king fisher

I use braid, braid to leader, mono, and fluorocarbon depending on the gear and technique being used. I would use fluorocarbon more often if I never backlashed, never snagged, it was more available in my area, or I was very wealthy. My problem with Fluorocarbon is if it gets kinked ( from not exercising patience while removing backlashes), or over stressed from pulling on snags it needs to be replaced. It is expensive to replace, so I take a gamble, roll the dice, and sometimes loose my shirt. Knots can be a problem with Fluorocarbon but as of today I believe I don't have a problem with Fluorocarbon knots. It does last far longer than mono if not abused, but I am rough on all my gear, so I only use Fluorocarbon for my T rig and Jig fishing. Fluorocarbon is also less visible than the other options, but for most of my bass fishing, visibility is not a consideration. I currently use 16 pound Sniper. Braid lasts for ever, does not stretch, and combined with different leaders can be used effectively in a variety of situations. Braids down side is because is has very little stretch it is very sensitive when fishing a tight line. The problem is when there is any slack in the line it has zero sensitivity. Many situations when I want a bait to fall naturally I am forced to give a slight amount of slack in the line. This is when the sensitivity advantage of braid is zero. Fluorocarbon is heavy, and sinks making detecting slack line bites possible even with a slight bow in the line. When I am fishing moving baits on a tight line, braid gives me great sensitivity, the problem is I don't need great sensitivity when fishing moving baits. Braid floats so is perfect for topwater, is very strong for it's diameter, making it perfect for punching or flipping heavy cover, and with a variety of leaders is extremely versatile. I currently use 30# or 40# Diawa J Braid. Mono is a compromise in most applications, but it can be used effectively in any situation. Slack line sensitivity is not as good as Fluorocarbon, but better than braid. It semi floats, so works well for top water, but not as well as braid, It does stretch making hook sets with bottom contact lures more difficult, but far from impossible, and the stretch makes it great for fishing crankbaits. Mono is slightly more visible than Fluorocarbon, but not enough to make a difference in most bass fishing scenarios. Mono is inexpensive, which is a big plus in my book. Mono may be a compromise, but there are many times in life when a good compromise is exactly what is needed. My favorite mono is Maxima Ultra Green, with Big Game a close second. This is my opinion on lines, and I'm sure others here will rightly disagree with me. I have to stress, this is my current opinion and I reserve my right to completely change my theory's at any time, without past posts being held against me. Weather I use Fluorocarbon or not depends completely on the current condition of my on again off again, love hate relationship with Fluorocarbon.

I new I was getting old, while driving my car, I started to complain about the old geezer that was holding up traffic, but stopped when I realized the problem car was was mine.

The big selling point is it is heavy for it's size. It is supposed to be excellent for hopping off of the bottom in deep water. The Tactical Bass Monkey has had one in my cart at Tackle Warehouse more than once, but then I realize I already own way more Bill Lewis Rattle traps than any sane person should have. They might not be ideal for bouncing off the bottom, but I have ,many other baits, that I can use to fish the bottom with. When check out time came, I have always removed the LV.

Because they haven't discovered Glide Baits, or $35 spinnerbaits yet. My shoes are held together with duct tape, and my shotgun looks like it was on the loosing side of the Civil War, but my tackle collection is priceless and growing.

This bait looks like it would be easy to copy. I have some old spinnerbaits, laying around, I might try to make my own.

I have never heard of this bait, but the Monkey told me it is a magical bait, that catches giant bass when a spinnerbait, or chatterbait will not get bit. The $35 price tag keeps the Monkey in his corner for now. If they get the price below that of a Jackhammer, the Monkey will be solidly latched on to my back. Please do not post any pictures of bass over 10 pounds caught on this lure.

I do every time I go fishing, but my white jig has a wire arm with two spinner blades rotating above the jig. It works every where I have fished, but I have never fished on the Tennessee River. I have tried a jig without the spinners and have had limited success. I plan on trying them more this fall.

If I were to buy a 2 oz spinnerbait, I would need to buy a rod able to cast it, and if I bought a new rod, of course I would feel obligated to buy a new reel. If I buy a rod that can cast 2 oz, maybe I should buy a rod that casts 4 oz for the high end, and 2 oz for the low end. That way I would have a rod that could cast a 4 oz. glide bait. Large glide baits can cost well over $200 so really $35 for a spinnerbait isn't bad at all when I consider the cost of a new rod, reel, and a half dozen glide baits, maybe I should buy two.

Just the opposite for me. Bass always hit my surface lure when I least expect them to. Out of shock I react jerking the bait away from the bass.

You came to the right place for advise on spinnerbaits. TnRiver 46 is the site expert on spinnerbaits. I'm sure he will be able to tell you everything you could ever want to know about spinnerbaits. I recommend you buy four colors of spinnerbaits. White, Chartreuse white, black, and Chartreuse black. Blades I recommend singe Colorado, tandem willow, and tandem Indiana in silver and gold. 3/8 1/2 and 3/4 oz. Don't be afraid to try black in the day time. The bass don't know that black is only for night time. Fishing a black spinnerbait in the day time wont get you a fine from the bass police, but you may get a warning citation. Rip up the citation, and ask them to apologize when you catch your PB. I personally don't use trailers or trailer hooks, but you can get away with only two colors, black and white if you buy some chartreuse trailers. Trailers make for good contrasting colors without having to change baits. I probably should use trailers, but I have such a hard time deciding what one of my hundreds of spinnerbaits to throw, I feel I may suffer from bass bait overload trying to determine what trailer to put on what bait. Save all of your parts off of broken spinnerbaits. You may end up building your own some day and you can never have to many parts. Be warned, the Bait Monkey is very fond of spinnerbaits.

That sounds normal to me. What is weird is taking tried and true crankbaits that never stopped catching bass, and putting them in a box that never leaves the house, to make room in my boxes I take fishing, for new crankbaits. I proceed to catch bass on the new crankbaits and think I need more of them. It never even crosses my mind, that maybe the bass would have hit the old crankbaits I left at home. The new ones worked, so I must have more, in more colors and sizes. What is also weird, if I loose a crankbait, I have to not only buy three like the one I lost, but I have to buy 3 of another color, and 2 of another type I haven't even tried. They wont all fit in my crankbait box, so I have to put old ones, that were new ones not long ago in my injured reserve box back at home. Same scenario with spinnerbaits and topwater, I am truly weird.

My wife just asked where they got the picture of me from last New Years Eve.

When I am not catching bass, I keep throwing the same lure, when I am catching bass I am constantly changing lures. It is a good thing I don't invest in the stock market, I would buy high and sell low.

I wear a Timex Expedition 24/7/365 Takes a lickin, and keeps on tickin. If you remember this, you probably still wear a watch.

Bone, but I will make sure I have a black magic marker in my tackle box.

I once did an experiment to see if salmon fry were attracted or repelled by different scents. I realize this was not a scientific experiment because of the many variables I was not able to control making my hypothesis at most suspect, but I did find my results interesting. Also I know this has nothing to do with bass, but salmon have an even better sense of smell, so there may be some resemblance in my findings. I also have used many scents that I am positive have helped me catch adult salmon, so I'm not saying salmon don't react to different scents. I would clean salmon every day at my camp on a river. Thousands of salmon fry would be attracted to the fish cleaning table, and pick at the scraps that I tossed in to the water. Their favorite snack was salmon eggs. One day I decided to see if they would grab an orange plastic bead the size of a salmon egg. As soon as I would throw a bead into the water a fry would immediately eat it. They would suck it in, then spit it out very quickly. The next fry would then grab the bead and do the same thing. Within a minute or two maybe 100 fry would have sucked in the bead and spit it out. I then started applying different scents to the bead. I used numerous commercial scents that I used for my salmon fishing, along with actually rubbing the bead in salmon flesh, and soaking it in salmon egg juice. The fry would suck a bead in and spit it out at the same rate as the bead without the scent. They probably didn't like how hard the bead was and I wish I would have had a soft plastic bead to try thus eliminating another variable in my experiment. After applying scents I thought would be an attractant. I started putting scent on that many people thought would be a repellent to fish. I tried dish soap, gasoline, diesel, sun screen, DEET, and human saliva. The results were the same. They picked it up, and spit it out at the same rate as before. The only conclusion I could come up with was at this particular time and circumstances, the fry were feeding by sight. They did not care what the bead smelled like, it looked like an egg and they were going to try and eat it. Once they determined it wasn't a real egg they would spit it out, and the competitiveness of the school of fry was so strong they would all try the egg even though the others had already rejected it. I also tried putting the same scents on real salmon eggs, and they would crush the egg, hold it long enough to get all of the juice out of the egg, then spit out the left over membrane. They did this exactly the same with all eggs regardless of scent. I do not in any way suggest that bass fry would act the same as the salmon fry did, or that salmon fry in a different location, time, or of a different size would react in the same way. I also am not suggesting that adult bass, or salmon don't react to scents, but I am willing to suggest that there are times when a fish will feed almost exclusively by sight, and when this happens scent doesn't seem to be a factor in determining if they hit a bait, or how long they hold on to a bait. I will add a side note, that after years of fishing for salmon, I believe salmon are not repelled by petroleum products, but can actually be attracted to them. Especially WD 40 I will not use WD 40 as a scent because I will not pollute the any water I am fishing, but there was a time I did use it and it works. For some reason mosquitoes are attracted to gasoline, and fish may be attracted for the same reason. I don't know why, but I no longer care if I get gas or oil on my hands while fishing.

Megabass lures smell very expensive.

June is my favorite time. Where I live there are basically two seasons. Rainy season from July to mid October and dry season from Nov. to July. During the rainy season the water is high and muddy, and the bass are spread all over the shoreline. Big bass can be caught on buzz baits, but the fish are spread out, and it takes many casts to catch one. They are not grouped up, so if I catch one, I don't usually catch another one in the same location. After the rain stops, the water slowly drops and the visibility improves. By June the water is very low, and the bass concentrate on structure in deep water. This time of year, once I locate the bass, I can catch multiple fish in the same location.

Neither. Time on the water is more important. You can't catch you PB or even loose one if you are not fishing. You can have less expensive but quality gear, and good strong line that doesn't break the bank. Take your saving's and go fishing more.

I have previously commented from a guides perspective on this thread, now I will tell the other side of the story from my limited experience as a client on the subject. My first ever experience as a client was six years ago, fishing for bass here in Mexico. For my birthday may wife bought me a weekend bass fishing trip at a local lodge. I had zero expectations, and was determined to have fun regardless of the number and size of bass. At the time the Bait Monkey had not found me hiding in Mexico, and I didn't have much in the way of bass tackle, so I opted to use the lodge equipment. The equipment was good, and a small box of soft plastics, 3/8 oz bullet sinkers, and hooks. was all they fished with at this lake, and the bass didn't seem to mind hitting the same thing every day. My guide was pleasant and spoke English far better than I spoke Spanish. He drove the boat to a bank on the other side of the lake and pointed at the shoreline. First cast I hooked a bass. I caught bass on every few casts. The bass were plentiful, but all of them were small. Around a pound with a 1.5 pound bass being a big one and nothing over two pounds. The guide was quick with the net, and counted every bass with a clicker he had in his pocket. When a plastic worm would get tore up he simply broke off some of the worm and I fished with a shorter worm. He wouldn't change worms until what started as a 7 inch worm was about one inch. To this day I refer to that common practice as a Mexican Ned Rig. The clicker counter was because at the end of the day it was important for the guides to no the exact number of bass caught. I assume the quality of the trip was gauged solely on the numbers of bass landed My guide positioned the boat with a tiller controlled electric motor on the stern. He did make a cast now and then, but was to busy driving the boat to do much fishing. I considered him more of a boat driver than guide. When I would ask him if I should fish faster, he would say yes, when I asked him if I should slow down he would say yes, deeper yes, shallower yes. He had the same answer for every fishing question I had. If I had been a complete novice angler, I doubt he would have done much more than point at the bank and drive the boat. A complete beginner would have caught some bass, but not near as many as they would catch if the guide would have been an excellent instructor. I got the feeling that he thought his job was to position the boat, net the fish, keep count of the number of bass, and try and save as many inches of soft plastics as possible. I caught lots of bass, had a few laughs, and had a great time. I learned very little about the fishery but had a good over all experience The guide did what the lodge owner expected of him, so in the end I felt he did his job well. If I were the owner of the lodge, I would hire guides that were more enthused about fishing and were always striving to perfect their guiding - teaching skills, but I don't own the lodge, and all the guests seemed very happy. My next guided bass fishing trip came a year later on Lake Chapala. My guide had his own bass boat, and was not associated with a lodge. He was an excellent guide that was a true professional. His knowledge of the water, and techniques to catch the bass were excellent. He was able to teach me a new technique with precise, and patient instruction. He loved to fish for bass, and did fish while I was fishing, but he always fished in order to help me with my fishing. The bass were located under thick matts of grass, and in tall tulles. I had never punched matts before, but had been instructed to bring the proper gear for this technique. I borrowed a heavy rod from a friend, and brought my own reel loaded with 65 pound braid. It didn't take long for me to get the basics down and land a few 2-3 pound bass. My guide was constantly telling me where to pitch, and what kind of abnormalities in the matt to look for. He would pitch his bait to targets, and quickly reel the line in before a bass could get to his lure, when he saw movement in the reeds. I would then pitch my bait in and catch the bass that moved after his bait. This worked many times I appreciated how hard he worked to get me on to fish. He also would cast a spinnerbait out on the other side of the boat, looking for bass in the more scattered grass towards open water while I punched the thick cover towards shore. He caught one bass while doing this and I quickly switched over to a spinnerbait and landed some of the biggest bass of the day. Towards the end of the day he took me to a place where he thought we might be able to catch a larger bass. The spot had a couple standing trees, mixed in with a couple of boulders. I switched to a square bill and he lined me up for a perfect cast that would go over branches on both trees, and make contact with the a boulder on the retrieve. For once I made a perfect cast and caught a 5.5 pound bass which was my big fish of the day. I fished a few more times with this guide and always landed quality bass, greatly improved my fishing skill, and as a bonus he provided a nice lunch. He was an excellent teacher without becoming overbearing, and was always trying to get me more and bigger bass. He did fish, but never to my detriment. He was not fishing for himself, he was only fishing to help me catch more and bigger bass. I told him I didn't care if he fished for fun, and he said he might if he had a chance Unfortunately a quality guide costs more than I can afford. I decided if I wanted to get back in to bass fishing at my new home, I would have to find a way to fish on my own. I couldn't afford a boat so I bought a kayak. I told the Chapala guide that I had bought a kayak, and wouldn't be able to hire him any more, but would try and send him some business. He thanked me for fishing with him, and even told me of some great places to kayak fish for bass. Like I said at the beginning of this post I have very limited experience as a client but feel I have had examples of two extremes. One guide was mostly a boat driver, and the other a true professional fisherman. Both were great experiences, both took me to the bass, but I prefer a guide who wears more than one hat.

If I have a lure that is working, I usually give it a permanent sabbatical in a tree, wedged between rocks, or on rare occasions simply cast it off in to space. Then I have to try something else.

That is the name of the game. If it were fun and games, they wouldn't call it work. I have guided my entire adult life, and have seen anglers who's skill level was negative 100 on on a scale of one to ten. Some people don't only not learn, but try as hard as they can to get worse. One time I had a lady fishing for silver salmon. The stream was loaded with salmon, and you could catch one on almost every cast with a spinning rod. She insisted on fly fishing. A skilled fly caster could cast far enough to present a fly to a salmon without spooking it and catch a salmon on almost every cast. An average angler could cast well enough to hook enough to keep their rod bent for most of the day. A beginner fly angler if they progressed well, would be able to hook a few and if they were quick learners may catch even more After trying all morning to get this particular anglers casting skill to the point she could catch a couple fish, I realized she was never going to catch a silver salmon on a fly rod in that river. It was getting close to lunch and she was getting very frustrated, so I suggested she take a break, from fly casting, grab a spinning rod, and catch a fresh salmon for shore lunch. She looked at me holding a spinning rod, like I was the devil with a pitchfork. She told me she would never cheat and use such an sporting method of fishing. I wanted to tell her, that with her skill level, dynamite thrown in an aquarium wouldn't be considered cheating. She couldn't cast a fly 6 feet with a nine foot fly rod but held my tongue and tried to figure a way to survive the afternoon. I tried every spot on the river, from the shore, drifting the boat, the boat anchored, or me walking the boat slowly through a hole. I tried every size, color, and type of fly I had. I did my best to teach her to cast, but to avail. At the end of the day she was not happy, it was my fault she didn't catch any salmon. All the other guides clients landed multiple silvers, and most of them on fly rods. She was sure I was the worst guide in camp, maybe the whole state. For the record I didn't fish that day. I had to be careful not to even let the fly touch the water while holding on to a rod in fear that a salmon would hit the fly while dangling in the water, knowing I would be accused of sore mouthing all of the fish depriving her of an opportunity to land her very own silver salmon. I did offer to hook a salmon for her, and let her land it on her rod, but I got the devil with the pitchfork stare again, and decided to exercise my constitutional right to remain silent. I got up the next morning welcomed the new guest while they unloaded from the plane, smiled and said lets go catch some salmon. Guiding is not easy, it is lots of work, but the good days make it seem like a vacation, and the bad days at least make for good stories.

Many great fisherman can not be good fishing guides because they are terrible at helping other anglers catch fish. A guides job is to do what ever they can to insure that you have the best possible day on the water That usually translates in to what they can do to help you catch fish. It is your trip. Your guide should do what you want them to. If you want them to fish with you than of course it would be OK if they fished. If they want you to use a certain technique you are not comfortable with, or otherwise don't like to use, than they can either teach you the technique, go to another location where another technique will work, or simply let you fish your way, but you will have to understand that your way may not be as productive as what your guide would like you to fish. If while trying to teach you the technique that is working, they have to demonstrate how properly present the lure, or bait, what a bite feels like, and how or when to set the hook, than obviously they may need to fish in order to be an effective teacher. Once you are able to replicate what they are doing, they should stop fishing. Sometimes if you are struggling to learn a technique, a guide may have to fish simply to see if the technique will work if done properly. This should only take a few casts, and they should be able to tell right away if the method is working in that location. Many times it may be best to let the guide make the first cast or two at a new location in order to determine if they want to spend any time there. That does not mean they should pull up to a spot, cast at the only log, land a bass then leave, but waiting for the client to determine if the bass are at a new location can take more time than a guide may want to spend. They may be able to make a couple casts and instantly be able to tell if the new location is worth spending any time at. In this situation communication is key to help alleviate any misunderstandings. When a location and technique is working for you they may want to try another presentation, while you are catching fish on the original method, and it would be wise for you to let them. They may discover a more successful technique, or one that you have less difficulty mastering. They generally should not continue to fish a method that has already been determined to be successful, or the same presentation that you are using. When I am guiding the last thing I want to do is catch a fish on a technique that I know is working, or one that I don't think my client will be able to master in the short time I have to teach them. I am always evaluating their skills, and trying to determine if there is another presentation, or location, where they can catch fish, with as little frustration as possible. There is always another piece to a fishing puzzle, and that goes double if you have to put a fishing puzzle together for someone else. If you want your guide to fish the same technique at the same time than that is OK, but only if you insist and don't be surprised if your guide still keeps switching baits. It is generally in a guides DNA to constantly be experimenting, looking for something new to improve the clients day. A good guide knows they can catch fish, but what they want is for you to catch fish. In general the only time a guide should fish is if by them fishing it will help you catch more fish, and or help you enjoy your day. A good guide wears many hats. They should be good fisherman, great teachers, excellent communicators, good listeners, story tellers, and over all fun people to be around. Their only concern besides your safety should be that you have as enjoyable day as possible. Most of the time that does not include the guide fishing

The Bait Monkey just read this post. He then jumped off my couch, nocked some popcorn on to the floor, and didn't even bother shutting the door on his way out. He should be banging on your door any minute now.