Fishing Tips
Making a Tube Float – When Carolina rigging a tube place a small piece of foam ear plug inside to make the tube float.
Get The Twist Out of Line on a Spinning Reel – When spooling line onto a spinning reel do so while trying to eliminate as much twist as possible. When the reel is full, open the bail and walk out the line across a grass area (concrete can cause nicks in the line). Reel in all of the line back onto the spool while letting it lay on the ground.
To eliminate the twist while on the water remove lures, hook, etc… and pull the line behind a boat while letting out all of the line from the spool. Once the spool is empty reel the line back onto the reel. Badly twisted line may require pulling the length of the line behind the boat for a few hundred yards to get all of the twist out.
Stronger Knots – When tying knots on fishing line wet the line prior to cinching down the knot. The lubrication will prevent the line from burning (friction creates heat) thus weakening the knot. Also, learn to tie a polymer knot, it is one of the strongest knot and quite easy to tie even in low-light conditions.
Lure Retriever – If you carry marker buoys in your boat you can remove the weight from one and add a lure retriever in its place. It is enough weight for marker buoy use and can perform double duty as a lure retriever.
Marker Buoys – When purchasing marker buoys make it a point to by the flat-sided one. The round models will drift during windy conditions if the line isn’t tied off once it hit the bottom.
Short Striking Bass On Top-water lures – Remove the rear hook and replace it with a leader of 18 inches. On the leader tie a jig head/grub and fish it in the same manner as before. Many times the short striking fish will take the jig/grub combo.
Trailer Hooks – When fishing buzzbaits and spinnerbaits in open water try a long shank treble hook for a trailer hook. If the trailer hooks gets snagged cut off the hook section that points down and leave the other two.
Weed Guard on Jigs – Never trim the weed guard off to the hook point. This causes the weed guard to be stiffer and will result in fewer hook ups. Instead, thin the strands of the guard by cutting them off at the head of the jig. If you do not want to alter the weed guard try spreading them out as this will make it collapse easier under the pressure of a fish’s mouth.
Wide-Gap Hooks and Soft Plastics – When using wide-gap hooks to Texas rig soft plastic push the hook point all the way through the lure. With the open hook point you can then skin hook the bait to make it weedless. It will come free from the plastic lure body much easier.
Two Beads on a Carolina Rig – When you want to add a little more noise to a Carolina rig add two glass beads between the sinker and swivel. One bead rigs will protect the knot but two will click together slightly and create noise.
