RSM789

I thought I was the last person left who likes non-cork pistol grip casting rods, apparently I am not. I find them much easier to use with lighter baits and back-handed casts. They are not the best for every situation, but I believe they definitely have their place.

Similar thing happened to me yesterday. Mid-day, sunny, could see the bottom to about 4 feet. I was in 7 feet of water casting a small swimbait perpendicular to the front of the boat and there was a dock 20 feet directly off my starboard side. I had already made a few casts to the dock with a wacky rigged worm with no success and was now passing it. As the swimbait came into view, maybe 10 feet off the front of my boat, I catch a flash out of the corner of my eye from the boat dock. A small bass comes charging from the dock, maybe 2 feet under the surface and just hammers the swimbait. He had to have swam 25 to 30 feet to get to it and was not in the least bit concerned with my boat. I can't believe he saw the bait from that distance, it had to be the vibrations that he keyed in on initially until he got within 5 or 6 feet of it. As an aside, I caught more fish yesterday on plastics than on the swimbait, including the largest 5. This fish ignored the slow moving bait dropped close to him and chose to chase down the moving bait that was further away. I guess this showed me there may always be some fish that are keyed in certain baits who will ignore offerings that other fish are biting. Gives hope to all the anglers in the back seat...

I had a situation today that I think most of you may have experienced. I hooked a fish today on a wacky rigged Senko and as I was fighting him, another fish took a couple of shots at the worm that had slid up the line. What really made it interesting was as the 12" fish neared the boat, another fish twice his length appeared below him. This third bass was big enough that I wasn't sure if she was stalking the worm up the line or the bass that was hooked. As I lipped the hooked fish, the larger fish moved right underneath him, maybe 16" under the water. She stayed there as I unhooked & released the initial fish and then sank out of sight as I quickly rerigged the Senko & dropped it overboard. Unlike the tournament angler who recently continued to play a crankbait caught fish in order to hook a tagalong fish, the single hook I was using prevented me from getting a double. Afterwards, I wondered if grabbing another rig while the first fish was still hooked would have been an option. I had a Ned rig set up, I could have put the first pole between my legs & dropped the little bait in front of the monster lurking below. Landing both would have been a Chinese fire drill, but worth it. Now I know you couldn't do this in a tournament and in some states there are regulations about the number of rods a fisherman can be using at once. That aside, in a fun fishing, catch & release situation, has anyone else ever tried this?

Bass fishing awareness in Orange County is low among the general population, even with those who live on a lake. Given most folks here view the lake as a decorative water feature and that fishing is what people do in the ocean, here are some of the questions & comments I hear the most: "Is that a trout?" "Is that a catfish?" "You will catch more fish if you use hotdogs instead of lures". "Do they stock this lake?" "Throw over here, I saw a huge fish there yesterday". Most folks are just being friendly & striking up a conversation, so I keep my answers simple. I could tell them I'm fishing for Steelhead & they wouldn't know the difference. What is fun is while we are chatting (me in my boat, they on their dock), I'll casually skip a lure under their dock. The look on their face of "What the...?" is great, even better if I then wrestle a fish out from under their feet.

I am not sure that bass "know" anything, for it is arguable that their behavior is driven by instinct. For heavens sake, they will eat a turtle shell and all - what sentient being would willingly submit themselves to that gastronomical nightmare (besides some people I know)??

I've thrown jerkbaits into timber before, however the aforementioned tree was up on shore and was not my intended target... If I recall correctly, I believe guys were running jerkbaits down into the submerged treetops of Table Rock Lake last year in the Elite event won by Mike McClelland.

That was what got me, you go through that whole episode and then the ants start up on you. I'm surprised the boaters weren't hit by lightning or a rogue wave on the way in...

Fish or locals?

What I found ironic about her attack on the woman working behind the counter was when McHenry talked about her "skill set". Apparently Britt doesn't realize that her "skill set" consists of blond hair, nice teeth & two other things. It isn't a skill set when a surgeon can give it to you...

Britt McHenry used to post here, but got banned when she went off on a couple of other members...

All I want to know is who asked you this question and did they have a hidden camera?

What part of the body is the "thy"? Maybe the shot to the head did more damage than was initially thought...

My comedy of errors deserves to be laughed at. Luckily the rig I tossed overboard was an older one, reel was showing its age & I used electrical tape on the reel seat to stop it from moving. I was planning on getting a new setup for wacky rigging & skipping baits, this just accelerated the timetable. I just can't figure out why i was so obsessed in trying to recover a setup that old? Maybe I am much cheaper than I realize...

Since you are analytical, I think it is good for you to look at the ROI of fishing. However, I think you may have chosen the wrong metric to measure it by. For most of us, fishing is a hobby, which by definition is a pleasurable activity one does in their spare time. Therefore, rather than dividing the number of fish caught per dollar spent, i would suggest dividing the number of hours involved per dollar spent. Include all aspects of the hobby (tinkering with gear, time spent shopping for new equipment, watching MLF, etc) and come up with the total number of hours you spend on your hobby. Once you divide it by the dollars spent, you get a per hour cost of your hobby, which will allow you to compare it against other hobbies such as golf, chasing women, collecting stamps, whatever. I think fishing may fall somewhere in the middle, not because it is cheap, but because it can consume so much time.

Just about as I was ready to confirm your idiot status, I remembered last Saturday. Out at daybreak, going to start off with a Zara Spook, but decide to first fire a cast out into open water as far as I can to relax the monofilament on that reel. So I make this awkward cast across the boat, hook my wacky rig rod/reel and fling it into 10 feet deep water. It quickly sinks to the bottom, & I make a few unsuccessful passes over it with an umbrella rig trying to snag it. Since it is daybreak & I don't want to miss any fishing time, I note the location & start fishing, planning on swinging back by later to try to snag it. However, the entire morning, all I can think about is that pole on the bottom. It had a senko rigged up on it, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a bass or catfish grabbing the bait and then dragging the setup who knows where. So after torturing myself for about an hour (and only catching a big bluegill who believed he could swallow a spook), I go back. I tie on a deep diving crankbait, make a few casts and snag into something unmovable. Oh crap, I suddenly realized that this is right next to a spot where I had planted a couple of Christmas trees last year. Pop goes the line, down 1 crankbait. Next up is a Carolina rig with a big treble hook on the back. Also sacrificed to the brush pile. I try another deep diving crankbait, this time an old beat up lure that I never use. Brush pile claims another victim. Fine Mr. Brushpile, I get it, you have eaten my wacky rig setup and am not getting it back. I have thrown enough good money after bad, no more. Except all day long as I fish, it continues to bug me. I miss about 10 hook sets because I am thinking about how to retrieve the rod instead of paying attention to what I am doing. So I double back, make one last pass with a football jig with no weed guard. Immediately sacrificed to the brush pile. Okay, Okay, you win. So after that debacle, I would say that you are actually a highly intelligent gentleman.

One time I had a bad hookset when I failed to notice the bass moving towards me as I reeled down. I didn't know if I stuck the fish at all, so I reeled like crazy to take up the slack of the fish swimming towards me in order to get another (better) hookset in. Just as I reared back the second time, the smallish bass cleared the water completely with a jump. The second attempt at a hookset did nothing more than make the poor fish skip twice across the surface of the water & then slam headfirst into the side of the boat. I don't know if I ever apologized more to a fish than that one.

I believe that is either a Hula Popper or a broken tail Rapala.

That guy was way out of line by saying people with tattoo's shouldn't be allowed to fish, when the truth is you should be allowed to fish, but just not allowed to post on this forum... (Dear J Francho, that was a joke). When I encounter people like that, the rational portion of my brain says to walk away. Unfortunately, that is often over ruled by the smart-aleck portion of my brain, who quickly finds ways to insult said idiot. I have a quick wit, an even faster mouth and the willingness to go for the jugular when verbally jousting with others. However, I found that if I say it with a big ol' goofy smile and laugh "with them", not at them, and don't challenge their masculinity, it kind of breaks the tension and they back off. I told a fat guy once who dared me to throw a punch at him "Sorry, I am not in your weight class, the WBC won't sanction it" and he started cracking up. Make them feel guilty. Tell them the tattoo's are there to cover up the scars you have from when you ran into a burning convent to save a flock of nuns. Sister Bertrille's habit caught on fire as you carried her to safety, searing 85% of your body. The more ridiculous the story, the more dumbfounded they become.

Sometimes I will find that one of my tools is missing, go on a rant about others in the household not being responsible enough to put things back after using them & then find said tool exactly where I left it...

My 3 largest fish have all come in the fall or late summer - September, October & early November. The most fish in a day was prespawn, mostly males but did include a 5 lb. female who was inching her way shallow. Whether it matters or not, the least amount of boat traffic and nearly zero fishing pressure on my lake happens following labor day. Spring & Summer brings the pleasure boaters out in droves, college & pro football keeps them inside.

The tournament rule is that you can't make another cast with more than 5 fish in the boat, not that you can't have more than 5 fish in the boat. So if you have a limit in the livewell, bring a double on board, have 3 other fish jump into the boat chasing the first two & then have a nearby twister pick up 11 more bass and drop them into the boat, you haven't incured a penalty even though there are now 21 fish flopping all over your deck & in your livewell. Just pick your favorite 5, shove all the rest overboard before you cast again & all's well.

For the past 2 weeks, Blutarsky has shown no interest in eating night crawlers. In the past, he would follow my hand as I tossed them in the pond & engulf them as they hit the surface. Since the start of April, he either ignores them or will inhale & then spit them out. I thought this may be due to a spawning instinct until my wife tossed a few pieces of bread in for the koi. Blutarsky quickly went over & ate the bread. So I then picked up a dozen feeder goldfish and sure enough, once I put them in the pond, the feast was on. Blutarsky chased those goldfish all over the pond, hammering each one A few days later, I tossed him some night crawlers & he again ignored them. Now ironically, during the same stretch of time, the bite in the lake he came out of has been on fish type lures instead of plastic worms, jigs or Senkos. On a lake where typically plastics account for 70% of the fish caught, only crankbaits, topwaters & swimbaits are producing. This follows a similar pattern from last year. Any chance that Blutarskys genetics are to key on baitfish & fry for a few weeks this time of year instead of being an opportunistic predator?

My concern is always for the knot, they do seem to get beat up going through the guides after a while. Would super glue or something similar help to minimize the fraying of the connection knot?

Any chance that bass was caught in Colorado or Washington? If so, it may be a subspecies known as the "Pothead Bass". They are fond of Doritos.

The line is "I once shot a zebra wearing my pajama's". That way the punchline "How that zebra got into my pajama's, I'll never know" makes sense.