Fishing style etc.,...

[VillainousHero]

BFS Bait Finesse System/Style

= Big Fishing Scam 

Or maybe we just got too many internet influencers leading us astray.  Anyway it seems like the original concept way back circa mid 2000 when the Japanese were taking a more finesse style of bass fishing as opposed to the stateside of Americans going bigger for bass fishing.  Mostly it was lures less then 1/4 oz and current rods of medium or medium light power was at the far end of that finesse system.  So mostly it did fall back to spinning gear.

Going way back when I first gotten really into fishing and that St. Croix Premier 6' Light spinning rod.  That St. Croix Legend Elite 6' Medium casting rod.  Of course it was all about white bass fishing for me.  This was as mostly me using 1/4 oz. lure weights.  Becuase it worked.  I was still using my Stradic 1000FG spinning reels and the hot Curado 50E casting reels.  However the Shimano Metenium MG7 casting reels was what really open it up for me.  15# Fireline Braid, 20# Sufix 832 braid on the casting reels was insane by those days standards.  You must use at least 30# braid, but standard was 50# braid.

Fast forward to recent today, BFS casting reels.  10# braids on a casting reel is unbelievable.  Well it would've equal to old standards of 6# braids but that's becuase mfg. lies and understate actual braid strength to line diameter.  Well since BFS rods are now widely available and labled, I'm finding it to sort be a Big Fishing Scam.  These rods are so powered closely to ML in power even when labled as Light powered.  Now I wonder if I should've looked for UL powered rods.  However knowing fishing industry UL rods are moderate action and flimsy in feel.  Hopefully that will change in the future.  I've always wanted to use a Light powered rod in feel like a spinning rod action design, but just for casting reels.  Whose to say that one can't just put a casting reel onto a spinning rod and use.  It works just fine, just looks weird.  For myself fishing has become more about me playing with lures.  Catching fish is just a side effect bonus.


Go Big Go Power. 

There was a movement in fishing that was all about upsizing - by bass fishing.  By today's niche it's about huge Glide baits and Swim baits, but us white bass fanatics was still stuck in our wallyworld fishing style.  I for one thing that as a shore banger would naturally do, go 1/2 oz. lures or larger.  Those 1/2 oz. Rooster Tails were secret.  Those #5 Mepps spinners were secret.  Those 3/4 oz. Kastmasters were secret.  1/2 oz. Super Spook jr. was secret.  Bomber Slab Spoon 1 1/4 oz. huge big secret.

When the white bass bite was hot, I wasn't looking for the smaller ones, I was looking for the big ones.  Back then it was common to catch 21-23 inches big females.  I probably ate state record breaking fish.  However in a few short years after word gets out, it became tough to catch even a 19" female white bass.  For sure heavier lures can cast further, that's the gist of it.  Bigger lures also means only the bigger fish will be able to bite it.  As simple logical method, it works too.

My old gear for spinning rods was Cabelas 7' XML in Heavy power.  Worked so well, I easily overpowered those white bass.  I bring in those big ones like little ones.  Stradic 4000FG reels and 50# Berkley Whiplash braids.  I had also then gotten a Musky casting rod, St. Croix Legend Tournament 7'3" Medium Heavy rod paired with Shiman Conquest 400 round casting reel 80# Sufix 832 braid.  Rod was design to cast 2 oz. lures.  White bass was like pulling in baby panfish.  They just bite and out of the water they came, sort of.  Back then I only needed to fish for like barely over an hour and gotten plenty of fish.  No such thing as all morning or even all day fishing.

When people are just doing all looking, heavy power gear hides that one is catching big fish.  It just looks like little fish caught.

[hmgROCK]

these freshwater fish are soooo weak
i use ultra light setup and tired them out

pull them in like a flat piece of wood board

 

[VillainousHero]

That's disrespect to those Lake Sturgeons. 

[Prude]

That's disrespect to those Lake Sturgeons. 

Rock has never caught a lunker. You can tell.

[theking]

Rock has never caught a lunker. You can tell.

YUP a compulsive serial LIAR like hmgLIAR will continue to "make that stuff up" ... :

yeah i just make that stuff up

[VillainousHero]

Bobber or Fixed Float style...

We all know this bobber fishing.  Probably everyone at one time had used that plastic red and white bobber.  If not, you don't know what your missing.  Probably not becuase it was cheap and crude.  That plastic bobber was the kind that cracked open if you banged onto a rock or even the dam wall.  Yeah that damnation of a wall as your're trying to get to that one pocket of slower water.  Typical was a slip sinker and some bait like a worm or minnow.  The other typical thing was either a jig with rubber plastic or feathered jig.  Caught all sorts of panfish and baitfish.  Even sometimes huge fish.

Good thing about bobber fishing is keeping the bait or lure off bottom structures or weeds.  We know the fish are hiding in the weeds.  Well at least we think that.

Float N Fly or Slip Bobber fishing...

This adaptation of bobber fishing involves using a slip bobber stop knot on your line.  The concept behind it is mostly to allow a much deeper presentation of the bait or lure, while keeping it to a fixed depth.  Typically I say that depth is like 10 to 15 feet deep.  This style is a technique that sometimes the fish goes into deeper water during mid day.  Often it's when one fishes clear water and the fish do just happen to stay much deeper in the water.

The real strategy behind this is really so one can vertical jig in a spot a lot longer vs without the bobber.  Sometimes, it's about having the jig or lure twitch from either rod induced action or just from the waves on the surface.

It doesn't have to be a deeper water strategy.  The other adaptation if for real precise fishing.  So one would set if up shallow like only 1 to 3 feet deep.  The strategy behind this is so one can pull the jig or lure all the way to the bottom stem of the bobber.  That way when you pick an open pocker spot in the weeds, without the line dangling off the bobber, the rig can land a precise cast with the lure dropping into the pocket instead of being off and into a weed or reed or stick.

[hmgROCK]

That's disrespect to those Lake Sturgeons. 

sturgeon are soooo easy
there a place about 40 minutes west of green bay
where they swim up next to the shore
sooo close to the shore that you can feel their skin

 

[VillainousHero]

sturgeon are soooo easy
there a place about 40 minutes west of green bay
where they swim up next to the shore
sooo close to the shore that you can feel their skin

 

Does it feel like sand paper? 

[hmgROCK]

Does it feel like sand paper? 

you ever pet sharks and sting ray?? at the zoo before ??

yea it feel like that

leathery kinda of feeling

 

we have probably the best sturgeon population in the USA
SHHHHHH…. it’s a secret

https://youtube.com/shorts/ENKO7ijJWKY

[hmgROCK]

here more sturgeon clip
we probably have the best sturgeon in the USA

white people like to kill them for the egg

it’s too magical so i just watch

you gotta come at the right time

usually in the spawn when the water is warming up

 

https://youtu.be/4EsPz6RHqo4

[VillainousHero]

Night Fishing

Large Mouth Bass Fishing

If there's one thing about fishing is that the average angler doesn't do night fishing.  For one thing, one better not be scared of the dark or let their imagination get them carried away.  Sure there are night creatures but mostly it's because of the nocturnal animals are out.  The bats, owls, moths, flying squirrels, raccoons, and possums, like to come out at night.  Anyways night fishing isn't much different from normal daytime fishing.  Only that there are some more productive tactics to choose over normal daytime fishing.

Night fishing almost seems like blind fishing.  It's harder to judge casting distance and accuracy in the dark.  If the there's a bright moon, it's all easier.  So getting into it, is picking out lures.

Topwater lures are by far probably the easiest pick.  Poppers, Buzzbaits, Propbaits, Jitterbugs.  It's simple cast and get a slow retrieve on them.  In general upsize to larger lures works great too, but not always necessary.  Sometimes the smaller profiles are the actual ones that gets bitten.  For sure one thing is getting shallow water and getting really close to structures.  Rocks, logs, weedlines, docks, bouys all make for a great target. 

Vibration lures are the next best picks.  Inline spinners, Chatterbaits, Spinnerbaits.  Again a simple cast and slow retrieve pattern to them.  It doesn't get anymore simple, it's almost dumb luck fishing.  Mepps #5 Aglia is a no brainer or Roostertail 1/2 oz. is not too shabby.  Expect that some if not most of your bites are gonna be super shallow just at the point where you pull the lure out of the water.  That hit and splash right in front of you.  When you get hooked up, sometimes it's almost wrenching the rod out of your hand.  That's if the line didbn't break off on you.

[VillainousHero]

Winds from the West, fish bites best.

Winds from the East, fish bites least.

Well there's is some truth to that.  However it probably matters more on which shore you're standing on.  In general it seems that high pressure and East wind, the fishing does drop some.  Low pressure and West wind, the fishing often hits a bite frenzy period.

The most important understanding from this is, if you're fishing in a particualr shore spot and always do good with a West wind, it will generally do poorly with an East wind.  When the wind blows, it pushes the water surface and surface debris.  So on the shore where the waves are pushed onto, the bait fish often gathers there.  Where the bait fish are, the predators lurks nearby often.

The same holds true for a shore spot that the East wind blows onto.  If you do well in that scenario, if generally does poorly when it's a West wind scenario.

Inexperience fishing folks geneerally avoid wind, becuase it's hard to cast against wind.  When it's windy, fish often hold closer to other structures too.  It makes fishing harder as it's more difficult to target those structures and the bite zone of the fish also becomes smaller.  When fishing windy conditions, one sometimes has to be more aggressive power fishing, to attract fish.  It seems counter-intuitive, but noisy top water fishing is usually a good choice.  Second is hard vibrating subsurface lures.  They usually gets hit, right as the lure transitions from a choppy water surface to a calm water surface.