Bucky205

Zara Spook, and Whopper Plopper. I've probably caught more bass on Zara Spooks than all the others I have combined. Haven't been using the Whopper Plopper very long, but so far I really like it.

Thanks, I sold them for a lot of years and ad never heard that so was curious.

Armageddon

My favorite is Zoom, Brush Hog, Geeen Pumpkin, 1/4 Oz pegged weight for flipping, I don't think I ever punch. I flip or pitch to a hole, bounce it a couple times and move on to the next hole.

Just curious where you read that the scroll speed effected the pulses?

I don't have a clue as to whether sonar or trolling motors spook fish. I try to run my trolling motor at a constant speed without a lot of on and off's. If I know the area my sounders are off. I try to drift in on the wind if possible. I've seen power boats sound a school of bait fish, and a sailboat go right through them. Tarpon in the marinas in Key West will stand at your feet if your throwing food in the water, and haul ass if they see you standing on a sandbar. I've seen catfish, and coy ponds where they would come up as soon as they saw you hoping to be fed. Most of us have seen the guy catching the huge bass with his hans out of his pond on the internet. I think maybe it is an associated behavior. Usually when fish are released they get the hell away from me. I don't see a lot of bass that have been hit by boats, or sucked through the turbines at the dam, so maybe their is some degree of danger awareness. Lol. and I've seen pond bass get caught over, and over out of the same john boat banging around. So I haven't a clue.

I have a 7'3" Duckett Ghost H/F($120 with extended warranty), with an Abu 4600C3. I like it a lot, I flip, pitch, and throw heavies with it. I wouldn't do a Duckett without the extended warranty, but I like the sensitivity.

Wayne I looked and can't find this. You've sold me on updrading to the HDSI. Will the AS SIDB Y cable support the XHS-9-HDSI-180T?

New Alabama advisory. It's shellfish and naturally occurring, but still concerning. http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/10/health/alabama-vibriosis-bacteria-coastal-waters/index.html

Might wanna try a spinnerbait, it will go as deep as you want, and give you a lot of options depending on the retrieve, and configuration. Charteuse and white, with a single silver willowleaf blade, and some kind of white trailer about 3" is usually what I try first deep. Count it down when it hits the water, and try different retrieves. If I was trying to target 15' I would count up too 1012,..1014,..16..., etc. on different cast. When it gets hit I try the same count, and retrieve again. I could actualy see the spinnerbait on my old 2D sonar in 83/200, and I didn't have to count. Made it really easy to put the bait at the same depth as the fish.

It used to be wind, I made a big effort to get effective on windblown points this year, I've actualy gotten where I get excited if it's windy. I had a lot of help from the guys here figuring out how to use the wind to my advantage. High heat seems to be my biggest annoyance. I had rather fish in the rain, or at night than a 95+ degree sticky, still day. It's hard to escape, If you keep geting wet to cool off you chafe. I bought a couple of the cooler bandannas that you wear around your neck, they help some. Gotten to the point if it is really hot I will troll the points with a deep diver just to get air moving over me.

LOL, Some of us can do more than one thing at once, and some of us know the water is getting worse. 20 years Navy with 6 years serving in Florida, 10 in Hawaii 3 in the the Phillipines, and 2 in Alaska. When we wereren't out on detachment we were home in Hawaii. I also drove for Towboat US, and BP while living on the sailboat after I retired from the Navy. I'm fixing to be 57, Sorry I confused you, I'm terrible with essays. I forgot 6 months in Okinawa, and 6 months in Iceland, 6 months in Diego Garcia, and a free trip to Iraq .

Ok I’m very bored, severe thunderstorms outside, and electronics at Humminbird getting checked out. Give me a break, this is going on everywhere, the US is better than most countries but getting worse. July 4th 2016 there were swim advisories for most of the Florida panhandle, and a lot of Louisianna. I’m not sure I understand how discouraging people from the coast makes money for those states. It doesn’t matter which coast, or reservoir your on, you’re seeing trash get worse. Ignore it and I guarantee it will damage our sport. Swimming and fishing in fecal bacteria is not for me, I’m not real fond of PCB’s and mercury in my fishing water either. My whole family is ROFLTAO about “boots on the ground experience”, your right I have very little. I grew up in south Alabama, with friends and family running shrimp boats, step-mother died in a boating accident when I was 16, overcome by carbon monoxide from a faulty Onan generator. I spent 20 years Navy diving off almost every country in the world. I have worked as a captain for TowBoat US, BP, and private clients; I have fished and guided both salt and fresh. Many of my friends carry everything from a 6-pack to a 100 ton-masters license, many are guides, and share the same opinion on pollution getting worse. Eight years living on a 42' Island Packet sailboat cruising the Caribbean. I’ve worked for Westmarine giving technical advice to mariners. I lived in Hawaii for ten years where both my kids were born and we fished a 37' Trojan. I did Alaska for two years where the salmon fishing was great, but I didn't like watching eagles eat of out of the garbage containers left open by careless people. I never fished for crab, but I like the TV show. I lived on the base in the Philippines for 3 years walking into the city across a waterway we had a nickname for it was so polluted. I served in Florida for 6 years where I experienced some of the best bass fishing of my life at Rodman Reservoir, and the St John’s River. My ex-wife managed Crystal Cove Marina that BASS used for years fishing Palatka, FL. I have met many of the BASS pros from the 90’s, and had drinks or dinner with several. I knew KVD when he was starting out, and he was incredible then. I have worked BASS tournaments on several different occasions as a favor to Ray Scott. I spent a day towing and checking on people on the water, after Lady BASS was hit by a tornado in Palatka, FL. Ron Pierce, founder of BassCat I met years ago, we had drinks and talked about airplanes, he’s always said come out and they would build whatever I wanted. I just can’t afford a BassCat, especially being retired. In the past I have owned new Skeeters, and Rangers. Currently I’m driving a very used 2002 ProCraft 185 PRO that I’m still using for local tournaments and winning money. I tease my friends that if they can’t beat an old blind guy they may want to consider saving their entry fee. I have dove and spear fished most waters of the world. I have been in the water with sharks more times than I care to count. bulls, tigers, and hammerheads make me nervous, whites and oceanic whitetips scare the hell out of me. Two trips over the dirty ice of the artic seeing the trash there. I have crewed and captained everything from kayaks to a 68' Hatteras. My boots haven't been on the ground but they've spent some time on boat decks and wet. I would be willing to bet I have more time asleep on a boat than most boaters have total water time. The Gulf of Mexico has always been part of my home waters, so I follow it closely, and care about it deeply. My FB page is listed here in my profile, there are over 400 people there that will tell you everything stated here is true, and when it comes to being in, on, or under the water I've spent a little time. I’m not a tree hugger by any stretch, my 56 years of life have just always involved water for work and pleasure. I started this thread to encourage those that love fishing, to encourage others not to sink their trash in the water over the 4th, and to be safe. I didn’t want to get into a boating/fishing experience debate, but I’m more than qualified to go there. http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/06/beach_advisories_along_gulf_co.html

Catt I respect you opinion, and always enjoy reading your post. The post was never about BP or the spill. I drove a boat out of Mobile for the clean up, and know Mobile bay is polluted beyond belief. Most of it is human trash and has little to do with BP. I was just encouraging everyone to do what they can to help keep our waters clean and to protect our reservoirs for future generations.

LOL, I'm pretty comfortable in the validity of my research. I agree the fishing out past the 100 fathom curve is still really good. You can still catch Yellowfin off MARS if you can get your bait past the Blackfin. But if you don't think were polluting the hell out of our lakes and rivers you might want to check your research. The pollution pouring down the Mississippi is creating a huge dead zone. Heres somes link for the rest, since BP did zero damage, some of those captains need to return those big checks. The state Louisianna claims it had a 174 million dollar impact on fishing. Marlin Magazine may be better informed than NOAA, but I somehow doubt it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/21/scientists-predict-a-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-the-size-of-new-jersey-this-summer/?utm_term=.f8b35edc0a17 http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/02/toxic_bp_spill_oil_component_s.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pollution.html http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2016/09/bp_oil_may_have_hurt_bluefin_t.html

I have both a 7' and 7'3" Duckett and love them both. Both mine have extended warranties. Duckett's seem to have issues with guides. I've changed out several over the years.

LOL, 0' they call topwater don't they? Under $200 you have a lot to choose from. My jigs, and plastics rods I go for sensitivity. Cranking I want 7', designed to throw a wide weight range with a great warranty that includes accidental damage. I close lids on them, truck doors, they fall over, I step on them, and I break tips trying to get my $17 swimbait back. IMO a 7' MH/F Carbonlite with an extended warranty would be a good choice. You will be out the door for under $120. It cranks 1' to 20+ well, and it is sensitive enough to throw jigs and plastics if you so choose. If you are truly going to throw topwater with it as well I would go with same rod, medium action.

Fishing where theres fish is my best technique. I try to throw things they eat on that particular water. When I was a kid, I saw my dad catch a bass on a silver Timex watch band with a hook to win a contest in his club. He knew those fish were there and feeding on shad. Do some research on your water. Research what they eat, when they eat it, and where they eat it. You will know what to throw.

I think your normally better of doing it yourself on freshwater stuff. I'm high tech, I've got a soda bottle cap with a 3" bolt run through it. I screw the cap on to an empty bottle and use a cordless drill to remove the old line, I unscrew my cap and throw line and bottle away. You can buy a piece of bunji cord for less than $1 to use as a spindle. Insert the bunji through the new line spool and you can find tons of places hook it to feed line. If you want an automatic line tensioner adjust the bunji. If for whatever reason your saving your line, put a piece of tape on the line bottle and store it, bottle can be converted to spindle to re-spool. Did I mention I'm cheap?

The dead zone created by the Mississippi outflow is enough to be a serious impact. We use to catch fish right off the coast in LA. You could pull the boat up to the Mars platform and load up on tuna. BP didn't help any either.

I would guess there will be enough aluminum, plastics, and other junk thrown in the water today to easily build at least one airplane, and probably a few boats as well. Everyone here loves the water and we regularly discuss improving the quality of our sport, and increasing the quality of our catches. It’s no secret that one of the biggest problems is pollution. Both recreational and industrial trash is killing our sport. It may not happen in our lifetime but it will happen if it continues. Dive down 15 feet in you favorite fishing spot and take a look, you will see plastics, aluminum cans, fishing line, and an assortment of everything humans use and throw away. SI, (LOL, except my Helix 7 ), shows everything from whole boats, to cars, to drums of who-knows what. If you’re really brave take a water sample and submit it for analysis. My primary lake Logan Martin is so trashed that it has fish advisories advising not to eat pretty much everything, and several times a year to avoid swimming. Seeing sores on fish here seems to become more common year over year. I would bet most everyone here is an advocate of improving our sport and the quality of our water, others not so much. What can we do to stop the decline of the bass habitat and save our sport? Happy 4th everyone, be safe.

We lived aboard and cruised for 8 years on a 42' Island Packet. I loved It. Wife was ready for a house or I would still be doing it. Looking at that photo I would guess you were on a mooring ball at a marina. I'm jealous I really miss it.

Full moon might not be the best bite, but it is a lot easier on me to fish than a new moon. I like slow rolling a 1/2 oz black/blue spinnerbait with a big Colorado blade. I crank just fast enough to feel it thumping.

Definitely the reverse sear, then sere to 135°F on a very hot grill. Those are some pretty rib-eyes.

I would suggest calling a tackle shop in your area and see what and where they're biting before going. If I had to pick one bait that may work everywhere, it would be a white spinnerbait with silver tandem willowleafs. To bass it looks like a small school of shad. You can work it many many ways, with a variety of techniques. You can get the cheap ones for $1 at Wally World, and add a crawfish trailer. Throw it into things you think would be impossible for any lure to go through, and bump it into stuff. If they're deep give it plenty of time to sink and watch your line. The plastics you get for trailers you can use as plastic worms if the bite is slow, so get some worm hooks and weights as well. Good luck, tight lines. https://www.bassresource.com/fish/spinnerbaits.html