bigbill

I noticed in my heavily fished places i changed my time to fish them from evenings to early am when no one is there and the place is quiet. Now in the smaller places i believe the fish learn out lures. What was hot last season may not be as hot this year. But you maybe right with more taking home fish to eat. (less fish). I haven't been out yet, i'm disabled with bad legs and my left hip just started giving me pain. I need a hoveround with a rod rack and tacklebox holder soon....maybe pontoons too.

When the frenzy dies off I change colors first i go brighter. You should pick off a few more fish. I have also seen the larger fish come closer in too and scare the smaller fish away. I may even go larger on the lure size too.

Fishing by the moon phases for many years in the past has worked for me, I'm a believer already. Trust me just try it. I go fishing just to test out different lures and presentations, just to have fun. I would like to break the state record someday. Its 12lbs 14ozs. i'm up to 10lbs so far. Don't forget i'm fishing from shore mainly too. Its the same as fishing from a boat only backwards. From a boat you cast to the shoreline and from the shoreline we cast out towards the boat sort of speak. I'm going out in the early am but i may go out tonight too. They also say were going to have a meteor shower too, just a few may comeby. Fishing during a front(light rain) I caught 19 bass plus other fish too, standing in one spot from shore fan casting the whole area. I believe during this time the full moon phase was happening too. This was in the middle of the day too in a low light condition. The fish really put on the feed bag. On the way home i stopped at another spot and caught three 3lb smallies right away. Another early evening inbetween the rain storm when it let up a little with an overcast sky I caught well over 35lbs of bass again standing in one spot on the shoreline. Today its raining on and off and tonight its the super moon so lets give it a try??? I have an older fishing log book somewhere with all this info recorded in it. I log every trip I made years ago wether i had success or not. I believe if i made a graph of the fish frenzy feeding times in the fronts it would link up with the moon phases at some point. The graph would look like a roller coaster ride but i think all the frenzy feeding times That happened would be more equal across the graph. I still can't figure it out exactly what time during the front this feeding frenzy will happen but the moon phase has to figure into it i'm sure. I've had success before the front hits, during the rain when it lets up a tad, and when the front is about to end. I have also noticed that i see more deer on the move during this time too even during the day.

I have some new older cranks that have a larger front head with a fast taper to the rear section. I think there poes?

Fish the super moon days before it happens and days after it happens like 24/7 or as much as you can. The guys at InFisherman did a show on fishing the full moon phases for record breaking trophy size fish at this time. I found the fishing was better following the mauri charts on when to go fishing for the most productive times. I wish that Outdoor life still had there listings.

I know that everything was made from wood for fishing from the early days till recently. I been wondering if there is an advantage to using wood or not? I started collecting the older fishing equipment as i found out my very first tackle i still have is antique now. If an older lure that still is NIB liooks good i grab them too. I been buying up the new Luhr Jensen wood chopper topwater wooded lures with props for muskie / northern pike to use and repaint for bigger bass and nothern pike which we do have here. Does anyone remember the wooden lures??? Anythoughts?? Pro's??? Con's???

I started off using the Baitmate Bass scent with awesome success on everything. At the time i purchased every scent that was availabe to test them all to see if anyone out produced the other one. mainly use; shad scents on cranks worm/crawler scents on worms Crawfish scents on crawfish lures And to change up my pitch i switch to garlic scent sometimes. On my senko's i use a 1/8oz carolina rig with no scent on the first cast. If i miss the strike i put a shot of scent on the next cast. I never had any success with mega strike scent.

I been using the mister twister split double tail trailer on all my spinnerbaits, top props ect. I haven't tried them on jigs yet. These look like there swimming when they move in the water.

The bomber cranks are some of my favorites. I'd clean them up and maybe change the hooks if there rusted or if you want to have them repainted. I just sent 22 lures to Terry Clark to be repainted in all the favorite bass colors. BTW; Bomber is discontinuing some of there cranks like the square nose and the fat a's. I been stocking up on all the model a's too.

My title says it all. The colors and style of plastic traiers i use are being discontinued little by little. But they still offer worms and shad in my colors. My question is if i make a mold can i melt down the worms to make my trailers?? I may need a few molds to make this happen too. I want to make special trailers in 5'', 6'' and possibly 8''. I am totally into making this happen.

When i went from trout fishing only to bass fishing i found out that the cheap mono just mean't more lost bass. I did some reading and research commi9ng from an engineering background i did my homework and got into using excaliber silver thread copolymere line. It has way less stretch over mono and a way better quality line. It means less loss fish and faster hooksets. Now after losing some bigger bass do to there size and my 8lb test i just upgraded to using 10lb, 12lb, 14lb and 17lb coplymere line. Since all you guys are bragging how good the flurocarbon line is I purchased the Yozuri and the Vicious line to try out. I did also try the P Line in the coplymere too but found it stiff. I like the Yozuri but i find it harder to tie my mono clinch knots.

My point is i never catch smallies during the blue bird sky days. Its not until a front or full moon phases happens. I'd like to know if i need to change my tactics?

No conflict at all we all have out opinions and thoughts. That makes our country so great we can speak our minds in a civil manner.

Wait i like catching pickerel too. But this place is heavily fished elbow to elbow so saving a few hundered bass just maybe ok. I did return the pickerel to the water too. Our bass here were once hatchery raised and the old bass hatchyery is still there. I believe that heavy pressured fishing can reduce the numbers of bigger bass if there takin to eat. Our goverment came out withe a survey a decade back that suggested taking the smaller bass to eat so the larger bass could spawn to keep the numbers up.

BTW; If the chinese norinco shoots great i just may go for a ground up build. This way i get what i want starting with a forged receiver. The AR design with all its faults plus if the SHTF the time in cleaning it just may not be available.

I like to carry an assortment of bass lures from all sizes and i'm getting into trying the pike lures like #5 mepps and i just ordered some peacock bass lures that are 6''+ to repaint in bass colors. I even went as far as picking up some saltwater topwater plugs too so they can be repainted in bass colors too. I also ordered some heddon magnum spooks to repaint too. I'm still thinking big bait big fish. I'm thinking the larger bass won't waste there time striking a snack when they could have a meal and not waste there energy. Fact; While using a mepps inline #3 while catching fish after fish when the bite slowed down I had a gut feeling the larger fish came in close to see what the smaller fish were eating. I switched to a mepps #5 and caught larger fish. Seeing this tells me to beready to upsize all my lures. I ordered the larger peacock bass topwater prop lures 6'' and the peacock spook type lures too 7 1/2''+. I believe the heddon magnum spooks are 8'' long.

If things get stirred up really good the PH changes which can shut them down. I'm talking about the current as the water rises can stirr up the bottom. If you have a way to check the PH it would be good. I would stay on the pattern your on but beready to switch to something different if there finiky as the water gets higher and the Ph can change. I've seen the river here get violent when they open the flood gates to lower the water level above the dam. Many fly fisherman have died by getting caught in the faster moving current in the deeper holes.

It happens sometimes and i bring them home to feed the abandioned kittens i find in the woods while fishing. I keep them and bring them all home. They keep the rodents inline on my mini hobby farm. They even eat what they kill too. Much better than using decon.

I realy don't fish the beds. I know where they are from shore but stay away from them. Don't some states protect the bass when there on the beds fishing time wise?? I think they start the season later because of the spawn. One day in one of my favorite spots the fry were by themselves, probably bigger so the mother left them and the nest. I watched the smaller pickerel picking them off. I threw on a baby bass lure and picked off all the pickerel. So many bass get taking out of this place to be eaten i felt bad for the fry. The poor little bass didn't stand a chance against the garbage mouth pickerel. There like freshwater sharks. I'll put my money on the pickerel/pike/musky when they go after the snakeheads too. I hunt too but not to feed my family. Since i'm a decent cook the family gets together hunting as they did since the 50's and we eat good, hunt most of the time. We eat, hunt and sleep. I'm not into shooting anything thats too small just to get something. I'm after the great grandfather of bambi. A 16pter and up will do.

In one place i never see any smallies until its raining? I'm throwing a Joe's Flies Bass size super striker in fire tiger apache 1/4oz. One time during the rain i caught three 2 to 3lb smallies back to back. I haven't seen any in years now. Chartruse/firetiger seems to be the favored color. Is there a certain time to fish for smallies? A favotire color better than chartruese?

Colors?? It took Dr Loren Hill of OK University 10 years of testing to develope the "Combo C Lector"(last version). The first one was the color c lector. The fish can only see certain colors sometime do to the hue's and sunlite and the conditions in the water. When i got into bass fishing being a late commer (older) i needed to read anything i could to catch up with the rest of you guys. I seen Bill Dance tell about the Combo C Lector and i had to have one. Heck i have a brand new never used one and the one i tested. This is the older unit not the newer one thats offered today. The Combo C Lector tells us what colors the fish can see at that time, the PH at that depth and the water temp at that depth. The probe cord is marked in feet. The colors are marked in numbers also to match the lure colors that were offered for it too. My test was done from a low bridge in the same spot for a few days, at the same time. The first day the combo c lector chose green as the main color. I threw a bomber in green craw and caught fish when no other color worked. The second day any color worked, the reds, the greens and browns. The next day it chose a red so i used a bomber in redapple craw and it also worked when no other color worked. The next day it chose brown so i used the manns baby 1 in brown craw and none of the other colors worked at that time. Another day again all the colors worked. Quote Bill Dance; If the bass could see all the colors all the time there wouldn't be a minnow left in the water. This tells me that color does matter to a point on a tough day of fishing. The fish are there and can't see your lure. It tells me to have an array of the same lure in different colors. Like the red's, the brown's, the green's and the chartruese. If you want to fine tune it get the citrus and the yellow/blues where possible. BTW; Kevin Vam Dam has a combo c lector on his boat too for the tough days. He probably has the newer version by now. So does color matter??? For me its the color, the size and the presentation too. But do not leave out the condition of the water too. Like Clear, slightly stained, stained, muddy its all here on how to fish all the different conditions. Now did i learn anything about the color of my lures? Yup color does matter. Bigbill

One evening i had a 13'' pickerel try to eat a 12'' shad culprit worm. Luckily he bit exactly were the hook was in the head. This was my first fish on a worm that big. I have used 6'' plastic worms since the early 70's. Awesome video.

Great post. There is so much to know and learn when fishing. Food for thought; For shore bass fisherman its hard to know the bottom structure in the smaller places with no topo maps to go from. In the winter when the ice is on my two body builder sons would poke holes in the ice for me to ice fish and drop a weighted line so i could learn where the flats and drop off's are. Soon after hummingbird came out with the castable pod sensor with the portable fish finder so i could learn how the new places are structured. Once i know how the bottom is structured and were the place is fed from(incomming stream) I can basically get an idea where the fish are. To me they seem to stay away from the current but close enough to feed if something comes near them. Its very close to stream bass fishing were they hide behind rocks and pockets out of the running pressure from the water.

One of those cheap "producers" labeled lures its an off the wall orange colored spook in the sale bin. I think it was 99 cents or $1,.99 i don't remember. I used it one day and caugh many bass on it. There was an online bait shop in FLA. who had all the bigger saltwater spooks i purchased what i could but he went out of business soon after. I like the bigger spooks.

Do you use a scent on the lure? I notice the presentation i always use has to be perfect. Its a 1, 2, 3 short pops(walk the dog) then a pause. Then repeat it perfect. Timing is everything. I do wash my tackle boxes out and my lures every fall to get the foul oders and the smell from using scents all season off of them. I wash my hands before going fishing and do not touch a gas pump on the way to fishing too. The fish can smell up to 2ppb in the water.