Koz

When your bank fishing do you normally pick a spot and fish multiple lures from that location or do you tie one on and then work your way down the bank and around the basin, then change your lure and head back the way you came? For the most part I'll traverse the bank using a lure that I know has been productive in that lagoon in the past or choose a lure based upon weather conditions. My tactics might be different just because of the nature of where I fish. I might be fishing in an area that has 3 or 4 lagoons within walking distance and I'll cover a lot of ground and fish them all. Or I'm fishing a decent sized lagoon with a lot of shoreline that I can fish. There are some times when I'll stay put for a bit and fish multiple lures, but I tend to get impatient and keep moving on. To me, this is where electronics provide a big advantage to boaters. I know us bank guys have iBobber and Deeper, but casting out sonar, having to tend it, and having to fish around it are a pain. Plus, unless you buy the expensive Deeper with side scan they are fairly useless in shallow water.

It happens to all of us and it's absolutely no fun at all. On Friday evening I fished for just over an hour and caught two 5's, a 4, and two just under 3 pounds. On Sunday I fished for 5 hours and caught one two pounder. It weird, but sometimes as soon as I hit the banks I just know that it's going to be a lousy day fishing. Sometimes it's because we've had a front move in and the bass just lock themselves down when that happens. Other times everything seems just right but I get that feeling it's going to be a lousy day. But it sure beats sitting inside and watching TV.

Spend a few hours on Google Earth to find nearby lagoons and retention ponds. I guarantee you'll find bass and even big pass in those ponds. If you're fishing the larger lakes you'll want to look into fishing with live bait. Big ol' shiners. If you go fishing with a guide most will recommend using live bait. Even if you're not a fan of using live bait it might provide you with information if you've been fishing the wrong locations of the wrong bait.

Drag a creature bait through the bed. But you'll need to be quick with your hookset because the bass will be trying to move the bait away from the nest, not make it their next meal. Last week I also had a bedding bass slam a buzzbait, but the creature bait through the bed should work best. Lizards will work, but I prefer a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss.

Winter is toughest for me. Even though we have milder winters with temps usually in the 50's during the day and 30's at night I assume that temperature is relative to the bass. So what would be spring air and water temps up north are our winter temps in the south. I probably need to learn more patience if I'm going to fish in the winter.

I actually tossed a couple of pine cones at him first to try and scare him away but that just ticked him off and he hunkered down on the bank and that's when I took off to the other side of the lake. 30 minutes later he showed up in that area but stayed well off shore. All of our lagoons around here are 7-9 feet deep but this lake gets to 26 feet deep out in the center where you can't reach with a cast. It also starts to get shallower (10-15 feet) beyond casting distance, then slopes to 2-3 feet deep at the edge of the basin. The biggest fish must be coming to the shallows late at night or just staying in the deeper water because no one has reported landing the 10+ pounders they tagged. The biggest I have heard being caught was 8-9 pounds. There's also a long pier that leads to a large gazebo over the water but I have never caught anything under that pier. Perhaps the heavy foot traffic keeps the bass away. And the only fish I caught on that side of the lake were 2-3 pounds. It wasn't until I fished the back side where I've been landing 4-5 pounders. I'm hoping that back side is the spawn area, but the water is so murky I can't see anything. I think I'll bring my iBobber and try and record depths at various locations. I know my PB is out there waiting. I just need to find where whe's hanging out.

It was a beautiful day in the low 70's today so I decided to take a break from work and go fish for an hour or so. I was fishing in Sun City Hilton Head again, this time in Lake Somerset instead of jumping from lagoon to lagoon. They've tagged dozens of 8-12 pounders there, but there are only a few spots to fish because of homes surrounding much of the basin and the fact that they don't allow any watercraft on the lake. Visibility was low in the lake so I started off with a chartreuse and white spinner bait and within 10 minutes landed one just under 5 pounds. At that point I noticed a big guy about 200 feet down the bank from me. I take a few more casts and land another one just over 4 pounds. As I'm weighing and releasing the fish the big guy I saw earlier went right over to the spot I was fishing. Man, was I ticked. But I didn't say anything even though I wanted to scream at him. I just stood there for a few more minutes but he didn't leave. Instead, I packed my gear, got in my car, and drove to another place to fish. I really hate when crap like this happens. But I didn't want to confront him and get into a wrestling match. It's just not worth it. Anyway, here's the photo of the big guy that ruined my day:

Oh that was so close!

I was coaching my son's middle school baseball game last week and I mentioned to my assistant coach that a kid on the other team looked like one of the Hanson brothers. He had no idea what I was talking about. So sad.

To be fair, though, casting for distance can be an important part of bank fishing whether you can't navigate parts of the bank or you're trying to fish deeper water.

^I see what you did there It's Drew now.

My sympathies on that one. I was a goalie back in the day. Back then in the early 80's goalie masks were mostly custom made and expensive so I wore a helmet with a cage and throat guard instead. It was one of those big, clear plastic throat guard that attached to the sides of the helmet and swung freely underneath. Anyway, it was my first ever practice for my college team and the first shot against me was the hardest slapshot I had ever seen. The guy opened up on it instead of rolling over and the puck kept rising. BAM! It hit my throat guard and shattered it in a million pieces including a few that cut me under the chin. Luckily the puck deflected and didn't go through my neck. Good times.

9.5 pounds

As a non-boater, if I was in this situation the first thing I would do is based on everything I have ever read and the videos I have watched I would go to where the bass should be for that weather and season and start looking at my electronics and taking notes. I would screen shot whatever looked interesting and then post on this forum and do some more internet reading to better understand what I was seeing. I might even take some pictures with my phone as a reference for others to help me out. Yes, I'd throw a line in the water after taking my notes, writing down questions, and taking screen shots. I can't NOT fish. But it seems to me that there's a whole lot of experienced people here on BR and throughout the fishing community that could help me better interpret what I was seeing until I got enough of my own experience.

Although I very much enjoy a good catfish fry, I hate catching them.Maybe not hate, but I'm disappointed when I catch them because I'm targeting bass. I was bank fishing a small lake the other day in a small section where people have caught 7-10 pound bass. The water was murky and I was fishing a chartreuse/white spinnerbait. On one cast as soon as it it the top of the water it got slammed, but within a second I knew it was a catfish and not a bass. I can't explain it, but a catfish fights differently than a bass. I'm sure most of you that have caught both can tell the difference as well. I din't weight, but it was somewhere around 4-5 pounds. Anyway, I've caught catfish before but never on a spinnerbait and have never had a catfish hammer a bait right as it hits the water. It must have been a one in a million cast that landed right on the catfish. I ended up catching another one on a KVD 1.5 crankbait in that same area. That was a first for me as well. Both fish were a pain in the but to get off the hooks. After two catfish in a row in that spot I headed to other waters where life resumed as expected catching bass. Anyway, I thought it was odd to catch a catfish on a spinnerbait. Anyone else have catfish unexpectedly hit a certain type of bait?

We are a consumer nation and some people feel compelled to buy the latest and greatest or most expensive. With so many choices and the fact that we are inundated with marketing at every turn many. many people spend beyond their means. I know people barely above the poverty level that have 65" TV's, $1,000 phones, and 3 or 4 tablets and piddle what money they have left on fast food, lottery tickets, booze, and other wasteful purchases. The psychology of marketing is a major factor in keeping people poor.

I've used those before and have not had any problems. With the poor eyesight that comes with age I just find it easier to quickly swap out lures. If I was on a boat and had 8 rods I'd probably tie off, but I bank fish and only bring *** rods depending upon what I think I will need that day. Instead of using a plain snap, I mostly use snap swivels (as opposed to barrel swivels).

A Teckel Sprinker Frog is pretty good for this. You can pop it, reel it slow, or reel it faster and get the prop tail moving. The only problem from the bank is trying to get the proper angle to cast it on the bank and then draw it in to the water near the fish. Of course, you can always move further down the bank, cast parallel beyond the fish, and then bring it along the bank. For me using the Sprinker frog or s-l-o-w-l-y cranking a suspended jerk bait can usually entice a strike.

I've never had to bench or boot a kid because of the actions of a parent. But there have been a few kids that I did not select for my travel teams because I knew their parents were nightmares at the ballpark. These were parents that either were involved in fights at the ballpark, constantly berated umpires, or had public intoxication issues at previous games. I felt bad for the kids in those situations, but it would not have been fair to the team to have to put up with that stuff. I've coached long enough in my town that most parents in my son's age group know me. In rec league ball we have a player draft but parents are allowed to request coaches. I'm proud that I'm usually the most requested coach. That's not because of a reputation for winning rec league championships (I've never won one) but because I'm a teacher of the game. My goal is that on the last day of the season every player is a better player than they were on the first day of the season. There are a lot of coaches that bury their marginal and poor players on the bench as much as possible and basically ignore them at practice. I'm a "skills and drills" coach rather than a "let's hit balls at kids and take batting practice coach". My job is to teach ALL players what they need to know so they are prepared for high school and college ball, not worry about winning plastic rec league trophies. I don't bury the less skilled players in the outfield. Everyone plays infield and outfield every game, and everyone takes a turn on the bench. I also change the batter order every game so the less skilled players get their turn batting at the top of the order. My own son happens to be one of the top ranked players each year and even he sits the bench. But travel ball is a completely different animal. We are in it to win it every tournament. Playing time is based upon merit. A player might only get a few at bats all weekend if they have attitude or performance issues. If a player is slumping he has to play his own way into the lineup. That can ruffle a few feathers at times, especially when we have a player new to our team. But parents have seen me bench my own son or move him down in the order when he is in a slump, but some still aren't happy. But being a role player or bench player is also part of learning the game.

With every team I coach (rec/travel/school) I have a player/parent meeting before the first practice and outline the code of conduct for the year. Among the items on my list are abuse of umpires. I let them know that I have no problem benching or cutting a player if the parents misbehave.

It happens to most of us now and then. You may want to sharpen your hooks and see if that helps.

My son has had a rough go of things lately battling anxiety and teenage hormones. To make matters worse he went o for 2 games at the plate and had his turn in the rotation skipped due to a sore arm. But he came out of his slump today going 1-2 with a line out to SS in his first at bat and then he doubled with the bases loaded driving in all three runners. Hopefully this helps him start to turn the corner in more ways than just baseball.

I had landed some nice bass in the past few weeks, but the bite had been slow. Sometimes I'd fish for 90 minutes and only get one bit. I am just not of fan of slow, finesse fishing and tiny baits but I compromised a bit on Friday and Saturday. I put aside my baitcaster for the first time in a while, grabbed a medium rod with spinning real and fished some beetle spins for an hour after work on Friday and about three hours on Saturday. It paid off. I caught a dink on my third or fourth cast on Friday and ended up catching 4 in 90 minutes with the best being just over 4 pounds. I'm still amazed when a decent size fish is taken down by a tiny beetle spin hook. Even though I was having success I it was really windy (15-18 mph) so it was a pin throwing a tiny bait. My mind drifted and although I can't stand rap music, my brain was paraphrasing "Baby Got Back" (You know, the one that goes "I like big butts and I can not lie...") and I came up with this ditty: Anyway.... Saturday with the beetle spin was pretty good as well and I landed a few more 4 pounders, a 2, a 3, and a few dinks. Then on Sunday I tried a few new lagoons and fished the beetle spin and - nothing. I figured I'd give the main lake in the community a try. They've tagged dozens of 8-12 pounders in there but because of the houses surrounding the lake there are few places to fish and no boats or watercraft are allowed. And unlike most lagoons that are only 8 feet deep, this one is 26 deep out in the middle, much too far out to cast. The only bass I had caught there previously were under 3 pounds. Today I fished the back side of the lake but there's a ton of heavy vegetation along the bank so even if you cast over it, it would be hard to pull in a good sized fish over the vegetation. But I found a clear area under a tree and was able to cast parallel to the shore. But now I was using one of those $1 Wal Mart spinnerbaits and my trusty MH baitcaster. I landed a dink right away and on the very next cast my bait got hit hard. And this fish was a fighter. The water was stained and there was only 6 or 8 inches of visibility but I caught a glimpse of it and right away I'm thinking PB, maybe 8 or 9 pounds. This was easily the best fight of any bass I had caught before, and as I got it out of the water and up the bank I said "Whoa!" and then "No!" because it wasn't quite as big as I thought, but it had to be about 7 pounds. She was long and stout, but not fat or laden with eggs just yet. When I got her on the scale she was only 5+ pounds and that was a let down. I'm usually pretty good at judging the weight, but I was off all weekend. I may have to calibrate my scale this week. I hit a few more lagoons and caught some nice 2 and 3 pounders, but the last catch of the day was interesting. Again, the water in this next lagoon was really murky and I had no luck with spinnerbaits, beetle spins, or chatterbaits so I brought out a Whopper Plopper 130. There was a small cove with the wind blowing into it, so made my first cast about 30 feet off shore parallel to the bank and with each cast I worked my way closer to shore. Along the shoreline itself was about 2 feet of algae and aquatic vegetation and sure enough as I skirted the edge something hit the Whopper Plopper, but there was no hookup. That's kind of odd because the trebles of the 130 usually stick a fish somewhere. Also, it looked to me like the fish went right back under the cover. So I casted by again and the same thing happened - no hookup. And a third time - strike but no hookup. On my 4th pass the bass grabbed the lure, carried it under water away from the shore and let it go. Now I get it - guarding the nest. I still find it hard to believe he could carry that 130 without getting hooked somewhere. So I put a Havoc on a hook, tossed it back and WHAM - got him. It was big for a male, probably close to 3 pounds. I didn't weigh him because I didn't want to take him away from his duties for too long. Overall, it was a really good weekend of fishing. The picture below is the 5 pounder that when I fought it I thought it weighed more.

The inland stormwater lagoons are fresh water. Anything that abuts the marshes is probably brackish.

I think you actually have to pay extra for that channel, but every now and then they have a free preview. At least that's the way it used to be. I tried to get my dog to watch it on one of those free preview days but he wasn't interested. However, whenever we watch NatGeo or a channel that has a show with bears in it he growls at the bears. It doesn't happen with any other animal on TV, just bears.