newfisherman

thanks for all the input guys. i'll see what i can scare up with these things. catt will be pleased to know that amongst my haul were several pounds of different size Gene Larue Salty Craws, which i understand i can use as jig trailers or t-rigged.

last time i was home my dad took me over to an old buddy of his who used to be a big bass fisherman. well his garage was like a tackle shop and he proceeded to load me down with stuff. 15 or 20 rattle traps new in boxes, lots of bomber jerkbaits and cranks (they were all old but in pretty good shape) and about a half a garbage bag of plastics. i haven't been through them all yet but i know there are bags and bags of different size zoom lizards and a bunch of other unidentified stuff. but there were ten or twelve bags of unopened creme scoundrels. does anybody still use this bait or has it been discontinued? i suppose they will catch fish. i guess if i catch one they were worth it since i got them free. like to hear any input on this bait.

I only had about an hour yesterday before dark at a small 7 acre pond. Struck out with traps and flukes before tying on a white buzz bait (it seemed a little ridiculous when I tied it on). Anyway I'm pulling it parallel to the shore in about 2 feet of water when it got smashed by a four pound 15 ounce fattie. I was a little disappointed that it didn't quite go five pounds but it was my biggest fish to date. A camera and learning how to post pictures are my next items of business.

thanks for the help guys. catt, as you can tell i know next to nothing about jig fishing (and not a whole lot about bass fishing in general - although i've learned a lot here) and i only put a ribbit on because i saw you mention it in another post. i don't know the size of the jig or hook (my father in law picked up a bunch at a garage sale) but from looking at the hook i'd say it was a three or four/0 heavy wire. i did notice not too much of the hook was exposed after i rigged it, so you are surely correct that the hook was too small for that trailer as for the line, i'm still relatively new to fishing and i'm not sure i want an entire rod and reel with fifty pound braid that i can really only use for jig and frog fishing. the rod i'm using, i use for nearly all my soft plastics which is why it's got 17 pound mono. but i guess i may have to bite the bullet and get another if i'm going to invest much time in this type of fishing.

st. croix medium heavy rod. 17 pound mono. straight up hookset.

never fished one before so i tried it out saturday morning at a local pond. blue and black with a stanley ribbit for trailer. about my third cast into a fallen tree i see a small twitch on my line and put what i thought was a pretty good hookset. i get him about 2/3 of the way in, he shakes the hook (he was in the 2-21/2 range) i never had him hooked good at all so the question is, is there any trick to the set up of a jig with a trailer or the hookset itself? or do i just need to make sure i set it like a man next time? i've caught a good many fish on soft plastics and haven't had trouble with hooksets.

my dad and i took the ol canoe to a small private pond (i would guess 8 or 10 acres) yesterday. fished for about 3 hours. 15 fish. 10 of them were three pounds or better. dad caught the kicker that went 4 pounds 12 oz, which i enjoyed since he's not really much of a bass fisherman and that was his personal best (which beat his earlier pb set earlier that day with a 3 and half pounder). needless to say, i'm going to try and take every chance i get to fish that pond this spring. sorry i don't have any pics but i'm a little technologically challenged - if you know what i mean.

i live in houston and would be glad to go sometime but middle of the week isn't good unless i get enough advance notice that i can take a day off. anytime you need "help" on a saturday, let me know.

broke a rod this morning (long story). anyway it was an abu garcia ambassadeur. since it was a gift and i don't yet know much about rod and reel technology, i was just going to replace it. but i couldn't find it and i was overwhelmed by the choices at academy. so i need recommendations. i need a baitcaster for worm and soft plastics primarily. i think i want medium heavy and a fast tip (if i recall from advice i got on another thread). do i need 6 and half or seven? what are some good choices in the 50 to 75 dollar range.

fishing a small pond today. five inch senkos on 3/0 gammy EWG. on three separate occasions, i had a fish on, put what i thought was a decent hook set. got the fish mostly to me only to have it let go. all three fish had merely been holding the bait in their mouths. and all three times the worm came out and back to me rigged perfectly straight T-rig just like a set it up. how is that possible? it was like i hadn't set at all. and on the third one (i'm a slow learner) i really thought i put some power into the set. but no dice. anybody ever had that happen? oh and i don't know the technical stuff about my set up other than a fairly cheap spinnng reel and a 7 foot rod that feels pretty limber at the tip, if that helps anyone. i usually worm fish with a baitcaster and that rod is considerable firmer, for lack of a better word.

thanks a ton for all the great info guys. i'm going to add trick worms to my list of presentations to try and put to use.

megastrick, can you describe the shakey head rig?

i'm relatively new to the sport but i have learned a lot here. i see you guys mentioning trick worms a lot. i was at the store today and found a Zoom product called trick worm and i assume this was it. how is it fished? i know how to texas rig and set up a carolina rig. is there some some "trick" to setting this worm up?

don't know about my hook sharpness. it's a chug bug i've used quite a bit. is there a sharpener for treble hooks, or do i just replace with new ones when they get dull? i'm pretty new to fishing so i'm just using 10 pd mono for everything. only time i've used braid is when fishing with a more experienced friend with frogs in lilly pads.

i think he must have missed it too. thanks for the replies. i'll be back tomorrow at dawn to try again.