the reel ess

A friend of mine has a pond and his daughter has caught bass on strips of bologna. This is not really weird by any stretch or a pattern but it was odd. I walked right up to a fish that was a few feet from the bank. It could obviously see me because it reacted by turning to look my direction but it didn't spook. I said to my friend "There's a 3 pounder right here that doesn't seem to mind me." I tossed my frog several feet in front of it and it smashed the frog. He was amazed because it's his pond.

Not yanking the topwater away from a bass is one of the hardest skills to acquire. I will still occasionally do it. You have to consciously decide that you aren't going to do it. It helps some people to look away while they retrieve. You wait to feel the weight of the fish on the lure. It helps me to keep the rod tip in a position that's hard to do a hookset from. That makes it a little harder to overreact. I don't know if you used a trailer hook, but I've caught a lot of fish on the trailer. I can think of no good reason not to use one.

I walk through pawn shops all the time hoping for some little gem I can get a deal on. I ran across this one about a week ago, still sealed in the original package, at my local pawn shop. Note the price. $20. That's half the Cabela's, BPS and Academy price. It took me 47 years, but I finally scored a good pawn shop deal on a reel. I already had one in the 40 size, but this one is much lighter and balanced on the rod. And I just completely wore out an old BPS Viper reel.

Berkley baits and Pfleuger reels are the only ones I'd miss here. And I doubt they'll simply disappear. I think Pfleuger's spinning reels are one of the best bargains on the market.

That was going on before he did it though. During good economic times, people from established boat mfg's would branch out and start companies. If timing was bad, they'd eventually fold or get bought at a bargain by the big boys. If timing was good, they would prosper and often get bought up by the established companies at a decent profit to either be dissolved or maintained. I remember when I was a teen, OMC Group bought up several manufacturers and many disappeared. During economic downturns, only the big boys can afford to keep going and even buy up the competition.

Well, he already knocks off everything they make in some way.

I agree. Many of them die young because they're more concerned with looks than health. I know one whose liver quit on him at 30 and he was dead in a few days.

Amen. I rarely wacky rig stick baits anymore since I tried a Trick Worm. I always have one tied on in some fashion anyway so it's easy to get to. So a T rigged weightless Trick Worm is my answer. Just toss it to every piece of cover I can find, especially wood.

Do you ever notice that when people ask you a fishing question, you answer with so much detail and qualifying information that their eyes glass over and they change the subject to sports? You're that guy and he's a casual angler. I'm that guy too. Toss him a T rigged Trick Worm and tell him to throw at every piece of cover. Color doesn't matter usually. Sometimes he'll outfish you. My buddy has 1 rod that I rig for him when we go. That's the only bait he uses and he usually catches enough to stay interested. If you want to still hang out with him just tell him what you think will work. If not, push him out of the boat. LOL Skips every other leg day. But to give you an idea of how dedicated I am, I quit the gym because it was taking up too much fishing time.

You think your local rivers are more polluted than the Mekong River? At least you know your local river. I don't eat fish from our local rivers and reservoirs either. Maybe crappie, but they're on the list of safer fish, considering PCBs and mercury contamination. Farmed fish are lacking in omega 3 fatty acids and aren't healthy either. The "steelhead" sold in Sam's has to be dyed pink because it's grain fed. You might as well eat a lean steak.

Honestly, I don't use a small frog anymore since I bought a Hvy frog rod. I don't really see the purpose because small fish will bite the standard sized frog. It seems like you'd just be fishing for small fish. But I'd still use the spinning combo for the Snag Proof Original Frog because it's only 1/8 oz. I have a Pad Crasher Jr that I think I could cast on my MH BC combo. It's 1/4 oz.

You probably already have a MH spinning combo around 7' long for soft plastics/small jigs. That's the rod I've used for this. I use 20# braid on my spinning combos anyway and I'll tie on a leader of mono if I need to.

I have a buddy with a maybe 4 acre pond that is badly out of balance. We've discussed rigging up our own shocking method to remove a large quantity of fish. The bass are almost all under 3/4 lb and the bluegills are too big for them to eat. Both species are competing for the same prey. It has advantages as well. The fish are so hungry they're really stupid. And you can target both species with a Rooster Tail and a lightweight spin combo if you like. I've caught 50 bass there in a couple hours before. I try to cull the smaller fish by only using big baits, but the dinks will still bite them. I was introduced to that guy by my wife and the first day I fished with him I caught a 6.5 lb bass, which I put back, on a frog. But I haven't caught more than 5 fish over 2 lbs there in the last 14 years. That's how badly it got out of balance. While on the other hand, I have another friend with a pond that has much better average size bass in it. A 13 pounder has been caught there! The state record is 16 and change. And almost no one ever keeps fish there. I always use that as my ploy to get into a place. When I ask permission, I'll say "Hey if you're worried about people taking too many fish, I won't. I'm only in it for the fun and to catch a monster."

That's mostly correct about major public impoundments. But it's really not the case with ponds. They can become so overrun with dinks so quickly you can't take enough fish by hook and line to reset the balance.

I rarely eat what I catch from the kayak because it's a hassle to keep them and the family don't like them as much as I do. So I end up eating three helpings trying not to waste any. When i go with my buddy in his Tracker, he keeps everything bigger than 3/4 lbs. and smaller than 3 lbs. He lets all the trophies live. This is a 30 acre private lake and he can keep 60 fish if he wants to. There's not much danger of that happening because the bass don't bite that well there. He also crappie fishes there as well and does keep them all, every time. Anyway, I like the way they taste from clean water so, yeah, I'll keep some. I really prefer grouper, snapper, sea bass, triggerfish, stripers and the like. I like the meater fish better than the fishier fish, if you get my drift. Crappie are much better eating than bass.

I do the same. I also use weeds and lilies as an anchor if it's windy.

Me either.. Get a spinning combo and you'll be glad. I bought one for weightless and light-weighted plastics and discovered it was the ticket for light treble lures. So I bought a medium combo specifically for those lures.

Buy it and give us a report. I don't see how it could not catch fish.

I just use the long sleeve fishing shirt, wide brim hat and spray sunscreen on the legs and hands.

I'll try many casts if they've been productive in the past or just look fishy. I've caught fish on different lures on some laydowns and even caught one and come back and caught another off the same one, same trip. If you spook fish, certainly try it again later. They have a short memory.

They'll compete directly with bass in a smaller pond because the main forage is minnows in the crappie's favorite size. It's not recommended to have both in a smallish body of water unless there's a really good food supply. That said, there's a 30 acre reservoir near me where they both do well.

Why? They have one too, even if they don't know it.

This video says remove the rear hook to use a lipless crank around wood.

Check this out. But I've seen someone take the reel off the rod and sort of push the rod down the line to knock a plug loose. I wouldn't do that with a $100+ rod to get a $6 lure back.