Bass_Akwards

Thanks RW. Any suggestions on a reel for 100 bucks or less that can make long casts from shore with 20 pound braid? I want to start fishing braid more for various reasons, and don't have a boat, so I really need a smooth casting spinning reel to get way out to the deeper mats and cover.

I have a good $400.00 to spend on new fishing tackle. I know it isn't much, so I was wondering if any of you knew of any killer sales, either now, or upcoming? Does Bass Pro Shops have an annual sale every spring or winter that I should know about? Is there a crushingly amazing place online that I should know about that has good poles and reels for an inexpensive price? I think for soft plastics I'm going to order a bunch of *** stuff as opposed to the millions I spent on Senkos and other SP's last year. But where should I go to purchase, poles, reels, line, crank baits, swim baits, scents, buzzbaits etc etc? Should I wait, or buy now?

Come on guys, you can do better than this. I've been fishing less than a year and I call 'em STUDS --- AS IN "Holy crap!" "This one feels like a STUD" BUTTERBALLS --- As in when you are fishing near thanksgiving and pull a 13 pounder on the boat and say, "Look at the freaking BUTTERBALL!!" BRUISERS--- As in when you have a 9 minute fight with a 16 pounder, and after landing her you feel your arms aching and say, "d**n, this ***** is a bruiser" MOBEY DICKS-- As in when you hook a 14 pounder on 6 pound test, and she goes under your bass boat and tries to tip the boat over. She's a "Mobey Dick" CHUNK BOXES--- When you land a 17 pounder and she has a freshly swallowed 7 pound ducking in her belly, she's a "Chunk Box" BEEFERS - Same as a "Chunck Box" except she is full of eggs and a freshly swallowed 5 pound trout. BULLS --- 10+ pounder that jumps and bucks and gets at least 2 feet out of the water 9 times on the way to the boat. JELLY BELLYS - Completely self explanitory BLUBBER BUTTS - Again, self explanitory BIG SHOTS--- A 25+ pounder who roams and patrols a large lake, or body of water, swimming like she owns it. She scares all the other bass and fish in the area, and is smarter than many accountants. When you catch a "Big Shot" you know it. They will never stop pulling, and can swallow a small goat. A "big shot" takes you deep into heavy cover if you ever catch one and has the strength to pull a 100 pound water skiier over a mile. (I've only caught 5 of these in my life)

There's a power plant lake here in Boulder and I've heard the fish get well over state record size there. Problem is, they have it fenced off. It's complete torture. A fisherman i met this summer, told me he has photos of 15pound bass that came from that lake. Him and his friends cut a hole in the fence in 1999 and again in 2004 and caught MONSTERS. The state record in Colorado is 11.5pds. I am dying to bust in there and fish it this winter. Not sure if I am willing to do it though.

Sarcastic rant... Awwwwwwe, you poooooooor babies! I feel sooo bad for you. LOL. Complaining about your boats being put away for the winter? Do you guys complain when you can't take your lamborghini out of the garage when it's cold too? Appreaciate having a boat in the first place, and think about us losers who walk the shoreline all spring and summer, not being able to locate fish with a fish finder, having no idea how deep the lakes we fish are unless with C-Rig and feel the bottom on our own, or be able to hit many spots on lakes you lucky boat drivers get to crush all fishing season. If any of you have an extra bass boat, just PM me for my address.

I fish a lot of slop, and I'm going to start fishing with braid next year a ton. Can I fish this reel with 20pd-30pd braid, and still make smooth, long casts from shore? If not, what reel is best for this? T

Thanks! Can't wait until spring!!!!!!!!!!! t

wow I haven't been to this part of the site in a couple months. Good to see theres some CO bass fishermen in here. Yes Jugger, Pella is sweet. I have done research on ponds using sattilite imagery, calling Colorado fish and game, open space and mountain parks, talking to biologists, and getting detailed maps from different places to find some great fishing on the front range. Here's a couple I caught at some places in boulder County.

I live in Boulder Colorado, at 5300 feet. The Colorado state record was caught at an even higher altitude, and would be bait for some Bass in the big 4 states. Weighing in at 11.5 pounds, this little pig was the biggest ever caught here. What I wonder, is if there is a mathmatical formula (like there is for weighing a fish with no scale) to determine how big a fish will get once they are about to spawn, and are full of eggs. I caught a 5.9 pounder here in boulder this summer. How big will that fish be right before she lays her eggs? Seems like MD and Colorado are quite similar. A 5 pounder there, is like a 5 pounder here. Very interesting! I found a new lake called the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, that I will fish for the fist time next year. I talked to a biologist, and he sent me photos of bass that are 8+ pounds from the Arsenal, so there just might be a state record in there come spring time, and I want it so bad I can taste it. T

YOU MIGHT BE A HARD CORE BASS FISHERMAN IF...... -Your wife comes home from victorias secret holding 5 new pairs of sexy panties and says "Do you want to have some fun tonight baby?'' and you respond "YES, WERE GOING TO BASS PRO SHOPS!" - Every time you take a bath, you bring a snorkel and all your lures - You buy yourself two new rods and two new reels at the local bait shop. The sales guy asks "Do you want a rod and reel for your wife?" You respond "Hell yea, that will be the best trade I ever made!" - You see Kermit the frog on TV and all you can think of is how you'd rig him in the slop at lake ElSalto (personally I go weedless and weightless myself) T

Is there a time of year when it's just time to hang up the fishing gear? I was catching fish all day every time I went out all summer. September rolled around here in the rocky mountains, and the days got shorter. The temps stayed in the 70's all september and most of october. I couldn't catch but maybe ONE bass every time I went out, and half the time I got skunked. I probably went to my local ponds and fished 20 days in october and I think I caught 3 fish. The last 4 times I've gone out, I have't caught a darn thing. I'm not talking about big bodys of water either. I'm talking ponds of about 15-30 acres, which I'm fishing from shore. The daily high temps here have been in the 60's for a month and at night the lows get to the mid and upper 30's. I havent measured the water temps at all, but the water is very clear. All I know is, I fish senkos, jigs, swimming jigs, carolina rigs with heavy weight to get them through vegetation, brush hogs, x-raps, crank baits, Yum Dingers, chatter baits, and buzzbaits at dusk. I'm targeting isolated weed beds, fishing in open water, and any other cover I can find. I move from one side of the ponds to the other and just can't catch a d**n thing. I've sped up, I've slowed down. I've "popped" my soft plastics back to shore, and I've slow rolled them. The only thing I cant do is fish vertically in weeds with heavy Jigs because I'm fishing from shore. What on earth can I do do get some fish here guys? This is killing me, seriously. Is there a time of year you guys just hang up the gear? I wanted to fish till the ice was to thick for me to do so, but man, I dare say I'm getting a little bored going out 30 hours of fishing and catching pretty much nothing. Help?

Do most anglers use leader with braided line?

1. I fish lots of slop, but I also fish lots of buzzbaits, cranks, soft plastics, jerkbaits etc etc. Should I pretty much always be using braided line, since I fish lots of different cover, and never know where I'll be fishing from hour to hour? 2. I'm getting new reels soon. What open faced reels are great for casting 20-30 pound braid smoothly, with good distance? 3. Can I fish soft plastics with braid with great success, or is the braid to easily seen by the bass when fishing a slower bait? 4. Is there a "Best" braid that all you gurus love, or are there several that are great? T

i like it.

Yea I probably could have chosen better wording for my post. Sorry about that guys. But ya know what? After Googling a million things, I found an absolutely amazing article that answers EXACTLY what I was talking about. I thought it was super informative. Picking a Lure by Ranger Rob "When do you fish what bait"? This is something that sets the tone for an entire day of fishing. It's also an area where most anglers are unclear about starting their day. There are no definites at any time as to what you should or should not be using. I have a fairly simple approach to dealing with this question on a daily basis. The ultimate answer to this is given to you by the bass. You cannot make them bite a certain type of bait just because it is your favorite. This alone, having a favorite bait and wanting to start the day using it, is probably the largest reason that many of us are unsucessful on certain days. I have been able to avoid this situation by developing my own style of fishing and a system to finding the proper bait at any time. A huge help to me has been that I have stayed away from getting into the rut of having a "favorite" bait. Getting stuck on any particular bait will hold you back in your effort to become a better angler and in many cases result in fewer bass being caught on many days. You simply must be willing to allow the bass to tell you what they want from day to day and even minute to minute during the day. On most days, I end up catching bass on 4-5 different baits and many days a lot more than that. When I start a days fishing, I throw what happened yesterday out the window and begin with an open mind. In my opinion, when starting the day, the worst thing you can do is begin fishing with vertical type baits. This would be fishing Texas rigged plastics, or other slow moving baits, fished on the bottom and directed at targets. This is true even if you tore them up the day before by pitching plastic worms at stumps, for example. The reason is that bass change so much and so quickly, sometimes for no apparent reason. The first thing I want to do when I begin the day is establish how active the bass are at that time. I want to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible. For me, the best way to do this is to begin by having several horizontal, faster moving baits rigged and ready. This selection will vary a bit depending on the season. For example I wouldn't have topwater plugs rigged if the water temp. was 49 degrees. I may be able to catch a bass on one but, common bass fishing sense tells me this would not be an efficient method of attracting bass at that time. Baits I have ready, and throw at the begining of most days, say if the water is 68 degrees just as an example, would be a spinnerbait, crankbait of some type, buzzbait, topwater plug, Flappin' Shad, Speed Worm, etc. You can see that with a selection such as this, I can cover water as quickly as needed at different levels of the water column. Learning as much as you possibly can about bass and their seasonal tendencies, as well as their habits under different water conditions, is the number one thing to get you started on the right foot. For example, I would not rely heavily on a spinnerbait when first starting if the water surface was dead calm. Even though I feel this is my best bait for determining the activity level of the bass, I know that it will probably not get much attention without some ripple or chop on the water. I would be better of waiting for a little wind and in the meantime lean more toward topwaters, especially something discrete like a Speed Worm. I know from experience that a bait like this is much more effective than a spinnerbait in calm conditions. When the wind picked up I would rely heavily on a spinnerbait and crankbait. What I am trying to do is see how fast I can fish a bait and get a reaction from the bass. There are a few days when bass will absolutly go nuts over a topwater plug fshed so fast that it is literally skipping out of the water. I don't want to miss out on those rare days, so I will always make a few casts doing just that at the very beginning. Those rare days that this works are the ones where you may catch 100 bass. You will never know, and never catch those fish if you don't try it right off the bat. I know from experience that if this bite is on, it will only take a couple of casts to get a strike. There's no need to waste time fishing that method for 15 minutes. If they are that active, you will know it within a couple of casts. This is of course if your on fish, which you should be or else why are you in that area to begin with. On those days, bass will hardly react at all to the conventional slow methods. If you start slow, chances are you will miss the whole deal. Always start fast and then slow down. Keep in mind that super active fish will let you know it immediately. At the same time, I would begin fishing a spinerbait by buzzing it quickly just under the surface and if nothing happens within a few casts, I begin slowing down and fishing slightly lower in the water column. Again, common bass sense tells me that if the water is very stained, you will need to start off a bit slower than you would in clearer conditions. Always use good bass judgement for this type of thing. Other than the few days when I'm fishing alone and looking for new fish, I'm only fishing areas where I'm on bass. That only makes sense. People don't hire me to go around looking for bass. They want to catch them. Therefore, it is my job to establish the best baits and methods for catching them. This makes determining their activity level the most important thing when starting the day. If you use my method of starting fast, in the upper level of the water column or on the surface, and then slowing down as needed, you are allowing the bass to tell you their mood at that time. You should make casts with all of these baits so you don't miss out on something. If you don't make casts with a topwater right off the bat, you have made a huge blunder by perhaps missing out on the best bite of the day. Mix it up as you go along. Don't get stuck fishing a bait for 15 minutes without a strike. What does that prove? Nothing! While beginning with baits of this type, I always have a Texas rigged worm and a weightless soft plastic of some type rigged. I live in south Florida which determines that my choice is a worm. In your area it may be a different bait. The fact is, you want something you can throw to a bass that misses a fast moving bait or topwater, and one that can be pitched to targets and into very heavy cover. Even though I'm still trying to determine what the bass are doing, when I see a target or thick weed clump that is just screaming for a worm, I'm going to pick up my worm rod and give it a few shots. I never pass up this opportunity because this will ultimately lead me to finding out if the bass are tight to cover and what they want at that time. Several quick strikes on a worm in heavy cover tells me instantly to lay down the fast stuff and further explore the heavy cover with that bait. Making a few pitches here and there to the best looking stuff may have just put me onto what I need to be focusing on. If the worm proves to be successful, I'm set, but only for now. I am constanly looking and listening for any sign that the bass have becom more active and can be caught more efficiently on a faster bait. A huge mistake is to not throw a spinnerbait or one of the others a little later just because they didn't want it earlier. At any moment bass can turn on to faster moving baits. Therefore you have to always test these baits again throughout the day. Sometimes there are no clues as to why they turned on this way. A good clue that they may have would be a change in the wind, either blowing harder or changing directions. The instant this happens, you will see me picking up a spinnerbait, topwater, etc. As my technique implies, a good selection of rods is essential in my fishing. I don't want to waste too much time retying. Still, you want to keep it within reason. You don't want 15 rods cluttering the deck of your boat. This is just a sample of my fishing style. There are many things I do during the course of a day. Basically, by changing things up and starting fast then slowing down, I can stay on the best methods throughout the day. You always need to realize that there are several things that are working at the same time. To fully take advantage of the bass, you need to be doing several things at the same time. Never throw the same bait for long periods without a strike. It simply wastes time. If you take what you can from my methods and use them on your waters, I have no doubt it will lead to you being more efficient and catching a lot more bass. Good luck, Rob.

What baits do you guys use, and when do you use them. When do you not use them? T

Thanks for the compliment. My resizer in photoshop isn't working so the pic is HUGE, sorry about that! Thats Boulder Colorado in the fall. That place in the picture has 20 ponds in it. It's a forest preserve with about 15 of the 20 ponds being fishable. All the ponds range from 3 to 30 acres and there's absolutely no fishing pressure there. It's a completely hidden little gem with bass up to 7 pounds in the spring. I just used Google earth to find at least 10 new ponds for next spring that are all within 10 minutes of my house, all stocked with bass. I've called Colorado Fish and game, The division of wildlife, and Boulder mountain Parks and open space, to get great info on all of them. I can't wait for spring!!!!!!!

There's a lot of text in this thread, but I'm a professional photographer, so I have a tendancy to speak through my images. So here, imagine that's YOU on the shore in this picture, and not my friend John. The world is mostly sitting their lazy ***** on the couch watching Seinfeld, while you're out there chilling, throwing your line in. No noise, no problems, just stunning fall colors water like glass, and you trying to outsmart an amazing preditor. The photo is only shore fishing, I'm sure you have a boat which might be even more fun! If the photo doesnt help, just know that the guy in the picture landed a 6.7 pound hog about 30 minutes after I took that photo. Imagine what he was feeling when he first hooked her. The feeling of the vibration in his hands from the fighting fish, as well as the feeling of knowing all his hard work has paid off. His understood the fish, he made his lure choice, his presentation, and it all worked together. Now there's nothing between him and that pretty bass, but a thin little thread of 10 pound test mono. Come on bro, you can't beat that.... Seriously.

Sick stuff guys. This board never ceases to blow my mind. Faaaaaaantastic. T

I see where he wrote Senko style bait but Ummmmmmmmmm. What am I missing here? He makes a post about wanting to see pictures of fish caught on Senkos right? Then everyone gives the kid grief because of his post and his beating a dead horse with his pics of senko caught bass right? The post has Senko in the title and not YUM right? Then why were 8 of the kids first 9 photos of "Senko Fish" that he posted, caught with a freaking YUM brand soft plastic? Either I'm braindead, or something just isn't right here. :-/ Did you mean, pics of ANY soft plastic worm? t

This is always a problem for me too bro. Even after reading the posts to answer your question, I'm still confused. I know these Jigs, and even a T_Rigged worm or soft plastic is "Weedless" because the hook is protected in some way. But even if you use a great jog or T-Rigged weedless worm, doesn't the actual bait always come back full of weeds? I try so hard to use jigs and soft plastics(rigged weedless) around lots of thick weeds, and all I do, is get a lure full of garbage when retrieving, or when it gets back to me. Not sure how to stop that. Am I missing something? Catt, how on earth can you pull a jig through the weeds in the picture you posted, and not get it all gunked up? T?

Bass are hiding in that thick growth under the surface. I can't seem to throw anything, that doesn't come back with tons of weeds on it. If I throw a T-rigged, weightless senko or brush hog, the bait doesn't penatrate the thick stuff, it simply swims over it, even if my retrieve is slow. If I throw a jig or a weighted plastic, it comes back full of slop. I throw a C-rig and the worm collects lots of weeds. How can I fish from shore(which means I've got to fish more horizontally then vertically) and get a lure down into the weeds and coax the big boys to bite without having my bait covered with gunk? How are you guys fishing the thick stuff from shore?

Don't forget fellas, lot's of people over use the term "pattern" A "pattern" isn't just, throwing a bait out, and if it works, you suddenly have a "pattern" Just because you throw a jig and it catches a lot of bass in the fall, doesn't mean the jig is a "pattern. That's more of a "technique", than a pattern. I was taught that a pattern is when you catch bass using a specific lure/bait, at a specific depth in the water, around a specific kind of structure or cover, and to be able to duplicate it in different lakes or different areas of the lake you're fishing and still catch bass every time. For example, let's say you're fishing a big old hump or point or whatever, with a giant rock in it. You throw a spinner bait out there and retrieve it at about 12 feet under the surface next to the rock and catch bass doing that. You just STARTED a possible pattern. to COMPLETE the "pattern" you must be able to do this over and over at different places on a lake or pond, or many different ponds and lakes.. Once you start catching bass using this same lure, in the same type of structure and cover, at the same depth, in different ereas of a lake or lakes BANG, you have a pattern.

Whats a Florida rig? My uncle lives in florida and so does the guy who invented the rig. He lives two blocks from my uncle. Does this rig work? Is it obsolete? How exactly do you rig it? thanks

Just talking to my uncle in Florida. He used to fish Ochechobee almost every day for years. He hasn't fished in 10 years as he's gotten into other things. I havent talked to him about fishing in years, because I haven't fished for LMB until recently. Anyway he was just trying to explain this rig to me and I couldn't envision it. Anyone have a picture of this rig, or can anyone explain it to me? Since he hasn't fished in 10+ years maybe there's something else on the market by now, or a new way of rigging a worm to get the same effect? Is this true, or is the Pixton rig unique? T