scaleface

I have never seen a bottom to mucky for a Texas rigged plastic worm and you cant get any more mucky than Mississippi river bottoms .

I plan to improve my deep water structure fishing but I strive to do do that every year . I spend lots of time studying my sonar . Its captivating . I would like to decipher fish signals better . Active fish from inactive and so on .

I dont use them but I think they work real well . Real Claw and Berkely Strike are the two scents I think had a positive effect used with soft plastics .

I fish sinking lures off the bottom well . I consider it my best strength . I suck at skipping .

They all catch fish . What do you want the lures to do in the water you fish ? Are you fishing in grass , logs , deep , shallow ..?

When i started to get serious into bass fishing , in the 70's , I did a lot of cranking but was not good at it .I then discovered the Texas rig and I was good at that . I became a worm and jig addict. For about thirty years that was my specialty .I still fished cranks and other lures but the Texas Rig was the lure I relied upon daily .About six years ago I found two identical Rogers Big Jims at an antique store . 1/4 ounce silent version , bluegill colored .One day I tried one and noticed there wasnt a lot of action to it and it hunted a lot . I started catching a lot of fish on it and quite a few big ones . My interest in cranking was piqued . That lure was lost in a tree but the second one had the same hunting action . For the past six years I have caught more fish on crankbaits than anything . I've been cranking deeper and deeper . Often I feel the fish miss the lure . The vibration changes from the water disturbance caused by the bass .My uncle doesnt believe me when I tell him a fish just missed my bait and he laughs .All those years of fishing " feel " baits translate well into other catergories and he simply doesnt have the feel and cant comprehend it . I have my favorites for now, from fishing one to about eighteen foot deep . The Red Eyed Shad has become a favorite fished deep . It does wiggle on the drop and when fished from a jon boat can be heard as it falls through the water . Often the hit itself can be heard but not felt . I started a couple of threads trying to get info on how deep all the different crankbaits dive but have had very little response . I'm guessing most people dont know how deep their baits are actually diving . I will keep evolving as a cranker , become more knowledgeable about the different baits . Its been quite the turn-around in fishing style .

First time I saw it , I thought some one was shooting bass through the ice .

How cold is the water in Central California ?How much pressure is the pond your fishing getting ?

I was night fishing for channel cats in the middle of a reservoir . The bats were drawn in by the bugs attracted by the light . I kept feeling the bats hit my line . I guess one of them actually bit it because when I set the hook on a fish the line failed a few feet from the tip .

Try some ,mono and see how you like it . I dont use braid .

So dont let the small details get in the way of the overall picture , because there is a good chance the assumption is wrong .

Thats why I used the term " connecting the dots " . Sometimes I do get it right . LOL

I see . You're correct I dont expect to catch bass on the deep flat at the same place again but I do expect them to be relating to the nearby channel .

I see . I was focusing on structure and why the bass are where they are found . Of course we all have days that are baffling . i have plenty of those .

I just fire the bait they missed back out most of the time . Other times its a Texas rig or jig Because I pretty much have one handy 100 per cent of the time .

I think they are about the same .

Excuse me if I'm not comprehending this correctly but if you dont try to find out why, how do you plan on repeating your success ?

They are still available on-line . Cabelas , for one , has them .

I havent hunted squirrels since my squirrel dog died 18 years ago . She was half malamute . When she would locate a squirrel she would sit on her haunches and stare up the tree and whine . She never barked . You should have seen her rabbit hunt . She would get on top of a brush pile and jump up and down on it , trying to scare a rabbit out for me to shoot .She learned juat by watching my actions . A super smart dog . A friend of mine squirrel hunted with an old half blind and deaf Australian Shepard . Man , she was a good one, as long as we were hunting in her home area . If we took her someplace else she would get scared because her eyesight and hearing was so poor but there was nothing wrong with her nose .

Theres an old , 200 acre reservoir I fish a lot . The last day I fished it last October I was trolling a 14 foot jon boat across a major creek arm , powered by an electric motor only . Watching my depth finder I saw a lot of fish marks and shad about 15 foot deep on a featureless bottom .After tossing a marker buoy I cast a lipless crank , let it set , hopped it back and preceded to catch about 50 bass . Now I wanted to know "why" . After I was finished with the spot I started searching the bottom for structure and found a well defined creek channel 15 to 20 yards away . Up shallow the channels are silted in but out deep there it was . Just speculation here but I always try to "connect the dots " .Maybe the bass were relating to the channel but followed shad out on the flat . I've been thinking about it ever since and planning how i'm going to dissect that area next year . i might be wrong but I plan on pulling some real hawgs from that creek channel .

I got the In-Fisherman offer and Think I will take it . Also got one from Bassmaster for ten dollars and you get a tackle bag .

The Benny hill theme song was playing in my head while reading this .

My worm and jig rod are the same thing .

Fat Raps and Crankin Raps are staples in my tackle box . The only reason Shad Raps are not is I dont like the way they cast .

My most successful pitching bait of all time is a black jig with black/chartreuse Larew Salt craw .