Rucksack

I fish exclusively spinning rods. My main rod is a medium heavy with a 2500 spinning reel on it. I literally do everything on it and couldn't be happier. I've never felt limited on any technique. I'm just not a baitcaster guy. I'm sure they're great, but I just love spinning gear. It's always been what I've fished fresh and salt water.

Welcome from North Carolina! Glad you're getting back out fishing!

Because I feel like a lot of other common issues are being covered, let me take a different shot here. I've had this issue before and it was an issue with my connection knot. This can happen two different ways in my experience: Knot going into your reel and getting "hung up" on other line, preventing it from exiting your reel Knot being too large and causing a lot of friction going through the guides. Symptom of problem one is usually the line stopping dead and not exiting the reel without some serious tugging. Try re-tying your knot and a shorter leader, so it doesn't go into your reel, and see if that helps.

Better Fishing with Two Bald Biologists is excellent and glad to see it mentioned above. Good insight into not only fishing, but an inside view of things like state-level Wildlife rules and regulation creation.

Mine would have to be the fact I just love being outside. If the fish aren't biting I'm still out there having an awesome time looking at wildlife, the weather, and enjoying not seeing any walls. This is probably because I grew up outside. I was born in a rural area, lived by a state park, earned an Eagle Scout, and most of my childhood hobbies were outside. I've been wet and cold for days at a time hiking in the mountains, so whatever a day of fishing (assuming it's safe) has to throw at me won't phase me much. Becoming an adult I got a busy desk job in a city and forgot how much I needed the outdoors until the past couple years where I reconnected and got a lot happier. I'm not some great bass master, so there's plenty of days I'm just catching a good time.

Overcast days are "spinner bait" days for me. My favorite color is white with two willow leaves.

Yup, I'm up in the Corolla area. This is very true. I got out of a protected bay last weekend and immediately went back in. The wind is gnarly out here. Thank you so much. Your response was super helpful. I'm literally writing down notes from it.

This thread has been amazing. As mostly a bank angler, I find all sorts of things washed up on the shore and I wonder "how in the heck did this get in the lake?!". I feel like now I'm getting an idea of the other side of the story.

It's starting to warm up. I just got a kayak and I've got the rest of the year to figure out how to fish the Currituck Sound. I'm on the Northern OBX side. Despite being excited, I'll admit to being totally stumped on how to even begin. I'm used to fishing small municipal lakes, not large natural bodies. I am also used to working with major drop offs, the sound is fairly flat and shallow (max 8-ish feet). I'm accustomed to fishing wood, the sound seems mostly weedy. There's not the shoreline tree cover I'm used to from the Piedmont either. It's very much alien to me. Any advice, general or specific, would be appreciated. What lures you think would work would be great. What features (docks, shallow bays, etc) to look for would be awesome too. Even book or article recommendations but how fish orient in a big system like this would help me. I have no electronics, but I can certainly read a map if there are useful charts out there!

I just came here to say that is the coolest looking canoe I've ever seen. I grew up in canoes. They were never that high tech looking! I just got my first kayak. Great deal. Used. Got two for the price of one. I think I'll be happy with it for years. But come upgrade time in the future, I am for sure looking at a canoe again as a potential after reading this thread.

I'm glad to see harvest happening more frequently again, and I think it would be great if more harvest oriented anglers were visible in the community to help change our hobby's culture around this. Seems like every conservation and management oriented podcast/Youtube channel these days is trying to get this message out too. Harvest frees up resources to grow bigger fish and bass are pretty tasty. In terms of boat flips and handling, I am 100% in the get the fish back in the water quickly camp. Delayed morality is a real thing and most of us won't ever really see it. It is best seen in research data and statistical analysis. It's a percentage game, which is why a lot of anglers don't know they're doing it. I was 100% guilty of accidental mishandling before I learned about what was up. I simply didn't know. I'd like to be as humane as possible when harvesting fish as well. I actually don't know the research on how best to minimize suffering, but would like to be educated. I mostly aim for a swift clean dispatch.

I fished a lot of BPS plastic worms, then bought a bag Senkos. I regret ever doing that, because now I know how much more I prefer the Senkos and I'm not a rich man 🤣.

I think all of the standard non-human natural variables (clarity, forage, temperature, wind, light levels, etc) apply. I also agree that we're not running controlled trials out there on the water. However, I think there is a major human element to this consisting of two parts. I'll use the example of fluke-style baits. At my local lake, I can't buy a bite with a Zoom super fluke in any color. I've tried a ton of them. However, the standard caffeine shad in white does exceptionally well. It's a stark difference, I wrote a post about it a while back, and as it was immediately noticable and has been a durable pattern. I think it's a blend of individual angler and what the fish get habituated to from other anglers. The caffeine shad has a way different action than the zoom, and I think it just works better with how I like to retrieve and probably my personal gear. Additionally I suspect the other anglers are throwing Zoom products (based on trash I find and observation) so the fish learn to avoid something that looks like a Zoom fluke -- no matter the color.

This made my day. You sir, are an inspiration.

Raleigh bank fishing in the winter is hard. It just is. No real way to dress this up. The water is cold, muddy, and, like @Pat Brown said, our bank access to deep water is limited. The ned rig is the only reliable method I've found. Work it very slow, lots of bottom contact. We have lots of submerged pine wood, which will snag it, so consider rigging it weedless -- like a mini shakey head. I've also had luck, with cloudy conditions and some chop, with very small (meant for crappies) inline spinning jigs worked as slow as I could. Remember your water temperature will lag rising air temperature, so just because it's a sudden warm day (like last weekend) that doesn't mean our bass buddies are suddenly that much warmer. Though I have found them coming in shallower on sudden sunny days. Keep it up, even when it's frustrating. A day walking the bank is better than a day on the couch!