Guided Bass Trip of 7/5

[GuidedBassTrips]

Today I had Mike Sherwood and his son Chris for a guided bass trip on Black Lake. They drove up from Syracuse and were at Log Cabins promptly at 6am!

I had some time over the holiday weekend to catch some wild shiners so they could fish Florida style which usually turns some larger bass. I also had them throwing senkos since I wouldn't have enough bait to last a full day. And sure enough the shiners did produce the quality fish, but still nothing bigger than 4 pounds. All bass were largemouth. They fished until 1pm totaling close to 20 bass. Both techniques were new to them and they really enjoyed the visual display of the bass eating a shiner on the surface. All bass were caught on circle hooks and released.

The bass fishing typically slows some as we progress into July. But if the water stays up and the grass doesn't grow much the largemouth may continue to stay shallower and be easy to present to. Hopefully the smallmouth bite will begin to pick up. I prefer low water for them to be congregated in their traditional areas, and for them to also be feeding on the bottom. I prefer to see my customers catch more smallmouth and we'll see how they bite in the coming weeks.

Good luck to everyone fishing the lake.

[Niagara-eyes]

Capt Randy,
Just wondering how you rig your live shiners to get the most solid hookups per strike? I have been using #2 thru #2/0 circle hooks tied to three foot flourocarbon leaders. These are attached to my main line with a very small swivel and usually fished weightless is shallow water or with a light worm sinker above the swivel. I am hooking the minnows through the nose or sometimes under the tail.
I am still missing about half of the strikes. I am not setting hard just reeling in "quickly" to get the circle hook into the corner of the fishes mouth. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

[GuidedBassTrips]

Your rigging sounds fine. But I would suggest still using the rod to set the hook, not just the reel. I have my customers get their line tight with the rod down, and then lift the rod with a firm pull and start reeling. It is also important to give the fish time to have it. Sometimes they set too soon and I have to tell them to wait longer. It depends on the size of the fish and how they are biting that day.