the reel ess

Certainly. If you fish a major impoundment where the fish will go 20' deep to structure during the summer, a trick work rigged weightless or a shallow-running crank won't get em. I never caught much off Rat-L-Traps until I started fishing a local watershed. They eat up the gold one year-round because there are gold shiners in there. Water clarity plays a big role too. Then there are places they'll hit dang near anything because they're starving and don't know when they'll see another meal.

I imagine they do see it. They probably say to themselves "I'm no idiot, I can see that string attached to that..OOOH SOMETHING SHINY, I MUST KILL IT!!!"

How come you were always biting better yesterday? How do you know when I take vacation? Why is a nice day for me (bluebird skies) often a bad day for you in terms of biting?

I've been using craws T-rigged with 3/16 oz. tungsten weight with good results lately. Not a lot of fish, but really good ones. Has anyone tried this rig and found it to be more productive than the standard T-rig? It seems like maybe the craw would look a little more natural. Where I fish most of the time has submerged grass except for where it's too deep for sunlight to sustain weeds (stained water in the south). It's a mostly shallow watershed with few rocks. The best structure is a creek bed down the middle (where the grass doesn't grow) and the best cover is grass, although there are a few laydowns, stumps and piers. Thanks

My best friend fishes that way with the Trick Worm and catches fish. He saw me slay them one day twitching them like a jerk bait. I tied him one on and he just throws it out and reels slowly. Probably catches some that I wouldn't because I don't fish them that slowly.

Mine would probably say "Why are you reeling so FAST?"

There are baits and techniques I don't like too. I'm not even going to try dropshot. Rather than using a jig/craw, I use a large T-rigged craw. I have jigs, I just don't have luck with them like I do the T-rig.

Obviously you want to catch some on the frog. I can dig that. But I've caught a good bit more in open water with a Chug Bug or a Chug'n Spook in frog pattern. I mean, pros tell you you need to walk the frog if you're going to do well in open water. These two hardbaits are already proven open water baits. I've caught very few bass on the frog when it wasn't at least near some cover or the water's edge.

Is there an Academy near you? http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-ethos-7-h-freshwater-casting-rod?repChildCatid=161454

Yeah, I've done everything wrong with the bigger fish and still caught them. Done it all right with dinks and didn't catch them. Sometimes they aren't even hitting the frog with their mouth.

Everything I know about buzzbaits: I have only caught fish in very low light conditions on them, using the color black/blue. All other colors usually result in short strikes or no strikes. I guess you could say I am disappointed in all but one of my buzzbaits. It works so well, I keep replacement skirts for it. It does work better when you can cast it next to dock pilings or laydowns. Something you can bump it against during the retrieve. There's a trend lately of replacing skirts with plastic swimbaits, grubs, worms, toads or flukes.

It is. I think it's a good searching lure for active fish. My buddy catches some on it. I don't have one so I usually use the X Rap with similar results. I went in Cabela's to get a Rapala floater #13, which they didn't have, and the kid working there tried to force a Scatter Rap into my cart.

I never caught anything but stripers accidentally with them until I started fishing ponds. It's like if I'm fishing a lake, there are better options. It seems fish need to be active for the fluke. Schooling near the surface on shad is ideal. At least in the pond you can know they're there and target them directly if you see signs of activity. It still isn't even one of my top lures. But I'll pull it out sometimes when the bite slows on reaction baits.

After several attempts with a questionable lure that hasn't produced and gets buried in the box, I'll give it away. I'm not talking about Rat-L-Traps, Torpedoes or any other proven baits. I know they'll produce un the right conditions. I mean the 20 year old Cotton Cordell minnow out of the Walmart $1 bin that I always overlook in favor of a Rapala #11. My friend has one of those Double Take Floating Minnow with a shad trailer. He's been trying that thing since we started fishing together 3+ years ago. Finally caught its first fish last week. a 7 pounder. May never produce again, but it got itself out of the bottom of the box.

Savage Gear Glide Swimbait in bass pattern. Hasn't caught a thing. Huge wide wobble doesn't look like a bass swimming. The pattern looks unnatural for a bass. The rear hook gets caught on the rubber tail a lot. The reason it gets caught on there is the bait helicopters when cast. I know I don't have a correct, dedicated combo for casting 1 oz swimbaits. But I thought being an ounce, it would cast a little more easily. I've been thinking I'll give it a try on a MH spinning combo so I could lob it better.

Check this out. http://www.basspro.com/Mustad-Ultra-Point-Impact-Hook/product/30055/ It tears up the head of the worm even less than a twist lock when it gets pulled out. Then when the body gets chewed up, turn the body of the worm 90 or 180 degrees and re-hook it.

I do this too. And fish will still bite it, sometimes better.

I've caught bass (and stripers) on fire tiger at times. Other times I've watched people catch them on shad colors while I couldn't. For a while, I'd buy a crank in chrome/blue or black, natural pattern and fire tiger. I guess they each cover a specific set of conditions: Overcast, sunny and stained water, respectively. We have permanently stained water in most of SC.

Unless they're rusty or obviously damaged, I'd take a hook file to them. Maybe just replace the worst of the bunch. If they're in bad shape, I guess I'd replace them. But I understand you don't want to pay more than the lures cost to replace hooks.

Well, he's Bill Dance so I wouldn't ever say he's wrong. But for me, anything T-rigged, that is thicker than the standard 6" worm is getting an EWG Gamakatsu. It's academic to me because I can't seem to buy a bite on them rigged this way.

I've been a Zoom disciple, but I'm coming around.

From my understanding, the Pescador is the Tarpon from about 6 years ago. But looking at the two I see your point.

Thanks. I have the Perception Sport Pescador. No trax.I'm still studying on it.

I liked their Uncle Buck spinnerbaits and I still have several. I caught a bunch of fish on them and they were cheap. They were replaced by a line that costs as much as everybody else's. It seems the move is toward more expensive, premium lures with higher quality finishes, etc. It may be that they'll replace this popper with a premium bait.

I've been told by someone who used to work for DNR that there are crawfish in almost all bodies of water. I fished L Wateree, SC for 40+ years and only saw one sign of a crawfish. And it was a claw hanging half out the back end of a bass. I helped that bass out enormously and threw it back. Been fishing craw lures ever since.