IndianaFinesse

Try the Ned rig. Closest thing I know to a guaranteed fish producer. Living in indiana like you, I have found that the bass here don't respond as well to many of the lures popular in other states, and prefer finesse type lures like tubes and especially the Ned rig.

Caught the tail end of the mayfly hatch last night. Fished for a tad over an hour with a total of sixteen fish between a 12 and 18 inches. They were all in the same area as last night, except they seemed to be relating much closer to the shoreline, staying writhing one foot of it. I started with the Ned rig but only caught a couple, then after seeing all of the mayflys on the waters edge decided to try a buzzbait, which I have never caught anything on before. It turns out that the bass were aggressive enough to eat the buzzbait cranked right next to the shoreline, as it caught the other fourteen bass. It sure was fun seeing them blow up on a buzzbait, now I can see why there are so many topwater devotees.

Awesome fish! It looks like it's closer to an eight pounder that has a football in it's stomach!

The SI/DI.

My guess is the bass are seeing you, because if you can see them they have already seen you. Another thing is when bass are guarding there fry they will chase anything that comes near away, but will not eat it. If they get really annoyed by the bait staying on there bed for quite a while they will sometimes pick your bait up by the tail and move it off of their bed and spit it out. Try switching colors, baits, and retrieves until you find out what they want, plus back off of the spots and make longer casts.

I use the Ned rig 95% of the time. I used to use lots of t-rigged plastics, but once I found the Ned rig I never used a t-rig again. Especially since we live in indiana where the fishing is terrible, finesse fishing is in my mind the best way to catch bass of all sizes here. And we are not the only ones that mostly finesse fish, nearly every indiana fisherman on here has finesse fishing as there go to technique. Try the Ned rig out if you're interested in catching dozens of bass from little dinks up to my biggest at 8.2 pounds. And check out the un-oficial Hoosiers thread, there is a constant stream of useful local fishing reports coming in and we could always use another poster in there.

I agree 100%. Do not share the location with anyone . Edit the post so more people don't know about it. Once people find out they will flock there by the dozen and the bucket fisherman will empty that pond in a week if they hear about it. Congratulations on finding an awesome pond, but take Sam's advice and don't post pictures with a recognizable background, make sure to edit your post soon, and don't tell anyone about it, not even your friends as word will leak out one way or another if you do.

If you don't mind me asking, where were you fishing?

I recently purchased a helix 7, how should I set the settings color, sensitivity, etc? I have tried to figure it out, but there is so many different settings it gets confusing.

The floro designed for leaders is stiffer and more abrasion resistant. The stiffness isn't a bad thing for leaders though, it's what makes it more abrasion resistant. Just don't get vanish if you decide to get the stuff made for mainline, it has way to Mich memory and has horrible abrasion resistance.

Nice fish and great fishing report!

Great fish!

Oops, I didn't mean to quote Cole Richards in the above post. I meant to quote Josh Smith.

Try Cataract, it has some awesome crappie fishing, I would recommend going there. the day you go, make sure you check the Louisville daily lake report online to see if they are letting more than about 200 out. If they are letting more than that out the fishing is nearly a waste of time, I was once there when they opened it up and the previously great bite stopped immediately. We didn't catch a single more fish that day. Fished for three hours this afternoon, but I was fishing with a neighbor kid that wasn't allowed to leave the cove we live in. So we were stuck fishing the same docks and shorelines over and over, but we still managed five bass. I also hooked a huge flathead that I lost when it rapped me around a dock post. all of the fish were on the Ned rig skipping docks in shallow water, since that was the only places we could fish. Later on I fished for about an hour after dinner. I found a small bay with a massive mayfly hatch going on, unfortunately the hatch didn't start until 15 minutes before we had to be home. But in the little time I had, it was fish after fish! My Ned rig literally never reached the bottom before being eaten by something! most of the bass but i caught also caught couple of everything else to. i caught bass, crappie, white bass, everything. I have absolutely no idea how many fish we caught, the fish were coming in so fast we didn't keep track. If I had to guess it would be about 30-35 fish between the two of us. The retrieve was, cast it out anywhere it happens to land, and reel in the fish! It was extremely hard to leave that awesome fishing.

"Only three"? I wouldn't complane about catching three five pounders in an entire year up here.

Nice fish! I get a kick out of all people who tell me that the Ned rig only catches little fish.

I was just wondering if you thought the daiwa was just a little bit better, or if it's worth the extra twenty dollars.

No, the bass are now moving into the mid to late pre-spawn feeding spree mode. I made the trip to cataract lake for eight hours today, and the crappie fishing was awesome. Believe it or not, we caught 213 crappie today. We kept a limit of smaller males, but let all of the females and the larger males go. The water temperature was 59 degrees in the morning and 63 in the afternoon with one foot of water clarity. The crappie were pretty much everywhere, but we caught the majority spider rigging in 8-12 feet of water and some from casting to the banks in the morning. Most of the crappie were in an area called "stump alley" or "anchor alley" by some because of all of the lost anchors in the stumps. It's a 100 yard long line of stumps running parallel to the shoreline that are in 10-14 feet of water. The spider rigging rods were tied with a two way rig with a tube jig on the bottom and a aberdeen hook and minnow on top. Most of the crappie caught were just little 6-8 inch males, but it's a fun day when you catch over 200 crappie no matter what size. The lake was packed full of crappie fisherman cashing in on the spring bite, luckily we got on the lake just before sunrise so we were able to get the first pick of the spots.

One, maybe two years tops. Growth rates vary from lake to lake and even from year to year, so it is hard to accurately guess a basses age.

Is the daiwa worth the extra money?

He beat me to it.

They usually prefer a mix of bottom types with it mostly being hard.

I wish indiana was like that. The tournament's around here are usually won with only eleven or twelve pounds. I can only dream about a thirty pound bag, and I have never heard of one being caught in indy.

The lews carbonfire and daiwa exceller reels are on sale at dicks, which one should I buy? And what are the differences? I'm looking for a durable reel, even if it means getting a reel that weighs a little more.