Koz

As others have mentioned, are you positive there are bass in the waters you are fishing? If you're fishing a pond is it natural or man made? If you don't know, pull up the location on Google Earth and then use the timeline feature to look at the area over the past 10 years. If the pond isn't at least 8-10 years old there is a good chance that there is not yet a stable fish population.

It's the circle of life. Last summer my son caught a bass and he had trouble getting the hook out. While he was working on it he took the time to drag the fish through the water to try and keep it alive. But when he tossed it back in the lagoon the fish went belly up. Within a minute a turtle came along and dragged the fish into some cover for a meal. Sure, it's disappointing if you release a bass and it doesn't survive. But it's not like it goes to waste. Some turtle, bird, or alligator is going to make a meal out of it. That's how nature works. South Carolina lagoon cows:

I believe that the fish think they are having an alien abduction experience. NO! PLEASE! NOT THE ANAL PROBE!

Big lakes like Murray, Hartwell, or Marion and Moultrie or ponds? Northern or western SC or down in the Lowcountry? The weather in the Lowcountry is a lot different than the other parts of the state, especially this time of year. I live in the Lowcountry and it can be 28 degrees in the morning and 70 degrees in the afternoon this time of year. In the ponds that I fish the bite is slow. The baitfish aren't visible around the shorelines (at least the times I fish) and I haven't seen bass approaching the shore to feed. Not much has been working lately other than a Shadow Rap Shad. Most of the hits I have had with the Shadow Rap are in deeper channels. However, deeper is a relative term. The channels are only about 8 feet deep but there is a wide swath of shallower waters along the banks of the channels. I've also had some hits on a Teckel Sprinker frog when there has been mostly cloudy conditions.

OK - that officially blows away the Tampa Tarpons baseball cap I won in a Twitter giveaway last week.

Here's a photo of my son hitting his first home run of the season in 12U travel ball back in late March. At that time he stood about 5'4" tall. It's only eight months later and at 13 years old as of last month he now stands at 5'9" tall and is officially taller than his old man. Even scarier, he has a size 11 shoe so he probably has another 3 or 4 inch growth spurt coming in the next year.

My buddy has one of these from Bass Pro and it sells for only $29.99 https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-extreme-qualifier-360-backpack-or-system I like the fact that the bottom part can be detached and used as a shoulder bag. I bank fish and currently use a big Spiderwire bag but I've been thinking of switching over to this one.

Thanks. As luck would have it, I just got back from a 2 hour round trip to BPS before reading this.

How big are the swimbaits? If you're fishing swimbaits around 2 ounces and up you may want to use a heavy rod. Check the weight of your swimbaits and the rating on the rod you want to purchase.

I never used to add a trailer, but that all changed this spring. For whatever reason I put a white Keitech Swing Impact on a white/silver KVD spinnerbait and the bass destroyed it. Literally. I caught a ton of fish on them in the first half of the year and two of the spinnerbaits came apart after so many strikes. Besides the spinnerbaits blowing up the Keitechs are expensive and don't last very long so I stopped buying them. Since I stopped using them my catch rate is WAY down on spinnerbaits. I may have to ask Santa for a few packs for Christmas.

I think that the answer depends upon whether you're fishing from the bank or from a boat (which was touched on above). When you're in a boat you can scout a lot of water for "fishy" spots. But from the bank you're at the mercy of areas you can access and how far you can cast. I bank fish, so I'll give you my two cents. If I'm fishing a new body of water the first thing I do is tie on a weedless, Texas rigged Senko (or Yum Dinger if I'm too cheap to buy Senkos that month). If it's an open area I'll make my first casts well up the bank and away from the shoreline and cover the area in front of me because I don't want to spook any bass in the shallows near the bank. Then I'll move down to the shoreline and cast along the shoreline on both my left and my right. After that I fan cast to complete the 180 degrees or so that I can cover. After that I may move somewhere else that looks "fishy" or try a different bait. If it's open water and I try a different bait then it's usually a topwater. If I still don't move after the topwater I'll try and fish a bait in the middle column. Whether I move right away or not depends upon the patience I have that day or the cover and structure I see where I'm fishing at that moment. For example, if I have grass, lily pads, or woody vegetation in the water near me I'm going to fish the heck out of those with a few different baits before I move on.

Bass fishing is one of the few sports that you can enjoy with family, with friends, or all by yourself. When I fish with my son my greatest thrill is watching him land a big bass. When I fish with my friends there's the spirit of competition. When I fish by myself my focus is more on my breathing in the air, enjoying the surroundings, and clearing my head. Each of these things gives me great pleasure that is only heightened when I manage to land a big bass of my own.

I'm a full time single dad of a 13 year old and I've instructed him to save his money instead of spending it on me, so I'm buying my own gifts this year. Last week I ordered a couple of swimbaits from Bass Pro but the S-Waver 168S is going to be too heavy for my MH rods. So on Friday I'm heading over to Bass Pro to pick up a cheap BP heavy rod and throw one of my old reels on it. It's been a tough year so maybe next year I'll splurge on a proper reel to go with the heavy rod. The good news is that temperatures will be back up to 70 this weekend and the rain will stop by Sunday so I should get in some fishing.

How'd you get him to suspend horizontally in mid air? ?

As someone who fishes from the bank I use Google Earth to scout potential fishing locations. Here are a few things I look for when scouting: Lagoons are by far our most widely used stormwater control measure and we have thousands of man made lagoons in our area. So one of the first things I look at is is the historical satellite imagery. If the lagoon is less than ten years old I won't fish there unless there is an active fishery program in place. If a lagoon is less than ten years old with no fishery in place it's less likely to hold the bigger bass that I am looking for. I look for places where I can park my car near the lagoon or if I will have to park my car and bike to the lagoon. If the lagoon is in a residential area I have to find access points without having to cut through someone's yard. We have a lot of lagoons seemingly in the middle of nowhere with lots of wooded vegetation surrounding the basin. I look for areas that look like they are clear enough to fish and paths or trails leading around the basin. Granted, some of the satellite photos are outdated, but it gives me a place to start. I look for points, coves, aquatic vegetation above the surface, spillways, feeder streams, outlet structures, or other man made structures within the basin. The satellite photos usually reveal if the water is heavily sedimented (stained) or relatively clear. In most cases, any coloration you see close up on the water are image artifacts. However, on some in my area there may be a noticeable ring within the basin that shows the shallow water dropping off to deeper water. But these are lagoons and not big lakes or other bodies of water. Google Earth has been an invaluable tool in helping me find places to fish. For example, check out the image below. This is one small section of where my father lives in Sun City Hilton Head. How many lagoons can you count? Every single one of these holds bass 3 pounds and up. 5-7 pounders are frequent, and some of the lagoons have 10+ pounders. Unfortunately, my personal best is still just under 7 pounds.

The girth on yours compare to mine makes your look like a lunker ?

My son and I had an interesting day lagoon hopping today. Our first stop was at a large lagoon on an undeveloped tract. It's one of those Google maps finds that we've never fished before. The woody vegetation was ridiculously thick all around and there were no openings. Although the weather is cooler, we still have alligators to contend with so we never wedge ourselves through the thicket to the shoreline. It would be too easy to become trapped especially if you caught a fish and a gator decided they wanted your catch. I finally found one are where I could cast over a lower thicket of woody vegetation and under some other trees. It probably a 2' x 4' opening 4 feet above the surface of the water. But I had to try. I tossed a weedless Senko and on the 3rd cast caught a nice 2 pounder. But the fish hung in the woody vegetation and it was a pain to get him out of there, so after releasing it we headed to a more familiar set of lagoons. It turns out that tract is bank owned and has been for quite some time. I may head back there with a machete. Google Earth shows that lagoon has had dense vegetation around it since at least 2004. This could be THE ideal low pressure fishing spot. Maybe there's something bigger than a 2 pounder in there... Anyway, on to my Personal Worst. We moved on to some familiar lagoons and the one we fished has two decent sized pools connected by a shallow channel about 150 yards long and 40 yards wide. In the spring there are a ton of bass beds in this channel. I fished one of the deeper pools with no luck and then figured the bass probably use the shallower channel as a feeding area. I slow fished a Rapala Shadow Rap Shad, felt a tick, set the hook, and landed a nice 3.5 pounder. A few casts later I feel a bump, set the hook, and - nothing. But the lure feels weird as I'm reeling it in. I figured it was just some weeds. The water is pretty clear and as the lure gets closer I can see it's spiraling like the line snagged on a treble. But it doesn't feel like that. So I pause my retrieve and there's a tiny, tiny splash at the lure. So I reel it all the way in and there's a tiny bass snagged on one of the treble hooks! And yes, the lure is bigger than the fish. I figure that he nipped at the lure and when I set the hook it pulled the treble through him. I managed to get him off the treble without crushing him and when he was back in the water he oriented himself for a few seconds and then took off. Hopefully he survives. Besides being an interesting catch, it appears that in this lagoon there was a second spawn this year. This lagoon also connects via the stormwater system to three other lagoons and those three connect to even more lagoons. The ecosystem is kind of like a decent sized lake connected by channels or stream beds, in this case large stormwater pipes. I've only caught 2-3 pounders in there, but I had one that was at least 6 or 7 that broke off earlier in the year. And as I said, we spotted numerous beds in the spring. With almost 300 lagoons to fish in this community (and we fish a lot of them) I may need to pay more attention to this one. This might be the hub lagoon for bass in this ecosystem of connected lagoons. Anyway, here's a picture of my son holding my Personal Worst:

I spent Black Friday shopping online for others and when I pulled my credit card out of my wallet I found a Bass Pro gift card that I forgot about that was given to me last Christmas. Found money! So, being a single dad of a broke 13 year old I decided to buy myself a few things for Christmas. Unlike a lot of guys on this forum, I have only 5 or 6 plano boxes of lures and no swimbaits in my arsenal. So with the found money I picked up a River2Sea S-Waver and a STORM Live Kickin Shad. They should arrive on Wednesday, so I doubt they will spend any time under the Christmas tree.

Two words: punch rig ?

That's a heck of a deal. Unfortunately I don't need a new rod and reel. I bought the Lew's Mach II SLP Combo this past summer.

Is it Mardi Gras time in New Orleans already? I like throwing those beads ?

I don't know about the Carbon Fire rod, but I do have a Lew's American Hero Baitcast Combo and a Lew's Mach II SLP Baitcast combo and I like them both. In fact, I think that the sensitivity on the less expensive 6' American Hero rod is fantastic.

It's been slow bank fishing here where I live in SC as well. What's different this fall is that I haven't seen any bait fish in a while. There are no minnows cruising along the shoreline and I haven't seen the schools of shad out in the open water. I've fished half a dozen of my favorite lagoons and located zero bait fish. These featureless lagoons are in a residential community and there are very few weeds and little visible structure. Whats more is that there will be 3-10 lagoons all connected by the stormwater system so the fish can migrate from lagoon to lagoon. My next step might be just to walk these connected lagoons and see if the bait fish have migrated to a specific lagoon. Perhaps the fish and bait fish have concentrated in the lagoons that have trees and shrubs overhanging the banks along the wood lines or in lagoons where there are more weeds. We don't have any freshwater streams that flow into the lagoons. Anyway, my plan is to do some scouting and learn more about bait fish movement instead of just casting and hoping.

It's been in the 50's here in the Hilton Head, SC region the past few days and last night the temperatures dropped into the 30's. But at least it's not snow and slush. I really don't miss living in the north. The good thing for us this time of year is that we don't have to run AC or heat and that keeps the electric bill way down.

Walking With Dinosaurs I bank fish. With alligators all around me. Of course, one slip or if I don't pay attention to my surroundings my movie changes to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".