michang5

Until last week, I've been a die-hard WEIGHTLESS wacky guy. I've refused to put a weight of any kind with a senko. And if I need extra weight on my finesse or trick worms, I've always switched to a drop shot. But a friend of mine started using these Cabelas wacky jigs. He needed a few more, I was going to Cabelas and I thought why not buy a pack (1/16oz) for myself. I caught a half dozen dinks my first time using them — with trick and finesse worms. Definitely made those two soft plastics easier to cast and fish, especially in a light wind. I didn't have any bites putting an o-ringed 5" senko on it, though. I still think adding weight isn't helping the senko, but maybe I'll change my mind if I catch something.

Started wacky rigging 5" senkos with o-rings and 2/0 Gamakatsu Weedless Wide Gap Finesse hooks. At some point this year, I thought they were too large and downsized to the 1/0 and Size 1. Around this time I started kayak fishing and was missing/losing fish. It was more likely my poor hooksets from a kayak were causing it rather than the hook size, but I started looking at other options. Settled on the 1/0 Owner Weedless Wacky hooks. With practice and these hooks, my hook-up ratios went up. Three weeks ago I went back to Cabelas and they were out is the weedless version, so I was forced to buy the standard 1/0 Owner Wacky hooks. Realized that I wasn't snagging any more or less than weedless. They cost less. And last Saturday I boated my #2 and #3 largest fish (6.25 and 6.0) with them. Went back to Cabelas yesterday and bought two more packs of the standard Owner hooks.

x2 Boga.

I went out on a kayak on Saturday. After wasting several hours trying something new, I switched to my confidence rig — a wacky senko. A few casts under a high tree limb, I feel a definitive thump. I reel down and set the hook within a second, which starts an epic 3+ minute fight. Drag is screaming. The fish jumps and then spins me around several times as it heads into the weeds and then out to open water and then back in again. It was the best and longest fight of my short fishing "career." I reach down to grab the fish and am shocked to see where the fish is hooked. It weighed 6.0 pounds on my Boga. That catch had every component of a good fishing story. I enjoyed the heck out of it. And 10 people on the shore stopped, watched and cheered as I brought the fish in. To me, it didn't matter if I had hooked it on the top or — or underneath — its mouth. I'm counting it!

My two most productive baits since I started fishing in July are the 5" senko and the Zoom finesse worm. I will throw both weightless wacky, but I will also throw the finesse worm on a drop shot (nose hooked or wacky). As it has gotten hotter in Central Texas and more subsurface grass has been growing. I've switched from the finesse worm to the trick worm (green pumpkin, green pumpkin magic or watermelon red flake). It's been my most productive bait the last month or so. While fishing from a kayak two weeks ago, I couldn't buy a bite skipping senkos under cover. But the drop-shot trick worm caught three. On Saturday, the DS trick worm wouldn't get a sniff, but I caught a 4.25, a 6.0 and a 6.25 in under 2 hours on a wacky 5" senko. I write all of this to say, all three have their place and the fish may bite any/all on any given day or hour. They should all be in your tackle bag.

http://www.ewg.org/2014sunscreen/ Great resource to find good sunscreen. Badger is usually the most readily available brand that passes EWG muster.

I've fished this very slow-moving river through the center of town dozens of times from the bank and a handful of times from a kayak. I recently bought the Navionics iPhone app and am finally able to see the contours and structure. I've watched several videos and read numerous articles, but I'm still unsure how I should approach the two obvious areas in the middle of this map. On the left side there is the trench (not sure of term) just outside the mouth of a shallow creek. On the right there is the ledge (note: I fish from that bank a ton and know there is an ever-denser grass flat that extends from the bank to the drop off). Question: What would you throw and in what order? If the list differs for the trench versus the ledge, would you please differentiate? - Carolina rig (your choice of plastic) - Rat-L-Trap - Shaky head with trick worm or baby brush hog - Drop shot (trick worm, finesse worm, or small fluke bait) - Texas rig. (your choice of plastic) *I'm sure there are a million other choices, but these are what I have in my tackle box. **I have considered that the grass bed should be the area to concentrate on, but I can fish that any day of the week from the bank. Thanks!

Good luck in your endeavors. Please report back when said fish is caught.

x3. I prefer wacky, but the few times I've Texas-rigged/Texposed senkos, I've used Parasite Clips. Order the small ones (I got mine from BPS).

I have the 2-piece St. Croix Premier spinning rod and love it. I briefly bought the Triumph 2-piece, but quickly exchanged it when Cabela's got restocked with the Premiers a day later. Better guides, made in the US, and I wanted the split grips that are exclusive to the Cabela's Premiers. I would expect the Avids to be even better.

I walked into my local store this morning, planning to buy two Rat-L-Trap in red craw. Then saw the clearance racks... And walked out of the store with... two Rat-L-Traps in red craw. Man, that was the hardest thing I've had to do in long time!

Watch the line. Getting high-viz yellow braid makes it easier. You might feel the tick/thump or might not, but you will usually see your line do something it's not supposed to.

Take it from someone like me who has an absolutely stupid thumb and has struggled with backlashes... Your line brand and diameter are fine. I've used 15# Invizx and am now using 12# Seaguar Red Label. If you're certain you spooled in the correct direction and with a fair amount of tension, then it's likely one of three things: 1) Are the baits/lure you're throwing too light? I seldom get backlashes throwing a 1/2oz Rat-L-Trap, C-rig (with 1/4oz or 1/2oz weight, bead, et al), or 5" senko. Anything lighter and I still backlash -- especially if it's windy. 2) Set spool tension and brakes tighter than you think. With my Tatula, I use the Glenn technique of backing off my brakes and adjusting tension until my lure just starts to fall. BUT THEN I TIGHTEN THE TENSION A HAIR OR TWO. The bait now doesn't fall until I really shake my rod tip. Then I set the brakes to half (10 out of 20 clicks on Tatula). You may not get full casting distance, but you should not backlash even if your lure travels max distance and hits with water without you thumbing the spool. You can then back off your brakes a bit and see if you can eke a bit more distance. 3) Your thumb may be dumb like mine. Someday I'll be able to pitch a short distance into cover and not backlash, but my thumb is currently too stupid. Maybe it's because I've only started fishing in July and got a baitcaster in November, but I just forget to thumb the spool consistently. I like fishing with my two spinning rods and only use my baitcaster for cranks and c-rig. It excels at those applications, so I been able to overcome my poor technique.

I think fishing with friends is a bit better -- bank or kayaks. We can cover more area and throw more baits at 'em. And then share when someone finds what's working. An interesting contrast happened two weeks ago when I organized a "Fishing Derby" between the three of us. Local pond that we've all bank fished before. $10 buy-in. Most bass (regardless of size) caught in three hours took the pot. I had an awful morning and was skunked. Both of my friends were catching them nearby, but we couldn't share our setups or patterns. Was super fun, but extremely frustrating to be on the (very) short end of the stick.

As it's gotten warmer in Central Texas and a LOT of grass has been growing, I've had better luck with Zoom trick worms fished on a drop-shot the same way as my post above. Between me and a buddy, it was the only rig that caught fish as we kayaked six hours on Saturday. And in 30 minutes this morning at my favorite bank spot, I got two bites, landing one. However, I must admit that I've been grabbing the larger trick worms before anything else the last week or two. So maybe I would catch just as many with the finesse. But why mess with something that's working, right?

For my drop-shot finesse worms, I use a Mustad size 2 or a Gamakatsu 1/0 drop-shot hook and a 1/8oz drop shot weight. I run the weight 8-24" below the hook, depending on depth and grass. I cast it out and wait a few seconds for it to reach bottom. Reel up much of the slack and slowly drag and/or twitch rod tip up from 10:00 to 11:00 or 12:00 and drop back down to 10:00. Reel up the little bit of new slack. Pause 1-3 seconds. Repeat. I fish this horizontal-retrieve drop shot mostly from the bank, but will also use it from a kayak/canoe. The deepest water I fish is 20'. Most pros and articles talk about using electronics and employing the drop shot directly over a school of fish in deep water. I've never done this since I don't own a boat or electronics.

A Zoom finesse worm is probably tied with senkos for my most productive bait. But I only wacky rig senkos, whereas I will throw a finesse worm wacky weightless or on a drop shot (either nose hooked or wacky).

I found BassEdge about 6 months ago and I've listened to just about every episode once (and a few multiple times). It's the best one I've found with lots of tips and info. In my opinion, *** is too much chatting up sponsors and products and too little on how to use them. And a lot of it is about tournament standing and results, which has no appeal to me when I'm listening to old episodes. Ultimate Bass Radio isn't my cup of tea. I've listened to six episodes and only a 15-minute interview on bed fishing with Shaw Grigsby was informative. Half of the 60+ minutes are ads. Most of the other 30 minutes are tournament standings about anglers I've never heard of and specifics on west-coast fishing. I respect each for putting the effort into the shows weekly or monthly. I understand that they are free and need ads to pay the bills. But I listen to them for the same reasons I come to these forums -- to learn how to catch more fish. And only BassEdge consistently provides that info.

Half of my biggest LMB (4.0 - 5.75#) have come around 3:30 PM CST. The other half and my 7.25# PB have come between 8:30 - 10:00 AM CST. I suspect these correlations are because I try to leave work early some days and fish around 3:00. And because I more often drop off my daughter at school and fish for an hour or so before I head to work. Oh, and I mostly fish from the bank. Feel free to disregard if my catches don't qualify as "big fish."

I primarily fish from the bank. I've probably caught the most fish with a wacky senko rig and a drop shot rig. I fish the drop shot horizontally -- cast it out, slowly drag/twitch back. My personal best 7.25# LMB was caught with a drop shot GYCB shad-shaped worm from the bank. Was dragging it across a grass bed with a long tag end between the hook and weight. I've honestly only ever caught one fish drop shotting vertically and that was from a canoe in about 20' of water next to a bridge piling. I've caught probably 50-75 fish fishing vertical. I typically fish the DS with nose-hooked finesse worms, trick worms, tiny flukes, roboworms, and other smaller baits.

You didn't mention what type of worm you were using, but I've had panfish just try to massacre a finesse worm, trick worm, shad-shaped worm or senko. I usually notice the line swimming away followed by a machine gun tap-tap-tap. I've also had small dink bass do the same (except without the multiple taps). Sometimes they can't get their mouth around the whole bait, but it's probably better that they aren't hooking up. Unless you're going after dinks.

Mine is a 7.25-pound bass caught on 4" GYCB shad-shaped worm. Biggest fish caught on the smallest bait I throw.

I have a headlamp that has a red light option. I've used that -- or no light -- the few times I've night bank fished. Will use the bright light when I need to retire or unhook the fish.

I have a small day/backpack that can hold one tall and one thin Plano box. I usually just bring the tall one that has my hooks, cranks, scissors, pliers, weights, etc. I clip on my hook remover and Boga. Separately I have two soft-sided lunchbags with my soft plastics and fluoro for leaders. If I'm hitting the bank for a long stretch of time, I'll grab the backpack and my main lunchbag of plastics. If I'm just going for an hour or so, I'll pull out 3-6 bags of the plastics that I know will work for the location and conditions. There are times that I'll get to the water (about a 5-10 min walk from where I park) and think, "Dang, I wish I brought that." But usually I'll only use 2 or 3 of the packs I brought anyway.

Same here. Tough year last year -- daughter was having problems in school, guy hit and totaled my car, two cats died, and my parents divorced after almost 50 years of marriage. Wife and I supported each other -- and our daughter. And fishing helped keep me sane. Things are much better in 2014. And my fishing has gone into full obsession mode.