king fisher

In order for a fish to qualify for a IGFA record it has to be caught according to IGFA rules as well as be a legal catch according to the regulations of the state it was caught in. Weather the regulation in a particular state is unpopular, legal in other states, or makes zero sense to most anglers is irrelevant. Being a record does not mean it is the biggest fish of that species. It only means, it was legally caught by sport fishing means, and all IGFA rules were adhered to. If a world record bass was caught in the state of Idaho at night it would not qualify, because it is illegal to fish at night in Idaho. It wouldn't matter if the angler thought it was still day light, or hooked it before the closed time, but landed it afterword's, it would still be an illegal catch and would not qualify for a record. Many potential saltwater records get disqualified because of an IGFA rule infraction. The fish was the biggest, but a mate touched the line above the leader, leader length was to long, main line tested above line rating, mate helped move rod and many other rule violations, that doesn't take away from the quality of the fish, but does break the rules of a record sport catch according to the IGFA. In Alaska it is illegal to snag salmon in fresh water. A skilled angler can perfect a skill called lining or flossing. It involves having the line slide through a salmon's mouth and hooking the salmon in the mouth with a single hooked fly. It is illegal to intentionally snag a salmon, but impossible to prove the salmon was snagged intentionally. In order to have some way to enforce the no snagging law, they consider a fish snagged if it is hooked behind the gill. If Dottie was caught in Alaska, it would have been a legally caught fish and a new world record. She was caught in CA where the definition of snagging is different, so no record period. I agree Dottie was the biggest bass of all time, but she was not a world record sport caught bass in CA, therefore no IGFA record. She does have the record for the biggest large mouth bass ever weighed on a certified scale. No other bass, even ones farmed raised or caught in a commercial net have ever been as big

I don't know about fishing line, but age seems to be eliminating my memory.

#3 Mepps or Blue Fox Vibrax inline spinner

I fished Tepic today. I landed this 7.6 pound 24.25 inch bass in the first 15 minuets of fishing this morning. The rest of the day was slow, but I did manage to land 6 more ranging from 1 to 4 pounds. The big fish was on a magnum square bill deflected through the tops of a tree, in 30 feet of water. The other fish were caught on Texas Rigged Zoom Ole monster, and Skinny dippers dragged through the same tree tops. The wind picked up early today. started blowing hard at 10:30 AM, gusts were hitting 40 MPH by noon. One of these years I hope I learn I can't get a spinnerbait out of an abandoned gill net when the wind is blowing 40 MPH. Last year in early June I broke a rod tip trying, and I did the same exact thing today. I guess I should look at the bright side, at least this year I did get my spinnerbait back. After breaking a rod, and loosing some lures, I gave up early. I may be a stubborn ,slow learner, but once in a great while I will do the smart thing. All in all it was a great day, even if I wasn't smart enough to quit while I was ahead.

Wind + wood = spinnerbaits.

Gold silver. White Chartreuse. White Orange. White White. Chartreuse Chartreuse.

A-Jay you need to stop posting tackle porn in the morning. The Bait Monkey will be on my back all day now.

Black and Blue jigs, craws, spinnerbaits, and chaterbaits. Junebug worms, especially fond of Junebug 7 inch Senko, which I can't find anymore, and Zoom Ole Monster.

If you plan on using it in salt water the Diawa BG. Nothing else comes close to the BG for the price. For freshwater only, all the major companies have a quality spinning reel in that price range. I really like my Plueger President, but some say they have gone down in quality in the past few years. Mine is 8 years old and good as new.

I don't know how many nuts a blind squirrel finds, but I'm sure it is more than the number of fish I found last time I went fishing.

1- #3 Mepps, or Vibrax inline spinner, silver, or gold. 2- Original Floating Rapala gold black back 3- Black buck tail jig. With these three lures, you will be able to catch multiple species from Florida to Alaska.

Thanks for the morning tackle porn. Bait Monkey is going crazy. What are the three secret baits you left out of the bottom right box?

My dream trip would be one where, I never backlash, I don't loose any lures, and the big one doesn't get away. Species and location, would be small mouth bass at Lake Menderchuck.

Are you sure your bow is pointed at the brush pile? Your boat icon can be pointing any direction if you are not moving. The bow of your boat can be pointed one direction, and the bow on the boat icon can be pointed the opposite way. Try using marker buoys, then as you gain confidence in your unit, graduate to using only your electronics.

I don't use a net, because I feel it is just as easy to lip big bass when sitting that close to the fish. After landing the bass, I measure the length by laying them on top of my kayak where I have placed marks from 23 inches on up. If the bass is over 24 inches, I attach some fish grips that are tied to the side of my kayak and put the bass over the side.. I then have plenty of time to get my scale, and camera ready. The bass is never out of the water for more than a few seconds, and I can take all the time I need. I have successfully landed and released un harmed a few DD bass this way, and although it is a little scary putting them back in the water before I get a weight and photos, I haven't had one get away yet, and am confident I wont in the future. Before I started using the fish grippers, I was always in a rush, and sometimes wouldn't even get a picture, weight or measurement. I did try a stringer, and though I never felt I had damaged the gills of any bass, I was worried there was a chance of hurting the fish, so I switched to the grips.

New Years day 1983. I decided to go ice fishing. I stopped at a store to get a license, but they didn't have any for the new year yet. I stopped at another place, and they were closed. As usual I was in a hurry and decided to just go fishing. I was going to a lake I had never been to before, but was supposed to be on fire according to the sport section of the news paper. Because I had never been there, I didn't know there was a spring in between the parking lot and where I saw other fisherman. I fell through the ice trying to get to where everyone was fishing. I was completely soaked and cold, but determined to catch some fish. I caught a few perch, that I gave to another angler. I was to cold to stay for more long so I left early. When I got to my car I got checked by the game warden. I pleaded with him to give me a break, but the only break I got was he let me sit in my car with the heater running while he wrote me a ticket. I learned two lessons that day. Be more careful on ice, and never go fishing without a license. Since then I have a few more close calls on ice, but have never not had my license.

Depends on water temp. and clarity. The clearer the water the more time I spend on my electronics. If the water is less than 1.5 foot of visibility and I was limited on time, I would pound the banks. If more than 1.5 foot of vis. I would spend at least some time looking for structure, bait, and bass on my fish finder. When fishing the banks, time of year and water temp. would determine if I start back in a bay, or out on a point. Four hours is not much time. It took me 14 hours before I found fish last weekend, and I was on a familiar lake.

Why is the guy frowning after being told such an awesome future?

My only regret is buying a Heddon Sonic back in 1976. It was the first crankbait I ever owned. That one purchase started me on a crankbait addiction that may get me on an episode of hoarders some day.

Diawa JBraid in grey.

I agree, and have witnessed the type of behavior you mentioned many times, from many predator's on land or water. Many times a bass or other predator wont take advantage of an easy meal, for many unknown reasons. Many times they are simply full. My point was only, when they do decide to hunt a certain prey, much of the time the reason is because of something in the environment has given them an advantage over their prey. That advantage may or may not be obvious, may or may not be predictable, and may or may not happen on a regular basis. This is also a reason many times a bass will become selective, even though they have the ability to eat almost anything.

No regrets. All my tackle was money well spent. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. Does any one want to trade a helicopter lure for a Jack Hammer?

All predators hunt when they have windows of opportunity. From bass to humans, if you are going to catch your prey, you have to hunt for them when you have the best chance of success, not when you feel like hunting. Bass will feed when they have the best chance of successfully catching their prey. A fisherman will have the best chance at catching a bass if he can determine when the bass has their best chance. Where I hunt ducks, I have to go early in the morning on stormy days. Not because I wouldn't like to shoot ducks, in the afternoon on clear days, I would, but If I hunted them then, I wouldn't get any ducks. Someone hunting ducks in flooded timber in Arkansas would disagree, and say you have to have a clear day to get ducks in the timber. Any location will have prime times for duck hunting depending on many factors. Bass are no different than a typical duck hunter. They will hunt when the odds are in their favor. Not that they wont eat a meal that happens to swim by unexpected, just like I will shoot a duck flying by while walking back to my truck, but they will be the on hunt for food when they have some kind of advantage. It may be light, wind, temperature, moon cycle, boat traffic, or a combination of one or more of a thousand factors. One lake bass may feed when a dam creates current, while a pond may be when everything calms down in evening and the insects start to hatch. On one lake the bass may patiently wait for a truck to pull up and dump thousands of disoriented rainbow trout in the lake, another lake they may hunt when the crayfish molt. The timing may be easy for a fisherman to predict or next to impossible depending on the location, time of year, and weather patterns. One pond with very stable conditions, may be effected by moon cycles, while the lake with the truck planting the rainbows would not be influenced by moon cycles in the least, unless the driver only drove the truck on a full moon, then the moon cycle would be a huge factor. I fished a lake when I was a kid where the afternoon breeze from the West would blow in to a small bay almost every day late in the afternoon. The bass would go in to the shallow bay when the wind blew and feed on crayfish in the rocks. I'm sure I could have caught them in deeper water near the bay when the wind wasn't blowing, but I was fishing from shore and never had the opportunity to try. I would simply wait for the wind to pick up and run down to the bay. The bay was protected from east winds. If the wind was blowing from the east that day, I went trout fishing in the creek. That was an example of a predictable bite window. I wish the places I fish now were that predictable. I'm always trying to predict a time the fish will bite, with very few predictions being right. I have learned one thing for sure, if my worm isn't in the water I can't get bit.

I have an almost 100% method to predict feeding activity. Before I get to the lake the fish will be actively feeding. When I leave a feeding frenzy is sure to start. When I am at the lake, they will only be feeding on the opposite end of the lake.

I did the opposite. I used the put my thumb on the spool, tighten the drag all the way, and reel, to get rid of a backlash method. It worked on the backlash, but I forgot to loosen the drag afterword. A while later I hooked a double digit bass, and it made a hard run. No worries, I was in open water, then snap. I like my drags tight, but a little give at the right time can save the day.