Paul Roberts

Thanks, Tom. An added clarification: When using RIT use warm water, not hot! Certainly not boiling. Don't put those mice supple rinds in too hot water. Or you'll end up with something like formed rubber.

Purty, purty!

Oh my! Wonderful!

I agree with Team9nine that FnF really is a specialized way of fishing. Doesn't mean you can't come up with something that might work, but people end up going to the right stuff, and refining even further as they go. This could be frustrating fishing without the right stuff. My experience with slip-bobbers is in steelheading. This was done with several types of gear from nearly UL to M casting gear, but all those rods were over 8ft long. Problem is, to feed line through the float after you've casted it, you need to be able to keep line off the water as the surface tension of all that main line laying on the water, will negate the weight of your jig. It'll just hang there under your float. One way to help reduce this issue is to add extra weight, either a heavier jig, or split shot above it. I found that if you add a good #4 split shot a ways up from the bait (depending on rod length, it'll help counter that surface tension. Such stuff makes casting even more of a hassle, hence the specialized equipment. It's pretty much a finesse method for several reasons: -Cold water is dense/viscous so thin lines really help, in presentation and detection. -You may be fishing deep for winter bass so thin lines really help, in presentation and detection. -Small -even tiny- lures work best in such cold water (See Bluebasser's post above). I think trying to get by with standard bass gear is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. If your fish are really shallow, say less than 8ft, and you can deal with trying to cast an ungainly, heavily counter-weighted, slip-float rig, you might catch some fish. Try it. It would also help to fish close to the boat, so you don't have to keep much line off the water. But I think if you decide to actually add this method to your range of versatility, you'll be heading towards the right stuff. Lots of our fishing can be handled with a range of gear -you don't need specialized, technique-specific gear- but as things get really cold, things get more challenging in terms of presentation and detection. And FnF is meant to deal with the worst case scenario.

I have, and it has worked for me, for LM's in ponds. I've only used it -resorted to it- during mid-winter when the water gets really cold (~40F) and catching gets really tough here. Prior to this, with warmer water (up through the 40s), like TnRiver46, I do just fine casting hair jigs and grubs. For FnF, I use a 9-1/2ft 6wt fly rod, with an UL spinning reel. The length lets me fish a long enough lead below the float. Slip-bobbers can be rigged to work, but my waters are shallow enough the long rod covers it. I'm using braid bc it floats making it easier to mend to the float, which can help keep the jig from skating along bc of surface currents. I use fluorescent yellow braid bc I can easily see what the surface currents are doing. I run a mono/FC 6# (.009) leader about the depth of the water in length. I tie my own jigs, and haven't yet strayed much further than fine nylon "craft hair". Any weight jig is fine, it just has to be able to be able to be supported by the float. I use longer bullet or quill-shaped floats that will sit vertical with a matched jig. I like it to sit low in the water, so that the float is sensitive -doesn't take much to take it under. I also know the depths I'm fishing and I try to place the jig above the bottom. That way I'm asking the fish to move up to take the jig, figuring they'll turn to go back down making detection easier. I experiment with depth to see if they'll come up. I usually run my jigs 2 to 3 feet off bottom. With proper weighting (small spit shot) you can even rig a quill to stand or rise if a fish moves up with the jig. I haven't bothered to do this bc I use the method so infrequently; I just haven't worked things out to that kind of precision. When the water gets that cold, ice-up is imminent so the window for FnF is short here.

Wow. I was never terribly impressed by the place. Guess I should have spent more time there.

I never met Link. I didn't fish NP very often, only some mornings before work. It wasn't entirely convenient. It actually made me late a couple times (notice how I blame the pond), and Pat warned me not to be late again. The very next day, I kept checking my watch. It was in my pocket bc the band had broken, and I read 11:30 when it was actually 12:30. When I saw my error I rushed in to B.E.. Not sure if you remember, but when Pat was PO'd, it created an aura around him that emanated out into the parking lot. I can still see his face, when he was "not happy". He's a good man. We were friends from day one. But he almost fired me that day. That may actually have been the last day I fished NP. ?

It's not frozen. My guess is those dark areas are patches of low vegetation. In between are areas of silt/muds. I see those in sat. images of my shallow waters too, and have checked them with sonar, video, and fishing. In fact, it looks a lot like my waters here -gravel pits and small retention reservoirs that are mostly "dishpan" contoured. I see little in the image that would concentrate bass. Does not mean they won't use the area, if the rest of the pond is the same. The little drainage ditch coming in on the right might wash in some nutrients, and there appears to be an outwash plume (point-shaped) with low veges growing on top of it. It's darn small though and may not interest mature fish. However, I know of a couple such small drainage influxes that actually attract mature bass: -One has good, and isolated, complex cover at its mouth in an otherwise "swimming pool" of a pond where bass regularly cruise shorelines. -The other such drain has created an outwash "point", similar to yours, although mine happens to end as a drop off into the main basin at the mouth of a cove. Perfect. I couldn't have designed it much better. It is scarcely noticeable -no "cover" on it, it's just an object that stands out, a "lump" of sand, silt, and mud in the right place. Although the pond is regularly fished, I've never seen anyone else purposely fish it. I believe I catch more bass off of it than any other single spot on the pond. The two standing trees on the shoreline next to it could potentially serve as objects for fish to relate to. But, again, they are small, the ditch and outwash are small, and they are surrounded by "dishpan" contours. Underwhelming. I'd look wider, for something -habitat elements- that stand out more that might concentrate fish. Again, fish may use such dishpan areas, if little else is available, but it can be tough to find concentrations fish over them. And those fish will likely be transient. Best I can do from 1000mi away. Oh yes, in dishpan waters, objects of interest to bass, can be darn small. Bass, LMs in particular, have an innate love of objects. Some waters just have larger objects than others. So, if your truly water is a dishpan, look close; The bass do. And... sometimes, too much of a good thing is just too much of a good thing, for predators like us. Nothing like a small isolated oasis of awesomeness in a veritable desert.

As @reason said above, I too see luck as "between our ears". And I would add that luck doesn’t actually exist at all. I see “luck” as random events that may be given too much significance in our minds. Events we are forced to come up with an explanation for. But, sometimes a shrug of the shoulders must suffice.

Skipping is a good idea. I'd probably use a more buoyant stickworm than the Senko. The slowest sinking stickworm I've used is (was?) the Wave Tiki-Stick.

I've been collecting video of bass hunting dragonflies -both larvae and adult dragons- as I have some ponds where bass spend considerable time actively hunting them. I've got some super-cool shots of bass blowing up on dragonflies. Problem is, it's the action of the dragons that incite the blow-ups. Dead dragonflies lying on the surface appear to be of little interest. And catching those adult dragons is not easy bc they are so fast and maneuverable. The mature bass target the egg-layers of certain species, and have to position themselves carefully for the strike. It's a timing thing, and they frequently miss. Not all that sure why the heck they bother. But they do. Sometimes a good number of adult bass are cruising the shallows for such opportunities. I have yet to fish for them, but have has ideas rolling around in my head as to the best way to mimic those dragons. If I ever actually fish for them, and come up with something, I'll be sure to share it. I like J Francho's idea, and Ratherb's tactic, above.

Very cool! Wonderful!

Not quite yet. Front with snow in tonight. Each one takes us down another notch.

Hmmm... "Does topwater not work on some waters?" I wouldn't know really. But I would be very surprised if this were to continue to be the case. Conditions can be quite variable in such small shallow waters. So, I would next ask about how much good data you really have: How many times, and for how long, have you given TWs a real workout? And I would discount certain conditions, that tend to make fish less apt to come up, esp in shallow ponds: Brilliant blue skies, peak summer heat, winter cold, dark or deep overcast days with very dirty water, perhaps. Could be so, but I'd be surprised if that held. If you really want to know, keep trying, focusing on peak periods: appropriate temperatures, lighting, and water surface conditions.

Interesting. -Is there a water clarity difference? -Is this one pretty much devoid of cover? -Depth? Does this one drop off quickly along the banks? -Anything else different you can think of?

I have Poppin' Perch -only bc I found it hanging from a tree -with 6lb test hanging off it. It appears to me to have been patterned after the Japanese Koinobori, those carp-shaped wind socks (??????). In the BPS catalog, a designer of the Poppin' Perch is named. Maybe he'll pipe in here and explain the thinking. I'm... . "...Fun to play around with", as the OP described it, may be it. Nothing wrong with that. I've been known to catch steelhead under a Snoopy bobber, and bass on a soft plastic human, made in an old Creepy Crawler mold. I caught a lot of bass on that thing, each to the Jaws theme riff, "Bah, Bump.... Bah, Bump....! Will the Poppin' Perch catch bass? Of course. Decades ago I learned that one can get bass to bust through a mat with almost anything that causes a disturbance. (I'm not sold that it's "frogs" the bass are expecting; Here, it is more bluegills picking off insects in the mats). Regardless, the commercial baits haven't come a long way in terms of efficiency: They hook better, some can walk, and the popper-style ones add commotion that can make a difference over a dense mat. My rambles on the Poppin' Perch. I haven't fished it. It's in my "overflow box".

Ditto DVT. Rods have line and lure weight ratings. Stay in that ballpark. Breakage has more to do with how the rods are treated. If you are rough on your gear, you might consider lower modulus rods. There are of course rod lines out there that go for durability. The Ugly Stick may be the best known. But you lose fishability with such rods. The Berkley Shock series is a durable rod that offers some level of performance. All this said, graphite rods have come a long way in the durability department. They don't break all by themselves.

Yeah, I figured that out, with new2BC4bass' help. 

Ah! Yes... Doh! The term "medium action" rods has been commonly used for a long time. I always took it to mean middle "weight" -for all around fishing; Which really means medium power. I bet that one mixed term has caused more confusion than any other.

Here it is: https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/rod-actions-power.html Sorry, I don't see where I'm "mixing terms". I describe: Power: The force/weight a rod can support. Action: How that power is distributed. The article you reference: "Action refers to the "movement" of the blank. How and where the blank flexes dictates the action." "Power refers to the blank's resistance to flexing under load."

Here's a video I made that should help.

Well, for lightly weighted, or unweighted, soft plastics -the way I most often fish stick worms, and other SFLs in shallow water- I like a rod with plenty of power in the butt, but a softer tip. Since bass tend to hold lightly weighted soft plastics, I am able to "weigh the line" with a softer-tipped rod to better identify bites and to tell what a bass is doing with my bait. Problem is, bass will take soft plastics too deep if given enough time. So, I like to be able to gently weigh the line to feel tension, and "life" down there. I've also gone to barbless hooks on many of my lightly weighted soft plastics, making esophagus hooked fish easier to deal with. The action type I'm describing is a Mag-Light in Loomis speak, as is often found in powerful drop-shot rods. The one I'm using, and LOVE for this type of fishing, is a 7' M Kistler Helium. I generally do not like soft-tipped rods. Why waste that length? But, for such SPLs, they have a place. And that Kistler is so freaking light, with plenty of power, it may just be the most sensitive rod I own. For more heavily weighted soft plastics I use rods with power all the way out -the same ones I use for larger jigs.

I like the one 1.0 I have quite a lot. However, I was disappointed when they turned shocking white with the 2.0.

I've always used the frame of the stripping guide as my hook keepers. Not the guide ring, but the frame. Never had a problem with this. Since I often carry multiple rods in one hand, either to and from car and boat, or when shore fishing, I've found that having the hooks so close to the fore-grip, with regular keepers, is asking for trouble; Both for tangles with other rods in hand, and for having those hooks so close to my hand. Plus, a bend in the rod tip and many regular keepers let the lure swing free. Some keepers also catch the line while I'm fishing, as do some line keepers on reel spools. I've been known to simply cut them off.

Hmmm... I've never had that happen. I've used braid (Stealth and J-Braid) but usually use straight mono's, either nylons or FC. I can say that I too have found Fireline to be difficult to deal with. It's too stiff. I'm told it'll soften over time, but, I've never had it on a reel long enough to find that out. It's also thicker than other braids. To tell you the truth, I'm a little baffled by it. Not sure what it's for. I'm open to it, if I knew what it does that other lines don't.