Chris

Here is the way I look at things. Eyesight~ I want my bait color to stand out from the color of the water and cover I am fishing. Hearing~I have always caught more fish using a bait the emits a low pitch rattle or vibration. To me it sounds like a bigger bait to the bass than it really is and makes it easy for fish to find it. Taste buds/smell-when visibility is limited I always add scent to my bait if it is a slow moving lure. If you ever been on a lake that someone had just sprayed the weeds let me tell you what happens. The larger bass leave the area and will move to areas that are not sprayed. This is before any of the weeds die literally over night they move. There is not a change in oxygen content of that area but something made those fish abandon that area. (my opinion) I have always believed they moved because of smell. Now understand a dog has a great sniffer and a buck has a great sniffer I myself don't have a nose of a dog or a whitetail buck but I do know when its dinner time and without looking I can guess what's for dinner and when my wife wears that perfume I like, I know it too. I also know how it effects me and I would think a fish would be no different. I can list example after example where a little scent made ALL the difference in the world between catching them or not. I mean just my own experience I know for a fact that scent has an impact on the amount of strikes I get.

You can see fish in the weeds better and what you see is a fish no doubt. With a flasher you see real time so you can watch fish come up to hit your lure and you can watch your lure drop down to them. A fish finder you can see it too but its not real time even on max speed.

When its super clear i like to throw a tube. I take a medium spinning rod and tubes that look like a shad or greenpumpkin. Small worms like 4-6 inch worms or senko's greenpumpkin, pumpkinseed, grape, would be a good choice. Clear lakes scream jerkbait.

Sometimes they suspend. Remember that Classic that KVD won. If you where watching he hit the same bridges that others caught fish off of. The other guys fished a dropshot. Well, as the fishing pressure got more and more throughout the day the fish moved up and suspended and KVD caught fish from the same bridges on a jerkbait that others where using a dropshot on. This happens everywhere not just the classic but on your home lake too.

Hearing a lure and striking a lure are two different things. A Bass can hear a lure from a great distance lets say and as the lure comes close it can pinpoint where the sound is coming from but if its not in the strike zone the bass knows that it has little chance to effectively hit the lure with accuracy. But when the bait runs or drops into the "zone" it's accuracy goes up and can strike the lure with accuracy. Most of the time when a bass knows something food related is making a run towards there zone they take up an ambush position. The bass needs to decide the capture reward benefit of the pray. If the prey comes flying by the bass is not going to leave its zone to chase down a small snack but if something is slow moving and easy to catch it might leave the zone because the percentage is high that it can hit with 100% accuracy. If you put the bait on their nose they don't have time to decide and they react. The zone changes as conditions change. Visibility and pressure systems change a bass's strike zone. In clear water a bass might have a strike zone of 10 to 20 ft. In heavy stained water it might be 1-3ft. Can a bass hear your trolling motor or you banging around in your boat yes they associate that noise as danger and their strike zone gets even smaller. A bass has been chased its whole life and it still reacts to danger. Sometimes they get closer to cover or in it and sometimes they take off to a deeper safe zone.

First figure out what satisfies a bass's needs and what area and cover fills their needs. Next figure out what conditions have changed to alter their behavior. Figure out what they should be doing at the time of year your fishing. Locate migration routes bait and bass. Identify the prominent forage. The driving force for a bass right now is food. If the food leaves the bass follows and finds places where food is plentiful and takes up ambush points or just schools up and follows the bait around. Wind can be a big factor this time of the year and can point you in the right direction. Water clarity and current help position fish. It will also narrow down lure selection along with cover. Take what you learned and try to figure where they went. Not catching bass is not a bad thing. Its just telling you where not to fish. Its telling you they moved and you should move also. On many lakes I fish have many key spots that house some great fish. Sometimes they use these key spots sometimes they move. But most of the time when they move its because something in their enviroment changed and caused them to move. They may not move far and they may move a long distance away depending on how far their food moved.

power fishing!

I don't cut hooks ever!

Now with bubble gum worms they do blow bubbles ;D

Palomar knot on everything but braid I use a double palomar knot for that.

Yeah it kinda sounds like a flathead home.

They digest it out like anything else.

Every other baitfish that bass has ever eaten showed fear. Your crankbait did not appear injured or scared. It could be that the size wasn't right or they where on another bite.

I'll just go by type because I throw a list of brands and it would be a long post. Square bill is by far the best heavy cover crankbait. Between plastic and wood baits wood baits are easier to get through thick weeds and wood cover than plastic. In rocks I use plastic crankbaits because rocks can be hard on wooden baits. I usually change my front hook on my crankbaits to a triple grip hook because it will hang less. Make sure your bait is tuned perfect. If your using a bait out of tune it will hang up a lot more. Coffin bill crankbaits work great for isolated cover not heavy stuff. A coffin bill has two deflection points on them which kick the bait out away from cover. The bad part is in heavy cover it can kick out to another branch and hang you up. A square bill only has one deflection point on the side of the bill and will kick out from cover but at a shorter distance away than the coffin bill so it follows the contour of the cover better. There is also another post I did called why some baits are better than others that explains the different bills and what they do when they hit structure.

There should be a hole pre punched in the pork. Sometimes you got to work the hook some to get it through it.

(if you can still find them) A weed walker its a plastic spoon that has a paddlewheel in the middle. Panther Martin weedwing would be another good choice and you can still get them. Its a johnsons spoon with a buzz bait prop on the front. That zoom horny toad is a heck of a deal for the kind of cover your fishing also.

1. You skull drag them. lol After you set the hook put your rod in the water and steady reel simi fast.(with lures that have a single hook) This will open up the bass's mouth and it will fill with water and will not fight or jump. When I frog fish I do the same thing but I want the bass and weeds and all. The weeds cover the bass's eyes and mouth and don't fight much make sure your using braid. Play the fish out with the rod in the water works. Baby the bass when its hooked will keep it from jumping some. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent them from jumping. When a bass is in flight and shakes its head the weight of the lure swings free and becomes dislodged. Most of the time when you loose a fish because it jumped is because the bass had some slack line that let the lure swing free enough when he shook its head to be able to throw the bait. 2. It could be baitfish or bluegills feeding on bugs. 3. If I notice they are jumping more than once kinda like they are dive bombing bait on a small patch of grass. I would move and take advantage of it. If its just one slash at some baitfish and nothing else I wouldn't rush right over to capitalize on it. If it was within casting range I would try for it. 4. Nope. If you have a group of baitfish being hammered then I would spend some time on them but baitfish just swimming around can be a waste of time. If the bait is all balled up and you see it break the surface then fish them but if its a loose school pass them up. When baitfish get balled up they do this because a bass or many bass are looking to eat and its kinda a defense against them. Its kinda a safety in numbers and its hard for a bass to pick out just one. If they are in a loose school then there is no danger and they feel safe. 5. Use a Texas exposed hook. This way the whole hook is through the worm and you are only piercing the little bit of worm that you put the tip of your hook back into the worm to still make it weedless.

I fish until I run out of gas or my batteries are dead. Time frame don't matter.

Welcome to the forum ;D

"If a bass can't see to eat, it won't be a very long living bass. Light can only penetrate so far into water, depending on the clarity, and if a bass isn't getting enough, it will move up until it does." A blind bass can still see to eat. Bass move up because its easy pickings not because they can't see to feed deep. Baitfish will run the bank and other contours because they are almost blinded by low light or stained water. A bass is not.

Your right Flyrod. I know when I was young the things my fishing buddies caught fish on I wanted to have and the things I caught fish on my buddies had to have. It became a arms race! Joe Joe gets a new rapala I get 3. Plastic worms are hot I get 5 different colors and go back to get more because the water changed colors. Kids buy stuff too. Look at this site and watch what the kids talk about. They are not just talking yo yo baits they are buying lucky craft, senko, topshelf tackle. Take a gander in some of these young kids tackle boxes your mouth would drop. They want the best stuff money can buy because it is a arms race.

From scratch? Jig mold, lead melter, lead, epoxy, weed guard, powder paint, hook, skirt, skirt collar, rattle, rattle collar, and time and energy.

Sometimes when you catch fish out of a spot and they differ in color it could be caused by depth bottom color if it was in cover or around it. Sometimes the color of the cover would change the bass's color some. If the bass is a odd ball color then it might just be a odd ball fish. I caught a 6lb bass one time that had bright yellow under its lip and on the sides. I have caught some with big spots before. Like many things sometimes you get a odd ball.

I just drag it or shake it then drag it.

Ahh I missed the other part I like to use a pork trailer white #11 Uncle Josh or a zoom swim chunk or a twin tail grub.