John J.

In general I never use either. The only time I will tie on a trailer hook is when I start getting short strikes. But as long as I have fished the spinnerbait they've always nailed it!

Nice work! Kind of reminds me of Doug Hannon's snakes ;D Yeah I often will take a regular finesse worm and texas rig it w/o weights and twitch it along the surface. Great job!

The one thing you can try is your local plumbing supply. Some retro fit jobs plumbers do is to pack oakum around the drains and pour lead on top. It's not common practice now, but I still see it from time to time. The other thing you can try is Home Depot or Lowe's and go to the roofing supply aisle. Lead flashing is still used to flash roofs to masonry. I will say this is an expensive alternative. Then there is wheel weights from tire stores. These are not pure lead and need a little extra effort on your part, but they do work. Thanks! Yeah I heard you can apply tire weights to lead to get a heavier sinker. After dealing with all the impurities my first go 'round, I really want the entire application to run smoothly, rather than me spending one entire day scooping out impurities. Thanks for the input!

For the most part I have several types of attractants, I use Kick'n Bass. Really I have Garlic, Anise Shad and Crawfish, and what I did was I took some small jars (jelly jars to be exact) and poured in some glitter to match my application (Red, Orange, and Green for crawfish, Blue, Silver and Black for Shad and Charteruse, Orange and Black for Bluegill). I dedicated 3 jars; One for bluegill imitation (composed of the glitter and a mix of Shad and Garlic scent), Shad Imitation (Glitter, and Anise Shad scent), and Crawfish Imitation (Glitter and Crawfish scent). Now all I need to do is dip my lures into the mix, drip dry and then put the lid back on the jar and cast the lure out. I found that this prevents getting some stuff on my hands, which it's really a good thing to get some on your hands that way you are not applying 'human' oils and scents to your lures. I use my crawfish scent mix for jigs, and texas rig plastics, Bluegill Imitation mix for my bluegill colored swimbaits, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, jerkbaits, crankbaits, etc. and Shad imitation mix for shad colored swimbaits, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, jerkbaits, crankbaits, etc. When I dip the lure in the mix, the glitter floats off in the water, kind of like scales. I got this tip from one of my magazines. I don't soak my lures, I found that jig skirts and plastics become stiff and don't have a lot of good action as they should. And I think that scents are just something to help mask human scent and also encourage the fish to hold onto the lure longer. Just my 2 cents

In general, if I find a good spot, something that catches my eye and I feel a bass to be on that spot, I will make 10-20 casts to it. If however I am searching, I generally make about 4-5 casts in an area, if I come to a spot or area where it doesn't even look decent, I won't waste my time. One year I threw a buzzbait over a tree I think like 10 times and on the last cast she nailed it! It was an easy 5 pounder, but she spit the hook :'(

that's ok. Yeah, luckily here in Va, we are not running into a lead ban. And I agree, lead is fairly cheap compared to other metals, so by forcing businesses to use alternative metals the market is going to skyrocket and demand is going to diminish. Like you said it kills businesses and fishermen alike!

i'll use the Booyah Pond Magic Spinnerbait in Pumpkin Seed Color or the BPS Nitro flash casting spoon (5 inch) in bluegill

Really it depends on the body of water...for weed choked lakes or lakes with a lot of lily pads, grass, etc: 1.) ZOOM Horny Toad 2.) Spinner-bait 3.) Shakey-Head Lakes with a lot of docks: 1.) Wacky Rigged ZOOM Finesse worm/Trick worm or a cigar bait 2.) Shakey-Head or Drop-Shot 3.) Flutter Spoon Tidal Waters: 1.) Spinner-bait 2.) Jig 3.) Drop-Shot

I found that I switch when I am casting, I'll use a right handed reel (reel on the right side), cast with my right hand, and then as soon as the lure hits the water I switch hands and engage the reel. With flipping/pitching I have left handed reels and I don't switch hands with those. I just pitch/flip with the rod/reel in my right hand and then engage the reel with my left.

Yeah I thought rotometals would be a great source, but I was merely looking for a more local source. But yeah I'll definately take them into consideration! Thanks guys!

Hey all, recently I started pouring my own lead and making terminal tackle (weights, etc.) and some lures (Flutter spoons, and soon jigs). I purchased my first lot of soft lead on ebay for $.99/lb. And when I got it and melted it I literally spent one full day consistently scraping out the impurities after adding flux. It never ended. I am sure the lead I got was no where near pure, so I want to find some local sources of lead where I can talk to them and find a good source of lead at least 99.5% pure, any suggestions? And is Beeswax a good flux?

In general, no matter what lures you choose, go with S-L-O-W retrieves, lures like texas rig worms, jigs, wacky rigs, and other finesse tactics will work great. Try different techniques and retrieve speeds to see what the fish like. If you get bit, repeat that retrieve and see if you land another. Once you establish a pattern (location, lure color, speed of retrieve, type of presentation), you will catch bass. Good luck!

Welcome to BR!

Hello and welcome! Every state has its good fisheries, look around PA I know you'll find some great fishing spots! Enjoy BR!

Went out on Sunday, me and my friend held a little tournament together. It was his middle brother and I, versus my friend and his little brother. We fished for about 4 hours, and my friend's middle brother and I caught a total of 9 fish (which we only kept the 5 biggest ones; culling), but they were all dinks...and my friend and his little brother caught 5, all dinks too. Needless to say at the end of our friendly tournament, we weighed in all of our fish and compared the total weights between us and it was a tie! 2 pounds 9 ounces each! It was a productive day, wish we would have caught some bigger ones though... The only thing I have to complain about is the price of the daily launch and fish fee. $10 to launch and fish for one day.....rediculous! Should have asked how much the annual pass was...

Kind of surprised nobody is jumping your rear for that turtle...like they did me...makes me wonder.... Anyway, here's me...

Hey all! My baitcaster that I have on one of my poles is all messed up...the anti-backlash knob won't turn so I can't adjust it to the weight of a lure, it occasionally gets stuck and today it got jammed for some reason and I couldn't even reel it... The bait caster is a Quantum and it was used. I got it free. I also have another baitcaster and it's a shimano curado 101D, it was VERY EXPENSIVE! I am not looking forward to spending over $100 on a baitcaster, but what would be a good brand for a baitcaster? And what would you guys recommend? I generally use a baitcaster when throwing cranks, topwaters, rattle traps and occasionally flukes and frogs.

Thanks for all the replies! I was throwing a frog that I made, the mould resembles a ZOOM Horny Toad but the batch I made were softer and more flexible than the horny toad. 88 Tim- I was swimming the frog about 1-2 feet under the water (because my pond is at 6' max) when the bass engulfed it.

I went down to my pond yesterday, the weather was perfect! Got up to 80 degrees but the wind was blowing a bit. I wanted to try out some plastic frogs that I had poured. From what I understand, the common way to work a frog is for it to become a topwater and you twitch it on the surface (buzzing a frog, etc.). But what about letting the frog sink and swimming it much like a jerk-bait or spinner-bait? Would this technique resemble a natural or un-natural look? I ask this because all the bass in the pond were just looking at it when it was on top of the water and slightly tapping my frog, but when I started to swim it, they were nailing it! And I mean comming out of nowhere and hammering it. Could it be possible that the frog color I chose + the possibility of the natural look of a frog swimming = a natural presentation that the bass liked? or could it be because the bass in the pond never seen a swimming frog? (because I never fished a frog like that before). Opinions?

Here's me...

Yeah St. Anger was not a good album. I agree with what has been said about "Kill 'em all" through "..and justice for all" and the Black Album was better. They still sing well, even though they are in the late 30s early 40s. Here's their concert at rock am ring in Germany 2006: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4361513763655744668&q=metallica+rock+am+ring&total=425&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

~You day dream during class/lectures about bass fishing and you doodle yourself catching a bass. ~You spend most of your time fiddling with bass gear rather then playing with the kids, spending time with spouse or doing school work. ~While riding or driving you look out of the window into the woods and try to imagine where the bass would be if the woods were flooded..."at the top of the trees? or near the trunk?" ~You believe the "Bait Monkey" is a real entity that forces you to buy lures.

yep it worked...got 318... I like to eat out 3 times a week and I am 18...will be 19 on the 19th of this month though!

If I am correct the thermocline usually occurs in the summer...but I may be wrong. From what I understand it shows as a wide band streaming across the width of your sonar screen (if you have a LCD). Something like this:

You spend 50% of your time on this board and 50% of the time on the water. on BR + for bass = Bass Addict.