basslover12345

Hey guys, I have a American bass anglers tournament on Sunday and I was wondering what type of rage tail baits I should think about throwing over all the thick matted grass. The water temperature is in the low 70s with 1-2 feet of visibility. The forecast for sunday is 87 degrees and Sunny.

Ok, I picked up a structure map from the reservoir by my house, but how can you find ledges, offshore humps, rip rap, creek channels, drop offs,humps, etc. What do these places look like on a map with contour lines?

I really have no clue why they like this area this much, I know it has some gravel, with a WEEEEE little bit of current trickling out by a near by drain. Any ideas why this area is so good? Another funny thing is that they would only really hit spinnerbaits that had skirts that had colors like black, chartreuse, yellow, etc. And all I had to do was slow roll it and I would get hit immediately, I caught on on my second cast one day.

Like it says in the title, The fishing has been fantastic around here. I went fishing Monday and tuesday afternoon and started off by nailing a bass on my second cast with a 3/16 ounce spinnrbait with a silver colorado blade, This area I was fishing I think keeps replenishing, because I have been able to nail several bass from this area for two days straight, I think I'm just catching small males that are preparring to move up shallow to spawn, but I don't know because the water is probably from 1-3 feet deep where I'm fishing, and is mixed with a gravel and dirt bottom by a small drain. All I have been doing is slow rolling the spinnerbait and they pounce all over it, same thing with a sexy shad swim jig. The amazing thing is that I haven't needed to use a trailer hook on the spinnerbait. The best colors for me are skirts with black, yellow, and chartreuse. I have only seen one bass on a bed so far this week, Still trying to figure out why there arent more. I think the drop in temperature yesterday put the bass that were on my spot deeper because my strikes on a spinnerbait came in 6 feet of water. I also found a great swimming jig pattern this week in the same exact spot. A spinnerbait is now on of my confidence baits and I now plan on making it part of my arsenal in all the tournaments I enter to catch a quick limit.

Yea, I'll start experimenting a little. The grass that is around where I'm fishing is usually matted a top the surface, but when I throw crankbaits in open water all I bring up is leaves, sticks, grass, etc. I usually fish the crank bait in between 4 and 7 feet.

Ok, After seeing what you have said I realized I am making some mistakes, I've been using 12 pound fluorocarbon, So I will switch to my green spiderwire.

Ok, I really need to get better with crankbaits, there my biggest weakness and I can never really throw then because of all the grass in the lakes/ponds I fish so they have never really been part of my arsenal, I have a whole box of them, but I never use them and when I do they get hung up in grass like crazy and I just gave up eventually. I am getting beaten like crazy in tournaments where crankbaits dominate. Is there any crankbait that I could learn to use with out getting hung up every cast with grass and other snotty stuff? One of my resolutions for 2011 is to catch at least 25 bass on a crankbait, Which will be difficult to do because I have never felt a strike or caught a bass on a crankbait. I mainly fish in depths from 2 to 7 feet in grassy lakes and around grass beds in the summer.

Hey Guys, I want to get into musky fishing and I was wondering what the differences are between the four different species of musky, including Clear, Barred, Spotted, and the hybrid "tiger" muskie and how the coloration differs for each species of Musky and their difference in size, appearence, and Habitat along with their different feeding habits.

I didn't quote anyone?.................. Made it myself

Spring: Towards the end of spring (May) the bass will be spawning around the 70 degree water temperature. Try fishing visible bedding bass. When the spawn ends the bass will be suspended off deeper banks during the Post spawn period and can be found in water up to 10 feet deep and can be found in coves. Generally, around the beginning of May you can find bass in pre-spawn, post spawn, and spawning. Deeper stumps can also hold post spawn bass on this lake. When the water temperature hits 63, or is in that 64-66 degree range in late April the male bass will be on or making beds and the female bass will be staging to spawn. At the end of May when the water is between 65 and 66 degrees the bass will be done spawning and should be in the post spawn period. The bass will be pre-spawn when the water temperature is about 53 degrees and they will be staging in deeper water in about 6 to 10 feet of water. The 65 to 67 degree water temperature will be key for the bass to move up on the beds and spawn. There are several points that extend to deeper water and have submerged stumps that fill up quick with spawning fish in this lake. In the Spring you wont find a ton of grass if any, but you will find tons and tons of Lilly Pads. In Early April You can still catch some bass just a little deeper out off the spawning areas and off the breaks on a texas rigged / Carolina rigged green pumpkin lizard. In early April the water temperature will be from 47 degrees. Around the end of March you will find bass in deep water in their spawning areas Summer: In the summer the bass will readily take top water lures, spinner baits, and you can always find bass up to 25 feet of water that has deep structure. In June the bass will be up to 6 feet off the bank. Light line techniques also work well in the month of June. In both early and late summer bass will be outside the weed lines. Fish will also gather at irregularities in the shoreline. The ledges in the lake that are in 10 to 20 feet of water will also hold good fish. The spinner bait bite is usually the strongest during the month of June. At dusk you can find groups of bass up shallow under over hanging trees and in shallow water. The hotter the water temperature is the deeper the bass will go on this lake. In the summer the bass will be holding on any available structure on this lake. When the water temperature gets up to between 86-89 degrees the bass will be going deep during the day and deeper structure will be key to catching bass. When the water is in the 82 to 86 degree range the bass should be in deep coves and should be hanging around any structure in those coves. You can catch bass on topwater lures In the middle of august in the morning and late evening. In june the grass beds will start forming, becoming very thick Fall: Some bass will be in deeper water by structure, such as wood and you will need to slow down with your presentations. The grass will be dying off and you may be able to catch a few bass by skipping lures over the tops of the grass, such as a weed less spoon in grass that’s sitting in 4 to 12 feet of water. The grass will be growing all the way down to 15 to 18 feet of water. Weed lines in 4 to 10 feet of water can hold large populations of bass this time of year. When the water temperature drops and gets between 60 and 63 degrees the bass will be in that 4 to 12 foot range of water, but you can also find populations of bass in channels that are 20 feet deep. As the water cools in the fall the crankbait bite will become hotter and hotter

After looking back on my fishing logs from last year the spawn I starting really late this year. Here are a few entries from april of last year from my fishing log: April 7th, 2010 Air Temperature: 88 degrees I didn't get anything, but my friend got a spawining Female Largemouth, which was really small on a Rage Anaconda which was 7" and in the Green Pumpkin color. April 9th, 2010 Well, I went out and tried out the Rage Shad and caught 3 bites on that an 1 bite on the rooster. I was fishing with a seven foot six bait caster with 15-pound P-Line Fluorocarbon with a 7:1 Gear ratio reel. I was fishing some thin surface vegetation, Most of the fish I caught were small, short and chunky, one even had a huge gash by its tail. I also had many strikes, but some did not result in hook-ups. I am officially a Rage Shad fan. I was using a Rage shad in the White color. I caught all my fish in about two hours in one spot by some cattails. April 10th, 2010: I think the Bass in the Pond are too used to seeing the color of my Rage Shad, I am using the pearl color. They ate it up yesterday, but won't touch it today! What is another Good Color. I also threw the Smokin Rooster and the Rage toad and got no bites or action! I was fishing the same spot as I was yesterday. I tried fishing it over thick vegetation by cattails where I saw bass Jump earlier, but I didn't get the heart beating action I did Yesterday. I also tried fishing it in open water... April 24, 2010: Caught One bass on White Denny Brauer Premier Pro Model jig on 8-pound test. April 23, 2010: I went out on the water today and while I was fishing one one side of the pond, Bass kept on Jumping on the other side of the bank where the water is only a few inches... So I went to the other side and threw my Strike king tube in and say a bass pick it up by a " Tentacle", so I cut the tube off and tied a strike king Ocho in the Junebug color, Stood back from the bank, Casted the bait past the nest, and reeled it to where I saw the bass before and let it sit....... 3 minutes later I see my line moving, So I set the hook. When I landed the fish I noticed some really small spots on the tail that were bleeding. The bass was not very fat, but long. I was using 8-pound test fluorocarbon. Can anyopne think of any reasons I cant catch a bass from these ponds when I was doing so well as you can see above last year. I have attached a picture of the pond from two summers ago

I live in Olney, MD, about 45 minutes outside D.C. My mom says the Dogwoods in her gardens should be opening up any day now. The ponds I fish are like a ghost town, I haven't see a fish or caught a fish in months

Ok, This week the high for each day reads as following for the next 10 days 58, 76, 52, 62,66, 63, 62, 65, 65, 60 degrees. Would this trigger the bass to move up and Spawn? Last year, here in MD I caught a bass full of eggs out of the shallows on April 7th, but we had an 88 degree Air temperature, an Caught a bloody male bass off a bed April 23 last year in shallow water. Its a high of 60 today here with a 30.09 Barometric pressure. Right now we are supposed to have a full moon April 18 and it has been getting dark at like 7:30 here. The monthly forecast for April looks like it will consistently 68 and 69 degrees. I have started to go through the ponds by my house and make mental notes on where I find stickups and submerged logs along the shoreline. The last I checked on March 29 the water temp was in the Low 50s

Kind of like this one........

I also would like it made with a Matzuo 90 degree chrome sickle hook

I'm looking for a flat jighead with rough sides that are rigid and bumpy with a triangle shaped head thats very thin thats very sharp and pointed like an arrow with a compressed head thats 2 dimensional that has a razor design and I want it to be 1/8 inch thick with paralell sides to cut through the grass like a knife with its thin, narrow/streamlined lead head. Can anyone mold and make something like this for me?

One of the problems I think was that I had my drag on my spinning reel set tp light and when i was trying to reel after feeling the bite and seeing the flash the bass was dfown at the base of the bush wrapping the line around it.

Ok, I went to one of the ponds by my house today, the water was dirtier that it usually is. I went with a Big Tex colored Strike King Rodent rigged with a 1 ounce weight and 17 pound Berkley trilene Monofilament with a EWG Trokar hook and texas rigged the bait. I went over to some shallow brush that was sticking out of the water and repeadetly dropped and brough the Rodent in and out of the brush and when I hesistated the bait in the water column, towards the top of the water colun, I see a big flash and a mouth eat my bait, while this was happening I was talking to bassboy on the phone, so after seeing the flash I set the hook but the bass dove deeper in the brush (the water was about 1 foot) and broke me off. Then, I skipped my strike king ocho under a bush that was hanging over the water, got bite, and once again broke off the bass. Then I went on to try to see if I had found a pattern, the bass being in shallow brush, by trying some more shallow brush and all I kep seeing is these big, bulging wakes coming out of the shallow water brush into deeper water. Any ideas on what I should do and what I did right and what I did wrong? I'm going back today. The water is pretty muddy in the pond.

Its been in the 40 to 50 degree range, is that right for young lillies to start growing, I know of A LOT of coves on my lake that are chock full of pads in the summer

My Strengths: Soft plastic/Finesse presentations with light line, Fishing Jigs, Fishing topwaters, Generally Slow moving baits, shallow water structure My Weaknesses: Spinnerbaits, Crank baits, Deep water fishing, Fishing really fast What should I work on? I really want to improve this year

Where in PA? My grand parents live in elk county with reservoirs them stocked with trout and lots of bass

In terms of jigs, are thicker or thinner skirts best and are glass rattles best on crawfish imitating jigs

It was the magnificent month of May; the dogwood trees were blooming beautifully with bright, vibrant blossoms. The birds were chirping and the bass were spawning in the vast lakes of California. People were packing the shorelines of the many lakes. However no one had the level of determination as one of the many young, ambitious boys on the lake whose name was John Basser. John was an ambitious 14 year old whose only dream was to catch a record breaking bass. John was just like any other teenage boy, and was very tall and muscular, but was one of the nicest boys. John had been busily scouring the shores of the lake for hours on his very own two feet. The lakes name, Lake Talon. Lake Talon was one of the multiple hidden jewels in California and embraced some of the most heavyweight bass in the state of California. John had observed many of his older fishing peers catch these massive fish, but he had never caught one. John was enamored to fish for those big, corpulent, glowing green bass while they were on their beds spawning because they were pretty easy to catch, but John had been eternally plagued by the male bass, which were rather unpretentious than the ponderous female bass he was targeting when they were voluptuous and filled to maximum capacity with eggs. The sun sizzled in the blue sky on a sweltering Friday afternoon and John had just gotten out of school. John had bolted home, picked up his fishing rods and tackle box and bustled to Lake Talon in pursuit of hulking, glowing bass on nests and in anticipation of bringing in a capacious, wriggling bass in. When John arrived at the lake he discerned the bank for nests and pinpointed a colossal, very grandiose bass on a bed on a large shallow flat in crystal clear water and knew this bass could possibly be one to break the world Record. He precariously lurked up on the nest and ensconced in a bush behind the nest with his fishing rod and was on his hands and knees in the bush and peered through the bush at the bass on the bed, the bass was just perched there indolently with an unpretentious male whirling around the mammoth sized watermelon green female bass. John adjudicated to pitch his diminutive, lustrous lure into the nest and let flutter and it settled on the nest for a few minutes and then started to make it quiver steadily and glided it slightly a few minutes and immediately the big watermelon rind colored female soared over making a huge wake. The bass contemplated the shiny metal lure for a few seconds then picked up the lure gently and scrupulously placed the lure outside the nest. John gave the lure a violent jerk back into the center of the nest and the female aggressively plunged over to the lure, picked it up, dropped it softly, and right when John started to make the lure shudder and pulsate, she engulfed it completely with no hesitation and put up a tenacious run. Stripping John's drag on his reel until it was zinging, the bass tried zipping off into deeper water, but John solicitously redirected her around and heaved as hard as he possibly could to bring this fish in. John battled this bass for a prolonged period of time and finally landed it but before that the bass began to wallow on the surface and shot up with a spectacular tail walk but eventually became too exhilarated to fight. The bass was very gargantuan with a belly as big as a football, and was gorged with eggs and had a small stripe like marking under its neck. John abruptly hurried back to the boat ramp knowing that it would be imprudent not to put the bass in a bucket of water and ran over with a grin that stretched across his face and his eyes were as big as baseballs and tried speaking to one of the DNR officers, but was breathing too heavily through his mouth to speak, but finally got his words back and showed him the fish. The DNR officer ended up calling the DNR headquarters and they told him to weigh the bass on one of their certified scales and to call them back. That is a nice bass and I wouldn't be surprised if it challenged the current world record the officer said to John. Once the officer found the certified scale, they placed the bass on the scale and John was very disarming, and hoping that it would indeed break the world record that many anglers like him craved, and once the flow of numbers stopped on the scale it flashed 24.8 pounds and to be sure the DNR officer reiterated the number several times and john did as well, knowing that the world record was 22 pounds, 4 ounces John was thrilled to know that the bass could potentially be the new world record. Son, if this is indeed the new world record largemouth bass, It will take a lot of rigorous work to get this bass certified in the record books and officially declared the World record the officer said to John. John soon realized the fame, money, and endorsements that would come with this big bass he had caught. Sooner than later, as John expected people started crowding around this mammoth sized bass and started flooding John with questions such as asking what he was planning on doing with the bass and how he caught it and what he caught it on. While waiting for the DNR truck to show up people started to snap photographs of John holding up the big bass and the DNR officer also snapped a photo of John holding the big bass to send into the agency. The local newspaper showed up and started to pound John even harder with questions about his big bass and told John that this story would be the headline story in tomorrow's newspaper. Once the Department of Natural resources truck arrived to put the bass in a large 100 gallon Aerated tank in the bed of their truck with all the proper amenities to keep the bass alive to be taken to be observed and weighed one more time to verify the weight of the bass. John would feel very scrupulous and deplorable if the bass died on the way to the laboratory. But John was confident the bass was in good hands. John road to the headquarters with the officers and was told what would be done with the bass. John waited anxiously as the bass was weighed again and being observed by the DNR's chief biologist. When John was called into the room the chief biologist said, John, may I ask what you caught this magnificent bass on? Sure said John, I caught it on a small silver spoon Well John, that is one nice bass and the scales read exactly as they did at the boat ramp, so you have officially broken the current world record, Congratulations! This opiated John because he had finally reached his goal that seemed like it took forever to reach, but he finally had caught the world record bass. The next day the news of John's big bass started spreading quickly and John woke up to be greeted with hundreds of phone calls on his answering machine from people all over the world asking and congratulating him on his magnificent catch. The next day John went to see his big bass in a large tank at the DNR lab and when he arrived there he was told that it would be taken to a large aquarium open to the public in a sporting goods store in Manteca, California which was a 3 hour drive from John's house, but his parents were more than happy to take him too see it and talk to the crowds of people about it and how he caught it. The next morning him and his parents started on their long trek to Manteca and finally got there after 3 hours of driving and when John walked into the store the crowd of shoppers immediately recognized him from the pictures of him that were in the newspapers and started gathering around him as soon as he walked into the door. As soon as john walked up to the large tank he immediately recognized his bass. The bass was swimming around with the rest of the fish; the people that had greeted John at the door when he walked in followed him to the large tank and stared in awe at the big bass swimming in the tank. John started to explain to the crowd how he caught the bass and started talking about the fight the bass put up. After talking to the crowd people flooded John asking for autographs and pictures of him in front of the tank. The next day a issue of Bass'n kid arrived in john's mail and when John picked it up he noticed it had a picture of him holding his big bass on the cover with his name below it and read the story inside. The next day John went to Lake Talon and when he got their other anglers and people started following him around the lake asking him questions and throwing their lures where ever he did and he patiently answered all of their questions, one by one. At the end of the day John was exhausted from being chased around the lake with people who wanted to watch him fish. The next day John received a call from one of his favorite fishing television hosts, Mark Pack, inviting him to come on the show to fish with him on Lake Talon for one of his shows that would be aired a few weeks after the trip, and John immediately accepted the invitation. Three weeks later John met the T.V. station at Lake Talon and took the T.V. host to where he hooked and landed the World record bass and retold the story of him catching it. John and Mark started fishing and mark immediately caught a small bass close to where john landed the world record bass and before releasing the bass Mark faced the camera and gave the bass a big kiss. Throughout the day Mark and John caught many bass, including a 10 pound largemouth bass that Mark caught with John's help. After a long day of fishing the T.V. crew packed up the cameras and left Lake Talon. A few weeks later John and his family watched the show on the bass channel and after the show aired. Later that day John received a call from Met bait Lure Company; which was the company that made the lure John used to catch the world record bass, they asked him if he would be interested in promoting their lures and in return he could get free lures for life.

Count me in

I once saw a place that sold scrap soft plastic lures that could be melted down and poured......... But I can't remember the name. Anyone know of a place like this?