Paul Roberts

Wow! I didn't know snakehead's jump!

I Iook at terrain and think about what it would look like submerged. I imagine what it would look like on sonar. Then where fish might hold in diff conditions. I do this while driving usually. The only casting I practice is fly-casting. I use a yarn rod in the house too.

I often use braid for jigs, SBs, and plastics with a short mono leader. I use very light braid for some finesse applications with a FC leader. I also use straight FC for some subsurface applications, in deeper water and when there is wind to contend with. I use straight mono for treble hooks -CBs and topwater. I have extra spools for all spinning reels, and some dedicated casting reels.

Thanks for the complete rundown. I'm going to be leaving mime stock. I have 3 other reels that seriously need drag work.

I cut a long supple willow from pond edge and affix a length of hand-woven 7lb dogbane cordage to it. If I'm feelin' really sporty, I cut a Phragmites wand and affix a 4lb milkweed cord to it. If I hook a big one and it wants to run I just throw the whole rig overboard and follow it until the fish tires or gets bored and gives up. Here's one, taken on a Phragmites wand, 4lb milkweed cord, and Gummy Worm on a bent piece of baling wire stuck in a little mud ball to get her down. I chased her all over the pond, sometimes up to my armpits, before she came to rest under this grassy bank. "Game over!" I bellowed. Just like Ike! A guy on the other side of the pond packed up and took off runnin'. Guess he didn't want to be showed up anymore. "All a boy needs is a block of wood, or a navy bean army."

If I had to pick one lure type it would be the jig.

Sounds like we're cut from similar cloth. I'm very analytical too. With the complexity I see in nature, I'm not sure sure I'm "over-analytical" though. I agree though that separating where versatility ends and obsessive consumerism begins can be a trick. I'm susceptible too, even at my age where I have a resonable handle on just how much time I actually have to make use of all those techniques. I've read Ned's stuff and understand that game pretty well, if not his philosophy. The plains reservoirs where he practices his craft really lend themselves to finesse presentations. We have some similar waters here in CO too, although I only fish one close by that qualifies. I was introduced to this water by a young angler a number of years ago. Then a couple of seasons back we had an especially huge hatch year of bass and many local waters were filled with fingerlings. The big bait bite fell through the floor and I got to return the favor by introducing this young guy to finesse fishing. I gave him a handful of Slider heads and he was back in business on this water. If I had to choose to simplify to one rig, it would probably be med spinning and a box of jigs/worms. Of course, there are some waters here I couldn't fish anymore, except very early in the season. Thus, I might need two rigs, adding a MH for when the vegetation grows thick in most of my waters. And then ....

I sharpen conservatively, bc I want those hooks to last. The recommendation was always to sharpen three sides. That wastes a lot of hook. I sharpen one side -just slide the file at a low angle along the point. The idea is to make the tip of the point sharp enough to stick into your skin when you handle it, and not slide on your thumbnail. This is easy to do with one stroke. That potentially leaves two more sides for future sharpening.

Excellent post, Sissysticks. I take it your druthers is to wield a light spinning rig (sissy stick)? That's how I started off, after reading of Charlie Brewer. Haven't read his book though. Going to have to add it to my reading list.

Nitrofreak, are you an old codger like me??

Excellent article. Lots there. Not just presenation versatility, but something equally or actually more important, reading the conditions right in front of you. But if you are not versatile in presentation, you are going to find yourself suddenly ... lost. I've some (not uncommon) stories to relate along this line, but I gotta run. Maybe later.

I don't know what kind of experience you have, and don’t want to assume too much, but when you start catching on slow presentations (when they are indeed needed), you'll start slowing down with ease. I don't know how to MAKE you slow down. I suppose it would come from being “mindful”, rather than just running wild hoping the fish will come to you. A core problem for mature bass, esp large ones, is that they are energetically stingy. They are often of the group that didn't chase everything willy nilly, burn out and die when they were young. Some of the largest bass I've caught, and seen caught, were taken in prime spots on a killed lure, just lying their dead for up to a several minutes. When it was moved BAM! Surprise! This is a pattern actually, a behavioral one, in that it is one good way to eek out large fish. Once something like this happens you'll have little trouble doing it. Also keep in mind, many anglers have this expectation that the fish will come to them if they have the right lure on. And this is often how newbs stumble into fish, and devleop their GoTo's. But you'll beat the random catch odds by adjusting your mindset to realizing that you have to go to the fish and elicit bites, rather than expect them to do the majority of the work. Does that make sense? This may not require "slowing down" as much as being mindful of your purpose, your testing the fish's responses to your presentations as you fish. Here's how I generally run my day: Unless I expect otherwise, I tend to start (where I think there are fish) faster and bolder bc if the fish are willing, I can cover more water and catch more fish. But if it’s not working, I’ll change. The big changes are depth, speed, and action. The first is locational, the others are your presentation. Before I change locations I’ll likely adjust action and speed. These first adjustments might be using triggers like pauses, accelerations, lateral darts, trying to trigger strikes. If no go I may start dropping speed –falls, longer pauses, all the way to dead-sticking for a bit. Heck it’s only 15 minutes or so of your day to check each of these out. If still no go I might change lures. If I think the lure is appropriate, I may just pick up and move -check deeper or shallower on the same structure, or move entirely. Again, I think the direction to go is being “mindful”. Once you start getting bit with slower presentations, (they being simply part of the testing procedure), you’ll gain confidence there and “slowing down” will have nothing to do with your adrenaline levels. You can fish slow with high intensity, if you know you are about to get bit. As to getting "bored" -maybe put less pressure on yourself to catch. Relax, get outta your head, and think more about what's going on around you. Pull the ear buds, even sit and get quiet. Breath, relax, meditate. Maybe sounds like a waste of time, but nature does not move at an urban pace. When I've been in the urban world for a while it take some time to get the traffic out of my head and actualy come down and be present in th moment. We humans have the gift of being able to abstract/generalize the world around us. But its a double-edged sword. If you are in your head and not being able to come out of it, you are not fishing the moment, what's in front of you, but what's in your head. This may make no sense. But I hear "bored" and ... I have my own ideas about that. Hope some of this helps.

I like a fine file. Luhr Jensen makes one that is excettent. Only drawback is they rust. Ohterwise I like diamond files.

Can you give an example? Otherwise I'm just guessing at your meaning.

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a very long time. I worked in a tackle shop years ago and we'd joke about the posters on the wall and in the ads featuring Bill "Big Hands" Dance, Jimmy "Popeye" Houston, and Al "Thumbs" Lindner. I understand the diff perspectives, that wide angle lenses can create bold statements, highlight the fish, and let's face it, big fish always seem bigger than life, esp when you first get them in the boat and are doing your war-woop, and then there's fact that media is 75% eye candy. But, along with oftentimes poor weight estimation skills, distorted photos bug me too. It's one thing to show a fish well, another to hide its size, or distort reality. The flip-side is wide angle lenses can make nice fish look small, if you are not careful. Bottom line I guess is: photos are often lousy at recording reality. Know that going in. My heart long ago stopped leaping at such photos, but it still does when I see photos that shows beautiful fish well and in unique ways.

IF has an article this month featuring blades.

Awesome day. Congrats!

I have a pond I fish that lacks much obvious structure, and precious little cover ealry before the vegetation grows up. In spring I find good numbers of bass distributed along one particular shoreline that leads into a shallow bay. One early spring day I found that some tumbleweed had rolled in and sunk, and they attracted bass, giving them something to hold at. I caught several under and next to them.

I don't want to make this thread any more contentious than it already seems, but ... I'm going to disagree. Much of what you are suggesting is very good advice for moving water. But, for bass, esp LM within the cover they tend to live in, heavy gear is not for handling 2lb fish per say, but directing them out of heavy cover. And for throwing bulky and usually damp, flies. 4wt works fine even for big fish in open water. I've done a ton of FF and UL fishing, including steelhead and have even taken big 'bows on 1kg line. But I'd never consider such rigs for LM a lot of the places LM live, or for some of the bass flies I throw. Just as I'd not use my UL, or even, finesse gear in a lot of summer LM situations. My recommendation for the OPer is at least an 8wt for cover, and a 6wt for open water. As to how much you want to pay, that's up to your budget. You can fish effectively without paying $600 for a rod.

Bass can see any line, any lb test. They just don't know what it is. I know a guy who catches 1000 bass/yr and has run straight fluorescent braid to his jigs and had no perceptible diff in strikes. A leader can keep braid from shredding, and other uses, but isn't necessary to catch fish.

Nice!

The Vault looks a lot like a Cordell Gay Blade. Back in NY I did well on those.

It's true that there certainly are limitations to what we'd like to do and what the fish are willing to go for. Then again, lures sure are fun to collect, but where does practicality end and obsession begin?

I think what 0119 probably means is that expensive specialty rods are not necessary and I like his comment: "The great thing about fly fishing for bass is its so open to your own preferences." That said, shorter rods have an advantage in terms of power both to cast heavy stuff and in fighting fish. Big game SW rods are short for a reason. Not all manufacturers offer heavier fly rods in shorter lengths bc most of that market is geared toward SW and salmon/steelhead in movng water where long rods are requisite. I'd often toyed with the idea of cutting a foot off of one of the myriad 9fters offered out there. But there are some shorter power rods being made now. BPS offers one called "Heat" for $99 that I haven't seen, but at 8ft even lower grade graphites nowadays can maintain rigidity at that length.

LMAO!! I'm not sure how much it matters but I believe it can, or SHOULD, at times. So I color coordinate. Not with each other, or to the latest fashion, but to the given water's prey. Craws can by greenish, brownish, or blackish. I don't get too picky, unless I fish a certain water a LOT. Trailers I match to the jig skirt. I also fish swim jigs a lot and I match em to either shad or bluegills and the trailer matches. If someone would make a trailer that sported the pale blue fluorescent tail tip that bluegills have I'd snap em up. But alas, no one has thought of that. Barring prey-matching I tend to go dark (black) on dark days and white on bright days. If the water's really clear I use translucents with some reflective strands. Trailers, again, match.