lectricbassman

Alberto works for me on mono or flouro

What part of the country are you in? I too was skunked today. My girls had worms on bobbers and i tried everything else. I went out again after sundown and managed one dink on a popper. It was a tough day for sure and like you i thought it should have been better!

I have also heard that bass do not eat frogs. Just curious has anyone caught a bass with a frog in its throat or stomach?

Weve had rain and cooler temps here in central ok for about a week. Went out last night and got skunked. Im going to say theres a good possibility they are shut down. The only way to find out is to try!

Bank fishing

Im in a different part of the country but zoom lizards worked well for me on these kinds of bass. T-rigged weightless or with small splitshot to speed up the fall a bit.

Welcome! I live in oklahoma city, its good to have another central ok fisher here!

I thought the same thing. My big fear is the leader breaking off. Im using 30lb powerpro with. 12lb seaguar red label to test the waters with a leader setup. So far its working far better than i had expected. Alberto knot is an awesome knot, its simple to tie and i have yet to see one fail. In fact i had to break off a lure yesterday, my knot at the lure snapped first and i was pulling so hard i was sure the leader knot would fail!

Lol, me either. Flops or tennis shoes or i dont need to be fising!!

This^

Read everything on this site, 2 or 3 times if youve got the time!

Thanks for the info. Especially the "buy the right stuff" part. Im guilty of piecing this rig together too and it never works for me. I know what im buying next...

One more thing, if you arent catching fish try something different even if youve had success with that lure or technique before. I got into a bad funk last year because i was stuck on buzzbaits. I still love fishing them but i realize theres a pretty small window of time in which they work.

Be patient and spend as much time on the water (on the shore of course) as you can! Watch lots of videos and read lots of articles in the mean time. Dont let the skunk get you down or play games with your head. Finding, fishing for, and catching bass is a skill that has to be developed and it just takes time. I was in the same position last year. One season on the water and i can tell a huge difference in my ability to catch fish.

I fish a lot heavily pressured waters, my hole is next to a business park and i am almost never alone on the water. Im most successful with finesse style baits in natural colors. Another thing i do is pick up trash as i go, this helps my reputation with the pond owners but it also serves another purpose. Alot of lures get left on the ground especially used plastics. I take note of the type and color of bait-and try to throw something completely different. Its a minor thing but i believe it has helped my fishing. Another tactic is to find older lures. Most white bucket brigaders go in to the big box stores and buy the latest and greatest. Nothing wrong with this but it means the fish see a lot of new stuff. Old lures caught fish then and they will now!

Alright thats my fault. Guess i should discuss the technique of shakey head fishing from the banks rather than posting pics of the results

I went out this afternoon and tried a shakey head for the first time. Ive always assumed it wasnt an effective shore technique but let me tell you it works! Im a believer as of today.

Lizard

Straight

Went out today and caught a few decent sized on a t-rigged zoom lizard. I noticed the hooks are setting low in the mouth, sideways, behind the tongue and into the 1st or 2nd gill and or gill plate. One fish im pretty will die, it bled quite a bit. The others were fine but im perplexed as to why the hooks are setting this way. Im using a 2/0 hook with a small 1/8 oz clamshell splitshot. I set the hook with a straight up hook sweep. So far ive had 3 fish hooked like this and cant figure it out. Anyone else have this issue or is it just the nature of the beast?

Make a cast or pull out about 75-100 ft of line. Take some tape and wrap it around your spool then reel the line back in over the tape. Now if you get a nasty backlash only part of your spool will be affected. The line under the tape stays in place. Using braid and this method i have never had to cut any line from backlashes, ive always been able to pick it out...eventually. As you get more confident you can move your tape deeper into the spool. I stilm have some in mine somewhere but but i havent seen it in a while. Good luck and just stay with it

My advice is to stick with it. I almost gave up on baicasters entirely but am glad i didnt. I love and prefer spinning reels but there are some things a baitcaster just does better. Practice practice practice. I too started with a black max combo. A lot of guys say mono to start but i found braid to be a lot more forgiving. Use mono backing and the tape method to minimize deep birdsnests in the spool and you should keep your braid expenses to a minimum

Interesting way of looking at it. I look at the the end product. I enjoy fishing as much as catching even if it costs an arm and a leg per fish!

30 is the biggest id go. I tried the 40 and the 35 and both were too big in my opinion. I got stuck in the mentality that bigger is better for bass fishing. Turns out the 30 is plenty big for any bass ive ever come across