hoosierbass07

Wow, cool stuff! How do you keep your lip-less crank from getting snagged on the bottom when you let it sink all the way down? What kind of line are you using?

http://www.bigindianabass.com/big_indiana_bass/2015/01/upcoming-indiana-fishing-shows.html And the big one in Indy near the end of the month in February: http://indianapolisboatsportandtravelshow.com/#

Raccoon is one of my main bank fishing (and kayak fishing) lakes/parks and I don't think it's good at all. I did catch 2.15 pound bass last spring. But Raccoon is not that great. This year I'm going to try and fish it hard from my kayak in the early spring and see how it is. It ticks me off a little - I record a lot of fishing programs and when they are titled "Fishing the Midwest" I think of Indiana. And yet it's always Minnesota or Oklahoma, over and over and over again. Do they ever do programs from Indiana? Nope!

Cabin fever? Of course not. I've only reorganized my tackle bag twenty times and I'm going to keep reorganizing it, over an over, till spring! One good thing - there are a couple of fishing expos/shows that are in February so I'm already looking forward to those.

I keep reading and seeing videos on Youtube and TV programs about how great the drop-shot rig is. Drop-shot this, drop-shot that. When I'm kayak fishing for bass I take two to three rods with me. Two with soft plastics (split-shot and Texas Rig) and third rod with a hard bait, probably a spinner bait. Is the drop-shot worth trying out? Is the drop-shot more effective than a split-shot rig? Do you have to know there are fish under you to make the drop-shot effective? I can use my Texas rig and Spit-shot rig to search and fine and catch bass. Hit and miss. Can that be done with a drop-shot rig? When you cast a drop-shot rig, don't you have to work it very slow and jiggle it slowly? Can the drop-shot be used in non-clear water? The idea of tying on a weight at the end of the line with a hook up the line and just dangling it sounds sort of boring to me. I get a lot of enjoyment working worms on the Texas rig and split-shot rig. The drop-shot rig seems sort of boring to me but now I'm wondering if, when the bite is tough, it might be effective. Thanks!

Is this book only about trolling?

I think you are right. Doug Hannon talks about this subject in his Big Bass Magic book. To paraphrase - when fishing in daylight, bass have an easier time seeing the lure and telling the difference between live bait and a fake lure. So in the daylight use smaller lures or real bait. Use fake lures in darker situations like morning or evening or cloudy days. But in daylight - you better use small lures because it's hard to fool a bass with lots of day light. Bill Murphy mentions something about this in his book too. He was talking about crankbaits and painting fancy patterns on them. He said, according him, instead of painting lures with exact details, paint them with slashes of color you are trying to imitate, but don't paint it image for image. Bass will be attracted more to the basic patterns more than an exact copy image.

I 've been thinking about this topic the last few days. I've been thinking about lures that are very detailed and lures that are more plain and less detailed. In my two years of bass fishing so far, I think the more plain lures work far better than the more detailed. For instance, one of the most plain lures is the Senko/stick bait. Is there anything more plain than the shape of that? And yet it probably is the number one bass catching lure out there besides live bait. Then I have my two really big bass I caught last spring, both were on lures I didn't think would work at all and seemed sort of plain to me - a stiff El Grande lizard around five inches long and a Strike King KVD shad crankbait. I remember putting the lizard on my hook and thinking the whole thing was just too stiff with little movement. But I did end up catching my personal best at that time while using it on a split shot. I didn't think I would catch anything on that crankbait either but ended up catching my personal best. I found that crankabait to be rather plain/cheap looking. But it worked for me (in the spring). To me those two lures were plain and boring but they worked. Ok, they really only worked once the whole year, but they worked.

If you have a lot of videos on your PC then download Plex on your PC and Roku. I've got it so I can stream my videos from my PC to my Roku and watch them on the TV. I can watch my fishing videos I took over the summer over and over (5 degrees here as I type). lol.

Your just finding out about the amazing Roku? lol. I've had one now for thee years and love it. I now have a Roku three. I probably watch Youtube videos on my Roku on TV as much as I watch regular cable TV. Also, on my iPad I can watch YouTube videos and easily have them play on the Roku, pretty cool. But that Roku box, if you have good wireless, is a great little box. That Roku 3 I have does not crash as much as the Roku 2 and I've noticed it actually resets itself when it jams up. With my old Roku I had to sometimes unhook the power cable from it and hook it back up. Yeah, Roku is awesome and Roku 3 is super awesome!

I love Roboworms! When I use them I split shot them. I usually save them for last when the bite is tough.

MLF is one of the few fishing programs I will re-watch a few times because it's so entertaining.

The only bad thing Iv'e found with the split shot rig is when you cast near tree limbs and it gets wrapped around a little limb. If you can't get to it to unwrap it then you might as well grab the line and pull and break the line. I've found the Texas rig doesn't always wrap around as much as the split shot rig.

I'm starting to really enjoy that program. What happened to poor Timmy Horton? That's one of the reasons I enjoy MLF - we get to see some fisherman struggle big time. Others we see struggle but then get it going and others do good then start to sink. The fishing seems more realistic.

You saying that Cabelas is only going to be the size of a Staples store? If so then I will not be visiting. Hmm... according to this press release it's only going to be 80,000 sf. http://www.cabelas.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=noblesville

I'm near Terre Haute so I've been waiting for that Cabelas to open up when it does. It might be a two hour or more drive for me to get to it. From what I read it's their smaller version store. It better be a good store. There's a Gander Mountain here in Terre Haute and if I'm going to drive two plus hours to get to that Cabelas it better be big enough for me to spend a couple hours in to look around and maybe buy some stuff.

The split shot rig is becoming one of my favorites way to fish for bass. The thought of putting on a worm or lizard on a 3/0 or 2/0 wide gap hook, pinch on a small split shot eight inches or so above the hook, and makes your casts, fun fun fun! And effective too.

I don't make resolutions but if I am going to make some here they are: 1. Get out earlier in the spring time to fish from my kayaks. I'm talking early March here in Indiana. 2. Find a tournament or two where I can be a co-angler for the first time. I've never competed before (or been in a bass boat). I would like to find a welcoming bass tournament club and try it out once or maybe twice.

I think cameras can make things look a lot larger than they actually are. I used to watch a lot of Formula One races and Indycar races on TV. When I went to my first F1 race at Indy and saw F1 cars for the first time in person. I thought, wow, they look a lot smaller than on TV. Same thing with Mt Rushmore. It looks humongous on TV but when you are there, it's big but not as big as it looks on TV.

I think "finesse" is a relative term depending on who you ask or where you fish. For instance, my main line is eight pound mono. That gets the job done for my bass fishing most of the time. I consider ten pound heavy mono. I have one baitcaster with twelve pound mono and I consider that really heavy. I have a couple of six pound lines too and I consider that a little finesse. In 2015 I'm going to try five pound mono Maxima for bass fishing and I consider that really really finesse. I guess over all I'm a finesse bass fisherman. I mostly fish Texas rig and split shot plastic worms/stick baits/lizards 99% of the time. I did discover Booyah pond magic spinnerbaits this year and have become a fan of them. I consider them finesse spinerbaits compared to most others. I'm also going to try small mushroom jig heads with an exposed hook in 2015. I thing that is super finesse too. What I don't consider finesse: Most crankbaits, jigs with weed guards, and jerk baits.

OK, I went to Walmart and bought that fanny pack. lol. Only ten dollars. I tried it on and it seems comfortable. It just might be a good light bank fishing bag.

I'm thinking of getting one of these cheap fanny/waste packs and try to put some some small cases of fishing tackle in it. Anybody use something like this?

I've fished lots of split shot fishing but not real Carolina rig fishing. I'm shocked to see so many people saying the Carolina rig is their least favorite rig. I thought the Carolina rig is one of the greatest and most effective rigs to use for bass?

For me it's anything with treble hooks because they can be so dangerous plus they stick/get stuck to almost everything they touch. I'm really not a fan of crankbaits either. As someone else said, I find them a little boring, casting them out and winding them in. I know, you can stop and go and supposedly bounce them off things in the water, I still find them boring. I find spinnerbaits almost as boring too. I guess the one reason I consider spinnerbaits my second main lure next to soft plastics is because spinnerbait are somewhat weedless. Nothing matches the fun of soft plastics.

Scott Martin is pretty cool. I watch some of his videos on YouTube but don't watch his Scott Martin Challenge program much. I almost forgot - Jarrett Edwards. He seems humble and nice and his programs are somewhat interesting.