Nibbles

Welcome! I'm from Central IL - going to UIUC.

Can anyone say Jackpot? I hear Napolean Wrasse flesh can fetch over $100 a pound at the market.

Fished Lake Shelbyville for the first time from a boat. Got skunked and it's been driving me nuts! Anyone going to be fishing Central or Southern IL anytime soon with an empty spot in their boat?

Guy fishing in a tourney I was in yesterday put a jig halfway through the joint on his thumb doing that yesterday. He was trying to protect his face, so I guess he lucked out in that aspect. Better thumb than eye.

You know, I've been considering getting some LC Pointers. Specifically the Pointer 78 and 100. Do you know if they're any good?

Shelbyville. I don't have any lipped cranks, and only 2 lipless - a tiny rapala bluegill that I'm guessing is 1/4 oz, and a 3/8 oz shad Rat-L-Trap. I don't crank much because I suck with them. I've caught several bass on jigs, but never on my lipless cranks. I would have switched to my rat-l-trap that day, but I had always thought that the backseater should fish a different style of bait than the front seat. In my mind, if he was cranking, then I should be using a jig, shakey head or t-rigged plastic. That way he can fish a fast bait, and I can fish slower and pick up any fish that didn't feel like chasing a fast shad crank that day.

Yesterday, I fished my first tournament. I was in the backseat. My partner caught about 10 fish, 2 of which were keeper bass. The rest were either dinks, white bass or walleye. I caught 0 fish. I may or may not have felt 1 or 2 light taps on my line the entire 8 hours on the water. We were fishing main and secondary points most of the time, as well as riprap around bridges. Water depth was mostly 7-12 feet. He was mainly using a strike king chartreuse sexy shad that dived 8'. I was mainly using a GMAN 3/8 widegap swim jig with a white head and clear weedguard with Okeechobee skirt. It was tipped with a Rage Tail baby craw in Okeechobee color as well. I also threw a GMAN finesse jig with a pumpkin head and weedguard, with blue and black skirt tipped with the same type of ragetail baby craw. I swapped the trailer on the swim jig from the craw to a white split tail spinnerbait trailer for about an hour and swam that thing as well. My technique was hopping the jig - sort of like yo-yoing a lipless crank. I also swam the jig some with no luck. I was using a 6'6" medium rod with a fast tip with a 5.1 retrieve spinning reel. 20# braid with about 3' of 15# PLine fluorocarbon leader. I cast across points with it, I cast away from points to deeper water with it, I cast it into reeds, weeds, close to timber, etc. Must have gotten hung up at least 12 times. Water temperature was around 86 degrees. Not a lot of wind. What am I doing wrong here? Do any jig fishermen here have any tips or techniques to share?

I find that crimping the barb on 1 of the 3 hooks on a treble is usually enough to make removal much easier.

I think marketing and overall exposure will be key if you want to have a successful fundraising tournament. See if you can find a buddy or a friend of a friend who can write copy - preferably someone who has had previous experience with it. Since you probably won't be looking to spend a lot of money on mainstream advertising, you should milk word-of-mouth and social media for all it's worth. Find ways to diffrentiate your tourney from other ones in order to attract more potential customers - an example would be to have a smallest dink contest as well as the traditional big bass pot in order to attract more beginners and people who believe that they are cursed to catch dinks.

Kind of makes you wonder just exactly how smart these bass really are doesn't it? People constantly talk about outsmarting the bass - I think they give those dumb fish way too much credit. ;D I refuse to believe that a fish dumb enough to try to swallow a plastic lure right after having a hook jammed through its gullet for attempting to hit it in the first place is at the same time smart enough to avoid my baits on purpose.

Sooooooo................you suck at tying knots, and do a poor job of landing fish. Must be the lines fault, and probably the rod, and the reels drag too, but definitely not yours : :-X In all seriousness, learn from your mistakes. It is very frustrating to lose big fish, and very tempting to blame equipment. Personally I don't like YZ line either, but not for the same reasons. I actually found it to be extremely strong.......almost to a fault. When you hit your thumb with a hammer don't blame the hammer. Well I've always used the improved clinch and have never had a problem until switching to this line, but perhaps thats because it's a lighter test than I am used to In other words you think it was equipment failure and not your ability that caused your problem ? The fact is, I have never had issues with my line breaking until I switched to this line recently, and I obviously have been landing my fish the same way, on the same knot and have caught big fish doing so (like the one in my avi at over 6lbs). I've already said it may be the clinch weakening the line due to improper lubrication or whatever. I'm just trying not to lose more fish. Leave my thread if you're just looking to start trouble and not contribute anything, I'm not here to argue with you about stupid stuff, especially when you're obviously just trying to start trouble So you were using 6# test of some other brand, and landing your fish this way? Perhaps you lucked out and the fish in your avvie didn't struggle like a maniac while dangling.

Depends on how big your spinnerbaits will be. A 1/4 or 3/8 oz spinnerbait can be fished with just about anything. A 3/4 or 1 oz on the other hand will probably require a faster retrieve and a heavier rod unless you want your wrists and hands to get tired. If you don't mind that though, you can still use whatever you have. I can catch fish with a 3/4 Booyah dual willow spinnerbait on an old 2 pc shakespeare 6' medium fast spinning rod with an Abu Cardinal 801, which is a fairly small and light reel. Sure, I could tie the spinner onto my baitcaster rig, but I'm lazy and like to carry only 1 rod around with me when I fish smaller ponds. Haven't noticed any difference in catching fish between the two setups though - just that the light spinning setup requires a little more work on my part.

So yesterday I caught one that was *sort of* gut hooked. I mean, the hook was barely hooked onto its gullet, so it should have been an easy removal. However, as I lip the little guy and bring out the needlenose, the fish starts to bite my thumb. I look in its mouth, and lo and behold, the dumb thing was attempting to swallow my plastic worm along with the hook! I get my pliers onto the hook, and it just makes the fish try to swallow everything even harder, like I'm trying to steal his meal or something. ;D It becomes a tug of war of sorts. Fortunately, the hook didn't get hooked even deeper and it eventually was released unharmed. It did manage to swallow the plastic worm though, although I do not know how bad it will be for the fish in the long run. Unfortunately, I'm no surgeon, and by the time I noticed, it already had most of my hook down its gullet as well. Has anyone ever had a similar scenario where a dumb bass just does the most ridiculous things after being caught?

IIRC, that's cause 30# fireline has a thicker diameter than most other 30# braids.

I like fishing weedlines, so weightless T-rigged plastics is a must for me. With that being said, I like Senkos because I can fish them at different speeds depending on whether the strikes are feeding strikes (like when the fish will sometimes pick my senkos off the lake floor a full minute after its been just sitting there) or reaction strikes. It's also a good bait to gauge the fish IMO, because I can throw the same senko out and Yo-yo it like a lipless crank, jerk it like a fluke, or just let it wiggle and sink every 15 seconds or so. If I get more hits on the wiggle and sink then I know the bass are likely to be slow and lazy but feeding. If I get more strikes when I'm yo-yoing, then I know the fish are fairly active and may or may not be feeding. If they strike it while I'm fishing the senko quickly, I know that the fish are likely to be quite active. Depending on how the fish are, I will then switch to a more productive bait for the situation. For instance, a popper for active fish, a dropshot for somewhat active feeding fish, and crawling a craw across the lakebed if they are lazy but still feeding.

Think about it this way -you're going to be eating well-fed lobsters that haven't been left in the tank to digest themselves for days!

Make sure to pull your palomars tight. The thing about the palomar is that the loose end of the knot can move around if the knot isn't tight, which can lead to it unraveling if it slips through the knot. This is especially true for higher # test fluorocarbon lines.

Will I ever see these in stores?

What I got out of Raul's original statement was that Senkos are a bait that don't demand any specific type of skill in order to catch fish with. The same can't be said of a popper, spook, lipless crankbait, etc. You actually have to work those a certain way.

A 7# fish does not generate only 7# of downward force when hes dangling on something while struggling. Sort of like how a 140# man registers more than 140# if he jumps onto the scale and stomps down hard instead of just stepping on it.

When I need versatility. The great thing about a T-Rigged senko for me is that I can throw it at weeds and let its wiggling falling motion trigger strikes, or I can work fast when the bass are active, or I can simply make it swim around erratically and slowly like a wounded shiner by gently tugging it every couple of seconds.

My favorite part is right after a bass hits my lure HARD. Gets my potty motormouth workin (my catchphrase anytime I get a hookset is usually "I gotcha now <insert expletive here>!!!")and my heart pumpin and gives me a great adrenaline rush. I live for that moment.

The fight and the excitement is what keeps me fishing. That means that as long as the fish I hook put up a good fight and hit my lures hard, I'm happy. If they manage to spit out the hook before I land them, it's just less work for me since I dont have to deal with unhooking them or with deep hooked bass or eye-hooked bass. If they break my line, I'm usually more upset over losing my hook/lure and having to retie my rig than losing the fish.

Try c-rigging or dropshotting a craw plastic if you think the fish are going to be deep. Tbh, I don't think 80ish is really that hot though. If it were me, I'd still be fishing shallower waters and along weedlines, at anywhere from 8-14 feet deep. If you feel like sizing down due to fish being spooked, I've found the zoom 3" flukes in baby bass color to be pretty good. I usually have a pack of them for when nothing else works.

Hookahs are pretty great. They have a fairly big presence on my campus. The best hookahs are probably Khalil Mamoun hookahs, as they are handmade in Egypt under the supervision of Mr. Mamoun, who is supposed to be pretty darn good at his craft. Mya hookahs are decent too, although they are mass produced and made in China. The best Shisha I've had include Fumari, Nakhla's Mizo line, and Tangiers, although a "phunnel bowl" is recommended for the Tangiers.