king fisher

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.

And the Elites series can't come to the Northwest because it would be to long of a drive? They need to come up with a better excuse.

That makes sense. Rumor has it that they electro shocked one that was over 12 pounds at Dworkshak. I thought maybe Jones caught this one at Lake Menderchuck.

Anyone know where this bass caught?

I give topwater a try every day. It doesn't take long to find out if they want to hit on top, and the average size of the bass seem to be bigger. If I don't get bit right away, I don't keep beating a dead horse. If it works great if not, I have a whole box of lures to try and not much time to find out what they want. I will make a cast or two with a topwater later in the day just to make sure the bass have not changed their mind. I have caught big bass on topwater early, middle or late in the day, when it is sunny or cloudy and in clear or muddy water. The only way to find out is to make a cast.

There are two seasons where I live rainy season and dry season. Rainy season best three lures Buzz Bait Frog spinnerbait Dry season best three lures Spinnerbait Crankbait T rig worm.

A-Jay posts the best tackle porn, no else comes close.

I plead the 5th

One summer I was recovering from a surgery and had about a month to fish every day on a small river in mid summer with very low water. The river had big smallmouth bass along with many suckers, northern pike minnow, and carp. I don't know when bass got in to the river, but when I was a kid the river only had the trash fish species. Even the game department had no idea there were bass in this river. The water was low this time of year, and many places in the river could be crossed by jumping from one rock to the next without even getting my feet wet. The bass were concentrated in deeper holes, and each hole would have 3-5 large bass between 3 and 5 pounds, along with a few smaller bass. The water was muddy, and I couldn't see any bass, so numbers are just estimates based on catch rates. Nobody fished this river. I fished a dozen or so, mile long stretches with each stretch having 3 to 4 fishable holes with big bass. The first time I would fish a new hole I would catch a large bass on the first cast with an inline spinner. I would fish each hole in a stretch with the spinner, then go back and fish the holes with some other bait helping me catch a couple more decent size bass. The next day I would fish a different stretch and was able to rotate through stretches of river never fishing the same stretch twice in the same week. One day I invited a friend to go along with me and decided to take him to my very best stretch of river where I new there was at least two bass over 5 pounds and maybe more. The problem was I had fished this stretch of river hard only a couple days prior, and I was worried I hadn't rested it long enough. My worries were confirmed when we got skunked. We had enough time to try another section, of river that I hadn't fished for over a week and did well. This same scenario repeated itself throughout the whole month I was able to fish. The minimum time to rest a particular hole and still catch one of the big bass living there was 5 days. Anything less and the fishing was slow to zero. After 5 days, first cast in to a whole I would hook one of the larger bass and if I was lucky might be able to catch one or two more before having to move on. There was a very small population of bass in this river, and the holes were small and shallow. The northern pike minnows would hit almost every lure every cast if the bass were not biting. If there was a willing bass in a hole they would hit first cast. I'm not saying that all bass fishing waters need to be rested for a week before fishing them. Obviously this river was a rare situation, but I will say it doesn't take much angling pressure to turn bass off, or at least make them more difficult to catch. That was 16 years ago, and as far as I know the bass are still there, and no one fishes most of the river. A few locals fish a couple easy to access spots, but besides that there are around 30 miles of river with an average of 3-4 holes per mile with one to three smallmouth bass over 3.5 pounds per hole waiting to bite the only spinner they might ever see in their whole life. Because I do hope to get a chance to walk the banks of that river catching big smallmouth again before I go on to greener pastures, I am not going to give any more details on the location of this small piece of paradise. A good angler may be able to catch bass out of highly pressured waters, on a consistent basis, but a body of water that gets no pressure can be spectacular for even an average angler such as myself. If you are able to find and fish a lake pond or river that has quality bass and does not get any pressure, there is only one thing you can do. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

I completely submerged a couple of my Diawa costal reels in salt water. I decided to take them to a local guy that does all my saltwater big game reel work for a full service. He has done excellent work for many years. He had never worked on a small bait caster before and was surprised at how well they were made. He said there wasn't enough grease in the reels, and told me he had cleaned and properly lubed them. Both the reels worked well, were quiet and smooth. They just seemed to be slow. I couldn't cast them as far, and had to use far less break than I had used before. After a few trips they started working like they were new again. The only thing I could figure out was he used to much grease, and they needed some time to break in. My advice if you live near saltwater to make sure who ever works on your reels has experience with the type of baitcasters used for bass fishing.

There is a fine line between preventative maintenance and if it aint broke don't fix it. If I try and do the preventive maintenance myself, I will most likely be wishing I had gone the if it aint broke don't fix it rout. If I have a professional do preventive maintenance I will most likely feel I have solved a problem before it happens. Peace of mind is worth a few dollars to me. The last thing I want to be thinking about when I finally hook my PB is what that little screw that was left over from my attempt at cleaning the reel does, sure hope it doesn't have anything to do with the drag.

I haven't caught as many DD as many members here, but I do luck in to a few DD every year. I am a firm believer in time on the water and luck. Unfortunately I don't get many days to fish, but I start early and leave late on the days I can get on the water. Most days are made up of 12 hours of bad luck combined with 5 minuets of good luck. I just don't know when the good luck is going to start. I haven't had much success fishing slower, most of my biggest bass have come while fishing faster moving baits. I am working on learning to fish slow, but it is not in my DNA. I have caught all of my DD bass fishing the same baits I would fish to catch small bass. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, topwater and worms. I never fish at night, but I am fanatical about making sure my line, knots, and other gear is in good shape for when the big one bites. I believe location is the most important factor for catching DD bass. If I am catching dinks, I don't stick around. It is hard to get lucky, when there aren't any big bass where my lure is. To be honest, there is only one word besides dumb luck that best describes my success with DD bass. MEXICO.

I like your post, very informative and the pictures were great, but I have to wonder if the bass like worms that stand up. Worms standing on the bottom with their tails up high look great to me, but I sure catch a lot of bass on Trick worms, and Senkos lying flat on the bottom.

When I was 14 years old, one winter I got bored and with a soldering iron, attached curly tail worm tails to a ribbon tail worm making a multi tailed, monster that looked similar to a modern brush hog. This was in the winter of 1977 long before creature baits were on the market. Unfortunately when the ice melted, and the bass started biting, I never even tried my new creature bait. Spinnerbaits were working that spring, and as summer came along, I fished topwater and crankbaits. I always tell friends I invented the creature bait, but never got any credit, bass, or money for my invention. I also drilled holes and put BB. in some of my plugs that winter. They weren't the first rattling crankbaits, but I had the only Arbogaster, and Hot n tot with rattles I have ever seen. I am glad I now live where there is no frozen water in the winter. I no longer get bored and ruin perfectly good lures waiting for the snow and ice to melt.

I don't believe there should be any no information rule at all. Why have a rule that is almost impossible to enforce? As far as I am concerned if the only way to enforce a rule is to have the anglers take a polygraph, than that is not a rule that should be on the books. A cut off date for fishing is reasonable, because it is possible to catch a person on the water breaking that rule. Getting information on the internet is impossible to enforce. Someone being honest will obey the rule while someone else will cheat. The honest person may flunk the polygraph while the cheat passes the test. There is a reason polygraph results are not allowed in court. If there was no rules against getting information, the anglers would be so over loaded with info. it wouldn't help anyway. Before I go on an offshore trip I call every charter captain I know, talk to all the anglers on private boats that have been out, and check any posts on Bloody Decks and other internet sources. I will have at least a dozen way points of recent activity given to me by reliable sources. I look at the weather charts, as well as the sea temp. and chlorophyll charts. On my way out to the fishing grounds I monitor the VHF radio, to hear how others are doing, and talk to any reliable sources I know over the phone or on the radio. In the end I have so much conflicting information that I don't know where to start. I would have been better off if I simply would have checked the weather and went fishing. When I get back I get the same calls from other captains wanting information. The are always surprised to find I tried many of the spots that had been good, but ended up finding the fish someplace that wasn't on any ones radar yet. I give them the new numbers, and they end up finding the fish in a different spot than me. If the anglers on the pro bass tours had no restrictions on information, I believe they would all have the same information and would have to simply go fish to find out what information is working at the moment. No accusations of another angler cheating, no lie detector test, just everyone out trying to decipher if the information they received was correct while someone that just went with their gut wins the tournament. In other words no rule, would cause information over load, therefore there would be no use for a rule. I would not submit to a polygraph. I would say either prove I broke a rule, believe in my integrity, or kick me off the tour. There are plenty of ways to make a living where, my honesty would not be questioned by an archaic machine.

Like this

I read the rules, and I don't think they made it complicated enough. They should include if your middle name has more than four letters, you can use half a screen for 37 minutes only if the moon is within 3 days either side of full, if the moon is 3 days either side of new, then anglers with middle names with less than four letters can use half a screen for 37 minutes. During any other moon phase any angler can use FFS full screen for 5 minuets, then half screen for seven, followed by unlimited screen as long as angler views screen with a mirror while facing opposite direction. Toyota series anglers have the same rules but in completer reverse. High School anglers can only use FFS while accompanied by an adult. Adult must be over 21 years of age, and prove they can down load 5 fishing videos on a cell phone or computer in under an hour solo. A test will be given before each event to prove each angler understands the rules. Test will be 20 questions, and a score of 98% will be required to participate in any MFL event. A polygraph will also be administered to each angler to prove they did not cheat on the rules test. Any one failing the polygraph will not be allowed to use FFS. unless the moon is full, and it is between 13:21 and 15:52 Greenwich England time.