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#67015 by philbymon
Mon May 11, 2009 1:55 pm
Nice, RGM. All I ever get is snappers...big MEAN snappers! Reeled 2 of 'em in last year that were 20 & 24 inches across.

#67105 by Paleopete
Tue May 12, 2009 4:25 pm
Bob seems to know more about river fishing than I do, he's obviously done a lot more of it too. One thing I can offer though, about fishing in general. Fish slow. If you're not catching anything, slow down. Once you think you're fishing slow enough, slow down some more. It works. Using deep runners I start to retrieve almost immediately, but slow. Using top water or plastic worms (my favorite) I let the ripples move at least 15 feet from the bait before I even twitch the line, then twitch it a time or two before actually moving it.

Practice on a cat. Without hooks, obviously. I hooked a cat by accident one day, didn't know he was there till he pounced on my lure. I was testing my Ambassadeur 5000 rig after cleaning it, cast a few times in the back yard. Cat in the bushes suddenly pounced....it was not fun getting the hook out...It's not easy to get a full grown cat to develop any serious interest in your lure. They chase it if it runs fast, sometimes, and watch closely if it sits there and wiggles. The trick is to make it look like a free meal.

That's the number one thing, most game fish are predators, but they are also opportunistic. They will not pass up a free meal. Make it look like a free meal and you'll catch fish.

So remove the hooks from an old top water bait, get outside and practice on a cat. Whatever makes the cat attack the lure will make a fish do so too. This is from the fisherman's bible, a well respected book that's been available for many years, my copy is around 30 years old. (OK I think that's where it came from, fairly sure anyway.)

Fishing slow is a tip I got from Bill Dance on some fishing show years ago. I rarely watch those but caught him on tv one day and decided to watch for a few minutes out of boredom. It also happened to be the day he was doing some pond fishing and someone's goose attacked him 3 or 4 times, then he fell into a pond 3 times. Funny as hell, but he did offer up some good tips. That one was the best advice I ever got. Fish SLOW...I saw people on Sam Rayburn in east Texas go home empty handed lots of times because they would cruise along by trolling motor way too fast and both fish too fast and pass up 3/4 of the available cover. I would sit there and fish very slow, usually with weightless worms, and catch fish in the exact same spots they thought had no fish. Simply because I fished slow and covered a lot more of the available territory, not because I was a great fisherman. I'm not...

Bank fishing is difficult because the fish can see AND hear you. Remember water transmits sound 3x as well as air does. Or more. So any noise you make they hear in the water quite well. Drop a small hook in the bottom of an aluminum boat, fish can hear it 50 feet away and know exactly where you are. Ditto for bank fishing, if you have a heavy step they hear you walk up. So walk slow and quiet, don't make any sudden movements and try to keep still and quiet. If the water is even semi clear they can see you as well, so you want the sun behind you if possible, then it's in their eyes and they can't see you as well. Camo helps, bright colored clothes are out. They can see that white t shirt even in cloudy water, you're only a few feet away.

#67239 by fisherman bob
Thu May 14, 2009 3:17 am
GREAT ADVICE PALEOPETE! Not only do most fisherman move their bait or lure too fast, they jerk or twitch it too much. Small fish in nature don't generally call attention to themselves. The slower and smoother you can retrieve a lure and keep it from hanging up, the better your catch rate will be. THINK SMOOTH AND SLOW. If you've got a weedless rig fish it slow and stop it now and then. Sometimes a fish will pick up a fake worm or jig when it isn't moving. There was a famous fisherman named Charlie Brewer who invented the "do nothing" technique of fishing. He found through experimenting that the smoother, slower, and steadier he could reel in his lure, the more fish he caught. He invented the Crappie Slider, which by the way is an awesome lure, when rigged properly is virtually weedless. I never go fishing without carrying a few Crappie Sliders. Now, fish slow and smooth AND use the most visible lure for the color of water you"re fishing. You now will OWN any fish in front or underneath you, They'll have your name tattooed on their foreheads. My motto is "A fish can swim but it can't hide." Use the lightest line you can get away with and keep the hooks sharp. Mepps Aglias can be reeled extremely slow and keep spinning. That's why they catch so many fish. Good luck...

#67378 by Paleopete
Thu May 14, 2009 11:08 pm
Bob - you would be surprised how many people don't know that or don't believe it. Most of the people I met on Rayburn in East Tx would cast 3 times to my one, even if I was using spinner baits. Not often I used those, it was usually plastic worms or to water, but either way I always ran the bait slow as possible and covered as much of the available area as possible. IN general I try to make a cast every 3-5 feet while I would watch people cruise by with trolling motors going non stop and make a cast every 50 feet. You can easily guess who caught the fish...I have no idea how many 3-5 lb bass I pulled out of that lake, and usually caught at least one every time I went out, which was almost every day. Living 100 yards from one of the best bass lakes in Texas probably had a lot to do with that though...

My favorite bait was a black worm or lizard, depending on season, with red sparkles. Early in the year with spawning going on it was lizard all the way. there's a black salamander that eats bass eggs, it's the only thing they will eat, anything else is carried a few feet from the nest and spit out. I tried treble hook top water baits, they even managed to spit those out...throw a lizard, they would attack it every time and mean business. Later on in the year I would switch to worms, usually the black/red or a moccasin color, black top with bronze bottom. Looks a lot like a baby water moccasin, one of their favorite foods. But notice both were black based...

No matter what bait though, SLOW was the key. With worms, I use weightless if possible, only in high wind will I add a weight, and I always let it just sit there for at least a full minute before doing anything. If a fish is close it usually doesn't last 20 seconds...just the action of the plastic worm floating slowly toward the bottom is too much for them and the fight is on.

I also try to be as quiet as possible, since water transmits sound much better than the air does. If I drop anything in the boat I move to another spot, sit there for a couple of minutes and try it. I found out my trolling motor on low speed is quiet enough, I followed a bass about 2 lbs for nearly 50 yards one evening in shallow water, he didn't know I was there till I suddenly threw it into reverse for fun. he scooted outta there fast, so I knew the Motorguide was quiet enough.

As far as colors go with other baits, it's usually trial and error. For top water baits first choice is usually black and gold or black and silver, then blue and silver. For spinner baits it will be black, white or chartreuse.

Line, usually 10-12lb. I do like to try ultralight too though, then I go for 4lb. My best catch on 4 lb line so far is a 3 lb bass on ultralight tackle, one crazy fight...loads of fun. Took it with me last time I went salt water, (my favorite) but didn't get a bite the whole time so I didn't get to tangle with any speckled trout or redfish, which would be a lot of fun I'm betting. Trout would be no real problem, but redfish just might be tricky, they get real big and the big ones are just as likely to hit a bait as the smaller ones. I've caught plenty 22" redfish on an Ambassadeur 5000, (Oso Bay in Corpus Christi). Minimum in Texas was 19", my minimum was 21". I know how they pull, so chances are a good sized 22-28" redfish would demolish an ultralight...but I wanna try it...

Another tip if you deal with places with minimum keeper lengths, I marked my rods with fingernail polish. If it reached the blue dot, a speckled trout was keeper size, if it reached the red dot a redfish was a keeper. Yellow for flounder. Bass I don't worry about I never keep them anyway. All catch and release.

While I'm on catch and release, be careful how you land a fish you plan to release. Grabbing by the lower lip actually dislocates the lower lip, the fish can't eat for at least 2-3 weeks, and 90% of them starve. Use a net and handle them carefully, or land by hand by picking up from the stomach. (much harder, you'll get hooked a lot.) Wet your hands before touching the fish. That slime is there for a reason, it's their protection from bacteria and fungus and it sticks to your dry hands. Wet your hands first and it won't be removed. That means the fish won't be as likely to start growing fungus.

Oh, almost forgot...Wondering when to go fishing? Watch the sky. Clear blue sky means high barometer, stay home. Cloudy skies means low barometer, then check the weather. If the barometer is 30 or below, get on the water. Fish feed much more when the barometer is low, 30 or lower is best. My favorite time is during a light rain. I like to be on the water when it starts, that's the very best time. I've caught most of my biggest fish in the rain. I keep a plastic poncho handy, so nothing but my hands and lower arms get wet, and I'm usually also the only person on the lake. But try it and see, they bite best when the barometer is low and you can tell that by looking at the sky. Low is always when it rains, high barometric pressure means clear blue skies every time. It's about half overcast here today, I've been really tempted to go wet a hook but decided against it, too tired. Earlier this week we had rain for a couple of days but I was just getting back from Las Vegas and out of it so I didn't even think about it.

#67419 by philbymon
Fri May 15, 2009 12:03 pm
Pete, too fast is prolly a big part of my fishing prob's...tnx

I seem to catch more leaves & sticks & rocks & turtles than fish, more often than not, in a lot of areas I work.

It's a learning process, that's for sure, & I'm still in the fledgling stages, but I'm learning.

#67427 by 1collaborator
Fri May 15, 2009 1:44 pm
The fish were biting real good yesterday. I took my grandson out to my pond and we caught some real nice bass and bream. Im no fisherman by any stretch, but we sure got some good advice from Bob and Pete to try. I had 5 poles and rods set up to fish cause I like to catch the trees. I hooked a real nice one and broke a fiberglass bream buster trying to get him on the bank. At the same time the grandson caught a 5 1/2 pound bass. I feed all of em 2 times a day, and if I go out to the pond you can see em coming from across the pond. Within an hour and a half Gabe caught 4 real nice bass , 19 pan sized bream, and 1 turtle. It was some real quality time baiting hooks , taking fish off, and trying to keep the dogs out of the water while we fished. By the way all we used for bait were night crawlers, and either a 13 ft bream buster or a light Zebco 33 combo. Hope you have a good day fishing soon!


Its another day in Paradise !!!

#67428 by ratsass
Fri May 15, 2009 2:23 pm
A woman walked into a little Mom & Pop baitshop looking to buy a rod and reel. She finally found one she liked, took it up to the counter and asked the man how much it cost. He said, "Ma'am, I'm completely blind so I can't see it, but my all my other senses are better than average. If you'll just drop it on the floor, I can tell by the sound what it is and let you know the price." She was a bit skeptical but went ahead and dropped it. He immediately said, "That there is a Zebco 33 and it costs $25.00. The woman bent over to pick it up and the exertion caused her to release gas (fart). Somewhat embarrassed, she set the rod and reel on the counter and reached for her pocket book without saying a word. The old man rang it up and said, "That'll be $35.00." She said, "But you just told me it was $25.00". The old man said, "Yep, that's right, $25.00 for the Zebco, and $5.00 each for the duck call and stink bait."

:lol: :D :) :lol:

#67487 by fisherman bob
Sat May 16, 2009 12:20 am
Doug Hannon is widely regarded as the world's greatest big bass fisherman. He most likely has caught more bass over ten pounds than any man alive. His main asset is stealth. Fish are very aware of what's going on around them, both in and out of the water. Hannon's boats have camoflage paint and are carpeted. He maintains a low profile and moves very slowly into position to fish. The really big bass are in and around lots of cover. They usually have ambush areas where they can see all around them AND are in areas where the current favors bringing them an easy meal. Lots of fisherman make too much noise and think the fish don't know they are there. As far as weather there's a few sayings that are somewhat true. Wind from the north fishermen do not go forth. Wind from the west fishing is best. Wind from the east fishing is least. Wind from the south fish open their mouth. (Something like that anyway). We can't control the weather. I do a lot of bank fishing and try and fish on the shore that the wind is blowing against. It's a logical choice being the wind creates waves that carry organisms to the bank and the baitfish follow and the gamefish follow the baitfish. When it's really bright sunshine outside you have to tone down the colors of the lures. How many times have you seen a fish come up and suddenly veer off at the last second and not hit the lure? A bright silver or gold lure will literally momentarily blind a fish and they cannot see the lure, therefore they veer off. Even fluorescent lures may be too bright to the fish on a sunny day. Go with a metal that is tarnished. Go with non-fluorescent colors. Black is always good on a sunny day. (Black is universally good, I start with black every time I go fishing). Cloudy days with wind are generally some of the best fishing days for me. A little ripple on the surface means that the fish can come up closer to the surface and not be seen by Kingfishers, Herons, Ospreys, homo sapiens, etc. They feel safer and are more likely to feed actively. During really strong cold fronts with north winds and clear skies fishing can be very tough. Concentrate on the south shore of the lake you're fishing at and if there's cover there (trees, docks, etc.) fish those areas hard and SLOW.

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