Gatorbassman

WOW!! I went through about 30 Spro Frogs last year and none of them had any problems outside of me not being able to shake the fish off.

The one tied to the end of my line...... I don't play favorites. It's all about confidence. If I don't believe it will catch a bass then I cut it off and tie something else on.

Yea, Our weeds don't die untill late November. October is speed fishing time. Burn along the outside weed line till you catch a fish and then slow down and catch the rest of them with a Spro frog on mats or a fluke if the weeds are submerged.

If it's fall then I'm staying close to the weeds too. But if I figure that the bite is shut down I'm going to grab a shallow flat crankbait and set the boat so I can make parrallel casts along the grass. Then I'm going to tweek line tie on the crank a bit so it runs into the weeds and gets hung. Then I'm going to rip it out of the weeds and do it again. Working the weed line hard.

I'm sure everyone has a favorite rod and when you ask what is the "Best of" anything you will get every name in the book. What you want to look for is a rod that suits how you fish and what you fish with most. A good all around rod for bass is a Medium Heavy (MH) rod. Sense your are just getting started I wouldn't get anything longer than a 7ft rod. It will be good for heavier spinnerbaits, light jigs, soft plastics. If you find yourself fishing with crankbaits and light spinnerbaits then go with a Medium (M) action rod. It will be good for most moving baits.

I have tested this theory time and time again while guiding and I've never seen an advantage to using red worm hooks. But I do use red treble hooks on my clear Super Spook Jr's. I use a clear spook because I don't want the bass to get a good look at my lure in the clear water. I use a red hook on the front to give the fish something to aim at and I almost always catch them on that red hook. It helps me to have some control of where the fish strikes and I get better hook-ups because of it.

Catt, There are no hard feelings at all. There never were. That's why I jumped right in. Then I thought I saw this thread going in the wrong direction. I might have jumped the gun a little.

Four years ago I was in the same boat as you. I really wanted to learn how to fish jigs. So I went to the articles and started reading. Here are the ones I read first. They really helped me. Now I don't go out without a jig tied on. http://www.bassresource.com/fish/jigs.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig_fishing_for_bass.html http://www.bassresource.com/beginner/bass_fishing_jigs_overview.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig_bass_fishing.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig_fishing.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/winter_jig_fishing.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig-fishing-for-bass.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass_fishing_jig_tips.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig-fishing-specifics.html

Catt, I knew what you were doing and I enjoyed the teaching side of it but it was started to get the feel of chest pounding.

OK so who can pound their chest the hardest. What we've learned here is that there is no right way to use past experiances to catch bass. The only person who is wrong is the one who totally disregards history.

The first one that comes to mind is Boyd Duckett. He owns more than one company in the trucking industry.

Your right Catt, History should never be ignored. It should be used as much as is needed but rarely relied upon as the only thing needed. Bass are live creatures and there is only one guarantee. They are gonna do whatever they want to do and we can't do anything about it.

You get the "Member of the Month" award for what you did. Thanks for having the balls to do it. Back when I used to fish team tournaments with my best friend. We had an agreement about cheating. If you try to cheat you better be wearing your life jacket because you won't be in the boat come check-in time.

I feel that to many times people who are "young" in the sport of bass fishing get caught up in using the same lure at the same spot day in and day out. And when they don't catch a fish they find themselves at a loss. They don't know what to do. If they aren't trying to find new water on a regular basis then they are putting themselves at a handicap. Anglers who have years of experience sometimes get caught up in what the pattern was. They are searching for what the patter was not what the pattern is. If they aren't trying to find new water on a regular basis then they are putting themselves at a handicap. On Clarks Hill, "back then" doesn't mean squat to me. I want to know what's going on right now. As most people have heard, Clarks Hill is a blueback Herring lake. It is but, if you went out there right now and tried to fish a Herring pattern you'd find yourself catching a bunch of short fish. Why? Because Clarks Hill has changed this year. The Corps of Engineers don't care about water quality for fish so they let the water get so bad the past few summers that the fish ether moved or died. Many of them died, both baitfish and bass. So there are a bunch of old guys scratching their heads because they aren't catching fish on their part of the lake. That part of the lake was my part of the lake until I put the puzzle together and moved. Now I'm catching good limits again while I'm still seeing limits of 8lbs being weighed in at tournaments. On the 125 acre lake that I guide on, for the past four years July, August, and September have been topwater heaven up the creek. Some of my videos show this. So when I took a trip up there last week the fist place I went was up the creek. I fully expected to catch bass up there and I caught nothing. I waisted half of the day searching for bass in the north end of the lake because I was "Fishing History". I failed to realize that the water temp had fallen 9 degrees in the two days prior to my trip and the bass had moved. They hadn't just move a few hundred yards. They moved nearly a mile, back to the main part of the lake. I found this out when I tossed history out and started thinking about what was going on right now. I started looking for the pieces of the puzzle and put them together. Did I fish spots that I had never fished before. No, But I fished spots that I don't usually fish this time of year. By the end of the day my best five went about 40 pounds. The fact is that history will give you some of the pieces of the puzzle but it won't give you all of them. You use history as you would any other tool. It helps but it's not going to find and catch the fish for you.

Nope.

It's just the wind. I've always called them wind spikes.

Deep water is all relative to the body of water you are on or even to the area of the lake you are fishing. If you aren't catching them in the shallows then try deep, but don't automatically go to the deepest spot on the lake. Start with the first deeper area then work out towards the deepest spot in the area. This is usually the channel of a creek or in a river it will be the outside bend in the channel or a protected cut leading to an oxbow. Choose your lure or rig according to what is in front of you. Don't have a pre-conceived idea of what you are going to throw all day long. Certain lures and rigs are better suited for deep cover and some are better for shallow cover. Most of the time it depends on what the angler prefers. Let me put it this way. I treat each day on the lake like I've never been there before. This prevents me from fishing history. I let the conditions, time of year dictate where I'm going that day. I don't choose a lure or rig because I think it will catch fish. Every lure in my boat will catch a bass. I choose a lure or rig according to what it is I'm casting to. Deep, shallow, wood, rock, grass, flat, or ledge will all have more of a factor on what I choose to fish with then the fish. Now, once I get a bite I will adjust and play around a little but that's about it. I catch fish almost every time I'm out because I fish each spot the most efficiently and effectively that I can. For example, if I'm running the bank with shallow crankbait and I come up to a stump. I make a couple of cast to the stump with my crank and then grab my jig or jig head worm and make five or six more casts. If I catch a fish on that stump I will start paying more attention to isolated cover and stop most of my time burning the bank. I will still be casting a spinnerbait or crank between isolated cover but I will spend alot more time on the stumps.

Greenwood and Russell are south of Anderson. Russell is part of the Savannah River Chain of Lakes and Greenwood is just east of Greenwood, SC. Both are very big. Greenwood is known for it's dock fishing and Russell is known for it's Spotted Bass. Both are great fisheries.

You'll be within a good drive from several good lakes. Hartwell Keowee Greenwood Russell Jocasee Yep, There will be plenty of good fishing.

Here's what I do. While you are with her do things so she knows she is the most important thing in your life. Then when it's time to go fishing she may be happy to let you go. If you ignore her as much while you are at home as you do when you are on the water then your time on the water will be a struggle. Be a father and a husband first and see what the results are. I schedule each week with my wife. The schedule often changes. Usually not in my favor, but how I react to the changes determines the outcome of the fishing trips I can go on. Fishing is not as important as me being at home and I make sure she knows it.

If durability is what you want just tie a rock to a hook and go fishing. If you want to catch fish hook a Rage Tail and go catching.

There's a great thread that is "Pinned" at the top of this forum called "Senko FAQ". Take a look at all the things you can learn about that bait. It's been covered time and time again.

If you fish long enough and pay close attention to exactly what the bite feels like, over time you may be able to tell weather the bass has the hook in its mouth or just the tail of the worm. It sounds strange but there are days where I can feel the difference and I wait to set the hook.

When we learned how to put stitches into people we used pig skin. It would work very well for a test like that.

This is going to sound crazy but it has won a few tournaments on a well known muddy lake around here. Use a Green Pumpkin trailer on a Black and Blue Jig. I've tried it the few times I've fished stained to muddy water and it works.