thediscochef

So this may be a topic for a different thread, but I was wondering how yall rig your shakeyheads and how yall retrieve them

Bringing some owner shakey ultra heads, 1/16 and 1/8oz and 4" finesse worms for sure. I'll have to see if I have a paddletail somewhere. The owner of the lake says the primary diet is bluegill

The only time I like hearing drag is when my line is tight enough to make me worry about it breaking. Otherwise it sounds like a bad hookset and lost fish.

Working on that one ?

She did actually, wants to learn how to fish. I'm trying to make sure we both get something ? This forum is the best, y'all always come through with great advice

Ya know The biggest fish I've ever seen in person was caught on a jerkbait. I've never been able to figure them out. I think I tend to get 30 minutes into fishing new things, lose confidence because of my impatience, and switch to what I use 95% of the time. I need to go fishing and only take jerkbaits or something, until I figure out how to fish them...

Slow, deep, and tight to cover. Midday is when I catch my bigger fish, though my PB came at 10:05PM on Christmas

I was in Dalhart for a work night this week and Meredith was calling my name...wanted to stop at some of the lakes on 287 but they're all dried up. I have tons of family in the central panhandle. Somehow I've never been to Meredith. We're having a memorial for my grandpa in May...I intend to bug my uncle to drive the male cousins around in the pontoon boat so I can get me one of them toothy bass ?

And here I am dreaming of just 10lbs LOL

So the cabin is provided with kayaks which will be used for sure. I will be there Feb 21 through 25, and things should be in a general warming trend. I suspect I'll be getting in towards the middle of prespawn or the beginning of spawn. I'm not sure if the lake has a contour map or not, but it's also in an area that may have Guadalupe bass so I may pull one of those. I need to text the guy who owns the place and pick his brain. We will be making day trips to canyon lake and Buchanan as well, Canyon has super clear water. Never been to Buchanan but definitely want to check it out. Might also take a detour to lake travis, I have a buddy in Lago Vista. From the air, the private lake looks more like a large pond with lake-like structure and shape.

Can't catch em if they aren't there I'm thinking visibility will also increase how many fish will see the lure. I may throw a mini fluke on a 1/16oz weighted ewg and see what happens, too So many choices with clear water, the usually murky water I fish requires noise and flash to maximize the number of fish that see you. Given the visual nature of bass, clear water seems to give you way more presentation options visually

This aligns with how I usually rig my baits, I mostly use 1/8oz chatterbaits, skirtless, with 2.75"-4" plastics. Trying to bring finesse lures from that range up to a 7" culprit worm. I'll need to make sure I bring some small crawz too I think...

This makes sense, I do know that I've had less success in red shirts. I'm usually in khaki pants with a blue or teal shirt. I think from a fish perspective my upper half will usually need to blend with sky on the shore, if the fish is close enough to see me. May have to go get some tan shirts too. Black has also been good to me.

Long casts won't be a problem...that was one of the first things I worked out on my spinning gear...and why i dislike mono over 8lb. I use a daiwa fuego 2500xh, 7' MXF rod. 20lb 8 carrier braid with a 12lb cxx leader. May go for straight 10lb fluorocarbon for better hide. So the direction is to stand back from the water a bit? Should I bring a bush or fake tree to stand behind? Maybe a ghillie suit? Lol in all seriousness I should probably dress in natural tones too. Given that I'm going to fishing with reach too, maybe some thinner wire hooks? I appreciate yalls input, I feel like I have decent instincts but there's always something I haven't thought about. I'm only one brain.

Hey y'all My lady got us a week in a cabin on a private lake that apparently holds good bass. I was looking at photos of the place and the water looks pretty clear - maybe up to 10 feet or so. I usually gear my approach to the waters around me that have maybe half that visibility. So far I'm thinking I need less noise, so maybe less on the chatterbaits, and more pumpkin/watermelon colors in finesse type baits like tubes, finesse worms, culprit worms, and ned rigs. If there's anything I'm overlooking, I'm here for a schooling. Thanks ?

Meredith? I've had a rough few nights at my rockpile on Ray Roberts, then again I've only had an hour or so to fish for a couple nights. I don't think I'm actually having trouble finding fish by my standards, it's more about having as much time unconstrained as I had been. I don't fish as well when I'm feeling rushed. I'm going to try not to work for the month of March and try and get my confidence back a little bit.

I'm pretty sure that we know like 10% about the motivations of fish. Like I've been told carps won't bite lures but YouTube tells me that's not true, yet I can't figure it out. No, not me buying 20 different baits to try and catch one type of fish. Certainly not me. Nope.

Maybe he put gummy worms in the cut bait. Who knows ?

Interesting. I have to wonder if there's some regional or water body variations to it. For instance, one local pond with channels slams with French fries and gummy worms, but others in town with stocked channels don't touch em. ?‍♂️?‍♂️ humans will go extinct and still be attempting to solve the behavior of fish

The only dough bait I use is buttered loaf bread balled up. It, uh, catches things. I was going for carps and buffalos but got sand bass and baby channel cats. Blues consistently take my chatterbait during the summer at the river below the lake, so live bait would also likely be good. I see catfish bait as a spectrum from dead things to live things - Channels like dead stinky stuff but will eat live and fresh cut stuff, blues like live and fresh cut, and flatheads tend to prefer live bait

I'm always using bass tackle but if I do throw a heavy rod for blues I try to find the freshest cut bait I can

Me, sitting on set waiting patiently to get on the road home...

I've also acquired some tubes, 3.5" BPS tender tubes, and some KVD coffee ones. 1/16oz and 1/8oz heads. I intend to bring the 1/16oz tubes to clearer waters than I normally fish...Ray Roberts is clear enough but I've done better on chatterbaits. I think tubes may do me better in clear, cool water. Need to get some shakeyheads too.

Also note that in some moving waters below blue cat lakes, you can and will catch them on bass jigs if you do it enough. That's how I got my PB cat actually I just use braid because there's also gar in those waters and they'll eat just about anything, plus I'm shorebound so I need the castability of braid over heavy mono or fluorocarbon. And I hate mono lol

Variable depending on the size of cats I expect to hook into and what bait setup I'm using. My heavy spinning combo has 40# power pro moss green. The upper end of what I usually expect is about 30lb. My PB cat is 19.1, caught on 20# braid with a 20# copolymer leader while fishing with chatterbait. If I was fishing deeper water or better cat areas I would for sure have a setup with some 80# on it.