BassFishingMachine

What'd catch em on?

Now since I am not too sure wether you were referring to winter flounder or summer fluke I will answer it regarding summer fluke this time. Summer flounder I use quite a few different tactics/baits. I will list a few. First off, if your going to be using any sort of bait, the common rig that I find works best is a 3way swivel attached to a duo-lock snap, attached to that snap is your sinker, again try to get away with the lightest weight you can, I'd start off seeing if you can get away with 1oz, and go up to 1 1/2oz to 2oz+ if necessary. If your fishing in deep water you'll probably need a 6oz+. I tryed to find a link to a picture of the rig I am talkin about, http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/a6/71/4f/36608103-100x100-0-0.jpg is a the exact rig, but the sinker isn't attached obviously, and the hook I'd recommend to be a fluke hook instead of the average "J hook" shown in the link (incase you didn't know, this is a fluke hook http://di1.shopping.com/images/pi/ac/5c/8e/30893341-177x150-0-0.jpg) And a reminder, you want the leader, meaning the distance between the hook and the eye of the 3way swivel its tied to, to be a distance of about 2 - 2 1/2feet. As for baits there are several I use and do well with. Although I find each work best in different areas, and some work best in all areas. 1. Killies - You want them to be alive, they don't typically work to well dead, they're a very durable fish and won't die easily, they are sold alive. I find these minnows to work best in the beginning of the season. Although they still work throughout the whole season. I find they work best in bays/rivers, inlets, and occasionally in the ocean. You rig them by sticking the hook under their bottom lip and out through the top. Remember, you want the hook to go through their LIPS, not through the head, if you go through the head they'll die fairly quickly. Fish this bait by slowly bouncing the sinker, slowly dragging the rig along the bottom with requent pauses, and you can also let the bait simply sit there for as long as you would like, just watch for any taps, or sudden pulls. Although dragging the rig along the bottom I find to be best. 2. Spearing - You can buy these in any tackleshop frozen, but they work best when fresh. Although frozen will work. If your fishing in a river, or bay wheres theres not much water movement, I'd use killies instead of spearing, UNLESS they're fresh spearing. Hook these minnows through the 1 eye, and out the other. If you catch your own though, and they're alive, hook them "gently" through the bottom lip and out the top as you would a killie. Live spearing I'd have to say is probably one of the best baits you can use, although they're very fragile, and hard to keep alive unless you keep them in water with a constant oxygen supply, such as keeping them in a bait bucket with holes in it along the side of a dock. You fish these the same way you would a killie. They work best in the ocean, and inlet. Although they do work great in rivers, bays, and so on as well. But, if you can only buy frozen unfresh spearing, I'd use killies while fishing the rivers/bays. Although the frozen spearing I find are a better bet then live killies while fishing in the ocean. 3. Live Snapper aka baby bluefish - Ok, IMHO this is the best bait you can possibly use for keeper fluke. With live peanut bunker working pretty much exactly as well as the snapper does. You cannot buy these fish in tackleshops, you must catch them on your own, either with a sibiki rig, snapper popper, small metal spoon etc. You really don't want to use them for bait if theyre any bigger then 4 1/2 inches IMO. But anywhere from an inch - 4 1/2inch is a amazing bait. You rig these baits as you would a killie, through the bottom lip and out through the top. Although you do not fish them in the exact same way as the other 2 baits I have mentioned. You want to cast out the live snapper, and basiclly put your rod down and watch for any hard taps, you can also hold your rod if you wish. But you don't drag the bait too much or hop the sinker, the snapper is very fragile and will die fairly easy. They typically only last a cast or two, after that they're mostly dead from hittin the water on the cast. Live snapper will definetly catch you some quality fluke. 4. Saltwater Gulp - Ah.. the bait that has accounted for majority of my fluke. This bait is simply amazing for fluke, I wouldn't say its as good as live snapper, live peanut bunker, or live spearing, but its darn close. You do not rig these baits on the rig I mentioned above as you would all the other baits I spoke of. Instead you want to tie your main line to a barrel swivel, and you buy fluorocarbon leader material which you tie to the opposite end of the barrel swivel. You want the leader of fluoro to be about 22-26inches in length. Ok, the one end of the fluoro should be tied to the barrel swivel, the other end you tie to a jighead. Try to use the lightest jighead you can get away with. I'd start by trying 3/8oz, then go up to 1/2oz if needed, and to 3/4 oz if needed. This rig typically works best in shallow water 1-30feet. Other then that I have no experience with it off boats in 30+feet of water. There are many saltwater gulp baits, such as sandworms, jerkshads, etc. But the baits that I find work best for fluke are the "swimming mullet" and the 4inch gulp shrimp, for colors the best are chartruese or white. Just thread the bait up the hook shank of the jighead. To fish the bait, you want to hop the bait along the bottom frequently, with very short pauses, the hit will come as a tap or a typical hard tug/feel of resistance. You don't really drag this bait too much, its more of non-stop short hopping, keeping the bait on the bottom the entire time. Now there are many other baits you can use, but my response has gone on long enough so I'll end it in a few. By the way, bait can be expensive, so I recommend if your going to be fluking alot, buy yourself a killie trap and catch your own bait, its a hell of alot cheaper, but it does require a little time. I will now tell you how to catch your own bait in killie traps, as when people first buy them they have no clue what to do with em. First, the areas you want to use the trap are bays, and rivers, shallow water ranging from 1-6feet deep. Look around, and find where you see killies/spearing swimming along the bottom, they typically hang out in back areas of rivers/bays, or on small "mud" beaches of rivers/bays, another great place to find killies is brackish ponds/rivers. Now lets talk about bait to use in the trap. Alot of beginners to using a killie trap will use bread as bait, or dogfood, now this will work but imo its not to great. The best bait for the traps, and fortunately the easiest to come upon with a little knowledge, is spider crabs, rock crabs, green crabs, or basiclly any crab. Walk around sides of docks with a net, and scoop up any crabs you find (remember blueclaws have a regulation on them, rocks, spiders, and green crabs are all unregulated) get yourself about 4-6crabs per trap, and you can either use them that day, or put them in a bag and in the freezer. When your ready to use them in the trap, stomp on em real well, I mean just stomp a mudhole in em, so they break into tiny peices etc. Then gather the stomped up mess all up, and throw it in the trap. Trust me, the killies/spearing LOVE and I mean LOVE! crab. Throw in the trap and wait, I would recommend hanging around so you can see your trap, cause I have had mine stolen a few times. I would say to typically hang back a few feet from the trap, so you don't spook any of the baitfish willing to go inside. Usually I leave my trap in for about 40mins- 1hour, but if you can see its packed with baitfish obviously you can pull it out earlier. By the way, if your targeting spearing with the trap, crab will work, but the best bait for spearing is a can of sardines in soybean oil, just open up the can, break the sardines down into smaller peices with your fingers, and dump the can into the trap, I also throw the can itself in their with it, as its nice and oiley (the oil is what gets em comin). Hah.. I drifted off again.. ok, now its really too long.. its just that I have alot of experience with fluking since I do it every summer, so there is alot of info I can give about it (even more then I typed). Trust me, if you follow all the advice I gave, you will definetly catch fluke. Good luck.

Were talking winter flounder right? Not summer fluke? Just asking cause "flounder" sometimes refers to both. Anyhow if its winter flounder (the ones with the tiny mouths and no teeth), then use bloodworms or sandworms on a high-low flounder rig. For sinker use what ever you can get away with, if you can get away with a 1oz, use it, if not go up to 1 1/2oz - 2oz or w/e you can get away with. Fish for them by slightly bouncing the sinker off the bottom, not much off the bottom, like an inch or two. Supposably the effect of this, is to stir up the bottom, creating a little mud or disturbance around where your bait is, this way the fish sees the mud cloud, and checks to see whats up. Other then bouncing the sinker, slowly drag the set up along the bottom, with requent pauses. The hit will come as a little tap or two, set the hook quickly. Now sandworms/blood worms work the best in my opinion, but they can be expensive, so because of this you might want to do what I do on occasion which is to use a bloodworm on the top or bottom hook, and use a peice of clam, mussel, corn, average nightcrawler, or gulp sandworm on the free hook. Oh, and you don't want to use a huge amount of worm on each hook. you want to thread the worm up the hook so the worm takes up the entire hook and hangs about a half an inch to an inch off the end of the hook point. This will give the worm alot better action and still be not too big to get ripped off the hook with ease by the fish.

I use Seaguar InvizX. Its expensive, but it is the best fluoro I have used. Just simply incredible..

Well on a typical cloudy rainy day anything black or black/blue.

Im no expert in jig fishing, but the ones I use and are productive for me are Yum tubes, and Berkley powerbait tubes. I like the colors black/blue flk, greenpumpkin, and pumpkinseed.

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You sure its not your rod causing the problem? I have had a problem on a rod where in one of the rod guides/eyes, a chip of plastic broke off. This caused that eye to damage the line and I would snap off constantly until I figured out that was the problem. Not saying this is definetly your problem, just giving you something to look for that could be causing it.

Ok heres the predicament. I have been looking for a new reel to use for plugging for striper off the beach. I have come to a decision to buy a shimano spheros. And I have looked online to try and find the best price. Every price I have found (other then a couple on ebay) were going from 100-129$ (not including shipping). Although.. I have found one site that claims to sell the same model reel, brand new, for 89$, and I believe it comes to 98$ with shipping included. Although as funny as it sounds I am a little hesitant because of this. I'm not sure whether or not the site is a scam or why they'd be selling the reel for that low of a price. I need your help, anyone who has a bit of knowledge when it comes to how scamming sites work, or if I am reading something wrong that they might be screwin me on. Here is the link http://www.rivermarinesupply.com/xcart/catalog/product_11152_Shimano_Spheros_FA_Saltwater_Spinning_Reel_3000_4000__5000_6.html. What do you think? Is the site legit? Or is it a scam type of deal? The reel I am looking to buy is a Shimano Spheros FA, and that is what it says.

Sugggestions you say, I fish from the bank 99% of the time and I use a fishing vest. Lets you fit a plano of hardbaits etc in the back pocket, which I usually fill the plano with every spinnerbait, topwater, hard jerkbait and any other hardbaits I plan to use that day. It also has 4 main pockets that will fit a good 5-7 bags of soft plastics each. I just pick a bunch of soft plastics I want to use for that day, relating to conditions cover etc of the lake I plan to fish. It also has 2 "Medium small" size pockets that you can fit a can of scent into, or anything else you like. There are a 4 small pockets that will fit hooks, weights, and other small stuff into em, and lastly there are a few pockets on the inner side of the vest that you can shove bobbers or w/e else you like into. Most vests I have found come with about the same general idea of pockets. Just try to find one that comes with a good big back pocket where you can fit a plano into. Also check if they have a bunch of pockets, mainly to fit bags of soft plastics (like 4 pockets for soft plastics). I find many vests to have great numbers of pockets, so this shouldn't be difficult. Most important thing is that it has a good large back pocket to fit a plano, and a bottle of water I throw in there on occasion .

This is just my experience with them, although I'm sure other jigs work differently. I cut a ragetail craw in half because I ran out of the chunks, I used it as a trailer on a booyah baby boo jig, and due to the "hook indent" you know, the hook indent for rigging, such as the indents that come on softplastic frogs. Well because of that indent, the chunk slid up and down the jig alot, I had to keep pushing it back up. So I'm sure on jigs that have trailer holders there wouldn't be a problem, like terminator jigs for example. But as for jigs that use a standard "bend" in the lining of the jighead, such as booyahs, and many others, you might encounter the same problem as I did. Maybe fishing glue would solve this problem all together... if you have any of that.

My favorites and ones I find work best for me are Netbait Paca Chunks, and Ragetail Chunks. But some other productive ones Ive used were Yum Chunks, Zoom Super Chunks, Cut in half Berkley Chigger Craws and Hula Grubs.

Well as the years go by im seeing tons of new baits and even old baits having feathered trebels added to the back trebel. Although what I've noticed is "most" highly effective baits don't have feathered trebels. What do you think about the whole idea, do feathered trebels work well for you? Is there a specific condition/season you prefer them? Do you prefer them year round? Whether you don't like them or are for them, please explain why if you could.

Ya, I'd have to agree with you there, a jig.

Shallow crankbaits and wakebaits have been working good for me so far this Fall. The storm subwart I been doing pretty good with.

Hey, I find everytime this blue sign saying "Pesticide Treated Water, don't swim etc.." the bass tend to stop biting. Is this just me? Or do others find this to be the truth also? Now, the sign stated they added the pesticides Sept 19th, I usually find it takes a solid 7 days or a good rainfall or two before the bassin picks up again. Whats you guys experience when pesticides are added? If the fish seem to stop hittin for you also during this, how long do you find it takes before the effects of the pesticides wear off? By the way, keep in mind these are small ponds/lakes im referring to.

Booyah Baby Boo 5/16oz Black/blue or Watermelonred. Favorite trailers: Netbait Paca Chunk, Ragetail Chunk

White/chart

Lately I've been doing well with shallow crankbaits, wakebaits, and trickworms.

I hate to be a buzz kill, but I don't really have a "single" lure I choose over the others. For me choosing a bait is detemined by wind conditions, water clarity, season, water temperature, forage, cover, etc. I have yet to find a bait that catches the most fish out of all my lures under any condition, if I did I wouldn't be bothered buying so many baits. Although I love throwing jigs. But they work best for me only in a few conditions. There is always a right tool/tools(bait) for the job, there is no such thing as a single best tool that will work for every job, and if there is I haven't found it .

A good size are 4inch and 5inch. Colors I'd say go with black or black/blue in heavily stained/muddy water, overcast days, and at dusk/night. Clear water/sunny I'd recommend watermelonseed or cinnamon brown, but greenpumpkin will do. Lightly stained/sunny I'd use greenpumpkin. A good hook for rigging senkos would be http://img.***.com/ProductImages/GOSWG.JPG, its a Gamakatsu EWG. You can find them in sports authority/dicks Or pretty much any tackleshop. You want to use size 2/0 for 4inch senkos, and 3/0 for 5inch senkos. This link will show you how to rig a senko using the hook I showed you.http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://home.comcast.net/~volforeen/dinger_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php%3Ft%3D87232%26highlight%3Drigging%2Bsenko&h=450&w=600&sz=28&hl=en&start=5&um=1&usg=__jIKA-tpDlEID2G-3omsvwFrmc_E=&tbnid=xvZCdoZ6LYcufM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drigging%2Ba%2Bsenko%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den (Scroll down and you'll see how to rig a senko)

Use a can of creamed corn in place of the eggs? I heard the eggs are what make the boilies tougher, this way they stay on the hook and harden a little when you boil them. That is why I added them. Why, are eggs not good?

I say in the 5lb range.

Hey, just got into carp fishing and Im trying to make some boilies as I hear there supposed to be one of the best baits to catch carp. The lakes I've been fishing I've been doing good with bread or corn. But the bite is slow, and I think boilies might be the answer to a better bite. I have been reading recipes online, but they get very specific, and very confusing. What I mean by this, is the people list tons of different ingredients of which i have no clue what they are. And they rarely tell you a measurement of each to add, so Im guessing it doesn't matter much. I bought a few ingredients to make boilies, but I really don't want to go into a shoprite and try to find all these different spices and such, so my main goal is to make the boilies from ingredients I have around the house, my question to you is; what do you think it will turn out like? Will this recipe work? This is what I plan to use. 1. Cornmeal 2. Strawberry Koolaid 3. Spoon of sugar 4. A little bit of pancake syrup 5. 4-5 Eggs 6. Maybe some flour? So what do you think? Will this turn out alright? I understand how to turn them into boilies by kneading the dough and boiling em etc, just curious to see what you think about my "House Hold Recipe" ;D.

I fish them in a few ways. 1. T-rig them with a free sliding/pegged bullet weight. When I rig them like this, I just kinda hop/pause them along. Its pretty much a finesse style of mine. 2. I "thread" them onto a jighead. Not a skirted jig, but a ordinary jighead, or jighead with built in weedguard. By thread I mean I stick the hook into the bait through the skirted end, and thread the hook all the way up the hula grub until it gets to about a little less then a half inch from where the two curly tails form. Should look like this http://www.conquistadortackle.com/ConquestJigPages/JigPhotos/FootballPhotos/SpiderJig.jpg. I fish this style also when I'm looking for a finesse approach. I kill with it in rivers, and rocky bottom terrains. Also works great in muddy bottom terrains. If I'm fishing weeds I prefer a standard jig. When fishing them like this, slowly hop them/crawl em along the bottom. Give alot of pauses between 3-5secs or 8-11secs depending on how slow/fast the fish want it. Most of the time its 3-5secs, but the 8-11 sec pause works wonders on some days. You basiclly fish it like a standard bass jig when rigged on a jighead. 3. As a trailer bait. The hula grub makes for a great trailer. Not only on jigs, but also on chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and anything else you could think of. Try swimming a jig with the hulagrub as a trailer. Although if your swimming a jig the best trailer for the job would be a Ragetail Chunk IMHO, although the Hulagrub is alot more durable. Thats pretty much all the ways I put them to use. I have yet to try fishing them weightless, but Im sure it would work. I would also consider rigging them weightless and slowly twitching em ontop of weedmats. I know this tactic works great with the Wooly Hawgtail, have yet to try it with the hula grub, but I'd give it a shot.