Preytorien

I'm right there with ya. I'm not in the south, I'm in Indiana, and the past two fall seasons I've been fishing, I have yet to experience this "hot fall bite" people seem to be talking about. Like you, I've seen my WORST fishing this time of year. Even spawn was better for me. I've read every article I can, watched every one of Glenn's videos about fall, and still nothing seems to do the trick. I don't know what others are doing. Like you, my only very slight success has been 4lb flourocarbon with soft plastics, and using the word success is a bit much. I don't think several -1lb fish would be considered a banner day on the water. Oh well, I guess there's always warmer weather ahead......

I'm hitting a local body of water this weekend. Along with jigs I'm planning on trying a jerkbait. For stained water what color should I use, or should I even try a JB in stained water? It's mostly a sight-based lure isn't it?

In regards to late fall or winter fishing, I read a lot about having to slow down. I guess I only assumed I knew what it mean, but now that I've incorporated my version of "slowing down" I still haven't gotten anywhere with it. I guess I need a quick tutorial on the finer points of what it actually means to slow down and the specifics regarding the actual mechanics you use to slow down. Does that mean reeling in slower? Does it mean longer pauses between any twitches/jerks I may incorporate? What else am I missing? Another interesting but somewhat ambiguous question is that maybe I'm still not slow enough, how long should it take for me to reel in say a jig 70 feet out if I'm properly fishing slow. Takes me about a minute as it is now.

I have a Bass Pro Shops JM Carbonlite rod. I think it's a really good one. It's very sensitive and is very light. The construction seems solid too. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat if I needed a new rod for anything.

I was up on Webster this past week for musky, but I brought my froggin' rod since it's got a lot of lilly pad spots on it. Not even a single bite. Some guys with a much nicer boat (and electronics) than ours said the shallows we're an even 50-degrees and the main lake was at 44-degrees. My guess is our fast-forward fall has started to turn the fish to the winter bite. I haven't hit Geist since Sept, but like MDH has experienced, the bite seems to be slowing, or so I've heard from him and several others.

Pretty much every question that Tom answers is spot on. He should be a fisheries biologist or DNR advisor or something I don't have a temp gauge, but my guess is that most of the bodies of water I'm hitting (from shore) are close or below 50. I don't get much out into the deep water, so I'll bet his direction is right. From where we're fishing, onshore, the water is shallower and thus is colder than the deep water I can't get to. Most of the bodies I hit are ponds, so my guess is these will all get colder before our 2 nearest reserviors (Morse and Geist) get too cold. Boy I wish I could fish all year like the southern guys.

No kidding. I read all these things about the "hot fall bite" but I have yet to experience it. My guess is our weather patterns are giving us an early winter. Like I said some of the ponds around here have given me a couple of fish when I was using a weightless senko or craw, but that's it, and only a couple of fish in the past two weeks. I'm limited to almost complete bank fishing, so my guess is they're deep, and I do my best to hurl the weightless rigs out there. I guess we'll have to wait until next year.

So here in central Indiana we seemed to skip over the warmer portions of fall this year. Where I'm at we had about a good week to 10 days of pretty consistent cold and rainy weather which seemed to cool the water off very quickly, mid 40's and rain seemed to fast forward the water to late fall/early winter. That said, the fishing pretty much came to a halt for me on my frequent bodies of water this past week. I've caught about 2 fish in 14 days which makes for some long days on the water. I kept reading about how great fall fishing is, but I never had that day come to me. It's been very slow since about late August for me, all of my hits have been strictly from light lines and finesse fishing. I was really anticipating a great fall fishing story, but that's fish for you....never predictable. My question is.....at what point does the bite turn from fall bite to winter. I know water temps, region, species, etc can all come into play when figuring it, but are there any common variables that dictate when the fish have decided that "it's winter" and their bite slows? Is it a certain water temp? Certain air temp?

My guess is that they're produced by a slight breeze. Maybe your experience is different than mine, but they trick me every time. I think the same thing, that it must be a whopper of a bass chasing baitfish or something, but nada....nothin. I've noticed it though when it's a bit breezy. Be on the water long enough and you'll see the wind makes some crazy looking wave patterns. I've gotten used to them and paid them no mind. However, if there's no wind at all.....it could be something....who knows?

I'll double check them but my palomars are as tight as I can pull and I spit em' up good before tightening them down. Keep in mind since I don't have multiple poles to switch out, I almost exclusively use a snap (no swivel), so my knot isn't my biggest concern since I rarely tie direct. I'll just have to keep using ones with a twist. I was just wondering if twisting affected performance or if it was a manufacturing complication since very few spinnerbaits have them and I have yet to see a single buzzbait with one.

Typically (since I'm a bank restricted fisherman) I use snaps, but on occasion I've had a Palomar even slip if the arm is polished enough

So I'm a huge fan of buzzbaits, and now that I'm getting the hang of spinnerbaits, I find myself throwing them more and more often. I just have one gripe about them both. It's the "R-bend" in them. My line slides up it, or when I'm using a snap, the same thing occurs. I've seen just a scarce few manufacturers who've thought to put a twist or two in the bend to keep this from happening, but looking at the majority of spinnerbaits out there, few have followed suit. Is this a performance issue? Does twisting the wire cause problems? I can't see that it'd be too much of a problem to do the twist. From watching "How It's Made" I'm sure there's some handy little robotic device that'd do it at a lively clip of 90 per minute or something? I wonder why most don't do that..... Anyone have any ideas why that isn't the norm?

I've posted before, and commented on others' posts that I've rarely had success with a spinnerbait, but this past Friday evening I finally had a consistent evening of success with it. We went to a lake about 10 acres in size, and almost none of it was more than 10 feet. The weedline was just below the surface about 1-2ft and was that way as far offshore as you could see. I figured the bass would probably be stocking up on the bluegill population for the coming months so I matched my spinnerbait to them, used a Terminator 3/8oz bluegill with willowleaf blades. They seemed to love it. I've not had this much luck with one before, so it was pretty exhiliarating. They only seemed to stop when it got dark, then I put on a Spro Bronzeye Popper Jr. and did just as good until it was fully nighttime. They beat the frog up so bad I had to buy a new one, the paint was peeled off and the hit it so hard a few times the hook punctured the frog and it kept taking on too much water. All in all, it was the most successful fall fishing episode I've been on, I hope it continues! But I've learned my lesson....spinnerbaits work when it's the right time.

This is the first fall that I've really been into bass fishing. I've meddled around in it prior, but this is the first fall that I've got a prior winter, spring, and summer under my belt. What's got me puzzled is how the fish are behaving. They're acting almost identical as they do in spawn. I'm currently not a boat owner, so my fishing is shore fishing. Using some nice polarized sunglasses along with being as stealthy as I possibly can be, I've noticed the fish are pretty close to shore, chasing baitfish and such. The strange thing is though, it doesn't matter what I throw, those bass don't act a bit interested in anything. They'll notice it, even turning to get a good look at it, but they won't hit it for nothin' I've tried a wide array of soft plastics - senkos, craws, flukes, minnows, etc, as well as cranks - squarebill shallow runners, suspending jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, frogs.....almost everything. What am I missing? I've fished as slow as I can think - 5 minute retrieves and such, but still nothing seems interested in my bait. Any ideas? Any advice that might get me some of those nice fish?

Great catch! Looks like a lot of fun.

I have the Carbonlite, and so far I haven't had any issues at all. I think it's pretty light compared to other rigs I've thrown. So far so good.....keeping my fingers crossed

These are all very interesting prospects. I think I'll try following up a strike, especially those of topwater, with a senko. I've heard of that but never really tried it. Do you have to hit the exact same spot? I'm still getting down my casting accuracy, do you think casting just beyond it and pulling it through the virtual zone will still work?

So I've heard it once said that if a fish can "taste" or feel the fact that it's been hooked, that fish is as good as done for the day (or a while at least), and that idea seems plausible. I've rarely ever had a fish get off-line then take my lure again. However, today I was fishing a pocket on the bank, maybe no more than 20-feet wide, and a bass hit the lure, I fought it for a few seconds then it shook the frog free. I figured that pocket and any fish in it were wise to me and I moved about 30 feet down the shoreline. Not getting any bites I cast back into the pocket just to see what happened and *BAM* that bass hit it again, and this time I landed it. What's been your experience with doubling up on the same fish? Is it true that a once-hooked fish is done for the day if it shakes free?

Thanks for the help guys. Both myself and my buddy are going to try the thinning-of-the-herd method to see what that'll result in. As WRB said above, most of these fish have "normal" sized heads and skinny bodies, so they must not be getting enough food. Like I said, nearly every bluegill we've caught is within the pan-frying size or larger, so as you've all recommended, these bluegill must be out competing the bass. We'll try the solutions above and in the meantime throw large baits. Thanks guys.

Hey guys, Just in need of a bit of wisdom from those of you who have been fishing for a long time (which I presume is most of you). I have basically unlimited access to a small pond that was created back in the mid 50's for an interstate (as you can see in the photo). It was filled in with water, and now a friend and I fish it relatively often. The pond averages about 9ft deep with one hole about 20ft deep in the lower right-hand corner. The edges drop pretty quickly, but there is underwater vegetation up to about 12ft away from the bank. The vegetation is about a foot under the water. The water is pretty clear. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being gin-clear), this is probably a 7 or 8. The pond gets quite honestly zero pressure, other than myself and my friend or two several times a year. We can only access it via boat, and we use a small johnboat with an electric trolling motor. We can consistently catch nice bluegill all day with grubs and small lures, and we can usually also consistently catch bass with about anything as well, with the best being small topwater frogs around the fringes of the pond, where the weed lines are. Unfortunately, while the bluegill are very nice sized, but the bass are all only up to 10inches long, never larger. I've never caught any other kind of fish in the pond, no catfish, no crappie....just bass and bluegill. My interest stems from the advice of a pro bass fisherman I know, who says that despite there being only 10in bass on our lures, there are no doubt much larger fish in there, and he suspects they're giants, maybe ones who happened to survive past the 10in limit cut, and now have their pick of food in the pond, but I don't know. My question is 1) Do you really think that's possible? I don't know much about pond ecosystems, but it seems like this one's out of whack, good enough to hold a few hawgs? 2) Say there actually ARE several giant bass in there, growing since the 50's, how do I target them, where, and when? I've never purposely fished for JUST giants, I like to catch anything with gills Thanks for any advice. An aerial photo of the pond is attached.

I guess i've never noticed it with Sufix 832, but now that I've switched to PP, I notice my hands/fingers getting much wetter during fishing. Like I said I never noticed this much water with Sufix 832, is that line coated and PP isn't? Is this an issue I should be concerned with. I make sure to dry my reel very well after each trip as not to cause any rust issues.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed, but I guess I've never gotten around to thinking about it until tonight. Bass have those teeth, which feel a bit more like micro-bristles or sandpaper. But I've noticed that on bass, you'll catch one who'll have teeth more like sandpaper, and the next one, about the same size, they'll be more like bristles.....longer. I wonder what causes that? Does the fish with smaller "teeth" eat more, or eat a different type of food? Both of the fish I caught this evening were roughly the same size (2.75-3 lbs) and both had contrasting teeth length. It was the same pond, so their menu was the same. I wonder what causes that? Anybody know?

I've been planning on sending you guys my reel at the end of my season here (sometime in late Nov.). At the same time I'd like to consider some Boca bearings. If you could PM me, I'd like to talk about it some more. In your honest opinion, would I really be benefited from changing ratio? The majority of my presentations are with soft plastics and topwaters. I'm not much of a cranking guy as I don't have a boat and I'm somewhat limited by the bankfishing I'm presented with, I tend to hang up cranks often enough I find myself passing them over while I'm fishing. I do like throwing into a lot of weeds with weedless frogs/rats, which I've come to know the ratio of my reel is better suited than maybe a 7.1:1 since it's got more torque. What's your thoughts on this? Thanks, and be sure to PM me, I'd like to look more into a bearing upgrade when I send it in.

I've got a Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Carbonlite reel. I have a lefthand model, but unfortunately they only offer it in 6.4:1 ratio for lefthand models. There are becoming more numerous times I'd really like the 7.1:1 ratio that other reels have, is there any way I can upgrade the gears and transform this into one? I've heard of guys doing it. But then again, I've also heard of people upgrading the bearings in it, however unfortunately they made this reel with a size that apparently is difficult to find according to the fellas at Hawgtech. I sure wish I could though. But I hope there's no catch that would prevent me from being able to. Any thoughts?

Awesome congrats! That's a heckuva appointment! Give him our best wishes and good luck in his new position!