king fisher

I doubt the bass care, but I prefer my lures have some purple in them.

I am fine fishing my inexpensive crankbaits. I own way to many, and if I can't catch a bass on one of them, I fish something else. If I can't catch bass on something else, I blame it on the moon phase and go home. My problem starts when I get home and look at all the tackle porn posted on this site,( you frequent tackle porn posters should keep the Bait Monkey on a leash) and You Tube videos showing all the latest baits getting crushed by big bass. Then I start to wonder if maybe a $25 Megabass jerkbait may be the answer to my problems. If only I had a box full them like AJ maybe I could defeat the bad moon phase syndrome for ever. About this time, the Monkey crashes through my door, and saving for retirement gets put on hold for another year.

That makes sense, thanks.

You copied and posted it, is there a difference?

Milliken finished 50th. Now please don't get me wrong, I am not bashing Ben. I have great respect for his skill as an angler, his work ethic, and all that he has accomplished. He is a top level pro and deserves everything he has achieved, but I will also say, a little humble pie now and then doesn't hurt anyone.

I wouldn't go so far as to diminish the skill level of any pro anglers. Some may be more dependent on FFS, but that is because they are better at it. It doesn't mean they lack other basic fishing skills. The best will always perfect all techniques needed to win. If dynamite became legal, there would be new anglers that would be the best dynamite throwers ever, and some old timers, that would blow their hands off on the first toss. Most pros would adapt and would have explosives adds all over their boats and bodies. So far FFS hasn't been proven to be detrimental to fish populations, it does seem to still adhere to most common held beliefs of sportsmanship, improves our knowledge about bass behavior and has brought new young anglers into the professional ranks. In a few years the older anglers will become as adept at the new technology and complaints will start to go away. As far as what the future will bring, I'm certain the technology will get way out of hand. There will come a point where the electronics will tell you exactly how big, how, how far away a bass is and when to cast, without even looking at the screen. When that time comes restrictions will have to be made in order to maintain a true sportsmanship attitude in professional fishing. Some say that time is now, and they may be right, I don't agree, but I do understand their point of view, and may change my opinion in the future. Right now I would say don't get in a hurry. Wait a couple more years and see what the effects are. The one thing I am certain of is the young anglers on the tour are highly skilled and deserve to be where they are. I also am certain that the older pros are not to old to learn the required skills to stay on top. Most have only installed the new units in the past year. A year from now they will be up to speed and competing at the top level again. In baseball they haven't changed the bats, but they have changed the gloves, shoes, helmets, and other aspects of the game. The challenge in bass fishing will be when to consider new electronics technology a new improved glove, or a different bat. Time will tell, lets give it some time

Hobie Outback. Plus. 1- I own it, I paid cash zero payments. 2- Very little maintenance and no oil, gas, or trouble starting. 3- Easy to peddle all day. 4- very stable handles well in lakes, rivers, and the ocean. I can easily stand and cast. 5- light enough to launch in surf 6- Lots of storage, with well thought out places for pliers, tackle boxes etc. 7- much better than fishing from shore. Minus. 1- Heavy to load on top of my car. 2- I can't maneuver while standing. I must sit down to move and position. 3- Expensive for a plastic boat 4- Does not portage well, can't drag over rough terrain, without damage. 5- Only seats one angler. This is the biggest disadvantage. Many times I want to invite friends to fish with me, but I can't, only room for me.

On a warm summer evening when the sun starts to set, everything gets quite except for the blurp blurp blurp of a jitterbug. When out of nowhere a bass interrupts the peaceful solitude with a viscous strike. If you have been there, you don't have to ask the question.

Because they are bass.

The first time I caught a bass on a C rig was two years ago. Now I fish one every time I go bass fishing. I really don't understand why people don't like it. I can cast it a mile, I don't have to wait all day for my bait to get to the bottom, I can easily feel every rock, or log on the bottom, I can fish it in strong wind while maintaining good bottom contact, quickly fish over places that don't feel right, but slow down when I feel the weight hit something interesting, I can easily detect bites, and almost never miss a hookset. I have never been a big fan of fishing soft plastics, but the way I fish a C rig it is more like fishing a crankbait than a typical soft plastic technique. I rig it old school, 3/4 to 1 oz barrel sinker a couple beads, 2 to 4 foot leader, Zoom Ole monster worm. Any point shelf, or hump I catch a bass on a crankbait, I well follow up with the C rig. I almost always catch a few more bass off of the spot, once the crankbait bite stops. I hate to admit it, but if I'm going to be completely honest, I Have on occasion, fished a point with the C rig first, and never even tried a crankbait. I probably shouldn't have admitted to those brief moments of temporary insanity on the internet, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

I have had good success on big bass, bulging just under the surface, a Single Colorado blade black skirt, short arm spinnerbait, and I don't fish at night. Same bait slowly crawled on the bottom catches big ones two. I know a longer arm bait has more vibration, but an old short arm scorpion doesn't want to role over when waking the bait, and has caught me big bass for years. I like full Lumaflex skirts with no trailer. Trailer doesn't hurt, but not using one is my one and only chance to really make the Monkey mad. I like to bend the wire at the head of the spinnerbait up causing the body of the bait to run more horizontal in the water. Blades that are half one color and half another, work well, when I can't decide what color I like One gold one silver blade works well. Colored blades work well on cloudy days, and dirty water. Colored blades work well on sunny days and clear water. Pink and chartreuse blades are not just for smallmouth. Mag Willow blades also called Oklahoma blades are very versatile. A bullet weight placed ahead of a spinnerbait is an easy way to get the bait deeper, taking the rubber core out of a rubber core sinker, and crimping the sinker to the hook is also a good way to get a spinnerbait deeper. Contrasting colored skirts work well. Chart black, White black, orange black, Chartreuse blue, and two of my oddball favorites purple chartreuse pink black. All white is boring but works in any conditions. If a certain color of jig, soft plastic, or crankbait is working, that is the color of spinnerbait I will try first. Big spinnerbaits with big blades slow rolled deep get big bites. Stanley makes the best willow blades, Hildebrandt make the best Colorado blades, Fishermen's Shack has the best selection of Magnum Willow blades. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm not convinced thin wire is better, but I do fish both thick and thin. I prefer closed loop, but R bend is easier to keep tuned. I don't care about the color of the head, if I'm fishing a spinnerbait correctly the paint is chipped off after a day anyway. Inline spinners will kill a skunk, and may catch a PB.

1-You can't catch a bass if your line is not in the water. 2-Never leave home without toilet paper 3-Trying to get that last few feet out of every cast by adding more muscle, is prone to backlash, but why not give it a shot. 4 Bass do not live on dry land or high up in trees, but why not try? 5. If I can't catch numbers than I will catch big ones, If I can't catch big ones than catch numbers, if I can't catch anything, blame it on the moon. 6- If fishing is good it is because of my amazing angling skills. If fishing is bad, blame it on the weather, state fish and game, the moon, or all of the above. 7- If I catch a big bass, it is because of skill, if someone else catches a big bass it is because they are lucky. 8- There is a magic lure, and the only way to find it is buy more lures. 9- Bass do not live close to launch. The longer it takes to get there, the better the fishing will be. 10- It's better to be lucky than good.

Bill Lewis 1/2 OZ Rattle Trap, chrome blue back, anywhere, any time of year.

I would like to upgrade to a lithium battery for my fish finder on my kayak. I have a Garmin Echomap 64 CV, and would like to get 16 hours between charges. What brand and model do members recommend? I also will need recommendations for a charger. Thanks.

The weather where I bass fish is exactly the same every day from mid Nov. to Mid June. Some days the bass bite anything anywhere, and other days I get skunked. I wish I had cold fronts to blame for my bad days.

Caught in water with 6 inches of visibility on a Junebug 7 inch Senko. The bass have to eat regardless of the water clarity. extreme muddy water may limit the hunting ability of the bass, but it also makes detecting them more difficult for the prey. In the end it probably evens out when it comes to advantages and disadvantages. For anglers it can help by eliminating much of the lake. Forget about fishing deep. The shoreline is your friend in muddy conditions, and most of the time bass will be tight to visible cover. The bass are still there, and they are still hungry, so don't shy away from muddy water.

You may not need to feed him, but given time he will be eating dinner with you, invited or not he will be there.

I'm not sure on this one either. Everyone knows that thinner wire produces more vibration. This may be the most quoted assumption in all of bass fishing. I do know that I feel more vibration through my rod when using thin wire spinnerbaits, with all other factors being equal. I also feel more vibration through my rod with a single Colorado blade, than I do with a tandem Colorado blade spinnerbait. My question is does this actually mean the blades are putting out more vibration into the water, or am I just feeling more vibration through my rod because the blades are able to move the thinner wire more and the single blade moves the wire more by not being inhibited by the other blade. Why would a single blade put more vibration into the water than a two blades? The blades will make a wider arc the thinner the wire because the blade over powers the wire more. This would cause the bait to transmit more vibration to the rod, but it may not cause more vibration to go out through the water. It seems to me if the wire is stiff, and doesn't allow the blades to move the wire as much, the vibration made by the blades spinning may be forced out into the water more than being wasted moving the wire. Maybe the thin wire helps because it allows the blades to impart more action to the skirt, not because it makes the blades produce more vibration. I don't have a degree in engineering, and am certainly not an expert bass angler, but I have caught lots of big bass on beefed up spinnerbaits with quality blades, especially Stanley wedge willow leaf blades. The stronger wire forms are definitely stronger, and I am not certain they hinder my fishing success. I am not saying I am certain about the amount of vibration put off by different spinnerbait wire size and I could very well be far off base. I am saying, that it doesn't hurt to question, some of the most often repeated so called facts, commonly heard or read about when it comes to bass fishing.

I went bass fishing for the first time since last June. I planned on fishing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I didn't fish Sunday, because I sprang a leak in a radiator hose, and didn't know if my temporary fix with electrical tape and zip ties would last, so I chose to leave Sunday morning for the 5 hour drive home, instead of waiting until evening. Most of the trip there is no cell reception, and I didn't want to get stuck in a remote part of Mexico at night with no communication, and a long walk. The fishing was slow, I'm sure if the DD had been biting, I would have fished until the last minute of day light on Sunday after all I do have my priorities. It had been almost a year since I had last been to this lake. Last May I caught a 42 pound bag, and was ready to top my success. The water temp. was 71 degrees, 4 to 5 foot of visibility, and about 10 feet higher than last May, but lower than I expected it to be this early in March. Friday I started fishing main lake points, then moved back in to the bays with zero luck. I finally caught a few baby bass along with a 4.5 pound bass all in random locations. There were other people camped at the launch so I decided to camp on a small island in the middle of the lake. Saturday morning I woke with no idea where to go. The wind starts blowing hard at noon, this time of year so I didn't think I would be able to find any offshore spots before the wind made fishing offshore difficult in my kayak. I decided to work my way towards the lake inlet, and fish points and the back of pockets in this long winding section of the lake which I had never been to. The day ended the same as the day before, with many small 1 pound bass, and one that tipped the scale at 4.1 pounds. This would be the only bass I stopped casting to take a picture of during two hard days of fishing. The only lure that I could get bit was a Rattle Trap, and I tried the everything. I have had days before when a trap was the go to lure, but never a time when it was the only lure. Very strange. Looking back I wish I would have tried fishing offshore. I don't know why I thought fishing points and pockets would work on a different part of the lake, when they obviously didn't produce well the day before. At least I got to map another section of the lake, and found some spots I want to try when I go back in May. I talked to the other fisherman at the launch, and they had about the same luck as I did. They fished all similar places that I did, and obviously the fish were somewhere else. I didn't get skunked, and enjoyed camping on the recently exposed island. I will plan on camping there when I go back in May. All in all a good trip, and my car and I made it home well before dark with out any difficulties. Pictures of Island I camped on, second day biggest bass, and kayak loaded with all my fishing and camping gear.

What planet are you from? Please watch your language, this is supposed to be a clean G rated family forum.

I have a secret lure that would work perfect in the situation you described. I have many and would be glad to give share them with you. When do we go to the pond?

If it is windy, spinnerbait, light to no wind T Rig.

He didn't skip school. He transferred to another school for the day. It was an awesome day at the school of bass where he graduated with straight A's

You can use a 3/4- 1 oz punch weight with a skirt, and any T rigged trailer you want. I may be wrong, but I feel this will work as good as any swim jig. Sometimes when I am fishing a T rig and want to try a jig, I simply put a skirt in front of my t rigged bait, and peg my sinker tight to the skirt. The angle of pull may be different than a jig, but the un pressured bass I fish for don't care, and it is doesn't get snagged.