Pat Brown
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Everything posted by Pat Brown
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I’m gonna have to give it a go - definitely seems worth it for the softer stuff that gets good bites.
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I still think the majority of people fish tubes on a jig head. It’s kinda like the original Ned rig but more of a spiral on the fall. Traditionally rigged with a open hook but makers have developed “stupid” style tube jigs that essentially allow for weedless rigging the traditional way. Tackle Warehouse carries all of the stuff you need to get started fishing tubes the traditional way. I still like flipping them on a free rig but - tube jigs have their place. Love them on rip rap!
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I dunno - I just think it’s fun - if we can tell what’s what with photos - we should be able to tell these fish are the same fish! I think basically photos are fun to look at and we can get a general sense of big vs not big etc and even like you say - with established sense of scale - we can sometimes guess with astonishing accuracy - but the fact is a photo isn’t really enough to say one way or another what a bass weighs etc.
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He’s showing you that your eyes can play tricks on you and that bass size identification via photograph is not possible. These are the same fish - one is not bigger than the other - yet the photographs had you thinking that one was clearly longer than the other. The jaw jutting out on one was the literal same jaw as the other picture where it isn’t jutting out etc. Photos don’t really work for weighing a bass etc. they’re just fun for memories!
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Thank you @casts_by_fly
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Top Middle Bottom Fast Mid speed Slow Small Medium sized Big (((((((let the fish tell me)))))))
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Ditches/drains/culverts/saddles/ledges/low spots etc etc etc Places where a flat bank suddenly becomes a little deeper and more concave that usually corresponds to a place where water is constantly concentrated when it rains. Backs of pockets usually have multiple ditches - flatter banks usually have subtle ditches. Big steep banks often have huge ditches that you can see sticking out of the water where the landscape makes a hard “V” - that V usually keeps going underwater and forms little points and ledges on either side of the ditch. Saddles are where two islands or humps or even points are close enough together that there is kind of a “valley” that runs between them - this is another form of ditch basically. It’s just places that get eroded and as a result stay pretty clean and hard and have well defined depth changes that provide good opportunities for ambush and reproduction and moving up and down in the water column without leaving the area. Walk a bank during a drought and you’ll see the little snakey looking depressions in the bottom that seem to randomly shoot off the bank - those are ditches. I think a better thing to look out for that makes a LOT more sense is “look for depth changes”.
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Downsizing is pretty smart a lot of times. So is upsizing! That goes for the bait/weight/hook/line etc - playing around with the variables to either stand out or blend in more intentionally makes for better days on the water for sure.
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Think subtle. Just one spot where the bank juts out a little bit. Also think about the ditches leading into the lake. Each side of the ditch has a depth change and a point and usually hard bottom. When there isn’t much obvious stuff to work with - just think smaller and less obvious versions of the stuff that they want. You said rock near the bank? I’d focus on those places for sure - target the bank - the drop and the places rock transitions to other stuff on the bottom and fish any brush or good grass along that edge/ on the bank/ on those drops. You’d be surprised how many bass will group up on those little hot spots! Be open to sun and shade/steeper and flatter/cleaner and dirtier/colder and warmer water - you won’t know where they want to be til you find them so junk fishing isn’t a bad move and that’s the other thing - move a lot til you start getting hit - this time of year if you’re around them - they let you know fast!
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Pit Boss D Bomb Rage Bug Mag Rage Bug Baby Brush Hog Speed Craw Mag Speed Craw Rage Craw Rage Lobster Chigger Craw Christie Craw
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The biggest bass (I’m talking 8 +) seem to pull hard one way and then turn into dead weight pretty quickly but not always. That initial run they usually either tear the hole big enough to come off or break your line or bend your hook out - but if they stay pinned well after that - usually they give up. They also seem to pull down and into cover a lot more than smaller fish and jump a lot less - presumably because that is difficult to do with such mass - Jake’s PB definitely fought like a catfish and looked like a snag. The bigger ones give up faster but pull the hardest on that first run usually for me. A lot of times it’s under the boat and out to deeper water but sometimes it’s straight into the cover you’re flipping, only deeper.
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Local pour - Dave’s Tournament Tackle 10” ribbon tail and also a big fan of the mann’s jelly worm. Culprit 10” ribbon tail if I’m at Walmart!
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I also missed one that for sure was over 8 that was all agitated with my cricket but only wanted to grab it by the tails - in a big fish tournament where 6.2 won 😭😭😭. Also pretty bummed @Rockhopper ! But hey - spring is really just getting started 😎👍
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I have too many lipless crankbaits - the red eye shad out catches them all 10:1 for me. Green or Blue Gizzard shad color. Throw the 1/4 oz a good bit.
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The stuff bass eats in general is little flashes of silvery white with maybe some greenish grey and then brown/black. I think a lot of bass eat things that are much smaller than the lures we tend to throw. A good lot of the things bass eats are moving away at blinding speed and I don’t think bass are seeing much except profile and movement and I think moreso what makes a bass eat a lure are how it’s moving and where it’s moving to or from. That being said - I’ve never fished any water clarity where they wouldn’t eat green pumpkin/smoke/black and blue/white. Some spike it markers and you can get little details like orange pincers or chartreuse stripes / tails/ blue back.
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I also am bald and also burn with trucker hats. Not much else to add - but I feel your pain! 😂 I started wearing the sun shirt and the hood protects my scalp on top of the mesh hat part. I hate sunscreen.
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Full trick worm on a jig or spinnerbait or bladed jig or buzzbait all work! Theowing those fun colors like merthiolate or bubblegum on a normal color spinnerbait or bladed jig shows em something new too! Bass typically eat things head first and I catch 8” bass on 11” worms with 2” hooks. Don’t overthink adding plastics to jig heads! It pretty much all works!
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Your town might have a boat repair guy. Could be that your motor is 10 minutes worth of elbow grease away from being perfectly fine for another 20 years. A lot of outboard motors aren’t much more difficult to repair than a lawnmower. Might be the cheapest way to have a working back up motor for big surprise storms or angry wives saying you forgot to turn the stove off etc
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What do I actually fish with that is expensive? Probably a glide bait in the 20$ range like the BPS swerve. I got a few jerk baits also that are up there. I try not to throw super expensive baits just for the thrill of it - but I’m not opposed to baits that get it done and cost a bit more. The Yamamoto senko is a great example - that’s a bait where the original just works.
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Pretty much everything still works here if you commit to throwing it as far as I know. The conditions have to be right for different baits to work now - it’s not just like fish come unglued for a bait like maybe it once was - and the nuance in presentation required to get bites is wild. That being said - a bladed jig just doesn’t work like it once did for me!
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I think it all boils down to values - if you just wanna catch fish and don’t care what size they are - catch them and smile and release them - for those of us who value the numbers and want to know with accuracy what we are doing - weighing fish is the only way to do that. Does one group of anglers with different fish handling practices dramatically kill fish disproportionately in relation to the other group? I strongly doubt it. I know one thing is for sure: weighing and releasing a fish is a lot more likely to result in fish survival than eating it! Which is what people who catch fish in general tend to do - which isn’t wrong. I don’t think weighing fish would be part of lake management and scientific study practices if it was extremely dangerous to do it. Learning to do it safely and responsibly are good but even an amateur who does their best imperfectly and merely weighs their fish, snaps a photo or two, and then puts the fish back in the water and lets it swim away is giving that fish a great shot at surviving being caught.
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Tom Monsoor and Tom (RIP WRB) from bass resource are both advocates of SUPER long casts and very carefully manicured skirts and padde tail trailers and when a fish gets it way out there - Hookset mechanics become incredibly important. You will not be able to quickly snap the rod over your shoulder with enough force to move the hook - when you feel a fish take the jig - point the rod at the bait and reel as fast as you can and the instant you feel that fish - while continuing to reel fast - pull firmly into the weight of the fish - it is EXTREMELY important for this all to work to reel fast the whole time - this drives the hook home and this ensures that all slack is kept out of your line throughout the Hookset. Tom Monsoor just says “just keep reeling when you feel the fish”. That is not a bad move with the right hook - that being a lighter wire hook with minimal weedguard. For most heavy cover swim jigs I like the reel and pull with torque and zero slack approach - hooks fish extremely well on very long casts. In general with jigs - I don’t set the hook any other way - even right next to the boat you’ll hook them much better reeling and pulling hard when they load up than snapping the rod fast. My 0.02$
