littlejon

thanks for the info. I rarely use top water baits. I don't have the patience, lately though I have decided that not catching fish using top water baits will be more fun than not catching fish any other way.

How do you rig and fish a strokin toad? Is it a top water only type bait?

It used to ruin my day. Now I don't give it more than a minutes thought. After you lose enough fish it becomes almost second nature. LOL. Really I fish for enjoyment, if I couldn't enjoy something unless I was really good at it then there wouldn't be much in life for me to enjoy. I can be competitive in almost every other recreational thing I do, golf, billiards, and poker----- but fishing? I'm sure I'm unlike most on this board in that I think of competitive fishing is like competitive sleeping, it just doesn't make sense to me. I fish because I enjoy it and find it relaxing, there is no win lose or draw for me when it comes to fishing just nature and enjoying myself. I enjoy the fight and the excitement if the fish gets off, the fish gets off and I make the next cast.

looks like a spot to me. a spot is not a lm or a sm. The pic is really too small to see the scales around the eye but the jaw line is a give away. I must be missing something because I know for a fact that I know less about bass than most on this board. I found this about spots on another board. I also noticed an article dealing with spotted bass and a question on how to properly identify the species. Before enacting this regulation, MDC looked at hundreds of black bass (largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth), during our regular spring time sampling, to determine what characteristics could be used to accurately identify the spotted bass. After analyzing the data, we concluded that three characteristics could be used. When used together, these characteristics provide the angler with over 99% accuracy. The characteristics include: 1. Jaw Bone. As mentioned by a few of web site visitors, the jaw bone of a spotted bass does not extend past the eye. 2. Cheek Scales. Scales around the eye area, cheek, are much smaller than the scales along the length of the body. On largemouth, the scales on the ckeek and the rest of the body are similar in size. 3. Tongue Patch. Spotted bass will have a rough patch on their tongues. It is important not to use this characteristic by itself, because largemouth can have this patch as well. We found other characteristics, such as color, varied too much under various water clarities and could not be relied upon. Anglers who spend a lot of time on the water have no trouble using coloration, spot patterns, etc. to identify spots while they are still in the water. However, we had to make the identifying simple and accurate enough even for the novices. It would be good to point out now that the Missouri and Arkansas agents are enforcing this regulation based on the above mentioned characteristics. I also noticed that one of visitors stated that spotted bass are hybrids between largemouth and smallmouth. Actually, they are there own true species and not hybrids. There are occurrences of hybrids such as the spotted & smallmouth, which is referred to as the meanmouth. Also, all three species (largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth) are all black bass. I hope this is information that will help your clients as well as other anglers visiting your web site. Keep up the good work and if there is any information that I can provide to you and your web site, please let me know. Take care and let's pray for a lot of good rains this spring, Bull Shoals needs it! P.O. Box 138 West Plains, MO 65775 (417) 256-7161 ext. 277 pratta@mail.conservation.state.mo.us

I tried a Zoom finesse worm in the bucket and it did float better than the roboworm. I guess the salt makes the robo worm heavier. I am going to try the finesse worm first. The Gamakatsu #1 split shot hook looks to be way to small, but That is all bps had on the rack so I guess I'll give them a try. If it stays at least in the low nineties today, I'm going to give this drop rig a try.

thanks for your answer. For some reason I had thought that the worm would be buoyant enough to float above the weight after it hit bottom. I understand the concept much better now.

I have never fished using this method but have recently read much about which hooks and worms work best and how it should be fished. I apologize in advance if this question is just stupid and I am missing the obvious. My question is this: I used a #1 gamakatsu split shot hook and a 41/2 inch robo worm. I put the hook into the worm and dropped it into a bucket of water to see how well it would float. Well it doesn't float it sinks to the bottom. I don't understand how on a slack line the worm would be perpendicular to the line if it doesn't float. What am I missing here?

[quote author=0610030007620 link=1279848879/13#13 d there are no mountian lions in the northeast, i live in NY and i say bull to everybody whos says there are cougars in the northeast

Hi, just a few words to introduce myself. I've been fishing all of my life and I'm six decades old now. I bass fish almost exclusively. I am slow to try new tactics and have decided I'm ready to give some new things a try. So far on this site I have read about drop shot fishing, shaky head, and wacky rigs. I am anxious to try these new methods (new to me anyway) in the 256 acre electric only reservoir where I mainly fish. Thanks for the tips and I'll be asking for more I'm sure.