papajoe222

I agree with Tom. Some external, or internal factor is changing the water color. I'm guessing it's wind. On some bodies of water, especially small ones like ponds, an overnight breeze can churn up things enough to add color. Silty, or muck bottoms with little vegetation sometimes exhibit similar color changes. I don't think the change in water clarity is the cause of your poor success. More than likely it's a result of the fish changing their location/mood. If you used the same presentations in the same locations, regardless of the fact that you had been catching them that way yesterday, you failed to respond to the change in conditions. It's what is referred to as fishing history.

What Tom said. For off shore humps, or other instances where the shore isn't a factor, it would be the shallow side of the weed-bed.

I have a ton of lures that have never seen water, but hopefully they will, someday. If you saw my peg-boards full of spare baits, you'd understand. I do have a couple of lures that I've retired, mainly because of the memories they trigger whenever I pick them up.

I got out on my favorite lake this past week-end and was reminded why I prefer fishing during the week. Every 50yrds. there was a boat working the weed line. Reminded me of some of the tourneys I used to fish. Every other angler was throwing either a buzzer, or a Whopper Plopper. Top water was working, but the fish were seeing a lot of those two baits, so I dug out a Crazy Crawler https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/heddon-crazy-crawler-lures got in line and proceeded to pick off six bass on my first pass. The last one put a hook in my hand as I landed it and I headed to the nearest dock to get it out. Two boats followed me in and offered assistance. I had the hook out in no time and was getting ready to head back out. 'What the f kind of lure is that?' one guy asked when he spotted what I had tied on. I explained what and how long that lure has been around and these guys had never heard of it, or seen one before. Jitter Bugs and Crazy Crawlers produce fish as well as some of today's high-end baits and offer the fish something they don't see very often. Give some 'old school' baits a try. Your pocket book will thank you and you may 'discover' a hot 'new' bait.

Years ago, I was fishing a club tournament. With about 15min. left, I pulled up to a spot shouting distance from the weigh in. I already had my limit and was looking for a kicker. I caught three nice fish off that spot, culled and headed in. I didn't win (came in second by 3oz.), but hearing the guys on the dock cheering me on felt better than a win would have.

Good news folks. I found the secret to power fish for eight hours at my age. I'm not talking fishing a wacky worm or some other presentation that doesn't require a lot of energy output. I'm talking standing on the front deck, chucking and winding, fighting the wind with the sun beating down, the way I like to fish. I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out. The secret is to split up the eight hours into two four hour sessions with a two hour power nap in between. I even add a protein packed lunch and on rare occasions, a 5hr. Energy Drink.

The Fat Ika isn't really a tube bait, although it resembles one. For starters, I'd recommend a tube in the 3.5in. range rigged with an internal tube jig. If you'll be fishing cover, be aware that the exposed hook will get you hung up fairly easily. The more you fish that rigging, the better you'll get at feeling your way through cover and avoiding many snags. The reason I stick with the internal jig is because that gives the tube the most action on the fall and that is when the majority of your bites can happen. 'Stupid' rigging the jig, or using internal weights and T-rigging are weedless alternatives, but you loose some of that spiraling action. Glen did a video on rigging tube baits and another on fishing them. Worth checking out.

A lot depends on how stressed the fish was. Two minutes is a long time for a bass to be out of the water. It adds to the stress the fish has already been exposed to. It's difficult to say whether that fish will survive. I try to land, unhook, measure and photo (if I'm so inclined) in 45-60 seconds. If I have difficulty unhooking, I will skip the last two steps. If I'm not ready, I'll net the fish and keep it in the water until I am.

I would start out casting parallel and working different depths down the drop until contacting fish. Often times there'll be something on that drop that is different (a transition, stumps, cut) that I'll discover doing that. If there's nothing along the section of the drop I'm working and that includes fish, I'll move down and work a different section of the drop. If I contact fish, I'll work that depth, or structure from different angles and with different presentations until I'm sure it doesn't hold more fish. With sharp drop offs, I normally look for irregularities or bait fish before picking up a rod. The presence of a structural element doesn't always indicate the presence of fish, but the presence of cover or another form of structure will increase the chances of fish using it.

Vertical jigging?

I run into that situation frequently during the summer. I'll find fish suspending 30yrds out from a drop off in 18-20ft. of water., 15ft. off the bottom. I know those fish are inactive, but with the right lure and presentation, I feel I should be able to pick off one or two. My frustration is there are only a couple of presentations I'm confident that I can keep in that zone throughout most of my retrieve; cranks/jerk-baits and swim jigs/swim baits. What methods do you use when and if you target suspending fish?

I don't take it to the level that you mention. However, I do envision a bass eyeballing my presentation on every cast. It's the way I stay in tune with what my bait is doing. When I loose focus, I loose that connection I have with whatever bait I'm using that tells me what's going on. It's one of the reasons that I like fishing alone. My wife questioned how I can go three or four hours without a bite and maintain that focus or concentration. I told here that there's the biggest fish I've ever caught out there somewhere and I need to be ready when it takes my offering.

It all depends on what one considers 'best' If you're talking big fish potential, yea, FL, TX, CA. If you're talking numbers of decent, aggressive fish, I would have to agree that the Midwest is best. Lake Michigan,Lake Erie and the numerous, natural lakes of WI and MN offer the opportunity to boat 30+ fish on any given day. Keep in mind that just like searching out the giant FL strain bass, one needs to study the behavior of the fish in question along with that of the forage. Can you catch 30+ fish a day in other areas of the country? I'm sure you can. But given that these bodies of water contain smallmouth and northern strain largemouth, I'll travel north a little in search of a memorable day or two.

Common courtesy. Those using the ramp to launch or load and those docking their craft should be given the opportunity to do so without having go navigate around you. They don't need 50yrds. to do so, but if you witness someone that's having difficulty, give them all the room they need. If there is a lot of traffic, I'd move up shore. There's a lot of structure there. Use a jig or worm that is easy to count down and find areas like those underwater points or the saddles in between them. You can fish them whatever way you feel comfortable. If there are weeds, fish the edges and tops closest to deep water.

Bullet worm weights for both. I go with brass weights and a glass bead, or Carolina Clacker for weights up to 1/4oz. and tungsten for anything heavier. For flipping, I eliminate the noise maker and peg the weight. Same for punching. Tungsten punch weights are pricey, but the smaller profile makes the job easier.

Three baits that are simple to use, cover water quickly and target different depths are a spinnerbait, lipless crank and a deep diving crank. You can go with a buzzbait in place of the spinnerbait and seeing as you've already purchased weights, a C-rig will cover your bottom presentation.

Wind is a pain to fish in, especially on big bodies of water. But it can be very helpful in determining fish location, especially shallow fish. It gets the food chain moving and active and that includes bass. If you can maintain boat control, working a windblown shoreline having deep water access with spinnerbaits is always my first choice. Then, a medium diving crank followed by a Texas rigged worm (heavier than normal weight). Those three baits cover the water column down to 8ft.-10ft. That's the easy way to look for active fish. If that approach doesn't work, you'll need to move out to the first deep structure and change tactics. Start with a deep presentation like a deeper running crank or a 1oz. football jig and parallel cast the structure. A C-rig will present your soft plastic offering up off the bottom. Unless you are proficient at fishing deep, I'd concentrate there and the windblown side of slow tapering points. With points, the opposite approach can work at times, but casting into the wind along with boat control is a lot of work. Topwater, for me. is limited to buzzbaits and I prefer twin blades for the added turbulence. The problem is they don't cast well unless the wind is at your back.

I've switched out bearings on all my Daiwa Sols and Fuegos, added swept star drags and carbon fiber handles to the Sols and switched out gears on two of them. I do it mostly to keep from buying new reels, It's cheaper to do an $80 upgrade than dish out $200 for a new reel that I don't really know if I'll like.

Favorite..............Super Spook Jr Most productive...Jig/RageCraw

I don’t know if familiarity is more important than the tackle used, but I will be the first to admit that the ‘sensitivity factor’ seems to multiply when using familiar equipment/presentations. 90% of my cranking is done using one combo and the majority of the time use one brand/model of crank. I swear I can feel a fish following that crank. If I switch to a different crank, I have difficulty feeling when it is beginning to contact vegetation and often will crank it down into the weeds. It may take me an hour to get in tune with that bait and combo and I know the rod didn’t loose sensitivity, I lost concentration.

Yet another topic that will likely see some disagreement is whether or not, fluorocarbon line sinks. Glen just did another video with Hank Parker about fishing jerk baits. I quote Hank: " People think fluorocarbon line sinks. I've heard that said so many times. Fluorocarbon line does not sink, it's neutrally buoyant. It doesn't sink or float." Hank gets his information about different lines, their compositions, characteristics, etc. from the good folks at Trilene, so he isn't just stating his opinion. I hear it on forums, videos, and TV shows all the time about how you can get an extra foot or so from your cranks by using fluorocarbon when that extra depth should be attributed to the smaller line diameter. That same extra bit of depth could be achieved just as easily using mono of the same diameter. I proved this to both myself and a regular guest on my boat. My cranking reel is spooled with 12lb. fluoro and I have an extra spool filled with 10lb. mono. Both have the same diameter. I pulled up on a bar that ran for 50yrds or so and is 7ft. deep. I had him cast a crank to a marker and retrieve it, making a mental not of how often and where the crank made contact with the bottom. We switched to the other spool and he repeated the cast with the same results. The only difference, in his opinion, was a much more detectable feed-back when using the fluorocarbon. Using the fluoro didn't get the crank down faster, or give it extra running depth. As much as I dislike fluoro, I use it for two reasons, (I don't deal with abrasion issues) visibility and extra sensitivity, not because it sinks.

By what they want and how they want it, I was referring to the type of bait and how it's retrieved. I do agree that color is part of that, but you could swim a black and blue jig with a trailer rigged light side down three feet off the bottom and never get bit. Throw a white swimbait on an antifreeze colored jig and hop it along the bottom and get bit. The jig, whichever way the trailer is rigged would be catching them too, but the 'how' was ignored, so the 'correct' rigging of the trailer is moot. Just trying to put things in perspective for you.

I like Stanley and Hart spinnerbaits and the only time I use a trailer is in the pre-spawn to slow the bait down, but keep it in the strike zone. I have, on occasion, used one without a skirt and added a swimbait.

Really? You are making things much more complicated than they need be. Find the fish, figure out what they want and how they want it and worry about color and which side is up when and if they stop biting.

My fir.st thought when looking at it was, walleye The meat fishermen up north do the same thing with the gills.