Tpayneful

I usually only lose a crankbait or jerkbait when fishing from shore. I can't walk on water to get it out of a tree ;D I bought the BPS lure retreiver and have gotten all of my crankbaits and jigs back while fishing from a boat. I will not hesitate to break off a plastic bait because I usually have plenty more in the boat.

"In Pursuit Of Giant Bass" by Bill Murphy he frowns upon sight fishing for bedding fish. Doug Hannon sayes basically the same thing in "Big Bass Magic". I was surprised that B.A.S.S. had 3 major tournaments during the spawn and they were all about sight fishing for spawning fish. In the early 90's B.A.S.S. aplauded states that closed lakes or spawning areas to prevent bed fishing. I like to bed fish but do feel a little guilty about it. :'(

Zel, I would love a whole book or video on using a depth finder. The best articles that I have read about them are on this site but a book or video would be fantastic! The fish that you see on Bassmasters have a sonar (sound) transmitter on them. They just have to put a different frequency sound on the four different fish to distinguish between each of them. To find the fish they have to put at least two microphones in the water and triangulate on the fish. GPS uses RF (radio frequencies) which cannot penatrate water. Submarines have to rise to the surface or raise an antenna to talk to the outside world because of this problem.

In the fall, I was fishing a watermellon seed baby brush hog and noticed some bluegill in the clear water. The bluegill fins looked chartruse so I dipped the baby brush hogs tail in the spike it. Now the lure had an added feature that was closer to the bluegill that I know the bass were eating. I caught fish with the modified lure. I think it made a difference so I have confidence to use it. I used it a lot last fall.

Thank you for all of the suggestions! I have a couple of Bomber Long A lures that I drilled a hole in and dumped out the rattles and epoxied the holes. I have not seen the Rapala LC minnow in any stores yet. I will try that if I find one. I will take a look at the Rebel, Red Fin and K-1 as well. Today I was at the Bassarama fishing show in Richmond, Virginia and saw a balsa jerkbait that looks almost exactly like a Rapala floating minnow. It is the Bagley Bang o lure and they have one that weighs 3/8 oz. They didn't have any except for the one on the display. I did a quick google search and it looks like they are available all over the place.

I bought a 6' 6" Medium spinning Tourney Special Rod last year. On my first fishing trip in Florida, I caught a 4lb bass on it. I liked the rod and its performance. In December, I ordered 7' M and 6' 6" M casting rods for this year. The have performed great practicing in my back yard ;D I think they are a fantastic rod when they are on sale for $29!

Thank you for the suggestion. Surprisingly there don't seem to be any jerkbaits in the 3/8 to 1/2 oz weight that don't have rattles.

Does anyone know of a floating jerkbait that weighs between 3/8 and 1/2oz? I love the floating Rapala but they don't have one in this size. All of the other ones that I look at have rattles. I fish clear water and wanted one that doesn't have rattles.

I have a three ring binder with clear plastic sheet holders that I put a log sheet and a copy of a lake map. Each time I go out I fill out the sheet and mark locations of fish before I go home. I looked over my log sheets for the year and figured out how many fish I caught. Since my lake is in my neighborhood I fish alot of half days or even just go out for a couple hours. So answering the question 3-4 fish is acurate but actually I have a better number that I like to use. Fish per hour is what I use to determine if I am doing good or bad. The first part of the year I was at about 1 fish per hour and the second half of the year I was at about 2 fish per hour.

I have had a 40lb thrust power drive for two years and love it. All of my friends have cable steer trolling motors and I find them to be more difficult to get used too than the power drive. Pros. The motor stays pointed in the direction that you last moved it too. This may not seem like that big of a deal to some people but it is a BIG deal to me. I put the motor speed on a continuous slow speed and tweak the direction ocasionally to crawl down a shoreline. If I want to stop, I kick the big switch off with my foot to stop the motor. To do the same thing with a cable steer motor, I have to keep my foot on the big akward pedal. I stand and fish the whole time and find cable steer pedals put me off balance. The foot pedal is flat and low profile. I can move it around easily be where I am on the platform. It also has a connector on it. I disconnect it and my depth finders and take them all inside when I am done fishing for the day. I have not had one problem with the performance of the pad in two years. It has infinite speed slide bar. I can adjust the speed it with my foot in a hurry. Cons. If you learned on a cable drive, you will hate a power drive. Movement of the motor is slow in comparison to a cable steer Movement makes more noise than a cable steer Deploy system stinks but I found that you can adjust it so that it deploys better No where to attach the transducer cable. The shaft slides up and down the mount during stow or deploy so the transducer cable can only be attached at the top or bottom. I think I have given you a good list of Pros and Cons. I have not met a person yet that learned on a cable steer that likes the power drive. I had a cable steer for a short time before it burned up. So I really count the power drive as my first foot controlled trolling motor. The power drive has its problems but I love the control that it gives me that a cable steer trolling motor can't provide.

Largest -> 1/2 oz spinnerbait 2nd -> Rapala jointed minnow

I am right handed and started fishing with spinning gear. I always cranked the spinning gear with my left hand. When I finally decided to use a baitcaster I chose a left handed model. It works best for me but it does limit your choices of reels because only 1/3 to 1/2 of the reel models have a left handed model. The most interesting thing for me is that my 6 year old started fishing with a Zebco 202 which is right handed. When he started using a spinning reel, he made me switch the handle to the right side. So I guess my boy will grow up switching hands as well. The one advantage I guess is that he will not want to use my reels! ;D