BASS fishing

[Delw]

For those who dont know I love to fish.
Ive fished sal****er in japan and washington, fresh water in japan and half of the usa including alaska.
I started out fly fishing in japan when I was 7 years old. and loved it ever since.

But now that I'm in AZ The trout here are small and not worth fishing for(except in lee's ferry in the colorado river). But I was introduced to bass fishing. I cant get enough of it. first it started out on shore, but then after many close encounters with the snakes I convinced my wife I needed a bass boat for my safety obviously. Well after 17 years of nagging she gave in.
First it started one day a week and I'd take the kids out with live bait. Now its 3-5 days a week in the summer and 2-4 days a week in the winter. kids go sometimes (75%) I go all the time. I fish almost every tourneyment out here and soon to fish tourneys in ca,washington,new mexico etc. My dream is to go pro probally never happen but its worth a shot.
One of the best things about bass fishing(really anykind of fishing) is you can take kids no matter what age and they will have a good time. My 10 year old daughter fishes tourneys with me. My son who has downsyndrom loves to hunt and fish but he is not old enough to hunt also he is inmature. but he loves to fish. His biggest so far is a 6.2 lbs bass at a local lake. I love to take kids fishing I take the neighbor kids when I can, and I just got my wife into a circut cause I couldnt find a partner. I figured she could at least read a book while I'm fishing.(have to have 2 people in the boat team tourneys).

Not only is fishing a blast but you can make it a dual purpose outing as well. hunting fits right in. Today I was duck hunting and prefishing a tourneyment, tomorrow during the tourneyment I'll be duck hunting as well.

we'll thats what I do most of the time so if your in the area look me up, I'm always looking for and excuess to go. This year I might start guiding but the only problem is I would not be able to fish 4 tourneyments a year that I have fished in the past.(no guides allowed)


Delw

 

[ShaneFl'06]

DELW growing up in Florida I can not remember a time I didn't fish.I had a Creek directly in my back yard that was full pan fish,catfish and a few bass.My buddies and I would still all the bacon and hot dogs from our fridgeraters and head to the creek.My dad gave up hunting when I was 4-5 so I learned that on my own but he taught me the ropes on fishing from Coast to Coast.Bass fishing is my Favorite because I can fish slow or fast and still catch fish.Speckled perch fishing(Black Crappie up north) is my second then of course catching cats is always a favorite.In the salt water I go after Snook over inthe Gulf of Mexico south of Tamp Fl.Bull Whiteing on both coast.Speckled sea Trout on the Atlantic coast and my favoite Shrimp.On a good night I can dip net 10-15 gallons of shrimp.

 

[DKO]

Delw, like shanefl'06 said we do alot of bass fishin here in florida i used to fish alot of the local tournament series and some of the larger tournaments that came to town, i never really won anything and rarely placed in the money but had a great time doing it and like this forum met alot of great people who have become life long friends.Im thinking about the governors cup tour again though my partner and i were doing well in this series until they started holding the big show down at the begining of nov. and well that conflicts with the rut in wis. and always seemed to be during our trip north so we never got to finish the tour.delw lemme know if ya ever make it florida we have some places here were we can get some monster bass they allow you to keep one big one and everthing else is catch and release which i prefer anyway! cant wait to see some pics and here some stories!

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Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[Delw]

I would give my wife and kids to fish FLA.
one of these day's soon we will be taking the kids to disney world, and I had planned on doing alot of fishing

Delw

 

[DKO]

delw,
we can send the wife and kids to disney and hit the water, some excellent fishing right in and around disney property!
theres an impoundment near disney with some monster bass in it im not exagerrating(sp) here but we usually get one at least in the 8-10 pound range everytime we go!

one of the resorts used to rent peddle boats at night to cruise a well lite lake ,we used to take breakdown ultralight tackle and fish from these boats heheheheehehe till my buddy hooked one about 8 pounds that decided to tail walk and well we got caught!

anyway if come to florida lemme know!!!!


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Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[yooper]

Hey Delw:

I've got a 6+ lb. Smallmouth I caught in October sitting in the freezer. I'm trying to decide on whether or not to mount it.

I never fish bass and I caught this fish as an incidental while working the shipping channel for walleye.

Is this worth mounting or not?


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VEGETARIAN: Indian word meaning 'Bad Hunter'

 

[Delw]

Thats A huge Smallmouth I would have it mounted. Those fish are fighters they never give up. Here in az they average 2 lbs above average is 3-4 lbs Rare is one over 5lbs but people do catch them in bass tourneyments hear. Next month I have one on apachi lake, they have small and largemouth there. last year I won (4th)a tourney with 6 small mouths in the livewell everyone else had largemouths .All the smallies I caught at that time where 3lbs to just under 4lbs

Post a pic of that fish

Delw

 

[feclnogn]

I'd also mount a 6 pound smally. Thats one manly fish. Nice going.

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[JASON LEE]

you would think I was in Bass fishing heaven with all the bass boats that I saw in Oakachoobe last week!!!!!

 

[DKO]

Yoop, for what its worth i would mount it in a heartbeat thats a very nice fish anywhere!!!! isnt a smallie that big kinda few and far between up there?????

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Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[yooper]

O.K. heres a photo of it, but not a very good one. I just took it out of the freezer and opened it and layed a tape measure next to it.... its 19" long.

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VEGETARIAN: Indian word meaning 'Bad Hunter'

 

[JASON LEE]

Looks like a grouper to me, are you sure you havent been fishing in the Ocean?

 

[Mountain Boomer]

Hey, thats not a small mouth!!! Its a brownie...

At least thats what we call them down here.

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[DKO]

DELW, do you follow the bassmasters tour at all ?????

they just had the fla. top 150 tournament here at lake Toho (15-20 min. from disney) and the strings of bass were incredible here the top 5 10 fish limit!!!

1.dean rojas (az) 79 lbs 11 oz.
2.shaw grgsby (fl) 64 lbs 12 oz.
3.mark davis (ark) 62 lbs 3 oz.
4.aaron martens (ca) 61 lbs 15 oz
5.david walker (ky) 52 lbs 15 oz.

thats 6.45 lb average for the top 5 , not a bad average huh!!!




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Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[concerned hunter]

I fish bass tournaments locally,Kansas and Missouri, and I will tell you that what you see on TNN or Bassmasters isn't all the way it happens. As with anything else with payouts that high it is all political. These pro's have scouts that do alot of their work for them! The more time you spend doing something the better you will be. Anyway that smallmouth needs to go on the wall! I told myself that if I get one 5lbs. or bigger it is going on the wall. The walleye are biting and I am going tomorrow morning. Can't wait. I still have a big walleye to catch to add to my accomplishments also. I would love to fish up there in Michigan where the smallies are 4 or 5lb. average size. Our state record is only 6 something.

 

[DKO]

concerned hunter
your right about the scouts, we have flying over our heads before every major tourney!! the amazing thing was the amount and size of the fish that were being caught, regardless of scouts or not the fish were caught on artificial baits within a certain time frame.We havent seen strings like these in a major tourney in a long time, lake Toho is one of my stomping grounds and the fishing has really turned around recently.You should come down and try your luck on some of these fish, the amount of 10lb plus fish being was great to see! anyway this boy sure was happy to see things are picking up!!

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Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[Delw]

DKO
yes I do follow the trail. Thats one huge string of fish. I watch them on tv they just started this year with the invitationals. I just watched the one at hickery lake. I dont watched them for the bass they catch but mainley to fine tune my presentaion, and the different techniques they use. Thats one thing about tv you can tape it and get there secrets. the B.A.S.S. magazine it a waste of time for me. to many add's they dont tell you how to fish just what they used.

I have found that most any bait will work at any giving time as long as you present it right. ie slow roll a rattle trap or burn it, twitch it etc.

I'm trying to fish the western invitaional at lake mead in 3 months, i'm going up feb 3,4,5 to pre fish it befor I pay the money. Lake mead is a hard lake to fish and the limits are very close. I'm told if you do get a limit each day your guarented a win.
I have a club tourney with my daughter in the morning. will let you know how it goes.

Delw

 

[Delw]

thats a huge one yopper , I would be proud to have that on my wall.
I have noticed one thing about smallmouths .. if you put a largemouth of 4lbs next to a small mouth of 4 lbs the small mouth always looks shorter. I lost a tourney last year cause I kept all my largemouths,I know I could have won if I kept the smallies even though they were 1" shorter than the largemouths.


Delw

 

[ShaneFl'06]

DKO your gonna have to get me on Toho.I will supply the boat.I was watching them hold up there strings on the news and about fell on the floor.

 

[concerned hunter]

Well if you are like me and watch these fishing shows, every new product that was catching fish, I bought! One day I said you know I have more fishing stuff than I will use in a lifetime and I keep buying. Well I finally got smart and don't buy as much. But I went in to Walmart last weekend and they are having a huge sale. Berkley rods for $11.00 and Quantum rods for $13.00, crappie tubes for $1.00 per 50, etc. They didn't sell enough stuff during X-mas I guess. Anyway the point I am trying to make is that have you noticed how these pros claim every week they are using something new or different? Well I fell for that and went out and bought new stuff every week. That is why I have piles of tackle sitting in the corner or hanging up in large bags. I had my boat stuffed full and at the end of the day I bet I only used about 5 or 6 different lures. I went out last weekend and spent the whole day cleaning my boat. I took everything out and brought in the house. I now think I am more organized. Stinkin' rats chewed my temp sensor cable in half. Anyway I am going to the outlet to fish for walleye in a couple hours. Suppose to be about 50 degrees today so I am ready. Well I will close by saying don't go out and buy a ton of tackle just because the T.V. says that these guys were using it. They are getting paid to get us to buy Strike King this or Bomber that!