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Old 11-14-11, 10:39 PM   #1
keithdog
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Default End of season reflections.

Thought it would be interresting to see what are some of your thoughts about how the year 2011 was for you bass fishing? What new techniques or lures did you find yourself having success with? Any suprises, disappointments?
This year turned out to be a very good year for me personally as far as bass fishing goes. I only wish I knew 30 years ago what I know now.
My mainstays of spinnerbaits, topwaters and crankbaits stayed the same for the most part but with a couple new additions. This year for the first time I started having success with buzzbaits BIG TIME. Why all these years past I've never had any success with a buzzbait and this year I did I can't explain. Nobass was a big help with getting me started again with buzzbaits and even sent me one of his favorites. Thankyou Don!!! I found myself working buzzbaits a ton this year and caught too many off them to remember how many. Another surprise for me was lipless cranks. I've made a million casts with them over my life time and never caught a thing on them. But I've kept trying as I know they are proven effective. Again, I can't explain why, but this year I started having success with those too! Mainly just this past early spring working them with a yoyo retrieve durring prespawn. The combo of a lipless crank and suspending jerk bait proved deadly this past spring. I found myself having less success on frogs and pitchin soft plastics than in years past. The lake I fish most often has changed over the past few years. In the past, bustin bass in heavy dense weedbeds with frogs and pitchin t rigged beavers and other such plastics proved deadly. However, shad were intoduced to this lake 3 years ago. Ever since then the bass behavior has changed drastically. Now the bass are usually found in more open water chasing after shad. Working the shallower weedbeds I once had great success in now only proved to be more of a waste of time. I caught a few using frogs and pitchin plastics, but not nearly the numbers as in years past. A lure I fell in love with late summer/early fall was the 4 1/2 inch Heddon One Knocker Spook. My two biggest bass of the year came off that lure, although I missed at least 3 bigger bass off of other baits. That One Knocker Spook TORE IT UP! I found myself having so much fun using baits I normally didn't throw that I kind of passed on many of my old favorites. But thats a good thing. The more diverse an angler can be, the better. Well, thats it for now. I'm wondering what suprises 2012 has in store?
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Old 11-14-11, 11:22 PM   #2
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I feel like I really came up the ladder a notch on crankbaits. I am more confident throwing them in to wood because I actually get them back. And I have learned what I am feeling (Most of the time) when I am fishing.

I finally tried a swim jig the other day only to come up with a broke heart though. It was a light pumpkin color that I got from Ron last Christmas (What kind was it Ron?) I tagged it with a paca Alabama colored craw and dipped the tips in chart garlic. I won't lie about the weight, but this was one of the biggest fish I have ever personally laid my eyes on. I was reeling in and the fish came up with the bait just inches from the tip. She sucked it in, headed the other direction and I might have lifted the rod 6" and kapow like a 22 on the CXX line. I noticed I had dropped my thumb on the spool too, so the drag was clamped due to excitement. I was fishing with the guy I built his wife the LSU rod. I had just told him I needed to hook one to have me speaking in tongues. As I was sitting with my head down between shaking and retying, he said boy, you went from speaking in tongue to cursing mighty quick. I asked him if I had and he said no, just trying to lighten the mood. No since in crying over spilled milk but it was a heart breaker. But I can tell you this, I will be trying the swim jig more next year FO SHO!
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Old 11-14-11, 11:32 PM   #3
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I caught Smallie fever. Completely.

I didn't actually do a ton of fishing this year, mostly due to too much damned work. But honestly, having caught the fish of my dreams was enough. I don't feel cheated one bit. And in the current economic environment, there are far worse things than too much work.

I really got into the dropshot this year. That is actually quite funny, as 2 years ago, I pretty much abandoned spinning tackle. And here I find myself coming full circle. The lesson for me is, almost every approach has its time and place.

Next year holds a lot of promise, as I also have the desire to "master" the two lures Keith mentioned...the spook and the jerkbait. I am still a big zero on both lures, though I think I am presenting them properly. Probably just not at the right time. I'll figure it out. I'll definitely be heading out in Feb/March to "work the jerk."

Last thing...I really want to focus on being safer next year. I've slipped back into my old habit of not wearing my PFD again. I have to work on that, as I fish alone a lot. I don't really mind leaving my boat to someone after I die, but I'd really rather it weren't the guy who finds it floating without a driver.
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Old 11-14-11, 11:43 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubba_Bruiser View Post
I feel like I really came up the ladder a notch on crankbaits. I am more confident throwing them in to wood because I actually get them back. And I have learned what I am feeling (Most of the time) when I am fishing.

I finally tried a swim jig the other day only to come up with a broke heart though. It was a light pumpkin color that I got from Ron last Christmas (What kind was it Ron?) I tagged it with a paca Alabama colored craw and dipped the tips in chart garlic. I won't lie about the weight, but this was one of the biggest fish I have ever personally laid my eyes on. I was reeling in and the fish came up with the bait just inches from the tip. She sucked it in, headed the other direction and I might have lifted the rod 6" and kapow like a 22 on the CXX line. I noticed I had dropped my thumb on the spool too, so the drag was clamped due to excitement. I was fishing with the guy I built his wife the LSU rod. I had just told him I needed to hook one to have me speaking in tongues. As I was sitting with my head down between shaking and retying, he said boy, you went from speaking in tongue to cursing mighty quick. I asked him if I had and he said no, just trying to lighten the mood. No since in crying over spilled milk but it was a heart breaker. But I can tell you this, I will be trying the swim jig more next year FO SHO!
I know that heart broken feeling all too well my friend. Best of luck next year on your swim jig quest.
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Old 11-14-11, 11:52 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nofearengineer View Post
I caught Smallie fever. Completely.

I didn't actually do a ton of fishing this year, mostly due to too much damned work. But honestly, having caught the fish of my dreams was enough. I don't feel cheated one bit. And in the current economic environment, there are far worse things than too much work.

I really got into the dropshot this year. That is actually quite funny, as 2 years ago, I pretty much abandoned spinning tackle. And here I find myself coming full circle. The lesson for me is, almost every approach has its time and place.

Next year holds a lot of promise, as I also have the desire to "master" the two lures Keith mentioned...the spook and the jerkbait. I am still a big zero on both lures, though I think I am presenting them properly. Probably just not at the right time. I'll figure it out. I'll definitely be heading out in Feb/March to "work the jerk."

Last thing...I really want to focus on being safer next year. I've slipped back into my old habit of not wearing my PFD again. I have to work on that, as I fish alone a lot. I don't really mind leaving my boat to someone after I die, but I'd really rather it weren't the guy who finds it floating without a driver.
I found I had my best luck with Spooks from just about sunrise untill about 10AM. Later if there was some chop on the water. Had my best luck in 8-12 foot of water working it over the tops of submerged weedbeds. The smaller Super Spook Jr has been a very good bait for me any time bass are busting schools of shad at the surface.
The jerk bait I was using was made by Xcaliber. I had my best luck with in in fairly shallow water around 7 foot deep working it in areas where weed growth will be heavier later in spring. The weeds are just starting to grow and I'm working the jerk bait right over the new growth in shallow bays on the northern side of the lake. The jerkbait I was using does not dive very deep. I can't tell you the model because I found the lure on a snag someone broke off on. But it works great!
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Old 11-15-11, 12:00 AM   #6
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One of the first times I got out this year was with Kevin, we went to a watershed that one of his buddies own. I started the day out hot, catching a nice fish on my 2nd cast, it was on a watermelon colored swim jig with a Kalins single tailed grub in watermelon black flake, it just confirmed what I had already known, that this is a great little bait. The swimjig bite was on and off for a while and I decided to change to jerkbaits and give them a try, it was a good choice, because for the next several hours we caught fish after fish. I had a few times where I made three consecutive casts, catching fish on each cast. I told Kevin then that I bet that this would be our most productive day of the year, and while we had several good days throughout the summer, I still don't think that any topped that spring day. I proved to myself that my strong fishing skill is pitchin plastics, I love it, the pace the variety, it just suits my fishing style, I tried several new baits this year, some good, some not so good, one bait that stood out this summer was a bait made by Gene Larew, it's called a whodaddy, if you get the urge to try a new plastic, give this one a try, it caught some nice fish for me this summer. Our summer was crazy hot, and I did not fish as much as I had wanted, here's looking forward to next year.
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Old 11-15-11, 12:54 AM   #7
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Because of the way I work I've been lucky enough to spend over 70 days on the water this year. (seems like a lot for a non pro to me....but could be peanuts to some of you guys? I don't know) anyway, managed to boat 1074 bass (not individually..just in the boat) between feb-18 and nov-12. Finally gained some confidence in shakey head.
@keithdog...i know lipless cranks must work but my confidence is zip...& even though those newly introduced shad have changed the dynamic i promise you that you will notice an overall weight gain relative to age in those bass in the years to com
@Tavery 5...i'd love to have a great swim jig day, it would probably help to have one tied on first
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Old 11-15-11, 06:23 AM   #8
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Wait, I just started swimbaiting(big ones), and the season is over?! I will be on the water until it's solid...hope to have the best stories to come.(WOW! 11lb. 12oz. Bass here I come!)
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Old 11-15-11, 08:58 AM   #9
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Well, I definitely didn't get on the water as much as I wanted to.

My goals doing into this year were as follows:

1) Get better at jig fishing.
2) Gain confidence in pitching/flipping plastics.
3) Start fishing small (4-6") swimbaits.
4) Start fishing deep crankbaits.

Of those, the first was the only one I feel I even came close to accomplishing. I started the year off by fishing jigs a lot down in Alabama. They accounted for half my fish down there (although that's not saying much). Once back at home, I fished them at our local reservoir, and caught a few fish on them throughout the year. I feel like I'm getting a feel for them now.

Since I brought up Alabama, the other half of my fish were caught on a technique I previously had NO confidence in. Frogging.

We did do a bit of deep cranking in Alabama, but all that got me was trash fish (that I can catch plenty of here in Lake Erie).

So I guess my list will carry over to 2012.

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Old 11-15-11, 09:30 AM   #10
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Well, I hope that my season isn't over yet. I feel cheated out of a fall feeding frennzy that never happened here, maybe it's still on it's way. Fishing with Tony this year helped to expand my horizons on new to me techniques. I know from personal experience that it's very easy to become comfortable with a few techniques that work for you and to limit yourself to those. We started out the year with swim jigs and jerk baits. I have caught bass before while swimmimg a jig back to the boat, but never intentionally using jigs meant for swimming instead of crawling. I now have a box full of swim jigs and big grubs. I have caught tons of fish many years ago tossing minnow baits like a rapala #11, but i just tossed them out and reeled them in. I never actually learned how to use a jerk bait with the jerk, jerk pause method. This last winter i watched a video on it and was planning to try some of that. I got that chance on the first trip with Tony at the watershed. The fish were suspended in the deepest section and we caught a bunch on both swim jigs and jerk baits. I now have a tray full of LC jerk baits that cost more than they should, but what the heck. The hot summer actually limited my fishing quite a bit by drying up several of my best private lakes I normally fish. The boat ramps were high and dry and fishing from the bank just isn't my thing. Tony and I are fortunate though in that we have a large sandpit lake just a few minutes from my house. That lake dropped a few feet but it's very deep with steep sides so that became our primary spot this year. It's a pay per day lake, but the $15 bucks a head is still cheaper than the gas money to drive anywhere else. We had a great year there pitching plastics and jigs. I learned a lot more about fishing deeper water with football jigs. This year was the best year ever for me with drop shots. I now feel confident to use them anytime and anywhere. I plan to try to fish as many times yet as possible, at least until the lake turns to ice. Last winter, Tony and I actually went fishing on new years eve day. It was a sunny winter day and there was only a fringe of ice around the edges. It wasn't a great fishing day, but we caught a few. This year, I hope to get to go to a power plant lake a few times during the hard winter months. It's about a 3 hour drive from here but the warm water will be calling my name.
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Old 11-15-11, 02:08 PM   #11
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I am desperately tired of bank fishing for one.

This season hasnt changed a whole lot for me.But the two techniques Ive been gaining more in is Jerkbaits and Dropshotting.

I really want to work on flutter spoons this coming summer and bigggg swimbaits.

I also becoming more of an opportunist fisherman...I love bassing,but when the seasons right Im gonna tackle more species this coming year.
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Old 11-15-11, 06:22 PM   #12
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First I'll start off by saying I think biggest limitation this year was fish-able water.

This spring was probably the best I'd had all my life. Tore the heck out of em with a red-crow colored BL rat-l-trap. Took me a while to figure that out, but I did! Started throwing jigs, drop shots and suspending cranks to no avail.

I think my first cast this year was with a drop shot. After I figured out what the bottom liked, and by looking at what other anglers where doing, I put a jig on, still nothing. I come home and get the idea from MIbasser to try a lipless crank. So I do just that and start tearing em up. Sounds crazy, but the average fish was about 3 pounds, and a 4-5 pounder was not unheard of. 8 - 12 fish was normal for the small place my the road I fished.

Ran into a fellow shore buster and learned that the reason the fish were so stacked up is because the area on the other side of the road was a big oll spawning flat, so that's where the females came up to stage for the spawn.

What I'll change next year:

Definitely gonna have to mix it up next year. One thing I always noticed is that they'd slam the lipless crank for about an hour and just stop. I'd always change to a jig or some kind of plastic, and pick up a fish or two if I was lucky. Never occurred to me to do something same but different. Meaning rather then going from a crank, to jig (fast to slow). I'll go to from a chatter bait, or swim jig from the crankbait. Still a fast presentation, but not the same sound and such as the lipless.

As soon as the spawn was pretty well through, it was buzz bait time. The grasses where just starting to get to the surface, and I found that a buzz bait was the best option. 5 - 10 fish a day, and size was always good.

Here was one of the better fish for late spring I got... around 5 lbs if I remember right.

School had just let out and the frog was the best producer for me. Never was able to ever get on the fish consistently like I was able to do with the buzzbait, and rattle trap though. Size was still good though, so I happy enough. Caught nice 7lber (which was my biggest fish of the year) on a black spro popping frog right when a week long rain storm came (fishing the Upper Red Lake).



A few days (still raining, and the maiden voyage my new XML rod) I was fishing a purple jig with a black pork trailer, and catching em good like I was in the spring by the power house suppurating the upper and lower Red Lake. Set the hook into another hoss and pulled yer another 7lber.

(same shirt as last time too.. must be lucky! )


After that rain storm the water level was up 4 feet, and murked up big time. Fish was never the same after that. Through the whole summer I was never able to get on em good, and size was not there either. Didn't seem to matter
what I threw.

After getting fed up with the sh!tty fishing in the lake, I figured it was time to start fishing the river for smallies... good choice! 3" tubes, spinners, and wacky rigs was the norm. 15 - 20 fish days were average, and 12-14" fish was also average. First "good" smallie of the year came on a failed trout fishing trip on a small spinner. About 16" - 17".



Fishing a different stretch of the river, I was able hook into a big ol smallie on a 4" wacky rig senko. 20"



Sometime in late jully football took the front seat and I wasn't fishing as much, then I broke my wrist I didn't really fish at all until October.

I'd missed early fall, by the time my cast came off, and never caught a semi decent bass all fall... pretty much a bust.

And now I'm sitting hear, typing this with a thin patches of ice on the lakes, and all my fishing gear is packed up in my basement.

Hopefully next year I wont screw my self up, be able to fish all season... with a boat, or some kind of flotation device to let me fish around more in the spring and summer.

I've also got one more rod, and hopefully get another this winter. Hopefully being able to have more then one kind of rod with me will help me catch a few more.

Looking forward to ice fishing, and next year, hope I can take advantage of fall smallmouthing then too.


Learned allot this summer, think the later part of the year was really a learning experience for me, and will help me allot next year.
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Old 11-15-11, 07:02 PM   #13
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Dogmatic, too bad private pond bass don't count for the state record. I think one of our Fish Commission lakes might give up the record. Just like Cali. they are feeding the bass here all those trout.
I had in mind this year to do more deep water structure fishing but spent most of my time shallow and fishing pads with frogs. Tried out some new line this year (P Line CX). My new favorite. Made some headway with the dropshot. Tried swim jigs a lot but no luck. Found out how good of a bait the Rick Clunn Lucky Crafts are. Also the scrounger heads with swimbaits. All in all a decent year. Next year is going to be a fun year. Not going to worry about different techniques. Going to enjoy throwing what I have.
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Old 11-15-11, 08:39 PM   #14
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I worked real hard on learning to use a LH baitcaster for certain techniques. I think it has helped me in bait movement and feeling the bite I still use RH baitcaster for my moving baits (crankbaits, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits).
Over the winter I want to learn to flip and pitch from a sitting position (Bad knees and legs-gotta sit)
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Old 11-15-11, 11:33 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassboss View Post
First I'll start off by saying I think biggest limitation this year was fish-able water.

This spring was probably the best I'd had all my life. Tore the heck out of em with a red-crow colored BL rat-l-trap. Took me a while to figure that out, but I did! Started throwing jigs, drop shots and suspending cranks to no avail.

I think my first cast this year was with a drop shot. After I figured out what the bottom liked, and by looking at what other anglers where doing, I put a jig on, still nothing. I come home and get the idea from MIbasser to try a lipless crank. So I do just that and start tearing em up. Sounds crazy, but the average fish was about 3 pounds, and a 4-5 pounder was not unheard of. 8 - 12 fish was normal for the small place my the road I fished.

Ran into a fellow shore buster and learned that the reason the fish were so stacked up is because the area on the other side of the road was a big oll spawning flat, so that's where the females came up to stage for the spawn.

What I'll change next year:

Definitely gonna have to mix it up next year. One thing I always noticed is that they'd slam the lipless crank for about an hour and just stop. I'd always change to a jig or some kind of plastic, and pick up a fish or two if I was lucky. Never occurred to me to do something same but different. Meaning rather then going from a crank, to jig (fast to slow). I'll go to from a chatter bait, or swim jig from the crankbait. Still a fast presentation, but not the same sound and such as the lipless.

As soon as the spawn was pretty well through, it was buzz bait time. The grasses where just starting to get to the surface, and I found that a buzz bait was the best option. 5 - 10 fish a day, and size was always good.

Here was one of the better fish for late spring I got... around 5 lbs if I remember right.

School had just let out and the frog was the best producer for me. Never was able to ever get on the fish consistently like I was able to do with the buzzbait, and rattle trap though. Size was still good though, so I happy enough. Caught nice 7lber (which was my biggest fish of the year) on a black spro popping frog right when a week long rain storm came (fishing the Upper Red Lake).



A few days (still raining, and the maiden voyage my new XML rod) I was fishing a purple jig with a black pork trailer, and catching em good like I was in the spring by the power house suppurating the upper and lower Red Lake. Set the hook into another hoss and pulled yer another 7lber.

(same shirt as last time too.. must be lucky! )


After that rain storm the water level was up 4 feet, and murked up big time. Fish was never the same after that. Through the whole summer I was never able to get on em good, and size was not there either. Didn't seem to matter
what I threw.

After getting fed up with the sh!tty fishing in the lake, I figured it was time to start fishing the river for smallies... good choice! 3" tubes, spinners, and wacky rigs was the norm. 15 - 20 fish days were average, and 12-14" fish was also average. First "good" smallie of the year came on a failed trout fishing trip on a small spinner. About 16" - 17".



Fishing a different stretch of the river, I was able hook into a big ol smallie on a 4" wacky rig senko. 20"



Sometime in late jully football took the front seat and I wasn't fishing as much, then I broke my wrist I didn't really fish at all until October.

I'd missed early fall, by the time my cast came off, and never caught a semi decent bass all fall... pretty much a bust.

And now I'm sitting hear, typing this with a thin patches of ice on the lakes, and all my fishing gear is packed up in my basement.

Hopefully next year I wont screw my self up, be able to fish all season... with a boat, or some kind of flotation device to let me fish around more in the spring and summer.

I've also got one more rod, and hopefully get another this winter. Hopefully being able to have more then one kind of rod with me will help me catch a few more.

Looking forward to ice fishing, and next year, hope I can take advantage of fall smallmouthing then too.


Learned allot this summer, think the later part of the year was really a learning experience for me, and will help me allot next year.
Nice report Boss. I have to tell ya. Reading your post, what stands out to me the most is your willingness and nility to adapt and change with the conditions. Way to go buddy.
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Old 11-16-11, 06:43 PM   #16
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Quote:
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Nice report Boss. I have to tell ya. Reading your post, what stands out to me the most is your willingness and nility to adapt and change with the conditions. Way to go buddy.
Thanks keith, appreciate it!
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Old 11-16-11, 06:46 PM   #17
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well i've been thinking on this. and all i can say is this.......DIDN'T GET TO FISH NEAR ENOUGH. hopefully that'll change come spring.
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Old 11-16-11, 08:13 PM   #18
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myself i tried to get out of the rut of throwing soft plastis most senkos at the bank. keithdog gave me a spinner bait at wheeler caught my frist two bass ever on it. move to off shore structure . used a lot of crank baits thanks to cory sexy shad. most of my fishing is done on rivers not in bays or coves, made myself learn to use my depth finer more to fine structure.
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Old 11-16-11, 08:15 PM   #19
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I had a pretty down year this year. TX has been in drought conditions coupled with the hottest summer on record. Between working too much and the heat, I pretty much shut it down from about June on.

I did have a great spring though. I caught a lot of fish early in the year on lipless cranks and jerkbaits. I also fished the swim jig a lot and it probably accounted for more fish than any other bait. I think 4 lbs was about the biggest bass I caught this year, not very big for TX standards.

The highlight of my year was my trip up to Kansas. I spent 3 days fishing with Tavery and ProReel. We spent a day fishing Wilson Lake where I caught my first ever Smallmouth, something that had been on my "list" and something I will never forget. Tony also caught a Walleye there, it was the first one I'd ever seen. Wind forced us off the lake on day 2 and we spent the rest of the trip fishing some of their honey holes around Wichita. Tony and Kevin are awesome guys and I had a blast fishing with them. That trip was by far the high point of my year. I hope we are able to have some sort of get together again this coming year.

I can say with certainty that the monkey didn't mind the heat. I stocked up on lures, focusing on specific baits and styles of baits. I bought a bunch of XCalibur XCS sq bill crankbaits, mostly in the 100 and 200 size. These are awesome baits and I highly recommend them. I also bought a bunch of topwaters, KVD 1.5's, 2.5's and XCalibur EE jerkbaits. I have also recently started buying Lucky Craft jerkbaits, I think I'm up to 17 pointers now. I really enjoy collecting baits, hopefully next year will be better than this year and I will get more chances to actually fish some of my new baits.
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Old 11-16-11, 09:52 PM   #20
WatterBoy
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1) I started fishing a "zoomie" for the first time ever on my first outing in IA this year and never looked back. Talk about a fish catcher, this is it! I caught 232 of my 445 bass this year using a zoomie. And my wife and other guests to our cabin, many who are complete fishing beginners, took to it also -- 481 of the 988 total fish caught at our cabin lake this year fell prey to this lure. Thanks, Mac, for introducing it to me!

2) Thanks to Kory and his Thunderstruck Jigs, I fished a jig for the first time ever this year, although I waited until late July to finally try one out. I was fortunate to catch a nice 17", 3.1 Smallie within my first 10 minutes of tossing one. I caught 4 more that weekend and was addicted to jig fishing! Over the final five weeks of my fishing season in Sep/Oct, I landed 37 LM, 5 SM and 20 pike on jigs. Other than fishing with my dad a few times this year, jig fishing was probably the most exciting part of my 2011 fishing. It was just soooooooo much fun to catch bass after bass on them, and many of them were good-sized ones (2 1/2 - 4 pounds) for the lake I fish. I already can't wait to have them in my arsenal for a full year next year!

3) This one isn't a new lure or technique, but a new location that had been right under my nose the last two years without me knowing it was an awesome fishing spot. It was bass opener weekend (Memorial Day) here and the wind was just jacking me all over the lake at all of my normal fishing haunts. I had caught a couple, but I was tired of battling the wind and headed back to our dock. Just before I got there I noticed that one of the two TINY bays just off either end of the no-wake channel that our cabin is on was completely out of the wind. I decided to stop there just for some peace on the water, with zero care at all about catching any fish. I started tossing a zoomie and HOLY COW! Not only were there bass there (it's very shallow), but there were BIG ones (3+ pounds is big in this case) there. I caught 8 in less than an hour that day, and by the end of the season, my wife and I, and the 39 other guests who caught fish at our cabin this year, had hauled in 206 fish from these 2 little bays.

I didn't catch any record-breaking fish in size this year, but I did have my best numbers year again, beating the 229 and 341 fish from each of the last two years with 538 this year! I haven't tallied up my number of outings or hours on the water yet for 2011, but I don't think I did much more fishing than the past 2 years -- just had more luck thanks to all the great advice I get here!

Dean
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Old 11-17-11, 10:53 AM   #21
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The single most important thing I did for improving was joining a forum, my mind goes, but I think it's called bass something.....oh ya, BASSFISHING.COM. I followed a lot of forums in the past and still do.. ( I followed you folks for over a year on a daily bases before I joined. Yes this is the only one I am a member of.) This isn't a forum but more of a class on true fishing techniques and strategies and from some extremly good and talented teachers (friends if I may).The teachers don't always agree but thats why I'm here. Diversity is a better teacher than following the crowd (Alamama rig comes to mind)in all knowledge seeking activities. (my opinion of course).

Next I was re-introduced to shorefishing (shore busting, thanks Bassboss). This is after 25 years of boat fishing {someday I will tell you about my lost friend (boat) but it's still to hard to talk about}, again joking. Health problems hurt my bottom line tremendously but not my bass addiction, it never suffered! I would rather pay the Monkey than the Docs but they are both pretty persistent. You folks taught me fishing is fishing. Techniques may take a little tweeking but what makes a bass bite dosn't change just because your not in a boat. Thanks everyone! To sum it up, jigging, dropshoting and swimjigging from shore just to name a few. I found out that fishing is as much if not more about how you fish rather than with what you have and not on how you would fish if you only could get the newest fad. Don't get me wrong, new fads are great but what use to be old is usually the new just tweeked or improved. (LOVE the ONE your WITH) Old is new and new is old but techniques only improve. Thanks everyone!

As you folks know, I could go on and on and on (as usual) but that brings me to this years goals (2012). I'm going to work on becoming short winded (good luck). This will be an improvement long over due. And I'm going to start taking pictures! Oh just wait, you think I ask alot of guestions now, wait till I start I new hobby. I quess we just eliminated short winded as a goal.

As always, good fishing to all of you and THANKS!
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Old 11-17-11, 07:35 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by kennethdaysale View Post
@Tavery 5...i'd love to have a great swim jig day, it would probably help to have one tied on first

I have a bunch that a guy in Arkansas makes, while they are cool and fun to look at, I have never caught a fish on them that way. You should give them a real try, I was, and remain surprised at the amount of fish that I catch on these things.
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Old 11-18-11, 12:38 AM   #23
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I have a bunch that a guy in Arkansas makes, while they are cool and fun to look at, I have never caught a fish on them that way. You should give them a real try, I was, and remain surprised at the amount of fish that I catch on these things.
I have always used jigs in the situations that made them staples, fishing deep structure, pitching to laydowns and brushpiles, working down a steep rip-rap bank, slow winter work etc, I never come across a scenario that makes me think>>>>boy I bet if I was throwing a swim jig right now I'd be OK. I therefore resolve to learn and understand its strengths and applications in 2012.
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Old 11-18-11, 11:30 AM   #24
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to sum this year up... this was my 1st year actually learning/getting serious about bass fishing. ive always been a worm type of person till this year. i broke my foot last year and had surgery in febuary, was off work for 3 months.. during those 3 months my dad (layed off at the time) and i did a lot of fishing! bought a little 12 foot boat for ponds and for my birthday the girlfriend bought me a baitcaster. ive now got a gigantic tacklebox thats full and i couldnt begin to count the number of bass ive caught this year. next years resolution is to get a nice bass boat and a quality fish finder and learn to fish deep. also hoping to do some local tournaments.
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Old 11-18-11, 07:08 PM   #25
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to sum this year up... this was my 1st year actually learning/getting serious about bass fishing. ive always been a worm type of person till this year. i broke my foot last year and had surgery in febuary, was off work for 3 months.. during those 3 months my dad (layed off at the time) and i did a lot of fishing! bought a little 12 foot boat for ponds and for my birthday the girlfriend bought me a baitcaster. ive now got a gigantic tacklebox thats full and i couldnt begin to count the number of bass ive caught this year. next years resolution is to get a nice bass boat and a quality fish finder and learn to fish deep. also hoping to do some local tournaments.
I'd say you did pretty darn good your first year from the sound of it. If ya get that bass boat be sure to share some pics!
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