Captain America

When in doubt get the senko out.... Seriously, weightless senkos (or more generally, soft plastic stick baits) are easy to fish, and a great way to get started building up bass fishing confidence. I suggest branching out from there. Texas rigged plastics are simple and effective too, and you can fish them a little faster than a senko.

So, last spring I was catching mostly largemouth in my local river when the water temps were in the mid to high 40s. All in small (at most 15'x15' 5 fow max) slack water pockets. In warm weather I probably catch 15 smallies for every largemouth, but in cold water the smallies dont usually show up until the water temps get into the low 50s. I figure the smallies find a deep hole with current washing overhead in the winter and they come shallow to feed once temps are right. The largemouth bite is always the first to heat up. Do you guys think the largemouth could be staying in the slack-water pockets all winter? I wouldnt think these spots are great wintering areas since a strong rain would bring stiff current through those areas...but maybe it is the best they got. There is not a whole lot of slack water in that stretch of river. I am curious bc I will be back in town for a few weeks, and temps have been pretty high...

Thats what I was thinking, but I saw 1000s of shad busting the surface! I thought there would be a hungry bass near by...

I recently moved to Kansas, and I have not been getting into the fish. This fall has been tough. Mostly skunks. I caught a few fish on a chatterbait a few weeks ago, but that is it. I have read that this time of year is great for moving baits, so I have been doing a lot of searching (Chatterbait, jerkbait, spinnerbait), but all the fish seem to be telling me is that whatever I am doing is not working. I am a bank angler, so I have been focusing on ponds (mostly small gravel pits). Havent fount too many that have a lot of cover (1 or 2 lay downs per pond), and the cover I do find and pick apart with slower baits do not produce any fish. The DNR website says that the ponds I have been hitting are decent for bass, so that makes me think they are in there... Water temps today were around 56. It snowed on monday, but It has been warm for about four days now, and next week is going to be in the 70s. Seems fishy to me... I would like to start catching some fish! Any advice that would help me catch em between now and prespawn?

my issue with the iboats is that the maps are different than navionics. On the navionics web app i find good looking structure, but it looks way different on the iboats app. I don't know which one is more accurate.

I am looking for a mobile app that has contour line maps and gps. I don't want to pay $15/month for the navionics app, I am on a college student budget. I found the iboats app that is a one time payment of $20 for the US maps. That is an option. The maps are not as detailed as Navionics, but I can study up online to find the more subtle structure. Do any of you guys have experience using apps other than navionics for your on the water contour maps? Any recommendations for good apps? Thanks.

I fished some bass beds deep into a patch of lillies last week and I saw so many carp near by. The carp and the bass seemed to be separated a little, but they were not far away. I found bass beds in clearer water (maybe becasue I could see better), and carp in dirtier water. I did see some carp near the bass beds, and a few bass beds in the "carpy" water. I would often see carp swimming by while targeting a bed or reeling one in. I did leave some the water where I saw the most carp alone. I couldn't locate beds there, and I was less confident. My theory is that I was fishing some early spawners. I have heard that the bigger fish spawn first, and the shallow, stained lily pads on the north west side of the lake were warmer than the rest of the lake. These bigger males that I was on (3-5lbs) might not get spooked by a carp like a 1-2 lber might. This area holds big bass all year and I believe the carp hang around all year as well. I think it totally depends on the situation at hand. I caught a big bowfin on its bed in 12 feet of clear water once during a tournament.....

It probably wont come up very often. Instances where a fish is going to die are pretty rare. I mean if letting your bait sit on the bottom and coming back an hour later to see if you got one is your method, then it would happen a lot, but if your rod is in your hand, you should be ok for a nice, clean release 99.99% of the time.

I don't think most people pinch barbs. In some places, however, it is the law. I just do it because I have seen it prevent damage, and I am putting them back anyway. Ethically, I'd keep the fish. Legally, the game warden does not care why you kept the fish. It is up to your discretion.

I prefer to eat catfish, walleye, pike, or panfish. They all taste better IMO, and I like the idea of letting the bass go. I still put most of the species i mentioned above back. I only like to keep 1 or 2 walleye, pike, cats every once in a while IF they are perfect eaters and I'm in a mood. Panfish is another story ?. If everyone kept all of the fish they could legally keep, there would be a lot less fish to go around. That being said, if you gut hook a fish bad (bleeding, entire hook in stomach, is not reviving on the release), and it is a legal keeper, it might be in the fish's best interest to be fried up. I like to pinch the barbs on my hooks. It really helps when you get a swallowed hook, or when the hook is tangled in the skin in the corner of the mouth. Much less damage in those cases.

A guided bass trip on a new lake would be awesome. A guided bass trip on a familiar lake might give him some insight to fishing his home lake that he will use in the future. A new species trip would be sweet too -- big TN river flathead catfish, blue catfish, or stripers are examples. I am personally picky about my gear, so a gift card would be sweet; it would NOT feel less special than a regular gift. A $500 gift card to tackle warehouse would make me feel like a kid in a candy shop! Of the options I listed, I would pick either a big flathead catfish trip (I envy your state's flathead catfish population), or the tackle warehouse gift card, but I would still be overly excited about the other two. That is ME, though. It might take some detective work to see what would be good. I am thinking i might have to leave my computer open to this thread in a very visible location.... ?

The my river has been getting slammed. People do not seem to care how close they get to each other either ?. Luckily the lakes I like to fish havent been as bad. More room, less people, and a change of scenery.

4" curly tail on a jig head

It seems to me that I am always hearing about a technique that so and so used to win such and such lake, and it becomes the hot new thing. I am wondering if there is a place to find information about tournament winning baits. Like would bassmaster have anything like that on their site? I can imagine that a lot of that info is scattered al over the place, I just think it would be interesting to look at all that stuff.