king fisher

I think a motor on Kayak would be great. I would like to try one with spot lock some time. As far as tournaments go, I think they should be human powered only. That way a person could use a canoe, rowboat, kayak, paddleboard even a full size bass boat, anything they want, as long as it is human powered. Is a Kayak with a motor, more like a boat than a kayak? How big, and how much power before it is really not a kayak? I don't know but to even the playing field eliminating motors would be an option.

Where I fish there are gill nets everywhere. I loose many lures to the nets and can get very frustrated. I try and tell myself they are simply trying working very hard to make a living, but some times I think they are in bed with the Bait Monkey. Last week I caught a big Tilapia and saw a commercial panga near by, so I peddled over and gave him the fish. The next cay I got my line, and rudder tangled in a net and had to cut some of it to get free. Later that day I saw a commercial fisherman come paddling toward me. I was sure he was going to yell at me for cutting his net. He pulled along side and gave me a huge watermelon. It was the same guy that I gave the tilapia to. When my wife asked what I caught, I told here 12 bass and a watermelon. Yesterday another commercial fisherman waved at me like he had something to show me. I peddled over, and he held up an 8 pound bass he had just caught in his net. The bass had a spinnerbait of mine in it's mouth and he wanted to give me the lure. Of course, it was my favorite spinnerbait, the bass had wrapped me around a tree the day before. It was odd how much the bass shrank while in the gill net. Must have lost at least 5 pounds. Kind acts like these remind me all we all want to do is catch some fish.

I went fishing at Tepic Yesterday. I found some fish at 12 feet on a ledge in the morning. Landed a dozen 4 - 5.5 pound bass on deep diving cranks, spinnerbaits, and an A rig. The wind picked up to 30 MPH in the afternoon, moving some bait and the bass off the ledge and on to the adjoining 5 foot deep rocky flat. First cast on the flat in the evening with a magnum size square bill I landed this bass. Measured just shy of 26 inches, and weighed a little over 10 pounds. Landed 3 more around five pounds each, and called it a great day.

Why do you want to let the truth get in the way of a good fish story?

I look at lures as nothing more than a bass tax. Soft baits are like a sales tax, and I pay a little bit at a time but it adds up. Hard baits are like my income tax at the end of the year. It hurts more, at the time, but I only pay once a year. The ones I don't loose I use as write offs. The difference with bass tax is the more I pay the more enjoyment I get.

If I was robbed at gun point, I may give up my wallet, rods, lures, and Kayak, but I would die before giving up the waypoints on my Garmin. I did catch, fish, and did have fun fishing out of my kayak before I had a fish finder, but have completely blocked those dark times from my memory. Yes a fish finder is worth it.

Great Review, but admitting you put a Diawa line on a Shimano reel could get you in big trouble. It doesn't hurt to omit incriminating details in a review. The Bass Police may reading this.

I have used a surgeons knot for 40 years making fly leaders with mono, and floro. Works better for me and is quicker to tie than a blood knot. In my opinion it is not a good knot for braid to leader. Braid to leader, FG is the strongest ,and smallest, but takes time and can be difficult to learn. I only use it in for large leader in Saltwater. I used the Albirght for 30 years, then was introduced to the Alberto, and have never tied an Albright again. I can tie an Alberto faster than a blood, knot and way quicker than an FG. If tied correctly it is close to FG in strength, and size. There are a couple common mistakes with an Alberto, and if you make them it will let you down.

Dedly Dudly was my first buzz bait, and I still have the first one I bought back in 1977. At the time I caught most of my bass slow rolling a Colorado spinnerbait from shore. I thought if I had a Dedly Dudly I could fish it even slower than a Colorado blade and would surely catch bass every cast. I saw one in a store and was amazed at how the blade turned simply from blowing on it. It was almost a year before I was able to buy one. First few fish I caught with it were crawling it along a rocky bottom as planned. Then one day I tried retrieving it on the surface, and never fished it slow again.

Is the water just high or high and muddy? Clarity will be a big factor on where the fish go.

Yes. I have fished a small reservoir for about a year now, and have landed 4 bass over 10 pounds and two more that I think were that big but I did not have a scale. One is my avatar picture, the other was it's twin caught an hour before. I had left my camera in my car so only got the picture of the one bass. Not exactly a secret because there are about a dozen commercial gill netters that fish the lake and a few local shore fisherman using line rapped around bottles, with what ever lure they make or find. Excluding these skilled fisherman, there is almost no fishing pressure. Most days I don't see a person. The friend that told me about the lake is a saltwater fisherman who went there once landed an 11 pound bass and has only been back a couple of times in 3 years. It is very close to a popular lake with multiple lodges, so I am enjoying it now, knowing that the word will get out and like many places I have fished, the best days will be gone soon. Luckily I have another untouched spot I am going to explore this summer.

You'd think, but you could be wrong. Take a lure and hold it directly over your head ,all you will see is the belly. Hold it off to the side and above your head and you can see the sides and depending on the angle most of the lure as well. I did this same experiment in a swimming pool with a lure, and I could easily see more than just the bottom of the lure. I would assume as long as a bass is not directly under your top water they will be able to see more than just the bottom. Does it matter? Probably not.

Scent can be a long one way road with no way to turn back. When I first started guiding for King Salmon in AK, there were two main ways to fish. Back troll plugs, or drift salmon eggs. Both methods worked well. No one used scent, and everyone caught lots of fish. Then someone started putting garlic in their egg cure, that caught on like fire, and every guide smelled like garlic. WD40 came next. Even though eggs already have lots of natural scent, everyone thought you had to spray the eggs with WD40. I do believe it helped, but quit using it after seeing oil slicks on the river. I still use a rag soaked in WD40 to clean my plugs. Next came custom cures that were expensive but were supposed to have all sorts of scientific developed pheromone scents. Again I joined the band. At this same time the number one technique was wrapping a sardine rap on a large quickfish plug. Of course that took up lots of time and you had to take it off and clean them at the end of the day. Many commercial scents were developed to put on plugs so you wouldn't have to wrap them, but none seemed to work near as well as the real thing. The next curve on the sent road, was preventing human scent from contacting your bait, or lure. Everybody started wearing surgical gloves while fishing in order to keep human scent off of the bait. I refused to join this bad for a few seasons, but eventually caved. I hate wearing the gloves, but the clients see another boat hook a fish, and the guide has gloves on and I don't, not good for tips. Now, not only do I wear gloves while fishing, I wear gloves while removing and curing the eggs, and while putting line on reels. I even have the clients wear them in case they touch the line or lure. Of course when we fly fish for kings, we don't use scent, or wear gloves, but still catch fish. When I had the chance to get back in to bass fishing, I was so glad I could just tie on a lure and not have to feel like I was preparing for surgery. I hope using scent helps anglers catch bass, but fear it could be the first step down a long road.

How do you sell a line that has poor knot strength and can only be stretched once before loosing strength and needs to be changed. I know. Tell the customers it is invisible, only stretches if over stressed by a snag, but not by fish, and triple the price. Then make 20 different types with each one being more expensive than the last. Marketing 101. Keeps me trying floro at least twice a year.

That is what I was thinking. I normally troll a crankbait while I travel between spots in my kayak. I catch a surprising number of small bass and have found new spots doing this. Next time I'm going to switch to an A rig.

I have next to zero experience with these just getting started so please don't think I know what I'm talking about. Bass in Mexico can be less than smart, and at times, will hit improperly rigged junk. I used a full size model from Hog Farmer. It had 5 arms, with 4 willow blades. I put 5 Skinny Dippers on. The top two Dippers were nose hooked with hooks only, the bottom three had 1/4 ounce jig heads with the Dippers. I am going to try and find lighter jig heads, with bigger hooks to try next time. I'm trying to keep the cost down so haven't bought any special swim jig heads yet, but I'm sure I will be going down that road some time.

I caught my first fish on an A rig a couple days ago. I bought one a few months ago, tried it once and put it away. Tried it again and here are my thoughts. What I don't like 1-- Takes a long time to rig 2--- Takes up way to much space in my kayak 3-- Expensive, I fear snagging and loosing $40 on one cast ( must have been invented by Bait Monkey) 4-- Way to heavy 5-- Difficult to cast 6-- Need specialized rod, my flipping stick worked, kind of. 7-- May need expensive surgery on shoulder from bass trying to rip my arm off. What I like 1-- Catches big bass 2-- Bass try to rip my arm off 3-- Sore shoulder Way more good than bad. I am hooked. I will bring a salmon rod down from AK later this summer to see if it will cast the monstrosity better. If not, Bait Monkey got me again.

The knot in the video is called a double hang mans knot. If the doubled tag continued on up going through the top loop it is a San Diego Jam knot. If you take the doubled tag, and go through the bottom loop then go back up through all the coils it is a doubled nail knot, Doubled nail knot is a great floro knot, but difficult to tie without a nail knot tool or hollow tube. All three are good knots even if line is not doubled.

Bristol Bay Alaska, sometime in the 50's before any lodges were built. I would like to have my own Super Cub a good friend, unlimited time and fuel, and some modern fly rods, and conventional gear. As others have said I would trade all that for a day with my dad and grandfather on any water, any day.

You could try hollow core pencil lead. Just cut off a piece of lead the size you want and slide the line through the lead. Pinch off with pliers. When the lead gets stuck pull hard and it slips off saving your hook and bait. Advantage is you can use any weight you want, pencil lead snags less, is inexpensive, and you only loose the weight. Salmon anglers have been using it in rivers for years.

I only replace braid when I get low on the spool, which is rare, 2 to 3 years. Braid will last a long time unless fished around rip rap without a leader. Braid has very little abrasion résistance to rock, but other than that is bullet proof for years. I replace mono often, because it is cheap and I am always cutting the last few feet off before I retie. I also change mono every time I decide I want to switch to Floro happens about twice a year. I replace Floro every time it gets kinks, over stressed, or runs low on the spool which is often. I also replace Floro every time I decide to switch back to mono. Happens about twice a year.

The weather at my favorite bass lake in Mexico, has been exactly the same for the past 6 months. I saw that there was going to be the first rain since November, so I changed some work projects and went fishing for two days. The first day was Thursday, I got to the lake and hour before light and the sky was clear, 68 degrees, and no wind. Not what I was expecting. I fished a few favorite spots for nothing. Marked a few fish on a drop off caught a few small bass and one five pounds, on a deep diving crankbait. I marked more fish there, but couldn't get them to bite. I spent most of the day fishing trees, for small bass, and one giant that hit a spinnerbait, and got away. An hour before dark, the predicted storm was approaching so I went back to the the ledge. I made a long cast up on the flat with a deep diving crank bait. I cranked one crank, and had a 5 pounder on. Next cast same thing. The bass I had marked in 12 feet of water earlier had moved up on the flat, in 5 feet of water, and were hitting. I switched to a square bill and landed a four pounder. The wind was blowing 35 knots so I put a bigger square bill on to cast further, and landed a 6 pounder with a huge tilapia tail hanging out its mouth. After seeing the size of the tail, I tied on the biggest square bill I own on. After that I hooked a bass between 5 and 6 pounds every time a drifted by that spot. I finally had to stop, due to the wind, rain, lightning, and darkness. One more drift, one last cast had gone on for way to long, but was worth getting wet, and scared. Camping that night was far from dry, but I was ready to fish at daylight. I went back to the flat, but only landed one about 5 pounds further out on the drop in 12 feet of water. I new there must be more fish there, but couldn't get a bite on anything. I tried crankbaits, spinnerbaits, worms, jigs not a single bite. I spent a couple hours of the flipping zoom old monsters into trees for smaller fish. When I went back to the ledge I tried crankbaits again for no luck. I was going to call it a day, but decided to try a Reaction Innovations Skinny dipper on a jig head before leaving. First two casts were big fish, that got off. Next cast was a 6.5 pounder. Just to find out if it was the lure or timing, I dragged a Texas rigged worm, slowly over the drop, and a couple casts with a crankbait for no luck. Put the Skinny Dipper back on and first cast landed a 6 pound bass. I caught a couple more then the bite finally stopped and was getting time to leave, but before leaving I wanted to try an A rig. I had never landed a fish on one, and thought if they wanted one swimbait, why wouldn't they want 5? The rod I have is way to light for and A rig, so the first cast resulted in a professional grade back lash. Next cast was a 7 pound 23 inch bass. I hooked a fish almost every cast for the next 20 min. then had to go home. Just what I needed, an excuse to buy another rod, more A rigs, skinny dippers, and giant square bills. I guess great days bass fishing are not free, but well worth the cost. Biggest bass was 23 inches, 7 pounds, numerous 4 to 6 pound fish.

yes

Kayak fishing can be frustrating, but the learning curve is faster than you think it will be. The biggest thing you have to learn is to plan your casts in advance far ahead of what you would fishing in a boat. Instead of pulling up to a spot and instantly casting to a target, you need to take some time and think about what position you want the boat, not only to make an accurate cast, but to be in position for a retrieve and be able to land the fish of a lifetime. After awhile it becomes automatic and you spend more time fishing, and less time frustrated.

I use a skirt, simply because a skirt comes with the bait and is durable. I spend enough on tackle, without adding to the expense with more soft plastics. Baby bass are constantly hitting my buzzbaits, and I would go through a pack of plastics every day. A skirt will last a whole season. Of course all it will take is one big bass with a toad, and the Bait Monkey will make me a hypocrite once again.