Senko lover

What's the biggest fish you've ever seen and failed to catch? I was fishing from a dock on a private lake. The lake was a clear as glass, and I saw what I thought was some mud rising from the bottom, which was out of the ordinary because the bottom of this lake was covered in vegetation, not mud. Turns out it wasn't mud, it was a mud-colored catfish that was an absolute behemoth. It was slowly coming out from under a large stand of cattails. No kid, that thing was probably 50-60 pounds. It's size was mind-boggling, around 4-5 feet in length and as fat as a sumo wrestler. I only had a popper tied on, but I cast to it nevertheless. It didn't even look at it.

My PB story is pretty unusual. I was fishing with a friend on a (blush) paddleboat on a private lake. We were using corn and worms to catch sunnies for a fry (Something I rarely do). I had a rod with a spinnerbait in the boat as well. I saw a giant splash about 20 feet away, handed my rod with a small bass I was fighting to my friend, and fired my spinnerbait into the wake of the splash. After a couple cranks of the reel handle, my rod bowed over and I landed my pb. It was around 4 pounds; I didn't have a scale with me. No it isn't very big, but I've tied it since and I've only been seriously fishing for a year.

Gain confidence with a few, time-proven lures. -Lipless Crankbait -Squarebill -Popper -Jig -Above any else, a plastic worm. Don't get too fancy with color selection, and don't switch lures every 15 min. because one is not working.

I was really excited to discover a few months ago that three stores were going up near me: a Bass Pro Shops (45 min), a Cabelas (45 min), and a Gander Mountain (15 min). I've been to the Gander Mountain, and am planning to visit the others sometime in the near future. Where is your favorite place to stop for your fishing needs? One of these three? A local tackle shop? I prefer Bass Pro because of selection. You can find almost any bait sold in dozens of colors and a large selection on rods and reels as well. However, it's a little overwhelming and hard to find things sometimes. (Too many rods sticking up in the air!) Cabelas is much more of an experience than a store (kinda like going to a mall). Bass Pro tries, but Cabelas has the better layout and a really good-looking interior in their stores. Which one has your loyalty?

What do you do during winter when it's too cold to fish? I live in NC, so I can fish pretty much year round, but there are definitely days where it's too cold for my comfort. On days like that, (or rainy days, for that matter) I make sure my rods & reels are clean, organize my tackle, clip off all the tag ends from my hooks and swivels, and watch fishing videos online. That's how I get my fishing itch out when I'm not fishing.

I looked seriously at it and its sister the silver max combo when buying a baitcast combo. That said, the rod looks to be terrible quality.

I've heard quite a number of pros and weekend anglers say that they do not use Extra Wide Gap hooks due to a poor hookup ratio compared to other hooks. I use EWG hooks regularly, and I haven't really noticed that, but to be honest I haven't tried a whole lot of styles either. Do you think they don't have a good hookup ratio? Why? What alternatives do you use?

I do a lot more bank fishing than I do boat fishing, but I have done a bit of the latter. I like boat fishing a lot, lot more because you can access anyplace you want to. With the bank, you're limited to 20 or 30 feet out and whatever cover lies in between. Not that I don't love bank fishing; my post on Bank Fishing just got published on here (How to Fish a Spot From the Bank). But boating is more effective.

Frogs will work; and "punching" the grass with a heavy jig and braid will work too. Spinnerbaits are also pretty weedless.

I forgot to add in the forum starter that I have caught a Northern. It was a small 20-incher on an equally small Bomber spinnerbait. I rarely target species besides bass, but I want to catch both a big carp and a big cat, which are present in the ponds I fish. I see giant (20 lb) carp all the time finning and stirring up mud in one of the ponds. There is about 10-20 of them, including a koi which is bright orange and you can see it from across the pond. That would be fun to catch! I'm told they are great fighters. I don't eat any of the fish I catch; my parents aren't too big on cleaning fish. (I'm thirteen) Bummer. I would if they'd let me, though.

How often do you guys catch the wrong species of fish or animal while fishing for bass? What's your biggest wrong-species catch? I catch turtles and bream with regularity on fake bait, typically by foul-hooking, but sometime's they'll actually eat it. I've caught some crappie as well, but never a big fish like a cat or a carp yet. I know a guy who foul-hooked a goose and had a terrible mess getting the hook out. Not fun! Share your stories.

All the time. My neighbors laugh at me when they see me casting out in my front yard ("Tryin' to catch a grass carp?") every time I forget to cast in the back yard. What's wrong with practicing in my yard? Would I say "tryin' for a hole in one?" if I saw them practicing a golf swing? No. I always take my newly-purchased combos out in the yard to get a feel for them and then I hone my skills by casting, flipping, and pitching with them all the time after that. It's a fishing thing.

I've been bass fishing for about a year now, and I've had more painful hook experiences in that year than I care to remember. Thankfully, though, none have got very deep. The worst I've had is when a friend and I were fishing the bank together from a small spot (bad idea!) and he cast an EWG into my head. It didn't get deep but it still hurt bad. The same friend later cast another EWG into my arm, that wasn't as bad, but I don't fish close to him anymore! I've never had a Bill Dance moment where trebles got through my nose or anything like that. My personal least favorite are when hooks get stuck in my clothing or my carpet. I always have to cut them loose, and I've ruined several nice pieces of clothing. One instance was when my brothers and I were walking back to our car after fishing, and my little brother refused to put his lipless crankbait (never give a ten yr old a lipless!) in his hook keeper and was swinging it around and guess what? It got stuck in my shorts and my older brother had to cut it out with his pocketknife. I liked those shorts.

http://www.amazon.com/Garcia-VNGC662-5-Vengeance-Two-Piece-Casting/dp/B0071BXEZY/ref=sr_1_35?s=hunting-fishing&ie=UTF8&qid=1412002382&sr=1-35 The above link leads to a Abu Garcia Vengeance rod seemingly on sale; but the price seems a little too good to be true and the seller is Berkley, not Abu. Have any of you guys checked this out or bought rods from Berkley? The rod is two-piece, but Abu offers this same model on their website for $50.00. I'd appreciate any help.

Unfortunately, losing lures is an essential part of fishing correctly. I used to lose sleep over lures I lost, but now I accept it and realize that you're not using a lure to it's full potential if you don't risk snagging it. That said, I was kicking myself when I lost my $8.00 X-Rap last week. :X