Freeing stuck lures
February 5, 2010
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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!
Fishing Arizona
January 23, 2010
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.
September 20, 2009
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…….
March 26, 2009
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?
January 19, 2009
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!
Let the feedings begin.
November 9, 2008
The dog days of summer are over and the morning air is considerably more “Crisp”. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer and this can only mean one thing, old man winter is on his way.
I’m no fish biologist but from years of fishing experience I do know that when it gets colder not only is the forage scarce, crayfish bury themselves in the mud to take a winter nap and baitfish die off in large numbers the colder water temperature causes the bass’s metabolism slows down considerably, they become lethargic so your presentation needs to slow down considerable as well as be more precise. As a general rule for the most part, reaction baits are no longer used during winter so use them now. However like I have said in the past, nothing is written in stone. I have more than once experienced fast action reaction bites during the cold winter so be sure to keep an open eye and mind, even in the coldest days of winter.
Now back to the subject at hand, the fall frenzy. Its during this time of the year that the bass become aware that winter is on its way and its time to put the feed bag on because their food source’s will soon become very limited. I don’t know about the rest of the country but I know in my neck of the woods the action has increased considerably, especially for the bigger bass, as they prepare for the upcoming cooler months. It has once again become that time of the year when fun fishing, reaction baits, excel.
Some of my favorite baits are of course top water, jerk baits and Spinner baits. Top water and jerk baits of course are fished in the good old snap, snap, pause technique. Vary the amount of snaps and the length time of the pause until you start getting bites. When you figure out their pattern, duplicate it. Something of note, don’t forget to throw soft jerk baits, Sluggos, and Flukes in addition to the hard jerk baits.
Spinner baits can also be fished a variety of ways but my favorite technique would have to be to reel them in at a medium speed then stop reeling it, let it die, next to a possible ambush point, a bush, point, whatever. This looks like a bait fish swimming along and dieing thereby triggering the, weakest must die, instinct in bass.
Deep diving crawfish pattern crank baits are another excellent choice this time of the year. Toss them close to shore so when you start reeling their bouncing off the bottom, like a crawfish rooting into the bottom. Toss them out across a point so they come in contact with structure as you reel them in. One of the best tips I can give you is to try and contact the bottom with your crank bait. Yes, you will get hung up more often doing this but at the same time it will increase your bite to cast ratio, just be sure to carry a good lure retriever with you to get back your lures.
If possible, be sure to get out and do some fishing during the late fall, it can be a blast!
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!
We want steak! Fishing with live bait. Part 2
July 19, 2008
One is to first locate them by looking for balls of bait on your depth finders then use small weighted trout flies to catch them one at a time, kind of a pain. Another way is to net them with a fine mesh long handled net. One way of doing this is to basically chase the shad into the back of a cove, then use some kind of long pole to corral them into the net. Alot of people out here use swimming pool skim nets and minnow nets with large openings modified with long handles. Once you catch them place them into your livewell and turn the pump on to keep them alive.
Rig the shad just like you would any minnow, through the top lip and out the top of the head, here again making sure you do not pierce the brain or you have dead a fishy. Note that I just said the top lip, you dont want to hook both top and bottom lips because this will restrict their breathing and result in, yep you guessed it, dead fishy. While it may be true that you can still catch fish on a dead fishy I personally feel you will catcg more on a bait that is alive.
I use either a size 6 or 8 light wire circle hook, yes it is a rather small hook but remember, shad are very delicate creatures and will die easily so handle them with care to keep them active. Toss them out with either no weight or a small weight and let them swim along.
The same basic setup applies for minnows. Me personally, when I use minnows I target crappie. I use a small bait holder hook, size 8 or 10, hook them through the upper lip, attach a small split shot and at times attach a bubble. I prefer the clear bubble myself, they are a little more difficult to see than the old fashioned red and white ones but if they are hard for me to see then they are hard for the fish to see.
Onto water dogs or water dawgs also known as salamanders. I’m not sure about your part of the country but out here in California it is no longer legal to use them as bait, welcome to the land of fruits and nuts, HA! They used to be a very effective bait, I’ve seen people catch a bunch of big bass on them.
Me personally I used them once when I was a kid fishing with my dad and didn’t use them ever again. There was just something about the little noises they made when you hooked them made me feel sorry for them so I remember emptying the bait bucket into the lake and saying “Be Free!!” I also remember that dad was not real happy with me that day. When the conditions are right I do throw a custom poured soft plastic water dawg that looks just like the real thing and the way I rig it the thing swims and looks just like a live dawg but this post is about live bait so I wont go into detail here.
Rigging the dawgs is very basic. A size 2, 4 or even as small as a 6, bait holder hook and thats it. Dont forget to put the dawg on the hook. Some peple hook them through the lips, some hook them in the thick part of the tail so they swim away from you. Cast them gently and feed line out so they can swim.
Next I’ll discuss worms. Here we have several different types, the size large earth worm or night crawler if you will, the dillies, which are also known as baby night crawlers, just a smaller size of the big uns, brown worms, etc.
When rigging worms I like to use a small bait holder hook once again. Like before, pending the size of the worm will dictate the size of hook. Anywhere from a size 4-8 in my opinion is the correct size to use. I like to rig them basically the same way as one would hook a Texas Rigged plastic worm, in the head, back out then back into the worm. Of course in the case with live bait you would have the hook come all the way out unlike the plastic version where you would leave the hook inside the worm making it weedless. I then attach a small split shot, without ears of course, anywhere from 12-24 inches from the hook, let the fish tell you how they want it.
As to how the hit feels, if you get quick taps, like a machine gun, then chances are it’s a little fish just chewing your worm piece by piece. Normally a bass will suck the whole worm in head first, that will be the initial tick you feel. He will then proceed to swim off as he attempts to swallow the worm, this is the pressure you feel. When you feel the pressure, just like with anything your fishing with, take up the slack, point your towards the water and set the hook.
Onto the lowly cricket. These little buggers work especially well for trout. Use a small bait holder hook, size 10 or even 12 and once again a small earless splits hot weight.
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!
We want steak! Fishing with live bait. Part 1
July 7, 2008
There have been times when the bass, or any type fish for that matter, just don’t want to cooperate and you just cant seem to get then to bite. Or when you take children out and they need to catch fish to get them interested in the sport but for some reason or another the artificial stuff just aint working, what’s a person to do.
Today I’m going to talk about fishing with live bait. Because this subject can be rather lengthy so I’ll be making this topic in 2 separate posts.
Now, some may consider using live bait unethical or cheating but I have to admit there are times when I’ve broke down and fished with live bait. No, NEVER during a tournament. The times that I reverted to live bait was when I would take someone out who didn’t have the patience or skill that are required when the bass just refuse to cooperate. Times that come to mind are when I take a child out, or on a guided trip to assure that they catch fish when the conditions are tough.
There are a few rules that I follow when it comes to fishing with live bait. First, if possible use circle hooks. These hooks are very effective in the sense that they come around easily when the fish turns with the bait and tends to hook the fish in the corner of the mouth.
The times that I revert to using live bait I always collapse the barb down with a pair of pliers, actually I use my leatherman tool, making the hook barbless. This helps tremendously in the successful removal of the hook. The only down side of doing this is that you must make sure you keep pressure on the fish at all times because the hook will come out allot easier with any slack in the line
Don’t wait forever to set the hook, remember your using live bait and the fish will hold onto it and eat it so you don’t want to wait until they have digested it and its ready to be pooped out. When you feel the hit or see your line moving off, reel down, feel the pressure and set the hook.
There will be times when using live bait that you will not be able to avoid them swallowing it and you end up hooking them deep. This is when the barbless hooks really shine because they are very easy to extract. There will be times when you cant get the hook out without causing some major damage to the fish. When this happens the old rule used to be that you wanted to cut your line as close to the hook as possible. New studies show that if you leave 8-12 inches of line from the hook it will increase the mortality rate. This has to do with after the hook rusts the fish can use the line to rub against structure and dislodge it.
If you deep hook a fish and he is bleeding profusely and you attempt you release him and he does not seem to respond very well place him in your livewell for a while with the pump running to oxygenate him and check on him later. I put “Please Release Me”, an additive that calms the fish and promotes healing in my livewell to help. If he still looks bad when you check on him then harvest him because chances are he wont make it.
A bass swallowing a bait does not only happen with live bait. Allot of the hand poured baits we use out in the west are very soft and scent and salt impregnated so they not only feel real but they taste real as well.
Some baits to use for bass are crayfish, aka crawdads, crawfish and mud bugs. Other choice’s are live shad, minnows, water dogs, aka salamanders and of course earth worms.
For other fish there are crickets and dillies which are baby night crawlers. I’m sure there are other baits but the above mentioned ones are the only ones I have used.
Now I’ll talk a little about rigging different live baits. Today’s post will cover the Crawfish. I like to use a size 4, 6 or 8 bait holder hook. Size of the hook of course depends on the size of the craw. Another trick it to take the hook and attach some fine flexible wire close to the eye of the hook and extend it past the point. This will make your presentation weedless.
If you are purchasing crawdads at the local bait shop look for the ones that are greenish in color. They are the soft shell ones that are getting ready to shed their shell and the bass love them. I prefer the ones that are about 2-3 inches long myself. If you are forced to buy the bigger ones I like to pinch one of the claws off so they don’t seem as intimidating to the bass when he goes to eat it.
You can save yourself some money if you catch your own. There are several ways to go about catching them. I remember back as a kid we would just stick our hands under rocks and feel around until the crawdad grabbed ya, sometimes it hurt pretty bad but when they grabbed you just reach around and grab him back.
As I aged I found that it was less painful to get a crawdad trap, place some meat inside, tie a rope onto it toss it out and check it a little later. Another way is to tie a piece of bacon onto your line, letting it hang, attach a small weight, toss it out, let it sink to the bottom and slowly reel it back in. When doing this you can feel the crawdads grab onto the bacon as you slowly move it. When you get it to the top of the water you can either place a net under them or I found that if you slowly lift them out of the water they will hold onto the bacon.
The size of the craw is important, at least as far as I’m concerned. I have found that one’s right at 3 inches seem to produce best. If you find some of the green soft shell ones in the 3 inch youve struck gold, bass LOVE THEM! If you can only find the monster size ones, 5-8 inches, dont fret, they will still work. One trick with the big ones is to remove one of the claws to not make him look as “Bad” to the bass, maybe it does not really help but think about it from a bass prospective.
Your going out for dinner, swimming along and you see your lobster dinner walking along the bottom and think YUM, lets check it out. You make your way over and this lobster turns and faces you with his claws raised in a defensive posture. “Wow, those claws look intimidating, they just might hurt, how hungry am I” Now this of course is just my opinion but same senerio only Mr. Lobster only has one claw, “You aint so bad, come here you” OK Mike, back to human form, ha!
You can tail hook them, go in through the bottom and out the top of the tail, just be careful to watch for the vein in the middle of the tail. If you run your hook through the vein the craw will not be very active and will not live all that long. You can also hook them through the beak, between the eyes. Here again be very careful because if you pierce the brain you will be throwing a dead crawdad.
I prefer to use no weight or at the most a small split shot, again without the “ears” I have mentioned several times before. If I do use the weight I’ll place it 6-8 inches from the craw. You want your bait to fall as naturally as possible. When you cast do not whip or snap cast it. Make a smooth cast. If you don’t then you just might separate the tail from the body.
After you make your cast feed the line out so the bait does not pendulum back towards you. This will make for a more natural presentation. Move your bait very, very slowly. Remember, your trying to allow the craw to act as natural as possible. The only reason you move it at all is to keep him from crawling under a rock. If your craw gets nervous like he is trying to swim off erratically chances are he is feeling threatened by a fish. When you feel this play out some line and be ready to set the hook when you feel pressure.
Be sure to check back soon when I’ll discuss how to fish the other live baits I mentioned.
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!
Finesse Fishing Part 2.
June 25, 2008
Lets see, where did I leave off last time? I talked about the drop shot and the split shot rigs, OK, I remember where my thoughts were. Now I’ll go into some not so well known styles of finesse fishing.
Now lets talk about Flipping reapers. First off a reaper is a CA finesse bait. If I had to discribe what a 
repers looks like I would have to say it kinda looks like a leech. With that said I’ll continue on with the subject. Flipping reapers is yet another technique for convincing lock jawed bass into biting. To rig this technique up all you do is rig it Texas rigged just like you would a plastic worm except with a smaller hook and weight. As to how to fish it, just as the name implies, you flip it gently and quietly into spots where you thing the bass is at. There have been many times when I have flipped a jig into a hole and got nothing, then turn around and flip a reaper and WAM, instant bite.
Skipping reapers. This is technique is not widely used but it can be deadly. To rig this one you would use a small hook rigged weedless and then once again I like to use the small round split shot weight, without the little “Ears” placed right up against the knot. In this situation the earless ones help it skip easier because it does not have the extra pieces hanging off of it. Cast this rig side arm and make it skip across the surface, just like when you used to skip rocks across water. What your doing is resembling a shad skittering across the surface, like he is running scared. I’ve had times where as the reaper skipped along I’ve seen bass chasing it and blasting it as soon as they caught up to it.
With this style you will need to use spinning gear and light line to achieve the best skipping. You can use this technique just about anywhere and trust me, it does work. Shhhhh, here is a secret I’ve had fantastic success using this technique under boat docks. Just make sure you either skip under a dock in an area where there is not much structure for the bass to get tangled up in or use heavier line, this in turn would mean to use a little heavier weight.
Doodeling. I don’t know for sure who actually invented this technique but I do know that legendary western angler Don Iovion was very instrumental in making it a popular style of fishing. What is doodeling you may ask. Its basically a smaller, 3-6 inch’s, Texas rigged worm with a glass bead between the worm and the weight. Here you would cast out and shake the worm in place causing the weight to bounce against the bead, basically ringing the dinner bell. In stained dirty water I like to use a brass weight, it produces more noise. Whereas in clear water I use a lead weight so it helps deaden the sound a little.
Slider Heads, Dart Heads and Shakey Heads. All of these techniques are similar yet different. They all consist of a lead head and a hook. To the best of my knowledge the slider head has been around the longest. It was invented by a gentleman named Charlie Brewer quite a few years back and still today catches bass. The original Slider head has on odd shaped lead head but there is a reason for this. With its flat bottom the head displaces water as it sinks so it sinks slower. When casted out and slowly retrieved it kind of slides through the water, hence the name. There are several ways of rigging it depending on if your fishing around structure or not. If you are then rig it weedless, if fishing in open water then leave the hook exposed.
Dart Heads, also referred to as darter heads. The lead head of this rig comes to a point. This style of fishing was developed to target suspended bass. You first would locate the suspended bass on your sonar, then cast out beyond where they were and engage your spool so on more line played out. What this would do is cause your bait to pendulum back to the boat and swim right through the suspended bass. Here again, you can either rig your plastic weedless or with an exposed hook.
Shakey Heads. This is a technique that has come seen allot of exposure lately in the tournament circuits. Several manufactures have created different styles of the shakey head but they once again are basically a lead head with a hook. They kind of look like the little crappie jig heads except bigger of course. Not so much in weight but in hook size. Same rigging techniques apply as with the others but most of the time these are rigged weedless. As far as what to put on them, basically anything from a small plastic sculpin to a big ole snake worm. These can be fished several different ways, on structure, on suspended fish, or even swimming. The biggest trick here is to shake them, hence the name. when fishing these on structure try and shake them in place without actually moving them off of the structure.
Lastly I’ll talk about the Un-Weighted Worm. This has to be one of my favorite finesse techniques 
when the bass are shallow and very spooky because it out right catches fish. The way this is rigged is you make yourself a leader, I like to use 2-3 foot myself, tie on a small black barrel swivel, one that does not have a snap, attach your leader then tie on your hook then rig your plastic weedless. The reason I use a swivel is to avoid getting line twist, which I’ll go into detail just a little later. By the way, user NO weight.
When attaching the plastic, sometimes you want your worm to be perfectly straight, other times you want a little crook in the head of the work. When rigged with the slight bend in the worm the thing will kind of spin when twitched. This is where the swivel comes in. Without it you would get really bad line twist after just a few casts and we all know how much of a pain that can be. When the worm is rigged straight it pretty much floats and falls at a very slow rate, which is a very subtle presentation and at times that is the only way you can convince the bass to bite. Cast it out, try letting it sink slowly, maybe a slight twitch every now and then. When you do get bit remember exactly what you were doing when the bite happened and repeat that to get more bites.
True, I just scratched the surface of finesse fishing, this is a subject that could go on forever. Even though I addressed small baits allot in these posts you can finesse fish anything as long as it’s a slow and methodical presentation.
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!
Finesse Fishing Part 1
June 22, 2008
Hi and welcome to my site. Today I figured it’s about time I get into a little detail concerning finesse fishing.
There are many different ways of finesse fishing so this will be a 2 part post with part 2 to show up in the near future.
What exactly is finesse fishing?
For the most part finesse fishing is basically down sizing your offering and slowing the presentation down. Some techniques that come to mind are Split shot, drop shot , Doodeling, Shakey Heads, Slider Heads and darter heads. As you can see the list is endless.
On the other hand you can also use big lures for finesse fishing, just as long as your presentation is slow. That’s would be the real key to this style of fishing. Slow and methodical is the trick. What your looking to do is get the inactive bass to react to your lure.
So anyhow, lets dig a little into some of these techniques and I’ll give up some of my tips that work for me. I already talked about rigging several of these techniques in Bass Fishing 101 so I’ll try and remember just what I shared and try not to bore you too much. I will however go into a little detail on how to fish them.
The drop shot. This was originally used as a deep water style of fishing with light line and small baits. You would cruise around and watch your graph, find the fish on some kind of structure or suspended, position yourself above them and drop the lure in front of their faces and shake it until you made them mad enough to eat it.
It evolved into much more over time. Now it is used to make long casts to underwater structure and slowly shook back to the boat. This techniques can also be used effectively while fishing from shore. Cast out to what appears to be open water, let it sink and shake it while not moving the sinker. If you don’t get bit then try shaking it while moving the sinker. If you come in contact with structure try and shake it in place
Another way of finesse fishing it is to use a bigger weight with a bigger lure and actually flip it into cover. I have heard people call this variation of the drop shot rig, a flop shot rig. Whatever you want to call it the principal is the same as I describe below.
Most of the times the bite will be very suttle, maybe you might see your line jump or twitch and then have a heavy sensation on the other end of the line. Other times you’ll just see the line do something you didn’t make it do, like move or continue to seem to sink when the water is not all that deep.
When these things happen, reel up the slack, feel the pressure and set the hook. Most of the time it does not require a bone jarring hookset like with a jig, just a quick little jerk will do, especially when you have your lure nose hooked with the tip exposed.
On to the split shot rig. Once again, this rig is basically a down sized version of the Carolina rig with a round split shot weight attached to the line.
As to how to fish it goes you cast out and basically drag the bait along slowly. Often referred to as long lining because you can cast the line out, let it sink and basically control the speed of it by slowly tapping your trolling motor.
I have seen allot of tournaments won this way. During team tournaments the person in the front of the boat will be casting out a jig or drop shot while the partner in the back will dragging a split shot. With this way of fishing between the 2 of you, your able to cover the water pretty thoroughly.
However if your fishing a draw or Pro-Am tournament it can really be a disadvantage to being in the back of the boat if the person up front wants to long line because it makes it very difficult to cast out towards shoreline structure and if you try to long line the 2 lines can get tangled up and it can cause tension between the 2 people in the boat.
Yes, I am speaking from personal experience here. I have had more than one bad experience while fishing draw tournaments prior to getting my own boat and lets just say that by the end of the day no one in the boat was happy.
Anyhow, back to the subject. I like to use the round split shot weights without the little “ears” on them because they go through structure much smoother than the other ones. Yes, they can be a pain in the back side to remove from the line and still be able to reuse them but to me the trade off is well worth the price.
As far as to what the bite feels like, refer to the above description of the drop shot bite. Split shotting is the technique that I will rig up for people who are just learning to fish for bass because its easy to do as well as effective. You can split shot anything from a 3 inch reaper to a 12 inch worm.
As you can see, there is a lot to the technique called finesse fishing and I only dove into 2 different style’s of it. Stay tuned for Finesse Fishing Part 2 where I’ll get into a few more techniques that I know will help you catch more 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!
[tags]finesse fishing, bass fishing, drop shot, split shot[/tags]
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