king fisher

I usually wait to long to change lures, except for the times I change to soon. Same goes for location.

Where I fish, Buzz Bait, August through February. March - July Spinnerbait in wood or grass, Crankbaits in rocks.

7 inch Senko Junebug.

After having open heart surgery, a constantly painful back, and knee surgery in my early 40.s. I decided I would need to change careers if I wanted to continue to work. Sleeping on the cold ground, carrying bear hides, and moose meat over mountains was not going to be a sustainable career, in to my 50's and 60,s. Also having to get wavers, and pass an FAA physical every two years was getting difficult. One bad word from a doctor and a career can be over in an instant. I decided I would captain a private yacht in Mexico, in order to be able to work longer. Though I mostly give orders, and have others do the heavy lifting, I still have to do my share of physically demanding mechanic work, but compared to living and working in the Alaska bush it is a job made for sissies. I do have to pass a Coast Guard physical, but I only have to get one every 5 years, and they seem to be less strict than the FAA. I miss the rugged life of the mountains, but I made the right decision to switch jobs when I did. Since moving here I have had to get surgery on one shoulder, and will have to get another one done some day. The knee that was operated on years ago leaves me limping most days, and I will eventually have to get surgery. I won't have to retire for many years, because as my body gives out I simply hire more of the physical work done. I gave up all of my hobbies, except bass fishing. I am very lucky my knee doesn't hurt when I pedal my Hobie, and my back pain only starts when I stand up after a day on the water. I told my wife the day I can't fish is the day she needs to either put me in a home, or the ground. After hearing some of the stories in this thread, I feel very young and fortunate. Many here are much older, and have had much tougher lives, and still manage to get out and catch a few bass. I may have many aches and pains from stress on my body when I was young, but the memories are worth it. Besides now I can have an excuse to hand the rod off when a 200 pound tuna bites, and watch some young guy deal with the pain of landing it. Like others, I try to stretch and exercise in order to lesson the pain, but in the end I know the surgeons knife will eventually be needed. For some reason buying tackle seems to help more than exercise. Imagine that.

If I would have know I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. All of my joints, and my back hurt, but when I hook a big bass, I feel like a kid again.

Most of the time it probably wouldn't make a difference. A bass is not going to turn down a meal, just because it doesn't look exactly like what it has been eating. The problem is at times a bass may use a certain color to help find and catch its prey. If he is keyed in on bright orange, because the crawdads he has been eating have bright orange claws, then the bass may gain an advantage by looking for and quickly striking at bright orange giving it a hunters edge by keying in on the color orange. It might not even notice a green craw, because of being focused on looking for orange. Most of the time the bass focuses on a certain movement, shape, or size to give it a predators edge, but it doesn't hurt to cover all the bases. If by concentrating on a certain color helps the bass find, identify, and catch its prey quicker and more efficiently, than it would be good for the bass angler to have that color on his lure.

Sounds like a $200 saddle on a $50 dollar horse to me. Please do not post pictures of big bass you catch using your Livescope on your kayak. I would hate for the Monkey to be on my back about a $3500 dollar saddle.

I hoped to catch my PB this past weekend, but ended up a few pounds short. First cast at daylight my line some how caught on the hook keeper of my rod. I did make the long cast I was trying to make, only the lure didn't stay tied to the line. Instead of going and getting the lure right away I picked at the professional over run first. A couple minutes later a bass came up and ate the square bill. Only bite of the morning was on a lure that wasn't tied to the line. It was turning out to be one of those days. I did find my PB below the same steep bank as last week, and I had the same luck trying to get her to bite. After a few hours trying to get her to bite, I went to another spot and landed a 5 pound bass on my first cast with a Carolina Rig, but wasn't able to get another bite. Same place I was one and done with the C Rig last week. Nothing frustrates me more than a one bass pattern. Later in the day I tried a new offshore hump I found, and managed to hook an 8 to 9 pound bass on a deep diving crankbait, but lost it within a foot of my Kayak. Of course I couldn't get another bite. Another dreaded one bass pattern. Do pros ever go one and done, or do they always figure out the secret of the first fish success and find a way to duplicate it? The next day I tried for the big bass on the bank, and as always, couldn't even get her to look at a lure. I did manage to catch some small bass, and realizing time was running out, decided to take a picture of one. I got my small bass PB out of the way, next time I hope to get my big bass PB, at least I didn't get skunked.

My job, house work, yard work, birthday parties, graduations, weddings, any other social obligation not listed, injuries, surgeries, pandemics, world famine, nuclear war, or any other darn thing, that keeps me from going bass fishing, when the bite is on.

Only works if you plan on using it to catch fish.

I would be glad to trade you some Christmas tree ornaments for any Whopper Ploppers you have.

Large glide baits, and simmbaits. I have never tried one. I am sure they would work on the waters I fish, which would be a big problem. One DD bass, and I would be speeding down a road, that ends in bankruptcy, divorce, or both.

I am new to the A rig, and most of the time I fish around wood, and am too chicken to throw it around anything that may take that much money away from me in one cast. The time of year is coming when I fish some underwater humps, and ledges and I plan on throwing the A Rig often. I fish Skinny Dippers on underspins, and jig heads often when they quit hitting crankbaits. I usually pick up a few more fish with them and have been doing it for awhile. I purchased an A Rig last year, and had tried it some, with no luck. One day the crankbait died, and I put on an underspin with skinny-dipper, and caught two right away. It was one of those rare times, fishing, when I actually thought of the obvious. If they hit one swimbait, wouldn't they like 5 even more. I only had an hour of daylight left, and was a feeling to lazy to take the time to change to the rig, but I am sure glad I did. Other than needing shoulder surgery a few weeks later, the A Rig was a phenomenal success. I haven't tried any other types of swimbaits, but the Monkey is on my back about the lack of variety at this very moment. I simply nose hook the top two baits with hooks, and use ball head jigs on the bottom baits. The Bait Monkey has me looking at special swimbait heads, and I'm looking forward to reading about which ones people recommend on this post.

Come fish a couple of my lakes. Nothing sets the hook back like an abandoned gillnet. Feels exactly like a giant bass. But you can’t eat it. You can hook as many as you want in a day as big as you want them but the pictures never turn out well.

The first time I heard that sound I was about 12 years old. I thought it was the end of the world, but somehow I did survive. Since then I have heard the sound more times than I care to admit, and it's always the same. End of the world at first, but the Bait Monkey manages to save my life every time.

About 50 50 for me. I love to explore and am always looking for a new place to fish. I also like to go to my old favorites. The months of May and June I will be fishing one lake and only a few spots on that lake. Those two months the water is low, and the big bass are concentrated on a few great holes. The weather doesn't change, they have gained back weight from the spawn, and on every cast I have a good chance at a new PB. The rest of the year, I will be exploring.

I went to a new lake last weekend. There were no maps available, so I went to Google Earth Pro, and looked at the lake in June which is when the water is lowest. I marked dozens of points, islands, creek channel bends, big rocks trees other structure, and cover. I checked the daily average temperature for the past month, and determined the water temp. should be in the mid 70,s. The average temp. for the coldest month which is Jan. was 65 degrees, so I assumed the spawn would have been in Feb. March. I planned on fishing post spawn fish on offshore structure and secondary points to start. When I got to the lake the water temp was 76, and the water was down almost to June level, There was no wind and visibility was 4.5 feet a little clearer than I normally fish, but playing right in to my offshore fishing plan. I went straight to a point I was sure would produce. I marked bait consistently at 15 t 20 feet, and the thermocline was easy to find at 50 feet. I also marked bigger fish at the same depth as the bait but did not know for sure if they were bass. I was sure a good plan was coming together. I stuck with the plan and did catch a few 5 to 6 pound bass, but definitely had not found a decent pattern. Non stop casting for two 13 hour days will catch a few decent bass even if a person is fishing the wrong place with the worst lure. I then fished a few shallow bays, catching only baby bass, and talked to a couple other anglers, that beat the shore and came away with nothing, this information only added to my belief the bass were offshore, I just hadn't found the right spot. Everything I did made sense, but I forgot to do the most basic thing an angler can do, and that is take the time to really look at the water and surroundings. Once I walked high on the bank, where I could look down at the water, I realized my mistake. There was life all over the shoreline. Spawning Tilapia everywhere. Blue Herons, and other birds standing on the steep banks. Baitfish of all sizes right against the bank, and most of all a giant bass cruising the shoreline completely ignoring all the small bait and activity around it. I also found some crawfish claws that were bright blue giving me an insight into what color might work. The best thing I can do when I get to a new body of water is be observant of all my natural surrounding's. Technology is great, but catching bass does require me to take part in nature as a predator. Paying attention to the birds, local fisherman, water splashing, insects, any king of life on the bank, in the water close to shore, and most of all looking to see if there are visible bass are the most basic outdoor skills which I should have used before I even turned my electronics on. Most of the time I walk a few hundred yards of bank, looking for life when I get to the lake even if it is one I fish all of the time. If I had done that this past weekend, I probably would have a new PB right now. I did manage to salvage the trip and get a nice bass, but by paying attention to my surroundings, I might have made the trip epic. I will never go to a new fishery with my mind made up before I get there ever again. No matter how good the original plan is, I will never be so slow to give up on it. A good fisherman not only knows where the fish are and how to catch them, more importantly they quickly determine where they aren't and what doesn't work.

It's all relative. When I'm sitting on the couch watching a football game, In my opinion I'm being active. My wife would only call it activity, if I was on the dumb end of a vacuum cleaner while catching glimpses of the game. When I hook a fish it is active. When I don't get bit I would say the fish is inactive. Maybe the bass thinks he is working all the time, even while watching the game. All I know is there are many days, I wish they were a little less lazy, and more in the mood to vacuum up my lure.

I fished many balsa lures including ones made by Rapala for years and never had a bill break off. I never abused them, but didn't baby them either. The first DT 10 I bought was an unbelievable fish catcher, but one time I made a cast and reeled in nothing but bill. That bait caught lots of fish, so I bought some more. The same thing eventually happened to all of them. It never happened with my old Rapala Fat Raps, other Rapala balsa baits, or any of my Bagelyes. One of the DT baits lost the bill on the first cast. I quite buying them. A couple years later I decided to give them a try again. They must have made a change in glue, or other improvement. I haven't lost a bill on one in a few years now. Might be because I haven't hooked the fish of a life time on one yet but until that happens they seem to work fine. They are not my favorite, but there are times when they out produce every other bait in my box. The other plus is they cast like rockets. I am pleasantly surprised every time I cast one farther than equal weight plastic cranks. I always assumed that a balsa bait would cast poorly, but not the case with the DT series.

I'm not buying my wife any kind of gun. The Bait Monkey would be dead in a week, design or caliber wouldn't make any difference. If I ever let the Bait Monkey talk me in to trying expensive swimbaits, and a rod, reel combo to fish them, I would have to eliminate all knives with blades longer than 2 inches along with any of my guns from the house in order to save the life of the Monkey.

The 1.5 size H2O square bill is better than any other square bill I have in that size. I prefer my 6th sense and old Bagleys in the larger sizes but would pay premium balsa price for the small H20 if I had to. Fortunately they are always less than $5 so even the price is right.

I spend thousands of dollars on equipment, countless hours watching videos', read hundreds of articles, reed hundreds of posts on this site, risk loosing my job, wife, and sanity. I even caught myself looking at a pretty girl, but only noticed she was wearing the perfect shade of chartreuse for her bikini bottom, and her top was that rare half way point between green pumpkin and watermelon. After all this time I find out all I really need to do is become an adult. The only way to describe that statement is childish.

Just buy it. After all it is a reel. taken care of it will last a lifetime. You will be able to use it for years spreading the cost out over a couple decades makes worrying about the purchase seem frivolous Technology in reals has peaked. Future improvements in design will only be cosmetic. The practical value of a quality fishing reel now will change very little negating any need to upgrade in the future. You probably wont loose it like you do tackle. One more reel will complete your arsenal, filling the only whole in your bass line up. Get it now, in order to get ahead of inflation. Just one more reel will help keep the skunk out of the boat for good. I may not have helped get the Monkey off your back, but I hoping to keep him at your house and away from mine for awhile.

I own them all, and continue to by more, but could easily get by with two. 6th Sense Cloud nine series. Aggressive action, loud and great hooks. Something with chartreuse, and some type of Shad. Rapala DT. series. For when they want a tighter less aggressive wiggle, and not as much noise. Sam colors as Cloud Nine.