Needemp

MY VOTE IS FOR LITTLE DIXIE

Hopefully I have some pics comin soon

I don't have pics yet, but will soon. It was a great day meeting everyone and stickin a few pigs. Can't wait to fish with you all again. The best part of the day was the excitement on my 9 year olds face. That was great! Our day consisted of a limit by noon. My son and I boated 25 bass, 8 keepers, and a 5 fish total of 23 1/2 pounds. I started out with a barely legal keeper at 9:30. Then at 9:45 caught one close to 2 pounds. Very next cast was a 6 1/2 chunk. At about 11:00 I boated a 5 1/4. At around 1:30 I caught an 8pound 3 oz (new PB by 4 oz) and culled a 1 1/2 pounder I had. The key was rocks, wind and shallow water. All keepers came within 5 to 10 feet from the bank and the 3 hogs were right on the shore. I had to basically be in the wind to catch the quality fish. I knew starting the day off that this was a very old lake with lots of silt. I eliminated all water that had a mud bank. I figured those fish were ready to spawn, and the rocks offered that to them. There were three basic areas with rocks, the dam, a northwest set of jetties and an east set of jetties. The dam had no breeze whatsoever and the NW set of jetties didn't offer deep water. So I concentrated on the east jetties. Finally, I quickly gave up on any area that was sheltered from the wind. The chop on the water was imperative. All bass were caught on a brown 3/8 oz jig with 4" Powerbait pumkin w/ green sparkle trailor. I definately noticed that the bass held on longer to the Powerbait trailor than with ordinary plastics. Needless to say, it was a great day!

OK, so that explains it. I was looking at using Owner hooks for my spinnerbaits and jigs instead of Gammies. Now I know to make sure I order the Cutting Edge ones. My next question is this, cutting edge does not give you more hookups, just makes it easier with setting the hook, right? I am thinking that any sharp hook is going to catch the inside of the mouth, but the owners will embed itself with less effort. Is that basically accurate?

Thanks Catt. I understand why the Cutting Edge is so effective. That's why I will be using them when I can. Why does Owner have Cutting Edge and something called Super Needle Point? I figured all Owners hooks would be cutting edge. So do they actually have an ordinary needle point? and why?

I am intrigued with the concept of the Cutting Point on their hooks. So much so that I am probably going to use them instead of Gammies when I can. My question is what is the difference between their Cutting Point and their Super Needle Point? Thank for your help!

Those that don't think scent works probably should not comment on a post like this. It is only out of ignorance, stubbornness or flawed logic that one would make a comment like that. Find me a professional that doesn't believe it works. Studies have proved it works. I know for a fact it works (but not all of it). If you don't think it does, it's because you NEVER gave it a proper try. And I mean proper. There are times when it will benefit your catch ratio. Bass DO hold on longer to Powerbait. It's not even a question in my mind and when someone says they don't believe it, well I just chalk it up to ignorance on their part. They obviously never used it enough to develop an accurate opinion. I don't mind if they believe that 'some' attractants don't work, but to say none of them work and they never gave it a real chance is kind of foolish. Don't get me wrong, I do foolish things everyday. There are plenty of issues I am ignorant of:-/.

What brand swims are effective? I need a 4, 5 and 6 inch shad imitation. My Basspro has nothing close to what I want here in MO :-[! Any ideas appreciated.

There has been some studies on whether bass are attracted to scent or not, and they definitely are. You just have to be careful what ones you use. Any type of oil including shad and crayfish oils are not good attractants because they are oil based. Oil does not dissolve in water (surprised many people forget that :-/). But oils are good lubricants. Bass have taste buds throughout there mouth, including in-between their teeth. They do hold on to water soluble attractants longer. I have never used the bottled Yum, but I do use their LPT Crawbugs and I do not notice fish holding on to them any longer than normal plastics. I love Powerbait plastics because I have noticed a big difference in those. But I have not noticed any improvement from their bottled Powerbait. I can only suggest using Powerbait plastics with the scent baked in it already. Nothing else has made a difference, including Powerbait Scent in the bottle. PS One study did show a slight preference to garlic, but it was only a slight preference.

Soaking them I don't think would help all that much. A spinnerbait is made of lead, metal and a silicone or rubber skirt. The scent would not penetrate or soak into any part of the bait. If you wanted to use scent, then it would be best to spray it on the lure. Now about it being effective or not, there are times when it will help, but not enough to be bothered with it. A bass sometimes will follow a bait real close(especially in clear water) to get a better feel for whether or not it is a food source. Sometimes in vidoes you see bass doing this and pulling off, others times they follow and like it enough to eat it. When they are following it is when I believe that a positive scent can work. I noticed you mentioned Powerbait. Even the scientist Dr. Kieth Jones that helped formulate Powerbait admitts that it can be effective on hardbaits, but the problem is when it is cast out and hits the water, you lose most of your scent. Since Powerbait is water soluable, it comes off on retrieve pretty quick as well. You would have to apply it on almost every cast. Using water insoluable scents like oils(shad oil, crawdad oil, etc) are a total waste of time with this technique because they do not desolve in water, being an oil, and therefore can not produce any scent to a bass. Hope this helps!

I am nowhere near perfect at this, but this is what I try to do; I try to find out what the baitfish are doing. If it's a warming trend and they are active, or a cold front has slowed them down, or whatever they are doing, I try to focus with all the attention I can(which never seems to be enough) and move the lure so that it resembles them. The biggest problem is usually a jerkbait is used in cold water and it's hard to see what the forage are actually doing. But I think thats one of my favorite things about bass fishing is the amount of concentration that is required. I just wish I was mentally stronger in that area :-[

I have always heard of a fish feeling resistance and droping your lure because of it, but that has never made sense to me. When he feels that resistance, all he is feeling is the prey trying to pull out of his mouth. But isn't that what every living creature does when he realizes he is about to be lunch? I don't think(but I am not sure) the resistance causes him to release a lure. A bass that puts any 'food' in his mouth uses his taste buds that are in the sides, roof, lips(in between his teeth) and on his throat in his mouth to verify if it's real food. I think thats why they spit it out. Just my opinion!

Mercury89 is right on. You can fish it any way you can think of. Just remember that the most important thing with it is that you want it to immitate prey. If you're working it on the bottom as a crawdad, then try as hard as you can to make it move like a crawdad. If you swim it, then make it appear as an injured or erratic shad or bluegill. Thats why it is important to study the habbits of crawdads and baitfish. Sometimes the prey is very skittish, moving very nervous like. Other times it is feeding. And other times it is injured. Find out what each one looks like, look for clues on the water as to what the prey is doing, and try to work the jig just like it. It's a great lure. Another help for you, maybe. What I am doing this year is throwing the jig almost exclusively. I am fishing it 90% of the time. This will help me become a lot better at understanding as much about it as I can. If your goal is to get better and better for years to come, then you might consider trying something like it. Just a thought!

TACOS ;D

I use a 7 foot St Croix rod for my flipping. It is a heavy action with a fast tip. I use 20# florocarbon line mostly. There are a few rods out there that call themselves flippin' rods and they probably are fine, I'm not sure. But for this technique it requires a long rod, heavy backbone and soft tip. As for as your reel, it is a lot better with a baitcaster, but you can use spinning if you prefer. I'm sure you could use a fly reel if you desired, but it's probably not your best choice. I would start out with the baitcaster. You don't want to use less than 20# test if you are F/P in cover(and cover is mostly what you want to target). I like florocarbon, and I have used braided line before as well. I use 20# in clear water and up to 30# in dark water. Braided can have a higher # test with a smaller diameter. Florocarbon is very abrasion resistant line and thats what you want, abrasion resistant! I assume the jigs you are asking about is for flipping and pitching. You have to consider color, wieght, drop rate, hook strength, trailor, presentation, and others I can't think of right off the top of my head. Make sure you use one that has a strong, sharp hook. Quality jigs make a difference in landing big bass or not. I remember last year playing around with cheap jig heads and lost a big bass due to him straightening out the hook. That sucked! Hope this helps!

I use the high speed 7:1 Curado 200. If you loosen the VBS all the way(push all 6 collars down). Then set the brake knob to where your lure falls freely from the tip of your rod to the water. Don't use your thumb to stop the spool when it hits the ground. From the free fall of your lure, only 1 to 3 loops should form on your spool. If its more loops or no loops, then adjust with the knob until it's right. Then pop up 2 or 3 collars on your VBS. From there, you can loosen or tighten the knob or VBS based on what works best for you. Keep in mind that with the switch of a new lure, you probably will have to re-adjust. Hope this helps!

In clear water with sun light; CRANKS and JERKS- shiny chrome with black, blue or lavender back. I also use translucent baits as well. PLASTICS- I always try to match the color of the bottom with a translucent color. (Watermelon for green, mossy bottoms. Pumpkinseed for dirt or sandy bottoms. Smoke for rocks.) If it's clear and cloudy; CRANKS and JERKS- shad colors (white). PLASTICS- Same as sunny. If it's low light conditions, colors aren't as important to me. Black is a very good choice for night time. I keep it real simple, that way I can keep my confidence level high. I found that if I was struggling with a color, I would feel overwhelmed with all the possible colors it could be. Now I don't have to question my color selection as much. Hope this helps!

Glad that helped. Watch out, I think the term 'swimming with the fishes' might have more of a negative connotation than you desire :-/ The Senko idea is a good one to help you catch fish. The Senko is a brand name of a stick worm made by Gary Yamamoto. Some fisherman swear that you should only use the Senko brand. Personaly, I disagree with that for two reasons. First is that I like the Gulp Sinking Minnow over the Senko. Second is that each brand of stick worm performs differently. I think its a good idea to have a couple of brands, but thats up to you. Wacky rigging is just how you described it, hooked through the middle.

Welcome! A little something that might help you. Underwater observations have shown a couple of things here. One is that bass have been noticed to literally 'play' with a lure. For whatever reason, they will nudge it and hit it with thier noses, and even inhale it or put it barely between thier lips. However, when they do this, they almost immidiately spit it out. When they were just playing with it, it was observed that very rarely would one get hooked. The second observation that was made is a little more scientific. Bass have tiny taste buds between thier teeth. Hundreds of them, and they often will chomp down on a lure to see if it smells, feels or tastes ligit. Hope this helps

Hey Bass-mania, welcome to the site. Yaeh your right about how well they can see out of the water. Growing up with 300 acres of water 20 feet from my back door and countless hours walking the bank of a pretty clear lake, I can attest to the fact they see very well out of the water. And to be honest, I have found it doesn't matter what color you wear, if a bass sees you moving at all, he is immediately alarmed. I use to think I was real stealthy. I would creep real slow with little movement. But once I got in a certain range, it was all over. They have amazing sight! I have never seen it happen, but I have heard of fishing techniques that rely on bass coming out of the water to hit a lure. That would be pretty cool!

Sam, I agree that it's a real good book. I learned a lot about bass. One thing you have to keep in mind is that most of thier tests were done in clear water with plenty of light. I don't apply most of the experiments in stained, dark water and low light conditions. Just a thought!

The fact that you stay up all night on this site shows that you want to learn. But remember that there is a lot of stuff on this site that is really good info, but there is a lot that is inexperienced opinions of others and it can mislead and confuse you at times. A lot of fisherman have the head knowledge and know how to speak the language, but don't really know what they are talking about. There is nothing wrong with that because they are just trying to be helpful and learn themselves, but you just have to be careful with what you read. My point is this, find some other sources that you fully can trust. For instance I trust Infisherman, Lindners, Older Bassmasters, and several others. The newer Bassmasters and Bassin Magazine I don't put much stock in. But find the sources you trust, study them and use this site to help you and you will be OK 8-).

Hey, if bass fishing is a long term goal for you, then maybe this is good advise for you. It does require patience. Try choosing a lure that is most attractive to you. For instance, if you really wish you were an effective spinnerbait guy, then take the spinnerbait and fish it as much as possible for a whole year. Study everything you can about that bait and practice what you learn. Use this bait all the time. When conditions are just absolutely wrong for a spinnerbait, then use the only other bait you have confidence in, the worm. Example: if you are not getting bit on a white tandemn #4.5 willow blade in clear water, go to a transluscent skirt and maybe a 4 or 3.5 blade. Try burning it or slow retrieving it. Change weights of the head, colors, skirt types, blades, retrieve speed and erratic action. Use a big heavy 3/4 to 1 oz in 15 to 20 feet of water slow rolling it on the bottom. Jig it, helicopter it. The object is that you are forcing yourself to become a master at the spinnerbait, or crankbait, etc. Next year pick another bait. Yes it takes patience, but look at all the knowledge you have to aquire for every bait. It would take forever to learn all baits without a plan! Hope this helps.

How far bass can see is relative to water clarity and amount of light that is available. If the answer to your question is just to satisfy your curiousity, then the answer is pretty simple. In muddy water (6 inches or less of visibility to our eyes) they can only see a short distance of maybe a foot or two. In stained water (about 6 inches to 18 or 24 inches of visibility) it can range from 2 to 8 feet I believe. I may be a little off on that but its in the ballpark. In clear water, they can see far enough and clear enough to pick up flaws and things that look appealing. They do have amazing sight, and a lot of fisherman believe thier sight is the most important tool they use in feeding. That sometimes is true, but not always... Which brings me to your question again. If you want an answer that will help you be a better fisherman, then understand this. A bass uses sight, lateral line (for sound, but its not real sound- its pressure waves), smell and taste. There are times when a bass hears something moving in the water then uses his sight to find the critter making all the noise. This happens in clear to stained water when there is enough light. But in muddy and low light conditions, they use thier lateral line to detect thier prey and sight doesn't play as big of a role, but still plays a role. They do use thier sight to 'silouette' something, but they are not getting a good look at your lure. When sight does come into play, in clear to stained water that has enough light, start out with natural colors, or colors that blend in. This makes it hard for bass to see flaws in your lure. Also presentation plays a key role here. It has to attract the bass all the way to the point of attack. Hope this helps!

SHOULDN'T THIS BE IN THE 'CENTRAL FISHING LOCATION' THREAD?