Hewhospeaksmuchbull

Huh, my braid defiantly floats and I'm pretty sure most do. Tie a leader if I need one. I carry a small folding razor knife that fits in change pocket of my Levi's. I use only braid, 50# on everything. With a eight or ten pound leader for finesse.

Clear to lightly stained, fast moving during the week canal. Banks are covered in tullies and other plant growth with some rocks and boulders. Bottom is rocky gravel w/larger rocks to sand with some mud. I haven't found any depth gauges but I think max depth in normal conditions to be 15'. There are some bridges, wash pass through/under, concrete spillways and grates, gates to feed smaller canals. Canal is 80-100' in width with some larger "coves" or really wide spots. I'll get water temp today. When it was warmer I had no problem catching fish in the before mentioned cover/structure, now I dont see fish at these features unless its mid morning or late afternoon/evening(I now know why) and these fish are finicky at best(this is my problem). I can for example float a weightless worm right in front of the fish and nothing, give the worm a twitch and the fish bails. Another guy I have been fishing with presents a fly to them and same thing. In case someone is reading and missed this as I did, Know thy shad- Part 1 Know thy shad- Part II Bait fish by season?

Glad I read this article, Thanks J Francho. Great read, Especially the mention of a jig as a weight. While Zaleski may not like using a jig as a weight on finesse drop shot, seems to me you'd be offering the fish a another choice while Bubba/power shot'ing? I would think this gives a better chance.

Tom, sorry to hear about your son. He has my prayers. My best to you and your family.

Man a lot of great info, Thanks everyone. Seeing as there is so much forage I wonder if the Bass are even hungry? Having this thought I am thinking timing may be my problem, that or I need to get way outside the box. I've thrown every thing I own at them, I'll have to see what the bait Monkey has up its sleeve. I've tried morning and late afternoon/evening/night, in the mornings I am not seeing fish but in the late afternoon and evenings I am, gonna try and see if the sweet spot lies some where between. I am starting to spend more time reading the water, looking for changes. Got a big ole Osprey where I'm fishing. When he's around so are the shad and baby strippers(maybe a stripper pattern bait will get'em?) so maybe the time to fish here is when the Osprey/shad are not around? Another thing I have observed is no bluegill, the bass come up into the shallows but not the bluegill. I've resisted changing lines, going with the bass are not line shy. I've done well with braid in the water I'm fishing which is (pretty d**n clear) in the past. Think I'll change one rig to mono or add a leader to all and see for myself if there is a difference. These spots have become an obsession, it's come to the point that I gonna have to start logging. I cant keep whats what straight in my head. So frustrating, in the past 7 days I have one monster red ear to my name. Put a 5/0 straight through his head when he dared to harass my catfish bait.

We spend a lot of time pondering the behavior of Bass, but I wonder if studying the forage in our respective local waters may be equally important? It seems that finding bass is usually a matter of locating shad, crayfish, ect. So with that in mind I'd like to learn more about the foods that bass seek, their behaviors and how I may use this info to better my bass locating/catching skills. Surly there are some books on this subject, can anybody point me in the direction of some resources that will help me? I'd also like to see if there is any documentation on why bass may chose one forage over another, when and why would bass chose crayfish over plentiful shad or bluegill over shad or a worm over shad or bluegill? It drives me crazy seeing gazillions of gizzard shad, yet the bass will not strike any shad imitations that I throw at them. For instance, I have been fishing my glides and wavers and wakes in gizzard shad, champ swimmer in gizzard shad, hud 68 gizzard shad, nothing not even a strike. And these bait are a perfect match not only in type of forage but also in size. I have tried these baits across the column and with every retrieve known to mankind. If I tie on a bluegill pattern swimbait I get followers but no takers. Rainbow patterns get no attention. Spinnerbait, jerkbait and crankbaits same thing, matching size, type forage = nada. I feel like I'm a perfect example of Einsteins description of insanity, I am doing my best to read what is presented to me and fishing accordingly, there has to be something I'm missing. What is it?

Goes to buy fly reel and rod! Can anyone suggest a budget minded fly casting setup? Bananas are nasty!

Carp! It's the only thing I'm truly good at.

Invited to fish with someone on his boat. I haven't done this before and I am not sure of the Etiquette , the do's and dont's. The guy I'll be fishing with will be fly casting, while I'll be all conventional. So what would your expectations be if you where taking a fisherman out for his first time fishing from a boat?

Guess I'll have to take along a shotgun to protect my swimbaits. Some of them cost more than my shotgun.

I've been very happy with my Dobyns FR765FLIP.

XH, may be a better choice. Certainly if your going to throw up to 8oz. Tom, clued me in on choosing a power in this thread,

Another thing to consider is that the some lexa's have a problem with engaging the spool after a cast. Mine does it, the engagement problem happens about every 8 to ten casts. Most times all that is needed is to spin the handle an extra time and occasionally I'll have to push the free spool lever up manually.

Well at least you and I have this safe space where wives are not allowed to make fun of us.

Am I the only one who plays with their new rods, reels and baits? I'm talking about at home, I'll break em out of the package just to see what the action may be like. I wiggle and shake them, imagining a humongous bass B-lining from the depths to eat my new secret weapons! Will any admit that they also turn into a little boy again when the Tackle Warehouse order arrives? P.S. I just gave my new swimbait a good shake and jiggle, no doubt about it's gonna bring the big girls out to play!

The Monkey and I walk hand in hand.

Funny you say that, I'm scared syteless to get it up against the tullies where the fish are. Seriously its a little different trying to place baits this heavy where needed. And the wind, don't get me started. I have to aim for the middle of the tullies to maybe get in the strike zone, the wind grabs these things and does what it wants. I need a boat!

Uhm, they put them there for me to catch.

Cant really afford the good stuff, but a couple of spro's and a savage gear.

Drinking and fishing is as American as apple pie, aint nothing better than catching a buzz while fishing and the same for catching a fish while buzzed. Now if I could do those two plus sex, I'd have a Costanza trifecta!

Crowd funding? Are they doing this for charity?

No boat, fishing from the bank. Should have said so. I've literally beaten a good portion of the Finnish off of several of my crank baits. I'm gonna throw a jig at them again, spinnerbait wont stay down in the current and I think I'll save some wear and tear on my crankbaits for the moment, getting costly. Your mention of fluro has me thinking, maybe these bass are line shy? I'll try a leader. Just got my swimbait set up, I've only had one chance to use it on this canal. I kinda feel silly as I don't see anyone else using swimbaits on this canal, then again I'm a little different - So Ker-plunking I shall go. So far I've thrown, a Sebile Magic Swimmer, savage gear real trout and Rapala peto(feels like casting a cannon ball) which I did have a blowup on. I've been concentrating on swimming these baits just where the bank suddenly drops deeper, this is where I see fish cruising. I wonder if I should be fishing these down stream? I have been fishing them against the current.

Looking for some tips on how to fish canals/waters that have no cover or structure. There are some small rocks littering the bottom but not anything that they are holding on. There are defiantly bass both LMB, smallies and some stripers. I can see them and watch them ignore my baits. Water is clear with visibility to about 6 maybe 8 feet. I am normally throwing stick baits weightless, the dinks love'em but the larger fish are taking a pass. I have tried crank baits at all depths, lipless, jigs, jigs and craw, Jig+paddletail, spinnerbaits, T-rig creatures/T-rig worms, Kastmaster, topwaters are also not getting them. I have not tried finesse type fishing as the current is usually pretty strong. I haven't been able to see what they are feeding on, I did see a small school of what may have been shad once, I tried pulling a chrome lipless though this school but didn't get bit. I'm kinda out of ideas, HELP!

Quick bait change! I'm finding that having a couple of rods that are similar is a good thing for me, Stick bait on one and a jig on the other, ect. Simpler for me, I don't have to think about it, brakes are set for the bait on the rod. Even having both set up with the same bait is something I would do after missing an opportunity the other day. Had some bass feeding on a small school of shad, I was broken off on a fish and by the time I tied on a new bait they were gone.