Raul

You can build cover with many things, PVC pipe, brush, old tires, one thing that you should be aware of is before you dump anything into your lake check the regulations, what you 're going to do could be illegal. Tires work well when you make a "reef" with dumping them in a flat where there 's no other kind of cover available, on points and near drop-offs.

I'm catching my best bass in 15-20 ft of water on weighted T-rigged tubes and Kut-Tail worms. Hmmmmm, that Kut-Tail suggestion sounds kinda familiar to me. I told you, those things are lethal.

"Cull" the fish with the size of your bait, most big fish I have caught were caught in the depths, I said most, which means that........not all of them, even though my first ten pounder and my personal best were caught on crankbaits; crankbaits are NOT my BIG fish baits, my big fish baits are not 10-12 inch worms, my big fish baits are jigs with a trailer big enough to make the bait huge enough to deter smaller fish from biting it, I don 't get many strikes but when I do get one normally it 's a bigger than average fish. Let me give you an example, some months ago I went with my SIL 's husband and a friend to a lake 2 hour drive from where we live known to be home of BIGUNS, a place where an 8 or more pounds fish is not uncommon, you don 't catch them by the truckloads but if you go regularily you will eventually catch one of those. My SIL 's husband and my buddy tied grubs, worms, cranks, etc and caught a ton of fish between half a pound and two pounds, I tied a 1/2 oz jig and added a soft plastic 4" craw as a trailer, I fished with that rig ALL DAY LONG, I got 3 strikes, landed 2 fish, a 3 pounder, a 5+ pounder and lost right next to the boat a fish that must have weighted at least 9 pounds, it was as huge as a ham. 3 strikes in 12 hours of fishing and they were getting lots of strikes and lots of fish in the same places where I hooked those fish, the difference was the size of the bait.

Rocks don 't care if the sinker is painted or not, toss in a painted sinker and by the time you have retrieved it will be half painted.

I make no plans, I select the baits after taking a good look at the lake and the conditions of the day right on the spot.

I know could get a hefty fine for harvesting the cacti but they are so beautiful that I couldn 't resist the temptation :-X Hang-up specialists. Hey that sounds like my nephew, don 't know how he does it but ......oh well ya know, it may be the only brush in 20 acres and you can bet he 's going to hang up in it. : Backlash artists. That shure sounds like my nephew 's daddy, I can bet that he rarely make 3 casts without having a backlash ;D plop on the deck about a 5 foot Cotton Mouth. That 's a nize sized cotton mouth, you can make a belt and a wallet with it. "No sudden moves, please." That sounds like Maike, only problem with him is that he 's 6' 5" and weights about 280 lbs, heck, even his breathing causes sudden moves. Which reminds me of another one, we were catfishing in the night, I caught a 15 pound cat and left it on the bank while I was adding a chunk of liver to the hook when Maike comes and sits right next to me........exactly where the catfish was........it ain 't easy trying to remove a wiggling cat from your buddie 's rear end ;D.

Are your friends as crazy about fishing as you? Gee, I don 't know, what do you think ? ;D When we we younger and single we fished all year long, to the point that we went fishing at 6:00 AM, had a "quickie" and returned at 9:40 AM because we had to work at 10:00 AM, it 's raining, fish are bitin ', let 's go !; we have full moon tonight, fish are bitin ', let 's go !; it 's new moon, fish are bitin ', let 's go !; it 's windy, fish are bitin ', let 's go !, every excuse you can imagine was good for us. ;D Later one of them got married, to celebrate the birth of his daughter.....fish are bitin ' , later the girl came with us ;D, when his son was born we just had to celebrate.....fish are bitin ' . We celebrate birthdays, well you know how.....fish are bitin '. Now that we 're grown-ups and have families we certainly give family their time so we go every other week, but we have 3 boyz that need training...... : Everybody brings his own tackle but everything is available for everybody and with soft plastics if fish are biting a particular bait the one who brought it shares the pack with the rest of the gang, you know how fish are, today they are biting 5" Zoom Salty Fat Alberts in Margarita color we see how many we are carrying and split the ammount between the gang, the idea is that everybody has to catch fish and have a good time. The boat is the only limitation because it can only carry four persons, what we do is to split the boat time between us, 3 fish from the bank, 3 fish from the boat and after a couple of hours we switch places.

Don 't know about you but I think most of us fish with a partner most of the time, at least I do, I have 2 good friends that have been my fishing buddies for over 20 years and in recent years my SIL 's husband has joined the gang, it 's not only fishing but the other things you do while fishing that make it a more enjoyable experience, specially crazy things they do on those trips that make them memorable; like the day one of the gang encountered a monster rattlesnake and wanted it to make a belt out of it.......hmmmmm, hey that was me ! :; lemme think, aha! the day that one of the gang had the great idea to harvest ripe cactus fruit ( we call them "tunas" here ) for dessert, kinda tricky quest with all the thorns cactus have, but those things shure are sweet and delicious....... oooops, hey that was my idea ! :; all right I know, the day that one of the gang suffered a punctured bladder on the inflatable boat while fishing in the middle of the lake 200 ft from the nearest shore, repaired the puncture with chewing gum and continued fishing till dusk.....geez, I must be careful the next time I take out the inflatable boat.... that chewing gum is still there ! :; ok, I remember also that ocassion when we went to Loonkerland and the fishing was so slow that one of the gang decided to investigate what kind of scorpions lived in that part of the country and found a bunch of them underneath a rock, interesting creatures, those ones weren 't like the ones we are used to see here, they are much smaller and have large claws.......uh oh, that was me too ! :; ok, ok, ok, the time we went to another lake and found some very cool looking cacti and instead of fishing we harvested ( illegaly BTW ) a big bunch of them for a desert garden he has in his house......dammit, that was me too ! : Thinking it carefully.....the craziest thing my fishing partners have done is going fishing with me. ;D

The reason why structure is more important than cover Max is that structure is there, it 's a landmark not subject to modifications in the short term ( hours, days, months or years ) it may take decades before structure is modified, rocks, bottom composition, contour, points, submegred point, sand bars, submerged road beds, submerged train tracks, rip raps, bluffs, humps are going to be there many decades after the lake has been filled. On the other hand, cover can be and is modified in the short term, brush, trees, weeds have a life once that life is due they dissapear. Docks are somewhere in between a pure structural feature and a cover feature because it has elements of both. A dephtfinder is a valuable tool Max but it 's not a necessity, the terrain above the water level tells you what 's underneath water level because structural features extend, use your eyes and don 't become dependant on technology, technology is only as good as the one who is using the technology.

You can prowl along the drop off on the shallow side and cast your offerings to the deep side or do the opposite, prowl along the deep side and cast your offerings to the shallow side, the point is: fish will be holding along the drop off so when your baits cross the transition zone from deep water into shalow water they become a target. That could also answer you question about spinnerbaits in deep water, in the particular case when I 'm doing that I prefer single blade spinnerbaits.

Excellent explanation Fivebasslimit. Why points are important: 1.- usually the water arround them is deeper 2.- Like Low-budget said, it 's an ambush place 3.- baitfish use them as feeding ground 4.- baitfish use them as reference mark to move along the shore 5.- they extend into the lake breaking the contour of the lake. Here 's something important that you said: I always picture bass near something, a stump, brush, any kind of cover. Imagining a bass on a featureless gradual slope is throwing me. That 's why you don 't get it, cover is good, but cover on structure is best, fish prefer structure over cover, fish by structure not by cover, what makes cover appealing to fish is when cover is on structure or very near it, for example, you are fishing a flat covered with brush but some brushes produce more than others, the reason is not the brush itself, the reason is on what those brushes are standing on or are very near to a distinctive structural feature, even a slight variation on depth is what separates one from the other.

One or several points that extend or are very near a primary ( much larger ) point.

Wow ! 2-3 ft is ......... how can I put it.......too shallow for my taste, you normally see thermocline in deep lakes where water has enough depth to stratify and in a 20 ft lake most probably is not going to happen.

What kind of weeds ?

Ok, there 's no black & white in fishing, not everything is black and not everything is white, everything is gray with different shades, bigger baits for catching bigger fish is right......almost, using bigger baits is a way to cull the smaller fish and deter them from hitting the bait or if they hit it they can 't mouth it. Also, no they are not lazy, it 's a matter of energy, chasing smaller prey to fill in their daily energy intake requirements may not be as energy efficient as hunting for a bigger meal, why bother in chasing and eating 10 2-3" minnows when a couple of 5" bluegills are more than enough ? Like RW said, fish slow and fish deep, smaller fish are more active than larger fish, they are always hungry and are more eager to attack a small bait. But like Marty said, there are times when fishing smaller baits is a necessity, a good example are clear water lakes.

Exactly Paully.

Not oftenly but I do go to a pay to fish lake in Puebla, they have two large ponds, one is about 2 acres and the other one is about 4 acres, the smaller one is stocked with trout, the large one is stocked with LMB, bluegills and trout. Entry fee to the facility is 3 dollars per adult and 1 dollar per child over 5 years old. Yoy can choose between several packs: Catch and release ( fee 14 dollars ) and you are entitled to 2 pounds of trout, catch and release only ( fee 11 dollars ), fish and keep ( 5 dollars ) but you must keep every trout you catch and pay por it ( fee 3 fdollars per pound of trout ), you don 't have a rod ? no problem, you can rent one for 3 dollars a day, you want to fish from a boat ? 40 dollars fee for the entire day. Bass and bluegills are catch and release only. The place has beautiful gardens, grills, child play areas, restaurant, tackle store, gorcery store, restrooms, if you want to stay for several days you can either camp ( fee 5 dollars daily for the space ) or rent a cabin ( 45 dollars daily for 2 adults and 2 children, breakfast included ). So it 's not a bad deal, the place is beautiful, always clean, good food, and cooperative fish, they restock trout once a week. Bass are not monsters but good size fat fish, most trout are keeper 1 pound hatchery raised trout but there are monster trout in those ponds with monster albino rainbows being the specialty of the house. The place during the weekends is packed full. If you want to see how the place looks ike you can take a look in "My Fishing Trip" it 's titled " A nice place to fish". Now let 's look at it on the other side of the coin, a trip for me to Loonkerland costs 70 dollars just in gas for the truck, 20 dollars for breakfast, add let 's say 5 dollars for gas for the outboard, dump in another 20 dollars in soft drinks, sandwiches, ice, etc. and you are not guaranteed to catch a thing, divide 115 between 3 = 38+ dollars per person ( we are always 3 persons for that trip ), and that didn 't include mileage, tires, oil and mechanical services of the truck. To me paying to fish is certainly not a bad expense, in that place you always catch a bunch of fish.

Hans, take out your credit card, is it light or heavy ? if it 's light then it 's time to go out and load it with some purchases of good quality lures, rods n 'reels; if it 's heavy then it 's time to make it heavier. That therapy works fine for me, no symptoms of abstinence.

What is happening in the lake ? Lots of things happen throughout the lake during the day, if it 's sunny algae blooms happen, if its 'sunny/ algae blooms are happening/ and there 's a little bit of wind the algae bloom is going to be drifted towards the shore in the direction where the wind is blowing, baitfish will follow the wind because they know that there will be a greater concentration of food on that side, where baitfish congregate bass will congregate. Fish on the side where the wind is blowing to. It 's sunny but there 's no wind, well the algae bloom will continue but since there 's no wind baitfish have to move up and down the lake to make their daily meal, there 's no point for bass to chase the baitfish, they just wait hidden in the shade for a scool of dumb baitfish to pass by. Fish from the bright side into the shady side of objects. How's the insect activity ? If you pay attention to the events that are taking place in the lake during the day you will find the fish, listen to what the lake is telling you.

Age is in the heart not in the hide; skin wrinkles, the heart doesn 't. Look at my signature.

Glenn is going to kill me for this one. : Texas rig: Step 1. Penetrate the head of your soft plastic lure with your hook tip Step 2. Pull the point of the hook through the bottom of your lure aproximately 1/4 inch below the head Step 3. Before turning the hook around and re-inserting it into the plastic, visually check to see where the penetration should occur Step 4. After re-inserting the tip of your hook into the lure your finished Texas rig should look something like this

Colors that always work: silver & black, gold & black, silver & blue, shad, firetiger, baby bass, crawfish.

The bead is a plastic or glass "pearl" that can be either smooth or faceted ( personal choice ), it goes between the sinker and the swivel to produce a clacking noise when the sinker moves towards the swivel when you jerk the line, also, it causes light reflection .

There 's no such thing as the "best" color. Silver for clear water; gold, copper, black, firetiger, hot orange for murky, colored or muddy water; which doesn 't mean that the selection is strictly like that. It 's the vibration what attracts the fish to the bait.

Rub them with steel wool, that eliminates the rust and doesn 't sand the chrome away.