gobig

I do not believe its a myth. It has an effect on fish activity. If you do not believe I encourage you to track it over the next year. The barometric pressure should not determine whether or not you go fishing but should help you determine a logical starting point. For example, If there is a good chance that fish activity will be up then you may want to start the day with a faster moving bait. Nothing is concrete and so called rules are continually broken. Fishing is like gambling. You can go out there blind and you may get lucky or you can play the probabilities and increase your chances.

Here is another good article [edit]Sorry. No links to other bass fishing forums[/edit]

It works better to slayer

Location, Location, Location. Your fishing where the small fish live. Not saying that key locations don't have some small fish also but if your in dink city its not the bait its the location.

I think aspects of what both of you said are right. If you have fished the lake before or have done a little bit of home work you should be able to have some fairly probable spots lined up. For me... I would have a minimum of 3 rods. The reason I say this is you need to find where the fish are active in the water column (top, middle or the bottom). I would preferably have 6 tied up with a faster moving bait and a slower moving bait for each part of the water column. If there are two of you fishing together you should be able to narrow it down in half the time if you work as a team. Now say its the middle of winter. I will still have a top water tied on but I will spend more time on more probable baits. Even though the general opinion is you need to fish deep this time of year you may get the surprise of your life. Once you determine where the fish are active you can narrow down your baits. How long I work an area is going to be determined by several factors. For instance If I am throwing an 8in swimbait in clear water fewer casts are needed. The size of the bait, high volume of water displacement and the high visibility will have a greater drawing power which will require less casts to effectively cover an area. Now say I am throwing a jig in stained water. More casts would be needed. The bait is smaller, displaces less water and is less visible. If I am in clear water with lots of cover more casts will be required than a barren clear deep water reservoir. Try to consider all factors your dealing with its going to vary from lake to lake and even location to location.

I am not sure if your talking about the shadow from the bait? Or the boat? And if you are talking about the bait please explain.

To answer your question a low reading is going to be around 28 and a high reading is going to be 31. 29.9 would be pretty stable weather. I first saw this information in the book "In Pursuit Of Giant Bass". It is in the chapter "Position and Activity During Lunar Phases". I found it interesting so I decided to pay attention and I have found it to have a definite influence on fish activity. This does not mean that every time you find yourself in a pre-frontal position with a falling barometer that your going to have a 50 fish day. Now here's the interesting part. Say a storm passes a 100 miles north or south of your location. It is possible to still see a barometric change and not even see a cloud in the sky. I think this can give you an advantage and a good starting point. Its clear and sunny but the barometric pressure is falling so you may pick up a crankbait, or a spinnerbait, etc... and start covering water in search of active fish rather than trying to finesse a shakey head or dropshotting. Nothing is absolute but you can get a barometer fairly cheap and see the results for yourself first hand.

Bill Siemantle, Mike Long, Butch Brown, Gary Dobyns and Skeete Reese are my top 5.

My go to bait with a dropshot is a 6in roboworm. If size becomes an issue a quick pinch and you can shorten your worm. The primary colors I use are Aarons magic, MMIII, Mourning Dawn and Salt & Pepper Chartreuse.

Did you eat it? In Brazil they get good money for them in the fish market. Supposed to be really good eating.

I go fishing when I have the chance. I rarely shy away even when its raining. I fish before, during and after fronts. With that being said my belief is... fish are more effected by fluctuations in barometric pressure then localized weather. What I mean by this is that a fall or rise in the barometric pressure will have more effect on fish activity than weather its cloudy or sunny. You can see this best by using a barometer. As a front moves in the barometric pressure starts to fall. This is when the fish become most active. As the front leaves the area the barometric pressure rises and the fish activity slows. This does not mean you cannot catch fish. IMO deeper fish seem to be less effected by the fluctuation in pressure than shallower fish. For me deep diving cranks shined in post frontal conditions this year. I had the opportunity to cover a lot of water. I did not get a ton of bites (4-6 a day) but the ones I did get were quality.

You are going to get some mixed views on this one. I like using the Bub Tosh (pay check baits) method. IMO the skirt is not just there to give you the bulk of a jig. The bead acts as a buffer between the hook eye and the weight and helps prevent line breakage. The shape of the bead also helps the hook cam out better in tandem with a Snell knot for better hook ups. Make sure you use a hook with a welded eye. You also may need to go with more weight if its real thick (I go up to 2oz for some applications). If your shore bound you may have trouble getting some of the fish out of the grass with out being able to go in after them. Remember that when punching there is still a Top, Middle and bottom of the water column. The bite will not always be on the bottom. Fish will suspend right below the mat. Sometimes the key is to work your bait against the under side of the mat. Fish the lake in the same locations you would if there were no grass. Fish will still relate to structure.

I can't say that I totally agree with this statement. I think it depends on the body of water, the species of bass your targeting and what kind of structure and cover is available. Going deep is not always the answer. The fish in my avatar was caught on a BBZ 1 in about 4 ft of water. I was fishing through the lanes in a weed bed. It was the middle of summer and over 100 deg that day. She went 9lb 7oz. My partner had an 8 (I don't remember the exact weight of his fish) that day also. Its unfortunate we didn't weigh all of our fish because our combine limit was well over 30lbs. All of the fish we caught were in 5ft of water or less and buried in the cover.

Read the BBZ and In pursuit of giant bass.

I tend not to use florocarbon around rocks. I like to use a copolymer line. I personally use P-Line. They make it with a florocarbon coating also.

Sometimes you got to get the big guys twice.

Chatterbaits catch fish year round. On sunny days and on cloudy days. On windy days and on calm days. In clear water and in stained water. There is no magical answer or magic bullet. If you buy into the fact that they only work when its windy or when your in stained water etc... then that is when they will work for you.

They work. One thing to remember is vary your retrieve. Mix it up, twitch it, burn it, pause it, dead stick it, walk it just play around with it. Your learning a new bait. If all you do is slow roll those baits your going to miss out on a lot of action.

They have sunny days in Oregon? Now that you have figured out how to catch fish on sunny days what do you use the other 363 days out of the year? ;D

X's 2 I only have one state right now and that is California. I have had multiple states in the past.

I like to use my dropshot rod. Its a ton of fun. You have to really play the fish. I just throw out a weightless single hook with a chunk of anchovy or mackerel. If there is current I go as light as I can with a sliding sinker. I have caught them up to 17lbs on this set up. I am still waiting to break 20.

I can't not be political about this topic. :-X

Hard to beat a 6 in BBZ1 in that price range. The other thing to do is search the buy and sell sections (some of the west coast driven websites have way more used swimbaits for sale) and ebay for used baits. A lot of times you can get some good quality baits for a fraction of the cost. Like speedbead mentioned if you buy good baits and you find out swimbaiting is not for you. You can offload good baits pretty easy and recoup some of your money. Hard to get rid of the cheap ones. Might have to use them as Christmas ornaments. My other suggestion to you is if you are going to be throwing those tru-tungstens on braid. You might want to add a mono leader. When I use braid for swimbaits I go no less than 65 lb. Preferably 75 lbs. The lightest I would go on the mono leader is 20 lbs. I been using an Alberto knot to join leaders for a few years now with no failures.

Most likely your reel is out of adjustment. But make sure you do not have any bad guides. My brother is getting back into fishing again and bought a new rod and reel set up. Spooled it with 65lb power pro and was continuously having back lash problems. So I decided to help him out. I adjusted the reel properly and it backlashed on me with conservative settings. Right away I knew something was not right. After a quick inspection I found a small bur on the upper portion of the second guide. Exchanged the rod and no more problems.

I have had a similar year. My overall quality has gone up but no real big fish so far. The weather out here has been so crazy this year its been tough to find patterns that stick. Many of the big tournaments have had lower weights than normal.