Its easy to use, just slide the record switch, and you’re instantly filming in 1080p. Its rugged aluminum body is designed to withstand some serious abuse. Features include a 170° super wide-angle lens, built-in, multi-direction microphone, a laser that helps you level the camera and is its waterproof to 1 meter.

From the Contour Web Site; “The ContourROAM is made to withstand encounters with everything from eating mud puddles, to monster barrels at Teahupoo, to drops down the Khumbu Icefall. The rugged aluminum body withstands serious abuse, while the waterproof design keeps everything safe and dry up to one meter”

Another huge advantage to this camera is at only $199.00 it’s very affordable. Check it out and let me know what your thought are on it.

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!

I have to admit that from time to time I have found myself distracted thinking about something else, yes, Asleep at the Reel, and ended up waiting to long to set the hook and gut hooking bass but I’m always prepared and very rarely have killed any bass. While I do destroy some hooks with my process the bass usually survives unharmed.

What I do is whenever I go fishing I always carry a pair of side cutters and strong needle nose pliers with me, which are both readily available at any hardware store. In the event that I do deep hook a bass I just reach down to the hook, either through the mouth or up through the gills, being very careful not to damage the gills, with the side cutters and cut the hook below the barb and then just slide out the hook. I then put them on detention in the live well, aka, “The Box” for several hours, add some “Please Release Me”, turn on the aerator and continue to fish.

After several hours of fishing I’ll check on him and almost always they are screaming and kicking to get out so I reach in, grab em and toss him back in the lake. The only drawback I can think of is when I release him, which can be quite a distance from where I originally caught him is he might be thinking “Where in the heck am I”

I do try and practice catch and release with largemouth bass but of course there are going to be times that no matter how hard you try and how careful you are, some will not make it but don’t worry, I prefer the taste of crappie or striped bass, even though  because bass can be good eating.

So get out and enjoy everything the great outdoors has to offer.

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!

I have to admit that from time to time I have found myself distracted thinking about something else, yes, Asleep at the Reel and ended up gut hooking bass but I’m always prepared and very rarely have killed any bass. While I do waste hooks with my process the bass usually survives.

What I do is carry a pair of side cutters and strong needle nose pliers my boat, which are readily available. In the event that I do deep hook a bass I just reach down to the hook, either through the mouth or the gills with the side cutters and cut the hook below the barb and then just slide out the hook. I then put them on detention in the livewell, aka, “The Box” for several hours, then add some “Please Release Me” and continue to fish.

After several hours I check on him and they are almost always screaming and kicking to get out so I reach in, grab him and toss him back in the lake. The only drawback I can think of is when I release him, which can be quite a distance from where I caught him is he might be thinking “Where in the heck am I”

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!

I’m considering fishing an upcoming tournament at Diamond Valley Lake, even though I have only fished it once, and since I knew that Mark had fished it quite a few times I took along a topographical map of the lake to ask him to share some spots with me. I also knew that Mark had the Lowrance HDS unit with Structure Scan and seeing how mine is still very new to me I thought I could get a “Tutorial” from him on some of tips and techniques with the system so I was looking forward to the day on the water with him.

I checked the early morning weather temperatures 2 days prior and it was very cold in the mornings, well below freezing. I also checked the hourly forecast for the day we were meeting and it was going to be just as cold as it had been so I made sure to pack the cold weather gear.

As agreed, we met for breakfast at 0700 at The Dam Corner restaurant. When I arrived in the parking lot I looked at the temp gauge on my mirror and it read 25 degrees, yep it was cold. Seeing Marks vehicle in the parking lot, I knew he would already in the restaurant instead of freezing in his truck.

We placed our orders and I broke out the DVL topographical map and proceeded to pick his brain about the lake. After advice on several spots several of the locals that I have known for years came in for breakfast. I asked how they were doing and what they had been up to. I also inquired about the bite on the lake. Of course they said that before the cold front came through the previous week the bass were starting to get active and stage on outside points but after the past front they moved back out deep and shut off, just like I figured. We finished eating and said good bye to everyone and proceeded to drive to the launch ramp.

5 minutes later we arrived at the ramp. As I crest the hill I notice that there are no other vehicles in the parking lot, hmm. According to the temp gauge on the mirror, it had gotten warmed. It was now a warm balmy 29 degrees outside, burrrr! The sun was coming up over the mountains and starting to warm things up as we prepared the boat in the parking lot. I have to admit it was a little difficult hooking up the electronics while wearing gloves but I got it done.

Backing the boat down to the water the outside temp had made it up to 36, yeah buddy, that’s more like it, HA! I hop into the boat and Mark splash’s the boat. Of course the Mercury Opti Max fires right up, its gonna be a good day! As Mark is parking the truck I put on the balaclava and beanie on my head, step into my foul weather bibs and zip the legs closed. Of course I have my thermals on under my jeans as well as under my shirt and sweat shirt as well as gloves. I then put on my Gortex jacket followed by the Oakley H20 goggles. All bundled up and ready to go. The funny thing is Mark was not nearly as prepared as I was for the cold as I was and he chuckled at how I looked as we idled up to the end of the no wake zone. Got the Champion up on plane and headed out to Rocky Point and he very soon learned that there was a good reason I dressed the way I did. Yes, it was cold!

As we pulled up close I got off plane and turned on the Lowrance HDS-8 and Structure Scan to see exactly what the structure was that I have been fishing all these years. Let me tell you what, I’m very impressed with the unit. It’s almost like having an under water camera. After a quick on the water tutorial we were ready to fish.

The bite was very slow, I got 3 bites all day, landed 2 of them, 1 about 4 pounds and the other about 3, I dont bother taking pictures of bass if they are not at least 5 pounds because anything smaller than 5 looks tiny when I’m holding them, HA! Mark got 3 bites and missed all of them. All bites came on slow dragging Custom made Yamamoto jigs and Ikas in 25-35 feet of water.

We talked to 4 other boats and nobody else even got bit so we did pretty good for as slow as it was. I figure, give it a few weeks of stable weather and the bite should take off.

While scanning an area I’ve fished for years to see what was actually down there, I had the Down and Side Scan windows up and the down scan showed me what looked like a big rocket standing up, HUH??!!!! So I proceeded to drive around the area to get a side scan view of it. As it turns out it’s a bass boat standing upright. It appears that the motor is sitting on the bottom and I’m guessing that there must be air trapped in the front to make it stand up like it is. Of course I marked it as a waypoint so once I figure out how to do screen shots I’ll show it to you. Pretty cool stuff!

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!

First off let me be straight up with you, California Aqueduct Fishing can flat out be a pain in the butt to catch fish out of. When I first started fishing the duct I thought the stripers there would be the ones in some of our lakes, Pyramid by Gorman, Castaic, Silverwood or Diamond Valley but trust me, they are not the same. The only thing predictable about the duct stripers is they are very unpredictable.

I’ve fished the Antelope Valley area, Lancaster and Palmdale quite a few times over the past couple years and I’ve hit the Bakersfield area duct maybe 5 times. To this day I have only hooked into 2 stripers and 1 catfish. Of the 2 stripers I hooked, both in the AV area, one came unbuttoned as I was fighting it and the other one I fought until it was wore out, started to drag it up the side and about ¾ of the was up it came unbuttoned, slid back into the water and swam away. My fishing buddies say that it counts as a duct striper skunk killer because I fought him until he wore out but I have always felt that if I don’t actually touch the fish with my hands it don’t count.

On my last 6 or 7 duct trips I’ve been fishing with a friend that has been fishing the duct for over 25 years and he has caught a ton of fish out of it. Then again he lives about 7 minutes from it and we all know that the more time you spend fishing the more fish your going to catch. He has shared spots, lures and techniques with me so I know I’m doing the right things, I just haven’t been in the right spots at the right time. Bottom line, the duct has become my albatross so I keep going back because I’ve seen some very nice fish come out of it and my friends have gave me fresh striper fillets and I must say that they are some of the tastiest fish I have ever had.

As to duct fishing locations, there are many fishing locations, to get a better ideal of where they are and how to get to them try using Google Maps, Google Earth or Bing Maps, formerly known as Microsoft Maps to view them. First I’ll start off talking about the Antelope Valley area. Because I’m coming from up north I personally like to start at the west end of the Antelope Valley and work my way east. I head south down the 14 past Mojave and go to Ave D, which is the 138, and take it west towards Gorman. About 30 miles down the 138 you’ll see Quail lake which is part of the duct system. After there turn around and head east on the 138 to 280th West, then to Three Points Road. Continue east on the 138 and just before you cross the duct make a right turn on 245th West which turns into Lancaster road. A little ways down the road you cross the duct, stop and fish there. Follow the road to 195th West, Muntz Ranch Road, 110th West, 70th West, 60th West, Ave S, Tierra Subida, Sierra Hwy, Pearblossom, Barrel Springs, 42nd East, 47th East, Cheseboro and 72nd east. There are more spots further east but that’s all the further I have fished. By the way, most areas will have no trespassing signs, but will have a entrance and sign stating walk in fishing only.

Next you have the Bakersfield area From I-5 by Gorman go over the hill towards Bakersfield. From there one can hit up SR166 and all the dirt farm roads, SR166, Old River Rd., Basic School Rd., 33 to Cadet Rd., Gardener Field, Golf Course Rd., Ironbark, SR119, Tupman, Freeborn, Buttonwillow, SR58, Lokern, 7th standard, Lerdo Hwy, Lost Hills Rd., SR46. There are a ton more spots to fish and just like the AV spots I mentioned they cal all be found by using Google Maps, Google Earth or Bing Maps, formerly known as Microsoft Maps.

As to tackle, just about everything you’ll need is available at Tackle Warehouse or Bass Tackle Depot. Both places offer free shipping for orders over $50.00 as well as some of the lowest prices anywhere.

I suggest you carry 2 or 3 setups with different kinds of lures attached. Pound test line is what you feel comfortable with. I use anywhere from 8 to 15 depending on the application as do my buddies I fish with that live in the AV but there are plenty of people that use heavier line with success. Monofilament, copolymer, fluorocarbon or braid, the choice is yours. Just be sure to use a quality line because since the bites can be few you don’t want to break off due to bad line. Quality Fishing Lines

For lures some of the most popular/effective ones are as follows.

Lately my buddy Yolo, that’s his online name, has been using what he calls the Yolo Tickler with great success. I suggest the pearl, pearl with silver flake and Blue Back Herring in 6 inch. Don’t be afraid to give the 8 inch version a try as well. Rig this with an internal weight.

Next is the good old Zoom Salty Super Fluke in 5 inch and magnum. The best color’s are Smokin Shad, Bait fish and White Pearl. I like to rig the fluke on Fluke Heads

Next are 1/2 to 1 1/2 oz Rat-L-Trap style lures.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of the KPN shad but its one effective striper lure.

Then of course you cant go wrong with a Lucky Craft VR D in American Shad

And of course your basic Rattle Trap

Next the Lucky Craft Pointer, a popular color is once again the American Shad

On swimbaits, I have not heard of a lot of people using the bigger ones but I know of people that have had luck on Small Swimbaits and Bass Swimbaits, not to say that a big perch looking swimbait or even Trout ones wont work. Could be that the people using them successfully are being tight lipped.

I also suggest a Long Handled Net or lip gripper so you can reach down the slick side of the duct and net or grab your fish, especially if its a big one.

Of course match the weight of the lure with the conditions, faster flow equals more weight needed to get into the target zone. You can cast up-flow and retrieve the lure with the current, cast directly across and retrieve through the current, or cast down flow and work it back against the current or anywhere in between. Try fishing the different water columns, deep, mid and shallow until you get bit.

When fishing a spot I like to start out working the back side of the gates where the water is rushing out because the stripers usually like to feed in turbulent water, if they are not there then work your way down to bends in the duct. Also don’t forget to give the front side of the gates a try.

For catfish, some people prefer to do the bait and wait technique but the most effective technique is to use a spinning reel with 8-10 pound test. Tie on a 1/0 circle hook and get yourself some chicken liver. Using little to no weight, cast upstream and walk along the shore line letting it drift along.

The best tip I can give you for fishing the duct is to work an area for 20-30 minutes and if you don’t get any biters or followers move on to the next spot. It’s a matter of finding them and if they are there at that time, they will bite.

The most important thing to remember is to be safe. The sides of the duct can be slick and you don’t want to slip and fall in. In the event you do end up in the drink, DON’T PANICK. While the sides are slick and next to impossible to climb up, along the sides of it you will see yellow paint. The paint signifies that there is a metal ladder there. Trust me, it does not matter how good of a swimmer you are, its next to impossible to swim up stream so let yourself drift down stream to the ladder and climb out.

There you go, all my secrets exposed but like I said earlier the biggest trick is finding them. The aqueduct is a 715 mile long cement river that stretches from way up north to way down south so there are lots of places for them to roam. As Yolo has told me more than once, persistence will pay off.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!