bigbill

I'm out early in the morning while it's still dark well before the birds start chirping and the roosters crow. I fish from dark to twilight to dawn to 9am.if I last that long so my baits get changed from night topwater baits, to twilight shallow & deeper cranks baits(channel), to the dawn baits I use as the bass go to there deeper haunts I follow them with a Carolina rig or deeper cranks. I do notice the pattern can change quickly sometimes. I don't panic I just change baits very quickly till the action picks up again. In the dark There like a captured crowd and I need to figure out what there going to eat. As it gets lighter there starting to get ansy looking for the exit sign. Fishing from shore the timing is very important on what bait were throwing from dark to Sun up.

I was fishing in November in snow flurries throwing a YUM money minnow. I never knew bass hit so late in the season. It was an awesome trip. Now I'm not sure to hunt deer or go fishing. If there is no ice stay going, use the dying minnow presentation with a swim bait.

You know you never have a clean, a neat tackle box to the point you can find what your looking for without pulling up six lures together until you fish in the dark. Trust me if you haven't fished at night in the dark yet your tackle box isn't neat yet. My point is when cleaning and setting up your tackle box the best thing we can do is to think about "night fishing" only then you will sort everything out so each bait is easy to remove from its spot and use. Once you get into the habit of removing and replacing it to its spot you will keep it neat. I thought I was a neat person with my tackle arrangement in my tackle box until I went night fishing. Using a one battery flash lite it was so hard to pick up he lure without no other lures attached to it. I was shocked on how messy I was. I have all my topwater baits in one tackle box, all my cranks in another box. One more box for seedless lures. Plus all my assorted carolina rigs are pre made up in plastic zip lock bags. I have 24" adjustable leaders using the Carolina keepers with different weights in each bag with a hook. These are in the bottom of my tackle box. I keep a plastic bag of assorted hooks too. I use a locking snap swivel to attach the pre hooked plastics to my c-rig. This saves trying to tie knots. I have pre hooked plastics also in bags. This way I spend more time fishing than trying to install a hook in a plastic bait correctly in the dark. It saves time to have everything pre ready. I just turned 64yo and trying to tie knots in the daytime kills me. This clear line is so hard to see. I always bring extra rod setups when night fishing too. If one gets tangled or I need to tie a new snap swivel on in the dark I park it till I get home to save time I use the extra rod. I fish from dark till dawn non stop to catch these big gals near the shoreline before they move to deeper cover. Our fishing time is limited. I don't waste it fixing tackle or looking for a lure. We need to be as fast as the nascar pit stop guys when picking and changing baits. The game changes when fishing at night. That little flash lite that can be clipped on your hat brim can also be clipped on your tackle box too. I carry two small flashlights in every tackle box. Even my backup has backup. Failure is not an option. I make sure a fishing trip doesn't get ruined. At my age each minute fishing matters, I make sure each minute counts.

Bomber FAT A's BPS XPS TOPNOCKER

Worms are the problem. The bass prefer something moving like a mepps inline spinner.

What color clothes are you wearing? Camo is the best to blend in with nature. Darker colors will work. Brighter colors they can see you. Walk softly, do not step on any rocks that stick out of the ground. They actually send vibrations into the water. It's the fishes natural alarm system. Don't talk, don't coff, don't make any noises with your tackle. I use spinning reels and close the bail by hand. I do not use baitcasters because of the click. I'm fishing in the dark when the big hogs are 2' from shore and they have there sonar on. Now if there breaking topwater I cast past them about 6'/10' to the right or left of the action. Then I work my popper or spook slowly by them making them go to my bait rather than spook them. I also may try a small panther martin spin fly, or a 1/4 oz Joe's fly or a #3 mepps or a 1/8 or 1/4oz spinner bait. As long as I can cast it passed them.

My son bought a monster plastic tube for shipping rods. He was down south at stone mountain Georgia. He flew down with nothing. But when his co-workers down there mentioned fishing he was on it like stink on a skunk. He purchased all new stuff and came home with it when the job was done.

Call out sick? I can't answer that.......but now being retired its different I have plenty of time.

I haven't been out too many times this year but in the past years I'm fishing from shore in the shallows to 10' of water. My biggest bass my pb 10lbs was caught two feet off shore on a drop off at 5:30am first light. Let's not tell everyone my hottest lure is the Rebel BIG CLAW crawfish crankbait that dives 10'. We use the smaller ones in the shallow rivers in the pools and backwashes. The chartreuse color. I'm willing to bet all the colors work just match the natural craw colors in your area. Here they have red sides with black backs in the ponds and lakes but in the rivers there a light tan color. Chartreuse seems to work in stained water. Plus in the low light I use chartreuse.

I have 4 of the 3700 boxes and counting with siebert outdoor jigs. Can we ever have enough. I'm sure once I show the kids(6 of them) how good they work, I'll be buying more. I keep the kids tackle boxes filled too. Plus Mike's one of our supporters here too. I purchased the 3700 boxes in a four pack from Amazon.

Ditto I been using the okuma expoitor and the fin-nor spinning reels for quite a few years now. I been also using the viva and globe spinning reels too. There popular in Russia and the land down under. The viva has been on my worm rod for over a decade now. But I buy more okuma spinning reels I probably own more of each side.

Ditto on Felix77 it's tucked in the bottom of my tackle box.

I find maybe a few larger bass are close by to the smaller bass. I say this because when the bite frenzy is on with the smaller bass and it slows down I find the bigger bass come in closer to see what the excitement is with the smaller fish. If I'm throwing a number #3 mepps I put on a #4 or #5 keeps and get the larger fish to strike. For some reason they won't hit the smaller lure.

I'm up to a pb of 10lbs. The state record is 12lbs 4oz. I lost four bigger bass now. I was at one spot that's a 4' bank above the water. I watched a whale of a bass turn and hit my topwater lure so violent 1/3 of her back was out of the water. I set the hook, had the rod up as high as I could to hold her head up but it was a very long cast and she knew to dive down in the weeds. My buddy had her on the line once too and for 20 minutes he tried to horse her up but his line and rod snapped. I was at another place where I have a 6lber in my hands and a bigger bass swims by me at the drop off. I fish for fun. But the bigger ones find me. So I need to get more violent on the hook set?

I fish a drainage pond in a industrial complex/mall. The bass fishing is awesome and no one threw me out yet. Of course I'm no little guy and can look intimidating to some but I'm a nice guy most of the time. I was thrown out of a spot that's legal to fish from the road. I checked with the local forest ranger and I'm right but they won't fight for it. I hate playing the disabled card but we're losing more and more decent places to fish for guys and gals who are worse off than me. We have no wheel chair access for fisherman. I'm ready to pursue it legally soon. My older brother was the man. He got thrown off the private land while fishing a river. He put his waders on and went up stream where it was legal to fish and waded down stream in the water to that spot were the trout were and fished. They don't own the water they own the land.

Well there goes another chance of landing a big gal. My son showed up and said were going bass fishing. I grabbed any rod setup and tackle box. I was casting the mud dog lure by river to sea. I had a hit and couldn't hang on to her. Finally she left. I had a 7'2" med/lt rod. I grabbed the wrong rod setup. There's no upper hook setting strength. Well it's probably me being still weak too from my illness. But I lost another one. I casted in the shaded area from the trees. That's fishing. My lower back has spinal stenosis I'm in pain all the time. After going fishing and making 100 casts my lower back pain was gone for a while. Exercise?

Funny how one minute there striking then there gone. The tide signals them.

Still fishing it's diamond jigging using shrimp scent. Trolling it's spoons with wire leaders. A deep sea rod with a roller tip with at least 50lb test and a Penn #49 / #149 reel. If you see a school working the baitfish/bunker on the surface get trolling and circling the school picking them off. If you get any weak fish there great eating too. My mom would bake blues with tomato sauce and basil. She would cook them a little drain off the oil then add tomatoes. She did the weak fish the same way. No oily taste. I miss her cooking the fish.

That car tire sized turtle was clawing up the drop off all the way in. First he was right side up, then upside down he fought breek and claw all the way in. My Excalibur silver thread copolymer line held up to quite a abrasion test. I finally cut it loose. Soon after it got darker the cat fishing was awesome.

I purchased 4 poppers and 4 props of high roller top water lures they work. I'm just trying the more expensive stuff.

I believe there protected here. I've pulled up 235-15 jeep tire sized turtles on Excalibur silver thread line. One place has a 4' diameter snapper with a big human sized head. Beaware these snappers sit on the bottom like a rock and will grab any lure that goes by them. On the down side when snappers are near the bass bite is turned off.

I use every plastic with the eagle claw 249W weedless hooks. I never had a problem. But I stay away from the slimey stuff. But in the weeds it does awesome. Just wacky rigged the weedless hook is ok. The standard hook wacky rigged comes up full of weeds every time. My brushogs, my creaturebaits, my worms are all rigged with weedless hooks.

Your too quick give it a few more seconds before setting the hook. I use the senko type baits right out of the package with a 3/0 eagle claw seedless hook. On the first cast no scent. If I get a strike and a miss and when the seedless spring comes up open that confirms it was a strike. I give the senko a shot of bass scent on the second cast so they hold on to the bait a tad longer so I can set the hook. I did go up one size larger on the hook size. My hook sets did increase with the 3/0 hook. Plastics fishing is like topwater fishing we need to delay the hook set. We know they have it but give them a few more seconds of pleasure till we set the hook.

When the lure weight gets too extreme for the freshwater tackle I switch to the saltwater inshore setups. When I throw the 9" castraic trout lure.

The lure weight should be within the lure weight capacity of the rod. I believe the rod action rating can effect the lure action if the lure is too heavy for the rod.