FishTax

I only fish small lakes, meaning 1k acres or less, about half of which is electric only. I had a boat come up on me in a cove, and we started chatting. There was a tournament and I hadn't been in danger but had been rocked by pretty hard wake several times in a row when totally unnecessary and I was irritated because it seemed pretty intentional. He told me he throws less wake wide open than going slow, so I shouldn't complain about people going 20 yards from me wide open because that's better. I didn't respond because I didn't know what to say to that, I think I just stared at him.

I got on a great swimming worm bite last fall just burning it down the center of coves in 2-6'of water. No idea what made me throw that, probably a YouTube video or something, but it sure was fun! I still generally definitely to a rage swimmer over a worm, to me it looks more real like a shad which is primary forage here and it gets bit in a variety of conditions.

As it warms up I like to throw a frog, then when I get tired of them sending it airborne and not getting hooked I switch to a spinnerbait or worm, depending on conditions and the pond anatomy.

Our wardens are also too thin. I was told by Marina staff they see a warden once a year, on memorial Day. Otherwise he's dealing with hotter fires elsewhere. I haven't encountered one in about 20 years. I had several encounters in high school. They weren't bad, but one did follow me to a tree stand and blow up my spot for the afternoon checking license which was irritating but he was just doing his job I think.

Y'all should hit Norman, it was on fire yesterday. Throw wacky rig or 1/8 shaky head with white or silver ish senko and they light you up in the shallows.

I'm not willing at this time to buy expensive gear. I can feel a spinnerbait blade turning on my $100 rods, airdx, etc. I can tell bottom composition with my rods. I'm not saying it wouldn't help or be enjoyable, I just can't spend the money at this time. I know modern gear at $100 is probably more sensitive than anything available 30 yrs ago (maybe?) and guys like @WRB and @Catt have been slaying for decades without today's high end modern gear, so for me I want to hone my skills before making huge investments. Maybe one day, but for now I'm good watching and feeling the line, and doing some night fishing soon to establish better feel. Thanks to everyone for great replies and discussion!

@Pat Brown that lines up because I'm pretty sure we were mostly catching males, and the ones chasing always looked bigger than the one hooked. I guess we should have backed up a bit to try to catch the ladies, but we were having fun with those male spots, they get fiesty when you pierce their lip!

I don't throw it a ton, but do have confidence in it. For me I throw shaky head if I can.. then if it's too thick, I go jig, then TR as third choice. No idea why. I may swap out with the jig in that sequence now that I think about it, I'd probably get more bites. Wacky is what I didn't have confidence with. Makes no sense, but I have a mental block on it.

Yesterday I think we caught about 10 fish that had another one follow it to the boat trying to steal the bait out of it mouth. I'd seen it before but never so consistently. There were beds all around, some active some not. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but tried not to overthink it and just keep catching them until it turned off! Now looking back, I wonder if it was as simple as them feeding, or it was related to the spawn somehow? These were decent sized spotted bass 1.5-2.5 range for most of them who had the followers.

Yes my wife and I watched it recently and really enjoyed it as well. Very good movie

Wow what a fish! Great job Katy, please bring the scale next time you're torturing us

I can catch them on jigs, but have to keep it moving to feel a bite. If I just cast and let it drop, I can line watch but I never see it do anything. Maybe I'm over thinking and there's nothing to feel because I'm not getting bit 😎

I've eaten them all. Bream are good. Cook them whole (gutted obviously) then pull the bones out after cooking. If you do it right you can get most of them in one pull. If not, enjoy picking bones lol. I don't eat them anymore, I release everything. My son is begging to cook a catfish though so I guess we'll be doing that soon. Big mess lol

I took off work and hit lake Norman with a buddy this morning. I'm not used to water that clear or fishing for spots, so it was fun to have a new experience. They were on beds everywhere and pretty aggressive. It was cool to be able to see the beds in 5-8' of water in some places. This whole year I've fished under a foot of visibility so really really cool. Even saw 2 schools of large catfish, one circled our boat like sharks lol. We caught a lot, but all they'd eat was senko, any way you gave it to them. They fight much harder than lmb in my experience, which is fun. Mostly small ones, a few in the 2-3 lb range. Only picture I took is below. My buddy got there super early and caught numerous over 4lb ones in the dark on top water. I couldn't make it that early because I live too far away and like to sleep at least some.

Spent some time today fishing. I think it really does come down to time spent. I feel extremely confident detecting bites on shaky head as long as there is no wind. Jigs are difficult when working bottom, usually just find a bass there so I'm sure I'm missing some. Threw a wacky today, I just have no confidence in that. I can't detect bites at all. Can't imagine I didn't get any because my buddy caught over 10 on one and I was catching on shaky head so I know I was on them. Who knows, spending more time fishing and learning is a prescription I'm happy to follow 😎

I fish a spot to death that I'm convinced has fish, even if I haven't seen the fish. This is a good and bad thing, some of my biggest fish have been 5th or 6th cast on a laydown or point, but I don't cover much water because I fish so slow. Also I get impatient with my presentations and get sloppy sometimes I think, reeling too fast or not working it like I should.

Best description of frog fishing I've ever read. It's addicting and heartbreaking. Hard to walk away from the blowups, but hard to hook them. Aghghhg!!!

I've done that before, and even thought I was reeling it in for a couple seconds before I realized my kayak was moving towards the tree haha but boy was my rod bent, I was sure it was a monster!

Looking to continue the conversation from some excellent posts from the latest catch thread regarding bite detection, I really think that is what sets apart the hammers from the folks like me who spend too much time with skunks. Obviously time on the water is probably the most key factor, but I'm interested to hear if anyone has further tips to optimize their time on the water and improve bite detection? This is a big focus for me this year. My ideas are to use baits with more vibration so I can feel when something changes easier, and then always set the hook when I get that feeling. Agree, disagree, any further ideas on how to improve rapidly in bite detection with various baits?

I definitely struggle with bite detection. I'm going to start a new thread on that so to not hijack this one. But to the point of this quote, now that I'm in a kayak I spend significant time getting my lures unhooked from all the treefish I catch. I can set the hook on submerged wood with the best of them. If there were a tour for that, I think I could get an invitation!

Agree. I'm not a fan of chemicals, but I always coat my pants, especially around my ankles and waist, with the same stuff @ol'crickety mentioned. Lyme's seems to be having an uptick lately and I'm not interested in having a run with it. I wash my fishing pants weekly I think. But I don't get out as much as you all, so if I have a few trips I'll wash after those are done.

I can't find the shadinator, can you send a link or tell me it it's a page or group or something? I don't use FB much...

I have old town 106 and it's very stable, but I second everything @Bankcsaid so be sure to read his reply if you haven't yet I always say I don't think I could flip mine if I tried, but I could easily fall out of it.

I'm looking forward to being back on some lakes and maybe a pond this week. Recovering from my skunk on mountain streams, missing my big girls back in the home lakes 😎

I've never been there but it's on my list, about 30 min from me I think. Let us know what you find!