Nick

This thread is getting a little bit disturbing. Even in jest some refer to women as property in that we have the right to tag them like cattle. "I'll tag that 8 pointer in the meadow and the blonde in the corner!" the neanderthal declared. "That way I'll own her, too." Do we really want to go here? Let's get a little bit more civilized, gents. Back to fishing, Glen.

Of interest is the tandem willow spinnerbait that nearly always seem to catch fish in decently warm, clear waters when wind is present. That wind really helps to refract light at the surface camoflaging the spinnerbait as it is retrieved at the top of the water column. I think the bass just can't discern the lure as one they have seen so many times. Fooled into thinking it's real prey, they continue to bash it through the last 20 years. The willow blades appear much more like the shape of prey fish than do other shapes of blades. In clear waters, stick to that willow shape!

Save some for me!

Bipr8 hit it pretty good for general sakes, but be flexible. In clear water, it's still a good idea to tie on a clear/blue glimmer skirt and throw a 3/16 oz. double willow in silver #3 blades. If the tiny willow blades don't spin as well as they should (often they don't), try taking the very tip end and bending it with needle nose at a right angle to the blade. That adjustment will kick start the little boogers! Also do try fluttering a larger willow over the limbs of the pole timber. In both cases I would like to have a chop on the water or try both techniques early or late in the day. If you can't decide on silver or gold, try a combo. I've caught some really good bags using one of each. About that golden shiner comment for Florida, that's the truth!

Yes, I have. I tend to agree that I can repeat plastic worm fishing with more success than I can with a jig. I think they learn the jig quicker. This is my generalization. In the late 70's when the first rubber legged Arkie jigs came out, we really waylaid the smallmouth on clear Ozark streams with them. They lost much of their appeal after three or four years though. As more and more guys used them, I think the bass caught on. The same was true for the buzzbait, tube, and now they see too many Flukes. Granted, if we get a good rain and the river rises and colors up, nearly any bait is a good one when the smallies rampage. Also, wish I had a way of tagging the larger bass in my pond to see how often I have caught the same one! As to the time of day, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could catch them around noon, and I caught more bass then than I did in late evening. I have no clue why. Nearly every day was sunny, hot, and calm. I did vary the retrieve with the jig except I could not work it slowly off the bottom since the lake has a clingy moss problem which prevents this retrieve. Nearly every fish was caught on a steady retrieve with a two or three second pause to give the jig time to fall back. Funny thing, I have never seen a crawfish in my pond or caught a bass that puked up any craw remains in 8 years. I'll see if the new riprap creates a craw habitat. I will let the jig lay for a month and try it again just after Halloween. I'll let you know.

I have a neat test pond about two acres that has a decent population of bass that I stocked years ago. Depth is only six feet and the whole thing is surrounded by riprap as of this year. I have it pretty much to myself. This year I got a little bit scientific and ran some tests to see how soon bass would get used to the exact lure, of if they would. Since I cast cast to about 95% of the lake from shore, I used this summer period of hot weather with temps from 88 to 93 degrees as the test time. I selected a lure that the bass had never seen, a brown 3/8 oz. jig with living rubber skirt trailed with a zoom Fat Albert single tail grub. Within a one month period if fished 12 times at 11:00 a.m. and 12 times at 6:30 p.m. occasionally on the same day. I fished 30 casts for each session. My catch rate was very good for 8 of the first 11 sessions. I averaged over four bass per trip with six bass going over 4 pounds. My best day I caught 8 bass. Over the last 7 trips I have not caught a bass using the same and only bait. For me, this proves that bass do get used to the same jig used over and over again. I plan to try the same test with Senko next June.

Some floating cranks like the DD22 dive about 15 feet on the retrieve just by reeling in a long cast. It's the length of the bill primarily that determines the depth the lure will run. Most cranks even with long bills don't run that deep. You can make the bait heavier externally or internally. Drilling holes can mess up your baits permanently however. The suspend dots (8-10) and strips can make a floating crank like the popular Wiggle Wart into a suspending one, but usually it's not worth the trouble to do it. Those dots will often peel off esp. piled hig like a stack of pancakes. Golf tape has been used to wrap around hooks also to get a bait to suspend or sink. The best use of suspend dots is to tweak a supposed suspending bait that wants to rise instead of suspend. Here, just one or two dots at the most will make it into a better fish catcher in cold water below 50 degrees.

What commission are you in? Sorry to hear you are partially there. So did it go 10lb.?

For being so soft, the 3X worms and others of that ilk are nearly impossible to get a good hookset on until they have so many holes in them that the hook slips off. I do not recommend these! Senkos are very soft, and you don't have to go any softer period. You might want to try some of the cut tails from Yamamoto. Very good soft, and you get at least twice as many for the price. If any old timers out there have save worms for 30 years as I have, all worms today are much softer than the old Cremes and Fliptails of years past. The Jellyworm was the first step in softer worms that I found about in '75.

Road W., I agree that Raul's is a quality fish. Butterballs like this do weigh well! Maybe 8-9 lbs., if it's 23 inches or more.

To check any fish pic, first look at the size of the hand holding it. That fist is larger than the bass head and gills. Looks like 161/2 inches and maybe three pounds.

Vanish line did the same thing to me. Worked great for two days then it began to break about the same as dry, thin spaghetti. The "improved" Vanish is good and has been out for a couple of years. BPS flouro is pretty good. I really like Silver Thread fluro, but it is hard to find. Seaguar and P-line flouro is good quality stuff too. About your spinnerbaits: you can get the translucent material of your dreams and tie any custom color you want from lots of places. Jenns Netcraft has a big array of silicone skirts. Check them out on the web.

Hate to beat up this topic, but I catch more fish with a heavier jig 1/2 to 3/4 oz jig trailing a white Zoom super chunk reeled in just about as fast as a 6.3:1 reel will bring it. Have to use the heavier jig to keep it running true and underwater. When I kill the heavier jig, it drops quickly really making those fish bite savagely. I use this around the shore and around docks especially. Start with white but brown or blue also work with the Zoom super chunk trailer fished this way.

Five bass limit wrote some good stuff. Couple of additional points: If current is flowing, go to the points and cove points: if it is not the bass may tend to suspend more and scatter. With no water flowing, they will be tougher to catch. When the water temps are around 70, bass can be just about anywhere. I, too, would target the shallow brush first in the major creeks, but with only a few thousand acres, that pattern could be copied by many anglers. I would search for wind and throw a spinnerbait and crankbait in practice around laydowns to search quickly. If this fails to produce I would perhaps downsize to a jighead worm esp. since Kentucks need to measure just 12 inches. Look for the best combination of wind, chunk rock, and channel swings with wood cover to hold them either on the main lake or in major creeks. If you have docks that hang out over deep water, definitely throw a shite superfluke on the corners of those docks with wind moving past them. This is the easiest and best Kentucky pattern possible in fall. I would only throw a Senko when I established a confidence area. Fished correctly, these lures cannot cover much territory which you will need to do initially. Colors are pretty simple. When in doubt throw a shad colored crankbait, white spinnerbait, green pumpkin plastic, and brown jig. Please post the results or link us up to a site that does.

Any time anyone appoints themselves as a pro team selector makes me feel like they want to be in control. I have a wife for that duty. I get your drift LBH, but I would have worded the post differently. "Whose posts have you learned from, and what have you apploied to your angling with success? I like this board because it's not nearly as cutthroat and demeaning as some others. It has lots of newer anglers willing to learn and ask the simple questions. I would hope the blurbs stay fish related. informative, and objective.

Started strong in FLW with a top ten and fizzled at Beaver Lake. Did not qualify for Championship. Weighed biggest tournament bass at 9-6 in FLW. Qualified for Heartland Pro-Am Championship and Buddy Championhip coming in Oct. An average year so far, but lots to come.

Some good posts here. In fall in the Ozarks we can catch them 35 feet or 3.5 feet depending on the weather. One of the favored techniques is fishing a superfluke around deep docks in the wind. Swimming a jig can be good as can regular cranking around points and dropoffs and deep docks. Don't forget the football jig in the cuts (guts)off the main river arm from 20-35 feet either. No doubt the #1 rule is to find concentrations of bait first, then locate the bass on adjacent structures. For whatever reason the worm seems to fall out of favor but the jig seems to come on strong from now until Christmas. Some anglers really like the vertical spoon as well as deep tube fishing using electronics to locate both bait balls and bass near them in Bull Shoals and Table Rock.

One that has been forgotten and is a real lunker bait is the old Gilmore Jumper. Best prop bait ever made for big bass when they want a bit of a ruckus.

Apply pressure away from the barb of the hook, or toward the back of the treble, then remove the hook with a twist of the wrist. I've seen a bunch of good anglers who didn't understand this simple logic. Do one point at a time. Occasionally what looks like an impossible task of removal happens because the fish has twisted and rehooked itself. Be just a little patient when performing surgery.

Fish a lure as long as you think it's the best bait. Confidence rules. If you have confidence in every technique known to madern bassers, I would change very frequently, sometimes every fifth cast if I have the rods pre-rigged. I make present several lures to one spot no bigger than a washtub that I believe holds a fish. When prefishing, I adhere to Dion Hibdon's rule of thumb. Don't spend more than 5 minutes in any one place with one lure. To me that means keep moving and changing until you have developed a solid pattern which includes depth, structural elements, lure selection, speed, and last color. This "narrowing" gets a whole lot easier with experience. If however, you lack confidence in a certain technique or lure, try to go with someone else who catches them with a system that's foreign to you. I developed confidence in lures after fishing with guys who could show me a thing or two with Senkos and Flukes.

Raul, I liked your analyses. I would refute the notion, however, that catching the larger bass is a product of luck over catching a little one. Lots of guys can catch the "shore runners" as pointed out long ago by Buck Perry, but few can consistently catch quality bass. Larger bass catching is not the same as catching little ones. They take up the best residences in the most suitable locations in any body of water as you know. Also, in waters that have a foot of visibility green pumpkin works fine for me, although I would probably start with a black neon color for plastics. I haven't fished as much floating hyacinth as I would like, but given the lack of water clarity and the temperature, I can visualize lots of bass hanging just underneath the floating mats. I suppose that this cover will work itself to the windward shore where it could be good cover for catching bass. Overall, I agree with you that many guys fish without considering enough of the variables that position bass.

For me it depends on the water clarity. Could be fishing a football jig 20-30 on clear Ozark lake or churning a buzzbait or spinnerbait in darker waters. Like to see clouds, breeze, and rain. That maked the job much easier. Baitfish is the key for me in fall, and bass are still using brush and docks at this time esp. on sunny days. Will fish a 300 boat tournament in two weeks so I'll let you know how that one turns out.

I've seen this many times as well. Often you can't do a darn thing about it. Bass moods change and some days, they just bird dog the bait esp. if poor weather conditions prevail or highly pressured bass are targeted. Also, smallmouth react differently than largemouths do. One rule of thumb: if at least two bass are following, you should be able to catch one. That competition makes one strike. If it's a single fish in clear water, often a good bass is less inclined to strike. That's one reason this bass is still swimming! If this occurence occurs during the spawn, that fish can be caught nearly 100%. At other times it can't be. Enjoy those followers! I have had success using a soft plastic bait like a fluke, trick worm, or senko fished very slowly around the sighting. I have waited a couple of hours and caught the fish later. Mostly, I've scratched my head, and thought. This is a great game, and I'll catch you one day! Once I appeared on a nationally run fishing show and the host (pro) had no idea how to make a big smallie strike in a stream. He would kill the topwater bait and of course the bass would turn away. No matter how I tried to tell this fellow how to catch those lunkers, he wouldn't listen until I got a big follower to strike! An aggressive smallie heading towards the bait will usually strike if you kep the same rhythm going with a topwater.

One rule of thumb that I use: fish for a minimum of twice as long as the drive takes anywhere in America. If lake is 2 hours away, I'll fish for at least 4 hours. Lake Champlain is two days drive, so I fish at least 4 days.

Yes indeed. Try the Balsa BII for 1-5 feet and the Worden's Timber Tiger for just a little bit shallower. Ease it carefully through the brush as has been stated earlier. That Hot Lips is supposed to be a great deflector for deeper waters, but I haven't used it enough to say.