Daily AMFisH blog post – what you need to dropshot.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  It’s a cool spring and the dropshot technique is a great presentation to target fish with this cool damp spring weather.

 

It’s a pretty simple rig, a hook dropshot weight and a soft plastic or live bait, that’s it!

Best part of this presentation is it almost works by itself!  Very little action is needed and a few easy twitches can go a long way.

Experiment with the length of line between the sinker and hook, as the bait will need to remain above the fish you are targeting so they can see it.

8″ to 12″ is the norm BUT you can adjust it to be between 14″ to 20″ and even more if needed.  This will all depend on what level of the water column the fish are hanging out in.  Try a few different lengths and once you get a hit stick to that length until it stops working, then adjust again.

When it comes to sinkers there are many to choose from, simple tips here are use circular sinkers for sandy or dirt bottoms that are mainly flat, as they will hang up a lot easier due to their shape.  Longer pencil/cylinder style sinkers are best for fast moving waters in rivers and in bottom structure with rocks, as they bounce off structure better and as less likely to get hung up.

When it comes to hooks a simple dropshot hook or circle hook will work best, as you nose hook the baits and don’t require a big hook.  A size 2/0 or smaller is fine, just make sure it is sharp and very strong.

This is a great slow presentation with many uses when it comes to baits, hooks and ways to tweak it for larger species.

Give it a try you may just get hooked!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

 

 

 

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – use trailers on your baits to increase you odds.

Hi AMFisHers!    This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog is about using trailers on your baits to increase your odds of catching fish:

Baits work as they are outside of the packages BUT there are always ways to increase your chances of catching more fish!

Once key thing I do is use soft plastic trailers on my spinnerbaits and bucktails, WHY well it’s simple as AMFisHers we need as much of an advantage as we can get getting those fish to strike and by adding a soft plastic to a bait you get that.

A soft plastic trailers adds various advantages to your presentation, scent, extra action, a full soft body, size, which are all key things when it comes to fish making the effort to chase a bait down.

On spinnerbaits and bucktails I do this all the time and it increases my fish catches by a huge percentage!   Out of 10 fish that would consider striking at my bait, I can secure at least 9 of them to commit, WHY well my bait is just that much more appetizing and realistic looking to them.

Fish feel the soft body and hold on much longer, they smell the scent trail and speed up for the attack much more often.   You can’t go wrong with using a soft plastic trailer as it will definitely increase your fish catch ratio on all outings.

You can play around with sizes and styles of what soft plastic to use, maybe try a lizard bait on a spinnerbait for more erratic action, or a long bulky twister tail  to make the bucktail more bulky and larger.

I never guarantee fish being caught BUT I can assure you that your fish catch ratio will start to increase.

Hope you found this blog post helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

Today’s AMFisH fishing blog post – tips for spooling line on a baitcasting reel.

Hi AMFisHers!   Spring fishing is almost here and I thought I would share a post with some tips in it for spooling line on to your baitcasting reels.

First fishing line does not last for many years and it ages quicker is left in direct lights so keep your spools tucked away in a dark place.  Depending on how often you fish it is a good idea to get into the practice of changing it every season, mono and fluorocarbon for sure, with braid you can usually get away with cutting off several feet to get to fresh vibrant line below.

Using a small one inch piece of hockey tape placed on your spool will allow for a nice grip for your line(see picture below) which is crucial for a good solid base line.

Next if you are only using mono or fluorocarbon you should use the arbor knot (reference the video at the bottom of this post)to connect your line to your spool, this is a great knot for this exact purpose.    Once you have tied your line to the spool you will want to spool it on nice and tight, make sure your drag is tight as this will give you a good solid foundation of line on the spool.

If you are using braided line you will follow the same steps above BUT you will want to spool you line on as tight as possible, a very strong foundation with braid can help prevent many issues.   Due to braid having zero stretch you can spool on 20 to 30ft of mono on the spool first(reference picture below), then tie your braid to the mono using a uni-knot(reference video link below) as this is a very strong knot for tying two pieces of line together.

Once your braid is tied to the mono turn that drag forward and spool the line on nice and tight.   You should be able to get a full spool of 150 yards on to the average baitcasting spool BUT be sure not to over spool your reel, keep an eye out for no line reaching above the spool edge, leave a little free space.

When spooling a baitcasting reel you will want to have you spool of line upright so the line comes off the spool and onto your reel spool the exact same way it is sitting on the spool you purchased.   By using an inexpensive spooling/line storage box similar to this(see picture below)one will allow you to spool your reels easily and quickly, as well as allowing you to have all your spools of line organized in one place.

When you are finished your freshly spooled line should loon like it does in the picture below, nicely spooled, even, tight foundation, not over spooled and ready to be used!

 

 

Hope you found this vlog helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – The AMFisH creation story, video #100!

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  This is a very special AMFisH fishing vlog that is going live this week, as it is the AMFisH creation story vlog as well as my 100th video that has gone live on my YouTube channel!

AMFisH goes back many years to the time when I was in the mid teens and thinking of what wanted to do for a living or what I wanted to be part of as a career, a very confusion time for me as I knew fishing was what I wanted to do but had not idea how I would get to doing it.

Fishing intrigued me since I was a toddler, every time I was near water which was not too often I felt this connection with the water and just seeing someone fishing made me curious.  I recall camping with my family and being around 6 to 7 years old, sitting by the lake campgrounds watching this older man catching fish.   He had walked out to about mid thigh deep water and was casting, every few minutes his fishing rod was bending and I knew he was fighting something he had caught.

After seeing him catch a few fish I walked over as he was coming back to shore and was amazed to see fish he had tied up with some rope.  They were resting in the shallow water and as he approached the shore he said hi how are you.  Being a very shy kid I just smiled and he said nice fish eh, I moved my head up and down and walked away.

So intrigued at what I had seen I knew that this was something I had to do, not sure how but I had to find a way.  Growing up with non outdoorsy parents I did not fish much as a young child but have some fond memories of a few outings, catching  my first fish ever a small rock bass on a worm, that was on a hook tied to some line dangling off a thick 2ft branch.  Fishing in Florida off a pier and catching nothing while others were and those very special outings when camping with my first bullet cast fishing reel/rod combo casting out a dried out black rubber worm and catching nothing hour after hour but sticking with it in hopes I would catch something.

I have very few pictures of me fishing as a child but the memories I had kept me going all these years along with watching fishing shows on TV as that is how I lived my fishing outings through the shows.   So many years later it is an unbelievable feeling to be living my passion/dream and it’s hard to even describe how amazing it is!

I thank everyone out there for their support and look forward to sharing another 100 videos with all of you!

Tight lines!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

AMFisH daily blog post – spring fishing bait tips!

Hi fellow AMFisHers!   Spring is just around the corner and there are some key spring fishing strategies when it comes to what baits to use.

Bait fish are their smallest in the very early months so throwing a huge bait does not make for a good choice.   You will want to stick to smaller baits, in the 3.5″ and shorter range, as well as slimmer profile baits with not too much body bulk.

Spring is the time of year when everything is rejuvenating itself, small fry bait fish are scurrying around everywhere, insects are flying around and landing on the water holes, so a great choice of baits are ones that mimic these behaviors.

By using small simple/easy to fish baits like in-line spinners, beetle spins and spoons in very natural looking colours patterns, you capitalize on the current behavior of various food sources that fish gorge on in that spring season.

Coming out of a long, cold and dark downtime the fish light up at this new time of year and can feed rather intensely due to all the available food growing amongst them.  Keeping it simple for the first couple of months definitely increases your chances of many successful fishing days and some very memorable fishing days that may not happen again.

Below are a few pictures of the Williams spoons, Bluefox vibrax inline spinners, Johnson beetle spins and Mepp’s inline spinners which are in the 2″ to 3.5″ size range that you want a bait to be in during early spring.  They are very natural looking colours, silvers, black bug like patterns ad what you will want for a colour selection.   Lastly they give off some good vibration which you can’t use enough in the early spring to attract those fish strikes.

These may be small baits and you might be thinking that bigger fish would not go after baits this size, but many big fish will never pass up on an easy simple meal that they have to expend very little effort to gobble up.

Early season is a great time of year to catch some good fish and plenty of them so think small, natural and noisy to get them going.   You can also work these baits pretty quickly if the water temperature is slightly warmer than usual, spring bait fish and insects are not moving around slowly they are full of life and all over the place!   Get you small bait selection ready and enjoy the results they will bring.

Hope you found this post helpful and may tight lines find you this spring!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – my biggest Canadian largemouth bass catch, a 7lb monster!

AMFisHers!   This week s AMFisH fishing vlog is a short video of my biggest Canadian largemouth bass caught to date, 7lb monster!

 

I was fishing a well known spot on a lake I fish a lot on and it was very close to sunset, when I decided to end the day fishing that spot.  I saw a huge breech and new something big was in the area on a feed so I continued to circle this massive weed/rock filled structure, using my go to bait double Colorado chartreuse spinnerbait with a twin boogie tail YUM trailer.

After several casts in the area I circled around one more time and I am pretty sure I dropped my spinnerbait right on that massive bass!   It was a good strong hit and the fish went straight for the bottom, put up a very good fight and was an extremely thick long fish.

Missed getting a good view of it on this video as I was trying to put it directly in the live well once I got it in the boat so it could re-coop before I took some pictures.

Catching your biggest species of fish is a fabulous feeling and sure makes for a great little video to share with all of you!

Hope you enjoyed this vlog and be sure to subscribe to my channel.

The AMFish guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

AMFisH daily blog post – specific baits for specific lakes.

Hi AMFisHers,

This AMFisH daily blog post is about specific baits for specific lakes.   Over the years I have learned to have specific baits organized in individual tackle trays that I use on certain lakes.

This is quite a unique strategy as you have baits in the trays that have worked well on a specific lake you fish and continue to add to that tray after each outing.   You success rate increases by a good 85%, simply due to the fact that you are using baits that have worked on that lake before!

Having trays sorted by lakes gives you the upper hand, as the baits in those trays have produced in the past on that body of water and you have developed confidence in using them.  The key to doing this correctly is leaving your baits out as you fish and at the end of the day reviewing what baits you caught fish on.

You do this on about 4 outings on each lake, this should give you about 10 to 12 baits that you were able to catch fish on.  These baits go into a tackle tray listed with that lakes name and you use them each time you fish that lake, building more and more success on those specific colours/patterns.   On each outing bring along another 4 baits you think might work due to them being the right size for the fish in the lake, right presentation, right action, various aspects of that bait that can lead to success.

At the end of the outing take 10 minutes to sort these baits out and only the baits that worked for you go into that lakes tray, to be used next time.   You will quickly see that the puzzle pieces have come together and that ever so annoying guessing game at the start of each outing will not be a factor anymore.

There will be time when things in those specific trays do not work, could be due to a storm that rolled through, fishing the wrong spots, any number of reason can affect success BUT the key thing is you will have tried your best with various confidence baits that you know have the ability to catch fish on that lake.

Some other advantages are that you can travel with light tackle, one or two small trays at most.   Another advantage is your gear remains very organized in these few trays, avoiding the clutter of scrambling for a bait you want but can’t find it in the 10 messy fishing trays.   All in all it’s a win win situation for you, so give it a try with one lake and grow from there.

Hope you found this blog post helpful…..tight lines!

AMFisH

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – what colour baits to use in stained and clear waters.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog is about what colour bait to use in stained and clear waters:

I have been asked on numerous occasions while fishing as to what colour to use and if colour makes a big difference.  Well it was time I shot a video on this topic as there are many variables that come into play.

The rule of thumb is when the sun is out go to a bright bait that will be visible to the fish and catch lots of flash.    On the flip side during an overcast day you should go to a dark natural colour as it will show more of a contrast in the water due to the lack of light catching it.

Well the above is what we have all done BUT I have also proven this wrong on many outings, this is where things get tricky.  The key thing to note is the fish will always let us know what they want so keep that at the top of your list, while trying baits.   I have done the reverse of what I wrote above as the fish were telling me to do so, they were hitting bright baits on overcast days and darker baits on brighter days, so again follow what the fish dictate to us.

In theory everything above is what should work but the factors we must consider and things like what is the light penetration like in deeper water?  What will a darker bait running in deeper water during a bright day look like?  These are key questions you must ask yourself while out on the water.

Say the day I very overcast with short patches of sunlight,  well you use that darker colour bait BUT should you be fishing a deeper depth you need to remember that the bait may drown itself out in darker water bellow, this is where you will rely more on things like scent and noise to combat that.   On the flip side you may want to also try a bait with a brighter flash, that can also help combat that darker water.

This works the same way with sunny days and bright colours, in that deeper water you might want that darker bait, as there will still be light penetrating below so the profile of a darker bait may stand out more.

In this vlog I clearly demonstrate how lighter and darker colours can get lost in various colours of water, sometimes even blend in so much that they can barely be seen at all.   This is definitely something to keep in mind as doing the wrong things can result in not catching any fish, so paying attention to details like this can increase your chances of catching fish.

Hope you found this vlog helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com

AMFisH daily blog post – polarized glasses for fishing.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  This AMFisH daily blog post is about polarized glasses for fishing.

Polarized sunglasses not only protect your eyes from harmful rays of the sun, but they allow you to block out glare which in turn provides a clear detailed view of the water, structure, baitfish, fish, casting areas and much more.

You can start off with a inexpensive pair like I did many years ago in the range of $12 to $18 and once you realize  how much you can benefit from them you can invest a little more in a durable pair that will offer even more superior viewing on your fishing outings.

Polarized sunglasses are key for anyone fishing, I highly recommend considering a pair for this coming season, it will truly change the way you fish!

Hope you enjoyed this post.

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

Daily AMFisH blog post – rigging worm baits to be even more weedless

Hi AMFisHers !  This AMFisH blog post is about how you can rig your worms baits to be even more weedless.

When you think of a weedless worm first thing that comes to mind is a Texas rigged worm, which is extremely weedless.  This blog is about adding another element of weedless to your worm.

You will need a small willow blade, an O ring, swivel(optional) and a screw in worm spring.   You put the blade on the O ring, then slide the O ring o to the worm spring, from here you grab the worm and slowly screw the worm on to the rig.

Once the worm is completely on you are set to go.  This rig now is very weedless, as the willow blade will allow you to bring the bait through weeds without the tail end getting hung up.

Your worm should still be Texas rigged as usual and the rig on the end will add flash as well as allow for it to be fished in thicker cover.  You can also use a Colorado blade instead to swim the bait through open water, causing a lot of vibration.  The bait basically becomes a retrieve style bait.

You can still fish the worm into pockets by allowing it to sink into them, the blade will spin around as it sinks.

Keep in mind that the willow blade looks kind of like a leaf, where the Colorado blade is more circular.  Willow does much better in weeds and the Colorado blade will give off more vibration but will get hung up more so it should be used in open water.

This is a great rig to make baits that are typically fish slowly, to be fished quicker as a retrieve bait.

Hope you found this post helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14