mikey5string

carolina rig.

Great fall bait over weedy flats. Fall is the only time I use them.

to the OP. Get some rubber bands and cut them up.

thats the first i time I have seen parasite weights/clips. thats a great idea, I might just have to give those a shot. thanks.

I wouldnt have to convince my parents to let me go fishing when I was young. Im sure most parents would be happy their kids were fishing given the other activities kids might be into... How old are you? Cant you just ride your bike?

There are different types of jigs. There are grass jigs and swim jigs for weeds/grass, Flipping jigs for heavy matted grass, football jigs for rocks.... submerged weeds are cover. That is a GREAT place to find bass. Look in the articles section here and/or use the search function. You will find tons of info on everything you ever wanted to know about jigs.

even with all that info about forage. Bass are instinctual predators. That is, they will attack anything that looks like prey even if they have never seen it before. It is good to know if they are feeding on the bottom, top or are suspended. This will tell you what bait to use. Jigs, craws,creatures or worms on the bottom, flukes/swimbaits, cranks, spinners in the middle and spooks, frogs and buzzbaits on top.

you dont need to fish to know if a lake has sunfish. If it has bass, there are sunfish in the lake. I cant think of an exception. Same with craws, there are craws in most lakes even if you never see them. Frogs and big insects like dragonflies are another prominent bass forage depending on the season. The pelagic baitfish like shad and alewife are what you want to know about, namely what size they are and where they are. The sunnies, craws and frogs have established habitat read up on wikipedia and find out where they live and what their habits/life cycles are. Alewife and shad move around a lot more. You can see them as big balls on fish finders or breaking the surface in large schools. Look for birds diving and circling overhead as well as fish feeding on them. A good way to catch baitfish is jigging a sabiki rig. Get the one with the tiny hooks. I mean, really small. Youre fishing for fish that are often 4".

I like the concept of the rig but I usually only catch small fish with it. Also I dont have a fish finder so setting the rig to the right depth becomes a guessing game. When the fishing is really slow I can almost always catch one with a drop shot. Again, theyre all dinks but at least I got somethin!

That Yuki bug on the jig rig is awesome.

the issue was probably the weather. I went fishing Saturday in overcast, windy conditions and did well. I couldnt get a bite yesterday. Bright blue skies with few clouds usually means lousy fishing. If the fish arent in the mood, it doesnt matter what you throw.

tri wky rgd snko. U swm grb jg. rl lt drp, rl lt drp. bst wy 2 def ctch bg bss.... drt rf just 2 fr 4 u cn s8 lol

smaller plastics like a grub on a small jig head. nightcrawlers. small inline spinners.

You will find her in 3.8ft of water next to a fallen tree about 6ft off shore on the North end of the lake. It will be cloudy with the sun poking through the clouds sporadically. It will be in the mid 70's and the barometric pressure will be between 29.1 and 29.9. You will catch her on a 3/8oz brown/orange mop jig with no trailer. She will hit it on the fall. It will feel like a slight "tick" on the line. You will set the hook.

He must be a wacky senko guy

If you're catching bluegill try upsizing your bait. Get some 3/8 oz bullet weights, 4 and 5/0 EWG worm hooks, punch stops and some 10" worms, rage tail lobsters or brush hogs. Peg the weight near the hook and throw that thing at any cover you see. Let it fall straight down and hop it back in. Get some 5.5" hollow body swimbaits and some 6/0 keel weighted swimbait hooks. Throw it around cover, over submerged weeds, downed trees etc. Smaller male bass travel in schools and often suspend to chase baitfish. The big girls are loners. They tuck up in cover and wait for a nice big easy meal.

Lipless cranks, swim jigs, flukes,spooks, buzzbaits, spinnerbaits. Try the double fluke rig or swimming a jig through the weeds.

I would say 5-6lbs. Nice fish for sure. That's a pig around here.

The bass were destroying the double fluke rig this morning. First time I used it and I learned about it here. I used the white/glitter super flukes by Zoom and caught several nice fish. The fish I boated were hooked about 2" into the roof of their mouths. They all took the first fluke BTW. Switched to white with chartreuse tail and caught a few more but they were a lot smaller on average. Dont know it the color change had anything to do with that though. I bought a pack of bubblegum flukes but I couldnt bring myself to try them. I have heard that they work but I was doing OK with the white...maybe next time. After the fish stopped hitting the flukes, I figured the went deeper and switched to the Rage Tail craw on a 1/2oz tungsten pegged T-rig with an bluegill skirt. looks like the "Rage Tail" thing isnt just hype after all. I switched to the Rage Tail craw on a 1/2oz tungsten pegged T-rig with an bluegill skirt. I was almost using it like a swim jig just above the grass on the bottom and stopping it every once in a while. I was catching nice fish with this when nobody around me was catching anything. They would NAIL it too. The action really is amazing. I had bought a pack a while ago meaning to try them but never got around to it. I just ordered a few more packs of craws, a pack of lobsters and a pack of grubs. I can imagine these being deadly on a swim jig. At the dock, several of the guys had good luck with chatterbaits. I thought this would be a good bait for this time of year and I bought a Z man "original" chatterbait. It was HORRIBLE quality. The skirt collar was torn. Like completely torn so it wouldnt stay on. I tried to crazy glue it but it wouldnt stick. I wrapped wire around it which held it but when I tried to turn it lightly the skirt just pulled apart. The blade looks cheap as does the jig head and hook. Who makes a good quality bladed jig? Thanks Mike

Have been dealing with the same conditions in CT. Went from great fishing, catching a few 3+lbers a day to a few small bass here and there. The first thing I noticed was the hydrilla turning brown and receding. I had been getting them with big worms carolina rigged (fishing a deep drop close to the bank @ weed edge) 5 1/2" swimbaits and frogs thrown into holes in weeds/right in them or near trees & rock piles. It has been really tough the last few weeks. I managed a couple decent fish throwing pegged texas rigs with craws into the best looking weeds I could find. The smaller 1-2lbs fish seem to be actively feeding as I can catch them on a crankbait when I see alewife breaking. There is a lot of topwater activity at times but I can only seem to get small fish or nothing at all. Only electric trolling motors are allowed at the lake I go to most so I cant chase baitfish. Where the creek comes into the lake there is a dense weed flat that i have been told holds fish. The problem is that it is a large area and the bottom is covered with submerged weeds so there are just a LOT of places for fish to hide. Isolated cover on the bank where there is a quick depth change to deep water has been my best pattern but its just not working anymore. I did have some decent luck last week when it was rainy & overcast with rough water and t-storm later in the day. I got several nice fish in about a 30 minute period right after sunrise and that was it. After the bite stopped the winds picked up even more and it started raining steadily so I packed it in. Going out tomorrow. Hopefully I can manage to find a productive pattern. I had been so spoiled mid summer! I got my Dahlberg diver frog last week and I am itching to try it out. Frogs were deadly in July/early august but with the weeds clearing up it has been pretty miserable. The diver frog just looks so good I have to throw it.

thanks for the reassurance. I actually did use that example! dont really agree about warnings on products that can explode face melting acid being "for stupid people". Not interested in suing, just like my skin ON my face. ; )

I have a dual purpose 12v battery for my 45 thrust trolling motor. I recharge it at home after I go out fishing. My wife is very afraid of the battery & charger thinking it can blow up and/or spray acid all over at any given moment. I want to assure her its safe but I really dont know how to explain it or if it really is even safe. 1. What is the likelihood of a battery explosion/fire and what would cause it? 2. How can I be as safe as possible with the battery? I just learned to take the vent caps off when I charge it, I had charged it at least 20 times with the caps on. I also filled the water cups in it with distilled water. The guy who told me how to do this told me not to put the caps back on too hard (he tapped them with the butt of a screwdriver) or the battery could explode. Now I am super worried when putting the caps back on. The battery says they have to be tight and level but Im afraid to tap them too hard. I figured the only way to really get hurt was to somehow touch both terminals with a piece of metal. When connecting the battery to the charger, I will put the negative clip on first then the positive. Sometimes the positive clip will spark if I dont clamp it right on the first try. I also get sparks when I hook the battery to the motor and the motor is on. (only happened once!) I have found that putting the positive on the neg doesnt do anything but I think thats a saftey feature. The reason I am developing a fear of the thing is probably twofold. One, my wife is making me second guess my confidence in handling it and two, I really dont understand them. I never learned how batteries work, how rechargers work and how to handle them to avoid accident. I never really learned how to jump a car. I have been in some embarrassing situations when a female friend asks me to be the hero and jump her car. I was terrified that I would kill us both. After creating a huge spark when I tried to attach the jumper cables, I had to flag down a second guy to help me....doh! I believe that understanding something is the best way to get over a fear you might have. anyway, hoping someone could take some of the mystery out of it for me so I feel more at ease. Surprisingly the battery came with no instructions or safety info besides the helpful "Caution: Shield Eyes, Can explode acid in your face!" ; )

1. Mega strike 1/2oz shakey head with a Havoc Pit Boss in Green pumpkin 2. 5.5" Bass magic swimbait in a natural shad (w/owner beast weighted hook) 3. Zoom Super Fluke rigged weightless with a 4/0 EWG hook. OR a Jackall Iobee frog in Bluegill depending on the season)

I was recently turned on to these and I will never use another shakey head. They NEVER fall down in the water, the wide base wont get hung up as much in rocks as a ball head and they come in bigger sizes so you dont have to sissy fish for dinks ; )

there are a ton of ways to fish plastics and a ton of plastics to be fished a ton of ways. I would start with the texas rig. Read about it, buy the necessary terminal tackle, learn how to rig it and fish it until you catch some bass. You WILL catch some if you fish it enough. For starters I would buy: pack of 3/0 EWG worm hooks pack of 3/16oz bullet weights pack of 3/8ox bullet weights pack of 6-8" worms (straight tail or curl tail or both. powerbait & zoom are good brands to check out) pack of 4" craw baits (rage tails are good, baby brush hog by zoom as well) EDIT: sorry, missed the part about you tryin the t-rig already. Ill leave the info though. More than the baits used, learn WHERE bass live. Where they feed, what they feed on, where they hang out & the different seasonal patterns. Look for places that would probably hold bass in your lake. Dont just cast with no intent. Always be fishing SOMETHING.