jb_adams

I told my buddy I found a vaccine for the bait monkey. Get a fully stocked tackle bag with tons of boxes and he'll leave you alone. Few days later my cell rings....."OK, you busted me. I'm in the fishing section at Wal-Mart. But I only needed a few things!" ;D My 7 year old even says, "that's a cool bait". Yep, no one is safe and he's a sneaky rascal. Leaves a crumb trail everywhere he goes.

Based on your hull offset, I'd say your motor is a bit high. My local mechanic proved to me that your boat should not be shooting "rooster tails" on plane at WOT. If it is, you're wasting efficiency. That boat with that motor should run about 70. If you're setup is optimum and the right prop is being used. She's beautiful! She'll last a long time if you keep her covered up. Have fun! I'm officially jealous by the way. I'm still waiting to get mine.

Too bad I can't get a DO meter on my Lowrance electronics much like the water temp. If I could also track DO levels, I'd take note of the readings where I catch bass and where I don't catch bass. Problem is, the surface could have low DO and the subsurface over 30ft below could have higher oxygen content. Seems to be the case on my lake anyway. Most bass now are suspended deep or near deeper water. You don't find them over 100ft deep rock bluffs, and you won't find them in 80ft deep coves but you will find them suspended about 20-30ft or sometimes 10ft over structure at the mouth of a cut off the main cove that is 50-80ft deep.

I didn't think so either but I have seen a lot of carp in shallow water, suspended much like bass. I was so excited and flipping to this perceived HUGE bass only to find out it was a stinkn' carp. I was so mad. I wasted a lot of time chasing several carp in a cove ealier this spring when it was carp. Oh, and it was in a VERY highly oxygenated cove too come to think of it. It had a beautiful waterfall in the back near where I saw the carp so the water was oxygenated. Thousands of little fry or shad of some type were there too. It was pre-spawn and the shad looked like tiny little bass. Green with little stripes down their sides. I saw one tiny little bass about 8-10 inches and that was the only bass I saw in that cove. But here were at least 10-15 carp suspended in flooded brush near the bank. Here's a picture of the fall. I've seen far more carp and gar rolling in large coves than I have bass. They have almost become a bad *** for me now. Just this weekend, I caught a nice 2lb LM on a spinnerbait suspended deep on near a brush pile. As I entered the cove further back, no bites. There were carp & gar present. On the way out of the cove, I went back to my spot and didn't get any more bass off that spot. Wierd....

Wow! That's a scientific and logical answer! Thanks! Makes sense to me.

Beaver Lake is a river reservoir and there are a lot of carp and gar. Seems like when I go into a large cove, the bass are at the mouth and the middle tight on structure or suspended on ledges and never in the back where it's shallow or where all the thousands of shad are. I would think the bass would be in the back gorging on the abundance of shad. Instead it looks like synchranized swimming with carp and gar as the star of the show..... I've gotten to where I'll pull the trolling motor and find a new spot when I start hearing carp rolling or gar splashing. Why waist time fishing it if they aren't there? :

Seems like every trip on my home lake, when I see gar rolling & splashing, I never catch a bass in that area much less see any. Same thing for carp. I usually see a lot of carp rolling and splashing around but never can catch bass when these two species are around. Bass are predatory and usually near the top of the food chain. Other than the striper in the lake, the bass are near the top. So why do these species affect me being able to locate bass? And just what the heck are the carp doing anyway? Are they chasing shad? I assume they are competing for the same food source or they are trying out for Sea World because they seem to like jumping completely out of the water a lot on Beaver Lake. So here's the current lake conditions: - Depending on where you are on the lake, water clarity is clearing and up to 4-5ft and 2ft in some areas. (usually a very clear lake) - Flooded water level so miles of great shoreline structure to fish and tons of coves to fish (don't find many bass in coves right now) - most bass are suspended near deeper water on ledges and humps Any thoughts or insight on why I can't find bass in large coves and all I find are gar and carp? I've caught some bass in coves but nothing of real quality.

I can't find the "wire" or forms or whatever they're called that I want so I am thinking of making them. What kind of wire do I need? Is it stainless? Where can you get it, just about anywhere? Ya know, War Eagle is located in my hometown. I might see if they would sell me a few sticks of wire and some skirts. What I want is a wire that has a bend way back about halfway back down the wire towards the bullet shaped head. Instead of the typical bend, the wire is bent where it normally is and doubles back down towards the bait halfway, then turns out like it normally does. I want a single willow blade close to the hook and bait and the reason for the bend is to create more shaking action while slow rolling the bait. I also want to put a trailer style hook on below the bullet weight/head instead of having a fixed hook. I could bend the wire on the other side of the head to close off the hook. I've seen some custom baits like this or at least similar to this and I want to make my own. Got any ideas? Here's what I'm looking for. (Photoshop is a handy tool!)

I started a thread just like this last year so here's my two cents for what it's worth. Both baits are good and both have their place where one will outperform the other given various circumstances. The differences would be very small as to one catching more fish than the other. Let's face it, when the topwater bite is hot, you can throw just about anything that mimics a meal and it will produce a strike. If it's cost that worries you, throw the Spook. I have more Spooks than Sammys for that reason alone. If I could afford more Sammys, I'd have more Sammys because they seem to cast further, the action is A LOT more erratic than the spook. The Sammy has an up & down motion with the walk the dog retreive vs a simple side-to-side retreive like the Spook. Don't belive me? Try the two side by side and you'll see the difference. I think water clarity makes a difference as well as fishing pressure. The Sammy just looks more lifelike in clear water (especially the jointed version) and on my lake, lot's of people throw the Spook so I'd rather have something a little different than the rest. I've had a lot of luck with a clear Zara puppy last year for locating bass. It would produce savage strikes because it's small and the clear body worked well in clear water. The issue is the barbs on the hooks suck so replacing with better hooks of the same size is an option. I lost more fish than I caught with those hooks. So, it all boils down to price, water clarity, and "what's everyone else throwing" in my opinion. Both are great baits and both work well when the bite is good.

I stand corrected, it was a flathead after all. Those spikes are scars on it's back. The picture was taken with a camera phone so the color is off a bit. I've seen flatheads before, but this one is a bit weird looking for a flathead. The tail looks different and the color is a bit odd. Oh well, thanks everyone!

It's got spikes on top of it behind the head....look again. I looked up sculpin but that's mainly a saltwater fish. I looked up "horney headed chub" but that's not it either. I also tried the bull-head and flat-head. Not it either. A flathead has a REALLy wide flat head.

I know I've seen a picture of a fish like this on here before. My buddy's boss caught one of these in freshwater. What kind of fish is it? I've tried finding something on the Internet and can't ID it. Any thoughts?

It doesn't take much to get someone hooked on braid. I've had line dig only one time and that was probably my fault. I tried a new technique for fishing jigs this weekend and I loved it. I could feel every size rock, stick, bite, etc. It was amazing what I've been missing. After using braid, fishing anything slow with mono or fluoro feels mushy and like I'm using a slinky. Braid has totally ruined me! ;D Glad it's working for ya Jeff and thanks for the feedback! 8-)

The backyard isn't the same as the water believe me. It's a good start for practice though. Try starting off with something like Suffix 10lb braid. It's cheap and 6lb diam. so it feels more like mono. Not near as intimidating as 50lb "rope"! (haha) After trying braid again, I'm very glad I did. I feel like I just dropped a blown V8 in a muscle car. I've got good quality rods, now I just added the horsepower & feel to make them perform better. Give braid a shot on the water after playing with it in the backyard and see if you like it better. Just remember to try these things: - don't overcast with braid (don't cast too hard) - always try to unspool extra line after your cast so the line on the spool is even with the line guide on the reel so when you start your retrieve, the line is re-spooling where it left off. This keeps your line straighter on the spool and helps prevent backlashes (both braid & mono) - try finding that just right adjustment with your adj. knob till the line is flying off the spool without backlashing - strive for easy gentle casts until you get a rythm going. I think you will find you like it after you get past the noise difference braid makes and how it feels. It's still a bit "weird" but I have confidence in it and the "weirdness" goes away. Good luck! ;D

So about how long should I expect this really muddy water with tons of silt? Last year, we had an algae bloom, this year, it's silt and muddy water. Next year should make for AWESOME fishing!

That's my favorite thing about braid - I can talk the fish into biting - "Come on Larry, you may not be hungry, but just have a bite and try it out - it's delicious, trust me!" Seriously though, I don't think you're hearing the jig rattling from far away...it must be something else. Nope, I promise it's the rattles. I use the cheap Renegade rattles from Wal-Mart with two rattles per jig. It was quiet, the wind died down, I was slowly twitching the jig and I kept hearing a ticking noise. As I focused on the sound a bit more, I realized it was my jig rattles. So, I placed the baitcaster to my ear for a closer listen, sure enough it was the jig rattles. I could distinctly hear the little shot rattling inside the plastic sleeve and hitting the metal end. You could hear a tick, tick tick. By then, I was giggling like a little schoo-girl and raving how much I loved braid!

Every one uses what they feel comfortable with and get the best results with. If you don't like don't use it. Agreed. I know lots of pros that use Fireline Crystal and still use fluorocarbon too. Each has there application for certain presentations. Braid is highly visible in clear water so using it for a wacky rig is not as good as fluorocarbon but it's great for crankbaits, etc.

thats what i need to learn. one backlash and that rod/reel is done for the day. maybe some day ill take the time to learn instead of just fishing with what i know, sort of like picking up a baitcaster for the first time. If you can fish out a backlash from mono or fluorocarbon in a baitcaster, you should be able to do the same for braid. I've only backlased once so far with braid and it was nothing to dig out. I think it was due to line burrowing like Rolo stated. I will occasionally get a really bad backlash because of some strange circumstance with both mono or fluorocarbon. Like when I flipped my jig wrong and it hits the water abruptly or when I just really over cast and try to fling a bait too far out there. When you get a real rats nest of line, it can take you 10-15mins to dig out because when the line already has a curl due to line memory, it will jump off the spool. Braid doesn't seem to do that at all. Braid is not for everyone but I really recommend you try lighter weight braids like a 10lb or 12lb with a 4-6lb mono diameter. They are much less intimidating and look more like tiny sewing thread so you feel more like you are using mono than braided line. I used 10lb Suffix on my BPS Prolite baitcaster because it's a finesse baitcaster and 10lb is the max. line size. For finesse jigs (1/4oz-1/2oz), it's an awesome setup. I was able to flip back into a waterfall that was over 40ft away and that little jig just settled down nicely. I can feel the rattles, hear the rattles (braid has more audible feedback), feel the difference between a rock, stick, grass, and I swear I can even feel the grub trailer wagging it's legs if I swim it. One thing about braid that I don't like. Since I can hear my jig rattles easily, that means the fish can hear me talking to my buddy or any other topside noise if the line is pulled tight with no slack in the line. If you ever took two coffee cans or soup cans and strung a taught string between them as kids to make a play telephone, this theory explains what I mean. If I can hear the jig rattles, then the fish can hear my conversation in the boat. Maybe not as well as I can hear the rattles but it still transfers some vibration below the water to the bait.

Only thing I don't like about Grigsby is, he tends to be a sellout like Rowland. It's a 30min. infomercial about Strike King or some other product. KVD is getting about that bad with the Sexy Shad and Red-Eye Shad lately. I know it's a good bait and all but that's all he's throwing in tournaments and it's all he talks about. He must get .50cents on the bait! (j/k) You have to admit, when that's all KVD throws and he still wins Elite series events, there is no doubt he's the man! Plus the fact that he casts ratio is 5:1 compared to every other angler doesn't hurt either. That's how he's catching so many. I still like Grigsby and KVD though. I love seeing Grigsby get excited when he catches a fish! "Big Ol PIG!"

I have recently become a WGFS fan. Missed last weeks episode but got to watch this weeks where he fished with Aron Martens. The animal sounds were hilarious. That and the local guy "full of info". My wife came and sat on the couch with me and laughed with me. She said she like the show! She doesn't even like fishing! : SO, Zona has got me hooked on the show no doubt. He is too much like me and my buddies to not watch the show. My fishing partner (Jolicious, BassResource.com member) is just as bad if not worse than Zona himself and he says..."Zona is a goob". That's the pot calling the kettle black! My bud's a bigger goob most of the time! ;D It's just a bunch of guys, hanging out and fishing. That's the way it should be. Some time on the water catching "baby cubs" and "chunky monkeys". Whats the other "Zona-term"....oh yeah, "SWAMP DONKEY!" ;D

Guys, this water isn't just muddy. It's the color of a Yoohoo chocolate drink! There is practically zero visibility up river. A friend of mine caught 4 fish in a tournament on Saturday in muddy water but I don't know how muddy. Once you cross the Hwy 12 bridge, it's "Yoohoo" for a long long ways. It hasn't been this muddy in years the locals say. I agree, firetiger and bright flashy noisy baits are great but when you have so much flooded shore line, the bass go so shallow that they are in extremely thick brush and in areas a boat can't even get access too. You need a boat to get to the best places where you can fish from a bank. I just don't have the patience or the money to fish a rattle trap through really tough flooded brush. I'd rather go weedless and reduces your options for noisy baits. Saturday afternoon, the wind died down from 15mph gusts to 5-6mph and the fish started biting. Everyone seems to be having better luck down river towards the dam where the water is clearer and stained with a greenish tint vs. "yoohoo brown" from all the silt. Caught these two with a War Eagle spinnerbait. Compared to bass I typically catch from this lake, I'd say the population of bass is getting much much better. I typcially catch 12-13inch spots, rarely over 2lbs. and never "chunky" like these. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/jb_adams/Fishing/2lb-7ozSpottedBass.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/jb_adams/Fishing/2lb-2ozSpottedBass.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/jb_adams/Fishing/ClifftyWaterfall2.jpg Found this waterfall, notice the water color? Green and milky. Saw one small 12" bass in this area and tons of bass fry. No aggressive bass found there.

I wouldn't put it like that. Braid has no stretch or give to it so you get better feedback than flourocarbon which has stretch and monofiliament that has slight amount of stretch before it breaks. Braid (if ever) simply breaks. I know I will loose much fewer baits with braid. I've set the hook on many a good baits only to have my line snap. Some of which I know I had a fish. Braid won't allow that to happen anymore! Even the 10lb test braid that looks like sewing thread it's so small, is plenty strong. I snagged my jig a few times today and I hauled in some really big limbs because they braid wouldn't snap under pressure like the Yo-Zuri does. Yo-Zuri is a copolymer which is kind of a half mono-half flouro I believe. I'm thinking about putting braid on just about 80% of my rods now.

Yep, I finally tried braided line. MAN what a difference! All this time, I was affraid to use it because I felt it would backlash more, harder to undo backlashes, and too heavy of a line and easily seen. I was so far from the truth it's amazing. I like fishing finesse jigs in 5/16oz to 7/16oz on a small 6ft rod with 10lb test. I swapped out my Yo-Zuri (great stuff) with Suffix Pro Braid(?) in 10lb test in 6lb mono diam. That stuff is amazing! I could hear the rattles on my jig with the jig over 40 ft away. I was so shocked to hear my jig rattles. The sensitivity is great, no doubt if you get a bite now! I also tried 20lb test in the Spiderwire braid. Only reason I tried it was because it had a small dia. and was cheap! It works pretty well too. I have it on my crankbait rod and I can't believe how much more you can feel with the crankbait and braided line. SO I feel like I have switched from an old Zebco 33 to a Shimano Citica or something. I just can't believe that I've missed out all this time. So, is braided line bad for your rod guides? I have alconite guides on my St. Croix Avid rods and I have Fuji guides on my Falcon rods. Is this OK or will it cut into my rod guides? :-?

Fished for pre-spawn fish all afternoon. No signs of any feeding bass that I could find. Finally went way back in the back of a long cove and thought I saw shad schools. Turns out, it was bass frylings. The water temp was 62 degrees and there was bass fry everywhere. That told me the spawn happened previously a week or so prior. Everything I've read told me that the bass had moved out of the back of coves in that area and could be found on points or transitional areas on their way out of the coves or main lake points. So, on my way back to the dock which was down river (colder clearer water) I fished a few minutes in flooded brush and got pounded by a really nice fat 2.5lb spotted bass. Nice fish for the day! So a few minutes later caught a 2lb spot off the same brush pile. This water was only 54-55 degrees and when about 5:30, the wind finally calmed down a bit and the fish went active. I heard 3-4 fish jump in an hour of fishing this cove. It wasn't a really long cove and water was around 2-3ft visibility and greenish stained vs. the Mississippi mud color the rest of the upper end of the lake has. Another large cove down river has 52 degree water and about 4-5ft visibility. I think you can find more pre-spawn and more active bass there than any 65-70 muddy water with no visibilty. It's just too silty.

If I had one, I'd definately give you a call. I'm still working on getting one though. A lot of really good anglers here fish from banks. This time of year is good for bank fishing since most bass go shallow until the summer gets really hot. I'd suggest using a lot of plastics because if you hang up, it's no big financial loss vs. $5 a bait for every lost bait. May I sugget an Xpress boat? For the same money, you get a more stable boat, faster, better fuel efficiency, and a tough as nails boat. No one's ever said a bad thing about Xpress. There are a few opinions on Bass Tracker however. Just my two cents. I've put a lot of time into researching this myself since I was looking at a Bass Tracker. For the money, I prefer the Xpress.