RoLo

I pitch frogs and toads exclusively with spinning gear, but I use a 6'6" MH spinning rod that has the backbone of a casting rod (Lure Wgt: 1/4 to 1 oz <> Line Wgt: 12 to 20-lb) Hydrilla and other submersed plants rarely pose a problem. and I can usually skate bass through spatterdock pads, those are the pads held 'above' the water surface (waterlilies and lotus lie flush to the surface). Okay, in bulrushes and cattails I'll have to take the boat over to a fouled bass, but that would be the case even if I were using my saltwater Penn Slammer (rated to 50-lb). Roger

Was there a Dive Flag in the area, those scuba guys are practical jokers

“Jump fishing” can be as easy as taking candy from a baby or it can be downright frustrating. Last fall we were fishing a whitewater jump that ignored Hopkins Shorties, Tiny Flukes and Spro Aruku Shads. We finally hooked two bass on a plastic worm…go figure! This year during the post-spawn, I watched two anglers working a jump with everything in their box, but to no avail. I suppose I should've told them that it was a “crappie jump”, but that would be meddling…right When large crappies and white bass are balling up bait, they produce a surprising amount of whitewater that fools anglers on a regular basis. Roger

In my view, the rod is a better place to spend extra money for lightness. Ironically, the small percentage of combos that are naturally balanced consist of a featherweight rod and a middleweight reel. Balance is a personal preference, so it's important to understand that shedding ounces from the reel will move the balance point forward, which lends to top-heaviness. Roger

I'm not high on Quantum reels, but the Quantum Tour PT is a dynamite blank. Roger

Berkley 30-lb Fireline Braid (8-lb diameter) Roger

I’ve fished farm ponds in Georgia that resembled the cannibal jungle you described, and I doubt that lure selection will solve your problem. The best thing you can do is practice Catch-and-Keep. By the way, that 6-pounder may have been the Pond Matriarch, that’s a mighty Big bass for your latitude. Roger

Several of our local waters have shorelines that are heavily bordered by lily pads (spatterdock). In this situation, I like the Johnson Spoon dressed with a grub, because of its remarkable weedlessness. We've found that pad density is more important than the lure because bass prefer to hunt where they can see & move. Although bass can be found in the solid pad drifts, they will usually be more concentrated and more active in areas with open density (50% foliage / 50% water). The other locational key is along the outer weed-line, especially where pad growth is congested and unbroken. Roger

The responses to this post look like a lure catalog My favorite lures are in constant rotation, but currently go something like this: > Berkley 10" Power Worm > Spro Aruku Shad (lipless crank) > Strike King Rage Lobster "Jig" wasn't mentioned, but both soft plastics above are rigged on unskirted jigs Roger

I like the Bronze-Eye, Perfect Frog and Boze ZZ Walker, but have grown weary of wringing water out of hollow frogs Today I mostly use the Stanley Floating Ribbit, which is a solid toad, not a hollow frog. If you want the Ribbit to stay afloat at rest, be sure to specify "Floating" ribbit. Roger

"Quiet" lures are normally referred to as clear water lures, for example jerkbaits, because they rely on visual detection. But swimbaits produce good vibrations and can be fished in any water clarity. One thing worthy of note though is that swimbaits appeal more to aggressive bass than passive bass. Roger

PRE-SPAWN You owe me two words ;-) Roger

There are two completely different approaches to Color Selection: 1) One approach is to mimic the colors of some “prevalent creature”. 2) The other approach is to maximize “lure visibility” under the current light levels Bass are opportunistic predators, so I personally prefer the second approach. In order for a bass to seize your lure, it must first see the lure, and must see the lure early enough to react. In low-light conditions, the sight window and reaction time are very brief, so expanding the sight window just a couple inches can sometimes make the difference between a strike and no strike. Objects appear “white” when they reflect back all existing light, objects appear “black” when they absorb all available light, and all the other hues fall somewhere in between. In muddy water and at night, the color and finish of a lure lose their identity, like switching off a light. In low-light situations, instead of clinging to any color or finish, it might be better to strive for maximum “contrast”. Even in so-called Total Darkness, there are always traces of existing light. A lure that’s Pitch Black in color will offer the most "contrast" against other objects, especially against the sky and light-colored bottoms. Roger

This is the kind of discussion I really enjoy, especially over a pitcher of Bud Lite :-) Years ago, when I stepped up from RDF to Loran-C, I purchased a Texas Instruments "single readout" Loran. It Never Failed..whenever I needed the latitude for positioning the boat, the longitude was being displayed, and vice versa. The young fellows today will never know just how good they have it :-) Roger

Wayne, I'm quite familiar with the tactics you outlined above (nice job btw). Back in my saltwater days, I did a lot of sonar work over shipwrecks using graph & stylus sounders (in the day of RDF). I will say this, if it works for you, don't change a thing. I fish about 25 natural lakes in central Florida. Over the years I’ve accumulated numerous coordinates of proven holding sites. Few if any of my waypoints have been established by the sight of fish, which are mostly onsite GPS saves based on bottom contour (structure) and ambient cover. I find largemouth bass to be very residential homebodies. Year-after-year they stage in the same pre-spawn spots and spawn on the same bedding flats. During the summer season, they are always located at the holding sites I have stored in my Summer Itinerary, and the same holds true for my Winter Itinerary. By no means is that to imply that I always catch bass, BOY, wouldn't that be nice?. If a proven waypoint fails to produce, it’s not for lack of bass, but for lack of “catchable” bass at the moment. Returning to the same coordinates later in the day will often produce bass that have since switched to a feeding mode. Thanks to their consistent behavior, every bass we boat, in every lake we fish, has come from the same boring list of waypoints, year-after-year-after-year. In my particular case, the Atlantic Ocean has been the ultimate teaching grounds. Even when we sought highly nomadic species like tuna and bluefish, we consistently scored in the same handful of small localized hotspots, year-after-year. Fortunately, game fish and baitfish both gravitate to the same bottom contour and cover, nature's way of assuring that they cross paths. Running at high-throttle from waypoint-to-waypoint might appear like running-and-gunning, but it’s more like threading-a-needle where there are many needles far apart. On a few occasions I knew positively that I caught the same fish I was watching on the sounder, because the fishing line was visible in the transducer cone. However, in the shallow lakes of Florida, you will rarely be fishing in the transducer cone. With the obvious exception of suspended bass, attempting to see bottom-oriented bass on the depth sounder, is cost ineffective on natural lakes, time deducted from actual fishing time. If you were to join me on a natural lake in Florida, I think you'd soon lose your interest in the sonar screen. Most of the day you’d be staring at tall, jagged weed-beds piled under the transducer. Tweak the Gain knob as you will, any trace of a lurking bass would be obliterated by the dense vegees. In fact, the bottom signal will be intermittently blocked by dense weed growth. Other than that, you would be casting into fields of lily pads far away from the transducer cone, where even side-imaging sonar would be badly compromised in that stalk jungle. Roger

So you really believe that your depth sounder will tell you if catchable bass are in casting distance? In any fertile lake, fish will be marking practically anywhere you go, but that gives you no clue as to fish species and no clue as to fish disposition (aggressive or sedentary). I can't remember the last time I actually seen a bass on the sonar that I subsequently brought into the boat. The best bottom contour map at your disposal is your depth sounder. It is real-world, and it is spot-on. Once you establish waypoints based on bottom contour and cover, the presence of bass is a foregone conclusion. Roger

To my mind, there's a vast distinction between "hard" jerkbaits and "soft" jerkbaits. A "hard" jerkbait is a Diving Plug that is cranked to a predefined depth. In addition, hard jerkbaits are available in three versions: Floating, Suspending (neutrally buoyant) and Sinking. Since the hooks on a hard jerkbait are exposed they tend to offer easier hook-sets, but they are "Non-Weedless" lures. In stark contrast, "soft" jerkbaits are Non-Diving lures made of Sinking plastic that may be counted down to any depth. Though hooksets may not be as easy, "soft" jerkbaits are "Weedless" lures that are better suited to weed-beds and heavy cover. Roger

I was a tool & die maker in my former life, and we used diamond tools nearly every day, if only to dress an aluminum oxide grinding wheel for form grinding. Industrial grade diamonds are stained and unclear, and for this reason they're far cheaper than gemstones but are still number "10" on the hardness scale. With increased hardness however comes increased brittleness or cleavage. Although diamond guides are used on stationary machinery, they're not well suited to mobile gadgets like fishing rods. Tungsten Carbide is a manmade material, in fact it's second only to diamond on the Hardness Scale (1 to 10). Guide inserts made of tungsten carbide are used mainly for wire-trolling and big game outfits built on E-glass blanks. For freshwater fishing, silicon carbide is really all that's ever needed, those labeled "SiC", which stands for Silicon Carbide. On one of my saltwater boats, I stashed my rods vertically beneath an elastic lash. One day my cuff momentarily snagged one of the rod tips, The rod snapped back to the center console and the impact shattered the top two silicon carbide inserts. That's brittle enough for me..LOL The word "braid" in isolation says very little. Braided "Kevlar" was the culprit that eroded every guide insert softer than Ziroconium PVD. Unfortunately, the braid stigma carried over to "Polyethylene" braid which never even eroded Hardloy inserts. Nah, we don't need diamond guide inserts. . Roger

As simple as it sounds, substituting the name Fish-Finder with "Depth Sounder" gives a cleaner grasp of the whole concept. The depth sounder, water thermometer and GPS unit are all involved in "fish-finding", but looking directly for bass on the sonar unit is usually a recipe for disappointment. It's not a bad idea to disable the 'Fish Icon' option then focus on interpreting the raw signals. from your particular sounder. Four events are especially important: Depth Increases The more rapid the depth change, the better the holding site (gradient and range) Depth Decreases This is just the reverse of a depth increase, and here too, gradient and range determine the value of the slope. Submerged Cover On a natural lake this will usually be weed-beds (submersed vegetation), but on impoundments the underwater cover might include stumps, standing timber, a blowdown, rockpile, sunken bridge and so on. Suspended Fish The first three events are fixed and repeatable, but fish in suspension are mobile. Sonar can distinguish baitfish from game fish, but cannot identify species nor distinguish between feeding fish and sedentary fish. Roger

Very Nice Videos! You remind me of bass we've caught on Suicks in Canada (not as big as your bass though). BTW sand is murder on reels, I'd recommend laying the reel down on a grass tussock. Roger

I throw the standard Brush Hog but don't remember throwing the Baby Brush Hog (I'm sure I have). In my experience the standard 6” Brush Hog is no better or worse than any other creature bait. I have a hunch that the calling card of the Brush Hog is that twin grub tail, because the rest of the lure has a kind of prosthetic appearance Roger

Most night-fishing I've done has been during the summertime and on natural lakes rather than deep reservoirs. After the splashabouts are off the water, bass on the shallow flats are more receptive. I prefer black lures at night which contrasts nicely against the lighter sky. I also like "topwaters" which give me full control over the time I can spend in one spot. Among my favorite nocturnals are the Arbogast Jitterbug and Magnum Pop-R.. Roger

Never lay one of those on the ground...I mean rabbits are everywhere

Since my deer archery days I use only 100% Deet but apply it sparingly as needed (focus on active ingredients not brand). Roger

Good topic, Captain: I’ve had several first-timers on my boat, mostly coworkers and old friends. Closer to home, I introduced my daughter Dawn to fishing as soon as she was able to walk. During her early childhood Dawn was exposed mainly to freshwater fishing, but by the time she reached her teens I took her on many offshore trips. My daughter married a non-fishing husband, but remarkably she convinced him to take a fishing vacation in Canada at Rideau Lakes. Today she has two boys who also pursue fishing. A good sport, Dawn poses with a slimy carp in her lap. A little older, she's hoisting her doormat fluke (summer flounder) A lot older, Dawn is holding a 7-lb weakfish she caught off Sandy Hook, New Jersey (northern seatrout) Roger