Clear water – Cut down size of worm, line, and sinker so that bass will have a harder time seeing lure.

Big vibe worms – Use a worm with a curly tail design that gives off extremely strong vibrations. Try these worms when your straight worms fail to score.

Skipping – This is only method to get under overhanging branches. You need a spin casting or spinning rig because a level wind reel just doesn’t ski8p well. Make a flat hard cast onto water’s surface so that it will make a low skip. This will reach bass hangouts impossible to attain in any other way.

Ripping – This will surprise reluctant bass to strike a worm. Let worm settle to bottom and lie there for about 20 seconds. Reel slack out of line and pick up worm with a long, sharp upsweep of rod tip. Let it settle to bottom under tension as you slowly lower rod tip. Repeat for three or four rips. Strikes will come.

Drift trolling – move to head of a deep hole and let wind carry you quietly across lake while your worm crawls across bottom cover. Raise and lower worm as it contacts bottom. Pickups usually happen as worm is being pulled off cover.

Flyrodding – Fill a single action flyreel with backing and about 50 yards of 10-pound monofilament. Rig a six-inch worm weedless and add a small split-shot ahead of hook so it will sink slowly. Either flip or flat-cast worm into every pocket you see and feed it line as it slowly settles to bottom. Keep flyrod tip low so that you can make a long, sweeping strike when you feel a bass inhale worm. This is practical in ponds, lakes or streams.

Worm rig

One of biggest problems with fishing a worm is inability to sense strikes. Usually inability to sense them is due to a sinker that is too heavy and a line that is too thick.

Use a variable buoyancy worm using lead strip sinkers. Here are some advantages:

No moving lead on line to dampen feel of a gentle pickup You can apply precise amount of lead to deliver worm action needed It makes it easier for a bass to inhale worm It aids in hook setting It’s easier to shake loose from snags You can cause worm to hang virtually suspended over bottom when fishing shallow water.

To tell how much lead strip is needed, wrap one strip around hook and bury barb in worm. Ease it into water and watch it sink, it should barely settle toward bottom. If it sinks to fast, take some off, etc. A slow decent is ticket here.

Make sure to use no heavier than 8-pound mono line – preferably 6 pound.

Weather Matters

In early spring and fall bass will smash top water lures such as floating propeller types and poppers. They are also likely to take surface lures when found in shallow water, such as along shorelines near overhanging trees.

As temperature rises and bass are in cooler, deeper holes, change your technique. You need something to dredge bottom. The plastic worm is ideal for this, even most sluggish bass will respond when you drag one slowly past its nose.

Crank baits

When fishing a tidal river for bass, cast crank baits near mouths of tiny feeder streams on falling tide. Bass hang out where water depth drops off, waiting for crayfish, crabs and minnows to be washed out.

Bait

One of best baits for small mouth bass in rivers is hellgrammite, larva of Dobson fly. Gather these from beneath rocks in shallow riffles with a mesh net or seine. Fish them on No. 4 or 6 fine-wire hooks, drifting them naturally through pools and runs below rapids.

A Trick Most Bass Fishermen Don’t Know

First and foremost, most bass fishermen are not aware of The Evening Secret which is a special device that will bring feeding fish swarming to your location on water. It works like a charm.

Cast a worm over a limber branch and reel it back so that its tail just touches water. Then jiggle rod tip, making worm squirm and wriggle just above surface. Bass will often leap right out of water to snatch it.

Night Fishing

Many anglers have idea that bass do not see well at night and won’t strike. Although it is true that bass cannot see well at night, but they have an amazing ability to pick up disturbances on water and hone in on unsuspecting bait. Given this, lures that vibrate will cause most underwater disturbance and are most effective. You can also drill a small hole in balsa or plastic lures to place small BB’s in them to make some noise.

Copyright 2005 EveningSecretFishing.com Fishing

Long-Time Fisherman and friend of EveningSecretFishing ( http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com/specialsecret/Bass_Tips.php)

7. Improve or balance motivation for optimal performance. It’s important to look at your level of motivation and just why you are motivated to play your sport. Some motivators are better in long-term than others. Athletes who are extrinsically motivated often play for wrong reasons, such as athlete who only participates in sports because of a parent. I work with athlete to help them adopt a healthy level of motivation and be motivated for right reasons.

8. Develop confidence post-injury. Some athletes find themselves fully prepared physically to get back into competition and practice, but mentally some scars remain. Injury can hurt confidence, generate doubt during competition, and cause a lack of focus. I help athletes mentally heal from injuries and deal with fear of re-injury.

9. To develop game-specific strategies and game plans. All great coaches employ game plans, race strategies, and course management skills to help athletes mentally prepare for competition. This is an area beyond developing basic mental skills in which a mental coach helps athletes and teams. This is very important in sports such as golf, racing, and many team sports.

10. To identify and enter “zone” more often. This incorporates everything I do in mental side of sports. The overall aim is to help athletes enter zone by developing foundational mental skills that can help athletes enter zone more frequently. It’s impossible to play in zone everyday, but you can set conditions for it to happen more often.

I will add that sport psychology may not be appropriate for every athlete. Not every person who plays a sport wants to “improve performance.” Sport psychology is probably not for recreation athletes who participate for social component of a sport or do not spend time working on technique or fitness to improve performance. Young athletes whose parents want them to see a sports psychologist are not good candidate either. It’s very important that athlete desires to improve his or her mental game without having motive to satisfy a parent. Similarly, an athlete who sees a mental game expert only to satisfy a coach is not going to fully benefit from mental training.

Sports Psychology does apply to a wide variety of serious athletes. Most of my students (junior, high school, college, and professional athletes) are highly committed to excellence and seeing how far they can go in sports. They love competition and testing themselves against best in their sport. They understand importance of a positive attitude and mental toughness. These athletes want every possible advantage they can get including mental edge over competition.