scaleface

Having a bird ****** one out of the boat is crazy . Never heard of that happening until now . the word was sn@tch

Last summer cousin and I were throwing buzzbaits at night when we heard all kings of commotion in the water . I hit it with a flashlight and there was a raccoon swimming after his lure .

Shad were amassed in the back of coves a couple of weeks back with bass busting them and managed to catch a few on a small swimbait .

What kind of bird was it ?

You never know . A spinnerbait over the grass can be effective too . A toad may work and with the grass below the surface , the hook can be exposed for a greater hookup ratio .

Yesterday , I found baitfish deep but could not hook up with bass deep .Water temps 52 early 57 late. A move shallow resulted in 8 bass caught with two over 15 inches . It was a high bluebird sky a day after a cloudy , rainy front . Caught 6 bass on a toad and those fish really hammered it , just didnt get many hits .

I plan to go a couple of more times this year before it gets too cold for me , not the bass . It will be to a 200 acre reservoir . The first place to get tried will be deep on a point .Sometimes bass will be loaded up here in the fall . If there are no takers in 15 to 30 minutes then a move will be made to the shallows .

I use 2/0 hooks a lot with a six inch Jelly Worm out on the points . They just work for me and I land a high percentage of fish even if I dont get a good hook set .

I use a Johnny Morris with 5 something to 1 gear ratio . It cost me 100 dollars on sale . No complaints and it retrieves big deep divers easily .

I pulled two muskies out of there . Caught both of them on a Texas rigged French Fry . Go figure .

I guess for someone really dedicated like Everythingthatswims , they would have an advantage today . For those less eager, I dont know .

It seems like weekly there is a thread started that goes something like this . " Help , I cant catch fish . I have tried shaky heads , Whopper ploppers , wacky rigged senkos , Spinnerbaits , frogs , jigs , crankbaits , buzzbaits , spooks , poppers , drop shot , ....

nice casting .

I dont know . There are so many lures and techniques available now that it could make it even more confusing to the new angler . its harder to learn the basics when one is swamped with information . I believe if one would learn the texas rig/jig well , then everything else would come easy . Now days they are wacky rigging , drop shotting , neko rigging... and not learning the basic of working a bait through a brush-pile and detecting a strike . I caught on to worm/jig fishing rather quickly and wore the bass out with it . I didnt have all these other riggings to clog up my brain . So it may have been easier for us older guys .

Overcast drizzly days are wonderful . Buckets of rain days I'm staying in .

I was thinking a Tiger Wood 1.5 .

I have lost several nice bass with the Rocket Shad because the double hook worked its way off the lure during the fight . Now I wrap wire around the shank .

Some of the more important things I do better now than when I started Lure selection . I use to try to figure out what lure the bass were wanting . Now I throw lures that will effectively perform in the cover/structure I encounter . There are usually several . Rotate through them . I cast into heavy cover with minimum snags using several different lures .The last thing I want to do is ruin a high percentage spot because of getting hung up . Casting . My casting is much more accurate and each cast has a purpose . It may sometimes appear the cast are random but there is a reason behind each one. A lot of times I'm targeting a depth , a dark spot... Boat position . Get the boat positioned to make accurate cast . Try to keep the lure in the strike zone for as long as possible . Much of the time this is accomplished by parallel casting the bank . If for instance, a buzzbait is being used , it might be presented to a heck of a lot more fish parallel casting the bank than casting at ninety degree angle toward the shore. Offshore structure . I use to think points were these little short , steep areas. The good points are long and tapering. I rely heavily on marker buoys " old school " . I dont necessarily mark fish with the buoys but instead place them to keep me oriented in a promising area . Toss them near dropoffs , brush , stumps , fish or whatever . It appears the effective use of buoys is becoming a lost art . Sonar interpretation .I keep it simple . In the warmer months I seek out the thermocline , its usually easily seen as a solid band . I consider water deeper than the thermocline dead water . I also look for a life zone , where much of the bait fish are congregated . They can usually be seen out in open water . Then when reaching a point or other structure, ignore water deeper than the thermocline and pay special attention to the zone the bait fish were observed at . Shad are the prevalent food source in my part of the country and they are very fragile . They die easily so I speculate they seek out the depth with the best combination of conditions to survive and predators wait in ambush . This time of year the fish seem to be more spread out than in the warmer months .

I hardly ever finesse or go magnum so the baits I use remain the same , in that medium sized category .

I sit in the parking lot , examining my new purchases .

Trying to thread a Trick worm on a screw-lock is made a heck of a lot easier if the tip is bitten off .

Caught my first bass on a Berkely Choppo .

When I plan my outings I look for the most pleasant weather in the forecast .

no , dont like it hot either .

I do it sometimes . Trick worms I do it quite a bit with weights and jig heads .