Preytorien

I've noticed the same thing. I've had little success in clear waters this year, no matter its position on the body of water. Stained to even muddy water has been my best bet. Although you can't rule out the notion that the muddier the water is, the faster it will warm. I've done my best this year so far with one lure massively outperforming the others in stained to muddy water......the good ole' #3 Mepps gold blade spinner.

I've looked into this quite a bit and heard a good amount of belief that geese can be scared off with a green laser pointer. Not red. Just green (532nM). Somehow they see the green wavelength well, and to them, it seems like the super bright green dot headed their way just freaks them out. Apparently golf courses have known about this for some time. I bought a dollar-store green laser last fall and tried it, but it lacked power. My 250mW green laser just arrived Monday. It can light matches and melt plastic. Has a range of 5000m. It also seems to be very bright even in full sun daylight. I'm just waiting until I get some time this weekend to fish, and of course try it out on the geese.

They're pretty breathable, but yet they do tend to get warm. Orvis Silver Sonic Guide waders.

I fish for river smallmouth quite a bit. Nothing can beat a nice warm summer morning, crack of dawn, slipping into my waders and hopping in the river. I use a rig similar to your description, except I use a Medium/Fast action Crucial rod paired with a 2500 Shimano Sustain. I waffle back and forth between 6lb Tatsu and 14lb YGK X-8 Tie on a #3 gold bladed Mepps and hang on. If the fish are in the mood you can't go wrong. One thing to be sure of is stream flow. It's easy to track on the USGS website if your particular river/stream is tracked with stream gauges. There are even a few smartphone apps that can provide you with a quick real-time look at the data (depth and flow). I only say that because at faster flow rates bladed lures are harder to use because it requires a faster and faster retrieve to engage the blades in fast current, which often ends up being a fast enough retrieve that your lure is back to you in seconds. Makes for exhausting and usually unproductive fishing vs using a bottom contact bait like a craw, tube, or Ned Rig. But if the flow is slow enough, experiment with the spinner, small spinnerbait, or shallow diving crank. You ideally want a slow enough current that you can get that nice good "thump" from your spinner and retrieve it somewhat lazy, give those fish a good amount of time to track it and hit it. Man now you've got me all watered up - ready for these spring rains to dissipate and allow me to get out there in the river!

Very cool - I like reading those older available books, they teach a lot of finer nuances that get lost to us modern fishermen between the colorful pages of a tackle catalog. It's probably the same reason that I go fishing with my 93 year old grandfather, and despite my attempts, he STILL outfishes me with the most basic tackle you'd ever see, all kept neat and tidy in one of my grandmother's old leather purses. Cracks me up, but you can't argue with the results....he's done it for decades. They learned how to fish in relation to the fish's current behaviors and proclivities. I find myself gravitating towards fishing towards the properties of a lure. It's mindsets, and the fishermen of the past seem to have done a spectacular job.

I see a lot of posts on here, and often from newer members, maybe just getting into this wonderful sport, about whether or not a rod, reel, line, lure, boat, accessory, etc are "WORTH" buying. I'm not an expert on brands and such, I find something I like and tend to stick with it, but I've learned something about the word "worth" that might be worth a thought Worth is ultimately and ONLY established by the purchaser. Not by anyone else. It's the same reason that it's not worth it to me to buy a trolling motor since I don't have a powered boat. To me....it's not actually WORTH it since I can't use it. Worth is established in the mind of the user. Ask questions about the product's features, reputation, reviews, user experiences, etc. Those are much more pointed and helpful answers. If you ask worth, you'll get a million different opinions, because "worth" isn't intrinsically tied to a product's actual ability, it's only tied to whether the person answering would actually plunk down their cash for it. So when you ask if a reel or rod is "worth me buying it" - only do the asking to the face in the mirror. Only you can answer that. You're the one with the money. Hopefully you've done your research on it's reputation, and I imagine you've already determined its availability. The last, and most important question you have to answer is by going into your bathroom, looking at yourself in a mirror, and asking, is this product WORTH it to me? Now, that said, don't be surprised if the face in the mirror answers back "YES!" Because.... you know....the baitmonkey and such....

Just buy the Savage Gear Armor Tube worm Has some mesh infused in the plastic in the middle where you thread the hook You reeeeaaally have to pull hard to get the hook out via way of the point No tools required

I fish some pretty clear spring-fed ponds up here in Indiana, and while I'm not certain that it is related to the clarity in much of any way, I've also noticed that the somewhat louder "click" of the thumb bar and engagement of the drive pinion on a casting reel can spook them, so I usually use a spinning reel and very quietly open and close the bail when I'm fishing. And as mentioned before, it can't be stressed enough to stay back off the bank while you're fishing it. Those guys can see your outline and get spooked before you ever make a cast.

When I face ponds like that, mine are often subdivision retention ponds, my go-to bait is a Ned Rig. Downsize your line if you're able to - go to a light line and use a Ned Rig with the best color for your water clarity. Then look for literally anything that might make the shoreline, underwater terrain (structure), or submerged debris (cover) different than anywhere else in the pond, then focus on that. I'll admit, unless you get some nice, calm, sunny days - 45F is definitely going to make things harder since the fishing will require a slow presentation....very slow. But the Ned Rig is easy enough to fish painfully slow.

I kind of did a combination of several of these suggestions.... I pulled out the entire spool twice and re-seated the line. Twice I pulled about 60 yards of line off and reeled in with no weight on the end, punching the line as I reeled. The soaked the entire spool with L&L At first glance the line doesn’t spring off the spool, or at least not nearly as badly. Also, while hanging limp it has FAR less curl to it. It appears it worked. When I use a spinner next time I’ll be sure to use a snap-swivel Thanks guys!

I fished all night last night and tonight with a rig spooled with 6lb Tatsu. Had some surprisingly good luck and consistently caught them with a tried and true Mepps gold-bladed spinner That said, my line is now surely twisted pretty wickedly. I’m shorebound, no boat here. How can I get the twist out, in somewhat the same manner as trolling the line out behind the boat? Any way to do this on land?

Man - wish I had a way to watch

Mmmm Zodias. If I could find a buyer for my last remaining Crucial spinning rod I'd replace it with a Zodias.

Chick-Fil-A sauce

In my experience I definitely wouldn't throw a wacky rig into much of any cover. The large and usually exposed hook will literally hook itself into almost anything - wood, grass, pads, etc. That's when I would pull out a weedless T-Rig at that point. For me it's all about cover, nothing more.

Usually a weightless fluke-style bait

I bit the bullet last spring and spooled a couple of my finesse spinning rigs with Seaguar Tatsu in anticipation of really getting over my disdain for flourocarbon. I heard if you have flouro troubles, use Tatsu, it'll make all your wildest dreams come true. The fish literally throw themselves into your boat at the very sight of it. Fast forward through an entire half of spring, all of summer, and first 2/3 of fall where my son (and my family) were in the Children's Hospital the entire time, and I only got to use those rigs about 3 times in total before we were admitted. Those rigs all sat on the rod rack in my garage, out of sun, out of wind, rain, snow, etc. those several months with no use whatsoever. You think it's okay to use this year too?

Lord Almighty......that photo..... Aside from that - I swap mine out with EWG's, usually red. Not sure if the color makes a difference, that's just what I had as surplus at the time

I'd wondered about it. I almost pulled the trigger on one the other day but passed since I hadn't heard anything about it yet. Thanks for the quick info. Let us know your results.

Makes a huge difference. I use lime green YGK Soul X-8 and if it were any other color I'd never be able to see it. Considering it's my finesse rig, mostly for Ned Rigs, being able to not only feel but also SEE the line jump is critical. I think your line choice will benefit you quite well here in Central IN where finesse is part of our every-trip arsenal.

To be honest that's the only thing I can think that might cause it. Too few fish, just a low population density. Maybe a fish kill or stock problem caused the dramatic difference in density or even the mortality of the population in those waters. I really don't know the history, which is a limiting factor. Like mentioned so far - lure colors and type are certainly a factor, but I don't typically use a wide arsenal of lures, and in almost every case I can catch *something* at each place with a Ned Rig - so if we used that as a control the fact still remains that I would catch FAR more at two of them than the remaining two. That's what makes me think there just aren't many fish in there, and there doesn't appear to be a stocking program associated with any of them unfortunately. It's a lot of factors - factors that I've probably overlooked, and in my quest to be consistent on them all I'm trying to get a better grip on the variables that I can control. They're very close to my house, and a place I can imagine taking my son when he's a little older, so I want to ensure I'm going to a place that will maximize my time on the water rather than fishing a place that could be a time-waster based on something as simple as low fish populations. Seeing the look on his big sister's face when she catches a fish is priceless, I'm hoping to see the same on his and be able to mix up our "secret spots" a little more.

It's not even springtime here in Indiana, but despite the cold weather I've had a little bit of luck this late-winter at catching a few when the weather permits. But in the process of doing so, I've noticed an odd thing, which in years past I've not given much thought about, but in my frustration and lack of action on Saturday had me scratching my head whilst standing there contemplating my choice to brave the cold wind. When it's windy and cold, I don't travel too far to catch fish. There are about 3-4 ponds near our house I'll walk the bank on and fish. They're all roughly 6-8 acres in size. For the most part, these ponds are nearly identical in water source, depth, cover (or lack thereof), clarity, forage, and species. I never snag much grass, I never snag any wood or any other cover for that matter. I've used my SonarPhone fish finder to roughly map and pinpoint cover in these lakes and it's devoid of anything discernible. They're neighborhood lakes, the kind dug out in subdivisions, they're notoriously bowl-shaped with equally few contour features. The pressure on any of them isn't outlandish, especially this time of year. I'll see some folks there from time to time, but nothing frequent, and definitely no one that appears too serious about their intention. There aren't really any of the 4 that have definable differences in each other other than 1 of the 4 has one southern shoreline that is more exposed to the wind and thus gets a good bit more wind action than the others. That said, I really can only count on catching fish at 2 of the 4 lakes. Given the fact that they're all within about 5 miles' radius of each other, and lack really any obvious difference to each other this leaves me completely confounded. I can't explain why the wild difference. I give each of them a good shake, but I can see in my log some massive differences in frequency of catches. This doesn't even seem to resolve with nicer more fish-friendly weather. I'm really scratching my head on this one. Aside from a general assumption that the fish population may be greater in 2 of the 4 ponds, what else am I missing?

Might check out the Vibe Skipjack 90 It fits your budget and aside from the seat it's great. The seat is your pretty run-of-the-mill seat, and I put a memory foam cushion under mine to give it a little more lift and comfort.

I've never tried float-n-fly or a worm under float for anything. Seems like a lot of equipment to use so I just never get around to it, no matter how successful I hear of it being. I've also never used a punch rig. I don't usually hit grass or weeds that thick, and when I do I am usually bank-bound and never fuss with it

I'm a cyclist, and I'm a fisherman, and I'm a fisherman who uses a kayak. For me, the wind is a huge factor in every activity I do. Up until recently I only really paid attention to the wind speed in mph. I saw in an online forum for cyclists a mention of a unit of measurement called Beauforts. I did some research and it was really interesting. Turns out it's been around quite a while, used fairly frequently by watercraft in the military. Through reading a lot of information about it, looking at charts and such, it seems in a nutshell that the Beaufort Scale is a measure of the actual force of the wind, rather than it's speed. It's a good measurement of how strong a given wind actually feels. Obviously the wind speed affects the force, but it offers a more digestible value to wind so we can better make assumptions. For me as an outdoor enthusiast, it's not always easy to look at a weather forecast and make a good assumption of the wind based on just a mile-per-hour reading, that's where I have begun to turn towards looking at the Beaufort forecast, as it will tell me a bit more accurately how strong the force of the wind is, and how that will relate to my given activity that day. I'm sure there's much more to understand about it, my currently knowledge level is rudimentary and still evolving, any input from the experts on here would be an excellent read. What's your thoughts?