MIbassyaker

The other fancier hooks are cool..but honestly, the Mustad Ultra Point hooks on the standard brush, arky, dock rocker, swim, football, grass, etc. jigs from Siebert are already better than what I usually see on jigs of the same price anywhere else.

I use XF for jerkbaits and topwaters, and for other baits in which I want a twitching, popping, jerking, or walking retrieve, most of the time. The theory is that the fast tip recovery makes it easier to work these kinds of retrieves (that's true for me, but not everybody feels the same way). As long as you're not using a really hard or exaggerated hookset, and the rod is not overpowered, it shouldn't be a problem. I also use mono, for what it's worth.

OK, you have Yum tubes, Yum warning shot, Havoc pit boss, Zoom horny toad, berkley power worm, and mister twister double tails. That's a good variety to get started with plastics. There is no wrong way to fish any of them and your options are limited only by your imagination. But the following should be effective: -black tube heads go inside the tube with the line tie poking out the top of the front. hop and bounce along bottom. -put the double tails on the back of a jig or spinnerbait. -use the pit boss and the power worms on a Texas rig. -use the warning shot on a dropshot or shaky head. -fish the horny toad as a topwater over pads and other vegetation.

Not to be an insufferable contrarian, but isn't the whole point of a fishing report to, well, report?

Paper route, odd jobs, running errands for some neighborhood old-timers, and watching the neighbors' dog when they were away from home, which was pretty often. Still, I actually didn't spend much of it on fishing stuff at all. We used live bait mostly, often that we caught ourselves -- nightcrawlers, frogs, crayfish, clams, or whatever else we could find.

Ah, that's what I thought. The 3-part Bassmaster series is also reprinted in Tim Tucker's book "More secrets of the Bass Pros"

Agree with Logan! Although aside from specific gear and tackle recommendations, the basic info in these books isn't dated much, if at all. WHen they were first published, these books compiled most of the core information that had been published in-fisherman at the time, so they include the F+L+P stuff, body of water classification, and seasonal calendar info. The best part is used copies of these books can be found on amazon for just a couple bucks each. There is also the more recent 3-volume Critical Concepts series (vol 1: fundamentals, vol 2: Location, vole 3: presentation). VOls 1 and 2 cover a lot of the same ground as the older largemouth book (but updated a little), but the 3rd is mostly new stuff about modern lures and techniques. T9, when you mention the rick clunn seasonal patterns above, are you talking about the Paul Prorok articles from in the 80s?

I'm interested in hearing more about this too, as I never really saw the "schooling" phenomenon in action until last week. Most of my fishing is done on shallow, weedy, eutrophic lakes without shad populations. When I find active bass, they are pretty much always cruising shallows, or around wood, vegetation or man-made cover. But I was out at dawn the other day on a lake with a very large pelagic zone, and this feeding frenzy at the surface starts up in 25 feet of open water, a little ways offshore from where I was fishing. I didn't know it was bass until I got over there with a walking topwater, and sure enough, it was a bunch of little largemouth chasing...something (shiners? little perch? no shad in that lake). Lasted for a bout 30 minutes; little buggers were nailing the bait on every cast, but only hooking up about once every three strikes or so.

Here is what I did to decide whether to go RH or LH on my first baitcaster -- I just went into the store (in fact, it was a Dick's), found a left handed combo and right handed combo. I held each one in my hands, waved them around for a bit, worked the thumb bar and reeled a few times. After about 3 minutes of that my mind was made up: one felt awkward and one felt natural. And that was that. As far as I can tell, there is no criterion more important than which way feels better.

I'm confused -- are you saying you're tired of fishing, or that the fish are tired of you?

1. Yup. Known issue with the Shroomz heads. I resorted to adding a dab of glue to keep the TRD on, which worked pretty well (I tend to lose the head to a snag before I wear out the body). And then I tried Siebert Morel heads, and haven't had the same problem with those: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Morel-Jig-Head-1022.htm 2. Yup. I get this very frequently with smaller fish...I think the TRD is balling up in their mouths, and then rehooks itself on the hookset. I just deal with it and take it as an unavoidable cost of being irresistible.

Golf is a good comparison. So is brewing and and wine-making. Or martial arts. Or being a musician... They're all opportunities for life-long learning and self-improvement.

I don't doubt that, on occasion, the weird peeping and grunting "baitfish sounds" may generate a reaction strike you wouldn't have gotten without them. But is it really any different than a rattle? I can get rattling crankbaits and topwaters for much cheaper.

"Go to the post office, then go to the store" "Then go" g --> k = "Then ko" th --> s: "Sen ko" Move the K to the end of the previous syllable: "Senk o" "Senko" Or, if you like: "Jenga" J--> s: "Senga" G-->k: "Senka" A-->o: "Senko"

I catch pike and bowfin with some regularity on everything that I use for bass. Recently that includes buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, wacky worms, shakyheads, texas rigged creatures and worms, drop shot. Lots of panfish...Crappie and yellow perch on crankbaits, Rock bass on poppers and propbaits, stickworms, White bass on a ned rig. I had a pumpkinseed a few weeks ago manage to gobble enough of a t-rigged 4.5" megastrike megabug to get caught. Haven't had a catfish on lure in quite awhile (i'm probably due), but I have had caught them on in-line spinners and grubs before.

I get the most enjoyment out of fishing places that I am a little familiar with, but not too familiar -- where there is still plenty yet to discover, but I'm not starting from scratch. For the past few years I have been fishing a rotation of around 20 small natural lakes, impoundments, rivers, streams, bayous, and gravel pits with public access within an hour of my house. each one might get 1 to 3 or 4 trips a year, often in different months. There are about a dozen more I have been to once in the last few years but haven't gotten around to returning. And there are dozens to hundreds of other waters in my area I have never tried. I try a few new places every year with the goal of finding a couple worth adding to the rotation. This year so far I have tried 5 new lakes and a new stretch of a river. Two were super productive and I'm itching to go back, one was an uninspiring bust, and the other three were "not bad", but will need to check out again. I end up distributing my fishing time about like this: --50% of the time I am somewhere a little familiar. --35% of the time I am somewhere very familiar. --15% of the time I am somewhere entirely new and unfamiliar.

Looks like we are actually tied at 5th, at 9016. My actual scores have been all over the place but my ranking has stayed pretty consistent since the beginning, between about 5th and 10th in our group, and 90-95% overall. I seem to be hanging in there but can't really "get on a pattern", as it were. My gut said Martens in B and Skeet in C, for some reason. I swapped them out the last day for Lefebre and JVD. Oops again. I have done this sort of thing on at least 4 other events this year and it has almost always been the wrong decision. I keep doing it because I don't believe in gut feelings, lol.

Wheeler, Lefebre, JVD, Lucas, Zaldain. Bombed yesterday with only Wheeler & Zaldain over the 50 mark, and nobody better than 30th. Now, I see Basstrakk has Wheeler at the top right now, Lucas at 23, Zaldain and Lefebre right around 50, and JVD (I assume) unaccounted for. Here is what I think I have learned about fantasy fishing research: A little goes a long way, but a lot doesn't get you much further.

No shortage of good craws out there I use Strike King Rage Craw, Biospawn Vilecraw, and Berkley Chigger Craw a lot. BizzBaits (site sponsor) makes good craws in a few different designs and good color options (and you can get 10% off an online order with BR10 code at checkout). Gambler burner craw, Zoom has the speed craw, ultravibe speed craw, and z-craw... So many, so little time.

I love propbaits! Especially the torpedo (prefer the tiny), but also the skitter prop, x-rap prop, devil's horse, yo-zuri, LC kelly J and waketail...one of the most underrated of lure categories. And, yes, the Whopper Plopper absolutely is a propbait! (even if nobody realizes it). Actually, I think the 90 size WP is more effective fished with short rips and pauses like a classic propbait, than it is fished with a straight retrieve.

Don't know what it is about this little guy, but he never lets me down:

I agree with this a lot. There is a lot of confusion about causes of line twist in spinning reels. I can think of no reason why twist should be created by using the reel to close the bail. I'm virtually certain that the vast majority of twist is caused simply by reeling, as one twist is put into the line every time the bail goes around. It is clear this is happening if you watch a leader knot closely as it travels through the guides while reeling in -- the knot will rotate at the same rate as the bail on the reel. other factors can exacerbate the twist -- for instance, reeling against the drag, as the reeling creates additional rotations as less line comes in, i.e., more rotations per unit of line pickup. But that's still a secondary source of twist -- unless you're reeling against the drag A LOT, I don't see how that can create more twist than simply making another cast and retrieving it back in. When people complain about twist, what they're really complaining about is twist becoming unmanageable, which can be caused easily by lapses in keeping the line tight, or otherwise not staying in control of the line. This is where closing the bail by hand comes into play -- by doing so you exert manual control where and how exactly the line is put back under the bail, and you cut down on the likelihood of stray loops and tangles (created by twist that is already there) getting caught on the spool as you begin reeling.

I think of Zoom as the standard for how to balance good design, good composition, sheer variety, and number of bodies for the price. Lots of other companies do better on 1 or more of these by sacrificing the others, but I don't think anybody else gets closer to the sweet spot in the middle.

If you have a choice (you probably don't), faster is better. The rod will be mediocre for sensitivity but good enough most of the time and fine for the price. The good thing is, the reels are good enough to last you awhile if you take care of them and you can upgrade the rod with something nicer down the road if you want. I would get the president if you can afford it, as it should be a step up in quality... especially if its on sale like the DSG link posted above! If not, the Trion is still solid and also good buy at that price.

I think you want a medium-power 6'6" to 7' spinning combo. I would look for a Pflueger Trion or Pflueger President Combo.