papajoe222

BPS Crankin Sticks are a good choice for shallow/med. cranks, but I'd recommend their Carbonlite in an action suited to your liking. I just like the added sensitivity.

I own both and for cranking the Lews TS1SMG is my choice. Longer handle, bigger paddles and the lower retrieve ratio = a reel that was made for cranking. The only thing my Tatula has over it is casting distance, but I've yet to really dial in my Lews.

The only time color comes into play for me is when I first choose a lure and again if I find they are short striking a crank or spinnerbait. I try to stick to some basic colors when starting out and unless I have the depth and prefered retrieve locked in, I don't change colors.

Two trains of thought when it comes to clear water and it all depends whether you're going for a reaction bite, or you are trying to entice a fish to eat your bait. For reaction bites, faster retrieves in clear water seem to be much more effective. For any lure that a fish has time to look over, there is the concern over line visibility. As far as lure choices, I don't let water clearity change my approach. Going smaller may get you more bites and there is a chance that, if you're in the right area, you can catch a big one, but if you're targeting big fish you shouldn't concern yourself with numbers. As WRB mentioned, the lure, presentation, and cover, if any will determine line choice. For me, clear water baits are spinnerbaits with smaller than normal blades than I can burn. Lipless cranks and heavy swim jigs with a curly tailed grub for reaction bites. Jig/pig, C-rigged big worms, and jumbo tubes get my nod for enticing the big girls. OH YEA, don't forget a buzzbait that you can burn accross the surface without it flopping on its side.

Just remember that if you apply before you get on the water, you'll need to reapply at some point depending on the SPF rating. An application of 50 SPF will protect you longer than say 30 SPF, but one application of either won't last all day. I've gone to using a wide rimmed hat, buff and shirt formulated to protect against exposure. My hands are basically the only area exposed and I use a sport stick for that area as I can apply it without getting it on my palms. The problem with sun screen isn't as much as it may put the fish off, with me it makes my grip slippery especially if I'm sweating.

First thing I do is look to see how the fish is hooked. If the entire lure is in it's mouth, I won't attempt to lip land it. I'll either use long nosed pliers to remove at least one set of hooks or both. With only one setin it's mouth, I'll either grab the bill of the crank and lift, or lift with the line until over half of the fish is out of the water. This tends to imobilize them for a second or so as the majority of their weight is out of the water. At that point I'll reach into it's mouth to lip it while continuing to lift. The motion is kind of like racking the slide on a gun. Pulling with one hand and pushing with the other. The trickiest situation is a fish that's hooked in or close to it's toung. That's when the pliers come into play. You could also belly land the fish, but you'll still need to remove the hooks and then the fish and the lure will be in the boat with you.

I'm a die hard Daiwa guy, but I had problems with backlashes whenever I attempted an extra long cast with my smaller cranks. I solved my dilema with a Lews with dual cast control. I likely could have gone to any reel with brakes rather than magnets, but I'd heard good things about these and Cabela's had them on sale, so I picked one up last week. OMG, I would have paid twice the price if I'd known how well the dual system works.

So in my quest to continue beating my head against a wall rather than moving myself or the wall, I attempted to give the 'devil line' another chance to let me down. This time I attempted to use it on a 6in. wacky rigged stick worm, but this time I decided not to give it a chance to fail me on the hook set. I rigged it with a circle hook. I told my wife to remind me (she's very good at doing it when I mess up) that when I say; " Here we go" she would say "circle hook" before I could reel up the slack and use my previously tried and true hook set. IT WORKED!!!! I just held the rod tip high and reeled and the next thing I knew a nice 2lb. smallie was giving me a fantastic arial performance. I know I'll go back to bad mouthing 'devil line,' but I figured I owed it an apology as it's poor past performance wasn't 100% it's fault.

Because when I'm throwing a black worm, I'm not throwing a watermellon or green one......................IDK. I've asked the fish, but despite what some of the pros tell you, the fish don't tell you Jack. I do know that a very good, big bass, angler relied very heavily on a black worm. So much so that he even said so in his book 'Giant Bass'

Okay, I know I'm not the only one, but I need a little reassurance. I have NEVER broken a rod tip in my 50+ years of fishing. Yesterday it happened on a rod that I custom built over last winter. It happens, right? Well until I mentioned the fact that I'd never done it, I was safe. Same goes for launching the boat with the plug out, getting hooked deep enough to need medical assistance, running out of gas while on the water, loosing the winning fish at boatside, the list is almost endless. I keep telling myself, it's just the odds catching up to me, but it always happens after I've vocalized my good fortune on the matter. It even goes back to my baseball playing days in high school. I never fouled one off my foot, lost my grip on the bat, came up short sliding into second (yea, that was embarassing) etc. until some team mate coaxed me into saying it had never happened to me. So, what is your most recent or funniest episode of jinxing youself that's fishing related?

The big advantage, IMO, for jig heads vs. bullet sinker and hook is it's ability to add action to the worm and give it added visibility. Football jig heads are a great example. Drag one along the bottom and it will make a plastic worm dance like a Hawaiian in a Grass skirt. Shakey heads can get a bait's tail section up and into the sight line of the fish.

My advice also. The only thing I'll add is that when fishing under windy conditions you can maintain bottom contact and feel. You can use lighter weights than you might expect by keeping your rod tip down close to the water. This helps eliminate the bow in your line and the wind from moving your bait. You do loose most of your ability to see your line jump, but you'll still be able to see your line move off to one side or another. If you imagine a clock floating face up and you are in it's center, point your rod tip at 10:00 or 2:00 to take advantage of your rod's sensitivity and you'll still be able to 'see' most pick ups you can't feel.

Fish your strengths.

Although this body of water is relatively shallow, it isn't without features that are attractive to off shore or structure fishermen. My attention was immediately drawn to two areas on the first map. The upper tip of the island where the 10ft, contour line is was the first and the area to the left of the island where the depth goes from 5-10-8ft. is the other. The first one is likely the most drastic of depth changes on the lake the second provides depth changes in close proximity to each other, not to mention a bit of an underwater hump that would attract fish that receive a lot of pressure on the island's shoreline. Any form of cover, especially isolated cover, or change in bottom or weed composition along any of these breaklines make them potential hot spots. Spend some time with your electronics in these areas looking for any irregularities. Breaklines from one depth to another are rarely sharp changes and also rarely without irregularities. Concentrate your efforts there after post spawn and until late fall and you should get your off shore angling feet wet.

I've been actively fishing for bass for 50 years and have yet to hook, let alone land a DD. I take that back, I married one about 44 years ago . Seriously, If I really wanted to break the 10lb. mark, I'd target lakes known to give them up on a regular basis. My home lake record is 8lb.13oz. and I doubt that any of the lakes I frequent have given up a double D. My goal is to catch more fish over 5lb. this year than I did last year and I've succeeded that goal for six years running. Good luck on your quest.

The males are still guarding the beds and will be for a while. I was searching out the females and this is the first time I've run into this situation, or so I thought. I checked my fishing logs and I had the same thing happen in 2009. Guess I should check my logs out before I leave to fish.

What Wayne said. I've fished at night an scored with a wacky rig. Not that it's the 'best' presentation for the situation you describe, but it sure isn't the worst.

So I had some time to experiment on the water on my last outing. I had no problem locating males on the beds, but I wanted some big fish action, so I headed out to the staging areas they use and started bumping bottom with some suspending cranks and football jigs. My reasoning was simple; Past experience. The bass around here tend to be caught in the upper to mid-water column before the spawn and either on the bottom or close to it after the spawn. The result was zero takers. I had a swimbait tied on that I was using to target aggressive males on the beds, but I'd backlashed on the last cast with. I made a long cast, cleared the backlash and began reeling when I got a bump. Not a jaring strike, but it was definately a fish. I cast back out, counted to ten and began reeling. Same result. I quickly switched to a suspending Rogue and on my second pause in the retrieve I hooked and landed a nice three pounder. Five nice fish later, I sat scratching my head. They were all spawned out females. Have you guys ever run into suspending post spawners? I never marked these fish on my sonar, let alone any baitfish. I'm wondering If I've been missing out on some good fishing by targeting only bottom fish at this time.

I use them two ways. The first is to mark structure or, say, a weed line. I'll drop on the deep side about a casting distance from the area I want to search. I'll go down the break and drop another anytime that line jutts out or in. This gives me a visual target that I then cast to, but shallower than the bouys. The other way I use them is to mark the location where I've contacted fish. Normally this is a summer situation as I don't run into many schools early in the year. When I hook a fish, I'll toss one overboard and look for landmarks. Now, I can return to that general location after landing or loosing the fish and have a starting point for finding the school. I don't have gps on my front unit, so I can't mark a waypoint unless I return to the console.

X2, or a little super glue on the hook's shank before you slide the bait up or place a drop behind the bait at the offset.

I fish with braid on all but my cranking and topwater rods now. It's a confidence thing. I don't buy into the notion that heavy or colored line 'spooks' fish. For one thing, I fish the clearest water you could imagine and rarely have a fishless outing. For another, I believe that a fish's focus is, or should be, on your lure and not your line. Just to give you an example; yesterday's outing netted me fourteen bass off of beds and my lure of choice was a shakey head with a four inch straight tailed worm. I fished it on 30lb. braid dragging it onto the bed and shaking it there. If my cast landed directly on the bed, the fish would spook and leave. The line isn't what spooked those fish, it was the unexpected intrusion. If you don't have confidence in my theory, I suggest using a leader with your braid. You loose very little sensitivity and would possibly gain a lot of confidence in the line visibility debate, but don't try changing my mind, I'm a hard headed old fart. You know how we are.

I'm the same way. I've tried L/H baitcasters and look like an uncoordinated newbie. Same goes for a R/H spinning which really brings out the clumsy in me. Kind of like rubbing your belly and patting your head.....both ways

That trip sparked my query. If not for the others, I would have been targeting the creek channels and junctions and maybe checking for suspended smallies off one of the breaks off the bluffs. At the very least, there were some rock humps in deep water and, given the opportunity, would I be wrong in assuming they would be using those structures and what casting presentations can effectively target them?

One way you can utilize your 3/8oz baits in deeper water is to change the blade size, shape, combination. Switch out a Colorado blade for an Indiana or willow. Go a size or two down on your willow blades, or remove the front clevis and blade to reduce lift. I keep a pair of split ring pliers in my parts utility box along with different size and styles of blades. You can modify your spinner to run deeper or shallower, add extra blades to give it a schooling minnow look, even switch out the skirt for a different look altogether. Keep some trailer hooks and keepers, some bell (bass) weights and extra split rings and swivels in there too and you'll be surprised what you can do with just one spinnerbait.

My deep cranking set-up is a 7'6"Browning Boron Matrix MH rod paired with a Daiwa Advantage 6.3:1 or an Exceller 4.9:1 reel. Cranking is the only time I'll use flourocarbon and for the deep stuff I like 12lb. as I don't feel I loose as much feed back as I do with 10lb.