Rich12

Mostly because I have had the straighten out or break on really big fish. Also have had them shaken loose when grandma shakes her head out of the water with a hard bait attatched.

If your pitching a jig, you have to watch your line from the time the jig hits the water until you reel it back to the rod tip. If your not watching with 100 percent attention, you have missed so many big fish you would cry. Stare at your line if you got a jig one. If you wont, sell your stuff and go bowling. Your missing probably 2/3 of the hits you get on a Jig. Key indicators. 1. "sink" rate of your line slows, tear her head off 2. Line stops before it should, tear her head off 3. Ever so slight almost imperceptible "twitch" where your line enters water, tear her head off. 4. Jig feels mushy, tear her head off 5. Jig "disappears" and you feel nothing, really tear her head off. Thats Jig pitching. Failure to do these things has most likely cost you a PB you never knew was there.

Hot Tip. Never ever ever ever use a production fishing lure with the original hooks and rings, period. Buy the best most expensive rings and hooks you can find and replace them all. Dont care what a lure manufacturer says, replace them. I speak from 60 years of doing this.

19 footer simply wont work. Tell her you should get a Jaguar so you can both lay out and spend quality time.

All the years I guided, one thing always amazed me. Would be at lunch with clients and someone always ask, where did you catch them. My answer a lot would be 12 feet of water off grass lines. I can tell you how many times I would see that person that afternoon fishing a grass line. Yep, you guessed it. The guys would have his boat in 12 feet of water throwing his lure toward the shoreline direction. Now keep in mind I told this guy the fish were on grass in 12 feet of water. Here the moron sits with his boat in 12 feet of water with the bass under his boat tossing his lure away from them. Saw it every time.

This I have know since about 1964

In my hand.

Buy a fishing lake map with contours. Any lake will do. Study the map looking at the shore line and then whats in the water off some irregularity in the shore line. Creek channels can be detected by large trees or lines of trees seemingly in the middle of the lake or bay. Willow or cotton wood tree stumps tend to be on or very near the creek channel. Then, of course, there are obvious cover such as weeds or trees or docks. Then relate this knowledge to observations of what ever lake you want to fish. If you are using lures like a worm and 1/4 oz sinker, these can be an impromptu depth finder. They tend to sink around 1foot per second. 10 seconds = 10 feet, etc. Not perfect, but it works.

There is no proper way to reel. Sometimes say a crank bait needs to be burned, sometimes slow rolled, sometimes stop and go, sometimes cranked with little jerks. Zillion different ways to reel. Depends on lure, conditions, set up and what the fish want. I recall lots of time I could not get bit on a texas rig. I started just slowly cranking it steady and got bit like crazy. The fish will tell you what they want.` It is you that has to try different things.

Anytime anything displaces water, it creates a pressure wave. The wake of a boat is displaced water. Spinner blade, same thing. Get near a Tug boat on the Mississippi River and you will understand displaced water.

A spinner bait blade is just like an airplane wing. As the blade moves through the water, water moving over the top of the blade speeds up while that under the blade stay static speed. Just like an airplane, the faster water over the top creates lift. The pulsing you feel can be compared to a helicopter blade spinning. The advancing blade generates move lift than the retreating blade. Thus, the whop whop whop you year from a helicopter. The "advancing" portion of the blade is as it moves over the top of the spinner bait, the retreat is when it moves below the wire behind the head into disturbed water. This DOES create pressure waves (vibration) that does transmit through the water. If it did not, you would never catch a bass out of water that looks like chocolate milk. I might add, the larger and more cup in a blade, the bigger thump you get. Dirtier the water, bigger blade I would use. Say go from a willow leaf to a quarter size or larger Colorado or Indiana blade

I keep my drag screwed all the way down. Always have. When I have a big fish on, as it gets close to the boat, I back my drag all the way off and use my thumb on the spool. That way, I can control the amount of drag I need or no drag at all. When that 10 or 12 pounder is next to the boat and decides she is going back down, you want very little drag till she gets some distance then down and tighten up with the thumb. Never lost a really big fish doing this. I have had big girls tear off or break off making that last move when using my drag.

Most wont let you because of liability reasons. They dont want you on the course while people are playing golf. Public courses are generally open daylight till dark, so really no time for you. Golf balls hurt. A golf ball can kill you.

How do you guys know that your were not fishing someone else's spot? Plays both ways.

Signs of a giant Bass bite: 1. The weight of the lure disappears, ie.. you feel nothing. 2. Minute almost undetectable "peck". 3. Mushy feel when you go to move the lure. 4. Dead weight when you go to move the lure. 5. Line goes slack while retrieving a crank bait. 6. Top water lure just disappears from the surface. ie... one second your lure is just sitting on the surface, you look back and its gone. 90 percent of the bass over 7 and almost 100 percent of the fish 10 and over I ever caught fell into one of the 6 item listed. Recognize those and you wont miss the big girls.

Would be no difference. Use what you like. To a fish, a worm is a worm. Color is more important.

any quality mono. Nothing else needed. Any decent brand like trilene, etc. Dont need anything fancy regardless of what someone else may say.

Dont need a hook for gar. Just take 4 or 5 inches of cotton rope. Unravel it and tie it on. The threads wrap up in the gar's teeth. Never lose them that way. As a kid, used to catch them like that in the Ouachita river in Louisiana. Some were 6 and 7 feet long.

I put crayfish in a blender with a 3 or 4 drops of anise and some mineral oil. Grind and add oil to consistency. Wife don't like it but fish do.

If the fish is there, I will catch it. There are certain things that will tick off a fish. Learn them. There are ways. 41 years guiding teaches you things a lot of fishermen dont ever figure out. I had the advantage of 200 days a year on the water and fished with 1000s of fishermen. You learn things. There are some completely stupid ways to get a fish to bite, but they work. Once one 1000 dollars from a customer because he bet me I couldn't catch a fish on a piece of bubble gum. Bought some new rods and reels with that money.

What your describing is skill, not luck. Luck would be you randomly toss a bait out anywhere and catch a fish. Your scenario is skill. You went and found structure then found cover on that structure which is ideal for a good fish. If you properly work over the area with what the fish want, she will bite. Done it way too many times. Now if you just drove out on the lake, stopped your boat and just happen to stop on that creek bend not knowing its there, is pure luck.

Right spot. Lure dont matter if no fish there. If the fish are there, figuring the lure is easy mode.

What Catt said. Set the hook hard as you can. If you lure comes back to the boat with no fish, you should at least have it's upper lip on the hook.

Caught a couple of hundred 10 plus fish out of Lake Fork when I guided there. 90 percent of those fish came between 11am and 1pm, the rest very very early or very late. Dont know why, but I guess there is less work for them to do to feed without all the dinks running crazy.

A: Slow down B: If you hooking outside the mouth or on a rear hook, change colors. Same for plastics. missed fish, change colors. Lastly, Sharpen your hooks till they stick you even if your just looking at them. Did I say sharpen your hooks?