the reel ess

24' pontoon 16' Ryan Craft aluminum semi-V hull bassboat. It was a riveted hull and we were constantly replacing rivets 20' Pontoon 16.5' ProCraft Fish & Ski (still have it and might use in the winter) Pescador Pro Kayak (my current ride)

I usually fish alone Yeah, with nobody else And you know, when I fish alone I prefer to be by myself. Honestly, I enjoy my own company better than anyone else's. Other people bug me. I have two buddies I occasionally fish with and that's about that. Most people I know don't want to go out in the middle of summer when the temp is in the mid 90's with high humidity and only catch 2 dinks. But I'm just stupid like that.

Yeah, the extra length is for leverage to get bass to the top of vegetation. Even smaller bass can be a handful if they get their head buried in the slop. Really, the 3" of extra rod is hardly noticeable.

About any 7'3" Hvy Fast should do the trick. Look for a light one because great sensitivity is not necessary for either of those techniques. I might suggest a store brand. https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-ethos-hd-micro-baitcast-rod#repChildCatid=3898114 https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-rods/casting-rods/pc/104793480/c/104764680/sc/104823180/cabelas-fish-eagle-casting-rods/2430565.uts?slotId=1 Here's what I got for frogs and it's on sale now. I got the frog model. It's a great frog rod. I don't fish swimbaits though. https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-rods/casting-rods/pc/104793480/c/104764680/sc/104823180/cabelas-tournament-zx-bass-casting-rods/1619298.uts?slotId=4

Any color worm will do as long as it's purple Just kidding. Black, purple, watermelon or pumpkin are good starters. My all time fav pond bait is the Zoom Trick Worm in bubble gum.

Welcome to the board. I can't think of a much better bait than a 6" Texas rigged worm for starters. I'd throw about everything I have in the box except for deep divers until I figured it out. Early or late I'd try topwaters because I love them.

I can get three spoolings from a 150 yd spool. Here's another thrifty trick. When you get tired of seeing that faded out used end, you can spool it onto another reel and you'll be using the other end of it, which is new and still has the original color. The stuff doesn't wear out unless you fish around a lot of rocks.

Ditto, except I use 50# on the frog combo. It's very good stuff. When you factor in how long it lasts and use some cheap backing line to fill the first half spool, it doesn't cost much more than mono.

My dad and I did this once. We took off from our own boat launch so the trailer was still in the water. We got maybe half a mile and the water was around our ankles. We turned around quickly and headed back to the launch taking on water the whole way. We tried to drive up on the trailer, but had to winch it on and wait for it to drain. We were lucky. It was an older aluminum bassboat and I wouldn't trust the flotation.

I think they won't grow in water deeper than sunlight can penetrate well. In my area, the water is permanently stained so they don't grow much deeper than 3' or so. That's a good thing because they won't completely cover a pond if it's got some areas deeper than that and most do. And they don't grow in every body of water here either. I grew up fishing Lake Wateree, SC, which apparently was not ideal for them. All we had was water willow. We didn't even have that when I was really young. It's invasive. I'm constantly surprised how shallow bass will get under them, even in hot weather. The hollow body frog is just the ticket for them. Anywhere another form of cover or structure coincides with lilies is prime habitat. I think they're better in shallower ponds. If the fish can't go "deep" to beat the heat they're more likely to be in the pads in heat of the day. If they can get deep in the summer they will. Pads in places like that won't always hold fish. I always have a frog tied on and when i see a bass chasing bait in the pads I'll toss it right in there. Stealth is not the goal. That fish is feeding so get its attention.

All topwaters just before dark. Trick Worm & Finesse Worm Frog (oh, yeah, that's a topwater) any time of day, but better early and late Lipless crank. That seems to get a few bites from the weedy depths of my favorite reservoir. But you never know when it'll be a big'un. Big crappie will bite it too. Small craw on a jighead

You can do this without other people pressuring the fish as well. That's more important than you think. It's hotter than hades, fish are stressed by lower oxygen levels and they see more artificial lures. In smaller bodies of water, you can show a lure to fish that haven't seen one in a while and you know you'll drag it by some because where are they going to go? They can't go deep when deep is 3-4 feet. Another good tactic is going in the evening until dark. You'll just get more bites during low light periods in the summer. And since I'm a topwater nut, that is my favorite time. I also work, but there are still 4 hours left of daylight when I get off at 5:00. Also, downsizing will get you more bites. I like the Zoom 4" Finesse Worm. Try it on a small jighead or dropshot or a "finesse Carolina rig". That's a splitshot rig with a fancy name. I'll use more natural colors when the bite is tough. Less bubble gum and chartreuse. I'll also keep a craw on a plain Arky jighead handy. A Yamamoto Hula Grub gets some bites as well. Something about the craw when they aren't active can be too much for them to ignore. But if they aren't biting the big baits, the whole skirted jig might be too much.

Pros swear by them. IMO, they serve more of a purpose on baits that might sit still longer like a Pop R. You pause it a lot depending on the retrieve the fish prefer. I don't pause the Spook as much because it's more of a search bait. Fish just get the profile of it, not a long look at it. Sometimes fish don't smash the Pop R, but rather they kinda slurp it in from behind and only get the back hook. The idea is that bass see a lure that's in the rough shape of a fish and make a decision based on instinct. The dressed hook looks like a tail whereas a lot of baits don't have one. Anyway, they can't hurt, right?

Yeah! 10 lbs is kind of what I was thinking of.

Thanks @A-Jay. What's the biggest bass you've caught there? What can be expected?

I know some of you have gone to Mexican trophy bass lakes before. I want to plan a bucket list trip around my 50th birthday, which is 2 years and a month away. I have a few questions. What's the best time of year to catch a huge bass? Is there a "topwater season" ?? Is one lake better than others? Is it family friendly? My wife and daughter don't like to fish. Is there anything else around for them to do if they go along? Is it safe? Mexico isn't known for being a particularly safe travel destination lately. How long did you stay and how were the accommodations? Thanks in advance.

I use 20 lb. PowerPro. But looking at all the replies that use 15 lb. I may be going that route next time. 20 lb. is about the diameter of 8 lb mono. Given the underwater visibility of black or green braid, especially when it has some age on it, I don't see any reason to go much lighter. I use a mono leader for some baits for visibility reasons. It's not clear enough around here to warrant dealing with fluoro. I see a lot of pros using hi-vis yellow braid to help them detect bites. I may go that way as well next time. When you're wacky rigging you'd like to see the bite before you feel it to avoid fish swallowing hooks.

Something I keep meaning to do but just never seem to get around to it. I have a good assortment of bream and bass poppers.

I'll sometimes have a buzzbait tied on and when they either stop biting it or won't, I'll switch to a spinnerbait. On my topwater/crankbaits rod, I'll use a (good quality) snap to be able to quickly switch to a lipless crank or other subsurface lure on that rod. I take the baits I might want to switch to in the kayak with me. At my buddy's place, I just leave them on his dock and after an unsuccessful trip around his 4 acre pond, I'll just switch out baits without getting out of the water.

I'd rather catch one 2 pounder on top than two 3 pounders on bottom. As my dad would say, I'm "plumb eat up" with topwater fishing. The frog, popper and walking baits are my standby's followed by buzzbaits, prop baits and critters like the SPRO Rat. I've gone to my buddy's pond with 5 topwaters tied on, intent upon catching bass only on topwaters that trip. I have a couple of dedicated combos for topwaters. I've found that topwater action is better for longer periods of the day if the average depth of a body of water is shallower. ie: Pond fish are more apt to go for the topwater. I guess that's because they spend their life looking up. They can't choose to get in a very deep habitat. That might be why I prefer to catch a few bass over a lot of panfish, which is possible at my favorite fishing hole. I time my trips around the topwater bite (very early or late). My buddy will send me a pic of a cooler full of crappie and bream and say the bass weren't biting. But then I'll go anyway and bass fish and do whatever it takes to catch a few, hopefully on top. Even when i do fish for panfish, I do it the bass fishing way: cast and retrieve, repeat.

Ever notice how it looks when you reel in a bass on a spinnerbait or a soft plastic where the bait has slipped up the line? It looks like the bass is chasing a meal. It looks that way to other fish as well. If they're really turned on, they're competing for a finite volume of prey so they go after what they see; the same reason people catch doubles on lures with multiple hooks. Their brains are too small to understand the whole experience for the other hooked bass is not a pleasant one.

Somebody with that much disregard for wildlife might not have a valid license. You could call your DNR and report them. Somebody might get out in time to check on it. Or they might make it a point to increase visits to the location. I was talking to a local moron the other day who was bragging about catching and keeping more than the limit of stripers at the local lake. He said a game warden walked over to him and checked his license but couldn't see his stringer because of the rocky shore. It's a put-and-take fishery so the limit is 10, not 5 as on the rivers where they reproduce. I said "Why didn't you just keep 10 and release the rest?" He just looked at me like I was stupid. Ten 5 lb fish is plenty of meat for one person.

20 lbs/acre/year is a rule of thumb for harvesting. But if it's way out of balance, then you'd need to take more. You need to feed the bluegills before and during spawn so they spawn more and make more eggs. Then your bass will have another small forage. It's really hard for just a few people to keep enough bass to keep it in balance and stunted bass populations in ponds are extremely common. I have 4 small ponds (under 5 acres) that I frequently fish. Only one has really big, or even a healthy average size bass in it. One of the others has a concrete weir type spillway and it sometimes floods and loses some fish. It has a better average than the other two ponds. They're just full of dinks. Those bass have bellies that look concaved. Keep everything you catch unless it's a trophy or even a trophy in the making. Invite others over to keep what they catch. Short of the shocking survey/removal, that's the best thing you can do.

I frog fish a lot. This is what I have. I paid $100 for it, but right now it's on sale at $79.99. I've been using it for a few years now and I highly recommend it. And you'll still have $40 in your pocket for some really cool frogs. You can spend more, but you won't get much more of a frog rod for your money. Now, if you want the rod to pull double duty and be used for another technique, this is not the rod for you. It's stiff as a pool cue and that's necessary for getting the bass turned your way and dragging them out of vegetation. https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-rods/casting-rods/pc/104793480/c/104764680/sc/104823180/cabelas-tournament-zx-bass-casting-rods/1619298.uts?slotId=2

If you were in BPS or Cabela's and you wanted a reel they have as part of a combo deal, but you didn't want the run-of-the-mill 6'6" MH rod, you could ask them to switch the rods for another action and power of the same line of rods for the combo price. They probably would do it, especially if at least one of the pieces was their brand.