Sword of the Lord

I basically fish every day. Lol. The pond is freezing over so now my Senkos and shaky heads just sit on top and I'm like whyyyyyyy as I keep casting to no avail.

Only in our sport LOL

The ideal snap is no snap. Gross.

I finally caught my first bass in 2 weeks yesterday. A little 1 pounder. It hit a Texas rigged 4 inch Senko thrown into shallow cover. It was just my 3rd fish is probably 3 weeks. They're being really odd. I'll approach the pond and see them along the shore, but then they take off and won't hit anything. They didn't do that all year long until now. A lot of times they would stare me down all year and take whatever I threw on their nose. It was amusing. I must have become ugly because they don't want anything to do with me.

Have you seen that paneling? He's definitely got shag carpeting too. No sweeping necessary.

Looks like a bluegill to me.

No, but the fish have run over my heart and soul a time or two.

No idea. Just going to throw my obnoxious 2 cents in about keeping bass from "very small ponds.": Disagree!

How so? I always run thin fluoro with finesse and I use lighter mono than most, and never use braid.

That's funny dude. I finally got a couple of dinks on the same lure a little bit ago. The first is pictured. Also, I hooked into my PB on this lure today as well. Only right at the shore when I was going to grab her, she shook off. She was barely hooked. Tried to be as calm as possible but the odds were slim. I d**n near cried.

My Senko setup is a 6'6" M/F Lightning Rod with a Zebco Platinum 33. Wacky or Texas. 10 pound Stren mono with 10 pound fluoro leader. Sooo much accuracy and sooo skippable. Handles Illinois bass perfectly fine. I've tried Senkos on spinning and baitcasting and it just feels like I'm missing an arm. I have the utmost confidence in Senkos with this setup. I feel like I can do anything. My wife knows my Senko setup as my "nasty $h!t" setup lol. Because I will get down and dirty with it and hit the most messed up places.

Central Illinois

Maaan. A big, fat skunk today. Not even a bite. I tried a Texas rigged Senko (didn't have my Wacky stuff on hand), some spinnerbaits (even got desperate and tried inline spinners and beetle spins), several lipless crankbaits, top waters, and swimbaits. Just...nothing. Tomorrow I'm going back to what worked in the dead of summer: Wacky rigged Senkos in the weedlines and pockets and big worms hopped on the bottom. We'll see what happens. These ladies and gentlemen are not chasing at the moment. It's odd, though, because for a couple of weeks there when the weather did cool off and before the water had a chance to cool of itself, lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits were being crushed.

River2Sea really needs to put a warning label on the Whopper Plopper for the haters. Warning: Despite the price, this isn't a magical lure that is guaranteed to catch a DD. This lure may not even catch a fish on some occasions. Magic isn't real. Stop complaining.

I wouldn't even quit after one skunk. The water would have to be hard. Until then, there will often be that one fish.

I had a Rat-L-Trap get stuck in the weeds Tuesday evening. I was fishing a shoreline and the wind took it too far in on the cast. I gave it a good yank and it flew back at me, 100mph it seemed like. It hit me right in the face, below my eye and the treble buried into my cheek. It wasn't the almost losing an eye that freaked me out. It wasn't the hook. I was like, if this g-d hook just scarred up my beard I'm gonna be so po'd. It didn't. It was right above it. I was so mad at the thought that I just ripped it out. And that's my irrelevant story.

As I've said before (and since I don't know who does and doesn't know) this is my first year back to bass fishing in 3-4 years since I got sick. Healthy now and back at it. The fall I remember and the fall being talked about, is not the fall I'm experiencing. I was catching tons of bass in the heat of the summer when it should have been harder. Theoretical better fall conditions have been miserable! I'm catching bass, but only about a third of what I was catching, with some big fat 0 days, which I didn't really experience at all in the summer. The Senko bite, both Texas and Wacky, is completely dead, as are worms. The Ned and weightless trick worms are dead. I get the occasional top water hit only on a Whopper Plopper, and a few fish on lipless cranks and spinnerbaits. Mostly it's just tough and miserable. I have no explanations. Do you all? I live in Illinois. We've mostly had 60-75 degree highs for a few weeks and 45-55 degree lows. I usually fish ponds, 2 small lakes, and a river. It's the same everywhere. I'm well aware that this happens sometimes. You just have rough days. But this is happening at the exact opposite time it theoretically should, and the supposed tough conditions were what was phenomenal for me.

Pretty much agree. Except lipped cranks are a death wish/Insta snag in my waters. I can manage lipless just fine though for some reason. More depth control. And they've been killing them. Need to get me some SK redeye shads. At the moment have all genuine Rat-L-Trap s.

It was a weird day in general. I also caught a dink by the belly on the same trap. Like, how? Magic lure.

Said it before and I'll say it again: I rarely get skunked any day I go fishing. But! That's because on days I go fishing, I go out several times. In the morning, take a break. In the afternoon, take a break. In the evening, end my day. And I almost always fish 2 or 3 different bodies of water each time I'm out. If I didn't put in hours, go multiple times a day or stay out all day, or change waters, I would get skunked often. You just have to first find fish, and then put in the time.

I went out and caught 3 more. A two pounder and a sub one pounder on a trap, and another two pounder on a spinnerbait. 5 fish day. Better than a no fish day. I'll take it.

Being the addict I am, I went back for an hour (and didn't see this post in that time) before heading back again this evening. I fared better. I caught one on a Gizzard Shad Realistic Rat-L-Trap, and another on a 110 Blue Blood Whopper Plopper. The WP fish was better than the Trap fish, but neither were great; however, I will take it! We'll see what this evening holds. Trap fish. The trebles glued its mouth shut. WP fish. It's in the mid 50's today. Windy, as we know, and overcast. I didn't get a water temperature, but it's still warm to the touch, as are the fish. We're looking at high 60's and low to mid 70's over the next 10 day forecast. Hopefully my season stays prolonged.

Thanks for the advice. Battling the winds based on the tips given in this thread was good for my lures and casts, but the fish would not bite a thing. I moved on from traps and spinners to chatters and swim jigs, to ploppers and Senkos as a last ditch effort. Nadda. I'll head back this evening though. The wind is supposed to be cut in half by then too. I really thought it would be decent today based on what I saw heading to the water. A good size bass was crushing baitfish at the shore and kept getting stuck in the shallows along it, thrashing its way out. It wouldn't take my offerings. Then I saw a good one hit the top by some weeds. So they were feeding. Just didn't like me.

...got my trap back to me to see that what I felt was me smacking a fish in the eye and bringing it back with me.