king fisher

I agree. The water inside the waders is not any heavier than the water outside the waders. You will not sink when you waders fill with water. Pulling yourself back in a boat can be difficult with waders full of water, but floating down the river they do not pull you down. I have filled my waders dozens of times while wading rivers, in both cold and semi warm water. The only time I almost drown, was the time I was duck hunting, and put a tight belt around my waste in order to keep water out if I fell in. After all that is what everyone recommends. I slipped on a rock in an Alberta river with ice all the way across the river below the riffle I had my decoys in. Air got trapped in the lower part of my waders causing my feet to float, making it impossible for me to get my feet back under me. The water was only a couple feet deep, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not stand up. I was able to dog paddle, and pull myself to shore before drifting into the frozen over deep pool below me. That was the last time I put a belt around my waste wearing waders.

Gold is a good color for any species of game fish, in any water that I have fished. It may not always be the best color, but it is never the worst, not to bright, not to subtle, never hurts to give it a try.

The fastest boat I ever saw was a canoe when I was 15 years old. My friend and I were fishing a remote local lake. He had me drop him off on the shore to fish a favorite spot of ours. I started paddling away, when he made his first cast. He hooked the biggest bass either of us had ever seen. He yelled, the fish jumped, I immediately changed directions, and headed directly for that shore. The bass jumped again, and the hook came out. We will never know how big that bass was, but I do know I set a world record for 20 yards travelled on water.

The lake I fished a couple weeks ago, is loaded with gill nets, and there is a guy who dives, and spears DD bass, but after reading how tough other anglers have it, I will never complain about nets, or spear guns. I am very luck to be able to fish where many of the bass live their whole life and the only spinnerbait they ever see is mine.

My worst backlash's usually occur the same way. I'm going down a bank, with a buzz bait. I have a light wind at my back, and lots of water to cover. I'm casting the bait a country mile with my new real, and feel like a pro. Of course I have to try and improve on my distance, so I start backing the break off. Now I am really zinging it. Every cast is on the very edge of disaster, but my confidence is going through the roof. I'm getting some big bites, and I am on top of the world. Then I hear a huge splash behind me. I'm sure it is the big bass I have been fishing for all day. As quick as a cat, I turn around, and fire the buzz bait straight in to the wind as hard as I possibly can. All of a sudden, the only resemblance to me and a pro is, I am a professional at picking out a backlash.

The Flatfish did not work well for bass, because it was made to fish slowly,( if you retrieve them normal crankbait speeds, they will simply roll on the surface) did not dive very deep, and were to light to cast with bait casting gear. Most people slowly troll Flat Fish, and most bass anglers don't troll very often. I caught many bass using one as a kid by putting split shot ahead of the lure, to aid in casting and to get the lure to run deeper. As far as other fish species, go, the Flatfish was and is one of the best lures ever made. It was even copied by a company called Quickfish, using the exact same size and color schemes with different names. Quickfish was then sold to Luhr Jensen, and Helen Flatfish was bought out by Wardens lures, now Yakima Bait the two have been fierce competitors for the Trout and Salmon market. Flatfish more popular trolling for trout, and Luhr Jensen Quickfish dominates the King Salmon market. They both have loyal followers, and many arguments over which is best, have gotten out of hand in Northwest bars. The Flatfish, has never been popular with bass fisherman, but neither has similar lures, like the original Lazy Ike, or Heddon Tadpolly. The Flatfish, is easily one of the top 10 lures of all time ,and they didn't sell that many because of an aggressive add campaign. They definitely will catch many species of sport fish, they simply don't work well chucking and winding with traditional bass tackle.

Back in the late 70's Fred Arbogast came out with a lure called the Bug-Eye. It was a medium diving crankbait with giant bug eyes, and a hula skirt. One of my favorite lures was an Arbogaster, which was a metal billed deep diving crankbait with a hula skirt. I was sure the Bug-Eye would be better because it had a modern plastic lip, and of course those giant eyes. Big add promotions in all the outdoor magazines. I removed the card that came in one of the adds, sent it in along with a couple dollars for my two Bugeyes, and a free sticker, or patch, can't remember which. My friend did the same and we waited a few weeks for the new great lure. One day I went to the post office to pick up the mail, and there was a slip in the box. I was sure it was my lure. The postmaster had the door locked to the room where people went to buy stamps and pick up packages. It was then I realized I was a few minuets late, and the post office was closed. It was a Friday, and I couldn't imagine waiting until Monday to get my new magic lure. I heard some noise in the back room of the post office and realized the post master was still there. I called out hoping she would hear me, and with a little luck give me my package. It worked, she came out of the back room with my package, and I asked her if she could also bring the one for my friend. She laughed and went back in and got his too. We couldn't talk either of our parents in to driving us to the lake, so we took our rods, and new lures to the little kids pool to give them a try and check out the action. The adult pool wasn't open for evening session until 7:00 PM, and I don't know if I could have lived down the ridicule from the older kids if I would have cast my lure in to the adult pool, The little kids pool was small only a foot or so deep, always open and most important ,no one was around. The action on the lures was horrible, basically zero wiggle. I still held out hope that the reason for the poor performance was the short cast and shallow water. When I went to the lake the next day I had to give up all hope. Both baits simply dove a couple feet, with zero side to side action. Because I had very few lures, and when I would loose one was forced to fish with what I had, I did continue to fish with the Bugeye from time to time. I did manage to catch a couple small bass on the lure , but I also caught a couple of bass on my Jitterbug with an egg sinker slid on the line ahead of the lure to make it run under the surface. Since that time I have bought many lures that didn't work out for me, but none have been as big of a disappointment as The Arbogast Bugeye. It is the only Arbogast lure I have ever owned that didn't become one of my favorite lures. I don't think my friend even took his second one out of the package. I wonder if he still has it.

I think in the case of large bass, the reason is simple, I start shaking enough for the both of us.

For the same reason, when flying, I always have a head wind, the big buck will stand out in the open just out of range, and when I was a kid, the walk to school was uphill both ways. No reason, it is just the way it is.

You are well prepared. My only suggestion is, bring your pass port, turn south, and don't stop when you get to the Mexico border.

WRB. To watch and learn jig fishing from the best.

If you bring the Bait Monkey, you can move in for as long as you like.

but can she catch fish with a spinnerbait? I have to wonder, if my wife started fishing, would the Bait Monkey be allowed back in the house?

I had lots of luck this past weekend with a Storm Arashi Cover Pop. Now the Bait Monkey wants me to fill a large box with poppers. I normally use other top water lures,( which I tried with zero success) and am very limited in my selection of poppers. I only had the storm popper because it was the only popper for sale at my local tackle shop. A big bass stole that popper and the shop doesn't have any fresh water poppers for sale anymore. My other poppers are a Pop R and a Hula Popper. Both work, but I was only having luck walking a popper, the Pop R was more difficult to walk, and the Hula popper will not walk for me at all. Casting distance is the other feature I am setting a premium on, with good hooks being a plus.

In the summer when I was a kid living in the country, I went down to the lake almost every day. I fished from a small dock at the boat launch. I would drool when a guy with a bass boat loaded with gear would launch their boat. Sometimes they would open one of their giant tackle boxes, and let me look at the lures inside. I always felt like I was looking at a box of diamonds. It wasn't long before I noticed they had all the gear I dreamed of, but didn't go fishing very often, and usually didn't catch as many fish as my friends and I did. We always referred to them as city anglers. I hate to admit it, but now I am a city angler. I have way more tackle than I need, and I have only been fishing 7 days this year. I wont be bass fishing more than a couple days this summer, and hope to get out for a weekend or two in the fall. I don't know why I let a little thing like work get in the way of my bass fishing, but I do. It's official, except for having a boat, I am exactly like the fishermen I dreamed to be.