king fisher

Thumbs up for 6th. Sense square bills. I have had great luck with them this year, including these two, my biggest for the year so far. I don't have a black one, but the rainy season is here, the water is getting muddy, and the Bait Monkey read your post. I guess I will have to buy a couple.

Snagless Sally. Deadly Dudley

Please tell me you don't use Jackhammer chatterbaits. I have enough invested in an A rig as it is. I would like to try chatterbaits on one, but don't want the Bait Monkey to be nagging me to spend $15 apiece for chatterbaits on A rigs.

When it comes to transporting a kayak nothing is impossible. I was putting my kayak in the water at daylight a few weeks ago, and two guys drove up in an ancient Volkswagen bug. They had two full size fishing kayaks on the top. I was in a hurry to get on the water and didn't even think of taking a picture or looking at their engineering, but hope to see them again and take a better look along with a photo

What type of A rig, and baits do you plan on fishing? I have a 7.5 foot Heavy Diawa Tatula, rated for max 1.5 ounce lures. I use it for punching and flipping. The Bait Monkey finally convinced me I needed to buy an A rig. I didn't want to buy another rod, and didn't have room in my kayak for one of my saltwater rods, only to use it for one technique. I planned on double duty for the flipping stick. The Tatula worked and I caught many big fish on the A rig. The problem is I use a full size heavy wire A rig, 5 inch Skinny Dippers with hooks in all of them. I don't know what the total weight is, but the Tatula is way under gunned for the A rig. It does work, but my casts are horrible light lobs with no distance. The next time I plan on using an A rig, I am going to try one of my 8 foot salmon rods. I haven't tried a smaller, lighter A rig, which might work well with the flipping stick I have. The big bass in Mexico tear up my heavy duty A rigs, so I am going the bigger rod route. A lighter A rig with the 1.5 ounce rod may work better for you. If you fish other techniques with heavy lures, or fish for larger species of fish, you may want to go ahead and get a rod designed to cast 4 ounce or more baits. That way if you don't like the A rig, you are not stuck with a specialty stick you never use.

How do you rig them? I was planning on using one as the middle bait on an A rig, but not sure now that I see how big they are. I think I will T rig one, and drag it through the grass to start. Maybe use one with a large underspin.

Has anyone fished the new 6 inch size RI Big Dipper? I have done well with both the 3.5 inch, Little Dipper, and the 5 inch skinny Dipper. I was excited to learn they had a new larger size. I ordered a pack and as you can see in the picture they are significantly bigger than the 5 inch Skinny Dipper. I was hoping the size difference would not be as great, but who knows, maybe big fish big bait. I wont have a chance to go bass fishing and try them myself for awhile, so I am wondering if any one here has given them a try.

I realize keeping double digit bass is poor management if you are managing a lake for bass. My problem is, where I live they don't manage the lake for bass. The bass were not even planted legally. They attempt to manage the lake for Tilapia. I used to complain to a friend of mine, about the poor management of the lake. I thought it was ridiculous to manage a lake for Tilapia, when it has such DD potential. He laughed and said I should keep quiet. He, couldn't think of any lake where every time a person goes fishing he can expect to get a bass over 8 pounds, a half dozen over 10 pounds in a year, and not see another sport fisherman on the whole lake. Even though the management system seems backward, to me. By complete accident, They are successfully managing the lake for trophy bass. The numbers of bass are very low, letting the few bass that survive the nets have plenty to eat and get big. If there were more sport fishermen, I'm sure the few bass would become educated, and fishing would not be good. Fortunately the few bass that are there are big, and dumb. I don't want to change a thing. I do wish the guy in the picture would have released that bass, so I could have a chance at it during pre spawn next year.

I live in Mexico. There are two reasons that people where I fish don't want me to release bass. One is many people in this area make their meager living commercial fishing for tilapia. They believe the illegally planted bass eat the fish they depend on for a living. No different than bounties on bald eagles, and grizzly bears, that were once paid in Alaska because they eat salmon. The other reason, is a big bass would feed a whole family for a day. It would be very disrespectful for me to flaunt my wealth by releasing a fish in front of a poor farmer trying to survive. There are very few people on the lake, so it is easy for me to release bass without anyone seeing me. I know the manager of the lake, and he likes me but would not hesitate from banning me if people complain to him. There are signs all over the lake that state only those in possession, of one of the limited commercial fishing permits are allowed to fish. The manager makes exceptions to a few sport fisherman as long as he gets no complaints.

I'm sure I will eventually find out. I would bet he kept the fish, so I'm sure he measured and weighed it. The place the picture was taken is at the launch. Only place where there would have been someone to take a picture. The locals swim and wash there cars there. I doubt he caught it any where near the launch. Probably drug the fish a long way to get to the launch for a picture. Even if the bass was alive when he got to the launch, the local that took the picture would not let him release the fish. I learned this the hard way, the guy that took the picture of my bass I am holding, almost had a heart attack when I went to release it. I ended up giving it to him, which in the long run did help my relations with the commercial fisherman. They strongly encourage all bass anglers to kill the bass. I now make sure I don't land any bass where some one can see me let it go and take my own pictures. I want to help the bass population, but do not want to be denied access to the lake for releasing bass. I hope to not only find out how big it was, but also what was in its stomach. Very interested to know what the big girls are eating, now that the rainy season is here.

I noticed the net too. I never use a net in a kayak, but if I did, I would have a bigger one than that for this lake.

While I was away in Alaska, a big bass was caught by another kayak anger, at my local lake. I have seen him there before, but don't have any contact information for him. A friend sent me this picture he saw on social media. I instantly recognized the lake, and angler. Hopefully I will eventually find a way to contact him and find out how big the bass was. Until then its all estimates. I'm interested to find out what members here think.

My best was while the boat was going 9 knots to the east, 400lbs marlin going 30 knots to the west. I yell to the fisherman to put the lever drag up a notch to strike position. He goes the other way to free spool. Over 1,000 yards of line and a good fish gone.

The drought is over in Nayarit Mexico ,the rainy season has started, and the water is rising. The spinnerbait bite will be on, so I made some more of my favorites.

I have seen 40 year old riveted Lunds in Alaska outlast a dozen welded boats, as well as other riveted brands. They are also much lighter than welded boats. Airplane floats are riveted, not welded for two reasons. Light and strong. I am not saying some welded boats are not strong, just very heavy for the strength.

Not as big as some glide baits I looked at for a fraction of the cost. Do you do well on them with Musky? Or do other large crankbaits work better? The Tilapia I have seen lately in the mouths of bass are larger than the Super Shad Rap. The bass have been hitting the largest square bills well, so I will probably pass on the Shad Rap. Bait Monkey almost got me on an impulse buy again.

Has anyone tried a Super Shad Rap. I have had some luck this year with magnum square bills and saw one of these giant Shad Raps in a tackle shop, I was tempted to buy one, but thought I would try and get more information before spending $16 on one.

I only had a week to fish the Togiak the run was late, and the fish were smaller than in the past, but I did catch a few for the freezer.

I have been late for many things in my life, but I can guarantee I have never been, and will never be late for four things. 1- Church. 2- Fishing 3- Hunting 4- My own funeral

The Bait Monkey met up with me in Alaska. I had some tackle shipped to a friend in Anchorage. I picked it up on my way through town, and put it in my luggage on the return flight to Mexico. Long way around to get lures, but whatever it takes to make the Bait Monkey happy.

I don't know if that PopR is proud, or offended being placed in a picture right next to a PopMax. You must like both beer and Champaign.

Spinnerbait. Big, small, one blade, two blade, fat blades, skinny blades, light colors, dark colors, Fast, slow, bottom, top, weeds, wood, or rocks. I always have one tied on.

My favorite punch bait is one not usually thought of for punching. A Reaction Innovations, Skinny Dipper. A guide on Lake Chapala Mexico introduced me to the technique using Skinny Dippers.

I agree. My problem is the Bait Monkey is always telling me, I'm in the right place, at the right time, but I need to use a different rod, reel, line and lure that I don't own. Then I get home and buy what the Monkey wants. Next time out he says the same thing. When will it end?

I ordered from Tackle Warehouse every couple months throughout the whole pandemic. All of my orders arrived with in two to four days with free shipping, even though I had to have orders sent to different addresses, in different states. I was surprised at how efficient they were considering all the difficulties of the times. Then I made an order this past April a month in advance of a trip to WA. When I checked a couple days before the trip the order wasn't going to get there on time, so I paid extra to have it shipped over night. The package came two days late, but did make it before I had to leave. I placed an order three weeks ago, and because it is being sent to Alaska, I had no choice but to pay for Priority mail. I called yesterday and it still hasn't been shipped. The people I have talked to on the phone were all friendly, and helpful, but the Covid excuse is rather week, considering they had no problems, during the peak of the crisis. I will continue to give them my business for awhile longer, because they have had exceptional service in the past. I do understand all businesses, like people go through bad times. I don't know what has happened, but they need to get it fixed soon, or I will have no choice but to buy tackle from someone else.