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The common & popular idea of starting with a moving bait or search type technique / presentation looking for "active fish" is a proven tournament style approach that has helped many anglers cash a check. But for the recreational small water angler I'll say there's something better. Instead of working the water into a froth by machine gunning a hundred casts all over the pond and almost certainly alarming every probably very wary bass there of your presence, slow down a minute cowboy. . . . . . . . . Before making a single cast anywhere, select the area or spot on the pond that you believe holds the biggest bass. Then, choose the best bait you have for the conditions. One that has big fish appeal and one you know you can present very effectively. (For me that's often a Jig & Craw) Now make your best & most accurate cast to those areas / spots. Do this each time you relocate to the next area. By not beating the heck out of the same spot on the pond with buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, rattlebaits, and all of that noise, while "looking for active fish", you may have a better opportunity to get a strike from the bass you're actually looking & hoping for. Give this a shot - you've got nothing to loose, except perhaps some skin from your thumb. Good Luck A-Jay

A small snap. It allows the freedom of movement without the hassle of learning another knot or trying to get a loop knot to come out right.

I'm eagerly awaiting the "paddling puppy" lure next year

Nice Michigan bass. 5.5 - 6 lbs on that scale.

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ Detailing stability specs is a little tough without some more info. Perhaps offering a few of the Brand, Make & Models you're considering would help. Generally a 16ft V loaded with two 200 lb humans & their gear is a fairly full boat. Staying within the recommended load limits and out of waters that go beyond the vessels limitations & drivers ability allows one to get the most out of the stability any hull offers. Good Luck with your search & purchase. A-Jay

Try a spool of Maxima Ultra green and test it before buying any bulk quantity. Big Game is inexpensive and simply change when it gets damaged. Tom

Sounds like you may be seeing grass carp hitting the surface

I tried out the Helicopter rig. That's the one where Roland Martin comes by and takes money out of your pocket and gives you the worst lure on the face of the earth to use.

Hello everyone, my name is Brad. I've been fishing for bass since I could walk. I've had bass boats, Jon boats, I've built a homemade boat, but now I'm into Kayak fishing. Ive been reading these forums and following this site for a long time as a lurker. My first post was actually in the for sale section, and I got taken to the woodshed! I guess that does make for bad optics! I figured I should step up and introduce myself to not look like a leach! my PB was about 20 years ago, and wasn't weighed, but would estimate high 6, maybe 7. I've lived in Northern Virginia my entire life, and am very familiar with the local waters around here. If I can be of any help to anyone don't be afraid to ask. I am an auto mechanic by trade, and have been doing that for 30+ years. I am also an avid photographer, I shoot wildlife,birds, aviation, nature etc. --Brad

Michigan . I have been sponging info from this site for well over a year without joining. Decided to join because, why not. Fished a lot during my youth. Lost touch with it while concentrating on family, life, career and etc. Came back to it over the last few years but this spring, fishing is what I do virtually every weekend. Yes I am usually still to busy during the week to get out but I get out when I can. Living in south Michigan we do not get the monsters that you true southerners have but I still love me some bass fishing. Thanks for all the helpful info thus far.

That doesn't sound like the definition of the word problem. I'd happily pay $10 every other trip if I were catching 35 bass per outing.

Change it to "The Fisherman Formerly Known as Carolina Bassin"

Personal favorite is a jig. Depending on depth I usually fish a 3/8 - 1/2 ounce flippin jig with a flat back trailer to help me skip it up under. This is your best option around tough low docks. If they're are up then I've used Texas rigs and senkos a lot. Even hot days I'll throw a top water frog up under docks and slowly twitch it in the shade with good success. I love dock fishing. Hotter the better cause it concentrates the fish in the shade and can pull several from each dock. When you figure out if they're using the front or back you can almost call your shot when you come up to the next dock. Good luck

If you are concerned about the boat being "tippy", if you are buying a bare bones aluminum hull, than yes it will be. If you are buying a boat set up with storage and flotation, a lot is going to depend on the brand. A boat with a wide underwater footprint will be less tippy than one with a narrow footprint. The wider footprint will draft shallower and top end will be slower.

So can your loop knot fail. I have used snaps for a least the last 30 years when fishing cranks, spoons, jerkbaits & other treble hook baits. Never had a problem I always use a quality snap of the proper poundage tied with a polamar knot & retie daily or more often if catching lots of fish. The wear & tear on a loop knot is greater than a metal snap. I have caught numerous trophy fish & never had a snap failure. Snaps by their very nature allow maximum movement of any bait. If you absolutely want to use a loop knot go for it but for me it's a snap every time.

A beautiful new frog rod

Went back out to Wes Watkins Saturday evening. Got on the water about 7ish to do some Full Moon bass fishing... I can tell you this for sure.. It was one of the most miserable. humid,muggy, evening and night that I can remember.... But other then being soaking wet with sweat by the time I got the boat on the water, it was a wonderful evening.... Was worry about the water getting turned and stain by the big storms we had Thursday Night.. Really didn't see much difference in the water color from last weekend, but the water level had came up at least a foot. And was looking real good up in the grass beds and shoreline... Within 10 mins of making first cast, we had 2 fish (Channel Cat and Hybid on crankbaits) in the boat..trash fish, but it seem that the bait was going to be good. About 20-30 mins later I pick up a nice little chuck about 2-1/2 - 3lbs. on a Norman DD14 crankbait. We thinking this is really going to be a good night on the water. Then it all went to crap. We caught 2 more about the same size right before dark. Then ran back to boat ramp to get the OFF that I left in truck. Freakin Mosquito's was the worst I've every seen... It literately look like we where up in Alaska/Canada in summer they where that bad.. The OFF did the trick. It was dark and the moon was up. Tired on a black buzz bait, a black Chatter Bait, and a Black Jittter Bug, and had a 12 inch June bug worm on. had one blow up on the Jitter Bug but he missed it about 10pm.... And nothing for the next hour a 1/2. Then my buddy had a huge fish try to kill his buss bait, but again the fish the bait completely and we never got to it hit again. It was about 20 ft from the boat when it exploded on that buzz bait and but the sound and the of water flying that fish was in the 6-10 lbs range..After that we didn't get another bite until about 1:45 am or so right by the ramp as we where headed in... Would post pictures but it won't let me for some reason even after resizing them....

Might have been bluegill biting

A few days ago I ventured off to a pond that I hadn't been to in three years to see what was going on. Ten years ago when I was little this pond was loaded with big bass but once the pressure increased and some people started keeping the big ones they caught, the fishing declined rapidly. I got one bass and only fished for an hour but luckily it was a good one. The 10.5inch ribbon tail with a 3/16oz weight got it done again.

The Savage Gear frog has been very durable for me. Spro is a good one too. I like Booyah but they do tear easier, but I still got 2 years and a whole bunch of fish out of the last one.

I'm going to order the big one in the wood duck pattern. Can't wait to post pics of the dinks that I catch on it

Ford vs Chevy Stihl vs Husky If you don't already know why you want one over the other it likely does not matter all that much in reality. You're almost guaranteed to enjoy and be satisfied by either.

10 lb braid is the diameter of 2 lb mono! ? WAY to light of line for a baitcaster! Try 30lb and up!

I love beating the banks, but this time of year I have to keep my options open. We weren't fishing that deep, between 8ft-12ft where the weeds were 6ft high. Just running our baits above the weeds. Had we stayed out longer, I probably would have fished jika rigs and t rigs on the weed edge in 12ft to try and find a bigger bite. I knew we were going to be off the water at 11 and we were having fun with the 14 inchers, so I felt no need to switch it up. Fishing for walleye offshore taught me a lot about offshore bass fishing and about reading my graphs

Best way to adjust and improve your buzzbait fishing is to buy a cavitron.

Don't worry about adjusting them, they're built that way. It's caused by the torque of the blade and the direction of spin. To get rid of it completely you need to use a double blade configuration with counter-rotating blades, either on the same arm or on two independent arms. Instead. use what you have to your advantage to do things like run under docks and overhanginig trees, or even walk partway around stumps. If you really get serious, look around until you find another brand that will torque the opposite way, then keep two rods rigged with buzzbaits going in both directions. That way no matter the angle or direction of boat or cover, you'll always have the right retrieve path available to you. -T9

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ When considering the information you've provided - I'm inclined to believe that these fish you see may not actually be bass. Some supplemental info could help . . . Where (state) is this lake ? What do you think the bass there are eating ? Are there other game fish in the lake & have you caught them ? Have you seen bass spawning in the shallows ? A-Jay

I must be the only person who thinks that thing looks dumb af. Two whopper ploppers and a partridge in a pear tree lol.

Your wife is right. No matter what the facts are, she's right. You should have figured that one out by now...

I started carolina rigging a trick worm on a hand line when my line broke on a long cast, and continued to catch bass.

The smallest Koppers frog is a terrible frog. Noone in their right mind would expect to catch fish on it. Please, send them to me and I wI'll dispose of them properly. The hooks can't handle big ones in thick stuff

1. I absolutely refuse to make fishing complicated. 2. All braid, all the time 3. I wont use flouro or mono leaders. (See rule 1 above) 4. No tournament fishing. 5. If it ain't fun, pack up and go home.

I was smallie fishing and felt something hit, so I set the hook...

Decided to head out for 3-4 hours this morning for some casual pre-work fishing on a lake I've never been to before. I live in Minnesota so I'm blessed with the ability to visit tons of new lakes every season. It would take a long time to cover them all! However, along with that blessing comes a curse. Small Bass. My PB is 4lb 11oz and that's a seriously seriously quality fish for Central Minnesota. Got to the lake and, of course, it's filled with carp like all the lakes in the St. Cloud area. I find that if there are carp in a bay, the bite is tough in that bay. Does anyone have any experience fishing carp-heavy lakes? Please let me know your findings or techniques for those lakes! Anyway. It was a successful 3.5 hours because I caught a lot of really healthy really quality bass. Tried a few baits but the only thing they wanted was a wacky worm. Water temp was 72.9 degrees with overcast and windy/sprinkling rain conditions. I stayed in 3 foot or less of water, fished the wacky rig along docks and reeds and smoked 'em this morning! Oh and I got a respectable (ballsy) Sunny to grab my worm as well. He nailed it like a bass. I'm finding that the only way to catch bass in Central Minnesota where the lakes are pressured SUPER HARD every day is with the wacky rig. Seriously. It's the only set-up I can reliably catch fish on. Disclaimer: These were all taken with my front-facing camera. I was solo this morning and had no cameraman. Sorry the pics are sideways, but for some reason the internet wants to register them this way.

Here you go, and not far away - I'd pay more for this, with a motor closer to what the boat is rated for: http://www.zachosports.com/default.asp?page=xPreOwnedInventoryDetail&id=2039056&p=1&s=Year&d=D&t=preowned&vt=boat&fr=xPreOwnedInventory I have this same boat with a Suzuki DF140 (Mine says "Johnson" on it, but the same motor) and it's great for WI/MN water. That 115 would worry me.

I got out this morning for a bit at a pond that is about 30 acres and covered with lilly pads. I missed 4 but pulled this one out of the slop. It felt like it weighed 50 pounds because of the vegetation i pulled in with it. lol Caught it on a spro frog.

thicker line will cause it to run shallower,thus thinner line will run deeper. retrieve speed,rod angle,length of cast all pays into lure depth. a rattlin rapala will sink if not reeled in right away so letting it settle after the cast you can also adjust depth. play around with all of this to see what works for you. good luck.

WolfyBrandon

If you want to make them squeak, just hit the rivet with a piece of sandpaper

AMEN………….

Pack up your skillset. No need in fighting a battle you can't and won't win.

Yum Warning shot, kill shot, or sharp shooter or the 3" Yum Dinger...............$2.99 a bag. The 4" sharpshooters come 20 to a bag, and catch the fire out of them. That's a lot of bang for the buck. Almost ALL my plastics are $2.99 Yum and $2.99 Berkley Havoc baits, with the exception of a few things like chigger craws, and power worms............which I buy from Walmart, who still charge less than $4 a bag for them, where they are $4.50+ every where else.

Been there before myself. The moment I knew I wasn't coming back It was a huge burden off me. 18 years in the same building is not a good thing. Change is a good thing sometimes even if you didn't realize you needed it. People/management forget what you did for them it's a all about what can you do for me now. I've seen it first hand. And as long as they can keep piling it on you and you keep selling like mad it just proves they were not getting all they could from you. Seems in their mind it justifies their move even more. So at this point you get to make the choice basically be quiet and be a number receiving a check each week. Looks like what they want. Or find new employment before you either get fired or ruin your stay enough you are forced out with bad marks on your records.

You can adjust them by bending the wire on which the blade spins. Hope this helps, Dave

That is really simple and clever, I am going to have to try it. I really like that even with the plastic glued on, you can still switch between an exposed hook and weedless as needed. These are the two weedless jigs that I use: Owner Ultrahead, 1/16oz/#1 Decoy Nailbomb 1/16oz/#1 I prefer the Decoy as it has a longer shank that helps hold the plastic a bit better and the vertical line tie seems to keep the lure from wedging in the rocks as often.

Last trip into the blue before heading home, had another sail but it didn't stay buttoned

I like using XF rods for dropshotting because you just need a quick wrist flick/sweep to set the hook!