DinkDreams

I was restricted to only buying from bass pro (my family just gives me gift cards anymore, which works for me) and I’m limited to a 4 door car so rod length is a big factor, with that in mind…. I got a St Croix Triumph musky rod , 7’6 MH/F that throws 3/4-3oz baits paired up with a Shimano Cardiff 300A spooled with 17lb Sufix Siege (when I respool I’m probably going to switch to Sunline Defier Armillo in 25lb test, same diameter as 16lb mono and a handful of the best fisherman on here swear by it) For the actual plastic I rig it on a 6/0 1/4oz weighted Owner Beast Hook. Have caught fish on single and treble hooked baits and the Musky rod hasn’t betrayed me yet.

Send me that energy!! Love catching fish on a jig, unfortunately the fish haven’t loved it as much as I’ve hoped.

Ponds are full of grass, so picked up the Magdraft freestyle 6in and some Owner 6/0 1/4oz beast hooks. Also decided to grab a couple more Booyah Willow tandem Colorado, pure white. I’ve been crushing on them and don’t want to not have one during a hot bite. Picked up a couple Rat-L-Traps in red chrome and chrome black back, and why not throw in a 6th Sense Axis Metal 2.0 square bill. (Gotta spend $12 to save $6 in shipping) The bait monkey has set up real estate in my brain.

Only caught 5-6 in the 5 hours I was out. Did catch a decent one on the S Waver though. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about using Glidebaits in these small ponds but the S Waver produces.

I would say weighted swimbait hooks with screw locks, and your choice of swimbait jig head as far as terminal tackle goes. Maybe some trebles if you want to get into the line thru stuff. “Swimbait” is a broad category ranging from little 2 inch keitechs to 10-12-16 inch baits, but I’m going to assume you want to be somewhere around the 3.5-4.5 inch range. First, determine what kind you want to fish. A lot of people swear by Keitech Swing Impacts but I’ve always been a Rage Swimmer guy myself. Regardless, pick your brand and length and then go get some 1/8oz weighted hooks and 3/8 jig heads to start, that will cover you at least to begin with. So all told you’ll need: Swimbaits of your choice 1/8 oz weighted swimbait hooks (I like the Gamakatsu ones but to each their own) 3/8 swimbait jig head (I use the SK Squadron heads, but they are a bit on the pricey side. Any ball head or darter head style will work) Welcome to the rabbit hole. Before you know it you’ll be buying 10/0 beast hooks and throwing an 8 inch piece of plastic hahaha.

I guess this one didn’t get the “East wind means no fish” memo

What a fish. Incredibly jealous.

Caught two 3 pounders back to back casts in a grass filled pond. Only ever caught them on topwater here but I guess today was the day.

These look healthy? Caught them both on a spinnerbait, caught probably 3-4 smaller ones, then these two back to back.

When I caught my current PB it was “one of those days”. Day of nothing but crap at work, irritable, didn’t sleep well the night before. I get out to the pond, and first cast my crankbait catches a tree limb on my back cast and my line just explodes off my reel. I mutter some choice words under my breath, retrieve the crank, and take the rod back to the car as I didn’t want to deal with it at that moment. Grab my other baitcasting setup, first few casts no problem then I get a gnarly backlash which stops my line hard and my jig goes flying halfway to California it seemed like. Retie, cast again and my line breaks deep in the spool somewhere. I take that rod back to the car, couple deep breaths, and grab my spinning rod. Throw a wacky rigged 4” black and blue Senko a few times, nothing. On that 5th cast, I feel the tick and the line swims off. Set the hook and it felt like I just set my bait into a redwood tree. Still caught the fish though! It always seems to be the days where nothing is going my way that turn into the best fishing days. Could be a coincidence, who knows. That’s why no matter what if I can, I try to go.

Like many others have said, the spinnerbait reigns supreme where I fish as far as a search tool. Ponds full of grass rule out crank baits, even a lipless is a pain to fish especially in the spring when the grass is really slimy and thick. You would imagine that would be prime chatterbait time, but I’ve never had any success with a chatterbait.

Been hitting this pond again lately, managed to catch a nice ~2 lber on a spook and another decent one. No luck with anything else though.

I fish ponds d**n near exclusively, so it may not be the same but almost all of them are full of grass and mucky bottoms. The muck on the bottom isn’t necessarily an issue, but you have to put a little more thought into weight choices. Personally I would go lighter on Texas rigs, say 1/8-1/4 oz at most. This will allow you to fish on top of the muck, and not get bogged down as easily. The other option (and the way I’ve had most of my success this year thus far) has been targeting other areas of the water column. Quickly retrieving a spinnerbait about a foot or so below the surface, swimbaits in the middle of the water column. If they aren’t hitting moving baits or topwater, grab a light Texas rig or even a weightless Texas rig, maybe a dropshot depending on cover. I haven’t fished anywhere where they won’t hit a wacky rigged stick bait, and that won’t get bogged down in the muck as well. Not sure where you are located, but in the Midwest the bass are finally starting to really push shallow, so your thoughts on the location were right. But sometimes, the fish just aren’t there!

I really have enjoyed the series so far. As someone relatively new to bass fishing it’s cool to learn about the history of guys I’ve read a lot about. For all his flaws, Ike has always been himself and you have to respect that in my opinion.

Up in SW Ohio it’s been consistently 10-15mph winds every day I’ve gone out. Makes weightless plastic fishing almost impossible because the wind blows my 10lb braid around like a plastic bag

I’ve never been a believer of “using scents will get you more bites”, but I do believe that adding something like Bang, Megastrike, anise oil, etc. does mask our human scent and the fish will hold onto the bait a second or two longer, giving you more time to feel the strike and react. That being said, it could all be placebo effect but it seems to work for me. I like the attractants more for lubrication of the plastic, I find that my plastics come through soft cover much better and get less gunked up.

I really enjoyed the Bent Podcast. It’s a fishing podcast under the MeatEater media umbrella. I found it to be a really entertaining, enjoyable podcast about general fishing and fishing conservation stuff. They have some recurring segments and bits they do that are hit or miss. The podcast just ended because the host is leaving MeatEater, but there are 80+ episodes to listen to.

Went back today, managed to catch this little guy on a swim jig with an albino fluke trailer. Tried a chatterbait, topwater, and weightless trick worm but the wind was so bad my trick worm was blowing halfway across the pond lol. Gonna head back tomorrow and give it another shot. As you can probably see from the picture, the water today was chocolate milk from the hard rain last night and the high winds.

I’m heading back over there tomorrow or Saturday, will definitely be trying that.

Texas rigs, Ned rigs, and spinnerbaits were really easy to pick up for me. I don’t fish spinnerbaits as much anymore for whatever reason, the bite kind of shut off on them last year and just haven’t picked them back up. Two techniques I’ve never had any success with, that are supposed to be “it’s physically impossible to not catch fish on these” are weightless Texas rig Senkos and flukes. I can catch them on wacky rig senkos, but I have never caught a fish on a weightless T rig Senko. Weightless flukes the same way. I have never caught a fish on a chatterbait (well, I snagged one but it doesn’t count) and I’m not really sure why. One lure going into this year that I never had success with was a jerkbait. I tried for a long time to get one to bite but they never did. Finally got it figured out this year and I’ve been slaying them pre spawn.

Caught another one in this pond yesterday, annihilated my topwater spook. For some reason in this specific pond, topwater seems to be the ticket. I had 4-5 blowups but only one hookup. Wouldn’t hit my follow up bait for some reason but we’ll take it. 2.2 lber which is pretty good around here. Water temp around 50deg

Is it the best possible lure to use in a completely open water situation? Probably not most days but some days they just want a chatterbait.

Water clarity plays a fair amount into choosing, but for me it’s usually about the cover in the area im fishing. Soft cover like grass or vegetation I’ll usually fish the chatterbait unless it’s super thick stuff. “Hard” cover like stump flats, lay downs, brush piles etc I almost always reach for a swim jig. Chatterbaits and wood typically don’t play very nice together, and really thick grass tends to hang up on your blade and kill the action in my experience. Thin/sparse grass and open water: Chatterbait Thick grass or wood: swim jig

I started keeping one this year. I have a note on my phone where I log the date, place I’m fishing, air temp, water temp, general condition info (windy, cloudy, sunny, rain, etc), lures used and if I had success or not. I know some people who include recent weather patterns, humidity, barometer reading, and stuff like that but personally I like to keep it relatively short and sweet. If I really slayed them that day I may put info in about my retrieve but other than that I like to keep it pretty simple.

I bought a pack of them last season, used a few. They do work, I rigged them on an open hook jig head. They’re just really soft and not durable at all. I do think they offer a slightly different profile than a Keitech or Rage Swimmer because of the wider body but I probably won’t buy them again.