Addicted to Lures

My goals from 2008 were

• Learn pitching
• Learn to use jigs
• Locate deep structure fish
• Catch a legal-size pike
• Fish on St. Clair

I was probably about 50% on these goals. I did do some pitching, and I caught my first bass on a jig. I'm not super comfortable with this, but I'm working on it.

I didn't find deep structure fish. I am comfortable in the shallows, I need to do a better job finding deep fish.

I didn't catch a legal size pike, but Natalie did. She named him "Steve", it was quite an event. He hit a Series 3 sexy shad crankbait close to the boat. No leader, and luckily the line didn't break, although there were definitely some nicks in it afterward.

I did not get out to fish on St. Clair, but I have done lots of homework and it's on my game plan for 2009.

Some other notables:

• I caught my personal best smallmouth on Kent Lake. It was 19" (just under 4lbs according to a conversion chart). I caught her on an olive X-Rap 10 in about 10 feet of water, near the island closest to the west launch.
• I played Fantasy Fishing on Bassmaster.com. I have never played fantasy sports before. I ended up in 384th place, which is the 98.6 percentile according to Bassmaster.
• The best lure of the year was a Series 3 crankbait in Sexy Shad. It caught fish all year long.
• I upgraded my depthfinder to a Humminbird 787c. I love the GPS and using SD cards to manage data on my computer.

I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours at the Ultimate Fishing Show. Interesting as always.

I did get to see KVD talk. Pretty much his standard fare that I have seen him present before. Something I noticed from watching him was how fast/rapid/frequent he was jerking the jerkbait when doing that demo. I definitely don't do it that fast. I was also heartening to see him get a tangle on a spinning reel. His casting technique is so good, no splash, very accurate.

I also saw Gerry Gostenik talk about fishing for smallies on Lake St. Clair. I was really surprised to hear that his best bait for summer fishing on the big lake was a deep running crankbait, in 16-18 feet of water. He also liked jerkbaits, mostly Lucky Craft pointers. He also is advocating fluorocarbon for almost all applications. But at least he validated my experience of fluorocarbon breaking easily and losing lures after the line gets stressed from a backlash or tangle.

I picked up a new color tube from Xtreme Bass Tackle: "Great Lakes Perch". It's fantastic, green with flake on the top, white with flake on the bottom, and the tails are a yellow with orange flake. Awesome, I can't wait to try them out. I got 4" and drop shot size tubes.

I have been all over the Detroit area looking for Strike King crankbaits in the "Sexy Shad" color. None to be had. Not at BPS, Cabelas, Sportsman's Warehouse, Gander Mtn., Dicks.....

Luckily I was passing by the BPS in Portage, IN this last week on my way back from Chicago. I managed to get that bait monkey off my back and picked up a couple different sizes in "Sexy Shad". Also got a Creek Chub Pikie to use for those toothy critters.

Inside Line, formerly a print magazine from Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits is now all electronic.

There is a great article called Just How Soon Is Long Enough? that discusses an excellent strategy for deciding which baits to use when trying to find the fish.

He covers a top-to-bottom strategy that makes a lot of sense. Check it out.

I have always struggled with fast rod tips, mostly because if I try to cast short with them (sidearm) the bait always goes too far to the left. I heard on Bass Edge yesterday that beginners tend to cast sidearm, and that you generally shouldn't do that, that you should cast overhead. Bing! Another light bulb went off. Now I'm headed out to practice in the yard some more.

The season can't get here fast enough.

Congrats to KVD, winning the Citrus Slam today.

As I am learning and reading online forums a lot, I run into this one all the time:

"Fluorocarbon is more sensitive because it does not stretch"

In an attempt to quantitatively compare features of different brands, TackleTour.com found out fluorocarbon lines do stretch, almost as much (or sometimes more) than monofilament.

So, it is clear fluorocarbon does stretch. This doesn't negate the fact that it might be more sensitive. It's just that the sensitivity does not come from the lack of stretch. So now I am seeing more pros on TV using fluorocarbon for crankbaits where before they would recommend mono.