roadwarrior

My partner caught a smallmouth Saturday that has survived for several years with what looks to be a broken back, either broken when it was much younger or possibly born deformed. The interesting part of this story is that it is the fourth time we have caught this fish. Its about two pounds now and we are positive it is the same fish.

This happens occasionally when I'm fishing a public pond. Usually I'm fishing a Senko or a Fat Ika and, if the guy is friendly and I think he is seriously interested, I have him stand there and show him EXACTLY what I'm doing. After a cast or two, I take out the clippers and give him the rig. Heck, it's probably time to retie anyhow. What's really fun is to catch a fish during the demonstration! Like Raul said, it's not going to hurt your fishing to help someone else's. You might be on the otherside of that conversation sometime.

Al Lindner. He and his brother wrote the book on smallmouth fishing on a river. I would like him to show me what I've been missing. Al won't mind catching some monster smallies on live bait. I guess if he's going to fish with me, he'll have to come on down to the Tennessee River! I'll bet he would have some fun, too.

Well, Bill actually has his own private pond. I don't know that all his shows are taped there, but it's state of the art. Ray Scott's private pond may have a higher ratio of big bass than Bill's, but maybe not. I guess when you're promoting lures, it's good to have a pond full of hungry 10 lb bass!

I don't know about the bow & arrow, but buy yourself a lure retriever and you'll recover almost all of your lures. I think Raul said he fishes some of the nastiest structure on the planet and recovers his lures more than 90% of the time.

Well Nick, The votes are in. It's just for fun and doesn't necessarily mean much, more like a popularity contest. As I stated on another thread, if it's really "Greatest Angler" not just bass, I think Al and Ron Lindner are #1 & #2, in either order. Heck, Roland and Clunn tie in my book for bass fishing, how can you really say one is better than the other? Dance? I see your point, but I picked him third just because I like him! (BTW, I live in the Memphis area, but I'm not really FROM Memphis). On another note, and this is for EVERYONE: You need to get yours hands on the June/ July In-Fisherman magazine. "A Beautiful Mind For Bass", an exclusive look at how bass fishing legend Rick Clunn locates and catches bass. [Where do you place your bass-angling expertise on a scale of 1 to 10? "Arguably the most successful professional bass angler in history, Clunn scores himself a 4 or 5, most days. Rarely, 6 or 7."]

I never use a swivel or a leader except in conjunction with the C-rig. For toothy critters I'm sure you probably need a steel leader, but the only thing around here like that are gar and I don't care if they breakoff!

Confirmed! 1. Rick Clunn 2. Roland Martin 3. Bill Dance

Mattlures is a forum member.

acstech, Excellent! I fish with a guide like that. I hope to fish with you one day.

kcjeff, Bad news buddy, ponds don't work after a rain. I fish several different ponds, a lot! The rain and the runoff change the chemical composition of a pond for a day or two and the fish don't like it. Fishing before a storm or even during a rain can be good to excellent, but for a day or two afterwards, the bite stops. I have never really noticed this on big water and I have never experienced this phenomena on the river. As Nick noted, fresh water can help river fishing, especially around the tributaries. It stirs things up, increases the current to some degree and gets the predators excited. Oops! I just re-read the thread and wanted to say I wasn't dissing Will. I understand the post to mean he was killing 'em before and/or during the storm. If he is saying he slaughtered them AFTER the rain, well that's a different story and that's fine if he says so. It just hasn't ever worked that way for me.

I used to fish with kahle hooks, but now I use #6 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hooks exclusively. There are several advantages, especially when fishing a split shot rig on a river. Most importantly, 95% of the time the fish is hooked in the side of the jaw, the rest of the time in the upper or lower lip. Gut hooks are VERY rare. You NEVER set the hook, the fish sets the hook. This comes in particularly handy when you're bumping a rocky bottom, reducing hang-ups by at least 50%. Third, the small hooks do less damage to the minnow which keeps it active longer. Maybe the bait looks and acts a little more natural, too.

I don't change them out. I don't recall the hooks being promoted, so they may be just proprietary hooks, not Gammies or Diaichi, but they're okay.

I fish a nine acre pond (The Secret Pond) in an Ocean Kayak and I don't really care for it. I have no electronics and use a paddle. I position the kayak twenty yards off the bank and fish parallel to cover and structure for the most part. I make full casts, no pitching, no flipping. I get a lot of practice at making soft, accurate casts! The upside is, I do catch a lot of bass.

Another good idea. That would be very helpful to members and guests.

mike90, The main reason the pros can't use live bait is because the money is provided by sponsors. Hooks, line, rods, reels, lures, boats and motors, it's the whole package that provides the money to run the sport at the professional level. All the money you and I spend are a part of their success. The use of lures also brings in the "mystic" aspect to the sport. If there weren't complicated and technical aspects of competitive fishing then who would care? How often would you watch or read about guys pulling in nets of fish? I mean, a time or two on the Discovery Channel is about enough, isn't it? Fishing used to be about catching fish to eat. We're WAY past that, or at least as it pertains to freshwater sport fishing. Some guy's favorite aspect of bass fishing is fooling the fish into striking. For others, including me, it's the fight. I REALLY like fishing a variety of artificial lures and devote a great deal of my fishing time to developing or improving my skills using different techniques. There are techniques I don't like which are some peoples favorite, flipping comes to mind. DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS. So, as long as it's legal, I encourage everyone to fish the way they like and have fun. For me, that's catching Good 'ol Big'uns and Big 'ol Good'uns.

Pretty cool! Do you actually fish for them or just occasionally catch them when you are bass fishing? Are they isolated or do you find them schooling? That's a nice fish, but how big can they get?

The next world record largemouth bass will probably be caught in Florida, Texas or most likely, California. Big bass fishermen, those focused on something north of 22 lbs 4 oz., are fishing live bait. Not all of them and not all the time, but the big bass bait in Florida is a giant wild shiner. In California, the bait of choice is the crawdad (although I suspect it would be rainbow trout if that were legal). Fishing for big fish is different than fishing for keepers. You don't "search" for fish as much as you fish areas where you think a big fish might be at some point in the day. It means fishing for hours or days or even weeks without a bite. It also means staying focused for hours on end in what others might consider down time. Live bait is just another technique for those searching for the monster. It's not just about dangling a worm under a bobber. Visit trophybassonly on the web, it might surprise you just how many big fish are actually being caught and released on live bait.

Well, I fish artificials exclusively for largemouth bass, mostly because I like to. All the techniques, different lures and special rods and reels really add to my overall enjoyment of fishing. Four years ago I started fishing with a guy who has become my best friend and fishing buddy. He was a tournament fisherman for twenty-five years or more, but his real passion is saltwater fishing. That's probably where he learned to fish live bait. I started fishing live bait for big fish on the Tennessee River below Pickwick Dam. Prior to my first stiper trip with my new buddy, I never really caught big fish. That was about to change. That first trip I caught a couple of twenty pounders and at the time my PB, 27 lbs. I got hooked. I mostly fish for stripers with live bait in the summer on the river, most of my largemouth fishing is on ponds. The kicker is smallmouth, really big smallmouth and lots of them. I only started fishing for smallmouth on the Tennessee River a few years ago. My first trip was below Wilson Reservior or where Pickwick technically begins. I fished with Steve Hacker, a name you all have probably seen in some of the magazines, a pretty well known smallmouth guide. We fished artificials and I caught eight bass over a three day period. One of these babies was just under 5 lbs and I was pretty pleased. A few months later I started my striper fishing and that fall we went after the smallmouth with live minnows. I've never looked back. The first autumn we didn't switch to smallmouth until October.We caught so many fish we could only keep track of bronzebacks over 5 lbs and in two months caught twenty-seven. That's when I learned the difference between "fishing" and "catching". Since then I've become focused on catching. We'll start smallmouth fishing again in September. I guess some guys might consider it cheating, but there will be no asterisk (*) in the record books if that big girl comes in at 12 lbs 1 oz. We're at thirty-seven over 5 lbs for the calander year. I don't really care how much we increase that number, I just want to catch one fish.

One of my most consistant producers. I've recommended this lure on several threads mainly because it is so user friendly. Cast- retrieve, it's that simple. Fish the Square A just outside the weedline, parallel to the bank, over stump fields, through timber and around any type of structure. Fish it in spots you might normally fish a spinnerbait. About the only thing that doesn't work too well is trying to pull the lure through vegetation, the treble hooks will catch and accumulate the weeds. This is a VERY effective lure and easy to fish. I fish it with a steady retrieve, nothing fancy. Cast, let it sit for a moment or two and retrieve at a moderate pace to keep the lure below the surface. Don't try to make it complicated, there's really nothing to it.

Live minnows on a split shot rig. Live crawdads don't work on a river, they ball up and look like cut bait. I haven't found a way to make them look natural. Even though the smallies are feeding on craws, and probably prefer them, they will bite live minnows...trust me.

Nope. I think on any given day, a different profile may be somewhat more effective. One of my local ponds is always productive, but some days I won't have much success on a particular soft plastic that was just killing 'em the week before. A couple of weeks ago a Mizmo tube, black with red flakes was hot, last weekend I didn't get a bite until I changed to a Kreature. Most days a weightless Senko or Fat Ika presentation is very effective, other days I have to fish deeper with a T-rigged tube, Kreature or Kut-tail. Sometimes soft plastic just doen't get it, but a jig does. Now, I'm not talking about fishing in general, but a specific "control" pond. If that's how it works at this pond, I'm sure that's how it works on other water, too.

Weightless <12'. I consider deep water >12'. I generally T-rig or fish with a jighead on everything except lizards which I C-rig. That's not necessarily standard, it's just me.

Chris, you're no dummy. Your posts are detailed and specific. I certainly appreciate your insight and have learned much from your wealth of knowledge. I always thought you and Glenn were partners on this site, you both contribute so much. Kudos to you, and kudos to Glenn. We all appreciate what you bring to this forum.

Bass often suspend several feet out from the riprap in and near the deeper water. A Lucky Craft LV-500 or other lipless crankbaits can be very effective throughout the day. I like to burn the retrieve seaching for a reaction bite. It's never subtle!