Thanks to members here help am making VG progress

[CDMTJager]

Well followed the advice of members here on trying new and different hook, rod and line selections for fishing T-Rigged soft plastic flukes and I admit while it was only a single outing but I definitely experienced a significant increase in success in my opinion.

 

Little back ground first. I found a new area of this lake I have been fishing since THE SIXTY's, I never fished before. It is obvious to me based on my years pf past experience, from mid April to end of June the weed and lily pad growth in this new area are perfect for BOTH holding bass and fishing with a soft plastic fluke. Once July 4th weekend gets here the pads will be so thick I will loose 70-80% of the open water areas that allow me the ability to fish a soft plastic fluke like a jerk bait. So considering my situation and I wanted to give a MHFA spinning rod a try my lack of patients got the better of me and instead of holding out for a better deal on a rod keeping me much closer to $100, I went with a 7'3" MHFA Shimano Intenza spinning rod.

 

So based on the advise of member's here I am now fishing with a 7'3" MHFA rod VS a 7'3" MHMA rod, size 4000 reel (VS 3000) 20 lb Suffix 832 (VS 30lb) to 10lb Yo-Zuri Copolymer and a size 4/0 Gamak Super Line screw lock VS a 3/0 Owner Lite. Must admit I had originally planned on starting with a 4/0 Owner SL Lite hook but failed to pack any with and only had Gamak's on hand. Worth saying I use a spinning rod because I can cast at least 2x more accurately with a spinning rod VS casting.

 

Last night conditions were OK but less than Ideal with strong 10-15 MPH ENE (I was only able to cast NE/E/SE, no W casting at all) winds after two consecutive days of T-storms and moderate to at times heavy rains. Was 80* and 50/50 sun to clouds. I fished one of my best areas and new for this year, sections of minimal emergent lilly pads with open areas spaced between pads but entire area has weed growth now to thick for even a chatterbait. Entire area is in a pocket between one very large point and one smaller double point.

 

Fished a Cabela's 5" Shadee Shad in White Ice I dipped the last .5-.75" of the tail in chartreuse dye and used a ORG Spike-It maker to put orange on the flukes belly to make it (guessing here) somewhat resemble a bluegill. Numbers of fish caught on this color modified fluke VS unmodified is significantly greater.  First cast was at 4:30p. Fishing started slowly for this spot as I didn't get my first bass until 5:22pm. This is a new as of this spring area of the lake to me have fished it 14 times now and the previous 13x had caught a bass within the 1st 10 casts every visit. Ironically I for years I walked right past this area because I didn't want to deal with busting through heavy weeds full of ticks and essentially a wall of thorn bushes to gain access to the fishing this area and seeing as after 14 times fishing this area and not once ever seeing anyone else fish it I now know why it has been not just a great spot but a consistently great spot as I have yet to fish the area and not catch at least three bass and the size and quality of the bass are as good as I've caught from this lake. Also there are no areas of the lake close enough to see a person wading and fishing there so no one actually can see me while I am fishing it. I actually found it by just blindly busting through the brush just to see what I would find as the area is not visible from shore due to 8-10' high year round brush and weeds that grows as thick as boiler plates. I'm sure the wall of thorn bushes and tick infestation combined with it is a VERY VERY long walk to access it has kept people out so far. I have now fished this area 14 times and all 14 times I had to remove ticks from myself or my clothes.

 

Caught two more bass in under 40 minutes last one and bass #3, was a solid 3.5-3.75lb bass that came off a cattail reed point that hit as soon as the fluke hit the water and took advantage of the delay of my noticing the HI-Vis line moving (wind=choppy waves) and by the time I set the hook had gotten WAY into the reeds and I had to drag her out. Thank God for my 20lb Sufix braid.

 

Decided I best retie to my swivel with a new Yo-Z leader and with in 10 casts got another bass on set the hook, felt him fighting hard and then felt a weird sensation and lost the fish. Looked at my line and it was painfully obvious my knot had slipped and failed. Cost me $2+ in a lost hook and new fluke. Retied and not 10 casts later exact same thing happens. I have never that I can recall EVER had two knots fail me during many many weeks of fishing let alone two times with two knots in a row. If being 100% honest, yes I do tie bad knots every now and then but I could always see well enough to see that I did so or I felt that something about the knot didn't feel right when I cinched it down and I would retie. I now must face the fact my eyesight has changed and I can no longer see small things like a fishing knot well enough without my 1.5x cheater glasses to see and confirm if I tied it correctly or not. So I went to my tackle BP got out my cheaters and tied a prefect Trilene knot wich did take two tries, but that knot held up fine for five more bass that night.

 

Caught three more bass in that location before it went cold and I moved to a different location and threw a frog. New location had a lot of lily pads caught one bass on the frog B-casting setup, one got off my frog, and missed two blowups. Went back to same area and caught two more bass on the fluke, one on the frog, location again went cold. Moved to again a new location caught no bass on frog or fluke. It was twilight now and I went home.

 

On all eight bass I caught up to that point on the fluke I noticed four things. #1 I didn't miss any bass that hit, and I successfully set the hook on all eight of them. #2 despite all of them going airborne multiple times none got off #3 the hook was set in all of them so well I needed my NN piers to dislodge the hook meaning no way were those bass getting off #4 and likely very important, of the 10 bass I got on and 8 I got in 9 of them hit within the first 10-20% of my retrieve while I still had out 80-90% of my cast making a good hook more difficult VS of I had out much less line.

 

In the past I was having at least 20% of the bass I got on get off and of the bass I landed at least 30% if not more in MY opinion despite VERY hard  tight line hook sets, the hook (IMO) exhibited poor penetration and required at most minimal effort to remove the hook.

Last night I experienced (Save for my two incidents of inept knot tying) 100% success in hook sets and landing the bass and the hook penetration IMO could not possibly get any better.

 

As I said this is but one outing and 8 bass, but a I can not argue with an increase from 75-80% of hooking fish to 100% and a 75% increase of landing fish to 100%. I feel my increase in success can be essentially attributed to combination of three factors #1 using a MHFA rod VS a MHMA rod #2 using zero stretch braid VS copolymer #3 using a 4/0 hook VS a 3/0 hook. I did absolutely nothing else different or changed nothing at all from my style of fishing or how I set the hook.

 

Absolutely no doubt in my mind I could feel the difference in how the combination of MHFA rod and zero stretch braid allowed me to make a more solid forceful hook set VS the MHMA rod this was most pronounced and noticeable when bass hit when I had 35-40 yards of line out. Best way I can describe the difference is now the hook sets felt to me as if I had snagged a large object more than hooking a fish. On one bass last night, a rather good one at at least 3.5-3.7lbs that hit almost immediately after my fluke hit the water at the end of a 40-45 yard cast about 5-7 yards other side of a section of pads, I was able to with minimal effort get him up on top of the water and winch him over all the weeds and pads to land him. I had the same thing happen in the past using my MHMA rod and I couldn't essentially "manhandle" a bigger bass anywhere near as easily like I did with the MHMF rod, and both rods are 7'3's.

 

Thanks to a few simple changes suggested by members here my success hooking and landing bass has gone up at least 25%. Thanks to the great members here for their help and sharing their experiences with me.

[casts_by_fly]

Glad you got it all sorted out. 

[dodgeguy]

id trash the leader

[CDMTJager]

9 hours ago, dodgeguy said:

id trash the leader

If you'd be so kind as to explain why? as I am using HI-VIS yellow braid.

I am using some likely 30 year old Sampo SST ball bearing swivels to connect braid to copolymer to eliminate line twist in my spinning reel. 

[dodgeguy]

spinning is a different animal. i use all casting. i get the swivel to eliminate line twist. line twist is one of the reasons i dont fish spinning anymore. anyway on baitcasting i dont use leaders. ive been fishing braid since the early 90s and  dont believe bass are line shy. ive tried flouro plenty of times over the years and found no difference in bite rate. bad days are bad no matter what line you use. i have friends who use high vis braid with no leader and no markers and they outcatch guys with flouro. dont get me wrong it works both ways sometimes but its not because of the line. its because of fish mood and presentation. also a good 8 strand braid in 40 or 50 lb test has more than enough abrasion resistance. i dont worry about pickeral or pike biting it off as thats never happened to me even fishing lakes in canada that are loaded with pike. and as glenn may says the extra knot is just one more place for failure. if i wanted invisible line i would fish flouro for a main line and not a leader. and you cant beat the hookset of straight braid.with straight braid it takes just a snap of the wrist to set well.

[gim]

@CDMTJager

 

Not sure if you follow or watch any pro bass fishing, but every single one of them does the following:

 

They use both bait casters and spinning setups.  Limiting yourself to one or the other only inhibits you like limiting yourself to tools available for a job.  Learn how to use both and become proficient with both.  It will only help you.

 

They all use a fluorocarbon leader connected to their braided line when using a spinning setup.  Learn how to tie a line-to-line knot and it'll work.  I struggled with this for a while but it takes practice and time.

 

I'm not saying that this is the end all, be all.  But these guys are fishing for a living, or at least trying to, and they are using every tool available to try and be successful.  Why wouldn't any one of us do the same?  Control every variable you can.  Whether you think fish are line shy or not.

 

Line twist is just part of using a spinning setup.  You can minimize it line twist by manually shutting the bail after you cast every time.  If you start reeling instead, and allow the bail to shut on auto when you start reeling, you will get a lot more line twist and eventually its going to be a problem.

[CDMTJager]

5 hours ago, dodgeguy said:

spinning is a different animal. i use all casting. i get the swivel to eliminate line twist. line twist is one of the reasons i dont fish spinning anymore. anyway on baitcasting i dont use leaders. ive been fishing braid since the early 90s and  dont believe bass are line shy. ive tried flouro plenty of times over the years and found no difference in bite rate. bad days are bad no matter what line you use. i have friends who use high vis braid with no leader and no markers and they outcatch guys with flouro. dont get me wrong it works both ways sometimes but its not because of the line. its because of fish mood and presentation. also a good 8 strand braid in 40 or 50 lb test has more than enough abrasion resistance. i dont worry about pickeral or pike biting it off as thats never happened to me even fishing lakes in canada that are loaded with pike. and as glenn may says the extra knot is just one more place for failure. if i wanted invisible line i would fish flouro for a main line and not a leader. and you cant beat the hookset of straight braid.with straight braid it takes just a snap of the wrist to set well.

Thank you Sir as I do sincerely appreciate you sharing your advice and experiences with me. I fish 98% from shore. Despite YEARS (NOT kidding by years) of trying and investing in $100+ baitcasting reels, I am still many times more accurate casting with a spinning set up VS a baitcasting set up. Talking SCARY accurate. For most of the year from late April till deer season ends my fishing, I fish almost entirely lily pads and weeds. Absolutely 100% beyond all doubt my most productive areas to fish are the open lanes or areas between sections of lily pads. To fish these most effectively one absolutely must be able to cast with as close to rifle like pinpoint accuracy as possible. I personally can only accomplish this using spin casting setups. Using spin casting setups to fish heavy weed growth with soft plastics I am literally catching 3-4x more more bass VS baitcasting setups undoubtedly 100% due to MY difference in casting accuracy. In my opinion only reason I enjoy so much success using a baitcasting setup for frogs is #1 I make so many casts I can not help but cover all the best areas and #2 I can work a frog 2-5x faster than all soft plastics save for flukes or swim baits.

 

As far as my use of braided line goes it is VERY application specific. I use braid ONLY in heavy vegetation cover to be able to winch bass up, over and out of heavy cover before they can crash dive into it making recovery for a shore bound fisherman like me all but impossible.  Rest of my baitcasting or spinning setups use 10, 12 or 15lb Yo-Zuri Copolymer. 90% of my fishing is for fish in weed growth that varies in degrees of density depending on time of year from I can get a shallow diving crank, chatter or spinnerbait through it or stary just above it till about now when I rarely use crankbaits again (maybe 10%) to occasional use of chatter or spinner baits (maybe 20%) to almost entirely soft plastics rigged weedless. 

 

Although I must admit using braid to mono for fishing flukes in heavy cover has shown me just how much more eaily I can detect strikes using 20lb Suffix 832 VS YZCO I will likely give 10lb 832 to Yo-Zuri Copoly a try fishing soft plastics. Just have to find braid to mono knot I can tie with 100% confidence.

 

This year I discovered fishing 5-5.25" soft plastic flukes rigged weedless and it has literally been a borderline religious experience so great has my success been. And casting these flukes with as high of accuracy is of the utmost importance to my fishing success and FOR ME that means spinning setups only. 

 

As a reloader and firearm accuracy fanatic that can maintain MOA groups out to 500 yards, I greatly envy fisherman I watch who can put a bait in a bucket at 40 yards with a baitcaster, I'm just not one of those fisherman.

[CDMTJager]

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

Line twist is just part of using a spinning setup.  You can minimize it line twist by manually shutting the bail after you cast every time.  If you start reeling instead, and allow the bail to shut on auto when you start reeling, you will get a lot more line twist and eventually its going to be a problem.

Once I learned this trick yes my spinning reel line twist was significantly reduced. At first I did it to reduce wear and tare on my bail closing springs, then I learned it also greatly reduced line twist.

[Lead Head]

I'll bet your knots were slipping. When I first started using braid, I had a few trilene knots slip. I switched to the twice through the eye uni knot (often called the fishing fool knot) and haven't had any problems with braid knots since.