Triton_Mike

Here is a swimbait that I built for my own use. It's a Rago Generic Trout copy which has been discontinued. I designed it as a bait that duck walks on the surface. When you begin your very slow retrieve the bait has a wide waddle on the surface and the plexiglass fins are protruding up. I was lucky I nailed the weighting perfectly on the first try. The entire bait from tip to tip is 9 3/4 inches. MIke

I agree with Randall on alot of points above. Especially about the spineless bait fish ie gizzards. I throw alot of the Trout immitation baits here in GA and I don't think the fish are smart enough to determine a trout bait from a gizzard bait. I really think they think it's the same thing and it's the overall size that attracts them. I caught an 8lber late last year on a Trout colored Bass Harrasser which is a 8 inch bait that weighs close to 5 oz. The bait was actually a brown trout pattern and we don't have any brown trout anywhere in my lake. I have also caught numerous nice spots on a trout colored Triple Trout as well. I feel that the size of the bait attracts bigger fish and the bigger fish will move a little further for that big meal than they would say a smaller bait. Of course it always helps to hit them on the nose. I will say that my situation is considerably different than Randalls on Varner. I have alot of dinks to wade through and that big bait helps me keep some of those smaller aggressive fish off my bait so that the bigger ones will get a better chance at it. So many times I have reeled in smaller fish only to find a monster following the smaller fish. This is especially true in a schooling situation where the bigger fish stand back while the smaller fish school. Great discussion and great article Randall . Mike www.tritonmike.com

Lubina, My only concern in using Halo P Line is why would anyone want to use a colored fluorocarbon? One of the primary reasons to use fluorocarbon to begin with is it's ability to conceal itself due to fluorocarbon having ALMOST the same refractive index as water??? I have a buddy that has Halo in his tackle store. He told me he hated it as it was stiffer than bailing wire. His words tho as I haven't tried it as of yet. But that is an interesting claim on having more specific gravity ie sinks faster... Mike

I use P-line Fluoro with the new Halo already loaded in my 2nd set for a trial, in deeper water this line will let you run even deeper since is the heaviest fluoro in the market. Lubina, where did you get your facts on heaviest fluoro on the market? Thanks Mike

Too many advantages for not using fluorocarbon for jerkbaits. Something to think about on suspending baits. Do we really think a bait needs to be absolutely still (suspend) for a fish to hit it??? I don't know about you guys but until we get a bass to talk we are throwin darts. Just my .02 Mike

Tell you what guys pertaining to the Inside Line. Here are a few articles that I have written for them. These are by no means expert articles as there are many other great writers for the INside line that smuck T Mike. To my knowledge only ONE of the articles below has a Yamamoto mention. These are the types of articles you will see in the Inside Line. We have writers from Maine to FLorida to Washington State all walks of life so it's not just a western mag either. I just previews the articles and some are not taking. Go here for the ones with the broken links http://www.tritonmike.com/media.html http://www.tritonmike.com/thermalrefuge.html http://www.geocities.com/spotcountry/power.html http://www.geocities.com/spotcountry/crankmod.html http://www.tritonmike.com/slingshot.html Mike

Craig, One step further. I would suggest to make your program to where everyone must qualify to make the team every year. This is based strictly on quarterly reports that you get from everyone. If sponsorship is a lifetime appointment there is no motivation to perform and to earn the incentives. Just a thought. Mike

Beautiful fish Adam!! Your on them son!! Don't teach Gene all of your tricks ~ Mike

Actually Basser913 thats to the plastic website. Here is a direct link to the magazine website. http://www.insideline.net/ Just click on subscribe now over on the right hand side Mike

I literally can not believe the Inside Line got only ONE mention!!! Gary Yamamoto's Inside Line and Bass West are by far my favorites. Mike

Swimming Senk vs Shad shape worm. Really you can't compare the 2. Shad shape is a dropshot bait while the shad shape worm is more of a swimbait. 2 totally different tools here. I have used the shad shape and have done the pool test with it. Me likes it!!! That tail quivers very nicely. I haven't tried the swimming senko yet tho. Mike

Guys, Actually friction (heat) has nothing to do with fluorocarbon. Most of the fluorocarbon lines are made from a fluoropolymer called polyvinylidene flouride...PVDF for short. PVDF is a high-grade engineering polymer with good temperature properties and extremely good chemical resistance. You don't see a lot of it around the house, but it is used for a lot of piping, valves, seals, musical instrument strings and in air filters. It has several other applications in the electronics industry such as membranes for fuel cells and batteries. This comes straight from a materials scientist for 3M technologies who just happens to be a fisherman as well. Having said that it's MORE important to tie a clean perfect knot. The palomar knot is tricky because the line can overlap and cause it to cut into itself. If you tie a GOOD CLEAN palomar knot you'll be fine but the braid knot which is easily tied doesn't have the tendency to get tangled when you cinch the knot hence a pretty knot every time. Try it and you will see what I am talking about. It is bar none the best knot to use when using fluorocarbon line. Mike

I am sorry I caught this post a little late here but thought I would give some input. BTW Matt thanks for the kind words I've been in the fishing industry for 25 years. I am also the national prostaff manager for a line company for the past year almost. Let me tell you a little bit about the resume's I receive. It was certainly an eye opener for me. 99.9% of the resume's I get are anglers that have quite a 1 page sometimes 2,3 pages of tournament experience and they wear the patches and put the decals on the trucks and cars and boats etc etc. If you match the above description in bold your competing with about 1 million other anglers. Gonna be a tough job getting a very GOOD sponsorship deal at ANY level It's one thing to have a TON of tournament experience but can you sell product??? Can you influence people and get our product in front of the consumer and close a sale?? I got to the point that I got so many tournament resume's it was hard to decipher what to do to make a decision. So what I am doing now is taking a completely different approach to this job. When I get resume's with a ton of tournament experience I fire them back an email saying wow cool tournament experience but what can you do for us aside from fishing tournaments?? Do you write articles for magazines, newspapers, internet etc? How about TV, radio? What about doing seminars with a sizable audience?? Can you draw an audience?? Can you get me dealers?? If so can you give me references from companies that you have already gotten dealers for?? Do you guide?? Do you even use our lines?? (You'd be surprised at the answers I get on that last question), can you communicate to me on a quarterly basis with QAULITY reports on what you are doing besides fishing tournaments? etc etc etc. 9 times out of 10 I get NO response back.. Guys if you want sponsorships seperate yourself from others. The more niche's (as described above and not limited to the options listed above) you have the more valuable you become to companies both big and small. 99.9% of the anglers fish tournaments and I can tell you this right now tournaments will not seperate you from anyone unless you are just really really good at it (extremely rare). Just because you fish tournaments doesn't mean the companies should fall over giving you product or $$. One other rule of thumb that I learned a while back. If you sponsor hop often enough your going to end up with a bad reputation very very quickly. Most of the guys in the fishing industry knows somebody that knows you. Whether it be a previous sponsor or a present sponosor. I can find ways to find out info about you and your character and the quality of work that you do. The fishing industry "fishes" very very very small. It's OK to change sponsors but you better be doing it for the right reasons and that reason is because you believe in the product. If you haven't used a potential sponsors product and accept a sponsorship your doing not only yourself a disservice but your audience as well. If I preach Lucky Craft hardbaits today and Pradco tomorrow what does that say about my credibility?? Associate yourself with the BEST and stay wtih the best and create a name for yourself by associating yourself with the best products not which company gives you a better deal to switch. Also don't accept a sponsorship just because you "CAN". If your not going to use a potential sponsors product don't accept the deal. They will respect you more by being honest than taking them for a ride. Remember the fishing industry "fishes" small comment that I made. Hopefully this will help others. BTW I can spell but my grammer is the pits. I get the wife to proofread my magazine stuff before I submit it . My wife calls me the run on sentence king LOL Mike

To me honestly I don't even think you can compare the 2 as they both require a different set of skills to be successful. I have the upmost resepct for the Trophy guys like Matt, Fish Chris and Supermat. THose 3 guys alone could probably teach Larry Nixon, KVD and whoever else a BUNCH of tricks as it pertains to trophy fishing I also think it can go vice versa as well. Each angler requires a seperate set of tools and skills to be successful. Me personally I would think it would be EASIER for a trophy hunter to become a better tournament angler than a tournament angler being a better trophy hunter. Mainly because the Trophy hunter is fishing for a MUCH smarter animal which in turn requries a tremendous amount of patience. I think that if you had TROPHY fish in good numbers as California does throughout the US your opinion toward trophy hunters would be significantly different. Most of the HARD core trophy guys are from California. While tournament anglers are from all over. Not enough of a pool to really give a fair assessment between the 2. Having said that I think the Western guys are significantly more versatile in tactics than any other regional angler. Most of your new tactics and such come from out west. Ie dropshot, swimbaits, Split shot, flippin and yes EVEN jig worm fishing. BTW I'm from Georgia and I don'th ave a dog in this hunt. Just my observations. Mike www.tritonmike.com

Hey Guys, A little secret about using flourocarbon and while using fluorocarbon you will NEVER have another knot break with fluorocarbon. I like the braid knot for ALL types of lines to be honest. No more putting your bait through a loop which is especially a pain with treble hook baits and namely big swimbaits. Here is a link. BTW Only wrap your line around the main line 4 times. No need for wrapping it around 8 times like the picture shows (thats for when using braided line to prevent slippage) Mike

Raul is correct. We do have quite a bit of largemouth that have sandpaper on the tongue. I can't say I have ever caught a spot without a sandpaper patch on the tongue. The best way to tell a spot from a largemouth is the jawline and the back dorsal fins. Do a google search on Largemouth Spotted Bass Identification. Mike

Mr. David aka clipper, I forgot to answer your reply. Jim is going to try the chamber of commerce and see what they think. I sent a note to my GON contact as well. If you have a contact at GON network please do what you can. THe county has the most to gain from this so that is where Jim is probably going to start. If that doesn't work he'll probably try to piece it out ie $$ here and $$ there etc etc. THanks to all for the support. Mike

Cart, The whole project costs like 15K. You'd be surprised at the economical impact of a project like this can have. Jim has the numbers covered as far as promoting the project and also the economical impact numbers as it pertains to return on investment. He has also consulted with the other lake that has these lights setup. The area slated for this project is a bridge. This bridge has a no wake zone on either side of it and it has been a no wake zone for as long as the lake has been in existance. Nothing is 100% safe. YOu'd have just an equal chance of a drunk running into you anywhere else on the lake as you would near the lights. The lights will kinda be setup more for boaters than for shoreline anglers. Atleast at the beginning. Who knows they might build a pier after all is said and done. I apprecaite everyone's support on this project. We still need many more names. Either side here or on the www.lakeallatoonaguides.com website. Mike

I'm with Matt and Matt. Swimbaits bar none. Mike

Roadwarrior, any support is welcome ~~ I just need some names so that when our DNR goes to get funding he knows he has the public behind it. Could ya pretty pretty please leave it here ~~ BTW, I'm here just been busy fishing and brushpiling. Lots of work LOL. Thanks for noticing I have been gone. I will make it a point to stop in here more often. LBH, Well this project is going to cost 15K. Soooo it's not a slam dunk by any means. We are trying to get the County (Chamber of Commerce) to pitch in. The lights will be a great selling point to our local tourists. Especially Red Top park which the bridge in question will be used for the lights. BTW, If you guys would sign it I would be so grateful You DON"T have to register just post your name and that you support the program. No email no phone number just type your name and that you support the idea. No strings attached. Tee

Gee post a title 900 and I'm supposed to read it LOL. I'm here alive and well and fishing my butt off. Already got 2 7lb + fish in 2007 out of the dead sea in my boat Fluke is right I do have the boat show today (saturday) at the World Congress Center. I'll be doing a tank demo at 12:30 and 4pm . JT I never got your message on the bat phone?? Did you try the decoder website?? LOL Teee

Hey Guys, Our local Georgia DNR is trying to pass a very cool project for us here on Allatoona which is located just North of Atlanta. They want to install a string of Hydroglow lights on one of our bridges for angler enjoyment. Without retyping everything I would like to ask if you guys could help us out by signing your name to a post in support of this cool project. Hopefully if this is as successful as they think it is going to be maybe other area lakes will take note. here is more info and the link which includes some pics of what they are trying to accomplish. I hope this is OK with the moderators that I post this link. Please sign your name to this post. If you have any questions there is another post to ask any questions you might have. http://allatoonaguides.proboards101.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1168562901 Thanks Triton Mike Bucca

Let me guess you fish with Spider Jigs, Jigs and shallow cranks the most??? If you fish with swimbaits as much as you do your spider jigs, Jigs and shallow cranks I'll bet you a donut your numbers of big fish will TRIPLE. Try it!!! T Mike

I love these kind of topics. I agree 1000% with Matts odds that he put up. I also agree with Roadwarriors comments that big is defined by the area that you live in. I have been fishing swimbaits seriously for about a year now. I can't tell you how much I have learned about big bass during those times. By using swimbaits I am CONSISTANTLY catching bigger fish. I catch dinks (12-15 inch fish)all the time on 8 inch baits but my ODDS are HUGE that I will catch a 5lb + fish. I strongly believe that if you throw a crankbait by a brushpile and turnaround and throw a big swimbait your chances just tripled in catching a big fish out of that brush. BIG FISH are lazy and they want a meal. Also one problem that I am running into is schooling fish. Anyone ever caught a schooling fish on a sammy 100 and while reeling in your dink you see 4 School Bus SIZED spots following your hooked dink which are more active to begin with??? Try throwing a swimbait and those little fish are "less" prone to hitting a big swimbait. Kinda like seperating the men from the boys if you will. Now George's situation is a little different. He's got huge fish everywhere so he probably catches alot of big fish on smaller sized baits than i will due to having more bigger fish in the pond. Small and medium baits will catch big fish but bigger swimbaits will catch more and thats why I throw them. You haven't LIVED until you've caught a big fish on a swimbait!! Topwater can't even come close to holding a candle to a good swimbait bite. T Mike

One of our own here at BassResource.com sells the quickdrops here on the EAST SIDE http://www.corsairbaits.com/index.php?cPath=34&osCsid=e2f4d40d78bcfb003fba0c62e9888df8 This is Bob Hupps site and he's from Atlanta, GA I agree they are the only weights I'll dropshot with! Marc the owner is top notch and probably one of the best dropshotting guys in the country that I have learned alot from! Mike