FatBoy

WARNING!!!! THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE MATHEMATOPHOBIC OR THOSE PRONE TO MIGRAINES. Finally somebody's talking my language. Turns out you can solve this with geometry, at least for specific points in the retrieve. What you have to do is reel in enough line to make up for the jigs fall rate. Because the line is at an angle (not vertical), the VERTICAL COMPONENT of the line movement has to equal the fall rate of the jig (but in the opposite direction of course). Let's assume the jig sinks at 1 ft/sec. When you have out 45 ft of line, a 7 ft rod pointed straight up and the jig is at 15 ft deep, the jig is 39 ft from the boat (using the Pythagorean theorem). The angle between the line and the horizontal plane is 29 deg [sin(29deg) = 22/45 where 22 is the 15 ft depth + 7 ft rod and 45 is the length of line (i.e., the hypotenuse)]. So with a 1 ft/sec fall rate, you need to reel in about 2 ft/sec (1 ft/sec / sin(29deg) = 2.06 ft/sec ). When the jig gets to 20 ft from the boat, you have 30 ft of line out and the line makes a 48 deg angle with the horizontal. At that point, you need to reel in at 1.3 ft/sec. To summarize, as the jig gets closer to the boat, you need to reel slower to maintain a constant depth. With 45 ft of line out, you start at 2 ft/sec and end at 1 ft/sec. The take home message is that you should experiment in the pool until you get the hang of it. (Now aren't you sorry you asked? ;D ;D ;D ;D)

You caught that on a spongebob pole? My son has a spiderman pole. Just think what he can do with that. Spiderman can kick spongebob's butt!!! ;D ;D ;D Oh yeah, and nice fish too.

Sorry, but that's just not true. > Braid won't damage your rod or reel as long as you're using it properly. You should be careful to cut off a few feet of line every so often because dirt/sand/mud gets trapped in the fibers and can make it abrasive on your guides (or so I've been told). And you should always match the line to the rod. But as long as you don't tie the line to a boat, car, tractor or other motor vehicle and try to reel it in, you'll be just fine. ;D

I'm pretty sure it is overcrowded. That explains why I caught so many 12" fish last year and so few keepers. But that doesn't explain why the fish I'm catching are even smaller this spring.

Since last June I've been fishing a 4 acre pond in my neighborhood. Last summer and fall I was catching a lot of fish but mostly small ones. About 10-12" was the average size. I did occassionally get a keeper and a buddy caught a 20" bass once in late June or early July. I've been fishing there since ice out this year. I'm still catching them, but only dinks, less than 8". Everytime I go, I start out with a spinnerbait, senko, fluke, t-rigged worm, etc. All these baits worked for me last summer. But now I can't catch a thing on those. I'll typically spend about an hour with these typical baits and get nothing. I'm trying everything from right up on the bank to as far out as I can cast (no boats allowed on the pond). THEN, after an hour of trying, I switch over to a little rooster tail and start catching the dinks. I can average 3-4 fish an hour on those. So here's my question: Where are the bigger bass? Will they stay out in the deeper water til the water gets warmer while the dinks move up to the shallows? Here in central illinois the water is still cool. The spawn hasn't really started yet as far as I can tell. But I expected to have better luck on the pre-spawn fish.

I was going to ask this very same question... I get that for all the bass to spawn can take a few weeks. But how bout this. Once a female is on a bed, how long does she stay there? And once they hatch and the male is guarding the fry, how long will he stay there? I understand that it depends on water temp, etc. But are we talking hours, days or weeks?

Assuming it's not real loud, I think that's normal. The rough line rubs on the guides and the reel guide or the bail. And when there's any tension on the line at all it sets up a pretty good vibration = sound.

I picked up some of these bug eye hooks for doing exactly the same thing. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=71986&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults Haven't had a chance to try them out yet though.

That's one for the what-was-he-thinking category! ;D ;D ;D

Had a men's retreat (a church thing) this weekend at a camp in western Indiana. There's a small river/big stream that runs through the property. Rock cliffs about 20-40 feet on one side. Just absolutely beautiful scenery! I waded about 1/2 mile upstream and then 1/4 mile downstream. The water was a little cold, but it wasn't bad after my feet went numb ;D I don't fish rivers much so I was just experimenting really. I was throwing a watermelon seed 3-1/2 in zoom tube on a charlie brewer slider head into any pools with slow water. I got a lot of hits and lost a few, but landed two smallies. One was 16", which makes it my new PB smallmouth. What a fight! He pulled up and down stream for about a minute with a couple of nice aerobatic jumps before I could lip him. I didn't have a camera or even my cell phone since I was wading and didn't know how wet I would get so no pics. Sorry 'bout that. But I just had to tell the story.

welcome aboard!!!

This may be a little unconventional, but fishing with the little 3-1/2 in zoom tubes in rivers for smallies I've been using these Charlie Brewer slider heads: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=46145&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults They work great! at least in that application.

I think you're talking about Gulp, right? I don't have any experience with those. But Powerbait worms are great. I am convinced that the scent helps the fish hold on just a bit longer.

Not jigs, jig HEADS. I'm not talking about a jig with a skirt and weed guard. I'm talking about just the lead head and hook like you'd rig a grub or something on.

To get back to the original point of this thread... I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND any of Walmart's Renegade jig heads. I bought a few packs of those last summer. Within 2-3 weeks in my box every hook was rusted. And I mean thoroughly rusted, even through the painted head. These days I keep a couple of those silica gel packs that you can get in shoes or whatever in each of my boxes (got that tip right here on BassResource.com!!!) So rusting stuff is not so much of a problem any more. But still, you should avoid those Renegade jig heads like the plague.

DOUBLE tail grub? I THINK that the double tail grub is more commonly used as a trailer on a jig-and-pig. I'm not sure that you would swim a double tail grub on a jig head. Well, I'm sure you could...there aren't any rules. Anyone ever done that?

Needemp, Read this thread... http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1175290495/0 Believe me, that will be time well spent ;D ;D ;D That thread will tell you all you need to know!!!

HOLY CRAP!!! Talk about indigestion!!

WELCOME...and nice fish!!!

Yesterday I took my brand new plastic pontoon out for its maiden voyage. Me and a buddy headed out to a flooded quarry, about 15 acres and really deep. Instead of the 10 mph winds that were forecasted, we had a steady 25 mph wind from the south with gusts up to 40 mph. When we pulled up to the launch we saw 1-2 ft waves slamming right into the ramp. My buddy asked "Should we try it?" I said "We have to!" (This is my first chance to take out the new boat remember.) So we unloaded the boat, set it in the water, attached the trolling motor, hooked up the depth finder, got all the tackle set up. Then I got in and my buddy pushed me off (so I could pick him up at the dock). He was able to push me out about 2 ft, but before I could get the trolling motor down the wind blew me right back onto the ramp. After trying this a couple of times, he spun me around backwards so I could get the trolling motor down and back out in reverse. But even still I couldn't get the trolling motor down before the wind spun me back into the rocks at the end of the ramp. We dragged the boat along shore over to the dock. I got in and crawled the boat down to the deep end of the dock. Put down my little 30 lb tm and cranked it to full power...and I went nowhere. The tm just couldn't move the boat against that wind. After frowning at each other for a minute or so, we got the boat out of the water, packed everything up, and went home. What a crappy day!!! So does all this make me a mook?

Sounds like most people are saying to go with a senko. That's obviously a good choice, but there are two reasons I recommended the texas-rigged powerbait worm first. 1. Bass will hold onto the powerbait worm a little longer giving you a better chance to set the hook. I know some people will disagree with that, but I'm willing to bet that those people have forgotten what it's like to be a beginner and not know for sure the difference between hitting a stick, snagging a weed, and getting a bite. 2. With the t-rig worm you'll build skills that can be extended to fishing senkos and pitching/flipping other plastics. Regardless, if you go with the senko you won't be sorry.

;D ;D ;D ;D

Well, technically a texas rig means with the weigth (I think). But a lot of people will say texas rig when they're just talking about the way the bait is put on the hook. I recommend going with the weight at first. Try 1/8 or 3/16 for starters. You'll get lots of opinions on hooks, but I like a 3/0 or 4/0 EWG (Gamakatsu is my favorite). The 4/0 looks huge at first. My dad joked that I look like I'm fishing for sharks with those hooks. But I've hooked PLENTY of dinks with a 4/0 EWG, so it's not too big for any bass.

If you've never fished plastic before, I'd say go with a texas-rigged action tail worm. In fact I'd go with a Berkeley Powerbait 7" power worm. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_38256_100007001_100000000_100007000_100-7-1 Color is up to you, but I'd go with watermelon/red flake, green pumpkin or motor oil as good all around choices. Starting with the t-rigged worm will teach the basics that you can extend to senkos and other t-rigged baits like lizards, creatures, beavers. JMO...

I haven't had any problems with BPS. I got a trolling motor and some miscellaneous stuff last month and it arrived within 5 bus days. Then a smaller order last week of just some spot removers and some other small things got here is 4 days. Guess I've just been lucky.