papajoe222

This experience taught me a lesson I'll likely never forget. One of the first tournaments I fished out of my own boat, I drew an old fart as a non-boater. It was a slow day, to say the least, by noon I still hadn't boated a keeper. The old codger, on the other hand, had three quality fish in the live well and the kicker was that we were both throwing the same bait. Now before all you grey hairs start getting on me, this was back in the late 70's and I was young and thought I knew most everything there was to know about bassin'. I started concentrating on what he might be doing that I wasn't. I watched his rod tip angle, how fast he was cranking, how often he paused, or sped up the bait......Nothing, nada.... he was mirroring exactly what I was doing. I made a cast to an old dock piling as we approached it with nothing to show for my efforts. I looked back and that wise old man was waiting until we passed that piling before he cast back at it. Yep, #4 and his biggest of the day. WTH I just cast to that dang post with the same friggin lure, This guy must have some magic up his sleeve, was my conclusion. At weigh in, I sat there fishless while he had a lock on third place. He must have seen the big question mark hovering over my head as I sat there licking my wounds. "You're wondering how I caught those fish using the same bait you were, aren't you? I nodded and he said two words; different angles and walked past to his car with his winnings. The thick skull I have kept me from understanding what he meant for the entire two hour trip home. It was only after I began putting my gear up in the garage when I dropped a couple of rods on the floor. There they sat, in almost a perfect X pattern when the light finally came on. Not only will I never forget that lesson, I realized then that my knowledge of bassin' barely scratched the surface. I'm 74 and still learning.

I'm heading down to Mississippi for a week or so and I'm looking for places to wet a line (from shore). Preferably retention ponds or smaller lakes with shore accessibility. I'll be stopping in Nesbit on the way down and there's a small lake on the property of the place I'm staying. I'm also guessing that the spawn is over down there and figured, being shore bound, I'd stick with a worm for bottom contact, a frog for topwater and a spinnerbait for in between. Any other suggestions would be helpfull. Thanks

perch

Just wondering how many of you have used a Plopper at night and if it produced better than other topwaters you have in your tackle box? It took me a long time to jump on the band wagon called Whopper Plopper. I broke down last season and purchased the 75 and 90 and forgot about them. They didn't end up in my 'Top Water' box, however and ended up in my 'Favorites" box. Last night I decided to do a little night fishing and once all the sun's light disappeared, I broke out my favorite night time topwater, a black Jitterbug. I made about six casts with it and knew something was wrong as I couldn't hear that familiar gurgling sound. I took it off and was ready to put a buzzbait on when I noticed the 75 in the box as I put the Jitterbug away. You guys know where this is going, don't ya? Yes, 14 bass latter, I chased that bandwagon and got on. I don't think I'll be getting off any time soon. Funny thing is, I use a very similar bait for Muskie at night and never thought to apply that tactic to bass fishing. Yes, I'm slow, but in my defense, I was born before Rock N Roll.

You're spot on with your thinking, but missing fish with your retrieve. If fish are hitting your offering just after it hits bottom, or with the first drag, Duplicate that during your retrieve. Almost like stroking a jig, but not as violent. Raise your rod tip quickly to about the 11:00 position and let it fall under light tension. Your jig will fall on an angle similar to its initial fall after you cast.

Two things most anglers disregard when fishing gin clear water. The first is shade, specifically shade that is cast by something under water. Drop offs, weed edges, big boulders, just to name a few. Fish that shaded area first. You do that with shade that's visible above water like that of a dock or a shoreline tree. The second is speed. I can't stress this factor enough. The common train of thought when targeting gin clear water is to downsize and slow way down. You can and will catch fish using that tactic, but don't rule out speed, in fact I start with that until the fish tell me they won't hit a fast moving presentation. I've caught countless numbers of bass from the clear water strip pits of northern Illinois, burning a Rat-L-Trap parallel to the steep drop of those pits. If you can, work a jerkbait, or walking topwater as fast as you're able to.

How dare you even think that.! Golf is the biggest waste of good fishing time there is. What else takes three or more hours and has an outcome that is fairly predictable. The few times I've gone golfing, the only thing I thought about was fishing. I've never been fishing and thought about golfing.

I've been fishing for over 60 years and have gone through my share of mid priced reels, especially spinning reels. Although I don't fish with them as much as I did in my early years, two of my reels are what I consider higher priced ones. One is 15yrs. old and the other is 12. I never had a spinning reel last more than seven or eight seasons prior to that. For the cost of two decent reels, I was able to purchase that 15yr. old. Not to mention I enjoy having and using the better ones. I will admit that I didn't notice much improved performance with spinning gear, but when I purchased my first Daiwa baitcaster, is was like switching form a Chevy to a BMW.

Those rare days are what many of us live for, but they also offer an opportunity to try out a new technique/bait, or gain confidence in using one. The best way to do that is to target active fish. This is exactly how I gained confidence in a Ned rig. I had caught a dozen or more bass in my first hour on the water crawling a tube up the steeper side of a point. I switched to a Ned rig and although my catch rate dropped dramatically at first, once I'd been schooled on the light almost non existent bite, it increased considerably. Now when the bite is tough, I'll switch from a 3 1/2in. tube to a 1/8oz. Ned. One of these days I'll give a 1/16oz. a go, but that's a ways off.

I use my electronics to find suspending bass on pre-spawn locations and then check other locations for active bass near or on the bottom. If I find them there on that first spot, all the better. The bluegill here are usually two weeks behind the bass, but if I see their beds, I'll do a quick fan cast of them from a distance with a bluegill imitating tube. If no bass respond, I'll move out deeper. When the bass aren't feeding on them, they'll be suspended over deeper structure and will be in more of a neutral mood rather than the negative one immediately after the spawn. Keep in mind that not all bass will be using bluegill as their main forage. In seasons other than the actual short spawn a bass' life revolves around feeding. Find the forage and the bass will be close by.

Here I thought you always do, now I find out it's only after the spawn.

I just wanted to wish all you mothers a Happy Mother's Day

I will normally switch to a drop shot using a round split shot (the ones without the ears) lightly pinched on the end of the line. If it does get stuck, a steady pull will get the business end back and you can just crimp on another split shot and you're back in business.

The only time I use it is in the spring for the first couple of outings. After I've gotten a little tan, I rarely bother. The exception is when I'm on vacation and I know I'll be on the water for more than five hours, then it's whatever is still in my bag from the spring. I do use a Coppertone stick on my oversized nose and the tops of my ears though.

I've caught the same fish more than once on a 60acre lake that I fish fairly regularly. The first time I can remember, a nice fish blew up on my spook and halfway to the boat, my line snapped. I was more upset that I lost the lure than because I lost the fish. A little less that two hours later I caught her again, this time on a shallow running crank, not 50yrds. from where I'd hooked her the first time. Got my Spook back. A couple of other times, I've done it fishing the same deadfall a couple of hours after catching and releasing a fish. Shallow fish are territorial and if the big ones don't return to their home, another will move in, sometimes that same day.

I'll drive up to two hours and my 'normal' commute is just under an hour. There are a couple of lakes that I can be on the water twenty minutes after I pull out of my driveway, but I don't frequent those. Once a week if that often. My 'home lake is a 35min. drive and produces a few 6lb. bass every year. For numbers, I travel out of state, either Indiana or Wisconsin.

I began using hi-viz braid on the combos I let the kids use. It was/is a lot easier to see when line watching. The kids catch on quickly and I found that it was much easier to watch that line than fluoro, mono, or regular braid. I've since switched my jig, worm and finesse combos over to hi-viz braid mainline and fluoro leader. I currently only use Suffix on my C-rig and deep jig combo and the jig rod is straight braid.

If you're unsure what stage of the spawn the fish are in, cranks and jigs would be my first two choices. You can fish them at any depth and one or the other will appeal to them based on their activity level. If these two aren't in your comfort zone, a spinnerbait and plastic worm would also fit the bill. If you're unlucky enough and catch them on the beds, Look for areas closer to the dam as the fish there may still be in pre-spawn. If fishing a natural lake, check out the staging areas the fish use prior to and after the spawn. The same baits mentioned are still good choices, but I'd opt for a suspending crank for post spawn fish.

Nothing wrong with that strategy of catching a limit of legal sized fish. What I would change is what you do after you've accomplished that. If you continue with the same bait in the same places, you can expect your results to be the same. True, you could possibly hook into something bigger,. but your time would be better spent targeting bigger fish. Three suggestions; buzzbaits, jig/trailer and target wood cover that's not visible to the naked eye. With bigger fish baits and bigger fish cover, you have a much better chance of upsizing your bag and possibly culling all those smaller fish.

Demand is what changed. More and more anglers are shying away from big billed crankbaits and switching to other presentations that don't tax the angler's wrists like trying to work them with a 7.1. Here's a hack for your higher gear ratio reels; only fill your spool half way with line. The smaller diameter reduces the IPT of the reel. The only thing you won't gain is the torque the lower gears offer. I ended up ordering 5.1 gears for my Daiwa Fuego because there was no offering in that gear ratio for that model. Diawa does offer other models in 5.1, I just wanted that particular model. I now have two reels with lower gears ratios, one for deep/slow cranking and the other for slow rolling spinnerbaits. I have difficulties slowing down and those two make it a lot easier.

You're for sure insane. A sane person wouldn't park the baitcasters for future consideration, he'd pack them up and send them to some old fart that's been fishing with the same old baitcasters he was using at the turn of the century. PM me for my address.

I'm laughing because it was you and not me. I do feel for you, though. While waiting in the store parking lot while the wife was shopping, I decided to dust off my pitching 'skills'. I felt like a rookie trying to hit an oil spot from 20ft. I know it was because I wasn't standing from an elevated spot. Got two comments from passers by: "I don't believe you're going to catch anything and (obviously from another angler) You shoulda been here last week, we were killing them here."

As has been stated, what type of line you use for backing has zero effect on the mainline. The reason folks started using backing with braid was the cost of braid vs. mono and the fact that braid would slip on the spool without something to grab on to. How much backing you use is up to you, but remember that 40yrds. of mainline is all that you'll need, unless you have a strong wind at your back. More than that is just a waste of braid.

I believe the equipment you use determines whether or not you should add a trailer hook. A Med. to MH/ Mod rod and 12lb.-14lb. Mono wouldn’t call for a trailer hook. A MH/Fast rod using 30lb braid would. I use the latter as my spinnerbait setup and almost always use a trailer hook. The exception is a bait possessing a long lower arm ehere the hook extends to the back of the trailing blade.

For me, it depends on how fast I'm working the bait. A feathered treble adds drag to the back of the bait and you can only work one so fast until that drag prohibits working it faster. When they really shine is when worked slow, or paused frequently. That little extra tail action makes the difference between lookers and biters.