New Bank, Bass Angler. Doing Great! Thank you!!!

[EGbassing]

1 minute ago, RichardJarel said:

Thanks!

I played "hooky" from work today... added jigs to my arsenal (trying to stick to bottom plastics...). Now I'm seeing that something appropriate to the season would be much better. Caught three today. I should be grateful that I didn't get skunked, but I was hoping for more, or larger LOL! Don't we always? LOL!

 

I'll have to do a search here and learn what a chatter bait is! LOL!

Richard

Glad to hear you're catching 'em.  You should try a texas rigged zoom lizard. They really work, (in the pond I fish, at least) and they just catch huge bass. Good luck in the future!

[Lord Castlereagh]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 3:53 PM, RichardJarel said:

 

 

If I can do this... ANYONE can!

 

=D

Richard

 

What lures/baits were you using that were not working just before you switched to worms?

 

Thanks

[RichardJarel]

"What lures/baits were you using that were not working just before you switched to worms?"

 

Totally and really laughing my head off out loud!!!!!! (Not at you! At me!!!) 

 

Let me explain a little:

 

I'm 64 now. Started fishing when I was 6yrs old (Salt water in the Florida Keys.) Moved up to Oregon 17 years ago. During that time, I lived in Los Angeles and I always traveled south to Baja (Sea of Cortez), towing a 14' aluminum boat with an outboard (two weeks+ at a time, at least four times a year.) My lightest line was 40# all the way up to 150#!!!! LOTS of steel leaders!) The ocean bottom can drop down to 3,000' within a mile of shore in places. Bill fish, Dorado, Yellowtail, tunas etc... (Personal Best down there was an almost 6' Dorado (not sure how much it weighed but it took both arms to lift it up for a photo.) MANY of my lures are bigger than most of the trout and bass I've caught (until recently). (After fishing a few times when I first moved up here, I've wanted to make a T-Shirt with a 12" bass/trout and underneath write: "This isn't a fish... It's Bait!" When I moved up here, I just bought "miniature" versions of what I fished in Mexico (Rapalas etc... I bought small garage sale spinning rods/reels and I then just trolled the lakes (like in Baja), and hoped for the best. Catching mostly what I used to consider "Bait" (8" to 10" bass)...LOL!

 

I was sick over this winter and spent two months in bed... I started watching youtube videos and got "hooked" on bass... It's hard for me to find something I haven't already seen. I found Bass Resource a few weeks ago (I'm up to page 317 in the fishing forum and I've read ALL the pages/posts in the tackle section.) Yeah, I can be obsessive and I'm TOTALLY gotten into bass fishing!!!

 

My boat needs a little work (O/B bottom end), but I wasn't going to let the lack of a boat get in my way, so I started looking at videos focusing on bank fishing for bass.

 

Went out and bought two 7' Lews Medium fast action rod and reel combos and spooled them up. For $50 each, they're not bad. I like the action and the reels are smooth with great drag. After reading and watching, it seemed like plastics Mostly worms), was where I needed to start learning as I knew NOTHING about them.

 

I basically tossed out almost everything I knew about fishing and have been freshwater fishing for trout and bass. My wife and I have been doing great on Trout, but I wanted to get going on Bass.

 

Read some great advice here about focusing on a few baits/techniques to LEARN them thoroughly, so that's what I did: (T-rig, C-rig, NED, Drop Shot, Neko and recently, I bought a few cheap Jigs at wall mart (NOTE: Whenever I sit watching videos (Bass Resource, Tactical Bassing, Informative Fishing, and many others, I write down what I'm learning and have a LONG list of lures and I want to get two bait casting reels/rods... much heavier to buy... ) I wasn't sure about Jigs, so I started off cheap... After one day, I'm ready to buy a few better ones (Dirty Jigs, and another company that I forgot the name: (Sielbert?).

 

So... There you have it! I'm a three-week old Bass veteran! LOL! There wasn't a "before" history of bad luck with tackle... There just wasn't any! LOL!

 

Funny as my last trip to the lake I "only" caught four (mostly small:10" and one that was 12" in three hours and thought I was doing bad.... I now realize, I'm ahead of the game if I only catch one! Especially being a new bank angler. And besides, getting out to the water, gives me a great release from a stressful job.

 

When I get the boat up and running, there are SO many spots where I caught bass.... trolling! I knew where those spots were, but didn't realize why they were so productive.... Now I know!

 

I know how to get to those locations by boat, but not from shore. Again on advice I read here, I goggle mapped the lake and printed out a bunch of sheets... So far, I've covered (bank), one half of the lake and plan on checking out/testing the other half after I get my client projects done.

 

Thanks for asking... Hope this long story makes sense?

 

I'm a TOTAL NEWBIE!!!! LOL!

 

Richard

 

[RichardJarel]

Went fishing yesterday (I finished my client project the day before! Yeah! I'm "free"! =D

it was "free fishing weekend" here in Oregon, so I chose to continue exploring my google maps, looking for spots where there were no people. (The wake board boats sure didn't help... Going to try another lake about an hour away (Emigrant is less than 20 minutes) Covered most of the other side of emigrant reservoir. Found some good spots and some dead spots. most were inaccessible by land (Gotta get the boat running!LOL!).

LOTS of bites and caught/landed 9 LMB. Most small (10" to 13"), but had a good time. (From what I've been reading here, catching 9 bass in a day, isn't half bad, so I've totally thrown out my comparing my "success/failure to anyone else here... focusing on realizing I'm lucky to just be fishing! Had a good time, a few nice fights... I focused on my hook set techniques and other "tips" I've been learning here... feeling the bite etc...

Decided to try the small dock I started at (floating dock to serve the university's rowing team. One angler, a guy I met before was there and he was happy to have me join him. I wanted to try the drop shot but my flouro/braid knot broke I JUST learned the Alberto knot on You tube and I like it! I'll have to see how it holds up. My uni to uni knots were breaking at the knot. Yes... I wet the knots while cinching! LOL! I was using uni to uni and it just took me too much time, especially with such light lines (10lb braid to 6lbe flouro), I'd get frustrated breaking off getting stuck on the bottom with most of my rigs. T-rig were texposed or buried in the bait.. By late afternoon, the dock was CROWDED by the most inconsiderate anglers I've ever encountered (Don't want to talk about it.... at all!) we both decided to leave and hope to meet again during the week.

 

Going to focus on drop shot and hook setting next trip and seeing how my new knot holds up... I've turned my fishing trips into "school lab" after "lecture (reading threads here and watching more YouTube videos and applying what I learned... focusing and practicing on only a few items at a time, trying to get better at those before moving on to other subjects. LOL!

 

OK... new project started today... back to work. Hoping to go fishing Thursday (partly cloudy!) 

 

Richard