Snipe Hunter

Caught once. About 20 years ago before I had a boat. I got up early Easter morning and headed to a pond on Maryland's eastern shore. It was drizzle and light rain, no sun. I was standing on the shore throwing a Rat-L-Trap into a large flat and crushing them. I saw the GW in his truck and I didn't think twice about it. He asked for my license and I didn't have it on me. An hour drive home and a ticket.

I fished a Rooster Tail when I was a kid and caught everything from bass to trout to bluegill and crappie. If I needed to catch fish for food and I could only have one lure it would be a Warden's Rooster Tail, brown with a gold blade.

This is tough. They'd be different if I was hungry and needed to catch fish to eat. No particular order. 4" Pumpkin seed powerworm Hank Parker Classic Spinnerbait with the gold Indiana blades. Strike King KVD Jerkbait Chrome and Blue Rat-L-Trap white sluggo Senko Tube Jig Black and blue jig Firetiger Bomber or similar Buzz Bait

I completely agree. That's one of the reasons I don't fish tournaments anymore. Tournaments force me to fish for numbers. I'm perfectly content not catching fish if I'm looking for a wall-hanger. So I'm usually fishing bigger baits than I would if I were fishing a tournament. And if by chance, I bump into a feeding school, they're usually big fish.

Years ago I was fishing a tournament on Lake Anna in Va during the spawn. I could see fish on beds and see fish cruising bluegill beds. I couldn't buy a bite to save my life. I could get them to follow a natural colored Gitzit but they lost interest pretty quickly. The tube was falling too quickly and it laid flat on the bottom. I was using fairly light line on a spinning rod, maybe 8-6 lb? The water was gin clear, like the lakes I used to fish in Ca. I broke up a Styrofoam coffee cup and stuck pieces of it inside my tube jig. That made it fall much slower and stand straight up on the bottom. That made all the difference in the world and I started getting bit. The problem was the the chemicals in the soft plastic dissolved the foam so I had to "reload" the tubes now and then. Now I keep tube jig floats in the boat. I use "Foam Backer Rod" and cut 1" to 3/4" pieces and keep a bunch on hand. The soft plastic of the bait doesn't affect the foam. It also allows me to use a heavier head so I can cast further. I've also rigged them weightless and hooked them like a senko with a sliding egg sinker. With light line and a big tube with a big float in it you can cast it out and pump the rod and it will just go up and down in the same spot. Don't even reel it. Pretty cool on a bed. I've also rigged them with just enough weight to suspend it and work it like a fluke or jerk bait. Killer for smallies. My PB Northern came off one of these rigged on the egg sinker fishing a brush pile in 15ft.

We don't see too many bass over 6 pounds around these parts so if I thought there were 10 lb bsss swimming close to me, I'd toss my pride out the window and put on a shiner. The shiners are pretty easy to catch with a throw net. Buy a can of bread crumbs and lure them in. You'll see the shiners break on the crumbs. Then throw the net. Toss one out under a bobber and wait. I still think you can get one on a buzz bait or big spook though.

Match the hatch, right? Shad? Crappie? Sounds like they're well fed so I'd concentrate on reaction baits. Something to get their attention. I might also think about BIG baits. Being that the place has stained water, I'd think about noisy baits and baits with good vibration. Maybe BIG baits also. Jigs with rattles. I'd probably throw shad colored lipless cranks like Rat-L-Traps and Red Eye Shads. Also big spinnerbaits. Even though it's muddy, they'll can still run down a bait if they can hear it and feel it's vibration. I tend to throw large (easy to find) baits in heavily stained water, but that's just me. I'd also consider jerk baits with rattles. For whatever reason, people tend to ignore top water baits sometimes. You've seen bass feeding on the surface, throw a buzz-bait or a spinner bait up top, breaking the surface or a big spook. I'm not sure what you've tried but I get in a rut where I start throwing soft plastics on the bottom even though the fish have given me enough clues to do something else.

I used to pour my own worms and crawdads. If you go this rout, keep your colors separated. If you mix colors and re-melt worms together, you sort of get varying degrees of opaque baby poop brown. I never got the original color back, it gets muddy. The plastic looses it's flexibility too. The second run isn't as soft as the first. I was playing with making soft crank baits so the harder plastic worked out fine but not so well for the worms.

Great stuff. Every one of 'em.

I don't get much done around the house during fishing and baseball season. So I go into overdrive in the off season. I just moved a laundry room from the basement to the second floor and finished remodeling two bathrooms. I'm about 90% done gutting the master bath and bedroom. I hope to get it done by the end of march. I generally work on the house in the winter.

1980. I fished a Western Bass tournament (which I think morphed into Redman Pro-Am) on Lake Comanche in Ca and caught a 9.lb 4oz. I was 19yo. If there ever was a picture it's probably long gone. It wasn't the big fish and I didn't finish in the money. Caught it on a blue Big-O. Since then, I've had a few around 5lb. 5 seems to be the magic number around here.

I'm glad you like your BG, I liked it too. I liked the Nasci better, it fit my needs, the Diawa didn't. I thought the BG 4000 was a closer comparison to the Shimano to get the same drag capability on the Diawa, I would have to buy the Diawa BG 5000. It's huge and 22 ounces vs Shimano's 10.4 ounces. As far as the metal body, I've been fishing 45 years and never worn out the body of a spinning reel or broken one so that wasn't important to me. This won't be my first plastic body reel. I haven't heard of anybody wearing out the body or breaking a Nasci. The Diawa reel had zero information about it on Diawa's website. So I can't comment on "direct drive". Not sure what that means in a spinning reel. Obviously, it's got gears, Diawa says theirs is machined so I'm not sure how direct drive and gears can be the same thing. Again, if I were buying a trout reel or something for panfish where drag wasn't important, I might have bought a BG but I'm fishing heavy baits (2+ oz jig heads, heavy spoons) for heavy fish and I would have had to buy the bigger BG.

I just spent a couple hours looking at reels at Bass Pro. I was looking for a spinning reel, light, smooth and good drag. I do a good bit of light tackle striper fishing and catch LMB in the same waters, on the same baits so I wanted something that worked for both. I also wanted something I could work a pike with without it beating the reel up so I was looking for something a little larger than what I normally use. At the end, it came down the the Diawa BG and the Shimano Nasci. Both reels are supposedly designed for salt water. I do a lot of tidal fishing. I'll also catch 30+ inch stripers on a fairly regular basis with it. My budget was in the $100 range. It will go on a St. Croix Mojo Bass MH. I wound up buying the Shimano Nasci 5000. I have a Shimano 4000 Sahara and the 5000 Nasci is the same size, just lighter. I intended to get something in the 4000 size range. The Nasci is 10.4 oz in the 4000 size and 10.4 oz in the 5000 size. The BG is noticeably heavier at about three ounces heavier. I was really surprised at the weight difference. Particularly once I put the reels on the rod. I would have had to buy the Diawa BG 3000 to compare with the weight but the 3000 only has a 15lb drag vs. the 24 lb drag on the Shimano Nasci. Big difference. The drag washers on the Nasci are noticeably larger than the ones on the BG. There were two things I liked better about the BG. One was that I thought the BG was just a tad smoother (maybe) and the bail flipped a little easier after the cast. If I didn't know about the differences in the drag or the weight of the reel, I probably would have bought the BG. I thought 15 lb drag was way too light for the size and weight of the reel.

Typically Shimano spinning reels. I do a lot of smallmouth fishing so I don't have nearly as many baitcast reels and they tend to be whatever feels right on a rod. As far as rods, I don't have two alike I buy what feels good. I'm not the tackle snob as I used to be.