fishingfrenzy

Some of the places mentioned are decent places, if you have a boat. The newark watersheds are nice places, fish there often. The only place that really comes to mind for shorefishing is the roundvalley pond located next to the ramp for the main lake. Its prob like 5 acres in size and is shorefishing only

I know where you are.. looks like a solid 4 - 4.5lber.

I've done pretty good with blade baits.. they will catch just about every specie out there. I prefer a bait called "the binsky," a friend makes them and they will out produce a silver buddy any day of the week. Way more flash and vibration. Awesome bait.

That fish definately looks skinny and if you had caught her a couple weeks back, she probably would have been 1-2 pounds heavier.

After looking at a bunch of baits, I think it's a rebel jointed minnow. The joint was more in the middle, and had a much more exagerated swimming motion than the rapala jointed. It almost looked like a snake going through the water. It floated and wouldn't go more than 1 foot down, but mainly 6" or so. I'm gonna buy one and see if it's the same exact thing and if so.. I guess the baitmonkey is gonna be happy.

There was an old lure that I absolutely loved. It caught my biggest bass 8 1/2 pounds and also accounted for numerous other 5+ pounders. Unfortunately, I lost it to a tree 3 years ago and have never found one similar since. It was a jointed jerkbait, similar to a rapala jointed. I guess it was about 10 years old and made out of plastic. The paint was all worn off, but it was silver with a blue back. The difference between this one and a rapala jointed was that it had a looser joint and swam in a S pattern. My best guess would be that it was a rebel.. but I'm not too sure. If I could find this lure, I'd by 10 of them. It also was a shallow lure, running no deeper than 1 foot.

Here in NJ, 5 pounds is considered a trophy by a lot of people. Our state record is just shy of 11 pounds. This year, we've got two 7 pounders, two 6 pounders, and maybe five 5 pounders. Thats just with people I've fished with. My biggest for this year was maybe 5.8 pounds, thats the biggest i can remember. Next year, hopefully we'll break the 8 pound mark and possibly go for a double digit :

Do I have to worry about patents on other people's baits. Because I wanted to make one like a beaver, but didn't know if I had to worry about patent issues. Another question.. how would I be able to make a mold for a completely new bait that I came up with? I know someone who has a machining shop, and possibly a cnc machine.. could a make an aluminum mold for a new design with that?

I'm really looking into starting my own soft plastic's company, I have some new ideas that might work out pretty nice. I'd want to start making some worms as a hobby, and try selling them futher along. Roughly, how much will it cost for supplies, excluding molds. Do I have to worry about patents on molds if I sell some stuff I make. Also, I believe senko77 started his own company a while back and I wanted to find out how thats been going.

Looks like a 3 pounder to me.. great job with the jig!

Just think of what you'd be missing!

Ahh... the bait monkey can't seem to keep his fingers out of my wallet. Just when I thought a new reel was enough.. I HAD to get a new rod.. then the LC Sammy was calling my name... so I bought that. Within the first 15 mins of using it, it got baptized by a 4 pound bass. So of course, after I caught a 4 pound bass first time out using it.. I HAD to get another. Then came the Arbogast jitterbug g700 ( quite cheaper than a LC, but still $6). Then the monkey got involved in my life again, and just made me buy another $70 worth of lures. Now thanks to the baitmonkey, I'm broke > Does anybody feel my pain ;D

I said harvest 10-15% of the mature bass, but I also said not to harvest the biggest ones. Having 50 mature bass in a 2 acre pond is way over populated. You can either feed the fish more or cut down on the mouths to feed. I would not let nature take its course, because sometimes thats not always the best thing.

I know a little bit about pond management. I'll try giving you as much info as I can.. With the backround of your pond being 2 acres, according to what I've read you probably have 30-50+ mature bass (3 pounds or more) living in the pond. You say that the bass are overly aggresive, by eating sunnies whenever you hook one. I would think that there might be a lack of food within the pond, so when a bass sees a sunny strugling (from you hooking it), each bass is trying to eat it before another one does. You might have a good population of large bass, but if you want to grow trophy bass 7 pounds and larger, I would suggest harvesting roughly 15-20% or so of the mature bass. You might want to keep the larger ones and harvest about 5-10 bass 3-4 pounds. Bass need food to continue to grow and with a lack of it, the bass will still grow but they will become skinny and not gain as much weight. I would rather have the bass nice and fat, than a bunch of skinny ones. You might also consider stocking the pond every 2 years or so with sunnies and other minnows. It is good that you have some big sunnies (1 pound and larger), that way they will continue to reproduce without bass eating them. I would also advise you to contact a fisheries biologist and seek their advise.

This was actually the second rod I've broken in the the last year... and have never broken a rod before that. The last rod, was a St. Croix triumph, that was actually my dad's that I borrowed. I hooked a little fish and was just bringing it in, when about a foot from the tip snapped in half. The rod was sent back and we got a new one soon after. I'm just kinda angry that now I have to go through the hassle of replacing the rod. But I'm trying to see if I could pay the difference a get a slightly heavier rod and possibly slightly longer. Who knows, it might turn out for the best and be worth it after all.