Bass Fishing (Fishing in general)

[Scott Jackowski]

I just came back from kayak fishing Cayuga lake (finger lake here in upstate NY), and it was not a good day, I mean the trip was great. the lake is beautiful, but I couldn't catch a d**n thing other than weeds, it was frustrating, story of my life really, if there are weeds to be found, I will find them, I don't understand, I had what I thought was a weedless setup?, below will give you the general idea of what I use for tackle, I mean it's a solid lineup, maybe you can assist? What can I do to fish the weeds beds but not become entangled with the?

I mean is there a general rule of thumb or some guideline for what size jig head, weight and hook size I should be using for a particular season\depth\species of fish?

Is there even such a thing as a weedless jig head? Maybe in the dog days of summer I should be fishing deeper and out of the weeds anyway?

Its so disappointing to not be good at something that you really do enjoy .... thanks all ....

Jigs for plastics. 3" or 4" curltail grubs
senkos (wacky-worm / o-ring)
inline spinners
small jerkbaits
Perfect Finesse Worm Jighead with either a 5 inch kalin or Yamamoto grub on it (3.5 inch one as well)
crayfish imitation (plastic bait with a jig)
zoom finesse worm \ 4.5 inches

[rickyg]

Check the top of this page....   "Jig Fishing Questions".  Helped me quite a bit.  As for weedless, sometimes ya get caught up in weeds even with a "weedless" jig.

[paulmandude]

Sounds like it was just a tough day. Watch lots of YouTube and gather all the info you can here and odds will better be in your favor in the future!

Also do you have a fish finder?  It would be hard to fish deep without one. 

[Shimano_1]

If you're trying to actually fish in the grass and such replace the jigs with a Texas rigged craw or beaver type bait. Anything is going to hang up in heavy grass but t-rigs rigged correctly will come thru it. I catch a lot of fish in and around heavy vegetation and one of my favorite ways is ripping a texas rigged beaver up out of it and letting it fall over and over again.  Keep at it and do your homework and I'm sure you'll be sticking big ones in no time. 

[LCG]

It's been very hot lately, southern Ontario, so not too far away from your area. Fishing is way off this summer. I swear the fish are in quarantine, bad joke I know. 

 

But the bite has been off for me as well. Just kayaked a river for 3 hours  known for tons of small mouth and Noone I ran into caught anything. My go to techniques are spinnerbaits, texas rigged creatures and senkos, and Ned rigs. 

 

Hang in there, try fishing later in the day or early in the morning before it gets too hot. Hopefully the heat wave breaks soon. Can't remember a summer this hot in a very long time. 

[Scott Jackowski]

Thanks all for the great advice as always, I think I'll start focusing on just a couple of techniques, such as the Texas rig and the wacky worm setup, so one question I have:

 

1. As for the offset hooks and bullet weights (Texas rig), what size for each generally? 2 or 2/0 for the hooks and maybe 1/8 ounce for the weight?, same size hook for wacky rig?

[Todd2]

22 minutes ago, Scott Jackowski said:

Thanks all for the great advice as always, I think I'll start focusing on just a couple of techniques, such as the Texas rig and the wacky worm setup, so one question I have:

 

1. As for the offset hooks and bullet weights (Texas rig), what size for each generally? 2 or 2/0 for the hooks and maybe 1/8 ounce for the weight?, same size hook for wacky rig?

2/0 is what I use mainly for the Texas rig. If you are throwing thicker plastics maybe go up a size or two. Offset round bends are what I use.

 

Weights..I have 1/8, 3/16 but have the 1/4 on most of the time.

 

BTW, I ran across this a while back. A basic Texas Rig tutorial that might help.

https://www.fix.com/blog/texas-rigging-for-bass/

[Choporoz]

Skinny worm on a 3/0 Owner TwistLock Light Wire behind 1/4 oz tungsten worm weight will change your weed fishing outlook immensely.   

[txchaser]

I have better luck lightening up on weight. Also consider a rage rig (weighted swimbait hook) or Northland Tackle's Weed Wedge or the Trashmaster Jig. All three will be a good bit more weightless, with the trashmaster presentation being most like a regular jig. 

Fluke instead of the jerkbait.

Weeds? Try a chatterbait too. 

Paddletail on a swimbait hook

 

In terms of the 'where' in the weeds

1) on top with a frog

2) on the edges and holes with the senko or a t-tig, fluke, chatterbait

3) the clumps and isolated weeds set out a little bit from the outside (deep edge) 

4) something swimming over the tops of weeds that dont quite reach to the surface.

 

[OkobojiEagle]

Title Shot jig heads or nail weighted plastics.  As mentioned above, lightest weights possible.