D4u2s0t

while i'm not certain on this, I would think from a companies perspective it would be best to choose people that can easily influence other's decisions when it comes to buying baits, and someone that knows what they're doing. If some new guy came on, and his first post was "Dude, you have to try xxxxxxx bait" people would probably be like yea ok. maybe i'll google it. But someone that has been around for a long time, and someone that people look up to says it, and orders will be placed.

i fish a private lakes, with no gas motors allowed, no jet skis, nothing. the boat moves about rowing speed with out 27 lb trolling motor. what's wrong with having 1-2 beers over the course of a few hours in that situation. i agree that you should not be getting drunk on a boat, but i see nothing wrong with having a beer on a hot day while on the lake. Where did I say you shouldn't have a couple of beers sitting on the bank ? no, i fish on a boat. said boat moves about walking speed though lol. my point was its not a huge public lake where boats are wizzing by at 70mph. the other 2 or 3 boats you may see are either being rowed, or have small trolling motors. also, i'm right off the lake, you can see it from my house. so there's no need to drive.

i fish a private lakes, with no gas motors allowed, no jet skis, nothing. the boat moves about rowing speed with out 27 lb trolling motor. what's wrong with having 1-2 beers over the course of a few hours in that situation. i agree that you should not be getting drunk on a boat, but i see nothing wrong with having a beer on a hot day while on the lake.

I would fish whatever you would fish at "normal" hours. If what you normaly do works, don't change it. It's not like at 6:30am the fish magically no longer take a topwater, and before 6:30am they won't take a soft plastic like many would have you think. Don't overanalyze and get held back by the "rules". Any time can be good for topwaters, just like anytime can be good for soft plastics, or crankbaits, etc.

different strokes for different folks. some people think that fishing is stupid. some people think that joining an online forum is stupid. yet here we are! I think that a meaningful and thought out tattoo is something that will let you relive a memory, thought, person, etc. forever. it's usually the 2am drunken spur of the moment cliche tattoos that people regret down the road.

well, a couple thoughts, how much does your brother fish? is it possible he didn't get a bite, and hit a log and yanked the hook off? or is it possible something bit through the line? In my lake besides bass, we also have big musky and walleye that will easily cut the line. maybe he dragged the line along the bottom, weakening it, and a bass just broke the weakened line?

i think alot of people miss out on certain things because they're so set on following the 'rules'. like topwater only in morning and evening, and cloudy days. you can get quality topwater bites all day, as long as there's fish. some of my best fish this year have been in mid afternoon, in bright sun, burning lures across the surface. just like certain colors. some people are so set on 'you use this color at this time, or water clarity' or whatever it is, that they're forgetting that the most important is that there's fish where you're fishing, and how you present your bait. i have caught tons of fish on colors that 'will not work' for the time of day or for the clarity of the water. my lake is fairly clear, and black works just as well as watermellon, or blue, or white, or pink. that being said, if topwater is not working for you, and you know there's fish, try something else. if the fish are deeper, and not active, you need to get the bait in front of them. if they're at 10 feet, and not moving, a topwater won't produce.

are you saying that you can't work a worm from top to bottom, and around a variety of cover?

Not really, I have a particular preference for certain colors so those are the ones I fish the most ( man I love watermelon green/red metalflake ), but that I can tell a difference most times, not at all. My pal Cesar and I were fishing a couple of months ago, he was catching them with one of his favorite colors: black/blue laminate on the other hand I was catching them ( those rare ocassions I was fishing with a senko ) with chartreuse-chartreuse/green metalflake. Both colors have nothing in common. Now to make it more interesting, this past weekend I tied a watermelon black flake Fat Ika, after a couple of hours the color of the bait had changed, instead of being watermelon it looked like some sort of green pumpkin and it made no difference, it still caught them. Raul please don't take this the wrong way, I am just curious. If you say color doesn't matter. Why do you like that particular one so well? Is it a confidence thing? Or is green just your favorite all around color for everything? i agree with raul, from my experience color means nothing. almost everything i own is some variation of watermelon because i think it looks cool. but while im out fishing, nobody catches any more or less based on color. everybody says 'match the hatch' which only works if the bass are actively feeding. but it doesn't matter, if they're feeding, they'll take almost anything you throw out, regardless of color if your presentation is good. when they're not actively feeding, and you get reaction strikes, again, they'll hit pretty much any color the same. said it amillion times, but i use watermellon, buddy uses white, otherbuddy uses red, my gf uses bubblegum, anyone else down by the lake has their own favorite color, and if the skill level is the same everyone pretty much catches the same amount of fish.

if you're catching fish, keep doing what you're doing. Sometimes to get to the fish you have to go through the slop, which unfortunately means pulling the slop off the bait sometimes. If you're rigged weedless, that's probably about the best it will get, and make sure the bait is pulled over the know and the eye of the hook.

sometimes i'll bring a few on the boat, (when I say a few I mean 2 or 3) and 90% of the time what happens is I open the beer, and it sits there and gets nasty warm, and I don't drink it anyways. I don't think i've ever fished drunk in my life, or even a lil tipsy for that matter. I'm not against it, as long as someone is not driving drunk (just because you're on water doesn't mean it's safer than a car) I just usually get so caught up in the fishing that I don't drink the beer I brought.

To everyone saying that a senko is a dink magnet, maybe you're using one too small or your not fishing it well. I've caught plenty of nice fish on them, and only a handful of dinks. No more dinks than with any other bait. I think what happens is people say something, other people read it, and they repeat the info until they start to believe it. Happens on every forum, fishing related or not. See something enough times, and you start to believe it, and people repeat it, even if it's not true. That being said, the senko is very versatile, can be fished shallow, deep, weightless, weighted, wacky, all depending on the depth and where you're fishing.

their best attempt so far with something fast was the ms3, but all those guys are hitting walls with the fuel pumps and having problems getting anything other than mid-high 12's. The car responds crazy good to mods, but then hits a wall. I always saw the rx8 as kinda a girls car. The performance is just not there, in terms of acceleration, it's pretty slow. Turns like crazy though.

yea so that would make it not even close to 5... i'd stick with my guess of about 3 lbs. Like I said best bet it to just pick up a scale.

2 feet is plenty of water. in my area majority of bass have moved out of the shallows along shore though, and I have to go out deeper.

that's an rx-8 like said. turns like crazy, but that's about it.

the best is when you see someone that won't tell you their "secret spot" or their "secret lure" but then come online and ask for help lol.

I agree 100%. I have no problem helping out anyone that will genuinely appreciate it. I've seen little kids, or even adults that don't know much about fishing using rediculous baits, like trout baits and whatnot, and i'll go right up and give them a few of mine that I know will work. Then i'll tell them where to throw it. If they don't know how to tie it on, i'll show them how to tie a hook. If they don't have the right hook, i'll give them that as well. Now I don't have a ton of money where I can just give out baits and hooks to everyone I see, but if someone is nice, I'll help out because it's the right thing to do. Seeing the happiness from a stranger giving advice and help is worth more than a few cents for some plastic baits in my opinion, especially when it's a little kid that goes off to catch a fish. For me, it may be 25 cents worth of supplies. But for that kid, it made his day and he'll remember that for years to come.

like said, I also put the hook all the way through. The idea is to swim the bait at the surface, so snags should not really happen that way. I use a 4/0 keel weighted hook, I love the keel hooks for any baits that I swim back, it helps to keep them rightside up and give some extra casting distance for when it's needed.

so if some work better than others in a given location, how is lure selection not important? i've seen you go so far as to give advice to people about what baits to use, and even recomended certain colors. if it's not important, why not just say "use whatever you have tied on, it will work just as good as anything else".

well in the pic the fish goes from your johnson to about your chest. (while held slightly from the body) I'm 5'11 and on me that's about 17". So for that thing to be 21-23", you would have to be near 7' tall. the problem is it's so easy to overestimate a fish in the heat of the moment, especially while excited about catching it. get a cheap tape measure for a few bucks, and a scale. you can get both for around 20 dollars. as far as the scale, you're best bet is to put it in the gils. they're very strong, and if you put it in the mouth (depending on the type of scale) you run the risk of the fish flopping it's way off.

but the part you're leaving out, and a part that is important, was that it WAS about lures. If it wasn't, one bait would have been tied on, and there wouldn't have been any need to switch them. First, is to find the fish. 2nd is to choose an appropriate bait. Saying that any bait will work just as well once you find the fish is kinda silly.

I hate when people say "My secret spot". I have no problem telling people good spots on the lake. I have found many of my favorite spots from other people, so I like to pass it along. I think holding out on spots is unsportsmanlike. I'm not saying that I tell everyone under the sun, but if i'm fishing with someone off the dock, and they seem cool, i'll tell them. many times they will tell me good spots that I don't know about as well. so that's my outlook. Again, i'm not walking around the lake saying "hey you have to go here".

I don't think that anyone is saying that lure selection is MORE important than structure. Obviously, if you're not on fish, you can't catch fish. But if you're in an area that's holding fish, and you know it, NOW lure selection becomes very important. If lure selection was not important we would not go out with tackle equal to our weights. (granted the bait monkey is no help there). But if you've ever fished an area for a while and not caught anything, switched baits and then started catching, that goes to show that lure selection, though secondary to finding fish, is still very important. If you're throwing topwater plugs, and the fish are at 15 feet, don't expect too many hits. Just like if the fish are at 2 feet, and you're crawling the bottom at 20 feet, same idea. Yea, you may get the aggressive fish that comes out for it, but getting the right bait in front of the fish is important.

that one doesn't look to be over 3 pounds. 4 max. Like I always say, I think most people will be very disapointed when they get a scale. Owning a scale really helps out with your estimates. First time, I swore up and down I had an easy 5 pounder, was barely over 3. 5 pounds is a pretty good sized fish.