If you have any fishing tips you would like to share, send them to: neptune@fishlaredo.com or joe@fishlaredo.com
| Date | Tip Name | Description | ||
| 11-9-05 | WINTER TIME | WINTER- In warmer climates, such as the southern United States, bass can become very sluggish in the winter. They still feed and may remain in fall holding patterns or hole up in deep water, but their metabolisms are slow and they don't get hungry very often. The surprise is that in colder climates, like the northern United States, both bass and baitfish seem to get used to the colder water temperatures and stay more active through most of the winter. The bass usually hold near deep structure, suspend at whatever level the water feels comfortable to them, or school up near ledges or drop-offs. Vertical structure, such as dam walls, bridge pilings, drop-offs, boulders and trees, may be more important than at any other time of year. Tree stumps and the few remaining weed line edges can also be important holding areas. When the sun, rain or warm fronts warm the shallows, baitfish will often move into shallow water and a diligent angler may find bass cruising those warm, shallow areas, feeding fairly actively. In deep western reservoirs, many anglers switch exclusively to live crayfish or crayfish imitations, fished very slowly, for the winter, except during trout plants. | ||
| 10-12-05 | Jigging and Spooning |
JIGS AND SPOONS- Jigs are
hooks with a built-in weight. Soft plastic or pork trailers can be
added. Some jigs come with skirts made of rubber, silicone, animal hair
or feathers. Jigs come in many shapes and sizes and weedless or non-weedless
models. Round jigheads run straight, wedged or cone-shaped jigheads dart
erratically, vertically compressed jigheads (taller than they are wide)
fall fast to run deep or be cranked at extremely fast speeds,
horizontally compressed jigheads (wider than they are tall) fall slowly
and/or wobble, football jigs (built like a sideways football) are good
for dragging along the bottom without snagging in rocks, and jigheads
with a downward sweeping lip will wobble and dig into the bottom like a
deep-running crankbait. There are probably more different configurations
possible with jigs than any other lure and certainly too many to list
here. The real advantage with a jig is they are usually much cheaper
than other lures, so anglers dont worry as much about losing one in a
hard-to reach spot in thick cover. Many jig fishermen paint their own
jigheads and add their own skirts, bucktail, marabou or other feathers,
soft plastic trailers or pork trailers. One method that is gaining
popularity in Western reservoirs is to use a football jig with a
crayfish-shaped soft bait, which is dragged along the bottom, climbed up
the sides of rocks and wiggled. In winter periods, many anglers like to
downsize their baits and work them slowly, because the fish are less
active. Some people like to use vertical jigs or spoons in the winter or
whenever bass are inactive, like ice jigs, Hopkins spoons, or
Kastmasters, which imitate the frantic vertical zips of feeding shad.
(Since spoons are swum or deep-jigged in many of the same situations as
jigs, and trailers are sometimes added to them, they are included in
this category). Vertical jigs and jigging spoons are also useful anytime
bass are schooling deep or relating to deep structure. Consider
inserting a Hopkins spoon into a tube bait for a very versatile lure
that can be deep-jigged or cast and retrieved.
|
||
| 10-05-05 | Spinning and Buzzing |
SPINNERBAITS AND BUZZBAITS-
Spinnerbaits have a jig-like head with a skirt or soft plastic body and
an arm that reaches up and then back with one or more spinner blade.
There are Colorado blades (shaped like rounded eggs), Indiana blades
(shaped like long eggs), and Willow leaf blades (shaped like a willow
leaf or a very narrow football). By using different sizes and shapes of
blades, a spinnerbait can be tuned to run very shallow or very deep.
Many anglers only use spinnerbaits in shallow to mid-depth water, but
more and more anglers are learning to "slow roll" spinnerbaits so they
bump along the bottom. There are also in-line spinnerbaits, like Mepps or Roostertails, that have a spinner blade attached to the front of a weighted body, with a hook (often skirted with rubber or feathers) at the back end. Traditionally considered a trout lure, larger models of in-line spinnerbaits are gaining popularity with bass anglers. These are primarily fished within a few feet below the surface when bass are chasing baitfish near the surface with either a steady retrieve or an occasional pause. However, some creative angler is sure to think of additional ways to effectively fish in-line spinnerbaits. Buzzbaits are a lot like spinnerbaits, but they have enormous, almost prop-like blades that make a lot of splashing and noise at the water's surface. The noise often aggravates bass into striking. Buzzbaits are usually retrieved steadily right at the surface |
||
| 09-28-05 | GONE WILD |
Horny toads gone wild
The Houston Chronicle calls it "the latest killer bait." The Dallas Morning News refers to it as "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." The newspapers have discovered something that most professional anglers and some weekend warriors have known for about a year. In fact, the Zoom Horny Toad has quietly been the hottest lure on the CITGO Bassmaster Tour, and its allure has started to infiltrate the amateur ranks. As a result, the Horny Toad has launched a whole series of similar plastic-bodied frogs including Stanley Jigs' Ribbit, YUM's Buzzfrog, Berkley's Bat Wing Frog, Mann's HardNose Swimmin' Toad and Venom's Bully Frog. (The Sizmic Toad was the first of this genre but never ignited the craze and excitement spawned by the Horny Toad.) "The Horny Toad has been the hottest lure on the Tour and around here, too," long-time Texas pro Tommy Martin says. "Last year, there were people who had 10 or 12 dozen of them ordered, and they were back-logged. The Horny Toad is the talk of the lakes around here. It's what everybody's catching fish on. "It will work when nothing else will. It's an amazing lure. I've had huge success with it myself." "Really and truly it's been one of the most innovative baits to hit the market in a while," Florida pro Peter Thliveros adds. "It's kind of like the Senko as far as being different."
|
||
| 09-21-05 | Fast Plastics |
HARD PLASTICS- Hard plastic
baits include topwater lures, crank baits, jerk baits, and lipless crank
baits. Topwater lures draw dramatic strikes, especially in the warmer months. This includes poppers and dog-walking baits like Zara Spooks and the Spit 'N' Image. Try working these baits fast, because they are generally intended for active bass. However, a slower retrieve also often works. Some pros like to work Zara Spooks and similar baits very slowly, pausing for long periods, then giving a slight twitch like a dying baitfish. There are other topwater lures designed for use in heavy weeds or lily pads, which are usually shaped like frogs or mice. Anglers who have had problems with their line tangling on the hooks of their topwater baits should try treating their line with fly floatant or candle wax for a few feet ahead of the lure. The line will then float in front of the lure and tangles will be virtually eliminated. The candle is cheaper, but it can melt easily in the sun, making a mess in your boat, tackle box or vest. Crankbaits have become very specialized. They are available in sizes from about an inch to 15-inch trout imitating crankbaits. Many are rated to dive to specific depths. Some float, some sink and some suspend. Some have special lips and wings to help prevent snagging in timber. There are also lipless crankbaits that have more realistic baitfish profiles. Crankbaits get their action from a simple crank of the reel handle. As the reel pulls them in, they wobble back and forth. However, stop-and-start retrieves and varying the speed can also be keys to getting bites. For the best action, the line should be tied right to the crankbait's eye or split ring, not attached using a swivel or snap. Sometimes crankbaits need to be tuned by carefully bending the eye toward one side or the other until they run straight. Jerkbaits are long and slender. They are usually fished using a jerk-reel-jerk-reel retrieve. Jerkbaits usually have a small lip that causes them to twitch and/or make short dives. The original jerkbaits were made of wood and floated. Now they are also available in suspending models. Floating models can often be used quite effectively as surface lures instead of a Zara Spook or popper. Soft-plastic jerk baits achieve a similar action to hard-plastic jerk baits, even though they don't usually have lips. |
||
| 09-14-05 | Plastics R US |
SOFT PLASTICS- Soft plastics are reputed to be the most effective largemouth lures. They come in an astounding variety of shapes, sizes and colors with or without built-in scents. There are soft plastics that imitate worms, bugs, baitfish, crayfish, waterdogs, and rainbow trout to name a few. There are also new "freak baits" that don't imitate anything in particular, but they have wings, legs, feelers and other appendages that make them look alive and give them unusual action. Soft plastics can be rigged on an unweighted hook, directly on a jighead, finesse rigged, Texas rigged, Carolina rigged, drop-shotted or wacky rigged. For a finesse rig, one or more small split shot are attached to the line, usually at least a foot or two ahead of the hook, and the soft plastics used are usually small and have little or no action on their own. A Texas rig consists of a sliding sinker, usually bullet-shaped, that slides freely or is pegged just above the hook, which has the point buried in the body for a weedless effect. A Carolina rig uses a sliding sinker, usually followed by a bead to the protect the knot, then a swivel, two to six feet of leader, and a hook buried in a soft plastic worm, lizard, tube jig body, grub or other soft-plastic bait. Drop-shotting is a new technique that is gaining popularity. One to three hooks (depending on preferences and regulations) are tied directly to the line using Palomar knots, with extra line hanging down and tied to a weight. Weights used on drop-shot rigs include split shot, pegged sliding sinkers, and casting sinkers (also called bell sinkers or bass sinkers). A drop-shot rig is usually fished slowly with the line vertical or near vertical with occasional pauses and twitches. It allows constant contact with the bottom but keeps the bait off the bottom in the strike zone. When split shot or pegged sinkers are used, they just slip off the line if they hang up so the rest of the rig is usually not lost. Wacky-rigged worms are also gaining popularity either unweighted or as part of a drop-shot rig. Wacky rig means that the worm is hooked through the middle, with both ends dangling on opposite sides. A wacky worm falls slowly in the water column with little or no action. Then a small twitch makes both ends swing toward each other, like a drowning worm. The wacky method is particularly effective near submerged structure.
|
||
| 09-06-2005 | POLARIZED SUNGLASSES | All anglers will better protect their eyes and be able to see underwater fish better with good quality polarized sunglasses. Polarization cuts surface glare due to the alignment of particles in or on the lens, which can actually help an angler see underwater. Since polarization makes sunglasses special, glasses that are polarized usually bear a special label when they're on the rack. However, not all polarized sunglasses are created equal. The better polarized sunglasses have a ground-in polarization that results in a top-notch, optical quality lens with no distortions. Cheaper polarized sunglasses only have a sprayed-on polarized finish that results in lens distortions that will cause eyestrain and can even damage the eyes. Like polarization, optical quality lenses are special, so if they're optical quality there will usually be a special label or information in the accompanying tag or pamphlet that says so. | ||
| 09-01-2005 | Fall Time |
FALL- As the days grow
shorter, the water gets cooler. Even though this slows down the
largemouth's metabolism, the fish still need to feed heavily to fatten
up for the winter. The baitfish have reached their largest size of the
year, but the summer feeding has dramatically cut down their numbers.
This is a good time to use larger lures or baits. Bass are also forced
out of some of their holding spots, because the weeds are beginning to
die off, so they can be concentrated in or around the remaining weeds,
where more food is available. As in the summer, bass often like to
suspend along steep slopes where they can quickly move to shallow water
to feed. Many bass focus more on crayfish, because baitfish are harder
to find. These bass will be found on or near rock piles, where crayfish
hide. Many western lakes begin receiving trout plants again at this time
of year, which creates an ideal opportunity for big bass to bulk up for
the winter. During the fall in colder areas, such as the north, a phenomenon known as the "turnover" occurs. Colder weather cools the surface water until it is colder than the deep water. Since colder water is heavier than warmer water, this causes a mixing that eliminates the layers of colder and warmer water throughout the lake. Decaying leaves and other debris from the lake bottom gets stirred up throughout the lake, causing it to be very murky. This temporarily disorients fish and makes fishing more difficult. Many anglers make the mistake of abandoning fishing for the rest of the season when the turnover occurs. The disorientation, which only lasts a few days, only causes bass to stay put in their favorite hiding places. Bass still need to bulk up for the winter and the fishing pressure and boating activity is almost zero. An angler who is willing to work hard to figure out a pattern, usually by fishing finesse lures very slowly or heavy "power" lures (big jigs, crankbaits or spinnerbaits) very fast, may experience some of the best uninterrupted fishing of the year. |
||
| 08-24-05 | Staying shallow |
Staying shallow Even in August, there are considerably more bass in shallow water than many fishermen realize."On shallow, muddy, fertile natural river systems, this time of year tends to be one of my favorite times to fish," Ken Cook states. "It's very hot, very muggy and very difficult physically to cope with, but the fish have to be shallow. And they'll be on targets. I like shallow, target-oriented fish. "If you add current to the mix, you have all of the reasons in the world to have good fishing." Cook takes a multi-pronged approach to catching the shallow bass: spinnerbaiting brushy cover; working logs, laydowns and stick-ups with a shallow-running crankbait (Rapala DT5); or flipping a tube or jig to shady spots, like boat docks and vegetation. The tube is pegged to a heavy weight to make it drop quickly and hopefully trigger a reaction from lethargic summer bass. Bass enthusiasts in Florida and Texas know that both quantity and quality live underneath floating mats of vegetation and topped-out hydrilla when it comes to August largemouth. Most use a 1-ounce bullet weight to penetrate the thick grass with a tube or creature bait to reach the well-hidden, unsuspecting bass below. August is the month when Auten spends considerable time in the backs of creeks looking for baitfish, which often "ball up" around isolated cover. He has often utilized a small spinnerbait to mop up on some of the most aggressive bass of late summer. Two-time BASS winner Marty Stone typically runs as far away as possible from the dam in riverine reservoirs to backwater areas with good water movement. He focuses on stained-water spots, which tend to attract schools of shad. His approach involves downsizing to a 5-inch stickworm or white 1/4-ounce spinnerbait (sporting No. 2 1/2 Colorado and No. 3 1/2 willowleaf gold blades). "With water quality being pretty bad that time of year on a lot of our lakes and reservoirs, I've seen many an August where you'll have a major concentration of fish in these kinds of areas," the North Carolina pro says. "It can be a pretty phenomenal time of year to fish shallow. "I've had days in August on Buggs Island where I went up the river and caught 12 keepers. And the best five weighed 17 or 18 pounds. Everybody is out there dragging a rig around or maybe throwing a crankbait and catching one or two, maybe three fish. And I'm catching 10 or 12 keepers during that tournament day." Another pattern typical of the month of August involves the appearance of schooling bass marauding through pods of shad near the surface. "Here are the ideal conditions in August," Stone fantasizes. "Just got through with a nice little rain. There's a little runoff. Got some cloud cover. It's damp and moist out there. Little bit of a cooling trend. Instead of 100s, I'm looking at high 80s. You can feel the humidity in the air. This will turn the bite on in a hurry. "They will bite big time — and I mean big fish." Author unknown |
||
| 08-17-05 | Phone in Water | When a phone falls in the water, first remove battery and chip if it has one. Then remove excess water with cloth. Second, insert phone and battery in a sock and tie a knot. Insert another sock inside of that one and tie another not. If there is some clothes laying around insert them in the dryer. Third, turn on dryer for about 30 to 40 minutes. Finally, let it cool off over night and assemble phone together, just power up in the morning. If dryer not available, put phone on dash board of vehicle with all windows up for few hours until it is dry. Note, this only works if it is a hot day. If you think it does not work, I have dropped my phone in the water four times and it still works. | ||