OCdockskipper

Roboworm, in Aarons Magic in summer/fall or Orange Crusher in winter/spring.

Don't forget those little pedal boats, they are a pain in the wind, but they can get you where you want to.

I had a situation in in prespawn where I got a few bumps on a medium sized swimbait, but didn't hook up. i got another bump, hooked up only to see that I had hooked the fish outside the mouth. I guessed that the bass were being territorial as opposed to feeding, so I switched from the swimbait to a same sized crankbait. I started connecting with a greater majority of those bumps thanks to the treble hooks flailing about. Never was able to figure out what they would choke down, so I just stayed with the crankbait and kept catching fish, many of them barely hooked or hooked outside the mouth. Probably could have done the same thing using a jerkbait.

We are both married, with kids (mine grown, hers younger). I've known her for decades, she is like a sister, so pretty or not doesn't even enter my mind. I don't get to fish with her often because she lives out of state & typically will go with my friend (her brother) when she is in town.

That fish has no ID, he isn't old enough to drive yet and no pockets to carry it in.

I have never liked the feel of cork, but I know I am in the minority. It may be memories of older, cheaper rods with cheap cork handles that always felt slippery. I got used to foam and now it just feels comfortable. The bait monkey has been whispering "Winn grips" in my ear recently...

For the record, Irvine Lake closed due to insurance issues, which prompted the city to not renew the concessionaire. A couple of incidents with litigious folks overloading their boats & then drowning when they sank said boats first caused a ban on boating followed shortly thereafter a ban on fishing overall. The liability exposure of the city exceeded what they could make from a concessionaire. Back to the topic at hand, I have a few recommendations. First would be to go through the people you know to determine if anyone lives where they have access to a private lake. Canyon Lake is the largest, but there are multiple smaller development lakes in the area that offer good fishing. You'd be surprised at how many people who live on or have access to these lakes are often looking for a fishing partner, especially someone who provides good company. There are also other folks who live there who don't fish, but are happy to see someone they know get use out of it. Another option is golf course ponds. Again, it will probably take some legwork and salesmanship on your part to get access, but you can't G-E-T if you don't A-S-K. You may have to offer your time doing something that benefits the course in exchange for access and agree to access only at times the golfers aren't on the course or near those holes. These can be a lot of fun when you are there legitimately and don't have to constantly be looking over your shoulder for the course marshal. Get creative & you may find your own honey hole.

In addition to teaching him about fishing, i believe you may have either introduced or reinforced faith in humanity to the young man. Great example, great deed, kudos to you. However, I misread that last line and at first thought you wrote that when you "head out of Hell, you will get an invite". Lack of punctuation easily confuses me...

So I posted a public mea culpa for showing off in sight of a bank fishing dad & his sons the other day and decided to do something to balance out any bad karma. My buddy's sister was in town for the day & he couldn't get off work, so I offered to take her out fishing in his place. She is an avid fisherwoman, pretty skilled at most power techniques, so while it wasn't a complete act of charity, I figured it was a good deed nonetheless. We launch before daybreak & I get her off a point with some isolated cover. She gets a blowup on a topwater immediately, so I tell her to toss a wacky Senko to the same spot (she rarely fishes soft plastics or jigs). She hooks up, ridding herself of any possible skunk minutes into the day. Now I am fishing as well, but not so much to catch fish in front of her, but to figure out what is going on and then get her into a position to catch more. She is switching between a Jitterbug, a square bill and the wacky Senko (which she has quickly fallen in love with) while I am throwing a Ned rig to try to determine what depth most of the fish are at. I make a cast up to a seawall that hasn't produced a fish in 3 weeks, when my line starts to go sideways. I set the hook & it keeps going sideways. This massive head & shoulders come out of the water & my passenger's jaw drops. She has never seen a bass this big and is stunned, to the point that she doesn't reel in the senko and it gets tangled with my line. With the fish at the boat, I undo the tangle and lip this 8 lb beauty (http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/155892-uh-yep-the-ned-rig-is-awesome/?page=2#comment-2010527). My guest is going nuts, she really doesn't care that I caught the fish, she is just so happy to see a big fish. It gives me some solace that she is happy for me instead of being jealous. As the morning progressed, it appeared most of the fish had moved deeper or under the shady docks, so I spent a few minutes showing her how to skip cast. She did okay, some of the casts went awry and probably spooked off fish, but it didn't matter. She caught 7 bass skipping docks with the Senko while I kept the boat in position & made casts out to deeper water picking up fish here & there. After a while, she told me she had to make some business calls, but didn't want to get off the water. She asked if it was okay that she get on her cell for about an hour while I continued to fish. No problem, in fact I though it might be worth while for her to watch me skip some more docks, maybe there were things in the technique she could learn by observing instead of me telling. Yeah, you guessed it, I hit a hot stretch of docks with 6 fish on successive casts. While on the phone, she is giggling as I shrug my shoulders. I finally make a cast that results in no bite only to have the next cast hook up with a 5 lb, 5 oz brute (picture below). As I landed "her fish", she rolled her eyes at me, shaking her head and smiling as she chatted with a client. As soon as the call ended, she said "The hell with business, I can't let you catch any more of my fish!!" She ended the day with another dozen fish, one just under 3 lbs. The Senko is now her favorite lure & she told me she had a wonderful day, even though her "guide" took all the big fish.

Here is an example of that occasional larger fish, I caught her yesterday. She weighed 8 lbs even, hit a California Craw TRD on a 1/15oz Shroomz head. It is amazing how such a small, simple lure convinces so many big fish to munch down. I imagined her cruising past the TRD & just opening her mouth to filter it in like a Baleen whale...

The designer of the game used to go out in woods near his house as a kid to catch bugs and critters, but realized as he got older, many city kids couldn't have the same experience because there were no close-by rural areas for them to scavenge. The game is designed to supplement that, to give kids, especially boys, a similar experience to what many of us did most days after school. In the same way I don't play fishing games in place of actually going fishing, I believe the real thing is better. That said, I can see how Pokemon-Go appeals to many and the benefits it has over traditional video games.

You are correct, it did feed my ego, that's why I called myself a jerk and publicly outed myself. It is a competitive thing, always wanting to be good at what I do (albeit not necessarily better than others, just good at it myself). I didn't post it looking for a pat on the back, rather to see if many other anglers sometimes do the same thing or feel the same way. However, if someone else catching fish from a boat bothers you as a bank fisherman, I think that may be your problem more than theirs . If the boater is yelling like Ike with every fish or crowding you, then yes, they are arrogant & showboating. But if they are just fishing, is catching something within your sight now a micro-aggression? I know if I am not catching anything and someone catches fish in front of me, I don't dislike that person, I want to learn from him. As far as the guy not being able to afford a boat, I'm fishing from a Pond Prowler and this guy lives here in Lake Forest (in south Orange County) in order to be able to fish this lake. Trust me, he can afford my boat...

I have done that with kids and with adults who call me over & ask questions. I even spent about 20 minutes with a teenager showing him how to skip the Senko's I gave him so he could at least hit the docks on either side of the greenbelt areas as he walked the lake. However, I hesitated doing that with this guy because I was concerned about him taking it as an insult. I didn't want it to come across that I felt sorry for him so I was going to come over and teach him how to fish. I learned years ago that when you have success at something and offer unsolicited advice (to adults), a lot of people take it the wrong way and accuse you of being arrogant. Instead I try to smile & be friendly and if anyone asks how or for help, then I'm more than willing to open up. Kids are different, they are getting advice whether they want it or not...

Early yesterday morning while out fishing, I saw a woman walking her dog, cell phone in front of her in an apparent attempt to capture some Pokemon. I didn't see if she pointed towards the water to try to catch any sea monsters...

Yes, not to specifically detail the account of each fish caught, but to give a summary of the days fishing. If there was a pattern that developed, that is what I want to keep written down for the future.

Depends on how nice their boat & equipment is ... Being a smaller lake with only homeowner access, I know nearly all of the other bass fishermen and we share information. I think we all want to show off in front of each other. Same with younger kids or folks who it is obvious are novice, holding a spinning reel upside down while trolling at 10 mph down the middle of the lake in a party boat. I'll tell them all they want to hear, I think much of it goes over their head. Amazingly enough, a huge majority of the residents here have no idea what a largemouth bass is or what methods are used to catch them. I am constantly being asked if there are trout in the lake or being told that the best catfish bait is hot dogs. That's Southern California for ya'...

I'm glad you two mentioned that, I didn't think of the kids reaction that way. All I could imagine was a ride home in silence and then the kids running up to their mom saying "Dad really sucks at fishing!!"

If it is the one at the beginning of Lunkerville then yes, I have seen it. It is good up until the end when all of a sudden there is shot of a crowd who appear to be at a Packers game. The crowd starts cheering & I wonder "What does that have to do with Bass Resource?"

When it comes to fishing, I consider myself a nice guy. I practice fishing etiquette, will never horn in on someones area and make sure to give plenty of space to shore fishermen so as to not spook fish in their area. I am friendly with other fishermen and will happily share what I know if it seems they have a genuine interest in learning and are respectful themselves. But I have a little devil on my shoulder who always whispers the same thing: "Catch a fish when they are watching you..." Yesterday, I come into small cove and there is a man still-fishing on a public access area on one side of the cove with his two young sons (under the age of 6 or so). Like most young kids, they are already bored and doing everything on the shore except fish. I waved, carefully went around him, well beyond how far he could cast and began working the opposite shore. That little devil is whispering "You have an audience", forcing me to focus a bit more as I make my first cast. I make 3 casts around & under the first dock of the cove with no results and I hear one of the kids say "Daddy, why does he keep reeling in?" (it is amazing how how well sound carries over water). The next dock is paydirt, I pull a 2 pounder out and let it jump a few times before I land it. Next cast, I hook & land her twin sister. 2 casts later, I hook up but she throws the bait. Next cast I hook up and land another. I glance over at the shore angler and now in addition to the 3 lines he has out, he is casting what looks to be a crankbait. From the 9 docks along the opposite shore, I have 6 hookups, landing 5 of them. Not only did it catch the anglers attention, his kids stopped what they were doing and were watching as well. Before I leave the cove, I move out slightly deeper and start flippin' a jig along an area where the concrete on the bottom of the lake has shifted and there is a ledge that fish often back up under. In 4 flips, I land three fish, all over 3 lbs. Typical of flippin' fish, I hammer the hooksets and all hell breaks loose as the fish come up out of the cover. I see the father furiously casting whatever lure he has while one of his sons says "Why is he catching fish & you aren't". Like a jerk, I can't help but smile...

When I am teaching others how to skip under docks, they seem to have the most success quickest with a wacky rigged senko on a sturdy spinning rod. The heavier 5" Senko is a little easier to learn with than the smaller models. Plus, 80% of the docks on my lake always have a boat or boats on them, so when a misfire hits the boat, it is a quieter "thump" compared to the rifle-like "crack" of a jig head hitting said boat hull. And trust me, in the beginning, you will misfire often. As far as fishing around docks, as Bluebasser said, just about everything else is in play. A good percentage of the bass you catch around the docks will tend to be positioned near the corners, but it changes often as to whether they want something dropping vertically past them or run horizontally past them (not to mention going from shallow to deep vs. parallel to the dock).

Not so much a goofy rig as a goofy technique. At age 10/11-ish, I somehow got my hands on a packet of red Mister Twister Curtly tail worms, the ones that were bigger than a grub and were kind of a predecessor to the ribbontail worms of today. All I knew about fishing was still fishing for catfish or trolling with lures like Flatfish. So my buddy & I piled into the 6 foot dingy we had mounted an electric motor on, ran catfish hooks through the worms like you would do with an exposed jig head, and started dragging them behind the boat at a speed fast enough to make the tails move. With no weight on them, they stayed pretty close to the surface. It was late summer, so we would troll right through the middle of the weed beds, basically making a path as we went and dragging the worms in the path. Rarely would we get a strike on the first or second pass through an area, but we did catch a few fish going back through our paths later.

How awesome is the Ned Rig? Well yesterday afternoon, I have a ZMan TRD tied on and am holding the rod out in front of me, about 6 feet off the top of the water. Suddenly, a swallow or sparrow or some kind of smallish bird zips in and tries to grab it. I instinctively jerk it back, at which time the bird does a 180 and goes after it again. This crazy bird was zipping around me like a fighter jet, hell-bent on eating that TRD. The only thing I could think of to do to stop him was make a cast, so I quickly skipped it under a dock I was approaching. The bird made a halfhearted attempt to follow it, but then zipped up & away. A moment later, the line jumped and I had hooked up with a bass under said dock. I landed it, looked around for the Amelia Earhart of birds, but she was no where to be found. I was freaked out for the next 10 minutes. To me, this means the Ned rig is effective for both fish & fowl. In fact, I believe I could have pitched it up on the shore and caught the dock owners cat for a triplicate.

If you use a ZMan Ned rig (1/15 oz head & TRD), the light weight & buoyancy allow you to fish it like a fluke. A swimming technique over the top of the grass will work, but it does take some skill & focus to keep it at the proper depth(s). You won't feel most strikes, the line will either suddenly feel heavy or the line will be moving sideways as you reel in.

Typically, top sales producers are given more leeway by owners/management than others for the simple fact that they are more valuable. If the reverse is happening, than something has changed. It may be of your making (you have pushed too far) or it may be out of your control (a manager/owner has a non-business reason for favoring others), but it will affect you either way. The tough part is getting an honest answer as to the impetus for the change, especially in a larger, more political company.

Exactly. There is no greater memory than the first time you see a bass that size surface, mouth wide open, shaking their head to try & spit out your lure. I tell people that I take out fishing that I am looking forward to seeing the look on their face when they see that. It will make even the most soft-spoken, church goer let out a "Holy S*** !!"