Shad_Master

In the spring and fall, I find that the fish want the Senko moving so the advice to twitch/jerk them is good. During summer months, I just "dead stick" it and let it fall slooooowly on a semi-slack line. If it hits bottom I jig it up and let if fall again -- if no takers, reel in and try again.

another site was running a video series that included the Swindle episode on skipping. It might be archived where you can see it. right now they have the "Skeeter-Blair Witch" thing that makes no sense.

Thanks guys, I never was good at figuring this out and the oil reservoir has gone out on my mercury > -- dad burn new fangled gadgets!!!

15 ounces, right?

At 50:1 ratio, how much oil goes into 6 gallons of gas?

I've mentioned this before, but for the shear pleasure of reading and getting some insight into a legend of the sport -- "Think Like a Fish" by Tom Mann is an excellent read. You won't learn a lot about how to catch 'em, but it will help you enjoy the sport.

My goal for this year was to finish in the top 10 for my club tournaments (last year I was 24 of 42 ). Right now I am in 11th place with two tournaments to go. We get to drop off our lowest two finishes, so if I can pull out a good showing in the next two, I should be able to crack the upper tier. As for personal, I landed a 5.91#er (according to the fish weight calculator on this site) and another one that was an easy 5#er, also several others that were in the 5# range. I also was on a streak from Feb 16th up until Aug 22nd where I caught at least one fish every time I went out. I broke the string when I went out with a couple of guys for a short stint in a new lake that turned out to be just a mud hole > Overall an excellent year -- hate to see winter comming down the trail.

Like where?

Can someone explain to me why swimmin a jig would be preferable to using a spinner bait? When do you use one over the other?

I guess you would say I stay in a perpetual slump, if by slump you mean fishing without catching fish. But the reason is because I keep experimenting with different baits, techniques, etc. Some times I can learn more in a day when I don't get bit than I can on a day when I'm loading the boat. I fish just about every day (some times only for 1/2 hour or so) but what I am doing is learning. This morning I spent a 1/2 hour in a spot where I have been skunked the last several times out. I changed up my bait selection and caught a 2#er, a 3#er and a 4#er all within 50 yards of each other. I just got back from my lunch "hour" and didn't catch a thing in a spot where I have caught fish every day for the last two weeks. Now when tournament time rolls around, I will be able to replicate what worked, but also have some other tricks up my sleeve if it doesn't. A slump for me is when I can't go fishing -- and that is usually corrected by digging into the "honey-do" list for a while

When fishing tournaments I always use a net. In a recent tournament, I was fishing from the back of a buddy's boat 'cause mine was out of commission. After fishing for 3.5 hours without a bite, he stuck a lunker and was fighting him in. I was hollering where's the net. Just as he told me he didn't have one, we watched the fish come off and swim away. When fishing from shore, I am just having fun anyway so I have no use for a net and feel like this would just be something else to keep up with.

Will it catch 'em all -- NO. Will it catch some that wouldn't be caught otherwise -- MAYBE. Will I spend $600 for one -- Who are you kidding? : ???

One way of removing them REAL fast, is to give the fish slack and let them throw the bait

Spinning gear doesn't backlash, but it sure does "cobwebb", especially if casted into a 25 - 30 mph wind : Still beats working or mowing the lawn ;D

The wind always blows in Nebraska -- why? If you follow college football you know it's 'cause Okalahoma sucks ;D Right now it is a calm day, only 15 mph. If I didn't go fishing in the wind, I wouldn't go fishing. It does challenge your character a little when your trolling motor battery dies after 5 hours or your bait caster has backlashed for the 127th time that day, but wind is when the fish start stirrin and will get them biting.

Actually what makes the story even better is that I was one of three "human bobber" award winners last year. The first guy to go in, was setting the hook on a small mouth when the seat on the back deck came loose and he tumbled over the transom. Interestingly, it was about two weeks later when I went in and my partner and I had just been talking with him and his partner right before it happened and they saw the whole thing. A month later, he was fishing with a guy who came into a cove on plane and walked to the front of the boat to drop the trolling motor when they hit a stump. He went off the point with the trolling motor cord still in his hand. We decided the the first guy was so embarrassed that he was planning to take us all out one at a time

Actually the rope ladder is only 3 or 4 rungs and is attached to the deck. He keeps it rolled up, but can reach it by holding on to the transom on the passenger side. My best advice -- PFD's, don't leave the dock without 'em!

My local club has an occasional award that is presented to those who deserve the title "human bobber". I was "fortunate ???" enough to win one last year for a tumble I took during one of our tournaments. The story is I had gone to the tournament with my boat, but my partner didn't make it. Another guy did not have a partner so I decided to go in his boat. He had seat for the back, but it was on two pedestals so it was too high for me to sit on and I was just leaning against it like a butt seat. As we were moving from one area to another under the trolling motor, I went to lean back against the seat and only caught one corner. The seat swiveled, crossing my feet and pitching me forward on the back deck. I was positioned on my hands and knees with my butt higher than my head. When my partner turned around to see what happended, he caused the boat to rock which pushed my butt on over and deposited me, head first, into the lake. I managed to get to the surface and grabbed onto the boat and put my foot on the prop to use as a "ladder" to push myself up onto the deck. Besides my embarrassment :-[, I also was > because I lost the rod and reel I was holding at the time. Another one of our guys (who witnessed this) has now fashioned a ladder from ski rope and PVC pipe and attached it to the back of his Tracker (just in case).

I have a friend who makes his own in-line spinners using bullet weights and a tool that he bought at Cabellas. He tried all kinds of paints, but found that they didn't hold up after banging on the rocks at Lake of the Ozarks. One night he saw a commercial on television about nail polish that wouldn't chip and started using his wife's. Now he is a regular customer of the Avon Lady -- ding-dong

I have also heard of guys cutting the front hook off their trebels. Do any of you do this? Does it work?

Another good reason for using GULP! It is biodegradable and fish can digest it

I have caught 3#, 4# and 5#'ers from my test pond this year. It is about 1 1/2 acres and is presently a part of a city park, but was orignally (not sure how many years ago) a farm pond used to water cattle. Eventually, it was turned into a pay lake for kids (and even had a little train that went around it, like at the zoo). The city eventually swallowed up the farm and the land was turned into a city park when a housing development engulfed it. There is a golf course on the other side of the street, with a water hazard that is about 1/2 as big and it feeds into the pond during heavy rains. The state Game and Parks stocked it several years ago with blue gill, crappie and catfish, but the bass have been there since before the city owned it. Lots of neighbor kids fish for blue gill and crappie in the spring and nobody monitors their catch, so they get pretty depleted by the time summer rolls around. My biggest one from this pond was a 5.91#er (based on the fish weight calculator from this site) caught this year. I decided to throw a crank bait and crash it into the weeds, since nobody else was fishing this way and he hit the crank but didn't hook up. I had a Zoom vibra worm rigged on another rod and threw back when he came off and he hit it. I had less than 10' of line out and he nearly ripped my arm off.

I read the book just before the Classic and found it real interesting how he got to be the way he is. I also enjoyed reading about how he brings his passion into his fishing on and off the water. If I had the patience to do that much research, I might be a better fisherman than I am. Another good book, that is not a lot of "how-to" stuff (some though) that is a wonderful read, is "Think Like a Fish" by Tom Mann. In another day and time, he might have been the IKE that everybody has an opinion about.

I have seen fishing shows and read books/articles where fishing Pro's talk about taking a kid fishing -- one thing several of them have said is "leave your rod at home and concentrate on them". This is especially important in the beginning for kids, but their competitive spirit will take over after awhile and you may find it difficult to outcatch them once they get hooked

30-35 mph winds are fairly normal here -- we fished a tournament in April where the winds were 25 mph at blastoff and got stronger as the day went on :-X I don't like to use a weight unless I have to and then only use the lightest weight I can get by with -- today I was using a 1/16 oz and casting a ZOOM Vibra Worm into the wind -- the weight would help hold it down, but the current (wind) would wash it past the point and the bass picked it up in the slack water on the back side ;D