Texfisherman

For me it is 8lbs or more. I've only ever caught one and I quickly took lots of photos and went to the taxidermist. Been waiting 6 months and only about 1-2 more months to go before it's ready to be picked up, lol.

Something that I do is look up the lake that I'm fishing on the internet and see what the main forage for bass is on that lake. Any kind of survey report, water studies, etc., might show that. Once I know the main forage, I do a picture search for the forage and print it out. For example, I looked up a lake that I'm trying to learn and found out the main forage for largemouth bass in that lake is threadfin shad. Then I did the picture search for the threadfin shad (and quickly learned why dipping tails in chartreuse is so successful). Take that picture with you the next time you go to buy tackle, and try to find soft plastics/lures/color combinations closely resembling the picture. Best of luck.

Hey, gang. I'm about to add flukes to my arsenal of tackle, but am inexperienced with them. What I'm looking for is a video that focuses heavily on the actual retrieval of flukes, i.e. how to work them. Any links would be appreciated.

I really enjoy Iaconelli.

Just a few random thoughts from me: For me, it seems, the biggest killer to a good day of fishing is sun block, followed closely by mosquito spray. After I apply either of those to my skin, I wash my hands thoroughly! There is a fisherman's soap that they make. I tried it recently and it really seems to get rid of stubborn smells on my hands. As far as scents, I always keep 'Spike-It! Garlic scent/chartreuse' in my tackle and use it religiously on my soft plastics. In one unintentional control study, my buddy and I were fishing the same area, using the exact same setup- a wacky-rigged watermelon candy trick worm. Almost everything was identical, including how we were working the worms. There were only 2 differences: One, he was using 8-pound fluoro, where I was using 10-pound mono. Belive it or not, I was catching all of the fish! I attribute that to the only other difference between he and I. I was spraying the tail of my worm with the Spike-It! garlic scent and he wasn't. I can't say with 100% certainty that the spray was the total factor, nor is anything in bass fishing ever a guarantee; but it seemed to make a difference. ***** EDIT: Going back and reading some of the other posts, there seems to be a general concensus as to the negative effects of sunblock and mosquito spray. I smoke and I usually catch close to the same amount of fish as my non-smoking fishing buddy.

My dad is the one who got me into fishing when I was probably 5 years old. He even bought my 'ole green and white Zebco 202 setup. I guess he figured if I was fishing, I was staying out of trouble, lol.

Why catch them if I'm not going to keep them? Because that next bass that hits my line could be that 19-pounder I've been waiting for. For me, it is the thrill of the hunt. I don't want to kill anything that has brought me so much joy to my life. The hook-sets usually do very little damage to the bass and as long as you don't keep them out of the water too long, they are perfectly fine to go back in. These are my personal opinions and not meant to be flamatory.

Outstanding post and very relative to where I fish! Guess I'll have to go buy me some flukes. Thanks, Catt!

I practice C.P.R. on bass........ Catch, Picture, Release.

Like Bass Assassin, we too went fishing yesterday for 6 hours. We hit all of our usual hot spots and the only thing that was caught was a shad that my buddy side-hooked.

Didn't a cool front just sweep across the country over the weekend? I know bass can become quite lethargic post-cold/cool front. Usually takes them about 3 days to adjust to the new conditions. Just my thoughts.

Every time I successfully set the hook, it is immediately followed by a loud announcement of "Got her!!!" When the fish aren't biting I'll say "Come on bass, you know you want our free lip piercing service!" If I lose a monster while fighting it, I'll scream out in a lost, ancient language that only Iaconelli would comprehend, but it kind of sounds like "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Fantastic!!! Awesome catch, man!

Great question; had to chime in on this one. Let's see: Mini-Mag Flashlight, ball cap flashlights, sun block, fisherman's soap, Spike It! - Garlic spray, surgical scissors, needle-nose pliers (for hook retrieval), wire cutters (in case a bass swallows the hook I can cut the hook in half... usually), digital camera, eyeglass screwdrivers for my reels, cloth tape, glow-in-the-dark paint, extra batteries for camera and flashlights, Deep Woods Off, 2-3 lighters... I think that's all. Oh, and Zantac 75 lol!!

Wow! That is a monster hawg!!!! That's a heck of a first post, lol.

I was on a 2-day local tournament on a lake and the only color they were hitting was orange. The ONLY thing in my tacklebox that had orange in it was some 4" hollow tube baits. I've never been a fan of tube baits (even though I know they really work well) and I didn't have any hooks designed for tubes. So..... I took a pair of scissors and cut off the skirt, about 1/4" above where the skirt starts. I then took out a french fry-style worm, which was the Zoom Centipede. I slipped the skirt on to the centipede and slipped it about half way up the centipede. I rigged the centipede Texas-rigged, with no weight, and barely put the hook through the skirt, so the skirt would stay in place. I immediately started catching bass and caught 2 keepers, each tournament day. On the fall, the skirt flails out, much like an octopus moves.

I've thought about getting some type of fish netting, maybe a 2'-0" x 2'-0" piece. Put the bass in it and then hook the fish netting onto the weight scale. The netting is too light to affect the weight and the bass would remain safe. To create a visual of this, imagine taking the net on your boat (that you use to pull bass out of the water) and cutting off the 'net' part of it. Then, permanently attach a weight scale to the top part of that. -- You don't have to worry about fish fighting you while being weighed -- No extra damage to them -- No 'hooking' the bass in any way, shape or form -- No new holes in his lip I haven't actually tried this yet, but intend to. EDIT: I've edited this thing like 5 times now; my apologies

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Man, that is a HAWG!!!!! Heck of a bass!!!!

The lake itself can have a lot to do with that. There are 3 different lakes I work. One of them, I'm lucky to catch even 5 in a 12-14 hour fishing period. I'll go to one of my two other lakes and will easily catch 10, 20, even more in a 12-14 hour fishing period.

Every time I go fishing I will have atleast a 2-hour period of no bites. Sometimes, longer than that. Bass fishing is like fighting against a light switch that turns on and off suddenly. One moment, they'll be slamming your lures, and the next moment, it dies off for a long period. Go to a place on the lake where you think the bass will be. Then, go through a variety of lures and different colors and see if you can hone in on what they want. Throw a top-water a few times, then a mid-runner, then a spinnerbait. If that doesn't work, try throwing soft plastics and work them slowly. Good luck and don't get discouraged. It's all a part of bass fishing.

If there are only a couple of light poles or light sources on the edge of the lake, I would go check out the water close to the light. I find it will pull in baitfish, and bass follow the baitfish. If there is a boat ramp, try throwing a worm around it. I definitely believe that color is very important at night. Black 1/2 ounce spinnerbaits with a gold or silver colorado blade, especially with the full moon this weekend!!!! Junebug colored soft plastics are a perfect color for nighttime fishing. More and more brands are making worms in Junebug color, due to its high success. And this may be biased, but I'm having constant luck on Watermelon Candy colors. I have been fishing all-nighters, every Friday night for the past 5-6 weeks. And indeed, we're probably going again tonight. We launch about 7pm and fish until 9 am the next morning. Oh, and bring plenty of flash lights with you... and bug spray if applicable. Good Luck!!!!!!

We're coming into Summertime, so maybe articles that deal with summertime environments and summertime fishing, like vegetation. Just brainstorming here.

Here's a couple that I pulled out. Pic on the left is 8lbs, 4 oz. (my PB) We weighed her twice. After she purged in the livewell, she still weighed 8 lbs, even. Pic on the right is 6 1/2 pounds.

The lake my buddy and I fish have a lot of decent-sized alligators in it. We typically do all-nighters this time of year and we had a spot light on the boat. We were about the only people on the lake, there was no moon, and it was pitch black! While we were slowly cruising to our next fishing hole, my buddy turned on that 2 million candle watt spot light and started scanning the surface of the lake with it. About 200 feet in front of us, was a huge alligator crusing along. The moment the spot light hit that alligator, it did some kind of top water death roll that let out a splash so loud, you'd think a car fell from the sky and landed in the water!!!!!! I didn't know people could fly, but my buddy proved it is quite possible!!