BASS fisherman

I would suggest you try to email someone from the clubs, informing them of your interest in joining. The club I am in was $300.00 for the year, but that price covers payouts during the clubs classic, as well as prizes. All the tourneys are free of entry fees, but a $10 rider/co-angler fee applies, as well as an optional $5 lunker fee for each tourney. Find the club's website, and contact someone through that site. But, make sure they are the type of clubs that your looking for. Some club members will help you out as much as possible, while a different club may just be for the individual.

When I catch a bass, I will reel it in as fast as possible IF I am pitching into thich, heavy weeds, where the bass could run, and I'd loose em. Otherwise "playing the fish" is the best option that will tire the bass out, so lipping the fish isn't a difficult thing to do. It really doesn't make a difference (in my opinion) whether you reel the bass in asap, just make sure that you have strong enough line so you don't loose your fish.

It is truely amazing that one person can touch so many peoples' lives in ways that they will never even know about. Think about all the relationships that have stemmed from this forum, and its information. Glad you created this site, and thanks for posting Glenn. You have over 6,000 on this site, but your dedication, and effort has touched the lives of so incredibly many people, it is incomprehensible. Thanks again to Glenn, and all the moderators, authors of the articles, advertisers, the long time posters, and all those from the younger generation that will keep this place going when we are all long gone.

here is a link on how to make your own mold. http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5393 To get the materials like plastic, scents, etc.. try lurecraft.com, and stamina.com

The lure I am working on now is 4 inches long, hard wood, not sure exactly what kind of wood, I just know that it is hard. It came from a 1.25 inch dowel.

Finally, people actually answered one of my posts, Great! How about a response from some of the moderaters, or maybe the great and powerful Glenn? Thanks to all you folks who make this awesome site possible.

I believe that the people on this site have helped me to gain lots of confidence in my fishing abilities, therefore making me a better angler. How have the posts on this site helped you to become a better angler? Was it the tips and techniques, the forums, the articles, or just the friendly folks in the forums that helped to make your confidence soar like mine?

I recently started making my own crankbaits, with alot of help from whittler. I need to know if a topwater lure that I am making, should have a small weight added to it? What colors should I paint it?

I agree 100% with RW. If you follow his advice, you'll be catching some smallies in no time.

Smallmouth put up way more of a fight than largemouth. I had a touney today, on a river, fishing for smallmouth. I have never fished for them before today, and I caught 3. Total wieght was 2lb 14 oz. That may sound like a low wieght, but after the storm season of 2003, and then last year, the small mouth fishing has been bleak on the 3 rivers area, around Pittsburgh.

This may help, I work in an upholstery shop, and we use a stain remover/hand cleaner called M30. Im pretty sure you can get it at Dollar General, so stores like Walmart would most likely have it too. Get the big chunks off with the brush first. Then take your hand cleaner and either a scotch bright pad, or a brillow pad, which ever scratches the least, and swab it on, and let it soak in for 5 min or so. Then go back with the pad, and scrub it. The stuff works wonders as long as you don't scratch the heck out of the aluminum. To save time, work in 1ftx1ft patches. Swab 1 patch, then 2nd, then 3rd, and go back to the first and scrub it. Have several old rags with you to wipe off the dirt you scrub off. And it would be best for the water you fish on, to clean with soap and water after you clean the stains off with the cleaner. I have used the stuff to clean antique chairs and loveseats, metal, poster board with crayon and pencil marks, just about anything that is filthy. Just don't tell anyone, we don't want our secret gettingout. OOPPPPS!

Any lures that are noisy, have lots of vibration, or dark lures. If you can find a light off of a boat dock, try a worm, grub, or senko. I night fish alot, and have caught bass off spooks, spit'n images, worms, senkos, jitterbugs, pop-rs, YUM buzz frogs, and so on.

I don't ever keep any bass I catch, but this would have to be the exception. I am not rich by any means, so my future bass will help me to be able to financially support my family better. The endorsments would be nice, and even more money in my pocket. It is my dream, and would help me to live out the rest of my dreams, such as buying a bass boat, and going south to fish some lakes so big that you can't walk around them in a day. Not to mention all the anglers who would be inviting me to fish with them. I would prefer to release the bass, but due to the imense riches, I couldn't.

Thanks Low_Budget_Hookers, I'll find the number right now and call.

How do you guys get this lake maps? I look all over the net for maps of my lakes, and can't find a thing. I don't have a boat, which means I don't have a depth finder, so making my own map is out. The sites I do find don't have the "ponds" on them that I fish. I live in southeast PA, and fish Northmoreland lakes- upper and lower, Keystone, deer lakes, and lake arthur. Everytime I find a topo map site, it is always for land, and not lake maps.

Go by your experience. I have several different lures that are the same, except for color. 4 out of 5 do not produce, but that blue gill pattern catches several bass right away. The same goes with worms. You can believe what you read, but go by what you know. Bass have rods and cones, just like we do, which simply put, means they can differentiate between different colors.

Thanks for the links! I don't fish with a die hard bass angler, so reading these posts from people that know what works, builds my confidence a great deal. And you all know what that means....more bass. Thanks for taking the time to post the links.

I would either buy a used bass boat, or put it down on a new one. If I bought a used boat, I'd use the rest of the money to buy better gear, new rods and reels, a better tackle bag, lots of lures, and the tools to make my own lures such as plastics, cranks, jigs, and spinnerbaits.

It all depends on what strain of bass your looking for. If it is Florida strain, I would say 9-10 pounds is a "nice bass" . If it is a northern strain, around 5-6 pounds is a "nice bass" I just started targeting smallmouth, so I really don't know, but I'd say that 5-6 pounds for smallies as well.

Do smallies feed during the night? I have read that they infact do not, but then I have also read that they do activily feed at night. I have not fished for smallies at night because I just read that they feed at night, so have you ever caught smallmouths at night?

Good question. No, a 5 in worm, or senko will get even smaller bass than 12". I have had bass on both ends of the extreme. I have caught my 2nd largest bass on a 4inch YUM dinger. But I've also had a 4 inch bass take a crankbait that just barely fit ino it's mouth. If the fishing is tough, you what to try downsizing your lures, and slowing down the retrieve. As well, a big lure will look better to a big bass, because they can expend less energy to get a good meal-do less, get more.

Nice work! I keep 2 Sharpies in my bag at all times, 1 red, 1 black, and have had a few times that adding gills have caught some bass, were without the gills, I didn't get any.

I have thought about getting into pouring my own plastics, since I will always save a buck here and there if I can. I see folks posting on here that they make molds from plaster paris. How do you do that? Be as detailed as you can please. Thanks guys.