Using Braided Line With Fluorocarbon Leader

One of my personal favorite ways to fish a lot of baits is Fluorocarbon Leader with Braid. Here are some benefits to having your rods set up this way. Bonus, it's really nice to have the braid already on the road when you want to throw things like frogs. 

Most of my rods are set up this way, both my many spinning reels and my bait caster. So don't just think this only works on a bait caster. 

Catching Big Smallmouth Bass In The Fall

Recently I took a kayak trip and caught my new personal best Smallmouth Bass. 

Everyone will tell you what you are "suppose" to do. But, here is what I've personally noticed. They tend to want something slower. Such as a Senko. I tended to have better luck on darker colored Senko's right now as well like black with blue flake. 

Here's some words from the experts at In-Fisherman. Bass typically feed heavily in the fall. This is when they gorge themselves to prepare for winter. They recommend, spinnerbaits, chatter baits, jerk baits, spy baits, or swimbaits. 

Janesville Dam - Janesville, PA

I know, I know. Just what you were looking for, another fishing spot.

Janesville Dam, also known as Mountz Memorial Park, is the perfect place to take your kids fishing. It is known for trout. As it is frequently stalked with trout. But did you know there are other species of fish there as well?

If you're looking for a small dam, you can take your kayaks and paddle around or fish from the edge. There are benches located around the dam and many other spots. The breast of the dam is not allowed to be fished though. (There are signs that mark where you can fish from the bank) 

Fish Species:

• Chain Pickeral
• Trout
• Large Mouth Bass
• Carp

I strongly recommend using a Senko or weedless bait here if bass fishing. The dam has a lot of vegetation. Although, I was able to run a small, shallow diving crankbait through in some spots. 

Bait Scents - Do I Need Them?

What are bait scents? Glad you asked!

Bait scents are typically spray bottles or gels that you can add to your baits to get them to be more appealing to the bass.

How do they work?

According to Bass Resource, "As the water holding the scent molecules flows across the olfactory nerves, a message is sent to the brain, where the scent is classified as a positive or negative scent. Bass then act on the sense by the conditioned response."

This means that basically if it smells like food, it is food. This method is best used for artifical lures. 

What are some good brands?

• Berkley
• Mikes
• Yum

Braided Line - Why?

All about that BASS braid, no treble.

Choosing a braid size can seem complicated but it doesn't need to be. According to Outdoors Niagara bass fisherman typically choose anything between 30lb-65lbs. You will typically use these on bait caster rods. Spinning rods normally can only use up to about 20lbs of braid. 

Why choose braid?

• Heavier braid is typically better for heavy structure and large areas of vegetation. 
• Not invisible at all, bass can see. (You can use a fluorocarbon leader to help with this)
• Floats on the water for the most part - good for top water baits.
• Typically lasts a long time.

Some good brands:

• Addicted Fishing Braid
• KastKing
• Berley Fire Line

Bass & Eyesight - What You Need To Know

 I know you might be thinking this is a silly topic, but I think when choosing lures its important to know about a bass's eyesight. After all, how else are you going to catch them if you don't know about their senses. 

According to Bass Fishing & Catching there are a few important things that make up their eyesight.

• Size - Experienced Bass, will look for the largest prey with minimal effort. 
• Shape - A bass's eyesight is conditioned to know specific shapes with food. Like we as humans if you see something that's a circle, you think PIZZA!
• Color - I know, don't come at me for this one. But color does not play as big of a role as you would think it does. The colors they see the best are green and red. They can see blue and purples, just not as well. 
• Remember as visibility decreases, color changes dark to them. 
• Action - Bass are typically not reactive to food that is not moving. They strike based on motion detection.

Bass have binocular vison, two eyes with three dimensions. 

Why Does Bass Fishing Get Overlooked In PA?

 This is going to be mostly opinionated, but that's sometimes-what blogs are supposed to be about right?

Although bass fishing is becoming more popular, everyone sees Pennsylvania and thinks TROUT. PA has a lot of perfect trout condition streams making it the opportune fishing. I am not going to bad mouth trout fishing; I grew up trout fishing and still trout fish to this day and it is a blast. It's just not sustainable for year-round fishing in some areas. 

I just think the big problem here is that bass are not as per say "famous" as they are in other states. People travel from all over to come to PA to trout fish and there is nothing wrong with that. But I do feel they are so overlooked. I just want to strongly encourage people that when the trout fishing gets to the point in the year where it "fizzles" try your hand at bass fishing. 

PA does have a few "Big Bass Regulation" waters to help the bass population and help them get bigger. I just want to make it my mission to let everyone know, it's not just about trout fishing here. We have some of the BEST small mouth bass riverways. We also have lakes that produce nice sized largemouth and of course Lake Erie small mouths are like no other.