BassFishingMachine

So did anyone go today? I couldn't due to Easter, had to spend the time with my family. I would have loved to do some winter flounder fishing though.. Well I'll probably do some tomorrow, hoping for the best .

Out of all the places I fish only one of them holds salamanders, and not many at all. For me lizards don't work so well, I tryed them a few times with little to no success, altough the pickerel do seem to like them, but that doesn't say much :. Now I don't believe because they do not live in the area of water your fishing the bass are not going to hit them, but I do belive prey that bass eat more commonly in that area of water will get bit more easily. Although I do great with creature baits, but the reason for this IMO, is because most look like (to me atleast) crawfish, frogs, or some type of insect. I do talk to people who tell me they do great with lizards in the same body of water I don't do so hot with them. I personally think all anglers have different baits they do well with. So try the lizard, if it works for your then congrats, if not it might just not be a bait you personally have success with. But all in all its definetly worth a shot, you can always fall back to baits you have more confidence in if it comes to that.

Well first let me start off by saying I am a bank fisherman. The water im fishing is not very deep, and I can pretty much get away with the lightest of jigs on majority of days. Although when the wind kicks up I will go heavier, or when im looking for a faster fall, or breaking through muck etc. My standard size jig I use is 3/16 ounce, I'll use a 5/16 when the wind is a little stronger, and a 1/4-3/8 when Im punching through muck. For line I typically use 10lb test, I seem to get away with it, and rarely ever do fish snap me off. But keep in mind I'm fishing local ponds in NJ where the biggest bass you come upon are 5-6lbs if that. I also would say Im a finesse fisherman. I fish each spot very slowly and make sure I fish each peice of cover in that particular spot. The only thing that sucks about being a finesse fisherman for me, is when I fish with other people they tend to be half way down the pond and I'm always lagging behind, but then again majority of the time I seem to outfish them 8-). I will powerfish on occasion too, but 65% of the time I'd say I'm using the finesse style.

So what if you found a luckycraft, or a 50$ swimbait, you'd throw it away? . But seriously, next time you find some decent lure, let me know, I'd be happy to take it off your hands 8-).

I wouldn't use it until you start seeing frogs/hearing them, around the lake.

Hey, I looked on the website of njfishandwildlife, but all I could find was the regulations for 2007. The winter flounder season for 2007 it said starts March 23rd, is this the same for 2008? Or does anyone know opening day for winter flounder in NJ, for 2008? A link would be appreciated too 8-).

Jigs and Frogs for me.

Using artificial to me, is kind of like using a bow over a gun for deer. So as far as skill goes, yes I think it takes more skill to catch a fish with artificial over live bait. Simply because you have to work the bait, the bait does not work itself. Although I do use livebait for some species of fish, mainly because these particular fish I'm looking to catch not only for the sport/fight of it, but to eat. Such as fluke, striper, flounder, snapper blues, trout, weakfish, porgy, blackfish, etc. I do use artificial for these fish too, but only when it seems to work better then the live bait, like gulp on fluke for example. I will throw plugs for striper alot too, because watching them explode on a topwater is alot of fun. I rarely use livebait for largemouth, and I do not eat them, but I will use live bait about 1-2 times a year when targeting largemouth. Mainly just to have some fun. Like for example I'll live line shiners while in my waders.

Haven't tryed them t-rigged. But I do use them as a jig trailer. Just cut them down to the right size to fit on your jig, and they work pretty well.

Well also in the thick weed situations, I'll rig a Yum Wooly Hawgtail, weedless/weightless and slowly twitch it along the top of the muck and it'll work just as well as a hollow frog, sometimes even better. The other advantage to this, is when you get to a pocket in the muck you can let the bait slowly fall into that hole, can't do that with a hollow frog, now can ya? . By the way for me at least the wooly hawgtail is the only bait I've found so far, that comes over the top of the muck weedless, I tryed the Gycb Kreatures, and a few others, and they all collected some weeds when doing this technique. Oh yeah, I like the 4inch hawgtail for this, particuarly in greenpumpkin, and watermelon red I'd like too, but can't find that color :-/. Even though I use the technique stated above, I will still throw a hollow frog 75% of the time in the muck.

My weakest lure is a crankbait, every time I tie one on, I just seem to clean the bottom. Again, Im bank fishing, and the water I'm fishing is 1-2feet with the deepest parts being 4--5 foot, and that isn't common. Lets just say the areas that hold majority of the fish are the 1-2 1/2 foot areas, and thats also where all the cover is. Although I still plan to throw the crankbait here and there until I learn it, just because there may come a lake where the crankbait is the key bait, so I feel learning it is necessary.

Zoom Baby Brush Hogs, GYCB Kreatures, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, and Yum Wooly Hawgtails.

Just wondering how many rods you fellow bank fisherman carry around with you while fishing. I usually just bring 1, occasionally I'll bring 2, but majority of the time I bring 1. Simply because I don't like having to keep going back and grabbing them. Another problem I have, is mainly when im fishing in a wooded area, or wadering, I'll leave the poles in a area, and either forget about them and have to run back for them. Or they blend in with the woods, and I can't find them momentarily. Although when fishing a "open" style lake, with a pavement path around them and a foutain in the middle.. you know lakes with very little trees surrounding them. In those situations I have no problem bringing more then 1 pole, its impossible to not be able to find them in a open enviorment like that 8-).

Well Del, im pretty much in the same situation as you, I have a ton of soft plastics (too much to carry around), and im also a shore fisherman, what I do to solve the problem you described is this. First I use a vest, in the vest I will bring certain categories of softplastics for that day. I will bring a section of baits I have great confidence in, such as senkos, gycb kut-tails, fat ikas, powerworms, basiclly baits I can rely on if needed. 2nd I'll bring baits relating to the conditions of the lake/cover, for example if there is alot of weeds on the lake, I'll bring a pack or 2 of frogs, if there is some stickpiles, I'll bring some creatures like Gycb kreature, or baby brush hogs. 3rd I'll bring baits I just feel like fishing because I simply want to. If im in the mood to fish a straight tail worm, I'll bring a few packs of them, if I'm in the mood to fish a lizard I'll bring a pack or 2 of them. And I'll basiclly pack the vest with other things until theres no more room. I also keep a plano in the back of my vest, basiclly of random hardlures/hollow frogs that I feel I'll need or want to use. I have my hardbaits/hollow frogs organized in their own plano while not used, but I will take all the lures I think I'll need/feel like fishing, from each plano and put it into a single plano, this way I dont have to lug around 5 planos in a tacklebag. When im serious bass fishing (which usually starts in about May), I will keep all my tackle in the back of my car, so If I need something I can just walk back to my car. But I usually have everything I need with me when I use the system just stated. By the way, I highly recommend a vest over a tacklebag, a tacklebag imo gets to be a pain in the *** to carry around, but I guess you can say the same about wearing the vest, I don't know I prefer it .

My friend tryed them with a striper plug. When we were walking back to the car, he accidently opened the bail on his reel, the plug rigged with the clip hit the ground, and the clip came undone from the plug (and no it didn't break). Well that just made me never plan to try them ever in my fishing lifetime. If I lost a big striper due to some friggin clip, I think I would start freakin out to a point where theyd lock me up in the looney bin and throw away the key.

I'll answer the "how to fish them" question first. You basiclly, jerk jerk pause, jerk jerk pause, and you can vary it, for example: jerk jerk pause, jerk jerk jerk pause, jerk pause, jerk jerk pause, etc. How long you let them pause is determined on the water temperature, if its cold I will pause it to a point where I feel its been sittin long, and then I wait even longer(I've had them hit on 15sec pauses), and then repeat the "jerk jerk". If the water is warm, I'll only let it pause for 2-4secs. But you can always throw out these rules, and just keep trying longer/shorter pauses and let the fish tell you what they like. As for jerkbait suggestions, I like rapala huskyjerks mainly, although I also use lucky craft slender points, and yozuri crystal minnows. Silver/black if the water is clear/lightly stained, Gold if the water is stained, and firetiger (green, yellow, orange,black) if the water is very muddy, like someone once described as a "chocolate milk" color. Now for determining hits, hits will either come on the pause, or when you are jerking the lure. When you are jerking the lure, its pretty simple to hook the fish, because you basiclly just come back into a hookset on the jerk. Now when the fish hits the lure on the pause is when it can get difficult. What I try to do on the pause, is reel some of the slack in, keeping the tension between me and the lure not slackless, but not alot of slack, I'd say about just in the middle. On a hit the line will either slightly jump, or start going out. It is very important to watch the line on the pause, because you can easily miss a fish if you don't see the quick line twitch on the "pause hit". By the way, I just caught a nice one today, about 18inches on a rapala huskyjerk, he hit it on the pause, seen the line barely twitch, and set the hook, hooked him in the right corner of his mouth with the back treble, beautiful fish and hookup 8-).

Well I am a shore fisherman, so I feel your pain. This time of the year, particularly January - Mid April seems to be the most frustrating time of the year (at least for me) for bass fishing, the fish aren't usually biting well, you lose alot of lures trying to cast extremely close to stick piles, and cover, because the fish just aren't biting anywhere else, which makes you become a extremist. I just don't like these months for fishing.. but it beats stayin home. I wouldn't say its been "too bad" so far for me, since January - now, I have lost a expensive jig (6$) I lost it on a stick pile, I thought I felt a tap, and set the hook, and it was a stickfish , that one I got pretty sad about, such a beautiful jig, it was a real tiny football jig in 5/16 ounce, smallest I found for football jigs, It was black/blue, I do have one left though in grn pumpkin . I also lost 2 rapala husky jerks, one on a winded cast like you described, where it got caught on a branch, and the other a nice pickerel grabbed, and swallowed the thing, resulting in a line snap when I set the hook >. I got the last laugh though, cause if im correct swallowing rapalas I'snt good for your health , mwhaha. What can you do man, its just part of fishing. Like they say, if your either not fishing in the right place, or your not tryin hard enough , thats the way I look at it . But the "sacrafice to the fishing god" is a good way to look at it too, haha. Wonder who created those 2 sayings I listed... probably the bait companies lol.

Yeah, I really can't think of any "lucky" lures I have. I have a go-to bait, but its a soft plastic worm, and I wouldn't go swimming for it, wouldn't call it lucky though, would just say its a great bait. That worm is the gycb Kut-tail 5inch. I do have a lure I think I would go swimming for, mattlures bluegill. I haven't caught anything with it yet, or had a chance to fish it. But with the 22 or 23$ i spent for it... I think I just might take a swim.. .

Took the words right out of my mouth, although I'd also try a pegged Baby Brush Hog, or pegged Ragetail/Paca craw.

I would tell you to peg it when fishing heavy cover, but let it slide with a glass bead when trying to attract them in murky water. Personally, I don't even peg I just buy perfect worm rig hooks. And I have never T-rigged one of these hula grubs. I took apart a Booyah Boo-jig and used it for the hula grub. It's a flipping jig design so it kept the weeds off pretty well. I was fishing from shore and wasn't really flipping, I was just casting. You should try this out. Oh yeah, I know. I use them for a jig trailer all the time, along with on a jighead as a spider jig, just wanted to know how the people are rigging them when t-rigged.

Yeah, but the eyelit on those baits picks up weeds occasionally. And so does the hook on occasion. If they could only create a hollow frog in which you can pull out the eyelit out to tie, and then push it back into the frog. Therefore there will be no problems with the eyelit picking up weeds. And for the hook.. well they have to do more experiments on the bait on top of weed mats, until they get a perfect weedless design.

Nice! You have a link to them?

Me too.. lucky son of a... .. :-/, nice fish .

Hey, I thought this would be a interesting question to ask. Which baits/tackle would you like to see invented? There are a number of baits and tackle that I'd like to see invented. I thought this could help the bait companies (if there are any reading this) in creating new baits that will create a revolution, basiclly like the senko. And maybe we will come up with some ideas that are already invented, thus finding the product we've always been looking for, just never knew existed. Well anyway here are some baits/tackle I'd like to see created. 1. A floating senko, when I say floating I mean even when I put my hook into the worm, it will stay completely floating. I think a floating senko would work great, and the action would be incredible, especially if they can make it do that beautiful "wiggle" on the top. 2. A floating bass jig, I think this would be another great bait, especially with the weed guard. They can develop floating trailers designed specificly for this jig, and maybe some creative "floating related" strands for it. 3. A soft jerkbait lure, with highly realistic scales built into it. Now when I say highly realistic, I don't mean the lucky craft american shad pattern, I mean scales you can literally brush your finger against, and they will protrude, like a real fish. I think this might be a bait that will have some incredible results, and along with it they can create a hardbait with the same design. 4. A hollow frog, that's feet have the exact "kick swim" type movement of a real frog swimming, on the retrieve, and then a basic frog leg spread floating stance when paused. I also think they should develop a water proof speaker into this bait, that creates a croaking sound, exactly like a real frog. 5. A bullet weight that enables a softbait to stand up, basiclly like as if the bait was rigged on a stand-up jig head. 6. A pegging system, almost like the tru-tungsten smart peg idea, but reusable, thus creating a perfect pegging rig. 7. A Hard suspending jerkbait/crankbait (maybe including the scale idea as mentioned in #3) that has fins which electronicly move in the water, pretty much like a baitfish/sunnies fins when sitting still. And maybe even a tail that does the same thing, lets say make that feature optional..? 8. A creature bait, almost identical to the zoom brushhog/yum wooly hawgtail, that floats ontop of the water, even when rigged with a 2/0-3/0 hook. I think this would be an amazing bait that would work miracles in situations a hollow frog would be thrown. 9. A series of softbaits that have a port in which you can insert a rattle, which comes with the bait, the port should be un-noticable when closed. Also, along with this idea they can develop a port for adding scent.. 10. A bullet weight that can be split into two/re-connected, therefore making it easy as can be to remove/add a bullet weight to your line. 11. A bait that is Weed Proof!, not Weedless.. yes I know this is more of a dream then something that will ever become reality.. but hey you got to admit, that would be one heck of a revolutionary bait : 8-). Well thats just some of my suggestions on some new baits/tackle that I'd love to see created. Any of you guys have any baits you'd like to see created? And please not too many stupid responses like "a bait that catches fish on every cast", I wanna hear true ideas people! .

I like them both, the dinger and the senko both work equally for me.. The only reason I use both and not just 1 brand, is due to color selections.