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I really cant use the options with extra hooks. The area is full of sticks and logs. I would loose the bait on the first cast. I did well the first night with a buzzbait, but after a few storms it filled up with more cover. It's a great spot, but heavy with things to get caught on. I try to keep everything as weedless as possible. Great ideas though, I'll have to keep those in mind for other locations.

Im not saying you can't catch small fish on a big bait, I've done it as well. What I'm saying is that I've seen a few of them hit the surface before they threw the bait. They could definitely be small ones, but I definitely know some average to bigger sized fish are hitting it as well and taking it, but I'm still failing on the hookset. I've got some good info though, and I'm definitely going to work on the problem. And I have actually tried a char garlic attractant. The fish around this pond either didnt like the color or didnt like the sent as I didn't get a single bite most of the night, the night I used it. Of course it could have just been bad luck. Though at the end of the night I went back to the same bait without the attractant and caught 2.

nah, it's not panfish. this is a 6" bait and I feel a tap and i watch the line run. Most of the time after I fail to "set" the hook I can reel them in for a while before they do spit it out. They do love the bait when they get ahold of it. I'm going to attempt to let them hold it a bit longer next time Im out. If that doesnt work, I might try a heavier rod... kind of low on the $$$ so that might not be fixed any time soon. I have other lighter baits that definitely work, I might have to slow down using the bigger ones till I can afford the heavier rod. I just love that fluke so much :-P. Anyways, thanks for the input guys. I always appreciate it! ;D ;D ;D

5/0 Gamakatsu Hook Stren 10lb test line 6"6' Medium Action rod. ( I think it's medium, it might be medium heavy. Im at work right now so I can't check it atm. ) I could swear I was letting it run a few seconds before setting the hook. I don't want the fish to get hooked in the throat so I try not to let it run too long.

I fish without a boat all the time. It gets hot here as well. Last week during the day the air temps were high 90s but felt over 100. The water temp has been in the mid to high 80s (possibly higher) for months now. I can tell you I still catch fish. I just try to time it so that I'm out at the cooler parts of the day. I usually fish nights due to work, from probably 5-6pm till dark. Most of the action comes between 7 and 8pm. I have gone early a few times and had pretty good luck as well. And like Phishin Fillip said, hit cover. Shade always feels cooler than the sun. I say, "Don't give up just yet!"

I made a post about a month back about a path me and a friend had found back to a secret area that had produced really well for us. Heck, it's where I caught my current PB largemouth. It's a really nice place and has a lot of really good fishing areas. This is kind of a story and a question so I figured this was still the right forum. Last night was just as good... well the bites were the best we had seen, my hook setting on the other hand... but, I'll talk about that in a minute. We got down to the spot at about 6 pm. Right off the bat, we both put a fish on. Always a good sign. We hooked a few more and kept moving up the shore. At one point, I put on the lure that produces the best for me in this area. A weightless t-rigged 6" Smoke Shad Duper Fluke with a 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. Moved up to the mouth of a little cove and proceeded to get bite after bite. In about a 15-20 minute period I had 8 fish strike... but only pulled one in... one strike, the fish came up so close to me I actually saw it grab the bait and run. This fish was huge. I actually mistook it for a gar or pickerel due to it's length, but when it came to the surface I saw the beauty of one of the biggest bass I have seen up close. If I got him in, he would have beat my current PB by a long shot. All in all, it was a good night. The temperatures were nice, low humidity, and we both had plenty of action. Ok on to my question. What the heck am I doing wrong with my hooksets? I would assume that the 5/0 hook was big enough for that size of bait and I have the EWG style so there is plenty of room for the bait to fold back. I rig them texas style with no weight and put just the tip of the hook under the skin of the bait. After I felt the fish grab it I would let it run a second, reel in the slack towards the fish, then try to set the hook with a sweep at about a 45 degree angle and behind me. Many times I thought I had the fish on actually reeling it in, only to have the bait spit back in my face, sometimes with the hook point still in the bait. Do you think it's still my technique? Maybe I need more power on the set? Or maybe I need a bigger hook? When the hook does set, it sets really well, but like I said I missed a total of 7 fish. It just gets a little irritating because I like the bait, I know how to fish it, and I get great strikes, but the hook setting is sub-par. Anyways, I would love to hear some thoughts on it.

Wow, that is amazing. I told my coworker right next to me about it and he said the same thing. Great story!

I've got both my girlfriend and my brother to catch fish on weightless flukes, they work great. I myself have added weight in rivers to get them to sink before the current takes them too far, and I've had success. Pretty much fishing them the same way as the weightless ones.

Lizards work wonders in the rivers around here. I typically t-rig them with a 3/16 or 1/4 oz bullet sinker depending on the current, and fish them slow. like so...

Sounds like a great day! Those were some great looking fish

Yeah that is pretty far from here, the Yadkin is a big river. And I'm still learning a bit as well. Biggest thing I've learned recently is that structure is of course great in rivers as well, even when they get shallow. That current flowing over the structure causes pockets under and on the other side. Great places for fish to hide. That and learning to compensate for the current pulling your bait down river are really the two big things I'm working on right now.

That would be the Tar River, it flows right through Greenville, NC which is about 10-15 min from where I live. It's a good 30 minutes to this spot in Falkland though. But it's been productive each time. The Yadkin is over near Albemarle, iirc, which is a good 3-3 1/2 hour drive from where I'm at. I drive over it if I take highway 64/49 to Charlotte (family that way). How's the fishing there? We have come up with a few rules though, like get out of the water well before dark... two things happen when the sun goes down and the moon comes up (things you think we would have been obvious in the first place) - massive amounts of mosquitoes that weren't around before and water snakes.

Yeah we have been lucky. Due to the drought the reservoirs up the river have been holding more water in apparently. It's the clearest it's been in years.

Though I don't have a wife, my current girlfriend has gotten into fishing almost as much as I have. I've been trying to pass over all the stuff I have learned here and over the last few weeks it's been paying off big time for her. She is a quick learner and started loving the fluke. She caught herself an awesome 3 1/2 pounder (she has one upped me and actually bought a scale) the other day. She was stoked and so was I. I love that she goes out with me, but if I'm not careful she will pass me up soon! Plus, she actually lives on Lake Norman in Charlotte, NC. I think I need to pack up and move in with her. Definitely can't forget the ladies!

So, in a never-ending cycle to find places me and one of my buddies can go fish that doesn't require a boat, we found a shallow part of the local river that we can actually walk through. We tend to walk straight out to the middle and then head up and down the river fishing fallen trees and other structure that, combined with the current over it, causes deeper holes even in the shallower water conditions. The water is beautiful, clear and warm, and the fishing has been pretty good. Only draw back was that we forgot bug spray the first night and on the way back we were eaten up before we reached the car. So another great area to fish, that has definitely been productive. Brighter colored lizards seem to work wonders and top water lures produce as well. We went back up there last night (prepared with bug spray this time) and had another good night. My buddy picked up one with a popper frog and another with a lime green ribbon tail worm. I picked up 3, 2 on a "camo" (blue and redish laminate with flakes) baby bush hog and 1 on a junebug/char tail lizard. On the way back to the boat ramp where we went in I decided to make one last cast into what I thought was a nice pocket. I noticed my line was moving down river even though I know the lure had hit the bottom and shouldn't be moving. I felt the fish and set the hook, and saw a beautiful flash below the surface of the water. I start reeling in only to notice two logs under the water. Before I could get full control of the fish, he dove back down, up and over the two logs... by the time I made it over to where he was, he had gotten free and my lure was stuck between two logs. It was kind of a let down to lose a fish that way, but it's happened before and I'm sure it will happen again. Here is one fish from last night.

good looking fish, is it just me or does it look a little bigger than 2 1/2 lbs? :-? :-? :-?

Watermelon Red Flake was the color I happened to pick up, it has worked in both water conditions.

X2. Only reason I'm chiming in is because I tried my first brush hogs last night at a local river. T-rigged with a 1/4 oz weight though so the current wouldnt take the bait too far before it hit the bottom. Caught some nice fish too. I honestly didn't see any real action when I had the lure close to me, but it must have been doing something right over towards the fish. The rivers around here are really fond of dark colors with red flakes, like black neon (black with red flakes), watermelon red flake, heck even had a blue-ish with red flake worked well too.

small ponds, creeks, rivers and an occasional lake.

I've got an additional question... what times during the night seem best? I fish a lot of evening hours right up past sundown till about 9:30-10pm. Whenever I'm out and catching fish, the bite seems to just die at about 8:30-9pm which is when the sun is just over the horizon enough to see some orange but not really get any light to right when it gets dark. Then, I don't seem to get anything the rest of the time I'm there. So basically, are you guys fishing closer to midnight? or maybe morning hours? or does it not really matter and I'm just having bad luck?

That is an awesome fish! Wish I was catching stuff like that when I was 9. Tell him to keep it up!

I'm actually going to my first tournament on the 30th of this month. All this negativity was turning me off a bit (just a bit though, not enough not to go), it's great to hear something good this time around.

Wow, that is pretty amazing. Great looking lure. Makes me want to try out myself since I have access to a bunch of equipment that could make something like that... How many prototypes did you make? Or is that your first one? Great stuff, and congrats on a great lure.

Definitely rather catch the fish. Though I love to take photos to help me remember the fun I've had, I rarely fish alone so someone would be at least an eye-witness for me.

Another great find. I checked out the website and watched a few of the episodes and I'm enjoying it a lot. And while I may not have any video footage for him any time soon (no recorder), he definitely has another fan. I definitely plan on finishing up the episodes I can get to on the website.