bigbill

I purchased gold fish lures on eBay. i think there worried about a population of goldfish in the water.

Some days color matters, somedays size matters, somedays size and colors matters we must be flexible. Don't get stumped throwing one color for hours. Simple change colors. The sunlite influences the hues in the water along with the water conditions on what color the bass sees. Their eyes aren't like ours they don't see all the colors all the time. when I purchased crankbaits I buy a red, a green, a brown, a firetiger, a black, a firecraw, a silver. I prefer craw colors in the bomber cranks. Example. Then I go with the natural colors, sunfish, bluegill, perch, baby bass. i feel bad I played god one day. The small pickerel were feeding on the bass fry. I put on the same size rapala in baby bass and I caught every pickerel there. My future generations of bass were saved. I did release the pickerel.

I only use split rings were I can't get my locking ball bearing snap swivel in the loop on the bait. I can't tie knots that good anymore plus fishing at night it's faster to change baits, plus I get more wobble with the ball bearing snap swivels, i run the line three times through loop then clinch it.

Rapala, f7 blue mepps inline spinner, #3 silver blade gray tail rebel pop R blue manns classic spinnerbaits 1/4oz white double gold Indiana blades and a chartreuse 1/4oz with gold blades. bomber cranks model A or fat A

Don't wear bright colored clothes, if you can see the fish they can see you, if the water is clear the fish can see you. Wear camo. A hummingbird portable fish finder were we cast out the probe will tell you the depths and the bottom structure, then you know what depth to run the deeper running baits at.

I was a disorganized slob with my tackle boxes before I started night fishing. My tackle boxes now are kept neat with everything in its place. I can find and change baits in the dark lightening fast with a one cell light. I was carrying five tackle boxes and five rod setups fishing from shore. a 9606 tackle box full of topwater a 9606 tackle box full of crankbaits tackle box full of weedless baits tackle box full of plastics tackle box full of misc baits.(smaller sized baits) i do not put used plastics back with the new ones. I put them in a seperate zip loc bag. i don't put salted plastics in with my other hard baits they cause rust. i like to fish where I'm near the car. I leave some stuff in the car.

I never knew we had so many predators till we put up the trail cam. The bear tracks I seen in the freshly tilled garden and I seen bear scat on my lawn.

Don't worry ride the wave. I rode the wave in many companies. Like I said before I worked three months a year for three years. I planted a very large garden. Plus we lived off of marked down meats at a local super market. I started selling firewood. Even when I was working I never gave it up. I always kept my chainsaws sharp ready to go. I lost so many jobs due to recessions. I made only $10k for each of those three years it taught me how little we could live on and still eat good and my bills were paid. dont stress yourself out. Don't let your kids see you stress. one of my best friends quote; he said he'd never return to a job. Never go backwards always move forwards. Together we closed many manufacturing companies. We went from sinking ship to sinking ship. Then everything fell into place. fact, everytime I lost a job due to a recession or cut backs my next job was always better and paid more. On my last job of 20years my new boss asked me when I first started what I thought of unions. I told him a worker doesn't need a union and I could eat my lunch anywhere. remember when your being interviewed for a new job. To interview them too just to make sure you want to work there too. I been interviewed for some sleezey jobs in the past. I told my boss once during a job review I was here for the money. Like there not? Like I loved where I worked? boy did that open up a can of worms. I had three little kids that ate like me. Plus the family dog too. I was there to work, to make money not friends. I never took any rap from anyone. My back up was cutting and selling firewood. I was so happy in the forests cutting trees with the animals.

The other night my local resident 400lb black bear was hooting looking for a friend sort of speak. The problem is the misses was putting out the recycle bin for pickup in the morning. She heard the bear hooting not far away but another answer hoot from another direction. The male bear called 1-800-collect in bear language and he got an answer. I guess we have Bears now just not one bear. we harvested one bear at my camp in vt years ago. It was 5 minutes away from my camp. With small kids at the time I felt safer with it gone. But soon after we had another one take its place. I figure it's easier to live with them knowing there around. Most of the time you will smell them first if the wind is right. one of my favorite fishing spots one bear was sighted near the school not far away. I did hear hooting one time. I had one near my car when I spilt garlic bass scent on my bumper. my point is becareful, be alert, use all your senses it could save your life. my misses carries a bottle of bear spray now when she walks the dog. Plus our dog is the first alert alarm system. It's the time of the year when bears are really active. just beaware, bill

The light conditions and changing light conditions can make a difference in what color to use too. The sun was shining in the late afternoon. I'm catching bass after bass, the bite is on. I fishing a swamp with stumps and about an acre of open water the rest is stumps and weeds. I using a joesfly 1/4oz bass size in blackgnat. That's a silver blade with a black bucktail. As the sun started going down, as it got near dusk the bite slowed down. I switched to joesfly 1/4oz bass size in firetiger Apache and landed a few more bass. what causes this change is the basses eyes adjusts to the change in the light conditions. Even our eyes are hard to see at the dusk conditions. The basses eyes do adjust faster to the low light conditions than the baitfishes eyes. This causes this bass feeding frenzy in the morning twilight and at the evening in the dusk. The noon time turn on is caused by the Plants give off plankton in sun light at noon is what the bait fish feeds on and they get dumb out of hiding so the bass feeds on them. i have heard from other bass Night fisherman that after the bass shut down in the evening after dusk conditions go to darkness they turn on again around 10:00 pm at night, I haven't proved this yet. They were throwing inline spinners at 10pm.

Rapala has free shipping on orders over $49, and a free hat plus free shipping over $99. I just saved $50 on my order.

I seen a big bass swim up to my topnocker slam it, I seen it miss, I froze in shock. I had a ring side seat fishing off a low bridge three feet above the water. She turned and took it. I set the hook and tried to hold her head up but I made too long of a cast. She went down in the weeds and all was lost. I lose more topnockers that way. the first time I witnessed this bass slap my urge I thought she missed it. The second time I said no way it missed it. Then I caught on. It's stunning the bait before she eats it.

I started bass fishing late in life. I was one of those trout guys in the spring and fished for bass once or twice a year. Ok I had to catch up on my bass fishing knowledge. I had no time to waist. I read anything about bass fishing. I found Dr. Loren Hills ten year research at OK university into bass seeing different colors very interesting. He talked to Bill Dance too. Bill showed the drs. Color c lector / combo c lector on one of his shows. Bill also said while one color may catch a few fish, the right color could load the boat. On certain days most colors will work, other days one color will work. I found the one day a red color would work when no other color worked, this worked for brown and green too. I used the combo c lector in the same spot on different days. Just a test. Now one day I used just about every color in my tackle box. Nothing hit. I threw everything again with different presentations. Nothing again. The bass are there, this is a hot spot. I put on a chartruece firetiger color and caught fish. This taught me we can have different water conditions in the water column too. As the conditions on top may look clear as we go deeper it could be stained to muddy depending how much sun lite it gets too. I got to the point I throw a ritual of different baits and colors till I get one that works. I'm fishing from shore and don't like to waste time by staying with one bait that's not working. I also skip fan cast, I don't put two casts side by side so I don't spook fish. I cast at both ends of the radious. Skipping by near my last cast. Dont limit yourself to one bait and color. Vary your presentations, if I have a slow day I practice with different presentations with different baits. When we get it right a bass will interrupt us. Go fishing and enjoy it. Focus on what your doing. when you watch fishing videos or tv shows listen to them but watch how they handle the rod n reel. Watch there line speed. Watch what there doing with a certain bait. Then go out and practice it. read the articles here and watch the videos here. We have all winter to brush up on our skills or learn new skills. It's up to you how good of a bass fisherman you want to be. Skill catches bass not luck.

I don't target other fish, they target me while I'm bass fishing. They pretty much like the same baits. salmon manns baby 1 crankbaits pickerel inline spinners, cranks, spinnerbaits

Trout rainbows, browns, chain pickerel large mouth bass small mouth bass salmon rockbass look like a sunfish shape but green like a bass with red eyes. crappies, catfish, channel cats, regular cats grandmas cat, had a snelled hook in his butt from eating fish I guess. We took it out but that's another story we did save the cat. I have no clue how the hook got there. Snapping turtles big ones. 30" in diameter. My 8lb test pulled them in.

I was fishing so much my wife's friend said I was cheating. I laughed and thought ya with old bucket mouth. Stupid people. Maybe it was the after shave I used as a cover scent on my hands lol.

Ever notice on a topwater strike the bass will come up, slap the lure then turn faster than a PT boat and inhale your bait. They seem to try to stun your bait then eat it. i am so temped to reel in my bait after the so called miss and recast. But I freeze and watch the bass turn and take it. Unless I see my line moving then I know he has it. This has happened many times to me. Ever see this?

My drags are per set so I don't touch them during the fight. I learned not to horse the fish in too quickly too by letting it tire out. I also have a problem with bigger fish and my hook set not being strong enough by my rod not having enough back bone. After all you had two fish on. I switched to a copolymere line because of less stretch.

Yup my oldest son was 3yo when he caught his first trout on opening day. fishy, fishy, in the brook, daddy catch him with a hook, mommy fry him in the pan, baby eat him like a man........

Nope no kisses for fish here. Too many unforseen germs nowadays. I had a little pickerel, a very aggressive 12" try to bite me a few times while trying to remove my crankbait he inhaled. These guys can be freshwater sharks. Any fish could bite right? No kisses for fish.

In the beginning of the spring season the bass are in the most northern part of the body of water were it gets the most sun during the day. This area stays warmer in the shallows. Of course there following the baitfish too. I'm thinking that they repeat the process during the cool down in the fall too. It's like a season cycle.

Hank Parker is a class act for sure. i have named a lure "The Hank Parker Special" it's the manns baby 1 in browncrawdad, seen Hank killing smallies in NH. On one of his tv shows over 25 years ago. dang if we didn't have the same results as Hank did. Of course every lure I purchase my two sons get one too. I went to Walmart after seening Hank use this lure in a snow storm and purchased the whole rack of them. Yup I'm crazy about fishing. just to let you guys on the forum and the tv shows you really influence fishing. I started way back with the gadaboutgaddis the flying fisherman, Jerry mckinnis, then the shows like Hank Parker, bill dance, infisherman guys, jimmy houston, ect we were glued to out TV sets. thanks guys.

A 4000 reel has a larger spool it should cast farther much easier. I have a few 4000 sized spinning reels. My reel sizes range from size 20 to 25 to 30 to 40. (4000) it's marked on the spool what line size/test it can handle for the best performance. I try sometimes to stay within the specs. but sometimes using a heavier test line can hamper the feeling of the light hits or nibbles. i would suggest trying the excaliber silver thread copolymere line. Not the an40.

Fishing from shore the distance we can cast gives us an advantage but it's pros and cons too. The farther we cast the more chances we have of losing bigger bass. I been there over submerged weeds. But in the open water and in channels I have an advantage. Trying to reach the pads off in the distance is sometimes optainable. My PB10 lbs was caught on 8lb silver thread. I set my drags perfect. When I fish near other people no one out casts me. Some come over to see how I do it. I found excaliber silver thread copolymere line an a auction sight. I purchased enough to last me.

Ditto gift card that's awesome for a boss to do.