BassKing813

Say it aint so, I will not go, carry me home, carry me home. Okay I'm done. I think your best bet at this point would be live bait. When the bite gets tough, I just tie on a c-rigged live nightcrawler. Gets 'em every time. Just make sure you hook the worm as you would a t-rig plastic, so that way the worm hangs down and wiggles enticingly. I have found that they don't bite it as well if you hook the worm through the middle three of four times.

I know what you're thinking. You people have such perverted minds, geez. : Anyway, have you ever fished a pier and hooked a HUGE fish and couldn't get it up to land it? This happened to me this past weekend. I hooked about a six pound speckled trout and didn't have a net or anything to get it on the pier. I tried reeling it up slowly but my line snapped. :'( Any ideas on what I could have done?

Rapala Pro Fishing is by far the best fishing game out right now, and they have it on PS2. You should buy it, but it might be a good idea to rent it at your local video store first, just to make sure you like it.

I think using one of those Aqua-View underwater cameras is a big waste of time. I would rather fish than just continuously put a camera in the water, take it out, move to another spot, and then put it in again until I see a bass. And anyway, once you find the bass it might not bite. Then you'll waste even more time throwing every lure you have at it. I think it's more fun to find the fish on your own. Using an underwater camera would take the fun out of it. I don't even like fishing clear water because I look around and don't see any fish and then rush to move elsewhere. The same thing would happen with one of those underwater cameras.

I learned how to select the correct spinnerbait based on the conditions and also learned when to throw 'em. I caught my first spinnerbait bass this past summer.

A Nightmare on Elm Street really scares the crap out of me. I won't watch it before I go to bed. The other movie that really scares me is "It," the movie based on Stephen King's novel (even scarier). Somehow a clown with razor sharp teeth that eats kids is very scary.

Mine is a 1in minnow that I caught on a Bomber 6A crankbait. The funniest part was that it wasn't even hooked. It somehow got stuck in between the treble hooks. I didn't take a pic because I only consider 2in minnows to be lunker size.

A crankbait is an excellent choice for this time of year. It is my number one go-to bait right now, with the softplastic worm in second if the bass aren't aggressive. You can generate a lot of bites using crankbaits in fall and should definitely start using them regularly during the cooler months.

Fish the banks. This where I catch 90% of my fish. I only use t-rigged worms and crankbaits because they are the only lures I have success with. I generally fish crankbaits in the fall and use worms the rest of the year. As far as what areas to cast to, it's just like lakes and ponds. Cast wherever there is cover, but the areas that produce best are those where a break in the current is created. That means casting to the downriver side of wood structure because that's where bass position themselves. I usually float downstream and cast to the banks but many like to go upstream so that every cast is able to be retrieved downriver with the current. I never go upstream because it puts too much stress on my trolling motor and the battery won't last as long, plus, I won't be able to cover as much water. It's just a matter of personal preference. When the river is really low, I have found that fishing the banks doesn't produce as well. During low water periods I will often use my depthfinder to locate fish (most of which are in the middle of the river) and then toss a crankbait out there and retrieve it back to shore. If this doesn't work, then I will go back to the bank and throw a t-rigged Zoom Trickworm. Hope this post helps. You can learn a lot from reading articles and posts by the knowledgeable fishermen of this site, but the real way to learn river fishing is to give it a try. Get out there and catch some bass!

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions about shiner fishing, but I still haven't found anything about what size float to use when fishing live wild shiners. The ones I used last time were those big saltwater popping corks about 4 to 5 in long. From what a guy at the lake told me, a float that big wears the shiner out. How small a float can I get by with for fishing shiners? Would a little 3in float get the job done?

A light action rod is not a good choice for crankbait fishing. You should go with a medium heavy. I have an ugly stick with a MH action and it works really well with crankbaits.

I never wear a life jacket because I fish in a little 14ft fiberglass boat with an 8hp, so I don't go very fast. When I get a real bass boat though, I will by an expensive, high quality jacket and wear it at all times.

Come to Florida. It's the fishing capital of the world! On second thought though, maybe you shouldn't. Florida is also the lightning capital, shark capital, and hurricane capital of the world. It's up to you. Personally, I'd still be out fishing in shark infested waters at dusk during a hurricane while surrounded by lightning. ;D

I think this method is much more efficient. I had problems with bass shaking loose when the tubing was placed over the eye of the trailer hook because the hook didn't move. Once I changed to the way that allows the hook to swing freely, I saw increased catch rates.

I saw this advertised on my local baitshop's website. Anybody ever used 'em? What exactly are they for and what are the advantages?

I think it will work very well, but you won't know until you try.

Zoom Horny Toad, even though I haven't caught a bass on it yet.

I don't agree with you completely. I have read many documented cases where people owned pitbulls and brought them up to be very loving and friendly without training them to be aggressive or attack, and then one day their pit "snapped" and attacked a family member or someone else, often resulting in serious injury or death. You just can't fight years and years of breeding. Aggression and fighting are now a part of nearly all pitbulls and they will eventually turn on their owner or someone else. In any case, I will not take any chances. Yeah I know any dog can attack and I am cautious around all breeds, but attacks by pitbulls result in way more deaths than attacks by other breeds.

Tackle Warehouse ships way faster than BPS and they have better deals. The only thing is sometimes they don't have lures that BPS does. I always try to order from TW but if there's some lures I want that they don't have but BPS does, I'll order from BPS.

Thanks for the link. That was an excellent article.

Thanks for the tips guys. I am now confident that I can catch my new PB!

Over the course of one week on a local pond in Florida I caught and released 23 bass ranging from 2-3 lbs.

Wherever cover is present.

What about line type and size? Should I use braid or mono? If I use braid, is 50lb test too heavy?

I probably should have specified what type of bass I am fishing for and where. I'm going for monster largemouth here in Florida. A lot of vegetation and wood cover is present, and the lakes are generally the same depth everywhere.