jomatty

i just finished reading a few fishing books and thought id start a thread where people could share their opinions and make suggestions on books they have enjoyed. these books are not instructional in nature but i would certainly be just as interested in those that are. Sowbelly i really enjoyed this book. you guys in Cali are crazy . i would have liked to know more about how they go about the various techniques and such but thats not what the author was trying to do. he really talked with some fascinating characters and that made the book very interesting. this book definitely gave me mixed emotions about some of the peoples obsessiveness. Some of them obviously went too far. when families are lost and childerens formitive years are missed it is obviously too much. on the other hand, their dedication was amazing. most of them do it for next to no monetary reimbursement and instead of making money on the pursuit spend countless dollars on it. im not a trophy bass fisherman and one thing that i found reading this book is that it is unlikely i could ever get into it. i have a lot of respect for these guys and fish chris and the like but i just would not like it as much as fishing in a style more similar to tournament fishing where you must catch quality and quantity. i just like figuring out the fish and developing a pattern and not having to go often weeks before knowing how i am doing and between fish. anyways, this book could have been better but i still really enjoyed it and would guess that other fanatical fisherman would like it aswell. heck i even enjoyed the second book and i thought it sucked... fishing on the edge mike iaconelli im not an ike fan but it was about fishing so i thought id give it a try. since it was about fishing i enjoyed it but really didnt think it was very good. the one thing that was impressive was his rise through the ranks and the federation. his determination is truly impressive and inspiring. i actually hoped to like him more after this book and to find out what makes him tick and act like he does. ive always thought that his outbursts are now an act most of the time and that was still the feeling i had after reading this book. there is no doubt that he is capable of these outbursts naturally and has done that before but i think after reading the book that he is almost certainly acting a fair amount of the time. hearing him talk about the michael Iaconnelli "brand" adds to that suspicion. he is just so in to himself and marketing himself. anyways it was about fishing so i must admit to enjoying it even though it was annoying in parts and not especially good in my opinion. one other book that ive recently read and enjoyed is the longest silence by Thomas Mcguane this book is not about bass fishing at all and is in fact about fly fishing. it happened to be on the book shelf of our beach house this year so i read it on the beach (which no doubt helped my enjoment of it). i was familiar with mcguane but not from anything to do with fishing (he wrote 92 in the shade and Nothing but blue skies). although this book is not about bass it is a really good read. it is so well written and paints such beautiful pictures of the authors life long and wandering journey to find fish that even non fishermen should enjoy this immensely. this book is really a great one in my opinion. it is a series of essays chronicaling mcguane's travels. this book made me want to get a fly rod (an urge ive since lost) and start fishing for trout (something ive never enjoyed). anyways those are some fishing books ive read recently. id love to hear anything anyone else has read recently, either novels or instructional in nature matt

no one has any of the molds and can comment? perhaps suggest a mold that is similar to a senko. matt

yeah i hate it when people see me fishing in my ponds. if someone sees me walking with my rods i always try to tell them that i was at the river or anywhere but on the golf course. i try to only go before the golf course opens and after all the golfers are gone (also they like that and i dont want to lose permission). sometimes some straglers are still there and its never a good feeling. last time i was there someone walked up to me and was liek "i never thought of that i bet these ponds are great". i felt a little sick and said "uh not really, i mean they are close and its a place to bring my son, i dont think they were ever stocked properly" . as im saying this im getting a hit and trying to ignore it but eventually its too obvious. despite my efforts i caught the fish which i really hated but thankfully it was a very small one. a few unethical anglers can completely ruin some of these small ponds in only a few outings and having ponds that are a five minute wald from my house is precious to me. i can very much understand wanting to hide your car. matt

although i have been enjoying my plaster molds i am going to go ahead and buy an aluminum stick mold. i am looking for one that is as close to a senko as possible. there are different diameters shown at different sources. i like the look of bobs tackle shacks the best and the middle is .375. del marts is 4.5 and is listed as fat. am i correct in assuming that bobs is closer to the actual senko's size and shape. does anyone have any additional sources or suggestions. ive read through the other posts and most people seem to prefer these two mold sources. are all of the hard plastic or silicone molds 1 piece. the price is attractive on the M-F and similar molds and it dosent specify which i assume means they are 1 piece. thanks alot, matt

ive been tinkering with my new hobby a good bit lately and just had a few questions. i have been having a lot of problems with my senkos until someone was nice enough to take the time to straighten me out. i found out that i was not stirring enough and heating them way too fast. im wondering if you are not using salt if you need to still stir a lot and heat the plastic up as slowly. what style baits do you guys use salt for. What about trick worms. ive been heavily salting most of my baits but im not sure if it is making it harder than it needs to be for some molds. does anyone have any info to share on what baits they use salt in and how much salt they use? any info on pouring and stirring is also appreciated. thx, matt

WTD baits are so much fun imo. something about the cadence of the lure and the sound of the line snapping and the timing involved in making it walk properly and setting the hook. i realized that i unknowingly count in my head while im doing it lol. i was counting into the 50's on every cast every time i walked the baits. i try to visualize walking the bait in place more often than not. the slow speed seems to drive them crazy although sometimes they do want it fast.

i love lizards in the spring as well but rarely use them for bed fishing. when im fishing beds ill often use a wacky rig senko. deadly. its so hard for a bass to resist them when they are quivering down and then deadsticked in front of them. ill often use a creature of some sort as well, like a nory bug or other. crawfish are good as well. actually im not sure it makes a huge difference what you throw on the bed. whatever it is, the bass dosent like it there. if you sink a coke can on her nest she is likely to eventually move it. when i use a coke can i put a set of trebles on the tab, as everyone knows that bass often attack the front of a lure i dont mind bright colored baits and going by the coke can theory it usually dosent make a big difference. i do stay away from the florescent colors and if i want something i can see i use white. sometimes it does make a difference and moer natural colors are better. many times a bass that does not seem catchable just needs to be agitated enough. youve got to make em mad. ill throw a number of lures at them and eventually they will get mad enough to strike. the funny thing is that in my experience if you miss her as long as she didnt get hooked she will continue to hit again until you catch her. when they get mad they seem to stay mad. matt

i think about this a lot and posted the same question recently. im still not comporatable with what the correct answer is though. i do know that when i first started fishing the pond two months ago it was incredible fishing. since then it has slowed down a lot. i think it has more to do with the weather but i really dont know. i do think that they have started to get wise to the techniques i was using and that switching up helps a lot. please keep us updated on what you decide or how the fishing changes as you get towards the fall. i still am not sure if i need to lay off this pond a little more or not. matt

i think the answer, as it usually is, is it depends. on some bodies of water it seems to make no difference at all and im convinced you could tie on with thick yellow rope and catch fish but on others the fish seem very line shy. it often seems to be related to water clarity, but not always. if the water is very clear i will always use a leader on my braid and sometimes it seems to make a difference. it dosent seem to affect topwater or night fishing at all. it dosent seem to affect bedfishing. it dosent seem to have much affect on fast moving baits. on more finess type presentation, like drop shot and weightless plastics it seems to often have an affect. any sample size is too small to really form any conclusions as a fisherman though. we just have to be observant and make our best guesses. i would think that some scientist would look into this for one of the line companies and let us know what they find, or perhaps they did and did not like the results and thats why we didnt hear about it. matt

i love smallmouth fishing. i think they are beautiful fish and love how aggressive and strong they are. i fish a lot of rivers in va and grew up wade fishing for smallies. i still go to the small river near my house regularly. a one pound smallmouth on a fairly light spinning outfit is a blast. when i was young i went on a drift trip with my friends father. fishing was slow until we stopped and caught some helgramites. then we started tearing em up. i hooked into one that was a bout 3 pounds and he totally whipped my butt. i was only 11 or 12 and he got under the boat and came out jumping and angry on the other side. it was a miracle i landed him and the highlight of my young fishing career. it was so much fun. that may have been THE fish that made me a fisherman. i fish more for largemouth these days but i still think the smallie is number one.

i agree flyrod. i def would try to keep her alive. i do think i would keep her as well. ill have to deal with this when a 23 pound bass hits my senko in the golf course pond i regularly fish

if you caught the world record bass would you be able to release it? i dont fish any waters that could hold the next world record but i have thought about it a fair amount. a state record i would definitely release. i release all of my bass withnever a second thought (except for a few small ones when im camping in waters that are overpopulated). people have estimated that the world record would be worth over a million dollars in endorsements. i would hate to risk that sort of windfall. i know that the bass can be certified and released but i also know that the chance of it actually being certified are much higher if you have the fish. at that point as long as it is legally hooked it would be pretty hard to dispute. i actually dont fish big bass waters and dont really have any interest in catching records but i do wonder about it just in a theoretical kind of way. i honestly dont know what i would do, what do you guys think, matt ps if you use a scale that turns out to not be accurate although it is consistent is the catch outlawed for record purposes? i mean if you have a picture of the bass and the scale turns out that it measures two ounces heavy every single time. will they delete the two ounces or say that the scale is inaccurate and disqualify the catch?

do you guys know why some of my plastics start to develop bubbles in them. it seems to happen after ive reheated it a few times and ive tried stirring tapping etc to get them out with no luck. is that just a sign that the plastic is no longer usable. ive been just reheating as necesary and throwing alot of just poured stuff right back in the microwave because of mistakes or just because i want to experiment. will you guys reheat plastic until it gets scorched or something happens to it or is that not a real good idea. is that what is causing the bubbles? thx again, matt

thanks guys, saving money wasnt at all why i got into hand pours but it never hurts. really, it seems that if your buying yamamoto plastics your saving quite a bit but if you are buying anything else your savings are more marginal. like i said that is a very small consideration for me (not becuase i have money, because i dont, but just because of the time involved i dont think that it would be worth it just to save money) very interesting, matt

none. ive tried to put a few things together but nothing has worked out yet. hopefully i will get to fish with some of them at some point. matt

i know this is going to vary a lot based on sources and quantity bought as well as style of bait made but i am curious if anyone knows about how much $$ worth of product goes into making each worm. perhaps a 5 inch senko with one color of flake (not that it makes much difference) disregard things like molds and the one time purchase stuff. just things like plastisol, glitter and worm oil and salt. i know this is a weird question but it seems like some of you serious pourers may have figured it out. matt

i understand that their are different quality baits available. to rephrase my question: do you guys prefer your (either the ones you make or buy) handpours to the mass produced high quality alternatives (whatever you think they are). i enjoy making baits and saving money is always nice but at the end of the day i want to fish the bait that will produce the best results. ive noticed that many pros use mass produced baits and i dont think its just because of sponsorships. so when it comes to catching fish which do you prefer? matt

im not sure what i would throw in that scenario. well i know what i would do but i dont think its the right answer anyway. im interested to hear the responce though and that is an interesting observation and one id probably miss on the water. well i migh notice it but probably wouldnt put the pieces together and would just find it peculiar. does anyone know why some bass take on a very yellow color. i fish one pond in particular where the bass are always very yellow throughout the entire lake. matt

a very shallow very gradual slope is the last place id look for summertime bass. what happens out deeper? is there any sharper drops to speak of? that sounds like water that would stay very warm. my number one confidence lure is a senko when the bite gets tough. if thats the only thing youre getting bit on id stick with it. try to find the first significant and less gradual drop to deeper water and i wouldnt be surprised if it hold some bass but i really dont know enough about your lake to comment. if the only availble water was shallow and gradually sloping i would try it at night if schedule permits. matt

jim you have led an interesting and varied life. it seems im always learning something knew about something interesting you have done. matt

i took my first set of sticks out to the pond today and was very pleased with their action. i caught a bunch of fish and they were the most productive lure (although i didnt throw any real senkos). lots of fun and im really enjoying this new hobby matt

while i have a number of different colors in my soft plastic arsenal i think that 90% of the time as long as i had green pumpkin and black/blue i would do just fine. i might also like some white (for rare occasions) and something in between the two like a smoke with black or silver flake. i adjust the color almost completely based on light and water visibility. you could probably substiture junebug or some other dark pattern for the black/blue without making too much difference. i think the contrast is the most important thing. thats my uninformed (but strong) opinion. matt

this is all very interesting. i usually use much lighter baits than 4 inch tikis for dropshotting though and also prefer much lighter line than 12 lb. ive never used line lighter than 8 lb on my baitcasting gear and wonder if it is a good idea. i have no problems with my dropshot rig but always looking for something new. i have used a baitcasting setup for a power drop shot through weeds and such but not in the sort of application your talking about. matt

i too am now hungry in the middle of the night. the only time i eat any bass or crappie is usually when im camping with my son when we just fry em up with some hushpuppies. they are not generally my favorite but we always enjoy them when camping. im in as a third vote for fish cheeks. that was always a treat that i got to eat regularly back when i was a chef. the cheeks and collar section (the only part of salmon that i especially care for) always end up thrown away and its a shame. not on my watch. matt

so i made my first hand pours this morning and must say i am pleased with the results. i made some one sided simple baits first, two styles of chunks for jig trailers and a flat crawfish (the only one that did not come out as well as i would have liked). i then made a two sided senko mold (plaster of paris style). it cracked when i was taking the two halves apart but the worm section was unaffected and it actually worked out really well because the broken half works like a guide of sort so i dont even need the popsickle sticks to align it perfectly. i was very pleased with the senko mold as well except i ran into one problem. on a few of the baits the tip was coming out hollow. they looked great and may even fish fine but there is a small section that is hollow. how do i go about not having this hollow section consistently? this is so addictive!!! i can see myself spending entirely too much time doing this sort of thing. matt