RoLo

Welcome to the forum Billbies 'Location' is key, and although you've gotten several lure suggestions, I'd base my game plan on location. Clear water is normally tougher to fish than dingy water, but the scenario you descibed really simplifies location. During spring and fall, most activity will center on the drop-off along the "inner" weed-edge. During summer and winter though, I'd be more interested in the "outer" weed-edge on the drop, which in gin clear water might be 12 to 18 ft deep. Even in crystal clear water though, that shallow ledge will be alive during the spawn and at night, As for lures, it's best you choose your own weapon Roger

Even though you're fishing a jig, you're not compelled to use a bottom-drag or bottom-hop retrieve. For instance, you could rig a glide craw on a swim jig (with or without a skirt), and use a crank-&-glide retrieve. In this manner, your swim jig will spend most its time gliding "near-bottom" with intermittent bottom-contact. If possible though, I would avoid muck, silt and other soft bottoms and focus on firm bottom areas. Roger

Bowfin are scornfully called 'mudfish', but they’re definitely in the game fish caliber. I can certainly understand why an angler would deliberately target bowfin, but those we've caught have been a bycatch of bass fishing. Bowfin will seize most any lure meant for bass, but typically hit harder and fight harder than a bass of equal size. On a low note, bowfin are not conducive to 'thumb-landing' In our experience at least, timing is a more important factor than lure choice. In central Florida, the month of 'April' is the heart of the bowfin season when they invade the shallow sloughs, but after that they seem to melt away. Roger

Tim is so right, "flexibility" is a valuable asset in this crazy game we call "fishing" Roger.

Before I would agree or disagree with anyone, I would read the entire thread. "ChromeDog" is the original poster, and though he's not obligated to disclose the reason for his question, he made it very clear (five posts above). As you can see, "sink rate" was interjected into the thread through off-topic responses, isn't that called 'hijacking'? Roger

Agreed, I just feel that the 'bulk' of this debate has not revolved around the original question, Analyzing the motive for a member's question is not a substitute for an answer (isn't that HIS business?). Roger

You might be wasting your time Raul, but if you choose science over bickering, I'm going to compare your results to those from my powder scale. . . Roger

In truth, I have no favorite worm color because the best hue for conditions is a moving target. When fishing in deep water &/or dingy water, I prefer a dark color. But in shallow water &/or clear water I'll lean to the lighter colors. Roger

That might be a tad redundant. The main reason for adding salt is to increase lure weight, which in turn increases the descent rate. As for density, it would be difficult to increase the density of any substance without also increasing its weight. With respect to the sink-rate of the lure alone, I'd say that 'Weight', 'Shape' & 'Action' pretty much cover the field. To appreciate the difference in water resistance caused by 'lure action', compare the descent rate of a nose-hooked worm to the same worm after it's wacky-rigged Roger

Rather judge your question, I went to the scale and weighed some lures Lures weights are notoriously variant, so I weighed several lures to give you a mean weight: Zoom 4" Super Fluke Jr.......67 grains Yamamoto 5" Senko...........164 grains At 67 grains, the 4" fluke falls between 1/8 oz (55 grains) and 3/16oz (80 grains) At 164 grains, the 5" senko weighs exactly 3/8 oz, which is 165 grains. Roger

Surface temperature readings are useful during the spring and late fall, but are not so useful during the summer, Bass are shallow during the spring (epilimnion) a time when surface temperatures are simlar to temperatures at fish level. The same is true during late fall after the turnover. During the summertime though, surface water temperature will normally be quite different from the temperatures at fish level. If you lower your thermometer into fish depth, remember to add a hook just in case you get a strike Roger

> Kevin VanDam...Largemouth bass > Al Lindner............All other freshwater species > Al Ristori..............Saltwater game fish I'd love to take Kevin to Lake Walk-in-Water, a trophy bass water in Florida that has no appreciable contour and no appreciable cover Roger

Actually, a "roll cast" is used in fly-fishing. With the rod held vertical (tip at noon), the tip is lowered briskly until the rod is horizontal to the waterline. Because it eliminates the back-cast, the 'roll cast' is great for fishing in front of a tree-line. Roger

My dad was an accomplished trout angler, caught monster carp on a fly-rod and also loved saltwater angling.. He passed in 1964, so he was never exposed to the fishing knowledge and equipment we have at our disposal today. I'm eternally grateful that he introduced me to hunting and fishing, but with respect to bass fishing I'm totally self-taught . Roger

Welcome to the forum sava You had remarkable luck with your Dardevles, I guess that shows that bass don't read the same books we do. Actually, spoons were always great bass lures but their popularity has waned somewhat over the years. A spoon I use a lot today is the weedless Johnson Spoon rigged with a grub trailer. They traverse lily pads like no other.lure. Was your Dardevle weedless and was it dressed with feathers? Roger

It's my opinion that one of the biggest problems with 'jigs' is semantics. I've been on the boards for a long while, but the definition of a 'jig' is just as muddy today as it was in 2005. Ask yourself this one simple question: "What Is A Jig?" The 'jig' per se is not the lure, but is a "weighting system" in which the sinker & hook are unitized. With that in mind, there are Weedless jigs, Non-weedless jigs, Skirted jigs, Uskirted jigs, Bucktail jigs, Marabou jigs, Bullet-head jigs, Football jigs, Arky jigs, Ball-head jigs....ad nauseam. Fully 90% of the jigs I personally use are "unskirted" and have "no weedguard", yet they are nonetheless 'jigs'. Unfortunately, our sport has no name for jigs with a "Z-bend shank", but I refer to them as "T-Rig Jigs". The jig may be rigged with any soft-plastic the angler desires, which in fact represents the 'lure'. Roger

Seaguar is probably the most popular fluoro line, and seaguar Tatsu is arguably the best (but expensive) In any case, I'd recommend "Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon". Roger

Sounds like a brake-setting issue

30/30 over a 270? Oh That's Right, Texas brush country Roger

Hmm..let me give it a wild stab: ROD------Penn Torque REEL-----Penn Conquer Roger

Like most anglers, my first experience with braided line was PowerPro, a company I've never heard of before that. I was immediately hooked, but it took me a while to realize that it wasn't PowerPro that I loved, it was polyethylene braid. To make a long story short, I moved up to Fireline Tracer Braid produced by the same company that makes Trilene XL, a line I used happily for about 50 years (great mono). Today I use 30-lb Fireline Braid for just about everything. Thirty-pound Fireline (not all line-tests) is 8-strand braid, very round, very smooth, and there's no "line-burrowing"...never. I use spinning gear and find 'line-twist to be nonexistent while 'bunch knots' are very rare (count them on 1 hand for the season) If you wish you can add a fluoro leader to the braided main line, but in bright sunlight the fluoro leader will likely be easier to see than the braid (embedded message there). To help the angler see his braided line, Berkley produces "Tracer" braid which is alternately colored green-and-gold every couple feet. All braided lines fade over time, but the biggest pain by far is that all braids wrap around anything and everything they contact, but I suppose that comes with the territory. On the other hand, we've used a few thousand yards of Fireline Tracer Braid, and I have no idea what anglers mean by "bleeding color". Roger

I hear ya. When I lived in Edgewater, FL blacktip sharks would build-up along the beach every July (Ponce Inlet and a mile south). They were shallow and some of them made spinning leaps like the spinner shark (nothing compared to the Makos in Jersey). But just like you said, we're getting too old for this Roger

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you work for PowerPro before Berkley? Hey Dodge, can I call you 'Flipflop' from now on :D Roger

Shimano = Good Stuff (rods & reels)

There's also a way to plump and liven nightcrawlers, right on the lake. Take along a bag of ice cubes and a small container filled with bottled water.(tap water contains chlorine). Before rigging the crawler, drop it into the container with an ice cube. A couple minutes in the ice-water and the crawler will spring to life and balloon noticeably. Roger