catchnm

Pulled 11 fish yesterday with the craw. Largest was 5lb. and another bumping that. The others were 2-3 lbs. Landed a nice 4 lb.'er from another spot on Thursday. I've pulled bedding fish with this bait while dragging it tex-posed with a 1/16 or 1/8 oz. bullet weight, unpegged. Pre-spawners off of lay-downs and points can't resist it either. Post-spawners are susceptible to it's enticing action as well. Seems like hopping it like you would a worm just doesn't seem as effective as dragging it, pause, drag again. Most hits are coming while it's moving and those craaaazzzy claws are flapping!

Check out what happened to me last week............... http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1238197707

Here's a little trick I've used before. While not 100% accurate, it certainly gets really close to the actual surface temp. Use a standard meat thermometer, the kind with a with a spear about $5 at Wal-Mart. From the hobby section get yourself a bag of corks. These should look like the old wine bottle corks. Use the large one from the bag and spear the thermometer through it. Tie on some line or twine and throw it out and let it set for a few minutes. Pull it in and read the temp.

Got a little surprise while dropping a crappie jig down into a boat slip today. My '09 PB bass! Wanted to get her back in the water ASAP so I just had my bud take these pics and back in the drink she went. We guessed her at 7 lbs. She hit a chartreuse marabou 1/8 oz. jig at about 18" down.

I don't how they work for bass.....yet, but I've been slaying the crappie with the 3" and 4" minnow in both smelt and watermelon pearl. I store it two different ways. 1) In the original ziplock after adding one spray of garlic oil. I have a mesh pocket on my tackle bag which holds the ziplock tight and insures that it stays right side up, as long as the tackle bag does of course. 2) In a very small tupperware container. Add a little water to cover the bottom and a shot of garlic oil. Store the whole thing in a ziplock freezer bag. This stuff does STINK but it also does CATCH fish. I've recently caught Kentucky bass, largemouth, striper, and white bass....all while jigging for crappie inside the boat slips using the 3" and 4" Gulp Alive minnows.

Wonder why noone mentioned the Fat Free Shads by Bomber. The BDF7 runs 14-16 ft. and has a nice smooth retreive, not a hard pull like some of the other deep divers.

Ii just got a top score of 1095245. I used the cheat though. It works. Went through five levels I think before it started over at the first one again. I finally just let myself die. Could've gone on all night if I'd wanted.

Happy election week guys!

x2

The red eyes and smaller mouth say spot to me. Can't tell much about the other picture. Is there a tooth patch on their tongue? If so, then that would be the winning three for me.......spotted (Kentucky) bass.

Plastics will work but not the ones you've been throwing all summer. Try a 3-4" grub on a jig head. One with a really limber tail like a Kalins Salty Lunker grub or a Yamamoto. Retrieve it with a slow but steady retrieve. Try your twist-tail worms in place of the Senkos and Trick worms. Movement of the bait is the key this time of year. Also downsizing is not a bad idea either, especially if your fishing ponds.

When I fish I do it for fun and to eat some, sorry but I do. Not an abuser, a user. Anyway, I've been bringing fish home for about six weeks now. Not all, but several have had had egg sacks in them. Both from ponds and from the lake here. So yea, I'd say they spawn twice, at least here in the OK state. Actually I've known that for a few years. The downside is that not all the fry make it percentage wise to those that make it through the spring spawn. The warm weather here usually changes so fast and drastically during the late fall, that they succumb to the colder temps. Also as a general rule, the water levels are way down during this time of year and that contributes to the fry demise as well. Unhatched eggs just never hatch due to the weather cooling or young fry are easy prey with the lack of bank areas to hide and diminished water grasses.

Got both the Exceler and the Citica out together today for a couple hours. after some adjusting of tensions and brakes I had both casyting great with the 10# ultra soft. The only drawback I see so far is if I do get a backlash it goes really deep into the spool. I have to use a bit more finesse to get it out than with the mono. The 12# Big Game that I was using had a diameter of .014, the Ultra Soft 10# is .013 with a breaking point of 15.6 lbs. Not sure what the Big Game breaking point is but it's some strong stuff. I still have three Citicas spooled up with Big Game, think I'll keep 'em that way. That'll give me three with Big Game and two with Ultra Soft Yozuri, plus the Exceler with Ultra Soft as well. A plus for the Yozuri that I noticed almost immediately is sensitivity. Man I can feel my Senko hit the top of the grass in 15 feet of water. The pond I was fishing today is one where the bass don't tap but just suck the bait in very subtly. I was feeling the hits better than I had on the Big Game. Castability and distance was about the same, maybe a foot or two more with the Yozuri. I think I'll like it OK, not sure it was really worth the price difference for the type fishing I normally do though. I really like the 6# Ultra Soft on my spinning gear and won't mind purchasing more for that purpose. I'll honestly probably just stick with the Big Game for my baitcasters after the spool of 10# Ultra Soft I have is gone though. I can see it's advantages for the competitive fisherman but for my style, I don't think I really have to have it. Doesn't look like I'll be needing any line treatment spray either.

Thanks for the responses. I kinda thought RW might post up on this thread too. The reel I have the 10# on is a Daiwa Exceler. I also have it on a new Citica 200E. Haven't casted the Citica yet so I will do that today and see how much difference there is. Both were quite "smooth" feeling using 12# Big Game Mono. I just noticed some "roughness" when I was casting the Daiwa.

Do I need to use a spray on application for this stuff? Like KVD Line and Lure or Reel Magic? Or can I get by with out it? I have 6# on a small BC and it casts great. But I also have some 10# on a larger sized reel and it seems a little stiff.

That color is just almost dead on to what the threadfin shad look like here. Add a spot and that's it.

I once caught a nice little gal using this stuff. At the time it was working quite well for me. She wasn't a big ole hog but was certainly a nicely developed female. She bit hard on the first toss. Swallowed the bait all the way down. I kept her for a while thinking she was gonna be a nice keeper, but, she turned out to be a cull. I caught several more using this same stuff and all were nice ones, well a couple were big ole hogs, but I quit using it about 25 years ago. Finally caught a keeper......but not on this stuff.

I rather enjoyed it myself. I watched it online at NBC.com and was able to follow it better than when I started watching the regular tv broadcast. I actually turned it off about 1/3 way through and went to bed. My five top fav tv shows are Fringe, House, My Own Worst Enemy, Bones, and Heroes. I watch them all online except Heroes. I'm a sucker for "The X-Files" re-runs too. :

The "Extreme" is a great reel man. On sale now for about $65 too. Good longevity too. Muddy gave me one of the ETX05 model ones, it's become one of my favorite reels.

Entered a local tourney to help out the sophomore class at my daughter's school. I expected a low rate fund raiser but here's the rules, I'm impressed. 1. Artificial Lures Only! NO LIVE BAITS!!! 2. Bank Fishing Only! No Wading into water. 3. Catch & release Only! 4. All fish will be weighed and recorded by tournament officials. 5. Each contestant will be given a 2 hour time limit per pond to fish then the total weight will be tallied & announced at the end of the day. 6. Contestants will be randomly selected and placed into fishing groups. 7. Check in will be at 7:00 a.m. the day of the tournament. 8. Final weigh in & prizes will be announced at the end of the day. $35 to enter and the Big Bass prize is something "valuable" from Gander Mountain. Also door prize and random drawings throughout the day. Probably no cash back prize, but it's for a good cause and should be way fun and the winning weight will be "well rewarded". I like the fact that it is well organized and will be overseen. It will be on private land with several ponds to fish. Should be interesting. Bank fishing has been my forte this year as I'm boatless. Ponds are always a favorite place of mine to fish and I think myself experienced and capable to pattern a pond pretty fast of late. I'm looking forward to it.

http://www.cachecustomlures.com/CCL%20pages/reaper.htm http://www.pourboyplastics.com/Reapers.htm http://www.ghostbaits.com/dropshotbaits.htm

Zoom Trick worm in the baitfish / shad pattern. French fry type baits are good too. Around rocks a DT Hula Grub or a Rage Tail Craw in watermelon or green pumpkin.

Well I rigged a Kinami DT grub (same as a DT Hula) in watermelon/red today on a split shot rig. Real basic, 3/0 EWG hook and a 3/16 round split shot crimped right on the line. Caught a nice 2 pound chunk on it. It looks more like a crawdad coming thru the water than anything I've seen lately. Pretty impressive.