Bass_Akwards

"Stitching" a live crawdad. It's the most deadly big bass technique I can think of once you're on fish.

It's simple once you know the answer to the question "What would I rather do, be outdoors and fishing by an awesome lake or pond, practicing fishing, learning about the structure on the bottom of my lake by casting a C- rig out there and have a small shot at catching a bass, OR sit at home and watch TV?" Personally I like the former.

Do it all man. Just keep your eyes open. If while you're fishing you see a monster on a bed and you find it "ethical" to fish and catch it, then do that too. Others might not like fishing for bedding bass, but as long as it's up to the individual angler, go for it.

Theese two questions are for everyone, but the amount of different times you fish during the day, year 'round, the more informative your answer will be. Also, I know this answer can change lake to lake season to season, so I ask this generally. 1. Over the years, on the lake you fish most, generally, what's been the time of day when you catch the most bass? Not the biggest bass, but the MOST bass? I don't need exact times of day but slight specifics would help. For example, before sunrise? Sunrise to when it starts getting light out? 10am-3pm? Dusk? After dark? Also... 2. What's been your most productive technique at that time? For example, if "Dusk" is your answer, are you catching most of your bass fishing isolated cover in shallow water with a buzzbait? If "high noon" is your answer are you structure fishing jigs in deep water?

How can someone fabricate ANY thing when all you have is line? I don't really get the question I guess. When someone says "all you have is line" I take them literally. No trees. No clothes, No sand. No rocks. No jungle. No nothing but line. Makes no sense to me. I'd kinda like to hear fishahoilic ideas of what HE would do so I can understand the question better. I guess with nothing but line, I'd have to dive into the water and hope to find some hooks and lures snagged on some cover down below the surface, and use those to catch fish. It's either that or prey there's catfish in the body of water, and learn how to do some noodling for real darn fast. What about eating turtles, snails and other marine life?

"Hydrilla Gorilla" - Huge bass caught in heavy vegetation Buttoned - Hooking a bass "I got this one buttoned" "Tanya Harding'd"- If ever you happen to be "on fish" and some skanky, smelly, witch pulls up next to you in a super trashy boat and starts casting right where your casting, you've been "Tanya Harding'd" (okay so I made this one up) "Lube Jobs" - Lube Jobs show up at the lake about 1 minute after you have finally found and caught a nice bass while shore fishing. These "Lube Jobs" bring their dogs to the pond or lake and have it run and splash in the water, no more than 25 feet from where you're trying to fish. Veteran "Lube Jobs" actually will throw a frizbee or stick within 20 feet of where you're actually casting. "Wagglejaws" - The Wagglejaw is the angler that just can't keep his mouth shut when you fish with them. They constantly snap their gums and use the giant hole under their nose to annoy you as well as scare every fish within 50 yards. Usually the Wagglejaw's daily mission is to try and spoil the silence and tranquility of any fishing spot. "Rock Snot" - Heard this years ago somewhere. It's the slimy, slippery coating on constantly wet rocks in a pond or river.

7 things I'd do off the top of my head are... 1. Spend countless hours reading bass fishing books, magazine articles, online articles and threads at bassresourse.com. 2. Getting beaten to a pulp, tossed around, thrown to the ground and kicked in the face constantly by the bait monkey therefore... 3. Spending way to much money on lures, rods, reels, boats, waders, line, hooks, tackleboxes, polarized shades etc. etc. 4. Spending hours, upon hours, upon hours, floating around a lake, or walking around the lakes shore searching endlessly for places in the water with deep water access, special bottom composition, subliminal bass spots, outer edge spots, points, rip rap, vegatation, bait fish, cray fish, and other structure and cover. 5. Practicing for boring hours on how to correctly fish and retrieve Cranks, spinners, jerks, plastics of all kinds, jigs, swimbaits frogs and other baits so i can catch the biggest bass possible. 6. Sacrificing time away from my family and other areas of my life just to be "out there." 7. Fish in freezing weather days on end and not catch a thing for 6 hours each day, but love it anyway. Oh wait, I've done all that and still no state record. DOH!

And the ole Senko comes through again. Also, 15 other guys have caught a bigger fish than that in Texas. That's just disgusting. You Cali and Texas guys have it made. If I lived there I'd be hucking 8'+ Hudds all darn day, every day. Who cares if you get skunked if you know eventually you're gunna hook some potential beasts over the years?

I'd take 100+ outings in a row getting skunked if you could promise me I'd catch that genitic miracle at some point in the next 5 years.

Ban Practice! Just show up at the darn lake and fish it the day if the tourney!

Ha! RW that's freaking awesome sir! I always loved the stunning looking fish in your avitar. It's so sweet that such a huge percentage of the time you see hippo bass like that, the angler caught them on 10# test or bigger. Yet there you are, out on your lake where you can potentially land a world record SMB, and your hucking 4# test Yo Zuri Hybrid line. I love it. It's a true testament to your love of the sport and your prowess as an angler. As for me, I caught an 7.4 pound bass at El Salto with a C-Rigged Zoom SS+ (I think) Lizard. I dipped the tail in Chartreuse Garlic dip and fished the lizard as fast as you can fish a C-rig. My line was Yo Zuri Hybrid 8#. Not that impressive I know, but I'll take it.

Name one common mistake, or uncommon mistake, that's made by bass fishermen, that we should all avoid. I'll start. Confidence/Go to Baits. The mistake is that people fall in love with one bait, and fish it even when they're getting no bites on it. I've seen guys throw a Senko ALL DAY and not get bites. Mix it up! An angler needs to understand when his "go to bait" isn't working and to tie on another bait to try and catch bass. I struggled with this for quite some time.

The spawn can start when the water temps jet into the 50 degree area, but depending on where you live, you can get those nasty late spring cold fronts. It's happening here in CO right now and it constantly puts the brakes on the basses natural urge to propagate. Photo period (length of daylight) is also important but not as important as water temps. From all that I've read and seen, most biologists seem to agree that somewhere between the low 60s and about 72 degrees is when bass remain in those shallower areas to spawn. I've noticed that in some ponds I fish, the spawn takes more than a month. Some bass simply move shallow earlier than other bass do. I can't imagine a bass wanting to lay it's eggs in water temps of 40-48 degrees. I can see however why the tails on some of these fish are red. Most likely they are males that are making beds. Most times the male will put its head in the middle of the nest and spin it's body in a circle, keeping it's head in the middle. They do this many times to get the nest just right. This is why when you look at a bass nest, you can tell from the radius of the nest how long the males body is.

It's interesting here in Colorado because the price has been $30.25 for the past 3 years at least. What's so interesting is that there's no state funding what so ever here in Colorado for the Division of Wildlife. The DOW is run and funded and supported by anglers buying licenses, as well as anglers getting fined for NOT having licenses as well as other offenses. All that money goes to pay staff and everything else. It's kinda cool actually.

Redline What kind of fish is that and where and when did you catch it? Good God man that thing is scary!

Chris, I'm 41 and I have to admit, it still ticks me off when I don't catch anything. I love being out there on a beautiful day, I really do, but I HATE being skunked. Maybe "ticks me off" is a little too harsh, but if I bass fish for any amount of time, and don't catch a bass, the competitor in me is 100% disappointed, even though I might have had beautiful day on a beautiful lake. To answer your question, I don't think "normal" has anything to do with it. Nor does your age. The "not caring if you catch anything or not" is one of those "to each his/her own" deals. It comepletely depends on the individual in my opinion. Some people are going to have the attitude you have now where, as each year goes by, they care less and less about whether they catch anything, and more and more about just being out there, floating on beautiful clear lake, under a blue sky, surrounded by nature. But they're going to have that attitude at age 25, whereas it took you 40+ years to acquire. Others, like me, are NEVER going to believe I had a "great fishing day" if I don't land a bass or two on my outing, not to mention 10 bass. Will I believe I had a fun, peaceful, relaxing day on the water? Absolutely! Fishing and not catching anything is more fun than lots of things I can think of but the fact remains, that my number 1 goal when I walk out my front door to go bass fishing is.... CATCH BASS! CATCH LOTS OF BASS! Or God for bid catch a HOGZILLA of a monster of a pig of a bass! When I'm driving to the pond or lake all I can think about is how I'm gunna trick her today. How I'm going to fool her, that pre spawning toad of a mama, onto my hook so she remains there until I can look her in the eye, hold her gently and let her know that I got her. I almost shake at the thought of having the fight of the month, the year, or of a lifetime, when she thrashes and jumps to avoid my human touch. Then to release her back into the cool spring water, watching her slowly swim away, tricked, defeated, and wondering how that genius of an angler ever landed her in the first place. ;D A fishless day on the water is delightful, there's no arguing that. But for me, going fishing is about FISHING, and FISHING is about catching fish. Man vs. animal, me vs. the bass. I still care more and more about catching fish every time I go out. When I'm bass fishing, the "beautiful, clear lake, under a blue sky, surrounded by nature," only serves to enhance the amazing sport and experience of bass fishing for me but I care much more about catching fish than I do about just being out there. Is this normal? Or am I a bassoholic?

Absolutely amazing stuff guys. Insane! Kittens and horses? Are you kidding me? I'm dying to hear more from others. Wow.

A friend of mine just accidentally caught a frog on a 4 inch Senko. I caught an old fishing rod with a crankbait in the past. ] What's the weirdest thing you've ever hooked while fishing?

So that makes 2 weeks in a row I forgot to put in a lineup. I suck. d**n!

What's your favorite season to fish for LMB and/or SMB and why? It was a tough call for me but the fact that it's just now starting to be ice out here in Colorado makes me realize how amazing and theraputic bass fishing really is. Therefore, Spring is MY answer. Not just because the possiblities of catching an egg filled TOAD while she's pre-spawning is obviously larger than other seasons, but because all the possibilities of whats to come in the months ahead linger right in front of me. My fishing imagination goes wild in the sping, compared to other seasons. VERY tough call, but it's Spring for me.

Yea Colorado! Welcome to the board! You'll never find a better place to learn the in's and out's of bass fishing. A bunch of great Guys and gals here with thousands of years of cumulative knowlege. See you on the lakes!

I'm just tryng to figure out from the guys who answered "The Strike" if they like a scenario like scenario #1, or #2 better I guess? 1. You have a great strike on a topwater or a jig. For example one of those topwater blow ups that's super fun and super vicious and splashy. You try to set the hook, but there's no load up. No fish. OOPS! The fish didn't inhale the bait and it was a swing and a miss. All air. Therefore you got that awesome strike y'all are talking about but no fish. or You get a super weak strike on a jig. One of those where you're not even sure a fish hit the bait but instinctively you give that rod a YANK and BOOM, that sucker loads up and you realize "Holy crapbuckets, this things a PIG!" My view is #2 wins by far. A killer hook set, beats a killer strike.

I'm confused. First off, it's not "One Man" it's the guy who's widely known as the single best tourney bass fisherman in the universe. Secondly, why are you so amazed that people buy a product and have confidence in it, when they see it actually doing something real, like winning the biggest bass fishing tourney there is? What amazes me is that people buy things like cars because they see some pro driver on a closed track in a commercial, making amazing turns and slides and spins. That's not REAL. These people are never going to get in their new car and do what the pro driver did in the comercial. Conversely, KVD winning the Bassmasters Classic is REAL. It happened. He beat other guys who were using different lures the "other" companies make and weekend anglers everywhere will be doing the same thing KVD did in the Classic. Fishing. Not only that, some people got to, and get to fish Bees Wax Creek the day after KVD. I'd say that's incentive enough to go out and buy a couple red eyed Shad. (even though I'm not buying any) If Skeete Reese had won the BMC on a Lucky Craft lure, and kicked KVD's butt while KVD was using the Red Eyed Shad, why isn't it logical for me, or any other bass fishermen to go out and buy some Lucky Craft lures and throw them with confidence, all the while thinking my success rate will skyrocket?

Beat me to it. I totally agree. STRIKE, Hookset, Fight, Landing the fish. Kelley So do you guys like the STRIKE the best because without it, you can't have the hookset or the fight? Or are you saying after catching, and landing the fish, you like the strike the best of the three? And for all you guys that said the STRIKE... What if you get a nice topwater strike or Jig strike and the bass completely whiffs and you don't even get the hook set? You still telling me you like that whiffed strike as much as a good hookset?

Actually Dwight, you and a few others were right, its the same fish. the original point is, get a scale. Right now, if you don't have one. The other point is a photograph is a terrible way to document a big catch, if no other measurements are taken. The hat, well, its warm. Disagree. Photos can be an awesome way of documenting a big catch. You just have to know what youre doing both behind the camera,as well as how to hold the fish correctly. I personally like to take 2 shots. One with a 50mm lens, which is equal to what the human eye sees, and then I like to take a shot with a shorter lens where I get the fish super close to the lens while still keeping the fish in frame. This way I can get great detail in the bass. Some people call this "Long arming the bass" to make it look bigger than it really is. I do it so people can really see the fish. The scales, the slime, the gill plates etc. I always say how big the fish is so when you're looking at it in the photo, there's no argument. Here's an example of a "long arm" shot with a short lens. It makes this 4 or 5 pounder look like a 7 or 8 pounder or whatever, but if I tell people the fish was 5 pounds, and it actually was, what does it matter how huge the fish looks in the photo? What matters is the detail and color of the beautiful bass, and the fact that I know how much it weighed and I'm honest about it. This bass had the smallest mouth in comparison to it's body that I can remember catching.