Shad_Master

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/hay-baling-fun-_n_695635.html

This has to do with crappie, not bass, but it is a similar situation. I was fishing on my lunch hour one day and noticed a car drive up to the launch ramp and park. After a few minutes, I noticed a small flat bottom boat headed to the dock. This lady got out of her car, walked out onto the dock - the guy in the boat handed her his basket loaded with crappie and she gave him an emplty one - she drove away and he headed back to fishing. Don't really know if this is considered illegal - but it ain't cool.

Although I am an advocate for Power Pro - I have learned that it is not the ideal set up for all techniques. I use PP exclusively for jigs and C-rigs (with a mono leader). But it can be difficult to get a good hook set with cranks, jerk baits, etc. It is not good for topwater lures (possible exception - buzz baits). I do have one set up with Power Pro for T-rigs, but use a 6' + flouro leader. Power Pro works well for detecting the bite, but it does displace more water and thus can be a hinderance for finesse type techniques.

1. Some time between Jan 1 and Dec 31; from dawn til the next dawn. 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. They are "wood magnets" and will hang on any piece of wood in the area In short, they are a great search lure. The vibration will call fish from around the area and intice them to strike. You can use them almost anytime you are fishing and they are great for fishing in grassy areas as they will come through (sometimes with a tug and show up back at the boat clean as a whistle). But they are not good for fishing around brush piles or lay downs as they do tend to get hung up on wood.

Okay, I guess I'm confuse by what you are trying to say. You started out by saying that "rate of fall" was the only factor affecting the weight being used. Now, it seem like you are saying you have to adjust the weight depending on the conditions. I agree with that. However, in my case, I seldom use more than a 1/4 oz bullet weight. If I have to go heaveir, I usuall opt for a jig. A heavy bullet weight may help me get through the grass, but it will distort the action of the worm, craw, etc. -- Just MHO.

How do you "compensate for the wind with their cast" in 15 to 20 mph winds without adjusting weight?

Not sure I completely agree with you there Catt. At least one other "factor" can be wind. Some times you need a heavier weight in order to get your lure in front of the fish. But there are other times when less weight equals more fish. I think it is really just trial and error.

I don't recall if I voted in the poll or offered a response since this was first posted on July 19th (more than a month ago) - but it just struck me as funny that anything more than 20 years is considered "all your life" - there are lots of things that I haven't done "all my life" that I have done for more than 20 years. ;D

A couple of years ago I was fishing in a tournament - my partner was throwing a white spinner bait becuse it was in the late fall and he felt that the fish would be feeding up for winter. He made a cast and had a "professional overrun" - after picking it out he started to reel in a caught the first fish of the day. The lightbulb went off in my head and I switched to a white jig and caught fish all day. White is a very overlooked color for a lot of uses. Give 'em a try.

"I have a permit, and well, even though i'm not supposed to drive by myself. Home depot is only a couple miles away. " Oh, well in that case, I'm sure the cops won't mind

I'm not sure anyone (other than the fish) could really tell you what was going on, although some may try. I will only offer my guess. It could have been that there was something about your lure that was "just a little off" - it could have been the shade of color or maybe they wanted blue sparkles instead of green. But as long as you were snaggin 'em it really wouldn't make sense to tinker too much with your lure. Another possibility may have been that you were retrieving it a little faster than they wanted. Hard to tell. The main thing to keep in mind though is you were on fish and they were interested enough in your presentation that you were able to catch 'em. That is something that doesn't always happen.

Fished a tournament over the weekend - Lake is 595 acres with maximum depth at around 42 feet and average depth at around 17 feet. Water temps were 83* at the surface. While pre-fishing on Friday I noticed that when I was at 16' to 18' I would see a line of fish holding at 13' - it looked like they were lined up nose to tail. If I pulled out deeper the fish remained concentrated at 13' but would also show up higher in the water column but none at the surface and none below that line. Was this the thermocline? And how do you get 'em to bite at that depth. BTW, tournament was won on a Chatterbait in 3'-4'. Thanks for any input.

It somewhat depends on the size of the fish - if it's a dink, it can be fun and let you know there are at least fish in the area that are willing to hit what you are throwing. If it's a hawg!! - it's time for celebration, but be careful of getting locked in to that technique and not adapting as the day goes on.

I had a similar situation a few years ago when I took my boat in to be tuned up for the season - when I went to pick it up, the trolling motor was gone. The guy claimed that threre was no trolling motor on it when I brought it in - since it had a removable bracket, I thought perhaps I had taken it off and said I would go home and check it out - when I go home, there was no TM so I called the guy back and he advised that I call the Sherriff - I filed a stolen property report and then called the guy to ask who his insurance company was - he refused to give me that information, so I called a lawyer friend and wrote a letter to the guy w/ a copy to my lawyer friend and a copy to the Sherrif's office. Two days later, I got a call that a TM had "been left on their doorstep and if I could prove it was mine, I could have it". I took the warrany card with the serial number and picked up my motor - no explanation, no apology, but I did manage to let every person who I know that fishes in on the story - he is now out of business. If you let them, some people will take advantage of you. Contact the authorities and let him deal with them.

I had been thinking recently that all the bass in my local lake were near sighted because they tend to miss the buzz bait by anywhere from 1' to 3'. Anyway, another option is to have a set-up rigged with a Senko or other soft plastic and throw back after getting "bumped" - that fish is ready to bite and probably hasn't tasted the steel yet.

When I first saw this topic, I though it was going to be naughty Those kind of spots are neat and can be a lot of fun - just be careful about letting the word out of you will find that everybody will be on it or somebody will move the board. There is a sunken brush pile on a lake near here - I only fish it when I need! to have one and everybody is always wondering how I managed to catch a fish "out in the middle of the lake". If I let 'em in on it - it will be fished out or otherwise rendered useless.

What's especially interesting to me about this is I am not consciously aware that I actually say anything - but it bugs me to death when another guy in the boat hooks one and actually doesn't say anything.

That's exactly the point - that way the grass is up away from the lure and you can still attract a strike.

Several years ago I was fishing with a guy and throughout the day, he would occasionally grunt, groan or gasp - each time I would ask him if he had one on and he didn't - finally I asked him what do you say when you get a bite - he said "here, hold my beer".

Just some advice (perhaps) to newbies - we often use the term "dragging a worm" when talking about fishing with soft plastics - but that's not really the way to fish 'em most of the time. Last weekend, I was fishing a club tournament and my back seater was having a difficult time getting bit in the areas where I was catching fish. With about 1.5 hours to go, I had my limit and told him to get up front and run the boat - it was then that I noticed he was literally dragging his worm through a grass edge and comming up with a bucket full of weeds on each cast. We were both fishing worms t-rigged with 1/4 oz weights, but mine was comming back clean. I tried to explain to him that you had to work it through the grass with short tugs on the rod, but he never quite got the message. If you are not doing this, learn to hop the lure through the grass and you will have much better results.

A few years ago, there was a tournament on the Missouri river near here - at the launch it was announced that boats going north should watch out for fog - one boat had set up extra gas on sand dunes out in the rive so they could make a long run un into South Dakota - when they ran into the fog they were traveling (wide open) by the GPS when they ran across a jettie - the driver was killed and the passenger was messed up! GPS trails are set on an "as the crow flies" direction and cannot account for what may be between here and there.

In my group there are three classifications of fish: Dinks, "club fish" and Missouris. Dink = less than 12" - you can't score it for a tournament "club fish" = 12" - 15" - these score points Missouri = 15" and over - thise score "big" points Of course, if the fish comes unbuttoned, it can be as big as I want it to be - you'd be surprised how many 20"+ fish come unbuttoned during a tournament season :

I have been wondering about this for awhile - it seems like all colors are not created equal. The fall rates can be different, the action can be different and the durablility can be different. I have noticed this not only with Senko's but with other plastics as well - I wondered if it had to do with the chemicals or the proportions or something. Not worth losing sleep over, but interesting.

My advice? -- keep fishing the pads with a white frog!!! I understand that all the things you hear and read would tell you that they have gone deeper, but sometimes the fish forget what they are supposed to be doing. This past weekend, I fished a club tournament and found that all the "big" fish were holding within 2'-10' of the bank in 4' to 6' of water, in the weeds - most of the rest of the field was out in 14' to 20' and couldn't get bit. Fish are funny that way.

If you have a fix on where the channel runs - try to find a spot where the channel makes a bend or swing and drop them there. JMO