Things to try in 2005

[Granny]

Every year I try to pick out a weakness or something new to try for the upcoming year. This year I am going to toss cranks much more than last year. I just got into cranks last fall and I feel pretty confident they will fit nicely into the bass'n arsenal.

Last year it was the jig/pig but I never did get comfotable with it. I guess that will be added to this years "things to try" list. Last year was also the year for me to work on soft plastics such as the Magic Stiks. Things worked out well with that. This year I plan on giving tubes a little more attention aslo.

Counting down the days......

Granny

[sami0115]

for me it will be deep water (carolina rigs, drop-shots, worming, etc.) on my list for last year was to work on Jig-n-Pig, i did and had some success. i am looking forward to this coming year..

Andy

[delmuts]

for me it will be crank baits and carolina rigs. i love my spinner baits,tubes/plastics and jig and pig. never gave crank baits a really good try. the carolina rig i have used, but couldn't feel the bites very well. with some tips dietz a the rest of the guys gave me, i'm going to try it again.

[st.crioxfishin]

I am also going to try fishing cranks in the deep water more this summer. I also want to try drop shoting, never done it before, so it should be a good experience. Counting down as well...can't wait!

[RandyFish]

Hey Andy,

What did you do to learn the pig 'n jig, or at least get more comfortable with it?

I tried to focus on it last season and I had limited luck...Was there any special, "Aha, now I got it!" factor for you?

[sami0115]

RandyFish...

i expiramented with it on my own with some success, but really got the hang of it on Leech this summer. i still havn't used it in deep water yet, which is one of the other goals for this year.

on Leech we were fishing heavy "junk" in shallow (bullrushes, canary grass, etc.) if i learned anything about it, it was to fish slow. also watching the line is very important, some days you will feel a definate "thunk" on the line and some days you will just see the line move. it one of those things where you set the hook a lot. some times the jig comes flying back at you at Mach6 and you need to duck out of the way.

i was, and still do use a heavier jig with a bigger skirt and "pig" to slow the fall of the jig. i have been using dark colors (blacks & blues) for largemouth & natural colors for smallies (browns & greens)

i guess the main thing so far that i have learned is making good casts, working it slow & watching the line.

Andy

[Wayne Ek]

This year I'm going to force myself to go back to some of the old tried and true presentations. I don't intend this to sound conceited, but if it's out there I've probably tried it. Since I'm retired and now fish for a living I'm on the water almost everyday of the soft-water periods. And I've found my self getting caught up in new methods sometimes to the detriment of my fishing success, mainly tournaments. I don't toss spinner baits near as much as I use to. So this year it's forced spinner bait fishing time.

[Aquaman01]

Drop shotting. I've never tried it before and when I was at the St. Paul outdoors show I saw something that impressed the heck out of me.

A pro was doing a seminar at the 'bass tank' - a long, tall portable aquarium with captive bass, crappie and trout. These fish were probably fed reguliarly to keep 'em docile and saw presentation after presentation after presentation during their time on 'tour'. The one thing that got 'em to hit out of spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, cranks, swimbaits, jigs and drop-shot plastics was the drop-shotted plastics. Everywhere that twitchy, swimmy presentation went - a fish hit it.

I have a stockpile of Case Madtoms (salted & unsalted) from TJ's Tackle that I think will be awesome for this presentation.

For sinkers I'm gonna use round split shot.

[Lost]

I'm going to try catching bass this year. Last year I caught a few but I was fishing for other things. Probably going to work on tubes and crankbaits.

[tripper]

I tend to start out by throwing every thing in the box at them but by the middle of season I'm pretty much back to the texas riged worm and spinner baits. A couple years ago I tried some of those plastic minnows from the guy that sells the flying lure. In two days time and two differnt lakes the bass and northerns had all of the one size and color that comes in the kit tore up beyond use and the fish just didn't want any of the others. I tried ordering just that size and color again but all the people I talked to wanted to sell was the kit. Back to the worm.

[Lunker]

After really looking at my usual gameplan, I have a list of holes I gotta work on. Deep water presentations, deep cranks, and jig and pig are a few of the ones I'm gonna have to work on. Last year it was drop shotting, and really fishing buzzbais(used to have terrible hook up rates with them). Those went well, so hopefully this year will have a similar trend. Can't wait. Luckily the end of my semester here in WI(middle of may) is about two weeks after the early WI bass opener, so I might get a little prefishing in for the minnesota opener.

[Bushwacker]

I really want to put in some serious time with tubes and drop shotting. I have been watching fishing show hosts talk up tubes for years, but I always go back to the trusty power worm type baits after a few casts. I also want to try drop shotting. It seems like a great technique for bass all the way to walleyes. We should start a thread dedictated to rookie drop shotters to compare notes and help each other through it.

[cheektowaga]

Last year for me it was drop-shotting, and although far from mastering the technique, it landed me more fish than any other, especially mid-summer. Worked great for both large and small mouth and I would recommend it.

This year, I'll be studying up on the jig 'n pig. Gave it a few go rounds last year with limited, ummm zero, success and quickly stowed it away. This year I'll work it and see what happens.

T-101 Days until opener!