IcatchDinks

This sounds really similar to the ponds I fish. There are many wiser anglers on this site with years and years of experience that you should listen to before me, but here's a list of what I like to use and have success with. Top water baits: Whopper Plopper https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/River2Sea_Whopper_Plopper_Silent/descpage-R2SWPS.html I also like the Rebel Pop-R. There are lots of popper options. It's not even that hard to make your own. Super simple bait that works if they're biting top water. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Rebel_Pop-R_Topwater_Popper/descpage-RPR.html Crankbaits: My favorite is the Rebel Wee Craw, but, like the popper, there are many good options. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Rebel_Middle_Wee_Craw_Crankbait/descpage-RMWCR.html I also use spoons and inline spinners. And a Texas-rigged senko worm never fails either.

I hope this works for me. I've got short hair for the first time in 4 years.

What is that creep 65 lure? Looks like a soft plastic? How do you fish it? (I use hard baits and stick baits almost exclusively) You've piqued my interest with that unique one. 😄

Ooh, keep me updated. I'm always so confused trying to figure out how to catch bass in early spring.

Me last night.

Congrats, man!! That's awesome to hear! Thanks for the great read. You caught some beautiful fish.

Thanks! It's good to be back. Great to see all our southern friends catches, too! I went out to my local waters today, but it's still a bit early for the fish to be active. It's lovely to be back out with a pole, even if the fish aren't biting. Heck yeah! I can't wait to show him everything I know (which, if I stick around here that long, will be substantially more than I currently know.)

The long hibernation is over, and I'm finally emerging from my winter nap. I've missed you all, but if I can't go fishing, watching other people fish gives me an itch I just can't scratch. So I've been pretty dormant during the winter. Plus, I had a kid in September and that put an early end to my season. But I did go on a recent fishing trip with a buddy, and I figured I'd regale those bored enough to read it, with my doleful, event-less tale. Spoilers: we caught nothing. We spent all day last Saturday (9 hours) wading the rivers looking for steelhead. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'd never been steelhead fishing before, and a buddy from work offered to take me last weekend. We left his place at six in the morning and got to the parking spot near the river at nine. It was bitter cold. About 20°F when we first got there. When I said the parking spot was "near the river" I was speaking subjectively. We crunched through snow and dead leaves for half a mile to get to the water. And then we fished, and waded, and hiked, and peered through the water for fish, hoping every ripple, shadow, and submerged log was a steelhead. (I would have been happy with a smallmouth, myself.) We kept on like this till about noon-thirty. And then we had to walk two miles back to the parked truck. Which was a good thing, because I think my toes might have gotten frost bit if didn't do some marching to get the blood flowing again. My family has a history of poor circulation in the feet and it seems I've inherited the malady. The first half of the trip I was kinda miserable. The one thing I did enjoy: it was absolutely beautiful. The sunrise, the happy gurgle of the river, the birds in the woods around us. I got to watch some small winged insects hatching out of the snow. I'm not a regular fly fisherman, so I have no clue what they were, but it was pretty cool to see. After we got back to the truck we drove over to another river, ate lunch and got right back at it. By now the sun had melted most of the snow and temps had warmed up. It was a lovely time, but no fish. I gave up on steelhead and switched my rig for targeting bass. Didn't get so much as a nibble. We didn't see a single fish that day. All the locals told us the recent warm spell followed by a sudden cold snap had messed up their spawning pattern and no one was sure where the fish were. My buddy is going out again Saturday to try to find them. Me, I love nature hikes, but I think I'm sticking to bass. I fish for fun. Not for exercise. I'm glad it's spring, y'all. I can't wait to feel that tug on my lines again and start posting photos of my dinks in the Latest Catch Pics thread. Until then, I'll be following y'all's fishy exploits with interest and envy. Edit: distances are guesstimates. I have no idea how far we really walked. But it was a lot.

Not a bass. ?

As a Lions fan, it was fun to watch all the chaos this weekend from the safety of a 3-1 start after stomping the Packers Thursday night. Oh, boy it feels so good to finally be good again. ? we haven't been good my whole life. Refs need to be investigated for corruption in that Chiefs/Jets game. And the Giants O-line needs to be held criminally responsible for negligent homicide after that disgusting display last night. ?

Small. ? A-Jays "small" is my PB. Keep up it, man. I love seeing the fish you pull in. ? now's your chance. My opportunities for catching dinks are dropping since I'm too busy being a new dad.

He weighed in at 6lbs, 12 Ozs. More than 4 lbs smaller than the biggest born in my family. But I think he's a keeper. ?

I've been away for a few weeks. Haven't been able to go fishing because we've been too busy preparing for our first child. He was born this morning. I've come to really enjoy this forum, and I like the internet fishing buddies I've found here. And as such, I wanted to give those that care an update. I imagine it'll be hard to find much time to go fishing the rest of the year. But the kiddo and wife are more important by far. Can't wait till he's big enough I can take him with me.

Never losing another bass again...

Dude. That's wonderful news!

@gimruis @ol'crickety would you ask a bird to change his plumage? Would you try to remove the spots from a leopard? Maize and Blue until I die.

Went fishing at The Puddles with my dad yesterday. There were several other people there. We were at one side of the pond. They were on the other. It seemed we were the only people catching anything. Biggest fish we caught were two 14" largies. In I'm not convinced it wasn't the same fish twice. Everything else was pretty small. But that didn't stop the other people from inching closer and closer every time we pulled one out, until they were within a dozen yards on either side of us.

This is me nearly every time I post. Sunday I had a feeling I was gonna get a really good one. But they were all little. Fish catching beasts. Unfortunately, I've also killed a couple fish by gill hooking them with these. Now I only tie them on if nothing else is working.

It does pain me every time I remember that some of my favorite users on this forum are Ohioans. But the power of the bass truly does heal all wounds. ?? Go Blue!

Yeah. I'm good. It stung for the rest of the evening and I felt it this morning, but it's pretty much gone. A few red welts on my forearms, but I don't feel it anymore.

Congrats! That's a clinic I would have liked to observed.

@thediscochefI only started wading this year, and I've learned that you have to be super vigilant. The Chippewa is pretty tame, but it has a few nasty surprises. I knew the mud near the bank was kinda sketchy, but I was super shocked at how far I'd sunk by the time I got my fish unhooked and my gear resituated. (that first pic of the fish on the backpack is when I was sinking.) I've never gone that deep before. Then, when I tried to pull my leg out, I only shoved the other one further. I knew I wasn't in serious trouble because I had solid ground with plenty of hand holds right in front of me. But there are places like that in deeper water.

I've been itching for a little adventure to kinda break the same day to day, week to week routine I've been in. I wake up every morning feeling like I'm in Ground Hog Day or Source Code or any other film using the repeating time trope. I wanted something special. So I drove down to the river and spent four hours wading a quarter mile of the river. The only really exciting part of the trip was that I nearly sank to my waste in a quicksand-like mud at the bottom of the river. Fortunately, I was within arms reach of the bank, and grabbed onto the foliage and bushes lining the river to pull myself out. Unfortunately, most of the foliage happened to be stinging nettles. I had a friendly encounter with a very large snapping turtle, and caught five fish in total, two of them on a swim bait half their size. The first two fish came on a Texas rigged Yum Dinger: Then I switched to the swim bait hoping to hook into some pike. Instead I got two small but very ferocious small mouth. I then tried the whopper-plopper and broke it off in a tree. I may have cursed a few curse words. But thankfully I got it back after knocking the branch it was on with my fishing pole. I fished for another hour without so much as a bite. Switched back to the Yum Dinger and caught a fat rock bass that jumped out of my hands before I could take a picture. And then it was silent from then on out. I did get to witness a spectacular fly hatch just before the sun went down. The river looked like it was snowing. I assume that's why the bite went dead. I was a good evening. My legs and back are sore. But the good kind of sore that comes from good, long physical exertion. No monsters today. But I'll be back. I know they're in there.

Went on a long wading expedition this evening. I caught five fish total. I'll put a dedicated thread to my evening in "Fishing Reports" after I type this up. Here's the prettiest Smallmouth I caught:

@MJack I like the Black Blue Flake, Green Pumpkin Flake, and the Watermelon Red Flake colors the best. All have yielded fish for me, though this year I've used exclusively the Black Blue. I have two medium light spinning rods that both work well. I've also used the same setup on a light rod and caught fish.