papajoe222

It's really never too young, to spark a child"s interest in anything. I've introduced many youngsters from 3-13yr. oldsand the majority of them, though now adults, still enjoy the sport. The most difficult obstacle is their short attention span. Regardless of their age, you need to grab their interest as quick as possible. You do the fishing at first and let them throw rocks, play at the water's edge, or sit behind the steering wheel of the boat until you hook a fish. Hand them the rod and let them enjoy the fight while helping or showing them how to reel it in. Show your excitement as they will pick up on it. Older children will progress to actually doing the fishing much quicker, but regardless, continue doing the hooking of fish until the little wanna be asks; Let Me Do It. The big mistake at this juncture is them not catching a fish NOW, not two or three minutes after you help them toss the bait out. For that reason I recommend targeting sunfish, or active crappie when starting them out. The little guy in my avitar is a 9yr. old I started out at 3yrs.

I'd still give small, fast moving baits a shot. Go with something like a RocketShad that the diameter of your line doesn't affect as much as it would a crank bait or swim bait.

It all depends on the location of the lake you’re targeting. Generally, the first, sustained warming trend(water)will start the bass moving. It could be as little as a three degree rise in temp. Three days or more at that temp. and another sustained warm up wil get them moving again. The down side is cold spells which have the opposite effect. The length of daylight and the sun’s angle will normally go hand in hand with rising water temps.

My thinking also. A split tail spinnerbait trailer is a good, cold water trailer. If I'm pumping the rod tip, I like a good ole pork chunk and once the water warms up and they start moving up shallow, I go with a Kalin's Lunker Grub.

I’m not one that buys into line visibility being a big turn off for fish, but yours is one condition where I do. light line (under 8lb. Test) provides a couple of benefits when fishing super clear water. The first is allowing your presentation to work to its fullest potential. Heavy line adds drag and works against the lure’s built in action. Snags and hang-ups aren’t a concern for you, so there really is no need for heavy line use. You’ll likely get a lot of responses recommending small soft plastics fished slowly and I’ve caught a numbers of fish doing just that. One thing I recommend is small, fast moving baits. Don’t give the fish a chance to scrutinize your offering. Those two approaches should get you bit on a regular basis.

If you’ll be keeping them in their original packaging, Browning make three size binders.

You'd be pleasantly surprised. Today's cranking rods are made to address the inherent problems with fishing cranks. The first is a soft enough tip (mod- mod/fast) to allow both long casts and the fish a good chance at getting the bait in its mouth. The moderate action is forgiving enough to allow a quick head shake or short power run without being overly concerned with the hooks ripping free (provided you don't have your drag locked down. The composite material on many cranking sticks is a good blend that allows sensitivity, flexibility and strength. If you do a lot of cranking, they're a great addition over a general purpose MH/Fast rod.

Without a doubt, blade baits are my go to after ice-out and will produce until the spawn as long as I change my presentation. I love 'em, right? Well............they're also the bait I loose most often. I'll sometimes go through four or five if fishing from shore and one or two if I'm out in the boat. I really don't fret over a lost lure here and there, but on those occasions when that lure is killing it and I loose the last one I have, I sometimes want to jump in that ice cold water to get it back. So what lure type do you have a love/hate relationship and why?

I was lucky today. I got out of BPS for less than $85 and all I went in for was a T-shirt for my grandson. Never did look at 'em though.

Wish I hadn't gotten one in four years! I get more than my fair share of over runs.Mostly when I attempt to add a few yards to a long cast with an unweighted plastic. Those and buzzbaits. I can teach someone how to use a baitcaster and they'll be ribbing me every time we go out together. As mentioned before, run the line between your finger and thumb of the hand holding the reel. You'll not only keep tension on the line, you'll feel bites on your soft plastics that you would have missed.

My starting strategy is erratic retrieve in daylight, steady at night or very low water clarity. Notice I said where I start. and I'm speaking of mostly hard baits like cranks and spinnerbaits. It also depends on the lure. A buzz bait works both ways, but is a lot easier to reel steady.

Every two minutes, a child is diagnosed with cancer. To show my support and to raise awareness and funds for research, I'll be getting my head shaved on Monday. Look for before and after pics (if you don't have a weak stomach) here sometime late Mon. morning, or you can see it happening on FaceBook as I'll be streaming it live at 10:30 central time. I should say my son-in-law will be streaming it 'cause my hair would be grown back before I figure out how to. Before and after pics can also be seen at stbaldricks.org I'm shavee #952317 Joe Cortesi

Thanks Lasher for breathing life back into this thread. BPS here I come. On second thought, I can order online and just have it shipped to my favorite charity.

If you don't need a stout hook, the JP tube hook with the clip on it is an awesome choice. It doesn't work, however, with an internal weight. When doing that, I like a hook with a good amount of wire between the eye and the initial bend for the weight to nest in. Any quality, stout worm hook will work with the bigger 4in.+ tubes. For any thing shorter, you'll want something like the Trokar RyneB mentioned. For tubes, I like TriggerX and Havoc Smash tubes for a long,skinny profile, but my favorite for flipping is a craw/creature tube. Absolutely awesome as a punch bait and you can load up the hollow body with scent, or add an internal rattle.

Hammered blades are good for breaking up the reflection and Colorado and Indiana blades give off a lot of vibration at slow speeds. If your spinnerbaits are double bladed, go with the small Colorado on the clevis and the big Colorado on the swivel, both in dark color and add a red or black skirt. I'd add a trailer like a Kalin's grub to give more drag to a bait with a Willow blade and still allow a slower retrieve. Don't worry too much about color combos in murky water. The fish will be relying as much on detecting vibration and water displacement as they will be on their sight and remember that natural prey doesn't change color.

The most important feature of the gear you use is your comfort level in using it.If you can match it to the task at hand, all the better. Pitching isn't just a presentation for jigs in heavy cover, so if you're pitching a spinnerbait under some overhangs, do you really need a super fast reel and 60lb. braid? I do recommend braid, or fluoro for pitching as the majority of time sensitivity is going to me a major factor in detecting strikes. Don't go out and buy a new combo until you feel comfortable with the technique. Once you are, you may find you do better with a shorter rod and a 6.3:1 reel.

Do your homework. Rising, muddy water will put fish in a survival mode. Security is what drives them, so look for big cover as they'll be tight to the best lay downs, boulders, etc. Newly flooded timber is another prime type of cover . Unless the only cover available is vegetation or newly flooded brush. I'd stick with those targets. Those fish won't be chasing down your baits, so you'll likely need to hit them on the head to get a reaction. With that water clarity. you'll need something to cover water and bang into the cover. A spinnerbait with an Indiana or Colorado blade is great for most any cover. Make it a black one and be sure to bump the cover with it. Same goes for a fat crank bait with rattles. It'll move a lot of water and deflect well off the hard types of cover. This condition and night fishing are the only times I rely on a steady retrieve.

Just like any lure style, lipless cranks have many variations, not counting color schemes. Changing the sound, or vibration or just changing to a silent bait of the same type can make a big difference in your catch rate. The other thing to consider is how you're presenting the bait. Rat-L-Traps are great baits, but sink like a rock when paused or allowed to fall. A Red Eye Shad doesn't have the tight wobble that the trap does, but flutters on the fall. Kind of like the difference between a curly tail, ribbon tail, paddle tail, or boot tail worm or grub. AS for what conditions call for which bait? There really is only one way to find out. The other thing to always keep in mind is the possibility that the fish just aren't reacting to a reaction bait. Only you can figure that out. That's one of the things I love about this sport: No Rules, just guidelines.

My advice to anyone is to use what works. CroakHunter offers valuable information as the spinnerbait continued to produce. Why switch? Often times it isn't the fish becoming conditioned to a particular lure or retrieve, the fish are holding tighter to cover, have moved deeper, or their strike window has shrunk. In those instances, changing lures, etc. isn't going to get you bit. If it does, it's likely that what you were throwing was being ignored.

Not disclaiming your findings croakhunter, but wondering just how pressured that pond is?

Looking to give my grandson his first baitcaster and have settled on one of these two in MH. Price isn't a factor as the Elite Tech is on sale. Just wondering if there's anything easily distinguishable between the two performance wise?

Sorry Koz, but although a bass' brain doesn't have the capability to reason or remember, the instinct you mention also encompasses survival and avoiding a lure that triggers that instinct is a natural reaction on their part. A bass reacts to its environment as it affects their survival. They don't choose to eat an artificial lure, regardless of size, shape, or color. They react to its presence under the current conditions. I've cleaned many a fish with an overfull belly that was obviously not hungry.

Welcome Newbe. As Scott mentioned, those are far from 'ideal' conditions as the fish will be in more of a survival or negative state. They'll be holding tight to anything that offers cover and slack water. A float-n-fly is a hair/feather jig presented under a float (bobber). It's a great way to discover slack water areas when there don't appear to be any.

I'm a strong believer in 'showing them something different, but I put more emphasis on on other things. As an example, my favorite body of water is less than 100 acres and the two most often used lures are plastic worms and lip less cranks. To be more specific, green pumpkin worms and chrome Rat-L-Traps. I use those two baits over 50% of the time, but I'm still showing them something different. The difference is my presentation and differences in the bait itself. By going larger,or smaller, offering something with a different action (Red Eye Shad, or a paddle tail worm). or just a difference in presentation (different speed, or angle of presentation, swimming vs. dragging, pumping the rod vs. reeling it back steady), I'm showing them something different. As for natural vs. unique, I opt for natural to start and if I determine that the fish are aggressive (active) I'll switch to something different. That's when I want my offering to stand out the most. Bass don't have long term memory, but the do, instinctively avoid repeated, negative responses. A fish that's been caught on a rattling crank a few times in a short period, will avoid one because of the repeated negative experience. Similar to a fish that's inhaled a falling leaf a few times. After that it will ignore them because nothing positive resulted from previous attempts.

Just a quick update: As of my last communication with BlueBasser, we have 20 anglers committed to the trip. We’ve narrowed down lodging to two resorts. Both have their own launch, slips, some cabins have a private dock and one resort has boat rentals and allows pets. If you’re on the fence, or thinking about making the trip, let us know as soon as possible.