OCdockskipper

When I am teaching others how to skip under docks, they seem to have the most success quickest with a wacky rigged senko on a sturdy spinning rod. The heavier 5" Senko is a little easier to learn with than the smaller models. Plus, 80% of the docks on my lake always have a boat or boats on them, so when a misfire hits the boat, it is a quieter "thump" compared to the rifle-like "crack" of a jig head hitting said boat hull. And trust me, in the beginning, you will misfire often. As far as fishing around docks, as Bluebasser said, just about everything else is in play. A good percentage of the bass you catch around the docks will tend to be positioned near the corners, but it changes often as to whether they want something dropping vertically past them or run horizontally past them (not to mention going from shallow to deep vs. parallel to the dock).

Not so much a goofy rig as a goofy technique. At age 10/11-ish, I somehow got my hands on a packet of red Mister Twister Curtly tail worms, the ones that were bigger than a grub and were kind of a predecessor to the ribbontail worms of today. All I knew about fishing was still fishing for catfish or trolling with lures like Flatfish. So my buddy & I piled into the 6 foot dingy we had mounted an electric motor on, ran catfish hooks through the worms like you would do with an exposed jig head, and started dragging them behind the boat at a speed fast enough to make the tails move. With no weight on them, they stayed pretty close to the surface. It was late summer, so we would troll right through the middle of the weed beds, basically making a path as we went and dragging the worms in the path. Rarely would we get a strike on the first or second pass through an area, but we did catch a few fish going back through our paths later.

How awesome is the Ned Rig? Well yesterday afternoon, I have a ZMan TRD tied on and am holding the rod out in front of me, about 6 feet off the top of the water. Suddenly, a swallow or sparrow or some kind of smallish bird zips in and tries to grab it. I instinctively jerk it back, at which time the bird does a 180 and goes after it again. This crazy bird was zipping around me like a fighter jet, hell-bent on eating that TRD. The only thing I could think of to do to stop him was make a cast, so I quickly skipped it under a dock I was approaching. The bird made a halfhearted attempt to follow it, but then zipped up & away. A moment later, the line jumped and I had hooked up with a bass under said dock. I landed it, looked around for the Amelia Earhart of birds, but she was no where to be found. I was freaked out for the next 10 minutes. To me, this means the Ned rig is effective for both fish & fowl. In fact, I believe I could have pitched it up on the shore and caught the dock owners cat for a triplicate.

If you use a ZMan Ned rig (1/15 oz head & TRD), the light weight & buoyancy allow you to fish it like a fluke. A swimming technique over the top of the grass will work, but it does take some skill & focus to keep it at the proper depth(s). You won't feel most strikes, the line will either suddenly feel heavy or the line will be moving sideways as you reel in.

Typically, top sales producers are given more leeway by owners/management than others for the simple fact that they are more valuable. If the reverse is happening, than something has changed. It may be of your making (you have pushed too far) or it may be out of your control (a manager/owner has a non-business reason for favoring others), but it will affect you either way. The tough part is getting an honest answer as to the impetus for the change, especially in a larger, more political company.

Exactly. There is no greater memory than the first time you see a bass that size surface, mouth wide open, shaking their head to try & spit out your lure. I tell people that I take out fishing that I am looking forward to seeing the look on their face when they see that. It will make even the most soft-spoken, church goer let out a "Holy S*** !!"

Your thumb is blocking its mouth, so i can't see how far the jaw extends. If pressed, I would say that is a largemouth, for spots typically have smaller heads in addition to the smaller mouths & different pigment on the lower body. There are also regional types of bass in rivers like the Guadalupe bass in Texas or red-eye bass in Alabama. Does Indiana have something like that?.

I think Glenn has a video about that rig...

My home lake has no mats or lily pads, so I really don't have a need for a frog. However, I ordered the smaller 7/16 oz Bluegill because I wanted to try it skipping under docks, which are a major form of cover here. I thought the smooth, cupped shape would lend itself to skipping better than the frogs. I tried it today, probably threw 50 casts with it. It skipped pretty well, stayed low and went back deep under the low hanging docks. Many of the frogs I had tried tended to bounce a little higher, so they would often smack the dock or not get as far back under. I liked the way it walked under the dock, you could get a lot of action without pulling it out from under the dock. I had 4 blowups on it & caught 1. I also had one follow it out from under the dock and then turn around & go back under the dock. I snuck to the other side of the dock, skipped a wacky Senko in & caught the fish via the back door (of the dock, not the fish, I believe he was straight). It is kind of cool having blowups under a dock, it is like fishing at night. As a comparison, I made probably 200 casts with the wacky senko, caught 17 fish and only missed 1 bite. While it won't replace a senko or jig for me when skipping docks, it does give me an alternative, weedless, different look for the fish. I like the purchase so far.

So I'm reading a thread and Bluebasser mentions using the ZMan Punch Crawz as a Ned rig. I check them out, wow, they look good, so I decide to get a couple of packs in a couple of different colors. I then realized I could use another pack of TRD's in California Craw and you know what, those ZMan bat wings look like a good trailer. Someone on the MLF highlight show was using a rage bug turned sideways as a trailer on a chatterbait, good imitation of a bluegill, give me a couple of packs. Didn't I read that the Live target bluegill's skip real well?? Add that in, I need to get over $50 for free shipping...

X2

It kind of looks like a shad with a bloody nose running away from the bully who punched him...

My personality is one where keeping track of things is fun, not stressful. I enjoy looking back on the records I have kept, for me it helps reinforce memories that otherwise may get foggy over time. I don't go overboard with the record keeping, I am still out there to fish, not do data entry in Quickbooks. I keep track of just enough to make me happy. That said, as of July 2nd of this year, I have gone out 30 times (average trip 6-7 hours) and have caught 906 bass so far. The most in a day was 51, which included a flurry of 18 fish in less than 90 minutes and the least in a full day outing was 14 on the 3rd of January (although I did have a 2 hr mini-trip where I caught 6). I didn't total up the numbers per lure type yet (that is a end of the year thing) but it looks like the Ned rig will most likely defend his title of #1 fish catcher against a myriad of challengers,

I've always enjoyed using lures instead of live bait when fishing for bass for 2 reasons. First, it is a more active approach (I get bored real quickly) and second, I enjoy making accurate casts to targets. I don't have any fun lobbing live bait in the vicinity of a target, which is probably why I rarely fish a Carolina rig and only use a dropshot when other plastic presentations aren't working. When I make an accurate cast, skip or pitch exactly to a tough to reach target and am rewarded with a strike, it is as if all is right in the world.

Well you don't have to slap me too many times before I get the message... I think I'll start carrying a laser pen and a Super-Soaker on my boat when I go out. As I mentioned, I know where they roost, so maybe continued annoyance will get the pair to move on to quieter pastures.

I know that cormorants typically illicit a visceral negative reaction among sport fisherman and have read the negative affect they have on sport fishery's. I wanted to throw this up for discussion not necessarily to get a scientific response, but more of peoples opinions based on personal experience. I like on a small lake (about 100 acres) surrounded by homes in a suburban environment. It is a catch & release fishery and doesn't get that much pressure despite the number of people who live on the lake (more So Cal anglers focus on saltwater fishing or stocked trout than largemouth bass). About a decade ago, the average bass I caught here was about 12" long & often were skinny. There are no shad in the lake and all of the bluegill were either under 3" long or over 10" long. Like many ponds & small lakes, I believe the lack of any harvesting stunted much of the bass population. Now the bass population is very different. There still seem to be just as many numbers of fish, but the average size is closer to 14" and nearly every fish has a bit of a belly on them. Larger fish are showing up, 7 & 8 lb fish, good for a So Cal lake without Florida strain. The two differences I believe are instrumental between now & then are 1) the stocking of crayfish & 2) a pair of cormorants that have made this lake their home. The crayfish are stocked 3 times a year, a natural method the HOA chose to fight off zebra mussels. Just 2 days ago, two of the bass I caught had crayfish antenna sticking up from their gullet. While I believe this increase of high protein forage has helped, I think the pair of cormorants have also helped by culling down the numbers of 6" - 10" bass. They are in effect the only "meat fishermen" on the lake, taking a fish or two a day and helping keep the fish population in a healthy balance. Now I am fully aware that if a flock of 50 plus cormorants descended on the lake, it could be devastating. I think that the large human presence, between homeowners and pleasure boaters, keep other cormorants from joining in. In fact, the only time I see the cormorants fishing is at dawn, when I pretty much have the lake to myself. As the day progresses and people scurry about, the pair of birds retreat to a tall Eucalyptus tree until the next morning. I was original concerned that they were a nesting pair, but in the past few years, neither has made nor sat on a nest. Apparently they are just a couple of bachelors hanging out. The HOA has a policy of harassing migratory waterfowl to keep them from making the lake a home, often chasing off the loud Canada geese. I haven't mentioned anything to them about the cormorants because I don't know if they are a positive or negative in these small numbers, although I am obviously leaning towards them being a plus. Has anyone else had experiences with cormorants that would confirm or contradict what I believe to be occurring?

That may have indeed been the case. Near the boat the fish have more leverage and angle to bend a hook. Remember that in addition to the rod being a shock absorber, use your arms as one as well. I tend to keep my rod holding arm high when a big fish is near the boat, it allows me to quickly go with her if she surges in any direction. To set your drag, use the same scale you weigh fish. It will require a 2nd person to hold & read the scale as you pull against it. As a safety measure, tie the line off the scale as opposed to just hooking a lure on it, no need to send a missile flying towards you at short range.

Cool collection, looking at those is like traveling back in time. I remember fishing with those Bagleys like the one in the top row, 3rd to the left or the Rapala on the far left of the 2nd row. The Silver one with the googly eyes, far right, 4th one down. Is that made by Rebel or Rabble Rouser? I recall using a lure with a lip & concave face decades ago, but I can't recall who made it.

I rarely change hook size, it often changes the action of the lure. The best tip I can give to stop hooks from bending doesn't have to do with your hook, but rather your drag settings. Setting the drag real tight when you are flipping in a grassy jungle makes sense, but in applications where a square-bill is effective, I'd recommend setting it much lighter. The rule of thumb is to set the drag at 25%-33% of the rating of the line, but you can go lighter than that if you are using heavy line with smaller hooks. I have (accidentally) caught dozens of catfish between 10-15 lbs on crankbaits & jerkbaits and never had one bend a hook because my drag is set to let them pull line before the hook bends or the line breaks. A big catfish will actually pull like a truck whereas a big bass will surge and head-shake, but the concept of correct drag setting applies to both species.

It makes you realize how easy it is to miss a big fish...

Thanks Jeff

I have never had the Canada geese on our lake mess with lures, but the small painted turtles do. They will follow an unweighted plastic worm on the surface all the way to the boat, but are such slow swimmers it is easy to keep it ahead of them like a carrot on a stick. Then, when they start to swim away, you flip it ahead of them and they follow it back to the boat once more. We have really dumb turtles on our lake.

In Pennsylvania, egrets are the size of Pterodactyls...

I always recommend a 10 footer for two adults to give each other more elbow room. For an adult & a child, I would still recommend a 10 footer for the same reason. No matter the size of the second person, the extra space of a 10 footer just helps with all of your gear. Plus, with a 10 footer, if your son gets bored, there would probably be room for him to lie down & take a nap

A couple of years ago, I beat my buddies PB by 2 ounces on the same lake. Yesterday, I beat my own PB, again by a scant 2 ounces. I caught the 8lb, 4 oz girl pictured below at 8:04 yesterday morning (honestly). She hit a 6" Zoom Dead Ringer, Green Pumpkin color with part of the tail dipped in chartreuse Spike-it and covered with Fish Sticks shad attractant, Texas rigged with an 1/8 oz tungsten sinker. I was throwing that on a 6' 6" BPS Carbonlite medium rod with a Shimano Spirex RD spooled with 8lb Berkley Nanofil and a leader of 8lb P-line 100% fluorocarbon. She was in 3 feet of 81 degree water off the corner of a dock that I almost didn't fish. Nearly all of the fish I had caught before her were in 9-10 feet of water on some offshore spots and I was making my way from one such spot to another. As I was nearing an isolated dock on a point between the two spots, I fired out a cast to the front right side of the dock. The Dead Ringer stopped sinking nearly immediately and I saw the line moving left. I never felt a thing, she must have casually inhaled the worm like it was a green M&M. I reeled down, set the hook and moved her out in front of the dock, at which point she came to the surface and yawned, apparently bored by being hooked with 8lb line . She then decided that life was more comfortable under the dock and stripped off about ten feet of line as she went. I was able to get her turned and led her out one more time. She came to the surface a few times, wallowing, never able to get her body completely out of the water. Her big mouth made it easy to lip her on the first pass by the boat. After pictures & measurements (she was 24 1/4" long), she swam off as nonchalantly as all big fish seem to do. She was in good health, not fat but not skinny and strong as an ox. It was a fun start to a holiday weekend.