Clark Stewart

You're probably setting the hook too soon. If you set the hook as soon as you see the fish hit it then you're probably pulling the bait away from him. You have to give him a second to get it fully in his mouth and then slam it home. Sometimes it just happens. Last Saturday I couldn't miss. The next day I would let them take it as usual, see the line moving, feel the fish and only got 2 out of 10-12 bites to connect. Same setup, technique, different results. Even let one swim about 5 yards before hitting him and still missed. It happens. That's exactly how I was yesterday! I made a beautiful cast right on top of a stickup in about 6 inches of water and off it shot like a bullet. That fish drug it 40 feet and I still couldn't set the hook. I must have jerked 6 times and for some reason the hook just wasn't punching through. Who knows.

Try an owner 3/0. I'd recommend the heat shrink solution the above guy mentioned, but you'll need a bigger boat if you find a fish that bends that owner ewg hook! Sorry about the boat comment - it's shark week.

The pond I fish has only bream as the forage fish for the bass. There are tons of healhty bass in this 4acre pond, but i've only seen a handful of bream and one corner full of beds. How would you match the bream? I always use soft plastics to cope with the weeds and slop on bottom.

Nice! I like facebook for keeping up with people easier - i'd rather read what folks have to say then listen to the 30 minutes of b.s. to get there! I really like using it to post pics of my fish and stuff - If it's something I want to print it's a lot faster than hooking up my cell phone to the computer or jerking out the memory card

Yeah, today it was rage tail shad instead of space monkey that got the action. I caught one on the first cast with my space monkey, but once I put the JJ's magic on it the bite died - go figure. Spent the rest of my lunch break fishing the shad. I missed a ton of fish but my buddy (another first time rage tail user today) caught this one that weighed 2.5...Can't wait for my mend-it to get here as my shad are dying fast!

To each his own. I would say that there must be something to what we're saying since they're are like 20 of us saying it and not Big O. Word of mouth being the best advertising. I don't know if they're for everyone but they have done plenty for my confidence lately.

Are there any other facebook junkies out there? I have a vision where we all could post our catches via facebook mobile as we catch them. I like to do this just for bragging rights but also in case I lose/kill my phone I've already got the memory on that interweb! Obviously I'm clark stewart on facebook

If you're asking about worms specifically because you want to get into worm fishing then I'd recommend a worm that is about 7 inches long with the biggest tail you can find - pretty much described the rage tail anaconda didn't I? Any worm will do in any shape, but in my opinion you will have a hard time beating anything with "seed" in the title like pumpkinseed or watermelon seed. Such a natural color that always gets a bite or 2. Now if you're asking about worms because you're truly fishing for bass for the first time then I'd recommend a more beginner friendly technique. Worm fishing is relatively easy but it takes a little patience. If this is the case then I'd recommend you start with creature baits for a couple of reasons. First and foremost they are user friendly. They're is not really a wrong way to fish on of these. Let it sit like a worm and twitch it. Reel it in like lightning, or bounce it off the bottom or even pitch it to good looking holes. You can't go wrong! These baits have done more for my fishing confidence than anything else. I got into them about a month ago and I can say with confidence that I can go to any body of water and at least catch 1 bass. Hope this helps.

When I do that and enter it into a bass weight calculator it comes to under a pound - thinkin' my math is wrong! What calculator are you using? The Bass Resource calculator under the Tacklebox menu shows a 20 inch fish with a 14 inch girth is 5.4 lbs. Are you sure you didn't enter just one side of the fish as the girth? Girth is both sides, top, and bottom. I used the bassresource one. I'm not sure how my math is so off. I measured my fingers as in the picture and they're 3.5 inches wide like that.

Hehe think I remember that thread - it was entertaining... We all do this and we all are usually way off when it comes to guessing that weight. It was kind of a dumb post on my part since I've been to a lot of tournaments where a hog came in at 3 pounds as here, and this pitiful skinny bass that was really long weighed 6-7 pounds. It's crazy. Going out today at lunch to try again and I've got my scale with me this time. The next post will be a confirmed weight! Good things. Good things! I don't know,It's a nice fish! Leave it as that.Last time i did this(guessed the weight) the dude got ticked off at the answer.

eh...get a bag of both - I had an awesome weekend trying out the new rage tail line of baits (shad and space monkey) but haven't tried the anacondas. I hear they're awesome. They come in 7 and 10 inch but they're pricey. My personal best was caught on a 10 inch worm - i'd get maybe a pack of 7 inch anacondas and then a pack of 10 inch whatevers - I like yum and zoom. You can catch big bass on a 7 inch worm but the addage has proven true to me - big bait big fish. You may come away with less bites but with a ten inch worm you're gonna have a decent fish. Worst case scenario you can always bite off a couple inches of your 10 inch zoom to make it 7 or 8 inches if you think that the bass are all too small! Clear as mud? good.

Going out today at lunch to catch a 5 pounder to defend my honor

hehe - classic

I've only tried the space monkey and the shad - definitely gonna have to expand the family

Thanks! I'm about to buy the full oz bottle. I'm gonna experiment with how long I can make the rage tails last.

thanks for the perfect answer - I've got a space monkey that got popped about 20 times saturday so it's got a headache and hole in the stomach - I'll put it to the mend-it challenge. As far as that stuff goes how long will a bottle of either size last you?

I did a search for mend-it and heard good things until this guy quoted below: "As for the Mend-it glue, I don't think it will solve your problem with the tail ripping. I have a bottle and it really does work great and saves me tons of money on flukes and senkos. BUT, while it works perfectly for fixing a torn head or skin-hooking area of baits, the area fixed is still a little less durable than the remaining plastic. The Rage Shad has so much movement and action in the tail that I think its own movement would re-tear the spot you fixed, although I haven't tried this myself." Anybody else agree with that? I was gung ho to buy some today since rage tail baits are about a dollar a peice, but that guy's comments have me kinda leery- especially since he's not bashing the product, just the particular application. Comments?

Yeah - I threw mine on an All Star 6'6 or 7' medium heavy (designed for weights from 3/8 to 1oz. Teemed with a bill dance edition quantum baitcaster 6.2:1 I think (comes on that quantum combo that bps sells). I throw creature baits weightless all the time, but this time I had a 1/4 oz tru-tungsten sinker on. The plastic is so dense on these baits (especially the rage shad) that those things were sailing almost 45 yards with the cast control dialed way way up around 9 or 10! It was beautiful to behold

When I do that and enter it into a bass weight calculator it comes to under a pound - thinkin' my math is wrong!

I caught this the other night fishing a rage tail shad for the first time. I didn't have my scale in my bag of course like I do every single other time I don't catch a big bass! I believe this fish to weigh between 5 and 5.25 pounds, because it's a good bit bigger than a confirmed 4 pounder I caught 2 weeks ago. Sorry for the crappy pic (camera phone). Bear in mind this fish is not being held at arm's length and I'm 320 pounds

I started off using a 3/0 academy brand offset hook rigged with a 1/4 oz tru tungsten weight - then switched to a 3/0 ewg hook with the same weight. Same for the shad. Big O - haven't really looked but are these baits available at Academy?

Went to Dick's today while in another town - I'm an academy guy myself but when in Rome...Bought a pack of rage tail shads, and a pack of rage tail space monkeys. Tried em out today and the space monkey's are amazing - they don't look particularly better than a brush hog or anything but they have some unique qualities. First the thing compacts its shape when tossed so it will cast just like a slender frog - for a mile. Second, it's tough as nails - I missed about 20 bites today on one space monkey before I got wise and changed hooks. Unbelievable. I also tried the rage shad - what an awesome buzzbait type lure. While I didn't land near as many bites I did manage this one attached. This was after I started letting the thing fall before starting to run it like a buzzbait. Also these two lures were incredibly weedless. The slop I threw in was so nasty that I caught one fish, and thinking he'd come off was trying to get my lure in to clean off the salad, I pulled it out of the water and the pile started wagging it's tail fin! Forgot my scale - any guesses to this one's size? I caught a 4 pounder the other day and confirmed by scale - this one is definitely bigger. I feel like 5 - 5.25

without more info i'm just spitballing. I had the same problem today with some creature baits. I ended up changing out my 3/0 offset hook for a 3/0 ewg hook. That helped a ton. What also helped was for me to wait a second before setting the hook. I have a bad habit of not waiting long enough - especially when I'm fishing a frog! I know that sounds elementary but once I started watching the line move off I would lower the rod tip while reeling in slack until the rod tip was nearly on the ground then I'd cross their eyes. Man that sounds condescending. But my hookups did increase. Once they're on I like to give it another hard jerk like I'm setting the hook all over - it helps to really seat the hook in the jaw. Seriously I'm sure you just had an off day. Hope that helps!

That's what I usually fish - or a weightless kriet krieture buzzbait style. I just know that jigs get few but big bites just about anywhere. Problem is that any shaky style i use digs into the slop.

Try it with a big bite kriet krieture weighless or 1/8 ounce just to get it out there and see what happens. This is the only way I fish a brush hog except for the occasional carolina rig. The bait I mentioned has more action than a brush hog and hooks up a lot easier due to the ribbed body.