patbfishing123

I agree with John J., If you can see the bass, the bass can see you. I would say see where they bass are and then go past them to the point where you can no longer see them. This way what the bass are doing does not effect your presentation, because often when you see a bass coming at your lure you will get excited and stop your presentation. Cast the bait to where you thing the bass are and present your lure. Keep casting there until you get the fish. I would say to use some sort of crawfish or jig lure or give a wacky worm or jig head with a four inch worm on it! Good luck

Not a bad fish to start the season off with. Nice job!

GARLIC!!!! its probably the strongest and longest lasting scent you will find. And bass love it

I agree bass will spawn when the water gets into the 60's. You will be able to tell that the bass are spawning when you start seeing them on their beds in the shallower water. Also when the water is starting to get warmer, you will find the bass in the transition stage, this is the time when bass are beginning to think about moving to their beds and are in 5-8 feet of water. GOOD LUCK! Pat

I've heard of many bass clubs in western New York I was just wondering if anyone has any input about which is best... or are any of them better than others and such. Thanks Pat

wow! sounds like a good day.. I hope to have a couple of them this year... although i do live in new york so im gonna have to work pretty hard!

I also agree.. anything that you can cover a lot of water with at a fast pace will pretty much be a good search bait.

Yes sir garlic is where its at... GOOD LUCK!

well i would say to start out with search baits such as lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits then when you know that the fish are in there, go to a jig or worm. But i would say that you will probably have the most luck on the lipless crankbaits... good luck Pat

I have been considering getting one of these reels... could you let me know how it works our for you after using it a few time and if any one else has one of these reels input would be great... I want to know its gonna be a good product before I get it.

what? tell me more when is this gonna air.. this is great news if it is true!!!

I would say the best thing to do is to get a nice cooler and mount it in the boat... a cooler will keep the water cooler and be very simply to mount any where in the boat... I think that if you use any other material that there will be no insulation and the water will get pretty warm. A cooler would also be good because you dont have to worry bout buiding a top that will open with hinges or latch properly. also you could drill a couple of holes toward the top of either end of the cooler to put in a couple of bubblers. GOOD LUCK

I agree with hi_steel_basser. If you want to overcome the smell of tobacco on your hands just use an overwhelming scent on your lure. I like to use garlic, garlic is a very strong and overpowering scent that the fish love and should cover up the scent from your hands... GOOD LUCK! Pat

I like a stanley 3/8 ounce jig in a greenish brown color, with a green double tailed hula grub with a strong garlic scent, I forgot the name of who makes em.

A Hula Grub is a great lure and very versitile. It is like a jig and most times is what I use as a trailer on my jigs. But i have also taken the skirt of a jig and put just a Hula Grub on the jig head. Pretty much anywhere and any presentation that you would use for jig (flipping, pitching, jigging, swimming...ect) (in logs, thick mats of weeds, any structure really) these are the areas that you will catch fish with the hula grub. I have had a lot of luck with more of the greener colors, but I am fisihing in minorly stained water. I hope this helps. Good luck Pat

Bed fishing/ sight fishing is where its at. Well atleast when your going for big fish. Its always a good time to rome around the shallows looking for that monster fish then sticking a tube or wacky worm in its face trying to get her to bite. And its gotta be the furthest thing from cheating... its a lot of work to try to get a big fish that you can see to eat your bait. First of all because you can see the fish you get pretty excited so its hard to stay focused with all the excitement and second usually if you can see the fish, the fish can see you. The best thing to do and this a trick that I learn from my good friend steve kennedy from the bassmaster elite series, which is to locate the fish on the bed and to proceed by the fish or back up still realizing the general location of the bed. Get far enough away from the bed so that you cannot see it but still know where it is. Then start casting, but cast sidearm and make sure that you are on the side of the nest where when facing the nest the sun is in front of you so that you do not cast a shadow into the bass's nest.

If you want bigger fish use bigger baits. If you want a lot of fish use smaller baits. But I would say to stick with the crankbait, maybe even do some jigging with a jig and pig. Try a variation of lures if none of that works to see what works best for you. You can't really go to a pond that you have never fished before and only stick to one lure and hope that you are going to catch many fish. Change it up a little i just told you a couple of the best lures to catch bass in a pond especially a pond with a lot of cover and structure. Other good baits for ponds include: tubes, rubber worms, and spinner baits.... TRY IT ALL! see what works that best.

I use Trilene XL as well on all of my rods, but recently i have been trying out the new suffix mono and my results are not so good. The memory of the line is too high to be fishing a jig with it and even crankbaits or spinnerbaits... I dont see this line being good for anything. I'm pretty sure that I will be switching back to the Trilene. Oh yeah and 12# is monofilament is where its at. Yeah sure braided line is stronger and will rip through the weeds, but im not worried about the weeds half as much as I am about ripping the hook out of a fishes mouth... With monofilament there is some stretch to keep the hook from ripping the fishes jaw. Pat

Murky water is always a good time, thats mainly what I fish in. When it is sunny out throw a brighter color like a bright yellow or orange. And when it is cloudy throw a darker red/craw color. These colors will work wonders for you.... Lipless crankbaits are the way to go! good luck

Last spring I had a lot of luck on the rattlin rapala.. but after a recent trip to bass pro shops I picked up a couple of yo-zuri harcore drums and the excalibur lipless crankbait... GREAT LURES. I have not gotten the chance to catch to many fish yet this year with these lures but just bringing them through the water is great... they can be retreived as slow or as fast as you want and they have super loud rattles great for any kind of reaction bite or for muddy or stained water!!! I'd say my favorite is the yo-zuri!

wow! this is a lot of great input. Thanks everyone.. I am definetly looking forward to fishing my chatterbait come next season!

how can you be anything but excited to bass boats on the lake that you are fishing! I would probably wet my pants from being so excited! It is so amazing

Lipless crankbaits will be your best bet... especially when fishing just grass.. The bass will be in the grass in search for food. If you run you lipless crankbait right above the grass, the bass will hit the lure. They are not bitting the lure because they want to eat it, they are bitting the lure because it is zooming past their faces. This is called a reaction bite and it is what a lipless crankbait is generally used for. It is used to mainly get this reaction bite because you can run it as fast or as slow as you want and as deep or as shallow as you want.. The best part about fishing the grass is that there will be bass in the grass at all times of the year.. but in grass in different depths of water according to the temperature of the water and the clearity of the water and the weather outside.. in a clearer body of water, which you said you would be fishing in, When the sun is out, the fish are driven deep and when there are clouds and both early and late in the day, the fish will be moving into the shallower water. GOOD LUCK fishing

ok ... great... I was thinking maybe letting it sink to the botttom them starting my retrieve... what do u think?

thats what im talking about!!!!