Tokyo Tony

So my favorite casting setup includes a St. Croix Avid rod, and I just can't imagine that it gets any better. It's incredibly light, and the sensitivity is amazing. With vibrating lures I can feel each oscillation, and I can almost hear the vibrations. My question is whether a G. Loomis rod is really significantly better than the St. Croix Avid, say a Loomis rod in the 250 dollar range. Is it worth the extra $150? I can't imagine that it is...

If subtlety of presentation is not a priority then you can cast overhand - that's more accurate, but most of the time you're not going to want that big splash, so sidearm or underhand will be better. Accuracy with these methods, once you've got the basics down, which it sounds like you do, is, like you said, only going to come with practice (nice sentence huh??? ;D) Good luck!

I think your main problem may be that when you're getting ready to cast and you're holding the line with your index finger, the line is in the first crease at your first knuckle. Releasing it from that bend in your finger can be inaccurate, so try moving the line to the tip of your finger. I even bend my index finger upwards towards the rod and hold the line with the very tip of my finger, so I can get a little flex. Does that make sense? I can try doing a diagram if that would help... Basically, get the line out of the crease in your finger and hold it on the tip of your finger. That should help a lot. Also, make sure you don't have too much or too little line out between your bait and the rod tip. I usually have about a foot space there, but when I'm trying to really wing it out there, I'll let a little more line out. And lastly, like the others were saying, if your rod action is too fast/stiff, you'll have trouble throwing light baits, and if it's too soft you'll have trouble with the heavier ones. Try experimenting to find a comfort zone.

You can try the pork with a little jig, they bass may like it, but I usually don't use those unless the jig is 3/8 or more, also depending on the size of the pork. I almost always use plastic trailers anyway with some MegaStrike smeared on. With the Booyah Bitsy jig, which is a jig I really like, try a little plastic craw or a little plastic chunk trailer. Yum makes, in my opinion, the best plastic jig trailers. Good luck with your jigs - once you get a little confidence in them, they're a lot of fun to use. I love getting bit with a jig cuz I'm always thinking it's a lunker.

My favorite little smallie pond to fish is in NH, it's a small lake probably about 25-30 acres (could be 40, I'm not too good at estimating lake size) with tons of boulders, rocks, grass, weeds and stumps. Water is crystal clear (can see the bottom in 15+ feet). I always catch a ton of smallies there (I fish it in my float tube), but have never caught one there over 2 lbs. Most of the fish are right around a pound or less. I'm wondering what you guys think the best option for topwater would be, in general. There's always a good bite on pretty much any lure (it's a great place to build confidence with unfamiliar techniques), and I can get lots of hits on a Zara Puppy, but probably 50 percent of the time they miss. I've caught fish that are regurgitating hundreds of little bugs, so I know a flyrod would be key, but I'd rather catch them on my ultralight spinning setup. What topwater would you say is best for small smallies? Also, what type of general tips would you recommend for targeting the bigger fish when I get tired of the little guys, if that happens? I've averaged bigger fish with a deep crank, but still nothing over 2 lbs, and I've had 70-plus fish days on this lake, literally. I've tried C-rigs on deep rocky points with GYCB hula grubs, but still no hawgs. Is it possible that in a lake like this there are no smallies over 3 or 4 lbs? Any help is appreciated - I'm probably heading up that way in two weeks. Thanks.

Average Largemouth: 2.4 oz PB: 9.76 oz # fish over 7oz: 5 # fish in 2007 in 100+ outings: 23 Seriously though, I'd have to say right around 1.5 lbs for my average like the rest of the mortals in here 8-)

Kreatures are also my favorite creature bait. One thing I love about them other than all previously mentioned traits is the fact that they're the best skipping baits I've ever used. So easy to skip, and when doing so, they're much more subtle (less skip-skip-pop-skip, more pppffssshhhhhh.. if you know what I mean ;D), and you can really skip them FAR.

Wow T-Rig - I need one of those. Those look pretty freakin' sweet.

Wow Johnnydel - I don't know if I've ever seen water as calm as that before. Pretty cool.

My favorite place to shore fish is a little chain of 4 ponds near some old railroad tracks. Two ponds are totally segregated, and the other two are connected by a water pipe. I found these on Google Earth, which, by the way, is an amazing tool to find little out-of-the-way ponds. In the first I've caught nothing but dinks (but there just HAS to be some nice fish in there), the water is stained green with algae, and there is a defined weed line all the way around the shoreline in about 8-10 feet of water. I've seen the fish relating closely to this edge, especially points. There's a very good population of bluegills and crappie (they're always near the middle making wakes and feeding on bugs - sometimes mess with them on fly). The second has just one shoreline with a weed edge, the rest is covered in reeds with a little bit of timber. The water is clearer in this pond, and all the bass I've seen just roam the shoreline (this is the pond I was referencing when I replied to the "Roaming Bass" post). I caught my biggest fish from the 4 ponds from this pond in my float tube - it's tough to fish thoroughly from shore. There's also a good population of gills and crappies. The third and fourth ponds have a lot of scummy weeds and slop, the water is pretty murky, tons of laydowns, and two awesome flats that drop off on either side from 1-2 feet to 6-7 feet. There are always big fish around the water pipe on either side. I've caught more big fish (many fish in the 2-3.5 range) in the fourth pond than in any of the others even though my big fish came from the second. Again, great population of gills, no crappies yet, and I've caught some HUGE pumpkinseeds in there on 4 and 5 inch senkos. In the first and second ponds, spinnerbaits, topwaters, and X-Raps seem to be the ticket. In the second and fourth, the bass can't seem to resist jigs and senkos. Point being (well I mainly just wanted to write about these ponds because I love them but..) even these ponds that are right on top of each other (it's not more than a 20 yard walk between them) display very different characteristics, as do the fish. You just have to keep truckin' and try everything. That's part of the fun - knowing that the ponds hold fish and trying all the different tactics/baits in your arsenal trying to trick the fish. You'll never totally figure them out, but the more you try the more successful you'll be. I wish these things had 5-6-7 lbers you're talking about, but I'm in CT so they probably aren't that big. Darned if I won't spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find that 7 lber though...

I always use a #3 Gammy EWG. I think the #4 is too big. I usually rig it skirt down, but I'm betting that if RW uses these he rigs them skirt up. Sometimes if they're not working I'll rip the arms off so it's just the body and the skirt and this seems to work better in some situations (I don't know specifically what situations, but experiment). Side note: Kreatures are the absolute best baits for skipping - they don't get fouled up, and you can really skim them along the surface. They don't even skip, they just skim along the surface. This past spring they were my #1 bait.

X-Rap and LC Pointer, equally. Sometimes one seems to outproduce the other, but they are both amazing baits. The thing I like about the X-Rap is that it's a little cheaper, but with that I also need to tune X-Raps more than the LC's. I've been looking at some of these crazy Japanese jerkbaits, and they look pretty awesome. You can see some pretty crazy ones on: http://www.ichibantackle.com/

I think using the zoom hooks or some other type of hook with the screw in the head makes it a little more weedless than using a regular EWG hook. $.02

I float tube a bunch, but I live in the Northeast where alligators are not a problem, and snakes aren't really a problem. Oh, and worrying about a 12-15 lber wrapping around my feet is not a problem, unfortunately. I'd say don't do it man, not in TX - everything is bigger there, I've heard...

I use a lot of braid and used to have a problem with the line breaking at the knot. Palomar works well, but I prefer to use the knot I grew up using - the Uni Knot. The only difference with braid is you have to loop the line through the eye twice, like infidel said. If you don't do this, you'll have problems. To tie braid to flouro/mono use the double Uni Knot. These knots work like charm and are, not that it matters, the most beautiful-looking knots.

I often see the same thing on a couple of the little ponds I frequently fish. Most of the time, by the time I see them, they've already seen me, but sometimes even after they've seen me, they'll take a 4 inch senko fluttering down in front of them. It's really helpful to know that they're looking for 'gills - thanks guys. Come to think of it, the biggest fish I've pulled from those ponds was taken taken on a spinnerbait (chartreuse/orange/black - bluegill color) thrown along the weed edge while in my float tube. So I'll definitely use more bluegill-imitators. But Cliff - if they've seen you, you can try to temp them with a slow-falling senko...sometimes that works for me.

I have to say, that exact lure, Zara Puppy silver and black, is my all-time favorite topwater. I don't use it much anymore because I've found the LC Sammy (I love the little popping noise it makes with each twitch), but my heart will always be with that old-school lure. I like doing a steady walk-the-dog retrieve (slowing down and speeding up throughout), but a lot of the time I probably miss fish because I'm too stubborn to pause it, twitch, pause. I LOVE that lure, and have loved it ever since I was a little kid.

I know there have been similar threads, but it would be interesting (and fun for everyone to relive his experience) to describe your PB: size, LM/SM, bait used, time of year, time of day, weather, and any other pertinent information. So here's mine - When I caught my biggest bass, I went out January 7th (I live in CT) 2007, the day after a freakishly warm Jan 6th (about 70 degrees), around 2 pm, and fished from shore on a lake (Silver Lake in Berlin, CT) that is known for holding a TON of dinks. I wasn't expecting to do too well that day seeing as how it was JANUARY in Connecticut, but I just wanted to get outside and blow the stink off. That day there were at least 5 boats on the lake, so while I was making 10-minute-plus casts I was watching the other boats. Up to that day the biggest fish I had pulled out of there was 2 lbs (in 10-plus trips). I cast out a purple with green flake GYCB Kreature, t-rigged on a red Gamakatsu #3 EWG, the whole rig doused in Yum Craw scent and let it sit for like 5 minutes. I twitched it ever so slightly and let it sit for another few minutes. Right after the next twitch I felt a tap-tap, I gave it a second, reeled down and set the hook, only to listen to my drag zip out for a good 5 seconds. I almost soiled my pants at that point, but just figured it was an oversized pickerel. After a good two minutes, several more runs and almost losing the hawg in the remaining lily pad stalks, I caught a glimpse of the fish and once again almost soiled myself because it was a bass (LM), not a pickerel. Ended up being 6 lbs even, which I know is not huge for a lot of you guys, but for CT it's a hawg and the biggest bass I've seen out of the water in person. I removed the hook, looked it over in admiration for a good 15 seconds, shaking the whole time (not from the cold), and released the beauty. After that I threw one more cast then just called it a day. Even after I catch the state record this fall , I'll still never forget that day. What made it better was that just being able to be outside that time of year without being in pain was a priviledge, not to mention catching that beauty. How about y'all, as the southerners would say?

Yeah definitely looks bigger in the second picture. I hate how pictures sometimes make big fish look smaller, and small fish look bigger (well I don't mind the second part quite as much). In a picture of a 5 lber I caught it looks about 3, and on my cell phone camera a picture of a 2.5 lber my brother caught looks like about a 5. Either way, give the kid congrats on the fish, and after all the hype about these Cavitron buzzbaits I'll have to give the one I have another shot. Only tried it once for about 5 casts, but it seems like a pretty good deal.

Also, I forgot to mention, a great deal of the time artificials are more effective than shiners. When I was younger I was fishing side-by-side with a friend of mine who was using shiners, and I was using senkos. Within two hours he gave up on the shiners and was catching more fish on the senkos. Live bait can definitely be more effective than artificials also - just another technique in the bass fisherman's arsenal. I just don't use it because it's a hassle.

I think what he meant to say was "the purist bass angler". The purists don't use bait. I don't use bait, but it's not because I'm a purist. It's just kind of a hassle for me and I'm just too lazy to use it. That's the main reason I don't use it, but another lesser reason is because I'd rather catch a bass on an artificial.

That fish looks about 4 lbs - is it just me? Obviously a very nice fish, but 7lbs?

How about a senko, but perfectly symmetrical, with a little skirt on each end like the skirt that's on a hula grub or a fat ika. It would be pretty easy to make and I think it would be awesome for whacky rigging.

Definitely, definitely a hard jerkbait, specifically an X-Rap or LC Pointer. In my area, I've found this bait to be absolute gold doing exactly what you were talking about jwo1124 - just searching for a bite. It worked early spring after ice-out, has worked all summer, and continues to work early fall.

You could also swim the jig, using a SPRO toad or Horny Toad as a trailer. I've never really used this technique, but I've heard it's pretty good for the fall season especially. It does look really cool underwater.