skeletor6

It seems as though everything that I texas rig, whether that be a worm, or a hula grub, is having problems. The main problem is that the head of the worm or whatever bait I chooose seems to slide down the hook. I am using Gammy Offset EWG 3/0 hooks. Like the head of the bait slides down the hook and I have to fix it so I must be doing something wrong. I have looked at all the rigging videos and I feel as though I am rigging it correctly, could anyone give me some advice as for what I need to do differently when texas rigging any type of bait so the head does not slide down the hook and stays up where it should? Thank you!

So I've read many articles on here and many of them tell you to notice the conditions and fish certain ways based on them. I do not understand these basic fundamental conditions and how they affect fishing. For instance, I understand the correlation between water temperature and oxygen saturation, but the rest to me I do not understand. Could someone please help me understand how to tell if a lake has high or low pressure, and what that means in terms of fishing? Also, I've read the articles on here regarding seasonal patterns of bass so I'm sound on what the bass do during different seasons, but I do not know what to do, or how to fish during different conditions. Say its a cloudy out, how does that affect fish behavior? When its sunny, how does that affect their behavior? What should I fish for these conditions. Most the lakes I fish are clearer water lakes, but besides using more natural colors on clearer lakes how else does that change how I should fish? Could someone please just explain to me the basics of how these conditions affects bass behavior and the type of tackle I should select because of that. I feel it is imperative for me to know this in order to improve my overall knowledge of fishing. I tried finding articles on it, but it seems that it is general knowledge and therefore, there is no specific write-up on them. Thanks so much for the help!

Before stumbling on this site, I thought that a fishing rod was very unimportant in terms of fishing. So I went out and bought a couple Shakespeare cheap-o's from wal-mart all medium heavy casting. I fished with them and did not know what I was missing out on. After reading threads on here and watching the videos posted, I noticed there was a lot of talk about rod specifics and its importance for many casting techniques, bite detections, and so forth. That led to me to go out and get my feet wet with a Berkley Lightning Shock 7ft MH Casting rod. Upon using this rod paired with some fluorocarbon, I began to vaguely understand what all the hype was about. Finally, I found a deal on eBay and was able to buy a used Powell Max 683c for $90 shipped. Yesterday was the first day I fished with it and using it brought to fruition the obsession that so many have on their rod collections, and why having such good gear can be essential to catching fish. I was able to cast everywhere I wanted, detect strikes on weightless senko fishing, that I never would have before and it just felt all-around fantastic to use. I even pulled out a 10lb catfish, that dug itself into the muck and thick weeds on 12lb Trilene 100% without a net. I was on a pontoon and didn't have a net and had to grab the line to pull him in the boat. So anyways, I got rod fever and I want to add another one to my arsenal. All my rods right now are MH, the longest of which being 7'. I really do not catch fish larger than 3lbs and I have watched many of Glenn's videos and want to implement his techniques and get better with fishing finesse jigs (and other jigs), rage rig, t-rig, mojo rig, and want a rod that is going to help me do this along with my powell. What would be a good rod to pair with my Powell Max 683c and Berkley Shock 7' MH for these techniques? I was thinking that I should get a rod that is medium, since I do not feel that I will need the strength of heavy for the size fish I catch here in the Michigan lakes i fish. I am going to be looking to buy used and can spend no more than $150 and would like to spend closer to around $120 if at all possible. I want a rod that is extremely sensitive. Is buying another Powell Max my best bet or should I be looking for something else? I will be using fluorocarbon as my line and if it matters plan on starting to use a lot of rage tail plastics, with northstar and siebert jigs. All advice, suggestions, and comments are greatly apprectiated. Thank you!

I hear ya mark. It also makes for an excellent comparative innocence when boxes of fishing gear keep showing up. Gotta hold your leverage.

That Green Pumpkin Purple/Gold/Black looks sweet. Should match up well with many of the jigs I have. Good work BIG-O!

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/jig-heads.html Theres some good information in there I just watched about Arkie heads.

I agree with those reasons as well. For fishing top water I fill up 1/3rd spool with cheap mono. The rest with braid then a mono leader. Braid lasts a long time and I can keep switching the leader to use it for multiple purposes. I am trying to get more rod and reel setups to cut down on having to be so multi-purpose with mine but I think that is OP's best option with what he is doing. If one has many setups it makes it easier to be more specific. Without the really thick cover your rod will work, but will not be as good as a frog specific rod. I am in the same boat as you and only have 4 setups pending the arrival of my Powell Max 683c. I know you mentioned you don't see a difference between frog and t-rig fishing but there is many differences IMHO. Fishing a weightless or light weight t-rig I have much more success with fluorocarbon. There will be times of slack line and many of my strikes occur during those times. Sure, you can line watch, but the added sensitivity of fluorocarbon for slack line fishing really helps me detect strikes and set more hooks which consequently lands me more fish. Plenty on here use braid to Fluoro for that purpose so try that out and if it works for you stick with it. As far as rod differences for frogging and t-rigging, you can get away with using the same rod.

You mentioned you do not frog often, but want a setup to handle frogging and t-rigs. These are two entirely different techniques and most have a setup for each. Since you don't fish frogs much and it will be mainly for t-rigging you surely can go with straight braid for that purpose. There seems to be split opinions on whether or not the visibility of braid affects the fish deciding to take your bait or not. Either way, how I see it, you should attach a fluorocarbon leader since you are mainly going to be t-rigging. That allows you to have many advantages. (less visibility, abrasion resistance, and ability to break off if you get a bad snag and you can save your line) The connection knot is easy to tie and when you decide you want to change over to a frog just cut the fluorocarbon off and proceed. You are going to have to tie a new knot anyways when you switch between frogging and t-rigging so taking a couple extra minutes to tie the leader shouldn't be too bad. As a side note, I am with BASSclary as far as going straight Fluoro for t-rigging because of the slack line sensitivity, but to each there own. I have setups with braid and fluorocarbon. I believe both have there places

Interesting, I have the regular 5" in bone and it looks huge. Location for sure matters fish do not grow here like some of your avatar pics. Definitely use mono line, use it for all top water except frogs IMHO

I use fluorocarbon on my lightning shock and it works very well. I feel like the shock is lighter and more sensitive than the regular, but some don't like the handle. For $40 I'm fine with it.

Okay that is what I was thinking as well. I've just read some posts where people were stating using braid with a leader for everything besides frogging. Sounds like I will keep the braid for dragging jigs on the bottom, frogging, and top water (with mono leader) and basically use Fluoro for all other applications. Thanks BASSclary you've answered many questions of mine.

I got the 7' MH for $40 at Walmart and for the price I love it. It is very light and it's sensitivity is pretty good as well. For $40 it is tough to beat. I will agree with others about the handle, but it is not a deal-breaker for me.

So I picked up some Daiwa Samurai 55lb, Suffix 832 50lb, and Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. My question concerns slack line sensitivity. Will I get greater slack line sensitivity if I go straight fluorocarbon, or does the fluorocarbon leader on my braided line give it decent slack line sensitivity? I know braid is terrible for slack line sensitivity so I am just wondering if the Fluoro leader helps at all with that. I am using about a 6 to 9 foot leader. My main concern for this question is in regards to fishing styles such as drop shot, Senkos, weightless t-rigs etc. These styles often require the line to be at least semi-slack at times. I'm trying to decide if I can get away using braid with a leader for those techniques or if I should spool up completely with Fluoro to fish those techniques. Thank you! Skel

Very interested to hear about these. If they are anything like the Powell Max's I will splurge. Warranty aside, are these more sensitive than the veritas, sellus, lightning shock, or any other in that price group? I am looking at the 7'2" MH

They each have their place, but since the heavy grass is causing problems while using your spinnerbait it sounds like you should use the swim jig. From my experience, the added weight does help the jig cut through grassy/weedy vegetation. I see it wise to have an assortment of different weights, because they each allow you to fish differently and vary your presentation. This will allow you to experiment and find out what works. Good luck!

Nice video. I enjoyed watching it and learned some new information. Thank you!

Thanks I will give that a shot. Never fished that color before, but read in other threads that it's money Alright, well it sounds like Big O is the way to go. I knew nothing about jig fishing until this summer. Now it is seriously becoming addicting. And thank you for the sale, it's nice to get quality products for such little money.

I got the regular super spook in bone and feel it is too big for the waters I fish. There aren't bass greater than 3 lbs. I would feel I'd achieve more general success with the super spook jr. As with what michbassman, he too fishes the same state as I. Pop-r's have always been successful for me. I am sure that varies with location but if the jr. Gives you greater confidence, by all means you should switch to it.

Want to give some of these jigs a try along with my northstar collection. Is the big o series the way to go? And what colors and head style would be good for clear lakes with grassy bottoms? Great promotion, free shipping at only $20 that's what they call consumer friendly!

Same thing here I have two $17 rods and I already replaced one, so this will help in deciding what to do with my second. Thank you for the votes and comments thus far, the rod seems more influential than I suspected.

Thank you for the compliment, I will try and give that book a read. You are dead on Sam, it's a common fallacy to anthropomorphize fish.

I can't seem to find any topics to help me answer this question. Both surely play a role, but is the line more important or the rod for this characteristic alone. Clearly, a quality rod will help with casting, working the bait, landing the fish etc. but I'm wondering about sensitivity alone. Thank you! Skel

The answers to your questions revolve around many variables. Ultraviolet light is the shortest wavelength of solar electromagnetic radiation that reaches the earths surface. First off, there is a substantial more amount of visible light that reaches water. Visible light accounts for 38.9% of the total solar flux. Whereas, UV-A typically accounts for 6.3% and UV-B 1.5%. The majority of the solar flux that reaches earth is in the form of infrared radiation (longer wavelength than light). This has to do with factors that are going to answer your questions. First off, since ultraviolet possesses more energy than the longer wavelength forms it causes radicals in molecules that it interacts with. For instance, why there is no concentration of UV-C that reaches earth's surface is because of diatomic oxygen and ozone.Upon collision of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength of UV-C and Ozone or diatomic oxygen, it causes those molecules to split and form radicals, which then recycle and combine back together to form their original molecule. When that happens, the UV-C gets absorbed by those molecules and, therefore, does not reach earths surface. Since longer wavelengths of light do not possess the same energy they make it through or around those molecules and reach earths surface. That is, they are not absorbed by ozone. UV-B is also absorbed by Ozone but not to the extent that UV-C is. Some actually makes it through which is seen by the numbers that I previously gave you. I mention that to basically say that there is less significantly less UV light that will reach the water surface than visible light. As known by many, exposure to too much UV radiation causes cancer. In simplistic form, this has to due with the high energy that it posesses and its ability to damage scripts of our DNA which can eventually lead to abnormal function of certain cells. Lets, take for instance an even shorter wavelength spectrum of electromagnetic radiation an X-Ray. These are used to take pictures inside the human body.That is because some of the rays are able to penetrate completely through the body. Visible light surely cannot do that. Now in regards to what all that means and how it applies to your questions. Ultraviolet light will penetrate deeper into water than visible light, but there is a lesser amount of it to penetrate. So in terms of luminosity of the fluorescent fishing line versus non-fluorescent it comes down to a simple answer. Yes, fluorescent fishing line will be able to be seen at deeper depths. That is what it is made for, but although UV light does penetrate deeper into water it still also gets scattered and absorbed and the rate and penetration depth of UV light depends on the conditions of the water and the atmospheric conditions above. Anything that is between the light source (the sun) and the fishing line, will have an effect on the amount of light, whether that be visible, infrared, or ultraviolet. that is transmitted to the water. Which is part of the reason why fish behave differently depending on whether conditions. The main reason that fluorescent fishing line will be more visible is because it reflects/gives off a higher intensity visible light. As many of you who have fished with fluorescent fishing line know, once the line gets to a certain depth it becomes harder to see , that is because visible light only penetrates so deep and that is what our eyes detect. Even if ultraviolet light penetrated deeper and caused that changing of wavelengths I mentioned earlier and produced a higher intensity visible light effect, that light still has to travel back through the water to the human eye. The higher intensity will help it do this, but only to a certain extent. You could have 100 feet down the peak luminosity of lets say the color red, but would not be able to see it due to scatter and absorption through particles and other environments of the water. Your second question is very interesting. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say actually the line becomes less visible.Tetrachromats have specialized pigments that allow them to be able to detect UV light. Remember, not all fish have the same type of vision and I am unsure as to which type of fish specialize in detecting UV light, but lets say we have a fish that is a tetrachromat and it specializes in detecting UV light. Remember earlier how I said fluorescent materials absorb UV light and change its wavelength so it is visible to trichromatic species who detect visible light? Well, since the fluorescent line absorbs UV light, the UV light is no longer being reflected. Vision is only seen by what is reflected. We see a plant leaf as green because it absorbs every other color and reflects green. Well the UV light is absorbed and not reflected anymore, so the fish that is only able to see UV light will not be able to detect it anymore, because the light is not reflected back to it to show that there is a dimensional structure there. I hope that clears up some questions you have, but as it pertains to bass fisherman, I believe that a bass uses visible light in order to see. So if a line is more visible to you, it will also be more visible to a bass.

H20 mettle gets my vote. I prefer the centrifugal braking system and also the mettle Has twice as many bearings as the Black max.

Yes there are some species of fish that are tetrachromats which allows them to be sensitive to forms of ultraviolet light. Humans are trichromats meaning they have three specialized cones that are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation that spans from 390 to 750 nanometers which is commonly referred to as the visible spectrum. There have been reported medical anomalies, usually eye defects, where humans can vaguely see forms of ultraviolet light. If your eye function is that of the common human being then you will not have the slightest chance of seeing UV light. That being said I believe you are not understanding what fluorescent fishing line does, or any other type of fluorescent material for that matter. Fluorescent materials absorb UV photons and then emit electromagnetic radiation that is of longer wavelength which reaches the length of the visible spectrum. That aforementioned process results in bright glowing colors, that is, high intensity visible spectrum wavelength electromagnetic radiation. This high intensity of light that humans can detect is why it glows so bright. Understand, since ultraviolet light has a shorter wavelength than visible light it, therefore, possesses a greater amount of energy. Much of that energy is conserved when transferred into the longer wavelength and therefore when we see it, it appears to be glowing because it is light in the visible spectrum with high energy. When ultraviolet light enters water it begins to scatter due to many reasons. Therefore, much of it is lost during the penetration into water. The deeper it penetrates the more of it that is lost depending on the conditions of the water. The line itself is designed to have maximum visibility, because it is a color of your choice that is glowing with high intensity. This, the fish can certainly detect. It is well known that fish can see colors that us humans can also see. Which is why us anglers can be so particular on choosing certain colors. They certainly will be able to see the glowing colors that are in the visible spectrum that fluorescent light emits. The issue that you mentioned regarding them being able to see ultraviolet light from the line is a mute point, whether fish can detect forms of UV light or not. If you are worried about fish detecting your line, then high visibility line is not the correct line to choose. I'm sure you know that, but as the line goes deeper into the water, its visibility will decrease and, therefore, be less visible to the fish. So, in summary, yes fish will be able to see fluorescent fishing line more easily than non-fluorescent, but it really has nothing to do with the fish's ability to detect ultraviolet light. Hope that helps, Skel