CoBass

Inline spinners or a 1/4 oz chrome colored Kastmaster work well on stocker trout around here. Any kind of erratic action on the Kasty will usually generate plenty of action. If you don't want to use a fly-rod you can always use a fly and bubble.

Here's how I approached a similar situation. I drove around the neighborhood specifically "targetting" the lakefront properties. I saw an older guy sitting on his porch enjoying a cold one. I hit the nearest liquor store and picked up a six of what I saw him drinking and came back to talk to him with the beer in tow. I had a beer with him and asked about the lake. He gave me quite a bit of info about the lake and I left with a guest pass that gave me access to the entire lake. I fished that lake for five years and every once in a while I'd stop by with a six for him. If he wasn't home, I'd just leave it on his porch. Worked like a charm.

The sunglasses stories reminded me of something I did last summer. I was shore fishing along a dam and when the sun got below the top of the dam I took my shades off and put them on the baseball cap I was wearing. A few minutes later a bee started buzzing around my face and without thinking I grabbed the brim of my hat and swatted at the bee. I saw a splash about fifteen feet in front of me and realized I had just sent my $100 shades into the lake.

I fish ultralight quite a bit, I enjoy the challenge of landing fish on light tackle. I use heavier gear as well when I fish waters that I know hold larger fish but in Colorado, those waters are few and far between. Fighting a 2-3 lb fish on 4 lb line can be quite a challenge. When I first started bass fishing I was all about heavier tackle but it got kind of boring winching in 3 lb fish on 20 lb braid. No challenge to that at all. If I fished tournaments I'd be using heavier gear but for fun fishing the ultralight is a blast. A fishing buddy of mine is an ultralight master. He currently holds the state record smallie at 6 lbs 11 oz. He caught in on an ultralight set-up with four pound test.

I've been wasting my time on the shore all winter long. I've been catching bass too. Even pulled a few out though the ice. The cold water will slow the bite way down but even in the dead of winter they have to eat, just not as often. Spending a day on the water is never a waste of time.

Rainbow trout colored jerkbaits are absolutely deadly for browns in my neck of the woods. Kastmasters and inline spinners are also very effective. If you're into live bait, bouncing a chunk of nightcrawler a foot or two below a few split shots will produce good results. Cast upstream and let the current bounce the crawler along the bottom. Use the lightest line you can get away with.

DFG stupidity isn't exclusive to California. Where I live (Colorado) our DOW has decided that northern pike are bad so they removed all bag,possession,and size limits state wide. They have also opened them up to bow-fishing. If that wasn't bad enough, in order to save the Colorado pike-minnow (largest member of the minnow family), they have started an all out extermination of all northern pike and small mouth bass in the Yampa river. From Spring through Fall they run shocking boats down the river and collect and kill all northerns and smallies. They have been doing this for close to 10 yrs and studies have shown no improvement in the pike minnow population. The only thing they have accomplished with this project is wasting millions of dollars and ruining a world class northern and smallie fishery. In order to increase the numbers of kokanee salmon in our state, the DOW is also gill netting and killing lake trout over 30 inches in lakes where they collect the salmon for milking and egg production. They are killing huge trophy fish that take decades to grow to trophy size to save another non-native species that can't even survive without human intervention. Without the collection of millions of eggs, the kokanee would not be able to survive here. I feel your pain on the stripers but California is definitely not alone when it comes to idiots in charge of our fish and game.

Canadian goose. Swam right across my line then panicked and got himself tangled/snagged around his leg. Trust me, trying to untangle an angry goose from your line is not an easy thing to do without getting bit.

I target bass until ice-on and then I go for trout in a faster moving river where ice is rarely a problem. So I guess my answer would be I'm never done for the year.

Well over 1,000 if you count dinks. I had a very good year with a lot of time on the water.

When I target trout with spinning gear I usually go with small, rainbow trout pattern jerkbaits. Rapala makes some really nice ones. Bigger trout love to eat small trout. Experiment with different retrieves until you figure out what works. If that doesn't work, try the good old fly and bubble. When it comes to flies, bigger isn't always better. Some of the biggest trout around here are caught on flies/nymphs in the 18-22 size range. Also, trout can be extremely line shy, I rarely fish heavier than 4 lb test when I'm targeting trout.

Couldn't agree with you more NBR. That is what really bothered me. Twelve year old kid catches a state record fish and instead of congratulating him and encouraging him people were blasting him because of his method of catch.

Using a 6'6" ultralite rod and an Okuma stx20 reel spooled with 4 lb test I can cast a 3 inch grub on a 1/16th oz jig head a good 20-30 yds (without a bobber)depending on the wind. The longer, lighter rod can really whip those smaller baits quite a distance. On a side note, UL fishing isn't just for pan fish. A fishing buddy of mine recently caught the Colorado state record SMB (6lbs 11 oz) on a 4 1/2 foot long St. Croix UL rod using 4 lb test and a 3 inch jerkbait. The Ul is the only rod he uses and he regularly targets big fish with that set-up.

Roadwarrior...I agree that there are a lot of meat hunters here but they tend to be more in the walleye/stocker trout crowd. Both species are stocked in the tens of millions yearly with the expectation that many will be kept. For example, the lake that I do most of my walleye fishing at receives 3 million walleye fry every year and it's only 800 surface acres. The bass community is small by comparison and most guys realize that with the limited stocking of bass here, C&R is the way to go. Likewise, most of the serious trout guys are C&R and they don't bother fishing for stockers in the lower elevation put and take reservoirs. You'll find them up in the mountains hunting bigger fish in the rivers and streams. It's really unfortunate that with all the snow we get here, most of the water winds up in other states. It's all about water rights. So much so that in order to satisfy water rights that Kansas and Nebraska have, one of our best warm water fisheries (Bonny Reservoir) is currently being drained and will not be refilled so those two states can have the water. I'm really envious of you southern boys who have what seems to be an endless supply of water to fish in.

I rarely fish minnows, maybe once or twice a year when the bite is really slow. I guess my real question was about the attitude towards it where you live. I'v lived in Colorado pretty much my entire life and I've never seen as much animosity towards live bait as I have here. Not sure why that is.

Living in Colorado, the majority of fisherman here target trout or walleye. The bass community is pretty small but for some reason the idea of using shiners or any other form of live bait is seriously frowned upon. Last year a 12 year old kid caught the state record smallie on a minnow. He got blasted on our local forums for setting a record with live bait. This year, his record was broken by a friend of mine using a jerk bait. The local forums were very busy with guys who were so happy that the record was broken by a "real fisherman" because he caught it on a lure instead of live bait. I've been to Fla. several times and have seen some monster bass caught on live shiners. In your opinion, does live bait fishing for bass make you less of an angler? I fish artificials 99% of the time, but if the bite is dead and others are catching fish on minnows I have no problem throwing a shiner on and going that route. I have also bass fished in other states and have never seen the level of animosity towards live bait that I see here. I'm not sure if it's a byproduct of all the fly fisherman here or if we just have a bunch of elitist ****** bags here who think their way is the only way. What do you guys think?

I fish bass until I can't find open water then I switch gears and go for trout in the unfrozen rivers. Not nearly as much fun as bassin but it feeds the addiction until the thaw.

Two days ago I had a five pounder just about rip my rod out of my hand when he inhaled the little 6 inch dink that I had hooked on a curly tail grub. Ripped the poor little guy right off my line without getting hooked. Happened right in front of me in about 18 inches of water. It was one of those "No way that just happened" moments.

I've modified my hookset for wacky rigging and it really upped my hook up ratio. Instead of a sweeping motion or the swinging for the fences, rip their lips off hookset, I simply drop my rod tip just enough to create a little bit of slack, then pop it straight up. The popping action is all wrist, not the power hookset using biceps and forearm strength. To me, it feels like I'm applying a lot more speed than power to the hook. But as someone said earlier, its an exposed hook so you don't need to load up on it as much to get penetration. I will say that I'm in a similar situation to the original poster. Anything over fifteen inches is considered a pretty respectable bass in my neck of the woods. Not sure how well this would work on larger fish.

$20 in three days? I've done worse than that in 15 minutes. Every bait I buy I consider a rental. I know I'm gonna lose it eventually. Besides, it gives me an excuse to go buy more stuff. I never understood how women can own 200 pairs of shoes and still think they need more, until I looked at my tackle collection.

In that situation I probably would have handled in the way you did because of the kids. I had a similar situation whith a guy who even though I didn't leave, he kept moving closer and casting his bobber closer every time I caught a fish until he was practically on top of me. His bobber somehow managed to crack in half and sink when it got hit by a half ounce rattletrap. Not sure how that happened, I'm usually much more accurate with my casting...lol. After his second bobber sank to the bottom, he got the hint and moved back to where he started.

The shad have been very productive for me this year. The craws produced a few nice fish this Spring but they haven't landed me nearly as many fish as the shad.

Not just trash and line. I had to hold a 2yr old kid down at work the other day while a doctor removed a 2/0 hook from his toe. He was just walking around a pond and stepped on it. Unfortunately, the hook had some line attached to it that had the other end tangled in some brush. Kid tried to pull his way free and really buried that hook.

Agree with Ratherbfishing. Even if you want to target smallies for now they will hit on a lot more than just jigs. It's a good place to start for them but just like largemouth, different techniques for different conditions. Being able to adapt to the conditions will increase your success.

I feel your pain. I was killing at a local pond for the past few weeks. Weather got really hot and the bite just died. None of my summer patterns are working and it doesn't seem to matter if its morning or evening, the bite is just plain slow. Don't worry, it'll come back eventually.