king fisher

I plead the 5th

One summer I was recovering from a surgery and had about a month to fish every day on a small river in mid summer with very low water. The river had big smallmouth bass along with many suckers, northern pike minnow, and carp. I don't know when bass got in to the river, but when I was a kid the river only had the trash fish species. Even the game department had no idea there were bass in this river. The water was low this time of year, and many places in the river could be crossed by jumping from one rock to the next without even getting my feet wet. The bass were concentrated in deeper holes, and each hole would have 3-5 large bass between 3 and 5 pounds, along with a few smaller bass. The water was muddy, and I couldn't see any bass, so numbers are just estimates based on catch rates. Nobody fished this river. I fished a dozen or so, mile long stretches with each stretch having 3 to 4 fishable holes with big bass. The first time I would fish a new hole I would catch a large bass on the first cast with an inline spinner. I would fish each hole in a stretch with the spinner, then go back and fish the holes with some other bait helping me catch a couple more decent size bass. The next day I would fish a different stretch and was able to rotate through stretches of river never fishing the same stretch twice in the same week. One day I invited a friend to go along with me and decided to take him to my very best stretch of river where I new there was at least two bass over 5 pounds and maybe more. The problem was I had fished this stretch of river hard only a couple days prior, and I was worried I hadn't rested it long enough. My worries were confirmed when we got skunked. We had enough time to try another section, of river that I hadn't fished for over a week and did well. This same scenario repeated itself throughout the whole month I was able to fish. The minimum time to rest a particular hole and still catch one of the big bass living there was 5 days. Anything less and the fishing was slow to zero. After 5 days, first cast in to a whole I would hook one of the larger bass and if I was lucky might be able to catch one or two more before having to move on. There was a very small population of bass in this river, and the holes were small and shallow. The northern pike minnows would hit almost every lure every cast if the bass were not biting. If there was a willing bass in a hole they would hit first cast. I'm not saying that all bass fishing waters need to be rested for a week before fishing them. Obviously this river was a rare situation, but I will say it doesn't take much angling pressure to turn bass off, or at least make them more difficult to catch. That was 16 years ago, and as far as I know the bass are still there, and no one fishes most of the river. A few locals fish a couple easy to access spots, but besides that there are around 30 miles of river with an average of 3-4 holes per mile with one to three smallmouth bass over 3.5 pounds per hole waiting to bite the only spinner they might ever see in their whole life. Because I do hope to get a chance to walk the banks of that river catching big smallmouth again before I go on to greener pastures, I am not going to give any more details on the location of this small piece of paradise. A good angler may be able to catch bass out of highly pressured waters, on a consistent basis, but a body of water that gets no pressure can be spectacular for even an average angler such as myself. If you are able to find and fish a lake pond or river that has quality bass and does not get any pressure, there is only one thing you can do. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

I completely submerged a couple of my Diawa costal reels in salt water. I decided to take them to a local guy that does all my saltwater big game reel work for a full service. He has done excellent work for many years. He had never worked on a small bait caster before and was surprised at how well they were made. He said there wasn't enough grease in the reels, and told me he had cleaned and properly lubed them. Both the reels worked well, were quiet and smooth. They just seemed to be slow. I couldn't cast them as far, and had to use far less break than I had used before. After a few trips they started working like they were new again. The only thing I could figure out was he used to much grease, and they needed some time to break in. My advice if you live near saltwater to make sure who ever works on your reels has experience with the type of baitcasters used for bass fishing.

There is a fine line between preventative maintenance and if it aint broke don't fix it. If I try and do the preventive maintenance myself, I will most likely be wishing I had gone the if it aint broke don't fix it rout. If I have a professional do preventive maintenance I will most likely feel I have solved a problem before it happens. Peace of mind is worth a few dollars to me. The last thing I want to be thinking about when I finally hook my PB is what that little screw that was left over from my attempt at cleaning the reel does, sure hope it doesn't have anything to do with the drag.

I haven't caught as many DD as many members here, but I do luck in to a few DD every year. I am a firm believer in time on the water and luck. Unfortunately I don't get many days to fish, but I start early and leave late on the days I can get on the water. Most days are made up of 12 hours of bad luck combined with 5 minuets of good luck. I just don't know when the good luck is going to start. I haven't had much success fishing slower, most of my biggest bass have come while fishing faster moving baits. I am working on learning to fish slow, but it is not in my DNA. I have caught all of my DD bass fishing the same baits I would fish to catch small bass. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, topwater and worms. I never fish at night, but I am fanatical about making sure my line, knots, and other gear is in good shape for when the big one bites. I believe location is the most important factor for catching DD bass. If I am catching dinks, I don't stick around. It is hard to get lucky, when there aren't any big bass where my lure is. To be honest, there is only one word besides dumb luck that best describes my success with DD bass. MEXICO.

I like your post, very informative and the pictures were great, but I have to wonder if the bass like worms that stand up. Worms standing on the bottom with their tails up high look great to me, but I sure catch a lot of bass on Trick worms, and Senkos lying flat on the bottom.

When I was 14 years old, one winter I got bored and with a soldering iron, attached curly tail worm tails to a ribbon tail worm making a multi tailed, monster that looked similar to a modern brush hog. This was in the winter of 1977 long before creature baits were on the market. Unfortunately when the ice melted, and the bass started biting, I never even tried my new creature bait. Spinnerbaits were working that spring, and as summer came along, I fished topwater and crankbaits. I always tell friends I invented the creature bait, but never got any credit, bass, or money for my invention. I also drilled holes and put BB. in some of my plugs that winter. They weren't the first rattling crankbaits, but I had the only Arbogaster, and Hot n tot with rattles I have ever seen. I am glad I now live where there is no frozen water in the winter. I no longer get bored and ruin perfectly good lures waiting for the snow and ice to melt.

I don't believe there should be any no information rule at all. Why have a rule that is almost impossible to enforce? As far as I am concerned if the only way to enforce a rule is to have the anglers take a polygraph, than that is not a rule that should be on the books. A cut off date for fishing is reasonable, because it is possible to catch a person on the water breaking that rule. Getting information on the internet is impossible to enforce. Someone being honest will obey the rule while someone else will cheat. The honest person may flunk the polygraph while the cheat passes the test. There is a reason polygraph results are not allowed in court. If there was no rules against getting information, the anglers would be so over loaded with info. it wouldn't help anyway. Before I go on an offshore trip I call every charter captain I know, talk to all the anglers on private boats that have been out, and check any posts on Bloody Decks and other internet sources. I will have at least a dozen way points of recent activity given to me by reliable sources. I look at the weather charts, as well as the sea temp. and chlorophyll charts. On my way out to the fishing grounds I monitor the VHF radio, to hear how others are doing, and talk to any reliable sources I know over the phone or on the radio. In the end I have so much conflicting information that I don't know where to start. I would have been better off if I simply would have checked the weather and went fishing. When I get back I get the same calls from other captains wanting information. The are always surprised to find I tried many of the spots that had been good, but ended up finding the fish someplace that wasn't on any ones radar yet. I give them the new numbers, and they end up finding the fish in a different spot than me. If the anglers on the pro bass tours had no restrictions on information, I believe they would all have the same information and would have to simply go fish to find out what information is working at the moment. No accusations of another angler cheating, no lie detector test, just everyone out trying to decipher if the information they received was correct while someone that just went with their gut wins the tournament. In other words no rule, would cause information over load, therefore there would be no use for a rule. I would not submit to a polygraph. I would say either prove I broke a rule, believe in my integrity, or kick me off the tour. There are plenty of ways to make a living where, my honesty would not be questioned by an archaic machine.

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I read the rules, and I don't think they made it complicated enough. They should include if your middle name has more than four letters, you can use half a screen for 37 minutes only if the moon is within 3 days either side of full, if the moon is 3 days either side of new, then anglers with middle names with less than four letters can use half a screen for 37 minutes. During any other moon phase any angler can use FFS full screen for 5 minuets, then half screen for seven, followed by unlimited screen as long as angler views screen with a mirror while facing opposite direction. Toyota series anglers have the same rules but in completer reverse. High School anglers can only use FFS while accompanied by an adult. Adult must be over 21 years of age, and prove they can down load 5 fishing videos on a cell phone or computer in under an hour solo. A test will be given before each event to prove each angler understands the rules. Test will be 20 questions, and a score of 98% will be required to participate in any MFL event. A polygraph will also be administered to each angler to prove they did not cheat on the rules test. Any one failing the polygraph will not be allowed to use FFS. unless the moon is full, and it is between 13:21 and 15:52 Greenwich England time.

At one time my whole life was hobbies. I worked to get enough money to go play. I would guide in Alaska from late April to the end of October. Go water fowl hunting all of Nov, December, and part of January. I would then go Hang gliding and Paragliding until time to guide the spring bear season in Alaska, and start all over again. I also owned a Piper cub, but I always thought of flying as transportation, not really a hobby. Then I got a full time captains job in Mexico, and I wasn't able to find time to hunt anymore. Then I got married and leaving every weekend to go gliding wasn't going to be an option. I sold my gliders, and bought a kayak. I then found a lake I could bass fish at that was close to home. The bass fishing is good, and I am very happy concentrating on only one hobby. Bass fishing was my true passion when I was a kid, and now that I am back bass fishing, I feel like a kid again.

Doesn't Brandon Palaniuk live in Idaho? Wouldn't be to far for him to travel. Other elite series anglers have lived in CA. Lots of people have to travel all across the country for their jobs. The sponsors don't mind selling tackle to people in the Northwest. It wouldn't hurt the pros that get the sponsorship money to have to spend some extra time and money to fish in the West once every few years. Then they complain that You Tube anglers take sponsorship dollars away from the true professionals while the true professionals don't even want to travel to one third of the country. That's ok. Josh Jones goes to Idaho to make video's. I hope he catches the new world record small mouth while he is there.

I'm still hoping they come to the North West sometime I know it is a long way to travel, and makes for many extra hardships on the anglers. I get it, but sometimes jobs suck. It wont kill them to have to put a few more hours on the road, and loose some sleep. I guess it could be worse, I could be waiting for the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. I'm sure both will happen, but maybe not in my life time.

The test is geared more toward what many would consider an average saltwater fishing scenario. You are correct in assuming most of the time bass fisherman will be using braid that is stronger than the leader. Of course changing to stronger braid over leader, could completely change the results. I would be surprised if it changed the order of which knots were the strongest. The actual percentages may change, but which knot is stronger I believe would probably be the same. My personal experience with the same knots is similar to what the tests in the video show. I don't bother with FG or PR knots when bass fishing but do use them exclusively with larger salt water leaders. Everyone has their favorite knot, and who doesn't like to jump in to a good knot argument. The one thing I found interesting is each knot broke consistently at the same location, which was different for each knot and even the FG is not anywhere near a 100% knot.

It's not winter yet, but why not get a jump on winter arguments.