BankBassing

Forgive my noob terminology mistakes. Yes, pitching, and yes "line." I am using a Medium Heavy Cherrywood HD rod by Berkley. My line is not even close to rubbing the frame on my reel. I will post a pic later when I can.

I have an Abu Garcia Silver Max, which I love. It casts great. However, for some reason, I can't get it to release line fast enough to pitch. I press the button, hold my thumb on the spool, swing it out there, letting my thumb loose, but the bait doesn't get out there more than a foot farther out of the guides than it starts. I have tried turning my tension knob all the way loose, but still it doesn't get out there unless I'm using a very heavy bait. If you're using a T-rigged Senko, forget it. It's so bad that if I have to pitch, I have to use my spinning combo. What am I missing? Is it possibly the type of braid I have on? I'm stumped.

I'll share one other story from earlier this year. I usually fish with my family from the local marina's dock. The only time you really get a bite there is early morning or just about dark. We usually go down in the evening for this 2 hour period that is decent. We were down there, got all set up, and a boat is coming down the shoreline. They are fishing the bank with these unbelievably bright lights on their boat. They get to the dock, and, rather than getting past us and fishing the bank in the next available spot, they come so close to us we all reel in our lines for fear of getting tangled up with their boat, they continue at a ridiculously slow speed with the lights shining so brightly, I literally could hardly keep my eyes open at all even looking to the side. It was probably only 30 seconds they were in our way, but they spooked the fish in our area, blinded us for probably another 2 minutes, and had us just sitting there like idiots looking into the sun. I did say to my wife loud enough they could hear, "It's amazing they didn't put an off switch on those lights." I honestly debated just casting my Carolina rig straight ahead and saying I couldn't see where they were because of the light. I had just had to get on 2 kids with jetskis who were buzzing our lines at that same spot the day before, so I was not happy. I like to think of myself as pretty laid back, but sometimes goofs turn you into the "Get off my lawn" old man.

Really? Shows what I know. Thanks.

Really? I have seen zero up here. Not on a beach or anything.

What bothers me are the guys who offer unsolicited advice and don't understand what I'm trying to do. My goal (so far unfulfilled as a newbie) is to catch bass on artificial lures. Everyone around here (literally everyone I've seen on the river) fishes with live bait, be it nightcrawlers, minnows, shiners, whatever. I try to find a spot away from others but that fits the profile as a good fishing spot (eddies, points, current breaks, etc.) and fish with my gear. Sure enough, almost once a day, some guy comes over and says, "You gotta get some minnows! That's what they're biting!" Usually they're nice guys, and many times even offer to share whatever they're using, and I try not to seem like an ingrate, but if I wanted to use live bait, I'd do so. Let me do what I'm trying to do. Maybe you'll catch a bunch, and I won't, but honestly it takes little to no skill to lower a minnow in the water and let it swim. I'm trying to do something specific... just let me try.

So today, while I was dragging a worm around the Ohio River, I catch someone's old snagged line, and as I'm reeling it in, I see something odd wrapped up in it. I get it to the dock, and sure enough, it's an oyster! Now, I've pulled in a lot of strange things, but this is something I had never seen before around here. Didn't even know there were oysters in this part of the country. I did a little online searching, and it turns out these things are endangered. Of course, this one was dead, just a shell really, but still pretty cool. I actually brought it home. Been thinking about setting up a minnow tank, and this'll make a cool decoration.

Ok, this is off topic, but I'm a huge baseball fan. Worst fans in existence are St. Louis Cardinals fans. Ok, back to fishing.

Definitely just being thoughtless. He wasn't intentionally messing with me. Just a lot of poor judgment.

I decided to head up to the dam at New Martinsville, WV today. There are a few cement platforms that extend out into the water that you can fish off of. Between two of them is a nice little current break, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I tried a few things and didn't have any luck, so just on a whim I thought I'd rig up a float and fly. I toss it out just where the break is, and let it float while I work a crankbait along the shallow water and rocks. Suddenly I see my spinning rod jump, so I grab it and look out at the bobber.... it's gone. Right as I get ready to set the hook, I realize it's gone because Captain Comb-over on the adjacent pier has cast over my line, reeled in my bobber, and now is holding it trying to get untangled. No biggie, but here's the best part: Rather than untangle it and toss it in the water so I can reel it in, he spools my line, bobber, and fly around his hand as he walks around on the bank to bring it to me. Of course, the slack line gets tangled in the rocks, so he just walks a little ways up and starts spooling it from the spot of the snag around the slack on both ends.. By the time he gets to me, he has a big knotted ball of Trilene with my lure and bobber somewhere in the middle. It's a wreck. I untangle what I can, and the rest is so bad I cut it off and stick it in my pocket to throw away when I get back home. Did I mention I just respooled this reel with new line last night? Not cool, man. Not cool. What is your worst experience with another angler?

WRB - Thanks for the tip on cadence. I'll give that a shot. Hog - I wondered the same thing. I went straight from work, and the shirt I had on has a bright yellow logo on it. I actually said to my wife, I wondered if when he was close enough I could see him, it also meant he was close enough to see me.

As some of you know, I have been struggling trying to catch bass in our little town marina on the Ohio River. This morning, I decided to give an old Hula Popper (Yellow w/ Red Accents) I was given a try. I had seen some fish busting nearby, so I thought it was worth a shot going topwater. I was just about to give up, but as I'm slowly working the popper back (popping a couple times, then waiting a count of 5, popping twice then waiting 5) I see a smallie following it back to the dock. It doesn't strike, so I pop it again, and for some reason, rather than triggering a bite, it scared the fish away. Am I missing something here? The movement was enough to get this fish to follow it, but not enough to get it to bite. Anything I'm doing wrong?

I am just learning myself, and while I don't know anyone who fishes for bass, I've been really thankful for the willingness of strangers to teach. I've picked up a ton from watching YouTube videos like the ones Bass Resource puts up, even some of Rob Terkla (LunkersTV), Alex Peric (APBassin), Jon B. (Fishing the Midwest), and Andrew Flair (Andrew Flair Outdoors). I also greatly appreciate the help I've already received on the forum here. Thanks guys! Then yesterday, I took my son to the county fair where they were having a pitching, flipping, and casting contest he took part in. Turned out it was run by the Northern Mountaineer Bass Club, and I was able to sit and pick the brain of one of the older gentlemen there who told me the best spot and specific bait that was sure to help me catch some smallmouth locally, along with inviting me to join their club (even though I'm a total noob). I know guys are secretive sometimes about their "honey holes" but as far as general teaching, the whole community has been very welcoming and encouraging. I just wanted to say thanks, and ask others to share their similar experiences.

LOL, I think it's actually related to the gaming league he plays a big part in. When I searched the group claiming responsibility it said they usually hack gaming site/accounts. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't made a video with one of the other guys addressing it on their channel. He's probably pretty busy getting this straightened out, though. Stinks he has to deal with it at all.

I don't know if anyone else here has watched Robert (Rob) Terkla's videos at his LunkersTV YouTube channel, but it appears he was hacked this morning or last night. They are deleting his videos and posting garbage videos with links to their own websites, so be careful about clicking on anything that might be listed because you could be opening yourself up to a virus or something. Rob posted on Twitter that he was aware of the hack, so hopefully YouTube can help him get it resolved quickly.

My wife, son and I went to a local state park with a small lake where you could rent a jonboat. No motors, just paddles. My son is 10 years old and has never been in a boat before. I handed my cell phone and keys to my wife and asked her to put them in the Jeep while we got in and started to untie from the dock. My son can't wait, so I told him to go ahead and hop in. I go to step my 265 lbs into the boat, step about 6 inches shy of center, my son panics because the boat moves (Not sure what he thought would happen to a boat on the water), he decides to bail out. He steps on the side rail by the dock, suddenly I'm falling, my weight hits the same side rail, and the small boat literally flips completely over. Somehow the opposite side missed my head when it came down, and as I pull myself up on the dock, it's just in time to see the people beside us looking on in horror, and my wife just rounding the corner laughing her tail off. My son, of course, made it safely to the dock and is completely dry. We get the boat turned over, the guy who works there comes out and says, "How did you do that?! Never seen anyone flip one of those!" before laughing and saying he'd get the pump. My son is now frightened and saying he doesn't want to go, to which I reply "Oh no, we're going now." Long story short (too late?) we have a nice boat ride, I spend the next hour soaking wet, my son actually enjoys himself, and my wife will never... EVER... let me live it down.

His were actually the first videos I came across and I've watched a BUNCH of them now. Yesterday, for the first time I had a fish hit my frog. It was a gar, and I missed the hook set (tried too fast), but it gave me some confidence that I was at least making it look realistic enough to fool a fish. I really feel like I'm not far off now. We'll see. Oh, and BANK ANGLERS UNITE indeed! There aren't enough out there.

I can't thank everyone enough for the encouragement and advice. I really think my frustration is just a combination of hard conditions and lack of experience. I began to question of the river was the best place for a beginner like me to have luck, when I saw how few river bass fishing instructional videos there were on youtube. Almost all lakes and ponds. I'll keep trying on the river, simply because I can get there at least every other day, but when I have the time/money I'll hit some other locations. Hopefully the experience there, and learning the feel of the bite will translate to the river eventually. I might just be spoiled by the way catfish bite, and missing the subtlety of bass bites. I'll come back here and post when I finally get me one.

The more I think about the comment about simply missing a lot of fish, the more I think that's probably the case. I'm fishing in the river, with a lot of current, which prevents me from really seeing if there is a change in my line, or my lure is moving. I'm anxious to fish a lake or pond where I can actually monitor my line, and the waves won't make it impossible to detect a change.

Thanks a lot for all the great advice. Onvacation has a good point as well. Where we fish there are a ton of rocks on the bottom, and the current will often sweep your line under a rock even if you are fishing a weedless setup, so I am always hesitant about setting the hook if I have any doubt it's a fish, because of it's not, it's an instant snag. I may just have to bite the bullet and set more often, although it's gonna probably cost me a ton of money in lures/hooks.

I am curious if I'm fishing my Texas and Carolina rig slow enough. What is a realistic time line for leaving it set, reeling it in a bit, shaking it a bit? Maybe an estimate how many seconds you typically do each?

BACKSTORY: I took up bass fishing just this summer (at the beginning of summer.) We'd done a lot of catfishing, and been successful, but in watching fishing videos on YouTube, I saw all the different lures, tactics, and equipment, and thought it looked like I blast. I began to collect different baits, and would try them as I got them. I tried Whiptail inline spinners, different color Senkos and other worms on a Carolina rig, weighted and weightless Texas rigs, Wacky rigs, Neko Rigs, jigs of all types, poppers, squarebill crankbaits, jerkbaits, rage lizards and other soft plastic creature baits. Now, I have done all this in 3 different locations on the Ohio River, two different dams (tailraces/tailwaters) at Hannibal Lock and Dam, and Willow Island Lock and Dam, along with our local marina which has two nice docks. Now, all this has been in the form of bankfishing and dockfishing since I don't have access to anything else. The kicker? I have caught ZERO bass in the past 2 and a half months. To add insult to injury, my son has caught 2 smallmouths by accident while trying to catch catfish with nightcrawlers. What am I doing wrong? I know it's the heat of summer which is hard, and this has been a bit of an odd year, because we had massive flooding here in WV, although that was all south of where I'm fishing. We're taking a trip next week to a local preserve lake that supposedly has plenty of bass. If I don't catch anything there, I'm just about to hang it up. As much as I enjoy it, it's getting really frustrating. Just to answer questions ahead of time, I'm using two different rod/reel setups: A baitcaster with 20lb braid and a 17lb fluorocarbon leader on a medium heavy rod, and a spinning setup with 14lb Trilene. Sorry for being so longwinded, but trying to give all the pertinent details. Thanks for your help! P.S. I know I could throw a nightcrawler on a line and stand a chance, but I'd really like to avoid using live bait if possible. Just because I think there's more sport in using plastic baits.