Raul

It 's conforting to know that there 's another "Tackle Enthusiast" aboard. ;D

Too bad that Cal and JapanReels aren 't here, then our buddies would know the true meanning of the words "Tackle Enthusiast". ;D Something that has bugged me for a while is how the bug bit me ? ???

Plastic. Not that pork isn 't good, on the contrary, the problem with pork is that it dries out very fast in hot climates like here and no matter how good it is, I 'm not going to baby sit a pork trailer all day long. >

Im so Yankee all i use is spinning gear Nobody 's perfect. ;D ;D ;D

Weeeeeeelllll, I wasn 't going to mention micromunch specifically but our buddy EW pours beautiful baits.

No sir they are not smarter, lures are an example of that, the jitterbug, the spook, the rapala original minnow, the bayou boogie ( to mention a few ) are still here decades after being developed and they still catch fish like they did back then this means that fish aren 't smarter, what happens is that the ammount of anglers has increased dramatically so fish are exposed with more frequency to many types of baits throughout a day, just imagine how many times in a weekend a bass sees a senko, what makes the difference is you, it is you who creates the magic, the lure is just a tool.

Gimme tough huizache brush and mesquite trees ( Rebbasser knows what I 'm talking about ), 30 pound test Trilene Big Game line, a MH rod and a lure retriever and I 'm a happy camper. I just love to fish in snag paradise with my cranks.

How bold and brave are you ?.....CRRRRRRRRRRRANKBAITS ;D, besides plastic worms, jigs, spinnerbaits.

All baits ( cranks, worms, grubs, spinnerbaits, etc. ) work, really the limitations depend greatly on how deep the river, creek or stream is, select your baits according to that. Use the current in your favor, many times overhanging brush along the banks is the only cover that offers shade and shade is always a place where fish hang out, cast above and ahead the shaded area and let the current drift your baits below the shade. Mimic the base forage, fish in small rivers and streams feed heavily on terrestrian insects washed from the land so cricket and grashopper like crankbaits are a good choice, frog crankbaits are a good option too, minnow type baits in medium size are also good options. Cast upstream and retrieve downstream that will give your baits a natural presentation, what you should always have in mind is the current, the faster it is the less time your bait will be on the water, it 's not as bad as you think, fast current means that fish don 't have much time to inspect the bait and are more eager to strike it. Where a river and a tributary meet it 's always a good place. RW is very much more qualified than me to comment on fishing in current because he does it all the time, maybe he can step in and give us his opinions on the subject.

There are very few and priviledged places that have a small population of smallmouths in Mexico, all af them are located in Chihuahua and Durango and are pay-to-fish privately owned lakes. In the rest of the country we 're not going to see that, the question with Mexican waters is that the only service that stocks fish is a government agency called SAGARPA, the reasons why they don 't stock them are quite complicated to explain to someone not familiarized on how things work in this country, but SAGARPA is the only one who can stock fish in the waters legally and all fish stocked has to comply with a series of very complicated paperwork and studies. Besides that, bass of any species is considered to be a nuisance by the biologists of the agency, they call them "the aquaculture of luxury", they produce and stock largemouths because it 's a native, but they do it in limited numbers and very limited aquaculture facilities. It 's a very complicated social issue.

A "break" in the current is caused by any object that obstructs and redirects the water flow, rocks, boulders, downed trees, bridge bases are good examples, they block the normal flow and redirect the current. Fish in rivers and streams hang around behind the obstruction ( they have to spend less energy ) waiting for whatever food the current brings with it, if the river isn 't deep you can actually see the obstruction of the effects the obstruction is causing, you can see areas where swirls form, those swirls are formed to the sides of the obstruction because when the current hits it the water is redirected to the sides increasing it 's speed so you get a contrary effect behind the obstruction. The idea of fishing in the current is to cast your offerings upstream and retrieve them following the flow ( downstream ).

I can trade a 10 ponder LMB for a 6 pound Smalljaw, man I would love to put my hands on one of those.

There are guys who pour senko type baits but the gooduns never place them in e-bay, some of the pours are as good as or even better than the originals.

Hey man, count me in for some "pond scouting", few things can make my blood boil but discovering an "unopened treasure" is one of them. ;D

Gee Craig I wish I could help you more with your baits n 'techiques to apply them to them Minnesota conditions but I can 't add more, here we only have two seasons: night and day; the only ice fishing I have ever practiced is fishing for ice cubes in the cooler. : . Can 't you just move south ? .

LOL, weeeeeelllll that 's what 20 years of tackle junkiness and hundreds of dollars can do, not a pretty sight though........I could have a better boat instead. ....... but I don 't need a better boat. I forgot to add my first reel, it 's an older than dirt Shakespeare spinning reel that my dad bought me when I was 9 years old, don 't ask me what model it is because I don 't have the slightest idea. ???

2 AbuGarcia Ambassadeur 521 XLT Plus 1 AbuGarcia Ambassadeur XLT plus Scynchro 1 AbuGarcia Ambassadeur Black Max 1 AbuGarcia Ultracast 2 Shimano Solstace SO2500RH 2 Shimano Symetre SY2000RH 2 Shimano Stradic ST2500FH 1 Shimano Curado 200 1 Shimano Curado 200SF 2 Shimano Chronarch SF 1 Shimano Scorpion 1000 1 Daiwa TDX Air Metal 2 Daiwa TDZ103M Oh WOW, I have a bunch of reels n 'rods ! ;D

BD heaven is on this side of the border. ;D Most big fish here are caught with worms, jigs and jerkbaits, swimbaits work but not many fish with them, the reason is pretty simple, huizache brush, man that thing is really tough, it uses braided line as dental floss just to keep it 's teeth clean and sharp, since swimbaits have dangling hooks they hang up very fast. I never said that you can 't catch big fish with a fast moving bait it 's just that they lack of enough consistency to catch big fish and it 's not me saying it, some years ago I saw a statistic chart on which baits are more productive with big fish, don 't ask me where I saw it because I can 't remember, but statistically plastic worms and jig n 'trailer are the number one and number two baits, followed by jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits fall in the last place, personally I don 't consider spinnerbaits for big fish fishing for a reason, the biggest fish I 've caught with a spinnerbait has been a 9 pounder in a farm pond, in the lakes the biggest fish I 've caught with spinnerbaits is a 7 pounder, however in the same lake I 've caught 10+ pounders with the baits I mentioned.

Deep and extra deep running crankbaits casted parallel to the bank to catch the agressive fish first, jigs ( 1/4 -1/2 oz ) with a big trailer ( preferably a craw or a frog with curved legs ) to slow them down, plastic worms C-rigged casting also parallel to the bank slowly crawled along the bottom, in a lake like that there 's huge ammount of structure in deep water not far from the bank, rocky bottoms help a lot ( even tough it can be costly on sinkers and lost baits ) because fish hit the bait after the sinker has settled on the bottom after falling from athe rock and the worm is left floating above and behind. In a lake like that in a sunny day your best bet is casting on the shady side, even though cover is available it provides little shade.

Your lakes must look pretty much like this Bassin: In this pic, taken about a month and half ago the level of the lake was 15 ft below maximum pool, I went there 2 weeks ago and the water dropped another 9 ft, that means 24 ft below maximum pool and it 's going to drop until it begins to rain again, but in that cove the depth is 45 ft at max pool, we caught a bunch of fish when the pic was taken and we caught a bunch of fish two weeks ago in the same place. The catch is to fish the same structure, in this case, where two different types of strucure meet. If you look at the pic closely you will see to the right a vertical solid rock wall, a little bit before it you will see a landslide of broken rock and huge boulders, since at maximum and minimum pool the structure is the same that 's a good place to cast a line. Look at the pic and you will see lots of similar places.

It 's because you 're not used to fish deep reservoirs Mudpuppy, from all the lakes near my home town there 's only one "shallow" lake that I fish, the rest are deep lakes with steep sloping banks ( over 45° slope ) that 's why a rise of 25 ft in level doesn 't really mean much, all you need is to move a little closer to the bank which in those lakes isn 't also much, maybe 6-10 ft closer to the bank, the fish will continue to be pretty much holding to the same structure, only at a higher level because the water level has risen so if you fish the area that has always produced fish for you the only thing you should do is to move a little bit closer to the bank when the level rises and that 's it.

You guys south of here have to have even bigger bass too!!!! Dunno, what do you think ? ;D ;D ;D

Fish where you have always caught fish, maximum pool means little in those deep reservoirs.

90 % of my biggest bass were caught in pretty much the same conditions RW described ( and I 've caught a bunch of them ), in the middle of the day between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM, in cloudless days, during March and April with temps well above 80° ( the normal temperatures for spring down here in central Mexico ), most fish were caught in "transition" points, in the very common deep lakes where I fish ( RW has seen an example of what I 'm talking about , pretty much like Californian lakes ) those transition points are always deep and the transition is created by two or more different types of structure composition, in the other case, the shallow ponds and lakes ( not many in my neck of the woods ) where the transition point is created when two different types of cover meet ( weeds and trees or two different type of weeds ). One thing that all fish have in common is that none of them have been caught with fast moving baits.

Time to unpack your flukes and shad assasins.