Retrofan

I walked by the crafts department (they are remodeling the store and these are now an aisle item) and saw some jewelry making stuff so I took a look. They had beads, both glass and plastic, that were just the right size for rigging my plastic worms in a couple of different colors. Think it was $2 or so for a hundred or two. Given that luck, I looked further and found split rings by the necklace stuff in the craft department. There was a bag of 240 in what look like size 2 and 4 for $2, so I got them also.

Blue Fox...cheap at Wal Mart and they catch fish

Did anyone have any luck fishing on Senko de Mayo?

I have used a Rat L Trap several times in the past, but I never even got a bite. Today I decided to try one of the chrome Bill Lewis Floating Rat L Traps I bought from a sponsor of this site (Outlet Bait and Tackle). I was able to make long casts parallel to the shore line (bank fisherman) and first cast I caught a bass as soon as the Trap hit the water. After getting that fish in I decided to try a spot where there was a laydown close by. I tossed past the laydown and reeled the Trap in with a slower retrieve and a little working of the rod tip that made it stutter on the way back to me. Just as I got to the back of the laydown I hooked and landed a 4 pound 9 oz bass (biggest of the 5 I caught today on it). The floating and stuttering effect makes the trap look like some of the little fish I have seen up in the shallow water that might have been feeding. I only tried silver, but have a few other colors and will give them a try someday when this color isn't working.

I had a similar situation last weekend, without the happy result. I was casting from my shoreline across the water to the other side where there was rock, brush, and stick-ups along that shoreline. The distance is about as far as I can manage to get a cast with a weighted worm on my baitcaster. The worm lands on the brush and drops down into the water. I pull it up trying to get it out of the brush, but it won't come out. I quit pulling and let the line relax, so the worm falls back into the water. When the worm hits the water again and drops down below the surface, it gets hammered by a bass and now we are both stuck! I can't get the line out of the brush, because I have no leverage with being so far away and having my line over the brush. I can't get to the fish on the line, can't shake the fish off the line, and there are no boats around that could stop by and give either me or the fish some relief. I keep trying to get the line loose, then just stand there for a few minutes thinking how long can I keep my line across the water waiting for something to happen. Eventually, as I am trying to get the line out of the brush, the line breaks. Hope the fish ends up okay.

I went to WM tonight needing some beads to go between the hook and slip sinker, as well as some split rings for some crankbait repairs. The fishing department had neither. I walked by the crafts department (they are remodeling the store and these are now an aisle item) and saw some jewelry making stuff so I took a look. They had beads, both glass and plastic, that were just the right size for rigging my plastic worms in a couple of different colors. Think it was $2 or so for a hundred or two. Given that luck, I looked further and found split rings by the necklace stuff in the craft department. There was a bag of 240 in what look like size 2 and 4 for $2, so I got them also. I don't know that these are great prices, but WM is handy since we have no other sporting goods (or even crafts store) close to me and I was needing these items. The WM craft department expansion and remodeling paid off for me on this. Now if they could just get some cashiers... :

I had a similar experience with a carp last summer as far as thinking I had hooked into a world record bass. I had my daughter's ultra light rod and reel in my Pilot (she wasn't with me) and got it out when my spinning reel broke. I put a real night crawler worm on it and tossed it out from the shore toward where some stick-ups were and where I had caught a couple of bass earlier. As it went to a slack line on my first cast with her equipment, it immediately went back to a tight line and began pulling out line. I thought it was a huge record bass and could only imagine the endorsement deals that would come my way! Too bad it wasn't an artificial lure on there, I thought as I slowly got back some of the line it had taken out. After a long time of playing this monster bass, I finally got it close enough to the shore to see it was a carp! I managed to get it landed and it weighed 14 pounds...sure felt bigger on that u/l equipment. Probably part of the reason I was able to get it in was the u/l rod and reel and line were relatively new, the fish never swam through any coverage, and the reel was so small I didn't try to "horse" the fish in and just took my time getting it to come to the shore. Oh, well...so much for world-records and endorsement deals :'(

I took a day off and fought 30-40 mph winds all day to do some fishing. All of my fishing is from the shore, so at least I was safer than on a boat! Started about 9am after taking my daughter to school. I tried all kinds of lures with not a bite. Worms, spinners, crankbaits, rat l traps, flukes, senkos...some of everything. Around 1pm I decided to throw out a big blue and silver rattle filled Wal-Mart bargain bin no-name $1 floater with two treble hooks I had never used. I threw it with the wind parallel to the shore and started a slow retrieve. About 5 cranks into it I hooked and landed a 2.5 pound bass. Not big, but sure beats more nothing! Didn't get another bite the rest of the time until I left at 3pm. What got me thinking was how just catching anything makes such a difference in how the day seemed to go. Only one bite and catch away from a shutout, but that one catch sure made my perception of the day change for the better.

A Coleman lantern that was still lit... okay, just kidding about it still being lit

I picked up a pair of Lowe's house brand for $9.98 tonight and will keep them in my tackle box. Thanks for the suggestion!

I have many different packs of plastics. I keep them in the bags in a tackle box, but have thought about taking them out and putting them in the see-through plastic boxes so I can better see what I have and not just use the ones on top in the tackle box. How do you organize yours and what about them drying out, smelling things up (some have scent built in to them), etc., if you take them out of the bag? Thanks!

I finally got some time off and a pretty day (70 and light wind) Thursday to go fishing. Caught three not so large largemouth bass (1.5-3 pound range) on a red hooked green and white crankbait, wacky rigged pearl white fluke, and a Wal Mart Luck E Strike 4" motor oil color twirl tail worm. Felt great to get back out walking the shoreline again! All were caught within 5 feet of the shore line, and two of them had crawdads in their throats when they hit my lures. They were sure cold when I pulled them in, as we have had an extended cool run of weather here in OK this winter. Good thing I got to go when I did...cold and sleeting now with 5-12" of snow with freezing temperatures predicted for today and tomorow

Not sure on the details of my plan just yet, but when I was thinking about what it would be I heard this phrase: "A goal without a plan is just a wish" That alone made me start back at step one to make sure I wasn't just "wishing" for something instead of making a specific plan for meeting my goals. It also made me evaluate my goals outside of fishing.

I was channel surfing the other evening and happened to find this episode. Stories on amateur fishing tourney, pro tourney, and record bass chase. Story that was the most interesting to me was 3 guys in California trying to catch the world record bass. They fished everyday during the spring for several years and the end result was worth watching. You can look up the time of the next showing by going to the National Geographic channel and looking for Hooked episode "Super Bass".

Seemed like a great day to fish: 70 degrees light south wind steady baro pressure shad were flipping all over the water and schooling up in huge groups water level same as last weekend. When I got there the place I went last week wasn't accessible because the road and field getting to it were too muddy. I fished at the other spots I have been fishing at all year where I have caught bass everytime. I tried all the arsenal (spoons, spinners, plastics, senkos, crankbaits, jigs, worms, etc.) but didnt get a single bite or fish (unless I count the one shad that foul hooked on a spoon I was tossing out). First time I can ever remember being shut out...may have to count that shad after all :-/ While the shad were schooling and flipping on top of the water all afternoon, I didn't see a single bass bust the water to take one of them. I also didn't see any fish other than the shad up in the shallows. Was a beautiful day to be outside, but sure expected to do better on the fishing side. Any thoughts on why I didn't get any action?

Been tough fishing til today as had lots of rain the past few weeks, water was several feet above normal, and high temps were about 15-20 degrees below normal (mid 50's to low 60's rather than mid to upper 70's). Fished last weekend and this Friday with only one little bass each day (Friday fish was same size as the little rebel minnow!) keeping me from being skunked. Didn't go yesterday, but after mowing today went out late this afternoon for about 3 hours. Temp was mid 70's, south wind, lots of sun, and falling baro pressure. I went to a different spot than usual and got to fish some areas that used to not have much water in it before the water level got as high as it is. Tried some rebel minnows and flukes around the north side before moving to the south side of the area and casting back quite a distance (had a good south wind behind me now) toward the edge of the weeds at the north end of the area. I t-rigged with a light weight a brown WalMart worm (don't remember the brand but they float and come in brown, yellow, orange, and pink in a package of 40 or so for around $8, best floating worms I have found and are cheap) and cast it out. I wanted to get right into the V of the weeds and bushes where the water seemed to be funneling. My first cast was headed to the right of the V right into the weeds and I was thinking I would recast when it landed and get it more into the V. Wrong! As soon as the worm hit the water against the weeds a bass sucked it in. After he took some line and I played him in against the tide and distance he turned out to be three pounds. Not a monster, but definitely an improvement over the past couple of weeks. Tried worms some more but nothing else so watched to see if there were any shad moving. Saw some small ones flipping in the water so switched back to a Rapala floating minnow and caught a 1.5 pound and a 1 pound bass on it before the setting sun ended my day. Kind of nice to have weeds and structure to fish around for a change since that usually isn't the case without the high water we have now. I had gotten used to going to the same place every time, so a change of scenery and fish biting did me good!

I have been thinking about trying some ultra light equipment to make the catching of the 1-3 pound bass I have been finding even more fun. While at a WalMart today out of town waiting for a meeting to start I walked back to the fishing stuff and found a Shakespeare Ugly Stick Ultra Light spinning combo marked down to less than half price (paid $15) and some 6 lb Suffix Elite mono line for $4.50. I bought the stuff and am looking forward to getting out and trying my less than $20 investment out. Any tips on how to fish the UL spinning stuff vs. the baitcasting 12-14 pound line I have been using?

Has anyone stayed with just one type of lure (plastic worms, flukes, spinners, crankbaits, senkos, etc.) when you go fishing specifically to make yourself focus on getting better with that one presentation? I am not talking about doing away with everything else forever, but just spending an extended time (few hours or a day) really trying a lure in as many different ways as you can think of. I sometimes find myself when out fishing switching between all the different presentations and wonder if I would be better served sometimes by staying with one longer and trying different speeds, depths, colors, etc. instead of moving to a different type of lure. I know from my old (way back!) sports playing days we sometimes would concentrate on one specific skill to work on for a day or session so we could maintain a focus in one aspect of our performance. Does that apply to fishing? Thanks!

I have a couple of rods that have cork grips. Many times when I am out fishing and change lures or hooks, I set the cork end of the rod on the ground (whatever it may be) and have noticed some rubbing and chipping of the end of the grips. I went to Lowes and bought some 1 1/8" rubber chair tips (they and WalMart have other sizes depending on the size of your cork grips) and slid them on the end of the cork handle. Easy to install and don't slide off with friction fit yet can be removed easily if desired, can't feel the additional weight, get a firmer connection between the ground and pole handle when changing lures and hooks, and most importantly the end of my cork pole grips are protected. They also come in an assortment of colors ranging from black to white to black to white

I bought 2 of them at WM when they went from $63 to $40. I have had no problems with them and would buy them again.

No, they are not. My local WM still has them listed at $74. The store 45 miles away has them for $35. Sports dept mgr at local WM told me it was because they were considered a "lake region" store and their discounts, if any, would come much later.

I picked up a couple of their Quantum Tournament Series baitcasting combos today after watching the price fall from $74 to $59 to $35 over the past two weeks. Started to buy one at $59 last week, but didn't and when I went back today were $35. Look to be pretty decent baitcasters for the price. Rod has cork handles, Fuji guides, one piece IM8 composite 6'6" MH. Reel is 4 bearing 6.2:1 retrieve, brass gears, magnetic cast control, etc. Also picked up some Trilene XL marked down to $5 a pack. Think I am done with the hardware purchasing for a while, now just need more time to fish! Thought some of you might be interested in looking at your WM's for closeout prices on stuff like this if your WM carries fishing stuff and isn't a "lake region" WM.

I haven't used them very much, so decided this weekend to throw them out a bit more. I caught a 1.5 pound one Saturday morning on a tx rigged 5" grape one as the bass took the bait just after it hit the water. Tonight, caught a little bigger bass on a wacky rigged O-ring 3" grape, also catching it just after the bait hit the water. The O-ring rigging with circle hook made it easy for the fish to get hooked well and kept the senko from any damage. Not ready to consider them my "go to" lure yet, but was nice to catch something on them since many of the senkos seem to have found their way into my tackle box

I read the suggestions in this thread last night and ReelMech's excellent article before I took my new Pinnacle Inertia and Shakespeare Xterra baitcasters to the lake today. Result: no significant backlashes in more than 9 hours of constant casting. There were a couple of instances where I had a bit of line overrunning the reel, but no problem to fix and all in all had a very smooth day. Caught 15 largemouth bass (10 oz. to 3 lb 14oz) as the shad were in huge schools and the bass were aggressive. In fact, I recorded my first double ever as had 2 bass on one shallow diver crankbait when I cast it into the shad school. I am a bank fisherman, so I just followed the action on top of the water as it moved up and down the waterway. Caught bass on spinner, spoon, crankbait, and super fluke. No luck today with worms or Senko.