jomatty

i love to fish at night. fish may feed more during the day but they can be easier to catch at night. covers up an anglers mistakes ang God knows i make plenty. i must admit when i walk down to the ponds near my house it can be spooky though. ive had many a frog make me look like a fool and glad that no one could see me jump like a little school girl. also the point about hook sets is a good one, it is hard enough to dodge a missile like buzzbait during the day, and much harder at night so you better plan ahead. it is easy to get amped up and set the hook when you hear the explosion and not when you feel the weight. when my 4 year old son comes with me i make him wear safety goggles, and if i was smarter i would do the same. best baits for me have been buzzbaits, bulky jigs with bulky trailers, and spinnerbaits (single colorado in most cases). night is also the only time i have any luck with a chatterbait. one last technique is swimming a ten inch worm. it was passed on to me by former member ouichitabass...and anyways i rig it with a small splitshot and fish it along the surface. i can also slow down and work it like a texas rig. oh yeah c rigged 10 inch worms can be great too. oh yeah, like LBH said pretty much everything that can works at day can work at night.

ive never gone in the water from a boat but have gone in from the shore many times. one time was similar to what lbh talked about. i was at a pond and the fish wrapped me up in a bunch of sticks (kinda sparse for me to call it a brushpile). one of those freak breaks do to some sort of a kink in my line right on top of the reel as i was essentially trying to break the line and start over. so the line is laying there and i can still feel the fish struggling. kinda felt bad but this pond was pretty funky. anyways i go back to fishing but am still feeling bad about it and when i check back it is still there and struggling so in i go, into the filth, and i free the fish, and get my jig back. the other time was earlier this year at lake orange. i was walking on top of the dam and i had seen two snakes in the grass and underbrush. it was like snake heaven and i remember thinking, no way im going down in that crap! i caught a few small fish and had no trouble swinging them up and they got the ole long toss catch and release method. then i hook into a pretty good one (actually turned out to be only around 3 lbs) and before i know it im a the shore right in the middle of all this stuff i just had decided im not going anywhere near

cloudy days with the chance of rain later is primo fishing time if you ask me. go to some darker shades of plastic and try to get em going on some things like a spinnerbait or lipless crank, because they often wont be buried up in cover like they do in the sun. topwater is great anytime there is cloudcover (assuming appropriate season) and i would definitely try a topwater both before during and after the storm. basically anytime it is warm enough and there is cloudcover im gonna give the topwater bite a chance. if you like pitchin and flippin heavy cover i can see not liking the clouds but for me cloudcover is always a good thing.

man avid i hear that! i fish a lot of senkos and other relatively slow moving baits but sometimes the only way i can truly slow down as some people consider it is the ole forced time out cause i managed to backlash a cast. too funny and too true. matt

one observation i have is that i can not catch any fish on the chatterbait. it is my may challenge so ill keep working on it but ill be catching fish on both a spinnerbait, jig, swimming jig, and crank and nothing on a chatterbait. ive seen a number of fish just high tail it out of there like someone had released a great white into the lake and it was coming after them. the only time ive had any success has been at night. matt

i used their creature bait and lizards when they first came out and was satisfied. the bait shop i frequent stopped carrying them and i found other products i like just as well and never took the time to track them down again. they are nice soft stinky baits though.

i think the flukes can be fished a number of ways. probally my fav is an unerwater walking action which may be what another poster was refering to as rhythm. rolo makes a good point about dying minnows not being rhythmic but my most succesful walking action for surface or subsurface is very rhythmic. i use either a 4/0 or 5/0 hook for this and prefer the owner wide gap plus as they are slightly heavier than most of the other high quality hooks. this helps me keep them down. i spend more time getting a fluke rigger straight than just about any other bait. having it rigged perfectly straight really helps it "walk"

thanks guys, one other thing ill mention is that i would like to start with something i can throw on my heavy 7'0 flipping stick, with a low profile baitcaster. i have no doubt ill eventually get a swimbait set up but that is not gonna happen for awhile. those japenese baits that raul posted look like good options and seem to be in the price range im looking for. matt

reading that article about the guy who got caught cheating in poplar bluffs made me really start thinking about how much this goes on. i mean there are unethical people everywhere and it seems like a lot of them would want the quick bucks and attention that winning a fishing tournament would bring. at smaller tournaments this seems very difficult to defend against. it is hard to believe that someone could live with themselves if they did this sort of thing but we all know that there are plenty of people who seem to have no conscious. how often do you think this sort of thing goes on? matt

im just starting to get into swimbaits and the variety is somewhat overwhelming. im hoping some of you guys who are experienced swimbaiters may be able to make some suggestions. i live in central virginia and do not fish many big bass waters. a 5 lber is considered a very very good fish where i fish the majority of the time. the predominant forage is shad and bluegill. ive had great success with the lake fork swimbaits although they catch A LOT of small fish. the mattlures bluegill is definitely one ill be getting and i am also looking forward to the release of his shad bait. the baby e looks good, as does the ABT or strike king king shad. i like these baits because although they should appeal to larger fish they should also catch the 3 lbers that are considered good fish where i fish. i would love to get a hudd or a hardbait like possibly the spro bbz but am not sure how productive they would be in the waters i fish, and also not sure i have the patience to fish them like for as long without a bite as it would inevitably take, especially where i fish. one last question, if you were going to buy only one hardbait would you choose the slow sink? this seems like what i should get and there is no way im going to buy 3 baits right off the bat, especially as expensive as they are. so any bait suggestions would be appreciated, matt

yeah but you have to understand that bear always has a safety boat. he has a friggin full camera crew following him so he can be more adventurous because there is someone to drag him out and call in the reinforcements if he gets into real trouble. les, aside from the ocean episode, is on his own and if he snaps an ankle or something is in real trouble. dont get me wrong i love both shows but you cant really say that bear is tougher because he dosent have a safety boat as when it comes to actual risk les is much more exposed imo. and whats with bear and waterfalls? lol he climbs down one like every episode. now i understand it makes great television but if im lost in the woods, and if i break a leg im dead, im gonna try to avoid climbing down slippery waterfalls. anyways, these two shows are my 4 year old son and I's favorite on tv. he absolutely loves both of them and we watch them regularly. we make a game out of different scenarios and he is pretty well versed in survival at 4 years old. we do it almost entirely for fun, but you never know at some point it may come in handy. we have made a few different shelters in the woods and he always enjoys it. one we even made rope to secure it and it lasted all winter and is still standing made out of nothing but what we could find. man, no wonder i dont accoplish that much as far as work goes, im out in the woods making braided rope from tree bark for the love of God. \ ahh well any time with my son is time well spent, matt

rec makes an excellent point and i certainly subscribe to what he says. if i ever pull my gun i am prepared to use it but would still prefer that it is enough of a deterrant that i dont have to do so. if forced to protect myself or my family i certainly will but God willing i will never have to use the gun on another person. there are situations where i dont know what would have happened but i know that i was glad to have a gun and that "accidentally" exposing it at some point very likely helped end a potentially dangerous situation before it escalated. and like rec said if someone wants to leave for gods sake let them. im not gonna try to make a citizens arrest and put someone, even someone who meant me harm, in a spot where he feels the need to panic.

no i did not make that term up. and what i do is probably what others are calling tex-skin hooking although i believe they are the same thing as i dont think the actual hook is exposed in a tex-posed rig. matt

i wouldnt like it but i dont think there was really any decision to make. i think you had no choice but to throw it back. it is unfortunate that some places have to have rules like this but the problems with any exceptions to catch and release would obviously be exploited by those that are unethical so i see why it is that way.

i started carrying at a number of places that i fish, hike, and camp. when i started bringing my 4 year old son with me i found myself in a few situations where i felt uncomforatable. if i was by myself i probably wouldnt have been worried but when you run into some sketchy drunk folks in the woods it makes you ask yourself "could i take care of myself and my son if i had too" and the answer was probally not if they had a weapon or if there was more than one person. i know that im a lot more comforatable with a glock .40 on my hip. and when we are camping i sleep that much better. this makes it well worth it for me. matt

im always surprised by how big they are. maybe im just pessamistic by nature and so i estimate cautiously.

Raul, how do you like them?

1/2 oz jig. i can fish shallow and deep and all parts of water column.

walking a frog is not that easy and takes some practice to get the hang of it. it is not like a spook or sammie that is very easy to walk. the technique however is the same you will just need to work it a little more aggressively in my experience. shorten the legs and concnetrate on the rod tip and you can get them to walk well and it can be deadly. matt

has anyone thrown these swimbaits yet?looks like between the king and king kong shad that they range from 4 to 8 inches and from what ive seen they look good. saw a show where KVD was throwing one and it looked like it had really good action. these seem like they may be a reasonably priced hardbodied swimbait, and also seem like they offer some sizes that would work well for those of us that fish waters where monster fish are not that common. has anyone had a chance to try them yet? matt

that is some sick action. most impressive to me was the walking action on the bottom. really looks like something crawling along. matt

i think it looks great. i saw a picture of a similarly designed hollow bodied frog that had the spinner but also the spinner could be removed and you could add legs. that one was weedless. i think those that dont like it because it is not weedless are confusing it with the frogs they are used to using. this clearly is not meant for traditional frogging situations. its too steep for me but i do think it looks interesting. matt

how many of you guys leave the hook point buried in the middle of the plastic and how many tex-pose it? i almost always tex-pose it and im just curious if most people are doing the same when they refer to a Texas Rig.

yeah big turtles can move surprisingly fast. i caught a monster using a horny toad last year. scared the crap out of me when i saw this huge head come out. did you get your zell pop back? i dont like to get my fingers too close to big snappers lol

man that sucks!! it also sucks that people dont seem willing to let a fellow member vent without breaking his balls. anyways i can totally see how that happened with your rod. ive done the same thing before and it sucks. most people would learn their lesson but i still find myself setting stuff down and walking away. hopefully you, unlike me, will be smarter and learn from this. matt