Cdn Angler

I always wonder about this with kayak fishing derbies where you take a photo and then release the fish. To get the bass lined up perfectly on the board, mouth shut, not moving, takes forever. And when you watch videos online they invariably jump ahead to the photo i.e. it took a long time. I don't really do derbies and try to take 1-2 photos ASAP, even if the photos are poor quality. Then get that sucker back in there. If you have to have a fish out longer because it takes a while I try to let it chill out in the net. With muskie / pike I try to never even take them out of the net, where possible.

For those who are good with technology I think the learning curve will be less to become good at fishing with FFS compared to learning fishing "old school." At some point a large number of fishermen will be at Josh Jones' level and many will be better than him. You'd think, given that everyone will be fishing the same way, that the results will eventually be extremely even in terms of tournament results too, with fewer guys repeatedly dominating. Catch rates and quality of fish should go up, but diminish over time due to increased pressure on fish IMO. If you are a kid that grows up 100% on FFS it'd be interesting to see how well you'd adapt to fishing without it. It'd be supremely annoying, at minimum, like us using a cane pole. I don't buy that FFS is only seeing fish targeted that never got caught before. It isn't like a suspended fish lives its entire life as a suspended fish. They move between suspended, bottom and shallow at different times of year, so might be caught at any time. It does mean there isn't anywhere a fish could temporarily be located without being at risk of getting caught. And that people will become more efficient at catching both big bass and more bass. The thing is with forecasting all of these changes, that it doesn't feel like anyone is actually systematically keeping track of anything. If things change gradually over the next 10 years I'm not sure there will be a lot of empirical data and we'll all be on here arguing back and forth.

Yep, and I've seen people have a lot more success through the ice. But I'd still say only maybe 10% of people ice fishing own one. As the prices comes down and people upgrade and sell used units eventually that number will get closer to 80%.

Eventually the price will come down, like everything else. And even then it's a pittance compared to an expensive boat. It 100% changes the nature of fishing when you can always tell if a fish is there or not. And can see what the fish is doing in real time. Personally I enjoy trying to figure out where the fish are and piecing that together. And I don't want to look at a screen all day. I go to great pains to escape my computer, which is why I'm fishing in the first place. I can appreciate that Livescope makes you waste less time and stop fishing dead water, so you can spend more time seeing what fish are doing. On the other hand, you don't need to spend half as much time thinking about seasonal patterns or bass behaviour. Jury is out on the impact it has on fish populations. I can't imagine the result will be anything positive, but the extent is hard to gauge. The one thing I'm certain of is that ice fishing will see fish getting hammered. So many people ice fish and it's freaking hard. If it becomes 20x more efficient (not an exaggeration) that's a lot more fish. And most of them end up in a freezer. As far as tournament fishing is concerned, there are limitations on tournaments already, same as in every sport, so I think removing it is fine on those grounds. But if pros don't use it and regular Joe Blow does, Joe Blow will potentially outfish a pro due to his tech advantage. And I don't think the pros like the "look" of that. But if catching fish via livescope is seen as its own category, similar to using live bait, that might not be a problem. Personally I don't enjoy watching people LiveScope, same as bed fishing. Tech won't stop. At some point if you know where every fish in the lake is at, the boat drives itself, maybe you have a self-casting rod/reel, AI picks your lure for you. You don't even need to leave the house anymore. Is that still fishing?

Even if you have a killswitch, lifejacket, aren't drunk etc. The number one thing you can do to stay safe is to pay attention and be conservative. Go slow, don't go out in crazy weather, pay attention at all times (don't be on your phone, eating etc.), and be mindful of hazards. Boring, but prevention is the best medicine. I think a lot of mishaps come from simple inattention, which is easy to do. Anyone can get distracted for 5 seconds, which is all it takes. The more you do something and nothing bad happens, the more you let your guard down.

If it's still useable, it goes back in the bag. Even if a bit dirty or discoloured, I doubt the fish mind. A lot of baits can be repurposed as trailers, drop shot baits etc, if you have the patience to comb through them and organize them. Or just put them in the trash.

New bait for me this year was the Gary Yamamoto Hula Grub, an old bait, in dirty plum, which was a fish catching machine. I was trying to figure out why and I think it is basically the same profile as a small football jig/trailer, except with an extremely slow rate of fall, depending on the bullet weight you use. I fished it wacky, weightless, in heavy cover, pegged, unpegged, clear water, dirtier water, down to like 15 feet of water. It just worked over and over again in terms of generating bites. I also found it surprisingly durable for a GY bait and it still got bit if I rigged it differently after it got torn up. I've never had much luck fishing a chatterbait, but I made some changes that worked. Changed from 3/8 to a 1/2 oz, and from a "chatterbait" TM to a locally made bladed jig. Changed to a 4.5 spunk shad trailer. And mainly used it in low light conditions (dawn/dusk). That seemed to be the formula for me. I used a white/pink version and probably caught 50ish fish on that setup, many of them decent, and also many pike and even one big walleye. Lastly a keitech tungsten casting jig. Those three baits were probably 30% of all fish I caught this year. I had many similar days with a Ima Finesse Popper, which is also tiny. Same deal where bigger topwaters weren't working, then switched and it got bit quickly. I don't know why, but I don't get bit nearly as much on big/loud topwaters anymore (large spooks, whopper ploppers), whereas previously big smallmouth were committing suicide on them. Not sure why the change. The only thing I can think of is that the ubiquity of the Choppo/Whopper Plopper has made fish wary of big/loud topwaters in general.

I caught a comical number of bass that were exactly four pounds this year. And nothing bigger. Mainly on flipping baits: ManBearPig, Keitech Crazy Flapper, 5 Inch Senko. Those were all LMB. My biggest smallies were caught on a whopper plopper, locally made bladed jig, and a GY Hula Grub. I focused more on lakes where the biggest bass top out at 4-ish pounds, but are plentiful. Mainly to experiment trying different techniques/baits.

Lots of food for thought here, especially how you were fishing it in mid-August. I also assumed that this rig would have drawing power, but it sounds like your experience is that it's better to put it right in their grill. You also fished it a bit shallower than I would have thought to, mainly because I figured it would be too loud/spook the fish. But seems to not always be the case. So I need to ensure it is closer to bottom, maybe fish a bit shallower, and probably fish a bit slower. That's how I fish 4-5 inch swimbaits, so it makes sense. I was using it a bit more like a spinnerbait (running overtop of fish usually) perhaps. I don't mind hucking the thing if it gets bites. I'm shocked I haven't caught a pike on it yet since they'll basically hit anything subsurface moving bait.

Thanks for the replies all. Sounds like I should try downsizing and maybe change the one blade that I have to a dummy bait. And think about using an a-rig with smaller hooks/swimbaits. Perhaps there is a model of a-rig that would work better for this purpose. And think about using it at the tail end of the season (late October). The odd thing is that I've had quite a bit of luck throwing the on point lures multi-blade spinnerbait in clear water, which has four blades: https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/spinnerbaits.html?from=basres. The only thing I can think of is that this looks more like a small ball of bait than four larger swimbaits that are separated by about 6 inches. Interesting that the St. Lawrence it has done well. I'm guessing the current helps. I don't fish the Larry, but I do fish the Ottawa River sometimes, which is similar-ish.

I know the a-rig has received a lot of acclaim, to the point where it's been banned in some tournaments. I've been fishing the Yumbrella as my first foray into an a-rig over the past 2 years and I haven't had so much as a sniff on this thing. Not even a follow or a feisty pike. To me it looks d**n good in the water, so I don't think my rigging is the problem. I've tried a few different sizes of hooks/swimbaits/colours. Nada. Probably a total of 6 hours fishing the thing over multiple trips. I'm in Ontario and fishing natural lakes. I'm tried to fish it in the beginning of the season and the Fall when the water is coldest. I've mainly been fishing it where I would a spinner bait in the Fall, which is anywhere I think bass are busting on baitfish (bays, over weedbeds, main lake points, over rocky boulders). I've had bites with other moving baits in the same places, so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if a-rigs just aren't the deal up here? Our water is fairly clear compared to say Alabama, so maybe that's the reason. We also don't have shad and to me the a-rig looks like a ball of bigger baitfish than what we'd normally see schooled up and getting eaten in Fall here (shiners, small minnows). Curious if anyone else has had success in Canada, NY, Michigan, Wisconsin?

This sounds similar to my experience chasing both largies and smallies this fall, though I've overall had better days in term of quality fish. Numbers though? That's another story. I've had little luck on my usual finesse presentations and little luck with topwater, which are summer go tos. I seem to be catching fish on moving baits, with no specific "pattern" aside from leaving dying grass to go to rock/wood/live grass. Some fish caught deeper, some have been in a few feet of water. It seems to be more the case that there's more dead water than previously - dying grass, docks, lily pads, have all been no bueno, along with usual dead water areas of mud/soft bottom. So I've basically been junk fishing areas that aren't the above, more areas than patterns. Feels like when I first started fishing, which was to just cover water with moving baits. Fun way to fish for me so that's just fine. It is nice to have confidence in moving subsurface baits again. In summer here it can get tough. The one constant is that fishing at night is much better. That seems to be a year round thing though. I think my failures finesse fishing are mainly due to not knowing exactly where fish are, so can't hone in on them. As long as I'm finding decent fish here and there on moving baits though, that's fine. Seeing as we aren't allowed to bass fish until June 18th, this is probably my favourite time of year to fish. Northerns and Muskie are also on the prowl, so more overall action.

I like most everything made by Keitech, Gary Yamamoto, and Dirty Jigs. There isn't a "bad" product among them. They aren't the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. In terms of premium hardbait brands I've liked everything I've bought made by DuoRealis. I would have a lot of confidence with any Rapala hard bait. None of them are novel, but they all work and aren't insanely expensive. I'd put Zoom in the same category for soft plastics. Reaction Innovations is another soft plastic company where everything they make I like. Overall if I could only use one brand for everything I'd go with Strike King since they make virtually everything. I like their stuff more than Berkley. Some of Berkley's products are straight up bad, in my opinion, whereas every Strike King product is at least good. If we are talking hooks I'd go with Owner.

I've had about 5-6 fate green rods and have had major issues with durability. Of those at least 4 had hook eyes come off, the inner metal ring come off and two rods snapped (arguably I was being a bit hard on them, but I've never had a single other rod snap in the middle of the rod). When they work they feel great and are reasonably priced, but I'll never buy one again.

Any slow moving bottom bait is harder when you are in current and can't control your boat position. I'd argue that a ned rig is more likely to get bit when swimming it back or when not worked as precisely as a tube. I fish exclusively out of a kayak with no anchor/pedals, for reference. It's obviously different if you don't mind drifting an area, but if you have a key small area you want to target, it's harder to use slow moving bottom baits while drifting. Moving baits are much easier since you don't need them to stay in one place for any length of time.

I can say that around where I fish, before it became too popular, it was a fish catching machine. I've caught countless large SMB, LMB and Muskie on a Whopper Plopper. I'm talking like thousands of fish. It outproduced any moving bait during that timeframe (we have a lot of grass too, so harder to use subsurface hard baits) and I expected to get 8-15 good bites/day on it. I've caught multiple 5 lb bass (big here), 4 lb SMB x 20, doubled up, caught muskie/pike. There was one day I was fishing under a dam with a WP, probably only 100 meters by 200 meters, and I caught 13 SMB in like 2 hours, most between 3-4 lbs. It worked at normal times when a topwater would work, but I also caught fish over 20 feet of water, mid-day, cloudy, sunny, raining, clear water, muddy water, near weeds, near rocks, basically any condition other than high winds or extreme cold. So I disagree that it was all hype. It just seems to have fallen off in terms of effectiveness as fish have become conditioned to it.

Here in Canada, before the Choppo came out, it was extremely hard to get a whopper plopper. You had to either find a super niche tackle shop and pay $27 or get it shipped from TW and pay a lot of shipping/duty. So only hardcore bass anglers and not the average fisherman had one. The WP during this time was the closest thing to a magic lure that I've ever fished. In virtually any conditions fish, especially big fish, would destroy it. It wasn't uncommon to catch 10-15 bass in a morning of fishing, with many between 3-4 lbs. Pike/Muskie also bit it. It was extremely hard for me to put it down and fish anything else since it was fun, effective and you can cover a ton of water. Fast forward about 7 years and the choppo can be bought everywhere and anywhere and is relatively inexpensive. The WP still works, but it is no longer a magic bait, at least on waters that get any fishing pressure. Topwater in general is still a great option here, especially with active fish, but I've noticed that every topwater gets bit a bit less than it used to (spooks, WP, poppers, wake baits etc.). I still use the WP, but it is more situational and doesn't seem to get the same bites. For moving baits I have to go subsurface more now. I'm catching more pike/walleye as a result and probably fewer big smallmouth. I can only guess that so many fish bit the thing that they have wised up. I don't know if this is biologically true, but I wonder if fish would observe other fish not being interested in a bait and would learn from that? The opposite is true as we all know so I don't see why not?

OK so I spent all day on a natural lake, about 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. It's about 2 weeks since bass are fully off beds, in Ontario, Canada. Clear lake with some grass here and there and large boulders. I've always done great here in terms of size/quantity, for both large mouth and small mouth. Many 4-5 lb fish. Depth goes down to 60 feet or so in areas, but there's a mixture. Anyways today I probably caught 50 bass, with maybe 4 over 1 lb. In 12 hours of fishing of that 50 maybe 4 were on moving baits. Everything else was basically dead sticker on their heads. I tried deep, shallow, weeds, rocks. Zero active fish from sun up to sundown, aside from some drinks (like 2 times fish were blowing up bait and I caught them: like 1 lb). Here's the weird thing: I assumed the fish were in a post spawn funk/tired and laying low. But every bass I caught was ENORMOUS for its size: huge guts. Both smallmouth and largemouth. So I'm thinking fish weren't active as they were already stuffed to the gills. Is that a possibility? Why would all 50 fish be freaking fat in late June? One fish puked many white minnows on me, but that's all I got. Just a weird day as this lake has been Uber productive for me in the past and get little fishing pressure. Any ideas??

I fish many lakes that are similar in terms of grass, although they are much deeper and have more variety. But when there's grass everywhere and you can't fun a lure horizontally, I've yet to find a reliable method to find fish and get a lure in front of them efficiently. The only options I've found are fishing whatever you can think of above them if there's enough open water. This works, but often they aren't willing to come up to hit something, especially in summer. This could be anything: swim jig, wakebait, prop bait, popper, weedless swimbait. IMO it doesn't much matter: if they aren't feeding up then you are out of luck. The only other option I have found is to punch or drop baits down to the bottom. My only rule of thumb here is to drop something relatively large/weedless, like a bigger fluke, 6 inch worm, bigger creature bait. My theory being that the weeds make it harder for the fish to see something falling in the water. So you are less likely to get seen on the fall and want something larger on bottom to get attention among all of the weeds. Neither of the above methods are efficient and I feel like I'm fishing randomly a lot of the time. So I avoid these lakes, which is too bad as they have large fish. Obviously look for baitfish, but most of these lakes, when I fish them, the grass makes it hard to see anything in the water.

Before learning how to use a baitcaster I used a M/H spinning rod, 4000 series Shimano Nasci and 20-30 lb test braid to do all sorts of things (most anything you'd do on a MH baitcaster). I still like fishing light texas rigs and light swimbaits around grass using this setup as I can cast them further. There's no real problem using a spinning reel like this using braid. I can cast as well with a spinning rod. Provided you don't start chucking huge lures (like 1oz) and don't mind using straight braid.

I equate it to my cat. If you had a hyper realistic mouse and it sat on the floor and did nothing, would my cat attack it? Maybe. You take a piece of cardboard and tie it to a string and move it erratically and it's getting hammered. One looks like a mouse, one acts like a mouse that is fleeing. I know what my cat prefers. IMO predators are attracted to prey that are fleeing or injured as it signals weakness.

Last year I was in that exact scenario and wasn't getting bit on loud topwaters. I switched to an Ima Skimmer, which is very thin, very subtle, and started catching fish.

It's a personal choice that I somehow never noticed. I have no great issue either way. I'm a kayak guy and 98% of the time I wear a PFD. But to be honest I don't think I'm any more likely to go in the water than a Bass boat guy and they never wear PFDs when just fishing. IMO he's what fishing ought to be. All the yelling, racing around in tournaments, chucking fish around is less appealing. I've watched a few Milliken fishing videos and the guy knows his stuff, but seems miserable and treats Bass with zero reverence or respect. It's a bit off putting. Maybe it's just a job for him? Doesn't seem in tune with nature at all.

If it is elaztech or has high salt content I don't like to leave them on. If not then I often leave it on if it's a trailer until the end of the season, then everything is off. Hook rust is the only main concern here.

3.3 Keitech 5 inch senko Keitech crazy flapper 3.4 TRD Flatworm or similar