Koz

When in doubt, throw a Texas rigged Senko or Yum Dinger.

Mostly they are just annoying hanging out just off shore waiting for you to catch something. If you move they usually slowly move your way after a few minutes. The juveniles are a pain because they think every splash is food. Occasionally it can get a bit more exciting. I've had one try and hide along the bank and slowly stalk my position. During mating season they get more territorial and I've had a few chase me up the bank. The scariest was when for our five starting crashing a concrete fishing pad we were on after I caught a fish. We got out of there and a few minutes later they had climbed on that pad. A few things I keep in mind when heading out: 1. Check the banks as we approach. Stomp the ground as you approach (gets rid of snakes, too). 2. Use polarized glasses and check under the water near the banks. 3. If a gator even hints at being aggressive go fish the next lagoon. 4. Never turn your back to the water when alligators are nearby. They cover water and ground pretty darn quick. 5. Even if you don't see a gator, assume one is around. Keep scanning the banks and water when you fish. 6. Personally, I NEVER bank fish at night. Too scary. Those orange eyes are creepy. 7. Don't do anything stupid. Don't tempt fate. I'll admit I've been scared more than once out there. I'm too chicken to kayak fish as well. The alternative is to give up bass fishing, so we learn to live with it.

Actually, last year a baby gator came crashing up through the slop and hit a frog I had cast. Luckily the hook wasn't set too deep. He spun around for a few minutes and then let go. If a bigger gator hits I'd just cut my line. No sense messing around.

I was fishing a small lagoon behind my father's house today and landed a nice 4 pounder on a chatterbait with a Rage Tail craw trailer. Later, even though their was a small nuisance gator patrolling the water I tossed a Whopper Plopper 130 for a little bit. I'm familiar with this little 3 foot juvenile gator and I usually have to flip flop back and forth between the different ends of the lagoon when he takes notice of any topwaters I throw. Today, he wasn't much of a bother. But on one cast I noticed a little rolling swell come up from behind my lure. It definitely was not a fish or an alligator that caused my line to get heavy. A second later I saw it - a turtle. Oh no. It was a painted turtle about 10-12 inches long. I got him in and one of the trebles went right through his lower jaw. Of course, after I landed him he retreated into his shell. When I tried to pull on the lure to get to the treble I was surprised how strong the turtle was, both his legs and his neck muscles. I flipped him on his back and grabbed my multi-tool. I really did not want to just kill him, so we had a little tug of war as I tried to get his head far enough out from the shell to grab the hook. I felt awful. But I figured if I pulled on the lure a bit and released he'd eventually get exhausted. After about 20 minutes of him hissing and us going back and forth it worked and I was able to pop out the treble. I didn't see any blood, but he ducked his head back in and I couldn't get a close look at any potential damage. I brought him down to the edge of the water, and he immediately popped his head back out and swam away. There were a few other similar sized turtles out there, so it was hard to tell if he was one of them. Anyway, I feel awful. Normally I see the turtles going after the lure and burn it out of there. But this guy came up from underneath and I never saw him. I sure hope the little guy is OK.

Yeah, I get it. But I'm a cheap wretched

The Weather Channel app uses your location for alerts but does not plot it on a map within the app. Personally, I disable location tracking in all other apps - even the ones I wrote myself!

You can set location services for specific apps only and turn it on or off from them as needed. Even then, Google, Apple, and your phone company know where you are at all times. Privacy is dead. And if you think that's scary, do a search for "Google’s Selfish Ledger".

I've been touting my white KVD spinnerbait with a Keitech Swing Impact trailer all spring. I bought it a few months ago and have caught at least 25 bass on it with the largest being over 5 pounds. Lots and lots of 2 and 3 pounders. But today, it died. I had caught a 2 pounder on it earlier in the morning but we left that lagoon after not one, not two, but three alligators chased us off. I probably had another 15 casts on it since the earlier catch and then - boom. In mid flight it came apart in at least 3 pieces. I saw 3 pieces all headed in different directions. I use a snap for my baits and the snap was still intact and closed, but my lure and trailer were gone. RIP. My guess is that the fish tore it up and I didn't notice. It was only $6 or $7, but I'm disappointed that it lasted only a few months. On a side note, the humidity was a killer today. My son and I rode our bikes from lagoon to lagoon, but I don't think we even covered 10 miles today. And despite drinking a lot of water, by the time we got back to the car I thought I was going to have a stroke. I had to spend 20 minutes in the AC and drink 2 more bottles of water before I could even mount the bikes on the rack. It was actually kind of scary for a few minutes. It really sucks getting old. I may have to just pick one lagoon and fish there for now on rather than biking all over the place. The problem is where we fish you can't park a car or gold cart, so you have to bike or walk to most of the lagoons. I certainly don't want to put my rods away until the fall.

It uses my current location. It doesn't say what the alert distance is in the app, but I'm pretty sure it goes off when lightning is within 5 miles of my current location.

Aliens. They inadvertently received the MLF broadcast signals and were hooked (no pun intended). They needed DNA samples to start their own fishery on Rigel 12.

I have the Weather Channel app on my phone and turn the lightning alert on. As soon as I hear that alert I pack it in, no questions asked.

You may find that throwing the WP in those conditions is a frustrating experience. It's not just the trebles picking up weeds, but it's also a pain when the weeds get caught between the prop end and main body and the darn thing stops spinning. I love fishing the WP, but in conditions like those you described it tests my patience. I'll usually throw a Teckel Sprinker frog or a Booyah Pad Crasher instead.

Are these serious anglers or people that fish for fun? If it's just a bunch that fishes for fun then I'd skip the weights and measurements and just count the total fish caught. Quantity over quality fishing contests can be a blast. If you have a serious angler or two in the bunch you could also offer a secondary prize for biggest fish caught (weight or length).

Good question that got me thinking... Deep Crankbaits - In my entire life I think I've caught all of two fish on a deep crankbait. They've been relegated to the storage bin this year. Lipless cranks are still part of my arsenal. Flukes - I have a few packages of them in my tackle bag but they rarely see the light of day. I've been thinking of throwing some on an A-rig to see what happens. Jigs - most lagoons here are muddy, algae laden bottoms so I avoid throwing them in that slop. I did find a few hard bottomed lagoons recently so my jigs may be making a comeback. For those that have been avoiding spinnerbaits, I suggest throwing a white one with a little bit of grey or silver with a white Keitech Swing Impact trailer. That combo has been a killer for me so far this year!

NO! Seriously, though. t really depends upon your area. We have thousands of small, stormwater wet retention ponds here and the average sized bass we pull out of these is two pounds. Four and five pounders are frequent, and while my best here is 6+ pounds I've seen the photos of the 7-12 pounders caught in these same lagoons. When I first started fishing these areas I made the wrong assumption that 2-4 pounders would be all I would get out of these small bodies of water. Most of what I caught was in the *** pound range. But as soon as I started targeting bigger bass that's what I was catching. A lot of the time that mean throwing bigger baits. Whenever I hit a new lagoon I target those 4+ pound bass with bigger spinnerbaits, topwaters, chatterbaits, and if the bottom isn't a soupy algae mess bigger jigs. If I get no takers I move on to my standard plastics and lipless crankbaits. If that fails I just move to the next lagoon, although I really should take some more time and throw a ned rig for a while as well. The point I;m getting at is that you have nothing to lose - other than time - by going through your tackle bag over the course of a day or a few visits to that body of water. Can you imagine how you'd feel targeting small bass and then some guy comes along and throws a big ol' jig and lands a lunker? Go for it!

They're in the discount bin at Dick's Sporting Goods. That should tell you something. But you scored a free lure, so give it a shot. If it doesn't produce just cast it back into that tree.

I think that you could put two treble hooks on a 4" piece of unpainted balsa wood and catch bass. In other words, I think they strike at pretty much anything out there that they can get their mouth around.

In the spring the first thing I throw is a white spinnerbait with a Keitech trailer. When the weather warms up the first thing I throw is a t-rigged Yum Dinger or a longer Zoom worm. I'd say that close to 75% of the time that lands fish for me. Even if the bite starts off good it usually drops off and then I end up switching to something else. When the bite is not so good right away I methodically go through my tackle bag based upon the lagoon I'm fishing, the time of year, and the current conditions. The worse the bite, the quicker I go through my tackle bag. I should probably be more patient. Even then, sometimes I get skunked. But it beats sitting around doing nothing.

Kind of like us here in SC. I'd rather be called a (Univ of SC) Gamecock than a stinking (Clemson) Tiger.

I believe that Tar Heel is the proper designation.

Most of the time the gators down here will hang out somewhere near where you're fishing in hopes of an easy meal. The little ones are a pain because they think every splash if food and usually won't leave your lures alone. A few weeks ago I had one come from an opposite bank about 60 yards away and it just kept coming - right out of the water and chased me up the bank. Last weekend at another lagoon there was a 9 footer lurking around but not really bothering us. I was moving down the bank and left my tackle bag about 20 feet or so away from where I was fishing. A few minutes later the gator crossed in front of me and was making a bee line for my tackle bag. I was casting as the gator was moving and with my focus on the large reptile the lure hit the water before I stopped the baitcaster from spinning. Bird's nest! So I'm trying to get that untangled and keeping an eye on the gator and my tackle bag. Luckily my son swooped in and grabbed the bag as the gator reached the bank. Frankly, I'm getting tired of alligators constantly getting in the way of fishing. It's no big deal if they just hang out, but the little ones are annoying and this time of year the big ones are aggressive.

We had one lagoon like that last year and I'd fish a frog over that thick junk. It was fun to have the bass blow up through that stuff or through one of the pockets. The problem was that area was elevated by railroad ties (it was an old golf course) anywhere from 3 feet to 6 feet above the water level. It was too much of a pain to try and bring up the fish and 5 pounds of weeds.

I once caught an 7" pumpkinseed on a 3" swimbait. My guess is that the panfish was ticked off and was trying to nip the tail of the swimbait and got hooked. There's no way a little panfish with that tiny mouth could be trying to eat a bait that size.

Day 2: I fished for 3 hours and I'm liking this combo less and less. I fully realize there's a chance that I have not adapted my technique to the longer rod, but I have my doubts. We fished 4 lagoons that were new to us today and my son landed a nice largemouth just under 5 pounds. As for me, I lost every single fish. I'm not talking about getting a strike and missing it. I mean I had 4 on the line and lost every single one of them. I get the strike, set the hook, but it seems like the 7 foot rod just doesn't load up like my 6'6" rod. Two of the fish breached despite my having the rod down. The last one really, really hurt. I felt a good hook set and the fish started to run. The rod starts to load and then slacks and the fish breaches. It was big. Easily 6-7 pounds. After that I cranked the drag tight but didn't get a strike for the rest of the day. I mentioned before that the rod felt mushy, so maybe with that extra length I'm not quite getting the hookset as strong as with the shorter rod. I feel like I'm setting the hook hard, but maybe with the extra length of the rod I need to go harder. I'm not tall to begin with, so maybe that's part of the equation as well. Anyway, it was frustrating losing that big one today. I'm going to give it one more try tomorrow. I may also put the new reel on a 6'6" rod and see what happens. I like everything else about this combo except the fact that I've had trouble landing fish. In the past 24 hours I've lost more fish that I've had on the line than I have in the last year.

Until last year all of my fishing had been done on spinning gear when I decided to try out a baitcasting combo. I picked up a 6'6" MHF 7:1:1 Lew's American Hero combo that was on sale. For me it was a great starter as it was inexpensive but not cheap quality. I bank fish only and that usually means I'm riding my bike from lagoon to lagoon within different residential communities - the kind where you can't just park you car on the road and go fishing nearby. So carrying multiple rods and having specialty rods is not my thing. I want a rod that's versatile enough to fish the tackle that I like to fish. I looked at some separate reels and rods deciding what to package together. The main thing is that I wanted a smother, upgraded real and a 7 foot MHF rod. I also didn't want to break the bank. Now I'm sure that there are a ton of different combinations that are probably better than the Le's Mach II baitcasting combo that I picked out, but I figured that since I liked the inexpensive American Hero combo I'd probably like one of their upgraded combos as well. Si I picked it up today and spooled it up with some 30ln hi-vis yellow Power Pro braid and headed out to some of my favorite lagoons. Most of what I catch there is in the 2-4 pound range and I've caught my fair share of 5-6 pounders there as well. I've also seen the pictures of 7-12 pounders caught in these lagoons. The rubberized Winn grips are a bit different, especially the oversized grips on the crank, and while it felt odd at first they actually felt really comfortable after fishing for 90 minutes or so. I actually like them a lot. Setting the braking is external only so I clicked it to about halfway to start, set the tension, and tossed a big ol' KVD spinnerbait with a Keitech trailer. Even with the brake set halfway it bombed out there a pretty good distance with a sidearm flip cast and it was smooooooooth off the reel. It was a really nice first impression. Moving to the 7 foot rod from a 6'6" rod felt different as expected. I've thrown a 6'6" all my life and even fishing in close quarters around people and trees casting clearance is second nature. But with the added six inches I kept having to remind myself to look around first and make sure I didn't clank it off something. Accuracy was really good off the bat. It targeted as expected, even with the extra length. But after 10 minutes or so in that lagoon it was time to leave. There's a super aggressive gator that lives there and he spotted me. Last time he came up the bank in front of me as I was packing up to avoid him. This time I got up the bank quick enough and he sat just on the shoreline. As I walked towards the next lagoon he actually followed me down the shoreline for 150 feet or so. At the next lagoon I tossed an XRap and felt a strike, went to set the hook and a small bass popped into the air but on my lure - nothing. A miss on my part. I switched to a Whopper Plopper 110, felt another strike at the lure - and missed again. I'm no pro fisherman out there but when I get good strikes like that on treble hook baits I don't think I've ever missed two in a row like that. So I go across the street to another lagoon and throw a big 8" Texas rigged worm. I feel tick-tick and then BAM! I set the hook and - nothing! The fish keeps going. Crap - I forgot to set the drag! Stupid move on my part. So the fish takes off and I'm trying to grab the drag knob. At the same time the fish makes a run towards me because without the drag set he has free reign to go wherever he wants. And of course he breaches, large mouth wide open. I could tell when he breached it was a good 4-5 pounds. It spit the hook and was gone. I should know better - this isn't the first time I forgot to set the drag on a new reel. Anyway, with the drag set I got to some fishing again. I landed 3 that were in the 2-3 pound range, but they all hit right on shore so I didn't get to feel what the rod feels like during a fight. But from what I did feel, I'd say that the rod felt mushy. Maybe that's just from moving to the 7 foot length, but it didn't feel quite right. The sensitivity on the bite was definitely there, 30 lb braid is always my line of choice on a baitcaster, but something was off. If I had to guess it's probably the drag because I did have it cranked up. I'll have to experiment with it again tomorrow. So, what's the verdict? I need some more time with it but I do like the reel as far as getting the brakes and tension dialed in quickly and the fact that the line feels really smooth coming off of the reel. It's really, really quiet and combined with the 7 foot rod length it gave me the extra distance I was looking for when bank fishing. The jury is still out on the drag setting getting dialed it. It might be a deal breaker. The rod is lightweight and the sensitivity I was looking for seems to be there. But under load it felt kind of mushy, but that could also be because of the drag issue. One thing that I did notice is that with the extra length, the reel, or a combination of both of them I could land my Whopper Plopper 110 a lot softer than with my other rods, so that was a plus. So far, so good - but I'm not a raving fan out of the box. Once I get the drag set to where I like it (if I can get it set to where I like it) I'll know if that was the issue or if I need to try out another rod for the Mach II reel. Stay tuned...