Catch and Grease

Based on the density of the cover, this is one technique where loading for bear is usually more productive than finesse tackle. Start with heavy 50 lb or larger braided line. Braid line cuts through dense weeds much better than other types of lines and affords you the power to handle big fish in the slop. To make your line less visible to the fish, simply use a black marker to darken the last 3’ or 4’. On the business end of the line, I’ll use either a heavy Texas rig or an outsized jig. Big ½ or 3/4 oz MPack jigs with Fork Craw trailers work very well for pitching small holes in patchier grass; however, heavy Texas rigs are more streamlined and often fall through the thickest of grass more consistently. For the Texas rig, I use a ¾ or 1 oz Mega Weight tungsten bullet sinker. The smaller size of tungsten provides a slimmer profile and the insert in the Mega Weights won’t cut your braided line like other unprotected tungsten weights will. I attach this to a 3/0 to 4/0 hook with a Lake Fork Tackle Flipper or Craw Tube and rig it weedless. The Craw Tube is especially effective for this rig, as evidenced by Kelly Jordon’s wins in the FLW Tour at Okeechobee and in the Bass Elite Series on the Potomac River using it to flip matted vegetation. Finally, the weight of a big 1 oz sinker and the impact of jarring hook sets at close range necessitate a stout rod. Although flipping sticks will work ok, I upgrade to the Dobyns Champion 805 FLIP/PUNCH rod. Broom handles like this rod allow you to quickly get control of big fish and get them coming towards you before they bury up and get off.

You could try fishing some topwater frogs in and around the hydrilla, you'll fall in love with it when you get a strike! Edit: BTW I would use the Texas rig first for the worms, I like wacky rigging senkos when im sight fishing but other than that id just texas rig, but do whatever you want man!

If there was a way to get it without diving in I'd do it... I tried for like an hour trying to get it out when it was still on my line and finally gave up and cut my line in disgust... I didn't have my lure retriever with me when it happened. I might go try a see if I can find a really long pole and feel around for it before I jump in...

All right thanks for the quick replys! Looks like im going swimming later haha

I lost my favorite crankbait and I would go get another but.... They aren't made anymore It is stuck on a stump in about 8ft of water at the very bottom at a pond I fish in. Its been down there for about a week, I know the hooks would be bad by now but would the lure still be in good condition? I'm asking because I'm willing to go down there with goggles and get it but I don't want to waste my time if the lure would be trashed haha

I have been using heavy line on my spinnerbaits lately

I make sure all my hooks are sharp before tying something on, maybe I'm just not sweeping soon enough?

Yeah IMO the only reason for them is to have money to fund certain things, not saying I disagree with them or anything...

They are both 3 and a 1/2 inches long and the top one said on the box it was a jointed shad swimbait so I figured that's what its supposed to look like, a shad. http://m.academy.com/shop/Product_10151_10051_22556_-1__true?color=Baby+Bass&N=10001&Ntt=swimbait&Ntk=All There's a link to the lure on the top

I feel like since I'm using braid and flouro mostly with my cranks that because there is no stretch it sometimes prevents me from getting a good hook set, I use the correct rod for cranks so that is probably not the problem, the only other thing I can think of is the way I set the hook. I set the hook with more of a tightening up motion by sweeping the rod to my right or left when I feel a strike, is this correct? does anyone use mono for cranks because of the stretch or any other reason?

the lake I fish averages 5 feet but some places are 12ft deep, 1/2 spinnerbaits fit my needs pretty well and ill occasionally throw a 3/8 under certain circumstances...

I fish a lake with lots of trees and cover so I never need to make super long cast so a 6'6 should work fine for me I guess, I'll try it this weekend and see how I like em'

What's the point in freshwater fishing license anyways... its just a way for them to make a little extra money in my opinion. they get 5 dollars for you buying it and If they catch you without it they can give you a juicy fine. If anyone disagrees please tell me why i'd like to hear others opinions.

I don't know what brand of worm I was using when I originally posted this because I got them outta one of the tackle boxes I own that is like 30 years old and the worms are that old too, it was a 4 inch worm that was really thin and had a half inch ribbon tail. it worked great... I had to boil some of them because they were bent from staying in that box so long but I wish I knew what brand it was and if they still make em'... If I get a chance soon ill post a pick and see if someone can tell me what kind/brand they are because I made sure to keep one.

I bought two hard swimbaits the other day and I guess I shouldn't have gotten them then... they are both H2O express lures and look great in the water but aren't producing. I'll fish them both a lot more this weekend and if they still don't catch me some fish I put them away.

When I fish with my grandfather ( he is in his 80's) he likes to keep every bass he catchs as long as they are in legal limits, he was just raised that way because back in the day there was no catch and release lol when I fish with him we just keep the bass because it makes him happy but when I'm alone I practice catch and release with the occasional bass kept for dinner. Edit: haha this looks kinda silly considering my username is catch and grease

Thanks for all the replys guys, I wanted to know about the lure because I have three hard shad swimbaits I picked up and haven't caught a fish out of this lake with any of them, maybe I'm just not fishing them right or in the right places. They look pretty realistic in the water so they do imitate shad pretty well.

If I haven't seen big schools of shad swimming about does that mean there aren't shad here? I've seen good size bait fish near the shore but I don't think its shad, I fish a lake in South Georgia called banks lake. Is there a good chance this lake has shad and I just can't see them? Its a dark lake with low visibility, maybe they are too deep to see? I was wondering because I have some lures that imitate shad but if there aren't shad in this lake they may not be effective... EDIT: Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I wasn't sure where to ask it...

So really using a shorter rod will only make my casting distance suffer? That's not so bad...

Is a 6'6 rod to short for crankbaits? I only have one medium action rod for baitcasters and its a 6'6 rod all my other medium action rods are for spinning reels. I like working crankbaits with baitcaster reels more than spinning reels but would it be bad using a 6'6? would I start to lose more fish? should I just switch to a 7'0 spinning rod with like 8 lb mono something until I get a better rod for cranking?

Can anyone give me some tips for fishing some hard swim baits? I cant get a bite and I've been trying for awhile! I got 2 gar on the bream looking one but no bass... I'll put pics of the two I've been trying out.

Its a baitcaster, and I figured because ive only had in for a few months and its not from user error, it just broke for no apparent reason. A lot of company replace products that break due to manufacturing errors and I was curious if they would replace it but I guess they don't. The closest bps to here is 2 hours and I don't wanna drive up there just to figure out there is nothing they can do, how much $$$ is it for them to fix it?

I was fishing with my BPS johnny morris carbon lite reel today with a crankbait and hooked a fish that was maybe 2 or 3 lbs and all the sudden my line is going out fast as can be I try to turn drag up but its just loose and there is no resistance at all for the fish... No matter if the drag is all the way up or down there is absoultly no resistance, its as if you had the reels button mashed down. Does anybody know a way to fix this or if bass pro replaces broken reels? EDIT: BTW I've owned the reel for a pretty good bit and love the reel.

I recently made a topic about what to do when the bite is really slow and many people suggested using finesse worms. Well the bite was slow today and I wasn't getting any bites so I grabbed a medium action spinning rod I put some 6lb line on and put a 4inch worm on there and decided to see if there was anything too this finesse mumbo jumbo. I completely started to slay the bass! I caught maybe 12 bass in the next hour all 2lb+ it was great, I had a Shakey head rigged that worked well and then I switched to a Texas rig weightless to work around some thicker cover and it worked just as well. To anyone who doesn't use finesse tactics much I higky suggest you go try it when the bite gets tough!

I love the rage rig! I've caught loads of bass on it, fell in love with it ever since I saw bassresource do a video on it ha!