ww2farmer

this was my first season really giving frogs a good look. I tried the yum buzz frogs, the sizmic toads and zoom horny toads, and really have no preferance, they all work, they all rip easily, and they all ride upside down on occasion. As for the hollow body frogs, I like the snag proof "bobbys perfect frog" over the spro bronze eye. It casts better, is more durable, and the strike to hook up % is higher in my use of each.

A very similiar thing happens on my ponds.............at least this one. I was out on it saterday for some recon, I thouht the bass populaton was getting low, and the bluegills were getting out of hand, I certainly was catching lots of small 4-6" bluegills, BUT upon further reveiw, I don't think I have a problem. I noticed the bluegills schooled up by size, so naturally the smallest bluegills would be the most abundant and in the largest school, bigger bluegills were in smaller schools and related more to cover than the small ones that just swam about the pond, suspending in 4-5' over various depths. Now the really bigbass in this pond just lay up under some cover and wait for the small gills to swim by, but the aggressive 1.5 - 3lb bass swam directly underneeth this bluegill school, no doubt to nab a few stragglers, or for the occasional raid.

Where ever I find carp, I find bass. They do not seem to bother each other, and I have litteraly seen a little 1.5lb buck guarding a nest run off an entire school of 20lb carp just by charging them, bass seem to know that the carp are harmless to them, or else they are just stupid for attacking a fish that big, like wise carp are scared to death of bass, and birds, and flowers, and the wind.......................

I caught my first bass when I was 10, I am 30 now, but 20 years later I remember it well. It was caught in the infamous "canal" I referance so often in my reports. Nothing special, caught on a worm and bobber, probably 14" or so, but at the time seemed like a giant compaired to the bluegills I normaly caught.

Just this spring I caught 2 bass on a Rapala husky jerk at the same time, also when fishing farm ponds it's not all that uncommen for me to be reeling in a dink and have a bigger one chasing it. What was heart stopping though was about 3 years ago I was fishing out on the local park pond, had a nice 1.5 lb bass on , and a HUGE pike swipes at it taking fish, line, lure all in one bite ................all about 3 feet from me, I had to go home and change after that.

I would have to say I would like to fish with LBH, he and I are both from the north, and he's darn funny. Also would like to fish with lightningrod, he's a super nice guy, who much like me enjoys the small boat/small water bassin. Last but not least, Rattlinrouge, also been plenty nice to me and others here, and he's from down south, probably could teach this yankee a thing or two about them southern moss backs.

If you ever catch a bullhead, the most commen catfish just about every where in the U.S.A., just go ahead and try lipping it.................don't say I didn't warn you. It's not the wiskers that you have to worry about, in additon to them having barbs like other catfish, they will also clamp down on your thumb and not let go till you beat it off.

LOL I can pitch perfectly on top of a dock or into some ones boat all the time ;D. Acctualy I am getting better, I have decicated my self to beeing a good pitcher with a 7 foot rod. I dislike shorter rods very much..........that beeing said with any of my 6'6" or less rods I can put it on the money most all the time. One think that was tough to get the hang of with the longer rods was skipping baits under docks, but I got that working better for me too. What really helped me was sitting down while I skipped it.

I fish by myself 99.9% of the time. But I have found talking to myself to be a great tool. I mean hay who wants to bother the 250lb guy with a shaved head bobbing around in a 1000 acre lake in an 8' mini bass boat.......keeps people from tailing me to my favorite spots ;D

If this poll has showed anything it is that they are alot of liars here.

Up here in NY I catch tons........and I mean tons of bass from 1lb to 4lbs every year, with a few 5+'s, and every once in a while a 6+. A bass above 2lbs and below 5lbs around here is considerd to be a respectble fish, with 5+ beeing BIG, and 7+ beeing a monster. Up here it might take a bass 12-15 years to reach 5+ lbs, heck it takes 3-5 years just to reach spawning size. A freind of mine has a pond down in FLA. just by accident it was built and stocked with at the same time as I built and stocked one of my ponds. Granted we have different bass, Florida strain vs northern strain, but some of his bass after 5 years are pushing 7-8lb's with the average size about 2-4lb's, mine are just getting to be in the high 2lb- to mid 3lb range for the bigger ones, and alot of 1lbers yet.

12" is the minimum length for most bass to be kept in NY, thats what I call a keeper. Most of the time a 12" bass around here will way around a lb, some a little more some a little less. Since I got a good digital scale I don't bother weighing much of any thing that doesn't look like it's at least pushing 2lbs. LOL like RW said after I got my scale all those 5lbers I used to catch are now 3lbs ;D

In the spring of the year before most species start spawning, the waters clear, and the forage base is dwindled down from 10 months or so of consuming, I downsize. As the water warms, and stains I begin upsizing my baits. By Summer I am using bigger baits, with a few exceptions.

I was pretty into multi species fishing from the time I was old enouh to hold a rod till about 1999. I fished for everything that swam, pike, walleye, perch, bass, bluegill, catfish, and trout. Spent 200 + days a year fishing. Then I just burnt out, nothing interested me. From 1999 till 2002 my fishing time dropped off to MAYBE 10-20 days a year and only for LMB and bluegill.Then all of a sudden in 2003 the fire started again, I am back to fishing 200+ days a year (or as long as we have un-frozen water) but this time LMB are my prey 99% of the time, with the occasional bluegill/panfish trip. I have really become a much better bass angler be focusing on just bass. I am to the point I don't care what other species is a hot bite......I am bass fishing. Also teh time off opened me up to lots of new things, before I was spinnerbait-topwater-texas rigged plastic worm and thats it, now I fish c-rigs, t-rigs, cranks, buzzbaits, jerkbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, wacky rigs, live bait, weightless t-rigged plastics, top waters, drop shot. I would rather be goo to better than average at catching 1 species than just lucking into a few good fish every year when each seperate species is biting good and easy to catch.

Lets face it a 10lb bass is a big bass any where, but some places, while still beeing excellant for bass fishing, just don't produce double digit bass on a regular basis. I am from western NY state, here is what I and many others consider to be the bench marks for Largemouth bass size in our region. less than 1lb = dink 1 to 1.5 lb average size keeper 1.5 to 3lbs above average respectable size bass 3+ to 5lbs these are pretty big bass for around here, not uncommen, but you don't catch them left and right either. 5+ to 7lbs, real big bass around here, bragging size. 7+ to 9lbs, true hogs, for some the fish of a lifetime 9+ to 11lbs, monsters, not many around here, any one who fishes in NY will agree. 11+ and we are talking possable state record (our record is 11-14 I think). What are the standards in your region? Smallmouth guys post your thoughts too.

I like boat docks, or wood (logs/stumps/laydowns) Water temps in the summer around here top out at around 80ish. In the heat of the day the bass will seek shade under the docks (most docks here are in less than 4' of water) Toss a soft plastic bait up under the docks and hang on. Some docks are better than others. Most bigger bass here seem to prefer the docks. Tons of schooling 1-3lb bass can be found out on the deep weed edge, but out there the pike rule the roost. Isolated offshore structure holds some bass, but mainly smallmouth, but again that area seems to be a favorite walleye hangout as well. We all know how fat and lazy big largemouth are. They don't want to be out there competeing with the pike and smaller/faster bass for food, they also get out numbered on the deep structure by the walleyes and smallmouth. The boat docks offer shade in the hot summer, something they can relate to, and hold plenty of easy prey (minnows, craws,small sunfish). The best docks have some place the bass can escape to, that doesn't always mean deep water, thick weeds work just as well, they can bury them selves up in that after a front, and hold around them in the winter when the lake is frozen and the pike are roaming every where eating like machines.

When I cull bass and bluegill out of my ponds, I only eat the bluegill. I give the bass to the menonite neighbors they like them, but when I had them they tasted like grass to me. Most of those are 10"-12" fish, when I get a badly gut/gill hooked bigger bass I usualy keep them too, but they are even less tatsy than the small ones. I like to fish for bass, but I think I would starve if it's all I had to eat LOL, they just tatse like crap to me. I also don't like catfish. Yellow perch on the other hand.......um ummmmmmmm good, for some reason the ones out of lake erie taste the best. There is a small resturant in connueat ohio that has fresh lake caught perch on the menu and man they sure do know how to cook um there. Never caught/ate walleye. Crappie are good but I never fish for or catch enough to make it worth while, when I do catch some they are usually caught while bass fishing so they go back, if I manage a couple while bluegilling for food they make it to the table.

It does not offend me, nor amuse me........ I just find it stupid.

As others have said....all depends on alot of different things, time of year,time of day water temp, what cover/structure the bass are holding on,what the bass are or have been know to be feeding on, current weather conditions, prior weather conditions, forthcoming weather conditions.............and the list goes on and on. No 2 bodys of water are the same, and some times things are totaly different on the same lake. Right now on one of my area lakes the bass on the north end are on beds, and in post spawn, the middle of the lake is a mixed bag, pre, bedding, and post spawn, the south end is still mainly pre spawn with a few early bedders.

I'll go the other way and recomend the plastic 2-man bass boat. Take care of it and it will last forever. I hose it down every couple of times out, and armor-all it a couple times a season. The are VERY stable, more so than any 12 foot or less jon-boat. I can run all day with a 30lb thrust TM on my battery. I have the 8' size which is great for me as I always fish alone, but for 2 people it's real tight, so if your going to fish with a buddy often get the 10'.

We have both largemouth and smallmouth in the lakes,ponds, and rivers here in NY. But I enjoy LM fishing the most. I used to visit my mom in Fla. alot when I was a kid, I guess my addiction to LM fishing started there. I rarely fish for smallmouth. One thing I have noticed is when fishing for LM I never catch the occasional SM, but on the occasional SM outing, I seem to "accidently" catch a few LM. Some will laugh but my PB SM is only 2lbs, I have caught bigger crappie than than that lol.

I like to use the fluke in two ways #1 as a "do nothing" bait. I just cast it out next to cover let it sink slow, and work it back to me with a lift-twitch-twitch-fall retreive. I let the bass tell me if they want a long or short pause between twitches. I also use it in a "walk the dog" manner over top off submerged weeds and other cover.

EXACTLY........the #1 reason for unproductive sight fishing is beeing too close to the bass, and the bass seeing you. When I sight fish I never cast to the bass when it can see me, I just remember where it was and come back 5-10min later, make a long cast to the spot, and stay out of sight, works most of the time.

In the spring I rely on sight fishing too much, I don't know why either. I catch just as many bass I don't see as ones I do. But I always seem to be quick to move to a new spot if I don't see any bass insted of working it over

I have the 8' Pelican Bass raider, great boat for 1 person, for 2 people it's a joke. I can fish any where I want with it. It's very stable, I can stand in it and fish. I take it out on small 1 acre ponds and big 1000 acre lakes, just don't be stupid with it out on a big lake. It won't set any speed records but with a 30lb thrust Minn Kota I can run all day on my battery. I usually have enough room for 4-5 combos, 2 tackle bags, me, the battery, motor, seat, fish finder, and a small cooler. I have fished in some windy conditons with it and it's stable BUT light so the wind blows you around alot. I can be on the water and fishing in 1/2 the time most any one else is, but I can't run all they way to the other end of the lake very fast. One thing that is a must with these boats is a push pole, it really helps getting it under way mush easier, and a length or rope. I just motor up to the shore, jump out with the rope in one hand and pull it out of the water. Get the prewired one, with me in the front with the motor, the battery and gear balance it out well in the back.