Fishing Tips

Fishing tips you can use to catch both freshwater and saltwater species. These fishing tips can be used to catch largemouth bass or striped bass or red fish or most anything you’re after. I have used a lot of lures and will say fishing tips such as the ones I use will catch fish more often then naught.
Most of these fishing tips can be found in the many articles I have written for instance if you’re fishing for largemouth bass almost any lure will work so long as your presentation of it is good. By this I mean when casting don’t just fling it out in the middle of the water look for something different a stump or lily pad or a rock some kind of structure. That’s where the fish will be congregating so when you cast towards it try and over shoot it so as not to spook the fish there then reel by it. If you’re using a floater stop and starting it as you go by works great. One of the hardest things to learn when using a crank bait is not to reel it in fast.

The stop and go method works with most any of your lures but especially well with crank baits and spinner baits. You will find most of your strikes will happen just as you restart to reel in your line so remember reel it in slow. Never jerk your lure watch your rods tip and give it a slight twitch your trying to make your bait resemble an injured minnow. If you reel it in to fast the fish may not chase after it or if they do they most likely won’t bite. With spinner baits its all about the flash from the blade it will attract fish from afar, if you know threes a drop off allow your bait to sink a ways then reel it in slowly but steady you can get a lot of strikes this way.

The Colorado blade in hammered finnish works really good on largemouthed bass another fishing tip use a curly tailed grub. Working lily pads there is lots of methods here are 2 of the best 1 is with a rubber worm you will need to have the barbed end stuck lightly into the rubber or you can expect lots of foul ups the other is with a spoon like Johnson’s minnow with a curly tailed grub acting as a teaser. Another fishing tip buy a small sharpening stone for hooks, not all hooks are very sharp some are so dull they are near useless so you may need to make them sharp, to tell if its sharp run it across you thumb nail if it digs in its ok.

There are many minnow type lures like red fin by Cotton Cordell, Bomber Long A by bomber, rebel minnows, and Rapala minnows are all good choices.
Most shallow type swimmers dive 1 to 3 feet fishing tip you can alter them to make them go deeper by heating up a needle and putting a hole in the underneath side just behind the lip and before the first hook. What this will do is add a bit more action to the lure as it has hollow pockets.

You can buy steel leaders but they take away a lot of the action when using such lures a good way around this is make your own from 20 to 80 pound mono and a good black snap swivel. For quick changes be sure you use a snap swivel in black after all you don’t want the fish biting it cause its shiny.
Check your lures hooks any that are bronze or copper looking will need to be replaced if your planning to use it in saltwater.
When using 5/8 to 1oz swimming lures with either a casting or spinning rod and reel be sure to use 12 to 14lb test mono.

More fishing tips when working dark murky or brackish water either fresh or saltwater try using bright colors like the red head with white body or chartreuse and black stripes on top with an orange bottom these type colors for minnows like cotton Cordell or bomber long a or magnum long a minnows. They are very effective in attracting large mouthed bass red fish and striped bass especially so when fished just as the sun is setting. These fish are far more aggressive at night then during the day.

Cod fishing in Massachusetts the best way to catch these fish is with a 6 oz Norwegian jig the type that bulge near the treble hook and the over all length is slightly curved. This jig works incredibly well, a friend that is a commercial fisherman told me about these years ago but they still work better then even live bait. You will get just as many fish just from dropping this down to the bottom as you will once you start jigging it about 2 or 3 feet from the bottom.

Striped bass fishing in Massachusetts best ever spot for catching 36" or better stripers is sorry not going to tell ya.

There are plenty of great spots for catching them best time to go if you want a say 75 to 80% chance at catching bigger fish then go just as its getting dark. Get set up and be ready they will come and are normally much more active then during the day. 6" minnows work great I have caught thousands of stripers with them. Chunks of mackerel tossed out with at least a 6 aught circle hook with no weight is a sure killer. You can use small eels they work great but are very slimy and rather hard to grab the real fun is watching your partner trying to grab and hold onto it.

Striper’s season starts the 16th of May sometimes a bit earlier and really doesn’t end it just gets to darn cold to go after late in September.

Red fish in Florida are very similar to stripers in what kind of lures they take the same kind that work on stripers work on redfish and some freshwater lures work well to. For instance johnsons silver minnow will catch many red fish and has in Hall's river Homosassa Florida, Casting it into areas of grassy sections with a curly tailed grub or a piece of pork rind will catch you plenty of reds and sea trout.

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