Hunting this morning 11/18/2010

I hunt in an area close to my house, there is a nice corn field that was just cut last week and some thicker woods right beside it. If you keep going in the woods you will come upon some hard woods. While exploring these hardwoods this year, I found a lot of sign, mostly rubs on trees up to 4" in diameter! There is also a stream that flows through the woods. Usually I will sit in my ladder stand on the edge of the cornfield in the evening, but in the morning it seems as though the deer stay in the woods more. So this morning was the last morning for bow-hunting for me this year, I had to decide where I wanted to sit. In the front of the woods in a thick swamp with some nice runs, I thought this might be a good place to sit for the morning.

I got up real early this morning to make this one count and get out in the woods and set up before it started to get light out. I got out into the woods and the swampy part of the woods, where my other ladder stand is, was very wet because of all the rain we got last night. The deer in this part of the state are in heavy rut right now, it was pushed back due to the warmer weather. So i decided that maybe i could find a nice buck following the sent of a doe on one of the three runs that go right past the stand. When I got to the stand i put out some Tinks rut and pre rut sent to get the bucks going a little. When i get up in the tree stand I like to sit until I hear something coming, this usually works because I can stand up and get my bow before the deer even sees me. This morning this was not the case however, because the deer came in very quietly from behind. I did not here this buck coming until it was 20 feet behind me, by then it was too late to move. So i waited for it to go past me, but when it was directly beside me it looked at me and just stood there starring like he knew i was there. I got a good look at him during this time tho. He was a good size deer, around 165 lbs with a nice tall rack with 4 points on one side and 3 on the other, making him a 7 point. I wanted him to turn away so I could get up and set up on him. That didn't happen, he just kept looking at me as he walked away. There were so many times this season that this experience happened to me where the buck came in without me knowing and saw me before I could set up on him. Not sure if it was the camo pattern I was wearing or the cover scent, or the scent eliminator that clued him in. Either way, something needs to be changed for next year so I can get a nice buck during bow, because I like hunting with a bow much more than hunting with a shotgun.

Bow Hunting

What I love to do during the off season is hunt, especially with a bow. I use a PSE Bow with aluminum arrows and a whisker biscuit. On the bow I have a Tru Glo sight, which is perfect. Last year when i was hunting I would usually go out in the evening. I would hunt on the edge of a field so the deer wouldn't come out until right before dark. It would be light enough out for me to see the deer and get a shot at it, but because the sight I was using was not a good one... the pins were not lit so I could not see them to put them on the deer. But this year with my new Tru Glo sights, the sights have much more fiber optics on them to collect whatever light is available, the pins are visible until it is just about dark out, giving me a much bigger window to hit a deer.

This year, I have also started using Muzzy 4-Blade Broad-heads. I have not seen the impact they have on deer yet, but I'm sure it will be good. They have a 1 and 1/4" cutting diameter on them and they are razor sharp. I shot at a 6-point last week and missed, the arrow went right over the back of the deer and into some hard mud on the other side. I pulled the arrow out of the ground and there was nothing wrong with the broad head, now that's durability.

Jig fishing in muck

The area that i fish has a muck covered bottom and I Do very well with jigs in there.. The key is to go as big as possible with the smallest weight possible. Bigger profile+lighter weight= slow fall. But also key in on the structure of the water. besides a pond or lake with a muck bottom is probably going to be somewhat stained anyway and the fish will being holding relatively close to the structures. So fish the structures or and points or sandbars. You should have some pretty good luck. And the last thing is dont give up.. Jig fishing is very slow and and you have to perservere through the hours of fishing so slow but you will usually get some great results. BIG Bass like jigs. When i was younger and just starting into my jig fishing experience I would use a jig for half and hour and not catch a fish. Its jsut because I was using the wrong one in the wrong area.. Keep fishing it until you find what works best for that body of water.. Good luck

Pat

Bass in weeds: why are they there?

Many times tha you catch a bass it will be in around any weeds that can be found in the body of water. I know that when I was younger I always wondered why i found so many of these fish in the weeds and why sometimes i would see so many of them but they would not bite. So i started doing some reading and also recorded some observations. There are many reasons that bass sit in the weeds, here are a few:

FOR FOOD

Bass will venture into the weeds because many times thats where the little fish, or fry are including pearch fry, sunfish fry, pike fry, and really any other kind of fry they will eat. And not only fry but also any kind of minnows that are in the body of wawter including chubs, shad, and shiners. Many times these small fish will be schooled together making it very easy for a bass to fill its stomach quickley. So i started to look for every kind of fish that was in the body of water and record my observations, to see what these bass had been eating, this list included bluegill, pike, shiners, sunfish, and chubs. these baitfish had been in the weeds because their food supply was in the weeds, including weeds, small bugs, and plankton. And then i started to look for some lures taht would mimic these fish easily and allow me to fish in the thickest of weeds. This included some weedless jigs, rapala weedless spoons and some spinnerbaits.


TO AMBUSH THEIR PREY

Bass will sit in the weeds, generally along the edges of the weeds, to ambush ther prey. Most times the bass can see out at the area around them but any fishing swimmingby cannot see the bass waiting just inside the weeds. This will allow the bass to easy ambush anything that swims by and they want to eat. But also, its not just what is in the weeds that the bass are after, they also like to wait for frogs and snakes and mice to come crawling, hopping, or slitheing over the top and then ambush them aswell.

FOR COOLER WATER AND SHADE

The water in a small lake or pond can heat up quickly, and a lot of times, on hot summer days, the bass in those bodies of water are looking for the coolest spot they can find. Weeds that cover the surface of the water will provide some shade for the fish. Not only will the bass be able to be sheltered from the sun but also because the weeds are blocking the sun, the water underneath them is cooler than water not covered by weeds at all. I have found that water under weeds or in any other shade can be up to 10 degrees cooler than water anywhere else on the lake. This is where the bass will be when stressed from the constant heat.



All in all the weedsare probably the best place in the pond or lake to find these bass, not only because they hold bass, but also because generally when there is a seaweed bloom, it is quite large and will hold a lot of bass. But if the bloom is not very large, it will make it easy to pinpoint the fish... MY TIP- FISH THE WEEDS!!!! especially on the hotter days!

Review: Quantum® Accurist™ PT™ Baitcast Reel

This is a review of the Quantum Accurist PT Reel, I bought this reel about a month before the fishing season was over, so I have had some time to be able to use it and see both what is good and bad about this reel...

For the most part this is a great reel, it handles great and is vcry smooth and strong. It also has a great appearance to it. I use this reel with 12 lb test and it is on a 7 ft medium heavy action rapala rods. I use this combination for fishing most types of lures including any kind of crankbait, jigs, topwater,spinnerbaits, and even rubber worms (weightless too). This is a very smooth functioning, long casting reel at a relatively low price. I mean yea it cost me 129 dollars but thats nothing compared to the new quantum PT burner, which im thinking about getting for my next reel. anyway back to the accurist. The accurist is very good for pin point casting short and far, there are many setting for the drag and for the brake system wich will allow you to find that perfect setting for casting.

I fished this reel very hard for the month that I was able to and it is jsut as good as it was when I took it out of the box. I would strongly reccomend this reel to anyone who is interested in bass fishing, this reel will allow you to do anything you want with any lure that will catch bass.

lipless crankbaits: the all year around lure

Lipless crankbaits are the most versitile lures that I have in my tackle box. By saying that they are the most versitile, i mean that they are great for catching bass at any time of the year, that is of course if there is no ice on the water. Lipless crankbaits can be fished in cold water, warm water, deep water, or shallow water. This being said they are the most versitile of any lure that i have in my tackle box. They can be used to get bass to bite as a reaction and they can be used to attract bass into biting because they are hungery. Most have a very loud rattle in them that can attract a bass from long distances away. They also come in many different weights and colors. In this post I will be talking about how to trigger a reaction bite from a bass.

IN THE SPRING

Using a crankbait to trigger a bass bite is similar in each season, the only difference is the temperature of the water, the depth of water that you will find the bass in, the color of the lure that should be used, and the weight of the lure that should be used. I will take minute to discuss what kind of lipless crankbait should be used in the spring season.

In the spring, there is not too much seaweed of anykind in the lakes or ponds due to winter die off. Therefore you cannot focus on weeds that are not there. At this time of the year in the early spring you should be fishing for the prespawn bass. These bass will be in the water that is 5-9 feet in depth, making their way up to their beds. This population will contain the male and the female bass. In the spring time you should be using primarly a red colored crankbait, the red craw works the best, but an all red lure or orange lure will do ok. The best weight of the lure to use at this time of the year and in this depth of water is 3/8 ounce, this is not too heavy and not too light.

At this time of the year one of the best ways to use a lipless crankbait is to rip it through the water, by this i mean reel the crankbait in almost as fast as you can. My equipment of choice for this procedure includes a quantum accurist baitcasting reel with a gear ratio of 6.3:1, a 7 foot rapala baitcaster rod, 12 lb Berkley Trilene (the red box), and a 3/8 ounce rattlin rapala: red crawdad colored. When using a crankbait I like to use momofilament rather than braited because this allows some stretch in the line and will not rip the hook out of a fishes mouth. With this equipment it makes it very easy to cast as far as I want, or as close as i want, also reel in as fast or as slow as i want. It is a very good idea to cast as far as you can when using this approach, this way you can cover as much water as possible when fishing. Also you want to use an approach to casting called fancasting, this means that you are casting at 9 o'clock, then at 1o 0'clock, then at 11 o'clock and so on, making sure that you cover all the water that surrounds you.

When using this method you are reeling in as fast as you can and trying to trigger a reaction bite out of the bass. This means that you bring the lure close to a fish and it inhales the lure just as a reaction, not so much because he was hungry. This why its so important to cover as much water as possible, becuase you are looking for that reaction bite, which means you have to bring it as close to the fish as possible. And usually you are reeling the lure in so fast then when the bass hits it there is no need to set the hook because the fish hits the bait very hard and you are already reeling in very fast, therefore the hook sets itself.

IN THE SUMMER

Fishing with jigs in the summer is very similar to fishing with crankbaits in the spring, the only difference is the areas and colors that you will be using to catch the bass. In the summer you will be generally be focusing on fishing along the weedlines , in which the bass are hiding and waiting to ambush their pray. Ripping the crankbaits by the weeds is the perfect presentation for this situation, the bass in waiting for the food to come but and when it sees the lure flash by its face, its reaction will be to eat it.

So when fishing in the summer use the same approach as in the spring, same speed, but look for areas with a lot of weeds that you can work around and cover as much of the weedline as you can. The depths can vary, the bas can be hiding in weeds as deep as 30 feet and as shallow as 1 foot, so you jsut have to look for where the food is, and by food i mean sumfish, bugs, crawfish, and anyother kind of fish, or bug the bass will prey on. food source is a big part of bass fishing, if there is no food source there are no bass. So because the bass are found in such depths it is imprtant to adjust for each, in the deeper water you will want to use a heavier lure, and in the shallower water you will want to use a lighter lure.

IN THE FALL

Fishing with lipless crankbaits in the fall, I have found, is great for catching bass. A lipless crankbait is my go to bait when fishing for bass in the fall, along with the jig and pig. Usually in the fall the water is cooling down a little but is still relatively warm. Crankbaits will work the same way they will work in the summer. But here I will talk about how to trigger a reaction bite in the fall. Usually in the fall there is not as much of a weed bloom, so there are not as many weeds to pinpoint bass. At this time of the year I would say your best bet would be to find those areas that are 8-10 feet deep, long flats with some kind of structure holding the bass weather it be a ledge or submerged weedbeds. Let the lure sink a bit and then begin reeling jsut as you would as if you were fishing in the summer or spring, reel in very fast and cover a lot of water. You have to find the bass with this approach, although the rattle in the crankbait will help to attract the fish, you still have to bring the lure very close to a fish to trigger a reaction bite.

A lot of big bass in the same area!

Last spring i was fishing for the spawning bass with a 3/8 ounce blue and black stanley jig with a blue trailer on it. I started out fishing on a tree line right on the shore. I wasnt catching much a couple little bass, then I tried moving to a couple of other spots neither of which were successful. It started to rain, so i decided to move under a tree with my boat for some cover, I was still fishing with jig and decided to do a little flipping under the tree. A couple of casts later i latched into a big one. You know that feeling when you get a big bass on? when you set the hook and your rod bends over and the fishing is thumping but will not move, its a great feeling. That is what i felt when i latched into this one. It was a big fish, I got her in, she was about 4 lbs, not a bad bass. I then casted back out, on both that cast and the one following i caught a 5 lb bass and a 6 lb bass. I thought to myself that i must have found a nesting ground for some big fish. The water that i was fishing in was about 4-6 feet deep, perfect for nesting bass, big nesting bass. Although i didnt catch any more fish at that spot, I had a great day just with the 3 big ones I did catch, I then decided that I would move to one more spot, and fished there for about 10 mins. Within those 10 minutes I got another 3 lb bass. All in all I had a great day, I wish that would have been a tourniment, I would have been in the money with that bag.