king fisher

It all depends on what you are fishing for and where you are fishing. I have been fortunate and fished for many species of fish, in many different places with a variety of techniques. I still have just as much fun fishing with a bobber and worm on the creek I fished when I was a kid, as I do catching saltwater fish on a fly rod. Catching fish with bait can require as much skill as artificial lures in many situations. A skilled bait angler is as talented as a skilled lure fisherman. Where I live the skilled anglers are the ones using bait. They know how to catch the bait, how to keep it alive, how to hook it, and which one to use in every situation. They use anything from sardines, to 10 pound tuna for bait. The variety of presentations is as varied as any lure fisherman techniques. Methods include, slow trolling bridled large baits, fast trolled dead baits, fly lined live or dead baits, Live or dead baits below kites, or helium balloons, and many other techniques. There are even over a dozen ways to hook or rig each different bait. The people without the live baiting skills, simply troll lures hoping to get bit. The good charter captains all are proficient at bait fishing, the weekend boaters, usually just troll lures. Other places are the exact opposite. The bait fisherman simply puts a worm under a bobber opens a bear and waits, while the lure fisherman skillfully works different lures in different ways ultimately finding the presentation that catches fish. I would never tell someone his way of fishing is inferior to mine. It takes experience and skill to be best at your game with both bait, and artificial. Even if a person has no skill at either, as long as they are having a good time, than that is what it is all about. That is why at least once a year, I grab my old Zebco outfit, call up an old friend to come along, soak a worm from the bank and catch something for dinner.

Would like to keep the price under $12.

From a kayak, and it is rare for me too most days. The trees I'm fishing have old tilapia nets tangled in them. Even spinner baits get snagged and lost. I can usually finesse a square bill through them, but some days are better than others. The bass are big, so I don't mind taking a chance. Would like to find a mid priced square bill that works well, so I'm not tempted to throw my old balsa ones when the chance of loosing one is high. When the fishing is slow, I tend to throw cation to the wind. Next thing I know I'm fishing my last favorite lure in the worst spot imaginable. Then regret it when I get home. I wouldn't mind loosing a mid priced lure that I can order any time I need to replace. I like the H2O brand, but my friend that brings stuff down to me lives in CA and Academy Sports wont ship to there. It can be tough getting tackle to Mexico especially this year. Nothing but salt water lures in the stores here.

Thanks for the reply. Have you had success with Mag Warts for bass? I have dozens of the pre Rapala Mag Warts I used for King Salmon. Mostly use Quickfish with bait raps for the past 20 years, but back in the day Mag Warts were the thing. I would hate to loose to many of them, but if they catch big bass no problem. They are just taking up storage space right now. Only have salmon colors. Lots of chrome, pink, orange, chartreuse and other bright colors. Do you think they will work? I did loose one regular size pre Rapala Wiggle Wart yesterday. Not a good day for old tackle.

I lost three older Bagely balsa Square bills yesterday. Don't know what the problem was. Was able to coax them through the same trees in the past, I guess it was just bad luck. I need to replace the ones I lost and add some more. The only other Square bills I have are H20 and Norman Norman Fat Boy. I prefer Balsa, because of their high buoyancy snag resistance( not yesterday) but I don't want to pay the price for old Bagely's on Ebay. Have heard the new Bagley's are not the same, is this true? I have no issues with the Norman and H20 but would consider some in the mid price range if highly recommended.

I fished old Ambassador 5500 and 6500 that I bought in the early nineties for years. I thought they were great and landed thousands of fish on them. OK drag, cast far, easy to maintain, and lasted me for 25 years. When I had the opportunity to get back in to bass fishing, I decided to buy a smaller modern reel. I asked people on this forum what is a good economical bait caster, and the Tatula CT was highly recommended. I bought one and was blown away. I felt like Rip Van Winkle. I don't want to bad mouth the tried and true 5500 but for me, the difference is equal to the difference in telephones from the 90's compared to phones of today. I immediately bought two more Tat Ct and a Diawa Coastal 200. This madness was coming from a fanatical Shimano fan for offshore gear.( I'm sure the modern Shimanos in this price range or just as good just haven't tried them) I bought the Tat for $100 and the Coastal for less than $200. I do not even want to try a $400 BC. If a $100 reel is this good, what could a top of the line one be like? If the difference is anywhere near what I found making the jump from the 5500, I will go broke. The bait monkey will be living with me looking over my divorce papers, and introducing me to his uncle the loan gorilla. I beg every one answering this thread to please say the only difference between the $100 dollar reels and the most expensive is cosmetic. I can't afford to be tempted. I went through this before with fly rods in the 90's. I'm fine driving a junk car as long as the engine runs like a Swiss watch. As far as catching fish goes, it is the fishermen not the equipment. As far as fishing enjoyment is concerned, that is up to the individual.

Greet pattern. I tie the same, only I use yak hair instead of fox hair, and add crystal flash. I use mine mostly for inshore fish. Yours look like awesome bass killers to me.

I took my kayak to a small lake today. Rainy season has started, and the lake was up a couple feet since I was there two weeks ago. Had a hard time finding the fish. Got one three pounds on a square bill, then lost 4 square bills, to snags and no bites. Only had 5 bites all day, but one was 7.9 pounds, making a great day out of a slow day. After throwing the whole tackle box, a 3/4 oz spinnerbait got the big one. Didn't get the whole bass in the picture, I'm having a hard time getting a good picture with my camera by myself. Scared to use my phone because it isn't water proof.

I have had 3 friends fly in to Puerto Vallarta from the states this week. There have been no questions asked. The only place restricted to essential travel only, is crossing by car or foot at the boarder. No restrictions on flights coming from or going to the US.

I never believed in the Color Selector, but did like some of the colors tackle companies came out with during the craze. I had a 6A Bomber, that was purple with a black back that was my best crankbait in every lake I fished for a couple years. Even caught a few king Salmon in Alaska with that lure. Rebel had some good color Selector Colors too. Orange with black back, and chartreuse with black back were simple but effective colors, for both bass and trout. I never wanted a Color Selector unit, because It was cheaper to let the fish select the color.

1-#3 Vibrax or Mepps inline spinner. silver or gold blade 2-Floating Rapala gold black back 3-Spinner bait, 1/2 oz one single Colorado dark color, one double willow light color 4-Square bill crankbiat, one balsa no rattles, one plastic with rattles, chartreuse black back prefer old Bagleys, and academy sports H2O 5-Rebel Deep wee R orange and black 6-Rapala DT10 purple crayfish 7-Cavitron Buzz Bait Chartreuse. or black 8-Pop R any color 9-Rebel Jumpin Minnow, Bone 10- Norman DD 22, Shad 11-Hula grub with 1/4 oz foot ball jig head, green pumkin, black, and june bug 12-Zoom trick worms, any color, 13 5 inch Senko, any color 14 Reaction Innovations Spicy Beaver Black and blue Biggest must have--- More time to fish.

My Wife complains that I misplace everything. I'm constantly asking her if she has seen my car keys, hat, wallet, phone, etc. She doesn't even ask why I came back to the house 5 minuets after leaving in the morning. She just hands me what I forgot, and tells me I need to get tested. I even forget I can't call her to bring me my phone I forgot. When it comes to fishing tackle, I'm far from organized. but I do know where it is. It may be in Alaska, Mexico, WA, in the car, kayak, closet, or on the bottom of a river somewhere, but I know where it is. Not only do I know the location of all my fishing gear, for every item, I can tell you where I bought it, how much it cost, what fish I have landed or lost on it, if I have ever owned something similar, and many other interesting bits of information. My wife say's this information is taking up way to much space in my brain. Basically my short term memory is poor, my long term memory is selective, and my fishing memory is photo graphic.

I can eat just one chip, tell just one joke, drink just one bear, play just one more hand of poker. One last cast? Not possible.

Yes it will, but it will take a long time. The first thing to go will be the the guide raps. The clear coat on the blank will eventually start to bubble and turn white. The blank can eventually become weak and break, but it takes a lot of sun. The rods I have seen damaged by the sun have been on off shore boats, and have been left out in tropical conditions for weeks at a time. As long as you store you rods out of the sun between fishing trips, they should last a life time.

I fished Lake Chapala Jalisco Mex. for the first time this year. A friend and I landed 29 between 2.5 and 6.7 pounds. Didn't get started until noon so all in all a good day. My friend fishes the lake three times a week, and was a little disappointed , but I thought it was a great day. I caught two fish on an underspin, the rest were on spinner baits. Lots of fun casting, cranking and covering water.

If your only goal is to catch fish, than use which ever tool is best for the job. If you prefer one type of gear over another, than have at it. Fishing is supposed to be fun. With the quality of gear available now, most of the time advantages of one over another, can be over come by experience. I know people that will only fly fish, regardless how much they are handicapping themselves. I am more practical and will usually use what ever tool I think will help me catch the most or biggest fish. Bait casters, spinning , or fly all have advantages at times.

I use a Rapala knot for one lure, that lure is an original floating Rapala. ( imagine that.) A floating Rapala doesn't come with a split ring, and the smaller sizes don't seem to work well with one added. I'm not a big fan of the knot, just haven't found a loop knot I like better. I use a perfection loop for live bait hooks but realize it isn't the strongest knot, but is plenty strong for most of my live bait fishing. I also use the perfection loop when I want to add a little action to a streamer fly with leader 20 pound test or more. Would like to learn to tie a stronger loop knot that works well with lighter line. Appreciate any suggestions.

Any fisheries can be over fished by sport sport fishing. Even to much catch an release fishing can make the fishing go from good to bad quickly. Actually eliminating a species of fish in a particular body of water sport fishing would be next to impossible. As the fishing pressure gets to the point a person can't catch any fish, then the pressure goes down and hopefully the fishing gets good again. It may take awhile, or may never come back. Over harvesting one species of fish may let another species of fish, creature or plant take over to the point the other species can not recover. Far better to manage the pond so the pressure and population are more stable. Catch and release is one of the best management tools there is to allow for maximum fishing opportunity, and still maintain a stable population. Daily, and seasonal bag limits, gear restrictions, fishing hours, seasons, license requirements and many other management tools are common. Every pond is different. Some ponds actually benefit from keeping more bass. I recently started fishing a small lake where the manager encourages the local Tilapia fisherman try and remove all the bass they can. They even net them in the spring trying to eliminate the predation of the tilapia. At first I thought this was a very stupid management plan. Fishing is slow, I might only get a couple bites a day. After catching a few bass over ten pounds, I decided I wouldn't complain about the commercial fisherman. Apparently the few bass that survive have little competition,giving them an opportunity to grow very large. I would guess many private ponds would benefit from keeping more bass, and many public ponds would benefit from more catch and release. I guess this was a long answer to the question. Short answer, yes it is easy to over fish a pond.

I would replace the rivets. If you don't want to do it yourself, find an Aircraft mechanic that would be willing to help. Maybe trade a fishing trip or two for payment. He will have all the tools ( drill, bits, bucking bars etc.) you will need. They routinely have to replace rivets in places most yoga instructors could not twist their body to fit in. Replacing rivets in a jon boat would be a piece of cake. Zee spar, or Marine tex will also fix any leaks you have. What ever you do, don't try to weld a riveted aluminum boat. The Aluminum used for riveted boats does not weld well. That is why welded boats use different thicker aluminum making them strong but heavy.

Diawa Ardito travel rod.

While guiding in Alaska I always wore an inflatable that was also a fishing vest. I never took it off because I needed everything in the pockets of the vest. By law I was required to have in the boat a coast guard approved large cumbersome vest for each guests and myself. One day I was getting checked by a State trooper, I asked if it was OK to have the guests as well as myself wear the inflatables, instead of having the bulky jackets on board stuffed under the bow. There isn't much room in an 18 foot john boat so saving space was always a priority. The trooper told me he would much rather see everyone wearing an inflatable than see the Coast Guard recommended ones stashed away. Made sense to me. He was the one that was enforcing the regulations, so I left the bulky jackets at camp, and made sure the guests always had the inflatable fishing vests on. At the end of each season I would pull the cord to see if the vest inflated. It always did. An inflatable vest is comfortable as well as handy, so will most likely be on when you need it. The best PFD made is useless if it isn't worn.

Work for 9 months a year. Mikelson 75 Fun Hobie Outback.

It is a digital scale that I bought at a tackle shop for $20 in PV. last week. I can't find a brand or model number on it. Just says portable electronic scale and a Logo W. I tested it with a large expensive spring scale I have and it seems to be accurate. So far I am impressed because it is small and digital, but need more time to see if I like it.

August is a great month to punch weed mats on lake Chapala Mexico. With today's exchange rate you could get a flight to Guadalajara, stay a week at a nice hotel, and have guided fishing every day for the same price as you would pay anywhere in the states. Most days there would only be one or two other boats fishing the same lake. I know you weren't asking for a place far away, just a crazy outside the box suggestion.

Back in the 70's one of the first buzz baits made was a Burke Deadly Dudley. I bought one because slow rolling Colorado spinner baits was my go to technique. They advertised that the Deadly Dudley blade would turn at a slower retrieve speed than any spinner bait. You could even get the blade to turn just by blowing on it. I bought it so I could fish on the bottom even slower than I did with the Colorado blades. I did catch some fish that way, but soon learned it made a better surface lure. The next year a dozen companies made buzz baits, and Burke changed their add promoting the bait as a surface lure. A person could argue that catching a bass with one on the bottom was really the correct way to fish it. lol.