BankBassing

His name is Steve. I asked.

Yes. Hannibal tailwater on the Ohio River. What do you mean?

Great! Thanks! I haven't even heard anyone talk about catching spotted bass there. Usually just hear about smallies or hybrids. The rough scales didn't stick out to me as much as the smell. This fish had a much stronger smell than the smallmouth I caught at the same place.

I caught my second bass ever last week, and it was a small one that I immediately wrote off as a smallmouth. Then my son, @FishingforFish, saw the pic and said, "Dad, is that a largemouth since it has that dark line down the side?" I said no, but tonight I was looking at the pics again myself and I'm wondering if he was right. What say ye?

This is my son, guys.

The coon probably would have been the last one left in the boat. LOL

I purchased a couple smaller, minnow shaped and colored, shallow swimming crankbaits at the recommendation of someone local, but they are so difficult to cast any distance at all. I'm only using 12 lb test.

Yikes. You win. That's nasty.

Twice recently my wife has picked our son up from school and taken him to Walmart for her weekly grocery shopping trip. I get off work at 5, and usually come to pick him up so he's not stuck at the store bored and annoying my wife while she shops with his tweenage sighs of boredom. Both times, I've stopped at Walmart, found them, said hi and then, "Hey, I'm heading over the the fishing stuff for a couple minutes before we go." It always ends with me coming back to groceries with a handful of things, throwing them in the buggy, and taking my son on home. And somehow I still don't have everything I feel like I need. LOL

I got interested in bass fishing somewhat accidentally, watching fishing videos on youtube and being really intrigued by all the tackle and tactics used by bass fisherman. I watched as many things as I could to learn these things. However, much of this revolves around largemouth bass fishing. I live on the Ohio River in northwest West Virginia where largemouth are not as prevalent, and smallmouth make up the majority of the bass population. So, if you'll indulge me here, what is your best piece of advice for fishing for smallmouth? What about largemouth fishing should I be disregarding if I'm targeting smallmouth? Needless to say, I'm specifically interested in fishing for Ohio River smallmouth (I've caught 2 at a dam/tailwater in high current with a white spinnerbait), although I do fish some small lakes too. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

My reel has holes in the spool as well. Do I not need backing?

I had an interesting day. Being new to a baitcaster, I've been working a lot on my casting. I have apparently improved... and it ruined my day fishing. I was fishing a local creek that is fairly wide. I'm using a Abu Garcia Silver Max reel with some old braid on it that came from a friends broken baitcaster that he had hardly used. Not a ton of line, but more than I have been able to use. Well today I reached the limit. I have a frog on, and I'm trying to cast as close to the other side as I can because that's where the shade is. I cast as far as I have in my life, and my frog gets stuck in a tree that I thought was way beyond my casting distance. I try to pull it out, and it breaks off, in the process creating a massive knot in a lot of my line. I spend an hour sitting on the dock trying to untangle, and finally, since I was thinking of buying new braid anyway, decide to cut off the knotted portion. I've still got enough line to do a little jigging around the dock, so I tie one on, and just as I do, a fish jumps halfway across. I decide to cast as close as I can to the blow up, and sure enough I cast through all the braid, through the backing mono, which breaks clean off the reel, and waves goodbye to me as it follows my jig landing just beyond the fish. I stand there, dumbfounded holding a rod and reel with ZERO line on it, minus my only frog, and my only jig. I just walked back to the car and went home. Unbelievable. So, I bought this tonight at Wal-mart. Good choice? Oh, and let's hear your stories. Surely I'm not the only one to have a comedy of errors like this happen.

I doubt anyone here is choosing to be online rather than on the water if they have the choice.

There is a perfect looking spot near a local marina. A current break with some structure that stays shaded till late morning. Bait fish everywhere. I know there has to be a bass in there or nearby, and it's a great spot to fish, but never even a bite. Is there somewhere that you just KNOW there are bass but you've never been able to land one?

You purchase multiples of a lure because you know one will get snagged and you can't be without it. You get offended that a less serious angler is in "your spot." You've ever fished a technique just because you thought it was really cool and you wanted to try it, even though you know it's not going to catch a fish in that place/those conditions.

I was just saying yesterday that I really want to get one of those castable finders. Most guys with a boat won't even cast until they know they are on fish, and here we are with a very limited area just throwing out blind.

You've ever wished you had a third hand because it's a pain holding one fishing rod between your legs while casting another. Great. I had never done this. Now I know I'm gonna. Thanks! LOL

You can barely spell, but Yamamoto and Gamakatsu are no problem.

A trip to the zoo/aquarium has you salivating at the thought of throwing a lure in there and catching the endangered species.

you get up earlier on your day off than you do for work. catching a bass negates any plans to head home soon, no matter how long you've been fishing.

Score!

One fun thing about bank fishing, if you go to certain common spots, is you find things people have either cast off, snagged on a rock, or just forgotten. The other day I was fishing and had current cause my crank bait to get snagged and broken off. I walked 10 feet and found another, nicer looking baby bass style crank bait on the shore. Any good stories about finding something someone else has lost or forgotten? Do you still have it? Catch any good fish on it?

Lookie what I got today! On a $1 Walmart Spinnerbait of all things. Caught him at the dam. He's a dink, but you gotta start somewhere. Thanks everyone for the encouragement!

Hopefully my fail today will make for a good discussion. I only have two rods, one spinning combo with 14 pound test Trilene, and my medium heavy baitcasting setup. I always try to have both ready to go with something I know I can start the day with. I knew I'd be getting to my spot early, and always see fish busting in the morning, so I thought I'd try a frog, which of course I needed to put on my baitcasting rod. I just got my first spinnerbait Saturday and I was anxious to try it, so I decided to tie it on my spinning combo. Sure enough, I don't get any love with the frog, so I grab my spinning rod and cast a few times. Sure enough, I get a hit, and then a definite bite. I set the hook, and it's on! (I have never caught a bass yet, so I am really excited.) I'm reeling it in, talking to it saying, "What are you? What are you?!" hoping I haven't got another walleye or catfish for some reason. Sure enough, it gets close to the dock, and it's a surprisingly large bass. Surprisingly large for me, I mean. Probably a 2 pound smallie if I had to guess, but I'm probably wrong. Just as it gets to the dock, I see it turn and try to head directly away from me. I immediately try to turn him back, and SNAP my line breaks. The fish swims away, spinner and all. Not only am I ticked I lost the fish, but I feel like a heel because I hate to think that the fish has to deal with a spinnerbait hooked in it's lip now too. Hopefully somebody else catches it somehow and can free it from it before it dies. So that's my question for today: Have you ever caught a fish that still had someone else's lure still hooked to it somehow?

I figured out the problem, and discovered another in the process, but I think both are on their way to resolution. I had my brakes turned up halfway, since someone advised me as someone new to baitcasting this would minimize backlash. I turned them down, and immediately I was able to pitch just as well as I could with my spinning rod. Next cast, however, BACKLASH. I realized that having the brakes turned up was allowing me to cast without enough thumb tension on the spool. I practiced today while on the water, and was already learning to cast correctly, and when I did I was able to cast much farther than I had been doing previously. Long story short, brakes turned up did help me not to backlash... it also helped me not to learn to cast correctly. Thanks for the tips guys.