Koz

Congrats on the PB! Next time bring your phone. Never mind the pictures - you may need it if that rattlesnake decides to bite.

The wind has been constant here for the past few weeks. I went out bank fishing yesterday and it was a constant 18-25 mph. The wind seemed to be coming from all directions and the particular lagoon I was fishing is out in the open. Managed to coax the gator away by throwing topwaters elsewhere, then went back and caught a couple of 3 pounders. Packed it in within in hour. We rode our bikes to the lagoon and the wind was blowing so much we had to pedal twice as hard to get anywhere. It even blew my son off of his bike. I've about had enough of the wind.

I'm quick to change baits and change locations when I'm fishing on my home turf. I know what lures I have had success with at different points in the season and I know where the bigger fish are usually located in most lagoons. And with over 200 lagoons in that immediate area I have plenty of locations to choose from. So far I've only fished about a dozen of those lagoons. I want to fish these thoroughly multiple times, then I'll add a new location or two into the mix. The interesting thing here is that most of the lagoons are interconnected through the stormwater system so the fish can and will move from lagoon to lagoon. When I say "bigger" I mean 3 pounds and up. I'm kind of a "fishing snob" in that I'm not looking to catch 50 dinks in a day. I'm like targeting bigger bass and looking for my first double digit catch. While I haven't landed a DD yet there have been plenty of 5 and 6 pounders. I know the DD's are there because I've seen the pictures. They also shocked the main lake and counted, weighed, and tagged the bigger fish. They're out there - I just need to find them!

Speed it up! You mentioned that you caught a few on a drop shot and a slow retrieve. But have you tried speeding it up with a buzz bait or spinnerbait? And as mentioned above, lily pads = mandatory frog fishing FWIW, we have plenty of murky water here and with that my firsts casts of the day are always something that is going to send vibrations in the water and spinnerbaits have been killer here this spring. What's odd though is that it's my white/silver KVD spinnerbait that's crushing it in the murky water and not my darker colored spinnerbaits. Anyway, I'd go with the frog first and if that didn't work I'd speed it up with spinnerbaits and buzz baits. Just my 2 cents.

Most of my hits come on a straight retrieve. I'll try a few casts at one speed, then try speeding up or slowing down for a few casts. Occasionally I may rip it for a crank or two. But around here our lagoons are all soft, muddy bottoms. Most have thick algae along the basin or thick, "soupy" type weeds. In other words, we don't have rocky bottoms or a lot of rock structure to bounce lures off of. When a lure hits bottom here you either lose it or you're pulling in chunks of algae and weeds. If I were in an area with a hard bottom or rocky surfaces I'd probably also add a stop and go retrieve and let it bounce off of the bottom. But the idea of a spinnerbait is to get those blades going so the fish are attracted to the vibration in the water.

If I could only pick one color for a soft plastic bait it would be green pumpkin. That's the color I always start with, especially when fishing a new area. I could easily get caught up with having a dozen different soft plastics in my bag. But if my green pumpkin Yum Dinger or my watermelon/chartreuse Zoom trick worm isn't working I move on to a different type of bait. But I'm just a weekend or weeknight warrior (with a limited budget) when it comes to fishing. If I was a pro I'm sure I'd have a different mindset.

Try a couple of different sized spinnerbaits. First throw them parallel to the shore starting a foot or so out, then 5 feet out, then 10 feet out. Both sides. Then cast 30 degrees, 60 degrees, and 90 degrees from the shoreline, again both sides. When I do this I can see if anything is hitting along the shore or if the bass are following in from deeper water. There was a time when spinnerbaits were just about the last thing out of my tackle bag, but in the last year I've had a lot of luck with them and caught 5-6 pounders on them. I fish the medium and larger sized spinnerbaits (white/gray and white/chartreuse and white/pumpkin). Instead of throwing a small spinnerbait I'll throw a white or black beetlespin. I never caught anything big on those (1-2 pounds) but it's another lure that lets me know if there's bass, crappie, or bluegill in the area.

The weather here in SC has been spotty as well. Last weekend my son had a baseball tournament in Charleston, SC and Sunday morning game time was 38 degrees. It's been mostly cold (40's and low 50's), gray, very windy, and wet around here for a while. I realize cold is relative to where you live and right now some of you would take low 50's and rain and wind. On the few days we've had it sunny and mid 60's and low 70's there was a steady, strong wind all day. As luck would have it, today and tomorrow are beautiful days and I have to work. And the weekend looks like rain and thunderstorms. Wouldn't you know it - this is one of the few weekends we aren't traveling for baseball. I can't catch a break lately. I just want one weekend of mild, sunny fishing weather. Before you know it, it's going to be 95 degrees and humid here.

What do you do when the fish you hook is as big as your kayak?

Whether you are bank fishing or fishing from a boat the fish are in the same spot. But with bank fishing the question is always, "Can I even get to that spot?" We have a ton of lagoons in our area with dense vegetation and woods surrounding the basin and since alligators are prevalent here I stay away from any areas where my egress would be impeded. Here's what I do: Plan ahead using Google Earth or Google Maps and look for areas that might hold bass (points, vegetation, streams, rip rap, man made structures, etc). I don't rush to the shoreline once I get there. I take the time to look around for potential hot spots. Once I find a potential hot spot I look for an area away from that where I can still reach it with an accurate cast. Not too close, and definitely not too far away where cast accuracy diminishes. Tread lightly. I do not want to spook fish in areas where I want to cast. This last one is tricky for me since we have alligators everywhere. I take a lot of extra time scouting areas from a distance if there is any potential alligator cover. I also make sure to where polarized glasses and look beneath the surface of the water where I am standing along the shore. I don't want to become gator bait. If I can, I try and find a spot where I can cast along a great length of the shoreline, say at a notch in the bank or the end of the lagoon. Unlike in a boat where you dot your casts down the shoreline, if you find the right spot along the shore you can cover all of that in just a few casts. Who knows, if you do hook up it may scare off other bass along the shoreline, but so far it has worked for me.

If I ever bought a $100+ swimbait I'd also buy matching swim fins, mask, and snorkel.

I don't know about that. Unless they are cruising parallel to the shoreline bass usually hang out in deeper waters (i.e. dropoffs) or off shore in cover then corner prey near the shore. In my case they weren't cruising the shore or in cover along the shore so I cast deeper hoping a bass would follow it in.

Patience.

Today I tried a few new lagoons where my dad lives over at Sun City Hilton Head. There are 50+ lagoons there and many are connected by the stormwater system. Some of them are inaccessible - to me at least - because they are surrounded by homes or fully within one of the gold courses. But there are still plenty that are accessible for us to fish. The temp was in the low sixties today, but as it has been for the past week it was really windy. It didn't help that I've been battling a cold most of the week, but I was going stir crazy sitting inside and had to get out. Plus, my son had a rare weekend off from travel baseball and I wanted to take advantage of that. A neighbor of my father had showed me pictures of a few seven pounders and a twelve pounder caught in Sun City, and he gave me a general idea of what lagoons they were caught in without divulging the actual locations. We fished two of the larger lagoons in that vicinity for a while with no luck, then moved to a smaller 1/3 are lagoon. This lagoon also had one of those aerator fountains and the spray was blowing everywhere. Thirty minutes and a few lures later I put a Yum Dinger on the line and got my first and only catch of the day. But at 6.3 pounds I won't complain. But I did miss my PB by just 2/10ths. I could have sworn this one was over 7 when I landed it. Next time!

I spend my time bank fishing and one thing I have learned is don't give up on the cast and always fish the lure all the way in. I see too many people that I fish with start ripping the lure back in when it's 15 feet or so from shore. Today was a good example. We fished a really murky lagoon. Visibility maybe a foot at most. So I tried some noisy baits like chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and whopper ploppers. Nothing. Switched from darker colors to lighter colors. Nothing. Tried a frog. Tried a jig. Tried a Senko. Zip. Zilch. Nada. One hour in and not a strike. Next was a KVD white and grey spinnerbait. I started my fan casting pattern with a few casts progressively further from each shoreline and still nothing. So next I tossed it deep and fished it in. The sun was in front of me so my shadow was not on the water. When the spinnerbait got about 2 feet out I saw the great beast glide out of the murky depths and it hit the bait 18 inches from shore. He hit it enough and I reacted enough that with my rod tip already down I just slid him onto the bank. OK, it wasn't exactly a great beast but it weighed in at 5.6 pounds and that's a good size for our area. Although - last week I was showed pictures of a 12 pounder and two 7 pounders taken near my father's house nearby. I'll be fishing there this weekend. So the moral of the story is if you're bank fishing, never give up on your retrieve. Fish it all the way to the bank. That should be a no brainer because we know bass feed in close, but sometimes - especially when the fishing is slow - we forget. T

I have a Pfleuger President (30) that for the most part is a very good reel. However, after less than a year of use on fresh water only the crank became extremely pitted. I contacted Pfleuger (including photos) and they told me it was my fault because I was using sun tan lotion or bug spray and that caused the issue. When I explained to them that I used neither of those when fishing they essentially told me to go pound sand. A few months later I read somewhere that they updated their design because of problems with pitting cranks. Other than that issue, it has been a great reel. But I don't use it that much since I bought a Lew's baitcaster.

If I'm out fishing on my own I'll throw either a top water (Booyah Pad Crasher or Whopper Plopper) or a big spinnerbait. But if I'm fishing with my son I throw something at a different depth than he's throwing. So if he throws a T-rigged worm I'll throw a bait that fishes the middle column or topwater. I figure if we start of fishing different depths it may help us narrow down where the fish are sitting a bit quicker. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

In murky water the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap in the Purple Tiger color has been killer for me catching bass and crappie. Dick's had a buy 2, get one free deal a while ago and I bought two different sized chrome ones and on a lark I picked up the funky purple and green one. Funny thing - I don't think I've caught any bass on the chrome ones.

Here you go:

Because I hate to have to grab my reading glasses every time I tie a knot a tend to use snaps, even on the R bend spinnerbaits - but I have a little trick that I use. Whenever I buy a lure that has the plastic tubing protecting the hook I save that bit of tubing. Then when I fish the R bend spinnerbait I slice of a small section of the tubing and slide it over the bend so the bend is exposed, then clip my snap between the bend and the tubing. I'm at the point that I can do this by feel and don't need my glasses. And it still catches fish rigged this way.

Lake Warren is really hit and miss and the few times I've been there it was mostly miss. One time we rented a jon boat and spent most of the day out there (hot summer day) and we got skunked. The boats they rent don't have anchors and it was a breezy day so I spent more time jogging the boat than fishing. The park rangers there seem pretty well informed of the fishing conditions, so I would call them and ask about that first. I did not call, but each time I was there I asked the rangers and they told me fishing had been tough lately. They were right about that. From what I was told the docks and the overpass are usually decent. There's a feeder stream in the northeast area where the rip rap is and that area is supposed to be decent fishing. Moving north along the rip rap in that top corner you will find a lot of laydowns. I tossed frogs and jigs there with no luck, but it sure looks fishy. I'd also try the point on the southwest side of the lake. Since you've been there already, you know that there are cypress trees throughout making it easy to snag. Next time I head up there I'll probably try some drop shot rigs. Have you tried fishing the small lagoon next to the big lake? I think I heard they stock that with catfish. Anyway, my top suggestion is to call the park rangers first and get their feedback before spending a day out there catching nothing. About an hour away from Lake Warren is Sgt. Jasper Park in Hardeeville. There are a number of decent fishing lagoons there but they are spread out. You'll need to plan on walking a lot or bringing a bike to cover a lot of ground. No fishing license required, but there is a daily fee. Lots of lily pads, so bring your topwater frogs. Since my son has a week off from baseball next weekend we may head that way for the day.

... and sometimes you don't! My son got a big kick out of this dink he caught today. We each caught three fish, but nothing over a pound even though we fished spots where we normally land 2 -5 pounders just about all of the time. But it was still nice to get out and fish for a few hours. The good news is that historically things really start to pick up here in the next two weeks. The only bad part about today was I lost two lipless cranks and one spinnerbait. I didn't lose that many lures all of last year. But I found out that the community disposed of a lot of Christmas trees in some of the lagoons over the winter and since I did not snag in these spots last year I'll assume that's what I snagged on today. The perils of bank fishing! I'll have to bring out the iBobber next time and see if I can map out the bottom of these lagoons.

My eyes are getting old and I hate to have to dig out my reading glasses to tie a new knot every time I switch lures so I use snaps for all of my setups. Sure, it might not give certain lures the perfect presentation, but all of my lures still catch fish just the same.

I've always had some crankbaits among my gear but never had any luck with them. But last summer I bought a Bill Lewis Purple Tiger Rat L Trap lipless crank and it has been a bass and white crappie slayer for me. Dick's was having a buy 2 get one free sale so I picked up a couple of standard silver Rat L Traps and this purple and lime green one on a whim. This year my goal is to fish more square bill cranks. The lagoons are pretty shallow here with muddy and algae bottoms so deep diving cranks are useless. I bought a few Strike King square bills last week and hope to try them out soon. Unfortunately my son has travel baseball almost every weekend so I need to wait for Daylight Saving Time before I can get out there and fish.

Well then, that makes perfect sense. Then again, the few times I went out this winter the fishing was so slow here the lagoons may as well have been frozen over.