scaleface

September can be a tough month for me . I'll be fishing all next week at my home lake Mark Twain . The biggest tourney of the year is held in two weeks and there will be a lot of people prefishing for it . I might have to go small and avoid the community holes . Nice timing with the article .

I cast every way but backhand. I cant cast backhand .

Youre driving down a gravel road and notice a culvert in an irrigation ditch . Hmm ,, you wonder. You pull over , select a rod and reel hanging from the rod rack inside your van , tie on a jg n pig and catch and proceed to catch a 7 lber .

I make spinnerbaits that can be buzzed .

My two largest this summer have come on a 6 inch Jelly worm .

Smallmouths , I usually fish a craw . Largemouths I usually fish a worm . I could go with lizards , craws... but worms seem to put greater numbers in the boat .

I did it too twenty of them . Experimented with one worm first . I got the water boiling , then removed the pot from the heat and dropped in a worm for ten seconds . No change . I had to keep the worms in it for a full minute to get them where they where suppose to be . These were 6 inch Jelly Worms in Harry's favorite flavor . Scuppernong

I have a hundred pack of Manns Jelly Worms that are a lot harder than normal . " Got them cheap " .I mean they are hard enough that I think hooksets would be difficult with them . Must have been an error in the formula with this bunch ..I have heard that you can put them in hot water and that will soften them up . Any of you have any experience doing this ? I wonder how long they will stay soft ?

I like trilene xl but if yo have been using Suffix Elite and are not pleased with it , you wont like XL either . If you are using Siege then try xl or Elite .

Texas rigged craws and Tubes for the smallmouths . Of course any lure will work but I found smallies love crawdads .

I fish with four rods a lot out of a small boat . I carry all my gear in a cabelas tote that holds six boxes . I stuff a couple of pockets with soft plastics . One box is dedicated to hooks weights and other terminal taclke . Another box is dedicated to Square bill and lipless crankbaits . Another box holds med and deep diving crankbaits . One for top waters and another for buzzbaits and spinnerbaits . The final box hold misc lures that dont fit the other categories . If I had to limit it to two boxes , I'd just take my fave from each box , but still carry lots of soft plastics .

If I was to try it , I'd go with Octopus hooks .

You have to learn timing . If you release the lure the same as with a spinning or spincasting reel you will cast it almost straight down and get a bad backlash . It has to be released earlier , more like a lob . Try casting at the sky , use plenty of brakes until you get the hang of it .

I prefer for the fish to not see my line , that being said I use clear blue fluorescent on my worm rod . The glow is suppose to disappear under water , so I"m taking the manufactures word for it . I use clear or green on my other outfits, being the water in these parts are green . One article I read stated the cheap old blue tinted generic mono-filaments might be the most invisible of all because the particles that make it blue prevents light from piping down it . I occasionally do the sharpie trick like Prime Time and also tried Triple fish camoescent . Whether camouflaging line works or not is debatable , I do understand the idea behind it . We all catch fish with all kinds of line visibility . I believe only a small percentage of bass that sees a lure actually commits to eating it .Watch the hook n look video with KVD . So if using a less visible line might raise the percentage even a little , It's worth pursuing to me . It requires no effort and cant hurt .

I just read an article by Hank Parker here at Bass Resource . He stated consistency was the key for him .He cashed checks in something like 78 per cent of tournaments and said with consistency come wins .

There you have it Tom , you fishing the wrong way . LOL

For you .

Thats another one I havent seen before . I caught a big channel cat fishing a buzzbait at night ..

I.m with WRB . I require a foregrip because thats where I hold the rod . No substantial foregrip is a deal breaker .

Plastic worm is always the number one for me but for some reason I catch a lot of late fall bass on a Bomber Model A .

I dont know what my PB is . I have caught a bunch of fish in the 7 to 8 lb range . I'll just go with the biggest in the last three years . Caught it in July during a light drizzle . Threw a black lunker lure next to a lay down tree . A few minutes later I caught its twin on a Storm Spin Shad on another lay down tree .

When I'm fishing a small lake with elec. motor only , I cant run from spot to spot . I fish known structure but in between I fish my way down the bank . I'm either casting at cover or at a depth . I almost always hit the lay-downs with plastic worms . In between cover I'll search for a productive depth .Shallow water I might throw shallow running cranks , spinners , top waters.. Often I'll start hitting fish deeper with a crankbait . There's been several times where I caught lots of fish on a Rapala Fat Rap at 5 to 6 foot . Other days the fish will be deeper and a Rebel Deep Wee R is the ticket and so on . The thing is I'm not randomly casting . Theres a point to every cast whether it be at a stump or at a depth . I keep a close eye on the depth finder , you never know when you might see a drop , brush-pile , feeding fish .... How do I know they are feeding fish . The depth finder will show longer straighter lines because the fish are moving . I always "speculate" that moving fish are feeding .

I was catfishing in a boat one night , sitting in the rear seat and a blue Herron came out of nowhere and landed in the front ..I'll admit , that scared me . Then I just watched it for a minute before he took off .

It doesnt sound crazy to me .

Those bat taps really feel good . I dont get spooked easily . Coyotes , owls , crashing in the weeds , that is all music too my ears . . I was fishing on a rockbar one night and heard footsteps , crunching on the rocks . I had a lantern on and couldnt see more than a few feet past that . So I had to go investigate and didnt find anything . It wasnt unnerving , but it was perplexing .