Hello Fellow Fishers of Bass; 

Mike has asked me to be a field writer. I have jumped at the opportunity to cast my opinions down your gills, and on occasion, make you think about all the things that make you a bass fishermen. I might even get a smirk at someone else’s expense.  

I have a friend that has been bass fishing for a longtime. He doesn’t do many tournaments. He is a good fisherman. I got him out on one of our local lakes a couple of summers ago. He and I know the lake fairly well. We had fished for about 6 hours with very little success. I had a small dragon fly land on the trolling motor peddle. I bent down to pick it up so I wouldn’t step on it. The dragon fly flew away, but not until I was very close and noticed that the color was light purple. I turned around and asked my friend, what baits are purple. Junebug of course. I put on a junebug worm and started catching more fish. 20 minutes later my friend had not decided to put on a junebug. It did not take much longer. I was catching 6 or 7 to his one. How little it takes to make a difference in a day of fishing. Junebug is a color that either works or it doesn’t. There never seems to be an in-between. I can’t figure out any reason for the days that make it work. My son and I did an early tournament one year. We were fishing for smallies. I always let my son pick what he wanted to throw. He threw a junebug worm and did very well. Water temps were in the forties. I think there are days that you just throw out reason and just fish.  

My best crankbait last year was a Flit. I was throwing it early in the year. I was running it down the side of last years weed bed. I was working my way to the point where the river dumped into the lake. When I was at the point where I thought the weed edge turned up along the channel, I casted up river. I immediately caught a largemouth. I casted back and caught another. The next cast I came back with weeds. I was running a Flit; supposedly it was supposed to run six to eight feet deep. I was really taken aback. I couldn’t figure it out. I finally noticed the bill had broken off close to the body. I caught lots of bass just over the tops of the weeds on that lure. I ended up losing it during a tournament. Yes I lost it before I copied the bill. This will be fun trying to get the same movement and depth. I was thinking about using one of the little hand grinders. Anybody got any other suggestions?  

I am in hopes of getting some feed back on line, braids to start with. There are too many choices to try them all. I hope some comments will help me and others to form an opinion without listening to people that get paid for it. When you use braid also would help.  

Here is a beginning list. 

Stren Microfuse 20lb 125 yd 16.99, Spierwire  Invisabraid 30lb 125yd 19.99, Ultracast   30lb 125yd  18.99, Izorline  30lb  300yd   24.99, Diawa Samurai 30lb 150yd 29.95' Lucky Craft Iron Athlete 30lb 77yd    15.99, P-Line Spectrex  30lb 300yd    23.49, McCoy Super Spectra 30lb 150yd  14.95, Berkley Fireline  30lb 110yd   19.95, Power Pro  30lb  150yd  13.99, Suffix Performance   30lb 150yd   16.99, Hi Seas Grand Slam  30lb 150yd    12.99, Toray Bawo Finesse  30lb  82yd  32.99. 

As you can see there are a lot of prices to choose from and it can get expensive. $33 for 82 yards, is it really worth it?  I took the prices from one online company, so that can very per company. Please tell me your opinions and experiences on the mainebass.com, message board,

My oldest son told me about a co-worker of his that caught an eleven pound largemouth out of North Pond in January. I have been trying to get some verification, but, still waiting for the info. How much would a female gain between January and just before the spawn. Would this gal have made the record book? The record, according to online data is 11lbs 10 oz.  

I hate the cold, the snow, and all that goes with it. Put the sun in my face, the sunburn, on my toes and let me cast! Oh I suppose the snow is okay for those that like the beauty of the white blanket.  My joints just don’t like it anymore.

I have another request. I just found out that a Walmart BFL tournament is going to have a tournament on Kentucky lake May, 2nd. They take off at 0600.  The USA Bassin tournament is on May, 2nd and 3rd. The hours are from 0700 to 1500. The BFL can have up to 175 boats. What would be a good plan of action for both days? Run down the lake until you find a place to fish? How many spots would a fellow have to have, just to find one open? I know it’s a big lake, 164,000 acres and that doesn’t include Barkley Lake . I guess I’m asking for a lot? 

Peter Kjenstad