king fisher

30 ft. up in a tree is where I like to fish. I have never caught one there, but I'm sure that is where the biggest bass live, I will keep trying.

I used to fish for King Salmon using salmon roe under a bobber with mono line, before modern spectra fiber braid was available. The mono would slowly sink, causing a large belly in the line, making setting the hook difficult and mending the line nearly impossible. I found applying dry fly floatant or wax on the mono line helped it float, and float made bobber fishing for kings less difficult. When braided line came out I quickly discovered it floated, solving the large belly in the line problem, and as a bonus it also had very little stretch making it a perfect line for setting the hook while bobber fishing. At the time I started using braid for all of my fishing, but soon learned that it's advantages over mono were few, and now I only use it for specific applications, where ability to float, low stretch, or strength per diameter are the most important requirements of my line.

Abandoned gill nets. Nothing makes the Bait Monkey happier than old gill nets. Even T Rigs get snagged in nets, and I don't even want to think about how many crankbaits I have lost in nets. Besides loosing lures, nothing feels more like a bite than a net. A T Rig slowly gets that mushy heavy feeling, crankbait stops vibrating, and a spinnerbait stops spinning, while slowly getting a heavy feeling. I instantly think giant bass and set the hook. Usually I think I am hooked to a bass for the first couple of turns on the reel, than realize It is just a net. I don't mind the gill nets that are well attended with visible floats marking location, but the old ones left to eventually sink and disappear drive me crazy.

Buy some Yamamoto Hula Grubs rig them with 1/4 ounce ball head jigs, with hook exposed. You will get snagged some, but you will also catch bass. After catching lots of bass with this set up, you should be able to switch to traditional skirted jigs, and catch bass with them. I don't know why it is so much easier to catch bass with the hula grub and ball head jig, but believe me it is. I rarely use them any more, but maybe I should.

You win some you loose some. Two missed strikes could simply be bad luck. You may land the next ten fish in a row without changing anything. Keep fishing it. If after awhile you notice you loose a large percentage of your strikes, than you may have to change something.

You can have a box full of crankbaits, or a boat full of fish, but you can't have both. Use them and loose them, is a fact of life for a die hard crankbait fisherman.

Try an A rig made with two Mega bass vision 110's and 3 jack hammers.

Bouncing square bills off of tree branches in deep water targeting suspended bass, can be very productive. I usually fish more weedless lures in the branches first, because I don't want to spook the bass off the tree if I have to get a lure unsnagged. After trying a weedless presentation, I will always try to finesse a square bill through the branches before moving to another tree. I pulled my PB out of a thick tangled mess of branches in 30 feet of water, that a sane angler would never even consider throwing a lure with treble hooks in to. The Bait Monkey was right there with me, yelling one more cast, you can do it. Now every time I see an impenetrable snag my monkey friend whispers, remember your PB. throw the square bill.

4 years ago I went to my local tackle shop to pick up a couple spools of fluorocarbon leader for offshore fishing. The manager of the store asked if I ever bass fished. I replied I have and would like to find a place I could catch some nice bass. He then showed me a picture of his wife with a bass that was between 11 and 12 pounds. He asked if that was what I considered a nice bass. When I told him it was a bass of a lifetime, and I had never even caught one half that size he said I should go to the small secret lake where his wife landed the trophy. He then proceeded to give me directions on how to get to the small lake, and told me it was OK to fish there, just don't keep any Tilapia. I later found out the lake was only fished by a small group of sport anglers, and had been a well kept secret for many years. I have landed 9 bass over 10 pounds in the past 4 years at this lake, along with many over 8 pounds and have never seen more than a couple other anglers on even the most busy weekend day's, and most days I never see any. Giving me the location of this lake qualifies as the best customer service of my life. Even if I bought every lure in his store, I would still feel in debt to him.

Be careful what you wish for. Anyone can fish alone, you are blessed if family and friends want to fish with you.

I prefer colored blades most of the time especially in stained to muddy water, but I do have success with them in clear water too. One Chartreuse and one white blade is my favorite, but I have had good luck with all white, all chartreuse, and different combinations of pink, red, and orange. The bass in my Avatar was caught on one with a double willow, with a #3 gold, and a #5 chartreuse blade. The water had 1.5 to 2 foot of visibility.

Dislike -- Any bait that costs over $10 I have enough trouble keeping my head above water financially, with my tackle addiction, I don't need to start catching bass on expensive baits. Can't stand -- Megabass, because they all cost over $10 Can't catch bass on -- Glide Baits. because they cost over $10 and I have never owned any. Can't catch em on something I can't throw.

I saw that podcast, and the Bait Monkey has been screaming in my ear non stop. It got my curiosity up, so I watched a couple more videos on the bait. Now the Bait Monkey is going crazy. He is even loosing his fear of my wife. All videos I watched were made by 6TH Sense pros. Would be nice to get a more objective opinion. I doubt the Monkey will listen to common sense right now, but he might not pick a fight with my wife if I can convince him the bait is new and could be all hype.

Does anyone fish the 6TH Sense Panorama? What size? Have any success? How do you rig it? Is this bait any better than a standard fluke? Gimmick or the real deal? I watched a couple videos on this bait, and now the Bait Monkey is all over my back. I already have way more baits than I can ever fish. I'm trying to decide if I need one more. I am mainly interested in the 9 inch size, but I am also curious about other sizes.

Aliens

Thinking outside the box is ok, but buying outside the box is dangerous. If the Bait Monkey had his way, I would be living in an a box.

AJ, you need to be more careful. At the 6:29 part of this video, I could hear a plane flying over. You made no attempt to move or hide. Maybe you could have a manikin, wearing a bright orange life jacket, to set up in your boat when planes fly over, to throw any spies of the scent. A Pro V with a lone angler is a dead give away from a thousand feet in the air. You can't be to careful, never know who may be watching. If nothing else, start trolling for trout when boats or planes are within sight.

If the Bait Monkey is in the other room, leave him in the dark.

Don't forget your fishing license, because the game warden will not forget his ticket book.

I knew it would happen some day. The lake the lodge is on is only a few miles away, and known for big numbers, but not large bass. The lake I fished, is very small less than a mile long and commercial fished with nets year around, the bass population was small, but did have some giants. There were a couple of kayak anglers, that would frequently post videos of them catching large bass, including one over 15 pounds at the lake. It was only a matter of time before the lodge owner saw one of these videos, recognized the lake, and started offering his clients one day fishing at this small lake for a chance at a monster, and the rest of the week hitting the lake his lodge is on for numbers. He did have clients catch some trophy bass, and I try and tell myself I should be happy for the lucky anglers that got to land a DD fish on their once in a lifetime trip to Mexico. I am trying my best to take the high road, but a big part of me wishes they would have just gone to Lake Baccarac. I can't complain, the guy that told me about the lake, is friends with one of the guys making the videos, and shouldn't have told me. ( I am really not sure why he did tell me, but I owe him more than I will every be able to repay) I was fortunate to fish the lake at it's peak, and it is time to move on to greener pastures. If it wasn't for loose lips, guiding me to this lake, my PB would probably still be under 6 pounds, so I can't complain about other people not keeping their mouths shut. My new lake is much bigger the a better over all bass population, and last year I landed two over 10 pounds. My biggest problem is the lake is much farther away for me, and word is getting out fast due to more videos. Luckily this new lake can handle much more fishing pressure, and the quality of the fishing, probably wont decline for some time. I'm also checking out a rumor on another lake, and I am hoping to be way ahead of the power curve on this one.

I went fishing at my favorite big bass lake, and this picture tells the story. The past four years I have caught my PB for the year at this lake. The fishing has been slowing down now that a lodge has discovered it, but this is the best time of year to fish there, I thought maybe fishing at night would solve the problem of pressure from the competition and I planned on fishing the with a few lures the Bait Monkey insisted I buy. I did catch 3 small bass with a combined weight of less than two pounds, so I guess I didn't officially get skunked, but the skunk sure liked the Bait Monkey's new purchases. The skunk was definitely stinking up the place during the night fishing part of the trip. After a three hour drive, I started fishing at 3:15 Am, and didn't catch a fish until 10:30 Am.(it gets light about 6;30) Everything went smooth at night except for one problem. I had the same problem night fishing that I have every time I try catching bass after dark. I don't know why I am such a slow learner, and don't anticipate this aspect of angling at night. I believe it will always make night fishing difficult for me, and maybe I should realize the difficulty before I start planning my next night adventure. I don't have problems with bugs, cold, or my equipment. I have determined the only problem with night fishing, is it is dark at night. I will be fishing at a different lake more this year. I doubt if I will be back to my old favorite again this year. It truly is a paradise lost. I did notice the local lodge doesn't have their boats there any more, so maybe after a couple years, I will have to give it another try.

moon phase

7.5 foot, Medium Heavy Diawa Ardito Travel rod. Diawa Tatula CT reel.

Alberto is my choice most of the time. I use FG for salt water applications, and Uni to Uni if the diameter of the braid is larger than the diameter of the leader material. I used the Uni to Uni and Albright exclusively for many years, but stopped using the Albright, completely and only use the Uni to Uni occasionally, after tying my first Alberto. Braid to Braid connection, I use the Uni to Uni, mono to mono, I use a surgeons, and braid with leader over 50 pounds I take the time to tie an FG.

Casting a spinnerbait