IndianaFinesse

I would be stocking up on lead right now just in case, but luckily someone gave me about ten pounds of it last year, so i'm set for the next twenty years.

I think he's trying to say that there are so many different facets of "color", it is more than just the difference between say black and green pumpkin, that it is impossible to measure and test each facet of color. Size is likely more important than color, but I think we tend to over complicate lure selection. Bass just aren't as smart as we sometimes give them credit for. Fishing is more trying to use something that kinda looks like the real thing, and putting it in the correct place at the correct time. Why else would a bass eat a pink trick worm? Nothing in nature looks like that, or many of the other lures we use. And yet the bass still eat them. Depth, speed, and location are the big three factors in my opinion.

Try heating the lead up hotter, sometimes when I get impatient and pour the lead into the mold as soon as it melts, the hook moves around in the lead or is in incomplete jig head. And also make sure the lead is going directly into the mold hole, if the lead first touches the rim of the mold it will cool down enough to result in an incomplete pour. And don't slow down pouring the lead in once you start, if you do the lead will cool down enough to result in an incomplete pour also.

The Ned rig or the 2.5 inch yum crawbug are my two favorite bed fishing baits, but I also use jigs, lizards, etc. Fish them very slow, and keep it on the nest as long as possible. They really like/hate it when its deadsticked for a few seconds, then lightly shaken. Every bed has a sweet spot, the spot on the bed where the majority of the eggs are. Try to find it, if anything touches that spot the bass will likely pick the bait up. And keep changing lures, I bring every rod I own while bed fishing and will only give each lure a cast or two before setting it down and trying another unless the bass shows interest in it. Every bass has a certain 'personality', you have to learn what makes each individual bass mad and repeatedly make it mad until it picks the offending lure off its bed to remove it. A big part of bed fishing is learning bass behavior, or how to interpret their body language. An example of this is that when a bass starts moving it's pectoral fins rapidly while tilting it's head downward, it means the bass is highly agitated and will likely pick the lure up.

Popping frogs don't skip as well as standard shaped frogs, the cupped face tends to dig into the water the way your describing. I would try skipping a standard frog before giving up on them, iis a very productive technique.

"Do whatever you want" always means everything but that.

I only buy rods and reels when they're on sale, that limits my choices somewhat but I can afford much higher end stuff that way. It's easy find stuff on sale for at least 50% off with just a little patience. That being said I do prefer St. Croix rods, pfluegar spinning reels, and either daiwa or shimano casting reels.

Mostly pad crashers, but occasionally a live target frog to. I honestly haven't tried a frog that doesn't skip well, so the problem is probably either the rod/reel your using or how you cast. It's helpful to use a lighter rod than would used for frog fishing in the slop, because the tip loads better giving it more speed.

This was one of my most productive techniques last summer, not having to worry about snagging the frog in whatever is underneath the dock is a huge plus. Nothing like skipping a frog way up underneath a dock, and hearing an unseen explosion before setting the hook on a big bass.

Hopefully our new president will cut back on some of the gun laws, but I don't know if he has much for jurisdiction over the states when it comes to guns or not.

You would think marketers could come up with some better story than working on a college project, it seems threads like this (all started by "college students") are popping up every other week now.

Never had wisdom teath removed or went rock climbing to get to a fishing spot, but I've done some crazy things for fishing. One of the craziest would be plowing through ice in a canoe with a re-inforced bow, and beating on the ice in front with a heavy stick to get to open water. One time it took me over an hour and a half to pound my way through the ice. Another time I was trying to get down a small (15 foot) vertical ravine to fish for smallmouth in the creek at the bottom, but the ravine was washed out from a flood so it was undercut a bit and impossible to climb. So I tied a rope to a tree at the top of the ravine and used that to slide down, and later climb up again. Caught a ton of fish that day, probably because noone else was dumb enough to climb down to get to it.

In the summer its the pleasure boaters, skiirs, and worst of all the wake boarders with boats that are designed to create huge wakes by adding ballast weight to the bow. Right now its muddy water and hard water.

If really isn't designed to be fished out any deeper than 10-12 feet, but I sometimes will do it anyways. It is designed for shallow water like you were thinking (and really is best suited for shallow water) and this is the one place where i tend to go outside the original midwest finesse guidelines. To make it possible I up size the jig head to 3/32 (I just got the Midwest finesse mold so this is now possible for me to use) or 1/8 ounce. It still takes a while to sink, and probably isn't the best tool for the job though. I should have stuck with the 1/8 ounce bucktail jig out deep, that might have done better.

Fished yesterday morning for a few hours and again in the afternoon for a few hours. Started out the morning looking for catfish, and I think I found the hole by the size of the fish I was marking and the density of the school, but I couldn't get them to bite. Switched over to bass fishing with the Ned rig, Bucktails, and the baby boo jig but only caught one on the baby boo jig. Gave up on that and tried using a tiny panfish jig and a 1/8 ounce flutter spoon tipped with maggots, hoping to catch some bluegill or white bass. Turns out that the bass wanted the tiny stuff to, caught twelve bass and a crappie in around two hours on the spoon and jig. Came back for lunch and headed out again in the afternoon. The tiny jig and spoon bit had shut down for some reason, but I managed two small bass on the Ned rig fished in roughly 20-25 feet of water. A slow day on the water, but it was great to get out fishing in 60 degree weather without coats and gloves in January.

I have only used the neko rig a few times, but I have always used nails or screws instead of commercial weights. Saves a lot of money and works just as well, losing the sinker every time the plastic tears off can get expensive fast when they're hitting good.

Keitech for tournaments, and grass pigs for everything else.

You guys are a bunch of wackos.

I'm clueless for which pros specialize in what, I don't even watch the tournaments, but it sounds fun so I'll give it a shot. The B bucket is a tough one, I don't see very many clear water pre spawn guys in there (that I'm aware of).

Your already catching bass on topwater and crankbaits?! Lucky, the ice just came off up here and today's most productive lure was a micro jig intended for panfish.

Yep, I stocked up on shad last spring during the shad spawn and during the shad die off in the fall so I have plenty. I'll bring some extra on Saturday, I will able to get out in the morning and probably in the afternoon also, but not till about two o-clock. Rigging 1/2 inch by 2 inch strips of meat on kahle or circle hooks with 1/2-3/4 ounce egg sinkers above a swivel tied to a fifteen pound leader. Do you have the GPS coordinates of the hole, or is it pretty easy to find with side imaging? I'll make sure to bring a marker with me this time.

I have almost zero visibility by where I live (water levels about ten inches high now), and it can't be much more than eight or ten inches on the lower end. Bass fishing is going to be rough, but I might take another shot at getting some big cats. They don't seem to be as effected by water clarity, at least not as much as the bass are.

Compared to you guys, I haven't been fishing very long and I've already buried one hook in my thumb. Of course it couldn't be a little Ned rig hook, it had to be a heavy wire trokar with a big barb on it. Buried it deep into the joint of my thumb, I couldn't pull it out so I had to go to the hospital to get it removed. The hook had managed to get between the two finger bones inside the joint, yet somehow didn't cut any tendons. Had to cut the thumb down to the barb and pull it out that way. My dog got a hook in her nose once while jumping up to check out the bait, that wasn't any fun to take out. She doesn't come fishing anymore after that.

Thanks for the clarification, apparently KVD is a popular pick with %40 of the players starting him.

Bass masters usually covers southern waters such texas and florida, down there the spawn is much earlier, sometimes even as early as late December. Look for water temperatures in the 60-65 degree range around full or new moons, often the main part of the spawn is around the first full moon of April (this year the full moon is in the second week of April I believe) and a smaller secondary wave of bass spawn around the next new moon.