the reel ess

I justify it by not having an expensive boat.

Shiners are great live bait for bass and the best for peacocks from what I'm told. Some people enjoy chunking and winding artificials. It's really up to you to decide if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Once you start it gets addictive and you can never buy enough tackle.

I have this. It works great. I can't tell you how many times I've used it with boat trailer, car-truck-Jeep tires, hand truck tires, bikes, etc. It's pretty cheap, AC/DC, 12V. I have a big compressor now, but the portable one is the bomb.

In summer fish have to eat because their metabolism is as high as it gets. But they don't have to eat at noon. Ever catch one with a gut that's almost concaved? Go at night or early and late in the day for the low light periods. I throw all the same stuff I would in a larger body of water.

I was dragging it on some structure that day. But since then I've used straight tailed shaky head worms with success. I got a bite Monday reeling the thing back fast. I'm rather new to the shaky head game so I'm just trying the possibilities.

Of course if you're fishing it weightless a shaky head won't help. Maybe a light weighted swimbait hook would help. I have a few with an 1/8 oz weight on them.

IDK that it matters. But a shaky head will fix that issue. I caught this bass on one. You can see it almost swallowed the hook.

The only time I've ever cast in someone else's direction was when a guy trolled between the bank and my boat and I was obviously fishing the bank. He intentionally screwed up the spot for us because he couldn't fish it. He wasn't even casting, just trolling through. I cast right at his trolling motor and he had to pull the motor up not to get my line. Then the guy says to me "It's a big lake" after squeezing into 30' of it to tick me off. I said "Oh, excuse me sir. But I was fishing there before you decided to run through it." This was not even during a tourney. BTW, this was a spot we found while crappie fishing. I gave this spot to a guy who had a club tourney on that lake and he won that day. It was so good that I'd usually save it for last. Anyway, that's why I kayak fish private properties now.

Frog and jig mostly for quality size. I just got into the shaky head and it's been productive. I've been throwing this gold Academy store brand lipless crank with some success. I just changed to hooks out with a Rat L Trap because the ones that came on it look very cheap and light. I hope it doesn't affect action.

I don't generally don't do well in the deepest part of the pond. If there's a dam, I'll fish cover at the edge of it. You can cast to it and retrieve until the bait falls into deeper water. Most bites will come close to the cover.

I have a backup spot nearby for very windy days. It's a pond that's pretty much surrounded by hills and trees. I did have a pond I could walk as well, but my cousin sold his house and property.

In some states, SC included, docks are not the property of the people that built them unless they are above the "high water mark". They are the property of the lake authority, like Duke Energy. People can actually get out of their boat onto your dock and you have no legal recourse except to ask them to leave. My dad and I went over to our place on Lake Wateree once and there were a couple fishing from our dock. My dad calmly went down and started rigging up. They walked out. Now, they had trespassed on our lot to get to the dock and they knew it.

Cricket under a bobber. When/if they get their fill of it, it's time to stop. Stay away from them when they cast.

Yeah, sometimes I get so excited I forget something important like sunscreen, some tackle I wanted to use or a kayak paddle. Luckily, I fish a couple miles away from my house.

And when it hauls you around. It's more like close combat than fishing from a deck. Nice ride. To your point about lugging the kayak on and off a vehicle, that's pretty easy with a pickup. Mine weighs about 60 lbs. with the seat in. It's much easier to me than towing, unloading, loading and towing back a boat. I don't have space in my yard for a boat. And this feature of a kayak means you can put it in places you can't get most boats in. And for the rods I can take as many as 8 with the flush mount and a crate. But I rarely take more than 6. I just take the bags of plastics I might need and one or two boxes. No gas or oil, no batteries to charge or lug around, no motors to get fixed or replace. All boats have their have pros and cons. I'd still like to own a jonboat.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do try to use more weedless lures in a spot like that. Spinnerbait and jig. But I have thrown and retrieved my Whopper Plopper 110 right over laydowns. If a big fish gets it there landing it is low percentage. Not to mention I may lose the expensive lure.

After I got a kayak I found that I was never using my fish & ski. It was falling into disrepair so I sold it. I haven't missed it a bit. I catch more and bigger bass than I ever have going to places you can't easily get a bass boat into.

If working a shoreline, the back seater can cast or pitch in a backwards angle. They may pick some fish off the front guy misses. I've been successful in my buddy's back seat by fishing out of the other side of the boat or using lures he won't or doesn't use. Gotta do some different things sometimes.

Anybody remember Virgil Ward's fishing show? If I recall he caught about half his fish on this bait with a pork trailer.

I used a gold one last summer during the dog days. I bought it at the beach to use for inshore. It's a frog replacement for me. A trailer helps out a lot. I just slowly retrieved it over the lilies. And yes, the hook needs a good sharpening. One of the cool things about the spoon is if they bite and miss you can let it sink. If they miss the frog, they often lose sight of the lure. It also shows the fish something they probably have never seen.

My next smallmouth will also be my new PB smallmouth.

Looks perfect. Every time I ever overfilled one I just backlashed the excessive line off.

It was an original Star Wars reference.

Yeah, when they're finicky everything matters. When they're chomping nothing seems to matter.

My dad introduced me to fishing. One of his friends, a coworker, introduced us both to bass fishing. He took me fishing a few times when my dad was working. He recently passed away.