Hog Basser

I've never used dip on it, I just fish it plain. I might try it in the future, but it isn't necessary where I fish most of the time.

I use the full size brush hog on a twist lock keel weighted hook to drop through lily pads and get hammered almost every cast in one of the private ponds I fish. It is one of my favorite lures to use in pads. I walk it up over pads and let it drop between them and BAM! Make sure and use some strong braid to fight the fish out.

Where on the White?

Good lookin' fish!

Seriously man, if you're budget is maxing out like you said in the original post, take these guys' advice about very productive and much less expensive lures. I've fished Pop-R's and Spooks with great success my whole life. I've tried a few of the more expensive and unique lures like the WP, but when it comes to the staples of topwater, it's Rebel Pop-R's, Heddon Zara Spooks, and hollow-body frogs. I use the Pad Crashers all the time and they work great! Fish don't care how much you spent and it won't make you a better fisherman to have the best stuff. Spend that money on good line and terminal tackle. One thing I've learned about fishing is, be prepared to lose lures - it hurts much less if you didn't spend $20 on the ones you lose.

I get mine from my eye doctor (Maui Jims), they are extremely expensive with a prescription, but I do my best to take extra care of them.

Can't beat the excitement of kids when they're catching fish!

It probably saw you on that last twitch and spooked. I have fish follow baits all the time and not strike. They might strike that same bait on the next cast or may become completely disinterested. Usually switching baits gets them interested again. If I can just pick up another rigged rod and follow-up as a test that usually tells me what they're biting. If they come up to the boat or shore and see me moving, they swim away fast. I had an interesting experience on some semi-captive fish in a creek last weekend. The creek is really low and the fish are trapped in the deeper holes. I snuck down there and got a few casts in with a small barbless crank and they were all over it at first, but as soon as they saw me, they retreated to the other side of the hole and wouldn't bite again. So I moved about 20 yards down to the next hole and started catching them on the Ned rig. After catching and releasing a few, they wouldn't hit the Ned any more, so I switched to a plastic swimbait. Caught a few more and then stopped again, so I switched to a jig. Seems like in that captive environment, they figured out what was a trap pretty quick, so I had to keep switching due to the low population and close proximity of the fish. If they don't like the popping action but are hitting on top, you might switch over to a Heddon Zara Spook and do some walking action and see if they take it. I love poppers, but sometimes they just aren't working and the spook may clean house in that situation.

Rebel Crawfish - simple and flat out catches bass of all sizes. Slayed many a Crappie on it too.

well crap....off to Academy again at lunch!

I always thought the red was meant to show an injured baitfish's blood to help attract a bite.

I just bought a mix of 28 old Norman crankbaits off e bay a few months ago, still in the original boxes. There's quite a few sellers on that site of the old vintage ones. I was mainly targeting the "quarterback" which has been out of production for a while, ended up with 10 of those in that lot. It's my dad's favorite lure, so I'm saving them for his birthday and will distribute the rest to my nephews at Christmas. May keep a few for myself too. Also, I fished a recently purchased "flat broke" about a month ago and it ran horribly to the left. I may try to tune it, but I was very disappointed.

If you want to spend the money, the Whopper Plopper is a great topwater that always gets a few bites for me. I use the 130 in rainbow trout color, but I think about any of them will work. I also like plastic swim baits like the Keitech Fat Swing Impact or the Rage Swimmer. I like to rig them on Owner twistlock keel-weighted hooks, but most hook applications work for them.

Or go with a Rebel Pop-R for $5-6....they've always caught fish for me.

Went by academy at lunch to pick up some more 3700 boxes to finish out my new Okeechobee Fats tackle bag (came with 4, but will fit a lot more), ended up getting a 3700 deep, a regular 3700 and a 3600 spinner bait box. It all fit very nicely and even had room leftover to fit my bait binder in the top. I currently have 4 x 3700s, 1 x 3700 deep, a 3600 and a bait binder packed full all zipped up in this bag. Now that's a heckuva bag! I can't upload the pics yet from this device, but I'm very impressed. Also picked up some more terminal tackle, Mag Ol' Monster 12 in. worms, a Pop-R, and a small rebel trackdown barbless.

Each situation is different and you need to also ask yourself what your goals are for the pond. One thing I know, in a pond that size, you will not have trophy bass if there are crappie in it. They just don't mix well until you get to at least 20 acres or so, too much competition for bait fish and other forage. I also suggest pond boss forums as well as the articles on lake management here in bass resource http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ There is a ton of info from the experts right here. Based on what I've read and experienced, if you ever want to have consistently larger bass in that pond, you will need to scrap it and start over, especially with the crappie well-established. If you want to catch plenty of smaller bass, just leave it as is.

There's still a lot of older ones floating around out there, get 'em while you can. Not much news on what they're doing with the entire line yet. They were based in my hometown (just outside it) and so is a division of Pradco. They haven't made any more announcements that I've found since the acquisition at the end of last year.

Whoa! That's a lot of Rage you've built up there! Poor Bass.

I would recommend a Heddon Zara Spook for a good walking bait. It's been proven effective for decades and doesn't cost near as much as some of the others you described. It's also very easy to walk. I always have several of them in my arsenal and also have the WP. Also, same thing for poppers, go with a Rebel Pop R for a much cheaper and just as effective popping bait.

Confidence starts by catching fish and a lot of them. The best way to do that is to fish smaller bodies of water. I fished a lot of ponds and small reservoirs growing up and it really built my confidence and helped me get a feel for the bite. I still have a lot more trouble on large lakes and rivers to this day, it takes a lot more patience and know-how. On some large lakes I may only get a handful of fish all day (bank and dock fishing). On a pond or small lake without much pressure and an overabundance of fish, I could hook up with a hundred in a day. My advice is to hone your skills on smaller waters, then move up and use that knowledge to attack the larger lakes and rivers.

It may just be re-packaged, I don't trust everything in this shop to not really be something else. Also, I noticed lines still attached to the hook eyes after I took the picture. Oh well, good looking bait nonetheless. They sell a ton of used cranks at this store, some so beat up that I don't know who would buy them. Occasionally I find something good though.

Caught this guy up in the weeds near shore while bass fishing.

Local tackle shop, thought these were interesting so decided to give them a try. Someone local makes them I guess, no brand name at all.

Picked up some Power Pro braid, spool of 30 lbs and spool of 50 lbs. Marked down to $12 and $14 at DSG. They rang it up at $19.99 each and I had to have them fix it. Resisted on some scatter raps (since I don't really use them) that were regular $9.99 and on sale for $3 each if you buy 3 or more. They also had buy 2 get one free on live target (including the sunfish). I resisted and stuck with just the braid for now.

Is it public? Is there a private owner? If private, you might work out a deal with the owner to remove some of the unhealthy ones so others can grow. Once they're stunted, they can't really recover, so the best chance is to leave the younger, fatter ones in and remove any that are stunted. What size is the pond? This is a common problem in unmanaged ponds/lakes. You will find some that out compete the others, but most will be stunted. The only way to fix it is to actively manage the pond. In some cases it can get so bad that you need to start from scratch. Check out the lake management section of Bass Resource for much more detailed info: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ If you really want to know how stunted they are, keep a log of length and weight of each bass you catch and compare the relative weight to the attached chart. Fish Wr Value.docx