OCdockskipper

Going through grade school & high school, we were taught about D-Day but never really understood what the soldiers went through. Then I saw the opening scene from "Saving Private Ryan" as a thirty-something and was astonished. Using that portion of the film to help illustrate what occurred would be very effective.

Only out of jealousy...

For your sake, I really hope you have caught a second one ? 1968, age 5, caught a bluegill without any help from an adult. I ran up the dock, down the road to the cabin we were renting to show it off. Poor thing was dried out & covered with dirt by the time I got there. First bass was around 1974, after watching a neighbor kid catch a 2lb largemouth using a broken tail rapala. It has been my fish of choice ever since.

Why would you stop fishing in order to become a minister or funeral director? Then again, maybe that minister is just looking at pictures of all the fish the dead guy caught. I knew one guy who stopped fishing, Mitch Kumstein. He was good enough to go pro, until he got kicked off his college fishing team for night fishing. He was just fishing at night, with the 15 year old daughter of the dean. His roommate was Ty Webb.

Over the past few weeks, I have used a few lures for the first time. Below is my amateur, non-endorsed quick reviews of each, please feel free to add your comments as well: Lake Fork Worm - Catt recommended these are the best match to the old Rebel Ringworm & I agree. Tough worm, but not stiff, great action in the water & great results. Deps Buzzjet Jr - My initial reaction to seeing this bait in the water was that it makes such a ruckus, it just might scare the bass enough that they would jump in your boat to get away from the lure. Then I had a fish blow up on it. Caught a couple, it works much better than I anticipated. Eagle Claw Pro V finesse Ned Jigs - I liked the looks of the keeper, they do a good job of keeping the bait in place without it bunching (eliminating the need to glue it to the head). However, the heads break loose from the hook after a few casts, not enough to completely come off, just enough to wiggle around & bother me. Missile Baits Ned Bomb - The flat tail & ribbed body caught my eye, looks okay in the water. Didn't out fish a TRD, but it caught fish. Live Target Twitch Minnow - Very realistic looking fluke style bait, skips well and caught fish. A bit pricey per bait, but can be repaired with Mend-it to extend the life. Jerkit Soft Plastic jerkbait - A takeoff on the Slug-go, the 4" is a great bait for skipping docks in fairly calm weather. I rigged it weightless with a Gama Skip gap hook and caught 29 with it yesterday. Made by a small local SoCal bait company. Lake Fork Hissy Fit - A takeoff on the Jitterbug, the same head with a soft plastic trailer on the back to make it look like a snake. Looked great in the water, but didn't get a strike on it. May be more effective in more snake infested waters.

During postspawn, I prefer the imitation bream. If the water is clear enough, the bass think I am a large bluegill and they will jump into the boat in an attempt to eat me. It helps that I have my boat camouflaged to look like a giant bream bed.

I goofed, I was thinking of the double uni, not the FG. Smalls caught that error also (see above post).

My bad, I was thinking of the double uni, not the FG. Sorry about that. The Crazy Alberto is shorter than the FG, but slightly thicker due to the double wraps.

I switched from the FG knot to the Crazy Alberto knot for leaders to get a smaller knot for passing through the guides. A side benefit has been I have found it to be as strong if not stronger than the FG knot. If I ever have break offs, they are near the hook and usually from allowing the fluoro to get nicked & not retying. I also like to roll the leader knot in a dollop of superglue to create a slick coating around the knot. It seems to help protect it as it bounces against the guides on every cast.

I am among the older crowd on this forum, old enough to have been a BASS member in their first decade of existence. There are some things about gear that I like from the past, like pistol grip handles on casting rods and double handles on spinning gear. However, my personal preference and how long I have been doing something does not translate to recommending that others always, always, always do what I do. The length of time something has been done or avoided does not automatically give it credibility. There are pro's & cons to using leaders with braid or other lines. To summarily dismiss what one doesn't do or like is a bit closed minded. Don't change what you do if you don't want to, just realize there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I am aware of that, but it is still bad advice. Maybe you should say that you don't use braid or lines like Nanofil with leaders on spinning gear & leave it at that. Recommending to others to "never, ever, ever" do it is pretty rigid and infers expertise. Considering that someone like Skeet Reese (to name just one pro) uses braid & Nanofil with leaders, I don't think you are really in the position to claim it should never be done. If you don't want to use leaders, have at it, but don't discourage someone who wants to take advantage of its pluses just because you don't like it.

Bad advice for spinning gear. Braid or super lines solve most issues of spinning gear and a leader increases bites in clear water. A Crazy Alberto knot between braid & fluorocarbon will be stronger than any knot between fluorocarbon & a metal line tie. Nicks in & around the line tie is the typical cause for line breaks.

Why? We don't have any Golden Corral's around here, so I know nothing about what makes them good (or why they would be better than Sizzler's). The Sizzlers in Southern California appear to be franchises, but apparently the franchisee's have a lot of leeway as far as how to run their restaurant. We have a very nice one, well run, clean with good food here in Lake Forest, but I have been to other ones not too far away that were pretty lousy.

Prespawn, spawn & post spawn can be tough to pattern for a couple of reasons. First, the fish are doing what they are doing based on reproductive urges and actions as opposed to feeding urges and actions. That is why you may find bass during this time out in the light on a sunny day or hunkered under a dock even though it is low light conditions. Second, why they strike a lure at this time is also different, for the same reason. It may look like a great day for topwater action, but if a fish is on a bed focused on bringing in a girlfriend, a different technique is needed. Lastly, all of the fish are not at the same phase at the same time. It is very possible that the fish you caught deeper were prespawn, the one on the Senko was a bed fish (even if you weren't sight fishing) and the one under the dock was postspawn. With so many fish doing different things at the same time, pattern fishing is difficult to do. Junk fishing is often the order of the day.

By chance, were those fish floating on the surface, slightly discolored? If so, they can be very difficult to catch. I'd recommend a banjo minnow.

Let me preface this by saying you can use whatever you want, it doesn't bother me. You also can use a shoe to hammer in a nail, a knife to loosen a screw & a drill bit to pick your nose. Again, your choice, none of my business what you do. However, this is a forum where the details of bass fishing techniques are shared. In the same way it would be misleading for Tim the Toolman Taylor to lecture which men's loafers are best for driving in a 2 penny nail, it is misleading for folks on this site to pretend using mismatched gear for a certain technique makes no difference. Again, do whatever you want personally, just watch what you advise others to do. That said, the basic answer to your question is that the inherent design of spinning gear makes it better suited for for casting & retrieving lighter baits while the inherent design of casting gear is better suited for normal to heavy baits and heavier lines. There are nearly 347 threads on this forum on the specific strengths & weakness's of spinning gear versus the strengths & weakness's of casting gear. I don't want to waste space on the internet adding a 348th, so if you truly don't know the difference, do a search on this site and you will get plenty of information. If it helps you and you learn something, great. If not, keep doing what you are doing, you'll be fine.

Those guys were just plain rude, but here is an easy solution for next time. When you go down to the dock, take 3 or 4 rods & reels, each with a sinker on the line (no hook). Cast them out in different directions & prop the poles up in obvious locations, so that they are easily seen. If these two return, or anyone else for that matter, you can nicely say "Excuse me, we are fishing here, would you mind moving somewhere else?". Even the most rude person will most likely understand you have lines in the water, they need to go elsewhere. If by chance they don't leave, then just start casting your sinker over their lines and say "oops, I'm sorry, I'm still learning how to cast". Do it 100 times if you have to, until they finally leave. It may be tempting to bean them with the sinker, resist that temptation, it will get you in trouble & they will end up owning the dock.

I'm the opposite of some of you, I enjoy Dave Mercer. I find he deals with 70 - 100 anglers coming across stage better than any other MC I have heard since Ray Scott. He is miles ahead of the Scarecrow in Skinny Jeans who does the post game show for BPT, that dude has not learned the cadence of when to raise your voice for excitement and when not to. He sounds like a 4 year old on a sugar high. For BPT, there are hits & misses for me. For the coverage, the team is not bad overall. The straight man has a voice that you can put up with for hours on end, JT Kenney is funny in a realistic, down home way. Covering fishing is very different than other sports, there is so much dead time. The closest analogy would be golf. Where I see BPT missing it is in the event format & acting fake. If you are going to fish the same lake for multiple days, why drop weights? What sense does it make for 40 people to fish Table Rock on Day 3, then only 10 fish it on Day 4 starting from scratch? They are setting themselves up for situations where Angler A catches 80 lbs on days 3 & and 80 again on Day 4, but comes in second to Angler B who catches 50 lbs on day 3 and 81 lbs on day 4. Dropping weights only makes sense if you are changing bodies of water. I would highly suggest the first 2 days (4 overall) of fishing happen on a large lake (like Table rock), Day 3 happen on a nearby medium sized body of water and day 4 on a smaller body of water. That would justify dropping the weights and also not give any angler a reason to do anything other than catch as many fish as possible every day. As far as acting fake, I'm talking about the "news conference" at the end of events or the award ceremony. There is no press there and there is nearly no crowd there either, quit acting like there is. I understand the slogan "Fake it til you make it", but they are taking it to ridiculous heights. BASS anglers get excited and emotional on stage because of the interaction and reaction of the crowd that is there for the weigh-in. If BPT can't draw folks to watch a post game show, don't pretend like they have. Make it a sit down interview in a room instead of having these anglers try out their acting skills in front of a non-existent crowd.

There are still quite a few Sizzlers in Southrn California, but not as many as from their heyday in the '80s. The current ones are nice, but more expensive than they used to be. Instead of being a fast food style place to get a steak, they have repositioned themselves as a poormans Black Angus.

I would suggest the definition for a "real" bass fisherman is the guy who figures out a way to catch them no matter the circumstances. The gear, the method, the boat are all personal preferences that help that person accomplish that goal. I do think it is helpful to be open to new techniques and gear, sometimes it will work better or increase your enjoyment. Like the OP, I prefer shorter pistol grip rods, but I will pair them with a nice reel like a Revo. On my spinning reels, I'm old school in that I like the Shimano line pickup feature and double handles found on some of their reels, but I learned pairing it with a modern line like Nanofil solved many problems. As for lures, I am always interested in seeing if new lures will do something better than my existing lures. I love throwing Zara spooks, but there are times a Whopper Plopper is a better tool. I'm always giving new soft jerkbaits a try to see how well they skip, but I typically return to a Slug-go or Senko after the trial. Trying new baits resulted in learning Midwest Finesse (Ned Rig), something I am sooooooo grateful that I know now. Not every thing new should be adopted, but some new things will make your fishing life better.

Any chance some of the ones you found were from that client?

Sorry to open up an old thread, but this fits. I found the Deps Buzzjet Jr. pictured below snagged on a boat cover today. It was about 25 yards from a common area, so I am guessing the original owner was fishing from bank, made a bad cast and decided to break off the line rather than ring the owners doorbell to ask to retrieve it. At a Tackle Warehouse price of $25.95, I would have swam over to the dock to get it back!! My 3 most expensive lures (this and a pair of Gantrel Jr's) were all found lures. Either I am way too cheap to buy expensive gear or teenagers in Orange County have money burning a hole in their pockets.

For me, lure size is dictated by the lake and conditions that day. I don't necessarily start with large lures & work small, it all depends on what I believe will work best at that particular time. I am trying to catch the most bass possible but if I am only catching smaller bass, I will change lures, locations and retrieves to continue to see what is needed to catch average size & larger as well as the small ones. Small, average & large are subjective depending on the particular body of water you are fishing. On my home lake, it is reasonable to expect about half the fish to be under 14" and half to be over 14". If I am not catching any of the overs, I know I need to change something up.

If I fished large lakes like Mead or Havasu, I could understand the interest in getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I don't, so I am in the same boat (pun intended) as the OP. The two times I marshaled for BASS events, it was a white knuckle ride in the passenger seat no matter the pro. Ish Monroe had it wide open on Havasu with a 15 mph wind blowing, I kept hoping the next point we saw was the one he wanted to fish. Dennis Tietje and Alton Jones both actually told me "hang on" when they made their runs, they did have a concern for their passenger. On Lake Travis, Gerald Swindle actually drove faster than David Fritts did, however Swindle was able to make the ride seem more in control (I found out later GMan enjoys fast cars as well, so he may understand speed even better than they typical pro).

Don't be so tough on yourself A-Jay, you don't look overweight at all...