Paul Roberts

I fish "Ned's" as nearly an UL finesse presentation. Rarely over 1/16oz. So they don't tend to hang in vegetation much. Wood is another story. Lotsa good ideas here. I esp like the recessed line tie on the Ultrahead. I've not used them but don't think the low line tie angle would cause retrieve issues as grubs are terribly unstable. Plus they're fished pretty slowly. Despite the fact that the ElaZtech can stand up, I catch plenty up in the water column. I could be mistaken but I think Kehde fishes them mostly that way too. Hey, they just work -"Senko" like. As to the OP's jig heads in question: It's tough to tell by the photo angle. What counts most is the angle of pull off the line tie. If it is close to in line with the point -and it does look that way- then it should be fine. Give em a shot and find out.

The 'why' is the best way to the 'how'. But, admittedly, not easy to get at. But I'm given em hell!

Hmmmmm.... All of 'em! LOL My bass here have a pretty narrow diet. It's almost all bluegills, with some baby bass (mostly eaten by juv's), some crayfish, and some dragonflies thrown in here and there. So... if my bass are mistaking my lures for BG's, then... all of 'em? I try to help them out some by using "BG colors", esp in clearer water. But bluegills don't always, even often, look like what most manufacturers call "BG" color. Probably bc most fisherman recognize bluegills in spawning coloration. But most of the year, BGs are not so vividly dressed, esp in clear water, and esp for younger BGs, which most bass eat. I talk about this a bit on one of my summer videos -the "Late Summer" one, with swim jigs in that case. Crankbaits, esp: What invariably gets my heart going while perusing the racks at a tackle shop, or the catalogs, are potential BG colors. And I have "bluegillized" a lot of cranks. I use and show one in my "Early Fall" video. A lot of this is in my head, I know. But hey!, it's my head that going fishing, isn't it? That said, I'm sure that accuracy in image/motion (what RichZ has called "Identity Profile" or IDP) could be important, if they could be accurate enough. And just painting some chunk of plastic or wood in spawning bluegill colors doesn't go too far. What I have only just begun to do is play around with some of the high end swimbaits that do appear to offer a much more accurate look. It remains to be seen how well these hold up in the IDP department after the bass gain experience with them. I've come to recognize that the what I call "economic negotiations" between predator and prey are most important. I've also found that some lures are simply more difficult for fish to learn are "not food" than others. Two that come to mind are the stick-worms, and a nifty little creation that's been around for some time but no one seems to know, is the Lil' Fishie now sold by Creme. Great little lure. Someone ought to run with that design; It needs some tweaking in the larger sizes.

Great topic title. You got my attention. Love crankbaits. Here's some suggestions... Don't just chuck-n-wind. If that's getting bites at a satisfying rate, great! A great way to catch a bunch of bass, fast, is by burning a lipless -hyper chuck-n-wind. It doesn't tend to work in cold water and sometimes it just doesn't work. But when it does, there's no faster way to put a bunch of fish in the boat. That said, there are often much better ways to trigger bass than by relying on the plug to do it for you. Often you have to trigger strikes, and straight chuck-n-wind often isn't enough: -Vary your retrieve -accelerations and pauses. -Crash into things. Bang bottom, wood, rock, weeds. For the latter, you need broken cover (openings) and clump edges. Fishing a crank in weeds is a lot about probing the area, finding the clumps, mapping them in your head, to set up casts that count. Crawl up over an identified clump, then when you get to the outer edge, RIIIIIIPPPPPP! it free. Often this will account for the majority of your strikes. You'll need a stouter rod for this -a MH casting is about right. You can rip off wood too, but it's more dangerous; Make sure you have a plug knocker handy. -Fish slow and methodical. I often use a crankbait like a jig, slow rolling, with lots of pauses. I once shared this with a friend who had started tournament fishing as a non-boater. After I shared how to fish a CB like a jig, he came back from a T having placed for the first time. Early spring lipless stuff worth doing: -Tiny lipless, like 1/8ozers, are dynamite in the spring. Spinning tackle, 6lb line. Don't be bashful, speed often turns the trick with them. -Yo-yoing: This works all year but is esp useful in cooler, even cold, water. Great in spring. Cast, sink, pull up a short ways (feeling the plug vibrate), then let sink again. Keep track of your depth control by lure weight, line diam., and sink rate. Vary the height of your pulls to find out what fish will react to. The colder the water, the shorter the rip (minimizing horizontal movement). -Vertical ripping: Similar to Yo-yoing, but amongst weeds. Great anytime, but very useful in cold water as you can minimize horizontal movement (which discourages cold fish from chasing). You will be fishing nearly vertically, so line up to weed wall, esp those with ragged edges, and cast short. Sink, come into contact with edges and rip free. Sink again, and repeat. Hugely effective. Remember to minimize horizontal movement. Plenty of other stuff to do too... Be creative; Crankbaits simply catch bass. Period. The only thing to veer away from, unless it's working, is the straight chuck-n-wind.

Kudos to you for taking care of those fish. That said, bass aren't the most fragile of fish. If healthy, they can stand being out of the water for a bit. I've never ascribed to the idea that fish shouldn't be touched -especially course scaled fish like bass. If a fish was really stressed -sick, too high temperatures, or some individuals post-spawn- then interrupting the slime layer might be of some concern. One of my pet peeves -maybe my biggest (besides wimpy fishing rods)- is catching bass with sores, bruises and chunks of their face missing. I'm planning a video on handling and, especially, unhooking bass. There are definitely some people out there -at least in my waters- who could seriously use that info. I do love those fish.

You found a group of females. Definitely stay on them. You wont hurt them, unless maybe you're particularly bad at unhooking and handling. You most probably wont catch the same one again, at least right away. Cormorants wont likely be much of a problem. They sure aren't here. They can do the culling of small bass for you. We have pelicans too, and it can be almost scary to see a big group converge on a pond. A few years ago released pet goldfish exploded in numbers at a local pond. There were hordes of them. The managers were getting ready to apply rotenone. But before they could the pelicans found them and cleaned the pond of goldfish in just a few days.

There are many really good rods out there across all brands and price ranges.

Nice. I like the rabbit strip trailer.

I have a Carbonlite, the older black one. It's an excellent rod.

Oooooo!

Thanks, Dwight. Yes, it's considered to be the same design, if not material. It's a popular rod amongst light jig fishers for walleye too. I thought it should make a good Ned/hair jig rod. Not sure I'd really want to hook into many truly big smallies with it though (much less DD largemouths). I ran into some big 3-5lb smallies in the Thousand Islands one year and with my M Skyline and 6lb it took forever to get them to give up. There's something to be said for balancing rod to fish size.

Yeah, with steelhead I can see not trusting just rings. Things can get crazy fast. I'd always used double sided tape, then black vinyl (electrician's). Some suggest fiber tape under electrician's. I recently found hockey tape, which is soft, offers a good comfortable grip, and has a nice organic look to it. Not sure if it will stay put.

Thanks, islandbass. And I thought 'sick' was new! I use double sided tape, vinyl tape, then cover with hockey tape. The latter is new; Thought I'd give it a shot.

Done. Ready to fish. Both are slightly tip heavy. I've come to suspect that detection has most to do with rod movement in the hand, and less to do with mysterious "vibrations transmitted to the hand" -which is why I no longer care about "direct contact with the blank". The most sensitive rod I've fished is my Kistler Helium which is also the lightest (to power) rod I own. Watching takes from fish in slow motion video I can see that the rod moves visibly just before I react -and the Kistler is most easily moved by a fish. It's largely about the weight, I believe, a rigid blank that does not dampen/absorb the all important movement, and then possibly fine-tuning balance. My thinking is that being slightly tip heavy may make the rod easier to tip toward the fish when weight is applied by the fish. This is speculation as I have not devised any objective testing. So.... here are my latest upgrades: On the left is the Berkley Tactix re-build, now 6'3" MF 2-8lb: Gold weave graphite Tennessee handle, split, rubber butt with brass accent ring. And the NFC XF 4-8lb: Burnt cork Tennessee handle, split, three tone butt, brass accent ring at top of handle, dark cocoa brown wraps, Minima guides, Nanolite tip and first guide, slightly over-sized (7) to help deal with icing. I think I'd have chosen the burl cork over the burnt, for a bit more character. And made the butt piece a bit larger. Guess that'll wait for the next rebuild. Or... I could save that for the next upgrade.

Catch and kill rates like that are definitely a problem, esp so for large fish bc they simply take time to grow. I don't know where you are, but up here in the N a 4lb bass is 8-10 yrs old. This makes the math pretty simple. Almost assuredly, all the bass -even larger ones- weren't entirely caught out. There's plenty of good research showing that some bass in a population are more difficult to catch than others; Some have even been labeled "immune to angling". So, you likely have fewer fish and of those, the population is likely skewed towards more difficult to catch fish. One scary thing is, these "personality" traits have been found to be heritable. Difficult to catch bass are now known to produce difficult to catch offspring. There's also plenty of research showing that differential individual personality is not the only thing at work. Nearly all bass tend to become more difficult to catch after they've been exposed to angling. Does this all mean that bass are "smart"? To really address such a question we would have to define what "smart" means. Short story in my mind is that bass have done pretty darn well for themselves in such a variety of waters around the globe and with a well documented ability to survive fishing pressure, both as individuals and as populations (as per above), that I'm pretty comfortable saying that they are pretty darn "smart" for a fish. Does this mean your bass are uncatchable? No. You will just have to get better and smarter yourself. Is that body of water worth your time? That remains to be seen in terms of an acceptable catch rate. So far that pond has spoiled you. That was a nice, and rare, space to be in. It isn't likely to be the same for some time. However, the fact that that water was able to produce such quality fish suggests it will again in the future, if given a chance to recover. I've "policed" really good waters in the past, befriended and talked with other anglers (best tact), confronted poachers, and had a few busted. Once I and some buddies got together and bought our local CO (Conservation Officer) a cell phone. Some waters are real gems and worth some effort.

Yes! Agreed. Rebuilds can be truly rewarding. I really do enjoy bringing out the diamonds from the rough. I must say I'm pretty tickled with that Tactix rod -just a great little blank -just over an ounce with the Minima guides installed. And plenty crisp for sensitivity. The $2.74 price (with a Shimano Sonora -not sure what to do with that) takes it over the top. Yes, good rods have been made for quite some time. I still fish some of my 80s rods regularly. One of my favorites, if not my favorite, is a Skyline 6005 (6ft M) I bought in 1981. It was the most money I'd laid down for a rod at the time, and I could barely afford it. It's been fished hard ever since; I've sure got my money's worth, and then some. I finally gave it a face-lift a couple years ago, replaced the old Fuji's with Alconites, and stripped off all the old Skyline orange (sad to do it as I'm still proud to own that rod) and went all black. And I've just started kicking around the idea of replacing the old EVA and aluminum handle with... something else. Hmmm.... Whatever it is, it'll have to do that wonderful old rod justice.

Graphite. Back in the day all that was available -besides cane poles and tubular steel- was fiberglass. I'm still thrilled to be able to have graphite. I'm sure there's more to it, but I'm still not over graphite.

Ah! I've been on the ice myself, but with UW video cameras. In my video fishing journals I've been following my bass seasonally. And my next documentary is on bass development and I've been tracking those bass through the year. I am one who can sit an entire day out there and just watch the natural world go by, while my cameras are recording what I cannot see. What have I "caught"? Nine species, and a clip of a bass attacking bluegills in front of the camera! He missed. It's tough down there.

Ah! Of course... When I think "spawning" I'm talking about actual egg-dropping, not the whole season, or the simple presence of bass at a bed site. From what I've seen here, females may hang around a bed site with a given male for a couple of days, before moving on. Since there is likely little actual spawning going on after dark, my guess is she's still there, just holding outside the bed site -just deeper. I call this posture "classic pose" for lack of better, the male on the bed and the female holding outside, usually suspended at bed depth but out away (about 10 to 15ft out) from the bed over deeper water. I've never fished bedding bass at night, so I can't speak to it. I've night fished for bass and stream brown trout a lot and can say that the spookiness factor and their willingness to strike makes both bass and trout much more catchable after dark. Female bass around the bed can be generally catchable but often require a slower and more precise approach. Nothing seems to beat a jig, tube, or worm fish killed in front of a female that you actually got to notice your bait. This is pretty precise fishing and I can see would be a much greater challenge after dark, as both Catt and WRB mention above. And I agree with both that targeting pre-spawners is a much more consistent game plan. Those fish will chase, and more apt to meet you part of the way. Ditto the single-spin SB too, although its interesting that bass can still find quieter baits like tubes after dark too. I guess I get an adrenaline boost with tubes around the spawn season. Jees, I just got that rush, and I'm just sitting at my desk! Funny how that is.

It's now my GoTo braid. I haven't tried them all by any means, but it's a good step up from the SpiderWire Stealth I've used for some time -which has been a good usable line. J-B is very smooth, much finer in diameter (per break rating -haven't tested it though), so far isn't fraying much, holding its color, and the price is competitive. I assume the "breakthrough" of 8-carrier braids came from Sufix 832, as it's gotten such great reviews. Everyone has been following suit. J-Braid is the only I've tried. Very happy with it.

Received my SB601 a while back. Almost finished with it. I see NFC is having another "50%" sale now.

The "Rizutto Finish" is the way to bowstring serving has been finished for... hundreds of years. I've served quite a few bowstrings over the years but didn't think of using it for the FG. Doh! Thanks for the kick in the right end.

Good question. From what I've read -from hatcheries and field studies- night spawning is rare, but has been documented. Would not doubt that the male and female would be present st the bed site, but may not be spawning. Would be interesting to know -have some observations on that.

I've had no issues. Very small diam lines gave some trouble initially but also revealed the issue. Agree with CH above here: Keep all three line ends TIGHT as you make the knot. That's all I've had to do. No issues with more slick braids either including J-Braid 8 and even Gliss. Just a GREAT knot.

That's the plan. Been working my way up to it -upgrading my UL/L sticks. I've been taking my winter fishing a bit more seriously this year, in shooting my winter video fishing journals. First there was buckling down and finding those winter bass, then there were the tackle "upgrades". What I had were 1980's UL's; Not bad rods, just too soft/light for the job. Nice thing about those ElazTech grubs though, the bass will chew on em long enough for the rod to load enough to know what it is that's holding up your retrieve. Needing something quick, I took a 6ft IM6 Dick's spin-cast rod I've always liked out of the rack in the garage -no more spin-casters in the family- and, rather crudely, turned it into a spinning rod. Some of those IM6 rods you could find at Galyan's, Dick's, and Wally World were pretty fishable -in shorter lengths. This one was rated MH 8-15lb which is patently ridiculous. It's a 4-8lb F -period. Adequately functional too. Next up I found a Berkley Tactix ("IM7") 6'6" L at Good Will for $4.00 and 40% off. I took it home, cut 3" off it (too soft in the tip) replaced the tip-top and first guide with Alconites. Stripped off the over-sized, and ugly, handle and seat and replaced it with a graphite Tennessee Handle, split. Perfectly functional rod, and much nicer to look at, if you like the tech look. I do. However, my NFC rig will be organic: burnt cork, black Minima guides, nano-light 1st and tip-top (slightly over-sized rings). Either cocoa brown or taupe ("Largie" kind of olive) wraps. Should be pretty, and about as functional as I could wish for. Will post pics when I'm done with it.