NorthTexasSwimbaiter

That's incredible. I kinda want to take a trip down there, now. Might be time to break out the passports. Or is it "los pasaportes"?

That's incredible. Nice work, boys! I can't put into words how impressed I am with the amount of effort that must take.

Nice fish. You get a weight? Looks the part of a PIG.

+1. Very nice form. No slack given, and maybe one time "aiming down the sights". Also gave the fish line whenever it ran. BTW, do any of y'all use tilapia imitation swimbaits?

I think it'll be caught in about 2 days out of north Texas. I've got one about 25 or 26 bedding down in my private pond. I'm gonna try to get her with a Mighty Bite, and if that doesn't work, I'll just snag it.

When I'm fishing from the boat, I use a nifty little deal called rod sox. They're a little sleeve that slips over the tip of your rods so when you go to take one out of the rod locker, the desired one doesn't get caught on a million different combos. TW sells a few different versions here: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Rod_Sleeves_Wraps_Tubes__Bags/catpage-RODSLEEVES.html Also in the boat, I become a neat freak with tackle organization. I hang my terminal tackle and extraneous baits on this little deal: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Cooks_Go-To_Tackle_Storage_System/descpage-CGTSS.html Ever been in water too deep to free a snagged lure with even a lure retrieving pole? Check this guy out. He's saved me hundreds of dollars. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Daiwa_Lure_Retriever/descpage-DLR.html

That sure would have been a monster. Get a weight anyway?

Assuming this isn't a dead topic, in answer to your question about the correlation: I have a tendency to fish slow and either on top or bottom. I rarely fish suspended baits, because suspended fish are generally inactive and hard to catch. On the bottom, I fish stuff like drop-shots, Texas-rigs, jigs, and stuff like that. 90% of the time, my plastics are stuff that I make myself. If I have to fish suspended, my retrieve speed tends to become a bit faster. My first choice in shallow water is a custom chatterbait, and my first choice in deep water is a Talon Custom Lures flutter spoon or a 10XD (both treading the fine line as to what is a "big bait"). As far as topwater goes, I very seldom fish fast. I'll use stuff like Yellow Magics, or a G2 Shellcracker (also on that fine line). Of course, I just let the fish tell me what they want on a given day. Most important thing to remember with conventional baits is that the color they want will change by the hour. If you have a strong pattern and haven't gotten a bite for 20 minutes, change colors, and the bite will normally start again.

I would LOVE to get more into aquariums, and specifically amazonian cichlids, but I have to fund fishing. I do have a 29 high with a breeding pair of veil angels who are very friendly, not to mention trainable. I've also had some breeding GBRs, but those are a thing of the past. I'd like to do some larger, more aggressive stuff, like Green Terrors, Texas Cichlids, or Jaguar Cichlids.

Earlier today, I was looking back at my time fishing, and I realized how much God has blessed me with lots of incredible days on the water. I've had some amazing trips (by my standards), good times just chilling with a few fishing buds, and all sorts of sweet memories. On the flip side, we all know that the biggest fish have a habit of jumping off at the boat, wrapping you up and taking an expensive, go-to bait, or otherwise making your day miserable. My question is: regardless of whether or not a big fish or lost lure is involved, what's the most painful memory y'all have ever had when out on the water? Feel free to ramble or make it out to be a little worse than it was. We all know how it feels. My submission is rather bitter-sweet. One day, my dad and I were out on an offshore pattern we'd been doing well on, and were catching some really nice fish. My big one of the day was 27.5" long with a measly 17" girth, which estimate formulas put between 10-0 and 12-9 (scale problems). The other similarly sized fish in the school were fat and healthy, which made me think: if that fish hadn't been so darn skinny, it probably would have been a "teener", beating my PB and getting me past that milestone. All the same, it was a DD, so I shouldn't be complaining. ;-P Now that mine is out of the way, what have y'all got?

Yeah, that's what I'd guess: about 11. If it helps, I've caught a few fat 24 inchers and a 27.5 incher. The 24 inch fish would weigh anywhere between 8 and 11. My scale wasn't working on the 27.5 inch, but it had a girth of 17 inches, which estimate formulas put anywhere between 10 and 12.5.

+1. For my area, there are a lot of fairly big shad and bluegill. Prespawn, the fish hardly bat an eye at the bluegill baits for some reason, but the shad style baits get torn apart. Once I see fish on beds, I find it best to switch over to bluegill baits, but the shad style ones still work fine. This time of year, you're liable to catch them anywhere between six inches and twenty feet. It just depends on the mood of the fish. And, as JTSwimbaitMan said, I did catch a few on a JSJ floating gill this morning. Nothing over four, but early morning topwater is really addicting.

I don't find a hard line in the definition of a swimbait. In the traditional sense, a swimbait is something that produces a "nice catch" response from an unwitting bystander who witnesses you draw it out of the water. I tend to classify those as "big baits", but not necessarily "swimbaits". A Lunker Punker, for example, elicits a shock when you tell someone it's your bait, but does it swim? No. I still call it a "swimbait" because, to an extent, I'm a traditionalist in that sense. However, I become more liberal than my likewise traditional kindred when it comes to the classification of smaller paddle-tails. There are as many, if not more, small baits that still tend to gain the "swimbait" name, at least from most mainstream anglers. For example, is a Skinny Dipper a swimbait? Most on this site will say not, but I tend to answer 'yes', because it swims (obviously), and it's a bait (obviously). Therefore, I tend to define a swimbait by either, or both of two terms: does it, (1) mimic the swimming motion of a baitfish? or does it, (2) scare off every dink within a half mile when it hits the water?. Because of that, I think a swimbait can fit into one or more of the following categories: swimbaits, big baits, and big swimbaits. Since I would imagine this site aims to restrict content to the latter two categories, I'll not comment too extensively on the first (which pains me, because I caught a 9.46 on one after I'd thrown a Huddleston around the same area for almost a half hour). In conclusion of my little rant, I think we're all entitled to our own opinions about the definition of a swimbait, but if we want to post information about a fringeline bait, or a fish caught on one, a good argument should be presented with the post, or at least prepared in the case of an invalidity claim from another member.

Thanks, guys. I kinda like that those idea. The 250 Flash Carp has the same hue as the yellow bass, but with the pattern of a shad. I'm not opposed to getting more than one, so I may get a 250 Flash Carp, and then a 175 in perhaps Ayu, Wild Carp, or Mullet.

Hi, y'all So, I'm looking to get myself a SS or SK for a certain pattern I use quite frequently. In the lake I have in mind, the biggest bass eat large gizzard shad and yellow bass (bar fish). There are no trout in the lake, and the fish don't normally feed on bluegill. I have no experience with the Deps products, so I need some input from people who fish them frequently. My question is: for 6-8" gizzard shad and yellow bass, what size and colour should I get? Also, between the 175 SS and 250 SS, which can be fished slower? Last question: does a converted SK of either size have a different action than a SS of the same size?

Thanks, all. I should be heading out to the big water later this week to get a few casts in for the *real* fish. Gonna be looking mostly in the 5-12 foot zone. Unfortunately, visibility right now is maybe 2.5 or 3 foot. No sight fishing for me!

Nice fish! You've been kicking their tails after dark. It's almost time for that in my neck of the woods. Give me a week, and I should be out every night.

Hi, all, Yesterday, I promised a few more pics of a better fish, and here it is. It was a prespawn female weighing six pounds, ten ounces. On other forum type sites, people tend to question weight, so I'm including a picture of the weight on the scale. During this time of year, I find females over about five pounds to be rather fragile, so I made sure to keep her out of the water for no more than thirty seconds at a time. As I was on shore and had no access to a livewell, I landed her and attached her to me for about fifteen to twenty minutes to allow her to rejuvenate before releasing her back to her home. As far as information about the catch itself, I was messing around with a smaller fish locked on a bed when a little voice inside my head told me, "Go fish that bridge". I, listening to my gut, walked over to a dark, shady bridge with the creek channel running through it in about three feet of water, and threw the Ultimate Gill up under it. In hindsight, I should have thrown a Hudd 68 or perhaps a wake bait, but something told me to hurry, and I held onto my Mattlures. I let it fall to the bottom, and maybe a minute into my retrieve, I had moved the bait about a foot or so, and I felt one tick and then slack. With jig-hook swimbaits, I set the hook like any other bottom-bumping bait: a jaw-shattering upward swing. I saw the fish jump up under the tunnel, and, thinking it was about four pounds or so, I just fought it with the reel. As soon as the fish came out of the tunnel, it jumped again and started stripping drag (I need to measure my pressure), at which point, I realized it was a picture fish (at least for me). As it neared the bank, it gave one last run and a very scary jump before I went down to lip her. I got a few quick pictures, and put her back in the water for a brief respite before showing my friend, JTswimbaitman, getting one last pic, and releasing her back to lay down her eggs. Now, when fishing, if I've learned one thing, it's 'trust your gut'. So, when I got the idea to go fish a transition or resting area, I had no choice but to acquiesce to my intuition. I make a point of being out during the spawn, and, while I have not the same authority as some of the big sticks on this site, I've noticed that very rarely is a significant fish up on the flats. I catch ninety percent of my big fish in the creek channels swings, off secondary points, under bridges, or other prime holding areas. The big fish aren't gonna stay up on the flats for long, since they know it's an unprotected, vulnerable area. That's part of the reason the biggest fish always have the best spawning locations. Also, these larger fish didn't get big by running back and forth from the main lake into the back of a creek. They'll generally spawn in deeper water, close to their summer and wintertime haunts. They stay in essentially the same areas year-round, so I tend to concentrate my efforts on areas that have: good cover, like weeds, rocks, wood, or bridges; a nearby depth change, like a sharp break or a creek channel; and relatively ready access to offshore, summer structure. The spot I caught this fish in was one of few places on the small body of water with all three. The bridge provided the cover, and the creek channel swings off into a deep ditch not twenty yards from where she was sitting, so I felt confident about the area I was fishing, and it paid off. Now, please note that these are only my observations, and that there are many with more authority than me. On a final note, would y'all mind giving me some feedback on the post? I'm, again, relatively new, and want to make sure that I'm not incoherent or coming off as a self-righteous know-it-all. If my writing needs improvement in attitude or grammatical clarity, please, call me on it. Also, if I just plain talk too much, I'll tone it down. I want to help out on this site as much as possible, and I'll gladly take any criticism, positive or negative. Now, on with the pictures:

Sorry, just felt the need to chime in here. The "goldfish" posted in the last comment isn't actually even a member of the Cyprinidae family. It's a member of the Cichlidae family, and likely a Midas Cichlid with a hint of Oscar blood. As far as "matching the hatch", I would assume that bottom bumping baits of their color and profile would work well during warm rains, as that's when this particular fish spawns. The reason behind this is that they're highly territorial and won't back down from a predator that comes near their beds.

Hey, y'all, First off, this is my introductory post, so I'm not entirely positive this photo will go up, so if it doesn't, give me some slack (don't do a big bass the same courtesy for obvious reasons ;-P). Second, regarding the photo, I apologize for the poor shot, but my fishing partner, jtswimbaitman, wasn't quite at the spot yet. One last apology: I had the scale in my bag, but I forgot to get a weight, so I don't have that for y'all either. But, I digress. As far was the story behind the fish, it honestly wasn't anything special; the only reason I decided to post it is that I find bed fishing with swim baits horrendously under-rated. However, since I was bed fishing in clear water, not to mention from the shore, I was particularly careful to keep myself invisible to the fish. If the photo goes up, you'll see a very overcast sky. Since the sky was going to be gray, I decided to wear a gray sweatshirt as a form of camouflage (again very under-rated in my opinion). Of course, my camouflage trick only ever helps when I'm on shore; it's sort of incongruous to attempt to camouflage myself in a big, red bass boat. Despite my oversensitivity to apparel color, I still ended up hiding behind a tree to prevent a silhouette, and I honestly don't think this bass ever saw me. Now that I've covered that, I suppose I can get down to the actual fishing portion. As far as breaking down this fish and its bed, I started off with conventional baits of various riggings and colors, and they certainly would have caught this fish, but I decided it would be more fun to catch it on a swimbait. In my opinion, it's a better fish if caught on a swimbait (just make sure to leave the bait in the fish's mouth when you weigh it ;-P). Regardless, I pitched the Mattlures Ultimate Gill past the bed. When I brought the bait up onto that light spot on the bottom, I thought, "even if it's not a big fish, there's no better feeling than seeing a bass nose down on a functional work of art". First pitch in there, I caught the fish, snapped my horrible pic, forgot to weigh it, and put the bass back on the bed to resume guarding its future generations. A few concluding thoughts: first, I have another Ultimate Gill fish (much bigger, and with real pictures) that I'll post later; second, my buddy, jtswimbaitman, is a really awesome guy, so check out his profile if you haven't already; third, I'm not sure what everyone here thinks of bed fishing, but please note that as a fisherman, aquarist, and possibly a future freshwater fisheries biologist, the health of the bass and its posterity is my number one priority, and I would do nothing that I would consider dangerous to fish or fry. Tight lines