Will1248

Just fish along the shores like maximum 6 feet from bank and as deep as you can in the winter. Sucks because they are gonna eat each other with no cover and its gonna have to get restocked.

Jigs and swim baits are my absolute worst techniques. What do you look for when fishing them? Any specific advice like wait for the rod tip to bend instead of doing a hooksett immediately etc?

I was of the same train of thought. But then I bought like 15 colors of zoom super flukes on a sale for like $1 a few years back. I promise you the only colors worth anything are white pearl and green pumpkin. And surprisingly only white ice for super fluke jr, they hate white pearl when it is smaller. I fished each color multiple times a day for months. I'm an Analytical Chemist so I systematically recorded the results. Only thing other than those colors that produced was baby bass, but it wasnt much. I could spot fish by docks and believe me I tried everything. Those 4 colors were the only ones that worked. Even something as minor as green pump with chartreuse tail caused a decrease in bites or even interest. They avoided albino shad like the plague even though it looks like white pearl with a blue hue. They hated matte white too. It makes all the difference. But with other baits I've noticed and stuck with shad, bass(green back/white belly), red craw, and chartreuse. Those 4 base colors work for most diving hard baits. And white, green pumpkin, black, and pumpkin for most soft plastics. Not to well for drop shots though I'm finding out. That's my 2 cents but I only fish Lake Murray and Hartwell.

With most soft baits I notice that the main colors white, green pumpkin and black cover most to every situation. Ive fished shakey heads most of my life but now I'm branching out to drop shot more with the weather warming up, and finally able to buy a specialized rod/reel with my first pay raise. With dropshot I seem to always have luck on more translucent colors like smoke and watermelon seed. But I really havent fished the technique enough to know for certain. What are your top producing colors for clear, murky, and stained water?

I think that's just human nature to improve a skill. But at the end of a day I practice to learn a new skill. Some days I will actually just throw one certain color like gray for example. And challenge myself to only use a gray bait today. It surprisingly forces you to discover the best uses for certain colors of certain baits. You discover that brighter colors work better deeper and shallow but not as good in the middle water column. I will challenge myself to only use one type if baits like jigs or swurms to find the best technique to produce more bites. It's called fishing not catching. Catching is the goal, but to say that your success is only determined by that can be misleading. Getting a bite on a bait you dont know how to fish can be just as rewarding than just catching fish on the same thing you knew worked an hour ago and still does.

Discount bait and tackle has a sale right now. Got some cheap war eagle spinners

So whenever I fish with some buddies there are a few that carry huge tackle bags to the boat with 10 or so rods. However, they usually only throw about 5 different baits most of the time and use 3 of those 10 rods that take up space on the boat. I try to have all my colors and sizes covered for each technique I use. But somehow find myself throwing the same 4 baits over and over. I have to force myself to try jigs so I can improve with them, and after awhile I just go back to old faithful. That leads me to the question. How many baits do you actually use from your tackle box? Tournament fishing is different because I will actually switch out things until I can narrow down what is getting bites. But it always ends up coming back to my "confidence baits" anyway. They just produce more. Do yall branch out and try new things only to put them down? Or just diversify what works for you and buy in bulk?

The trick with ponds is they are usually very muddy so darker colors are more natural. To catch the bigger fish, you have to size up the bait a little. I'd use a 4/0 green pumpkin super fluke. And honestly every monster I've pulled from a pond is because I know where the fish lives, then I drag a spinnerbait over its head to tick it off and it bites it. Bass tend to stay around a general area in a pond for years.

I use both but have to say lews is best in market for quality and price. I like my abus for lighter baits such as topwaters and weightless worms, spool spins more freely for some reason. Pflueger for spinning reels though :}

do you really have nothing to do than troll on a fishing forum? thats sad. Please leave me alone

DX 703SF DX 703C DC 705CBMF GLASS DX 746C DX 742C S/H S 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 6-10lb(8 is best from much experience) C 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip 7.1:1-6.2:1 10-12lb C 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate 5.4:1 10-12lb C 7'4" Heavy action F or XF tip 7.1:1 or above C 7' M action F tip with a 7.1:1 reel 1.All purpose spinning and finesse 2. All purpose casting, worms, jigs, spinnerbaits 3. Crankbaits 4. Flipping and pitching, frog 5. Topwaters and weightless plastics

This is the budget anglers 3 rod system for cheap effective and long lasting gear. If you want all purpose rigs the 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 reel with 8lb Trilene XL(best casting distance for the price) is for everything you have, so two things a stout 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip rod with a 7.1:1-6.2:1 reel ratio baitcaster with 12lb Berkeley Big Game mono(or flouro but this is cheap it works fantastic and lasts longer). This rod covers jigs, worms, spinnerbaits, smaller swimbaits, bigger jerkbaits and more, but can be used for frogs, flipping and pitching light cover if you want to swing that way(joke intended) until you want to upgrade to a 7'6" Heavy action Xtra fast tip for the 2oz artillery weights for really punching through thick grass. And after that personally I would recommend a 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate tip for crankbaits and a few odd baits. With a 5.4:1 gear baitcaster spooled with 10-12lb FLOUROCARBON(absolute must for deep crankbaits). S 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 6-10lb(8 is best from much experience) C 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip 7.1:1-6.2:1 10-12lb C 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate 5.4:1 10-12lb Now the crankbait rod can be a Medium action but if you plan to throw any crankbait deeper than 12ft or a squarebill over an ounce then stay with the MH or else you will have a workout and possibly break a rod or reel(strips the drag). So initially a Med. Mod isnt advised. Moveover, look for a very "noodley" rod with a very moderate tip but with a decent backbone so you can fish smaller cranks and not have them pop out and fly toward your face. All this being said I reccomend Lews Laser MG Speed Spool baitcasters they run about $80 but are hands down the best bang for your buck reel in the medium price range of $50-100 and they last forever. For the rods I reccomend Lews David Fritts Perfect Crankbait rod also $80 (they actually have a new combo out called the Crankback for $100 with the right reel instead of a $160 set up) They are very limber, light and set hooks very well again a great bang for your buck. Lastly an Abu Garcia Vendetta 7' MH Ftip rod is very stiff, has a solid backbone and if you catch it right you can get them for $30 but normally about $70. All of these rods will fish pretty much anything you want besides alabama rigs. The spinning and the worm rod are really all you need but if you like crankbaits at all and will fish for hours at a time, if you have the money just get a crankbait rod they help so much and make it more fun instead of a chore. This is all suggestions and just an opinion. Hope that I helped. You should most definitely buy your reel first then a rod or buy them together. The reason is so that you get a good feel for the rig instead of having a giant reel on a small rod or visa versa. -Will

@J Francho "...just noting that it's an odd and out of place recommendation. Do you really use a moderate spinning rig for these?" This seems rather condescending. Questioning my validity as a fisherman off of an already odd question seems rather rude to me. Im just trying to help. And for newer fishermen the more complicated things are, regardlesd of efficiency, leads to improper technique and execution. Controling an XF tip versus a moderate is more difficult. They have to understand how the bait works before they try a new rod or technique.

@J Francho no. The question was what else you can use mod for. I do find that a mod tip helps with poppers and deep jerkbaits (i use the retrieve instead of the rod, more of a sweeping motion instead of a twitch since you are pulling water not the bait in that instance) as well as colorado blade wakebaits. They load better and allow the fish to hook itself, instead of you ripping it out when they are only playing with it. I have beat several high ranked friends because their XF tip launches the bait 10ft away from the fish ripping out an easily caught fish when mine loads the hook into the fish. Not willow blades though, you need a faster reel. For poppers and spinnerbaits spinning work great, really displaces more water with the low gear ratio and rod flex. Lets the bait do its job instead of the angler. Works best in winter since the presentation is slower and you do less work. Do you really speak this condescending to all the members? Its not like people do different things or techniques, and need to be spoken down to like a 4 yr old. Pro tip. Just because somthing is popular doesnt mean its right. And the right thing isnt always popular.

Always choose a 30 a 40 is too big, too heavy and wont cast the bait as far. On a spinning reel the size wont matter much if you can reel and fight a fish correctly. Save money and get a 30. I have made the mistake before