scaleface

In the 80's I use to fish LOZ out of a fifteen foot Skeeter Tri-hull . How things have changed . I have a 22 foot Lowe now , maybe I'll get the courage and go back this year . I never hear of 10 lb bass up here .

Try fishing a texas rig plastic worm instead . The bites feel the same and you should get more of them . The way I detect strikes is to hold the rod in front of the reel and run the line between the index finger and thumb . Lift the bait off the bottom then let it fall straight down . Lower your rod tip at the same speed the lure is falling while keeping it semi tight .This ensures it is falling straight and keeps the line tight enough to feel the "tap". Almost all hits occur when the bait is falling .Watch the line where it enters the water. I use mono filament and when the lure hits bottom it will slacken up a little . .Look for it to slightly jump ,move to the side , or maybe it doesnt seem to find bottom , this would indicate a bass has it and swimming toward you . A lot of bites you just cant detect and it takes practice . When I'm raising the lure I know how it feels when nothing is on it . If I start to lift and it feels slightly heavier , like I'm caught on a leaf .I set the hook . I call it weighing the line . If you think you might have had a bite , look closely at the worm . Bass will usually leave teeth marks on it . It will appear rough from their sandpaper like teeth . Fish jigs exactly the same way .

Of the tree you listed I would choose the prop. To me , floating minnows are the best around the spawn . just cast it out and let it set . some days the bass will be in pockets , some days on points .

In the mid 80's i created a soft plastic walker . They actually walk real well .

Heres mine

A small chartreuse spinnerbait .

I havent found a soft plastic craw that didnt work well for river smallies . Hula grubs , Guido bugs , Larew Salt Craws , Hales Craw worm. Reneagade craws... Tubes and skirted jigs are also great choices .

I think that some limits set forth by the Missouri conservation Dept encourage the success of bass that genetically dont grow big . The lake I fish the most has a fantastic population of fish in the slot 12 to15 inches , but not so much above it . I think , instead of a a slot or a minimum length limit an experimental maximum length limit could be tried . Six fish creel limit, 15 inches and "under" l and only 1 over fifteen would be legal. I would think it would turn into a trophy lake but I'm no biologist .

Right .

Bomber Prop A for top water ,otherwise thee same stuff I use the rest of the year .

Bomber Prop A . Silver Flash . No longer made but I have a half dozen .

Youre right . Bass dont leave teeth marks . I made the whole thing up .

LOL . OK .

Soft plastics , look for teeth marks . Zoom lizards , Guido Bugs and other smooth shiny lures will show the teeth marks well .

Roland Martin once made a television show bass fishing on a carp and gar pattern .

There is this slough I use to fish full of carp . Twice I caught big bass trying to snag a carp by ripping a jerkbait through a school of them .

The fish dont always hit what you want them to hit .

Manns jelly worms are neato .

Alone . Saturday I went fishing with my sister in law . She had a junk baitcaster that broke after ten minutes . I dont get to fish often enough now days and when I do go I dont want to babysit . ,

For small bass , I cut right through the rib cage . Larger fish I have to work around it unless I have an electric knife .

Ive been in the same "boat" . As the boater was busy covering copious amounts of water " he probably read about it in Bassmaster " with a spinnerbait , I casted a Texas rigged worm with a 1/4 ounce weight into shallow cover . lift and drop a couple of times then repeated . I won that two day event . I've been told several times that I fished a texas rig faster than anyone they ever seen .

I have an overactive brain . Some might call it HADD . Fishing calms me down . I feel more normal when fishing . I think thats why I love it . Metal Detecting and hiking after a fresh snow are also therapeutic .

I would pick mon /tues the 18th and 19th because of the light wind . I just fished from a yak for the first time saturday . I was fishing a river and it was very windy . Half the time I made a cast the wind would turn me around . No fun .

Use a lot of sinking lures . I have found that prerigged swimbaits like those from Storm or Berkely are good and inexpensive for covering all depths of water quickly . Keep Casting them deeper and deeper allowing them sink to the bottom . When retrieved they will follow the bottom contour , where bass likely are , all the way to the bank . If you get snagged and lose it , then hit that spot with a texas rigged worm . Of course you cant do this in weed choked waters .

I dig those bucktail underspins .