Clackincrank53

Wow I kinda found the comments by everybody rude as heck...anywho, I would ask the guy about the owners and if he know what they want the pond to be and if he says more or less they could care less about if it has good fishing or not then I'd probably let sleeping dogs lie or this,...my thinking is they must care about it for one reason or another or why would they pay to have a caretaker?? Also wondering why does the caretaker get to pick and choose who fishes it?? If you know the owners I would just contact them and tell them what you have noticed about the population and felt you were kinda obligated to tell them since you fish there and give no other reason for saying so...say nothing about u think them and they are doing this or that or you want the bass in there to get big or whatever... That's my .02 cents...

?? yeah what that guy said!

I keep mine 90% tight no matter what lb test line I use, if I catch a big I just loosen it a bit with my middle finger and I never get broke off...

The only two shocks rods I ever owned both broke, one on about a 15lb carp and the other one setting the hook with a jig on a 3lb bass...I contacted berkley through email both times and never got a response so I have nothing good to say about them and will never buy another of their products again, I wouldn't use them if I could get them for free....

All depends on what time of year and water temps to be very general...the more you know about their habits pertains to those two things the better you'll know where to look

I like fishing from the bank as much as from my boat and it doesn't matter to me if it's a lake or pond but if I wanna catch a big bass which around here is anything over 4lbs I hit a few ponds I know where the chances are good I can do that regularly, there's only 1 lake near me where that's possible on a regular basis...

I know no question is a dumb question but can u tell the sex of a bass just by looking at it? Besides when they're full of eggs or when on beds?

I fish ponds from the bank as much as I fish lakes from the boat and I'm a firm believer that when fishing the bank be it a pond or lake a stealthy approach will get more bites than not, when I get to the first spot where I'm gonna start fishing I stop about ten feet from the waters edge and fan cast everything in front of me close to the bank and work my way out further, I don't wanna wing it out as far as I can and catch one and bring it back through fish that may be closer and chance spooking them away I wanna catch the closest fish first...after all that I will walk up to the edge and start casting to my left (I cast with my right arm)paralleling the bank and with every couple casts start slicing the pie away from the bank, that way when I move down the bank I'm less likely to spook any fish that haven't seen my bait first. Depending on where I'm fishing and what's on the bank like trees,bushes, etc... Or nothing I'll wear a shirt that blends with what's behind me and if there's nothing I wear a light blue shirt so I blend in with the sky..someone above said if they're beginning to spawn or staging as he called it they don't wanna eat as they're minds are elsewhere, I hafta disagree with that because if you don't see fish on beds then they are not spawning yet and should be feeding to build energy for the dance. And even if they were spawning there would still be fish moving up feeding as they don't all spawn at the same time. When the bite gets tough for me I throw a weightless 5 inch senko green pumpkin or blue with black flakes and can usually get a bite or two....pond fish can be trickier than lake fish sometimes and are hard to figure out too....

Same rods as the micro's minus the micro guides, every bit as light and supposedly stronger...I have two and u can't go wrong for the price

Ok let me start by saying the title is somewhat misleading because I'm sure anyone who opens this thread is expecting to see the so called hands down "best chatterbait" and that is not the case. After several years of tinkering and trial and error with different components and the end result is a chatterbait that will hunt a foot side to side and up and down depending on retrieval speed and manipulation of your rod tip and I can say with 100% confidence there is nothing even close on the market that come close to the action of this bait...i would absolutely love to show it but am in the process of obtaining a patent on what's behind my blade and my blade so to speak and until that is accomplished it is secret...the purpose of this thread is to give you guys (and gals) food for thought when experimenting with making your own. I actually started off with the hope of making a better swim bait and not a chatterbait and the swim bait I came up with was pretty slick and like no other swimbait on the market design wise but the action wasn't anything special. So I was fishing them one day with a buddy and he was throwing a chatterbait that he made and was smoking me and I got the idea to throw a blade on my swimbait so I took one off one of his and put it on my swimbait and it was like nothing I'd ever seen and soon started smoking him and when I was in bed that night I got to thinking maybe I could make a better blade and that's when I went from swimbait idea to chatterbait..so after months more of tinkering I made a blade (if that's what you wanna call it) and when combined with my swimbait design is nothing short of amazing . My buddy wanted too see how the blade fished on his chatterbaits he makes and the result was pretty sweet and different than store bought baits so we tried them on tons of other jigs with the same results but when combined with my swimbait design(which is very odd) is unlike anything on the market .. Here's the food for thought, there's way more to wether your blades are bent this way or that or how many holes or lack of holes, color, shape etc....maybe it's not how hard the horse pulls the cart that gets it there faster but how much the cart makes the horse faster....

I've made lots of chatterbaits and I'm a firm believer that using jig heads with vertical line ties that require two split rings is not ideal, two split rings reduce the transmission of vibration from the blade to the jig due to the extra ring, less vibration bad? No in some situations it catches more fish for me but like mentioned above they tend to bind up requiring a hard snap with the rod to get them going again and sometimes you hafta pull it in and fix by hand..

Sounds to me they're moving back into the creeks to spawn, I'd start looking at the secondary points and the outside bends of the creek channel and any other structure back in the creeks... Also you say your catching small ones along the banks shallow back in the coves, that also tells me the spawns on because the the bigger males are making beds and the females have but one thing on their mind as do the bigger males thus leaving all the bucks not able to spawn... Have you tried to see if fish are on beds when this is happening? Or is the water too dirty where you fish?

Not sure how much deep cranking you do but for shallow to med cranks as well as lipless baits you should consider a Skeet Reese spinnerbait/worm rod (7 med fast) don't let the fast action designation as its moderate more than fast.. Or the bucoo micro cranker (7 med mod) I can't guarantee it but I promise ? you would be impressed by either rod for the baits mentioned above and can get either rod for under 100 bucks. As for reels the only time I would want a specific gear ratio would be for throwing deep cranks or pitching/flipping, slow for deep cranks and fast for pitching/flipping, everything else I have no problem reeling faster or slower to make my presentations...

Skeet Reese spinnerbait/worm 7 M fast or bucoo micro cranker 7 M MOD i own both and for me they throw both baits great, now the SR is labeled fast action which in my opinion is moderate all the way which I like best for throwing anything with trebles on it so they have time to eat it and have the hooks pull out...I never could understand why it's a spinnerbait/ worm rod because I tried throwing tx rigged worms with it and for me it's useless as a worm rod but it does throw spinnerbaits very well along with Square bills and lipless baits, also throws med diving cranks like wiggle warts,6A's etc..well too.. The bucoo cranker throws both shallow to med divers and lipless very good too and I love them both but like the bucoo a lil better as its a little lighter rod...

I was at scheels today and held one for the first time and I was amazed by just the feel of them for the price, I've held other lews rods that cost a lot more and used a few here and there that were my buddy's and I like the Machs feel way more...having said that I would have bought one in a heartbeat had it not been for the green on the handle and butt, just not a fan of the look...

Have never even held a PQ and used a buddy's Exeler for a day once and I own several lews under 100 bucks and for the money they're great reels and cast very well for the price. Now I do maintain mine but only if they're acting up and I'll say this all I've ever had to do to any of my lews is a drop of oil in a couple of them and that was after they were a few yrs old...but I don't leave mine out in weather or lay them down in dirt,sand etc.. When I bank fish but I have a thing for scratches and nicks on my reels and if I see any rash on them I won't use them and give them to my boys or my nephews but I'm weird in that way haha

X2 on the bucoo, I have two trap casters(7 mh) that I throw spinnerbaits up to 3/4oz on and I really like them.. id also suggest it for a weekend warrior on a budget as you can fish lots of different baits pretty good with it..

I have a 2nd gen silver max but never use the flipping switch, other than that imo the silver max is the best 50-60 dollar reel I've ever owned and I have owned and own several in that price range.. All 5 reels in the max class are great reels for the price..I own all 5 2nd gens and am assuming the 3rd gens follow suit...