PoBoy

I went on a guided fishing trip a couple months ago, and the first fish I caught was a ten pound striper and I held it by its lower lip. The guide immediately supported the belly and told me that I should never hold a fish just by its lower lip and that the belly should always be supported no matter what size fish it is. I have been supporting the belly ever since, even with the dinks! ;D

I have never used any hardware that did not come with the bait. Like others have said it creates a weak link and also hinders action. I like the idea of the speed clips but for the above reasons I have never tried them.

Thanks everyone! I am trying new retrieves and having mixed success, but thats fishing!!

I have seen and read some conflicting things about Topwater popper speed of retrieve. I have seen on tv people "machine gunning" the popper across the water. I have read that the strike usually occurs on the pause and to fish it in a 3-5 pop sequence followed by a short to lengthy pause. In my experience I have never had a fish bite while popping the lure, the strike has always occured during the pause. I have had strikes immediately upon pausing and even up to a minute after pausing. So what I am trying to get at is to see if anyone has tips, advice, or experiences that they would like to share concerning topwater rate of retrieve.

Thanks for the advice! After I made that post about ten minutes later I had that exact same thought! :-[

I just started back to bass fishing here in GA, because the temps have started to drop into the low 80's and mid 70's. I catch the most fish in spring, hardly any in summer, and a quite a few in fall. I was actually scouting a new pond I found yesterday and saw multiple 3lbs.+ fish in the shallows chasing big bluegills. I am gonna go out there today and see what I can do! I was thinking of using a fluke, some topwaters, and spinnerbaits. Anyone have suggestions for bass that are mainly chasing big 'gills?

Bill Dance!! He always gives advice and tips. He doesn't just spend the whole show catching fish and not telling you how, why, and what he is doing. I wonder if each show is filmed over a couple of days, because there is no way he is catching that many 4 lbs.+ fish in one day!! :-?

I have caught bass and other fish with one eye, so he is probably ok!

NO!!!

I have eaten bass and really liked it. I just can't bring myself to keep a bass because I love to catch them so much that I want to catch them again another day. Another reason is that there are plenty of people that keep everything that they catch, so I really doubt that keeping fish is going to be good for the bodies of water that I fish.

There are many more factors to be considered than just head/mouth size. The one thing that no one has posted yet is adding structure to your pond or lake. If you sink multiple brush piles/trees it will improve your lake or pond.