AvidAngler

Recently ive been trying out night fishing. but in order to give it a fair chance, i just wanted to have a few other opinions. cuz the lakes here that i fish from aren't even stocked anymore and apparently seem just low on fish count. so ive been out at night fishing at Folsom lake in CA twice. so far weve caught 3 catfish in 2 nights, only 1 keeper. but ive heard that night fishing is pretty much better than fishing during the day for all species of fish. something about the bigger fish becoming nocturnal and trout also becoming more active at night due to the low traffic of boats and also lines at night. is this true? are you supposed to be able to catch more fish at night? does anyone regularly fish at night? and if so for what and with what bait?

i its a rafting ramp, so people who raft can bring their rafts on shore. but i caught a catfish there, and other fish, just not bass. and just hooked into small tree branches and grass when i used a crankbait. and the anglers put themselves on that point right there, cuz there is a lot of other shore they could fish from. Also its a man made lake, and ive tried other spots on the lake without catching bass, its a large fork i fish deep inside, and its the only place i can find good cover for bass since i cant see structure. and its had no luck.

i've already researched the lake and it says there are plenty of spotted bass, more than black bass. so idk if that means i should be fishing rocks more than trees. but it says there are bass all up both forks where im fishing. and ive caught bass at this lake before, just nowhere near where this is. plus there are lots of fisherman around where i was fishing on the shore. but i think they were after trout or catfish. maybe ill just give that spot a break for a while. ive had most of my success at this spot but not catching bass, its always trout, pike minnow, or catfish. something i shouldn't really be catching with bass lures. im fairly good at foul hooking lately.

Check this out. been coming to this spot for a couple trips now, looks Seriously promising in every way, but ive never ever caught a bass in this area. ive caught a northern pikeminnow, and this fatty catfish, 5lbs. and i foul hooked him haha. but check this out and tell me what is wrong. its trees in shallow water, 10-15 feet right by a creek. and no bass... fish jumping everywhere but i don't think they are trout or bass. no idea what other fish smack the top as often as they were but it happens every trip. 3 photos show the cover im fishing around.

today at the lake i spent a few hours throwing just about everything i had in softplastics, lost about 3 rigs haha. but thats all in the game. and i finally decided to try a popper, even though it was mid day. to my surprise it made a lot of crappie active. then i hand fished the crappie with a small fly and some line around my hands. it seemed that the aggressive crappy going after the small fly i made was making the smaller bass come out to play. and soon they were all swimming and there was about 20 smaller fish swimming all around me. whats this mean? what would be the next step haha. does that mean i turned the fish on? and is this some type of technique im stumbling on?

So ive been reading a lot and trying to figure out new cool ways to fish and what not. ive seem to come across a conclusion about myself and that is, that i don't really care what fish im catching as long as im catching fish. I love to fish for bass in particular though just becuase i feel like its a community/club kinda thing. everyone goes and racks up a crap load of different bass lures/jigs/worms/swimbaits etc.. and i just feel like bass fishing is more fun because of that aspect. everyone wants to catch the fish on something they have never tried. BUT. i never ever see anyone posting about live bait at all. i wanted to start trying to catch my own minnows or buying them either one and then seeing what i catch. ive heard from countless people saying live bait will get you fish everytime. and i realize why. but i don't understand why people don't post more about using it. Do you not like how it changes the speed you fish? or do you think its cheating? i think it would be cool but i also think its less rewarding to catch them on live bait. just a thought.

Ponds can actually be a little tricky if your following all the latest and greatest things. just remember bass wont bite any lure or crank that isn't a representation of its natural food source. so if you see a lot of little minnows and small type fish but no craws, you could try a fluke in a grey/white pattern, those ALWAYS work for me. just texas rig it, toss it out weightless, let it sit for about 5-6 seconds and jerk it once or twice and repeat. crawfish patterns/shad/bluegill will only work if those types of fish are in the pond. and if the pond is big enough for the bass to grow large enough to eat them. also keep in mind that the smaller the pond the smaller your bait/lure should be. your not gunna find 12lb bass in a tiny pond.

thanks for the replies guys! what do some of you guys use on the end of your C-rigs? i have the most luck with a grub haha. i just ordered some Squirrel tail worms im STOKED to try. i feel like they would be awesome c rig trailers.

Today i went pond fishing like always with my fishin buddy. i was really excited to try my new carolina rig, i had never used one before. SO my first cast of the day i got a huge smack by a tiny little 8 incher. i was using a bullet weight about 20 inches or so above my grub i was using. i experimented a lot with different worms and things and the grub actually did work the best. but i was having trouble detecting bites. i would hop it and twitch it about every 5-10 seconds and then when i wanted to re cast i would reel in, but when i would reel, i found i had a fish on, and i never got to set the hook very well. I deep throat hooked one and had to cut it off at the hook and i hate doing that. and i lost two fish cuz the hook set was garbage. does anyone else have trouble like this? idk if its because the weight before my hook is destroying my line sensitivity or what. was just looking for some feedback.

Thank you everyone for replying, there is a lot of helpful information that i will definitely be trying very soon. for some reason i always have trouble finding baits people talk about online, but i guess what you find online should be purchased online o.O lol

ALSO! just because i don't want to start another post, how can you tell which worms to buy if you want to buy a worm that has a floating tail? ive tried to buy a few and they are like stick baits... they barely even have any action on the fall. let alone float their tail. AKA good worms for shaky heads and drop shots.

I recently tried to fish grubs a couple days ago. i got a couple bites when i could see the fish and all i did was fish it right passed their faces. other than that i didn't really get bites. i put a bobber stopper, a small bullet weight so i could cast it on my baitcaster, and just a hook and grub. it was salt and pepper. and i also used a black with green specks. but i don't really know how your "supposed" to fish them or even what works. i love using my baitcaster for all purposes but it just doesn't cast well when i use a weightless grub. what do you use?

Most times i always get ADD with my tackle and constantly switch baits and colors when i have no confidence, most times i end up spending all my time changing baits instead of fishing. I always get confidence when fishing in little coves with tons of trees and vegetation though, something about a bush/tree in shallow water that makes me certain there are fish around. after that it just takes patients. sometimes the fish are just more picky. the other day i tried to get a huge bass in a local pond to bite one of my worms and i tried for about 2 hours on the same fish. he just wasen't interested.

thanks haha, definitely addicting to try to catch big fish.

So today i decided after school to go fish at a local pond with my friend. we always catch bass there, decent sized ones too. but today was a little different. my friend was catching fish on crankbaits, which ive never had any luck with in ponds. so i went down and met him there. i put on a crank and started throwin it out there. i caught a 1lb -1.5lb little fish on it and then as far as sexy shad luck goes, it suddenly stopped. my friend caught a continuous load of the same sized fish for about a hour. then we decided to go to a dock. i put down my ultra light setup and brought my baitcaster out with a texas rig senko. all i did was drop it down on slack line and instantly got a huge thump! i immediately started reeling in but i forgot to set the hook, and as soon as he hit the top of the water he spit it out at my face, mocking me. i knew he was a chunk haha. so i wacky rigged it cuz he broke the nose tip of my worm. didn't have any luck for about 10 minutes and then he just put the worm in his mouth and started swimming with it, so i set the hook super hard and reeled in. when i saw him my jaw dropped haha. biggest fish ive caught on my own to this day. and pretty big for a pond fish.

not sure if im just not on the bottom with my weights or its the clay bottom that makes it feel like im not on it but my line is always slacked until it wont go anymore, then i begin tugging it.

im using heavy weights haha, heavy bullets, i don't wanna say 1/2 oz but i think thats what they are, maybe a little smaller. also the colors im using are blue and chartreuse, white and chartreuse, chrome and blue with orange belly, sexy shad, chrome and baby blue, dark blue top white midsection and orange belly, tons of different ones. some are 3-6 feet, some are 6-9 feet. right now im using 50lb braid with a mono leader, 3 foot leader usually. my cranks usually are strike king and stuff like that, i stay in the middle price range, 5-6$ usually.

Recently temperatures in my area have spiked this week. going from 68 to 80 degrees outside and water temps from 55 or 58 to now 60-64 degrees. so the water that im fishing in that im finding fish at is 15-20 feet deep, sometimes 13. seems like most of all posts i read the water depth is always like 5ft? which is super shallow to the lakes around my area. ive been throwing cranks, spinners, things like that, no bites at all or luck even placing any soft plastics where i want them to be fished. i tried slappin a bullet weight on my fluke the other day but i feel like thats retarded because its a jerk bait. and if i put weights on my senkos then those are supposed to be fished weightless. almost all the fish im seeing on my finder are at 12-18 feet deep and are skin tight to small trees and such. Then if i do decide to put on something like a jig or weights on my worms, i never ever get the bottom contact everyone always posts about. i can never feel the bottom of the lake as im pulling my lure along. Also if i get brave and try a jig, i hear that your supposed to engage your reel after your cast because it creates a swinging motion, but 20 feet of water is a little deep to hit bottom. What are some ideas?

that kinda makes me mad. i almost thought it was something cool. what does that mean about the spot that i caught him in? cuz i thought it was a good spot. there is a creek that runs into this little area where there are tons of cover, looks like a bass heaven. Does that mean thats a bad spot to fish for bass?

Ok so i went fishing with my friend kevin and the first time we got four hookups with none landed, they either came off or we lost the lure. anyways i went and got those colors once again and we went out today. we were fishing all day and only got one bite, which was this fish. its a predatory fish apparently because it hit a shad colored crankbait. the ones with baby blue glitter tops, the yellow stripe and white bottom. for some reason we have the best luck with that lure. we were fishing for bass but no luck for some reason. i tried flukes and what not, tons of cranks, spinners. idk for some reason i just cant catch bass on this lake. but anyway! it would be really helpfull if you could tell me what fish this is. and its not a trout. it has really big scales with a brown gold color. i don't think its a carp either.

what do you do when you clean your reels? and how often should you do it?

Super flukes get me loads of bites, same with watermelon senko-type worms. never had any luck on any lures in small ponds. i think mainly because their used to eating small minnows and worms? idk, but bigger lures never really work for me.

ive definitely also had mad luck with flukes lately. i used to write them off because all the rage was always about worms, but i have no idea why people don't fish flukes more often. i always twitch it and just let it die basically like 2-3 times then if i don't get a hit i pick it up and throw in a new area. works wonders and i always get a hit within the first or second twitch. it makes me want to try money minnows and more things like that though, ive had the least amount of luck with hardbaits most of all.

youtube is your best friend, youtube any rig, any knot, any fishing technique and it will pop up with step by step instructions.

ive definitely only taught myself. i grew up with the image of old fisherman on television shows in boats just talking and waiting for fish to bite their lines basically. first time my girlfriends step dad took me bass fishing, i was hooked. im 18 now, started fishing around 17. i read so many threads everytime i get back from fishing just to see if there is anything better i can learn for next time. ive personally never had much luck in big lakes, probably because its so hard to find the fish. they aren't lying when they say only 10% of water holds fish. almost all of my luck has been in a larger pond found locally. and that was what hooked me, everytime i threw a watermelon worm in the water on a texas rig i made contact. but fishing a lake is a whole different ball game, but im so determined to learn it because it would be the ultimate accomplishment to learn.