Rolltide09

Needs some advice. After messing around in the saltwater thing for a while I have an itch to get back into bass fishing. Seems like its been so long since I have really thought about anything bass wise that I haven't a clue to how I want to setup my rods. What would y'all do with the equipment listed below? I will say that I do not fish cranks or anything with trebles for that matter unless its topwater. Never been my thing really. Mostly prefer techniques like, t-rigs, jigs, shaky, weightless, wacky, topwater and spinnerbaits. Reels: (3) Shimano Curado 50E (1) Shimano Curado 200E7 (1) Shimano Stradic 2500 Ci4 Rods: Dobyns DX742C Dobyns DX704C Dobyns DX744C St Croix Avid 66MF Casting St Croix Avid 68MXF Spinning

Just got invited to a managed lake for three days with two of my buddies. In the past year or two I have hardly been able to fish at all and have been out of the game a little. We mentioned that we are only going to be able to bring three rods each to help save some room on the boat. I have two Dobyns Champ. Extremes that need to be replaced and I am trying to get around spending $200 doing so because I honestly do not know when I will be able to get off work to go fishing again. So that leaves me with a dilemma on which three to take. Would this be good enough to get me through the weekend? Here is what I am thinking about taking St Croix AVC66MF w/Curado 200 14lb mono - Topwater, spinnerbaits and small cranks St Croix AVS68MXF w/ Stradi Ci4 10lb Flouro - ShakeyHeads, Weightless, Light T-rigs Dobyns Extreme 704 w/ Curado 50 14lb Flouro - Texas Rigged plastics. 3/8oz jigs and Ribbit Frogs

I caught all previous bass (15) with an a-rig, spinnerbait, crankbait, weightless worm and trigs. Nothing stayed consistent. I noticed most bass I was catching had lots of ripped lips and and what not. Looked around and everyone was either throwing spinnerbaits or texas rigs. Decided to switch to the shakeyhead to try something different. I adapted to the fast presentation when I noticed I was getting slammed on the fall more than anything and when I started to pop it off the bottom in sequences of three/four pause they started killing it.

Went out to the lake yesterday morning and after exhausting all efforts I grabbed a 3/16oz. shakeyhead out of the box and put a Zoom finesse worm on and went at it. I have little experience with these type of finesse techniques but the few times I have tried it I have always had to work an area fairly slow to get bit. Not this time. As I was getting a bad sun burn and the bass were not cooperating with my usual styles so I became very impatient. I ended up fan casting areas I knew that held fish and would hop the bait off the bottom really fast almost in a constant retrieve with small pauses every now and then. Ended up with somewhere around 45 bass like this including a 7.11, 7.7 and a 5.8. I was having blast to say the least. Is this a normal technique for shakeyhead fishing or some odd phenomenon? I was just under the impression it was supposed to be work slow and what not.

I have a 1650 xpress all welded thats rated for a 40hp. That being said when I first purchased the boat I put a 30hp four stroke on it and it worked fine. Last year I wanted more power and speed so I was stuck between a 40hp or a 50hp. The only reason was the 40 and 50 weighed exactly the same but In the end I ended up puttin a 50hp Tohatsu two smoke on there and I am so glad I did. Top end is right at 40mph and I never have to trim the motor down to get on plane no matter what load I am carrying. Would not have done it any other way.

My local lake host a tournament ever week. The lake is known to be hard to fish and catch quality bass out of. On any given tournament, if you have close to 10lbs you stand a good chance of winning the purse. Which is not bad considering they average 15-20 boats and $30 per fisherman. On to some information regarding this lake. The lake is a moderately clear water lake and is renowned locally as being so hard to fish that most drive over an hour for better fishing. In most places from the banks out to 14ft deep you cant really fish bottom due to all the vegetation. Only ways I have found to consistently produce for me is use either a t-rigged weightless plastic like a senko, finesse or trick worm, a ribbit frog, and hollow body frogs and get into the cover as far as I can and fish the mats and small holes within them. My problem comes to only being able to catch bass up to 2lbs. Occasionally we will tag on to a 3lber or so but not often enough to make claims. I have heard on some of the guy hitting the channels up and doing ok but I am not to knowledgeable on fishing 20-40ft deep channels and prefer the nastier cover personally. Any advice or tips? Would like to better my skill level and contend with some of these guys that fish this place religiously.

At Daylight: Lime Frog colored Rapala Skitterpop Any other time: Weightless texas rigged Watermelon Red Trick Worm

Gonna go give them another run tomorrow night and see what happens. Goin back through my logs and this particular pond has given me fits since March. I have had a couple nice bass pulled out of there this year in the 8-10lb range but nothing like the past few years. Talking to the lake manager this morning and he mentioned some of the other guys have been running into some of the same issues with the bass being finicky. Never been granted a night trip to these lakes so I'm pretty stoked over that alone.

This year fishing a wacky rig in a managed lake I lost one of if not the biggest bass I have ever seen. She came up a couple times and stripped a lot of drag but there wasnt anything I could do to stop her run and finally the hooked popped out. Half hour or so after that I was reeling in a 1.5lb bass, got it close to the boat and a massive bass comes up and steals it off my line. Wasnt a dozen or so cast later on the same bank the exact same thing happened again. I was sick but amazed at the same time.

Went out to one of my favorite lakes yesterday afternoon to do a little fishing. I started out fishing t-rigged dark colored Zoom U-tail worms. Made a few cast and was getting a lot of bites but the bass were only grabbing the tail end of my worms and would not take in the whole bait. Tried setting the hook on first feel, letting the have it a little and as far as letting the swim with the bait. Everytime I would go to set the hook either the worm was pulled off or about to fall off. Switched to a lime colored skitter pop topwater as it got later and the same thing. Bass would just swat at the bait but never actually take it. The only thing I noticed that was different about the lake was that we had fertilized not too long ago and the water was much greener and not as clear as it was last time I went which was over a month ago. Any ideas or suggestions??

I am just nnow getting to draw some interest on wacky rigging. I am using a St. Croix AVS68mxf w/ 8lb invisx if that matters. Tried it the other day with the Owner Weedless Wacky 1/0 with trick worms and did quite well and caught 40 bass but missed a decent bit of fish too. I am looking to try different worms like a zoom finesse and possibly 4-6" senko style baits. My questions and concerns comes to what hook sizes are y'all using for the type of baits mentioned and is there a trick to not missing so many fish? Also if anyone has any bait reccommendations or anything I will be more than thankful for the help.

If it wasnt for this one lake I wouldn't have a use for the finnesse setup. There more big bass in that one lake than most places I fish all together but they are really spooky. I may have to take a look at the Avid you mentioned. I have one in a baitcasting setup for topwaters and I love that rod. I had been using a supertuned Curado 50e on a Dobyns dx703c but it just doesnt feel right and casting accuracy and feel really suffers from what I think I should be using.

Looking at adding a finnesse specific setup to my collection. Some places that we fish the bass are extremely finicky to larger tackle/presentations and throwing these light baits can be hard at times if the conditions call for longer cast with my baitcasters. I am looking for something for throwing those small wieghtless finnesse worms, trick worms, flukes, light texas rigs, and small 1/8oz-3/16oz spinnerbaits cranks if possible.There is moderate cover around and I am afraid of going too light on the power of the rod. I have never fished anything lighter than a mh/f baitcasting setup with any plastics. I have been looking at a Dobyns Champion 703s and Stradic 2500 combo really hard lately and if y'all having any reccomnedations or advice feel free to chime in before I pull the trigger on the wrong combo. Thanks in advance.

Correct. These are not unfished farmed ponds and what not. These are professionally managed ponds/lakes where they do recieve fishing pressure pretty much daily by the paying members. Other than one pond, its actually not that simple to go out and slay big bass all day long. In fact other than my buddy and myself, a lot of the members struggle to catch 10 bass a day and rarely do they catch one over 5lbs. Our lake record is 15.5lbs and we have a healthy supply of bass 8lb+. Thats what keeps us paying our dues every year. I like to see the different viewpoints and opinions as well.

Man made stocked ponds (85-150acres) managed by a biologist monthly for bigger bass. They are fishing clubs where the members pay the membership dues for upkeep and management purposes.

I have one lake thats about 50 acres and on any day you can expect a 100 fish day easily with a good number of 5lb+ bass and its loaded with 10lb+ bass. That gets boring and I only like to do that about once every couple months. The private lake I fish most is 95 acres and is stocked with gizzard and threadfin shad as well as managed by a biologist at Auburn. The most we have pulled from there in one day was 42. Usually there a 25-30 fish per two person boat is good but the quality is a lot better and its more of a challenge.

These private clubs just kind of fell in our laps over the past few years. We had always had private ponds but not ones like these that have a biologist looking over them every month. Its still fishing because if you dont know how to fish you arent going to catch anything. Just getting some insight on some fellow anglers.

I have one and love it. I started out using a WS Tarpon 160 and upgraded to the PA. Best thing I had ever done. You will not regret the purchase.

What are yalls thoughts on managed private lakes and ponds when it comes to bass fishing? I have been fortunate to have access to multiple professsionally managed lakes and have a hard time going back to the public honey holes. Downsides are that friends dish out a lot of heat that its not fair fishing and is cheating. Would you mount a bass that you caught from a managed lake? What are yalls view on the subject matter?

Mine would be the Dobyns DX704c paired with a 200e7. Perfect texas rig setup.

I tried Berkeley 100% flouro and p-line.

I fish my Texas rigs on Dobyns Champion Extreme 704 w/ curado 200e7 Where I usually fish, there's a good chance of tying into a few 5lb+ and 8lb+ fish everytime you go. Theres a good bit of wood structure and always end up losing a couple in the junk. I'm debating on switching from 14lb flouro to braid. Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Looking at utilizing a dx704c for duties like 1/4+ Texas rigs, 3/8+ jigs, buzzbaits and ribbit frogs/rage toads around cover. Will the rods action be too heavy for these duties?

I have a DX703C casting rod for sale in the Flea Market

I am looking to get a froggin' setup. I dont want to blow a bunch of money on a rod for a frog specific setup so lets keep that in mind. I am willing to spend up to $300 maybe $350. Right now I am looking at a Veritas heavy xfast with a Revo SX. Any recomendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.