nwgabassmaster

The biggest thing that I see is that you are probably using a lure that is wrong for the situation given. There is a Zara Spook that you can buy that is clear. It is meant to be used in clear water situations. I would give that a try. Also, I would try a suspending jerkbait. If they keep following it, kill it right in front of them, and let it sit there. More times than not, if they see the bait just sitting there, it will really tick them off and they will hit. Do not be afraid to try a soft jerkbait like a Fluke. I would twitch it near the top of the water column, and when I get a bass to follow it, I will kill it also, and let it go down about a foot or so, and then, start swimming it back, and kill it again. I have had bass literally KILL my soft jerkbait when I have done this.

Yeah, you just wanna leave it so that the hook will easily come through the skin on that side of the bait. I sent you an e-mail.

In my opinion, yes, they would be shallower. Perhaps not all the way in the backs of the flooded grass and brush. If they are, they are going to tight to the cover, as the baitfish are going to in there feeding, since the flooded grass and brush will give more plankton, etc., for them to feed on. If you can find isolated patches of grass, or isolated brush, then, yes, I would throw a jig. Might have to leave it a few seconds, just to simulate that the bait was feeding along the bottom. As for plastics, I would either use a tube or a creature bait. I would want something that is bulky but yet, kinda small. Hope that makes sense. LOL

Palomar knot on everything. Not sure what the Rapala knot is, but, sometimes on jerkbaits, I will tie what I call a loop knot. A loop knot is where I take the line, tie an overhand knot, with about 5-6 inches of tag line after the knot, but leaving the knot loose. Take the tag end, and run it through the eye of the jerkbait. Once you do that, take the tag end, and run it back through the overhand knot. Then, take it around the main line 4 times, and run the tag end back through the last "hole" made at the top of the knot. Lubricate it with saliva or water, and cinch it down. Depending on the location of the overhand knot and excess line, the loop should only be about 1 inch long. This gives the lure a lot of extra action, and since the loop isn't really big, it will not get hung in the front hook.

Not all lines are created equally. It depends on what line you had purchased. The only thing that I can think of is that the problem was just a fray or nick in the line, and that the fish, along with the current, allowed the line to snap at that location. The anti-reverse feature allows the reel to not go backwards, at all. If this feature is turned off, it will allow it go back just a little, and if it turned neutral, the spool will be in free-spool mode, which means that it will go either forward (reeling in), or in reverse (allowing line off). Sorry about the loss of the fish, but, it could have just been about anything.

Bass-Brat, not to try to upset you or anything, but I have had several crappie do that to me, only to look around 30 mins later, and it be a floater. So, that's why I always use the policy that if it is deeper than I feel comfortable getting it from, the bass get a trophy from me, that is, the hook stays with the bass. I would rather have the bass be in healthy conditions, than to risk the death of it.

I tie directly to the lure. There are several good reasons to use a swivel, mainly that if you are using a spinning lure, it will reduce line twist. It can also increase the action that a given lure actually has. It's just a choice that I make.

Yeah, cut it close enough to the hook so that the bass does not suffer injury. I caught a catfish once that had popped 4 other hooks, and they were anywhere from his gullet up to his lips.

I feel that jigs will work anywhere that an angler cares to fish them. I would go with a 1/4 oz. blue/black Strike King Pro Model jig, and add a blue fleck Zoom Super Chunk as a trailer. Fish it in the thickest stuff you can find, and be sure to try it around the dock. To swim the jig, use a high speed reel, and literally swim it. When I swim the jig, I will choose what depth I want it to stay around, and will get it down there, and just reel it back, and add a twitch every now and then.

Depends on what I am wanting to attract. I will use hardwoods to attract the fish quicker, and they seem to attract more bass than crappies. However, I will throw in a bunch of Christmas-trees tied together, and weighted with a cynder-block, and wait for a year, and they will attract, it seems, more crappies than bass. Just depends on what you wanna use. There are a lot of man-made plastic brushpiles that you can use.

Yup, I hold all my baitcasters that way, from the low profile to the big round ones. I like being able to finger the line for the extra sensitivity. I hold mine where the trigger on the rod is between the bird and ring finger.

Yeah, there is a jib bite all year around. In the winter, I like to look for brushpiles on the edges, or the bottom, of the channels. Also, if you can find them on primary points that are in deep water, then, I will try there also. In the spring, when the bass are in a pre-spawn pattern, I will look for flooded brush, or brush in staging areas, in 5-10 ft. of water. When the bass spawn, small jigs, like Bitsy Bugs, will work, but other lures will work better. After the spawn, I will fish rip-rap, downfalled trees, and the same brushpiles in the staging areas. Once the summer patterns take over, I will go back to the winter haunts in the channel or on the points, and fish the brushpiles or rockpiles down there. When fall rolls around, the thermocline might still be in tact, and if it is, I will fish a jig where brushpiles coincide with the thermocline. If the thermocline isn't in tact, I will start fishing shallow, and slowly move deeper. Fish the trees that are fallen over, or the rip-rap, and will move deeper to the brushpiles, til I find the fish. Then, as winter comes back around, go back deep. Jig are a versatile lure, and you can use them in different locations, under different conditions, and in several situations. Another place that you can use them is around docks. If you are able to flip them under the docks in the far to reach parts of the dock, then, the bass should bite, if the jig bite is going.

Try some flukes or weightless finesse worms. Might even try a drop-shot rig, since that will keep the worm above that stuff.

The show is on right now, on FSS. It's awesome. I would like to have a couple of bass in a tank, like he did. It would be cool.

Shimano! All the way. Stren or Berkley line?

Did anyone else see this Classic Patterns were it showed the tank that Tim had? He was feeding his bass some goldfish. It was unreal the stealth and speed that the biggest largemouth had. He said that there were 4 largemouth and 2 spotted bass, but I did not get a great look at the spotted bass. Great show, and even cooler conclusion with the tank.

Van Halen. The better angler: Denny Brauer or Ike?

replica.......let the baby swim and make babies of her own. Who will win the 06 Classic? KVD or Ike?

Terminator........ 15 lbs. bass or a 150 lb. catfish?

I seriously doubt that it was a hybrid. The darker the fish, the deeper they have been. The lighter the color, the shallower. If the water is clear, the bass will be dark. If it has a stain or is muddy, the bass will be lighter in color. I have caught several bass that you have described, and it's just a part of the depth of water and clarity of water that you catch them from. Also, remember, that bass do move, so, it could have been in a shallow, stained environment, and then, moved to clearer water. It takes 2-3 days for the coloring to change, from what I have seen.

The majority of the bites that I feel when I feel the bite, are the "tap-tap-tap" or either just one huge thump. As for the positioning of the rod, it just depends on what rig that you are using. For the T-rig, I use a hopping retrieve, so, that would put it at 9-10 o'clock, most of the time. For the C-rig, I use a sweeping retrieve, so, that means that I reel down to where the line becomes tight, and then, sweep it back. For a jig-headed worm, I will hop it, so, about the same thing as the T-rig. Experiment with different retrieves until the bass tell you what they want.

One would think that the food that they eat would lend to the color that they are, and, it might. However, I would be more apt to pay more attention to the fish that are swimming around, as that will give you the definite answer as to what they are eating. As for the color of the bass, if there was an area that had a little more yellowish stain to it, etc., and that area has been there for a while, that would tell me that the bass was hanging out in that area for a while.

No, the complete T-rig is with the weight, but the picture of the "Tex-posed" worm, those are correct. That is the correct name for those pictures, as deemed by Yamamoto.

For black bass, no, I have never trolled. The main reason is that the method of trolling, in most tournaments, is prohibited, and the fish that you catch in this method are forfeit. However, on Lake Weiss, during this part of the year, especially during the day, you can catch quite a few decent sized white bass, striped bass, and hybrids, along with the bigger crappies if you troll behind your boat, around 75-100', with spoons. We did this for several years in the hot parts of the day, and ended up filling the coolers full of these fish, and having a decent fish fry during the evenings. As for the changing of the hook, it won't work. Sure, they won't get hooked nearly as often, but if you are still using a nightcrawler, that's the part that they are after, not the hook. So, either switch up baits, or still be stuck with the problem of having the panfish nipping at your line.