Bazoo

It's an Arbogast Hocus Locust. I just realized this is your first post. Howdy and Welcome!

We've all seen folks use a spinning rod upside down, but this tops that. So I went down to the river. There was a guy there standing over his tackle box so I said howdy. We discussed lures, and he seemed to have a solid understanding and vocabulary about the subject. After a bit he went to fishing. He had a zebco 33, one of the newer ones. I looked over and he was holding the rod upside down, with the reel on the bottom, and backwards reeling with his left hand.

Ah okay, thanks.

Who uses gloves and what is the purpose of them? You know, those half finger thin gloves all the pros wear.

I like those Victor traps with the big yellow pad for mice. I haven't had the need to use the rat size yet. For mice, I use peanut butter. I would think that the same would be good for rats as well.

Thanks for sharing. I haven't heard of that book before, thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Sunday after church I worked on my jig techniques. This jig was given to me by a guy I met at the lake last year. The weed guard was stiff and I was experimenting to see how that affected it. I lost 3 or 4, then I cut the weed guard completely off to see how it did, and it collected a lot more grass. I didn't have any other bites after I removed it. Made a quick trip down to the river today.

Sounds like fun, though I was thinking more of a friendly competition to test my skills against the canoe queen.

This what I have. The clip broke so I replaced it with a hook. I asked Berkley to send me another hook and they sent me a new scale, but with an unpleasant email saying it was a courtesy and they won't be sending any more. I took it to the post office and had them weigh my bag, and my scale is .75 of an ounce light at the 5lb mark.

I haven't met an BR members yet, though a friend did join, but hasn't said much.

I wasn't watching, but I saw the results. Glad for Ott!

I wouldn't say I am overthinking it, as my intent is to think it out in detail. I think about all of my hobbies in this detail. I enjoy the thought process, and figuring out problems. My goal is not to simply catch fish. My goal is to become a world class bass angler. If I ever get to Maine and can fish with @Swamp Girl, I want to out fish her! --------- Yeah I guess I just went for it choosing mono. I started using 10lb mono when I got back into fishing because that's what was on the side of my Zebco. Then when I got a baitcaster again I just used that. I went down to 8lb to increase casting distance for lighter lures and in the hopes it would be a little finessy. I run 12lb for my bigger stuff. I almost always use Big Game mono, but I have tried others. I tried Suffix 14lb and I liked it pretty good, and still have enough to spool 1 time on a backer. I only tried this because a friend bought it to try and gave me the rest of the spool. It is real manageable. I do enjoy trying new lines.

The spots I fish there is a verticle bank, and a few limbs here and there, a few rocks, a few bushes. Mostly it's a sand/rock bottom. They keep the weeds and trees removed so it's "pretty". But the other sides of these ponds have stumps, laydowns, treelines, and cattails. But there is bass on the easily accessed sides, you can see them cruising, and occasionally catch one.

Thanks, I don't think I've seen that one.

Thanks. I haven't tried it, but it looks good. When I saw the diagram I said, that looks like a reversed clinch knot, and then I saw, it was called the reverse clinch.

Most of the trailers I use aren't heavily salted or salted at all, so I put the jig and trailer back in the box normally.

We only listen to christian music. I like Kutless among others, including some bluegrass. We mostly get along on music. She doesn't care for Petra. This is one of my favorites... and hers. My momma would have hated it though. She hated country, and especially bluegrass. Favorite Kutless song. My wife hates this Petra song.

Thanks!

The problem is, that I can't find anything that is effective there. I've had sporadic success with various things. Which is what has lead me to explore how to catch pressured fish, and lead me to the theories I propose.

I use the kreh loop knot. I've perfected tying it and the tag points rearward. If most people use a regular knot, I reckon a loop knot would give me a bit of an edge.

One reason that I think sound is a factor is because changing to soft split rings has gotten me more bites than using the same crankbaits with standard split rings. Everyone else uses standard split rings and the crankbaits all sound the same, except mine. When I say sound, I also mean hearing/lateral line feeling. I don't know if they hear it, or sense it. When a crankbait goes through the water, it vibrates the bait, but it also vibrates the line to a lesser extent, and this causes a different sound with different types of line. I bet they hear/feel that line in the water. Everyone thinks that fluoro is better because the bass can't see it, but I surmise they can see it and hear it the same as the others, it just sounds different. I agree, a smaller line is better. This is the lake https://elizabethtownky.org/freeman-lake-park/, look at those 2 ponds on the north end. That's the main area everyone fishes. There is a walking path right up the center and on the dam area between the south end of the ponds and north end of the main lake. I can get bit on the main lake, where I can fish from shore. The accessible areas which is the west side have basically no cover. They cut the trees to make it pretty. So there are less bass there than the east side that is mostly natural, however, the natural side is a mile walk with little casting areas. The reason for fishing this is, my wife and kids and I go to town, we stop at the easy access area and fish an hour while my wife enjoys the bathrooms/portapotty and my kid enjoys the playground. Mowed areas with no bugs and so forth. So... I made it my goal to learn how to get bit where others can't, where the pressure is the most, where it's convenient for me to fish due to family reason. And I do get bit there, with some serious thought and work. I believe it's made me a much better angler as a result too.

I don't want it to be complicated, but it gets that way all by itself. The place I'm fishing sees probably 50-100 people fishing over the course of a nice weekend. I agree, that bass aren't line shy... what I think though, is that they hear the sound of the line, and while they still occasionally bite, using the least common type of line will give them a different sound and thus, get more bites.

I don't normally use braid line for a main, so I'm not sure how well mono would work with a fluoro leader. I know folks do it, but I'm wondering about knot size. I also think that straight fluoro would give an edge vs the main/leader setup regardless of whether the mainline is mono or braid, but especially with braid. I believe that line makes sound under water, and braid makes a louder sound under water than any other. A bunch of amateur bass fishermen use straight braid here but I don't know anyone that uses fluoro. So my thinking is that it'll give me an edge over a huge percentage of other anglers that hit the city lake I fish because almost everyone uses either mono or braid. My thinking is that most "serious" bass anglers will use braid. That said, I haven't tried braid for most of my fishing. I have used it a fair amount with my spinning outfits and caught fish at that city lake, but I am pretty careful about my casts and presentation regardless of line.