Josh Smith

Of course they do. But I count rounds fired, fish caught, casts made. Just seems natural to me. Josh

Found the study again: http://www.bassmaster.com/understanding-bass-forage-crawfish Josh

Try pulling the claws and arms off. I've yet to remember to do this, but a big bait company found this to be the best design. Marketing didn't clear it for sale because the felt nobody would buy a clawless craw. Josh

Lucky. I have only had like five of those days in my entire life. Josh

Being OCD helps. I tend to count things almost subconsciously. I don't mean to say it costs concentration. Regards, Josh

Hi Folks, I'm just wondering if you ever gave any thought to number of casts per fish. I used to count sometimes, and found that I'd average about 25 casts per fish when the bite was good (and on rare occasions, less if the stars aligned that particular day.) However, after a cold front with terrible conditions, I'd go 40 or 50 casts before hooking up, if I did hook up. I noticed at the end of Mercer's fishing show that they tally things up, and fish caught to casts is about 1:30 average, so I'm not as terrible as I thought. Anyone else do this? Regards, Josh

Hi Folks, Just thought I'd pass this on. I did have my main reel spooled with 20lb mono backing to 50lb braid. It worked well, but I'd get excess digging in some instances. I decided to try 4lb backing line. Should have made the spool heavier (I didn't weigh before/after, so I'm not sure) but being more densely packed, it seems to have pretty much stopped the braid from digging. Now, as I said, the spool seems heavier. This is a 5500c3 reel so the spool is pretty heavy to begin with; wiffle spools are scarce and low capacity spools run around $100, which is insane to my way of thinking. Still hoping to find a wiffle spool. At any rate, this seemingly heavier spool doesn't slow down as quickly, and I have about 5 to 10 yards increase on the cast. I had a couple overruns before I adapted. It's not much different; just slightly more pressure on the thumb and things work well! Maybe this will help someone; maybe not. Maybe it will score me a 5500 wiffle spool Definitely not for throwing lighter lures, but 1/2oz on up works nicely, and 3/8oz is very doable. Regards, Josh

I had this out the other day, and I LOVE it! Like JRob78, I do think I like this much better than 832. I guess I'll see how quickly the color fades. Josh

That's it, exactly. I know what to throw to catch bass, and these pond bass do not see artificials. The few people who do fish it, fish only live bait. I fished this pond occasionally with a friend as a teenager. Now that I'm part of the friend's family, I have access whenever I want. I've caught large bass from there in the past but haven't bothered recording them. The picture that keeps coming into my mind is those bass in the trailers at seminars, where the speaker throws a hookless bait to demonstrate how fish react. Yesterday I went to the small (public) lake I usually fish for a couple hours. I caught my first bass (about 12") on a whacky rig ever. The bass critters that generally bite there are not large at all, but fun to catch all the same. Know what I saw, though? Just cruising around out in the same cove I was fishing was a BIG bass. I saw it next to a couple smaller ( 12" - 14" ) bass, and I estimated the size at 16" to 20". Now, that would be a bass to be proud of. I spent the rest of the day targeting that specific, large bass. I didn't get it, so I'll be going back out and trying again first chance I get. I would so count that critter as a PB... if I can catch it!!! The asterisk idea Fin Stalker has might be the way to go, though. I know I'll be taking my boy to the private pond sometime this summer (it's his great aunt's) and I also know I'll fish. Regards, Josh

Hello, No, I'm not joking. See, thing is, it's sort of like hunting to me. I'd never hunt a private park where the critters are fenced in and baited, for example. Sitting against a tree on a deer trail with a muzzleloader is more my style -- preferably with nobody else within a few miles, but hey, I can dream, right? If I were going solely for food, it would be different. Josh

Hi Folks, There's a private pond I can fish; it has large bass in it and it would be pretty easy to get a new PB bass out of it. Here's my problem: It's stocked. I'm not sure when the last time was it was stocked, but it's been stocked and it's well managed. Almost no fishing pressure either. I can't get out of my mind that fishing a private, non-pressured, stocked pond with excellent cover etc would be cheating. Thoughts? Josh

Brett, I live in Wabash, so I'm fairly close to you I think. I've seen strange stuff so far this year. For example, I found bluegill beds, but haven't seen bass beds. Bluegill are supposed to spawn after bass. Now, either the bass haven't spawned yet, or they've moved the spawn away from their traditional spawning grounds, at least on the lake I'm referencing. We shouldn't move into spawn until late May or early June, but it looks like it was several weeks early this year... unless, like I said, something triggered an early spawn with bluegill. Regards, Josh

For medium to deep diving cranks, I use a glass rod and 21-23ipt (4.7:1 to 5:1 gears). Josh

Hi Folks, I keep hearing about Laser Trokar hooks being "best". Any truth to that? I keep my hooks sharp and have never had a failed hookset that was the fault of the hook. Josh

Folks say that "walking the dog" doesn't look like anything found in nature. I agreed until I saw water bugs, and bass eating them. Now I throw Heddon Spooks whenever I see bugs being eaten off the surface, and it works. Josh

What is it with people and bearing counts?

I'm going fishing.

Technically, it's an aggregation, not a school. Feral dogs may join into a loose pack for purposes of hunting larger game, but generally, unlike wolves, are not true pack animals. The same is true with regard to black b ass and schools. Thus, the different terminology. Josh

Hello, While I don't have experience with that particular reel, I did look at the specs and would say you're pretty good to go. Regards, Josh

Say it ain't so!

I wondered if maybe I got a bad batch. It wasn't so bad after it broke in, but not as good as some others after the same break in period. The Performance Braid isn't as stiff as those three spools of 50lb 832. So, no idea. Josh

On a related note, it would be cool if there were some cheat we could use to catch more bass...

What's your gear? I mostly fish MH/F rods with modified Ambassadeur 5000, 5500, and 5500c3 reels. I can't see that these would have much problems with stripers, and used to use the modified 5000 and spinnerbait rod for catfish all the time. Never had any problems. Been thinking about going after stripers if I can find a likely spot. Josh

I seem to recall reading that, during tests, a well-known lure company found out that bass seemed to hit plastic crawdads that had no claws better than any other version of that lure. Before they made it, however, marketing told them it wouldn't sell, so it remained a prototype. As I understand, they put some of the technology into their plastic worms, though. Josh

Hello, I just grabbed some Performance on your recommendation. We'll see how it works on the water; I like the feel. Regards, Josh