BLUESKY

Gotta go along with j_young, "For me its all in the wrist. When I cast, I snap my wrist and try not to use a lot of arm power" Too much Arm power always seems to end up in a birds nest. I'm not certain but I think it has something to do with arm causing the lie to move slower than the spool is turning , for an instant, and then it's all over.

Pliers, never leave home without them. A knife whith easy access is also a good option, one time I landed a toothy critter on a crankbait, just the rear trebble in its mouth. as i was moving toward it in the boat it started thrashing about and that front trebble ended up in my pants leg. Realizing that this could very easily turn into a much worse situation(fish thrashing hook embedding in my leg) I grabbed my knife from the floor of the boat and sacrificed the pants. The knife was closer than the pliers so that was what I chose.

Dress for the weather and go to darker, duller collers. If a white spinnerbait with nickel blades had been working, I will change to brass blades, if a silver w/black back lippless crankbait had been working I will switch to a crawdad or other not so shiney color when the clouds move in. Ditto for worms, I'll switch from bright colors to more suttle colors like pumpkinseed or black.

I will pick an area apart and fish it rather slowly, but depending on the size of the cover or area, if I'm not getting bit in 15 minutes, or if the area just looks like it should produce maybe 1/2 hour I will move on because I'm looking for fish and hopefully a check to at least cover my expenses. When fishing just for fun and relaxation I many times dont fire up the outboard except to get back on the trailer or if I'm trying to get out of the way of unexpeted bad weather.

Try putting on a slip sinker heavy enough to keep your bait from rising, (I use pyrmid sinkers) and just hold the nose of your lure to the bottom, if the fish shows any interest quiver the bait slightly, or else just bring it up and down about an inch or 2 from the bottom to mimic a baitfish feeding, that can draw attention from a cruising fish.

Thanks for the imput.

Yes, Berkley Fireline Crystal was what I was refering to, I was thinking about using it with a florocarbon leader in clear water for spooky smallies. I have noticed that with regular Fireline that after using it for awhile the color starts to dissapate and the base line is sort of a white looking, I'm wondering if the crystal is just undyed fireline. T-rig what is it that you hate about it?

Has any one tried the new clear braided line? Any opinoins or observations??

You could start by sending about half of it to me!!!

18 ft Alumaweld w115 Mariner, 3 batteries and gear. about 1900 lbs. 94 Dodge Dakota Sport 3.9 V6 w 373 gear.

I have been a life member since the early eighties. Lots of good articles, although I agree that it appears to be more profit motavated than in the past but what company isnt today. If you want conservation news there is plenty of info on that in the Bass Times, also tips and techniques and much more. Just my $.02 worth.

Bass I would have to say over 10, I was fishing a 1/32 oz. jig with a leach on ultra lite tackle with 4 pound test. I felt something pick up the bait and set the hook. thought I missed it and caught a weed or something. While realing in it felt like I had a wet paper bag on the hook, a little heavy but no resistance or fite. Then I saw it and it saw the boat, that 4lb. sang like a bird untill the spool almost was empty, I put a little pressure on the spool to try and slow that fish down and that line snapped like a piece of thread. Another time, about 25 or so years ago, I was out with my ex in a small rented row boat, at the time i would be wormin and she would mostly bait fish. As the lake had both pike and tiger musky in it, I would always have her keep a perch if she caught one, untill the end of the day. While returning to the boat rental, I would sit at the edge of a weed line in 18' of water and cut a fillet off of that perch and let it sit near the bottom while i fancasted the top of the weed bed. Well, one time while doing this, I noticed the tip of the rod baited with the perch start to twitch just a bit. I watched that rod tip twitch for about 2 or 3 minutes untill I just couldn't stand it any more, picked up the rod and set the hook. Holy Sh!t, It felt like I had hooked a sunken car or some sutch thing, could not budge it a bit. That fish didn't move till it was good and ready, all of a sudden the drag started screaming and it was the begining of a battle that lasted for 1/2 an hour or more, it was a good 10 or so minutes before that fish surfaced and I saw the biggest tiger musky I had ever seen, for the next 20 or so minutes it was give and take as that fish jumped and splashed and soaked us both. At last the fish tired and I got it alongside the boat, I could see that my hook was only in the corner of its mouth and that the flesh was torn around it. The wife is screaming that thing is not coming in the boat and I was telling her the #*@% it isnt. I have no net anywhere big enough to land this thing, so i decided to take off my t shirt and wrap it around my hand and attempt to pick it up by the gills and belly. Any way as I just about finished removing my shirt, I let just a tiny bit of slack in the line and watched that fish slowly swim back toward the bottom. My old lady starts cussing at me and tells me how lucky I am that I didn't get the fish in the boat, did I mention that she is my ex. By measureing where the fish had been at the side of the boat, that fish was 49-50 inches long.

I mostly fish Illinois and Wisconson, both expire at the end of March, at least I think that Il still expires on3/31 but not compleetely sure about that because I haven't had to have one for the past 5 years, But Wisconsin really hurts at $50 bucks for non resident and this year I will have to pay them even more for a family license so the wife can come with.

First and most importantly, learn to listen to what people are telling you. Check the sharpness of your hooks does not mean to buy new hooks. Many new hooks are remarkabley dull. Get and learn to use a hook sharpner of some type. Pull that hook point across your Thumb nail and see if it digs in and grabs. Many New Hooks will just slide or at most scratch you nail, when properly sharpened that hook will dig in and grab. Try that before investing in new equipment and I believe that you will greatly increase you hook up ratio and decrease you frustration with loosing fish. After that you can adjust your equiptment to deal with the situation, heavier line if you are breaking off, or heavier action rod if you need to muscle the fish out of cover, etc, Give it a try and let us know how you do, good luck and good fishing.

Where are you located?

I would try dropshot on the outer edges of the weedsand anywhere there is access in the weeds, also if weeds are thick or matted in shallow areas I would use a weedless topwater, frog, rat, plastic spoon etc..Where the weeds are under the surface, I woul use buzz baits, popers, chuggers etc to try and draw the bigguns out of the weeds, also shallow running crankbaits and spinner baits above the weeds. also I would rip a lippless crankbait above the weeds occasionally ticking the weed tops. Don't forget texas rigged soft plastics. If there are any docks available,or willow trees overhanging the water, a secko or simmilar type bait skipped underneath can bring results, make sure that you have a heavy enough line(Iprefer one of the braided super lins) to get the fish out and not break off on dock supports or other underwater obstructions. Hope this helps, post and let us know how you did.

Not sure about the Moon or Mars or the demotion of Pluto (Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." , Wouldn't politcal correctness deem that it be called a little planet rather than a dwarf planet? Hmmm, just museing.) but lately I have noticed that on a body of water where I was using the exact same Buzz Bait, reel, rod, line, retrieve etc. as the previous day on a different body of water where I had great hook up success, and was getting a lot of missed (short) strikes, I would go back to the first lake the in the next day or so and have continued good success. Leads me to believe that some thing in the different envioronments effects the way the fish hit.

When fishing Lake Geneva in southeastern Wi., an extreemely clear and deep lake, the bass especially the SM are very line shy. when dropshotting it is almost impossable to get bit on anything over 6lb test. Usually I will either use flourocarbon or downsize to 4lb test. the 4lb isnt too much of a problem if the drag is set properly, the only time I have lost fish on the lite line is if it gets wrapped around a bouy line.

Many bow mount electric motors are not foot controlled. I have drawn partners that have theese mmotors on there boats and the seem quite adept with controlling direction with their knee. I think that with a piece of angle iron some C-clamps and a bit of ingenuity you could moove your trolling motor to the front of your boat and use a piece of PVC pipe to extend the handle. I did this a number of years ago to use on rental boats before I owned one. I did this with a Min-Kota 65, I was able to loosen the head and turn it 180 degrees so that the control handle was useable when on the front of the boat. Good luck if you give it a try.

Fillet, cut into chunks, dip in beer batter, cook in hot oil till they float. Especially tastey are the cheeks.

Fish from shore at the river for smallies 2-4 times a week, take the boat out fishin for fun couple times a month, so far this year 7 tournaments, prefished 4 of those. Two more tournaments to go this month and then the fall classic next month, after that back to fishing for fun. Last year we had fairly warm weather through the middle of Dec. and I managed to go down to the river for an hour or 2 every afternoon and the S/M fishing was fantastic, 20 - 30 fish every afternoon untill the real cold weather hit, sure hope that repeats this year.

7-15 caught in May on a worm tricked out with an U/J crawfrog, Round Lake in Lake County, Northeastern Il..

Use a polomar knot!

I'd also add jitterbugs, in black of course, to the arsenal.

Plastic worms with a heavy enough weight to punch through the weeds, if necessary cast high to give tem momentem to punch through the weeds. heavy jigs fished the same way. dont be to concerned about the slop attaching to the weight, if its moving in the water a bass will take it regardless of the algee on the weight. Buzz Baits around the edges of the shallow weed free areas, you will be surprised at the fish you can catch in water that is very shallow. On a heavy algee bloom I have caught Bass up to six lbs. in less than 5 inches of water on a Moss Boss or frog, rat etc. Use weedless topwaters over the weeds and algee, there have been times when I have had a bass blow up on a slop bait and knock it in the air, if this happens get that bait past the spot just as quickly as you can and drag it right over where the blow up occured. I have had to cast over the same spot and watch that lure get knocked into the air 3 or 4 times before the fish could break through and get the bait, use a heavy line and be prepared to dig out the fish if you dont get him up and out right after hooking up. Also I would recommend using a big 12 inch worm, no weight and slowly working it across the top of the weeds hesitating and letting it drop at any opening in the cover. One last sugestion is to go around the lake and use your paddle to make openings in the weeds, you can sit by the opening for a while to let the area calm down after opening it up and then fish it or you can keep moving and make mutiple holes and then come back and fish them. Hope this helps, let us know how you do.