Tonkor
Member
Good stuff. A few tips not mentioned yet are if you need a bobber you can use a blower up piece of bubble gum (if you don't have much weight) or a pop bottle. For the pop bottle you have to make sure you don't have too much boiancy (so you can see the bite), so if its not sensitive enough you just unscrew the cap, put water in and reseal. Keep testing it until you have the right balance. Just tie the line around the neck rim just under the cap or place it over the drinking hole and tighten the cap over it (this is easier to adjust your bait depth rather than untying it when you want to adjust depth). To fix a rod tip, get a paperclip , straighten one leg out about 1 inch, wrap around a small sticks couple times and then straighten the rest out in a straight leg parallel to the first one. Bend the loop up 90 degrees and trim the excess second leg to the same length as the first. Then just place it at the tip and tie it on tight with line, tape or super glue it. The action of the rod won't be quite the same but you will still be able to catch dinner. In the spring/summer when bass are bedding its usually impossible to get a bedding bass to bite. Try a salamander lure. Flip it past the bed and work it slowly onto the bed. The bass won't bite but they will defend the bed. With this in mind, once the lure is on the bed use your finger to tickle the line to make it look like its moving its head/eating eggs. The bass will dart down and smash the lure with its mouth... don't set the hook yet. keep wiggling the line just a bit. The bass might hit it a few more times but be patient. The bass just smashes the lure trying to kill it. stop wiggling it and the bass will suck up the lure to move it off the bed and "clean house". Let a little line out to give him slack so he can move it. Once you see your line move about a foot set the hook and hold on because your in for a fight! Most will toss a lure, feel the smash and mistake it for a hit, set the hook and never get a bedding bass because the bass never has it in their mouth. This is a top secret pro bass tournament tip that has won many a tournaments so use this wisdom wisely, Young Grasshopper ;0) Basics for most fish(ring), fish just before it rains or storms... the fish can feel the barometric pressure building and feed good to wait out the storm, fish at dusk and dawn when the weather will be warm, fish deep or in shade when its hot out, shallow in mild climate, get near logs/brush/lily pads to pull out bigger pan fish (crappir, blue gill, etc) or bass, look for beaks (where it goes from one depth to a deeper depth quickly) and fish along the edge or pull from the shallow across the break. When using spinnerbaits; crank baits and similar lures try to make it look like a hurt fish, make several passes alternating the speed/jerking techniques as well as the depth. Vary your lures color and style until you have luck and then work that bait all over. If you don't have a bobber or way of making one you can set your sinker at the bottom of the line and tie your hook from a short piece of line 5-15in above attached to the main line, then keep the line tight so you can feel the bite.. You can use this method to attach more than one baited lines as well, just space the lines apart so they don't get tangled. While river fishing with this set up use a large, FLAT object for a sinker so your line doesn't roll to the shoire line every few finutes. If you don't have a sinker, a washer or several washers work great. You can "chum" (scatter food in an area to draw fish in while having the same bait on in the same area) with all kinds of animal guts, corn, marshmallows, old stale food, (try everything you aren't going to eat). Also, you can dig for worms or larva. Look under rocks, stumps, logs and around fresh looking healthy plant roots. Pull up a plant and dig around the roots. Stick bugs on a hook and let it sit on top of water. To run a trout line get a long piece of rope, every couple feet tie a line down with a hook and sinker. Pick a creek or river,bait the hooks, tie each end to shot or one end to shore and the other with a jug for a bobber and a heavy weight on a piece of rope just long enough to reach bottom. Let it set and check it every so often. You can also get a jug with a heavy weight on a long enough rope to sit on bottom, put a line/sinker/hook setup on it, bait it, toss it out and wait for the jug to move around. To retrieve it you can use a boat, walk, swim or tie a string to it to pull it in but be careful as boat motors will get tangled in it. I put weights on the pull rope every several feet to help prevent that. Remember that noise/vibrations travel MUCH better through water than through the air so try to step softly and be quiet so as to not scare fish away or make them skid dish and lose their appetite/focus from being on high alert DEFCON Red. Fish are always feeding, sure certain times are better than others but they still have to eat so don't get discouraged... just vary up the bait, your technique, your depth and the area your fishing until you have some luck. I think that's about it. I hope this helps.-Tonkor
