VAbacklash

I have the same problem with those high dollar cranks. I finally broke down and ordered four at about $15 to $18 a piece. I hope BP mails them in a plain brown wrapper so my that maybe my wife won't notice them. I thought I would give them a try before I got too carried away. Lord knows I NEED more crankbaits.

Ditto the Shadcranker. Especially the 300/400 Series Poes, chart/blue back. My personal favorite.

I haven't watched Roland in years. Does he still yell ;D SON!! ;D like he used to do whenever he "hooked" a fish? My favorite was Orlando Wilson.

Line watching is a skill that I can't seem to master. I'm more of a feel type fisherman. I know for a fact that a good line watcher will hook a lot more fish than me, without a doubt. I just can't seem to concentrate on boat control and all the other factors involved plus line watch. I have fished with line watchers and they leave me in awe! Now, if I'm on the back seat, I do much better and boat more fish than I do from the front.

I hate to give up my secrects but since we are all buds on this site, here goes! If you go to certain stores and speak to the sporting goods manager, he/she may give you a flat rate per item on their discount bin if you agree to "take all". You may get a lot of eBay or flea market re-sale junk but there will sometimes be some good quality stuff in there. Lots of times they have a ton in the back that they need to get rid of as well. Sometimes the Baitmonkey will allow you to do a little horse trading.

Excalibers are my favorite. I replace the trebles on my Traps with them and haven't had a fish throw the lure back at me. They can scratch the finish off your lures. Just adds character.

It's 92 degrees, 90% humidity, I'm tired, sore from casting and I thrown everything but my tackle box. Where the H--- are you and why don't you bite my lure!!!!

It's probably happened to most of us, you take a friend along with you bass fishing and you hit your favorite "secret" holes. The next time you go, there sits your friend fishing your spot and he has two of his buddies with him. It's happened to me and little did I know that my friend was marking "my spots" with his GPS. So now my secret holes have become the community holes. After responding to another forum member's comment about others on this forum being tight lipped about giving out the hows' and wheres' of bass fishing, I thought I would ask how others felt. What info are you willing to share with others that fish the same waters as you? Are you vague or do you share all the information you have? Do you feel that they need to work as hard as you did to locate their own holes or do you try to help them out? As for me, I usually tell all I know. Being a "bank beater or "slop" fisherman, I usually fish community holes anyway. I'm not a money tournament fisherman but, I understand their need to keep their locations, tactics and lure selection quiet. I kinda feel that a secret honey hole goes community as soon as someone sees you boat a fish out of it.

Never worn any Frogg Toggs, but have seen a lot of people wearing them. So I guess that they must be pretty good for the price. I had to replace my older rainsuit two years ago and went with the BPS Goretex jacket and bibs. They were real pricey, but anything with Goretex material is. These will keep your butt and knees dry all day long.

I've been in a bad slump for the past couple of years with my bass catching and I was beginning to believe that I needed to make a major shift in my lure selections. After several weeks of checking out the comments on the boards about Senkos and the high priced Japanese crankbaits, I had about decided to load up some of these baits. Then, after reading the polls on crankbaits and the different plastics, I decided that I already have 75 pounds of the correct baits. I just need to get back to spending more time on the water fishing harder to get back into my groove. Thanks guys for saving me from the baitmonkey!

Glenn, you're exactly right about livewell technology. I've often cringed at the sound of bass slapping hard against the sides or the lid of my livewells. You know that there is surely technology for "softwall" livewells avaliable today. Just the design needs to be worked out. If nothing else, some type of flexible bag material could be designed and used as livewells. As for the other areas of improvement, all that is probably avaliable now. It just needs the proper design and market for it. It all boils down to the $$ factor. Who sees the need and is willing to pay for it when they purchase that already expensive boat. There are those that will argue the purpose of even having a livewell. Some fishermen believe in immediate release for all tournaments and the meateaters practice the catch and eat method. I'm sure there are many different views on this subject.

It's year 2014. You're off work and on the lake. Beautiful day for fishing. Conditions are just right for catching quality largemouth bass. You ease off the throttle of your 350hp, V8, turbocharged outboard and slip into your favorite cove. As you instruct your computer controlled trolling motor the depth you wish it to maintain, your LCR has indicated several red icons, meaning that fish measuring 14" to 18" are stacked up on secondary points in the cove. You had hoped you would see the green icons for the 18" to 22"fish like the last time you were in there. Blues would be even better, 22" and above. Oh well, you have to fish for the little ones right now! You wait a second or two as your LCR and GPS communicate with each other to pinpoint and seperate each fish by exact location. Your trolling motor then receives the info and goes into the stealth mode. It positions your boat into the proper distance, based upon your predetermined casting performance, and into the correct angle for you to present your lure to the intended target. Of cource your lure has been preselected by the onboard computer condition sampler. Water temp, color, pH, clarity, wind speed, lake level, time, day, month, year, moon phase and the results of previous catches under similar conditions for the last ten years have been used to narrow down your choice. Not to mention if Avid caught any here yesterday. You cast, right on target, set the hook and reel in your first one of the day. As you remove the hook, you thank those guys at Fisheries Department for all the hard work they did inserting those tiny computer chips into all those fingerlings at the hatchery. If it wasn't for them, none of this electronic stuff would be here. Ahhhhh! What a sport!!! I guess you have figured out that I have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do tonight. But, I do ask this. How far away from this are we now and would bass fishing be as enjoyable to you if it became reality?

My neighbor had his own "red wiggler" worm bed out behind his house. He died several years back and I don't remember a lot of the details he gave me about keeping the bed active and healthy. I do know that he used mulched up and rotted maple tree leaves for the beds and deposited solid table scraps, mostly vegetable matter, on them. He also picked up egg shells from a local diner and the worms would almost sit up and beg for those. He basically treated it like a living compost heap. All you need is just a few to start your own production. If you get the bed to the right Ph, moisture level and temperature, you can put the worms and start farming. Google "worm ranching" or "farming" to find out the correct way. Best of luck.

Raul, You are right on the money with your answer. After reading your reply, I'm going to refer to my male pattern baldness as *******drum roll******* "my breakline"!

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I remember the reasoning for not using a net was because it was supposed to be less traumatic for the bass if landed by hand. After watching several of the older Bassmaster tournament programs on TV, after the net was banned, I watched fish after fish being jerked out of the water and slammed against consoles, steering wheels and tackle boxes. It made me think that the net ban was a little bit on dumb side. I use a rubber net and release the fish immediately or place it in the livewell. I don't really understand not using a net.

As an older fisherman I would like to add some of my thoughts that may help others in the event of being thrown overboard. 1. Consider the purchase of auto inflate Suspenders type life jackets. Follow the proper storage directions and check and replace all components as required. If you are thrown or fall overboard and strike your head, the auto inflate feature could be a life saver. Also, you can wear them all day and be fairly cool and comfortable. 2. Add a boarding ladder to the stern of your boat. If you are older, imagine how hard it would be to pull yourself back into your boat from 40 degree water. We aren't quite the studs we used to be!! During last summer's heat, I zapped all my energy trying pull myself back in my boat after taking a cool down dip. I ended up using my motor's lower unit for help. 3. For God's sake, PLEASE hook up your kill switch lanyard and make sure it works! I lost a friend several years ago when he was thrown overboard and the boat circled back and ran him over.

For about ten years my fishing partner and I would hit the lake every New Years Eve. I don't recall ever catching a bass on any of those trips, but I think it was more of a "Cabin Fever Escape" than it was a real fishing adventure. I'm sure you can catch bass during the winter, but I usually give it up when the surface temp drops down to 40-45 degrees. Jigging spoons and split shoting may work if you work them super SLOOOOW! I generally do most of my winter fishing on TV now. Some of the other guys can probably be of more help than me. Good luck.

I'm with you on this one Marty. I think they are great looking Rat-L-Traps! Never rule out a lure as being silly until you try it. I've been casting a Trap with all the finish worn off one side and a dingy green on the other and I never fail to catch at least one fish per trip with it. Action, vibration and presentation is the key. Color counts, but doesn't mean much in the stained water that I usually fish.

Avid, I generally let out at 40 to 50 feet of line for most trolling runs. It's really more about what depth you want the lure to run and at what depth the mfg. states the lure will go down to. With lead core line. I guess you could go as deep as you wanted. First and foremost, when you hook the first fish, remember how much line you let out and where. If you catch a second one using the same depth and method, call the wife and tell her to heat up the frying pan. It just like finding the right pattern when you are casting for bass or panfish. I have a friend that is into freshwater trolling bigtime. He uses a tiller steer, low horsepower motor so he can cover a lot of water at slow trolling speeds and have good boat control. It's tough to troll with a boat with a console mounted steering wheel unless you are trolling really big water. He also has one of those trolling motors that works with your depth finder to automatically keeps you at a constant depth. This works great for trolling creek channels and ledges. Hope this helps some. Catch and Release!!

For trolling in up to 12 or 15 feet water depth, I suggest using a 6 foot medium/heavy rod, a baitcast reel spooled with 15 to 17 lb. test line. To me the quality of the equipment used doesn't have to be top of the line. Just good stuff will do. You will need 1. Three way swivels. 2. 3/32 or smaller bucktails with treble hooks and 3. Deep diving crankbaits or Buck Perry Spoonplugs. I prefer different sizes of spoonplugs for proper depth control. Tie the end of your main line to one eye of the swivel. Use a stout swivel as you can expect to get hung up a lot. Tie a two foot long, 10/12 lb test leader to the second eye of the swivel and the crankbait or spoonplug to the other end of the same leader. Tie a three foot long 10/12 lb test leader to the third eye of the swivel and tie the small bucktail to the end of that leader. That pretty much has you ready to go. There are many ways to determine the depth that you are trolling. Find a point that you know the exact depth. Let out your line and go back and forth over that point until your lure just barely drags bottom when you go over it. I have used spinning reels and counted the number of time the reel handle revolved as it let out X amount of line to reach a certain depth. Say 15 revolutions of the handle meant I would have enough line out to reach 12 feetn depth using a certain size crankbait. On a baitcaster I've counted the number of times the levelwind went back and forth to let out X amount of line to reach the depth I want to fish. Of course you can buy reels that have line out counters. It may sound too complicated, but with a little practice it will become easy. My experience with this rig has shown me that a crankbait will usually hang up quite a bit more than the spoonplug. I think that is due to the different type of hooks on the spoonplug. Large and Smallmouths generally will hit the spoonplug while crappie, white bass, perch and other panfish will tackle the bucktail. For deeper trolling, use multicolor lead core line tied off with mono tippet for the swivel rig. This leadcore line changes colors every so many feet, so all you have to do is count or watch the number of colors you let out to know the depth you are running your lure or lures. This is a fun way to troll. Watch for a bite when you are making a turn to go back over an area you have just trolled. Your lures will kind of stop and stay in one position as you complete the turn and that sometimes prompts the strike. Give it a try and let us know how you do. Hope I haven't bored everybody to tears with this!

Your post says South Central VA. Try going to Buggs Island in South Central VA at the North Carolina border and start throwing crankbaits on every school of shad you find on your graph. If the shad are breaking, 20 or more bass catches are being reported. I have no reason to doubt these reports because I've been there and done that on rare occasions. It's a beautiful time to fish there and I hate to see winter coming on to stop all the action. Try Rapala jerkbaits, c-rigs with craws and french fries and different crankbaits. You will have 800 miles of shoreline and water covering 50,000 acres almost all to yourself this time of year. ENJOY!! Catch and Release!!

I'm not sure how noise affects the action of bass, but if you think you have a very quiet trolling motor, you can test it's quietness by putting your head under your steering console and let your fishing partner run the trolling motor. Those things make enough noise to scare away fish for yards. I was looking for a bag of plastic worms that had blown under my console and I couldn't believe how much noise a trolling motor makes.

Many years back, a friend suggested that I read the late Buck Perry's "Spoonplugging, Your Guide to Lunker Catches". As I was just starting to get into bass fishing he felt this book would really be of help to me. He was, and still is, a firm believer in Buck's strategy for locating and catching bass. I've read the book a couple of times and have used some of his advice with sucess. While the gist of this book pertains to trolling to locate fish, it does help to explain about structure and underwater features and how it relates to bass location. I do a limited amount of trolling and his methods do work. Getting to the point, I'm curious as too how many readers have read any of Buck Perry's books or have gone through his entire study course? Also, was his book as hard to understand as I thought it was? Maybe my comprehension level ain't what it should be.

Rinse and refill water or soft drink bottles with fresh water and freeze. Use these in your cooler instead of buying ice to cool down your food and drinks. Drink the water as it melts.

Use the octane grade of fuel recommended by your engine manufacturer. Pouring premium grade fuel into one rated for 87 octane does nothing but make your wallet lighter. 87 Octane will do in most cases.