king fisher

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.

Those are salmon lures designed for trolling. Many different companies, have and continue to make a variation of this design. I'm not sure of the exact model of the ones in the pictures, but they closely resemble one made by a Canadian company called Lyman. Many companies such as Luhr Jensen J plugs have a hook connected to a harness, that slides through a whole in the body rather than attached directly. Lymon plugs have the hook attached, but the face of the head is shaped slightly different than the ones in the picture.

When tying an Alberto, the main concern is getting the cross hatches slid all the way against the end of the loop made in the leader. A person needs to work the wraps down to the end while tightening. If you tighten the line before the wraps slide to the end, the cross hatches, will grip the line above the end loop. The knot will be just as strong, but will give the braid tag end a chance to work it's way back through the loop resulting in the knot simply coming untied. Once the wraps are positioned at the end of the knot, tighten as much as you like.

Although there are many more effective modern surface baits. I would not want to miss out on the thrill of watching a big bass blow up on a Jitterbug. Blurp, blurp, blurp, smash is as good as life gets. First time it happened to me was summer of 1977 and it seems like yesterday.

Every day is a clear blue bird day where I fish and the water temperature only varies a few degrees all year. Wind is the biggest factor. In the morning when it is calm, slow and quite works best. When the afternoon winds pick up, fast and loud is the norm. I don't rule out anything. As others have said, bass don't always do what you expect. The exact opposite approach of what I think is normal, has worked.

A rig.

Original Bagley's are still my favorite square bills for working through tree branches. The high buoyancy helps me to finesse the bait through the snags. Unfortunately where I fish there are also nets in the trees. Impossible to work a bait through without hanging on the nets from time to time. I was forced to find less expensive plastic square bills to use where I fish now.

If the bass are in 5 feet of water or less, I will try a square bill. If they are suspended in tree tops, I will throw square bills. I have many brands I use, my favorites are H2O and 6th sense. 6th sense cloud nine mini mag. is my go to this year, for both numbers as well as these big ones.

I lived in Alaska for over 30 years. My skin didn't know what sun was. Now I'm in Mexico loving the sun. Its shorts, T shirt, and ball cap for me. I'm sure I will regret my ways some day, but for now I'm just making up for lost time.

If it is windy ( 15 mph or more) which it is every afternoon, at my favorite lake. Spinnerbait Crankbait swim bait, or swim jig A rig. Not much wind. Crankbait flipping stick ( jig or soft plastic) Weightless 7 inch Senko Buzz Bait

I think a motor on Kayak would be great. I would like to try one with spot lock some time. As far as tournaments go, I think they should be human powered only. That way a person could use a canoe, rowboat, kayak, paddleboard even a full size bass boat, anything they want, as long as it is human powered. Is a Kayak with a motor, more like a boat than a kayak? How big, and how much power before it is really not a kayak? I don't know but to even the playing field eliminating motors would be an option.

Where I fish there are gill nets everywhere. I loose many lures to the nets and can get very frustrated. I try and tell myself they are simply trying working very hard to make a living, but some times I think they are in bed with the Bait Monkey. Last week I caught a big Tilapia and saw a commercial panga near by, so I peddled over and gave him the fish. The next cay I got my line, and rudder tangled in a net and had to cut some of it to get free. Later that day I saw a commercial fisherman come paddling toward me. I was sure he was going to yell at me for cutting his net. He pulled along side and gave me a huge watermelon. It was the same guy that I gave the tilapia to. When my wife asked what I caught, I told here 12 bass and a watermelon. Yesterday another commercial fisherman waved at me like he had something to show me. I peddled over, and he held up an 8 pound bass he had just caught in his net. The bass had a spinnerbait of mine in it's mouth and he wanted to give me the lure. Of course, it was my favorite spinnerbait, the bass had wrapped me around a tree the day before. It was odd how much the bass shrank while in the gill net. Must have lost at least 5 pounds. Kind acts like these remind me all we all want to do is catch some fish.

I went fishing at Tepic Yesterday. I found some fish at 12 feet on a ledge in the morning. Landed a dozen 4 - 5.5 pound bass on deep diving cranks, spinnerbaits, and an A rig. The wind picked up to 30 MPH in the afternoon, moving some bait and the bass off the ledge and on to the adjoining 5 foot deep rocky flat. First cast on the flat in the evening with a magnum size square bill I landed this bass. Measured just shy of 26 inches, and weighed a little over 10 pounds. Landed 3 more around five pounds each, and called it a great day.

Why do you want to let the truth get in the way of a good fish story?

I look at lures as nothing more than a bass tax. Soft baits are like a sales tax, and I pay a little bit at a time but it adds up. Hard baits are like my income tax at the end of the year. It hurts more, at the time, but I only pay once a year. The ones I don't loose I use as write offs. The difference with bass tax is the more I pay the more enjoyment I get.

If I was robbed at gun point, I may give up my wallet, rods, lures, and Kayak, but I would die before giving up the waypoints on my Garmin. I did catch, fish, and did have fun fishing out of my kayak before I had a fish finder, but have completely blocked those dark times from my memory. Yes a fish finder is worth it.

Great Review, but admitting you put a Diawa line on a Shimano reel could get you in big trouble. It doesn't hurt to omit incriminating details in a review. The Bass Police may reading this.

I have used a surgeons knot for 40 years making fly leaders with mono, and floro. Works better for me and is quicker to tie than a blood knot. In my opinion it is not a good knot for braid to leader. Braid to leader, FG is the strongest ,and smallest, but takes time and can be difficult to learn. I only use it in for large leader in Saltwater. I used the Albirght for 30 years, then was introduced to the Alberto, and have never tied an Albright again. I can tie an Alberto faster than a blood, knot and way quicker than an FG. If tied correctly it is close to FG in strength, and size. There are a couple common mistakes with an Alberto, and if you make them it will let you down.

Dedly Dudly was my first buzz bait, and I still have the first one I bought back in 1977. At the time I caught most of my bass slow rolling a Colorado spinnerbait from shore. I thought if I had a Dedly Dudly I could fish it even slower than a Colorado blade and would surely catch bass every cast. I saw one in a store and was amazed at how the blade turned simply from blowing on it. It was almost a year before I was able to buy one. First few fish I caught with it were crawling it along a rocky bottom as planned. Then one day I tried retrieving it on the surface, and never fished it slow again.

Is the water just high or high and muddy? Clarity will be a big factor on where the fish go.

Yes. I have fished a small reservoir for about a year now, and have landed 4 bass over 10 pounds and two more that I think were that big but I did not have a scale. One is my avatar picture, the other was it's twin caught an hour before. I had left my camera in my car so only got the picture of the one bass. Not exactly a secret because there are about a dozen commercial gill netters that fish the lake and a few local shore fisherman using line rapped around bottles, with what ever lure they make or find. Excluding these skilled fisherman, there is almost no fishing pressure. Most days I don't see a person. The friend that told me about the lake is a saltwater fisherman who went there once landed an 11 pound bass and has only been back a couple of times in 3 years. It is very close to a popular lake with multiple lodges, so I am enjoying it now, knowing that the word will get out and like many places I have fished, the best days will be gone soon. Luckily I have another untouched spot I am going to explore this summer.

You'd think, but you could be wrong. Take a lure and hold it directly over your head ,all you will see is the belly. Hold it off to the side and above your head and you can see the sides and depending on the angle most of the lure as well. I did this same experiment in a swimming pool with a lure, and I could easily see more than just the bottom of the lure. I would assume as long as a bass is not directly under your top water they will be able to see more than just the bottom. Does it matter? Probably not.

Scent can be a long one way road with no way to turn back. When I first started guiding for King Salmon in AK, there were two main ways to fish. Back troll plugs, or drift salmon eggs. Both methods worked well. No one used scent, and everyone caught lots of fish. Then someone started putting garlic in their egg cure, that caught on like fire, and every guide smelled like garlic. WD40 came next. Even though eggs already have lots of natural scent, everyone thought you had to spray the eggs with WD40. I do believe it helped, but quit using it after seeing oil slicks on the river. I still use a rag soaked in WD40 to clean my plugs. Next came custom cures that were expensive but were supposed to have all sorts of scientific developed pheromone scents. Again I joined the band. At this same time the number one technique was wrapping a sardine rap on a large quickfish plug. Of course that took up lots of time and you had to take it off and clean them at the end of the day. Many commercial scents were developed to put on plugs so you wouldn't have to wrap them, but none seemed to work near as well as the real thing. The next curve on the sent road, was preventing human scent from contacting your bait, or lure. Everybody started wearing surgical gloves while fishing in order to keep human scent off of the bait. I refused to join this bad for a few seasons, but eventually caved. I hate wearing the gloves, but the clients see another boat hook a fish, and the guide has gloves on and I don't, not good for tips. Now, not only do I wear gloves while fishing, I wear gloves while removing and curing the eggs, and while putting line on reels. I even have the clients wear them in case they touch the line or lure. Of course when we fly fish for kings, we don't use scent, or wear gloves, but still catch fish. When I had the chance to get back in to bass fishing, I was so glad I could just tie on a lure and not have to feel like I was preparing for surgery. I hope using scent helps anglers catch bass, but fear it could be the first step down a long road.

How do you sell a line that has poor knot strength and can only be stretched once before loosing strength and needs to be changed. I know. Tell the customers it is invisible, only stretches if over stressed by a snag, but not by fish, and triple the price. Then make 20 different types with each one being more expensive than the last. Marketing 101. Keeps me trying floro at least twice a year.