bigbill

Up north here we been throwing the rebel crawfish crank in every pool and behind every rock too. The bass go crazy for these lures but we're using the tiny ones. Right now mister twister has a clearances on there crawfish cranks. The bass in rivers to me fight harder.

I just searched fishing hats and www.amazon.com came up. They have every hat you can think of. Even some brands mentioned here.

I don't let anything stop me I go any way. I still wet my line and drown my lures. I do have more confidence during the moon phases or when a weather front is on the way.

Besides the hat with full Sun coverage what about the bugs with all the rain we been having. My buddy wears a fabric softener towel in the back of his hat sticking out. I'm ready to try anything just walking outside I'm on the menu. What do you guys and gals do? I need a good hat too.

I been cursed with breaking rods too. It's my fault for not paying attention to them when I put them in the car mainly in the dark. My last ROD was a $125 fly rod setup. The first time I ever fly fished with success. I broke the tip. other times it's the trunk lid that gets me. Now I'm more careful but I buy any rod that's between $3 to $30 now. I do go for better reels and quality line. I purchase the older new rods that still have chrome plated eyes. When I first started fishing we used a 5' salt water rod with a zebco 202 reel. Being minutes from the salt water we fished both types of water with this set up. We fished so much we would wear out one reel per year as kids. This goes back so many years that Jerry Mckinnis and had gadabout gaddis the flying fisherman were the only ones on tv. Times have changed. If it wasn't for Jerry bass fishing wouldn't be what it is today. Every Saturday morning I'd be glued to the tv set watching Jerry. Gadabout was on sundaynites if I remember correctly. He had a float plane and would fish off the plane in lakes that had no access. Sorry for the history lesson.

I was fishing by the mauori charts on the best time to fish. You need to adjust it to your time zone. I followed it for a few years looking to break the state record here. My PB was 10lbs so far caught at 5am when the charts said "good early". It's no fluke every time it predicts good fishing it was correct. The days it didn't predict good fishing it was slow. These charts were in outdoor life for many years it's no longer in it so I don't buy it anymore. I do miss it. Now I try to focus more on my fishing during the moon phases.

I'm a decaded shore fisherman too. We just don't have a way to carry everything the boat guys do. But after switching from the smallest tackle box to the split barn roof type I use now. I have 5 tackle boxes I put in the car. Since I'm disabled I'm not far from the car anyway. My tackle boxes are; (just a few) 1. Split roof barn type All my topwater baits box #1 from spooks, poppers to props. With some soft bag baits in the bottom. As well as containers of smaller spooks in the bottom too. All my crankbaits box #2, shallow to mid depth cranks. With containers of inline spinners, spinnerbaits as well as smaller cranks. All my larger deeper running cranks box #3. 2. Mid size tackle box Box #1, every weedless bait you can think of from top props to timber doodles. With weedless spinner grubs in the bottom. Shore fishing tips. I could have less and carry my favorite lures but on slow days where I like to try different lures were I can try different presentations. Let's call it honing our skills then it being slow. I fish from dark till around 9am. I do notice the fish go to deeper cover as it gets lighter. So we can adjust by going from topwater/cranks to weighted plastic. This keeps us in the game. If there are Lilly pads nearby I can reach I cast near them not into them. I make the fish come out a few feet to strike rather than spook them. I prefer to cast past them and work my lure slow past the pads. If you can find the flats, the drop off's, Rocky points and the channels Chambemlain them to your advantage. Sorry if I bore anyone.

Bass are predators like a house cat. When we play with a cat it may take a few passes with a string to get them motivated if there in a slow mode mood. The bass are no different. Quote Bill Dance, He said if the bass could see all of the colors all of the time there wouldn't be a minnow left in the water. I didn't test the different colors past the three that we're chosen that week of testing.But I'm sure we need all the colors that are offered to us. I love bass fishing and the challenge to see what color and presentation catches more fish at that moment. In my early days of bass fishing my live bait bill was up to $50+ a week. This is when inline spinner one night hours before the rain hit, taught me how good lures work. I fished with live bait and lures but once I learned how to use lures my catching bass exceednd my catching bass with live bait. The challenge was to catch as many bass as I could per outing. As I got better my amount of bass caught increased. If your new to bass fishing read the articles listed in the header. Read them over and over till you understand it. Then go out and apply it. I'm no pro buy I have the desire and drive as one. When your fishing block everything out in your and think fishing. Stay motivated and success will happen and never give up. This site is a awesome place to learn bass fishing.

I've used a green pumkin color in the past on a football jig. This color seems to be successful here.

Fishing from shore I been using the Excaliber Silver Thread Copolymere in either 8lb. or 10lb test. I also use the ball bearing snap swivels. The snap swivels allow the lure to hinge smoother on the side to side movement. The lighter line lets the lure do its thing.

First my experience so far is buying lures just to test them to see if they catch fish. Sooner or later they all catch fish. But some work better than with others. We ask what can the difference be? I'm going to lay it all on the line. First the crankbaits with the orange colored bottom seem to catch more bass than the non orange colored bottoms. Now if the crankbait has a rattle in it, it's a plus. But the one with a finer rattle seems to catch more bass too. Meaning the smaller diameter balls used for the rattle gives off a different tone over the lure with the larger diameter balls. Maybe it's closer in tune to the natural noise in the water from the fleeing baitfish. Back to the orange colored bottom. It's a fact that the bigger bass eat sunfish, redear & bluegills. Some have orange bottoms. The sunfish, redear & bluegills must give off some sort of distress call when we have them hooked. I had one hooked and a very large bass on the other side of the pond that I could see headed towards the fish I had hooked. Otherwise why would he cross the pond to get it. My point is maybe the crankbait with the smaller tone rattle matches the hooked sunfish. It makes sense to me. So using a lure with a orange bottom and a finer rattle is a plus. The three basic colors to me using the combo c lector testing it was a redcraw, s greencraw and a browncraw all of them had the finer rattle and were the same brand and size. One day all three colors worked and other days just one color worked. If you search the net for Dr. Loren Hill of OK. Unv. His development of the color c LECTOR and the combo c LECTOR will come up. It's interesting. The hues of the water, the light conditions(sunlite) and the water conditions can limit what colors the bass can see at times. My thinking and research is because of working in a R&D test lab for 20+ years and seeing things from both sides of the fence as a tech and from an engineering view. Now I ask why do things work like they do? All I can say is what I'm seeing that's happening while I fish. Does knowing about the color limits help me catch fish? I do follow a ritual of throwing different colors till one of the three works. Of course there are other factors like on dark overcast days were firetiger works. My point is the more knowledge we know the better fisherman we become.

Are you sure these are bass at 30'? We had the fish finder on while moving the boat over the deeper part of the water and it showed bigger fish, I guessed there carp or catfish I use a count down jointed rapala for vertical jigging. It really works great.

I cast my topwater topnocker over hand and it hits the water hard. When I cast my spinnerbaits it's a side cast so it enters the water quietly. If I'm near pads I cast past them and work my lure parallel to them quietly. I let the fish come out after it, if it's tearing up the pads so I don't spook it.

To me fishing from shore I did use a 5'6" rod spinning outfit and a 6' rod spinning outfit when I upgraded from using my trout fishing stuff for bass. I went by what the smaller and larger lures require for line diameter and test for the best lure action. As I got into it more I added more rod setups. The topwater and my senko setups are my heaviest. You can get by with just two ROD setups. Go slow

The bass strike upwards. So how far do we need to be above them? I bought every large crank bait even up to pike and muskie size for bigger bass. I also got into the larger inline spinner too. They should get down there too. Joe's Flies offers some really nice inline spinner in a water wolf so it's called its inbetween a freshwater and salt water size. I know you said cranks but??

I lost three BPS Topnocker to big bass who went down in the deep weeds with them. There not made anymore so these awesome topwater fish catchers are priceless. Fishing from shore I try yo control my football field long cast a now.

I pick Hank Parker on the lake in NH for smallies.

Mann's Hank Parker Classic Spinnerbaits BPS Topnocker Bomber FAT A Crankbaits Mister Twister 2" split double tail grub Since bomber has discontinued there older fat A and model A colors I been buying up all the older colors when I can. There still fish catchers and my go to colors. The BPS Topnocker has got to be the hottesr topwater lure of all time. The Hank Parker Classic Spinner bait is awesome. I been using the 2" split double tail grubs on all my smaller lures as trailers with success. Of course all the great fish catching lures are discontinued.

I lube my reels with a moly paste mixed with a little oil the minute I purchase them. Moly, Eliminates all wear Reduces friction Fights corrosion Prevents galling My fishing reels should last a longtime. Remember a noisy reel sends noise down the line into the water like a guitar string.

The eagle claw needless hooks go up to 5/0 in size. This is all I use for needless hooks. Make sure your using the right size hook. I just purchased the BPS Stik O Worm in the biggest diameter senko I have ever seen. Not opening the package to look at them before I left home I didn't have a bigger hook to use them. So I tried the biggest hook I had with me. You know what happened next right. As the stock o worm got close to shore were I could see it the biggest bass I have ever seen swam up and it had my worm in its mouth. A gallazion thoughts ran threw my mind in milliseconds. Do I dare try to set the hook? This is the new state record I been hunting for. Every time I catch other bass in this spot I been seeing bigger bass swim by me. Well I tried to set the hook and out the worm came. I didn't cry. My point if you never used senko' s and are new to them make sure your hook size I'd correct. This is a time when bigger is better. I know I should of done my homework with this bigger worm first. Live and learn. Now I have every weedless hook that's known to man. This experience makes me fish harde I used the standard senko hook on the super sized stick o worm and the bass won. Gamma offers a weedless up to 6/0.

I been using the eagle claw weedless hooks for all my senko's except for the BPS Stik O Worms that are 7 1/4" long. There a larger diameter.

I purchased a few Mann's Hank Parker spinnerbaits. I took the smallest twin blade spinner bait and installed the next size larger blades giving it more thump. I added a trailer hook and a mister twister split double tail grub trailer.(white) I also changed the skirt to a blue glimmer. I used two different sized blades. My first trip with it I caught many bass and a 30" pickerel deceided he wanted it more than I did. As I was about to remove it out of the water he came up the Rocky drop off and left with it. My point is I didn't record any info on what blades I used to make it. When you change a bait make sure you write it down. For future use in case you lose it. Btw, I swear by using the mister twister split double tails for trailers. You need to fit the larger end to the length of the hook on the smaller spinnerbaits. I also use the longer spinner bait skirts in blue glimmer too. It gives a wider larger look to the spinner bait. You need to install the trailer exactly correct so the spinner bait runs vertically true and uprite with no turning. I just reel it slow. The split double tail grub actually looks alive and it's swimming

I'm fishing man made dams which were made for water power in the 1700/1800's. I'm fishing the slow moving water and to the sides of the moving water. Which is a drop off. But I have deeper water in front of me and flats off to one side. I throw topwater lures into the flats. In front of the drop off I use spinnerbaits, cranks, inline spinner and a carolina rigged senko. I use the spinner bait in the channel before the dam. I do find bass waiting to ambushing bait. Even long both sides of the moving water were it's still the smaller bass are there too. Just be aware of the larger predators that are ready to rip the lure off your line(pike). At night the catfish come up the drop off to feed as it gets darker. There great on a charcoal grill.

I throw a vast array of different sized lures. I figure my weaknesses were needing stronger line for topwater and carolina rig fishing. Mainly due to losing fish in the past. This limits me when I go to the lighter baits so more setups are needed. I throw a large assortzent of lures till something strikes then I'm on that pattern. On a tough day I never give up. I may run threw my lures a second time changing my presentations till something works. Not being in a boat I can't move to another spot. But I can move down the road above were I'm fishing. If it's tough I settle down and run threw my presentations. It's time to catch up and practice. Then of course I just get into a practice mode and a fish will interrupt me.<br /><br />What I need next is a boxed in chair with a rod holder and pull out draws. Then i can sit with it all right there. Maybe wheels on one end too. Being older now I need to sit.

I swear by fishing during the moon phases the Mauri' s fished by it too. I'd be out there 24/7 but I need to rest for another 5 weeks. I'm missing the super moon fishing.