Archive for July, 2009

Bass Fishing St. Joseph by Somerset, Ohio

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Joe Arnold of Millersport, Ohio and I went to St. Joseph today. The water was low but very stained from the recent rain yesterday. Joe caught two decent bass both going between 2 1/2-3 pounds. I caught two bass but they were smaller.

Joe caught his on a jig with a worm trailer and a white soft plastic popper. I caught mine on a Yum Worm fished wacky style and on a Tiny Torpedo perch color.

We caught all the fish in the morning and nothing in the afternoon. There is a lot of grass and weeds in the lake and it makes it difficult to fish in a lot of places.

Here are a couple of pictures of Joe’s bass.
Joe's bass
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Joes bass

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Flippin an 8 Inch Worm In Heavy Cover

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The last two days I have went bass fishing in Ohio I noticed two different anglers flippin for bass with a worm in heavy cover and doing pretty good catching bass that way.

Both were flippin the holes in heavy lily pads. I do want to say this, you have to have patience or it won’t work! You also need to fish slow and thoroughly.

If you don’t have the patience, don’t try this, it will just be a waste of time but if you do, it could pay off nicely.

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It Takes All Kind

Friday, July 10th, 2009

I went to Oakthorpe this morning to fish awhile and put my little boat in and seen another boat waiting to launch. I had already launched my boat but just had to move the truck. Two guys came over and we had a pleasant “Hellos” to one another. I went ahead and started fishing.

The next thing I knew I hear this outboard motor fire up and I just thought they were taking their boat off the trailer but seen that wasn’t their intention at all, there they go outboard motor running and going out to the lake. I heard the one say to the other “that guy is watching us” The other guy says “let him watch”. Now I want to say this, I never said a word and then the one guy says “take a picture it will last longer”. Well, me being me and getting upset said, “I didn’t need his smart mouth”. No More words were said and he went by me. By the way, Oakthorpe is a trolling motor only lake and apparently the guy knew this as he shut his engine off finally.

The more I thought about this, the more upset I got and only fished for less than an hour and loaded up and went home. Before I went I got thinking of him saying “Take a picture it will last longer”, so I thought I would do as he requested since I’m such a nice guy. Here is the picture of his truck and he has a blue and white Starcraft boat. I have seen him there before with his outboard running all over the lake and have never said a word.

Here is the picture of the Starcraft with it’s engine running again this week and the red truck pulling it.
boat with engine running

I hope he’s happy now that I did as he asked and took “a picture so it would last longer”.

I hate to say this but I took a picture of the wrong vehicle and blamed the wrong guy last week. That vehicle belongs to Frank which he did nothing wrong at all and wasn’t involved. MY apology to Frank. but the picture above belongs to the right truck and boat now that runs their motor every week. Where’s the Lake Patrol when you need them?

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Rough Bite at Oakthorpe Reservoir

Friday, July 10th, 2009

I went to Oakthorpe Reservoir in Ohio yesterday and caught 3 bass in a 1/2 hour. I thought to myself this is going to be a great day! It took me 6 hours to catch 3 more bass. The water level is 2-3 foot low and the temperature of the water was 77 degrees. I caught my bass on a Scum Frog.

While there I noticed a man fishing in the pads like myself but he was using a worm. I watched him for quite a while and noticed he had what it takes to be a good bass angler-patience! I seen him catch a few bass.

After fishing around him a few hours, we started to talk and I found out he was from West Columbus and his name is Steve. It was like we knew each other forever. We talked about the same lakes we fish and come to find out he knows a few of the anglers I know from Eastern Ohio. I hope to see Steve again soon.

Overall I had a good day fishing even though I didn’t catch as many bass as I would have liked or should I say not quite as fast as I would have liked to.

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How to add weight to your Scum Frog!

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

If you have read many of my posts then you know I fish with the Scum Frog quite a bit, especially in thick lily pads in Ohio. The problem with the Scum Frog in very thick lily pads and other vegetation is the weight of it. It’s very light and sometimes you just need a little more weight for the frog to work and do it’s job in thick cover.

If you fish thick pads, heavy grass or etc. then try adding a little weight to get more strikes. Here is how I do it. I take a 6 inch worm and tear it into about 1/2 inch strips. I pull the rubber up on the back end of the frog and pull the rubber skirt back and hold it there while I insert the worm strips into the body of the frog. Be careful not to tear the rubber of the frog. Once the worm in inserted into the frog I just replace the rubber back to the original position.

You may think one 6 inch worm wouldn’t matter much but it makes a world of difference in weight.

If you fish heavy vegetation of any kind, try this!

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Follow-up with Topwater Baits

Monday, July 6th, 2009

I fish topwater a lot especially with a Scum Frog in lily pads. When you fish really thick pads, you’re going to have a lot of strikes that you miss, so the thing I have found that works is to follow-up the strike with a plastic worm.

When a bass misses your topwater lure, it usually makes a small hole in the pads, I throw the worm in the hole that it makes when it misses and usually catch the bass on the plastic worm.

Try it the next time you’re fishing topwater and have a strike but it misses your lure, chances are the bass will be there waiting.

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Fishing A Lake With A Lot Of Fishing Pressure?

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Many lakes in Ohio have a lot of fishing pressure on them, matter of fact, most have a lot of fishing pressure. The bad part about this is that many have been hard to catch bass on because of this pressure.

If you’re fishing the banks where everyone else fishes then you’re more than likely going to get the same results as everybody else….no fish or very little fish. Of course, there will be an exception to this rule once in a while.

Look at the lake map, find the underwater structure that most people don’t fish. Old streams, roadbeds, deep pockets, thick lily pads and anything else you see that might hold bass. The banks get beat to death every day…try somewhere different.

If you have to fish from the bank then try a different lure than most people use, one the bass hasn’t seen 100 times that week.

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Do you go to Florida in the winter to bass fish?

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

I don’t use live bait, not because I think it’s wrong but just by choice, however, every year thousands of Ohioans go to Florida to fish in the winter.

Many go there to catch that once in a lifetime bass only to come back with nothing special, here is a tip…use live wild shiners. That is what the big bass are eating in their natural environment and what will increase your odds of catching that big bass.

Don’t think the shiners you get are too big. I owned a bait and tackle in Florida and sold hundreds of thousands of wild shiners. I got them up to a foot long and people would purchase them and come back with monster bass. It really doesn’t take that big of bass to eat a foot long shiner but what it does do is increase your chances of catching that big bass you have been wanting to catch. I’m not saying don’t use anything less than a foot long shiner just making a statement that that size can be used easily.

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