Airman4754

I'm in 21 Friday and Saturday night so we are right next to each other. I will probably take Friday off and get there early.

Usually this happens in ponds that are spring fed or have a constant inflow. The other common theme is very little cover or structure. The urban ponds in Arizona pretty much fit this bill everywhere and a couple here also. It's slow and annoying, but a Senko and a suspending jerk bait fished incredibly slow are the only two things I've found that works. With the Senko you will know right away. They will just go straight to it and inhale it. The jerkbait can take awhile, like 10 minutes per cast. As soon as the fish starts to lose interest and swim away give it another twitch. It's a grind, but bass fishing isn't a catch fest 24/7.

Rod action is about casting, hook size, and fatigue. Would that rod load up well enough to throw a 10XD a really long ways, which is crucial to get it way down where you want it? They come with pretty big hooks, but is the rod too stiff so that it will tear the fish's mouth letting it get off? I don't think you would have to worry about fatigue. The same questions apply to what you would be using with a Keitech.

I run 15lb SS8 with 6lb CX leader on the Ned.

I've got the most impatient six year old on the planet. He has caught about 25 bass now on the Ned. When the bite is on it's literally fool proof. Any cast and retrieve will work.

Good stuff man! That's a beast for that part of the world. Chewy!!!

I use a 6'8" St Croix M/XF and I love it. It's the SCIII blank so it would be a Mojo Now.

Mudhole.com

All the ponds around me just spawned and are still in that two week recover mode so nothing really works. You really have to grind out the jig and top water bite, but I'm looking forward to post spawn to get back on the Ned. To be fair, lizards are hard to beat in the post spawn. They demolish them.

I believe one is a 4 strand and the other is an 8. For me personally I like regular Power Pro on baitcasters a lot more than SS8, but I like SS8 on spinning reels more than baitcasters. Maxcuatro is better than both of them, but usually a bit more.

No no no, big bass are too smart! No way some 19 year old from the bank could catch such a beast. Right water, right presentation, right time. All three were there, no genius was involved.

I've never personally seen a smallie bed on a river or a lake. They might, but that's a lot of smallie fishing to never see one, where anyone around largemouth will see hundreds per year. In the lakes in Oregon we usually hit them in 12'-15' when they were staging. They didn't stage like largemouth where they kind of ung out waiting. They would be roaming around at that depth, but you had to find the right transition depth. For example if the second break was 30' and they were staged on the first break of 13' they would be like that everywhere on the entire lake and the day was spent finding the right transition depth instead of fish. If it went from 60' to 13' quickly it was dead water. The PNW reservoirs are kind of a unique deal compared to the rest of the country though. The only time we would catch or see smallies in under 5' of water was the middle of summer when they would draw the reservoirs down and they would push shad into coves and the backs of creeks. They would chase them literally onto the bank.

A little Plopper at dusk. I hit a few on a Rage lizard too, but the lizard bite isn't on yet.

We always had the best luck catching them at the mouths of creeks or at the back of a creek if it has water flowing in heavily. A sweet potatoe Tiki Shad on a drop shot was always the home run bait.

The Orras don't cast quite as well as the Revo, but they reel a lot smoother. As far as bargain reels go that Orra Winch is probably the best one of the bunch. I've tried to replace it for a couple years now with something higher end and I haven't been able to do it.

This topic is the "get off my lawn" of bass fishing. Bass fisherman are going to fish docks, dock owners are going to get mad about it. Turn that music down, get off my lawn, tv will rot your brain. Old man yells at clouds. This is a topic where nothing will ever be gained by anyone.

I've been on Clearlake a bunch of times and have a few trips to Guntersville now. These two lakes are massive. The top end of Clearlake is an 11 mile wide clay bowl. A guy I knew went to Guntersville on the same day in his boat as I did. Later that night we compared trips, we had a pretty slow day, he did pretty well. He was 35 miles away from me as the crow flies. That's another county away in red states. Toledo Bend dwarfs both of these. The Sac Delta has like 360 miles of water to fish. I get the theory of a big bass seeing a bunch of lures on a small body of water. There are double digit fish in some of these mega lakes that have never seen a lure. It's a massive body of water with great habitat and weather. California had the rare combo of Florida and Northern hybrids which grow to be enormous mixed with endless trout stocking and great weather. Now the hybrid gene pool is well past the first generation, they barely plant trout anymore, and the water management is awful. California still produces good fish, but it's nothing like it was 30 years ago. The same guys are out there doing the same things with much different results. There is no smart. There is being on the right water doing the right thing at the right time. If one thing is off in that triangle it's not happening.

Text book 3.5lb jig fish.

I agree with this completely. I've had success on the 6" perch quite a few times. The 8" is a huge bait and the action isn't good enough to really trigger strikes like a good glide bait or a good soft bait like a Hudd.

Spinnerbaits catch good fish.

I've caught some salad plate sized bream on the Ned in the last month. They were big enough no largemouth would mess with them. I haven't had the success bed fishing them like I though I would, but I fish beds a lot more aggressively than most. I make them bite.

6" Robo Rage Space Monkey 12" Lizard TRD Custom Leech

I used to get these 12" mag lizards on eBay from I believe it was a bait shop near Clearlake in California. I usually just make a big order and these things are a staple of my summer C-rigging. I can't find them on their now. Does anyone on here have the info on them? I figured I would ask before I started calling bait shops all over Lake County.

A Whopper Plopper. Buzzbaits don't catch fish. This is scientific fact. On a serious note some buddies swear by tearing off the two middle legs of a Pit Boss. You can still run the trailer hook and I guess the two outside arms beat up the water.

I have those same bass in the creek next to my house. They call them red eyes.