UPSmallie

Good luck man. Just digging through your older lures you might find something special. Case in point last summer I threw all my proven baits and lures at one of my honey holes for 2 hours and nothing. Tied on one of those older vintage Little Cleos on that was 2 inches long that I had never fished before. First cast got me a 31 inch pike and 2nd cast resulted in a 15 inch smallmouth bass. It turned my day from a skunk into a heck of a fish fry. Sadly I misplaced the lure somewhere.

Sorry for the late reply. Was able to stay in the general area and see the sights, but never stayed in one place for too long so I wasn't able to hire a guide. Fished some of the local ponds though and had fun with that. A chartreuse chatterbait seemed to be the go-to lure for the bass on beds down there.

Not a big fan of country, but I do like listening to occasional rap/hip hop. You have been warned

Dead on. A pike caught in January is a completely different animal than a pike caught in August. I'll always bake my winter pike since they have amazing flavor, but in the summer I usually just give my pike away to kids or friends fishing in areas where they are plentiful.

@A-Jay http://www.fieldandstream.com/sportsmans-notebook-seagull-buoy-marker-decoy

Definitely some good advice. I've always had my best luck in pressured areas throwing baits that no one has thought of using or that the fish have never seen before. Relatively new lures always seem to do well the first few years they are in circulation before the fish start catching on. Good luck.

A cheap and simple method is to get a big hollow pen and buy a bunch of tiny black hair ties for about $1. Get a saw and cut off part of the pen down the middle so only the long hollow part remains. Next slide your senko as far as you can into the hollow empty portion of the pen you just opened up. Now slide one of the hair ties onto the pen and slide it from the pen onto the middle of the senko. Then just get a finesse hook and slide it underneath the hair tie so that it faces outwards. It's as easy as that.

Interesting thread. I'll be coming down to Phoenix for about a week and will also be looking to pick up a guide. I'm thinking about doing something involving fly fishing. If it works out I'll post my experience and how the guiding went. Best of luck.

Definitely can catch pike on topwaters like everyone has said. I've had my best pike topwater action shortly after the spawn. Coming out of the spawn the pike are still aggressive and are looking to bulk up since they will be hungry. Rattling topwater lures or anything with enough commotion will make them destroy your topwater presentations during this time. Caught my PB in my Avatar at 32 inches on a Heddon One Knocker Spook in Bone during the exact time-frame mentioned. Steamrolled the lure so hard that you can see the bite marks where he hit. Thankfully, he decided to take a chomp right where the treble hook was.

Thanks for posting this. I love it when I get a gut feeling! In more ways than just bass fishing has it panned out for me (as in other gamefish). Probably my favorite reoccurring gut feeling is when I pull up to a new spot and it is just glass with a nice wisp of fog coming off the water and a slight early morning chill in the air around me. The moment my topwater heaves forward off the back cast I just know what's going to happen. Nothing better than that. In those kinds of conditions it's just a given that something will happen. Gotta love it.

Just started filming with an older GoPro model this past summer. The biggest problem, at least for me is that the battery will die after about one hour of total filming. It's a fun challenge and if nothing else you can look back at some of your memorable catches and partially relive the moment. On a side note if you do end up getting a GoPro, I would recommend the Head Mount over the Chest. Seems I get more footage of my knees with the Chest. With the Head Mount you get a pretty good view of what's going on.

Reading through Field and Stream and found a nice write-up on bass fishing that I think applies to many, if not all of us. http://www.fieldandstream.com/confessions-bass-fisherman

This was more of a lack of common sense, but one time my cousin and I were fishing at my Uncle's lake in his johnboat with a trolling motor. Had done well on catching the bass along the weed edge, but decided we wanted to start fishing the other side of the lake not even a quarter of the mile away. Turned on the trolling motor and for whatever reason the propeller would barely spin. We were moving literally 1 inch forward per 5-7 seconds. Sat in the boat for about 35 minutes and had covered about 50 feet of water. Finally I looked down and somehow the boat's battery connection was loosened up. Screwed around with it and we then reached the other side of the lake in less than 2 minutes. Felt pretty dumb at the time, but pretty funny looking back.

Thanks for sharing. They look like Great Whites when they first break that surface!

Maybe not too contradictory to some but in the summer my rods never leave my car. It's a moving tackle box. Whenever I'm driving and I feel like bank fishing I never have to go home to pick up my gear.

In fishing, yes, falling barometric pressure and 'matching the hatch' are good things. If fishing for bass specifically, I don't think either of those variables has much significance on catching them compared to other gamefish species. I'm sure you can break it down into specific details, but if you're fishing for bass I don't think you have to worry about those things as much as you would normally.

Sounds good. Thanks

Very informative write-up. Well done. I fish mostly in an area where submerged weeds come to about 2 feet below the surface. Do you think this would still be ideal for the ned rig without getting caught up repeatedly? I'd like to start utilizing this method hopefully in the near future.

Not as impressive as everyone else's, but I once noodled a 12 lb Atlantic Salmon by grabbing onto its tail and hanging on for dear life. Granted it was in a 20 foot by 5 foot hatchery tub. The water was probably 4 feet though, and everyone else was taking them out with big dip nets

Usually anytime I get a good heave on a lure around an ounce or heavier. Sure feels great when it works.

Well done guys. For a change of pace, here's a screenshot from my GoPro on my local river. This was taken about 12 feet on the bottom. The current is pretty quick, hence why everything is so clear. If you look closely at the top you will notice that the 'sky' and the 'clouds' are actually just frozen ice. Kind of like an underwater desert.

Laughed pretty hard at this. Definitely true though. Michigan's State Record Smallmouth was after all caught on a nightcrawler. Not like it was in the 1920s either, this happened this past fall. To answer the op's question I've always gotten a bite on a texas-rigged senko. Mostly dinks, but still fun.

Thought these things were supposed to be rare, but maybe not. At least not where I've been fishing I guess. Short youtube video on the release for those interested

Awesome fish!

Just picked some up about a month ago for ice fishing and like them quite a bit. Attach a little cross snap on and tie directly to that. If you tie directly to the lure the line will get weak from the pulsing vibrations. Sometimes the hooks tangle, but if you drop it on a tight line or attach a swivel up above the line then you should be fine. Definitely has some awesome vibrations that will bring in the fish.