PressuredLakeFisherman

yup its tough, and the population of socal is HUGE, which means those gen clear bass are heavily pressured, its a perfect storm for lockjaw bass IMO. personally I have found traveling out of state or even to lakes a few hours a way I catch 5x more bass. its hard fishing but it is what it is, we also got huge bass

Okay I will try some jelly worms!

All the time, I have waders for chilly weather but in the summer wearing flip flops and cargo/sports shorts is never a bad option. just dont wear shoes if you are going to be out for a long day because it will make your feet blistery from wet socks rubbing

okay I never thought of tubes! I will have to pick up some Will try some of my realistic craws, thanks ! Fair enough, I live in california and many of our lakes are heavily overfished, given my name. I have found downsizing tends to get more bites, although not as big, at least you catch fish. On a typical weekday I see 30-40 boaters on the water, and weekdays can have even a hundred. When those fish see the typical 6 inch worm they get a little picky, or baitshy. If i lived in texas or flordia I would always through large baits I never thought of texas rigging a ned bait Plus Zman makes super strong plastics that wont tear. I may try that on beds because they kept picking at my lizard tails and worm tails

Yup when you look at all these different rigs, they all have one thing in common, a jig head and a soft plastic/skirt. As long as you are throwing something that gets down to the fish and can slowly bounce on or near the bottom, your probably gonna get bit. sometimes they may be a little shallower or deeper, or Sometimes they like it faster or slower, but they usually will hit it

First bass I ever caught was on a junebug ribbon tailed worm flipping and pitching bushes in relativley clear water. (I had caught a small dink before that on worms in a creek but thats live bait :).

Okay Will look into those, thankyou!

So we all know bass are a little bit sluggish after the spawn, and while I love throwing heavy weights into cover sometimes they just don't get chased or bit. I was throwing a light 1/8th and 1/16th ounce weight on a straight tail worm into light cover, and did pretty well. What other baits would you recommend? I was using a zoom trick worm. There are so many different straight tail worms out there its kinda hard yknow

Hey I went out today with just a spinning rod, light line and a drop shot and caught more fish than I have ever caught. Was fishing really realistic drop-shot baits like a peanut butter jelly or watermelon and it was a blast. Caught them transitioning out from the spawn

Yeah I was reading this and good fish finding equiptment and sonar has completley changed the game. Back in the 60's 70's and 80's when my grandfather fished he used to Tie a super heavy weight with no bait on his local lakes and feel the whole bottom of the whole lake every trip, and he didnt even fish. He mapped it out on paper and marked where rocks where, humps, weeds, and transitions. He was an amazing fisherman and I thought that was a really creative way to figure out where structure was before electronics where a thing. I dont have electronics and will use this method to this day in lakes. I should show you some of the cool maps he made sometime

When to use a weight vs weightless Weighted: Deeper water (To get the bait down to fish faster), Heavier winds, (To feel for bites because its hard to watch the line run off with 10mph winds or so). For flipping and pitching heavier cover to get that bait in there (Some thicker tulies, some thicker grass matts, anything to help it punch down a little deeper. Finally a faster presentation. You can start your day off with a heavy 3/8th weight on the bottom and hop a craw fast, and if they dont like that fast go to a senko slower if water aint to deep. If the wish will be biting stuff fish something that goes faster ya know.' Weightless presentation. (Colder conditions, post frontal), Shallow water or if you want a slow fall fishing. Slower presentations. if there is a really snaggy bottom you can avoid it with a weightless senko, E.G a ton of wood branches the weight wont get wraped up in that, the bait will sit on top of it. if there is little wind so you can watch your line. hope this helped, and you can always mix it up

Well the fact of the matter is, they just aint made like they used to be and its really just manually closing them extends the longevity of the reel bail mechanisms. Its sad. If you want a really smooth closing reel that closes automatically look no further than the Dam Quik. Its a 100 year old reel but the old school bail mechanisms where made specifically to close automatically instead of manually. (You actually cannot even manually flip them unless you disengage a small bar, which makes them a super smooth bail flip. You can pick them up at garage sales for like 30 bucks and they are all steel bodies, I have one in a trout size (1000) (My grandfathers) I wish he was around to fish with me but ww2 was a nasty event as we all know. Nevertheless enough of my rambling they just don't make em like they used too.

Okay yeah I live on the west coast and am just nervous about catching a tank and him pulling me into who knows what but Im sure i can try a 5wt in some more open water Okay awesome I will try those clouser minnows and maybe some rat patterns! I will also use my 5wt and my reel does have a pretty nice drag so u can back it off quite a bit so they can peel without giving them too much. Awesome will try these pattersn thanks!!!!

Wow thats so cool! When fishing your streamers do you use sink tips or full sinking lines? I got a few but was just curious if I should use those or my WF floating fly lines. I also love dry fly fishing who doesnt lol! I also have a few pete poppers that I can try with some floating line and I have caught panfish on them but never bass, but id give it a try! Thankyou so much for your time!!!!

Ya know before I started bass fishing, I trout fished, and I often fly fished. To be honest I never fly fished for bass because you need a different wt rod and I was always nervous they would snap my dinky 4-5wt trout rods but, does anyone use this method for gen clear lakes? Also, what flies and patterns do you throw, streamers? those worm patterns? Also do you fish sink tip lines, as I would imagine you would have too in some situations?