gulfcaptain

I don't know if they learn but they can be conditioned to certain things. My fish in my fishtank are conditioned that every time my auto feeder kicks on they all swim to the corner where the food is. City park fish and well small lake fish around here are conditoned to the easy meal of rainbow trout that are dumped in. They camp out and wait for their free meal just as fish that are fed by feeders in ponds learn the feeders kick on and supply a free meal.

Fishing from the banks requires you to be aware of what is around you, in and out of the water. I attack the water as if I was in a boat, fish the small differences in the big picture. Yes that blind squirrel will find a nut eventually, but one that can see them finds a lot more. Catt, boat ramps and docks are great, but where I live they write tickets for fishing near them or on them. Almost found that out the hard way. Lucky for me a guy pulling his boat out let me know that if the lake management saw me fishing from the dock in the area that is out of bounds to fishing from the bank or boat that they will issue tickets.

You definately have to be able to read the fish as stated above. Each one is different. I'll know within 5 minutes if that fish is catchable just by it's actions. Fish you can barely see in deeper water are much easier and normally bigger, but not always. Sometimes smaller baits are better to use, other times larger baits. Step back next time you see one and watch the fish, see what it does, where it leaves the bed and where it returns from. All give clues and pieces of the puzzle, you just have to put them together.

Put a 6 or 8" swimbait in there.

They don't work at all. Don't mind the half dozen I have in my tackle bag or the one tied to my rod.

Don't run long leaders on micro's, especially heavier braid and FC/mono. And you have to check that tag on the connection and trim it as close as possible to not leave a tag otherwise it will always hang up on them. Go 9-10 wraps. But no problem, we can meet up and fish sometime.

: Hackney The delta's heavy cover sets up well for his style of fishing : Iaconelli Good tidal water fisherman : Velvick Great competitor in CA waters. :B Hite But I don't belong to a Fantasy Fishing group, those are my top picks and expect all to be in the top 10. Stated above. : Monroe Good in the delta as well, as long as he doesn't loose his cool and get off track. Those would be my pics.

We fish the same waters. 3ft is all you need of leader to braid. Are you using standard guides, micro, macro? You need to check your connection, if you have any tag end mono or FC it needs to be trimmed as close as possible to the knot. If not it will catch. Feel they can see the braid, get a black marker and color 6" sections to break up the visual on the first 4ft of braid closest to the connection. Don't want to carry extra line, leave it in the car in a shady cool area. My biggest fish this year came off straight braid tied to a jig. Only time I use any leader longer then 3ft is when I fish swimbaits and then it's about 10ft. You have any questions about where we fish hit me back with a PM.

I use a few different rods for jigs. #1 how heavy of jigs are you fishing? #2 What are you fishing them around (rock, timber, weeds) You can use braid, I use it on everything (mainly 30lb Suffix 832) with small topshot leaders. I fish 1/4-3/8oz jigs on a 7'MH Mod Fast action rod, and 3/8-1/2oz on a 7'MH F action rod. Two different rod manufactures. I normally fish swimjigs and football jigs around rock and scattered grass. Heavier cover then I opt to move to a 7'6"MH F action rod which I can fish jigs from 3/8-3/4oz.

I use the clips they come with unless they need to be swapped out. Spit rings would make it a bit more challenging to swap out baits and heads if needed.

What rig are you looking to throw and what size baits and heads are you wanting to fish? Smaller say flashmob jr rigs and 3-4" swimbaits with 1/8oz heads then a 7ft H will work. If you're looking to throw larger size with the larger 4" baits and say 1/4 to 1/2 oz then you may want to step it up to something that can handle about 2oz. I throw 2 different rods, one is a Green *** 7'7"MH. I throw larger rigs but with 1/8oz heads and 3 1/2-4" swing impacts as well as smaller 3" dummy baits (CA can only fish 3 hooks). I use this one when I want a bit stiffer rod for say hoping it off the bottom or slow rolling it. Then I also use a 7'6"MH BPS Crankin Stick (old model) when they are wanting to eat it on the straight retieve. I like the softer tip to keep them pinned and helps keep from pulling hooks since I prefer to use smaller 2/0-3/0 size ball style jigheads. Feel it give the bait a better action. You don't want something so stiff you pull hooks when you get bit, but something that gets overpowered by the rig.

Something in the range of 22-26 IPT. Find the reel you like with the IPT you're wanting to achieve.

The action or lets put it the taper of the rod being it an XF, yes the tip is softer then the rest of the rod. I'm not talking power. Just the taper. A heavy rod will be stiffer then a medium. But if the taper of both is XF, then the tip will be softer then the rest as the rod "shuts off" and flexes very little compaired to the taper of a fast, or moderate. My flipping rod is a H action, stiff yes, but under a load it's moderate taper is seen as it flexes almost down to the first guide as opposed to the fast taper of my medium power rod that shuts down above the second guide, but yet is flexes enough to fish cranks. Power has nothing to do with taper/action of the rod. So yes it was a blanket statement as to the action/taper of the rod. A heavy XF rod will still have a softer tip compared to the rest of the rod just like a XF medium action spinning rod used for dropshot fishing will. They will both flex and shut down the same way, just one is a lighter power then the other and hence one will be stiffer then the other just as my medium moderate rod flexes the same as my heavy moderate, but yet my heavy is stiffer, but they both have the same action in the taper of the rod.

Well let me know what your results are when you get a chance to fish them. I'm going to give it another run tomorrow and see what happens.

^^^^thats the one

That hit $50 min for free shipping or did you have a few other items in there too?

I can't find it, it was titled......Tell me about this "ned Rig". I tried to seach it and reply on that topic thread but couldn't find it. So I started this one.

Well then get some local businesses to sponsor your fishing team at school. This is an "in". Build a relationship with those businesses while in school. Keep them updated on what your team is doing, your results. Not sure where you're located, but talk to some local restaurants and see if you can do fundraisers for your team. But remember, keep them in the loop of what's going on with your team. Get them a plac or a team jersey. Local support can transfer and play a role once you are out of school since you have built those relationships.

Do you have a fishing team at your school?

Hey I just stated what my results for.....sounds like he needs to go to the Bait Monkey support thread and post his grievances. I only tried these due to the pics bluebasser86 posted.

Here is a link with some facts and a diagram about my statement that you seem to think isn't true. Well it won't let me add the diagram nor link it to the website. Look under TW and that section below. http://www.***.com/guides/rodselection.html

A 3/8 jig.

As leader, yes for certain applications. As a main line....NO! Tried it, didn't like it. Too stiff and gave me more problems then I have ever encountered before with either mono or braid. I have broken a few fish off on a hookset with FC, but believe the line had a kink or a bad spot in it I didn't catch. So anytime I'm using FC leader, I constantly check for any bad spots. And beware, a tungsten flipping weight will cause the FC to break at the knot so you need to make sure you protect it if you do use FC.

I just remembered one night a buddy and I went to fish a park after hours. (parks close at 10pm) and do some night fishing. We got out and these two other people (who also weren't supposed to be there) asked if we were fishing for ducks. I replied no, but I hear they taste a lot like chicken. She then told me she was going to call the police for being in the park after hours and fishing. Think she forgot she was in the park after hours herself doing something shady with a guy a lot younger then she was in their van. Love that dock story though....that was pretty funny right there.

That's why they call it fishing and not catching. Honestly muddy water can be tough and you had flooded brush. My advice would have been to fish tight to cover. But then if they released water, now you have possible falling conditions which would pull the fish off the bank. My best advice would have been to try and find cleaner water if possible and take each day as a learning experience, good or bad.