king fisher

You can also take the rubber piece out of a rubber core sinker, and crimp the sinker on to the hook of a spinnerbait.

Here is a little trick used often south of the border. Take a normal 1/2 oz spinnerbait, slide a 3/4 oz bullet sinker on the line above the spinnerbait, you can also add a bobber stop on the line to hold the weight against the spinnerbait. This may look to crude and simple to work, but sometimes simple is the best way to go. The first time I saw it done, I asked if that would work, and the angler said why not. Many years later, I still haven't found a reason why it wont work, because it flat out catches them.

Bass May be individuals but they all avoid me.

There isn't any place to bass fish near where I live, so no micro fishing trips for me. There is a tackle shop close by, so I go micro lure buying. Not the same as fishing, but it is the best I can do.

I agree. I don't think they don't often care what color something splashing on the surface is, but I do believe they can see more than the color of the belly.

I don't know how many times I have read that bass only see the bottom of a topwater lure. This statement does make sense because the they are looking at a lure that is above them but I'm not sure if this often stated as fact belief, is indeed true. I took some pictures of a Pop R at different angles. All of the pictures have the lure above the line of site of the camera. I know I should have taken the pictures in the water, but my phone is not water proof. I have looked at lures from below the surface, and the results are the same. The only angle I can't see at least some of the color on the side and top of the lure are when looking from directly below. Obviously a bass has the ability to observe the lure from many different angles and distances. I am not picky on the color of my topwaters, because I don't think color on a topwater lures matters very much, but I do believe a bass can see more than the bottom color of the lure. If the conventional wisdom is right, then someone please show me a picture that proves me wrong. I haven't been able to go bass fishing for a few months, for various reasons. Now I know how anglers feel when their favorite lake is covered in ice for months. Think of this post as a I'm going crazy midwinter post.

Gives me a cut! He has severed an artery and bleed me dry. He has been my financial adviser for far too many years. I'm beginning to think he might not have my best interests in mind when giving me investment advice. To late to jump ship now. I am going to have to live off of Bait Monkey investments when I retire, It looks like I will be having bass for dinner every night in my golden years.

I would go buy more lures to try.

You don't need help, you need to start fishing custom glide baits. Then you can buy new rods, to throw the new baits with. When you can't find a rod that costs more than the next new bait you want, you are only a few dollars away from living the dream.

I use the same 7 foot medium power fast action rod for square bills, lipless crankbaits, medium diving crankbaits, jerk baits, and topwater baits.

If you think bass fishing lure colors have crazy names, try and tell me what color the names of these Kwikfish lures for salmon are. Buba Glad Clown Grinch Slamer Trapper Fickle Pickle The one that caught the most salmon for me was simply called silver with chartreuse head. This one has a great name, but never produced well for me. It is called the Funky Chicken. Does anyone think this lure looks like a chicken?

I don't care what they call them, but my worms have to be some shade of purple.

To far to go, cry my a river. They haven't had an elite event in weeks. They need a big break in them middle of somer why? The fishing is at it's peak that time of year in the North West, and it doesn't take three weeks to drive back and forth. I know living the life of a pro bass fisherman isn't easy, and that most people wouldn't be able to handle it, even if they had the talent. I know it can be stressful on not only the angler but the family. To bad. That is what they signed up for. I realize it is tough, but traveling to the west once every few years, should not put to big of a strain on their life, or finances. If the tournament organizers are not able to get enough sponsors, and fans, than obviously they can't hold an event, but to far to drive for the anglers is a very lame excuse. I drove from Alaska to Florida and back for a job one winter, and flew a cub back and forth the next winter to work. I also drove from Alaska to Mexico and back to guide fisherman, so don't give me a sad song about travelling to far to earn a living fishing.

I use ball bearing swivels on all my of my spinnerbaits for the same reasons mentioned here. I would never throw a spinnerbait without a good ball bearing swivel. That said, I sure wonder why the bass will hit my friends cheap spinnerbaits with rusty old barrel swivels. Don't the bass know they should only hit the expensive ones? Like many things in fishing, I may care more about the details than the bass do.

I catch bass with them, but do much better with a buzzbait, popper, or spook.

T Rigged Zoom Ole Monster caught the biggest 9.9 pounds. Bladed jig has landed a couple over 7 pounds, DT 10 and DT 16 have produced some nice bass, and a Pop R has been good on top.

Let them cry all they want about travel to the west. I have had to do so many things that I didn't like or was inconvenient to make a living, they can suck it up and drive across the country once every couple of years. As far as the excuse they don't have the fan base in the west, how are they ever going to develop a fan base if they never go there? Besides they have never even tried going to WA Oregon, or Idaho. I bet they haven't ever even contacted the Coeur D'alene chamber of commerce to see if a tournament would be feasible, let alone the number of towns along the vast Columbia River. They don't mind western anglers spending money on sponsors products, or tuning in to live, watch the tournament's in the East. They want the western anglers as fans, and members, but don't want to put a few more miles on all of those brand new pick ups. If that's the best excuse they can come up with, than they might as well tell the western fans they just don't matter.

I'm excited about Rapala DT 12. I have wanted them to come out with one for years. I know the DT 10 and DT 14 covered the 12 foot range just fine, but most of my crankbait fishing is done from 8 to 14 feet, and I hope the DT 12 will fit in perfectly. For some superstitious reason I have never been a big fan of the DT 14. I always jumped up to the 16 if I needed to get deeper than the 10. Looking at the numbers of colors the 16 is offered in compared to the 10 maybe other anglers have the same superstition. I know about the complaints of the bills separating on the DT series, it's happened to me a few times. No, I don't slap them on the water to remove weeds. Where I fish crankbaits, there are no weeds. Even with the failures there are many times the DT series has saved the day, when my many other crankbaits couldn't produce. I don't know why, but they are fish catchers. I hope the DT 12 will live up to my expectations.

My favorite lake is in Nayarit Mexico. It is a reservoir about 2 miles long, and 1/2 miles wide at full pool. In the summer during the rainy season the upper end is a flooded cow pasture, and the bass are in the flooded bushes, and grass. There is no aquatic vegetation, but the flooded grass is tall and green. The lower end of the lake is deep and rocky, with giant flooded trees that are about 20 feet tall. In April May and June some of the tree tops will be above the water. On an average year the water fluctuates about 30 feet. In the rainy season the water is has less than a foot of visibility, and in winter and spring the visibility is between 2 and 3 feet. The lake gets very little sport fishing pressure, but there is a large amount of commercial netting for Tilapia. The gill nets catch most of the bass that are between a pound and 4 pounds. The spawn must be successful, because there are always lots of bass that weigh less than a pound. There are also giant bass, and that is why It is my favorite lake. I rate it a 4.5 out of 5. The chance of hooking DD bass is very good, and I land an 8 to 9 pound bass 9 out of 10 days I fish there. I also like the fact that it fishes like a miniature full size reservoir. There are days I can develop an offshore pattern, and there are days I can fish the shallow water. Every technique imaginable can be used successfully on this lake depending on water level, and water clarity. The only down side is, I can't determine when the spawn is and where they spawn. Most of my biggest bass have come after the fish have spawned. I catch them off of deep structure, and cover. The other down side is it takes 4 hours for me to drive to the lake and on a good year I might be able to fish it 10 -15 days a year. This year I have fished there 7 days, and haven't landed a DD bass. I have 5 bass over 9 lbs. and one that was 9.9 pounds, but a DD eludes me. Prime time is over, and I probably wont be able to get back there before the end of the year. Hopefully next spring I will be able to fish there more often.

I wouldn't know, I always thought all I had to do was buy them.

I always ask myself why I came home.

While not any more durable than the Rage Bug, the Reaction Innovations Spicey Beaver has worked well for me. I use the Spicey Beaver for jig trailers, and the Rage Bug for when I fish the bait solo.

I have no idea, but I aspire to some day be one. For now I will continue to make poor casts in to trees, buy more tackle and enjoy being an average bass angler.

I didn't mean for my previous post to be thought of as negative towards guiding. I only wanted to give some advise. I evolved as a guide over many years, and look back on many of the mistakes I made, wishing I hadn't always of had to learn the hard way. I get far more satisfaction from helping an angler catch a fish, and enjoy their time on the water than I do catching fish myself. I would get so tired of catching silver salmon on one river that I would go a whole season without ever landing one for myself. I would clip the hook short on my fly in order to explore, without having to fight the fish all the way back to the boat. A bite, a jump, that was all I needed to tell if they were in a whole and corporative. I easily got tired of catching them myself, but I never tired of getting my clients in to a great silver bite. I never tired of looking for new places or techniques that would increase my clients catch. In short I never got burned out on guiding. That is why I chose it as my life long profession. I can see why some would read my previous post and think I was being negative, and I just want to say that was far from my intent. If anyone would like to start guiding anglers, I will have nothing but encouragement for them. It is not a job for everyone, but for some it isn't even a job, its a day off of work where you happen to get paid.