the reel ess

I don't find shad imitators to be as good in ponds unless the fish are so turned on they just don't care. Craws and bream are the thing though. Pond fish seem a little hungrier in general. They never seem to have a fat gut unless they're spawning. They'll fall for a little more than lake bass because the food supply is a little more limited. I also don't see them "schooling" in ponds as they do in lakes. I simply don't see them stacked up. You might catch them doing the same thing in the same area. But usually it's only a couple. Big ones are usually alone. I fish a rather large pond. Actually one of two town reservoirs as well as several smaller ones. . The big one's kind of lake-like except fr the lack of shad.

Man, wake up early and ply the points and shallows with a topwater like Pop R, buzzbait or Spook. Make really long casts. Get a wacky Senko and work those docks. Then go back with a T-Rig and comb the bottom at the docks. Then go drag all the points with a crankbait. If you catch a few on the crankbait, work the area with T-rig or C-rig worms. Don't skip any piece of visible cover, rock or wood.

My buddy does it. he doesn't use any other line for bass. 15# Berkley Big Game is all he has. I have it on two BC combos. I have to say he out-fishes me a lot.

I had the same issues when I started froggin'. To some extent, I still do at times. Use heavy braid...20# or more. As previously mentioned use at least a MH/fast rod. Tighten down the drag. Those are some thick hooks. With mono, you can stretch several feet if you have too much line out. Add to that your medium rod and you may not take up enough line to sink that hook. Wait two whole seconds before setting the hook-almost no one can make themselves do this. If it's a hollow bodied frog, they'll hold on and close that mouth. While you count 2 Mississippi's, reel down until all the slack is gone. Cross his eyes with the hookset. And you'll still miss some. If you miss and don't yank the frog all the way to the boat, let it rest 5 seconds then start twitching, like it's stunned. Then resume the retrieve. Rig that Medium combo with something like a wacky Senko. If the fish blows up and you can't hook up, lob the Senko back to the spot. They'll bite it about half the time. I'm not even sure that's the same fish or just one competing for food.

6.5# on a snag proof frog. It was about 10 years ago too. I love the frog, it seems to discourage dinks. I've caught several bass in that range, but none bigger. But I fish a place now that has bigger bass in it. So a PB is always my goal.

Yeah, I can see why you'd hate them.

Have you had this problem at other times? If anything I'd say it's causing me to catch more fish due an improved hookup rate.

Guess I'm getting old. After a day of steady cranking and casting I can feel it in the shoulder.

I cleaned and tightened it. I tried it and it was better, but still did the same. So I exchanged the same part with an ABU 5000C. I'll give it another try.

Your arms, the line and what's left of the rod's backbone after it loads up.

I LIKE catching fish. If that's what they want, that's what I want to do. But I admit I love the "tick-tick" you feel when they take that bait and start moving away with it.

If you're using a soft hollow body frog, you can let the bass hold the lure for two full seconds before you set the hook-this is difficult to make yourself do. You want the fish to close his mouth before you set. You'll still lose some, but fewer. Last time out I caught three good fish on one. I missed as many. But when you miss, don't get frustrated and reel up fast. Let it sit still like it's stunned then start twitching and resume the retrieve. I've had a fish swipe at one the entire retrieve. Also, use heavy braid. Cross that fish's eyes and keep cranking when you set the hook or it won't penetrate. If you get a miss and you've already reeled in, toss a worm back to that spot and let it sink. This works for all topwater lures. I like the wacky rig for that.

I want to be good on a jig/craw combo, but I'm not. usually by the time I feel the bite, they feel the weight and are off before I can set a hook. I am good with T-rigged plastics. I have all the confidence in the world that I can get a bite and land a fish on a worm, craw, fluke, tube or anything else you can T-rig. Any color you want as long as it's dark. So I usually go to them first when a reaction bite just can't be bought and I know there are fish there. In a pond there are always fish there. My biggest bass ever came on a Snag Proof frog. I have a ton of confidence in this lure for warm weather pond fish and usually good size. You can see small bass creep up to it an turn away. But the big girls...HOLD ON! I saw a Lunker Lure frog in Academy and didn't buy it. Been kicking myself since. I like the ones with realistic legs better than the ones with skirt legs.

I got a few bites on that last time out in a mossy and grassy pond. If you can get to other areas, chances are there's an area that doesn't have that moss. Look for where the bream spawn and a bank that drops off deep right at the edge. You can fish those places with a T-Rig or jig as well as that Senko. Something else we've been doing is "slow-cranking" a lipless crankbait in the deepest part. It's been getting the biggest fish. Big bass are sitting down right on that mossy bottom and only feeding on easy prey that passes by.

I don't know...I've caught bass where there were carp splashing around. But it was a pond. The bass are captive and have to eat.

That looks like a plastic swimbait/fluke hook that came with a package deal I bought years ago. I think they're designed so that the hook is texposed on the back of the bait so when the fish chomps down the point is exposed. You don't bury the point in the bait. I just look up the correct hook for each lure and size. Then I go get the Gamakatsu hook for that application. I have a lot of faith in them. One of the most effective changes I've ever made in my fishing was to start using quality hooks. The next was using braid on spinning.

5' LIZARDS! Talk about big bass baits!

I used to be absolutely clueless about this. And maybe I'm still no genius. But I'd start a day off throwing buzzbaits and other topwaters around docks or any wood cover near deeper water. If this got bites, I'd keep it up with a white spinnerbait for a while until the bite stopped. If not, I'd move to some secondary and main lake points near deeper water and throw some big c-rig worms and cranks. If all this failed. I'd start skipping docks relentlessly with a wacky rig or creature. If that failed, I'd go to a local pond where they can't get away.

That could've been a white perch. They eat everything. To prepare for them, take anything. LOL. They like crappie jigs and live minnows. But they'll also hit Shad Raps and even larger crankbaits like Norman's. They're fun on panfish tackle. Taste good too. They're a bit invasive in SC so there's currently no limit on them here. They compete with everything, are voracious eaters and eat fish eggs. I certainly wouldn't put them in a pond.

One of those lures designed to catch fishermen.

At low light when I get strikes, I'm using a black/blue skirt, silver blade. I seriously doubt bass could distinguish the blade color from the skirt. But then, I doubt they'd give a hoot one way or the other. Middle of the day, maybe. But I never get bites on a buzzbait midday.

Rooster Tails, Beetle Spins with white grub, Rebel Wee Craw in small size. Crickets for bream, hot dogs (yes, hot dogs) for catfish. You should be well-stocked. It's unlikely there are stripers in there. They can't survive in a place where they can't get deep enough to get proper oxygen and temp in the summer. Oxygen gets low in a pond in the heat of summer. Hank Parker has hybrids (white/stripers) stocked in a family pond, but it's big and he aerates it and stocks with shad. If they're there, they like fishy lures like soft swimbaits, crankbaits, bucktails. If they're in there, there'll be shad or blueback herring too because they eat too much to be put in a pond without a lot of bait. So you'd want to match the hatch. Good luck.

I never had any faith in lipless cranks until a couple years ago when I started fishing a local reservoir. Now they're a go-to bait for big fish. My buddy turned me on to them in winter. We will fish deeper places in the reservoir and reel them very slow-as slow as possible to keep them out of the bottom muck and grass. But yesterday we dusted them off again. He caught 3 on one and one fish broke him off. I only caught one but it was about a 3 pounder. Gold chrome is the color of choice in this place. You can fish another color if you want, but won't catch them. I don't usually believe color matters that much but I've been proven wrong on this lure.

That gives me an idea for a new scent product. I have a friend with a pond who feeds the fish by hand, when he's not too lazy. I've been there when he does it and there are some huge ones in there. He says the catfish won't bite anything else and I believe him because I've never caught one even on live bait. I'll bet they'll bite a hot dog while he's feeding them.

I've caught a whole slew of fish on the Pop-R, and some nice ones. It culls none.