farmpond1

Sorry guys. I realized I had posted this in the wrong forum, tried to rectify it, and wound up deleting my posts. my mistake.

Either there are very few bass where you are fishing or AVID is correct. Keep your mind open to learning and modifying your tactics. Even the best fisherman can still learn. A wise man once said that he only gained wisdom by realizing that he didn't know as much as he thought. Oh, and there is no shame in admitting difficulties.

Sometimes I wonder if my buddy hasn't made a pact with the devil. :-/ If someone catches a 5 lb bass, he'll turn around and in short order catch a 6 lb bass. The fish do seem to like him. I'm not a firm believer in scents but at this point I'd do just about anything to try to even the odds.

It sure couldn't have hurt matters.

Yesterday I went out to Mill Creek Lake (in Illinois) with a buddy and his dad. They've been scoring on bass with white skirt, tandem silver 3/8 oz Colorado blade spinnerbaits. It was no accident that I am being so descriptive as any other lure or spinnerbait color/blade type, etc. simply wouldn't do. And even then, you had to work the lure just right to get the bass to hit. I emulated my friends technique as best I could and yet he and his dad were out catching me at least 5 to 1. It was the most baffling thing. At one point in the day, the bass were forcing the shad up to the surface and we'd wait for new "boils" and then furiously cast into them. It didn't matter what I did. The bass totally ignored my identical spinner bait while my friend and his dad scored over a dozen bass. It was enough to make a man cry. Have any of you experienced anything similar?

Too many and not enough.

At least a half dozen. One was stepped on by a cow. Another-a fly rod-broke last week while I was trying to pull a bass out of a mass of skunkweed. It was an oooooold shakespeare rod so I wasn't too broken hearted. The rest were casualties of car doors, liftgates, coolers, tree branches, etc.

"I admit that I am powerless over the baitmonkey and my life has become unmanageable." --as has my tacklebox.

What might have been my personal best was about 3 weeks ago. Sam Parr in East Central Illinois is a very stained lake and after as much rain as it had received, it was especially coffee colored. I had never been there before and hadn't done any good (up to this point) with any other technique so I thought that since it was a bright sunny day the bass might be buried in the thick stuff. So I tied on a Rat bait and tossed it into the mess. Just when it had cleared the weeds, I watched a humongous bass swim up and take it in. He didn't really smash it. Just sort of casually sucked it in. Anyway, I whomped him hard with a pretty good hook set (or so I thought) and tried to keep him out of the weeds. The drag on my Abu Garcia reel doesn't really crank down all that tight but I managed to get him closer to the boat. That's when the angle of the line changed and it just sort "pitooeyed" out of it's mouth (these kinds of baits are notorious for coming unhooked). Anyway, I watched the bass as he casually swam away-seemingly unfazed by the experience. I, on the other hand, was very fazed and very heart broken. My brother had to listen to me lament my loss for the rest of the trip.

Here's a thought that came to me. I've lost more than a few fish on X-Raps (another Rapala Jerk bait). I believe it's because of the erratic action (if you fish them this way) of the lure. The bass don't always make an accurate strike and while you may hook them, they sometimes come off easier too.

You aren't alone. We ought form a support group for unsuccessful Senko fishermen.

Nope. Entirely different species.

'Round here we call 'em "goggle eye". But rock bass is probably the most common name. They are fun to catch!

Ditto. Big water will have fewer productive spots (relative to the size). You'll have to do some searching. Mouths of tributaries (such as the ones you described) are usually good starting points.

If I were a religious person, I'd say those Senko's were manna from heaven. You weren't able to part the creek too, were you? Outstanding bass! I'm envious!

Agreed. Those aren't "normal" symptoms unless you are having an allergic reaction (or you're tanked).

Holy cow batman! It does sound like this stuff ought to come with a Material Safety Data Sheet. What does it do, render the bass silly?

I'd love to help but I'm not a metalurgist and I'd be talking out my rear end. Is it rough and/or pitted? Do you anticipate problems?

I considered that it could be unburnt 2 stroke oil but would it still be greenish and fairly clean in appearance? I did change my lower unit oil not long ago (thinking the leak would mandate a refill) and the oil was clean (not milky or watery). I can't tell if it's measurably low in oil without comparing the amount in it now against what it takes to refill it. There is no dipstick (obviously).

Ditto. A big splash can often be just what the doctor ordered. Or, if the bass are wary, I'll cast beyond my target and reel to it. Long casts are great unless it reduces your line/lure control or allows a big fish to duck into an obstruction and break off.

Fishing is only "relaxing" for me when I can't coax the fish into biting and I've resigned myself to just chilling out for awhile. Then when I start back up again, it isn't relaxing anymore. Of course this isn't to say it isn't fun. My girlfriend says I'm the most patient person she knows when I'm fishing. Ask me to free up tangled Christmas tree lights, however, and that's a different story entirely. Sometimes I could kick myself for overlooking a beautiful sunset or failing to appreciate the lightning bugs blinking in a meadow. But if I think a hungry bass is waiting in a pocket of cattails or lilly pads, I'll forget nearly everything else. It becomes an obsession for me.

The other day I emerged from between the houses of a subdivision in my town after fishing a pond therein. I stopped in to say hello to a friend who lives there and she observed that I must really like to fish to which I agreed. She said, yes, fishing is very relaxing. I didn't correct her but for me if it's relaxing, it's when I'm not doing it right. I've clearly seen more intense fishermen/women than me but when I fish, I do it with the purpose of catching and while it's (usually) enjoyable, it's rarely "relaxing." I know it's largely a question of semantics but do any of y'all feel the same way?

I have an old 60's vintage Johnson outboard. It's been a reliable machine up until recently. But lately, I've noticed that what must be lower unit oil is dripping down from a not easily accessible portion of the motor (between the lower unit and the motor itself). Are there any outboard guru's out there who recognize this problem? Is this likely a seal/gasket problem or can I expect something worse? I expect I'll have to take it in soon.

To add to what's already been said, balsa floating lures (ones that rise back up to the surface when paused) are good for fishing over heavy submerged vegitation where you can pause or slow down the lure long enough for it to rise above the stuff, than crank 'er back down once you pass over it. They generally don't go super deep to begin with. They are good in some applications (such as the aforementioned) and crummy in others.

Sometimes, yes. Lure depth has some bearing on whether a fish will get spooked. Some species (such as striped bass) are shy, however, and you might try to use a planer board to pull the line (and, hence, the lure) off to the side of the boat.