papajoe222

How you jerk the rod determines how the bait moves in the water. Rod tip up=fluke darting up. Rod tip down=fluke darting forward, to the side=forward and slightly up. Sometimes just changing the rod angle will get you bit. Kind of like changing the retrieve speed of some faster moving baits.

I have both a spring scale and a digital luggage scale. Both are very accurate, but the spring scale isn't as reliable for smaller fish. I rarely, however, weigh fish preferring to just get a quick measurement and release.

They've been making a procaster for years and from the first model to the current, they are decent reels. I still use an old 100B on one of my topwater rods.

I take youngsters fishing on a regular basis. Some have more experience than others but they all like fishing with one of three baits; Crawlers, Senko type stick worms and RoadRunners. All can be fished with 8lb. test on med. light to med. rods and will catch everything from crappie to pike.

LunkerHunt makes a sweet little popper. I believe it’s called a Kraken or something like that. Easy to walk, cast and it has a feather tail treble. The price tag won’t give you sticker shock either. Some WalMarts carry them.

I'd guess early sixties 1963

I don't know any taxidermist in my area that'll do a skin mount for that little. Heck I paid $285 for a skin mount back in '86. The current rate is close to $18 an inch for bass.

I agree with Tom. Some external, or internal factor is changing the water color. I'm guessing it's wind. On some bodies of water, especially small ones like ponds, an overnight breeze can churn up things enough to add color. Silty, or muck bottoms with little vegetation sometimes exhibit similar color changes. I don't think the change in water clarity is the cause of your poor success. More than likely it's a result of the fish changing their location/mood. If you used the same presentations in the same locations, regardless of the fact that you had been catching them that way yesterday, you failed to respond to the change in conditions. It's what is referred to as fishing history.

What Tom said. For off shore humps, or other instances where the shore isn't a factor, it would be the shallow side of the weed-bed.

I have a ton of lures that have never seen water, but hopefully they will, someday. If you saw my peg-boards full of spare baits, you'd understand. I do have a couple of lures that I've retired, mainly because of the memories they trigger whenever I pick them up.

I got out on my favorite lake this past week-end and was reminded why I prefer fishing during the week. Every 50yrds. there was a boat working the weed line. Reminded me of some of the tourneys I used to fish. Every other angler was throwing either a buzzer, or a Whopper Plopper. Top water was working, but the fish were seeing a lot of those two baits, so I dug out a Crazy Crawler https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/heddon-crazy-crawler-lures got in line and proceeded to pick off six bass on my first pass. The last one put a hook in my hand as I landed it and I headed to the nearest dock to get it out. Two boats followed me in and offered assistance. I had the hook out in no time and was getting ready to head back out. 'What the f kind of lure is that?' one guy asked when he spotted what I had tied on. I explained what and how long that lure has been around and these guys had never heard of it, or seen one before. Jitter Bugs and Crazy Crawlers produce fish as well as some of today's high-end baits and offer the fish something they don't see very often. Give some 'old school' baits a try. Your pocket book will thank you and you may 'discover' a hot 'new' bait.

Years ago, I was fishing a club tournament. With about 15min. left, I pulled up to a spot shouting distance from the weigh in. I already had my limit and was looking for a kicker. I caught three nice fish off that spot, culled and headed in. I didn't win (came in second by 3oz.), but hearing the guys on the dock cheering me on felt better than a win would have.

Good news folks. I found the secret to power fish for eight hours at my age. I'm not talking fishing a wacky worm or some other presentation that doesn't require a lot of energy output. I'm talking standing on the front deck, chucking and winding, fighting the wind with the sun beating down, the way I like to fish. I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out. The secret is to split up the eight hours into two four hour sessions with a two hour power nap in between. I even add a protein packed lunch and on rare occasions, a 5hr. Energy Drink.

The Fat Ika isn't really a tube bait, although it resembles one. For starters, I'd recommend a tube in the 3.5in. range rigged with an internal tube jig. If you'll be fishing cover, be aware that the exposed hook will get you hung up fairly easily. The more you fish that rigging, the better you'll get at feeling your way through cover and avoiding many snags. The reason I stick with the internal jig is because that gives the tube the most action on the fall and that is when the majority of your bites can happen. 'Stupid' rigging the jig, or using internal weights and T-rigging are weedless alternatives, but you loose some of that spiraling action. Glen did a video on rigging tube baits and another on fishing them. Worth checking out.

A lot depends on how stressed the fish was. Two minutes is a long time for a bass to be out of the water. It adds to the stress the fish has already been exposed to. It's difficult to say whether that fish will survive. I try to land, unhook, measure and photo (if I'm so inclined) in 45-60 seconds. If I have difficulty unhooking, I will skip the last two steps. If I'm not ready, I'll net the fish and keep it in the water until I am.

I would start out casting parallel and working different depths down the drop until contacting fish. Often times there'll be something on that drop that is different (a transition, stumps, cut) that I'll discover doing that. If there's nothing along the section of the drop I'm working and that includes fish, I'll move down and work a different section of the drop. If I contact fish, I'll work that depth, or structure from different angles and with different presentations until I'm sure it doesn't hold more fish. With sharp drop offs, I normally look for irregularities or bait fish before picking up a rod. The presence of a structural element doesn't always indicate the presence of fish, but the presence of cover or another form of structure will increase the chances of fish using it.

Vertical jigging?

I run into that situation frequently during the summer. I'll find fish suspending 30yrds out from a drop off in 18-20ft. of water., 15ft. off the bottom. I know those fish are inactive, but with the right lure and presentation, I feel I should be able to pick off one or two. My frustration is there are only a couple of presentations I'm confident that I can keep in that zone throughout most of my retrieve; cranks/jerk-baits and swim jigs/swim baits. What methods do you use when and if you target suspending fish?

I don't take it to the level that you mention. However, I do envision a bass eyeballing my presentation on every cast. It's the way I stay in tune with what my bait is doing. When I loose focus, I loose that connection I have with whatever bait I'm using that tells me what's going on. It's one of the reasons that I like fishing alone. My wife questioned how I can go three or four hours without a bite and maintain that focus or concentration. I told here that there's the biggest fish I've ever caught out there somewhere and I need to be ready when it takes my offering.

It all depends on what one considers 'best' If you're talking big fish potential, yea, FL, TX, CA. If you're talking numbers of decent, aggressive fish, I would have to agree that the Midwest is best. Lake Michigan,Lake Erie and the numerous, natural lakes of WI and MN offer the opportunity to boat 30+ fish on any given day. Keep in mind that just like searching out the giant FL strain bass, one needs to study the behavior of the fish in question along with that of the forage. Can you catch 30+ fish a day in other areas of the country? I'm sure you can. But given that these bodies of water contain smallmouth and northern strain largemouth, I'll travel north a little in search of a memorable day or two.

Common courtesy. Those using the ramp to launch or load and those docking their craft should be given the opportunity to do so without having go navigate around you. They don't need 50yrds. to do so, but if you witness someone that's having difficulty, give them all the room they need. If there is a lot of traffic, I'd move up shore. There's a lot of structure there. Use a jig or worm that is easy to count down and find areas like those underwater points or the saddles in between them. You can fish them whatever way you feel comfortable. If there are weeds, fish the edges and tops closest to deep water.

Bullet worm weights for both. I go with brass weights and a glass bead, or Carolina Clacker for weights up to 1/4oz. and tungsten for anything heavier. For flipping, I eliminate the noise maker and peg the weight. Same for punching. Tungsten punch weights are pricey, but the smaller profile makes the job easier.

Three baits that are simple to use, cover water quickly and target different depths are a spinnerbait, lipless crank and a deep diving crank. You can go with a buzzbait in place of the spinnerbait and seeing as you've already purchased weights, a C-rig will cover your bottom presentation.

Wind is a pain to fish in, especially on big bodies of water. But it can be very helpful in determining fish location, especially shallow fish. It gets the food chain moving and active and that includes bass. If you can maintain boat control, working a windblown shoreline having deep water access with spinnerbaits is always my first choice. Then, a medium diving crank followed by a Texas rigged worm (heavier than normal weight). Those three baits cover the water column down to 8ft.-10ft. That's the easy way to look for active fish. If that approach doesn't work, you'll need to move out to the first deep structure and change tactics. Start with a deep presentation like a deeper running crank or a 1oz. football jig and parallel cast the structure. A C-rig will present your soft plastic offering up off the bottom. Unless you are proficient at fishing deep, I'd concentrate there and the windblown side of slow tapering points. With points, the opposite approach can work at times, but casting into the wind along with boat control is a lot of work. Topwater, for me. is limited to buzzbaits and I prefer twin blades for the added turbulence. The problem is they don't cast well unless the wind is at your back.

I've switched out bearings on all my Daiwa Sols and Fuegos, added swept star drags and carbon fiber handles to the Sols and switched out gears on two of them. I do it mostly to keep from buying new reels, It's cheaper to do an $80 upgrade than dish out $200 for a new reel that I don't really know if I'll like.