jomatty

is anyone able to explain or have a link that shows how you can make a mold for a bait like an ika? i have a design idea that i really want to try but do not know how to go about making a mold. thx, matt

i know that some of you guys swear by your hand pours and it seems that others are more in it for the cost effectiveness. the main difference as i can tell is the softness of the handpours. is the general consensus that they catch more fish? im gonna make some, although it is only partly for wanting to catch more fish. i know a lot of the big tournament guys who could easily if they wanted get handpours use injection ones (and you know they have no prob. stretching the truth about using sponsors baits so i dont believe thats the reason). anyways just curious if there is much of a difference in fish catching ability, matt ps this may not be the best place to get an unbiased answer lol

yeah bassassin you are right. there was a really good thread recently about transporting bass spreading disease. a number of the bass, especially larger bass may not survive the ordeal, and the new location as well. large bass have their forage spots and favorite haunts and often will be unable to adjust. they may adjust fine, just someithing to be careful about. if there is no bass left i suppose the spread of disease is not that big a deal but if it is just not as good as you want it to be i would be careful as it could introduce LMB virus. anyways i hope it works out for you. i had planned on trying to improve some ponds near my house but decided that it was too risky. i hope all of your bass remain healthy and prosper although im my opinion you would be better off trying to stock them from a hatchery. matt

i wish i could say that my dad had got me into fishing. i think our relationship would be a lot closer if we had that to do together. unfortunately he dosent care for it. my friends father is the one who really got me into fishing. he would take us fishing from a very young age on his bassboat and also on float trips for smallies in his john boat. those were great trips. my mom had no interest in fishing but would drive us to the river and patiently wait as we threw grubs and nightcrawlers at the bluegill. when it came down to it i was hooked as soon as i dropped a line in the water although i lost interest for other pursuits for a few years in my late teens early twenties. matt

my technique is definitely more similar to RW's. i try a lot of things but the more subtle movements seem to get the quality fish more often than not for me. im prob not as patient as RW though.

if you can target the holes in the weed mat you can yo yo heavy jigs. you can also punch through the weed mat and yo yo jigs in spots where there are open areas underneath of the mat. if it is not too deep a fat ika in the opn areas can be good. you can drag it across the mat and let it drop in the holes. for the kind of lake you suggest i think a c-rig would be difficult to use unless there are areas where you can target just the weed edges, but that dosent sound like the case. matt

some sort of used bass boat or large john boat that i could renovate. or i would buy into a poker game and try to win enough to buy a new ranger. \matt

for me anything over 3 lbs is a nice fish although i dont break out the scales and camera unless i think its at least 5. it dosent matter to me if a fish weighs 3.5 or 3.8 but my PB is under 6 pounds so i weigh all fish that are over 5 to get an exact weight matt

if you are targeting smallmouth i would definetly bring along some tubes. i use a jighead anytime i am able to. often this translates into jigheads for smallmouth and t-rig for largemouth. RW gave me a good tip about using longer slower hops than i was using and then letting the bait fall on a semi slack line. the straight fall is important in my opinion to get that death spiral, dying baitfish look, along with a tubes abvious craw impression. if the going gets tough i would definitely break out the single tail yamamoto grubs on a 1/16 or 1/8th oz jighead. they are such a versatile river lure that can be fished in a lot of different ways. id make sure that you have at least 3 colors, something to immitate craws, something to imitate sunfish, and a 150 (smoke with black) or something similar,perhaps with some gold, to imitate other baitfish. i wouldnt forget your 4 and 5 inch (and maybe even 3 in depending on size of smallies)senkos either. sometimes when the fish are finicky i will just bite down my 5 inch baits for a slightly fatter, shorter senko. they have saved a few river trips for me when the conditions are tough. while it is not really ideal topwater times you can bet id have a splash or popper lure along for early mornings. i love river fishing and there is nothing better to me than catching a nice smallie. good luck and let us know how you do, matt

junky junky junky!!! a lot of this stems from always wanting to learn new things and try new techniques. i think this started when i first got into fishing i had to buy and learn to use every lure i saw someone win a tournament on. i was looking for that magical lure that would whack em all the time. when i figured out that lure did not exist i became more selective but my interest in learrning new stuff (and that siren-sing-song of the baitmonkey) keeps calling. i love buying tackle and things and this keeps me trying new things. i may have caught more fish if i had never taken a senko or a jig off of my rod but i wouldnt have as much fun and that is how i presently judge success. if a situation comes up that a certain technique is called for i want to know how to handle it. if i had to pick though i love pitching heavy cover. something about trying to get my lure where others may not be able to with the perfect pitch appeals to me. matt

ive thought alot about that jig idea and also of using a finesse jig or even shakey head as the weight on a dropshot. i never get around to trying it because often im more interested in catching fish than in being innovative and trying to learn something that may help me catch more fish. a jig with a 10 inch worm behind it might not only pick up some jig bites but even help the worm bite as it may appear like something larger chasing something smaller (the jig). my guess is that the drop shot would work well and i cant really think of a reason it would work less than a traditional dropshot other than increased snags (which ill trade for a few fish any day) if its illegal where does that leave things like a double fluke rig? obviously in the ocean double rigs like bottom rigs or bucktails are the norm but i dont know the regulations for bass fishing. matt

i fish some ponds like you are describing and my go to baits are frogs and soft plastics. the fat ika is an absolute killer in these conditiions as you get the positives of weightless plastics and its heavy enough to get some penetration in spots. i like the ribbit frogs but a hollow frog like the bronzeye can also be good. senkos are great especially if their are spots where you can get some freefall and room for them to drop. matt

ive been trying to read up on understanding how the lunar cycles affect the fishing and it is just unclear to me how much of a difference it generally makes. also some of the information seems to be counter what i now do and has been generally suggested on these boards. for instance, most posters suggest night fishing later in the evening, and say that the fishing heats up around 3 am. this has generally proved true in my experience with the slowest period coming about an hour after sunset. what do you follow when the lunar chart suggests that the best time for night fishing is from 9-10 pm or some other time. do most of you disregard that info or try to fit that into the night fishing schedule? i guess im just curious how much you guys pay attention to these sort of things and how much it affects the fishing, and in what ways. in the past ive just gone fishing when i wanted and if they were biting that was great and if not then oh well its still good. all of my energy went into trying to figure out how to catch em in given conditions and not guess their mood before i got there. im trying to make my trips more successful though and am wondering how much use the lunar calander is and if some other such products are worth buying. matt

while i dont use a lot of the berkley worms i do like the powerworms. the 10 inch is good. my son almost always uses a 4 or 7 inch powerworm either splitshot or t-rigged and sometimes he outfishes both me and my wife (as far as numbers go). the all black 7 inch powerworm has caught a lot of fish for him, and for me, and is one of the worms ill throw when the bite is slow at night. they are not my favorite worms but i do like them in certain situations. my son insists that they call them power worms because they have magic powers (he is only 3) how can you go wrong with a worm that has magical powers, matt

this is the second time ive told this storyin as many days on this board but ive seen a seagull caught off of a pier. put up a hell of a fight. an oldtimer handled it like he saw this everyday.

someone can explain the difference better than i can but to me a reaction strike is one where the bass hits it out of a reaction rather than as an effort to feed. somthing like a dropshot or other slow moving worm a bass eats it because its an easy meal. other baits it see whizzing by its head and its reflex reaction is to strike at it. you can also get a reaction strike with some heavy worms and jigs if you blow it by them fast on the fall. this is my understanding but someone more knowledgeable should chime in and may be able to better clarify. matt

yeah ive got the right gear and what not. i almost always use heavy braid in this scenario. im not having trouble catching fish at all actually. ive been absolutely whackin em in these ponds regularly. im just curious about getting outside the box of weightless soft plastics. anyhow it dosent sound like i need too. these ponds are definetly too weedy for anything with trebles. even in the non surface weedy places there is much too much straggler surface weeds to fish them. and i have tried the exact rig that was suggested with a heavy t-rig tube and others and just didnt have as much success with it as with the weightles plastics. jim is once again on point i believe. thx for responces, matt

also as im sure you are doing, i always use EWG hooks with fat ikas. just thought id mention it since i didnt see that you specified. matt

yeah its a sad reality of fishing ponds. in a lot of the smaller ponds that i fish just one person catching and keeping everything can make a big impact on the population. theres one pond near my house that was once great. its near some low income housing and one particular family cleaned it out. its not worth bothering there anymore. i have nothing against keeping fish in bodies of water that can sustain it but ruining a pond is like pure evil to me. my favorite ponds i now only fish in the early early morning and night or at least twilight and try to downplay the good fishing if anyone asks. unfortunately someone will eventually ruin these and the hunt for another good place to fish will be back on. i love ponds because it can be difficult to consistently catch fish from the shore in some of the large lakes around me and it is frustrating. the ponds i fish now are a short walk from my house so it will be especially frustrating if someone finds them. matt

my wife was nice enough to buy one for me but i took it back. just couldnt see myself using it enough. kinda cool idea though matt

it dosent sound like your problem is in the rigging. i tex pose mine and always keep in mind that the fish will hold on to them for a good while. especially if its got mega strike or something similar on it. the way i set the hook is to reel down and let the rod start to load and then give it to em. i use a similar hook set for a senko. it helps my hook up % i think. they will hold it for a long time so even though it kinda looks like a funky jig you dont have to be quick like when your jig fishing. matt

i realize that this is a often posted about situation and since so much has been said i hesitated to post this. that said, here goes... anyways i was wondering what the favorite techniques are for very weedy ponds. im not talking about the weed beds so much as ponds that are weedy from shorline to shore line. some place it may go all the way to the surface and others may only grow a foot or so above the bottom but there is not an exposed piece of bottom anywhere in the pond. the techniques that work best for me are by far the fat ikas, senkos, and frogs (usually ribbits but sometimes bronzeyes). these far outproduce any other techniques although other weightless soft plastics do well too (flukes, trick worms and others). buzzbaits produce a few fish in the weed edges (really where the deep weeds meet the shallow weeds). swim jigs and other jigs are good for a few fish but difficult for me to fish without a solid bottom. i still manage a few fish with them although i have in large part abandoned them (which i hate because for some reason i love to fish jigs and i have been fishing in these ponds more often than anywhere else lately). do any of you guys fish jigs in these conditions and if so how do you go about it? T-rigs are good for a few fish although i find that they are not nearly as productive as the same baits fished weightless. these ponds are different than most weed mats and such that i have fished on larger bodies of water. on those i often find myself fishing baits with heavy weghts either on the weed edges or in holes or even punching through the mats, where there are hollow areas underneath. in these ponds any weight seems to be a hinderance, especially if you start using the heavier weights that i am accustomed to using when fishing weeds and stuff. anyways, what other techniques are you guys using in these sort of situations, matt

i care and in fact have been thinking the same thing. in past years i mainly lay off for the winter and wonder if ive lost my love of fishing to some extent and then realize on the first outing of the spring that it wasnt fishing that was the problem it was just my aversion to bad weather. i start my spring early catching smallmouth in the river though so its not that lng a wait really. this year ive gotten a little overboard on the fishing though and will prob fish during the winter. i for one have already started hitting up the winter articles. matt

aaron martens hands down for me. he may not win as much as a lot of guys but he is consistently near the top and seems to be duking it out for angler of the year every year. i also like ish monroe. i like the guys like martens and monroe who are outside of the stereotypical good ole boy anglers. actually i like good ole boys too, but still like guys that dont fit the mold (except ike i just cant get into that act that im convinced hes putting on nowadays) matt

nobody else is doing this. matt