MIbassyaker

Try to use wind and/or current to your advantage by lining up some likely targets with wind/current direction and positioning yourself to drift past. You can then hit a few locations in a row before having to stop fishing to paddle around.

Yeah, I've found that just teaching myself to be more vigilant about line tightness near the reel has really cut down on how often I have problems with twist. Avoiding small loops and wrap-arounds in the first place, or catching them before they get out of control is key.

To me, the definition depends entirely on expectations. Quality is whatever size I'm content to be catching at the moment. A Dink is anything less than that.

12" would be a pretty big rock bass, possibly trophy-sized.

A lot of lures that catch bass will also catch some of the other big, aggressive species if they're in there. The last few pike I've caught have been on wacky rigged senkos, and my most recent bowfin was caught on a little fat-bodied, shallow-running chrome crankbait.

smallmouth and rock bass have reddish eyes.

X2

Heh, I tried it this week for the first time for 30min, on a section of a river that has both SM and LM in it (but not necessarily prime waters for either). Caught a couple white bass, which I didn't even know were in there. Cabela's only had the 1/6 shroomz head, and everybody recommends the smaller ones (1/10 and 1/16, I believe), but I got the 1/6 anyway thinking they might be well-suited for river current. I suppose they were....I'm looking forward to trying them upriver a ways where the smallies are more numerous. So: an atypical experience, perhaps. But not a bad one, really. I don't have a sense, though, of how much advantage the TRD+Shroomz head really has (if any) over other sorts of small plastic bodies on jigheads.

The 5" Senko in GP or GP with the chart. tip, wacky or t-rigged weightless, has been my top numbers bait for awhile where I fish...they started to feel a bit like a crutch, actually -- now I only put one on when things get slow. There is no denying their productivity, though.

Aaaaand, results are in from the Lunch-Hour Ned Rig Tryout: Hmm. Do white bass count?

Respect the classics.

That is a lot of nice fish.

Sunday morning for two and half hours at my favorite small lake -- 30 min from home, a hair under 50 acres, about 10-12 foot visibility, mostly undeveloped except for a county park and two small houses with docks at one end...and a no motors restriction. On weekdays in the summer I might be the only one there all morning, not counting herons, otters, snapping turtles, geese. Nothing spectacular, but well worth the brief escape -- several fish about 11"-13" with the biggest coming at 16", about 2.5lb on a t-rigged PowerBait Chigger Craw about 10 feet down near a small point (picture not great; bad perspective, but you get the idea).

Perfect for me then -- I don't do tournaments and I prefer numbers over sheer size...and anyway, I've gotten hilariously small fish on 10" worms too, so....

I've got a first-time Ned Rig on my do-to list this week.

Color-blindness in almost all cases is genetic and sex-linked --the genes controlling the proteins used by your light-receptive cells in the eye are on the X-chromosome, which is why men get it more often than women (since women have two x-chromosomes, they will only be colorblind if both chromosomes carry it, whereas men will be colorblind if they get that version of the gene on their only X). The most common version, as mentioned above, is red-green color-blindness which manifests as an inability to distinguish red from green. But you can have other versions as well, like blue-yellow, or in very rare cases, monochromacy, which is inability to distinguish any colors, only lightness and darkness (i.e., white, grays, black). You can also get some color vision deficits from particular kinds of brain damage, but those are different and usually more debilitating. As for what it "looks like" to be colorblind, people's reports are pretty variable because color is a subjective experience (my "red" may or may not look anything like your "red"); but the key diagnostic issue is, if you are shown two colors, how well can you tell them apart. I would expect in most cases, even if you don't label your bags and lures, it has very little effect on bass fishing in practice; since color selection, in general, tends to be a bit less important than most other factors (e.g., presentation). I also wonder if color intensity and saturation matter more than hue...is it more important to decide between a reddish vs. a greenish lure? Or is it more important to decide between a "bright" color vs. "dull/muted" color. I tend to find that the latter decision has more of an impact.

I'll second the mention of River Smallmouth Fishing by Tim Holschlag, which I've gotten a lot out of, especially in terms of reading rivers/streams, and approaches to take from a kayak. There's also Kayak Bass Fishing by Chad Hoover, which has good information about basic strategies for beginning kayakers who already fish, beginning bass fishermen who already kayak, or for beginners at both.

Thank you all for this. I was going to post a new topic about recommended books, but this thread already has what I am looking for (and I'm just new enough to have missed it the first time around).

Really interesting article. In a weird sort of way, it's a relief to never have been remotely good enough at any sport to consider going pro, having to weigh the prospects of such major benefits and sacrifices against each other.

I have lived in MN, ND, CA, NJ, and MI, and visited every other state in the lower 48 at least once. Some I like better than others, to be sure, but every state I think has something to recommend it to outdoorsmen (even the small crowded ones, on occasion)...but I haven't seen any place that quite compares to CA, just in terms of the sheer magnitude and variety of outdoor recreation opportunities.

I have to admit, I'm with zeth on this. And I don't think the Serious or Committed qualifier helps as much as it might seem -- there are a great many outdoors and wildlife enthusiasts who do not hunt or fish who certainly care as much for the environment and, virtually by definition, leave a smaller footprint than a hunter or fisherman because they are not taking or handling wildlife. The hawk anecdote is a great story of making the time and effort to do the right thing, but lets be clear: there would be no hawk to save in this instance if there was no fishing line being cast. I don't mean to pile on, but I hear the comment that "the people who care the most for the environment are hunters & fishermen" by earnest and well-meaning sportsmen all the time, and it always bothers me. I don't think they realize how it comes across most often, which is as a sort of unnecessary and self-flattering defensiveness. I don't apologize for my own angling activities, and I try hard to mimimize and compensate for my impact... but I also don't think that means I need to congratulate myself for having an impact to minimize in the first place, or that I'm somehow a better environmentalist than somebody who doesn't.

So, essentially, give the jig a bladed, dressed, treble stinger hook.

Yeah, I'm a big Powerbait fan too. I'm not really convinced scented/flavored bait works so much as attractant for bass, but Berkley claims they'll hold onto it a little longer before spitting it out, which seems reasonable (or they'll swallow it, as Jeff H says above). Presumably, the same is true (or is supposed to be true, at least) of salted plastics.

Trick worm (Pumpkin or watermeon with some kind of flake) Senko (Green pumpkin) Torpedo (chrome) Spinnerbait (white/chart) Frog

"New" is relative, and it doesn't mean the same thing as "advanced" anyway. At the bait shop I go to most often, it still happens pretty frequently that while I'm in there, I'll see one of the clerks (or someone else) showing a package of senko-style baits to someone who's never used them, explaining how a basic wacky rig works. Nothing "advanced" about that particular advice, but it's still new to someone.