Havoc pitboss

 another review for the havoc line. well i have thrown the pit boss on two occasions now , there really wasn't the bite going to make it a viable bait but i gave it some water time just the same. first impressions out of the bag are that its kinda a run of the mill creature bait. nothing too fancy or special about it, its a bit larger than a sweet beaver but it has the two flapping appendages and the two antenna appendages.  i fished it in a color called "california" its kind of a green pumpkin color with red flake, again a generic color with a different name, the design of the bait and color are attributed to skeet reese hence the cali name i guess.  I threw the bait on a 1/4 ounce weight texas rigged with a 4/0 gamakatsu hook. it had  the flapping action of most flipping creature baits. its pretty loose at the appendages so  it moves a lot more than some of the stiffer baits, but not as mechanical as the paca craws or rage baits by strike king. caught a few fish with them and it worked ok and maintained itself for about 3 fish before becoming too torn on the hook to reuse. would i recommend it? well the Havoc line is kinda a cheaper line of baits, they hype them up with so and so developed this one or that one but this bait is pretty generic. the Havoc line also dosent have the built in scent that most berkley baits do. for the price it seems to be worth the buy. I'm not sure id go out of my way to acquire it, but again price wise it may be worth it. i have seen them on sale at  tascklewharehouse for 1.99$ and there are 8 in a pack. i think there are better creature baits out there, i think there are worse baits out there. bottom line is its not bad for the price and will fill a need for a pitching style creature. add some scent and it will be good to go.

crankbait rods revisited

 so after several more trips I'm beginning to lean toward the fiberglass kvd cranking rod. the duckette rod casts like a missile and the micro guides work great but the rod just dosent transmit the feel of the lure like the fiberglass. i have caught several more bass on it and even with the fast tip I feel little on the impact of a fish taking the lure, even a hard bite when its slammed there is a few seconds of is this a fish. the fiberglass kvd rod you know right away that a fish just grabbed your lure! no doubt in fact! i often feel as if I'm not even on the bottom or not throwing a deep enough diver because the duckette rod just won't transmit the feel to you. i know I'm hitting the bottom due to the mud on the lip but I can't feel it! again the kvd rod you know if the bottom is soft/hard/rocky/bouncing over wood. it really is impressive that such a cheap rod works so well. reels....... the exceler from daiwa is a great reel but I'm now also leaning toward a higher gear ration. the 4.3.1 just leaves me feeling like I'm not getting the most action and depth out of the baits. i don't want to go to something high speed but the kvd cranking reel in 5.2.1 seems to be a good fit. I'm gonna switch back to the kvd combo for awhile, its a shame the duckette isn't panning  out for me, i had such high hopes. but i guess now i know that the reflection in the water isn't a better bigger bone!!

Feb 20th 2012 fishing report.

 im so behind on these reports hahaha. anyway we went out on presidents day. water temp was 70 degrees at launch and by noon had warmed up to 73 in places. wind was calm  in the morning but ramped up to 15-30 by 2 pm. barometer was 30.14 and stable.new moon, partly cloudy most of the day with slight trade showers at times carried over by the wind. water visibility was heavy stain close to the ramp with 1ft visibility and medium to light stain in the main basin with 2-3 ft visibility in places. air temp was 63 at launch and warmed to 76 by noon, although once the wind came up it felt much colder and a jacket or long sleeve shirt felt good especially in the shade! 7 am launch, surprisingly we were the only boat at the ramp. i kinda expected a full lot, but i guess after the saturday rush and the tournament on sunday the rest of the fisherman decided to take the day off and rest. seems the bass had the same idea!  we started our run toward the dam, and stopped at the new spot we call robbies spot after he caught his first bass all by himself there. its just on the back side of cow point and where the grass meets the ironwood trees. tried the pop R and robbie thrue his manns agitator buzzbait. we worked down the bank  and got nothing  they just were not there like they had been the week before. made the run down to boy scout island hoping to get  on some shad schooling, last weekend there had been a fairly large school of shad just off boy scout point and i had gotten several bass that were hanging under it last week. alas i could not locate the shad this week and the bass were not there or were too pressured. i quickly realized that the fish had been pounded and i had to change things up. the heavy creature baits ,jig and  craw, crank bait, tops waters. all had to be shelved for more small finesse baits. out came the senko weightless and a drop shot with a 6 in purple manns jelly worm. we headed down to condo cliffs and I cranked the south fork side , oddly  i got a nice 1.5 lb bass off the end of a lone ironwood just where the military houses end and the cliffs begin. a red wiggle wart was the crank bait of choice in the stained water and low light conditions. cranked the rest of that side of the cliffs with no success. pretty much shelved the crankbait after that. slid over to kemoo island and drop shot'ed a few small points that are somewhat inconspicuous and so receive little pressure. again without the shad schools these spots were not working for us. we moved down to the saddle, long shot seeing as its another well known spot but figured its so good maybe it has refreshed. finally get on a few guys  and pick up 2 nice 1.5 lb bass on consecutive casts. tried a few more but the lad was tired and the fishing was too slow for his tastes. time to trade him out after the geese get fed some crackers. we made the run back to the dock and looked for tadpoles, but they were all gone.  he got  his day on the lake and was tuckered time to get out and try some serious slowing down. tied on a purple,blue, and black jig with a black thorax and a purple bo hawg frog trailer. started to work down toward the retirement home condo  from robbies spot. got all the way to the end of the  bay where the  steeper bank turns into a more stable muddy bank and caught a nice chunk on  a laydown, but he came off. checked the line and lure , all g. second cast not 5ft from that laydown to another small lay down and bam ! little better fish, also jumped and threw the hook! damn!!! ok ok  thought i had a possible turn around going but fished several more spots with same depth of about 10-12 ft and  same cover and same depth change and nothing! so back to the drop shot, again at boy scout island point and this time got a nice  1 plus lb bass. but that was it for the point. back to condo cliffs,threw the jig and pig nada, threw the drop shot, nada. made a run up  to the point before morgans, hadn't fished the north fork side of the basin in some time figured id check it out. hooked another small 1 plus lb bass on that point with the drop shot. ran up but skipped morgans.  ran along the bluffs at kinkaids but had no luck about half way  i turned around. it was getting late i was gonna throw some jig and pig along the  straightaway near the bridge so i made the run back. tried the senko at several spots but it was so windy it was very hard to work and stay in position. threw the jig and pig at several good spots but nothing. finally began to throw deep into the center of some thick lay downs along the south side of the straightaway and got a solid hit on the devils spear, it came off though. switched sides and tried the big tree on the north side , even deep i didn't get anything, finally hung it up and lost it and another trokar hook. threw a  slug go  for the rest of the way back, but didn't get a single look or bite. fished all the way to the  homeless camp along the freeway and finally gave it up. not too bad for such a tough day. caught several fish, very few boats out. i think maybe 4 total and myself all day. lots of bank fisherman but  for a holiday weekend not crowded at all. with the  water up and down and the weather so so and don't get me started on the lake pressure, i guess finesse will have to be the way to go. had we switched earlier might have gotten a few more fish , but its hard to do with a 6yr old in the boat. all in all still a great day on the lake with good memories and thats why i keep going back!

Pork v.s.Plastic

 i have been doing a lot of jig fishing lately and I like many others have kind of forsaken pork rind as my choice of trailer. recently i decided to go back to pork and give it the old try, i think i may be the only guy on island throwing a jig and "pig". i have about 12 jars of bo hawg frogs from strike king. back in the "day" strike king made these really great pork frogs that in my opinion beat uncle josh hands down on texture and suppleness, they even added glitter to the jars and called it diamond dust. it washed off in the first few casts but it was supposed to mimmic scales coming off a baitfish i guess. i have had these jars since the mid 90s and they are about in their last stages of life hahaha, i have changed redone the brine several times to keep em alive. but still several jars were full of mush that the pork had rotted into. i took a couple of jars that were still good out on the last two trips and  was pleasantly surprised as to how well they still work. first the pros of plastic trailers. 1) no messy salt and water to deal with 2) you don't have to fight to get it on and off the hook 3) it won't dry out in the sun if left for awhile 4) so many colors,actions,styles to choose from 5) many have their own scent built in these days. now pork 1) the flavor and texture is much more lifelike and bass tend to hold this bait longer allowing precious seconds to set the hook. 2) the action of pork is very lifelike and not as mechanical as most plastic baits 3) pork has a very long lifespan as opposed to plastic baits. so which would i prefer /recommend. there are new uncle josh pork products coming out as i write this to try and recapture some of the market lost to plastic. i think the bottom line is it never hurts to bring in a tried and true classic when its been forgotten and bass haven't seen it in awhile. throw a plastic bait and then a pork one and see the difference. its amazing how much more "real" pork appears in its movement and the way it reacts under water. i get now why it works so good. of course on days some bass will be after the plastic and will want the flapping of a rage tail or some other plastic trailer, especially if they are on a  reaction bite. i think pork works much better when the fish are pressured or neutral, its supple movements and lifelike action make it less threatening and  foreign i think. both work and have a place in the tackle box for sure. i know I'm gonna be throwing a lot more pork for awhile, especially since i may be the only guy in hawaii doin it!

feb 11th 2012

 barometer 30.16 and steady. humidity 34%. partly cloudy and calm winds in the morning with 10-20 mph wind and light trade showers in the afternoon. moon phase waning crescent.water temp stayed consistent at 70 -71 degrees. air temp was 61 at 7 am and topped out at 76 at noon. water level was 69.70 ft. water clarity ranged from less than a foot with heavy stain in south fork to 1-2ft with light stain in the main basin. we started our day on the lake at 7 am, we were the first at the ramp but it didn't take long for 3 more boats to quickly show up right behind us. no sooner did we launch than another boat quickly did and got the takeoff on us. we motored right behind him as he was a much smaller boat and i didn't want to wake him by flying by. he stopped across from cow point and  we motored on by. my son made the call to stop just after the cow point  turn and start our fishing. i had on a rebel super pop R, he had on his usual floating buzzbait. we began casting just near the ironwoods. it was on the 3rd cast i had a good hit just in between two logs. it missed and i quickly grabbed the spinning rod with a senko rigged as a follow up bait. i made my cast to the same spot as the hit and didn't even get to start my retrieve when my son , whom had cast to the front of the boat started yelling. as i looked over i quickly saw the boil with his line in the middle of it and realized he had a fish, i don't think he knew he had a fish hahahaha. it was his first fish caught from beginning to end all by himself, made the cast retrieved it and caught and reeled in the fish all on his own. i don't know who was prouder him or I! from then on we had steady action and the pop R really started to get bit. we had 2 more fish in short order. lost one on a jump and landed the second one. it went maybe a 1.5lbs nice and chunky. we soon had another little tiny wooden boat pull up right behind us, literally! so close my son looked at me and said " dad i can't even cast, they are too close" i don't know what they were thinking, another boat I've never seen on the lake. there are more and more each weekend. the boat across from us had a guy with texas plates and it was one of those basshunter plastic boats, again someone id never seen before. he caught  a nice little chunk on the point right across from us, he looked to be throwing a jig or some sort of small soft plastic. kinda pitching it into little areas up along the bank. the small wooden boat finally jumped around us and again against all common sense or etiquette jumped maybe 20 yards in from of us on the bank and started fishing again!!! i mean come the f%$K on right!!! id have lost my cool but we were still doing good and caught another 1.3lb bass right behind them. worked the bank a bit further and  saw them get  a good sized bass. finally said screw it, too crowded and we made the run down to boy scout island . fished the point which is fully exposed now and saw tons of bait on the graph but didn't get anything even on the several kinds of baits we threw. we then ran over to the military housing area and fished a couple of the points and then into the coves there  hoping for a pre spawn staging area, but to no avail. made the run over to condo cliffs and fished the south fork side of it. no luck again on multiple baits. even the tried and true jig and craw came up empty. motored over to kemoo island and threw a pose 300 crankbait at several points. worked the jig a bit deeper. finally had a nice tag on the poes as we rounded a small point. nice 2.3 lb peacock bass. very fun fight and usually rare this time of year but they seemed to be  becoming more active from what i have heard from other posts. saw a couple of small busts out under the power lines. very short very far and few between. graph showed lots of bait and suspended fish around them though. we went over to the saddle and coaxed the geese over with some crackers , its so funny because even without his red hat ( he has a new lucky bass pro hat in beige and white) the geese seemed to recognize him and the boat and immediately got all excited even though we were some distance away. as he fed them i threw my black and blue jig and craw with the  mr twister trailer. dragging it along the edges of the  saddle i hooked a nice chunky 2.8lb largemouth. always count on the jig!! i fished some more till the crackers ran out but didn't get anything more. we motored back toward the ramp for the noon exchange and fished several spots with no luck. finally got another little chunky largemouth on  a berkley havoc pit boss. then we went back to the ramp. traded the kid for lunch and took off up into south fork hoping to find some pre spawn fish. water was much dirtier and lower up there. fished hard with a red  wiggle wart crankbait .switched it up with a spinnerbait and the jig but no luck. changed the jig trailer to a bo hawg frog pork chunk and continued on. graph didn't show much in the way of bait of fish up there.worked several lay down and steeper bluff banks with no luck. went all the way upto the old military bridge and it was low enough to pass right under with the only thing blocking the way being all the wood piled against the pilings. flipped the jig into several areas and finally caught a nice 2.3lb bass . it was very pale and white i guess from being in the muddy water. didn't get another hit so i started back on my way down into south fork. threw at more lay down and a couple of other points with no luck. went into rose street slough but it was very muddy and nothing seemed to be in there. the falling water seemed to have driven most of the fish into the deeper haunts. the depth finder was registering 13 ft in the middle of the lake at this point.headed back down past the ramp and back to the area where all the top water action had taken place, fish them with the pit boss and the jig and pig but  with no luck. worked down to the bamboo cove and fished them with a combination of spinnerbait and soft plastics and jig and pig but still no luck. made a run to  across from the old effluent plant and fished the steep bank and all the lay downs. caught a bass on a red wiggle wart crank bait but he got off at the boat, sportsman's release. noticed some intermittent  busts out in the middle, earlier there had been very large shad schools all through the area out in the middle so i made a few casts with the only topwater i had on. it was the super pop R Zell Rowland edition with his signature on it. i had the  go pro hero on and  as i made a comment  that tucs never hit pop R's i had a vicious strike. at first i though a bass but it fought like hell and then the first jump i knew it was a tuc!!! a big ole tuc!! got it on vid i hope it turned out. fish of the day for sure hands down! moved on fishing as i went no luck along the boy scout point, no luck along the coves and points along the military housing. fished condo cliffs with no luck back to kemo'o island and caught another small 1lb bass on a crank bait. drop shotted the saddle but nothing. ran back along condo cliffs  and caught another small keeper on the red wiggle wart. day was drawing to a close so i made the run back up to the bamboo cove and fished  the opposite bank  with no luck. ran back to the ironwoods along the retirement condo and caught another small bass on the devilsspear , then one on the jig and pig. worked around cow point. and decided to make one pass along that new big lay down near the bridge, alas another boat was working along that side and i had to bide my time. for some reason he took off and left the tree. i swooped in and got one on my first cast with the devilsspear, got off on a jump. i regrouped and after a few more casts into the deeper pocket of the tree i had a second much bigger one on but it wrapped me up and got off. i felt it for several seconds before i lost it and eventually my bait as well. this ended a very successful sunday on the water. despite the heavy pressure and all the new boats, including the clueless guys with no etiquette. my son and myself had a blast and the  camera got another try. hopefully  i can learn to get new and better shots with it!

Berkley Havoc Devils Spear

 testing out these new baits one pack at a time. this past weekend i got to try a few of the new baits i got from the contest. the Devils spear is one of those baits you look at and think ummmm nope. but in the water wow! hooked it with a 4/0 wide gap and caught several bass on it. its a great bait, the tail swims so enticingly  even with the slightest movement. i was quite impressed. the bulk of it makes a weight  irrelevant  although i saw  a video where ike was explaining how to use it as a swim bait with a swim bait hook, and actually that i can imagine would be an awesome technique ! the only problem is its so bulky that i had to make a slot for the hook to come out of  on one side or it wouldn't have been able to penetrate even with the wide gap. that wasn't an issue, a quick 1/4 run with the knife on one side and walla weedless hook ready to pop right out as soon as a bass clamps down. this worked well for me, perhaps berkley needs some input on design hahahaha. i rigged it this way texas style and fished it as a pitching and flipping bait. several of my hits came on the fall, that tails action is incredible and irresistible. several more came on the first few pops or jumps off the bottom as i popped it a foot or two off the bottom and let it fall again. i can't wait to try it as a swimbait with a weighted hook. i will also have to see how it works with more weight. there wasn't any wind and no weight was needed when i fished it last. perhaps with wind a 1/4 oz or 3/8 oz weight would help it get down faster for a reaction bite which i think is the primary function of this bait. a pleasant surprise of a bait, more of a fish catcher than a fisherman catcher for sure!

Trokar hooks

 so i got my new Trokar hooks for joining their "team" or website. 6 pack of 3/0 worm hooks with the keeper  near the eye. think they are called magnum worm hooks. tried them out last weekend and heres my take. first off right out of the package very sharp to the touch, much sharper feeling then the Gamakatsus i usually throw, at least to the finger feel of it ( scratching the blade down the fingernail) the keeper works great on the eye, except that you have to rig the hook differently . if you push the barb through first as usual you  have a hard time not tearing the bait to get it over the keeper. of course this would mean you have to push the eye through first and then retie every time you change a bait. well that will be a pain!! its a very careful slow process either way and that part kinda sucked, lost a few baits torn and never used to the tearing problem. the baits that did get on there held extremely well with that keeper. i guess theres a trick i haven't picked up yet. fishability was questionable. i seemed to hook everything else but a fish on the first one till i lost it finally. the extra sharp hook wasn't always the culprit but a few times it was. it does stick things at the slightest provocation! the second hook did the same it seemed and again i lost that one as well after a short time. 3rd one worked great and got a nice fish with it. for the price i don't know that id switch to all Trokar hooks but if money were on the line and i were sponsored then hell yes of course. the Gamakatsus are pretty nice hooks and have a very wide gap that i like, i really don't think the Trokar hooks will make enough of a difference for me to  buy them exclusively.

go pro hero 2 update

 ok i have had it out twice now and both times with mixed results. the  sound was nearly non existent the first time when i had the waterproof backdoor on, it improved somewhat  by changing to the skeleton back door, however with the camera more than a few feet away even that was muffled and distant at best. there is a weird sound phenomena too, seems i could here traffic clear as day from the highway 200yrds away but not myself who was 5 ft away talking. birds chirping in the trees but not the bass splashing as they jumped on the line. really odd what it would pick up and wouldn't pick up. seems after reading tons of reviews it seems to be a common problem. even though there is a " audio mic port" there isn't one made thats compatible with the camera. least not one easily adapted. several i read that worked but caused all sorts of other problems. maybe go pro will come out with one later on who knows. also i didn't notice to much of a loss of quality with the decreasing of the picture. it does make the battery last a lot longer and thats fine with me. think it was about 35-40 min in the max and almost 60-80 in the minimum settings. apple dosent seem to have a good editor either i have several clips id like to string together but haven't been able to get it all figured out yet. the sound i guess is why so many people just opt for a sound track instead of actually talking.still a great little camera with tons of possibilities and if you mount it close to your mouth you do get sound pretty clear. I'm gonna keep trying till i get this all figured out!

team trokar

 ok so got my new trokar team  stuff. pretty cool , just for joining them they send you a free pack of hooks, 6 3/0 mega worm hooks with that keeper on them. very nice can't wait to try them out. you get a kinda cheapy trokar bag, nice logos on it but i can't think what id use it for. you get 2 stickers, one for the inside of a windshield or some kinda glass, the other is a normal kind of sticker. trokar does have a cool logo with that trident . and of course you get a kinda pamphlet with the hook types they make and some of the elite team guys they sponsor . all in all very nice for free. all you have to do is  go to their website and join their " team" some personal info and they send you the free swag. free is always good especially for premium hooks! they are kinda pricey and it will be nice to test them for free first to see if they are worth the hype!

pre spawn in full swing

well its happening, has been happening these past 2 weeks.  all week people were raking in bass stacked in 12-18ft of water moving onto points and secondary points outside coves. very aggressive and biting a variety of baits from what i have heard. today the rumor has it that some have moved in shallower. the full moon is in 2 days. guess that will trigger the main spawn when it happens. damn i haven't been able to get onto the lake and I'm missing all the action!! next weekend will only be able to get out on sunday if at all. some of the guys have caught decent 3-4lbers too so i know the females are moving in.if you guys get out. throw fast moving baits cover water, key on cover or structure adjacent to shallow spawning areas. they should be in there heavy and grouped up right about now. the only wild card is the front due in tuesday to coincide with the full moon. don't know if it will help or hurt  but either way they won't move far if they do. man i wish i didn't have to work hahahahaha

boating safety

 well a lot of newbies out there on the lake, some with great big ole brand new rigs. its kinda funny that you need a license to drive a car and now here in hawaii a pwc but a boat nope!!!! no training  course required no licensing nothing!! so what you get are really really really green boaters that turn the key and if they get that far tear across the lake and put themselves and everyone else in danger. so that incident the other week where a boat capsized another boat and left 2 newbies in the lake sans gear while another newbie blazed by. well it seems that very guy who hasn't come forward to offer reparation to the swamped boat was out the other day. a regular saw him launching recognized the tow vehicle and the boat description. nice champion boat with  115 on it. kinda big for the lake. well that guy launched and started up the motor apparently and something blew cause it went up in smoke and flames. if it hadn't been for the quick reaction and preparedness of the regular, that boat and possibly its riders might have been toast. quite literally! no pfds,no fire extinguisher, no common sense!!  our intrepid regular guy saved them and put the fire out saved the boat, talk about  hero. guess it pretty well burned through the fuel/battery compartment. but the idiot is so bent on fishing he goes out and uses his trolling motor because the main is burnt up!!!!!!!! ummm hello!!!! leaking fuel and burnt bare wires in an enclosed space!!!!! HERES YOUR SIGN!!! sometimes i just wander!!!! then i catch myself  and shiver and trudge on hahahaha.