jomatty

great job...next on the agenda is an invite for me to fish the ponds lol just kidding but not really... in all seriousness i live in charlottesville and it is great what you did here. also great to see a parent take such an active interest in helping their children get something accomplished and kudos to the board for being openminded. feel free to pass my email chololoco78@gmail.com to your son if he is looking for anyone to go fishing with. sometimes my five year old tags along with me, but he would probably think fishing was a lot cooler if someone your sons age was going lol as dear old dad is already a little dorky for his tastes...

one other piece of advice is to not overdo it. i made that mistake with my son who is 5 now. i used to take him a few times a week and he started to get bored with it. im surprised that he doesnt like live bait as it seems most little boys like that stuff lol. i would try to encourage it because even though my son usually fishes soft plastics because he wants to be with dad, he really has a better time when he fishes a worm or minnow and catches lots of fish. when not fishing with live bait a senko on a circle hook is your best friend. that is the bait that got my son and my wife (before it was just me and my son) into fishing. great bait for beginners. he loves to fish crankbaits (little fishies as he calls them) but i try to stay away from trebles. also, really do try to give the kids your focus. i wish i had spent more time helping my son and less time fishing as i think he would have enjoyed it more. nowadays i take him with me when i think the chances are very good that he will catch fish rather than just bringing him cause i feel like going. we have had some very special times on the water and im sure your son and you will too, matt

i dont know how big your pond is, how deep,or what the water temperatures get to but my guess is that not only will the smallmouth not spawn, it will not survive. ponds are generally just not good matches for smallmouth bass who prefer current, depth, and cooler water.

i too had to break the addiction to senkos. the fact is that i still, in most conditions, catch more fish on senkos than any other bait. they produce so consistently and i have so much confidence in them that i had a very hard time getting away from them. once i did though i was catching more big fish. i still love to fish weightless stick baits, but now they are just another tool and not the lure i go to first and foremost. matt

the internet is a great place. its hard for me to even say that ive taught myself as ive had so much assistance right here on these boards. take RW advice. That is exactly what gave me the confidence to start catching bass. once you know they are there and that you can catch them on artificial lures, learning new lures is that much easier. if i were you i would read the seasonal articles and learn the basic patterns that fish follow at different times of the year. then start with the senko and gradually increase your arsenal as your confidence increases with various baits. before long you will know what to do in the variety of situation you are likely to face on the water. one caveat is that your interest has just broke the budget. you will find yourself owning more rods and spending more money on fishing than you ever thought possible. overall it is worth it though

i generally stay away from the rivers around here when they are flooded. not so much because of the current but because they get so muddy. when i do fish them i fish dark colored jig n pigs and colorado spinnerbaits

they are just gulps variety of a senko. im not a big fan of the gulp products mostly because they are messy but there is no doubt these will catch fish. read the senko sticky and you should be all set but essentially let it fall on a semi slack line, dead stick it on the bottom a bit, then pick it up and let it fall again. the magic is in the fall, as these baits shimmy and fall horizontal. matt

different people do it different ways. some like to drag the weight and fish it essentially like a t rig but i find the most productive way is to think of the weight as an anchor. let it anchor the rig and shake the worm, waiting to feel pressure and then use a reel set. there is no doubt it will catch fish draggin it around but i think that it is best to let it be stationary and then move it to a new location and shake some more.

i used to do this as well and it works great. if you really want to extend the life of your frogs though get some of the hooks that have a keeper on it. zoom makes one but i prefer the owner variety, and ive tried the mustad version which i liked better than the zooms as well. before i used these hooks my frogs would not last that long and i would have to glue and reglue a lot but now they generally last until they get their legs pulled off which is a long time

welcome and thats great about your new reel. do yourself a favor and cast something a litle heavier until you get the hang of it, it will save you some backlashes. great job on the bass and keep up the good work

amazing what bass will have in their mouth and gullet and still be feeding. im sure a lot of you guys have caught bass that had multiple shad pouring out of their mouth but they still hit.

yeah it is a shame that so many of those places are getting closed down by the big boys. dont get me wrong i love the convenience of a bass pro or cabelas but i still always try to give my money to the little guys. not only that but you can actually go in and talk fishing which i always appreciate. matt

RW, you certainly are right about that. i was very dissapointed to learn that all the 6 lb bass i had been catching weighed about 4.5 when i got my first scale. still trying to get a 6 lber that i know for a fact is that big. cant seem to break the 5.5 mark, of which i have several. this is just relaying personal experience and i have no idea about Bobs fish so i hope no one gets the wrong idea. regardless of what it weighed it sounds like a real nice fish and i hope i can get into one that big soon. matt

i think you are going to need to be much more specific if you want to get good advice. what you have described is so broad that you could potentially throw anything.

read senkosams tutorial on making pop molds. then you can simply melt all the old plastics down and make new lures with them. understand however that this is fun and before long you will probally buy aluminum molds and plastisol and softner and a million colors. at least thats what happened to me when i tried what i suggested and i know it has happened to a number of others. this was fine by me as i enjoy it but if you are out just to save money all this stuff takes some time to pay for.

personally i just cant tell enough of a difference to have a strong preference. the colors make me lean towards silicone. some folks say the rubber has more action but perhaps im not paying enough attention and just am missing some subtlties. matt

i love football heads and use them in situation most say they are not suited for. for instance i like to fish offshore brush with them and have little problems. grass or weeds is usually the thing that makes me turn to a more traditional style jig. they are a must when fishing rocks for me.

my son was fishing a grub on a jig head once. he started joking about eating my plastic worms (he is 4) and eating the gummy worms. that led to me hooking up the gummy worm like a shaky head. he patiently fished it (patient for him anyways) and then right as he was reeling it in for the last few feet it got smashed by...well it turned out to be about 9 inches but we both got a kick out of it.

in ikes book he says that it is standard practice to do the ole fake hookset, get one out of the livewell bit. it dosent sound far fetched to me. the only way i could see them using electro shock is to load the live well. no way it would make them bite more afterwards. if that were the case someone would be talking about it and selling soemthing similar. matt

i used to fish helgramites for smallies as a kid and they were the number one bait at some places. havent fished them in a long time and there arent that many available, although i dont know why. anyways let us know how those case baits work out for you. all in all ive been impressed with the things ive tried from case. matt

no doubt it is harder but it is possible. some lures skip a lot better than others. i can skip things like hollow frogs pretty well but have a tough time with anything lighter. like a lot of things practice is key but what makes this technique so hard for me is that practice involves a lot of backlashing, and some nasty ones at that. good luck, matt

get some senkos and read the sticky. rw also had a great post awhile back on senkos but i dont have a link. maybe someone else does.

tungsten is a must for me when c-riggin. that super hard material lets you feel everything. when fishing a texas rig or dropshot i dont insist on it, unless im using a 3/8th or larger and then i think that the smaller size is definitely nice.

i try to get it to knick the grass and when it starts to get heavy with grass jerk it free. i also like to deflect it off of stumps (can be frustrating but productive). most often however i just use a steady retrieve with split second pauses thrown in. sometimes if im getting followers or fish slappin at it i will give a short quick rod pump to try to trigger a strike. matt

this is one of the big problems of pork. get some pliers and start pulling. thats how i do it. when i jerk enough sometimes the hole starts to widen. i often end up just cutting the d**n thing off. i almost never use pork anymore. to messy and too much of a pain. aside from the very coldest water i stay away and stick to plastics with just as good if not better results. matt