Busy

5" plastic worms?

Thanks for all the replies. I will be trying again tonight. I'll try to be more patient this time around and wait for bump #2. I'll like the rod even more when I can put some fish on the end of it! I'll post back. Good to know. Hehe one of the fish I missed shook me a bit. He hit the bait hard and then swam straight for me. When I felt the bump I went to load the rod a bit... nothing, started reeling in really fast and thought, 'man I have a lot of slack in my line' and right when I caught back up to him he spit it out. No doubt he was laughing at me!

4-6" Plastics, 0-3/8oz. weights. What do you wait for? How loaded up should the rod be? I'm going to also step up my hook size, getting lots of half-worms back, too.

Feeling a little hung up... I've been fishing with a 6'6" Quantum Code MHF rod with 20# Sufix braid with a pretty good hook-up ratio. A week and a half ago I went out to a new spot a caught 2 fish missed 0. Few days later, bought a new 6'6" Shimano Compre MHXF rod and Citica reel and put 20# Sufix braid on it. Been going back to the new spot to learn them and in three outings now I've missed 5 fish and caught 1. This is disgusting to me but I really like the rod and waaaay better sensitivity than my other one so heres the question: Anyone have any tips on how to not overplay the rod or likely mistakes I'm making because I'm not used to such a sensitive rod?

I fish from the shore. 1) Quantum Code Rod 6'6" MH Fast, Quantum Code BC Reel 6.3:1, 20# green Sufix Braid 2) Shimano Compre Rod 6'6" MH Extra-Fast, Shimano Citica E BC Reel 6.3:1, 20# green Sufix Braid That's it really; I mainly throw Plastic worms Texas rigged and frogs/topwater buzzers. Oh and the bass in my picture came a few months ago on this crappie setup of mine: 3) Shimano Voltaeus 5'6" UL Medium-Fast, Quantum Kinetic 10PTiB Spinning Reel 5.3:1, 4# clear SufixSiege Mono It all works! Just need to find the fish and get them to bite

Small lake gets a lot more pressure than it used to. It's in my backyard and all I'll do on it anymore is sit for catfish. Haven't fished it lately, too close to home to 'get out' and go fishing

Golf Course Fishing...

Both. What you are looking for is Gary Yamamoto Senko worms.

I'll fish spring, summer, and fall for bass. In the winter I'll be hunting for deer, pheasant, or quail. Doesn't mean I won't fish at all in the winter, I will if I have the time, but with my other sporting hobbies I probably won't.

I agree with George. Each post in this thread has to do with casting again; you don't always have to. If I miss a strike or a hook-set I immediately stop my retrieve instead of hauling it back to cast again. If you miss on a hook set you might jerk your lure a little ways away from the fish, but he still knows where it is. By stopping your retrieve (especially with soft plastics) you let the lure hit the bottom. As soon as it hits the bottom twitch it and barely move it. Bass will circle around and hit it again especially if they think they've wounded their prey (that's why you stop the retrieve). Take for example bass fishing with live bluegill as bait. Often the bass will bump the bluegill a few times and come back 3-7 seconds later with a vengeance. You know the bluegill is trying to get away but can't because it's hooked. I try to mimic this same scenario with my artificial lures if I miss a stike/hook-set. Edit: I see now you said you were using a spinnerbait. Casting again may be the best option. On a texas rigged creature or something with a weedless hook I would try to get the fish to hit a second time. Personally, I always try to get the bass to hit a second time, but after 7 seconds I'll leave that spinner in the lake and throw a plastic on my second rod and not worry about retrieving the spinnerbait until I know I'm not going to catch that fish.

Congrats!

Nice fish. I wouldn't call it a hog so you can't give up yet

In KS too. I was wondering about that. Never rolled them down hills, but we threw them at eachother running through the woods. Like paintball but with an arm and hedge apples instead of a gun and paintballs Those things can hurt!

Congratulations! (Is it just me or is there not a picture showing)

Did you just make a reference to an obscure japanese game that was translated horribly? All your bass are belong to us. The cheese I am talking about is like a froth on the top of the water, usually not much under it, no grass. In fact the froth (algaeic) kills whats below it by blocking the sunlight and puts oxygen in the air rather than in the water. Seen old ponds with this crap all around it. It smothers everything in the pond. Bass relate to this stuff when you find it at a spot in the lake?

I avoid it. I understand how different cover can at first be difficult to fish so a lot of people avoid it. Heavy grass, for instance. The thing with most cover like this (trees, grass, hyrilla, lily pads, etc) is that they are productive spots that typically hold bass. It's not my understanding or experience that bass related positively to the 'cheese.' Perhaps I am doing it wrong. Do you find that bass relate to this stuff well, or are you fishing under it because the bottom is promising? I would have guessed that cheeseless spots would generally be more productive.

I generally believe that depth is better than breadth. Go for both I will work on deep water crankbaits next year for sure.

I see I was quoted here. My first sentence was NOT IN A BOAT. As in, not in a kayak, canoe, bass boat, ski boat, pontoon boat, inflatable boat, jon boat, etc. If I am on the shore I will drink. I do not drink spontaneously, it is always a planned event, and I have definite limits with consumption. If I have to drive the limit is 0. Safety first, fun second. There is ample room for both.

:-? Those statements kind of conflict with each other. I agree with you that I'll try to find new spots I just found that a little odd. I apologize for the confusion. In the former line I am talking about lure selection and presentation method while in the latter line I am talking about location. When I think I have a spot figured out well, I will abandon it and not go back until the patterns change with weather. When I figure it out again, I will move again. But you have pointed out something, I guess I am more open to learning locations and water than techniques. My biggest weakness is that I don't know how to fish crankbaits well. I'll throw a 1-1.5" long rainbow trout patterned shallow crank but those are all I own. I am stubborn to learn or invest in that technique. I will stick with 5" worms and various sized spinnerbaits and jigs for the most part.

Well, I find this true only to a certain extent. I go by this rule of thumb: A small lure will catch both large and small fish; a large lure will catch only large fish. You may more consistently catch larger fish with a larger lure. The larger lure doesn't necessarily make the larger fish bite, the presence of the larger fish does. If you only catch smaller fish on smaller lures then you may not be into bigger fish in the first place. When I in fish, especially in a new spot, I will upsize lures to see what size fish the spot may be holding. Generally I stick to smaller lures and search for bass and once I find them upsize and see what happens. I will generally go back to smaller lures after learning more about the bass I am on. But by all means, do what is working for you!

I go to catch fish. My philosophy is: If it's not broken, don't fix it. Often enough for me, it's broken. When it is broken, that is the time for me to experiment and learn. I don't keep a journal and never will. I want to go into every situation with an open mind, unless it's not broken of course . I do not enjoy fishing the same spot time and time again, even if I know it is very productive. My goal is to find the next spot that is even more productive, and to be able to catch fish in the spots where people claim there are no fish. Not just in fishing, but all things in life, I believe the harder you make it on yourself, the greater your learning curve will be. Right after I got my first baitcaster I caught a 4lber in a pond while backlashed. The cast went about 5 feet from shore and while I was messing with the reel by bait went crazy. I set the hook and walked backwards while my friend pulled the fish in by hand. Crazy times. Also caught two fish on one worm once. Catching catfish bait with a cane pole and caught a blue-gill, bass came up and ate the bluegill and we yanked them both out of the water. Caught a bass on a shiny new hook once with no bait; had thrown off the bait casting for catfish and was retrieving it. All low probability catches, I'm more prone to go for the high probability catches, and wouldn't say I learned anything by catching a fish on an empty hook. That was a reaction strike, the fish would have hit any lure in that proximity to it more than likely. Sometimes a weird event is just that, a weird event. You try to make a rule out of an anomoly and you're moving backwards.

Not on a boat. If we are on shore sure we will kick back a few beers. Not where we could get into trouble. Most lakes don't allow alcohol. Hike around a ways and MAKE SURE YOU TAKE THE CANS/BOTTLES WITH YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE. If you get drunk, you're camping not driving home . We find its a good luck charm to have a can of beer open while fishing. Doesn't matter how slow it's been, as soon as you pick up your beer to take a drink, WHAM! It makes quite a sight. You'll see me faking to grab my beer just to try and get a bite. Sometimes I really think old Mr. Bass is watching .

There are two things I have on my profile: 1) Patience 2) Superiority is not just a matter of secret techniques I am also not that great at fishing deep water structure (below 20 feet). I will be though. So will you, if you keep at it.

This natural equilibrium notion is infallible. It's also seems tautological, meaning that it can't be proven either way concretely. That being said, I don't think it's false in the least. Man builds a lake. Man dumps chemicals in the lake. Anglers heavily pressure the lake. A natural equilibrium occurs. The natural equilibrium point is few, unhealthy fish. You do indeed describe a great-sounding pond! Would you wish to make every water this way? If so, would doing just that create unnatural equilibriums because they came at the behest of man? Would that be good or bad? There's no line between man and nature, it's illogical. Some waters are naturally productive, some aren't. Sometimes man makes waters more productive through educated culling. Sometimes man makes them less productive. Sometimes mother nature does the EXACT SAME THING. Studies that I have read indicate that cover and baitfish have much more to do with stunted bass than population. No cover in open water (or not enough to contain the majority of bass) and the bass will obliterate schooling baitfish populations, resulting in all the bass becoming stunted over time until the bass start dying out. In essence, this should read: Too many bass for the available cover results in stunted bass populations. Your ponds biomass of fish per cubic measure is likely directly related to your ponds biomass in general per cubic measure. Adult bass are generally at the top of the food chain in their environments, meaning they almost certainly use more biomass than they produce. Everything in the water depends on living cover, ie plants. Maybe we should worry about the plant biomass more than the fish biomass. My main point is that taking bass out a pond or lake does not affect the plant life like the plant life affects the bass. If you take a bass out, the envirmonment that provided for it is still there, while it will merely take time to replace the bass. Sorry to have text-walled you all Interesting thoughts are all over this thread. Not meaning to beat a dead horse, but thought I might anyways.

Perfect Thanks all for the replies.