Mattlures

Thanks Big O!! I like your Rage tail baits to. Seriously the shad is my new buzzbait. rocknfish9001You should never break off on a hook set. I am guessing you using way to light of line. Also most real swimbait rods are very stiff with a little softer tip so that shouldnt happen. I suggest you use heavier line and definatly retie. As for swimbaits, well I am obviously bias so I would suggest buying quality proven baits. You will shorten your learning curve and you will actualy save money in the long run. Its better to but 2-3 $20-$50 baits then it is to buy a boat full of junk baits that you wont use once you realize how much better the quality baits are.

Bruce did not sell Basstrix. Money minnows sold to Yum or Zoom or something like that. Arent they about the same? Ha Ha.

I was a member a few years ago and although I dont remember the exact weights for line class records theyw ere all huge. 16lbs + on like 4LB test. There were some state, line, and jr records that were weak especial with other fish but just line class records on bass would be extremly dificult to break

Big fish for sure and the net man needs to get beat but not a WR. Not even 20lbs. looks around 15-18

Jed caught it once. Mac caught it once and Mike Long caught it once

That poor little lake gets beat to death. It would be nice to see it get some rest. HMMMM I wonder if any of her spawn might have a black birthmark under her mouth. HMMMMMMMM I wonder if they might get real big too. HMMMMMM what do you guys think

Thanks RW This site is great. the members actualy police each other. I had one guy make a big deal on a different site. Not this one. Thanks to Glenn and you guys for running this site soo well! I also have disagree with you about being the man. I apreciate the compliment but there aremany who are better then me.

Thanks guys, Trust me you dont want haters. it still sucks to have sombody call you a liar even if 20 posts congatulate you. I am getting used to it but it still sucks. Randall its good to see a post from you. Been pretty quiet latley.

Ok so I went back back to the lake to see if we could still get on them. This would be our 3rd trip there. Our first trip was incredible and I will post those pictures some time later. The 2nd trip was when we brought my friends boat with a huge live well made out of one of those giant coolers. We thought we could get on them and wanted a big group picture and our plan actually worked. That's when we caught the 4 fish in this pic for 40lbs Well I posted that 2nd report on some other sites and I had some guys doubting my picture because the background is whited out. So I went out again armed with my new camera hoping we could find the big fish again. I wanted to take some pics and video just to erase all doubts. It had been a while and the lake level had dropped so I wasnt super confident. We went on foot this time and it took a lot of walking and work until we started getting bit but it paid off. We caught 5 fish total for 40+ lbs. We deliberately made sure that the background was all sky so nobody could complain about the background. My friend was the hot stick today as he caught a 10, 8, 7, and a little 5lber. I only caught 1 today but it was a little bigger than his 10 so I cant complain. Here is the first pic, our big twins Here is me holding up the one I caught [img width=262 height=350]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/IMG_0023.jpg Here is my friend holding up the high 8 [img width=350 height=262]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/IMG_0036.jpg And here he is again holding up the 7 [img width=350 height=262]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/IMG_0033.jpg

Bass live thier whole lives next to thier prey. They are not always eating. They can be side by side and the bass doesnt even seem to notice the real gills. Its just the way it is. Something happens and its eating time. The prey species are also awar of this and they are no longer just swimming around the bass. Ever watch the nature shows with the lions and all the herd animals. If the lions are just hanging around the antilopes keep feeding. Yes they keep an eye on the lions but they dont take off untill the lions get up and start sneaking around. Then they take off. Bass and gills are the same way. They are forced to live next to ech other and the gills know when its time to hide. If they make a mystake then they get eaten. Here is an experiment for you. Next time you see bass and gills hanging around put on a piece of real worm and catch one of the gills and see what happens. There is a good chance the bass will "turn on" and crush your gill or at least become very interested in it. As hard as I try I simply can not make a swimbait swim EXACTLY like a real fish. The bass can detect this and it triggers them to attack. Fourbiz described it perfectly. Swim the gill past ambush points, usualy heavy cover and you can get hit HARD. I also like using bottom swimbaits like a worm or jig and just slowly work the bait uphill and over points just dragging it or making small hops. Those bites usualy arent so crushing. I also agree with the clear water thing. I have never realy understood that logic. For clear water the realism can be extremly important. So why would a realistc bait not work in dirty water? If anything a realistic bait becomes even more realistic in dirty water because the fish cant see the bait completly perfect. But what it does see looks completly real.

thetr20one the whole point of the trip was to get a big group Pic. I usualy get one or sometimes even 2 big fish in a day but never a bunch. Again I only caught the 2 biggest ones. the rest were caught buy my friend. But it sure make a coll picture! The backround is whited out to keep the location hidden.

Frog thank you and I apreciate the support but I respectfuly disagree. I have no problem using live bait. If it works and you catch the fish and its legal then by all means keep using it. I personaly dont use it very often because I tend to catch smaller fish with live bait. If it will get me a bigger bite you better believe I will use it. People also overestimate live bait. It aint a silver bullet. You still have to fish it and many times I think its harder to use. Sometimes its easy but not always. Hawg Caller has recently caught some verry nice fish using a legal method that worked. The fish were released so he can catch them when they are teens. I just mentioned my gills because if he ever chose to use one for bedding fish he would have intimate knowledge on how to present the bait. All he has to do is understand what the real gill was doing to provoce the strike. Congrats again on all your recent big bed fish. I for one know live bait is not a given and you most certainly earned those fish. Now go get a teener!!!!

Jay you gotta get glowing orange eyes!! That thing looks good.

Your on a roll!! Now all you have to do is catch them on artificial bluegill insted of real ones. Actualy if it legal and your not fishing tournaments and your getting results the I wouldnt change a thing. If I know live bait will get me bit over artaficials then I have NO problem using it. Out here swimbaits will out fish live bait almost always. If you ever do fish a tourny during the spawn you will have a very good idea on how to catch them just make the fake gill do what the real ones were doing when they got bit. You are actualy teaching your self without even trying to. Congrats on all your recent big fish!!! keep posting them pics

Thanks guys. We kept them in a makeshift livewell. A huge cooler with an aireator so we could take pics of a group shot. We had a better day a while back before this one and I only have single pics and I realy wanted a big "group" shot. I only caught the 2 biggest ones. My friend caught the 3 smaller ones. We fished HARD all day and caoght the 3 biggest ones in the last half hour.

Well I had 2 realy good trips this year and this was not the better one. Its been long enough now I supose I could show one little pic. Sorry for the whited out back ground but you guys no how it is. Dont show where, and show the pics 1-3 months later.

Glenn come by and say Hi, I SHOULD be debuting my new line of rods.

Ebby I have a little constructive critisism for you. When doing a photo finish you will get a cleaner looking bait if you only put the photo on the sides. Dont try and make it go on the top and bottom. Do the sides and clear coat it, then paint the top an olive color and blend it just over the edge of the photo. Do the same on the belly except in white or off white. Then put one more coat of clear over that. Your bait will come out cleaner and you wont have all the little folded edges on your bait. BTW thats pretty darn good for you first atempt!!!

Salter scales are known as the most accurate hand helds. They are accepted by the IGFA. they weight to the half ounce

does anybody know what the all time record five fish limit is? I mean from anywhere like El Salto or Baccarac, etc... Any time from any place not just a tournament sack

throw swimbaits! I dont beleive I have ever gotten a bluegill bite on one. Also it is a good thing if you have that many gills in the pond. That means the bass will have plenty to eat. I dont know if you can have too much bass forage

Use a Falcon hook with them. I preferr a 4/0 1/8th -1/4th ounce. I fish them on light line 8-12lb test. and I prefer spinning gear. Use the bait for its strenght's. They are extremly weedless!(just like all the paddletail tubes) and when you rig them properly you will hardly see any hook at all.

Congrats on a big beautiful fish. The way you worked the male to get to her is EXACTLY how I use my gill to get the females to bite. Well at least its the technique I us the most. I love the releas pis. Those always look cool

Big old bass are not always the hardest fighting fish but they are the smartest fighting fish alive. They will instantly head for cover. The first thing I do is troll the boat to open water if I can while fighting the fish. The big fish I have caught rarley clear the water but they all come up shaking thier heads. When I feel them come up, I sweep my rod hard to the side and try and turn them just before they break the surface. If you can do this, you parachute their mouthes. Their mouthes are stuck open from the pressuer of you cranking them in. Dont try this with regular gear. First off you CANT turn them and second you will break off.

I dont totaly disagree with you Matt. To me it is 2 diffent games. Kind of like football and baseball. The thing is Mike Long plays both and domintaes both. Yes I know he is not ARod in Baseball but he is Joe Montana in football. The tournaments he fishes are not the elite series but they are not little club tourny's either and he dominates those. Yes they did have 1 tournament for the trohpy guys and a few big fish were caught with a 10 being the biggest. However the weather on that day was absolutly brutal. They will have more of them and you will see alot more big fish caught. Muddy, Mike L fishes So Cal Tounaments but His Partner John Kerr went to Mead in NV and won his first ever pro event against a ton of big names like Martins and Kline and Clunn etc. Trust they could compete on the big tour if they chose to. Actualy John plans to go full on pro soon. Mike does not want to. He has a wife and kids and a good job and he has to put them through college soon. that was his answer when I asked him why he doesnt go big time pro. Again guys I am partialy joking when I say the tounament guys are the masters at small fish. I understand the game and they play to win it. It is just my opinion that sombody that is the best at both Trophy hunting and is dominating at the semi pro level of tounament fishing is a better bass fisherman the the best tournament guys. Trust me I have much respect for Clunn, KVD, Roland,etc.