Hog Basser

I fish a similar pond, albeit in an entirely different area of the country. I rotate baits quite often to find something else that works, but I'm most successful with spinner baits, Jig and craw, T-rigged worms and craws, red-colored shallow-diving cranks, and Rage Swimmers on an Owner twistlock weighted hook.

Nice work!

Pretty sure there's regulations against that here.....they could say you are using the rifle to shoot at ducks on the water too far away for the shotgun. That's why I separate those two types of hunting more.

I'm going for the trifecta the next two weekends. Morning: Duck Hunt Mid day: Bass Fish Late Afternoon: Deer Hunt I'll take my rifle along with me while fishing (just in case) and just hop out of the boat and onto a 4wheeler to hit the deer stand when I'm done fishing. Keep in mind, this is all on private land. I wouldn't advise mixing deer hunt/fish as much on public water. And I won't be carrying a rifle and a shotgun at the same time.

I'd bet she'll hit 5lbs plus during the pre-spawn. Maybe 4 + right now.

Well, the Zebco 33 platinum has stood up so far....no real fishing yet, but lots of practice casting in the yard....and let me tell you, this thing casts a mile! I am really impressed with the casting ability with just a short pole attached. I may get a longer pole for actual fishing. So while the other cheapo plastic Zebco reel is starting to fail, I'm thinking of replacing it with this one as well. I think we have a winner for my kids. I may get a few extra of these for inexperienced guests as well.

Yeah, I'm down below the Hwy 12 bridge at Monte Ne, PC is where it starts clearing up, but I've been up to the dam and could see bottom at 20'. We have some tributaries that muck things up a little more on our end.

My place on Beaver has never gotten near 30', that's only up by the dam you can get that. The farther away you get, the less clarity. I'm normally at 6' or so, of course with all the rain earlier this year it was at the chocolate milk stage of clarity for the first few months of the summer.

Her: When will you be done? Me: Just one more cast. Her: Yeah, right. She knows me well. Her: You don't need any more lures. Me: ..............(tries not to make eye contact) Her: Ugh.....

^^^This I just try to get them back in a reasonable amount of time while making sure to remove the hook properly.

I love trying out new baits and getting them to work still at this point. I have narrowed down my main selection of productive baits, but still love trying out new ones and variations to see if anything works better. For those I don't use, I still carry a lot of them out with me and let my nephews or friends borrow them. They can catch fish on them, as I could, but I may just enjoy working with something else better. I foresee really narrowing down my boxes in the near future and building some boxes out of those baits I cast aside to let others borrow as an entire box when they go out with me and don't have much of their own. I take a lot of people (nephews, friends, and soon my sons) out with me that don't have near as much gear, so I'm happy to supply and it puts those baits to good use.

The jury will still be out until I give the 33 platinum a serious try. I'm interested in the Daiwa spincasts, just don't know anyone who's put them to the test and can report back.

Picked up a 7'6" Heavy this last year and love it. Very durable rod. Not a huge fan of the green either, but I overlooked that for the price and feel of the rod.

I ordered the 33 platinum yesterday afternoon and it should be here Friday. My youngest son's 3rd birthday is this weekend. Guess who's getting a good present! I'm going to attach it to the rod of the broken plastic zebco reel for now and get him practicing in the driveway. The other working cheapo will hopefully hold up until my older son's birthday in December and I can give him one too. I plan to figure out if it will hold up to their beating before then.

Wow, thanks for all the replies....I forgot to check back when I got busy at work! 1. Dock Demons - we have 4 of them (2 working) and they want something bigger then can cast for bass now. They have lasted two seasons (mostly), but it is time to move up. These are all spinners. 2. Coordination - not a strong suit for either right now, but the younger one will have more of a chance as he gets older. That's why I'm not going the spinning or baitcast reel route at this time. Spincast is it, just needs one of the most durable ones out there. 3. Hand size - they are big boys for their age, I don't think this will be a huge issue, at least not for long. I'm eyeballing that 33 platinum, seems the right price range for the kids. Might get my wife the Bullet or Omega Pro to get her started. Think I'll try one 33 platinum out and see how it does for them.

My kids really enjoy fishing and want to graduate beyond just dropping their line in the water and catching panfish off the dock all day. I have bought several cheap Zebco combos over the years and the components just don't hold up with regular use. My boys are about to turn 3 and 5 and are not ready to master casting a spinning reel yet. We currently have one working spincast combo and they fight over it constantly, wanting to "cast the farthest". We had another of the exact same model and it broke after just a few uses, I figure the same will happen to the surviving rig in short order. I've done some research on "higher quality" Zebcos and other rigs, I just don't know enough about them to commit to paying a little more. The comment sections on the sale sites are all over the place. So I want to pose this question to you guys, based on your experience: What is the most durable spincast reel out there? A few considerations: 1. I will want to load it with heavier line for bass fishing. 2. What line is good to use for spincasters? Will they take braid? 3. Any recommendations of a rod to pair it with? Probably not much more than 6ft. based on their size, but durable enough for some decent sized bass. Will fish mainly crankbaits, spinners, and stuff that they can constantly reel, they don't do sitting still very well.

I used to have a well-trained lab I would take when she was young. She really wanted to chase everything I threw in the water, but resisted because of her training. I fished with her up and down a creek and she chased me on the 4-wheeler every day after work to do it. Every once in a while, I'd let her jump in after one I threw back....she actually caught a few this way (don't worry, she had an incredibly soft mouth, but I didn't expect her to catch them)

Might want to check that second hashtag @Glenn Haha, I thought this was family friendly!

Owner or Owner Beast Twistlock for me.

You can catch fish on anything....cane pole, a stick you find in the woods, whatever.....it's all just a matter of personal preference for you. I don't go much over $100 for any rod (although I do have a hand-me-down GL3 from my brother he got used, but I didn't pay anything for it and he was frugal so I know he didn't pay much). I do like being right around that price point, but it does hurt when I break one stupidly. The point is, if you're comfortable fishing it, fish it. Some people want the extra confidence that comes with a more expensive rod and many of them do have some nice tweaks that can help with sensitivity and all, but you can still catch the same fish on a cheaper rod.

Yeah, largemouth or spots, I didn't know spots don't normally range that far north. Maybe it's just because they are shorter in length than I'm used to being northern LMB. Mouths seemed a lot smaller than I'm used to which is why I was leaning toward spots. Definitely not smallmouth.

resized this one to work. For some reason I can only get 0.37MB per upload. Here's another.

well, I tried, but my max size total allowed is really low for some reason right now. I'll try again later to get the pics up.

I'm not positive, but they sure looked like spots. The jawline didn't extend beyond the eye and they just didn't have as large of a mouth as I'm used to on a LMB. I'll get some pics posted soon for you to judge. I fished on Lawry Pond in Searsmont, but I think it is private access only and completely locked in by private property (but I may be wrong).

I will post pics later. I didn't end up having much time to get out to other bodies of water, but the "pond" we were staying at was 400 acres and loaded with fish, so a good time was definitely had. The owner claimed there were largemouth, but every bass I caught was a spot, but they were all very healthy and good fighters. Caught a few pike and a yellow perch too, both firsts for me, so that was fun! And I fished mostly from a kayak, which I hadn't done much of before and really liked.