Jigfishn10

SAAHWEET!

Hey Ping, glad to have yoiu aboard. What part of MA you from?

That's awesome. I'm glad all turned out well. FL, cadman helped me out in the past and is a great source for info as well as a very classy guy. I'm glad I got a chance to meet/talk to him thru this site. I wish you both nothing but good luck in the future.

You're not too late. He's determined to do something. Any help or advice you can give him will be much appreciated. He'll tell ya...LOL He's a great guy Randy.

You know kllrbee, you're well on way. Crestliner is dead on. Success breeds confidence. I make sure I bring my fav 3 lures with me, because those are the ones I had success on in the past. I try new techniques and lures out as much as possible and I always learn new things on my 3 favs as well. I don't think you will ever stop learning. Fishing is that dynamic (to me anyway). Good luck out there!

No problem. Leave a message on this thread if you need more help. I'm home all day.

cadman, if you're still having problems, FL can PM me his e-mail and I can reply with your e-mail address? Just a thought.

Friday and Saturday I was able to do some topwater bank fishing and had some really nice results. Saturday I hooked into one I knew was a quality fish, I'm guessing in the 3-4 lbs range when I saw her at the surface . When I hooked her I knew I had to get her past a wall of weeds about 1' - 2' below the surface, so I tried to skate her in fast and kept my rod tip low so she wouldn't jump. Well, she dove on me and got me in those weeds. I tried everything to get her out, but she unbuttoned on my spook jr. I was trying not to apply too much pressure while she was in there, but, well, it was too much pressure. Any suggestions as to what I could have done differently? Fish, weeds and treble hooks is not a good recipe.

Gotcha... Good luck topwater fishing this year!

I personally think they could see all but one side of the lure at rest, but once that lure gets moving I think its bottom only. They will more than likely see a silhouett of the sides of the bait, but with all the surface disturbance that lure is making, I personally think they see the botton more clearer than the sides.. You can make the arguement that because a topwater would have roll to it, then they would see the nice detailed side, but does that seriously matter? To be perfectly honest with you, topwaters are tail weighted. A bass would see all but the head of the lure at rest.

SausageFingers is dead on. A bass can drop a lure faster than the transmission of the pick-up runs up to your rod tip. If a curious bass picks-up, it may not always have a good grip on it. If you ever sight fished you would see things that would amaze you. Pick-ups you don't feel. Pick-ups at the tail section of the lure and the hook not even close to it's mouth. Pick-ups on the fall and you don't feel it until it swims off and even then you don't know if it was a solid pick-up. So be careful if you get a pick-up and swing for the fences and find a lure whizzing by your head.

I'm not sure what part of Houghton's Pond you fished, but right now bass are on the southern and western part of the pond. East and north are loaded with pickerel right now.

Lurenet.com is distributing the Zara Spooks for Heddon. I use a constant retrieve. If you want to make the lure veer off to one side, try a half step instead of bending the line tie and fatiguing the metal. 1 full pull followed by a half pull. Basically, the full pull will bring the bait to one side and the half starightens it out, next full pull brings the bait to the side more causing the lure veer to one side. I know you didn't ask that question so this one's on me...LOL EDIT: After fighting a fish, check your line tie. Sometimes it slides up towards the top making it harder to walk again. Reposition and your good to go.

If you feel the pick up, tighten down on the line a bit, they tend to clamp down a bit more or even try an get a better grip on the bait while they are running with it. You'll know when to set the hook at that point. It appears to me that this happens more in the spring and late fall, but that's what I've learned anyway. Hope this helps.

I don't see where detail is important at all. Dog walkers and chuggers (to a certain degree) are moving and creating a disturbance in the water, how does a fish see the top and side of the bait? I think they see just the bottom of the bait and the sides and top are blurred from the distrubance. Bone white for me during the day and black or some sort of dark color at night. I think topwaters are total reaction strikes. Heck, Zell Rowland will tell you that if a fish is short striking a buzzbait, then take the skirt off and fish it naked, just hook and lead head. That tells me that it's a total reaction strike.

You don't sound very confident using this lure, but I maybe reading your OP wrong? For me and deep fishing without knowing the depth you're fishing? You can't go wrong on a black and some type of green watermelon color. White loses it's color very fast in deep water. JMHO

I posted in this thread early on and forgot all about it, but I just read thru it all again and your're 100% correct, it's being at the right place at the right time with the right lure!

I've never thought of that. Great post Bilgerat!

Going against my doc's advice, I hurt my back in my early twenties. I kept "playing on" like I was superman. Well in my mid twenties I got degenerative disks. Raw, cold and rainy days are the worst. Try having a kid you want to hold in your arms and can't do it for an extended period of time? Try playing ball with your kid but have to cut the session short because your back is shooting pains up to your brain? It's not fun and I wish I had a second chance, for my kids sake. Just remember, brains over brawn always win.

I thought Cabelas had them in their crappie section (no pun intended) or walleye section? If you can't find them, PM cadman, I bet you he has the mold and can make them up for you.

Mushrooms or mescaline? LOL

Send me a PM, I'm 6 miles from there, maybe we can meet up someday. I'll show you some spots where the hogs hang out...well from time to time they hang out.

Thanks philsoreel, 4 bass and crappie on a spook jr today. I'll take that for my first topwater outing of the season. I'm just like you, man, I gotta retrain myself every year, I see the blow-up and my heart pounds all the time. After about 3 or 4 outings I get used to it again.

Well, one of your questions got answered...LOL Besides you inspired me to go topwater fishing today for my first time this year.

Hey Bass Protege. First, welcome to Bass Resource, glad to have you aboard. It doesn't sound like I'm very far from you. I fish Houghton's pond a lot in Milton, as a matter of I fact I recently caught my personal best (PB) large mouth bass ever out of there. It's a bank only fishing pond, but there is a path around the pond with a lot of accessible holes to fish out of. It has a very good bass, pickerel and trout population. Not far from there, you can go to Ponkapoag Pond. There is access there to fish from a canoe and has a very good population of bass and pickerel. You can hit Ames Pond in Stoughton. Same species as above. Buckmasters in Westwood. I used to fish there a lot, but haven't in the past 2 seasons or so. Norton Res in Norton. Big bass in there. I should be hitting that soon with a buddy. There are more, but those are on top of my brain right now...LOL