RoLo

The Havoc Fatty has been on my next Buy Order list It was designed by Bobby Lane (he’s been tearing it up here in Florida) who essentially beefed-up the scrawny body of the Chigger Craw. The Berkley Fatty is rumoured to move like a Paca Craw, but I really hope not. Although the paca craw catches bass, at high-speeds the paca is reminiscent of a double-tail grub and at slow speeds it gets loose & floppy, like the flippers of a dead turtle Roger

The plastic craw I use depends on how it's going to be fished. For penetrating dense weeds and mats, I like the Zoom Big Critter Craw. It's arguably the most streamlined of craws and is made of buoyant plastic to boot. You may recall, that's the lure Preston Clark used to set the 4-day BASS record (since broken). For cranking and gliding in midwater, I like the Strike King Lobster. Many prefer the Rage Craw believing that the lobster may intimidate smaller bass. I wish that were true, but the little rascals whack the lobster too. Roger

For someone who says he's new to bass fishing, your choice of lures is excellent. Ironically, if you ask 10 anglers what lures to use, you will get 10 answers. Okay, let's make it eleven. We're now out of the winter season, so I personally would favor the "plastic worm" I don't know why, but no matter what bass are feeding on, they have trouble passing up a worm.. Conveniently, there are worms for every occasion: Cranking-& Gliding (sickle-tail worm), Vertical Delivery (stick worm), Weed Punching (paddle-tail worm), Bottom Dragging (shaky worm), etc. Roger

Yeah, I know what you're looking for, but you're really the guy in the best position. It all revolves around finding the most effective depth & speed "Of-The-Day" through trial & error. The lure is just a tool for providing different depths, speeds & actions. If you asked KVD the same quiestion, he'd likely shrug his shoulders and tell you that he needs a couple hours on the lake. When KVD fished a tourney here in Florida, he changed his depth and speed in one day, probably more often that you and I would in a week (man's a machine gun) Roger

First off, I’m confident that you’ll enjoy Perry’s course, because all education is money well spent. The best approach is to read everything you can, and then form all your own opinions. Like any sport, it's always fun to place someone on a pedestal, but can also be dangerous when it interferes with free-thinking. STRUCTURE Over the years I’ve engrossed the writings of most of the angling greats such as Jason Lucas, Homer Circle, Buck Perry, Bill Binkleman, Al Lindner, Doug Stange, Larry Dahlberg, right up to Kevin VanDam. Without exception, each and every one of these guys (before and after Perry) focused their game on Bottom Contour, Weedy Cover, Woody Cover, Rocky Cover, Bottom Breaks, Thermal Breaks and Clarity Breaks. Perry reinvented the word “Structure” as it might apply to the angling world; a looser definition as it were. Today, the word “structure” has become a catchall hidey-hole with little specificity. Although the word itself has been mired in mystery, structure fishing is easy and finding structure isn't much harder than finding your house. Among its many definitions, the strongest sense of the term “structure” (first listed) "Something built or erected by man”. That raised another red flag for me. Buck spent the lion’s share of his time fishing manmade impoundments, whereas I spend most of my time on natural lakes, Natural lakes are festooned with weedy cover and bottom contour, but you'd be hard put to find any sunken roadbed, submerged barn, culvert or bridge ('Structure' in the truest sense) DAILY MIGRATION THEORY I read Perry’s stuff in real-time, so anything I quote refers to his “original” writings before any editing or massaging. In the 1960s, Perry spoke of a so-called “sanctuary” in 30 to 35 feet of water where bass spent most of their time. He suggested that once or twice every day, bass would “migrate” from their deepwater sanctuary onto a food-shelf in 8 to 10 ft of water or less. Since that time however, there have been numerous radio-tracking studies. Telemetry research is an expensive high-tech proposition with no motive for biased results. I have yet to read or hear about a single telemetry study suggesting any form of "daily shuttle" between deepwater and shallow water. On the contrary. radio-tracking results only reaffirm the notion that largemouth bass are basically sedentary homebodies, that make only seasonal adjustments. Strangely, most radio-tracking studies do encounter a handful of transient oddballs. A few bass will embark on an inexplicable journey, in some cases, crossing the entire lake. Noteworthy is the fact that in spite of changing water depths, these isolated nomads moved laterally without changing their depth (distance below surface). This is not surprising though, when we consider the constraints imposed by the 'oxycline', the 'thermocline', and closer to home, the bass's 'swim bladder', which impedes rapid depth change. Roger

Rather than suggesting any lures or tactics, it might be more helpful if I tried to shed some light on the seasonal periods. Typically there's a brief period of tough fishing immediately after the spawn. But predicting the length of that doldrum is not feasible because of the generous overlap in the three subseasons (pre-spawn - spawn - post-spawn) In any case, the slow period is soon followed by fast fishing with small bass, they're the same buck bass you were catching during the pre-spawn before the cows arrived. By the late post-spawn period, the old cows will have recouped their strength and regained their appetites. Though it's not flauanted very much, the action with sow bass during the "late" post-spawn is very similar to prespawn action. but of course without the roe. You're in Calfornia somewhat above my latitude. If you’re dealing with Florida-strain bass and not northern-strain bass, your water temps are not too high. Right now in central Florida we have 80 to 82-deg water temps. The bass here have yet to reach their late post-spawn peak (they're peaking right now in Okeechobee to the south). Roger

Stop fishing in the mornings and evenings

Welcome to the forum I’ve read Buck Perry's book entitled “Spoonplugging”, and read all the articles he wrote for Fishing Facts magazine and In-Fisherman magazine (in real-time). Without a doubt, Buck was a free-thinker who incepted many new angling concepts. Like Jason Lucas before him, Buck Perry was a pioneer of several innovative angling theories. I should point out however that several of Buck Perry's major theories have since been disproven by more than one radio-tracking study. In any case, his basic fishing concepts are instructive, and though you might have to read between the lines, his writings are worth your time Roger

Nice going fellows...way to go Roger

There's really no limit to the scope of fishing experiences that we angling incorrigibles might amass. In the real-world, no one opinion can be berated, and no one opinion is carved in stone. In keeping with my motto since 2005: WHO is right is not important...WHAT is right is all that matters. In the clinical world of facts, braided polyethylene (super line) is the thinnest fishing line available. “Line-watchers” commonly badmouth braided line for the dubious reason that it's difficult to see. Hmmm, do fish see braided line better than fishermen? Paradoxically, when sunlight strikes fluorocarbon line on a hostile angle, to me at least, it resembles a glowing icicle! Does it look the same to fish? During every microsecond of our angling experience, uncountable variables are in play that affect our catch-rate. We can strain our brain, but we'd be lucky to identify 30% of all possible variables. Humorously, while the angler may be paying attention to line visibility, bass must accept the sight of snap-swivels, rattleboxes, weedguards and free-swinging treble hooks. This behooves the question, if bass are willing to accept the sight of all these obtrusive offenders, why should the sight of a thin filament sound the death knell? I look at it this way, in every comparison, something 'has to' win. For example, a long-term, in-depth study may fail to pinpoint any strong correlation with success, 'except one'. Let's suppose the only strong correlation found was that 80% of bass were caught by anglers wearing a "beige" shirt. Based on solid statistical evidence, would this justify a box of "beige" shirts via express delivery? You bet it would ... Roger

I'm glad you mentioned that. Even in saltwater, the hook may not disintegrate during the fish's lifetime. What's even worse, are the ole salts who use stainless steel hooks. If you're referring to J-hooks, I certainly agree with that, but it’s a little different with circle hooks. With J-hooks, the angler is free to match the hook-size to the lure or bait. With circle hooks, the "lip thickness" of the target fish should also be considered. Ideally of course, the tucked-in point of the circle hook will glide through the gullet and mouth. Then as the circle hook exits the mouth, it pivots around the lip where the tucked-in point can't hide anymore. The thinner the lip, the quicker and better the hook will pivot on exit, but if the fish’s lip is too fat for the hook-bite, it may fail to stick a landing. Roger

Holy Cow! Congrats on a red-letter day Roger

Back in the day, my bluewater stomping grounds was the New York Bight (BA Buoy - Mudhole - Monster Ledge - False Canyon ~ ~). During that era, braided Nylon and braided Dacron were readily available, but braided Polyethylene was not (No super lines back then). Save the leader, all my tuna & shark fishing was done with Ande clear nylon mono. As mentioned above, a smooooth drag is a must when battling powerful fish on stretchy nylon. In addition, I normally wore a gimbal belt and shoulder harness when standup fishing, so drag surge was never overwhelming. That said, if I were bluewater fishing today, I'd opt for braided polyethylene (same as freshwater). Conventional wisdom is to remove ALL slack line before setting the hook. However this advice has its roots in rubbery nylon mono, where you can't afford any loss in hook-set stroke, but really doesn't apply to braid. . Roger

That's an insightful account Lund Explorer, and one that strikes remarkably close to home, Your priorities are certainly in order. Kudos to Jackie's hawg bass, I believe we’re now talking about two keepers Roger

Nice Job Dustin I probably would've lost the bass AND blown into the riprap :grin: Roger

Nice to see that you're back in action, Dwight. First bronzeback of the season, and already the bar is at a lofty height Roger

Nice Work Tholmes! Boy, they grow'em fat in Kansas. Roger

Jig weights and hook weights are important because they determine the sink rate of our lure. Fortunately, the weight variation among lures from the same mold is insignificant. More worrisome though are "mislabeled" weights, which I see more and more. Very recently I fetched a new package of 1/4oz jigheads to replenish my tackle box. The jigs looked curiously chubby so I ripped open the package and dropped one on the scale. Sure enough, they were 3/8oz jigs mislabeled as 1/4oz jigs and this was Owner (not a fly by night) One day last year while redear fishing I discovered that my BPS round-shot was mislabeled. The package was marked “3/0” but was actually No.7 shot, which is twice the weight (19 vs. 9 grains). For years I used a postal scale for saltwater tackle (grams), but now use an RCBS powder scale for all weight sorting (1oz = 437 grains) The precision of the powder scale allows me to segregate tiny shot and small hooks that weigh only a few grains. BTW: It isn't necessary to obtain the weight of each item, but simply use the scale as a comparator. Set the scale midway between the two candidate weights, and the beam will either bang the top or not budge at all. Roger

Trouble is, neither shorts nor a T-shirt help me feel any WARMER Good hearing from you again Vince Roger

-------------------Floating Worm Shootout------------------ WORM BRAND-----------------------------------------BUOYANCY------WORM WGT------ACTUAL LENGTH Strike King 7” Floating 3x Worm-----------18 grains-----------87 grains-----------6-1/4“ (Discontinued) Strike King 7” Finesse 3x Worm------------13 grains-----------93 grains-----------6.0” Gambler 7” Big Stick-------------------------------8 grains----------122 grains----------6-3/4” BPS Tournament 6” Floating Worm--------7 grains-----------70 grains------------6.0” Roboworm 6” Zipper Worm---------------------3 grains-----------115 grains----------6-1/2” Gambler 7” Floating Worm----------------------2 grains-----------110 grains----------6-7/8” BUOYANCY The amount of weight required to sink the worm (1/64oz = about 7 grains) WORM WEIGHT Only useful for casting an unweighted topwater worm Strike King’s old 3x “Floating” worm was the clear winner, but is no longer in production. Among the top two worms in production, it’s really a tough call. The 3x Finesse worm gets the nod but the Big Stick has a hollow hind section where trapped air can easily double the buoyancy. Roger

EXACTLY! As Gary pointed out, the word "floating" is sometimes used on products that sink without a hook (e.g. trick worms). The most buoyant worm I've ever encountered was the "Strike King 3x Floating Worm". The problem was, the worm was so light that it had nothing for casting distance and was eventually discontinued. I used to reload my own rifle cartridges, and now use my Ohaus grain scale for weighing angling gear. I'm gong to dig up my notations on worm weights, and what each worm is capable of floating (in grains). This will take me awhile, and then I'll post it right here in this thread I'll Be Back, Roger

Spro Aruku Shad 75 (lipless crank) Roger

When fishing with soft-plastic lures, a limp line and a freefalling lure are business-as-usual, but a gut-hooked fish is not. Of course, waiting too long between the pickup and hookset will increase the odds of gut-hooking, where the average duration is probably under 2 seconds. In my opinion though, the most common cause of gullet-hooked bass is an aggressive feeding mode. The odds are good that the situation will self-resolve and probably has already. If you continue to experience gullet-hooked bass, the easiest solution to crimp the barb on the J-hook. A better solution is to use "Circle" hooks, but circle hooks are a different animal: 1) Hook Size The hook gap needs to accommodate the lip thickness of the largest expected bass 2) Hook-Set Refrain from using a jaw-breaking hookset, but maintain steady line-tension instead. Roger

Peer-pressure aside, why do you feel compelled to saddle yourself with baitcasting gear?? Spinning gear was popular in Europe for several years before 'finally' making its way to America. I cut my teeth on baitcasting tackle in the early 1950s and well remember the day when I seen my first spinning outfit on Lake Owassa, NJ. As usual, my dad and I were fishing baitcasting gear, with our typical wood-chopping strokes. We developed an acquired tolerance for the time we lost picking out bird nests and professional overruns. Then along comes some hotshot in another boat who was using a surrealistic looking fishing outfit. He was working the same padfields as us, but was making longer casts with a flick of the wrist. From that day forth, I knew what I wanted. Though I've come a long way from my first black Mitchell 300 cap and blue Conolon rod, I'm still incurably hooked on spinning gear Though it flies in the face of the status quo, here's my honest take: Baitcasting gear (revolving drum) is very useful for deep-sea fishing, billfishing, tuna fishing, vertical jigging, still fishing, fishing live bait and trolling. In other words, I use baitcasting tackle for "everything" except casting. For all cast-intensive chores, freshwater & saltwater alike, all I ever need is spinning gear. I hasten to add of course, that's just one man's opinion. Roger

With a 15lb-class Spinning Outfit, which also handles heavy cranks and 6" swimbaits (Honest engine) Roger