king fisher

Would the Pacific Ocean count. No bass but lots of fish.

In Alaska, I took planes and jet boats many places they were not meant to go trying to access new water. Luckily I never crashed a plane, I did chop a few willow bushes with the prop, but no damage. I stranded myself a few days waiting for weather to change so I could safely take off from some remote smooth place in the tundra ridge top, or gravel bar, but always made it back to civilization. I tore the boot off of more than one outboard jet, and put a boat or two completely high and dry on skidding turns. I floated rafts down creeks so bear infested that by the time I made it to my pick up spot the bears had tore my tent, stole my food, and bit so many holes in my raft it looked like it was made of duck tape and glue. In Mexico, I have driven down roads that dead end in some remote ranchers barn lot looking for access to lakes. The rancher, his wife, kids, workers, and even the animals, all look at me as if they are looking at an alien. I guess they have never seen a lost gringo driving a beat up car, with a giant orange kayak strapped to the top looking for a lake before. I just wave while I turn around and look for another road. All of this effort in hopes of finding that one magic fishing hole. I have never found that perfect fishing whole, but I also haven't found the one magic lure I have been looking for my whole life, but I am going to keep looking for both.

What ever it is, I hope it is inexpensive, is easy to install, on a kayak, and comes with a free gift for my wife.

Skunks happen. I once got skunked while guiding for king salmon on one of the best king salmon steams in Alaska, where I had 10 years of experience, during the peak of the season. I fished the wrong whole, with the wrong technique, and didn't have enough time to change, after realizing my mistake. Can happen anytime to any one. It was only a temporary setback, that I learned from, and I finished the season having one of my best years. Now that I think about it, I really didn't get skunked, if I consider the whole season. From now on I'm am only going to count fish after a whole trip, or maybe a year, therefore being assured of never getting a skunk again.

If I wanted something shot down, I would make it cheap, big, slow, and fly directly over the US where people could see it, while getting 24 hour news coverage. Maybe a big white balloon would work?

River Runt's are a great lure. I have caught many nice bass on them. One problem with them, is you get many more bass to follow the lure than you get to hit it. Make sure you have an old school plastic to catch the followers.

I snagged a crankbait in a gill net last spring. I have hundreds of crankbaits, but for some reason I thought I had to get this one back at any cost. The wind was blowing 20 - 25 MPH and I was having difficulty maneuvering my kayak. I eventually got my crankbait back, but I almost flipped my kayak, lost some soft plastics and terminal tackle overboard, lost half a spool of line, and broke a rod tip. All for one mid priced crankbait. I guess I know why no one has ever accused me of being a financial genius.

6th Sense cloud nine C 10 crankbait.

The Bait Monkey told me if I bought a Bacca Burrito, I would catch a bass over 11 lbs with it. After finally breaking down and spending more for a single lure, than I ever thought I would, I hope this will be the year I can say the Monkey was right.

I'm not sure if that counts, but I am sure it means you are one of the luckiest men alive, your wife is a saint, and I would vote for her if she ran for president.

I grew up fishing a creek where it opens up in to a big flat pasture surrounded by basalt cliffs. After a couple miles of what looks like a small lake, it narrows back down to a stream, and eventually goes over a water fall, and continues on to a major river. In the later winter early spring, I caught many large rainbow and brown trout, in the pool below the falls. In the late spring summer, I fished for largemouth in the slow water, and small mouth in the faster water. On slow days, I would catch crappy and bluegill for dinner. In the fall I hunted ducks, geese, pheasants, quail, huns, mule, and white tail deer, in the pasture and scab lands along the creek. I climbed, all the bluffs cliffs, and explored every draw, and valley. Some older kids made a diving board, and my friends and I spent countless hours swimming there. Before I was old enough to drive, my mom would drop me off at the bridge above the pasture, and I would spend all day hunting and fishing. One summer day the bass fishing was so good, I kept fishing while my Mom kept honking her horn, waiting for me on the bridge. I new I was going to be in the biggest trouble of my life, but I had just caught a five pound bass and lost another, and decided what ever punishment she could give me would be worth one more cast. When I got old enough to drive I would go there at least a couple days a week all year long. It was and still is a small piece of paradise on earth. Unfortunately the rancher that owned the land sold it to a man from Seattle, who built a better fence, put up hundreds of no trespassing sings, and ran off any locals kids and adults at gun point. The sad thing is he doesn't even fish or hunt there more than once or twice a year. After being away for years in Alaska, I went back home to visit, and of course the first place I wanted to go was this creek. Friends told me that I could no longer step foot on the place. I felt like I hadn't truly visited home. Some people want to see the school they went to, a favorite place to eat, or a place they just hung out at when they were young. All I wanted to do was cast a lure for a bass in my favorite fishing whole. It was more than a place to catch fish, when I was young it was my second home. Not much I can do. The man owns the land, and even after begging him to let me catch a few bass and let them go, he told me to stay off the property. He lives 250 miles away and is never around, so I could simply sneak on the place, but it wouldn't be the same looking over my shoulder all the time, besides I have to respect a private property owners rights, and stay away. If I ever win the lottery, I will buy that pasture and put feel free to fish and hunt signs up the day I sign the papers. I currently have great bass fishing in Mexico where I live, but would give up every DD bass I have caught in Mexico, if I could spend a few weeks, at my old fishing hole. I plan on retiring in the farm community where I grew up. I can only hope by then, someone else owns that property.

No. The more choices the better. Somewhere out there is a magic lure that will catch big bass all of the time, in any lake, under any kind of conditions, and I am going to find that lure or go broke. The Bait Monkey told me this lure exists, and I have to trust my best friend even if he is a monkey.

In my humble opinion, any one with the money, (which isn't that much compared to the cost of a bass boat or AJ's jerkbait collection) and the time to learn how to use it should buy the latest forward scanning sonar. If you catch so many big fish, that you feel it isn't sporting, or ruining yours, or some one else fishing experience in any way, then you can simply turn off the unit, or give it to me. I know of three lakes in Mexico, where someone with the skills to use the new technology might make O.H. Ivie, look like a dink fest. Unfortunately I don't have the finances or the time to take advantage of the opportunity to be first on the scene. AJ you have the skills, and knowledge of Lake Menderchuck, you might as well take it to the next level. You will not get another chance to be the pioneer on your water. Some one else will be the one to discover the true potential of Lake Menderchuck, and in my opinion that would be a travesty.

Mikelson 75 foot sport fisher.

I just got back from a week long trip to Bara De Navidad. Fishing was slower this year, but we still managed to catch a variety of quality fish. We landed three sailfish, and 3 dorado on the way down from PV. Once there we landed Blue Marlin, striped marlin, sailfish, and dorado. On the way back we landed numerous rooster fish, and Spanish Mackerel. We had some big seas, making taking pictures, and driving the boat difficult at times. As always I wish I had taken more pictures. I was trolling very close to the beach while fishing for rooster fish, so wasn't able to get any pictures. We had 5 dorado on at one time, and were able to land all 5. I was able to get some good pics of that action. The best part of the trip, was I hired a chef that my deck hand recommended, and not only could he cook, but he has been bass fishing in Mexico his whole life, and promised to take me fishing on his parents bass boat they have at Picachos.

That was them whole point of my post. The frustration of catching one bass, but not being figure out why the one fish would bite, while not being able to repeat my success, and establish a pattern.

The only reason I fish 7 inch Senko's is they don't make an 8 inch one. They are expensive, but how much is a 10 pound bass worth? They work great for me the couple hours a day, when the wind is calm while switching directions, on my favorite big bass lake. I cast them to suspended bass in timber. I rig them weightless weedless, let them bounce their way through the tree limbs, and hang on.

Your problem is using inexpensive chatterbaits. Buy Jack Hammers, then you, will be to scared to use them. You can't loose them in the rocks, if they stay in your box.

Congratulations, great pics. sounds like an epic day. For fishing like that, I would leave Mexico, for a winter bass fishing vacation in NY.

I plan on fishing over 100 new lakes, as soon as I win the lotto. Until then, I am going to fish the same 4 I did last year, and I hope to get a chance to explore a couple, that I am not sure have bass,( rumors of giants) but I wont know for sure until I try.

After reading this, I was wondering if you think the pre spawn bass like the 55 degree water temp. or if the key is the crawdads start coming out of their holes, when the water temp. hits 55 degrees. On a lake with another bait source that is more vulnerable at a different temp., would that change what temp the pre spawn fishing is best? Your experience indicates the preferred temp. is 55 degrees, so as far as when an angler should fish, it doesn't really mater which comes first, the chicken or the egg, but I am interested in what you think.

I got my first BPS Master Catalogue in 1978. I read every word so many times, I think I had the whole thing memorized. I'm sure I can still quote many of the lure descriptions. If I would have studied my school books a fraction as much as that catalogue, I would have grown up to be a rocket scientist, a brain surgeon and a lawyer. I didn't even study my high school football playbook as much as those magical pages of bass fishing dreams.

I spent many days in miserable weather freezing, glassing for brown beers on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. Many times I had clients that would tell me they spent as much on the Brown bear hunt as they did on their latest African Safari, where they had the opportunity to shoot multiple animals every day. We would go days without even seeing a bear, and spirits would be very low. They thought because they had spent the same amount of money they the hunt should be equally easy, fun, and way less miserable. I always tried to explain to them, that they didn't pay for a bear, they paid for a bear hunt, in wilderness Alaska. I would tell them, it was my job to try and get them a trophy brown bear, but it was there job to enjoy the hunt. Even if I failed at my job, It didn't mean they had to fail at their job. Most of the time after getting their Bear, all they could think about was getting out of camp as fast as possible. Even if it was on the first day, and they had payed for a 15 day hunt, all they could think about was getting a plane in to get them out and back home. Once in while a hunter would want to stay for the entire hunt, maybe catch some fish, tell stories and enjoy the time camping until the planned pick up day. I always considered the few that wanted to stay to be true hunters. The ones that wanted to leave as fast as possible, I only thought of them as people with enough money to add a Brown Bear to their trophy room. The odd thing was while visiting with clients years after their hunt, they would talk very little about the bear, how high it scored, or the actual kill. Their fondest memories, were always of the grueling 12 hour hike back to camp, packing a heavy bear hide, the wind blowing the tent over and having to sleep under a tarp, eating nothing but candy bars for a couple days, because we elected to try and stalk a bear to far away from camp to make it back, watching two bears roll down a mountain fighting and causing an avalanche, or many other experiences they had on the hunt, that had nothing to do with killing their bear. It seamed the more obstacles, we had to over come, and the more miserable the condition, the better the experience, and the fonder the memories. Of course, I had experienced plenty of hardships, making the hunts that we had good weather and easy pack jobs my best memories. After a couple hours telling stories and having some drinks, I always would think, I bet they didn't do that in Africa. My only goal, when I go hunting or fishing is to bag an animal, or catch a fish, but that is not the reason I go hunting or fishing. I go for the chance to bag an animal, or catch a fish, and an opportunity to make great memories in the process. The main reason I go fishing is because it is in my DNA. As long as I can remember I have wanted to fish, and I always will, even if I can't explain exactly why. Kind of like why does a man climb a mountain? Because it is there. Why do I fish? Because I am a fisherman. Why do I fish for bass? Because they are my favorite fish to fish for. I don't recall any time I ever went out on a boat for any other reason than to go fishing, but I have never gone out on the water only to catch fish. That is the difference between simply catching fish, and going fishing.

Because I am at home instead of fishing, and I am bored.