stik_in_Texas

I agree with Bigtimfish, even if you lose a discontinued lure with the advent of sites like ebay / craigslist / etc. you can always find replacements. I like expermenting with "dangerous" techniques like crankbaits in brushpiles. I like to throw crankbaits that I have found / cleaned up / replaced hooks / touched up paint (if required) and if I lose these the loss is next to nothing and I am learning a new technique at little cost.

LOL..............The Brown Countess........I like that........a very quotable quote. ROF

A-Jay, that is a beautiful fish, one to be proud of. I haven't caught a 5 yet but seeing pics like yours and others on this site keeps fresh line on my spool all the time..........I hope I am ready when that big one hits. Nice job , buddie.

I think I have figured out how to post a pic. This is a pic of my wife's first smallie. It was taken last summer. She had been telling me that she thought that smallmouths were mythical creatures like unicorns.........you hear about them but you never see them. Shortly after that I caught a short one probably about a pound so I held it up for her to see a real "unicorn". About an hour later she was throwing one of the small Pop-R's at the bank behind her in the picture and this fish came out of the water and down onto the lure. She let screamed for me to get the net and I just sat back and watched the show. When she told me to get the net again I told her the fish at least 20' from the boat and she was going to have to get it a little closer. So I continued to enjoy the show and she prayed to the patron saint of mono-filament. When she finally got it in it weighed 3lb10oz on the digital.......not bad for her first "unicorn". Now everytime we pull into that cove she has that Pop-R tied on and we make a beeline for that bank..........I love going out with my favorite fishing buddie........if God made anything sweeter He kept it for Himself.

OK......OK........OK........you guys have sold me. It just so happens that this post coincides with payday so I am placing my order right now........does JJ's have overnight delivery?? With the rain and rising water I am dealing with right now I would be willing to hire a mojo man or maybe one of those witches from the swamps of Lousiana to put some kind of back-water whammy on my boat to just see my line twitch. Really though, Patrick gave me some advice about trying the flats ahead of the mudline and I have been catching a few fish but with the water so stained maybe something like JJ's would help'em find my pig and jig a little easier. More to come from Texas.

Ok, if you have an iTunes account type "fishing" into the search box and it will come up with a couple of dozen of songs that mention fishing. I am not at home right now and don't have access to my iTunes account but there are some pretty good songs , especially some good blues songs on there. Check it out.

Texoma is my home lake and we have some very good smallies in this lake........the lake record is a little over 7lbs. Texoma is about 60 miles north of Dallas on the Tx-Ok border...........great "little" pond (80,000 acres) come see us sometime.

Thanks cigarleaf, refer above to the thread about tackle junkies...........I gotta have some of these..........although unlike some of the stuff I buy it looks like these things might work.............I'm also working on a song........."When It's Top Water Time In Texas......."whadda think, top 40 material maybe LOL.

I agree...........I am also a tackle junkie but I think I might have taken it even a step further. Even when I really don't need any particular lure and I am just cruising the aisles of Academy/Gander/WallyWorld I will look (for instance) at the crankbaits and if there is only two of a certain color remaining (even if I don't need them) I will buy both of them because the little fisherman on my shoulder (or maybe it's the monkey on my back) will tell me that they are working for SOMEONE. So I have all of this stuff that I have never used that will probably be passed on to my grandkids or my wife's next husband (although she says if she ever gets rid of me she will never marry another fisherman LOL). In the meantime I could restock WallyWorld if I had to.

Saw somebody talking about a buzzbait on this site the other day and I can't remember the name. It started with a "C". Supposed to be a design that stayed on top with a slow presentation..............thanks for the help. Benny

Here in north Texas we have had 10-14" of rain in the last week. The lake I fish (Texoma) has risen approx 4-5' or more and it is still coming up. The water is up in the grass and the back of the coves is muddy (of course). The water along the dam is somewhat clearer but I can't seem to find the fish. I have fished the flooded grass and where the creeks run in and also targeted the actual mudline in the coves. The rising water baffles me every year but I'm hoping that some of y'all on the site can give me a few pointers that will at least get me headed in the right direction. I went out with the wife yesterday and all we could find were dink stripers and no bass at all. We threw every thing in the box at them but no luck. Any advice??? Thanks Benny

SLO-ROL, I just joined the site and I am definitely not an expert (you know what an expert is right.....an ex is a has-been and a spurt is a drip under pressure) but depending on the type of bottom you have there as long as it is not the thick grass or thick moss type I would suggest trying a shaky head rig. It works great on sandy and rocky bottoms in shallow or deep water and it produces for me on my heavily pressured lake. I use Spot Remover jig heads and Zoom 4" worms in either watermelon or the redbug colors. There are a lot of colors available but I've found that usually if the red doesnt work the watermelon will. The bite will usually be very very subtle. I use 12lb flouro line to enhance the sink rate a little and while I am crawl it along the bottom if I bring the jig up against a rock before I hop it over I will slightly shake my rod tip in place and cause the worm to wiggle in one place before I move it any further along the bottom. Like I said the bites are very subtle and you won't feel a lot of them until you start to move the jig and the fish will already have it in his mouth. I prefer the Spot Removers because of the flat heads they have that causes them to stand up on the bottom sometimes. Hope I have explained it enough............email me back if you have any questions. Good luck.

Thanks JigMan, I won't say I can't wait to try your technique because I hate it whenever I gut-hook a fish but I will definitely give it a try the next time it happens. Thanks for the great discription.

OK, a question to see if anyone has ever heard of the kind of wire-cutters I am looking for. I have been teaching myself to fish the shaky-head technique and while learning this I have missed a few pick-ups by the fish and therefore by the time I eventually did feel them on the line they had gut-hooked themselves. Is there such a thing as a pair of long pointed style needle pliers with a wire cutter section on the tip end. Something you can reach down in the fish's mouth / gullet and cut off a hook/jig head and leave the barb rather that take the chance of killing it by taking it out. I am not against harvesting a bass if it is legal length but if it is too small I hate throwing it back to die. There has to be a pair of pliers out there that is designed like I have described.............if not then maybe I'll make my own and start selling them........it would sure save a lot of fish, I'm sure.

Hey everybody, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Benny and obviously from Texas. I am a veteran of 18 yrs in the Air Force and after all of that moving around I promised the better half that if we were ever able to move back home we would never move again. In 1979 I married my high school sweetheart and next month will be my 30 yr anniversary and one of us deserves a humanitarian award for that (you can guess which one). I am fortunate to live just outside Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma on the Tex-Ok border. I fish approx 200-250 days a yr mostly for bass (perferably smallies) but I have been known to throw a Zara Spook at a school of stripers if the situation presents itself. I found this site after seeing Russ Thetonia on a fishing show on WFN..........I think it was Lunkerville but I can't remember. Although I always hit the water with way more tackle than I need and way more than I can ever use I liked his "Low-Budget" approach..........I even think that my boat would get a few more MPG's if I lightened it up a little and left about 50lbs of tackle at home. Anyway, I've looked around the site for a few days before I posted and it seems all of y'all are pretty cool and straight forward without the big egos that are present on some of the other sites so I think I'm gonna feel comfortable here. I've always said that fishing is like shooting pool (which I also enjoy). For one thing, if you don't think you're gonna win ..... don't play........I always go out on the water to have a good time and even if I don't catch anything hopefully I have learned something ....... which leads me to my second comparison........I can take a lesson / or give one.........I hope to learn a lot from you guys and if there is any scrap of info I can hand out I will give it freely. Thanks in advance for your time and I look forward to talking to all of y'all. See you here or on the water.