Bass_Akwards

Wow, mouthwatering spot bro. What's fun is you get to try a bunch of different things here. Start with buzzbaits early. Then when the sun comes up, I can't imagine why you wouldn't love to throw a shakey head in this spot. If that doesn't absolutely crush 'em, why not a beautiful Jig n Pig? God I'd even huck a Rapala DT-10 in there and bounce it off those beautiful pieces of cover. After looking at that picture, I officially have honey hole ***.

These are in no partucular order, but because Raul rocks, #10 is now #1. Plus, he's right, this might be the most important one on the list.

Here's what I do to crush it from shore. If I may brag for a moment? I catch WAY more bass, and much bigger bass than most anglers do, who fish the same ponds I fish. I spend lots of time talking with other fishermen on local message boards or when I'm done fishing, or as they walk by me when I'm fishing and i'm here to tell you, I outfish them nearly ALL THE TIME! Why? Because they aren't doing what I'm doing. Simple. In no particular order, some of the things I think are important when fishing from shore are........ 1. Learn the structure If you fish from shore, you don't get the luxury of electronics. Your job is to use a Carolina rig to feel the underwater structure you can actually cast to. Go slow and feel the contours and humps and ridges and rocks and shells and ledges down there so next time, you'll know where everything is and you can fish it accordingly 2. Times of day If you're not catching anything lately, pay attention to the time of day you fish. In my opinion, you need to be out there an hour before the sun sets, and fish until dark. OF COURSE you can catch fish during the day, but again, being stuck on shore it's much more difficult in general. LMB will have a tendency to move to the shallows and away from deep structure and cover to hunt closer to shore as night falls. This is good for shore fishermen for obvious reasons. In most states, the fish will give you a nice window near dusk, where they are really actively feeding. Sometimes this might only last 30 minutes and then turn off as fast as it turned on, but you need to be fishing when it happens. Go early as the sun is rising, or late nearer sunset. 3. Start fast and slow down OR throw two baits! Lots of people just show up and start casting their soft plastic. I think you should start with a faster lure like a crank or a buzzbait and see what the fish want. If you start slow and get a couple bass that's great, but you'll never know if the fast bite is even on unless you try. I like whipping a Senko out there and dead sticking it, while I throw a faster lure for 30 minutes to see if the fish want a quicker retrieve. If they don't want it fast? Slow down. 4. ABC - ALWAYS BE CASTING!!!!!!!!!!! I know, just from watching friends and other anglers on the water, that I make WAY more casts than they do. It's just a fact, and it's no accident. Chilling, talking, eating, joking, is all fun, but you HAVE TO KEEP YOUR BAIT WET! I honestly notice sometimes, that I'll make like 4,5,6 casts while the guys I fish with, make 1 or even zero casts in the same amount of time. Try making more casts than you usually do next time out. 5. Learn to fish the cover. Not near the cover, but IN the actual cover. When it's sunny, those bass are going to be in heavy cover. Don't be afraid to get in there to catch 'em. Most people love to fish weed EDGES but the sun makes those fish get deep in there and you have to learn what baits fish best in thick weeds, how to fish said baits, and go get them bass in those places others are literally scared to fish. 6. Top Water can be amazing! Lots of people are scared to fish baits like buzzbaits. I find them to be absolutely amazing for fishing at dusk and dawn from shore and so do lots of others. Try different retrieves and speeds and try poppers and spooks and jitterbugs too. Great for shore fishing when it gets darker out. 7. Pay attention to conditions. If there's no wind for 2 hours, and then it picks up to 15 miles an hour all the sudden, stop throwing that Senko and whip on a spinnerbait! I notice guys all the time just continuing to throw their C-rigged creature bait even though the wind conditions just changed semi-dramatically. If the conditions change, YOU need to change! 8. CONFIDENCE THROUGH PRACTICE Trust me, when you start catching more fish, you'll start catching more fish. Make sense? Fishing has A LOT to do with confidence. If you don't have confidence in a lure, or your technique, or a body of water, or even a specific piece of cover or structure you happen to be fishing, you're likelihood of catching bass goes down at least 50% in my humble opinion. Start gaining confidence by practicing your casting, and presentations with each bait until you rock with each one. Show me a confident angler and i'll show you someone who's live well is almost never empty. 9. Don't just stand there You get to the pond at 7:30 and it's a beautiful night and you make your first cast. Nothing. Then make another cast with no result, then another, then another with no bites. For 20-30 minutes your fishing hard with a couple different baits and no bites. This is the time to MOVE! I see people fish for an hour, making the same fan casts, to the same spots over and over and over again. I just don't see how this is productive. At some point you have to realize "I'm not on fish" and move to a different part of the pond. 10. Long casts. If you're stuck on shore, you need to cover water, even if you're finesse fishing. At lots of the ponds I fish, the vegetation big bass love, is 40, 50, 60 yards from shore. I constantly see people that either have no clue that big bass love this sort of cover, or they have no ability to cast that far. Usually the latter. If you need to get to cover like this, OR need to get to deeper water because fish are relating to deeper structure, you NEED to get the equipment, line, and technique to get your lures where the bass are. Try some of these tips and see how you do. Good luck and Hook 'em hard.

1.15

Okay, so I have this one friend who I fish with a lot. Great guy. We talk sports, fishing, girls, and whatever comes up. We smoke cigars and have an overall great time on the bank. I've fished with him 90% of the time the past couple years. The problem is, I've started to notice how this effects my bottom line. When we fish together, most of the time we're shore fishing. He stands about 50 yards away from me and we fish and B.S. on the same shore line. This means I'm NOT fishing the water he's fishing.(because he's fishing it) Conversely, when he's not there, I can fish the water I'm fishing AND the water he WOULD HAVE BEEN fishing, if he was there. Therefore, I catch twice the fish when I fish alone. What REALLY sucks is, he's been bringing his two sons with him lately, so the entire shoreline is basically being fished by 4 guys, when, if I came alone, I'd have the whole shoreline to myself. Last night was the first night I fished alone in the last 20 outings and I absolutely CRUSHED it! I fished where I usually fish, AND 50 yards down where my friend usually fishes, AND 50 yards down further where his sons usually fish. I was smacking 3-4 pounders all night, on all three sections of shoreline that I usually can't fish because my friend and his sons are usually fishing it. Am I a selfish basshole? Where do you guys come out on this? It's gotten to the point where I don't even want to call my friend anymore to go fishing because I want all that d**n water and shoreline to myself. I feel like such a jerk, but after a night like last night (and most nights I fish alone) it's tough to NOT want to fish by myself. Anyone else ever have this problem?

Roofies?

I've never seen a 4 pound bass where I could stick my entire fist in it's mouth. That fish I could stick my fist in it's mouth easily. I wanna guess about 5.1 pounds, but I have a sneaking suspicion its 6.10.

Musta been such a pain in the *** to get a bowling ball down it's throat.

Living in Colorado sometimes I fly fish. What works? What doesn't when fly fishing for bass?

It doesn't matter if it's luck or not on the first big bass. There's a saying in Poker "Luck never gives, it only lends." Nothing can be truer. Since you NEVER know if catching one huge bass is luck or not, you have to assume it IS luck until you start doing it more and more often. After you catch big bass more and more often, you can assume it CAN'T be luck because as I said, "Luck never gives, it only lends" So keep practicing and fishing and experimenting and you'll notice after a while you won't be asking "was that big bass I just caught just luck?" You'll KNOW it's skill after catching lots of big bass.

Been out of town but thanks for the responses. The reason for the post was because I'm a pro poker player. Before every poker tournament I play, I have an overall strategy based on things such as the cost of getting into a particular tournament, how many other pros are in the tournament, my mindset at the time(did I just break up with my girlfriend or am I in a great mood), and other factors. Once I have my strategy set, I sit down at the table. I watch and learn everything I can about the players at my table. Tactically my play is different against different players. I might use a "Check raise" against one player, and NEVER do it against another based on how I saw them play 3 hours ago. In fishing, I'm trying to start to do the same thing, and I'm noticing lots of improvement. The difference between tactics and strategy are HUGE, and being able to identify how to use each one to crush your opponent (bass) is HUGE! Just ask any great poker player or chess player. I've been noticing, as I've gotten better at fishing, that I can pull up to a pond, look at it, and devise a good overall strategy. Then chose good tactics to catch good relative limits and sizes. Ive also been doing more "homework" getting topo maps and talking to local game ang fishing guys about structure in the bodys of water I fish, and how certain ponds and lakes were created. Having a strategy based on what I've learned on this forum, on TV, books, topo maps, and people from the wildlife office, has really helped me with my "game." Both nubkers and sizes have been better than ever, as opposed to just pulling up to a lake or pond putting on a random lure and "seeing what happens" I found a new lake recently and got topo maps of it. After seeing lots of structure, I decieded my strategy would be to attack the humps and saddles until my hands hurt. My tactic? Crankbaits and Jigs! A nice sandy, shelly, rocky bottom would provide perfect habitat for crawfish so why not throw a jig to those rocks? Why not throw a crankbait and bounce it off the bottom? My strategy was also to start fast, and if i get no bites, slown down with the jig. So off I went to the lake with these tactics and strategy's in my mind, as opposed to just getting to the lake and whipping a spinnerbait and "seeing what happens", or throwing a Senko hoping to get bit. Well, I had an amazing day, releasing about 40 fish back to the water. Many 12-20 inch bass, and even a coupel monster croppy and bluegill that ate my jig. The croppy was huge at 15 inches and 2.2 pounds. The bluegill was enourmous at 1.14. In any case, just like in chess, and poker; having an overall strategy in fishing, based on factors such as, water temps, barometric pressure, time of year, available structure and cover and obviously many other factors that change lake by lake, pond by pond, is vastly important. It might seem obvious to some, but I'd be willing to bet many weekend anglers go out on the water without even thinking about strategy, and the tactics needed to fit their strategy. They just fish blind like I did for the first bunch of times I fished. Do your homework. Have a strategy. Then understand the tactics needed to fish your strategy perfectly, and you'll put more fish in the boat. Bigger fish too.

Do you guys have an overall strategy every single time you go fishing? Does it change for different lakes and ponds? What tactics do you use within your specific strategy? Todd

I use the term CRUSHED or CRUSHING a lot. As in "We were crushing them today." I use MASHED a lot as well. or "MASHING" As in "We MASHED them last night" I also will use DOMINATED. As in "I freaking dominated those bass tonight"

Raul I noticed the Wiggle Warts cost less than those other cranks. Would you say Wiggle Warts are pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the best crank?

I'm going to start cranking a heck of a lot more after trying it the other day, and slamming two 5 pounders in under 10 minutes. After I caught those two females, I lost the only crankbait in my tackle box. (yes I'm a loser with only one crankbait) I have no idea where I got it or what brand it was. What brands of crankbaits do you guys have lots of success with? If you can compare and contrast some of the brands for me, that would be awesome. Lastly, if you can post not only your favorite crankbait at any price, but also tell me what crankbaits are the best "bang for my buck" I'd really appreaciate it.

In my post about peoples fishing weaknesses, I noticed quite a few people said they weren't good at deep water bass fishing. I have to say I'm not the best at it either. Are there people on this board with suggestions for getting everyone better at bass fishing in water that's 15 feet or deeper?

George Welcome 's thought 's in another WR LMB thread: The postal employee reply when asked to lie: Yep, it's only during the depression and if I get caught I'm out of a job, but I am sure my family will agree with my decision.. The notaries reply: Yep, I'll do it. What's a little jail time if I get caught. Field and Steams reply: well isn't this the most rediculous claim ever, but what the heck the readers are stupid, as are we, and it's only going to cause us a cheap rod and reel. G. Perry's comments: well I know it's going to make me the laughing stock of the world on bass resource in 2009 but I can get this neato rod and reel. I am sure my family will think it's all worth it. I share the same thoughts. You lost me there Raul. Actually you didn't lose me, I re read it and get what you're saying. I just looked for more photos of this world record fish and came across two photos. One was the first and only photo I've ever seen of Perry holding a bass and one was the one with the little boy. I stand corrected. That fish really does look 22 pounds. I made a mistake and now think Perry is the man.

George Welcome 's thought 's in another WR LMB thread: The postal employee reply when asked to lie: Yep, it's only during the depression and if I get caught I'm out of a job, but I am sure my family will agree with my decision.. The notaries reply: Yep, I'll do it. What's a little jail time if I get caught. Field and Steams reply: well isn't this the most rediculous claim ever, but what the heck the readers are stupid, as are we, and it's only going to cause us a cheap rod and reel. G. Perry's comments: well I know it's going to make me the laughing stock of the world on bass resource in 2009 but I can get this neato rod and reel. I am sure my family will think it's all worth it. I share the same thoughts. You lost me there Raul.

What techniques, strategies, or tactics are you really good at when it comes to bass fishing? I, for example, think I'm strong at a couple things. 1. Patience. I can disect an area with a soft plastic or a jig working it for long periods of time at a pace that very well might kill some more "A-D-D" anglers. I also have no problem throwing big baits all day only to get just a couple bites, which are usually very nice sized bass. 2. Buzzbaiting. I outfish my friends 3:1 or so when we're all fishing buzzbaits over the past few seasons. I love buzzbaiting and have amazing success fishing them. 3. Accurate caster. I have become really good at hitting my target from long distance. If i try to hit a log, or edge of a weed bed, or anything else, I can put my lure exactly where i want it, and pretty quietly too. 4. Urning to get better all the time. I am always learning and wanting to learn how to get better at bass fishing. I am always trying new things and I'm not to stubborn to give up old habits and try new ones. Howabout you?

First off, Perry's fish is a myth IMO. No way did that man catch a 22 pound bass. Until someone shows me a photo of him holding a fish that even comes CLOSE to looking like "Dotty" I'm going to be a non believer. I've seen an image of him holding a nice sized bass, but 22 pounds? Bwahahaha! Not a chance in hell. Also. Can someone explain why a guy like Arugo, who was knowlegable enough to throw an 8 inch swimbait while trying to catch huge bass, would finally catch one, and take HOURS to get it back to the dock? That's almost the dumbest thing I've ever heard. "Weekend angler" or not, who fishes for, then catches a bass that might be a world record, and watches it suffocate on the boat? I never heard that story and now I'm a little ticked at his actions. Even a 12 year old kid would know the difference between a huge bass, and a potential world record and even if this fish was only 7 pounds, just to let it die like that sucks. Sheeeesh.

For those of you saying numbers are more important, what about the challenge of it all? Is there an actual challenge to catching large numbers of average or below sized LMB when you know for a fact you're "on fish?" Don't get me wrong, If I catch 44 fish in 3 hours I'm not going to be sitting there all mad that I haven't caught a trophy bass yet that day, BUT, after I know I'm "on fish" and have caught lets say 5 fish in 7 casts, the challenge kinda dwindles to nothing. Conversely, I was just watching a show where a guy did a study of pro fishermen and the monster fish they caught over a 16000 "man fishing day" period. That's 16000 cumulative days of the best fishermen in the world, on the best lakes, with some of the best conditions, with the best equipment and they only managed to catch 7 LMB's over 13 pounds. Basically that comes out to you, me, or most others in the world (besides "fishchris)" catching one of these toads once in every FIVE LIFETIMES! As we all know, tourney anglers aren't necessarily after these monsters every minute of a tourney, but don't miss the point. Big bass are rare and smart and very hard to hook up with, not to mention pull into your boat or to shore without your line snapping, or having the thing rap you around a tree 10 feet under the waters surface. For me it's all about targeting and catching LMB that are at least close to half a state record if not a state record itself.

What are some of the things in bass fishing you could use a little help with, or just plain stink at? Confidence in crankbaiting is a weakness of mine. I shy away from cranking even when the conditions say I should throw one. I think another weakness of mine is being a little cheap. I seem to never buy the higher priced swimbaits, jerkbaits, or spinnerbaits, and always go with the cheaper stuff that might not perform as well, or be built as well. I'm also not great at reading my electronics very well, but I guess like anything else, I need to practice. It also bothers me that I actually might be to patient. If I don't catch anything in a spot, I'll stay there for an hour, instead of moving, because I'm so d**n stubborn Lastly, I'm not very good at understanding fish movement and what causes it. I always hear pro's say stuff like "Well since it's fall season, the bass are pushing the shad into those back creeks so that's where the bass are gunna be" I just don't get it. I walk up to a pond or lake and look for cover and structure and that's about it. I can't walk up to a lake and figure out where the bass should be based on things like weather, seasonal changes, current, water color, bait fish behavior and other factors. How about you? What are you NOT good at?

Great stuff guys! Love it. I posted this because my friends are always telling me I am after big fish to much. They're happy catching 50 1-2 pound bass all day with their downsized lures while I might not catch a thing for hours with my 3/4 oz jig n pig, big spinnerbait, or swimbaits. I couldn't care less about catching numbers. Just gimme a hogzilla every few hundred casts and I'm happy!

What scenario is more satisfying for you and why? 1. You go to a lake known to have 12 pound bass in it. You fish for 7 hours and catch 32 bass all in the 1-4 pound class. 2. You go to a lake known to have 12 pound bass in it. You fish 5 minutes and catch a 9.8 pounder, then don't catch anything else for 7 hours

Great stuff as usual guys. Just read this for the first time because I forgot I posted it. Duh.