king fisher

Proves a spinnerbait is a great all purpose lure. Big bass, big pike, and a windshield, all in one day.

Bass are no different than fishermen. We are the predetor, and the bass is the prey. We learn what time of year they spawn, when they mover shallow, when they suspend etc. We even follow forums, trying to learn more about our prey. The bass do the same thing with their prey, except excluding the spawn they are concentrating on how to hunt their prey 24 -7 their whole life. They will know when the crayfish come out in the spring, when they molt, when each species of bait fish is most vulnerable, where to ambush shad, or when it is best to chase them down. A bass can and will eat almost anything, but that doesn't mean they simply wait for anything to come close enough to eat. Sometimes they get lucky, like when a baby bird falls in the water, but most of the time they are hunting with a purpose. The more the angler understands the bass's prey, the more success he will have. A person may see bait everywhere and no bass, but the bass may not like the size, time of day, amount of light, current, wind, water clarity, or hundreds of other reasons, the bass determines that particular bait at that particular time are not worth trying to catch. Maybe easy to catch sculpin are spawning all over the bottom right below all the shad an angler is seeing. The bass decide they are easier to catch, and prefer to take advantage of the opportunity before it ends. A few hours later the sun starts to set, providing an ideal ambush opportunity for the bass to trap the shad on the surface, so they change hunting tactics, as well as targeted species. Now an angler trying to imitate slow moving sculpins on the bottom with a dark colored soft plastic, will not have the same success as an angler throwing a shiny shad imitation on the surface. The difficult part for the angler is it is natural to the bass to know everything about the prey in their water. A fishermen can easily miss interpret what they see. Add to that a bass just might not be hungry. Maybe the bass ate so many sculpin early in the day, that he could care less about the afternoon shad hatch. Knowing the life cycle, and habits of prey is not the only knowledge necessary to consistently catch bass. Understanding the habits of the bass themselves is also important, If an angler can determine what the bass eats, when and where that prey will be abundant, available, and most of all vulnerable, then the angler will be able to determine where, the bass will be, and what lures to try. Then all that is left to luck, is if the bass is hungry.

Bass are like any predator in water or on land. Find there prey, and you will find the predator. The problem is determining what their preferred prey is on a given day. Bears in Alaska love salmon, and will be near a salmon stream when the salmon are in the streams. However, on years when their is an abundance of berries in the mountains, the large bears will go to the mountains and eat berries.( not really prey, but preferred food) Leaving the steams full of salmon to the small bears. A smart human predator will no if it is a good berry year, and hunt for bears in the mountains when it is. I can catch 200 pound plus yellowfin tuna on live skip jack that weigh 5- 10 pounds one day. The next day dime size red crabs will move in to an area, and even the largest tuna, will eat only the small crabs, ignoring all other offerings, weather live bait or lure. It happens so often that predicting when and where the red crabs are going to show up is the most important factor in deciding where or even if I am going to fish for tuna. Bass are no different than bears or tuna. The more a person understands what they are feeding on, at a particular moment. What the life cycle, and habits of the prey are. The better chance they have of finding and catching the bass. If Rick Clunn thinks he made a mistake by not studding prey enough, than I will try and learn more about what the bass eat. After all, when it comes to bass fishing, he hasn't made many mistakes.

Imitating a baby bird falling out of a nest high in a tree, is a very advanced technique I use myself on occasion.

I use spinnerbaits to much. When I should fish a jig, I slow role a spinnerbait instead. I keep telling myself, I'm going to gain confidence in swim jigs, and paddle tail swimbaits, but end up fishing my confidence spinnerbait instead. I buy soft plastics, but only use them when I can't get a half dozen different styles, color, and retrieves with spinnerbaits to work. I try top water in the morning, but usually end up burning a spinnerbait just under the surface. To make matters worse, a couple weeks ago I couldn't get a bite on a spinnerbait, so I try an inline spinner and start getting bites. I need to kick the addiction. I don't think I can do it cold turkey. Maybe I will start with underspin's and go from there.

Map is stored on an SD card, I haven't been able to open it on my computer, but I can share it on Garmin's website, as well as down load other peoples maps and put them on a card. The lake is around 2 miles long, and 3/4 miles wide. Not very big, but I have landed some very large bass there this summer. Three over 10, a dozen or so over 7. Lots of baby bass, but zero medium size fish. Strange lake, one or two bites a day, but I hope to up the success rate with my new electronics. Pictures of the kayak were taken when I had finished two days of fishing with almost no sleep. Boat looks trashed. I started the trip with a more organized kayak.

I just bought the 64cv plus. I'm still learning how to operate it, but so far very impressed. It came with the world wide map I needed for fishing the ocean here. I was happy when I had no trouble mapping my new favorite lake when it didn't even show a lake on the map. I need to purchase a High Wide transducer. The unit came with a medium chirp frequency transducer which will work great for offshore, but high wide chirp would be much better for shallow lakes.

I went to Tepic lake with my kayak Sunday, Monday. Fishing was slow, only landed a few baby bass. I was able to make a map of the lake with my new Garmin, and found a few trees that I didn't know were there. Here are a few screen shots of my two days paddling the lake. Color changes every 4 feet of depth. Water is very high and muddy, it will be a couple months before I will be able to fish much more than the shoreline, but I will be ready when it clears. I was able to map 75% of the lake, and I am tired.

I prefer An Alberto for braid to leader for the lbs. test you are using. Double Uni works well too. FG works great if you don't mind tying them. I like the advantages of FG when using leaders 30 pound and up. It is hard but not impossible to get the braid to cinch correctly when the braid, and leader are close to the same diameter with the FG. Very easy to get the knot to tighten properly when the leader is significantly larger diameter than the braid. Not a problem with the Alberto, Double Uni, or blood knot.

First lure I ever bought specifically for bass in 1976. Landed a bass on my first cast. Two sizes, Sonic, and Super Sonic. I have seen early models made of wood. The plastic version is one of Heddon's all time best sellers. I quit fishing Sonics, after buying my first Rattle Trap in 1978. I still have a couple Super Sonics and caught a bass last spring on one. I'm sure they still work as well as they did years ago.

A fish finder will survive a quick dunking. I never thought I would flip my Kayak. In Salt water I would tie most of my gear down, but in fresh water I never bothered. I even took my kayak out through heavy surf with no issues. Then one day on a lake I had been fishing all day in 20 mph. winds, getting wet but never worried about tipping. After all I reasoned, I had been in a lot rougher seas and wind on the ocean. While drifting with the wind casting at a flooded fence line, I hit a fence post just under the surface. Before I realized what happened I'm trying to save all my rods and gear. I didn't loose any rods, but did loose three boxes of tackle boxes. Like I told a friend who had just flipped his plane over on a gravel bar in Alaska. There are only two kinds, those that have and those that will.

I can't recommend a translucent replacement, but I have a Jumping Minnow, that I colored black with a magic marker that works great. I also have one I colored the top black, with black hearing bone pattern done with the marker. The bone Jumping Minnow is my favorite top water for both fresh and salt water.

I tie hundreds of FG knots every year. I insist my deck hands tie an FG Knot. Each person I have work for me has a different way of holding the line. Foot, teeth etc. I use a method that I don't have to hold the line tight while making the wraps. I have convinced one deck hand to use my way, the others still like holding the line with their teeth. As others have stated, the key no matter how you hold the line is before making the finishing half hitches , you have to cinch extremely tight. Many different ways to finish the knot, half hitches, whip finish etc. All work equally well. I use the Alberto for all my braid to leader connections while bass fishing. I don't see the need for an FG with lighter line. I used the Uni to Uni for years, and consider it a very good knot, but now prefer the Alberto. Just as quick and easy to tie, but slimmer, and slightly stronger.

I would take the line you are using both braid and leader, and tie your knot. Get a scale, pull until the line breaks. Repeat many times, record the lbs. it breaks at and notice where the break occurs. If it consistently breaks on the braid just above the knot it is because the line slips a fraction of a millimeter before breaking. Cutting into itself and creating heat which causes the break. A few extra wraps may solve the problem, or try another knot. I'm not a big fan of the blood knot with braid, but many people that are far better fishermen than I am will disagree, including the Tacticalbassn buys. Only way to find out for yourself is test you knot. With 30#braid even a 50% knot should not be the weak point with 14# leader. Tied correctly almost any popular braid to leader knot will be over 50% strength.

I don't think the Bait Monkey could keep my wife from noticing a purchase of that magnitude.

You can always fly commercial to Mazatlan, and rent a car if you have to. Flying with the owner of the lodge would be faster.

All you did was forget to put the line though the level wind? I have forgot to even bring a rod and reel before, turning an epic fishing trip in to scenic drive.

Jointed Rebel,and Rapala plus inline spinners are all I take when wading creeks for smallmouth. May be old school, but they work. Have you ever noticed, that almost any place that sells tackle in the entire country sells them. That is because they work.

I usually start with a lure that can be fished at a variety of speeds, and depths such as a spinnerbait. After trying different retrieves and depths, I hopefully will be able to determine if I need to change baits, or location. If I get a strike waking the spinnerbait, I may try a top water. If I get a bite slow rolling along the bottom, I may try a jig, or worm. If I don't get any bites, I most likely will try a different location. If they crush the spinnerbait, but the bite slows down, I may change blade type color, or switch to another lure that works at similar speed and depth before leaving the location.

I fish out of kayak all the time, and like fishing alone. If you like to fish with a friend, than a boat is the way to go. If you have a fishing friend who also has a kayak than you can fish together, but still not the same as fishing out of a boat. As far as wearing waders, don't worry about drowning because you have waders on. I have fallen in many streams with waders on. The water in your waders will not pull you down. The water inside the wader isn't any heavier than the water outside the wader, so it doesn't effect you buoyancy at all. Lee Wolf was filmed jumping off a bridge with old style heavy rubber waders to prove this point. It does make it difficult to pull yourself back in a boat or up a steep bank because of the extra weight out of the water. The only time I was in big trouble with waders, was when I was duck hunting. I tried to get a decoy that was floating away in some fast current. I slipped and fell. I had an ammo belt tight around my waist. Air in the bottom of my waders, made my feet float, making it impossible to get my feet below my body and stand up. I took off the belt, let the water flow in the waders, and was able to turn on my back and back paddle to shallow water where I could stand up. I still wear a belt on my waders, to keep the water out, but am ready to unfasten it if I have to.

Does any one ever use Lumaflex material for jig skirts. I prefer spinnerbait skirts made out of the material, and am going give these a try. They look good to me, don't know what the fish will think.

#3 vibrax or Mepps inline spinner, and a floating rapala is all I need in creeks. A jig works well if their are deeper pools and pockets. Fish all current breaks, holes, tail outs, runs, riffles, undercut banks, and any current breaks such as rocks, logs, etc. Fish in the faster water are positioned to feed and will bite anything presented properly. Fish in slow deep holes, may be inactive and have to be finessed more.

When I was a kid I fished a creek near my house, that opened into a small deep lake for a mile, then turned back in to a small creek. The large mouth bass in the lake section large, up to six pounds, but were not plentiful. The small mouths in the creek section were small most less than a pound, but very willing to bite. I spent most days trying to catch the trophy large mouth first, then ended up fishing for the more willing to bite smallmouth. I didn't prefer one over the other because of species, just preferred to catch the larger fish if possible. Now their are no largemouth in this system, but the smallmouth have grown up. The slow section has the big fish topping out at 6 lbs. but not plentiful, similar to years ago, and the fast section still has all the small bass you can catch. I have to admit, after hooking in to a couple 5 pound smallmouth, the only reason I miss the largemouth in this system, is only due to nostalgia. Now I live in Mexico, and their are no smallmouth, but I don't care, because my next cast could be over 10 pounds. If I caught smallmouth the size AJ catches, I don't think I would fish for large mouth very often. I think the reason largemouth are more popular, is because they are everywhere, and big. The same reason King Salmon are more popular than silver Salmon. Size matters.

I use crimps to close the loop. Works great for me. Many ways to skin a cat.

The lake I fished is flooded, with almost zero visibility. Next time I go I'm going to try some highly visible spinner baits I made.