TIPS AND TRICKS

This is the "TIPS AND TRICKS" portion of our site. In here youll find some helpful info on backyard fishin thats been collected over the years. Most of it was discovered by our personal experience so some of the techniques stated may hold odd and unusual names :) If you have any questions or whatever...feel free to email me.

HOW TO FIND WORHTY WATER

• ***STEP ONE...Explorations***...Im going to make this part REALLY easy on you. (http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp)......This is a website that contains detailed satellite pics of practically every city and town in the US. All you hafta do is type in the name and PRESTO!. You can choose between topo maps or actual pics.....and you can even zoom in. Keep an eye out for the irregular black spots...those are most likely ponds n lakes. If you already know where a canal is in your area, find it, take a look at it and get an idea of what it looks like because canals are a little bit harder to find. The next thing to do is to get in your car or whatever you have and go check it out. This rules out the ones on private property or are impossible to get to. However, just remember....some of the best places are the ones you might have to make a crusade on foot to get to.
• ***STEP TWO...Determine The Age***.....This step might also wipe a few off your list because if the pond/lake/canal is less than five years old..chances are your not going to catch jack. Why?....Well, unless its connected to an older source...or someone or an organization put fish in...nature hasnt had enough time to stock it. If it is up to nature, then the water has to be at least ten years old. So, how do you find out? Well...the most reliable way is to ask someone who owns a bait shop. Most bait shop owners know practically every body of water in that area. Another way is to pay attention to the surroundings. If there is a lack of vegetation and the lake/pond/canal looks pretty bare, then its probably fairly new. Some plants grow in rather quickly so look for things like cat tails, bushes and trees. If its a canal, note the condition it is in. A new canal will look pretty much straight, are the same depth throughout the canal and have steep walls.. An older one will be warped n slightly curved...shallow in spots and all retarded looking caused my natural errosion and plant growth. Also, look for other creatures in and around the water...like baby fish...minnows...gar...crawdads ect ect. Also...try throwing slices of bread in the water and see what creeps up. If you see pan fish or shiners or whatever...then thats a good sign.
• ***STEP THREE...Water Diagnostics***....This step usually isnt very important cuz bass can be pretty tolerant to nasty water and can live in odd places..yet you still might want to take this step into consideration. Your new lake/canal/pond should be somewhat clean. The water should at least flow a little or have a good natural filter system. If the water depth is shallow, dirty and stagnent....then the only thing you might find is gar..bowfin or catfish. The bottom should also be somewhat solid so the mud or sand doesnt lift and cloud the water. Old gravel pits almost always have mad clean water because theres hardly any mud and the rock serves for an excellent filter (think fish tank). But if your still in doubt, go ahead and fish it a little bit to make sure.

WHAT BAITS DO WE SUGGEST? (in no particular order)

• PLASTIC RIBBON TAIL, FINESS WORMS AND LIZARDS......For dark water, we recommend brown, black, black with fire tails, purple and blue........For clearer water, try green, pumpkin seed, brown and light yellows
• PLASTIC FROGS.......Plain green is a very universal color. Black is good to, but not as good
• SMALL POPPERS.......FIRE TIGERS!!!
• MEDIUM TO SMALL CRANK BAITS......Baby bass, shad and shiner look alikes work very well in ponds and lakes.
• SMALL BUZZ BAITS......This is a great bait in 1 to 3 foot of water and in semi weedy conditions!...and the only color youll ever need is....white with diamond dust.
• BEETLE SPIN.......Any colors really
• TINY TORPEDOES......White with red heads

TIPS AND TECHNIQUIES

• **SNAKE IN THE GRASS**....(This works well in medium to small ponds or canals with a depth of 1 to 5 feet).... Rig a ribbon tail worm/lizard texas style and weightless. Throw your bait to the opposite side making sure to land on the bank...were going for the element of suprise. Next, reel the worm/lizard into the water and run it on the surface all the way back to you. Keep your rod tip up so you dont have to reel in to fast to make it ride the surface. You dont have to add any special movement, just let the tail do the work. This will mimic a snake/lizard entering the water and swimming to the other side and any bass in the area will not hear it coming. Instead, theyll suddenly catch a glimse of a snake/lizard bolting for the other side and this will trigger an impulse strike
• **OPOSSIUM** (Use this when applying SNAKE IN THE GRASS )....Sometimes when a strike occurs, it will be a hit and miss. Most of the time it is best to continue working the bait...but if your using snake in the grass...here is an alternative solution. When the hit and miss occurs, stop your bait dead in its tracks and let it slowly sink. This will fool the bass into thinking it killed or injured the snake/lizard and it will almost always come back to claim its prize. Wait till it sinks to the bottom....if nothing happens when it hits bottom, reel in and try again.
• **SURFACE RUNNER** ......This is similar to SNAKE IN THE GRASS, except your not starting from the bank. Your not starting from anywhere really. Its simple, you rig your worm or lizard up texas style without a weight and fish it on the waters surface or just below it. Again, this mimics a fleeing snake or lizard. Fish your bait SURFACE RUNNER style horizontal to weeds that align the bank.....or over submerged structures.
• **DOWN 71**......(Good for canals/ponds/lakes...in shallow weedy waters)......If your fishing in an area where there is a lot of floating vegetation, here is a method you can apply to get those imbedded bass. Rig up a worm or lizard texas style with the smallest bullet weight possible or no weight if your hook is heavy enough....now look for a break or hole in weeds. When you find one, throw your bait past it and reel it in just at the edge of the hole. Lift the rod tip up gently to drop it into the hole and let it flutter to the bottom. You should get a hit while the bait is sinking...if not, try gently jigging your bait off the bottom for a little bit.
• **DROP THE TOP**....(A good hook set method on plastic worms).....A good thing to practice involves working your worm with your rod tip up at a fourty five degree angle...Why?...I'll tell you why....when you finally get a hit on a plastic worm or lizard, its always good to let the fish hold it a moment to make sure its in there all the way. And by fishing with your tip up, you can DROP THE TOP when the strike occurs. In other words, drop the tip of your rod down at a fourty five and let the fish run a little slack out. A lot of times, when a bass hits a bait, it will run with it. And if theres no slack in your line, this may pull the bait out or startle the fish. So...next time...DROP THE TOP...count to five...reel in the slack...and give a good tug.
• If you hook a fish in the gut...instead of trying to pry it out...just cut the line and leave it in. The acids inside the fishes gut should rust out the hook in a week or less.
• Did you know that if you place a bass on its belly in your hand that its almost completely paralyzed? Tis true...so if your ever worried about getting stabbed from the fish floppin while your trying to take the hook out, hold it upright by the belly.
• Fishing seems to always be at its best right before a big storm or rain. The approaching cold front and change in barometric pressure really turns on the fish. That goes for all fish
• **SHINER ONNA HOOK**....(This works well in calm water conditions) If youve ever used shiner for fishing, you might have seen it slowly swim on the waters surface creating a little bit of noise and ripples. Ive had a lot of bass hit my shiners while they were doing this...and ive discovered that if you swim a baby bass or shiner crankbait on the surface very very slowly (almost not swimming) next to a less active bass, that this may fool the fish into thinking its injured. So next time you spot king kong hanging around and you cant get him to hit anything...give this one a try. Hopefully it will work as good for you as it did for me.
• **THE FLY BY METHOD**....(good for buzz baits, poppers, torpedoes, plastic frogs)....If its late in the afternoon (around sundown) and your fishing a canal or pond with a lot of vegetation on the edges..try buzz baiting horizontal to the weeds about a foot or two out from them. These weeds hold lurking bass waiting for somethign to cruise by so it can ambush. So when you buzz past these weeds, a bass cant resist the urge to sucker punch your bait.