Chris

Jackie just do what i did. I took my wife fishing and in two days she lost 7 of my jigs and two crankbaits in the trees and put a nice birds nest in my reel. I said now dear when i go to the tackle shop and buy stuff to go fishing i don't want to hear one cross word because we know how easy it is to loose stuff don't we. It cured my problem.

I know that up here in Illinois populations of smallmouth is high. As far as larger smallmouth they are few. To many people keeping instead of releasing is partly to blame. Also most of the rivers around in my area have dams on them and the water quality is decreasing from what it was. Bitsy jigs are still killers around here along with hair jigs.

How much influence does lure advertising effect what lures you buy?

Its a nice looking lure i have never used them

I like to eat crappie, bream, catfish, and sometimes i keep bass. I usually keep some fish once a year.

I also talked about the same subject in the old forum and i also touched on the topic in some of my posts here. I understand it is kinda weird but thats all it is weird. I know that guy writes some in bassmaster and i might have unknowing made the same descriptions because there is no other way to word it. I remember writting something in the old forum and three days later i saw the same thing posted by Chad Brauer. I met his Dad Denny a few months later when he held an open tournament at Newton lake. Did i point fingers? No because i understand that information is information new old indifferent its used to teach others how to fish or make them a better fishermen. There are very few secrets anymore and most are just coughing up what they know or have learned though there own observations. Some draw the same conclusions. There are more than one guy catching fish in this world i would hope. lol I hope this doesn't sound like i am bent out of shape. I really am not. I am just explaining my side. I am glad someone pointed it out. It is kinda strange

To be honest the stuff i wrote is the same stuff i learned when i was 11 years old. I had a guy that fished pro and through the years became a real great friend. We used to talk about what we called the world of oz. It was a higher learning about bass fishing that few knew about or even talked about. Its funny that 20 years later im now copying or playing off of another. This information is not new I also know that it was known well before told to me. Florida Bass are new to other states not Florida. You forget i posted this well before anyone from the other site to make it plain i don't ask a question that i don't already know the answer to. If you want to give credit to anyone Buck Perry has been preaching about big bass and structure fishing longer than anyone.

Big fish are different than just keepers. Most big fish are live feeders meaning they will hit something that acts or looks alive or is close to what they are feeding on in size. The idea that big baits catch big fish is true to a degree but what is more important is location. I have caught trophy fish on small baits and larger offerings but the key was location. Big fish will hold up on the best stucture or key element on the structure and will push off any fish thats there to gain its position on the key spot. Big fish are not loners but if the key feature is only capable of holding one then it will be the big bull of the pen. If you have an area that holds a big fish and that fish is taken out sometime during the year that spot will be taken up with another of the same size. Big fish do not need cover or access to deeper water to feel safe they are the king of the lake. What do they have to be scared of? Most of the time you can catch them when they are in position to feed. They do not stay in one spot they move in and out of areas to feed. Sometimes you can find groups in these areas so if you catch one there might be more. Big fish are great hunters and use what the body of water has to offer to their advantage. They don't need cover to help them get food to the same degree smaller fish do. They use structure more to thier advantage. Big fish have better instincts than small fish and i guess in that respect makes them smarter. Big fish will use the whole water column. They are not just in deep water. They suspend a lot. I have caught some that had a full grown crappie tail hanging out of its mouth and still caught them on a normal sized spinnerbait. During spawn i have seen them spawn up against the shore, in stumps, in deeper water, in the middle of bushes, in places where you got to fight to get to. You kinda got to think different when your targeting big fish. You don't fish the same way as you would with just keepers. The biggest key is location and places where big fish come to feed!

Rick Clunn, Kevin Van Dam, Doug Hannon, Larry Nixon, Jimmy Houston All have great books

I would agree you gotta know your tackle. When i started bass fishing i didn't have much money as a kid and i would save up and go to the store and buy just one bait. I would then learn how to fish that one bait a million different ways. After awhile i would save up and get another then learn how and where to fish it and learn where not to fish it. My Dad was a live bait fishermen so i was self taught. Later i read as many books and articles as i could. I fished all the time to learn as much on the water as i could. I spent hours casting and learning how to place lure where i wanted and not in the trees. Today a cast is everything and many of the fish i catch is because of the cast. Later in life i started fishing club tournaments and learned alot from other members. You learn the most when your always asking yourself why? Why was that fish there? Why did it hit on top instead of on the bottom? You gotta always ask the hard questions and be willing to answer them This is how you learn and become a better angler.

What are some things we as fishermen can do to make us a better angler and can help us catch more fish?

Is the tactics you use for keepers the same you use for big fish? Do they hang out in the same locations as the smaller fish?

When i use darker soft plastics i use painted lead no real reason just do. When i use lighter soft plastics i use my old dull lead not the new ones. I think the new lead is to shiny. No reason just personal choice. It just something i do.

Around here i love to fish for smallmouths in the summer mainly because the water level is down and it concentrates the fish. Also the river fish tend to be more active during that time of the year. As far as what i prefer I like to fish for beef so largemouth is what i like.

Do y'all paint your worm lead or buy painted lead? Do you think it makes a difference?

yamamoto came out with a two tone kreature this year. www.baits.com 800-645-2248

I know i cleaned out the stores around here that sold them. lol I am sure you can still get them on line. I doubt they will run out.

Well if you feel like doing some driving I know this place has some nice used boats at that price range Wynn's Marine 800-772-6557 Call and talk to them its only a three hour drive. Most of them are tournament boats and are well taken care of.

ed, edd, eddies If i am river fishing for bass i tend to fish current breaks or eddies. Larger fish will hang out in areas that seem void of cover. In these eddy pools the bass are waiting for shad to get hung up in the swirls. The largemouth would perfer not to fight the current but will be in the current but positioned in a current break not in the direct heavy current. Backwater areas bass use in the same way they would use a lake. Backwater areas are great places to look for spawnning fish. The difference is in a river the current positions fish and I feel are easier to catch because it puts the fish in current breaks or along the channel. Most of the time river fish are more active and tend to take less time to react to a bait. Tide effects the backwater fish and the current fish to a degree. Tide change is not the same all through the river its kinda like a big wave The rising water positions the fish shallow and makes them more active. You can be in an area then the tide raises the water level and the fishing is great then when the fishing slacks off you can go up river or down river depending on if its a rising or falling tide and catch the influx of water again and catch the active fish. Just remember raising water the fish are going to be shallow falling water they are going to be pulling out to the deeper water. When the water is falling i tend to hit the areas where the water is dumping out back into the river it kinda funnels the bait and the bass. When the water is rising i hit the flooded cover.

Here is my list 1)Schooled by Denny Brauer he shows me the things i forgot about fishing and has made me more critical of the people i fish with. I always tell them "you didn't watch Denny did you" lol 2) Larry Nixon 3) BASSMASTER 4)Hank Parker 5)Bill Dance

Page 307 is mine i'm the one holding the 43 lb blue catfish

You can cast it out and hop it on the bottom, You can swim them, or you can pitch it from the shore to the edge of the weeds much like boat fishing.

Last year for me was a slump year. I am mainly a crankbait fishermen and when its a crankbait year i am kinda hard to beat. Well last year wasn't a crankbait year.lol I could not get a keeper all year on a crankbait. I caught all of my fish on either a jig or a spinnerbait. Finally at my classic I caught and lost all but one on a crankbait. Does it make you feel like I lost my touch.. sure. Will I stop throwing a crankbait...never! Why was the classic the only time it worked?..kinda? no idea. I think for me I didn't put in 100%. I didn't make sure the cast was perfect or didn't make the right decisions when i needed to. I still caught fish but never caught the fish i know i could catch with the crankbait. I had to change even if i didn't want to. Now i am catching bigger fish more often. I basically went back to the basics and dumped out most of my tackle box. I now take 10 rods but use 2 maybe 3. I took the time to get really good at two or three techniques and gave up on wasted time on new ones.

I like the quiet power that catches fish lol

I ask because you might have one that i have not seen yet that might be interesting. What is your favorite fishing show?