the reel ess

I've seen a big bird catch a big frog while I was fishing as well.

NM

A couple of outings ago I had to yank my frog away from a snake. I've also had to do the same with a bird. I've missed more bass than I've caught on them. And I've caught a lot of bass on them. I bought a frog-specific rod and dedicated that combo specifically for frogs from March to whenever it gets cold here. I put a T rig on it for pitching when the water is too cold for topwaters.

There's not a lot of difference between swim jigs and pitching jigs. You can use different heads for these techniques or you can use a grass-type head for both. I had @cadman make me a couple swimmers in golden shiner pattern and a couple black/blue ones when I got serious about jigs. I still have the swim jigs. I would go with 3/8 for the swimmers and 3/8-1/2 oz. for pitching. 3/8 oz. is my go-to year round. For football heads I'd go 3/4 oz., though I haven't tried those yet, I intend to. Colors : some sort of brown and some black/blue for pitching. Match the trailer color. Or not, it might not matter. Fish colors for swimming, usually. And watch a bunch of YouTube videos. You'll learn a lot. Then tie one on and only use it for a day. Watch your line. When they bite, often it's before the bait hits bottom so you don't feel anything. The bait just starts moving away or off to the side. Set the hook HARD with your drag pretty tight and keep the fish coming to you. Play it as little as possible, especially in heavy cover. You can't set it too hard. Use a rod with some good backbone. At least a MH-Fast. I use a Hvy-Fast with 30# braid. You'll probably miss a couple bites, but you'll see what it takes to get better. I just reread your post and I have another suggestion. Pitching grass can be more productive with a Texas rigged Craw type bait. I like the Strike King Rage Bug. I actually use it as my jig trailer most of the time too because it skips better than the rage craw. Use a big enough weight to get the bait into the grass. If you do this, use a flipping hook or a superline EWG hook, probably the former is better. Big bass can straighten out wire hooks enough to escape.

Unless a few can break through enough to eat small bass. I've caught a chunky bass with a bass down its throat in a place I fish that's overpopulated. My buddy tells me to keep everything I catch. It was only about a pound and a half, but that fish stands a chance of getting big. I had to throw it back.

In that case, if at all possible, it's best to reel the fish in over the backlash. I've had to do this a number of times after skipping a bait under something. Usually, it's just a little overrun. The first fluoro I got hold of was garbage as well. It was rotten and breaking in no time. It really turned me off to it. I can't remember a specific time when I had a reel or rod failure fighting a fish. But many times I set the hook to nothing. Just broke off. I used to only change line when it started breaking. Once I got into a school of 3 lb bass and was wearing them out on a Spook. I caught 5 on 5 casts. On the 6th I got a bite and that fish got my only Spook. Lesson: Don't get so excited you forget to check your line if using mono-and buy more Spooks. I quickly tied on a Pop R, but they had no interest in it. That bite was over. Funny, because I had a neighbor with a bass boat trolling down the bank toward me and I caught those fish right in front of him. He said "I think you know something I don't." I assured him I just lucked up and came across a school of very hungry fish.

@Run2jeepn Yeah, I know it's not easy lugging around a bunch of rods in a Jeep. Mine is a 2-door soft top.

In my somewhat extensive experience with overpopulated ponds, the biggest bass in a dink factory might be 1-2 lbs. Use your biggest baits. Frog, spinner/buzzbaits, big topwaters, even a rat. Dinks will still bite.

I see a few Johnny Rattlers in that pic.

Lew's. But if you want somebody to do the work, send it to BPS rod/reel repair or contact DVT. BPS has most parts in stock for most BC reels.

Looks great. Make me one too. I have a Jeep too and I'd like to use it for fishing sometimes because my daughter, who's 16, keeps wanting to use my truck.

That's the reason I bought the one I'm currently using. My first kayak was a Perception Pescador 12'. It served me well as an entry level kayak. It was nice and light and tracked pretty well, but not very stable and the seat was padded, molded in and it put my butt and legs to sleep after a couple hours. So I decided it was time to step up to a used FeelFree Lure that came with a trolling motor setup. The seat was awesome. But it was HEAVY and I felt like I was wasting time lugging it around and taking off and putting on the motor/battery. I sold it for what I paid and got a new Pescador Pro 10'. It only weighs 50 lbs. so it's quick and easy to load and unload. Its stability is between the other two models and it has a good stadium seat. It doesn't track great and the rear has a tendency to creep around on you. But I'm pretty used to it now. I don't notice any difference in numbers of fish since I'm paddling again. And I really like the exercise of it. I'll fish on a bigger body of water in wind up to 10 MPH, but not much more than that. But I have a couple of other options. One is a friend's pond that's sort of low-lying and shielded from heavy wind. It's a go-to on some of those spring days when it's "white capping in the commode". And I have a couple of places I can go walk.

I have a friend who occasionally goes with me that only wants to use a bubblegum weightless Trick Worm. And he works it so slow it stays on bottom and catches fish with it. I call it the (his name) method. When my dad and I were getting into bass fishing, my dad only used plastic worms. He was of the opinion that they would catch bass better than any other bait in any situation. I made him rethink that as I got into other techniques. But it still will consistently catch bass in most situations.

I have before, but I don't anymore. I just don't see much advantage. If I was flipping really stained water, I might try it. The last one I used was black glass and it broke.

I think so as well. She's just a little more educated. A 9 lb. is the biggest I know of coming from this lake. But it's private, sees little pressure, electric motor (or paddle) only with an endless supply of golden shiners, minnows, bluegill, shellcrackers, warmouth, crappie and catfish. I'm keeping a list of the fish over 3.5 lb. caught there this calendar year, the date and what I caught them on.

I know right? I'm having my best year ever and it's only half over. But I've targeted bigger bass and this place has a bunch of 6-8 lb fish. Not a lot over 8. It's my lifelong fishing goal to get a double digit bass.

I had my first free morning in two weeks yesterday. I got on the lake by 6:30. It was overcast and even rained a few drops early. I decided to try the Teckel Sprinker frog that I have never used because I've been missing most of the frog bites I got lately. About 30 minutes into the trip a 6.1 lb crushed it on top of the lilies. It put up a valiant fight but it was fighting my frog rod. I weighed it, took the obligatory pic and had it swimming away in less than a minute. About 30 minutes later I missed a big bass on the WP and another on the jig that felt good. I was using the Trashmaster jig, which has as a screwlock and the trailer is rigged Texas style for better weedlessness. The hook never cleared the plastic, though I set it plenty hard enough. I was beating myself up for not catching those two when I decided to revisit some laydowns and overhangs that I had already covered with the jig. I skipped it under an overhang that has been kind to me in the past. BOOM! Another big gal had it before I started the retrieve and was headed for deep water until I set the hook. Then she decided to go back to the brush. It was close combat, but she was hooked so well there was no escape. The battery in my scale had gone dead by this time. But this fish was noticeably bigger than the 6.1 and was starting to get that bug-eyed look. I'm guessing 7+. The more I jig fish with 30# braid, the more I'm convinced they're not line shy.

I would say it's often not even about food or eating. They're like cats in the water. It's smaller than them so they must kill it.

I was frog fishing today and thought about this very thing. I pictured a big bass thumbing through the Petersen Filed Guide of Bass Prey. I don't think they care. They're stone cold killers.

Karma

The guy I got that Johnny Rattler (and a Spook) from was trying to sell me his entire collection. I picked through it looking for gems, but it was mostly run of the mill stuff. He had a lot of Spooks so I bought one in the bass pattern.

@galyonj I just had an ah-hah moment. I like to use Tactical Anglers Clips with my hard baits. So I'll take the split rings off the line ties of those to put on the Spooks.

There are lots of variables. But having that endless supply of forage is definitely going to help size and probably overcome the other variables. Some of those variables matter a lot more when the forage is limited. I fish a place that apparently has plenty of forage and there are lots of 6-7 pounders in there. But it's about 30 acres. And there aren't many people taking any big bass out of it.

I was eyeballing that EWG Gammy in size #1 because that's the size R2Sea uses for their 113 Whopper Plopper. And the hooks that come with the Spook are quite large, maybe larger than necessary.

I have several old Spooks that I want to replace the hooks on and add split rings. What hook do y'all use for those? Also, what size split ring should be used? I've hardly ever replaced hooks unless they broke and I always scavenged split rings from baits I don't use. Thanks.