Orabbit

I also use a curly tail grub as a trailer. I use twin tail grubs when I can find them. I tend to use orange, red or bright yellow especially when fishing for northern pike. These work for bass also.

Best frog I have ever used is the Stanley Lure Ribbit soft plastic (www.fishstanley.com). I have tried almost all other brands and like many but the Ribbit is one of the best baits (IMO) to have come along in a long time. It combines the sound and action of a buzzbait, the features of soft plastic and the weedless ability of a frog. You can fish it in weeds, pads, open water, timber, rocks. I have caught pike, large mouth, andsmall mouth on this bait. Last evening in 3 hours I had 13 largemouth in the boat ranging in size from 14 to 20 inches all caught on Ribbits.

A few years back I was fishing with my twin sons (about 9 years old at the time) in a canoe on a lake in northern Wisconsin. We were approximately 1 mile across the lake from our campsite and were fishing a rock wall along the bank. It was dusk and a thunderstorm came suddenly over the wall and decended upon the lake. One minute the lake was calm as glass and the next it was pouring rain and whipping waves to whitecaps. It got so dark I could no longer see our tent site. Fortunately my wife was there and lit a lantern so we could use it to navigate by. I had one son sit low in the canoe and bail with a coffee mug I had brought, the other knelt in the front and did what paddling a 9 year old can and I paddled through a viscious cross wind with waves breaking periodically over the bow. Needless to say, I was very glad to get to the tent and off that body of water. I am an experienced canoeist but must say I was a bit anxious that evening.

I fish from a canoe. I fish smaller lakes, 500 acres or less usually. I have limited space to store a boat and my canoe can hang in the top of my garage. I find I can get to places which harbor fish that boats can not reach. I also like the quite and solitude the canoe offers. You can purchase a very good canoe for $1,000 new and a good used one for $400 - $700. There are department store quality canoes for even less. When I want to fish larger water I either rent a boat or hire a guide.

Last May in Ontario, I was fishing for walleye. In the cove where I was fishing I could see an eagle on her nest up on shore in a tall tree. I watched it with binoculars for awhile and thought it was also watching me. So I decided to try something. I had a gut hooked small walleye that was about dead in my live well so I threw it into the water about 15 feet from the boat. The eagle flew from the nest and dove right down to the water and snatched the fish. Talk about a HUGE and MAJESTIC bird! What a thrill!

Two people influenced me as a boy, my grandfather and a older man who was a commercial river fisherman. I grew up on the Rock River in northern Illinois and after Grandpa showed me the basics, I would hang out at the power station fishing site. This old fisherman noticed me there several times and one day asked if I could like to help run his lines. From then on he taught me alot as I help him every day I could. After that I fished regularly until college. Then family and work seemed to get in the way. I retired 4 years ago and started doing some "light" fishing (panfish) but not avid. Last June I had the chance to join a group of guys for a 7 day trip to Canada. Since that experience I have been totally hooked. Now I fish 3-6 days weekly when the water is liquid! So 30 years after fishing I got back to it!

I have never used Rooster Tails for bass, but I use single hook Rooster Tails (1/24 and 1/16 oz) to fish for trout and do very well using them. No real tricks for trout. I vary the retrieve as I see how the fish react. Sometimes a slow retrieve works best, sometimes stop and go and sometimes fast (especially in fast moving water). I doubt this will answer your questions about using them for bass.

I have never tried it but my son uses a float tube frequently. His has all sorts of pouches and pockets including a rod holder. He changes lures all the time and has yet to drop any equipment (so he says!)

Let me add my thanks! Excellant site just got better!

I like the new format. Seems to organize topics in a logical fashion and makes it easier to find specific information. Great job Glenn! :

Illinois resident licenses are cheap - last year only $13.00 as I recall (haven't checked this year yet). Since I fish many states regularly (Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, and this year Texas and Ontario, Canada) my annual license fees run me about $200.00. I really don't mind though. As often as I go it is relatively cheap entertainment (if I don't count lost tackle!) per trip and much of the cost goes to support improved fisheries so it is money well spent!

Welcome Glass_Man, I started over at 57! after a 32 year absence from the sport. I fish from a canoe and fish small lakes, rivers and streams. Being semi-retired ( I teach part-time at a college now and only work Tuesday-Thursday with all summer off) and free of life's normal responsibilities I find I finally have time for myself and I greatly enjoy being outdoors paddling a solitary body of water. Of course a nice bass on the line gets the adrenalin pumping! Enjoy all there is to learn here - there is a wealth of knowledge!

Try this link to Cabelas for some Simpson lures! http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jhtml?id=0019370117978a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnString=hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&QueryText=simpson+lure&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jhtml.22&Go.x=18&Go.y=10&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=simpson+lure&noImage=0&returnPage=search-results1.jhtml

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway

Not a tournament story but humrous - could have been BAD! I fish regularly from a 15-foot canoe. One of my favorite local lakes, a small man-made lake, has a fair number of nice (3-5 pound with the occasional 7 pounder) large mouth bass. It is also stocked with muskie. While I do not fish for muskie, it is not uncommon for one to follow and occasionally strike a bass lure. My lady friend, who is a non-swimmer, enjoys fishing but is somewhat nervous in the canoe. Therefore, when I take her out fishing, I normally find a quiet cove, anchor and fish for pan fish. She catches many small blue gill but frequently laments that she never catches the big fish that I often come home with pictures of (I practice catch and release but frequently photograph my prizes!) I explained to her that in order to catch large bass, we would need to fish differently. One day she decided she wanted to catch a big fish. I tied a top water buzz bait to her spin casting rod and rig my spinning rod with a similar lure and we paddled off toward a timber area where I have been known to catch several nice bass. While the water was fairly deep (about 16 foot) it was a calm day with completely flat water. She soon got warm wearing her PFD and, since it was so calm, decided to remove it and lay it at her feet. We had fished for about an hour and I had caught two bass running around 4 pounds each. She had only caught one about 12 inches long and was getting frustrated. I pointed toward a particularly dense brush area and suggested she try casting right against the brush. She made a perfect cast and began the retrieve the buzz bait making it's tell tale sputtering noise as she brought it toward the canoe. As the bait approached within 6 feet of the bow of the canoe she turned to me and said, Well, I guess you don't know where the fish are after all. I never even got a bite! Just at the moment a muskie, approximately 36 inches long, came clear out of the water as it attacked her lure less than 6 feet from her seat! She jumped so hard she shifted her weight and the canoe jerked to the left. We began to take water over the left gunwale and I immediately shifted my weight right to counter what I feared was an inevitable capsize. I was able to correct enough to prevent a capsize and eventually she calmed down enough to sit still. With about 4 inches of extra ballast I paddled to shore where we emptied the water from the canoe. She downed her PFD and we paddled out to resume fishing. Oh and the muskie? He did not get hooked when he attacked the buzz bait and apparently swam off, satisfied in his revenge on the fishermen!

Shallow water is clearly my preference. I have not mastered the feel for detecting strikes very well in deep water.

I'm hopin' that Satan has a bass lake 'cause I doubt if there is much hope for heaven for me!

If I break the ice can I start now? ??? My buzz baits don't seem to have the right action across solid water! ;D

Lets see! I have a four day weekend every weekend and June, July, and August off work. So if the temperature is above freezing I try not to go fishing more than 3 days evey weekend and not more than 6 days a week during the summer. I guess I am possessed rather than obsessed!

One with a big bass on the line connected to it!

??? The post re: WD-40 got me thinking - how many of you use bait scents on your baits? Do scents really make a difference?

Thanks KU The model I have been researching includes th temperature.

For me it's a buzz bait (usually black and blue), scum frog and bass rat. Yea I know that's 3 not 1 but oh well!

Springfield, IL Like others here I have recenlty gotten back into fishing after a 25+ year break. I focus primarily on bass but do some trout fishing as well as walleye occasionally. And I have caught a few muskie as my local "bass" lake also is stocked with muskie and they have a way of getting in the way of bass fishing!

Caught a 7.2lb large mouth in early September on a chartruese scum frog. In June a caught a 6.4 lb. on a ratt-l-trap. I caught most of my fish this summer on buzz baits, scum frogs and bass rats but I also did more top water fishing this summer. I did catch a smally that was 21 inches long (didn't have a scale so no weight) on a beattle spin in Canada in early June.