Fishing Forum

It really supprises me how many people show up for BPS special events in Vegas. More or less nobody! Maybe 15-20 at most at the last several I have been to over the last couple years. Gerald Swindle last year, Brandon Palaniuk two weeks ago, Jimmy Houston today just to mention a few that show up at our store to give fishing seminars, etc. You'all are missing out. Funny people with tons of knowledge to share... I'd love to go fishing with Jimmy Houston. What a hoot that would be. Certainly wouldn't be boring, catching fish or not.





Two weeks ago Brandon Palaniuk.


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just curious how to find out about these? Im in the store at least once a week and wouldn't mind riding out there to meet some fishermen and hopefully learn a technique or two.
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Damn, I am sorry I missed Jimmy Houston! I used to watch him all the time when I was a kid. Always cracked up at how he would hoot and hollar when catching fish. Then he would kiss the fish before he released them.
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Good times, i was able to make a handful of the seminars , picked up a few things to stuff in the tackle box , & took the kids the next weekend to catch some bluegill .
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I actually went on Saturday and met our local tournament pro staffer. I didn't catch his name unfortunately but I did learn a lot from him. He's one of the competitors that fishes the BASS Master circuit around the US, but he lives in Henderson so he knows all the local tips and tricks. I spoke with him for about 2 hours on Saturday and had a lot of my questions answered.

His philosophy is to not over think the fishing process. He was clear to state by no means is his word law. Different things work for different folks but he was advising me from his experience and seeing how it's vastly more successful than mine, I decided to listen

People always ask about color selection. He said "Look at all the fish in the tank here. What color is the underside of every fish?" - White. "What color does a fish turn when it's dead or dying?" - White. "What do Bass eat?" - Anything they can get their mouth on but primarily other fish. "So good colors to have for Bass are white or white on the bottom and darker on top. The Green Pumpkin colors almost only ever come into play in the Las Vegas Wash area of Lake Mead because the wash causes more algae there than in other parts of the lake and bait fish and crawdads take on a green color." I asked why chartreuse was such a popular color "I don't know really, they just like it for some reason" (but I did notice his only chartreuse bait was a spinner with white on the bottom of the skirt)

As far as jigs he says "I buy every combination of brown and purple I can and add a purple dual tail trailer. Fish it on the bottom and work it SLOW. Most fisherman are guilty of over working a bait. Do a couple casts on land to practice the retrieve first. Shaking the end of a 6' rod 6" just made the bait jump 10' underwater. What craw fish do you know that swims in 10 foot leaps? The trick is to retrieve the jig at a rate of about half an inch every second or two. This makes for long, slow retrieves but the action is more natural and fish tend to eat off the bottom - especially on their beds - unless they're chasing a reaction bait"

For worms he says "Drop shot your worm nose hooked on a #4 octopus or circle hook with 6" to NO MORE THAN 12" between the hook and the weight. Your worm should be a small 4" to 6" worm with white on the bottom or an Aaron's Magic color. I personally use 4" baby bass color." (I noticed with a small paddle tail) "Cast out your bait, and leave the worm there for 2 minutes if you can; shaking the rod to bounce the worm up and down. Again, don't over fish the bait. Use small motions and try to emulate a natural foraging for the worm. If you don't get hit in two minutes, reel it in about 3" to 5" and shake it there for a couple minutes. Long slow retrieves are key in the waters around here"

If you are fishing from shore "... one fatal error most anglers make is they stand too close to the waters edge. If you can see the fish they can see you and become spooky. Cast out your bait, let out some line and step well back from the waters edge and try your retrieve from there" He never specified an exact distance to step back from the water but he did say that 10 to 15 feet back isn't unrealistic in some places like Floyd Lamb Park. We also discussed using natural cover around the waters edge as a camouflage to break up the image of your form in the water.

This might save some of you some gas "A boat is almost imperative for Lake Mead. You might have some luck from shore in the Government Wash area but otherwise chances are slim"

"90% OF THE FISH ARE IN 10% OF THE WATER IN ANY BODY OF WATER" To that point he adds "Lake Mead has over 500 miles of shoreline, a max depth of over 400', and 60 miles across. You do the math"

He said "Although I am sponsored by Bass Pro I will still tell you that most of the baits in this store are made to catch fisherman and not fish. The bass fishing industry isn't a multi-million dollar a year industry for nothing. For that reason I only use 5 baits: A spinner, A top water, A drop shot worm, A Jig, and a crank bait - all in the colors of the natural forage of any water I'm fishing in. For cranks in particular you need several lengths of bill depending on the depth you're fishing. Longer billed crank baits dive deeper than shorter billed ones. If I was only going to go out with 3 baits however, I would take: The Drop shot, a jig, and a spinner bait"

"Put a trailer hook on your spinner baits to account for short strikes and invest in quiet crank baits. A bait with a rattle emulates a school of bait fish. Fish aren't stupid. If they hear a school of bait fish and see only one, they're going to know something is up. You need both, however, because sometimes you are fishing in schools of bait fish so the rattle helps. So you need a box of quiet and a box that rattles."

"Fish have rods and cones in their eyes like we do and can see color, just not as much as we can. Jump into a pool and open your eyes underwater and that is how a Bass sees when he is out of water. Bass see in water the way we do on land with the exception of they can't perceive the color Red the way we do and they can't tell the differences in variations of shades of green and blue."

That is the bulk of what I learned on Saturday. Also, he primarily fishes 12 lb fluorocarbon on a BPS Dual Breaking System bait cast reel which he said was his go to reel even before Bass Pro sponsored him.

I hope this info will be helpful to some of you [fishon]
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Great write-up! Some extremely pertinent info there.
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As far as knowing when something is going on at BPS that is mostly via emails from BPS indicating something is going on. From there click the link to the store you want and find the sked/what is going on.

Crank, plastic and spinnerbait. About summarizes it. But yet can complicate it...

Crank...

Shallow
Medium
Deep

3 rods, 3 different actions, 3 different reel speeds, maybe even 3 different line selections.

Toss in a Jerkbait crank and another rod/reel/line for that technique. Making it 4 combos to cover cranking. Topwater and it is 5, etc. Can be complicated if you want each set-up highly taylored to the specific technique to maximize...

Spinnerbait. Pretty much straight up one rod/reel/line covers all spinnerbait variations

Plastic. Other than a Drop Shot. One rod/reel/line. The same combo can be used for a Spinnerbait since both require more or less the same type of set-up on Lake Mead.
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I use my crankin rods for spinnerbaiting. Same setup I'd use for squarebills.
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Great post! I guess I can take the Banjo Minnow and Flying Lure off my Christmas list

(just kidding)
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Quote:"A boat is almost imperative for Lake Mead. You might have some luck from shore in the Government Wash area but otherwise chances are slim"

[bob]that's a bit discouraging to shore fishing beginners here.

I'm assuming he was talking about Smallies and largemouth. cause I had good luck shore fishing for Stripers and catfish all last year

[sly]Government wash is not the only place to fish from shore around Lake Mead, in fact my pb Lake Mead Largemouth from shore was taken from Boulder harbor. there is also: crawdad cove, boxcar cove, 8.0 road, Hemmenway harbor, Boulder beach, 33 hole, rocky point, the old las vegas marina which is now dry storage.[]

But good post with lots of info there. I will be sure to try some of those techniques. [fishon]


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