Troy85

Usually changing color's is my last ditch attempt, after I'm out of other ideas. My brother throws all sorts of goofy colors and still catches fish. He loves to throw rainbow trout colored Senkos, this is definitely not rainbow trout territory......lol doesn't seem to bother the bass tho, they eat it up.

I third this.

I rode up behind a older guy on Saturday, he was trolling down a canal not fishing. I asked him if he was good, he said he was broken down. I asked if he needed a tow and he said no, he had a friend on the way. I idled next to him for about 10 minutes just talking, come to find out he was practicing for a big state BASS tournament that is coming up this coming weekend. I explained that I was still pretty new to Bass fishing, but would like to try some bigger tournaments one day. He told me one of the best ways to learn is to sign up as a co-angler and try and learn from the angler. We talked about where and how we had both been fishing earlier in the day, he told me a few of the areas where he had been doing well and how to fish them. Overall he was really helpful and friendly(even given his current situation), its people like that that give the sport a good name.

You can pick up a brand new 10' Jon boat for around $550 at Academy, just over $600 for a 12'. I'm sure you can find a used one for even less. I used a 10' Jon boat for years, I could load it in the bed of my truck and then carry it to the water. I launched that boat all over the place. You can fish 2 out of the 10' but it will kind of tight, if you were gonna have a 2nd person a majority of the time, you may wanna look into a 12'.

It is the MHF. Thanks for all the info everyone. I think I'm going to stop by the store on my way home and pick it up. If the wife asks me why I bought another rod, I'm going to tell her bass resource told me to!

yeah, its the Mojo.

I was at the sporting goods store and I saw a St. Croix 7' 1" fast action casting rod. I have always used either Shimano or Abu G rods. This St. Croix was $130, which is usually around what I will spend on a rod. What are you thoughts on this rod? Should I give it a try or just stick with Shimano or Abu G?

I almost never throw a straight grub. I like to use them as trailers on my swim jigs and spinner baits. My confidence bait would probably be a curly tail culprit worm texas rigged.

Visual cues is how I fish senkos and weightless flukes, a majority of the time I will see the strike rather than feel it. Makes it tough on windy days to fish these baits.

I try to go at least once a week. In the summer when the days are longer I'll go after work and fish Wednesday evening tournaments near me. Most consecutive is probably 7, usually when me my dad, bro and cousins go on fishing vacations.

Yeah, I don't, for me clear water is 1-1.5' visibility, crystal clear water is anything more than that. I wish I could fish some lakes like that at some point. I did some research after reading this topic, I think I'm going to rig up a drop shot on my spinning rod and give it a go.

Its interesting that you don't have any confidence in TX rig but full confidence in drop shotting. I am the complete opposite, I love TX rig but I have no confidence in my ability to drop shot......I need to start practicing I guess. I'll fish a TX rig in heavy grass, I just use the lightest weight I need to get to the bottom. I tend to bounce it slow and gentle thru the grass, and I don't usually have trouble with it getting hung up in the grass. If it does, a little finesse will usually get it free without having to yank it out of the area.

Same here.

I fish alot of shallow areas with weeds, the 1 minus crank bait really comes in handy. Or like scaleface said, using a 2-4' diver with rod tip held high will get it to swim pretty shallow.

Good to know I'm on the right track, I always think of bass as some mythical creature. Yeah, the reds will head shallower to feed if they get a few days of stable weather in winter........seems like cold fronts love to come thru on Thursday or Friday, so I almost never get that stable weather luxury

Part of my buddies problems is his equipment. He will buy those $14.99 combos at walmart and wonder why he spends so much time fixing his reels on the boat or untangling the cheap mono that they put on those things. I keep telling him you get what you pay for, but he never listens.

To be honest, I don't know if that bass would swim that far. Based on how you you presented the question, I'd say the answer is no. Up until about 2 years ago I pretty much only fished inshore salt water, so a lot of my thoughts are based around speckle trout and redfish, some speckle trout will swim 10-20 miles during between their summer and winter areas. I know a bass isn't a trout, but I don't know how far your average bass is willing to travel between summer and winter. As far as locating bass in tidal areas, I've always used a similar theory that I use for redfish, in the winter look for deeper water that doesn't move much, summer I move out to main canals/bayous that get more water movement. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on Lake bass(such as toledo bend) vs Tidal bass.

You could texas rig with 1/4oz and peg the weight, that helps reduce weed hangups. You could also throw heavier worms, like a Yum Dinger or Senko, those are heavy and designed to be thrown weightless. I use them a lot in the summer, I'll throw them on the top of matted vegetation then drag them over the grass and let it fall into the holes.

Hey Catt, I've got a part 2 to this question instead of making a new topic. I've started reading articles about fall fishing. Most of the articles I read are about Lake bass, these articles talk about bass moving from deep main lake structure to the backs of creeks. Since you do some Marsh/tidal bass fishing I was wondering what your thoughts are on how these fish move during the fall. Where I fish is a mix of shallow ponds(average 10' or less), pipeline canals and natural bayous. From your experience how do the fish in these areas transition from summer to fall areas?

I've had a lot of veteran bass fishermen give me some very helpful tips, not specific lures or spots so much, but techniques and stuff to look for(which I think are far more valuable). I try to pass on the favor, although I feel my bass knowledge is limited, I try to pass on what I can.

Thx Catt. I'm at the launch now. Water a little murky so I'll keep this in mind.

I do most of my bass fishing in SE Louisiana. Where I fish water clarity is usually measured in inches, during the end of summer if the rivers stay low the water clarity will improve to maybe a few but, on average tho I'd say water clarity probably 10-12". With that being sad, how does that affect bass depth? Will a bass sit near the bottom in 8-10' of water or deeper if they can't really see anything, or will they tend to stay shallower and hang out around the point in the water column where light can't penetrate the water any further?

Leaving trolling motor down and taking off with big motor. In case you're wondering what happens, just before you get on plane it starts spraying water over the bow like crazy, it gets you pretty wet and amuses anyone in boats nearby.

Based on what I see fishing local tournaments. I'd say 10% consistently catch more and/or bigger fish. Its the 10% that catch 5 when everyone else can only catch 3, or if everyone has a limit they have more weight. Everyone gets lucky , but there is the 10% that seem to consistently outperform everyone else.

Weathermen inaccurate wind predictions and people rigging their boat ON the boat ramp.