Rules of thumb?

[wargoth]

I have noticed that scattered all over this board, there are alot of bits of wisdom regarding color selection, bait selection, etc. in regard to time of year, time of day, and water quality. I was wondering if some ambitious individual might be willing to compile as much as they can on this topic into this thread which we might request to be stickied. I am a long time Walleye and Perch fisherman in NE Ohio, and I am coming over to the world of Bass fishing more recently. I am well aware that there are never any absolutes when it comes to fishing, but I think it would be nice to have a set of "Rules of thumb" on this subject in a nice and convenient place so that we newer guys can save time on experimentation and spend more time actually catching. I know what Walleye will usually want at what time of day, at what time of year, but am thouroughly lost with what the bass usually will want. I have seen it said that post spawn and early/late in the day, they seem to like topwater, but that is all I have retained from the hundreds of posts I have read, so how bout it, anyone up to tackling this?

[Raul]

1st, single and most important rule of thumb you need to learn about bass fishing : in bass fishing there is no such thing as "rules"

[pbruessow@msn.com]

I got tons of tips at http://www.floridabassfishing.us and some more at http://www.floridabasslakes.com.

[Rebbasser]

Originally Posted by Raul

1st, single and most important rule of thumb you need to learn about bass fishing : in bass fishing there is no such thing as "rules"

Quite true from the standpoint that you never know what a fish is going to hit or not hit. I learned about deadsticking after picking out a backlash and learned about swimming jigs by cranking it in to make another cast. However, I do have a couple Rules of Thumb:

Choosing what color:
Clear water-natural colors. Green Pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon red, shad, bluegill.

Stained water-add some brightness, usually chartreuse.

Muddy water-depends on the cloud cover. If it is sunny I use bright colors-chartreuse, firetiger, white, red.

Spinnerbait blades/colors

Clear water-shad/baitfish color, double willow setup, silver in the sun, copper in the clouds.

Stained water-depends on how stained. Slightly stained I use chartreuse and white or some variation thereof with a gold Indiana blade in front of a silver willowleaf blade. In heavily stained water the same colors except I use a silver Indiana in front of a gold willow.

Muddy water-white, chartreuse or both with a big, single Colorado blade, gold if it is sunny and copper if it is cloudy.

[hackattack]

check your knot.

[Rebbasser]

And your hooks.

[wargoth]

1st, single and most important rule of thumb you need to learn about bass fishing : in bass fishing there is no such thing as "rules"

Yes, this can also be said of all types of fishing. You never know what the fish will want, but, this is why I asked for rules of thumb. Defined as a set of general guidelines which though not absolute, follow the normal patterns of fish. Hence making a good starting point for beginners.

For example. Generally walleye will prefer a Storm wee wart in the spring, a wiggle wart in the summer, and a magnum wart in the late summer. Though sometimes they will want spoons or rapalas and won't touch the warts.

Muddy water-white, chartreuse or both with a big, single Colorado blade, gold if it is sunny and copper if it is cloudy.

This is actually the kind of stuff I wanted, as my instincts from walleye fishing would place the time of day/conditions for choice of metals differently. In the cloudy counditions or morning or evening, walleye will usually prefer silver, and will prefer gold almost only in the bright sun during mid day (11 to 2-ish) and will often ignore copper except for a very short span on an exeptionally bright day just after we switch off of gold.

And your hooks.

No worries there, I'm almost always running Gammies in good condition. In fact I just replaced all the stock hooks on my father's walleye gear with nice new Gammie EWG trebles... Heh, needless to say, he likes them alot.

[FlyRod]

Be kind to our web-footed friends!
(For a duck may be somebody's mother.)

FR