.ghoti.

Good advice so far. Here's another factor to consider. The size and style of blade(s) will determine the effective running depth. Willow blades have less lift, will allow you to run deeper than colorado blades for a given weight. Want to run one over emergent weeds? Put on a big colorado blade to keep the bait up above the cover. Want to get down deep. Switch out the blade to a smaller willowleaf, and you can run this down a point, maintaining contact much easier. Another thing. Many people advocate the use of trailer hooks. I don't. I like to throw spinnerbaits into cover, and like to bang them off anything I can. Your hangup percentage goes way up when you add a trailer hook. If you find that the fish are short-striking, and you think you need a trailer hook, try changing your dressing. If you're using a grub, try a fluke, or a tube. I keep a lot of my torn plastics for use on spinnerbaits. A lizard works, a chunk of torn up senko works, any kind of plastic will add some bulk to the bait, and this is most times all it takes to stick those short strikers. Good luck, GK

Addiction is such a harsh term, let's call it "presentationally challenged", and admit that we've all been there, at one time or another, with a variety of baits. To put a positive spin on it, it's a good way to learn a type of bait, as long as you don't get stuck in a rut.

Rule #4. You can never have too many baits.

Cephkiller, You may have won a battle, but you will lose the war.

As an indicator of temperature changes, cloud cover changes and rain, barometric pressure can can be considered significant. Barometric pressure itself, has little effect on the fish. Hee's the numbers, from an old instrument tch, for those interested. The record high was 32"Hg, recorded in Siberia, don't remember the year. The record low was 25.7"Hg recorded in a south China sea typhoon. Again, I don't remember the year. In this country, extreme bp's are considered to be from 28.5 - 30.5"Hg That's a deltaP of two inches of mercury, which is a little less than one PSI, and a little more two feet of water column. For more exact numbers use the following. 1"Hg = 33.864mBar 1PSI = 2.02"Hg 1PSI = 27.7"W.C. A typical front, as it moves through the area, may cause a drop of 8mBar. 8mBar = 0.236239"Hg = 0.11695PSI = 3.24"W.C. That means, the fish has to moved down 3.24 inches to maintain the same pressure on it's body, after the front passes. I'm not a biologist, I'm a techno-geek, I don't know what this means to the fish. As just pressure, it can't mean much, but as an indicator of inclement weather, and the prospect of easy meals washing into the water, it has to be significant. Just my $0.02

You can't walk out of BPS with just one item......down right impossible!! Any time I walk out of BPS, without having spent $250+, I consider it a moral victory.

To FlyTheNowUnpopularRod, I could not have said it better.

I've used a fishing buddy on my two little man boat, and my john boat, for 3 or 4 years now. It will run almost all year on 3 C cell batteries. It does a great job for the price. I turn off the fish ID feature and use it to locate structure and deeper cover. I used the side-finder setting quite a bit, when I first got it, but don't use it at all now. The only problem with this unit is the narrow beam width. In water less then ten feet deep, you're looking at a very small section of the bottom. It's still god for cruising around and finding channels and breaklines. Hard to beat for the price.

Back off to the first drop off from the spawning flat and fish plastics slow. The bigger females are there resting from their labors. They will be ready to eat anytime. ?Tough time of the year? This is agreta time of the year. The tough times are when you cast out your bait and it bounces off the water.

I'm an absolute tackle junkie. The bait monkey has me on speed dial, so I buy lots of baits. But, I ususally try the new ones only when nothing else is working. I'll tie on a new bait and fish it until I know what it feels like when its running through the water, banging off rocks, digging into the bottom deflecting off brush, etc. Once I know what a new lure feels like, I'm ready to apply it to a given situation where I think it may work. Sometimes, when experimenting with new baits, I catch some fish. Those are the ones I have the most confidence in. If I catch nothing on a bait after three or four tries, it goes into the bait cave. (the corner of the garage that's mine) Every now and then, I'll dig through those discarded baits, and pull out a couple to give another try. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. For me, new stuff is a big part of the fun. Matt is right, you can't take it all. Part of the fun is planning each outing, sorting out what to take and what to leave home.

For pressured water, a smaller spinnerbait on a slower retrieve is hard to beat as a search bait

Blue Lizard. Use it every time you go out for more than an hour. You young guys, pay attention to us old farts. Been there, done that, got the scars. "nough said.

Thanks RoLO, I just spit coffee all over my desk. By the way, you make a very valid point.

Selective harvest. I take a few small fish for the table and release all the bigger ones. I also never take more than one meal's worth. If I want frozen fish, I'll buy it.

Central Illinois Any kind of vegetation will hold fish here most of the year. Deeper structure is the second best choice for me.

This thread dug out an old memory. I read somewhere that albino craws are blue, not white. Don't remember where i read it, but I've been using blue craws or ones with blue pincers ever since. I know blue works, at least for plastics.

Hey Matt, good point. I'm trying to not get hung up on definitions, just interested in techniques. We can all call it something different. I 've been using a worm on a jighead ever since reading about it in In-Fisherman about 15 years ago. Now it's a brand new, hot, shaky head rig. And, what about dropshotting. Crappie fishermen in Kentucky and Tennessee have been using that rig to present minnows over brushpiles since Hector was a pup. Maybe it's time I started digging into some old magazines and catalogs. Re-discover an old technique, slap a new high tech name on it, and be famous. LOL. Interesting game, Ain't it?

A new category, I agree. I use an X-rap quite a bit. Sometimes constantly in motion. Lots of short sharp jerks, with little or no pause. This is, I think, is power fishing. In colde water, I'll use a slow retrieve, with soft pulls and long pauses. This could be considered finesse. How about a C-rig. Power or finesse? What about a slow rolled spinnerbait. A little of both?

Skeeter-Bit, you got a scents o' humor, man! If you find one of those beds, it's worth a few casts. I always throw a spinnerbait past one. Don't always find a bass on them, but it's worth a shot. Try the side nearest deeper water in the summer. It's a high enough percentage spot to deserve a few casts.

After reading the thread on power vs finesse, I have to ask; what do you consider power fishing, or finesse fishing. In my mind, a 10" power worm with a 3/8 oz weight is a finesse bait, because I'm slowly probing a particular piece of cover or structure with it. And a big crank is a power bait because I'm covering a lot of area with it. Not trying to start an argument. Just interested in different viewpoints. Tomato, tomahto, Eh?

Al Lindner and Doug Stange for info. Jimmy Houston for comic relief.

One of the all-time great baits for big bass. I, too, usually throw one either early or late, but, I'll try one about anytime if nothing else is working.

I get In-Fisherman, Inside Line, and Bassin'. Dropped Bassmaster, for the same reasons listed here. In-Fisherman is still, IMO, the best fishing publication.

I with you guys. 1/32 oz jig and a thill slip float. Nothin better than a mess of slabs for dinner.

You've said a mouthful (excuse the pun). The flavor of a given species may vary according to the lake source and method of handling. In any case, I have eaten largemouth bass that tasted better than any crappie or walleye I have ever eaten (catfish aren't even in the running). Furthermore, in spite of being a warmwater fish, largemouth bass contain a generous level of beneficial omega-3 oil, normally associated with salmon. Roger couldn't have said it better. I like the taste of bass much better than catfish. I'll almost never eat a catfish. I will take and eat small bass. I like In-Fisherman's take on it. Selective harvest. Take a few smaller fish for the table, and release the trophy sized fish to reproduce. The only time I take a large bass is when I've hooked it badly enough that it won't survive. It happens occasionally. Those fish end up on the table. The lake I fish most has a 14" limit. I wish it were lower. This body a water has a bazzillion 10"-12" bass in it. It would probably help the lake if some of those smaller fish were taken. I think, that in many cases, we've taken catch and release too far. There are a lot of bodies of water with way too many small fish. But, we all have to follow the rules. We all have to trust that our fisheries management people know what they're doing, and, do our part to help. There are many documented cases where local officials have implemented harvest regulations designed to improve the size structure of a particular body of water, only to have the plan fail, because most fishermen ignored the plan and released every fish anyway. This, in my opinion, is every bit as harmful, maybe even more so, than eating all you catch. Every body of water has a different dynamic. Generic rules make no sense. It would be a great idea to contact your local DNR, and find out what they're trying to accomplish with particular harvest regulations, and go along with the plan. If that means releasing every thing, then, do it. If that means taking a few fish for the table to help the fishing, then take a few for the table. If you don't like them, you probably know somebody who be happy to take them off your hands. Having said all that, I don't fish for bass on the beds. There are some studies which suggest that catching bass off the beds interferes with the spawning process. So I don't try. Not all the bass in a given lake will be on the beds at the same time anyway. There are always some in both pre-spawn and post-spawn to target. That's just a personal preference. If you're trophy hunting, your best shot at a PB is probably a big female caught off the bed. If that's what floats your boat, then, by all means, go for it. As long as it's legal, it's none of anybody's business how you go about it.