This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – fishing leaders and when to use what size leader – fishing.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  This weeks AMFisH(LEARN more here: www.amfish.ca) fishing vlog is about leaders and what size you should use for what application:

Leaders come in various sizes ranging from 4″ all the way up to 24″ and longer, with fisherman also making their own leaders of up to several feet to fit their specific application.  Most commonly used sizes for everyday fishing for pike as an example would be 12″ to 18″, as you want as much main line coverage as possible. What I mean by this is if a huge pike attacks your bait with a lot of force, the fish might inhale most of the leader along with the bait, so you don’t want those sharp teeth anywhere near your main line.

So how do you know what size to use for what application?  Common rules of thumb are to use smaller length leaders for casting and longer for trolling.  A shorter leader is best for casting as it along with the length of your bait will still leave some safe/comfortable swinging room around you to cast.  As you will see I discuss this in detail in this vlog as using a longer leader while trying to cast a long bait will only cause you nothing but grief and possible injury along with broken gear.  Trying to cast a 12″ bait on a 24″ leader is 36 inches of line that you need to swing back then forward, not an easy or safe task with a heavy bait.

On the other hand when you are trolling a 12″ bait you do want that extra long leader in the range of 18″ to 24″ in length and sometimes even longer.  When a big fish zones in on your bait as you are trolling and moves in for the attack with speed, in most cases the attack is so violent/aggressive that the fish takes the entire bait into it’s mouth along with some of the leader, so if the fish has your 12″ in it’s mouth and you have a 12″ leader on it where the fish also has half of your leader in it’s mouth, there is a high possibility that if that fish thrashes or turns quickly it’s teeth can cut your main line.  In that same scenario if you have a 18″ to 24″ leader on the fish can have a foot of that leader in it’s mouth BUT there will be very little chance of it’s teeth cutting your main line as the main line will still be 12″ away from the fishes mouth.

When you get into those short leaders in the 4″ to 6″ range they are great choices for when you are catching toothy critters like pike in that smaller range, where you just need a few inches on line protection from the teeth.  Due to us not knowing what size fish will attack our bait, I always suggest using a minimum length of 8″ to 12″ for a leader, that leaves you some extra line coverage if you get into some bigger fish.

Hope you found this vlog helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

LEARN more: www.amfish.ca

#fishing #fishingtips #AMFisH

AMFisH daily blog post – dark and natural colours are the way to go on very overcast days.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!   This AMFisH blog post is about using the right colour bait on those very overcast days as well as on low light days, even around dusk.

When the sun is out and very bright you will want to use all those bright flashy colours,  something like a nice bright white and nickel blade as you can see in the picture below.

Bright days means the fish will see bright baits and flash very easily from below while looking up of following a bait, so use all those flashy/bright colours to target fish on days like that.

On those dark days or evenings it is a totally different story when it comes to fish seeing a bait.  Dark and natural colours on this overcast/dark days will allow the fish from below to see that darker profile a lot easier, as the dark colour will stand out without light hitting it.   The pike in the below picture was caught late evening with very little daylight left and as you can see I used a solid black spinnerbait with a big noisy black Colorado blade and a dark soft plastic swimbait as a scent trailer.

Utilizing some noise on your bait on those dark days and evenings can help attract more fish as well, they will be able to zone in on the bait following the noise and seeing that darker profile, the more options you give yourself the better success you will have.

Remember dark natural colours like, blacks, dark blue, black/red, dark brown and june bug are the key colours for producing fish with limited sunlight.

Having an assortment of darker and brighter/flashy baits will definitely give you a huge advantage to being more versatile on the water which in turn will raise your fish catch ratio to a much higher success level!

Hope you found this blog post helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

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#fishing #fishingtips #bassfishing #fishingblogs

 

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – flipping jig is a good bait for largemouth bass!

Hi AMFisHers!   This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog is about the flipping jig being a good bait for largemouth bass:

Flipping jigs are a skirted material sitting on a jighead with a weed guard and are designed to be fished in thick weed cover.   You would typically fish these baits with a soft plastic trailer on the hook, which sits right under the skirt giving the bait a body(see picture below).

These baits are a very good bait for largemouth bass BUT you can catch other species on them as well.  The flipping jig in most cases is fished in a finesse style fashion, meaning you flip/pitch it out into thick week pockets, sunken trees, lily pads, any sort of brush as this bait can handle it being pretty close to 100% weedless.

You let the bait sink to the bottom and settle, give it a few seconds and then twitch it two times then let it settle again.   You can pause longer or shorter between twitches as the bass will tell you how they want to bait presented to them, by striking a certain presentation.

You can get them in various sizes, colours and weights with the trick being matching the soft plastic to the bait.  A creature bait, crawfish bait or a chunk trailer are the norms for soft plastic baits that go with the flipping jig BUT you can explore some other options like putting a swimbait on the back of the jig and fishing it along open water patches link a swimming bait.   Below is a picture of the full bait setup and how it should look when the soft plastic is placed on it.

All in all the flipping bait will produce a lot of fish is applied with the presentation the fish start reacting to, which is why having a few different sizes, weights and colours is a MUST.  Sometimes you will want the bait to fall faster hence the heavier jigs, other times you will want the bait to fall slower so a lighter jig will be needed.  In the end these are great baits for bass no matter how you look at things so pick up a few and give them a try!

Hope you found this vlog helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

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#fishing #bassfishing #flippingjigs #AMFisH #fishingtips

This weeks AMFisH fishing vlog – different ways to cast.

Hi fellow AMFisHers!  This AMFisH fishing vlog is about all the different ways you can cast:

When it comes to casting I can’t stress anymore more important than being a versatile as possible on the water.   Knowing how to reach those key spots with a cast is definitely a make or break situation on fish being caught.

In this video you will see the extreme comfort level I have when it comes to casting, this has taken a lot of practice but the benefit is huge as I can quickly react to anything I see happening on the water, this is priceless!

Your basic ways of casting are, side arm, overhand single arm, overhand double arm, single side arm cast, opposite side arm cast, which many of us do now BUT being able to react at a drop of hat with a very short cast over your head behind you, or a really long cast to a dock you already passed is the key thing.

Work on being very familiar with all your fishing rods and reels, this will allow you a lot of room for reacting when you need to grab a shorter rod and realize you have not used it much.  Practice casting as much as you can, on and off the water is the way to go.  Cast on your lawn, at the park, from shore into the lake, just practice as often as you can, before you know it you will be able to do things on the water you were never able to do before!

Hope you found this vlog helpful!

The AMFisH guy…

http://www.amfish.ca

http://www.facebook.com/amfish14

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

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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