king fisher

Come fish with me in Mexico. I will show you some unpressured giant bass, that would rather chase down a spinnerbait, then eat soft plastic. No subtle bites, bump the spinnerbait against some wood and hold on.

Diawa J Braid

I haven't tried them, I'm a big fan of old Bagley's. Just when I get the Bait Monkey out of my house, you send him right back to my front door. I will have to buy a few and give them a try. Like the perch color something different I don't have.

Match the hatch?

As others have said, you need to contact an expert to conduct a fish survey. Then you will know what your options are. Most likely the biologist will give you options for managing a trophy fishery, or numbers of bass. It is difficult if not impossible to have both.

I know from personal experience, if you went to Lows and bought five gallon buckets to catch the water from the leaks in your roof, you haven't defeated the Monkey. You may have won a battle, but you haven't won the war.

I have an uncurbable addiction to crankbaits, and the Bait Monkey knows it. I own almost every size, color, make and model, ever made, and still buy more looking for that one magic plug. I fish from a kayak, so I do have to limit the number I bring for a day. I usually have a couple for every depth range and limit my colors to chartreuse black, some type of shad, and something with red, or orange. I used to fish mostly balsa cranks, but have been using 6th. sense crankbaits lately. I like the cloud nine series, and all of their square bills. Many days I leave all the extra deep divers at home. I probably could catch just as many fish, if all I had was a bomber 7A, a deep little N, and a Balsa square bill. Almost forgot, I have to have a chrome and black Rattle Trap.

They hadn't bought the property. Definite deal breaker. Nice lake with great year around weather. Large population of Tilapia, carp, and catfish. I'm sure some bucket biologist will plant bass in the lake some day. That is illegal, and unethical, so I recommend against it, but I'm sure it will happen. I fish 2 lakes that were planted with bass illegally here. Bass in many lakes are considered trash fish because they eat Tilapia, which is a valuable commercial fish. Fish management is far different here than the states.

I haven't been fishing since mid June. I had a couple surgery's on my shoulder, and am just starting to be able to cast. I went with friends that were looking at buying property on a lake I hadn't ever fished. I got skunked. Even in Mexico it can happen. Especially since I found out the realter had lied, and their are no bass in the lake. A commercial fisherman asked what I was fishing for, and laughed when I told him. I did find another lake that has bass but I didn't have time to fish. I'm sure the second lake has bass because largemouth bass was on the menu at the restaurant. I hope to be exploring new water, and fishing my old favorites from my Kayak soon.

My Echomap CV plus on my kayak puts me with in a few feet of any waypoint I mark. I don't have to mark a waypoint as I pass over it. I can scroll back my sonar screen and mark the object on the fish finder screen. That waypoint will be right on the money. I still use marker buoys most of the time to mark the spot to cast to, but locating the waypoint on gps map is accurate.

Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Just tell yourself your problem is nothing compared to the guy who is in to expensive swimbaits. If you are in to expensive swimbaits, then you may be beyond help. Also remember those fisherman that catch big fish on the same two lures with old gear are evil alien's, not true fisherman and treat old people and dogs badly.

My wife wastes money on shoes. I don't waste tackle. If I haven't caught a fish on a lure, it's not because the lure doesn't work, its time to shine just hasn't come yet. Someday that lure will be the only one in all the world that will catch more and bigger fish than the friend I'm fishing with who thought it was a stupid lure, and doesn't have one like it. When I buy a lure, I believe it will help make me the greatest fisherman ever. Hope is priceless even if it is only delusional thinking influenced by the Bait Monkey. The big box of lures I don't take fishing is not a waste. It is full of back up quarterbacks just waiting for the chance to save the day.

I fish with bait casters, spinning and fly rods. I use BC. most of the time, because I fish crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and other large lures most of the time. I fish with spinning gear, when I need to down size. I fish with fly gear, when I want to make life more difficult.

Matching the hatch weather for bass, trout, or other game fish isn't just about shape, size and color. It is also about depth, and where in the water column the prey the fish are used to feeding on are located. If they are feeding on crayfish on the bottom in 10 feet, they probably wont even notice a surface lure imitating a mouse, even though bass love mice. If they are crashing shad on the surface, then a crayfish pattern fished on the bottom might not be the lure you want even though bass love crayfish and will eat them. If a bass will eat anything he can when he is hungry, then why not fish the same lure every day all day? Taking match the hatch to an extreme is not necessary or productive, but not trying to find out what the bass are feeding on is also not productive. Bass can even ignore live bait. When I was a kid I tried fishing live craw dads suspended under a bomber. I found out bass love crawdads but not suspended under a bobber. I switched to fishing them on the bottom and caught lots of bass. I failed to match the hatch with the crawdads not by what I fished but by how I fished them. I can make almost any lure imitate a crawdad by the way I drag the lure across the bottom. It doesn't have to look exactly like a crawdad, but if I don't retrieve the lure to look like a crawdad scurrying across the bottom kicking up mud, than I wont catch many bass keyed in on crawdads on the bottom. In this case I matched the hatch with type of retrieve not color, shape or size. If the bass are feeding on suspended bait fish, I can take a plastic craw and match the baitfish by swimming the craw at the same speed and cadence as the baitfish. I'm still matching the hatch, again with the type of retrieve. The key to matching the hatch is finding out what prey the bass are accustomed to eating that time of year under the conditions of the day, and figuring out what characteristic, or combination of characteristics the bass are keying in on to help them catch their intended prey. Yes they may also eat something entirely different if the opportunity arises, but most likely they will continue to hunt what they are already eating as long as they are able to easily catch the prey. Matching the hatch originated with trout fishing, but trout are also top predator's in many ways similar to bass. They will eat mice, frogs, crawdads, as well as insects. Matching the hatch works for trout fishing, and I firmly believe helps catch bass as well. If there are no shad in a lake, but their are bluegill, that doesn't mean shad colored lures will not work, but don't expect to catch bass busting bait on the surface in 40 feet of water, ripping a shad imitating surface lure. The odds would be much better fishing a bluegill shaped, and colored lure, near places where bluegill live. Rainbow trout colored lures look similar to so many other species of fish, that they will work anywhere bass live. The dark spotted back with grey silver sides, looks like anything from suckers, to shad. I don't think many bass would care if a shad had a pink stipe across its side. If you are fishing a lake where the bass eat lots of rainbow trout, it may be important to have the pink stripe simply because that may be a trigger the bass key in on to help them catch the trout. In that case It might help to exaggerate the stripe making it more pronounced than it is in the wild. Most likely it wouldn't matter, and the size, shape, and speed will be want you want to match.

First thing I consider is time of year, water temp. and common types of prey. I don't necessarily try to determine where the bass will be and what they are feeding on as much as I try and determine where they will not be, and what prey is not available. Sometimes I can eliminate most of the lake. Then I start fishing the depth, type of structure, and cover where I think bass and prey will most likely be during that time of year and conditions. I like to walk a couple hundred yards of the shore line, looking for baitfish, crayfish, frogs etc. Then put the kayak in the water and start fishing with what ever lure will efficiently work in the depth and cover I plan on fishing first. I try to identify unproductive patterns as quickly as possible. The most important thing for me on a new lake is to simply have fun exploring. I don't measure the success of the day by how many fish I catch, but by how well I learned the new water.

Two new lures for me in 2021 were the chaterbait, and A rig. I was a little disappointed with the size of fish caught on a chaterbait. The A rig worked better than expected, but not my favorite way to fish. My best lure for big fish was a 6th. sense mini mag square bill. For whatever reason the big bass preferred the action of the larger square bill over the smaller sizes. Because it worked so well, I fished it places a treble hooked lure should not be fished, making it the Bait Monkeys favorite lure of 2021 too.

I am better at BS. Does that count?

My wife gets everything except for my crankbaits. I am not going anywhere without my crankbaits.

It has to be true, I read it on the internet, magazine, billboard, or heard it on talk radio. Only guarantee is if it is about fishing, the truth can and probably will be stretched.

I should have said gold and nickle, not chrome. Silver is ok too when new, but tarnishes easily.

I used to not like painted blades on spinnerbaits for bass, simply because I had never tried them. I didn't think they would work because of the lack of flash compared to metallic blades. Then I started fishing spinners for salmon in Alaska, and and found the painted blades worked better for salmon most of the time. I then tried them for bass and have found they work great. I fish painted blades about half the time. My favorite blade colors are chartreuse, white, orange, gold, and chrome. When fishing tandem blades, I usually use a combination chartreuse and white, or gold and chrome. I use painted blades more in muddy water, but have had success with them in clear water.

1/2 OZ and 3/4 OZ

I was almost shot, by a friend who thought I was a bear. We were setting up a King Salmon camp on the Nushagak river in Alaska. One guide had been dropped off by plane with the camp gear, and I was going to bring the boats from the town of Dillingham in a couple of days. I got a late start on the day I brought the boats and my speed towing two john boats was slower than I had anticipated. I missed the high tide required to get across the bay and had to wait for 6 hours high and dry in the middle of the bay for the tide to come back in. I didn't make it to the camp site up the river until 2:00 AM. That time of year it doesn't get completely dark, but at that time of day there is not much light. It was the other guides first year and he was very scared of bears. He had one come through camp earlier in the day and was not used to being alone in the wilderness. He was sleeping and didn't hear my motor when I pulled in to camp. I made quite a bit of noise anchoring the boats which woke him up. I started walking toward the tent when I heard, him start yelling go away bear. I was somewhat mad he didn't come help when I pulled in so I decided to play a trick on him. I walked around camp bumping into things trying to sound like a bear. He continued to yell go away bear, and I was having a grand time. I walked to the tent and brushed up against it. He screamed as loud as I have ever heard a human scream. I shot my rifle in the air and started to laugh. He didn't think it was too funny, but was glad to see me. The next day he told me how close he was to shooting his pistol through the tent. That was when he got the last laugh. I came one second away from a practical joke ending badly. I never dreamed a person would shoot through a tent at something they couldn't see. Whenever I thought I heard a bear in camp, I would walk outside and chase the bear off. I asked him why he didn't come out of the tent, and he said he was to scared, It was then I learned how badly inexperience and fear can make smart people do stupid things. By the end of the season the guide gained experience and was able to laugh at himself for being so scared.

Hi AJ. Have you been watching the weather? A Hurricane is forecasted to hit the west coast of Mexico on Wednesday. Models show it passing me by in PV but could be a problem where you are going. It could stay out to see and hit Baja instead of the mainland coast. Hope it doesn't have any negative effect on your fishing. Good luck.