bigbill

I like to add split rings when I can't hook up my snap swivel. I purchased the rebel frog R and the rebel frog pop R but I haven't wet them yet. With this smaller lure it sounds like we need to throttle back the walk the dog to a more softer approach and go easy with it. From what I have heard it's suppose to catch fish really well. I plan on using it with smaller twitches at first. Then I would try a slow reel next with the frog r. Next with the pop r the more splash the better. I'd give it two inch pops, maybe 3 inch pops the most.

I'm in the process of setting up three spinner bait rods. I want one spinner bait rod setup for 1/8 to 3/16 oz spinnerbaits. Another spinner bait rod setup for 1/4 to 3/8 oz spinnerbaits. Another spinner bait rod setup for 1/2 to 3/4+ oz spinnerbaits. What line test would you suggest? I never used spinnerbaits larger than 1/8 to 1/4oz. I'd like to earn my spinner bait wings this year by using the larger ones. sorry for the questions, should I use broadcasters for the 3/8 to 3/4 oz spinnerbaits? Since I can't find a spinning rod with the backbone I want? The more I get into bass fishing I'm finding out the 8lb test doesn't workout on all the rod setups. As we use heavier weighted lures in thick weeds, cover I hate losing fish. My learning curve has been slow.

I have all good reels I was looking to venture out and test a Chinese reel out. The broadcaster has all the bells and whistles for $29. The spinning reel was $12. It could be a start of a good thing or the beginning of my adding more reels to my scrap pile. But for $29 it looks neat.

I'm up to 10/0 and 11/0 for my big frog hooks. Remember the bigger bass are known to eat languish and baby ducks too. They call them bucket mouth for a reason. I really don't think we can use a hook too big. It's when our hook is too small in the plastics is where we get into trouble.

I'm seeing more and more imports from China lately from reels to lures. The reels have lots of bearings and different gear ratios too. I'm thinking we went over there to have them manufacture our reels and they broke away from doing business with us or reverse engineered our equipment and now there manufacturing there own. The prices are way beyond affordable it's silly. I think I'm going to buy a few just to test them. I'm sure our bass will let me know how good the quality is when they test them too. I have had cheap garbage reels fail before because they weren't meant to catch bass. But the quality of these reels looks better. Any thoughts or experience with these Chinese reels? Some of the Chinese lures look great. But they were offering some at $5 for 4 or 5 lures and that seems to be changing slowly but surely. The 5 lures comes with free shipping. I'm sure once they catch on the cost may go higher.I think they may work because the colors/ patterns are different than what we're using. Time will tell. I can't knock it yet even our name brand stuff is marked from China too? Bigbill Btw, a new baitcasting reel with the 6,3 ratio, magnetic brakes, metal spool and more for $30 the temptation is hard to beat. With free shipping. The only downfall is the one month shipping time. I feel the need to test it.

I been searching for big plastic frog hooks for my super large big bait frog. I just found some 10/0 & 11/0 & 12/0 hooks on an auction site. I hope there big enough. This frog is a monster. I'm not sure if I should rig it with two hooks or one hook?

I have had awesome success with the walk your dog lures with bass and pickerel here. The three 30" pickerel I caught so far have been the best fighters. The top props and super top props by mister twister have been awesome lures too. The pickerel also like the mepps larger inline spinners too. I see the guys in boats on tv keep the lure in the water near the boat and using the rod do a figure "8" in the water. The pike come right up and hit it. When logging the forest one day near a big lake that has pike I was near a dog leg inlet watching two pike ambushing everything in there path. Just watching them feed was awesome.

I just had all my super top props repainted and some saltwater poppers repainted in bass lure colors. I have a medium soft sided tackle bag filled with pike @ Muske lures too.I'm thinking big bait even bigger bass. The guy who did all my painting was Terry Clark of tclark custom lures. He does some awesome work. Terry has also made me some awesome sunfish / blue gill lures too. I wanted larger ones plus one that floats on its side for a wounded topwater action lure. I did upgrade my mister twister super top props in there new bass lure colors with the mister twister double hook bucktails and the mepps single hook bucktails. I also had Terry repaint a dozen or so mister twister top props in some awesome bass color lures too. His art work looks so great I hate to use them. But I'll try some soon. I just purchased some mirrolures in he dog Mr95 size in all colors. These are inbetween freshwater borderline saltwater topwater walker lures. For $1.99 / $1.79 on clearance they were hard to pass up. Some have that hotter orange bottom. I also picked up three castaic 9" swimbait rainbow lures. I been throwing one every so often. But nothing yet.

I like using the jig n pig on my baitcaster from shore. I do need to use my other bait casters for spinnerbaits soon too. I got stuck in a rut on using my spinning equipment more. I think using a baitcaster gives our lure a more even speed. With any type of reel using lures make sure we make a perfect circle with our hand on the cranks. If we don't the lure will go fast and slow.

I use the natural earth scent on my boots a clothes. I do cut a notch in a pine tree branch so it bleeds a pine scent with the sap. On my land only of course. I've walked up on deer and had many does walk by me on the ground. While working out side I had a 12Ptr walk right near me as we cleaned up. Go figure but he had like 10 does with him.

I never let having cancer bother me. I stayed very positive all the way thru it. I was very shy during the radiation treatments when they started it was the tech gals who made relax and saved me from walking out. They all are awesome and so nice and understanding. I had no choice to survive or not my life was in the hands of our creator in the end. I guess all the prayers worked. I'm enjoying the new 3yo grandson once he calms down we'll take him fishing soon. I hope he becomes my sidekick. I'm in charge of buying him toys while all my family members are stoking his college fund. God bless, bigbill Btw, Having the new kindle fire HD got me through the rough times between being in touch with everyone plus having the Pandora music and the games. It really kept me busy.

Ok this may sound stupid or dumb have you tried beaching the boat near a spot that's been hot before? Or just try fishing from shore and being very stealthy in the process? From the larger bass I'm seeing swim by me in the water and not being caught I'm thinking they know the boats spell danger at least for the bigger bass. I know for sure n fishing the smaller spots they do learn our lures I'm sure. What's hot this year isn't so hot next year in the same spot. I think this applies to the torque guys too when the place is steadily hammered. A small body of water with many stories going on is what I mean. I'd try different spots using new lures the fish haven't seen before. This is why I never part with my older lures.

It looks to me right we may have an early fall. This could lead to an old fashioned winter with snow on the ground by thanksgiving. I remember those times. I'm in the same cool weather pattern your in too. I'm thinking about using a mix of summer baits and fall baits. Probably lots of shallow cranks inbetween. Along with my small spinnerbaits. Do will go with some top water baits with rattle in everything to get them to come up out of the submerged weeds. A shot of bass scent doesn't hurt either. I don't panic but if nothing is happening I use a large variety of lures in different sizes and color till I get action then I know the pattern for tough fishing. The last time this happened to me the firetiger color bailed me out. I miss read the water conditions. Never hesitate to use firetiger. I hope with the weeks ahead we have a few days of heat left. The old timers to me to fish for bass in ponds and lakes in the spring. And to fish for bass in the rivers during the hot summer and go back to the ponds and lakes in the fall. They could be right. One more thought is don't forget the swimbaits in a dying minnow presentation. It's my hottest fall presentation till the ice is on.

My PSA was at 8.0 when my 45 treatments of radiation started. Right now a month after the treatments ended my PSA is now at .02 I'm a very lucky guy. Now I can go fishing soon. For all you guys out there get this blood test to check your PSA. This prostate cancer is hitting the younger men too. Early detection is the key to survival. Now I know how something feels inside a microwave. But I have a new life now. I have a second chance. Everyday I want to go bass fishing. I just spent a lot of money on fishing equipment that I want to try to wear out soon. If you have your health enjoy it. Live life to the fullest. Remember to take a kid fishing. God bless, bigbill

I use Bushnell scopes on all my rifles. I couldn't figure out why my brother would come out so early out of his stand. I could still see for another 30 minutes or so. He scope was the problem. It wasn't as clear as my Bushnell scope was.

My rods are different brands and different actions. Overall my front line first string reels are all good quality metal reels. I use finors, vivas and okuma spinning reels mainly. My second string or backup setups have quantum spinning reels on them. I mainly use Excalibur Silver Thread copolymer fishing line. Most of my rods are the older bass rods that have been purchased on clearance. Some are Finor while most of them are south bend rods. My point is I can use any rod but I need a decent reel and good line. We really need a quality fishing line.

I notice as the evenings turn to night before the twilight stage while the bass are feeding they seem to stop. It's as fast as throwing a light switch from on to off its that quick. Seeing this over and over I finally gave it some thought. I was using a Joe's fly in his 1/4 oz bass size inline spinner in the color called blackgnat. It has a silver blade with a black bucktail. I was catching small bass, fish after fish as the light was starting to change to dusk. I could still see good enough to change my lures. I took off the blackgnat and put on Joe's fly in fire tiger apache in the same size lure. I was back into catching bass again. I managed to land a few more as it became darker. Then I was on the menu with the bugs so we left. But my gut feelings were right, that the fish are still there but they can't see our lures as the amount of light changes. Has anyone tried doing this? I also used the Joe's fly 1/4oz fire tiger apache inline spinner on an over cast day in the very light rain. I caught 19 bass while standing in one spot on shore fan casting the whole place. What's your favorite color and lure on overcast days in the light rain? Since some of my fishing spots are close to each other after having the success I talked about above here I stopped on the way home at another spot and using the same Joe's fly in fire tiger apache I caught two 2 1/2 to 3lb smallest and another bass about the same size but it was a large mouth in the same spot again in the light rain. My point is I never seen nor caught a smallie in this spot, never in decades of fishing there. I also noticed something we're not in control of but it happens with blade lures and spinnerbaits too. On the cast I notice the cup side of the blade will slap the water making this popping sound. It only makes this pop sound once. Every time this pop sound is heard I catch a fish. If I hold my rod tip straight up with a spinner bait the Colorado or Indiana blade will go to the right and to the left slapping the water making this same popping sound. Again it's attracts fish. Has anyone ever noticed this? Have you ever took the time to change from natural colors to brighter colors as the light conditions change? I'm not only out there to catch fish I want learn to what I can do different when conditions change too. We can make good of what can be a bad trip. The more we know how to react to changing conditions or rain and over cast days. Even in the low light conditions we still can catch fish by changing colors. Remember it's skill in fishing not luck.... God bless bigbill

I lost about three original #7 blue rapalas so far in the same spot to the same fish at the same time but on different days. It rips them off my line with the strongest strike I have ever felt. Within a split second my lure is gone. My buddies who fish there at the same time have lost lures too. What ever it is lurks at the sametime every morning right at the crack of dawn. Now just across from this spot in the heavy weeds is another story. My buddy had a big bass on. After trying to get him up his rod broke. A year later I casted my topnocker Into what I thought were submerged weeds. As I knocked away with it a large bass was out of the water with the upper part of its body made a pass at my topnocker. It missed it, I paused it while the fish did a very quick 180 degree turn as I watched my line going this time. I paused a little more and while holding my rod up I set the hook as she dove for cover into the thick weeds. Not giving up for about 15 to 20 minutes I knew all was lost. She was a hog a very big porker, the one I been hunting for, for many years. My line snapped with the last thrust of my rod. I lost the fish, my lure, my ego, it just went away for moment. I gave the up most perfect presentation of my fishing life. She grabbed it and won, so I went home a beaten fisherman. For all I know she is still there even today. My point is I made a very, very long cast. It was so long I had no control of this big fish. I seen her going for the gold and I couldn't do a thing about it. Her dance around my lure was like a fond farewell never to be repeated again. I played her perfect and lost. I don't know of anything I could of done different.

First welcome to the bass fishing forum. Would you like to talk about your success and how and where you fish? Do you have any questions about fishing? There is a great support team here on this forum who are willing to get you started. Or head you in the right direction info wise too.

When I watch the videos I watch how they handle the rod for different actions with the lure and how they crank the reel fast or slow besides what there saying. Watch the video 2 or 3 times till it sinks in. Read all the articles here too. Watch all the videos over and over hammer them. Now go out and practice your presentations on the water. I would practice with each lure lure you have. I would try different presentations with each lure. The more you learn here and on the water you can turn this around quickly. One thing I tell everyone is to wash your hands before going fishing. This way your lures won't have any strange oders on them. Fish have a very keen sense of smell.

My discontinued BPS topnocker. Bring back the BPS XPS TOPNOCKER it the best topwater lure ever made.

I used it for almost three weeks trying to figure out what was wrong. Maybe they seen it more or maybe the stiffer line effected the lure action.But when I switched back the bite was back.

This twin color line is offered right now the markings show how much line is off the reef. It's marked in feet I think I just seen it on eBay.

The Mann's Hank Parker Classic Spinner bait was the first spinnerbaits to ever work for me. I think they forgot about Hank Parker they just call it a classic now what about Hank? I did a search for them and finally found them I ordered a $100 worth of them. They don't offer the 3/16 oz or 1/4oz classic anymore. It's been that long since I seen then. I was at whits end trying to find these I have every spinner bait that Mann's ever made.

I practice C & R but my hands smell of fish this proves I been fishing for fish and not a dish.