king fisher

Spinnerbait, MH baitcaster. Can be buzzed on top, or crawled on the bottom and everything in-between. Fast or slow.

Bait Monkey says buy new Saltwater rated reels. I recommend Diawa BG for spinning, and Diawa Coastal for BC. but Shimano has saltwater rated reels that are as dependable, but may be a bit more expensive. I may be wrong, but I think the Curado reels are salt water rated. Depending on the size of fish you will catch, you may want to switch to reels with more line capacity. You will be amazed at how fast a fish in open saltwater will spool a reel. If you are not friends with the Bait Monkey than use what you got, take care of them, and replace when they wear out. If you like the rods you have than use them. Rinse well after each use, and they will be fine. When the guides do rust out replace them with stainless steel, or other saltwater approved guides.

No flats fishing nearby. I do inshore fish for snook, roosterfish and jacks. Salt water fishing here is expensive. I can't afford to go very often for fun. The last time I went out with a friend on his boat for an overnight offshore trip, the cost of my share of fuel, ice, and bait was over $700. Usually we would offset the cost by selling most of the tuna we caught, but we decided to donate the fish to the local people that are getting hit hard in these challenging economic times. I can do an overnight camp trip at my favorite bass lake for under $50. I work as the captain of a 75 foot private sport fishing yacht. Maintaining a boat that size is a full time job. Most years the owner of the boat would have me taking his friends fishing off shore giving me no time to fish myself. Because of Covid I have some more time to fish. I prefer to bass fish because that is what I grew up doing, and there is some very excellent bass fishing here.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against having a couple beers while fishing. I just don't like to have a couple casts while drinking. When I go salt water fishing with friends, they drink and land fish. I drive their boat rig the baits, watch the electronics, look for birds and make sure we get back safe, have some fish in the box help clean the fish, wash the boat, and appreciate the opportunity. When I bass I fish.

This week has been tough for me. I haven't caught a single fish. The fact that I haven't been able to go fishing is probably the main reason for the dry spell. Good thing is, I didn't loose any tackle. Last week was slow, but at least I was able to get on the water a couple days. Rainy season has stopped, water should start to clear up and cool down. Hope to get some time off in November. That is when I'm going to catch some big ones.

Does any one else have a hard time finding friends to go fishing with that are willing to spend a full day concentrating on Bass fishing? All my friends here salt water fish. For most of them a day on the water is a party that hopefully includes catching a big fish to eat. They like to make it back to the bar in time for happy hour, and rarely will stay out all day. Where I bass fish the chance of catching a double digit bass is as good as anywhere, but you have to fish hard from dawn to dusk plus drive 3 hours each way. I tell my friends if they go bass fishing with me they can't drink 12 beers apiece before lunch and expect to catch a big bass. Their casts have to be accurate, and some days the fish don't bite. There are no margaritas, girls in bikinis, and a big fish wont feed every person at the bar. They just thank me for the invitation and tell me to give them a call when the bite is on and it's not so difficult to catch the big ones. Everywhere else I have lived I have always had a couple friends that were serious fishermen who always put the time and effort in to catching fish, and there wasn't even a chance at a double digit bass. Here making it back to happy hour is more important than a chance at a 10 pounder. I don't get it. My friends say I'm to serious and need to relax. Nothing against partying, or relaxing, just not when I'm bass fishing. To me fishing is more than a party with fishing rods involved. I am very busy at work, and get far to few days to target bass to spend those days baby sitting drunk fishermen. I have to do that far to often while working. I guess for now I will just keep going by myself with my kayak and enjoy the solitude, and the occasional giant bass.

You can't go wrong with a Shimano, I don't have any experience with Lews, but have heard they are good for the price. Buy one that feels good to you. I buy reels without trying them, but prefer to buy rods I have had my hands on.

If you want to catch bass in the winter, come fish Mexico. Big bass hitting top water all winter long, including some less famous lakes that never get fished for bass. Local commercial fishermen consider bass illegal trash fish. I don't know who does the illegal plants, but I'm sure glad they do. A friend just told me of another lake I didn't know had bass in it. He is an offshore charter captain, and wasn't too impressed with the 12 pound bass he caught. Thought it looked like a good sized bait fish. When he showed me the picture I almost had a heart attack, especially when he told me where he caught it. The only day bass fishing in his whole life, and he catches a 12 pounder. I plan on giving that lake a try as soon as I have time. Nothing against ice fishing. I spent many winters in Alaska catching dinner through the ice, but shorts, sandals, cold beer and big bass isn't a bad way to spend a winter.

I'm on the fence with this issue. I like the twisted, because the line can't slide down the arm, and they seem to hold up better. For some reason R bend baits seem to run straight at higher speeds better. I make my own and am constantly switching preference. I lost a trophy bass a couple weeks ago on a brand new spinner bait because the braid slid down the wire on an R bend and broke at the bend. Currently back to liking the twisted wire. Next week I may be burning the bait just under the surface and be back to liking the R bend.

One day in the summer of 1977 I was 14 and found a bomber series 300 in orange and black on the bank. I tied it on and caught a bass on the first cast. I remember watching the lure work its way through the rocks and thinking it was the best imitation of the crawdads in that lake possible. Nothing has changed. It still looks exactly like a crawdad when retrieved quickly bouncing off of the rocks. The combination of black and orange doesn't look as natural on a store shelf, but moving quickly through the water looks more like a crayfish, than any other color pattern I have seen. I still use that same lure on that same lake with good results.

I prefer a nice rod over a nice reel, but spend about the same amount of money on reels. Right now my favorite combo is a Tatula ct on a a Tatula rod both bought on sale for just under $100. Fly fishing the rod wins no contest. The fishermen is the biggest factor. I know a local kid that can out fish anyone on his home water. All he has for equipment is an old soda bottle with mono wrapped around it. Every time I see him I give him one of my lures. Doesn't matter what lure I give him, he always catches fish with it.

From my limited experience, Smallmouth fight harder than Largemouth, and River fish fight harder than lake fish. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Making inline spinners is very popular with North West steelhead-salmon anglers and guides. I recommend you look at a couple companies that sell tools, and parts to these North West anglers. Many of the tools and parts are the same, or similar to larger national companies like Barlows,( which has a great selection) but there are many different blade colors, and other cool stuff only available from the Northwest based companies. Two I recommend are Fisherman's Shack, and Spinner Dave's. There are many more, these are just two that I have ordered components from in the past.

My PB for this year, and life was 10.2 pounds caught on a spinnerbait. I landed two that were one inch longer, but I didn't have a scale so I can't say how much they weighed. One of the two I didn't have a scale for is in my cover photo.

I was surprised a how many people find information on pictures. I emailed a friend some pictures of bass and salt water fish I caught this summer. He managed to find the date of the pictures and accused me of lying showing him pictures that were taken a few years ago. Laugh was on him, because I never set the date on my camera. All my pictures dates, were from when I bought the camera. Now I set the date on my camera so no one thinks I'm lying. I took a screen shot on my fish finder showing a tree with fish on it, and another friend thanked me for the GPS numbers. I hadn't noticed that the GPS numbers. were on the screen shot. I would never notice such things. I just look at a picture of fish and think nice fish.

As others have said, I think it depends on the body of water. If the only experience I ever had, was fishing the lake where I grew up, I would assume the diet of a bass was 90% crayfish. Other lakes I have since fished, the diet is more varied. When I was a kid, I killed and ate everything I caught out of the local lake. I never saw anything but crayfish in the stomachs of small mouth. The large mouth I caught most of the time had only crayfish, but would occasionally have a bull head, sculpin, or other prey, along with crayfish. I never cleaned a bass that didn't have some crayfish in its stomach. The rainbow trout in the lake that were under 16 inches long would have mostly insects in their stomachs. Over 16 inches would have mostly crayfish. I preferred the meat on the larger trout because it was orange, as compared to the smaller trout which was white. I have always assumed the crayfish diet made the meat the orange color. The larger trout were all caught in the same places, and lures, that I would catch the bass with. They had basically adapted the ways of the bass in that lake. Smaller trout would suspend away from shore. Larger trout would be next to shore in the rocks. Even the larger perch and crappie would have crayfish in their stomachs.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to fish the lake this weekend. I will spend some time fishing around the carp in the grass in the morning. It didn't rain much this week, so I hope the water cleared a little. I plan on spending most of my time off shore, fishing, the big trees, where I had my success, before the rain came.

Rebel Jumpin minnow. Casts a mile, easy to walk, great one knock sound, and is inexpensive. My first choice for both fresh and salt water.

I will volunteer to catch and tag bass for a bass population survey. What tackle do I need to bring?

I fished with a guide once, that recommended a black and blue Skinny Dipper because the water was muddy and we had cloudy skies. Fishing was slow but steady. Every once in awhile we would see some baitfish splash. I asked him what they were, and if that was what the bass were probably feeding on. He told me they were called turaly, (my best guess at the Spanish word) and they were the primary food for the bass there. I then had him look in my box and show me if I had anything that was the same size and color. He picked out a Skinny Dipper in purple smoke, and said it was an exact match but would only work if the sun came out. I gave it a try any way and caught fish every cast. I'm not saying I new more than the guide, I just got lucky and that was the day that match the hatch was the way to go. The next time I fished there, black and blue killed them and I couldn't buy a bite on purple smoke. What I should have said in way fewer words is, try colors you like until you find what works, and if it stops working try another color. Dark colors on dark days, light colors on sunny days is a good place to start or match the hatch, but that's only a starting point.

I would suggest you throw the app away. Grab a shovel, dig some worms, grab any rod, some hooks, floats, and get back to nature for a day. Relax watch the wildlife, catch a few panfish for dinner, and reflect on why you go fishing. I have all the modern gear, including electronics and enjoy using the latest tackle to catch bass, but every year I make my self get back to my fishing roots, simply enjoy a day on the water, and some fresh fish for dinner.

No plans for me. My wife got in a big fight with the Bait Monkey and won. She has a restraining order on him now. I told him to stay away for awhile, maybe he can come back around Christmas. I plan on fishing a lot between now and Christmas, I'm sure I will need to stock up by then.

I had great success for big fish at a small reservoir that I started fishing this summer. The fish were in 30 feet of water suspended in large trees. The water temperature was in the low 80's and with around 2 feet of visibility. The rainy season came and the lake level came up 10 feet. The clarity is under one foot, and the water temp is 78 to 80. I assumed the bass would move into the newly flooded tall grass, and rocky shoreline, with now flooded bushes. I have had very little success fishing the grass edges, and no luck fishing the rocky shoreline. I have tried to punch the thick tall grass, with no luck. I am in a kayak, and try to be very stealthy. Every time I pitch a bait in the grass, 5 or 6 big carp take off as if I just threw a big rock on top of them. My question is will the bass spook and run with the carp, or will they stay? Will bass even be in the grass with so many large carp? The water is 6 feet deep, and the carp are next to the surface. I don't know if there are bass near the bottom, that don't spook or not. I still catch baby bass suspended in the deep water by the trees. My time is limited, so I don't want to send too much time trying to fish the grass if they just spook out with the carp, or are not there. I am very quite and my casts are low with zero splash, but the carp act like a bomb went off. Has anyone had experience fishing around spooky carp? Thanks in advance.

Both, but am best at loosing them.

Spinnerbait. Caught both my PB and the most fish. I gave all this years draft picks their fare share of playing time, but the old veteran always came through with the big score in the end. Season isn't over yet, and lipless crank bait had a good play off game last week end, and I still have hope for my big rat. It only takes a couple big fish at the end to change the outcome.