have my favorites and fish with them only when the conditions dictate that they are appropiate. My favorite tools are crankbaits and if you look at my t-box you will see that I have a very large selection of crankbaits by certain crankbaits may not be the adequate ones to perform the task so from 500+ cranks I end up tying one or two; spinnerbaits follow in my preferences, from the 100+ I have with me I end up with one or two; soft plastics are not my kind of bait, I don 't like fishing with them, if I can avoid tying them and fish instead with a crank or a spinnerbait I will do it gladly, but if conditions demand it I will tie them. So to answer your question, How long do you fish with a lure? I fish a lure as long as the lure is working or is the appropiate one for the spot I 'm targeting, many times I 've been crankbaiting and I see a likely spot where a crank is not going to perform and then I switch to a spinnerbait or a soft plastic lure to work that specific spot. That may be minutes or hours, I may switch sizes when the bait is not producing the size of fish I 'm after. The only time I use "search baits" is when I fish from the bank or when for soem reason I 'm out of my depth finder, I do it to locate the depth the fish are located, most of the time my search bait is a spinnerbait, I can work it from the top to the bottom, I can retrieve it burning the water or at arthritic snail pace, besides, they sink at a predictable rate of 1 ft/sec for every 1/2 oz of weight. I don 't "guess" fish, when I select a bait I 'm certain that it 's the right one, not to brag about it but in most ocassions I 'm right.

Nick what detered me from fishing deeper water was the thermocline, I zig zaged between the mats along the boulder covered dam and from the dam to where I found the fish, couldn 't see any fish below 18 ft, not a single soul, so really what kept them in the bank was that, the thermocline, what I assume they did was to relocate their hideouts from deeper water to shallow water following the same structure that held them in deeper water, I caught a 5.35 along the stone wall in 12 ft of water, didn 't take pic of that one cuz I my camera run out of batteries :. Smaller fish ( 8 inches to a pound ) were indeed under the hyacinth, caught lots of them casting right next to and in between the patches but no hits from bigger fish, it was fun for a while catching those smaller fish, I was fishing the windward side, when wind blew a little bit it blew in that direction, also what kept me there was that the spillway is on that side of the dam, the lake is at maximum pool and spilling, creating a stronger current on that side of the lake. The bad thing about hyacinth is that it 's not like pads, you can 't walk a bait comfortably, it hangs up right away, under different conditons let 's say pads instead of hyacinth certainly I would have tied a weedles frog or a weedless soft plastic above those pads, I love to fish the "salad" and see fish blasting the bait through the pads. We can be partners ANY time Hillbilly.

Solution Shadmaster: 1.- Carry TWO batteries instead of one. That will give another 5 hours of power. 2.- If baitcaster backlashes like mad-----> spinning gear is the ticket, spinning don 't backlash Have a nice day windy fishin ' day ! ;D

Ok people what does windy mean for you, a nuisance or an opportunity ? It 's sunny, not a single cloud on the skyor it 's cloudy, the lake looks like glass, the fishing is terrible, my bag of dirty tricks and good luck charms is over, even the kitchen sink didn 't work, I don 't have more aces left in my sleeve, what I do ? I pray for wind, wind strong enough to stir the lake, heck even white caps are welcomed as long as the tub doesn 't sink. Am I nuttz ? Not really, wind is the golden opportunity when the fishing sucks Why ? Wind does something to the lake that after a while turns the fishing on. 1.- It SHAKES COVER, this shaking effect on weeds and wood dislodges tadpoles and acuatic insects from the surfaces they are attached to, baitfish and forage fish like bluegills feed on insects, the wind draws them to the wind exposed area to feed and where baitfish and forage fish are bass will be. 2.- It increases OXYGEN LEVELS, stagnant water is dead water, stagnant water is contrary to life because it creates a reductive enviroment, when the wind blows oxygen enters the system and creates an oxydizing environment, oxydizing envoronments are life bearing environments. 3.- it reduces LIGHT PENETRATION, yeah I know I sound like a broken record, mark my words and tatoo them in your brain, light penetration is one of the most important elements in locating the fish, the more light the tougher the fish get. It 's the dappling effect that waves produce the one that reduces the light penetration because it refracts light. 4.- it creates MUDLINES, the area exposed to the wind looses clarity because wind lifts the sediments from the bottom or erodes the shoreline, excellent opportunity for a hunter ( bass ) to exploit the mudline because it conceals his presence. 5.- it creates CURRENT, the action of the waves cools the surface, this colder surface sinks and has to be replaced with water from the deep, this interchange between colder water and warmer water creates current, the system no longer is static, it becomes dynamic. 6.- it RELOCATES FOOD, plankton can 't move, it 's subject to the effects of the wind an current, wind drifts the plankton into the place where it is blowing to concentrating it, baitfish like shad and shiners are planktonic feeders, concentrated plankton to them is like eating a broth instead of a soup, where baitfish are bass will be.

Hillbilly finding structure is easy when fishing from the bank, you 're standing on it , the good thing about structural features is that what you see above water level is most likely to continue under water level, it 's just a matter of taking a good look, bass prefer certain structures over others, sudden drop offs, rocks, where soil meets rock are some of them. Chris wrote something very important: First figure out what satisfies a bass's needs and what area and cover fills their needs What 's a bass ? A bass is a PREDATORY fish, this means that once it 's big enough not to be in need to feed on plankton it 's going to feed on other living animals big enough to fill it 's big mouth. This means that the fish is a hunter down to the marrow of it 's bones, that 's it 's weakness, he hunts so let 's use that against it. What are it 's needs ? 1.- An abundant and reliable source of food on which to prey upon, 2.- A place to stalk it 's prey, an ambush point, 3.- An easy escape route or it becomes the prey 4.- A safe passage way from point A to point B 5.- A place where it can conceal it 's presence, contrary to popular belief strong sunlight doesn 't bother bass nor it hurts it 's eyes, bass see like we see with polarized lenses so strong sunlight doesn 't bother them, bass hide in shade because ít can see it 's prey without being seen by it. So the first point is KNOW YOUR PREY.

Ok Bass master, we discussed this about a moth ago, I 'm old school, pre-senko era old fart. I only need: Spinnerbait single colorado gold blade 3/8 oz Lime & Chartreuse Black jig 1/2 oz A pack of 5 inch grubs watermelon w orange & green metalflake. Hooks and a small assortment of sinkers of different weights. With that I have covered most fishing situations I could encounter. Too bad The BaitMonkey personality doesn 't read these replies ! :

Actually Bassackwards the situation is this, one of our fellow anglers is in trouble, he just can 't connect with the fish and comes looking for help, asks but has no real idea of what he 's looking for, shoots a question and gets a buch of replies, try this, try that, this works for me, etc. I 'm not going to recommend a thing because I have to select the right baits and techniques to be used in a particular situation, how can I recommend something if I don 't know the conditions ? my mind doesn 't work that way, I want and I 'm eager to help but I need you to help me to help you, my idea of help is not giving you the answers; my idea of help is teaching you how to get the answers, because normally when someone asks is because the damage has been done already, we are shuting down the well after the kid drowned, let 's work the opposite way, let 's shut down the well BEFORE the kid drowns. One thing is to correct a techique problem than correcting the biggest problem, HOW TO LOCATE THE FISH, once you are able to locate the fish everything falls like a card castle, the pieces of the puzzle match on it 's own. That 's why I quote "Every battle is won before it 's ever fought". At least for me I study the conditions before I even tie a bait, I 'm there to do nothing and catch fish, I 'm not in a casting contest. The difference between a good angler and a lousy one is not luck, it 's the ability to analyze the information, some people are gifted, they analyze the information and draw a conclusion right away, those are what we call "naturals" or "talented", you can see it in sports every day, but 99.99% of the rest of us are not "naturals", we are regular persons, we are everyday people, the only way for us to perform like naturals is by study, practice, perseverance and patience, it 's a continous process, that 's what makes you a good angler not luck.

Forgot to mention.- herons were walking along the shoreline I fished, HERONS, herons feed on baitfish and amphibians, baitfish and smaller fish of the food source use the radicular system of water hyacinth to hide, herons tell you that baitfish are there, find the food source you will find the fish. Food source.- I left it for granted Matt, sorry about that, in Mexico bass feed mostly on native minnows, juvenile bluegills, juvenile tilapias and carp up to 8 inches in size, this particular lake also has crappie in it, I quited on cranks and spinnerbaits because crappies were hitting them and also smaller fish were hiting them hard, the bigger fish like the ones in the pics took brush hogs and 7.5 inch worms. Afroengineer be more aware of what 's happening in the lake, the usual spots are that, usual spots, as long as the conditions are the ones that produce fish once the conditions change even a little bit the usual spots turn into dead spots, remember that bass are oportunistic feeders they may feed on minnows and shad but they are not going to let go the opportunity to feed on what 's the prevalent food source during a particular period of time, if bite size bluegills are available and abundant most fish will feed on them, fewer will be feeding on minnows or shad, you target the biggest population feeding on the largest population of food at the present time. By this time of the year the most abundant food source in the south is baby bass, baby bluegills are too large now to be edible except to the bigger fish.

Excellent advice Matt ! The fish are telling that they are interested enough in your bait to follow it but that the bait is lacking of something, it may be size, it may be presentation, in clear water it may be you ( you can see them they can see you ), so the key is altering the size and/or the presentation; what you can do in the YOU side of the equation is to lower your profile so the fish take you as part of the surroundings, if you 're standing up sit down or kneel, if you are using bright colors use more natural colors like greens and browns, don 't cast your shade to the area you 're fishing, avoid drastic movements, drastic movements scare more the fish than sounds.

It is simple when you piece the puzzle together, everything you see, everything you listen to tells you something, the catch is being analytical, the clues are there if you listen to them. As I said it, luck has nothing to do with catching fish, I did all that even before I tied a lure. "Every battle is won BEFORE it 's ever fought." I strongly suggest to our fellow readers to check the article section, specially the behaviour part, all you need to know is there, I 've read it and find it excellent. Sure RW ! you can be my partner any time you want.

Instead of chunking and winding lures like a dummy "in search" for the fish look at the surroundings and conditions in the lake, casts are like roses, they shouldn 't be given to the pigs. The water temperature is ? The skies are ? The air temperature is ? The contour above the lake is ? What structural features does the lake has above water level ? The wind is blowing from where to where ? The level of the lake is ? The weeds are alive, dead, a mix of dead and alive ? The color of the water is ? The turbidity of the water is produced by what ? The slope of the terrain is ? The bottom composition is ? The weeds are ? You can cast a "search bait" all day long until your arm pulls out of it 's socket and still don 't find the fish beacuse you 're casting it in the wrong place at the wrong depth. Let me give you an example. Never been to a that lake, I don 't know anything about it, I get to the lake, the lake is big, 8-10 times my regular lake is, this is what I found: Water temperature: 77°C Skies: Sunny with scattered clouds Air temperature: 100°F, humid, opressive The contour: the lake is on between several hills in a "valley", the shape of the lake follows exatly the contour of the hillsides, that means that if there 's a depression in the terrain above the water level there 's a cove in the lake. Structural features: old stonewalls built on the terrain long before the lake was built, stone patches formed by stones anywhere from 3 ft in diameter to the size of a compact car scattered across the shoreline, the boulder covered dam The wind: no wind most of the time, ocassional breeze from the east. Color of the water: milky Turbity: the nature of the turbidity is supended clay particles, it 's the rainy season so clay is washed from the hillsides and into the lake. Water Clarity: more less a foot Slope of the terrain: most of the lake has a very small slope, around 8-10 degrees. Bottom composition: the same as the surrounding terrain, a mix of clay, some sand, pebbles and with those ocassional patches of big rocks. Weeds: patches of elodea, water hyacinth. Woody cover: non existant. As I zig zag through the patches of water hyacinth I notice in my depthfinder that all the fish I see in my screen are between the surface and 18 ft deep, you don 't see any fish below the 18 ft mark. What does this tells you ? Lake level: full pool, the lake is spilling. Barometric pressure: Low, I can see in the distance above the hill that surround the lake black, heavy clouds. The result of the brainstorm 1.- The fact that all the fish are above the 18 ft mark tells me that there 's a thermocline at more or less 18 ft--------> I just ruled out 2/3 rds of the lake, there 's no point in fishing water deeper than 18 ft deep. The water is very warm and with that slope 15 ft of water, the most likely zone fish will be located, means that I have to fish between the water level and anywhere from 20-40 yards from the bank. 2.- The water turbidity is made from clay means that there 's poor visibility and that the turbidity is not made from FOOD ( plankton ). The color of the water is milky due to the clay. The water clarity is not that bad, 1 foot is quite good given the circumstances. This tells me that the fish due to the poor visbility will be holding on structure not cover beacuse there 's no woody cover and the elodea patches are too small to hold fish. 3.- Since the only important structural features are those patches of rocks, the stone walls and the boulder covered dam----------> I just ruled out half of that 1/3 rd left of fishable water, that leaves me with 1/6th of the lake. 4.- The lake is at maximum pool and spilling, that creates current on the side the spillway is located--------> I just ruled out another big chunk of water now I only have 1/12th of the lake, I will fish the side where the spillway is located. 5.- No wind or very light ocassional breeze from the east, fortnately the spillway is located on the west of the lake, excellent reason why should I remain on the WEST of the lake. 6.- Structure, structure and more structure again, I need to locate areas of rocks and/or rock walls, the closer they are together the better, fish will move from one to the other, the area around the rocks and between both is the area to fish. 7.- Because it 's sunny, the water is still water hyacinth is the only source of shade, the drawback, it drifts, I need to find areas where I have all the elements and where water hyacynth can 't or will very slowly drift away. Baits: Spinnerbaits, rattling crankbaits, curly tail worms, lizards and creatures, soft plastics the bigger the better. Colors: Dark or shiny, your choice, natural colors don 't work fish can 't see them, soft plastics the same, watermelon, green pumpkin, red shad, black shad, black, with metal flake. Gee, I guess I was right, LUCK has nothing to do with catching fish, luck is catching a bigun instead of a little one. First time ever been to that lake and that 's just a sample of what I caught and the numbers I caught.

Don 't know about you guys but trying to tie a palomar knot on a 13 cm jerkbait with 3 dangling treble hooks is by far a lot more challenging and time consuming than tying a Rapala knot.

Forget about the square bill, any bait will work, if you want to crank in the bush get a lure retriever and you 're ready for it, if you ain 't knocking wood you ain 't fishing them right, instead or puchasing 10 or 20 square bill cranks for the bush spend 7 dollars in a lure retriever and use ALL your crankbaits.

Hooks, jigs---------->Palomar Minnow lures ( jerkbaits )--------->Rapala Lures, spinnerbaits-----------> Double clinch.

There are several companies that carry molds, PU plastic, metal flake, dyes, even fluored salt to make your baits. How much yo ' 're going to spend depends greatly on what you plan to pour and the quality of the molds you purchase, resin molds are pretty inexpensive but baits aren 't as "pretty" as the ones made in aluminum molds. Check: http://www.del-mart.com/store/; http://zeiners.safeshopper.com/381/cat381.htm?123/; http://www.barlowstackle.com/plastic-worm-molds.html; http://www.lurecraft.com/ You can find what you 're looking for there.

Use a C-rig witha 2-3 ft leader, the bait will dart above the grass.

Jig and pig.- It 's one of those expressions that will live forever, actually it should be called jig and trailer. It 's called pig because pig skin was used as a trailer but now trailers are made either from pig skin or from poliurethane plastic. My favorite bait when I 'm in the hunt for big momma bass.

Bass not only have eyes you know, they can hear very well, smell quite well too and posses one system that we don 't have, the lateral line system, so they can lock on a target with an accuracy that smart bombs would love to have.