everythingthatswims

Since you will probably spot more fish from the bank than you would from a boat, make sure you cast past them and bring it back to them.

Senkos are awesome in ponds, so are weightless superflukes, small jigs, squarebills, and small walk-the-dog lures. If the pond is small enough, just fish until you find them! If there isn't much cover like in a golf course pond, do a stop & go retrieve with a squarebill to find them.

Bass won't eat pellets unless they are raised on them as fingerlings. Pellets will grow some huge bluegill though.

That happens a bunch in ponds! My friend and I fish about a 10 acre lake, and if it isn't 10-13", it's over 6lbs haha. We have never caught anything in the 2-4lb range. Those big ones are few and far between.

It's really surprising how easily a fish can spit a barbless hook by shaking their head or jumping, and any slack immediately results in a lost fish. You said you wouldn't mind losing a few extra fish, but what if that fish was a 7 or 8lber? Just food for thought

Forgot my trout fishing setup the other day at a creek, we had a bunch of rods in the car from bass fishing earlier and I didn't even know it was missing...$130 Setup, and the reel was a brand new shimano sahara. Went back to look for it the next day and it was gone. I learned my lesson for sure!

24" On the Spro BBZ-1 Jr. 6" And a very confused, aggressive, and lost trout on a KVD 1.0...He had to have been washed down 10+miles and over a 12' dam during a flood about a month ago.

You mean the one they accidentally snagged on a bed?

Funny because the longnose gar we have here in Virginia are really skittish, hard to catch, not aggressive at all, and live in pretty decent bodies of water.

Gerald Swindle an Ike. They are hilarious

I have caught sleeping bluegill before at night, 7-8" fish felt like a big wad of grass on my line, and this was with a 3 weight fly rod. During the day, they double it over.

I agree, when you find good stuff in walmart, it is usually cheaper than other stores. A gander mountain opened up here about a year ago and while they have some good stuff that dicks sporting goods and walmart don't have, some of the things they are missing are ridiculous...Went in the other day to grab a couple packs of jigheads for crappie fishing, and they have no jigheads in the 1/8-1/32 size. Those are a basic necessity for me!

Black and blue jigs. Bass fishing in muddy water can be hit or miss, but once the water starts to get 6"+ visibility (I have seen <1") the fish holding tight to cover hit well

Keep in mind that I have never caught any of those football shaped giant smallmouth, but I have caught them in rivers around here up to 4lbs. But I know a 4lb bluefish, spanish mackerel, striper, red drum, and many others, can pull much harder than a 4lb smallmouth.

No I'm about 3 hours from Virginia beach, but I fish the Chesapeake bay from time to time. Most of my saltwater fishing is when I'm on vacation in the outer banks (NC)

If I could saltwater fish, that's all I would do, saltwater fish make smallies look like they don't fight very hard! Problem is that I live too far away from the salt to fish it very often.

Gulp minnows are expensive but it's worth it, 1" gulp are good for fish 15" and under, 3" are good for fish over 15". However, my brother caught a 9" brown on a super fluke so the little guys will definitely eat big baits. Drifting worms, minnows, and salmon eggs works well too. If you can find berkley power eggs, GET THEM. I just go with a #10-#14 light wire hook, and as few split shot as I can to keep the baits down but still drift on the bottom. Spinners are like reaction baits for trout, so they do catch them, but to catch numbers of trout you have to slow down and use other baits.

One thing I know is that a picture will never do ANY fish justice. To see the fish in person is the only way to really appreciate how big it is. Of course there are ways to hold a fish to make it look better, but pictures simply can't show the size of a fish effectively. A 6'5" guy can make an 8lb fish look like 4lbs, but someone who is 5'4" could make the fish look like it weighs 12lbs. I caught a big amberjack last summer, the fish weighed upwards of 50lbs, I have 2 photos of it, standing the same distance from the camera, one angle makes it look 20lbs or less, but the other angle shows its true size. Cameras are deceptive...

I went the opposite way, started with smallies and trout, now I'm on to largemouth (even though I prefer smallmouth to largemouth). My main suggestion with trout is to not fish spinners or little crankbaits, get some gulp minnows of various sizes and some jigheads of all different sizes if you want to target big trout.

I just pretend that the baby boo jigs, finesse jigs, and bitsy flips count as a jigs haha...Fishing with those is like fishing a texas rigged craw, you can still catch all the dinks

As long as I don't break the line from having my drag too tight, not re-tying after chafing the line, or something like the fish throwing the hook because I had a bad hookset (I consider these things to be my fault), I can deal with it. If it's something out of my control that causes me to lose the fish, I don't get too upset about it (losing a big fish is never fun though), but if it's my fault, I continue to replay it in my mind over and over again thinking about what I should have done

Some times the hook gets sucked through the gill when they vacuum/pick it up, I have never had a fish get hooked in the stomach in the way you described though, I always just hook gills. I wouldn't worry about it

Urban fishing is lots of fun, the weird looks you get from everyone, the shopping carts and bicycles, and other junk that actually hold fish, but the best part is when you find a place that everyone overlooks...I found a pond behind a factory in North Myrtle beach, and it seemed basically untouched even though there were houses bordering one side of it. We caught the same 22" largemouth 3 days in a row, and they weren't on beds (we didn't target it). That sounds to me like that fish hadn't seen too many baits before

Baby boo jig with an ultravibe speed craw trailer! I love fishing small jigs in rivers, just hopping them along is how I get bit. Senkos always crush them in rivers too if there is enough current to let it drift along the bottom, you may have to use a small slip weight to keep it down.

Rivers are definitely my favorite, I can read a river WAY better than I can read a lake. I get along well with current and clear water (99% of the river fishing here in the summer). Also, (maybe it's just me) I always catch nice, chunky, healthy bass in rivers, in lakes and ponds you can catch a chunk on one cast and a fish that looks like it is going to die from starvation on the next!