bigbill

I been using the average fishing rods. Not the bass rods with the macho backbone and added upper power rating. I'm think about why I'm losing some bass in the fight I never should of lost. I can understand the longer casts is a risk over deep submerged weeds. But in the open water after what felt like a 15 minute battle and she bent my rod in half like no other fish ever did, call me a tow truck will ya? I know you guys/gals are reading my posts about buying rods lately. I'm moving up into the rods with the meat(backbone) at the lower section. That fish that bend my rod in half cracked the foam handle area. It's a Shakespeare Contender 6' it was. This one landed my PB of 10#. I'm just trying to figure out why I lose so many bigger fish. I'm thinking because I was using the wrong rod and couldn't set the hook with the force it needs to be set good enough with. Most of my lures are ok but maybe the hooks need honing / sharpening too? How often do you sharpen your hooks? I understand that some fish can be very aggressive fighters and they can refuse to be caught sometimes. But the bigger ones feel to be like it's in slow mode as I fight with it. Could it be; 1. I'm using the wrong action and power rod? 2. My hooks aren't sharp enough? 3. I'm sleeping or weak on the hook set? 4. A combination of all the above? I just up graded all my spinning rods and crankbait rods to more backbone (thicker) and more power at the top. On my heavier setups I have mainly 12#, 14#, 17# copolymer line & braid too on my punch/jig setup. I'm just trying to figure out what my problem is. Bill

There are a few lakes here that are hardley fished here. These are a continuous river with a few man made dams inbetween. I threw a split shot rigged creme black worm and caught a decent sized bass right away. I guess I need to explore these man made lakes a tad further so I can continue up my catch per trip numbers.(CPTN)

I took my new bride to niagria falls and it rained for two and one half days. I then went home and took her camping and fishing. We forgot the flipper for the pancakes and eggs so I just tossed them in the air. The camp grounds had showers and I had the camper cap on the truck. We had a blast. Life was great fourty years ago.

When I was fishing heavy everyday my average was between 7, 8 up to 9/10 bass caught per outing on the good days. As I learned the different lures along with the many different presentations my numbers of bass caught per outing went up. I was fishing between to bodies of water per trip. I always figured I could do better at it as I learned more New patterns. On the full Moon phases along with the weather fronts approaching the numbers caught went way up. At one place during the light warm rain while standing in one spot where I could cover a lot of area and distance I fan casted the place for a record 19 bass. After I left I stopped for a few minutes and made a few casts at my other hot spot and I caught two smaller and one LMB. These were all between 2 to 3#. I think it was a combination of the weather front and the moon phase that causes this frenzy. At the smaller spot we had three days of rain. I went out to fish there on the second night when the rain hit a lull. I caught bass after bass again standing in my other spot. I casted right in front of me in 10' of water. The bass were schooled right there. I'm no pro nor will I ever claim to be but I feel in fishing from shore and having the numbers of bass caught per outing even between 6 to 10 isn't too shabby. There were some bad trips with lower numbers but the numbers were still ramping up inbetween. My system of throwing a variety of different lures and colors does pay off. When I first tried my carolina rig with senkos at first I thought I hit a log. But I then pulled three bass out of that one spot. Another trip in that with the C Rig using a culprit electric blue worm caught two more bass from that exact spot. I had the drop off to the left of me but I'm fishing the flats in the weeds. I used the portable casted out viewfinder to learn the layout of the place. I never looked for fish on it. I seen suspended fish but never paid attention to it I was too busy mapping out the place. These smaller places have no topo maps. Before the portable fish finder I'd take my two sons ice fishing to drill extra holes in the ice so I could drop a piece of mason line with a saltwater sinker to figure out the depth in that area. But the casted out fish finder was the cats mewow. I located the points, the exact width of the channel, where the deeper holes are, the flats, the drop offs basically knew the whole place and how to fish it. So my point is what numbers of bass caught is a good number for shore fishing?

We just have the basic cable channels. I think we have a total of four Epsn channels. I do have Bill Dance, Hank Parker, Rowland Martin and Jimmy Houston when I catch them on. Charlie Moore the Irish fisherman who tries to be like my godfather? He's ok but I would like to fish from shore against him it could be fun.

I use a saltwater rod and quantum spinning reel for my heavy pike n bass lures. The brand of my rod is a hurricane. I'm not sure who manufactures it. These are very affordable. I did a search for a hurricane fishing saltwater rods. Amazon.com had them. The master reels and rods are manufactured by PENN.

How do you like the Berkley lightening shock rod?

I try to keep my rod below my belt level and keep my line as tight as possible. I just landed a nice bass on my 4# test 5' trout rod. I kept the rod tip down and wanted a very short fight so the bass didn't lose to much energy he had stored up for the winter. It was fun on a trout ultra lite but I was nervous the whole time about losing it. I did land it and release it. We have to keep that line tight. I also need to set the hook a tad harder too. I was just thinking about sharpening all my hooks on all my lures over the winter.

What size hook? I have some really large weedless hooks that I been thinking of making a leader out of braid too? Bill

I may try some ice fishing thinner steel leaders soon. I can bend it back, I hate losing them.

Can you see where the body of water is fed from? Trout line up in moving current. I fish one lake were we know where the under ground spring is that feeds it. When we put the boat on top of that spot we clean house catching trout. We would use Kraft velvita Cheese. But the trout hit one very fast strike. You need to be lightening fast on the hook set. The cheese caught all the bigger trout. We used a split shot rig with cheese. The larger live minnows works too. The wordens inline spinners work too. Here the silver blade with the white body and white buck tail works for trolling. Some use spoons too.

No problem anytime, now you see what I mean.

Most of the time I carry 5 spinning rod setups when shore fishing. Now I'm starting to use baitcasters more so my spinning rod setups for shore fishing will decrease.

If you click on the forum button the list of the subject matter comes up. Go to the bottom of the forum list page there is a number of users list.

Ok what's the low down on my new quantum kvd tour bait casting rod I just purchased with the micro eyes on the rod? Between the standard eyelets and the micro eyelets is one better or perform better? Or is this the new wave of the future were starting to see. This is the first one I seen so far. Bigbill

The last one I just caught inhaled my citrus bomber crankbait. It had the minnows on there tails out of the water the whole time before I tossed the crank near them. Right behind my crank the minnows were jumping while the pickerel was following my crank. In your pic you see why they call them chain pickerel. This pickerel mouth was snapping the whole time. I was warned by my brother as a kid they will bite us. I've caught some bigger pickerel between 29" to 32" here. What a fight. They like the spook action and the #4 & #5 mepps in lines. Any size pickerel is fun to catch inbetween the bass. Someday I'll go after the great northern pike we have here.

Every so often I get a wrong number from a bill collector threatening me. Today I answered the call and tried to tell the lady it's not me there looking for. She said how do I know it's not me. It's not my name nor am I the person your looking for. Don't you ever wish you could reach thru the phone and give them a "DA" rap on the forehead? This is why I hate phones. Then I get calls for buying or looking for donations. When they ask for my son I tell them he's working. Then they push my button and ask me if I want to give. They hang us so fast when I ask then for a donation to my fund, I'm disabled. I give to the local vets and the salvation army.

I fished with a guy who stuck a live minnow in each bass he caught mouths just before he released it while saying thanks for biting.

If you check the online list you see many numbers of unregistered guests. I zip on and off sometimes too without logging on. But the guests can't be all registered I blogged users? I think many guests are missing out on the fun of talking with all of us about bass fishing.

When my last job hired me thirty years ago they gave me a company credit card and sent me on the road to do testing in Yonkers,NY. Being next to new York city I was a hick country boy in a zoo of people. I was able to go home on weekends but I spent my weekends at my camp in wilds of Vermont with my family. I was much happier with no power, no phone service, no running water. We bathed in the fresh cold mountain springs/rivers were we went tubing too. We heard the yotes howling at night and the bears hooting too. Occasionally our resident moose came by too. Funny I felt better and safer with the animals in Vermont than with certain people in New York city area. I'm just a kid from New Jersey who grew up as a country bumpkin when we moved to the country. I wouldn't change anything. I did find out that I could be accepted in any way of life by changing my clothes. I have to laugh at that. I never shop on black fridays at all I hate the crowds. Just mention a blue light special and tons of people will trample each other to get there. I'm much safer in Vermont feeding captain crunch peanut butter cereal to the chipmunks there. They don't rush. Each one takes what it can carry. Not one fights over anything. They seem to have respect for each other. We can learn from the wild animals. My oldest son was getting married and they mentioned a tuxedo? To me a Tennessee tuxedo is what hillbilly Jim the wrestler wore that's a tuxedo to me. Kidding but I did wear a penguin suit for a few hours. I wanted to wear my farmall tractor tee shirt underneath my dress shirt and vest so I wouldn't feel out of place. Tuxedo your kidding me right, they weren't kidding.

I have to add this every time I stopped fishing to go on vacation we went to Maine. My first stop was the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery,Maine. They have tons of freshwater and saltwater fishing gear, there gun shop, besides all the quality clothes and boots/shoes for any occasion. There fly shop is top notch too. If your into all the outdoor sports there plan on spending a day there. We would drive up the coast to LLBEAN too. My point is leaving bass fishing behind does have its perks. I love the Maine way of life. Bill

I just checked the online viewers list here and we have many more guest viewers than registered viewers here? Whats up with that are you guys, gals and youngsters afraid to register and become a member here? We talk about bass fishing but cover all types of fishing in one section too. Do you have something that you do and want to share it? Or want to stir the pot and ask a question? This is a fishing information highway here and if your not registered and involved then we all are losing out. So come on guests your welcome here let's register and say hello, and talk fishing. Don't sneak or lurk in the shadows get involved in something great right here. There is a bunch of gals and guys willing to help you weTher you fish from shore or have a yak or boat it's still the same bass fishing talk. It's the registered numbers here that makes this site great so join today. Don't be shy. BigBill

Don't forget the ice fishing gloves too

Being retired sucks too I get to go everyday trying to predict the spawn and post spawn when the bigger gals come off the beds. Just as the bite starts to pick up My misses wants to go on vacation. Since she is the bread winner I can say no. It's no picnic being retired. But I fish through the prespawn, spawn, and post spawn right until the hot weather comes. When I was working we fished every night after work 24/7. The misses walked the dogs while we fished. When I first tried using senkos and the bite was on the misses wanted to go on vacation. Bummer I was up to 9/10 bass per outing from shore. I hated leaving my bass fishing when the bite is on and the numbers are up. Bill

I throw my ritual of lures all year till one works then I have the pattern the bass are on for this moment but it can change. For plastics I like the plastic swimbaits like the yum money minnow or the renosky scattering shad you can only get from there website by calling them. The dying minnow presentation gets them every time. I work that money minnow to death soon as it gets colder. Up until the ice is on. I'm out there in the snow too. I just cast it out in the flats and twitch it then let it swim every which way on its own. Just set the hook hard.