captaininsaneo

ok, so we are tied on... now what?

flukes work well.

I have tried every which way and just cant really catch fish one em... no confidence.

uhm... braid floats. And if you are referring to the post I am thinking of, the person wasn't having problems with setting the hook too early. If you have that kind of discipline braid is the way to go.

I caught a very heavy rock. It was circular but had a wedge missing from it, my weight got stuck in the wedge and I got it in the boat.

Bitsy Flips are my jig of choice, however I am rarely "trophy hunting," and they catch numbers.

slow down!! I know you think you are fishing slow enough, but you're not. I don't care how slow you are going you are not going too slow. sometimes stopping may even do the trick as I have had bass inhale a senko as it sat on the bottom motionless. Also, you need to become an avid line watcher, never lose focus because when you do, you will lose fish.

haha, you'll most likely cry more when you lose the crankbait than when you lose fish.

is there an advantage to stitchin as compared to just reeling VERY slow with one finger on the line to feel a hit? again I love what someone called it "counting rocks"

He was 80 years old... probably not very capable of lifting another grown man, or even bending and reaching out to him in order to be of much assistance.

Actually I had always heard of fishing these on top, but I thought they were more of a bait to catch anglers than fish. I considered them the modern day helicopter bait... shows what I know.

Quote: Fish can be conditioned to respond in a certain way (ie they've seen the same lure before) but they cannot recall an incident, only a positive, negative or passive emotion. Here is an interesting tid bit: The lake I fish has been around for some time and it was known to produce some huge fish on a rattle trap. So for YEARS people fished rattle traps and caught tons of huge fish. When we bought our camp at this lake I had no clue about the history of it, and I went to by some rattle traps from the local baitshop. The owner looked at me like I was crazy and said "Don't sell many of these anymore..." and proceeded to tell the story. Apparently most of the fish had become conditioned to the noise that a rattle trap makes and had learned not to strike them! PS Notice the name of the lake is not included, thats because the Rattle Trap bite is back and I don't want other people to start figuring it out!!!! lol

Negative Ghost Rider. I have never lost a fish using that technique and its definitely not best to let em' jump. On a side note, don't you wonder what makes a fish think to jump when it gets hooked? If something sharp and metal gets shoved through my lip and starts pulling on me the last thing I am going to think is "OK I need to run as fast as I can and jump REALLY high while shaking my head"

I don't use frogs much, but I have heard of trouble with hooksets before. I have always thought that you could possibly rig them with a small trailer hook almost like a buzzbait. Now like I said I dont fish them much, but on frogs like a YUM buzzfrog I don't think it would hinder the action as the legs are spaced far apart and they get a lot of lift. You should try it out if you're not fishing in too heavy of cover. Also, if you use this in a tourny and win some dough I should get atleast 60%, haha. Lemme know if it works!

OK, im assuming NJ probably hasnt warmed up that much yet so theyre probably not holding as tight to those weeds. It seems like you've already tried the bottom contour thing also... so I would say you need to find the area where the vegetation differs from most of the other lake. Find a spot where the weeds arent so dense and try the outside edges (even better if these places are around those bottom changes). Find where two different kinds of weeds meet each other. Find a subtle difference because fish key in on those for some reason.

nothing beats a spinnerbait in wood cover like that, especially in the wind. Odss are you are gonna be slayin em on the spinner and not want to throw the buzzbait!

Avid really knows what he's talking about, but I gotta disagree with him on this one. I have had some of the greatest fishing of my life "counting rocks" as its has been called with a TX rigged culprit worm after thunderstorms, the exact opposite of topwaters. Topwaters may very well work but my philosophy is "dont fix it if it aint broke" so im stickin with the worm.

try a 3/0 or a 2/0 and make sure you are watching your line REALLY close. You're not always going to feel the strike often times, especially with these baits, you will see it first. You picked two really tough baits to detect a strike on, but once you master them you can go pretty much anywhere and catch bass.

at night yes, day time no. I have been outfished by my uncle in the same boat on several occasions during the day when I had a bead and he did not. However, I've had the opposite experience at night. So I would say give em the ole brass n' glass at night or in muddy water only.

Welcome Aboard! This is a great site to get you started, but nothing I repeat NOTHING beats time on the water, or the bank, or whatever! The best way to learn how to use those new lures is to look em up on this site, ask questions, whatever and then tie one on and go to the local fishin hole. Odds are you're going to develop your own techniques based on a combination of the ones on here anyways. Just remember only wet lures catch fish!

no experience with it, but it was mentioned on a chatterbait thread under "Fishing Tackle," i bet they are dynamite at night!!!!!!!!!

I caught a small bass using a bare hook, bobber, and the tab from a coke can. The big ones are anything but dumb though... they dont weigh 10 lbs because they are stupid.

smallmouth on a spinnerbait is almost never gonna be a small strike. generally they are gonna smash the bait and you will definitely know. Even after you know you've got one on, hold on tight. They will run and jump and fly through the air to throw your hook.

I fish them extremely slow. Cast past cover and let it fall all the way down... this might take a while. If you dont get a strike drag or hop the lure with your rod about 1 1/2 or 2 ft, it will dart up and then fall very slowly again. If youve got plenty of patience its a great technique.

Tie on a black and blue jig with a black or blue pork/craw trailer. Odds are you wont catch many small fish, a jig is notorious for weeding out dinks.