Hog Basser

You want noise and it will make noise chopping the water, the more noise the better in my opinion. Go with the original.

No issue for me. I tighten my brakes down to where the lure won't fall (usually a 3/4-1 oz lure) when I release the line, then back it off a notch or two. It will still cast a mile this way. I back it off a little more for a few lighter applications I throw. Very rarely get any backlash.

Read all you can here: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ - lots of good articles about pond management, creation, stocking, etc. Also check the pond boss forums as stated above. They can provide expert feedback, they have dirtwork guys, biologists and hobbyists that have been through all this before that can give great guidance. Not saying you can't have LMB, you just can't have a lot of them. It will be easier to manage being that small if you pay attention to all warning signs and keep focused on your goals. With the right feeding and nurture you could raise a few decent sized bass and they will become like pets.

Yes, the food source needs to be introduced first and get established before LMB are added. If you're talking a 1/3 acre pond, it won't sustain a lot of LMB, it could sustain a lot more channel cats if that's a route you wanted to take.

I love my Lew's BB1 Speed Spool, you can't go wrong there.

Agreed, the water table is critical. Also, look at the type of soil you have, if there isn't enough clay content it may not hold water. There are places you can send samples off to or dirt guys with experience building ponds that can tell you that. If you are serious about this, talk to a dirt guy with some experience and I would highly suggest checking everything out with the experts on http://forums.pondboss.com/ - they can tell you everything you need to watch out for to make a successful pond. There are several articles on the lake management section of this site about it too. Once you get one built, stocking correctly and management is just as critical if you want to grow a big one. You can't just transfer fish from other fishing holes in there and be successful.

A general rule of thumb if you want to keep the pond healthy with a good size range of bass. You need to remove about 25-35 lbs. per acre of bass per year. I try to remove most between 10-15 inches on mine. I take friends fishing and make a sport of it (good eating too). We also have one guy who pays a fee to fish it every year and knows the rules about what to remove. Once you fix the problem, it will take constant maintenance (removal of bass) to keep it from happening again, it's not just a one-time fix. Mine is a little overcrowded right now, but I'm working on building some trophy size bass one fish at a time. The articles in this section: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ have been an invaluable resource for me when researching how to take care of my pond (which is 53 acres). Blue cats were originally stocked in our pond in 1996, not sure if they spawned or not and are still in there, haven't caught one yet, but haven't really tried. Only problem is they can sometimes get too big and take bigger bass. The smallest bass become a food source for the big bass and we cull the biggest eaters in the middle range.

Very nice! I hope to have that same thumb when I head to the pond next weekend!

Welcome from a fellow Arkansan!

I keep track of my pond's health when I fish there, so I weigh and measure everything and update it in my log. If on public waters, I only weigh/measure the large ones. It is fun keeping the detailed log and referring back to it for conditions, lures used, and judging the overall health of the fishery.

Punching gear. Being a state park lake, you can't do anything about it and I doubt you can influence them to do something about it in a meaningful way. All you can do is work around it. If the fish are in there like you say, then there is some space somewhere where they hang out.

Look at it this way, get something with a little better towing capacity and you will likely save money on gas and brake replacement for not having to have the pedals pegged to the floor all the time while towing. This goes double if you're driving up and down hills at all. I have a Yukon XL and pull tandem axle trailers with a heavy 21ft speedboat and a tritoon all the time and it can sure burn a lot of gas going up hills, but it would be worse with something that has less power and brake power. Safety is the main thing. Some smaller engines would have trouble going up any decent hill with a trailer and could slow down so much as to make it unsafe in traffic. The flip side of that is coming back down the hill and the brakes being able to handle the load. I wouldn't feel safe with a vehicle any smaller for sure on those boats. Always good to know you have a little extra power and safety when towing.

Everything you need to know can be found in articles in this section: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ You definitely need to start harvesting the dinks. When you think you've harvested enough, do it some more. Once you get the population down as far as you can and there's less competition, then you can think about adding more forage fish. If you are committed to making this a trophy bass pond, I would consult a biologist and put together a plan.

Nice work, I've never gotten a banded one and have only known a few that have in my lifetime.

While at hunting camp, throw some live chickens in their room when they're asleep followed up by a string of firecrackers.

I have similar problems. For me it's primarily the spots I can focus on and time. When I go to smaller lakes and ponds, I'm only there to fish. The fishing is always easier on smaller bodies of water, but you can make the most of big lakes too. I'm relegated to short spurts of dock fishing and a few casts here and there from a party barge on the big lake because I'm there with family for leisure activities, not fishing. The problem with larger lakes is the fish have a lot more room to spread out, so location is key. The dock I fish from is loaded with bluegill the kids can catch all day, but it is very rare to catch a bass there. There's really just not much cover other than the dock itself, the lake bottom is rocky and drops off fairly quick with hardly any cover. To attack the bass, I need to go to small coves with a lot of structure or the mouths of creeks that flow into it. There are a lot of bass tournaments on the large lake I go to and they do pretty well. Given a choice, I would rather fish the small lakes and ponds, so if I do have the time to spend, I'm not going to the large lake, therefore my success isn't that great there. If I was stuck there and had the time, I'd attack very specific spots with the best vegetation and cover away from the rocky barren shoreline.

Darn TW Labor Day Sale - Lew's Super Duty Wide Speed Spool Lew's Mach Speed Stick IM6 Cast Rod 7'6" Heavy

When you're at the lake with the family for a holiday weekend pulling skiers and happen to have your favorite combo set up and ready next to the driver's seat so you can make a few casts every time you stop for any reason. When you see bait fish surfacing from the dock while you're friends are swimming and cast over them to try and get in on the action. (just one Striper would make this worthwhile) When you rig up a rod holder in your SUV and keep at least one rod handy (usually 3-5) on every family road trip, just in case you get a rare opportunity to fish.

uh oh, here I go again!

I found a clear spook on the bank of an island on a lake where I was stopping to let my kid and dogs go to the bathroom. Perfect condition, I threw it in my tackle box, but haven't used it yet.

Yeah, I just thought maybe they'd take tackle donations directly too if you contacted them.

Yep, you nailed it! I was trying to horse my lure off a submerged log and SNAP!

Don't give it to Goodwill, they are a for-profit company and not really a charity like everyone thinks. Their business model is they get free stuff and sell it for profit. I think there is a fishing charity for kids that was mentioned on here before, I will see if I can find that thread. Here it is, looks like they collect money to buy rods/reels for underprivileged kids, not sure about tackle though. Organization is called Tackle the Storm.

I like the Heddon Zara Spook personally. Catch in clear and muddy water equally well. I used this frog pattern in a creek with great success recently and you can see the white/blue one tied on behind my broken rod in the second pic in dirty water. I use all different colors and have tried other brands too, but I keep coming back to the original Heddon. I love the walking action, it just flat out draws bites for me.

This is what it looks like during spawn.