basshunterman9

Thanks for all your comments, I ended up fixing the tip and the rod worked for about 1 month. Then the entire rod snapped in half while I had a large striper on the end. I told Abu Garcia about it and they replaced my rod with a vendetta model. Then the top eyelet ring of the vendetta came off after 2 months, I was extremely careful with it and it just popped out one day while I was jigging. I ended up buying a different casting rod from a different brand at a much higher price and haven't had any issues since.

I have been using crappie jigs for the winter and they have been consistent in catching bass. However, when I have a larger bass hook on, the crappie jigs usually come off. I am not sure if this is because the hooks are too small. The hooks I use are about size 10 or so on a 1/32 or 1/16 weight. How can I increase the chance of the bass staying on? On the one hand, the small hooks seems to get the bass to bite, and going larger seems to decrease the chance. Is there a place that sells wide gap crappie jigs? Any advice is appreciated!

Went fishing in Jamaica Pond in Boston yesterday. Talked to a lot of shore fisherman who weren't doing well so I decided to rent a rowboat out (they allow fishing on it and even give a discount if you have a fishing license). Found the fish all schooled up on my sonar unit near the flats and dropoffs away from the shore at depths of around 20-30 feet with some big ones at at 40 feet. Caught a total of 13 bass in about 2 hours of boating. The largest was a 4 lb 3 ounce largemouth. Also caught 5 pretty good sized yellow perch, with the largest being just over a pound. Lots of fishing to be had in the right areas!

I was hoping to fish the Charles River in Massachusetts and was able to obtain an underwater contour map. I have a boat and access most regions on it. I have only a basic understanding of how to read contour maps, such as locating dropoffs, humps, etc. I am looking for both striped bass and largemouth bass. I have the screenshot of the map as follows: The river is 33 feet at deepest and 2 feet at the most shallow point. A good area with LOTS of fish I have found is right in front of where the Muddy River enters into the main river. This can be found on the bottom-left-middle part of the map. It contains a hump that is only 2 feet underwater. Since a lot of fish congregate where the confluence of the Muddy River and Charles River meet (labeled red A), I am wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to the migration patterns throughout the day. I thought that the natural place they might go would be the deep area in area B. Is there also a possibility they might migrate from A over to C (really deep water) via the flat? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I currently do a lot of rental boat fishing in various lakes while traveling. These rental boats are usually the standard motorboats with a basic outboard motor and an anchor. A bit problem I have is that the boats drift when fishing, even with an anchor. I have thought about getting my second own anchor and using that as a way of securing the boat. The other option might be to buy an outboard motor, but I can't take that while traveling. Are there any simple or easy ways to prevent a rental boat from drifting? Thanks!

That looks awesome, thank you for sharing this. I may very well plan a trip there in a week or two! Any fishing tips you might have would be gratefully appreciated!

Hi all, I am currently up north and the winter has been a drag with the low temperatures suppressing the bass bite. I was wondering if there were good LMB/striped bass lakes in the southeast that might be good in the winter. Additionally, boat rentals on the lake would be great. I'm trying to plan a trip to the southeast but have been inundated with the number of lakes I can find online. Thanks in advance!

Recently the weather has been turning colder and windier at around 55-60 F and winds around 10-20 mph. I have been trying to use topwater baits such as spooks, plugs and whopper ploppers but they seem to not be working. Is there a general rule of thumb that topwater baits tend to work less effectively in such water where its cold and choppy? Or are there techniques to get through to bass with topwater even in these conditions?

Thanks for all the advice, its a goldmine here. I noticed many of you mentioned a fluke, I'm very curious is there a reasoning behind that. I am not familiar with fishing flukes, is it designed to mimic a certain bait and does it have a relation to topwater feeders?

They definitely do. Usually there is an initial blowup and failed hookup, then a secondary strike after. I've noticed that there are at most 2 strikes, and that my approach is to normally continue walking the dog with the same action as before after the first strike. Do you all advocate letting it lie dead still after the first strike?

I have been fishing for stripers and largemouths in rivers and lakes, and I usually like to catch them using Heddon Spooks. These work great for stripers and largmouths in the 2-5 lb range. However, I've had a lot of issues with bigger fish, such as stripers in the 15-25 lb range and largemouths in the 5-8 lb range. These larger fish will usually hit the lure (a 3/4 oz lure) with so much force from beneath that the lure flies straight out of the water. Its almost as if they hit it so hard a column of water prevented them from getting the lure. For these larger fish, the hookup ratio is extremely low. I've had to resort to using 2 oz saltwater lures like a yo-zuri cruiser or a cotton cordell pencil popper for added weight to prevent it from getting blown up on. However, these by themselves usually attract stripers, but few largemouths. Does anyone know what I can do to get a better hookup ratio with the spook? I'm using a walk the dog retrieve at low to medium pace. Thanks!

I currently own an Abu Garcia Pro Max 7 foot rod. The inner plastic ring to my rod tip recently fell off during fishing and was lost. I've attached what it currently looks like. I would like to buy the Fuji rod repair kit, but from what I understand it is for rods where the tip can come off with a bit of heating. The rod tip I have appears to be fused on without a clear separation. Is this rod tip replaceable? I contacted Abu Garcia and they told me to drill the rod in half for a warranty replacement, which I feel bad about, because it is only the plastic ring that is missing.

There is a main river near where I live, and there is an outflow of water into a wide lagoon. I've tried fishing there a couple of times, and saw some 5 lbs, but I keep getting small bass. So far it seems the only thing that has been working is a weightless senko. I then tried a dropshot and got much more sensitivity, but the hookset was horrendous. I'm curious what y'all's approaches might be in a shallow lagoon. The water quality is not too great, but I can see movements along the bottom of the lagoon bed. The bass seem to enter and disappear out of sight. It also seems they coexist with the bluegill, even swimming side by side with them, which I found strange. Any tips would be greatly helpful!

Thanks for the input guys, I guess putting all fluro on a spinning reel wasn't such a good idea. My line is the berkeley vanish 12 lb line.

I recently needed to spool a spinning reel I have with flurocarbon line and accidentally got the line direction wrong. I've got a bunch of line twists so I was hoping to unspool the flurocarbon back onto its empty spool, then start again. I googled around, but didn't find anything satisfactory. Does anyone have any good suggestions, tips or tricks for putting the line on my reel back onto the original empty spool? I am not even sure which direction it should go on. Thanks!