Went fishing yesterday and got stomped!!

[The Rooster]

Yesterday I went with my brother in law to one of his lakes and in the 6 hours we were there I caught 7 bass and he caught 30!!! I'd say at least 20 or more of his fish were 12" or larger (we measured some to be over 14") and the rest of them were about 10" fish. Of the 7 I got, maybe 4 of them were 12" or more. None of the ones we caught were keepers though, they have to be 15" to be keepers.

We were using the same baits (shakey head rigs) but his rod setup is different than mine so I know that was the main reason I didn't catch more like he did. I had 8 and 12 pound Berkley Trilene XL mono line and he had 8 and 14 pound Berkley Transitions fluorocarbon line.

Both our 8 pound lines were on spinning rods with the shakey heads tied on. I noticed that when the wind would blow my bait wouldn't make it to the bottom cause the line was blowing down the lake even with 1/4 oz. sinker. He had a 1/8 oz. sinker and his wasn't effected at all even with only 1/2 the weight. That has to be the line difference right there. His fluorocarbon line remained fairly tight from his rod tip to the water and allowed him to work his bait the way he wanted. Mine was being pulled along by the wind and wouldn't make contact with the bottom enough I could tell. Sensitivity I'm sure was a factor as well. When it did touch bottom I couldn't tell it much.

He also had medium power 7 foot rods, Shimano Compre brand and type. I had a 6' medium Quest LS-7 from Dick's sporting goods. It's a nice rod but not in the same league with that Shimano. Still I think if I'd have had some fluorocarbon then I might have boated a few more fish. The line was making such a difference for me that I finally quit fishing that bait totally cause I couldn't make it do what his was doing at all.

Then we fished another bait too. We were using texas rigged craws and applying Berkley bass attractant scent to them. I got 4 on this and he got at least 15. With this bait we used casting rods. His had 14 pound fluorocarbon and I had 12 pound mono. With that line even the wind was affecting him too so we both switched from 1/8 oz. sinkers to 1/4 oz. and that helped a lot. Now the wind was not a factor for that bait anymore. Again he had the 7' Shimano Compre rod, but it was medium heavy, and I had another 6' medium Quest LS-7 Dick's rod. Each time we had similar rods to what we used before, but majorly different from each other.

His rod and line setup must be more sensitive than mine. That's all I can see that we did different. I'm gonna try some fluorocarbon line over the mono now to see if that makes any difference in sensitivity, that's already been decided. But do you think that a rod change might be necessary too?? Seemed his 7' rod was helping him to work his bait with the shakey head, it seemed to flex a bit more than mine did when he'd twitch it to make it hop on the bottom. And being a better rod, he might be feeling more than I can too.

[stump1001]

I went from a 50$ Bass Pro rod to a $130 rod and theres a huge difference in sensitivity even though they are both 6'6 mh with fast action.

[Grey Wolf]

Quality equipment will usually make a differance. I think you experience proved that.

[Paul Roberts]

Interesting post. Thanks Rooster.

Probably a few things at work here:

-Fluoro is denser so it can maintain a straighter connection to the bait. And it's density should be an advantage in wind too. Your experience is very interesting.

-A longer rod can be more sensitive because of the leverage that longer lever offers. I have a 7ft Kistler LTA I use for plastics that "gets heavy" real quick when a bass takes. But the most important piece is the graphite quality. A well made high modulus graphite rod is another world in terms of sensitivity. Everyone should save their pennies (dollars) to get one, especially for jigs and plastics. Shimano does make great rods.

[Paul Roberts]

I noticed that when the wind would blow my bait wouldn't make it to the bottom cause the line was blowing down the lake even with 1/4 oz. sinker.  He had a 1/8 oz. sinker and his wasn't effected at all even with only 1/2 the weight.  

There has to be more to this. The density difference in fluoro wouldn't make that much of a difference -if both were 8lb lines. The biggest difference would be caused by line diameter, and actual weight of the bait.

The fluoro may be a bit thinner -that would help, a bit. The other things I can think of would be actual weight of baits. Not all 1/8oz heads actually weigh 1/8oz. Were they the same brand? The other, probably biggest thing, would be how much line was laying out and exposed to the wind. Was he fishing more vertically -taking his fish closer to the boat? Were you casting a little bit further?

Just curious.

[The Rooster]

I didn't notice that much difference in how far we were casting compared to each other.  I was mainly watching what he was doing and trying to duplicate it, casting nearly the same places as he was but respectfully staying out of his way.  He held his rod tip high at maybe a 60 degree angle so I did too.  His line just didn't seem to be curved and pulled away out of the area we casted to like mine was.  My line had a deep C in it when the wind would blow and his remained pretty straight and semi tight.  Also his rod would flex when he would work the bait along the bottom.  Mine didn't do that at all, it was staying pretty straight.  So maybe the rod was yanking the bait up more than his was and allowing the slack to come into the line more than his did.  

We had exactly the same bait, brand and all, right down to the color even.  He had given them to me to use.  They were Ikey heads, I think that's what they were called anyway, the package had Mike Iaconelli's picture on it.  They weighed 1/8 oz.  I added a split shot sinker to my rig that was nearly the same size as the head of the original rig, so the wind wouldn't pull it as much.  So I'm "assuming" that it was now closer to 1/4 oz.  And it did make a difference for the better, up until the wind picked up even more and then it was back to being blown around again.  He never had that problem even once that I saw and just kept yanking bass in consistantly on that rig and never had to add any weight at all.  It baffled me completely.  

I think I'm just going to go ahead and look for another rod to use for this setup next time.  Already checking out Shimano's like his.   ;D

[Sam]

Rooster,

The Rules by Ike:

Line

Mono for treble hook biats.

Fluorocarbon and copoly for anything.

Super lines and braid for heavy cover and deep water.

So get rid of your mono and go with a fluorocarbon line. 8 or 10 pounds for a spinning reel and 10 to 12 for your baitcaster when fishing plastics.

Rods

6' 6" Medium Action for 2500 spinning reels for worms, tubes and jigs.

7' Fiberglass with 5:1:1 baticaster for treble hook baits.

7' Medium Heavy rod with 6:3:1 baitcaster for jig, worms and Carolina rigs.

I like graphite rods better than graphite but that is just me. I also like the Medium Heavy rods for their backbond and a fast tip for better hookset.

Weights

Tungston to get the feel of the bottom better.

So rerig and go out and show your brother-in-law a few things!  

[Paul Roberts]

If you can do it without making the Ms. mad, go for it. But, I'm betting that it was more in the presentation, than in the rod/line. Love to hear others thoughts on this.

[tyrius.]

Flouro is denser than mono and it sinks.  So, in effect his line was weighting his lure too.  This will definately help in the wind with keeping the bows out of the line.  One thing that I do when the wind is blowing is to lower my rod tip so less line is above the water.  That line above the water is just acting like a sail.  I lose some feel because my rod tip isn't in the ideal spot, but it's better than fishing with a huge bow in your line.

As far as your rod not flexing when shaking the lure you probably weren't even moving it.  You were more than likely just taking some of the slack out of the line and leaving the lure where it was.  

As to the weight of the shakey head, the Ike heads are tungsten which is significantly more dense than lead so if you put a split shot on that is "roughly the same size as the head" you probably didn't double the weight.

All that being said, a better rod will DEFINATELY help as they are more sensitive.