gotarheelz14

This was this past summer when I was first starting out with fishing. I spent all my money on a brand new rod (croix avid) and so I didn't have any money for lures. One day as opposed to losing something :, I actually found something sitting by the edge of a bank. It was one of the dollar spinnerbaits but someone had taken the smaller colorado blade off of it. I gladly took it as I didn't have any money for lures and this became the second spinnerbait in my tackle box. The backup by default, if you will. I ended up going to the Potomach later that week when I was visiting one of my friends. I tied on a Booyah spinnerbait and got a LM on my first cast. I ended up losing that spinnerbait---snagged at the bottom of the river on some rocks. I went to my tackle box and tied on the shoddy looking Wal-Mart $1 special. In about 45 minutes, I managed to pull in 5 more fish. All of them over a pound some 1.5-2lbs. The skirt on the spinnerbait got pretty much torn off after the time was up. I would think that the Booyah spinnerbait, with its better skirt, would have probably lasted for a couple more fish. But then again I can't know for sure because I never slayed them like I did with the Wal-mart one!!!! ;D So what did I take from this? Those Spinnerbaits will get them just about as good as the rest of them. You can't expect upmost performance, they only come in a very few sizes, the materials are not the most etc etc etc... But for for $1?!?!?!? I'll buy 6 of those and catch another 36 fish when the bite is on or when I don't mind losing and shredding spinnerbaits hahahha! ;D

I'm partial to terriers. We have a Westie (West Highland White Terrier). Much like someone mentioned above, he plopped his head on my hand when I was driving him home for the first time and we backe best buds ever since. I love that d**n dog and I will probably always have a Westie at all times. I used to take him fishing a lot but he would always find a way to get filthy. He would either roll in it on purpose or his terrier instincts would take over. One time, with other people in the lake, he decided he had had enough with some canadian geese and chased them a good 30 feet into the lake. He went in after them too, much to the surprise of the menly men who would never imagine a little white "cute" dog picking a fight with an entire flock of geese haha! Now I only take him when he is about to get bathed that same day. Any way you end up going, you can't really go wrong with any doggy! carlos

Nicely done man. Wouldn't mind catching some of those. Crappie can be so much fun when you get on them!

Really? Let us know when you attempt to master the trouser trout. :-* Oh man I've slayed so many of those. I've definitely mastered it...

Yeppers. That is how they make their money. Customers like me love that policy so we come back! It makes sense. The only thing I would say though is that Dicks as well as Gander mountain have a plan where you pay about $15 for a true "no questions asked" return policy on their rods. You simply come in, swap one out and you are out of the store. This might be worth looking into as well. Carlos

***Before you read anything I am about to write, be informed that I only have a post spawn (very little of it), summer and fall's (very little) worth of experience under my belt.*** Unlike you, I am in love and extremely polished with the worm. Indeed, I have been called "a master with the worm" by a friend of mine...hahaha! One thing I have found is that when the fish are feeding, they will readily take on a worm as much as if not more than any other bait. I have caught more fish with a plastic worm of some kind than all other lures combined. As much as I love it however, I do not think a worm would be my first choice pre spawn. From what I have read about prespawn fish, they are feeding tremendously; almost every day. They are just coming out of winter and they are just getting ready to start one of the most stressful times of their lives. They will not be eating for quite some time so they are gorging themselves in preparation. So, at this time, they will probably hit just about anything you throw at their general direction, even if it means they have to move a ways to get it. Baits you might want to throw include fast moving "search baits" such as flukes, spinnerbaits, cranks, lipless cranks, etc. Because you typically fish these baits faster, you will be covering a lot more water and hopefully putting the bait in front of more fish's general vicinity. You will get a lot of takes from these mad hungry fish. In a perfect world, you you will be putting a ton of fish in the boat and doing so very quickly. If you were fishing a worm, you would get a lot of takes, but it would take you quite a while to find these fish. Once you found them though, you could probably put a hurting on them. I would just think it would take wayyy longer than fishing something fast. During the prespawn you might want to save the worms and other plastics for post frontal conditions, or to pick up any stragglers in a fished area who were weary of fast moving baits and did not take them. This is just what I would do in this situation ---Carlos

Hey guys. I know that this is probably not the best place to post it but it is my fav forum and I really trust your advice. So, I have been thinking about getting a fly rod for Christmas. So far, I have kind of narrowed it down to the St Croix Avid Fly rod. I have an Avid Casting rod from St croix and I absolutely love it. I am thinking that the quality of build and materials vs the cost of the price will probably translate the same towards a fly rod. As far as weight, I am thinking about getting a 5 or a 6. A friend of mine has already told me that a five will be too light though. If I want to go for Largemouth and the Occasional trip to the mountains for Smallmouth and Trout, which rod would you recommend? Thanks guys, Carlos Saravia

Dipsey Swivels from Walmart, etc. Cheap, probably not the ideal weight but it has never failed me.

Hey all. This Friday I will have the opportunity to fish in a pond that is stocked full of Trout. There are also some Largemouth in there and apparently, at least one ten pounder gets caught there every spring. I am going to be fishing exclusively for bass. Obviously, I am pretty sure that Trout is probably the main forage for the big bass in there. So, I think knowing where the food is going to be, is probably a pretty good indicator of where the Bass are going to be. So, how do you guys think I should approach fishing this pond? Everything has to be single hook, barbless. I am planning on throwing a lot of jigs, big worms, maybe some Senko type worms. Also planning on throwing spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits as search baits. Once I find where the Bass are holding I will pound them with the Jigs, worms, etc. I also plan on using a dropshot to give the bass holding areas a final do over before I move on to the next spot. PS. I wish I had any more info on the pond but I have not been there before and don't know much about it. I can ask around though. Also, I don't plan on using any big Huddlestons or anything like that this time. I have no money for that right now. I will probably go again there in the spring and use some at that point.

I fish a place that is covered pretty much entirely with moss down at the bottom. It is so thick that if you use a jig, or too heavy a bullet weight your bait will sink down into the moss and you will never see it again....Until you twitch it back up of course. I recently heard from a friend of mine that the bass there are feeding up on crayfish (I also saw a dead one by the shore at the beginning of this summer). So, Jigs are out of the question because of the weight associated with them. I have been thinking about using soem kind of crawdad imitation though. I was either thinking of using some Paca Craws or the Ragetail Lobster. I am going to T-rig them but I am not sure how. I don't know whether to use a bullet weight or if I should use one of those "Tube Weights" with the rattles in them. I would really prefer to use some kind of weight on them. I really don't like going weightless unless its with something heavy like a senko. If I were to go with the Tube Weights and succesfully managed to stick them into the back end of the craw, do you think it would lay down flat on top of the moss or would it just sink down? I kind of feel like it might sit on top of it, especially if the weight is distributed throughou the mass of the craw. Help! What do you guys think? How should I rig up for this type of situation?

Sounds like a good day for sure. Tell me though, you guys have a fishing season? How does that work? I'm from NC and we don't really have a season I think.

Sure lol. We can pretend that you are my brother, uncle, dad, grandpa...w/e. PM me if you are serious.

So I am in the fishing club at my school. We met a guy who owns and manages a pond that is stocked full of different kinds of trout. He charges upwards of $100 to people for the day. He lets us go a couple afternoons per semester and we only pay him $15 per afternoon. Thing is, I know there are some bass in that pond. And, I have heard from people that almost every bass that gets taken out of there is huge. I have heard in fact that almost every spring, one bass of 10lbs get caught :o Would it be a ******-y thing for me to do, to go out there and fish for bass? I plan on asking the owner but I don't know how other club members will see me for doing this. They will probably say i'm wasting time and missing out on all the great trout fishing. But, I don't care if they snub me really. I'd love to catch a bass that big lol.... What do you guys think?

So is the picture attached a scan of the polaroid? And by the way, hilarious story. My girlfriend and I were cracking up when I told her.

So I understand that shad will chase after plankton and other stuff while the bass will follow them. Because of decayed sunlight, this will usually occurs at shallow places and especially in creeks, etc. But, why do we make such a big deal about imitating shad during the fall? Why not also do that during the summer months? Do bass target shad more during the fall? Thanks, Carlos

I am right handed. I retrieve with my right hand. Cast with my right hand and then quickly switch the rod over to my left hand lol...

It's my favorite worm period.

Report: It's a little unfortute but I had a terrible day. I did not hook a single bass. I ended up catching two MONSTER crappie. One was over two pounds!!!. Caught them both on a chatterbait. So, the fish were not really in the shallower ends of points. Maybe they were but no fast moving baits were really getting them at all. I wish I could have worked some worms and soft plastics but there was a gust that was blowing everyone around. I could hardly stay out on the water. I would get one cast in before I was on the shore. It was that bad. Even the people that had trolling motors were struggling real bad. I had oars. I think they may have been put off by the weater. The cold moving in probably had them turned off. I think I would have had to switch up to some finesse stuff.

It might just be a "target rich environment". They use this term in the military to describe situations where there are so many targets that they simply cannot be serviced all at once. What you might have here is a situation where there are simply so many fish for the smallmouth to gorge on, that the chances that they will pick up your bait, are very diminished. I have heard of situations like this happening to people that come up on huge schools of shad, with bass popping them everywhere up top. There are just so many targets for the bass, that lures can go un noticed. In your case, the perch are large enough to where at least you are catching some type of fish ;D It might sound stupid, but maybe your chances will increase if you go to a spot that doesn't contain such big schools of perch. Counterintuitive yes, but if that was me, that's what I would do.

I just got a Daiwa Zillion 7'6 Fast action, Heavy power. One heck of a rod. I like it so much and works so well that I use it for all my plastics now. It is extremely light, well balanced and very sensitive. I have heard people say that it is the best rod they have fished in the price point. Carlos Saravia

So far in my novice fishin experience, I have praticed on techniuqes and not much on figuring out lakes. Today, I visited the local library and pulled out a bathymetric contour map. It will be the first time I take a methodical approach to my fishing. It has been raining here a LOT and the temperature took a turn downwards at the very beginning of the week and will remain cold. It looks like fall has started and I really think these fish will be on their best early fall behavior. From what I have learned, this typically means that they will be coming up shallower, feeding heavily in preparation for winter. Not completely shallow yet and probably not as aggressive. Because this has all just started, I think it's going to be what I have read about fall patterns, but to a lesser extent. I think this will translate into the fish not being as shallow, but definitely starting to move up just to "see what's up". I will be focusing on gently, sloping points that I found on the map. Points that offer the fish an opportunity to find some sort of shallow hunting grounds. I will probably save sloping flats and places that are flatter and lengthier for later in the fall. Right now, I think they will still be on their summer hangouts, but on the shallower ends of those hangouts. I will be focusing on water 4-8 feet. I think that will probably be a good range to start off with right now. I will throw topwater lures, probably a spook or a hula popr at the very beginning of light. I will then follow that with a white spinnerbait, colorado leaf or if that doesn't seem to be working, maybe a midnight special since it has been raining pretty heavily here and the water will more than likely be pretty stained. Another search bait I plan on using will be a 2-5ft square bill rapala crankbait. After throwing the searchbaits, and hopefully finding some good sweet spots, I will slow down and work either a monster sized worm, or a big Black and Red Jig with a Black Speed Craw Trailer. Please, let me know how you guys would modify this plan. What would you throw? What areas would you focus on instead? I will post again tomorrow and report on my success. I am really hoping to hit on something and hit em hard tomorrow! Carlos

Well it depends on how small your hook is. When my hooks are really small, like in drop-shots, I actually end up raising the rod tip as a I reel up. Enough of a "sweep" to get the hook up against the fish's lips and reeling in at the same time to generate just a little more extra speed and enough torque to dig the hook in. Otherwise, if I go with a conventional hookset, It's too fast and the tiny little hook just comes flying right back out. It's the only way I have found that has exponentially increased my hookup ratio. Just a thought...

Thanks Rhino! Great advice. Carlos

Hey all, I almost always fish very small sized lakes. I end up renting a john boat and casting out towards the bank. When I fish my local ponds, and rivers, things are way different. I almost always know where depth changes occur, where rocks, logs, etc are located. Can I expect something similar to this if I get an eagle Cuda 300? How much can a fishfinder such as that one really help?

Those Eagle Claaw Rubber Bobber Stoppers are awesome and incredibly easy to use. Just make sure you put the bobstop and the very beginning of your line or leader. Otherwise, you might get a big kink in the line which could debilitate the line's strength. I peg when I am flipping, piching or working really irregular, solid cover. Branches, Tons of Rocks, etc. It helps me get my bait over these things without getting hung up and it also helps keep me from detecting false positives and thereby possibly getting into false negatives. The problem here is where the weight actually slides down off a rock or branch before your bait does. I swear it feels just like the tug a fish gives you when it inhales your bait whole! When I am working pretty open areas of water or keeping my T-rigs off the bottom and higher in the water column, such as when I fish current in rivers where I like to let the bait dangle and flutter in the column, I make it a point to NOT PEG my weights. I do this because I like to have the weight make tons of contact and noise against the beads. I really do think that this helps bring attention to my bait. I will sit there sometimes and jerk my rod tip, not very far at all in overall distance, just far and fast enough to get that weight and beads going. I sometimes get fish's attention this way. I have personally seen dumb little bass and bluegill attack the heck out of my C-rigs' beads-weight section. For this reason I have stopped using them there. But, when it comes to T-rigs, I really do feel that it brings a lot of good attention because of how close the beads are to the soft plastic. So, I would recommend not pegging when working open sections of water, but pegging when working solid, irregular cover. Carlos