fin

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That's an interesting spinnerbait. I'd be real curious how it will work. I wouldn't be very optimistic, but these things can be surprising. Most of those beads seem kind of pointless since the wire is horizontal, and just unnecessary top weight. And obviously the front one isn't doing its job. Tackle Warehouse has a "Luck-E-Strike Trickster Spinnerbait" that looks mostly the same but it doesn't have that extreme bend, and it has a different style front bead. Rick Clunn isn't mentioned on that one. Weird.

I almost stepped on this one walking through the woods a few years ago. It never moved and I never saw or heard Mom.

They delivered an empty tube? 😂

One factor I forgot: the amount of line you have spooled. I was testing out a reel I had rebuilt this morning and it didn't have enough line on it to cast any distance. That made me think about it. Some people even recommend over-spooling. I remember someone here talking about that, maybe it was @bulldog1935?

@JediAmoeba can sympathize.

The main technique thing that gets me more distance is “loading up the rod”. That’s when casting overhead, you pause when you have the rod cocked back and you wait to feel the weight of your lure dangling from the rod, and at the moment when it feels the heaviest, you cast. Not only does that give you more distance, but the lure will travel straight and not flip flop or spin, which also increases the distance. So instead of cocking and firing quickly - ****, pause, then fire. (edit: **** is censored. You can say "cocking", but not just the first four letters 😄) There can be a lot of variation between two people casting the same rod. The reel has practically nothing to do with it. The weight of the line, the smoothness of the line, the length of the rod, the power of the rod and the action of the rod are the mechanical factors. I second what @new2BC4bass said. Swap rods with your buddy and see what happens.

Honestly, I found the one that I use when the lake was being drained. That image I used is from AliExpress. The brand of the one I found is Mossy Oak. It's part of a four piece combo that is available at Walmart. It looks like Berkley makes one, or used to make one, I don't see it in stock anywhere. Maybe Ebay? I don't know why that style would be hard to find, I love mine. I guess the plastic pliers style is more popular.

I keep one of these pistol-grip style grippers on my belt loop. I removed the rope/tether. It was hard to get in the habit of using it. Old habits die hard, but now I rarely touch a fish regardless of the type of hook. I use needle-nose to remove the hook most of the time. I grip the fish, then hook my scales to the ring on the handle to weigh the fish. The grippers weigh 3oz, so I just deduct that from the total weight. It doesn't eliminate all the ways I can hurt myself, but it narrows the odds a little.

I hate ticks. I can’t think of anything that creeps me out more. And then add the prospect of Lyme disease, as if they aren’t bad enough without that. I was stripping down and cleaning a rod and reel I found the other day. Someone had apparently snagged on it and pulled it out of the lake and just left it on the bank. When I got inside the reel, I found these tiny little red worms that had what looked like pinchers on either side of their mouths. Years ago I used to wade in that lake in shorts and old sneakers. I don’t know if those red worms were parasites, but after seeing them, I’d be real hesitant before wading deeper than my knees (if you know what I mean). I just saw where you were looking at spending $150 on a new rod to try and solve your problem. Maybe you should save that money toward a kayak or some kind of floating device.

If you’re having to cast 30 yards or so to get to where the fish are, and then having to pull them through weeds, that makes the hookset problem and the high loss rate a little easier to understand. Flukes are awesome, but not the easiest for setting a hook, so when you get a lot of distance, it’s going to be even harder. If you're fishing weightless, it's even harder. Regarding a pause, I think @king fisher put it best - only pause long enough to eliminate any slack, and then like @WRB said, swing and reel. Ditch the swivel if you're still using that.

5/0 might be too long. I use 3/0 with no problem. Are you using a medium power rod? Maybe try Medium Heavy. I use a medium, but you know, it varies by manufacturer, yours might not be stout enough.

Good to know. It looks like you could hurt yourself a lot worse if you panic and try to yank your hand out. That guy was about as cool as could be. Embarrassed, but cool. 😄

I wonder if it just tipped at such an angle that they fell off, or if it went all the way over and upside down.

A fishing barge is a pontoon boat?

Ignoring the ethical question, if the bass population is really on the decline like you said, you might spend a long time trying to catch one even with a live bass for bait. I don't have any idea how often bass eat bass, but I think what you saw was a jealous, greedy, reaction bite. I wouldn't think the fact you had a bass for bait was the reason it got bit. I doubt they are a preferred target, especially in that lake. A bass on a circle hook is probably not going to be very attractive.

Only you can answer that question. You can’t fool yourself. If you feel it’s not right, it doesn’t matter how anybody else feels about it. I’ve considered live bait before, just as a learning experience, but I know myself well enough that I can’t go part-way into the rabbit hole, I have to go all the way. I also know if I experience something I like, I’m going to want more, and with some things, I’m better off just not knowing in the first place. What is the pond supposed to be stocked with if the owner doesn’t want bass?

Something has changed in the uploading of photos, hasn't it, @Glenn? It used to be that you could click on an image someone had posted and it would open in a new window (it still does that) and then your cursor would be like a magnifying glass with a "+" sign, and if you clicked, you would see the full size image, or you would be taken to the web page the image was posted from (it still does the latter). Now the image doesn't get any larger when you click on it, at least for the images I've clicked on. I've also noticed that the file sizes of the attachments in my profile are smaller than when I attached them. It seems like maybe there is now a maximum size (width x height) allowed and everything automatically gets reduced? I've never used the Gallery option, so I don't know anything about it. Not a big deal, it's just sometimes I might want to zoom in on something, and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

I’m assuming it’s to attract fish. It’s bright white. One piece is about 8 inches square with rounded corners, by about 2 inches thick. The other piece is shaped sort of like a small dog’s head. Both pieces seem to be the same stuff. Small bream surround both pieces. It looks like they’re trying to eat it. The pictures make it look like it’s breaking down in the water, but that’s just glare. When the fish were pecking at it, I didn’t see them pulling pieces off it, or pieces breaking off, so I kind of assume it’s not soft and porous.

That's not true at all where I fish. I've had some fight as good or better than bass their size. I think the shape of lure and how they're hooked have a lot to do with how they fight, or how much resistance you feel. I very rarely fish for catfish, but I've caught quite a few fishing for bass. A lot of the ones I've caught recently have done that spinning thing when reeling them in, and I thought that was just something they do, but now I'm starting to think that's related to the lure too. I think they spin when a lure is long enough that they get hooked on both sides of the mouth. The line tie is then off to one side of the mouth, causing them to spin.

Interesting pair of pictures, @Fried Lemons. One thing interesting to me is how their heads appear to be almost the same length. I’ve always assumed the size of the head is an indicator of age, as is the bulging eyes. The difference in the gills on those two is interesting too, although it might just be the angle of the photo and the effect of all that weight on the big one. Anyway, it's hard to know how many years difference there are between those two, but I think it's obvious the bigger one is older. I have no idea about your hypothesis, beyond the simple rule that when humans try to alter nature to their benefit, they usually screw something up. lol

I wanna see it. I’m C&R anyway, so as long as I see it, that’s most of the reason I’m there. We’re only talking about big fish, so I’d prefer a picture, and I’d rather weigh it. If it’s not big then I really don’t care unless I haven’t caught a fish in like a week or so. I make assumptions about some big fish that I lose that I never get to see. When one makes an instant hard long run, I assume that’s a hybrid or a carp, and I don’t lose sleep over that. When one bites hard early on the fall, I assume that’s a cat, and I’m happy to not have to unhook a cat. The ones that really bug me are the ones that initially feel like a very small fish that don’t fight at all, and then right at the end as you start to get them close, they turn it on and snap your line like it’s nothing. Those are always really big bass, IMO. The ones that feel like a log on the hookset and pull like a train, those hurt to lose too, but there’s something about those ones that turn it on at the last minute.

I can't say I've ever done that, but I once found a brand new Jackhammer with the hook guard still on it. I have caught a ton of fish on it since. I caught one on it this morning actually. It's one of those lucky lures.

I believe @Bazoo is strictly a bank fisherman. Does anyone use a C-rig for bank fishing?

I never use a C-rig, but I will slide my T-rig bullet weight up about 6” and peg it sometimes. That will give you a totally different action regardless of what kind of plastic you have on. I guess having the weight separated from the bait is the main attraction/benefit of the C-rig. It gives the bait a more natural look and feel to the fish. Swivels and beads ain’t for me. I’m sure it works for some people.