Keithscatch

Yes sir, I think I would.

I have caught some smallmouth not as many as some of you all. Maybe 80-100 in my life. All where caught in Colorado. Biggest was about 3lbs. I heard how they where the toughest strongest fish etc. To be honest I wasn't impressed. I mean they fought good but I think people exaggerate how hard they fight. Now maybe the bigger ones fight harder then the ones I was catching? Don't know. I have also caught Spotted or as some call them Kentucky Bass. In Lake Lanier Spots are king. I caught a 4lb spot there and from my experiences catching spots, I prefer them over Smallies. I think they are prettier, and fight as hard if not harder then Smallies. They attack lures ferociously sort of like a Peacock bass. Top waters are crushed by spots right in the middle of the day. They will smack the lure 2 feet up into the air and hit it 3 or 4 times before they take it. For me I liked the spots best for all things considered. Smallmouth are fun too.

Russ: Man if I didn't have a foot controll TM I think I would just stay home. Seriousely I tried a few times to use a hand controlled TM and it just absolutely frustrated me to no end. I honestly do not see how anyone fishes with thosr things I do love to stand on that TM and move as I am casting. I cover allot of water and cast and cast and cast till me arms hurt. haha. Sometimes it works great other times not so great. But it is fun to me. If I had your set up I would only do what you suggest on windy days. I would use the wind in my advantage. I would move the boat up wind and allow the wind to push me downwind along the bank that I am intending on fishing. You can use your drift sock to help you control the boat and of course your Stern TM. Then as you are drifting past your points just be a casting machine with all of the cool jerkbaits and Rat-L-Traps and cranks or spinners you like. Sometimes this style of fishing will absolutely wear out any other type. If the fish are aggressive this style will dominate. Just ask KVD.

Never have used them so I have some questions. 1) In lakes that have stumps all over the place how on God's green earth do you people use those? George, I am curious as heck as to how you parrallel the bank with these out at the Stick Marsh????? 2) What side of the boat do you hang these off of? I would guess the upwind side or the same side as the wind is blowing from. So if I was heading into the wind on the east bank and the wind is out of the east I wouldn't use it right or would I? I would think I would only use it if I was going WITH the wind right? For instance same example, wind is out of the east. I am fishing the east bank going south so I have a cross wind that wants to push me away from the bank I am fishing. Do I hang this drift sock off the side closest to the bank? How does this not get in the way of fishing the bank? Kinda puzzled here. So what would I do if wind out of the east again but I decide to fish the west bank so wind is pushing me into the bank. I am fishing either north or south so wind is cross ways pushing me into the bank. Does a drift sock help in these situations? Or is it only good on north and south winds fishing east and west banks or north and south banks with east and west winds? Thanks guys.

Hmm, only 2 this year. Made friends out of both of them. Met from another forum. I suspect next year will be higher as I will be living in a different place.

Have a blast and bring us back some pictures of the beautiful landscapes and fishing there.

Here is an awesome article on so many levels. Mentions stats on time of day for big bass being caught through the bassmaster 10lb club. They also mention which states lead the way Uh humm Florida being number one followed by Texas then California. Anyway, they even break down which lures has produced the best. Pretty cool Check it out: http://www.floridaconservation.org/Fishing/updates/ha41-lunk.html

I also use baitcaster set-ups for drop shotting. I have tried spinning gear and everytime I get one of those darn loop knots I swear off using spinning gear ever again haha. I have used rather expensive reels and cheaper reels and all make loop knots. Some just less then others. But I am more then capable of throwing even the lightest lures with my baitcasters so I just prefer them over spinning gear. The only really good purpose I can see a spinning gear set-up is when shooting docks. Maybe some can do this fine with baitcasters but it is allot easier with spinning gear.

Good points everyone. I know that bass react to some colors better then other colors at given times. We all know that Red is killer in late winter/early spring. But I do think we as fishermen outsmart ourselves to many times with to many color options. I think it is good to have light colors, medium hue colors and dark colors. Can be pretty simple. No need to have every shade of watermelon or every shade of Junebug or every shade of pumpkin etc. Also, sometimes when we are using a certain color and are having success with it and never change up we are conditioning ourselves that this is the color that catches fish. So in our own mind we think hey this particular color is what to use and we tell our friends to buy worms in this color and size etc. My theory is this, if we were using say watermelon red on that trip and caught a mess of fish what if instead we used Junebug? Or redshad and caught all of those fish? Now we would have the same story just with a different color. I think we would have caught fish on any number of colors that day. There are exceptions I know but for the most part it is true. So the moral to my theory is to be open to new ideas at all times. Whenever we lock ourselves into believing that this color or this lure or this rod or this boat yada yada yada is the only way to go etc. We really are only hurting and limiting ourselves.

Daren, OK, we are cool. Just one thing, when you say the rest of the forum doesn't do much for you because you have been fishing all of your life. Can I say then that there are allot of young kids on this forum or those who are new to fishing, that can benefit from your fishing and life knowledge. To me that is allot of the reason I join forums. Not only do I enjoy learning from other seasoned anglers but I also like to help those who are just getting started and maybe even other seasoned anglers. If in fact you don't feel that the rest of the forum can offer you anything, chime in anyway and help out another fellow fisherman. It is better to give then to receive anyway BTW, that is a nice picture. I myself lived in Florida that same time as a boy. I still have fond memories of Miami and the canal that was right behind my house. Here is to good times, past, present and future Take care Daren.

Hey Daren, Well, I am glad that you cleared that up. My opinion of this was just that my opinion. Maybe I responded the way I did because I have been around bulletin boards & forums since 1998 and have seen dozens and dozens of people come onto websites promoting their lures. It is not uncommon even for forums to begin mainly for the purpose of selling lures. So forgive me if several years of other website experiences got in my way and blinded me to the truth. So my apologies to you for not getting your intentions right to start with. I was just responding to what I thought about this at the time. NO offense intended or taken. But I will say that it does appear rather dubious to come right out of the shoot on a forum with posts like this. justtrying, sorry that you got offended especially since it had nothing to do with you. Hey, saying unflattering things about me ain't no big deal. I never said I was perfect. Far from it bro.

You can drive down to your local Blockbuster and rent both. At least a Blockbuuster I went to had both of those films. Good luck.

LC, I had only plastic plants and real rocks and a cool real wood log in mine. When the bass reaches about 8" long be careful as he will eat a small Oscar. I know I saw mine at about 9 or 10" eat a medium sized Oscar. I never thought it would but he did.

Russ: You threw out some interesting "facts" on how much a bass needs to eat and assumed a weekly cost of $100. Of which I can tell you is way off, as I had several bass in tanks for a while too. I would feed them goldfish and minnows and bream. But my bass never stayed long enough in the tank to reach 2lbs. I would let them go when they were in the 1lb range or so. Plus, once I fed my Bass he would gorge himself with goldfish. He wouldn't eat again the next day or he would eat just a couple. I would put a couple dozen in the tank and he would eat maybe 10-12 of them initially and the next day either not eat any of them or only a few. Feeder goldfish are not that expensive to buy. Walmart sells them for .12 cents each I believe. So roughly $3 per 24 goldfish. A bass would comfortably eat maybe 3-4 dozen per week. so maybe $5-$6 per week in goldfish. PLus, I would buy minnows from bait stores every now and then or sometimes I would go and catch them myself with various nets. So those times would be free. The filter I used was a Magnum 350 which was more then adequate for the job. Here is a link to it: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3596&N=2004+22777 But yeah, you have to clean the filter once a week preferred. Like anything else, if you have it there is a responsibility to it. I also used the suction tube to clean the rocks out. Nice fish tanks of any kind require allot of work. This isn't even close to labor intensive like a saltwater aquarium. Talk about cleaning wow. That is why I prefer freshwater tanks. They are a piece of cake compared to saltwater tanks. Aside from it being illegal, I see no other reason not to have them. In fact, I am glad that I had bass in fish tanks while I was a youngen. I think it helped me understand them better. To each their own I suppose.

Oh Ok George you are probably right about MinnesotaAngler with the bait Monkey. My apologies to you MA.

Attempt at humor? Don't quit your day job just yet. This was a thread to provoke thought. I believe bass see color but started reading on various sites that fish are colorblind. So I did some research and found conflicting answers.

Now this is interesting to say the least, and begs the question, if bass are colorblind, then why do we have so many color options? ;D Maybe we are the ones who the bait companies are targeting. Perhaps they want us to believe that a bass can distinguish the minute differences of certain color hues like Junebug vs bluefleck. Or maybe their is some truth in this afterall?? Here are some links that say fish are colorblind and some links that say no they can see color. http://fishing.about.com/library/weekly/ftales/bl010326b.htm Here is an link that states the exact opposite. http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/fish2.html And another with both views: http://dml.cmnh.org/1999May/msg00497.html It seems that there is not a consensus among scientific websites about this. Apparently deep water fish are the ones who are colorblind and the shallow fish are not. Here is another link that seems to answer the riddle: http://www.geocities.com/wwindmills/fishcolor.html In fact this link goes so far as to say that many fish see color way better then we do. Some they say see ultraviolet colors that we do not. They provide several examples. My conclusion? But I still like all of the colors.

Some interesting links: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99047.htm http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0854907.html Here is an excerpt from a site: How fish rest. Like all animals, fish need rest. Many species have periods of what might be called sleep. Others simply remain inactive for short periods. But even at rest, many fish continue to move their fins to keep their position in the water. Fish have no eyelids, and so they cannot close their eyes when sleeping. But while asleep, a fish is probably unaware of the impressions received by its eyes. Some fish sleep on the bottom, resting on their belly or side. Other species sleep in midwater, in a horizontal position. It is here if you want to read more: http://www.sportsmanschoice.com/A%20Note%20Worth%20Reading/fish.htm

I used to have bass in a 55 gallon aquarium way back when. They do fine. If you have other fish in with them just make sure they are bigger then what the bass can eat. I learned not to put an Oscar in the tank. That was one expensive meal ;D Oscar cost me $10 lol. Make sure the new tank is completely cycled through before you introduce a bass. Minnow work good as a helper for this. Some will die off but most will live plus you will have something already there for the bass to eat. It is pretty neat as you will learn allot about a bass's behavior observing it. I even had one when I would not be able to feed it minnows or goldfish that would eat turkey scraps. That was pretty neat. I don't recall what the PH recommendation is off hand but a quick Google search might help you with that. When you get it all set up and cycled through and your bass is in it post up some pictures of it. That would be neat to see.

What do you guys use to cut out your lips with? Band saw? Just curious. Thanks.

Darren: This quote on your other thread is a little confusing: It seems to me that you have figured out how to sell them and that posting pictures of them on various forums is how you do sell them. You posted that comment above only days ago yet you mention in this thread that you have already sold several on another forum. My simple advice is to be honest and real at all times. You have a nice product there just mention your intention upfront. Obviousely it is to sell them.

Darren, Those are fine looking wood baits you have there and sure are unique.

Some of those colors look like Huckleberry (table rock shad) and Okeechobee Craw (Roadkill Junebug) both are pretty good colors.

Of course they do. I used to have numerous bass in fish tanks over the years and when they were asleep they would be lethargic as heck and would be very reluctant to move. ONly when you touched them would they move. They basically just settle down at the bottom and rest. I noticed their colorations also changed at night. They would get pale colored. You can really learn allot observing fish in fish tanks. I hope to get another aquarium some day. But the one I want can't be purchased in a store. It has to be made custom.

Your a good man Bobby. Those big girls are hiding under all that matted grass on that lake. Use a jig and flip it into all of the holes you can get the jig to sink down into. Use a stout rod with braided line to get it out. Have fun.