MichaelCopeland

Howdy and welcome to our fishing family! ?

Howdy and welcome to our fishing family! ?

I haven't had any luck yet with my Spooks. Don't really give them enough opportunity though. However, instead of adding a split ring to the nose I use a snap. I believe it gives it more room than a split ring to make it walk a little better. Plus if it's not getting any attention I can always swap it out quickly for a Whopper Plopper, a Pop R, a frog, a crankbait or a chatterbait. Yes I use them with chatterbaits too. Saves alot time from having to retie and it doesn't hinder it's action. In fact it actually helps to keep the bass from getting leverage to come unhooked most of the time when it starts flopping around and/or jumping, in my opinion. I am gonna give the Spook more of a fair chance this fall. I do add split rings to the Spook on the hooks as well. I believe that will also help reduce the leverage a bass can get to shake the hook. I want to have confidence in a number of different baits to be able to catch a bass. That way if one fails I'll have several backup plans. I'm slowly but surely getting there! ?

Got to Caney Lakes upper side around 5:30pm this evening. Started off a little slow but caught a nonscorable bass, a 1lb bass and a 2lb catfish on a 1/4oz weighted Texas rigged sapphire blue Z Craw. Then a little while later caught a 1lb bass on a dark green pumpkin Project Z chatterbait with the deal colored Z Man Razor Shad. Hooked into another one but it came unhooked before I could land it. It was getting close to time to go because my girlfriend got back to pick me up around 8:30pm. We smoked a cigarette before leaving. I had changed out my Project Z to my junebug @Siebert Outdoors fogy with the sapphire blue Z Craw trailer while we smoked. I bombed it out there and a 3lb 7oz hawg hammered it. After getting her unhooked and pics taken, next cast out to the same spot another hawg of at least the same size hammered it also. Lost her at the boat dock though. Bummer! A few casts later, same fogy, another 1lber smashed it and when I got it up out of the water it shook off my bait and skittered across the dock back into the water. Another bummer! It's ok though, I had a great evening/night of fishing. Hooked into 8, landed 5 of them. I'm gonna have to stock up on those sapphire blue Z Craws. Them things seem to be what the bass want right now, along with a junebug Sieberts fogy! ?

Nice fish! Happy Anniversary to you and your wife and Happy Birthday to your son as well! ?

Howdy Joe and welcome to our fishing family from Minden, LA! ?

Howdy Greg and welcome to our fishing family from Minden, LA! ?

Howdy Dennis and welcome to our fishing family from Minden, LA! ?

Falls under the "other" choice on the list. Chatterbait/bladed jig wasn't listed either.

Bladed jig with either a 3.75" Rage Swimmer, a Rage Bug or a Z Craw trailer. ?

Sucks that Louisiana land owners were like that. We're supposed to be Sportsman's Paradise! ?

Howdy Kev and welcome to our fishing family! ?

Howdy Len and welcome to our fishing family! ?

Howdy Mike and welcome to our fishing family! ?

I've only been bass fishing since late March early April of 2017. I've had more 5 to 8 hour days of getting completely skunked than I can count on my fingers and toes combined. In fact, I only get to go fishing when my girlfriend will actually take me unless there's a pond close enough for me to walk to, which I was fortunate to have that for a few months before I had to move. I'm limited to fishing from the bank, so most bodies of water I get to go to have hardly any accessible bank to fish from. I've only been able to get out on a boat 3 times since I began bass fishing. However, with all my limitations, I was determined I was gonna catch some bass. I didn't give up. I asked questions on here and got good answers from the awesome folks on here. I've read alot of the articles on here to help give me some insight on what to look for to find the bass and why I should look for those areas. I read books for the same reasons. Of course all of that had to be practiced out on the water. I practiced, practiced, practiced every chance I got. Some days I didn't catch anything, some days I only caught dinks or just 1 bass, some days a mix of dinks and keepers and some days a mix of dinks, keepers and an occasional hawg. Myself, I'm in search of big bass, monster bass, trophy bass whatever you wanna call them. I still get completely skunked often, but I do expect it considering what I'm targeting. The reason I fish is for the peacefulness and beauty of the outdoors, the scenery God created for us. I fish because I feel free of almost every burden in my life. I used to get very upset when I got skunked. Now I feel Blessed for the time I get to spend out there and if I catch a dink or a keeper size or a hawg, well that is a bonus. I still have limitations for when I can go fishing and how much bank there is to fish from, but the wait on being able to get there is the only part that sucks. When I get out there, it's total bliss! Have faith, be patient and be confident when you're out there. Try different things until you find what works for you and stay with it until you have to change things up again. Then repeat the process. I wish you the very best of luck and I hope you don't give up. God Bless! ?

I got home, from inventory in West Monroe, around 2:30am this morning and was at Caney Lakes upper side shortly after 3am. Second cast with my 110 Whopper Plopper I had an enormous blowup on it, felt the tug and I didn't even set the hook that hard and pulled it out of its mouth. Tried the 110 a few more times and nothing. So I tried some of my new Shot Callers from Siebert Outdoors and nothing. Tried the 110 a few more times. Nothing! So I tied on my 1/2oz junebug @Siebert Outdoors fogy with a sapphire blue Z Craw trailer. First cast this 2lb 2oz bass annihilated it. I liked to have never gotten it unhooked. If bass had tonsils, that's where my fogy would have been hooked. Never had a bass eat a chatterbait/fogy that deep before, Wow! Finally got it unhooked from there but the bass was still trying to swallow or something because it got caught in its gill plates. Never had this much trouble unhooking a fish. Unfortunately, as you can see in the first pic, the bass was bleeding pretty good from the gills. Sure did hate that, but it did swim off aggressively. I believe it looked worse than it actually was, hopefully anyways. I was out there til well after sunrise with not even another bite. By then it was starting to get rather hot anyways, so I came on home and took a 4 hour nap. Hope I can get to sleep at a decent time tonight. I gotta be at work at 7am. Even though I only caught 1 bass in roughly 7 hours, I didn't get skunked and it wasn't a nonscorable bass! ?

Got my @Siebert Outdoors order in today! They look incredible! I'm headed to my store in Shreveport now to catch the company ride to West Monroe for their inventory. Glad I'm off tomorrow. I sure do hope I can get out to the lake tomorrow. Soooooooo looking forward to trying my new Shot Callers. Thanks Mike Siebert for an excellent job, the speedy service, quality jigs and just being an awesome friend! ?

I use a Palomar knot on everything(braid, mono, flouro and copoly). The Palomar knot is a great and easy knot to tie and use. It does take a bit more practice with lines other than braid. With leaders I use a uni to uni knot. Goes through my smallest guides just fine. It is an easy knot to tie on leaders with. It does take some practice too and it has to be done just right to make it small enough to go through the smaller guides well yet strong enough to not break when hauling in a decent bass. I agree with @WRB on the snaps with crankbaits, the only thing I'll add is remove the line tie split ring when using them. I also use snaps alot of times with chatterbaits and topwater baits like hollow body frogs, Whopper Ploppers, Spooks and Pop Rs. Hope you get it all figured out! ?

I use a 6'6" and a 6'10" MHF rod and 40lb Sufix 832 braid. Z Man Original, Elite and Project Z and Siebert Outdoors fogy chatterbaits. Never had a problem with them not vibrating at all. Like @LCG said, when that happens give a quick pop or jerk to get the blade going. You should also check to see if any grass or weeds have gotten caught in or around the blade and head. The slightest little bit of that could cause the blade to not vibrate. I've tried using mono and flouro for my line that I was throwing my chatterbaits with. None of them came close to the sensitivity of feeling the blade vibrate as braided line does. Plus with braid there's no stretch, so when you make a bomb cast and a fish hits it right away or shortly thereafter you can get a good hook set and drive that hook in really good. ?

Very interesting. I'm gonna have to try some of those different ways to fish my chatterbaits. The way I usually fish mine is to vary my retrieves from burning them back to slow rolling them back and everything in between, but during the retrieve I use a pumping action with my rod. How fast or slow I use the pump action depends on my retrieve. I try to match the pump action speed with the speed of retrieval. Was very effective for a while, now not so much. Thanks for giving me some new ways to fish my still favorite bait to throw. By the way, in case you don't already know, I'm With Scars on YouTube. Don't have much on my channel because I don't have the proper equipment. Oh well guess I'm better suited for watching videos and not making them...lol! ?

Picked up a pack of black 3/16oz H2O Express tungsten bullet weights and a pack of sapphire blue Zoom Z Craws today after work. Put in an order to @Siebert Outdoors Friday. Eagerly awaiting its arrival. The sapphire blue Z Craws were the only thing in that color I could find that should be a good trailer for some of my Siebert order. Really would like to find any kind of craw and swimbait in tequila sunrise and plum/plum apple/plum crazy or any other plum variation. Those colors have been pretty good to me lately. ?

Howdy and welcome to our fishing family! ?

Howdy AJ and welcome to our fishing family! There's plenty of awesome folks on here to answer any question you may have. I'll be 47 in November and March of 2017 is when I got hooked on bass fishing. I can't get enough of it. Almost everything I know about bass fishing I have learned from the great folks on here or the articles in this forum. I learned some from various books I've read as well. The rest was learned on the water fishing. Putting to use, or at least trying to, the great info I've gotten from here. Good luck and welcome aboard! ?

Howdy and welcome to our fishing family! Don't have any those around here or smallmouth bass either. Maybe someday I'll be somewhere to have a chance to catch some of those. Nice bass! ?

Or when I have a day off. I don't always get Fridays or weekend days off, but regardless of what day(s) I have off, the bite usually seems to suck whether a cold front has come through or not. Alot of it I believe has to do with feeding times for the bass. One never truly knows when those times are, they just hardly ever seem to be feeding when I'm fishing. ?