jomatty

there are a lot of valid points that have been made and since this is a matter of opinion there can be no right or wrong. imo however, you cant start putting limitations on where the bass comes from because it will open up a pandoras box of future problems. the idea that some ponds be allowed and others not is silly imo. who is gonna set up the guidelines that make one pond qualify and another no, and who is gonna pay to police that? no way. the cali debate is similarly flawed. i mean where do we draw the line? if cali bass that eat trout arent allowed but texas bass that are essentially share a lunker prodigy where they are working hard to grow big bass and then release them with the hope of someone catching the WR, then there is a serious discrepency. best not to open up that bees nest imo. if its caught legally then it should count

yeah as long as you can stand the smell it works just fine

lookin good. how do you like the frogs on the water. ive been thinking about getting a frog mold.

i make my creature by using a candle and various parts to get the look i want and then make a plaster of paris mold. then i can pour as many as i want.

There is a happy medium for me. i wouldnt say i intentionally target one or another i try to fish a pattern that will allow me to not be looking for that one big bite but at the same time not catch a million dinks with no chance of size either. Im generally unlikely to be throwing a 4 inch senko and im also unlikely to be throwing a 12 inch swimbait. Things like jig n pigs that apeal to the larger of the small fish and still catch big uns are perfect for me. i dont have it in me to be like the cali guys who get skunked more often than not but when they do hook up its a monster. i have total respect for them but that is not for me, at least with the regularity it takes to be successful doing that.

id fish a jig n pig or c-rig in the same areas your fishing the dropshot.

jim, i certainly didnt mean to imply that there was even the slightest doubt if a bass would eat a craw with claws. the only question is if they prefer them to ones without. i cant remember having a bass spit out a craw that didnt have claws but that dosent really mean anything to me, as there are relatively very few craws without claws so it would make sence that there would be few getting spit out. it dosent necessarilly mean that if given the choice they wouldnt prefer the clawless ones. anyhow im not sure it matters at all just clarifying what i meant. matt

thanks guys, my thinking was similar to catts original post that they may be less likely to hit when the craw is in a defensive position but would attack as soon as the jig is moved. catt was also right that being very familiar with how a crawfish moves is very important when fishing jigs. i always think about craws first in a defensive position and then about the way they swim. i spent a lot of time when i was a kid catching craws in the creeks and rivers and always think about them first taking up the defensive pose and then shooting off backwards. matt

im a big fan of jigs but have very rarely fished hair jigs. im planning on trying them for smallmouth this late fall and winter and was just curious if anyone has any tips on how to fish them or anything else that may help me. my plan is to fish them essentially exactly like i fish a silicone skirted jig and to use a 1/4 oz jig with a small craw/chunk trailer. any suggestions, matt

jig fishing can be as complicated as you want to make it. fortunately it can also be fairly simple. like others have commented a 3/8 oz jig with a zoom chunk is a good place to start. i like either that style or single tailed grubs (at night or when im swimming them) for most of my jig fishing, although i will sometimes use a craw on a finesse jig as well. quite honestly just starting out you would be fine just to use some grubs as trailers (either single or double tailed). although 3/8th is a good all around jig when you are just starting out you may get more bites if you use a slightly smaller jig, somewhere around 5/16. it may take a little longer to develop the feel with the lighter jig so there are pluses and minuses to either aproach. getting bites builds confidence though and thats why i may start lighter. watch the line on the fall, get accostemed to how the jig feel and when it feels differently err on the side of caution and set the hook. no where is the statement "hook sets are free" more applicable then when learning to fish jigs. keep at it these are great baits and you will be glad you spent the time to learn how to fish them. matt

while reading another thread i ended up reading the articles at http://www.mwbt.com/the_old_fisherman.htm which is basically some guys observations from watching fish in a big tank in his house for many years. fairly interesting stuff i thought. anyways he talks about how much more quickly bass eat craws when they have no pinchers and how they generally do not eat them when they have their claws up in a defensive position. i have often heard that when fishing with live crawfish you will catch more fish when you pinch the claws off as well. he specifically says that his bass would not hit jigs tipped with craws that had claws that would float. This was kind of a surprise to me, although it makes perfect sence. i fish a lot of jigs and my favorite trailers are usually the ones that have large claws (often chunks in the paca style) and the defensive position is often something that i think of as realistic looking and good. im now wondering if i like that because it looks good to me or because it is more effective. ive caught a lot of fish in this way but i cant really say that i do better than i did when i always used a grub (well i do better but i cant really attribute that to the trailers in any way) i know a lot of others prefer jig trailers with big claws and am just wondering what others thoughts on this are. Do you guys try to mimic or avoid the defensive position and prefer for your trailers to have prominent claws? matt

with most soft plastics i set immediately but with senkos and fat ikas i make an exception. i find i get better hooksets if i reel down, let the rod start to load and then let him have it. not a big difference and rarely rarely results in a gut hooked fish but i find i do better with this than an immediate snap set. the time that i think it is most important to be quick is with jigs. matt

there is no one color that is the "best color". sure you can always catch a fish with a purple worm but anyone who said that was all you needed should not be trusted for advice. that said, color selection does not need to be that complicated. in low light, low visibility conditions go with dark colors. the lighter it gets the lighter in color you can theoretically go. in practice as long as you have some dark worms (like a black/blue or junebug) and some light colors (like some green pumpkin) you should be fine. bank fishing is not for chumps but a boat is nice. you have to be a little more selective from the bank and choose places that give you some areas that will hold fish. small ponds and such are great for the bank fisherman. matt

thanks all for taking the time to answer. matt

rw said everything i wanted to. think structure not cover. find places that are at the very least near deeper water. tubes, grubs, and jerkbaits are among my favorite lures.

when you guys use chunk style trailers with jigs how do you decide if you are going to thread it on the hook shank similar to a craw or hook it similar to how you would a pork chunk. ive posted about similar things a few times and the consensus was that i think too much about such things but im just curious. i tend to thread the paca style chunks and not the traditional style chunks when i want a larger profile. just curious, matt

just curious what size you guys like in the winter. not a weight but more the overall appearance of the jig. i always use bulky jigs with fairly bulky trailers but have been wondering if a finesse jig might also coax some bites out of finicky bass. i subscribe to the bass look for big meals in winter theory which is why i go big but just curious what others think matt

in general i would say no. there are always exceptions but generally topwaters are not very productive for me in the winter. winter time is jig and c-rig time for me, both fished as slow as i can force myself.

fourbizzle, i didnt even know they made a pointer that was 10 inches long. matt

im got a very junky style but you can almost bet that ill have a jig of some sort, depending on what im fishing and a hand poured senko or fat ika tied on(often interchangeable on the same rig). they rarely dont fit somewhere in the arsenal. matt

my verdict is still out and im not crazy about what ive seen so far to be honest but gary is not putting out any gimmicks. the deadstick arguement is silly. so what if you cant catch fish deadsticking them if you can catch them swimming them.

even more than having the right pattern i think you were using a lure that will very often catch exactly what you caught, a number of small fish. i usually dont use the in-line spinners for bass because of exactly that, but on a day when nothing else is working it sounds like fun. casting into open water is usually not the best bet unless you have some reason to think that something is going on out there. there is an awfully lot of open water and a bunch of it is not going to have structure that holds fish. if you are going to try to fish out there get yourself a heavy jig or c-rig and drag it around and when you feel something different or get hung a little key on those spots. blindly winging a worm into the middle of a lake is gonna have you mostly fishing dead water. welcome to bass fishing and the forumn, both are a great way to spend your time. matt

my son is 4 and we have been fishing together since he was 2. he usually fishes with wacky rigged senkos on circle hooks and does quite well. i wish he would use live bait more but he wants to do everything like me so he want to use artificials. some of our best moments are on the water and the look he gets when hes fighting a fish is absolutely priceless. matt

the B.G skirts i assemble are very similar to senkos with a few strands of chartreusse mixed in. i think its a lot of fun to spend entirely too much time putting together skirts to mimic a particular baitfish. when i spend this much time on one ill often hand tie it to make it really perfect (i get more body and puffiness when i tie the skirts). i usually pair my b.g skirts with either yamamoto or hand poured single tailed grubs, in smoke with black or purple flake, or sometimes with a pumpkinseed grub. i like the single tailed grubs for mimicing baitfish. matt

my wife was never opposed to fishing, she just didnt espe4cially like it. she would occasionally tag along but not really fish much. then one day i was taking my son fishing and suggested we pack a picnic and all go. she agreed and when we got there was not planning on actually fishing. it happened to be one of those days when the pond was on fire. i had just discovered wacky rigged senkos on circle hooks and the combination of that set up and the pond being really active was all that it took. we both caught a lot of fish that day. she hooked into, and lost a bass that judging by the size of its head that was shaking was over 4 lbs. she wanted to catch one that big. she fished with me a lot that summer and goes with me regularly ever since. she finally has caught one that big and ive rarely seen her as happy. she almost always fishes a wacky senko on a circle hook. the other bait she likes is swimbaits (whoever said that females like baits that are very realistic looking are dead on). i can understand why some would like to keep fishing a male only hobby, and i make sure to take some time without my wife and son. that said, its a lot of fun watching either of them catch a fish. i enjoy that as much as catching them myself.