Chris

I rig this with a free sliding bullet weight and a EWG Gamakatsu about a 4/0. I rig the bait backwards and use it flipping in clear water mostly. When you rig this bait backwards it displaces a lot more water and slows down the fall. In clear water I use watermelon or green pumpkin in stained to muddy I use black red flake or purple green flake.

I think you talking about a size 10 husky jerk Rapala which is a 4" bait. You can catch most any size bass on a 4" jerkbait.

The blades on the spinnerbait keeps the bait running upright. As long as you keep the bait moving it isn't going to fall over. A lot of guys including me just put a bullet weight on the line before I tie the spinnerbait. The weight has two functions one to add weight and two to keep scum off the knot. On spinnerbaits that have a long shank hook you can just add weight to the hook and the bait will still run right and you can run the bait faster without it falling over. Most of the time I use a rubber core clam shell weight. Just take out the rubber center and slide the hook in and clamp it. With a crankbait I use a Carolina rig if I want to add depth to a crankbait. You can drag it like a regular Carolina rig but I don't use it that way often unless the water is cold. Most of the time I am using it to gain depth to hit a target depth. If you tinker with the amount of weight that you add you can get the bait to reach suspending fish with some accuracy. That other technique that was mentioned with the heavy weight sitting in a spawning bed and the lure being let to float off of it can work real well. When you bring the line tight the lure looks like it is feeding on the eggs and it can drive the bass into hitting the lure. I have seen some guys that take a minnow rapala and take off the center hook or the front hook and tie to it and fish it on a C-rig. It gives it a different action. Some guys tie to the center of the rapala when fishing schoolers to make the lure look injured. It is kinda like wacky rigging it with the weight up the line for depth. C-rigging a crankbait also works great when you need to follow tight to the contour of the bottom like on points or tapering drops. You can also get more mileage on some of your lures without the need to buy a ton of different crankbaits to reach several different depths. The very first tournament I ever fished back when I was 15 was won on a C-rig crankbait by yours truely. My fishing partner thought I was nuts too. We where fishing a deep patch of grass and I didn't have a crankbait that could reach it. My partner was fishing a worm and caught a few so I rigged up my C-rigged crankbait with many strange looks and fired it off. We where fishing in mid summer and it was just the ticket.

In muddy water I use three baits. A single colo spinnerbait A jig and trailer A large body crankbaits that have a good thump You want to use lures that will displace a lot of water or have a good vibration to them. Rattles in muddy water tends to just have an area of noise but vibration tends to help the bass locate and track the bait better in muddy water.

Bandits work well in and around cover If you are looking for a step up the CS crankbait that Whittler makes would be a good choice. The reason why I bring it up is because it was made to be fished in heavy cover. CS stands for "Chris Special" I personally had a lot of input in the development of this bait and it has my name on it. You can take a bait like a Bandit and use it to bounce off cover but in the long run it is better to use a bait that is designed to do a specific job and this series is it. The more you fish crankbaits around cover your going to find that wood baits do a better job. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1167349523

I'm in again lol ;D

Try looking on these websites- Hagen's, Lakeland Co.,or Worth Co.

Welcome to the forum

I catfish sometimes under the Kentucky dam and have caught several blues and flatheads that where BIG. I have found that if I don't have a net the best way to get them in the boat is to grab the gill plate and I stick my thumb in the corner of the mouth. I have grabbed the bottom lip of a large catfish before and it works fine as long as the fish don't clamp down on your hand. If the fish is large enough you will let out a yelp. ;D After you get control of the fish and you want to hold it up for pictures yes you should support the fish by the belly. Small catfish can be picked up by the belly with one fin between your index finger and middle finger and the other fin in the web at the base of your thumb. Smaller toothy critters can be grabbed behind the head. The only reason to pick up a large fish that has teeth by the gill is because you need to control the head for safety to get it in the boat.

I would throw something that was different so that the bass can single it out. If the lake is stocked with rainbow trout throw a brook trout imitation. Your doing the same thing if you make the rainbow trout bait look injured or dumb it is just another way to approach the same idea. Also sometimes a albino color works along the same line of thought.

If I am flipping a worm I use a straight shank hook. If I am using a soft jerkbait or flipping tube I use a EWG hook. If I am throwing a Carolina rig I use an off set hook. If I am casting a worm I use an off set hook. If I am using a harder worm that can hold a straight shank hook without sliding down on the cast then I use a straight shank. I sometimes peg the hook with a toothpick or heavy mono sometimes to keep it from sliding down or just glue it. My hook choice depends on how thick the bait is and if I am having a problem of the lure sliding down on the hook on the cast.

The Fat A has a tight wiggle and the crawfish color should be a good choice in early spring

I'm in also

From a boat in water over your head?

Here is the deal if I handed you all my stuff and sat in your boat using your equipment or if I where to take you to your favorite honey hole bank fishing with me using your stuff and you using mine there still stands a good chance that your going to have a hard time beating me in a fishing contest. To be honest fishing skill is just fishing skill and equipment is just a minor detail. Good equipment will help you get the job done better but it still boils down to knowledge. Most people if you sit them down and talk about bass fishing most of them come away from the conversation forgetting most of what was said. They don't retain the knowledge or only pick out parts that they feel are important to them. Knowledge is everything in this sport and what sets you apart from others. You can spend all the time on the water that you want but how much of that time is devoted to expanding your knowledge and how much of that knowledge is retained years down the road makes a big difference between average and above average. Many of the guys that are on top of their game spend most of their life learning about bass fishing. To be honest they took the time to learn as much as they could about bass fishing and never stopped learning and pushing their limits. I agree 100% that the way you fish right now is influenced by tournament fishing. The way you problem solve, how you present a lure, the lures that you use, your color selection, the baitmonkey tapping you on the shoulder saying buy this and that are all thanks to tournament fishing. Is it getting a little out of hand as far as promotions and pages in bassmaster magazine that are nothing but ads.. I think it is compared to what the magazine was. I am to the point now where I don't even read it. Does the ads and sale pitches take away from the skill of the pro's nope not even close.

Do a web search on "plastic pop rivets" I bet you will find what you want. Also there was a website I think the company was called rattrap skirts that sold skirts like those and I am thinking they also sold the rivets. I am not sure if the company had been sold and changed the name or not but that will give you a direction anyways. *I tried to look up the rattrap place and couldn't find it I think it might be closed.

A side by side double buzzbait is more weedless than a single and you can fish it in trees and bushes without it hanging. It also can be slowed way down and works well on windy days.

You don't really want to tie on a rattletrap without a split ring because you do kill some of the action of it. If you lost a bait because the line slipped off the ring then you might have tied to the part where the two ends of the split ring comes together which is a no no. Braid and fireline slips bad and you might want to change to a oval ring if this is the case. Most of my jerkbaits I have an oval ring on. I don't use a clip for any of my baits not that there is anything wrong with it I just feel that I can tie a knot faster than I can clip an new bait on. Rapala's don't have split rings and you are better off with a loop knot for them.

I catch them a lot on tubes, crankbaits, dropshot, and jigs. Most of the spots in my area are in the creeks and rivers. I caught one in a lake that I think was a mix that was about 4 lbs on a tube jig.

What I am talking about are handling fish that have enough teeth to loose a finger over. Other fish like bass should be handled like the picture you got there. Bass like the one in my picture are better held by the belly because of the mouth full of hooks. If I catch a large Musky, Pike, Gator Gar, I am not about to attempt to hold it by the belly or mouth not with hooks and teeth flying everywhere. Large catfish in the 50 pound class I would like to see someone lift it by the belly. I couldn't do it without dumping my butt in the river.

shad, yellow black back, chrome blue back, all white, all black, gold green back, blue back chart,

If you grab the fish on the outside of the gill along the gill plate your not going to hurt the fish but if you grab all gill you could really damage the fish.

It depends on the water I am fishing and what size I am looking to catch. Some places I fish if I don't catch 20+ fish I feel that it was a bad day. Other places because of smaller populations and bigger fish 2 or 3 fish over 4 or 5 pounds is a good day one or two is more the norm. Most of these lakes have a slot limit or a large size limit. As far as under fish that are still keepers in the slot limit they are easy to catch and limit with. On an average lake with just a 15" size limit I am more of a 50/50 angler meaning 50% of the time I have a limit or a heavy sack of 3 or 4 keepers. Most of the time it is enough to cash a check it just depends on what the place normally kicks out. I try to fish to win so most of the time I am not really looking for a limit I am looking for the right fish to help me cash a check. If it takes a limit then so be it but I am more after quality fish. If I am after 3 good bites and I get them you can roll in with your limit of squeekers and still be sitting in second place. That is why I don't really worry about getting a limit I worry about getting on the right fish and getting good bites.

I have done both. If the lip of the bait is small then I peg the weight up above the bait if the lip is wide then I don't peg it.

Fish attractants that are oil based are made by, smashing fish or crawfish into a paste. The paste is then strained for select compounds. These select compounds are then used to create the newest fish formula. Oil based fish attractants are said to be on the low end of the scale for effectiveness in attracting bass. They will cause a fish to take a longer look at your bait or keep it in their mouth longer before they spit it. Oil based attractants will mask offending odors. In clear water the oil will make the bait appear to have a slime coat. Attractants which include amino acids are based on evidence that combinations of amino acids can stimulate feeding in many fish species. Amino acids come from animal proteins and all living animals have their own unique amino acid combinations, giving each a distinct taste and odor. Amino acids rate high at attracting fish from a distance. Scents such as anise, banana oil, and garlic are extracts from plants. These plant products do not seem to have the same fish attracting ability as amino acids, but can cause fish to be of interested. Plant extracts are very effective in covering human odors along with others that might be present on your offering. Attractants are based on phermones or better classified as the elk in rut chemical. Phermones are chemicals that animals use to communicate with members of their own species. Bass release their own phermones which are detected by the olfactory receptors of others. Fish in general, are thought to identify members of their species through the use of this chemical. Mating and courtship are also influenced by the chemicals presence. Phermones decompose rapidly and it seems their main function is to alert other fish of short term danger or attraction. Things to keep in mind: -wax don't mix with water -scent made with anything alive does spoil and can become toxic -some companies put less than desirable stuff in their scent -if the stuff takes forever to wash off your lure then how water soluable do you think it is. -scent needs to be able to blend with water for the fish to smell it.