Tokyo Tony

Personally, I find it MUCH easier to work on spinning, but I think that's a matter of personal preference. 95% of my walk-the-dog fishing is done with spinning equipment. Just a note about the LC Sammy: I find that the hookup-to-strike ratio is MUCH higher with this lure than any other walk-the-dog bait. It seems that when you get a hit, they're just automatically buttoned up. It may be because the hooks are premium and generally larger in proportion to the bait itself than with other similar lures, but it may also be magic because I replace all the hooks on my Zaras with Gamakatsu, but the ratio is still better with the Sammys. Also, I've used two Sammy imitations - they both looked exactly like the Sammy - and the action sucked. I'd have to say that the Sammy is worth the 20 bucks or so. I also love the little popping noise they make at each turn.

I never use trailers either, but if I did, I would use the ones that come with Booyah Boogiebaits.

If you're worried about fish seeing the line you can use even more or a flourocarbon leader - I've used up to 20 feet of flouro leader in really clear water conditions. Of course you give up a little feel, but it's still way more sensitive than pure flouro and mono. It may not be textbook, but I use almost exclusively braided line now. If I need more give, I use a softer tip rod, and if I need to finesse it, I use a long flouro leader. I do have two rigs with #6 flouro P-Line for certain applications, but I really can't stand giving up the unbelievable sensitivity of braid.

Thanks guys - I will try the jig/Kreature rig as well as finesse jigs, but as for the Cavitron: I actually bought a black on black on after reading your post RW, but buzzbaits don't seem to produce too well on my home waters right now. I've caught one fish on it after using it a few times - Zara Puppies seem to work much better around here. As for hopping jigs, the pond bottom in the "fishy" areas in my ponds has weeds that grow up about 2 feet off the bottom, so it's tough to fish a jig there. I'm gonna try swimming a finesse jig with a small SPRO frog as a trailer and see if that works, but I still feel kinda stumped.

Hey guys, I've been struggling lately on the little chain of ponds I usually fish after work. I know that fall is supposed to be good fishin', that the bass start to fatten up, but I wonder if the same is true in little ponds in the Northeast - 5 acres or less. There aren't any creeks in these ponds, and the main forage is little minnows, bluegills, and terrestrial critters that stumble into the ponds. The main cover is weeds around the perimeter, but these weeds have almost all turned brown and are obviously dying. Haven't had luck around them lately. Is it true that when they start to die the bass don't relate to them as much because they suck up the oxygen? What type of advice do you have for me? I've been using flukes, senkos, jigs (where possible), t-rigged worms in the weeds, topwaters, rattletraps, spinnerbaits and X-Raps, but haven't had much luck. I haven't caught as many or as big fish. The only bait I can seem to get them on is the X-Rap (or little dinks with the senkos), and topwater only seems to work for about 40 mins around dusk. Any advice for little NE ponds at the beginning of fall? Thanks guys.

Fishing is number one, but I also love Texas Hold'Em (I live close to Foxwood's), golf, skiing, and mindlessly watching TV for hours while I play internet poker.

http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/vertical-pod3.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat350005_TGP&rid=&indexId=cat350005&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=1&parentType=index&parentId=cat350005&id=0011367

Yeah all of the fishing games I've ever played have been really poor quality. I wish one of these bigshot game companies would put out a really awesome fishing game with the same types of graphics and quality that some of these violent games have. Probably because they make more money on the violent ones, but they could still turn a nice profit, I think, from a high quality fishing game. Sigh.

Thanks for the info, I'll see if I can do that. Back to the question though ssaB_ - I'd spend as much as you can afford on waders (within reason of course). You don't want a cheapo pair because they will not last long and they'll leak. You'll actually save money by spending more now instead of having to replace them soon down the road.

At first, I couldn't stand the Chatter-style baits. They just looked too weird and I just had no confidence in them. But in the past few months, they've become one of my go-to baits, ESPECIALLY for night fishing (Black-Blue color with black blade). I prefer the brand Chatterbait over the Booyah Boogiebait because I like the action a little more and you can work them more slowly than you can the booyah of comparable blade size. The one thing I like more about the Booyah is that you can really cast the 3/8 oz model far compared with the bigger-sized Chatterbait. I use the Booyahs more when I'm shore fishing and really need to wing it out there. I just ordered some Gambler swim blades, so I'm curious about the action on those, but for now the Chatterbaits are awesome. My brother caught his PB on a red/white chatterbait last spring, and I seem to catch better-than-average fish on them. The one time they're generally not good at all is in finesse-type situations because they're so bulky and loud. But for stained to muddy water and night fishing they're awesome. One thing is, you really need to experiment with the retrieve. Most of the time I've found that a slow retrieve close to the bottom is effective, with two and three twitches thrown in. But I have had nights when a steady fast retrieve near the surface is much better. I've seen, during the day, bass fly out from laydowns and just smash the lure when a plastic retrieved through the same area would not produce. I think once you get over the general appearance and catch a few fish with these, you'll really like them. Oh, and I've never had problems with these baits breaking, and for trailers I use the ones that come with them. I really like the plastic material on the Chatterbait brand trailers.

Thanks - yeah I need to find that old kit that came with the waders. It's definitely somewhere... As for finding the leak - how would you do that? I do know that now when I get off the water after a long day float-tubing, it looks like I peed my pants. Do you think it's a leak in the waders or in my bladder? ;D

Great question! I would also love to know the answer... (sorry I don't have the answer)

I have a pair of Cabela's brand breathable waders that are really nice. The material is very breathable and great for summer or fall/spring. When the water is cold I just wear fleece pants under them. I have the ones with boots attached and the boots have a felt bottom and really grip the rocks well. The only problem is that after a year of using them, they're starting to leak just a tiny bit (I have spent many full days on the water in my float tube with these waders). I highly recommend them, but I have a related question for everyone: Is there any kind of fix for general light leakage for waders? Is there some kind of substance you can smear on them to restore the waterproofness?

It's definitely easier to unhook a gut-hooked fish when the barb is down. It's noticeably easier to remove any barbless hook from a fish, and I find it does do less damage when removing the hook from a fish (you don't tear the flesh as much), but from the above replies, I will continue not to bend the barb down unless I'm catching a bunch of dinks.

So I placed an order on there, and like they said, it looks like they charged me for all the bags of plastics too. They said they'd zero out the price, so I'm hoping they do so, otherwise I wouldn't have made the purchase. Avalon, have you seen that they zeroed out the price of the plastics for you?

thanks for that link Avalon - I'm gonna place a fat order as well. Very good deal, especially because I love chatter-type baits. How do these gambler ones compare to Chatterbaits and Booyah Boogiebaits? Anyone?

Headlamps are indispensible for night fishing. I would highly recommend getting a quality one if you'll be doing a lot of night fishing. I bought a 15 dollar one at Dicks and it crapped out. May have been defective, but the batteries (3 AAAs) lasted all of an hour, and the thing heated up pretty badly. I bought one for 40 bucks and the thing is amazing. In 5 outings the batteries are still running strong, it has red and led lights, as well as a fade between the two, and it has a lever for adjusting the intensity of the light. This thing will last a long time. The red light is helpful when it's dark and you don't need too much light. It doesn't take your eyes any time to adjust back to the darkness after using the red light, but after using the white light, your eyes have to adjust back to the darnkess. I just realized that I got a deal at Dicks - it's $20 cheaper than at Cabelas! I never would have thought that... http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=perf&id=0047984517627a&navCount=0&podId=0047984&parentId=cat20160&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=QW&rid=0180101070502&parentType=index&indexId=cat20160&hasJS=true

I've heard of this place. Shore fishing only right? It looks really cool on Google Earth I'd love to give it a shot, it's about 1.5 hours from me, so I'd be interested in any info that anyone has on this place. Granadethrow - do you know off the top of your head how much a MA non-resident fishing license is?

First of all, you shouldn't mention that you're fishing this place illegally. There have been some heated debates on this subject, so let's leave that alone please. And I would check your local trespassing laws. I know MA is so F'd up I wouldn't doubt jail time if you were caught. I didn't think it was a huge deal when I was fishing a similar place to what you mentioned until I researched the laws and actually realized there's possible jail time for this action in CT (not that anyone's ever been given jailtime, but it's possible). The moderators are understandably vehemently opposed to trespassing for fishing, but I would definitely check out your state laws before doing it again. Anyway, wherever you're fishing, if the water is clear, throw a white suspending jerkbait around rocks and you WILL catch smallies.

These are my favorite deep cranks for smallies: http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0048138122289a&navCount=1&podId=0048138&parentId=cat20388&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat20166-cat20388&catalogCode=XH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20388&hasJS=true If you haven't tried them you're missing out.

Yeah that's been the best topwater bait on the lake, but the fish in the shallower water where I throw topwaters are usually under a pound, or around a pound, so they've been hitting the lure but missing half the time. I like messing with them for a while on my UL setup, but think I could hookup more with an even smaller bait. I guess I could try a big Sammy in the deeper water. How far do you think they would come up? 20 feet?

Also gonna try floating jerkbaits - never really dabbled with bulging them, but it sounds like it would work. RW - suspending jerkbaits are by far my #1 smallie bait. They just can't say no to them.

Cool, thanks for the responses guys. GMAN - I do have a Zara Pooch but have trouble getting decent action with it. Haven't used it in years, but that may be the ticket. I totally forgot about that bait. And RW - I will try a small-sized buzzbait for them. My PB smallie actually came on a mini Strike King buzzbait before I knew too much about fishing. I was out in Cape Cod night fishing with a couple friends in a canoe, getting no bites on top. My friend suggested I slow-roll it, and first cast, WHAM. Right off the bottom with a buzzbait - pretty cool deal. You can slow-roll a buzzbait REALLY slowly along the bottom. I'm gonna look out for a small-sized Sammy too. I think if I could find a Sammy, or a Sammy-shaped lure 2-3" it would be easier to work than the Zara Pooch. When I do end up going up there I'll post a report.

Thanks Ronnie - I'm in CT but if I find myself down that way I'll look you up. Winter's on the way, and the only way I think I'll get through the hardwater season is by buying a ridiculous amount of fishing equipment, including a Loomis rod. Then of course I'll have to go somewhere warmer to try the stuff out. My only reservation about buying a $250+ rod is if I break it. I would probably freak out, so I'll just have to be uber careful.

Thanks for the replies - yeah, that was just me trying to convince myself that it couldn't get any better. Now I'll have to go try out a Loomis, and nothing else will compare. Ignorance is bliss, but I can't wait to see what those rods are like. Like I was saying, I can't imagine it getting any better, but apparently it does...