rat-l-trapper

I think my biggest strength is not giving up. I can fish day after day without a bite, and I'll still go the next time I can. My other strength is crainkbaits, I love to fish cranks.

Lately I've been trout fishing since I'm having a hard time with bass. Usually I Prefer to throw spinners and spoons in rivers, but I've been fishing with worms in a lake since it's so close to where I live. I figure I'd rather bait fish and catch trout than fish with artificials and not catch anything.

Thanks for the advice everybody. I went out once and tried, but it was during the day and I didn't get any bites. I'm gonna go tomorrow and try at night. I'll probably stick with chicken livers and worms, since I cant use any live bait (illegal). Merry Christmas everyone.

I've never fished for catfish before but I want to try to catch some tomorrow. The lake I'm going to fish has channel cats and bullheads. I need to know what areas to try. The lake is really low right now, and there isn't much cover in the water. The lake is pretty deep with some rock piles, but mostly it's sandy or muddy. What areas should I fish? Also, I need to know what bait to use. I'll probably get some worms, but I don't know if I should get doughballs or some kind of meat. Any advice or tips are appreciated.

My favorite is a red craw color with red hooks, I don't know what it's called exactly. This color seems to work best in most of the lakes around me, but there really isn't one best all-around color in my opinion.

Well, its hard to say what will work when and where, but I'd start by getting a few lipless crankbaits. My favorites are Rat-L-Traps and Yo-zuri Ratlin' vibes. For lipped crainkbaits, I'd try a Rapala DT, and a Timbertiger. Your selection on lipped cranks really depends on how deep it is, what the structure's like and what forage is in the lake.

Welcome. I'm from southwest Oregon myself. I fish all the rocky reservoirs too. Are you talking about Emigrant Lake when you say the lake that has brush on each end? That's where I do most of my fishing.

Wow, there's alot more people here from Oregon than I thought. I'm from southern Oregon, Ashland to be exact.

Rat-L-Traps can be run at any depth. Usually the most effective method for me is to let it sink to the bottom before I retrieve it. If you keep your rod tip low they will stay fairly close to the bottom on the retrieve. They will rise a little, but usually stay fairly far down. I've never used fluorocarbon, so I don't know if they rise more quickly with it than on braid or mono.

There's been alot of good advice given here. I'd follow just about all of it. I don't know how much you know about locating bass. You may be fishing the wrong structure or wrong depth. First you need to locate fish, than try to catch them. for example, if you catch a bass in large rocks in ten feet of water, look for other areas like that and concentrate your fishing to similar areas. Always retrieve your lure differently until you get bit. For instance if you're using a crankbait, vary the retrieve from slow and steady, slow and pauses, fast and pauses, burning it, and everything in between. Sometimes A slightly different retrieve is all that's needed. When I first started doing alot of bass fishing, I switched lures to much. You generally need more than a few casts with each lure to tell if it will catch fish. I haven't been bass fishing very long, and it's only been the past few months that I've started catching more than one or two per outing. You really need to have patience, and believe that whatever you're using will work for you. When I first started bass fishing, the two things that helped me alot were lipless crankbaits and senkos. If you don't have these I recommend picking up some of each. I don't know the kind of lake you fish, so these may not work there, but in my experience they're easy to use and catch lots of fish. Good luck and keep trying.

Personally I'd be ticked that he called the cops. If it were me there's no way I'd apologize, although I'd still be friendly to him. He does sound like a lonely old guy but it sounds like he went to far with the police. You really know best though, you're the one that's met him. Do what you think is right.

I only use scents on things like soft plastics. If it's something like a senko where you need to let them bite for a few seconds, I think it makes a difference. I've had fish hit a soft plastic and spit it out quickly, than after applying scent those type of strikes stopped. On fast moving baits like crankbaits I never use it.

So far almost all my fish have come on crainkbaits. At the lake I fish alot of the time they'll only hit lipless cranks. Rat-l-traps are working best, but cotton cordells and rattlin' rapalas are working too. When the waters clear enough I'll usually catch em on Rapala minnow raps and tubes.

Good post, maybe this will improve my success a little. What would you recommend for a trailer? So far I've tried curly tail grubs and small curly tail worms, with very little success. Also, should the trailer be the same color as the skirt or different? Thanks.

Nice review. That sounds that a pretty cool lure. I may have to get one. Thanks for posting it.

That's a great picture. Thanks for sharing it.

Wow, this thread makes me feel like more of an amateur than I thought I was. I have 6 bags, plus some random grubs that were given to me. I will expand my collection more in the future I'm sure. I've been buying a lot of cranks lately since those have been the only thing working consistently.

I hadn't thought of contacting the department of fish and wildlife. I know there's a website that lists what species of game fish are in a lake, but it doesn't have baitfish. I'll try emailing them. Thanks for the help guys.

I've been doing much better in afternoon/ evening here. I was at the lake today by 6:00 AM and didn't even start catching till about 10:00. That is pretty typical for me right now. I think it depends on the lake too. Some lakes I know of are still best in the morning but most have been better in the evening, or even mid-day.

That's great that you took them out to do some fishing. Good job. It looks like they caught some nice fish, too. That's the biggest perch I've ever seen. Did you get a weight on the perch?

Wow, that's a great fish. Congratulations.

Alright, that's what i wanted to know. Thanks. I'll probably ask one of the guys I always see bass fishing there too.

I see people in here always talking about forage fish like Shad and Shiners. My question is how does everybody know these fish are in the water bodies they fish? Do people just see them near the surface or what? The only places I usually fish for bass are man-made reservoirs. I know there are fish such as trout, bluegill, crappie and perch in most of the lakes I fish, but I'm not so sure about other things.

For right now I'd have to say a soft plastic bite. I love the anticipation when that line starts to twitch and starts moving out, than the hard hookset. I also really like when fish hit a fast moving crank, especially when they slam it.

Thanks for the greetings everybody. Seems like everybody's really nice here.