Back to basics
Recently as I was going through some old tackle I got to thinking about lures I used to use back in the day that were very productive but for some reason I don’t use them anymore and wondered why. How many of you remember the days that we complained when we had to pay $2.00 for a lure? When names like Hula Popper,
Heddon Zara Spook and the Jelly worm were common. Back when one would never dream of spending $20.00 on a lure, $225.00 for a rod much less $50,00.00 for a boat. Yet we still seemed to be able to catch bass.
Could it be that the bass fishing has gotten that difficult? Or maybe the bass have got smarter? Where I might believe that the bass have become more conditioned over time because of the increased fishing pressure, or maybe there are just less of them to be caught, but in my opinion I feel that we as fishermen might have made it more difficult. Whatever happened to KISS, Keep it Simple Stupid? Hence the name of this post.
I remember while growing up, dad and I fished the clear deep canyon lakes of Arizona. I know that learning how to bass fish those clear waters prepared me for the lakes in California because they are basically the same. We rarely used any line over 6 pound test and the presentation was almost always slow. My favorite plastics were either the Manns Jelly worms in Grape or Mr. Twister Twin Tail grubs in black, either Texas rigged or Carolina rigged.
For crankbaits the
Rebel Wee-R and Deep Wee-R Crankers in the Ole Bass color was the hot ticket. I wish they still produced that color because I would load a tackle box with them. Top water was either the Hula Popper, Zara Spook, Jitter Bug or
Rebel Pop-R Plus.
While fishing with dad we never had a fancy bass boat, as a matter of fact we didnt have any boat but at times we would rent aluminum boats with 9 horse power motors or a canoe with a trolling motor but they never had a
Fish Finder yet somehow we always managed to catch fish. While we couldnt see under water structure we learned to read the lay of the land by watching the slopes of the hills and of course that in turn reavealed long underwater points.
Of course if we saw birds diving this told us that there was bait close to the sufrace, usually chased there by fish. We also kept our eyes open for “nervous water”, when you see little ripples on the surface when there was no wind or current. With this knowledge we were able to figure out where the fish were or should be and we were usually right.
Anyhow, I was just wondering what caused all us to change tactics and make fishing more difficult than it really should be. Maybe the next time you go fishing try going back to basics and see if bass fishing is really as difficult as we have been lead to believe. I plan on giving it a try myself and I’ll be sure to post up my findings.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Fishing for a Predator
Recently I met a fellow bass fisherman named Evan Schaible. After a brief conversation with him I knew he was a very knowledgeable bass fisherman so I asked him if he would consider sharing some of his tips and be a guest writer on my site, which is something I have never done in the past. At first he seemed a bit reluctant but finally figured he would give it a try. After I read the draft he sent me I was happy he decided to give it a try.
With that being said I give you Fishing for a Predator by Evan Schaible.
“It is no mystery that largemouth bass love to hide and ambush prey. This is because bass are predators by nature. It will drastically help our fishing when we thoroughly digest this fact, and fish accordingly. Many people who are new to the bass fishing arena tend to ease their way in by passively fishing as if the bass will help them get a limit. This is the reason why many people are discouraged at the sport.”
“When you approach this type of fishing you can’t just rig up a night crawler, drop it in the water and wait. You have to be just as aggressive as the bass in order to be successful. But this aggression must be accompanied by the proper knowledge, or you will end up just as frustrated as the guy who rigs worms and sits back with a soda waiting for the bobber to bounce. Float fishing is good, don’t get me wrong; but if you are serious about catching a few more bass each time you go out, than you have to fish for the predator.”
“What does it mean to fish for a predator? Bass fishing is a bit like hunting in that most of your time will be spent stalking the bass. But in elk hunting for example, you are acting as a predator stalking a prey animal. So often times fisherman can mistake what they are looking for on the water for being something that is prey (for us it is prey, that’s true). But in the freshwater food chain bass are among the top few hunters in the water, therefore making the methodologies we must employ drastically different than if we were hunting a prey animal. So in the remainder of this article I want to focus on a few techniques and tips that can help you catch the predator.”
“One key thing to remember is that you are not the hunter when you are bass fishing. You are in fact acting as the prey. This is integral, and cannot be stressed enough. We can talk about pitching into cover, and jigging a crawdad, but what we have to keep in mind is the fact that we are trying to impersonate something that the bass are in fact hunting already. So we can either have this working against us, or use it to our advantage. It can work against us if we fish in a way that makes the bass look elsewhere for food. Like any other predator the bass are not going to be as interested in prey that is large and perfectly healthy, and here is a prime area where many anglers fail. If you are fishing a crank bait for example, what you don’t want to do is pull it on a steady retrieve through the cover, missing everything that’s around you. This sends the signal of a healthy, mature prey animal that the bass will likely not be interested in.”
“The key to triggering strikes when fishing baits that are meant to resemble prey animals (shad, blue gill, crayfish, worms, etc.) is to make the bait look injured. This may seem fundamental, but it is often overlooked and taken for granted by many fishermen. This is the reason for bait patterns like the bleeding shad, as the bass, like any other predator, is attracted first to the wounded animal. Wounded animals are just easier meals, and in order to heighten our success as anglers we have to take advantage of this predatory nature inherent in bass. So when fishing cover keep this in mind. If you are throwing a spinner bait, bounce it off a log or stump and make the bass think that the shad you are impersonating is wounded.
The same applies for crank baits and jigs. Another useful method is stop and go retrieves with a little jerk in the middle. If you have a good crank bait you can even make it look like the little thing is injured by winding extremely fast for a couple of turns and the bait will almost roll over, signaling a weakness to the bass. There are innumerable ways to make your baits look injured, so take some time in shallow water and work on your presentations, it will pay off in the end I guarantee.”
“Another good thing to keep in mind is that bass are clever hunters, and love to ambush their prey. This again can be to our advantage or detriment. A lot of times anglers misjudge their target and fish open water, when there are great underwater structures, reed beds, grass lines, and other types of cover for the bass to hide in while waiting to ambush an unsuspecting shad. 
But you can’t just throw your bait at the cover and expect to get strikes, and here is another area where many fisherman fall short. There are a few key things to always keep in mind when fishing cover, and again, to understand why, we have to remember that bass are predatory fish.”
“Most of the time the bass will be on the edges of reed beds, just within the grass on a grass line, or waiting on the edge of stump or fallen tree. This is often as shelter for them as well, but the dual purpose of this is as ambush points. Again, you can’t just throw your bait at the cover and expect to succeed, you have to plan your presentation.
Take some time to practice laying your bait into the water as quietly as you can. While pitching a good way to achieve a quiet entry into the water is to slightly lift your rod tip just before the bait hits, and often this will just slide it into the water without hardly a ripple.
But again, the difference between success and failure is where you place the bait. Most anglers will cast just on the outside of the cover, and begin their retrieve. This leaves the lure in the strike zone for much less time, lessening your chances of getting a hit. If you are fishing grass lines, reed beds or other cover of this sort, cast into it as far as you think is safe, because your weed guards were made for just this occasion.
Also if you are fishing solitary bank cover such as a stump or fallen tree, cast just beyond your target and begin your retrieve. This will allow your bait to present its full action to the fish, and won’t just be getting started when it’s in the strike zone. This area of cover is extremely important, and bass are almost always using this method of hunting.” 
“Lions will often stalk water holes and wait for an animal to bend down and drink before attacking. This takes the animal off guard and gives the lion a brief window to get very close in order to strike. The same holds true for bass. This is the reason for the calculated action of many crank baits. This is, I think, the most overlooked way to fish a crank bait. What I mean is letting it bounce on the bottom so as to imitate a bait fish rooting and hunting for prey itself. As the little minnow shuffles by the ambush point of the waiting bass, the bass will almost strike on impulse as it passes.
These are what we call “reaction strikes”, and can be triggered in a plethora of ways. But the reason they are so crucial is because the bass will hit your bait without even thinking about it, because as a rule, when the specific scenario is played out, that means dinner. This rooting minnow scenario is one of those guaranteed meals for a bass. So when the little bait comes by and bumps that ambush point that bass strikes, and you have him. So don’t just fish your crank baits so they look like they are swimming or darting around, try this method and see how it works.” 
“You can also fish weedless rigged creatures baits, jigs, and spinner baits in this same fashion. And don’t mistake these techniques as only for searching the bass out, because you will drastically improve your cast/strike ratio if you consistently fish these styles, even if you think you have a good spot where the bass are biting your bait.
Presentation is literally everything in this sport, and the best actor will get the prize every time. 
So next time you are on the water, remember what you read here, and keep in mind that you are not hunting, you are baiting a predator into thinking he has a free , injured meal.”
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Just a Handful
For those who might be on a limited budget, just starting out or just don’t want to carry a lot of tackle, today I’ll talk about a few basic items and how to use them that should make for a successful outing.
First off we have the Gary Yamamoto Senko If your only going to carry 1 color make it Watermelon/Black Flake. This is lure that I have no ideal what its supposed to look like. It kind of looks like a green cigar to me but for some reason the bass love them. Senko’s are designed as a “Do Nothing” lure, meaning you don’t need to impart any action, no twitching or jerking, you actually do nothing. They can be rigged a variety of ways but I’m only going to mention 2 of them.
First is the basic Texas style rigged with an X-Point 3/0 Off Set Wide Gap Hook. Then we have the wacky rig, which is basically just placing a hook through the middle of the Senko. I go more in depth on these rigs as well as others in other articles here on my site. I like to fish both of these rigs weightless. Throw it out and let in sink on slack line because it will fall away from you. Watch your line, if it jumps, twitch’s, moves off in a different direction, or seems to be taking to long to hit the bottom this means that a bass has picked it up. Take up the slack, if you feel something on the other end of the line, set the hook hard.
Next we have a Yamamoto Ika. This is another weird looking lure that kind of looks like a pineapple to me. Yes, they look strange but they do catch bass. Again, if I only carried 1 color it would be Watermelon/Black. Rig it Texas style with a size 5/0 X-Point 3/0 Off Set Wide Gap Hook. Yes the hook is quite large but you need a big hook because there is a lot of plastic you have to penetrate when setting the hook. Fish it the same way you fish the Senko.
The next lure would be a jig. My favorite would be a jig Green flake placed on a Bass Pro Shops football head jig. To fish this, toss it out and let it sink to the bottom. Sometimes the bass want it quickly hopping along, sometimes they want it slowly dragged and occasionally shake it in place and at times they want it swimming along so let the bass tell you how they want it by trying different retrieves. When the bass hits you might feel a tick or thump, sometimes all you’ll feel is pressure or something just does not feel right, set the hook hard.
OK, that’s 3, number 4 would have to be a Scrounger Head or Road Runner Head
with a
Zoom Super Fluke both in Smokey shad. This setup is a staple for tournament bass fishermen out west when the bass are keying on shad
In my opinion the final lure you need is actually more than one. Get yourself a few bags of soft plastic worms in 3 inch, 4 inch and 6 inch. Robo Worm makes some great hand poured, by a robot, plastics in a wide verity of colors. If I had to pick only 2 its hard to go wrong with their Black Grape/Blue Neon or Oxblood/Red Flake. I like to use a Size 2, X-Point, Off Set Worm hook and rigged either split shot or drop shot
While there is tons of tackle out there and a person could spend a fortune buying everything and then break their backs carrying it down to the water, in my opinion if you get these 5 basic lures and fish them as I mentioned you will up your odds of catching bass.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Baitcast reels
On a recent fishing trip my nephew, who had been using spinning reels exclusively, took interest in my baitcasting reels and started asking me all kinds of questions. He noticed that I could cast further with my reels than he could with the reels he was using.
He also noticed that even though I used the baitcasters most of the time I still had spinning outfits sitting on the deck and wondered why.
I told him that the baitcasters were primarily used for heavier lures whereas I would use the spinning reels mostly for light line/light lure applications like split shotting and fishing crappie jigs. 
As to introducing someone to baitcasting reels I feel that one of the best tips I can give is to get a quality reel for your first baitcaster. I’m not necessarily saying an expensive one, just a quality one. I know many years back when I started using baitcasters I didn’t have a lot of money so I figured I’d just save some money and get a cheap one. Let me tell you what, learning to use it was a royal PITA! It was at that point that I thought all baitcasters sucked and stopped using them.
A couple years later a friend let me borrow a quality bait caster and I was amazed the difference it made. I could actually cast the thing and while I did at times still get a “Professional Over Run” aka backlash, they were fewer and further between and not as bad and I could cast every bit as far with it as I could with a spinning reel and I was hooked.
Baitcasting reels come with some sort of adjustment to allow you to either slow down or speed up the spool speed. You have centrifugal and magnetic controls. Some reels feature both. Me being an Abu reel user for years, I’m used to the centrifugal ones. You should take the few seconds to adjust this setting prior to making any casts to avoid severe backlashes. Also, speaking from personal experience here, be sure to re-adjust setting after servicing the reel.
On Abu reels there are also break blocks to help slow down the spool speed at the end of a cast. These are usually located inside the reel on the spool. Me personally, I usually remove at least a couple of them, sometimes all of them, but that’s a personal preference.
Another tip, as your learning to use them have someone pull out about 25-30 yards, which is a decent casting distance, then place some tape on your spool and reel the line in on top of it. What this does is when you make a cast and get a backlash it will only go as far as the tape so you don’t have as much to pick out and if you end up having to cut it out you have only lost that much line and of course you can continue to fish. Then of course the best tip, practice, practice, practice.
I ended up servicing a couple of my older Abu reels and gave them to my nephew. He practiced with them and on our first outing he had pretty much mastered them. Now he would much rather fish with them than with spinning outfits.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Freeing stuck lures
Even though your significant other would you rather didn’t you finally break down and purchase that new expensive lure you have been eye balling for the past month. You then take the time to change out the old line with some brand new quality line and attach the lure with good solid knot. You’ve taken all of the precautions and head to the water.
You make your first cast to a fishy looking spot and BAM, fish on! “Its gonna be a great day”, you land and release the fish. 2 casts later you hook into another quality fish, “This lure was so worth the money”. You continue fishing and hooking up until the inevitable happens, your lure get stuck, “AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Of course the first thing you instinctively try is just pulling on the lure. While this can work at times, it can also embed your hooks deeper into the object thereby decreasing your odds or getting you lure back.
While nothing works 100% of the time and you will at times loose your lures, I’ll share some tips that have worked for me and has saved me quite a bit of money over the years.
First tip, try giving it some slack. This can be especially effective with a floating lure. Next, try raising your rod tip and giggling it, again putting slack into your line can at times free your lure.
Try freeing it from a different angle. This technique works best if your in a boat because you can get to the opposite direction the lure got stuck. Now of course this technique wont work to well if your in a boat, cast up tight to shore and get hung up. You can also use this different angle technique shore fishing by walking to the left or right of where you were standing when you initially got stuck.
One very effective technique that has worked for me is using the “Bow and Arrow” trick. The bow and arrow trick is where you put some slack in your line, pull the line tight until you have pressure against the snag and a nice bow in your line then let the line go, like shooting a bow and arrow, which throws slack into your line. What happens is when you release the line the rod snaps back and throws slack at the lure and can jar the lure free. Sometimes it takes several tries before working so you need to be persistent.
Be ready when you finally get the lure free. I’ve had times when the lure finally popped free and have a bass just smash it. My guess is the bass was watching the lure “struggle” to get free and when it finally broke free he thought it was trying to escape and the predator in him made him strike it very aggressively.
The Rod tip bump. If you can get close enough to your lure you can stick your rod tip into the water and tap 
the end of it against your lure and tap it free. I really don’t like doing this because I have broke the tip off of a rod doing this technique because it got stuck on the front hook or the crankbait and the rear hook was stuck to bad to free itself from the tapping of the rod. In my opinion its not worth the trade off but I know a lot of people that use this technique with success.
Next we have the pole retrievers. All they are is a long pole, usually made out of collapsible aluminum and can be extended to 12 feet or more. At the end of these retrievers is some kind of attachment that is designed to pull the lure free, hooks and coils are pretty common. Of course these type of retrievers don’t work to well from shore, unless of course your lure is stuck a few feet from shore.
Next we have my favorite technique which is a plug knocker. Plug knockers are basically some kind of heavy weight that you attach to your line, then send it down to your lure where it bumps into the lure and knocks it free, hence the name lure knocker. There are basically 2 different types of lure knockers. You have the free falling ones that slide down your line freely and the ones that are attached to a string that you lower down to your lure. The stringed styles sometimes have something like chain or hooks that are supposed to get tangled with your lure and you pull it back.
You can purchase factory made plug knockers but I like to make my own because they are cheap to make therefore if you end up not being able to free your lure and you end up loosing your knocker as well as your lure. There are several different ways to make your own inexpensive basic plug knocker.
Take an old used spark plug and a big snap swivel. Run the gap arm of the spark plug through the round eye of the swivel and bend down the arm with either pliers or a hammer to secure the swivel in place. Another variation is to get a heavy lead weight, I use a 2-3 ounce sinker, the kind with the metal line tie. I then attach a big snap from a snap 
swivel, PRESTO! Quick, easy and inexpensive. The reason I dont use the swivel part of the snap swivel is because in increases the distance between the top of the snap and the weight. Maybe its just me but I personally feel the closer you can keep your line to the weight, the more effective your knocker will be.
When you get your lure stuck attach the snap to your line, hold your rod tip high so it travels faster and let it slide down your line and knock your lure free. If it does not free right away don’t fret. Sometimes it takes giggling your line to bump it free. A few times I’ve had to send a second knocker down to free it. By the way, I have found that the plug knockers work very well on crankbaits and swimbaits and not so well on jigs and worms.
To summarize, nothing works all of the time and you will loose lures, that’s just part of the game. But if you follow some of the tips I mentioned I promise you that you wont loose as many lures.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Sunglasses, which ones are right for me?
That’s a question that I’m sure each and everyone of has asked more than once. With all the choices it can all be very confusing so I will attempt to break it down some, at least from my personal experiences.
Before I go any further let me say that in my opinion, there is no one perfect pair for everyone. We all have different facial features and different needs so you need to find ones that fit your face as well as your application and of course if they don’t make you look like a dork, that’s another plus, HA!
From my personal experiences first and foremost, you must try them on in person. I live in a small town with very limited choices so it made it pretty difficult to find the right pair for me. Lets just say that the BassnMan has a larger than average melon. I also don’t have much of a nose bridge so it is very difficult to find a pair that I am happy with.
I needed ones that were wider than average as well as having larger lenses and they had to have longer nose pieces so the lenses would be further off of my face so they didn’t ride on my cheeks.
I have more than once ordered them pairs thinking they would fit my face right but was sadly mistaken when they arrived. Yes, I was able to return them but it was kind of a pain in the back side.
OK, now onto the actual post.
Brands: Lets see, you’ve got Oakley, Ray Ban, Maui Jim, Solar Bast, Costa Del Mar, Wiley-X and countless more brands, both inexpensive as well as expensive. Speaking from personal experience, buy the best you can afford, you won’t regret it. I know the more expensive ones tend to have better quality optics which are better for your eyes and are usually offer prescription lenses so that’s a plus for people that need them. You can also purchase the ones that just go over your prescription glasses like the Cocoon brand.
Frames, Metal or Plastic: Back in the day metal frames were heavier that plastic ones. Now days the metal is considerably lighter so weight is no longer an issue. One thing to note is that during the summer metal frames tend to get hot quick and tend to hold heat longer, that’s why I prefer the plastic frames.
Lens: There is more than one aspect to consider concerning lenses so I’ll try and break down the basics.
Glass vs polycarbonate. For clarity it’s difficult to beat glass lenses and if I could afford 2 pairs of quality shades then I would own one of each pair. The glass ones for driving and casual wear and poly carbonate for fishing. I personally went with the Poly Carbonate ones. The main reason I made this choice is because more than once I have been hung up on some sort of structure, a shallow rock or tree limb and while attempting to free my jig, it abruptly came free and flying back at me like a bullet. Two times I have been hit right on the lens. If I had glass lenses chances are they would have shattered from the impact.
Polarized or not: For fishermen this question is a no-brainer, Get Polarized, I can promise you that you won’t regret it. Their ability to cut through the glare and being able to see through the water better makes them a valuable asset. About the only down side I have experiences is when at the gas pump. I noticed on some gas pumps you cant see the numbers when wearing polarized shades.
Lens colors: Here again there are several hues to choose from. I’m just going to go over the basic 3 color even though there are others to choose from.
First we have gray or smoke. Gray lenses usually come in light or dark and will reduce the light intensity without changing the color of objects. Therefore they will provide the most natural color vision. Statistics show that gray is far and away the most popular color lens in America. Gray lenses are best for bright clear days.
Next we have brown lenses. They enhance contrast by blocking more of the blue light than gray lenses do. Brown lenses tend to provide a warmer appearance to all colors and have been known to make greens look greener. These work well in medium to bright light and are considered good all around lenses.
Finally I’ll discuss amber which block almost all blue light and provide superior contrast. Remember the Blue Blocker sunglasses? They have amber lenses as do shooter’s sunglasses. While amber does enhance contrast, they tend to distort colors and may not be the right choice for activities that require accurate color recognition. They work well in flat to medium light as well as shallow water applications.
I have a pair of goggles that have an amber lens. I especially like them when I’m going across the water at high speeds in low light conditions because they make objects, tree stumps and rocks, really stand out.
From the sounds of things a person actually needs several different pairs of sunglasses. For me, I went with a pair that has interchangeable lenses so I’m able to change out different lenses as conditions dictate. Purchasing extra lenses is considerably more cost effective than buying the entire setup.
Hopefully I didn’t confuse you even more and gave you some things to consider. To summarize, shop around, try them on, consider your specific application and buy the best you can afford.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Fishing Arizona
Hi everyone, its been a few weeks since I was on the water, at least in the Champion. I have however had a couple opportunities to wet a line, so I’m not going through withdrawals, yet. The week between Christmas and New Years Cindy and I went to Phoenix AZ to visit our grandson Daveed, a grandson, damn that makes me feel old. HA!
I knew that while I was there I would like to get some fishing in however due to gas prices we decided to take the car instead of the truck so of course I didn’t take the Champion, besides that my step son Brian didn’t have any place for me to park my boat. Guess what that meant? Yep, I would be shore bound, or would I.
3 days before we were scheduled to leave I posted a “Looking for open back seat” request on a popular Arizona bass fishing site hoping to find someone that might be able to take me out fishing for a day on Lake Pleasant. The reason I chose that lake was because of how close it was to where my step son lived.
The day before we were supposed to leave I got a response from a fisherman named Jim who just happened to live about 1 mile away from Brian, what luck! He was going to go to Canyon Lake, just outside of Phoenix, to prefish for an upcoming tournament. I gave him a call and set it up to meet him bright and early the following morning.
As it turned out we ended up leaving town later than we had anticipated so of course we arrived in Phoenix later than I had hoped so I didn’t have enough time to get a license that night so the plan to go fishing bright and early was not going to work. I called Jim to let him know that I would not be able to make it and thanked him for the offer. The following day I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a license so I could do some fishing.
Arizona has an Urban Fishing program where they stock city lakes and ponds to allow people to experience fishing. The following is from the Arizona Fish and Game Web site;
“Arizona’s Urban Fishing Program is recognized nationally as one of the best in the country. The Program is a
partnership with the Game and Fish Department and local Parks and Recreation Departments to intensively stock and manage park lakes for fishing recreation. Simply put, the Program operates on the premise that “if people can’t get out of town to fish, we will bring fish into town for the people.” The Program provides convenient, affordable, accessible and fun fishing for anglers of all ages and abilities.”
So off I go. My first stop was at Rio Vista Ponds which is located in Peoria, about 3 miles from Brian’s house. I ended up catching and releasing 4 bass, nothing of any size but still fun. I also caught 7 trout while targeting crappie with a Road Runner, 2 of which I gave to an elderly gentleman and the other 5 I gave to a little boy named Steven. He put them on his stringer and asked me if it was OK to tell his dad that he caught them. I laughed and said, sure, no problem. Next I took off to Cortez Lake which was about 7 miles away. While there I caught and released 3 bass with the biggest being maybe 2 ½ pounds, again, nothing big but still fun. I also caught 2 trout. It was getting late so I decided to call it a day.
The following day we went to Cabelas there in Glendale, not only to spend the gift card I received for Christmas but to see several FLW pros that were there for the day. I got to talk briefly with John Murray and Brett Hite, a couple nice guys. While there I found a few discontinued lures on the Clearance rack that I had been searching for so I purchased all 6 that they had left, What A Find!
The next day I took a drive up to Lake Pleasant, which is about 40 miles away from Peoria to wet a line. I tried several different lures but was unable to get bit. Then I tied on a Silver Buddy cast it along the dock and got one heck of a bite, the drag was screaming on the 8 pound Maxima. I believe it was probably a big striper but it came unbuttoned before I could see exactly what it was. What a rush! That was my only bite there but any time spent fishing is a good time.
Hopefully you enjoyed reading this and I didn’t bore you to much with this post
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Specialty rigs.
I figured I’d talk about some specialty rigs for soft plastics. By now everyone knows about the effective drop shot rig, the split shot rig, doodling and of course the Texas rig but there are other ways of rigging plastics that are not as well known yet they are very effective.
Today I’ll talk about wacky rigging and a few different variations of it. All a wacky rig consists of is a worm type bait, and a hook. The difference between this rig and your normal way of rigging is instead of hooking through the nose you run the hook through the “Egg Sack” on the plastic leaving the hook tip exposed.
Another way of hooking it is to place an O-ring on your worm and run the hook under it so the hook itself never penetrates the plastic. With this style of rigging you can save money because your plastics don’t get torn up as easily and we all know how expensive they can get, especially when were talking Senkos.
To fish a wacky rig you just toss it out, give it slack and let it sink. If you don’t get bit on the initial fall pull it up by lifting your rod tip slowly and let it fall on slack line. I cant stress this enough, WATCH YOUR LINE! The bites can be very light. If it seems to be sinking more than it should or moves to one side, especially if it moves up current, reel down the slack, feel the pressure and set the hook, don’t be asleep at the reel! Slow is the biggest trick to fishing a wacky rig. This is not a technique that will cover a lot of water but it will produce bass, especially when the conditions are tough.
Next lets discuss the Izzy rig. This rig is basically just a modified wacky rig with a nail weight inserted into the head of whatever plastic worm type bait you feel like using. Experiment as to how much weight you need to put in, let the fish tell you how quickly they want it sink. A floating worm seems to be the most effective type to use for this rig because the nose will go down and the tail will float up but any type of worm will work. Here again, it can be hooked either through the egg sack or you can utilize an O-Ring.
The origins of the name stem from a gentleman named Izzy Byrd from San Jose who brought this style of fishing into the lime light, at least here in the states. Rumor has it that he learned it while in Japan on a business trip Irregardless of where he learned it he fished Pro/AM tournaments out of the back of the boat and just smoked everyone. As to how to fish it, use the same technique as you would a regular wacky rig.
Another variation of the Izzy rig comes from Korea and its called a Neko Rig, I’m not sure of the origin of the name but instead of using a nail weight in the head you use a small round jig head. You can purchase specialty ones or you can get your basic crappie type jigs and either cut the hook and the bend or just straighten it out.
Experiment with various ways of rigging the wacky rig. I’ve seen people catch bass using full sized bass jig heads hooked through the center of their plastics as well as small crappie jig heads. Remember, nothing is written in stone when it comes to bass fishing, you just might come across something different that just whacks them by thinking outside the box.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
To borrow a phrase from DW…….
Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, Lets go Fishing Boys!
The days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The daytime temperature is nice and its still a bit nippy at night. The birds have started nesting, Fred and Ethyl are once again nesting on the pillar outside my front door. Yes, spring time has finally arrived! Some people call Christmas the most wonderful time of the year but for me, its spring.
I consider myself lucky to live in a climate where I can go fishing all year round without having to drill a hole in the ice. For those who live in the colder climates there are some things that you need to do to prepare yourself for this time of the year. Servicing your rods and reels and getting the boat ready so you can put it on the water without any worries.
As to serving your rods and reels, if you look back in my archives you will find some helpful tips. Something that I believe I neglected to mention was to check your eye guides on your rods and replace them as needed. One easy way of doing this is to take a Q-tip and run it inside your line guide. If any of the cotton fibers stick to the guide then its time to either replace it yourself or pay someone to do it if you don’t feel comfortable. Some eye guide will pop out easily enough but some will require a re-wrap of the entire guide so it’s up to you if you want to tackle the job yourself or not.
Onto the boat. I’ve got a question for you. Did you remember to drain the gas tank before storing it for the winter or at least put Stay Built or Sea Foam to stabilize the fuel? If not you could be in for a rude awakening if you just attempt to start it up with the old fuel. I suggest draining the fuel and using it in your lawn mower or weed eater or properly disposing of it. Either way I would not suggest running it through your motor as gas breaks down and could cause damage which as anyone who has had to pay for motor damage knows, is very expensive.
Next you want to be sure your impeller is functioning correctly. The impeller is made of hard rubber so over time it will take a “Set” and not flow water as well as it once did. If the water is not flowing the motor will not cool properly and cause it to over heat and blow the power head. Once again, VERY expensive to repair. I personally have my impeller replaced every 2 years as well as the lower end oil. I take mine to a boat shop over at Lake Isabella, my “Home” lake during the winter months because his rates are considerably lower that time of the year.
While there I have the mechanic give my motor a good going over. He checks all of my lines, fuel and oil for leaks or cracks and replaces them as needed. He also removes my prop and cleans out any fishing line that might be in there because if left there could cut into your O-ring and cause water to enter your lower end, which is never good. Yes, it does cost some money but I can promise you that it will cost even more money of you damage the motor. I also like to pull the prop off of my trolling motor and check it for line as well because as mentioned above, it can cut into the O-Ring and allow water into it and cause damage. Be sure your batteries are clean and still work and will hold a charge. If they are dirty clean them up so you will get a good connection.
Some more good practices would be to check your trailers Bearing buddies to be sure they have plenty of grease. I like to press out the old grease by overfilling them until all the old grease comes out and then the new stuff starts to come out. Yes, it is messy but its cheap insurance. Do a visual of your trailer tires. If they appear cracked from sitting, have them replaced. It can be a pain in the back side as well as dangerous to have one of them blow out on you while on the road to the lake, again, cheap insurance. If they are fine then go to the filling station and be sure they are inflated to the proper specifications. If your trailer has brake’s then be sure to check the fluid level, you want to be able to stop when needed.
Yeah, yeah, I know, sound like a lot of work. I’ve heard people call boats” A Hull in the water that you throw money into.” While at time this may be true but think of all the pleasure it has brought you over the years and in my opinion it makes it more than worth it. There are countless other ways to prepare for your initial trip of the year but I believe I have covered some of the basics. Hopefully I was able to give you some pointers of things to look for.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
What happened to winter?
Here it is the middle of January and it’s supposed to be cold. I don’t know about your nook of the woods but out here in California it sure does not seem like winter. The current temperature today is 76 degrees and I’ve noticed that the birds are out and about already starting their mating rituals.
Every year at my house we have a pair of dove that return to nest on a pillar right outside my front door. They both have a few very distinguishable markings on them so we know they are the same pair. Cindy has affectionately named them Fred and Ethyl. Anyhow, I have seen them lately and Fred has started gathering sticks and twigs and placing them on top of the pillar starting to build their nest.
While it is true we had a cold spell for a little while it seems more like spring or fall and at least where I live, the fish also don’t seem to realize it’s the middle of January either. Don’t get me wrong, there is no Fall Frenzy bite going on but its definitely far from your typical winter bite. When I think about it, it does make sense because the days are warm, the nights are not all that cold so the water temperature is not all that cold. I know that I have been taking advantage of the conditions and feel that you should be as well.
Normally this time of the year I’m using spoons, ice jigs, darter heads and hair jigs while fishing them very, very slowly. While yes, any fishing is good fishing I personally feel that its much funner fishing a quicker more active way. Besides just being more enjoyable I stay warmer because I’m moving more.
I have been having good luck lately slow rolling spinnerbaits in a shad pattern and letting them stop and flutter to the bottom attempting to imitate the erratic action of a shad dieing. I have found that if you configure your spinnerbait with big round Colorado blades instead of your typical willow leaf ones they seem to work better for this style of fishing.
I have also been having luck slowly bottom bouncing with craw pattern crankbaits. Here I am attempting to resemble a crawdad scampering along the bottom in an attempt to escape the hungry mouth of Mr. Largemouth while at the same time trying to find a soft spot to allow him to root into the mud for his winter nap.
So, the next time you have a chance to get out and its a nice sunny, warm day don’t do the normal slow and mundane winter style of fishing, try speeding up your presentation a little, you just might be pleasantly surprised with the results.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
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