Big_Bass_Rock

Got two of the rapala rattle traps or whatever the rattling ones are called, one blueish and one a gray/white basically shad/minnow color. My friend got the green one. Also got two storm crankbaits, the wiggle wart or whatever they're called. One a 8-9.5ft and the other 12ft. Also got some 6" blue roboworms just cuz the 4" of that color have been working really well for me lately. Hoping to get better at crankbaits/hard bait fishing in the near future. The place I usually go isn't very deep, maybe 8 or 10ft max, so I'm kind of scared to throw the deep divers or the sinking rattlers cuz I'll probably snag it on something and lose it. I've even managed to snag some T-rigged weightless worms in there so two trebles will hang up pretty quick. Anyways any tips on using these baits? I'm hoping to get out a couple times this week and try the new stuff out.

That canoe looks like a pretty awesome rig for one guy, maybe two. Me and my friend were looking at some canoes, is there room in one for two people to fish?

If they were gonna kill it might as well have ate it :

Alright thanks guys. Jake, I just bought some similar looking jigs to the who in your link, so I'll try it out.

When you guys use them as trailers, do you use a plain jig head or one with a skirt, or does it really matter? I just organized all my gear and I set up one rod with a rig and crawdad trailer that I play to use when I go out next week.

Sounds like it would work for conserving space. The only thing I don't like about this method is the baits arn't as clearly visible and you have to dig through the bag to find what you want. Come to think of it, I might be able to remove one of the drawers from my tacklebox and put the binder in its place, but I'd have to go measure my box to make sure it would fit. Another question I have is what about the baits that I've had for a long time that I didn't keep in a bag? Are they no good anymore, or just not as good?

I don't buy expensive lures, but don't have any problem with those that do. If you can afford to spend 20 bucks on a crankbait then go ahead, its your money. I don't have a large amount of tackle compared to most of you guys, but I'm sure I would be in the hundreds of dollars range if I added it all up. I only have about 15 or 20 crankbaits/poppers type hard lures, and they're all under 5 or 6 dollars each. I've been guilty of buying the cheap spinners too (5 pack for 5 bucks) instead of the name brand Mepps or others for 3 - 4 dollars each. Both catch fish for me. Also another reason I buy cheap lures is I take my younger brother fishing, or other little kids, or girls, and they snag and lose lures left and right. So I tie on the cheap lures for them and if I have something a little more expensive I keep it hidden . I don't mind if they lose 10 crappie jigs, I paid 1.25 for all 10, and they're one of the easiest lures to catch fish on in my experience. But when someone loses a $5 crankbait I just bought, I get a bit ticked off. When I make more money I'm sure i'll probably buy more expensive gear, cuz thats just how it goes I guess.

Grimlin that binder thingy looks interesting, I may have to get one. I just don't know if it will fit into my tacklebox, and I don't want to carry it seperately. What about the plastics that don't come in bags? The ones you buy individually? Just put them in zip lock bags?

I really havn't used these much, as I only had one or two, but I just recieved a bunch of different styles and colors from *** and I want to start experimenting with them. What ways do you guys find the best for rigging and fishing soft plastic crawdad baits? T-rig? C-rig? Weightless? As a jig trailer?

I used to just lay them out in different compartments of my tackle box by color. When I got back into fishing recently the new baits I bought I kept in the bags because I though taking them out would "air out" the salt/scent. I really don't know if that makes a difference or not. I've been getting more and more of them and I'm finding that keeping them in a bag is more feasible for saving space but it makes it hard to find what you're looking for when you have to dig through a whole bag of them if theres more than one size/color/bait in each bag. Any thoughts?

I read somewhere that even holding the fish verical was harmful because the guys all move down due to gravity and its an unnatural position for the fish, but who knows.

Hmmm thats interesting. I am very new to topwater fishing myself but I may have to give a try at night sometime.

Thanks for sharing your experience Fish Chris. Also a side note about transporting game fish: I looked over the regulations again and it appears to be illegal to transport ANY live fish from the water of capture. I was unaware of this, and have broken this many times. I myself, everyone I fish with and most people I've seen on the water fishing that keep some fish to eat don't kill the fish before leaving. If its in a bucket or on a stringer and its usually still alive thats how we take it home. I really don't know anything about cleaning an aquarium as I've never had one so if I ever did get a bass in a tank I'd have to find out about that, but I was just curious for now.

Haha good idea I was gonna weigh a dumbell but I only have a 20 pounder so it still wouldn't tell me how accurate it is at low weights.

I find it pretty easy. Small bass about 12" and under I usually just lift them out of the water on the rod unless I'm using my ultralite then I grab them. Anything bigger I usually lip. What I do is when I get the fish to the the edge just lift up on the rod untill the head is out of the water, usually they open their mouth and are still for a few seconds giving you enough time to grab them. I bring a net sometimes, when I expect to catch a big catfish or carp, or if I'm fishing somewhere high above the water where you can't reach the fish. I only net fish too big to lift out with the rod. I don't really like bringing my net because its big and awkward and generally a hassle. I have one of those small teardrop trout nets but the handle on that one is too short to make it usefull, might as well just grab if I'm already that close. I saw a collapsable net yesterday at target of all places that looked pretty need, it folded into a pretty small bag and expanded to about a 3 foot handle and a good size triangular fish hole thingy. I'm gonna look into these a bit more and I might have to get one. Seems like it would be convenient when I don't want to bring the big net.

I guess you get what you pay for my scale goes to 50 pounds and only costs 5 dollars. :

Yeah it must be wrong, because yours looks about the same size as mine, maybe even a little skinnier. How much do those digital scales run? Mine was only 5 bucks so that may be why its wrong.

Well I have one of those analog scale/measuring tape combo thingys, and on that it showed as just barely over a pound. Not even a pound and a quarter, like a pound and an eight. I was also thinking that it would be heavier because of how long he is and how fat but maybe my scale isn't accurate. I'm going to have to get some weights and weigh them on the scale to see how close it is. This one was about a half inch longer than the one I caught the other day, but not as fat, and they both weighed the same on my scale.

I didn't use a spinnerbait today but I threw one last time I was out there earlier this week and I covered the whole area and didn't get a single hit. Today I used some jigs, senkos, and crankbaits and didn't get anything on them.

Yep, it was slow again. Got one bass, 15" and a little over 1 pound. Again it seems the only thing they would hit was a 4" blue roboworm fished weightless. Caught this one, then had a bite on a brown/green roboworm and thats it. We also caught a few bluegills. Here's a pic of the bass.

They poisoned lake Davis farther up north in CA to get rid of all the pike recently, pike are unwanted in this state it seems. I've also always wanted to fish for them but never had the opurtunity.

I've never gone at night, usually leave when it gets dark. From the pics it looks like you do pretty well after dark. What do you usually catch em on at night?

Yeah releasing it later is illegal. You're not supposed to tansfer live fish between bodies of water. I still think it would be able to survive in the wild after being raised in a tank. If I ever did get one and it got too big I'd just eat it.

Congrats! Winning a boat like that is totally awesome This makes me want to enter a tournament lol :

I don't have much experience with the T-rig, but I always thought that you wanted the sinker to slide up and down the line so that when the bass pics up the worm the line slides to thru the sinker, if its secured that bass feels resistance before you feel the hit and drops the lure. I guess not?