Captain Phil

It's amazing to me that ATMs still exist in today's world. There are countries in the world where cash is not accepted. It won't be long until that's the case here. I suppose it's because many people don't have a credit or debit card? I can imagine some people don't have a checking account? If you are among these, having the ATM go down would make for a bad day. It's happened to me and it is annoying. Fortunately, the bank I use has another branch within a few blocks.

A swimming worm has been catching bass for over 50 years. Years ago I was taught that if you got a hit on a worm while swimming it back to the boat, you should switch to a spinner bait. There is literally NO way to fish a plastic worm that won't catch bass.

I have never fished a Heddon Sonar. I have fished a Mann's Little George. If you want to try something unique, give it a try.

Don't miss Cabo, it's fantastic. Take your wife if you have one, she will love it! Best salt water offshore fishing I have ever seen. Their schoolie dolphin are 20 pounds!

I have fished all over the world, mostly for salt water species. My bass fishing has been limited to Florida, Georgia, Texas and Canada. Florida bass fishing speaks for itself. I know no other place with as many opportunities, everything from Everglades canals, rock pits to large and small natural lakes. Every road side ditch in Florida contains bass. The challenge in Florida is finding a spot at the boat ramp on weekends. You can avoid this by fishing during the week or fishing smaller water. Thankfully, small bass waters in Florida are countless. My Texas bass fishing was on Sam Rayburn about twenty years ago. We towed the boat from Florida two summers in a row. I was impressed with Texas fishing. They seemed to have a better handle on the environment than Florida had back then. It was in the heat of summer and we caught bass all day. Most of my Georgia bass fishing has been in small private lakes where the fish are small and eager. I fished Seminole and Santee Cooper in tournaments, but it's been so long whatever I told you would be dated. Canada has an amazing smallmouth bass fishery in Lake Erie. We spend a week fishing there in July two years in a row. It was a lot different fishing than Florida bass fishing. The fish were deep and we caught them on Goby colored tube jigs. Most of the bass were in the 2-3 pound range. We caught two six pound small mouths plus numerous walleyes and a few pike. Lake Erie is big water, so you need to be careful. The open lake is no place for a Jon boat. Fishing in Northern Canada is mostly about Walleyes and Pike. Pike are numerous and fun to catch. Big Pike are challenging. I have fished for Muskies, but never caught one.

The Heddon Sonar is a metal lure first introduced in the 50s that is still made. The Heddon Sonic is a plastic lure from around the same time. These lures do not use a blade or a diving bill. The Sonar is heavy and can be cast a long way and fished deep. Some people fish it vertically like a jigging spoon. Both are good when trolled. Both lures vibrate on the retrieve. You don't see the Sonic much anymore as the Rattle Trap look it's place in bass fishing.

I use a paper hole punch to make small disks out of the clear plastic that lure boxes come in. Push the main hook through the center and you are good to go.

I have tried both free swinging and pegged trailer hooks. I hook more bass on a free swinging hook. Your results may vary (disclaimer) ... 😉

I have always considered a bass jig a northern bait. In all my years of bass fishing in Florida, I have rarely seen anyone fish with one. I am sure my lack of success with jigs is due to a lack of confidence on my part. If I had fished them more, I would probably have a different view. Water temperature has a lot to do with this. Soft plastics are available in many different configurations, all of them have more action when the water is warm. A 6"-8" Zoom Speed worm or Mag II looks to have more bass appeal than a hard jig head and skirt. I am not a bass, so my idea of bass appeal could be much different than it is. When flipping and pitching, I believe the drop is the most significant factor. A soft plastic bait slides through cover much easier and faster than a jig with a weed guard. It pin-balls down into the cover bouncing off everything on the way down. I can't see a jig with a weed guard coming close to this. Soft plastic baits are more versatile. They are available in dozens of configurations from straight worms, craws, lizards to creature baits. Their weight can be adjusted from none to over any ounce. Obviously you can attach a soft plastic to a jig, but what's the point? I did catch a bass once in a Florida tournament with a jig. It was a very cold day on the Kissimmee Chain and I was fishing a canal with rocks on the side. It was so cold, my worms looked like sticks. I pulled out a black and blue jig and a three pounder ate it. So much for my jig theory! In my years as a guide, I have seen folks catch bass on things that I was sure were a waste of time. I had to eat these words many times, "Florida bass won't eat that!". 😉

Must be something we are doing differently? Most of the vertical bass fishing I do is in heavy cover. I can't seem to get a bulky jig to drop through the cover the same way an oiled up soft plastic does. How do you get a jig through thick hydrilla?

For some reason totally unknown to me, Florida bass do not seem to like traditional jigs. I have bought boxes of them and have never had much success. I see Pro anglers catch bass on TV with them in tournaments, but I can't. Our bass seem to prefer soft plastics over hard jigs. We don't use trailer hooks on those baits as bass hang on to them longer. One thing I have learned is to always check my lure after it hits bottom before I move it. This is especially true when flipping and pitching. If you are asking about blade jigs, I have never used a trailer hook on one of those as they are normally more compact than a spinnerbait. I honestly don't think bass know what a spinnerbait is when they strike it. They see the flash and feel the vibrations. Perhaps that's why they short strike them on occasion?

This thread is like a time machine for me. The first bass I caught on a plastic worm 60 years ago was just like this worm. Creme still makes it and it still works just as well. I once fished a State Federation tournament on Lake Toho with a guy that used a curved spinning worm with no weight. He used a Zebco 33 and said he caught a ton of fish. It amazed me until I found out he was the top rod in his bass club! At one time, no bass fisherman would think of going out without Anise oil. We bought it at drug stores and used a dipping pot. One of my great memories of night fishing in the Everglades was the smell of Anise. There are very few things that are truly new in bass fishing.

Undetected strikes are not limited to spinnerbaits. One of the most significant differences between a good bass fisherman and a great bass fisherman is in the ability to detect a strike. This is especially true when fishing soft plastic baits. A bass can engulf and eject a lure faster than you can feel it. When you are fishing for five bites a day, this can make a huge difference. It is not as big of a problem today as it was when all we had were fiberglass rods and stretchy line, but it is still an issue.

There is a way to All bass do not strike a spinnerbait the same way. It may seem that way as you only know about the bass you can feel. A trailer hook is there to hook bass you can't feel. Aggressive bass engulf the bait. For those bass, you don't need a trailer hook. Some bass strike the blades, other bass may strike the body or miss the lure entirely. I have had bass engulf the bait and swim along with it undetected until I saw them in the water next to the boat. Here is an easy test you can do yourself. Try fishing a spinnerbait with a trailer hook and observe if any bass are caught on the trailer hook. If so, you most likely would not have caught that bass without the trailer. There is a good chance you may not have even felt the strike. At least 20% of the bass I catch on my spinnerbait are hooked on the trailer hook. If you never catch a bass on the trailer hook, you don't need one.

I don't pretend to know everything there is about bass fishing. When you fish for your own enjoyment, you don't know if what you are doing is the best you can do. Is the guy or girl in the other boat catching more fish? Everyone catches bass when they get back to the ramp to tell about it. This is where tournament fishing is different because you can't weigh a story about the one that got away. When I fished my first bass tournament in the late sixties, I was shocked to learn how many more fish some people caught than I did. I caught bass, but I wanted to catch more. I thought about how much more fun those other people were having. It wasn't about the money or the award, it was the fish that I wanted to catch. Back then, there was no way anyone was going to tell you how to beat them. After 50 some odd years of trying, I have been able to pry out some of their secrets. Most of the guys I learned from weren't on TV. They were mostly country boys who learned from their father and their father's father. Today's successful TV anglers use modern electronics to find schools of fish. If you don't have that advantage, you may as well stay home. It wasn't that way when I was fishing competitively. Getting fish to the boat meant the difference between winning and losing. I'm on this forum because I love bass fishing and want others to love it too. If you learn something from me, remember someone else taught me first. ☺️

I am not trying to change anyone's mind. I am giving you information gained from years of experience. The question that was asked was one that I asked myself many years ago, "Should I use a trailer hook on a spinnerbait?" My answer is "Only if you want to catch more fish." There was a time when I would not give information freely for fear it would be used against me. Those days are over for me. ☺️

This is my favorite Florida spinnerbait. The trailer you see in my photo is a Zoom split tail trailer. I like it because of it's slim profile. A larger trailer would change the balance of this bait and it's perfect the way it is. The gold blades mimic a golden shiner, which is our most desirable bass forage. This spinnerbait is a Hildebrandt Okeechobee Special with a downsized willow blade which allows it to be fished deeper and slower. The trailer hook I use is actually larger than the front hook. Where I fish, no spinnerbait works better for me. Fishing a spinnerbait with a trailer hook requires heavy line, precise casting and patience. I never fish spinnerbaits in open water. I prefer pads because that's where our big fish live and other anglers don't because of what you described.

If you fish a spinnerbait without a trailer hook, you never know how many fish you miss. I learned this years ago fishing tournaments. Watch the video Big Mouth Forever on YouTube. There you will see all the proof you need. Is using a trailer hook a hassle? Yes. Does it get more fish in the boat? Absolutely. Personally, I would prefer using a trailer hook over a longer main hook. I believe two hooking points are better than one.

I am right handed. Years ago I began thinking that using a left handed casting reel was worth a try when fishing plastic worms. I have more dexterity in my right hand and hook sets are firmer and quicker. It also had the positive effect of slowing down my retrieve. At the time, I was using round Ambassador casting reels, so I bought a 5001, which I believe I still have. This worked well for some time. So well, that I switched to fishing spinning reels with soft plastic baits. Using spinning tackle has a few other advantages. Because the line spills off the end of the spool instead of turning the spool, the lure falls straight down instead of falling toward you. I also caught more fish as I could fish with lighter line. There are only two negatives that I can think of for a right handed person using a left handed reel. One is you have to carry more rods and reels. The other isn't that obvious until to get some age on you. Switching hands takes some of the pressure off one hand and distributes it evenly to both hands. This helps if you have arthritis in your hands or wrists.

Do not use auto brake cleaner or liquor thinner to clean reels. Ask me how I know! 😈

I have spent a good bit of my life fishing abroad. Canada, Mexico, Latin America, South America, The Caribbean, Australia, even Papua New Guinea. Most of the time, I was chasing billfish, but fish are fish. Before you fish anywhere outside US borders, be aware of what you may be getting into. That is especially true in today's world. In the 90s, I spent a week in Guatemala fishing for Pacific Sailfish. On the night we were flying home, rebels dynamited the bridge out of the town and we had to take a harrowing journey though the mountains to get back. We were protected by armed guards the whole time we were there. The capital of New Guinea, Port Moresby, is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. We had a "Crocodile Dundee" to protect us. That country is the home of huge (20' plus) crocodiles with no swimming signs everywhere. Two people in our party ended up getting malaria, even though the had their shots in advance. If you are going to do this, get with someone who is experienced to book your trip and plan everything in advance. Don't assume anything. The fishing world outside the country is not always pleasant.

I started with casting reels so old they are currently in museums. The biggest advancement in those days was free spool. Before that handles turned on the cast, making heavy lures a necessity. When the round Ambassadors came out, we finally had a fishing tool that most anyone could use. Swapping reels and rods is a good idea. Today it seems everyone wants longer fishing rods. I assume they like making longer casts? Where I fish for bass, accuracy is more significant than distance. My most accurate bass rod is 6' long with a pistol grip handle. It's my most comfortable rod as well. The way bass fishing is going today, accuracy isn't necessary or at least less so. Throw out a blade bait, reel it up, rinse and repeat. That's unfortunate, as casting accuracy can make the difference between catching bass and going home skunked. The bass I catch aren't swimming around jumping on everything that flashes. If you don't hit them on the head, they could care less. Then there's the pure fun of accurate casting, something that is missed by many of today's anglers. All my casting reels are Shimano. I have two types, round Calcuttas and small Chronarchs. I have some twenty year old Chronarchs that have been rebuild 4-5 times. They all cast the same... wonderfully. Everyone is different. Keep experimenting and you will find what works for you.

Retirement requires adjustment. I retired twice, so it's something I think about often. Mentally you can do anything you can imagine. Physically, not so much. Keeping in good shape will help with both. What it will ultimately come down to are your genes and lifestyle. Getting your head right is very important. I don't fear death. This world is so screwed up. Turn off the so called News Channels. Stay away from people who are obsessed with politics. Find a peaceful place and don't worry about things you can't control. You will reach a time when you will have to force yourself to get out of the house. Do it. Getting old does not have to be a negative. You still have time to get things right.

Love to. Email or text me.

The original Creme Scoundrel came in two purple colors, grape and dark grape. The grape worm was a little more red in color and dark grape was a deeper purple. Mann's Jelly worms had similar colors. I don't believe there has ever been a plastic worm that didn't catch bass. Here in Florida, June Bug is the most popular color by far. Probably because our waters are darker in color with less visibility. I tend to use Christmas (June Bug with red and green flake) because most other fishermen don't. Truth be known, an all black worm is probably the best all around color. An all black Zoom Trick worm is hard to beat.