hawgenvy

Thanks, friend. It'll only get better. Tight lines!

Hi Mike. Glad to see you're enjoying the spring fishing in beautiful NH! We're about done with the post spawn bounty here in SoFlo. Was out on a boat along Alligator Alley in the everglades yesterday in the 90+ degree heat and glaring sun, and we tried every trick in the book and caught zero fish.

Well, you asked. http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2012/03/12/us-ocean-fish-stocks-an-excellent-return-on-investment

Fished Alligator Alley this AM. Started at 7 and tried every bait and technique in our bags of tricks -- only 2 dinks. Quit after 11 am. Maybe it was the full moon, or too much current, or the recent rain, or us. Who knows.

Maori bone fish hook.

I agree. Unless it's a tournament. Then don't deviate from what's working when the bite's on. In a tournament you might try something new only when nothing else works. The tournament turns the tactics upside down.

My non-bassing friends, and my wife, are amazed at my arsenal of rods and baits -- all for just a single species in the shallow waters of south Florida. I've been bass fishing for a couple of years only, and I've been tying hard to become more efficient, and to learn how to utilize effectively every category of lure that might prove useful. I do not have my own boat. So, I often go out alone in the evenings to fish the shores of local ponds with a single rod and a single bait, often one I haven't used much before, to learn how to use it to catch fish, and to avoid the temptation to switch to one of my confidence baits. I learned to fish jigs that way, which hadn't worked for me until I tossed it for countless hours. Now it is a confidence bait. When I'm fishing in a local club tournament as a co-angler I bring 6 or 7 rods if it's okay with the boater, and a 3700 size plano bag packed tightly with probably 20 pounds of tackle. I want to have everything I might possibly need to make a good bag of fish, and when the bite is off I change to something new every 15 or so minutes. I try not to use the same bait the boater is using unless he's hot, and then I hope to have with me the same bait or something very similar. That all means I need as much crap as I can pack in my bag. I am hoping that with time, with the luxury of fishing through many changes of seasons, that I will learn through experience what type of baits are likely to work in each type of condition, location, and season, and boater. Then maybe I'll be able to bring a bit less stuff.

ACT I: "Okay," (I, to partner), "I have one on," (in a deliberately calm voice I use to communication simple facts -- meanwhile there is all this incredible internal emotion welling up in me, especially if it's a big one.) Then (to fish, begging): "No, no, no, fish, don't jump, stay down, don't freaking dare jump! Oh, oh, ooh, you're coming up, crap, you're gonna jump!" ACT II: Fish Jumps ACT III: "He's gone. I let him spit it. I'm an idiot." ACT III (alternate): "He's still on, bro, see how I hauled his dumass face sideways when he tried to jump, kept the pressure on, wouldn't give him any slack, man. That's what I'm talkin' about! That's what I'm talkin' about! You need like an 8:1 reel and you just haul his face sideways back to the water and it don't even matter if he jumps. One must have CONTROL." (Now, in voice accent of space alien robot): "I am master of bass! I am jump-proof bass master"... and then: "Oh, s***t, he jumped again. Whoa! He spit my jig! He's gone. Oh, man. I swear, I'm an idiot!"

Well, that's a creepy way to reduce fishing pressure. I think I'd feel uneasy taking advantage of that situation. I have lots of Cuban American friends and I know about the justified bitterness many feel. Anyway, maybe salt fishing if I ever manage to get there -- and good food and music.

As you can see, most of the respondents throw jigs around cover -- not open water from shore. But if open's the water you intend to fish, and a jig is what you intend to throw, just do it. If the fish are there and they're hungry and they see it, they'll eat it. Reel in the slack without delay and set it hard. Good luck. Have fun.

Okeechobee can be great, but it's enigmatic. Go out with some of the numerous pro guides a few times and really pick their brains. Because learning where catchable fish are is going to be is an ongoing process in a lake whose landscapes are always changing. The key is learning how to learn for yourself where to fish. And in the shallow bowl lake, your electronics will be useful mostly as a GPS and secondarily as a depth finder. Your eyes will serve you better in picking out favorable looking vegetation patterns, birds, water clarity, water surface characteristics, etc. The best starting point is, of course, fishing where you caught them the day before -- not that that always works, either. But after a couple of weeks of not fishing the lake it can be like starting from scratch. And another challenging annoyance is the fishing pressure, which may be considerable in spite of the huge size of the lake. BTW, bring some serious sticks and lots of braid: at Lake O you'll want to have some heavy artillery.

If I am ever somehow obligated to attach my wife's actual fishing philosophy to her headstone, this quote by Dave Barry definitely sums it up: "Fishing is boring, unless you catch an actual fish, and then it is disgusting." Obviously, I never take her fishing. Regardless, I'll be really ticked if she dies before I do. And if, as I am hoping, I go first, she can, if she chooses, put "gone fishin'" on my grave. But if instead she puts the Barry quote on my grave, I'll kill her.

There are a ton of fishing quotes out there, but for a fisherman's grave none exceed the beauty and simplicity of "gone fishin'."

Normally my bank fishing is a casual evening outing for an hour or two and I'll bring one rod and a shoulder strap bag with various compartments. It's real easy to reach into even while holding the rod and holds a bunch of tackle as well as pliers, clippers, rag, weighing scale, and hook sharpener. But sometimes on weekend evenings I'll grab a fishing buddy and go up to my aunt's house an hour away. She lives on a golf course full of ponds with fish. On spring evenings after the golfers are gone, we'll roll her golf cart out of the garage and load the rear deck with a half dozen rods and a ton of tackle and refreshments. It's basically a bass boat on wheels. We'll go hunting for bass at a dozen prime spots, each with well groomed banks and each having the occasional 5+ giant. There are some spots for big snook, too. It's a blast! Thank you, Aunt!

Well, at least you have us. Eventually you're gonna catch a lot of bass.

I can think of a lot better ways to spend $500

There are all these subtle bites we never even know about. Well, maybe some people do. But even they get fooled most of the time -- so say the experts that observe people bass fishing while scuba diving. Believe me, those guys must do a lot of underwater laughing -- at us. Anyway, these bites we never feel don't do us no harm nor no good. It's like they never even happened. My point is some things in life you just can't worry too much about. Now, I've had some darn good luck jig fishing by feeling those bites that I can feel and settin' that hook hard into that tough jaw. Eventually you'll find a day or spot where they're suckin' down jigs and you'll feel them and catch those ones and you'll start to find it easy and very productive to fish a jig. And you'll get your confidence, and then I'll bet you'll get better at it too. The other thing I want to say is that some people say you gotta set the jig hook immediately but I've pulled too many jigs out the mouth of babes that way and so I like to wait one short second and then slam it home. Maybe my jigs are just more delicious than everybody else's.

#bluegill's post, you see, is postmodern poetry. Your are quite right, A-Jay, about it being entertaining.

The VMC "Ike Approved" Heavy Duty Wide Gap Hook in 6-0 seems pretty good. I have caught a few 3 to 4 pounders so far with no issues. Hook eye is sealed beautifully with tough epoxy and keeps the knot out of harms way. Nice! I hope we see more brands, esp for big EWG hooks, going to a welded or otherwise sealed design for the hook eyes. We already see that helpful trend in the flipping hooks.

For subtlety use a Zoom salty super fluke. If you think it should mimic a small swimming fish use Zoom swimming fluke. To mimic a bigger bait fish use a Gambler EZ Swimmer, and to mimic a craw use Strike King Rage Tail craw. More economical is a single or double tail grub. Look, just stick on something you have around anyway, that you use as a jig trailer or that you flip or use T-rigged. All these soft plastics I've listed above are multi-use. That's good because if you listen to everyone and buy everything, you'll be sorry and your garage will start looking like mine and your wife or mother or partner or whatever will realize you have a problem with the bait monkey. Before you know it you'll be in Bass Rehab group therapy where you can talk about your problem but never about actual fishing. Sad, sad, sad.

Agreed! Don't go where you're not wanted.

I do a lot of bank fishing for bass, usually in the evenings after work, and I also fish monthly tournaments as a co-angler with a local bass club. I can tell you I catch a lot more fish from the bank than in those tournaments on Okeechobee, usually from small unpressured waters that I've taken the time to explore on my own. Catching bass requires using a suitable bait, the proper tackle, some knowledge of where the bass are and when they are most likely to feed. My next door neighbor, Mike, is a bit like you. He has tried to catch bass for years but almost always gets skunked. The night before last I took him bass fishing in a local residential pond where I have been catching fish consistently over the past 6 months. I limit myself to going there only a couple of times a month because I know how much pressure that I alone can put on a pond. I am familiar with a number of "microspots" on that particular pond that almost always hold bass. We started at 6:30 pm at a random spot along the bank. Remember, always fish the shore from a distance for a few casts before getting too close. This paid off with a bass on my worm, but none on the popper that he always fishes no matter what the conditions. After a few more successes by me he switched to a plastic worm and finally caught a bass. We walked 50 yards towards a white PVC pipe 30 feet from the bank that is a float for an irrigation pipe, a float that has been my very good friend. I explained to cast beyond the float and bring the worm over the top of it to the other side and let it sink, and Wham! a 2 pounder that he successfully landed. We next moved to where a little brook emptied into the pond, where there is some floating brown foam, underneath which usually sits a bass waiting to ambush anything that moves. Right there was his third fish, a four pounder, his PB so far. Next, we walked to a stick poking vertically from a little cove -- another secret of mine. A huge bass at the base of that stick resulted in his line breaking on the hookset -- a lesson that he needs heavier line when bank fishing in south FL. The next spot required us pushing our way through some thick bushes towards a well hidden big metal pipe in the water (where I had landed a 7+ pounder a month before). He cast his worm beyond it, and reeled up to the mouth of the pipe. That resulted in another 2 pound bass. In fact, there was a bite that evening at every one of my known microspots. The point is to search very carefully for any structure, anything different, no matter how small. Find accessible ponds in your area on Google Earth and concentrate on shorelines, intersections, pipes, sticks, laydowns (downed trees), stumps, submerged anything, weeds, rocks, and points, and use an easy beginner bait like a watermelon green senko or red or dark colored worm. Try different ponds. If you're on foot go to places boaters can't. The fish there are a lot more gullible. Fish early morning or for the hour before sunset. If it's sunny fish the shady spots. If a front is coming, fish before it arrives and maybe do something else besides fishing for the next two days. Always return to any spot you've caught a bass. Don't over fish small waters. And don't throw more than one cast to a featureless spot expecting something to change, but cast several times around any structure. Don't overlook residential ponds in apartment complexes or industrial parks. If you know someone that lives on a golf course or pond, go there! Learn what baits and colors to use and maybe spots to fish from the local tackle shop -- but don't let them talk you into $14 lures. Use heavy enough line and a powerful enough rod especially from the bank. And study the articles and watch the vids on BR. Hope my rambling helps! Good luck!

I definitely want to bass fish in Cuba. Didn't know about it, just looked it up, sounds awesome. Thanks for mentioning that. You been there?

The 3 to me is a medium. Their 733s are great. But I personally would be more likely to grab my Champ 734 (4 power) or something like it for weighted Texas rigs, 1/2 oz jigs, spooks, and 1/2 oz or bigger spinnerbaits. The 734 is medium heavy -- strong but real nice to cast. Now, my Champion 682 is really light, fun and easy for lighter baits like weightless flukes or senkos. So, yeah, the 3 is a medium for sure. I have a 705 CB that feels medium because of the medium action even though its a five and is supposed to be medium heavy. I keep a trap on that at all times. It's perfect for that and can throw the trap about 5 miles in calm wind. And I have a 735 that's quite heavy and is almost always sporting a hollow frog. The tip is a little stiff for my taste but I guess its worth it to send home that double hook into some tough jaws. I really like my Dobyns rods. I bet you'll eventually end up with a few of them!

My fav is to use the 4-8 Swing Impact Fat on a 4-0 screw-on belly weighted swimbait hook, 1/16 or 1/8 oz, with the point texposed in the top groove. Fish it fast, fish it slow, fish it real slow, twitch it or bring it in steady, yo-yo it, pause it or not, bring it along the bottom or on or just below the surface. Skip under docks or wiggle it through grass, toss to structure, toss to the depths, drop it between lily pads or cast to shore. Whatever works.