JediAmoeba

After years and years of bank fishing the tidbits I have gleaned: 1. You need to be hella accurate with your casts. I think it's more important than when you are in a boat honestly and at times a lot harder because of the added obstructions. Practice casting at home. Practice casting sidearmed,underhand, 3/4 hand, 1/2 casts, pitches, etc. Get a bucket and try and land a spinnerbait into it. Don't practice with a casting weight because that will not give you much in the way of realistic conditions. You really need to be accurate from all angles and approaches. 2. Make that first cast really count to any location on small bodies of water. On small heavily pressured ponds these fish are used to seeing lures go by...if your first cast lands in a bunch of gunk and you reel it in to clean it off, those fish are now spooked and wary. 3. Make that cast that may only provide 5 or 6 feet of a possible strike. If it looks like it would hold a fish, cast to it. You would be surprised. 4. If the bank is too overgrown, wade into the water. Odds on, most people don't hit that spot and there could be a few fish there. 5. Don't be afraid to cast to a location where you may lose a lure or snag on something - fish like cover. 6. Sometimes a short rod is just what the doctor ordered to make accurate casts with overgrowth. Sometimes a longer rod helps you reach out and cast parallel to the bank. 7. Look at what others are throwing. If they are throwing a buzz bait and not catching anything- try something else. A lot of times it is best to be different when it comes to lures...things the fish haven't seen. 8. Learn to drop your lure into the water quietly on the cast. This is something that takes a lot of practice but it can indeed help you hook into some bigger fish. 9. As others said - be quiet and blend into the background. 10. Wear polarized sunglasses so you can see the fish and structure.

I realized in my vast amount of tackle I don't even own a beetle spin. I had some years ago but they rusted in my box so I threw them out

The Ned rig is the one rig for me that almost has a 100% hook up to land ratio. Generally I use a medium action rod and just reel into the fish while applying pressure. It almost always hooks up deep in the roof of the mouth. I am really interested in trying some of the offset weedless ned heads for a lake I fish that has a lot of timber.

This month I learned that I do not like fishing saltwater. Not at all.

There are so many variables. Depending on the temperature of the water, the hooks you put on, the line, the snap or no snap, heavy o ring or light o ring...fast retrieve, slow retrieve, steady retrieve...sinking, suspending, floating. I always feel it's better to have a variety and see what they like that day. I have never had luck with the ripstop in cold or warm water.

Fluorocarbon line that is 42 bucks a spool is stupid. Tatsu is no better than others.

Does anyone that uses the zman TRD ned worms have problems with them getting messed up on the hook when they cast? Because the elaztech is so soft they seem to recoil on hard casts and get fouled up on the hook. Usually you can feel it on the retrieve but it happens to me on about 1 in 5 casts. I find it annoying

What laws would those be???

Daiwa Tatula, Abu Garcia Veritas, Dobyns colt, Kastking speed demon or six gill rod in that price range.

Generally speaking Favorite seems like a great marketing company to me. Their products are O.K. and they get a lot.of notoriety because of the fisherman they sponsor and the way they design and market their products. I think you can get more for your money in a lot of other products.

For the presentations you have outlined, definitely pass on the ugly stick. I would recommend a Sixgills rod...they are currently BOGO and are pretty decent sticks for the price.

I have tons of different ones and always find myself gravitating back to the cavitron. At night though I like the boo-yah buzz with the clacker.

I was on the Delaware this past weekend for 4 hours and caught 20 smallies, the biggest being about 2.5 lbs. The only thing I hate about the Delaware is it costs a lot in tackle every time. I am about 45 minutes north of you up in Albrightsville so I understand the pressure. You need to trek through some vegetation if you want to get to less pressured areas and/or get a yak. Having a boat doesn't seem to get you to less pressured waters but it does allow you to cover more water to find active fish.

Eastern Pa? I can't imagine fishing is much tougher anywhere than eastern pa.

For most applications I have a leader - not as much for invisibility but more for going through the water better and such. Depending on what I am doing, I just find having a fluoro or mono leader let's the bait go through the water and weeds better, the line gets fouled up less on the hooks and if I have to break off it isn't as bad.

Sounds like you are hung up on the equipment and not the technique and locating the fish. Time to go back to basics and slow down. Drop your line size, go smaller, slow down and hook into some fish to build confidence. Size will come

You know we still have more than a month of summer, right?

Flukes are the best for a Donkey Rig. Sometimes the donkey rig really gets them fired up!

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Ned_Rig_Jig_Heads/catpage-NEDRIGJH.html Of all those I use the Z-Man Shroomz. I bought a bunch of them and they seem to work well for me. I always glue the worm to the head with superglue.

I have a lot of superstitions...

I wished I lived in Minnesota...

Pad Crasher holds up. I bought a 15 dollar frog and it took on so much water it was worthless - I had to put epoxy on the hole to stop it. I have never had this problem with a pad crasher.

The situation for the fish & boat commission is not in a good place in Pa. Each person has a huge territory covering multiple counties and many bodies of water. They focus their energy into their stocking programs and conservation rather than enforcing policy. I have been in contact with many authorities on the matter and have the "local" fish commissioners number due to some infractions I witnessed. At Beltzville reservoir this spawning season a guy had a stringer of 15+ large bass he was snagging off beds(bass were not in season). He had one that was probably over 8 pounds - I have never seen one that big. I called the office and they told me they had no one within 100 miles. I called the park office and they told me that isn't their problem. This was 12 noon on a Monday. I emailed the commission and got call backs from Harrisburg and they explained their funding issue and lack of officers. It doesn't help in Pa that we have separate commissions for Fishing and Hunting. Anyway, about half the people I run into fishing don't even bother to purchase fishing licenses so we don't even have a lot of money going into the pot to help these efforts.

I am sick of it. We have an 9 acre pond, that everyone in the community I reside in calls a lake. I live a few hundred yards from it so I fish it frequently. In eastern pa the amount of public water is diminished and the quality of fishing is terrible due to certain people keeping everything they catch. Literally everything. This year I made a guarantee with some people in our community that I would catch 500 bass out of this pond. Well, it's been a grind. I currently sit at 418 bass caught...the biggest one was 3.2 pounds and counting that one I have only caught 2 over 2 pounds. I catch a lot of pickerel but again, they are small, mostly in the 12 inch range. And I like to power fish but this pond sees a lot of pressure - in the summer it isn't uncommon to see 25 lines in the water all day with people live-baiting. Top water is a no-go and forget most moving baits, the fish just don't hit them. It's a wonder any fish survive at all... Last tuesday when I took the kids down to swim there were 4 kayaks fishing and 12 people on the banks. So yeah, I am sick of dinks right now. After I get to 500 this year I may not fish it for a while.

I always use a blood knot and put a dab of superglue on it. I had the Alberto knot and the Albright knot fail one too many times on me. The blood knot has not failed me yet