MIbassyaker

Now we're talkin'

x4 fish grips!

I've wondered about switching to single hooks too, but am not ambitious enough to try it. In the meantime, I keep a fish grip on me and don't fish trebled baits in the dark.

I have used probably less than 25% of all crankbaits, jigs and types and sizes of plastics I own, less than half of my hollow bodied frogs, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. However, I have used and caught bass on almost all of my current stable of hard topwaters at least once. This can only mean one thing: It's time to get some more.

My #1 All-time, all-species? Tie between 3" curly tailed grub on a 1/8oz jighead & #3 mepps aglia My #1 All-time bass only, for productivity? A texas rigged worm; specifically, a 7" black power worm, My #1 All-time bass only, for fun? A topwater; lots of contenders but I'll go with.......a classic propbait. 1/4oz heddon tiny torpedo, black shiner

Two words, man: Roll Cast

heddon tiny torpedo (the 1/4oz one)

What I'm sure of is that bass cannot detect light waves that aren't there in the environment. That's basically what it means for water to absorb a particular wavelength of light by a particular depth -- it means that past a certain depth, there is no more light bouncing around at that wavelength. Bass vision is tuned differently than humans of course, but as vertebrates, their visual ability is still handled by the same basic mechanisms and the same principles of brain organization. Tank experiments show bass can detect and distinguish different colors in the green and red ranges of the visible light spectrum very well under clear, fairly shallow conditions. But they would have to break the laws of physics to do the same in an environment in which light in those wavelengths had been absorbed. Whatever "red" looks like to a bass at 0-5 feet, by 50 feet, it would be indistinguishable from black or possibly a shade of gray (unless it was a fluorescent, which is a different process)

Ok, my turn to bite. Color is the human visual system's interpretation of light wavelength, within the visible spectrum. We don't know how bass brains interpret the same wavelengths, so of course we can't say what "red" looks like to a bass. But wavelengths themselves are not interpretations; they are physical properties of light energy. When a range of wavelengths is absorbed, that inherently means it is no longer there to be interpreted by anything, human, bass, or whatever. So the point that bass and human eyes interpret color differently, while true, is entirely irrelevant to whether red and other colors disappear with depth. The wavelength is absorbed, so whatever color is experienced in response to that wavelength will, of physical necessity, fade into black/white/gray. In humans, it's the experience of red that disappears first; Bass may see red in response to long-wavelength visible light, or they may see something else. But whatever they experience, when the wavelength that triggers the experience is absorbed, what they see will disappear, just as it does with humans, whether it is red or something else.

Dad taught me the basics of live bait fishing for catfish, pike, the occasional walleye, and whatever else would bite in the river back home growing up. But he is not and never was a bass fisherman, doesn't know anything about them, and neither did anybody else we knew. Bass I taught myself, starting from that background, but with lots and lots and lots of trial and error added on over many years, many fits and starts, and some help here and there from random books, magazine articles, and fishing shows, and a smattering of academic knowledge of aquatic ecology, and vertebrate physiology and behavior. It honestly took me years to pick up on things I could have learned in an afternoon on somebody's boat. But I didn't have somebody or his boat. I didn't even have my own boat. All I had was some curiosity, inconsistent time to spare, and inconvenient places to spare it, and lots of distractions in the way. I've managed to claw my way up to some moderate level of skill, perhaps, regardless.

Nice fish! My impression (of the 90 at least) is that the more apt comparison is to a propbait, rather than a buzzbait. I've caught a few fish on a straight retrieve, but I've actually had more success with short pops, twitches, and rips with pauses in between, which is the same as the way I fish a torpedo.

MN, NJ, MI. I lived in CA for 6 years -- Not too far from The Delta, Clear lake, and Berryessa-- but, shamefully, never fished for bass there and didn't know anything about bass fishing at the time.

Bluegill and shad have chartreuse highlights; its very noticeable for instance on bluegills' caudal fins (tail). Chartreuse also tends to brighten up, almost glow, in water with green stain. So I use plastics with charteuse tails whenever I've got greenish water with visibilty between about 1 and 6 feet. More than that, i don't need as much help with visibility and less than that (really muddy stuff), I want something dark and opaque instead.

Sometimes I think I'm the only person who doesn't like black/blue that much...my bass seem to prefer browns and greens with purple, orange or chartreuse highlights -- The Siebert colors I've been getting a lot of mileage out of are PBJ, Sweet Craw, Summer Craw, Green pumpkin purple, Bama Craw, Bama Bug, and pumpkin/orange!

My understanding is that "shad" refers to laminate colors that mimic a general countershading contrast (darker on back, brighter/lighter on the belly) common to shad, but also to most other baitfish, and indeed, most kinds of prey of any kind. My guess is Red Shad probably works well if (1) reddish hues are generally good for your waters, maybe because of visibility or forage colors (maybe even just highlights), and (2) your bass sometimes key in on that overall countershading pattern, dark on top, lighter underneath.

Fenwick website! http://www.fenwickfishing.com/fenwick-clearance/

Bigger poppers walk better, which can make them more versatile -- you can hit targets and cover water easily in the same cast. But: 1) I catch both "big" and "small" fish (for my area and waters) with big poppers and small poppers. It's amazing what a dink will attack. 2) I'm much more accurate with a spinning rod than a casting rod, so when I want to put a popper in a tight place, I'll use a smaller one with a spinning combo. 3) smaller poppers all the time for river and stream smallmouth. They'll hit big poppers, but I have a lot of trouble hooking up. While you're at it, have a look at the yo-zuri 3db popper. Affordable, high-quality, nice colors and finishes, not too big, not too small, good hooks,

Some of the "beginner" stigma I think has to do with the tournament-centric view that the serious angler targets bass only and everything else is a bycatch. From this perspective, only a beginner would go fishing without caring much what they caught. In-line spinners catch everything, even fish that don't strike other lures. On the other hand, bass strike almost anything, even lures that don't catch other fish. Thus, in-line spinners are among the least efficient lures for targeting bass and only bass unless you're fishing somewhere that really has only bass. And anyone who thinks in-lines don't catch nice-sized bass needs to go browse the largemouth and smallmouth photo galleries on the Mepps website. Oh, they certainly do.

x3. The Fenwick TAC is my favorite handle material. Perfect blend of classy looks and grippy performance. It's hard to be too disappointed, though, now that I have been able to get a couple of the old aetos at an affordable price. I won't be needing the newer ones.

If one rod is shorter than the other, I'd go with that one. With a popper, I am trying to make pinpoint casts to specific spots next to cover like weeds, logs, docks, etc. A shorter rod helps with casting accuracy. I use a 6' spinning rod for smaller poppers and 6'4" baitcaster for heavier poppers.

Hardbaits, jigs, and terminal tackle I select ahead of time and sort into 4-5 plano 3500 boxes, which get stowed in a hatch in front of the seat. For plastics, I just toss them in a dufflebag and put it in crate behind my seat. Although, I find I don't dig out tackle or switch baits as often as I used to after adding enough rod holders to carry 5-6 rods at a time. I almost certainly don't bring as much tackle as a lot of folks. But still, I could absolutely bring a lot less without affecting my fishing; the only question is, am I going to do that? Signs point to "no."

I also don't think color matters much for topwaters....it's all about the action and the opportunity. But I don't think anybody else makes a color quite like Black Orochi, so you know you gotta have it. I have that one and the Frog. You could probably paint one to look like a twig and catch just as many fish.

I don't know which is better, but I would only split hairs over it if they were still the same price. Can you get an E6x for $95?

So is that officially fish #1? congrats. I was trying to think of where I had heard of "AEP recreation lands" before, then I remembered this video I saw a few months ago:

^^^yes, this! Just got one of these too. any of the MH-F or MH-XF models should be great. http://www.fenwickfishing.com/fenwick-freshwater-rods-fenwick-aetos/fenwick-aetos-casting/1365054.html