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I was at Guntersville dam one morning and a fellow and a few others put their boat in the water with all their gear and climbed in and for some reason the person at the wheel just gunned the engine full blast. The boat sunk down at the rear where they were sitting and headed straight up and flipped sideways. All the gear in the water and heads bobbing up and down. Everyone was OK, but they lost all the gear and the boat was upside down in the water. That is a bad day.

I hook my live bait a couple of different ways due to the problem of throwing them off: snip .

Heck... In a few of them I use live bluegill (5") for bait. Mostly for catfish, but I catch a LOT of bass on them. Taliesin. Would you please tell me how you hook your bluegills when you baitfish them. I have had trouble with them coming off hooks.

Drop shot. Heavy weight. Gets you plenty of distance on the cast if you need to reach some depth. I have had good results and plenty of input here from some of the fellows. Hook set can be a problem with so much line out so cordinate the line weight with your rod and reel set up and when you feel the fish bite, drop the rod tip, reel in slack FAST and stick hard! I also have been working on learning to use frog lures as the lake I fish has lots of pads around it.

Anyone on the forum know about these. I need a small inflatable to carry from the parking lot to the small lake I live close to. Please post any info or experience with these. Thanks Any info on inflatables in the $100-150 range would be appreciated.

What colors are you guys using for night fishing. Thanks

DDog11 The drop shot is perfect for bank fishing in lakes and ponds. I caught 5 nice bass late this afternoon at the neighborhood lake using the dropshot. This technique was developed I guess for deeper water but bank fishermen can use it to their advantage. What you get is a longer distance cast with the weight on the end of the line. Also you drag the setup back towards where you are standing on the bank and the weight kicks up some stuff on the bottom and can attract fish. You will want to experiment with the distance your hook is from the weight as the angle is totally different than if you were sitting in a boat and drop shoting straight down as most do. Since you are on the bank, the angle of your line from the water to you is very severe and if you attach the hook to close to the weight, the worm will be digging in the bottom and can cause hangups and such. The hook can be farther up to get the worm off the bottom a bit if you like, or if you prefer the worm right on the bottom so be it. You really need to tie the hook on so it stands out. Try hooking the worm on wacky style. Works just as well as the other way for me. I have found that 99% of my daytime strikes are coming between the time the the worm hits the water and settles to the bottom. During the day I get virtually no strikes on retreive. At night I am getting better action on the retreive. May I reccommend that you use a 1/2oz bullet weight on the end with a plastic round bead on the bottom. The line goes through the small end of the bullet weight, then through the bead then bring the line back up and insert it though again and bring that back up and use a good cinch knot at the small end. That way the small end of the bullet weight pulls through the trash and stuff on the bottom and hangs up much less. The round bead on the bottom keeps the line from making contact with the rim of the large end of the weight and prevents cuts. I also use a swivel on the end of the rig to help with line twist. I will make up maybe 5 or 6 rigs before I go so that I can change one out fast if I lose a weight or lose the entire rig. You need a good heavy spinning reel and a med/hvy action rod. A lighter weight surf casting set up is just fine. I have seen some of these setups at the big box stores for as low as $20. The lighter your line, the further you can cast, but the harder it is to set the hook with so much line out. Guys here have recommended braided line. The heavier the line, the less distance you get, but you will get better hook sets. If you let the fish have the worm as long as you can, you will get more gut/gullet hooksets. Fine if you are keeping the fish, but tough on the fish if you are releasing. If releasing, I would bend the barb back to make getting the hook out of the gullet area easier. I have found that the feel of the fish biting is a couple of short tugs. Drop the rod tip fast and start reeling in and THEN strike sideways. Don't have any drag on the reel that could cause line to release on the strike. If you don't reel in, you will never get enough of the slack in to set the hook good. Been there and done that too many times. The drop shot from the bank has worked well for me and is a great technique to add to your fishing arsenal.

Interested in your experience with the inflatable. Let us know how it is going. thanks

That is a rip off. Forget it.

I have learned quite a bit from your drop shot info you posted. Thank you!

I watch bass do this at the small lake in my subdivision where I fish most everyday. What I found interesting also is there are some long legged water type birds that hang around the edge waiting for the bass to chase the small fish. When the bass chase the small fish and the fish literally jump out of the water into the grass at the edge of the water, the birds get into the action and also chase the small fish. When I see the birds hanging around the waters edge, I know the bass are there also.

Read a little about this and had one do it. Nice size fish just stuck his head out of the water and gave a good shake and tossed the worm right out? Then laid up on the surface for a little just to let me get a good look at him and then sank back down. How does the fish do this?? Is is a result of a poor hook set or can the fish do this with a good set?

Thank you guys so much for the advice. Yes I am using a smaller 1/0 weedless hook. I will try the 4/0 size. The line will be next. I just changed out for some simple mono 6lb. It cast great and I need the distance to get out in deeper water. Lake is about 5 or 6 acres, so it is much more than just a pond. I don't have access to a boat and frankly I have been getting decent action just bombing long and deep with the 1/2oz drop shot. I have also used 1/2oz bullett weight Texas rig. It gets too nasty with debris. The drop shot lets all the debris get on the end weight and the worm just above it stays clean. I know the drop shot is designed for deeper water from a boat, but from the bank it seems to keep the worm from taking on all the trash and present a better target. The difference in the angle from the bank keeps the worm closer to the bottom though. If you want the worm say 6" off the bottom then you really need to rig it higher than 6" from the weight. Any suggestions for worm colors?? Lake is not pristene clear at all. Plenty of dark lake green color.

Getting back into bass fishing after about a 30 year layoff! There is a small lake in my neighborhood--about 25-30 years old. Some nice fish have been caught out of it. Here is my problem. I am casting LONG distances from the bank, plastics,, 6lb test with a 1/2oz weight on the end and a hook maybe 6-10 inches above that--basically a drop shot rig with a good heavy weight to get me some leverage for casting. Virtually all my fish have been caught either as the worm is on the way down or right after it bottoms, so I have this LONG length of line out. I find that trying to set the hook with this much line out is getting poor hook sets. If I wait until after I feel the fish hit and give him some time then I am getting gut/gullet hooks. I have started to bend the barb down so as to make gut/gullet hooks easier to remove, but that can make for some misses also. Any advice would be appreciated as to different techniques,hooks,plastic etc.