7mm-08

Well I haven't really used many soft plastics the last few years :-[ but I used to have a lot of luck with Zoom lizards in the 4" and 6" variety. My go to color was chartreuse/pumpkin or just chartreuse. My fishing buddy catches a ton of fish using beavers (mostly brown) and split-tail worms (black w/chart. tail).

Same here.

Got one on the way. Had a giftcard burning a hole in my pocket anyway.

Well I love, love, love to catch fish on light and ultralight tackle and have found Fireline (fused) to work very well. I have caught countless 2.5 - 4.5 lb bass (and many channel cats up to 5 or 6 lbs) using an Abu Cardinal 100 and 6/14 lb Fireline. I've only had two fish to break me off on that setup and that was due to my stupidity/laziness for not retying after catching many fish and snagging many trees and rocks. Now if $$ was on the line I'm not sure I would go that route but then again I probably would. Until I got into frog fishing 5 or 6 years ago, I used UL tackle probably 75% of the time or more. Believe me I tried like heck to make the UL stuff work for frogs but you just hafta to have a bit more backbone for hooksets unfortunately. :-[

Tough call. All the green sunfish I've seen around my area all had blue-green-teal lines around the mouth and usually orange around the lower fin edges. All the warmouth had a darker, marbled look. The colors are more reminiscent of a redeye IMO but the eyes don't look very red and its body seems to be a bit more streamlined than what I'm familiar with. Being that it was caught in a pond, I would lean more towards green sunfish or warmouth. I've found warmouths tend to prefer impoundments while redeye are generally in moving water.

Tough call. All the green sunfish I've seen around my area all had blue-green-teal lines around the mouth and usually orange around the lower fin edges. All the warmouth had a darker, marbled look. The colors are more reminiscent of a redeye IMO but the eyes don't look very red and its body seems to be a bit more streamlined than what I'm familiar with. Being that it was caught in a pond, I would lean more towards green sunfish or warmouth. I've found warmouths tend to prefer impoundments while redeye are generally in moving water.

Tough call. All the green sunfish I've seen around my area all had blue-green-teal lines around the mouth and usually orange around the lower fin edges. All the warmouth had a darker, marbled look. The colors are more reminiscent of a redeye IMO but the eyes don't look very red and its body seems to be a bit more streamlined than what I'm familiar with. Being that it was caught in a pond, I would lean more towards green sunfish or warmouth. I've found warmouths tend to prefer impoundments while redeye are generally in moving water.

I've had crawdads in my aquariums in the past and they were more entertaining than the fish. They constantly build caves and fill them back in, make rock piles and move them around, etc. They'll disappear a while to molt and then reappear and go back to digging/moving. Surprisingly, they got along with my pet Warmouth and it never tried eating them. The Warmouth was awesome but too costly to feed. It would eat a dozen feeder goldfish a day if you'd let it. Poor thing would be so bloated it could barely move lol.

I've had crawdads in my aquariums in the past and they were more entertaining than the fish. They constantly build caves and fill them back in, make rock piles and move them around, etc. They'll disappear a while to molt and then reappear and go back to digging/moving. Surprisingly, they got along with my pet Warmouth and it never tried eating them. The Warmouth was awesome but too costly to feed. It would eat a dozen feeder goldfish a day if you'd let it. Poor thing would be so bloated it could barely move lol.

I've had crawdads in my aquariums in the past and they were more entertaining than the fish. They constantly build caves and fill them back in, make rock piles and move them around, etc. They'll disappear a while to molt and then reappear and go back to digging/moving. Surprisingly, they got along with my pet Warmouth and it never tried eating them. The Warmouth was awesome but too costly to feed. It would eat a dozen feeder goldfish a day if you'd let it. Poor thing would be so bloated it could barely move lol.

I've caught a ton of fish on the Wallyworld spinners. I have found during my years of fishing that the probability of losing a bait is proportional to the cost of the bait. Since they only cost $1 I NEVER lose one.

I like Spros but I've had by far the most luck with popping scum frogs.

I agree that this can be a problem. The same thing exists in deer hunting where not enough does are being harvested.

As far as rods go, I usually only take two normal setups (1 spinning, 1 bc) and one ultralight rod/reel. On the other hand, carrying my tacklebox is like lugging a deep-cycle battery around. I fish the same bait (frogs) probably >90% of the time. If that doesn't work I'll throw a spinnerbait. If things get truly desperate I throw the Terminator in-line spinner that is permanently attached to my ultralight setup. Hmmm.....I think I need to invest in a fanny pack.

Yep they are easily tunable and it can be very useful to have one track to the left or right.

I've never considered giving up fishing, but it is one of, if not the only thing I've put sooooo much time into and not obtained a satisfactory degree of proficiency at. I guess the challenge is what brings me back time after time. This year in particular has probably been my worst year ever from a fishing standpoint. Haven't had near as much time to fish as I'd like, and when I have gotten to go the bite has been terrible. Last year by contrast was my best year ever. Things have a tendency to balance out so just think of the season you may have in store next year.

Small spinners (Roostertail, Mepps, Beetlespin, etc.) if you have room to cast/fish them with all the vegetation. 4" lizards might do the trick. Sounds like it may be a perfect spot for a smaller frog like the Scum Frog. They are small enough to attract smaller bass but the hawgs can't stand them either.

This for sure. My second choice would be a frog purely because I enjoy fishing them more than any other bait.

Well I don't have a solution but I feel your pain. I was going through pics from last year and I was absolutely slaying them this time of year. This summer has been the exact opposite. So far it has been the worst summer I can recall since I started bass fishing.

I've probably caught nearly a dozen the last couple of years. They can't stand topwater frog baits.

I had never had this happen until last year. I guess I caught nearly ten frogs last year and 1 or 2 so far this year. It seems frog on frog violence is becoming an issue.

I'd have to go with the cheap little Scum Frog popper. I like the Spro too, but in the places I fish, I can catch 2X or even 3X the amount of fish with the Scum Frog.

Small inline spinners. I've caught many a nice bass on my Roostertails, Blue Foxes, and Terminator inlines. I guess I've caught most other species of fish around here on them too. I know when I use them I'm gonna catch SOMETHING, be it bass or not.

Welcome to the addiction. There really is a bit of timing you need to acquire to have a good hookup ratio. I usually work the bait with my rod relatively high. When I get a strike I reel down to take the slack out of the line and get my rod tip in position for the hookset. As soon as I feel the fish, I attempt to dislocate his jaw. Also, correct equipment will make a huge difference. A good rod with decent backbone and low or no-stretch line will up your hookup % mightily.

I've been wearing M-frames for years and love them.