JamesWatkins

Ayyy thanks man! Yeah my dad is crazy about using Craigslist and we just sent out a message to a guy.

So My friend Recently bought a Kayak and it really inspired me to do the same. I am looking for a kayak that the number one thing is stability because I need to be able to stand up in it. I don’t care as much about the foot pedals but would buy one with them if it was a decent price. I want at least 2 rod holders, and a whatchyamacallit with the elastic to hold my backpack down, it’s doesn’t have to come with a paddle either. And my price range is $400-800 about. Any recommendations anyone? Side note about shipping, ideally it would be a place I could pick up somewhere but I would pay up to 100$ for shipping probably. Thanks! -James

I am looking for maybe a new nicer baitcaster combo because I have only decent set ups now but I feel I could have a better one. I am a bank angler/ canoe on small reservoirs and ponds. I am looking for a new setup. I currently have a shimano curado 201 with 80 lb braid and it’s with a heavy rod (the braid is heavy because of this one situation I always fish, long story), I have another shimano curado 201 with a medium heavy rod and 50 lb braid. And a lews Mach smash that I took all of the line off because it was floro that was worn down. The rod I would use it with is a favorite white bird 7 4 mh. Should I get a new setup? I was thinking a 7’1 mojo bass st croix, with a shimano slx dc. I feel this would be well over a step better than what I have now. As far as rods go, because I have never spent more than 60$ on a rod.

I really like that idea, sounds good. I cought my best smallie fishing a bed on the fly 5.5 lber

I was at the ponds yesterday and I was seeing all these bass from 2.5-5 lbs males and females spawning, some on nests and some that looked like big females depositing eggs. I was trying to catch them with soft plastics but they wouldnt eat anything. One of the females that looked 4-5 lbs was roaming around the bank pretty fast almost "gaurding" the males on beds near the bank. I am 90% sure that fish didnt know I was there the whole time of about 1.5 hours of trying to catch him. You have no idea how many soft plastics I cut up and tried to put on. Things with tenticles such as bandito bugs and lizards. Many other things like wacky rigging a lake fork red wacky worm and just a normal senko chartruese and black. A missle baits d bomb as well. I had a light wacky hook on for the whole time with no weight obviously. Does anyone know why those fish werent eating? For the females i am assuming its because they "had nothing to loose" almost, because they werent on a bed, and they are probably a lot smarter. But why wouldnt even the males eat? What could I do differently?

I fish this pond all the time and I have tried every bait there is and the only thing that works is a spinnerbait. I have figured it is because the fish in the pond really only want a reaction strike. No jigs or plastics on the bottom work. And no twitching frogs in top work. For some reason chatterbaits do 10x worse than spinnerbaits. The pond is fairly small and I have pulled multiple 4 lbers out. It seems like when I go I fish around it once and pick up 3-6 fish, but I circle it again and nothing bites. This is because the fish I pull out of there are the only ones "hungry"? What I think is that the bass in there have so many bluegills and green brims that they dont care for lures resembling those, but they want something unusual that calls them in for a reaction bite. But once they see it they wont hit again. Any lure ideas? they seem to just like spinnerbaits, but any reccomendations for when i circle around once and then they wont hit?

No it has a population alright, I caught 10 fish one day all above 3.5 lbs 4 of them were 4 lbs on the dot on the scale

Last year I showed my friend who was getting into bass fishing some simple tactics at this pond that I had been going to for a while. I have found that the bass in there really like a red rattle trap in the spring when the water is warming up (can’t do that anymore because of season closed and I learned lesson last year) and a sexy Shad spinnerbait around mid June to July. I realize that earlier in the spring they like red because of craws and protein for the spawning eggs, and in the summer they like the Shad/ baitfish spinnerbait because it’s an ambush tactic (am I wrong?). What moving bait would be ideal around bass opener in MN which would be may 15, around pre spawn I believe for Minnesota. Would it be bluegill due to the seasonal rivalry between bass and the mischievous bluegills, or would they still be munching on a craw? details about pond: - The pond is 250 ft x 125 ft - 8-10 foot max depth -the shape is square (fairly sharp corners) -2 ft depth around edges of pond then drop off to center -in the late summer the pond is overcome with weeds (unfishable unless punching) -the bass there don’t seem to like top water.

You can use it for lures you want to move slow, but I would pull it out if you find yourself cranking in baits excessively fast, you might need to use a slower reel if your not used to moderating your reel speed with a higher speed reel.

Im not so sure about the reel but if you want a reliable rod for 40-50 bucks, go with the ugly stik, that was my first rod and it has caught hundreds of fish and hasnt broke.

No it wasnt fished in saltwater at all

Yes so the thing is I bought it used and it ws in 8-9/10 condition. I fished it like 5 times in florida and when I was going down to retreive a fish I believe it got sand in it, but I didnt see any on it at the time

Im trying to not specify because of the amount of people that might flood in

Its a private pond in south MN, everyone thinks the fish are small in MN but there are plenty of 5-7 lbers here, my pb being over 6 on the scale. So south east minnesota is where im at, there are not a lot of natural lakes around due to the hills and bluff features of the driftless area, but we have quarry ponds and reservoirs that hold fish probably close to our state record of about 9 lbs, that being said I will say it is an overfished area due to the tremendous amount of residents in Rochester, but me and my buddies make it happen thats for sure!

Yes, this may be true but I believe a few are hanging in there, because one guy scaled one at 5.5 and another at 4.5, my biggest there is a tie between 2 3 lbers

I go to this pond quite a lot and its located in the north. Me and my buddy catch like 15 total every time using a finesse zoom worm for whatever reason they love those so much and they dont even care what kind of jig you use. The "problem" is that the size of the fish are all 10-15" with like every 15-20 fish is a 2.5-3 lber. Does anyone know where the big ones are hanging out in the summer because I feel like there might be at least a few 4-5 lbers in there if we have caught like 10 3 lbers. the pond is like a big square 120 yds x 120 yds and has a flat bottom of about 10-15 ft in almost every spot but the dropoff is a gradual decline. So any techniques or bait ideas for locating a nicer fish there?

My grandparents live near a quarry pond in south Wisconsin, it’s full of trout and a few bass, it’s pretty deep and the bass absolutely love to eat the trout in there. Once I caught one that was 6 lbs on the scale, and I have seen some that I believe to be way bigger! Is it possible that there could be an 8-9 lber in there? I mean I know Wisconsin is cold but the bass there have the right forage and the right cool depths to sit in in the hot summer, and they only come out of the depths in the spring to spawn. Do any of you guys think there could be a 8 lber or bigger in there? Let me know and feel free to ask about specifications on the biology on the pond and other details.

I go to this pond in the spring through fall to fish for largemouths (late summer and fall hard to fish because of extreme weeds) and I always have success with a spinnerbait, But the problem is that as the summer goes on I catch less in the 3-4 range and a big one for july is like 2.5, does anyone know why the bigger ones wont hit in mid summer? I mean I know that without eggs the 4 lbers are like 3.7-3.8s but still I dont get any of those after the spawn. Do the big girls go down deep or something, because I cant find them even though the pond is about 250 ft x 100 ft and its a rectangle, the max depth is 8 feet throughout and the banks slowly decline. there is a hump in the middle with a depth of 5-6 feet. So its weird that I cant find them. And then come mid july you cant fish submurged lures because the weeds LITERALLY cover the whole pond top to bottom with no openings. I have tried to fish a frog there for like 5 days all different conditions and times and have only got like 2 frog fish to hit topwater. And the crazy part is its not an overfished pond. Any advice for how to get the big ones post spawn, or how to get a few fish in the intimidating weeds?

Ok this may be the problem, sorry for the misconception I just posted, but I believe it not to be the line guide/ worm gear system, because when I tape the reel and take it off the rod and reel it makes the scratchy noise still. this has led me to believe that it may be some sort of internal problem in the sealed off part of the reel like the gears. I have another one of the reel and I tried putting that ones spool in the reel with the problem and the same thing happened. I put the spool of the reel with the problem in the reel without the problem and it wasnt making noise. So I believe its somethingthat has nothing to do with the brakes, nothing to do with the worm gear/ line guide, and maybe nothing to do with the spool tension. I talked with my dad and he said it may just be something that I will have to cope with because he said if everything is running smooth, but theres a noise, it might not require a whole lot of time finding out whats the problem, and what I need to clean.

I have this nice shimano curado 201 that was made in like 2015 or something. It runs really smooth it can get 35-50 yard casts with the right lure. Unfortunately though, when I was bank fishing I believe that when I went to go land the fish in the water the reel may have accumilated some dirt. Because now whenever I reel in when I have a lure tied on it makes a scratchy sound, but when I have the reel off the rod and the spool taped it doesnt make noise when I reel it. This leads me to believe that it has something to do with the worm gear and line distributor part. Keep in mind that when I put oil on one of the little rods that the line distributor thing moves on, the sound fades a bit. But when I reel it 10 mins later the sound comes back. Does anyone know what part might have some dirt accumilated and could help me?

Last year in Mn me and my dad were in the canoe bass fishing for these huge bass we were seeing in this clear water and I hooked a few that fought so hard and broke me off, (I was using a fly rod) and I finally got one to the boat and it scaled at 6.1 lbs. In all the exitement we forgot to get a girth and length do you guys have an estimate for those numbers it was a fairly fat fish.