airborne_angler

No pike or pickerel in that pond,this phenomena has only happened to me in that one spot in this pond. Theres a big pipe(culvert) that is halfway in the water. Wonder if they(turtles) are hanging out in there ,then going out to greet my bait when it fall s.

Been having this wierd situation as of late and cant figure it out. Hope someone can shed light on this. Theres a real small cove in the pond I fish and the cove is covered by an overhanging tree. Its a very tight spot to fish even when "pitching. For weeks I have been pitching a 4 inch Junebug colored Renegade worm ,t- rigged wieghtless into that cove. On just about 85% of the instances,after I make my first "pitch" and dont get a strike,I retrieve my worm and the twirl tail is bitten clean off!!! I never sense a strike and am just dumbfounded as to what could be eating just the tails of my plastic worms. Not sure if its Bluegill cause when I pitch it in other spots and can see the bluegill ,they might take it in thier mouth and run ,but I always end up with a complete worm. Now,I did catch a doozy of a Shellcracker(redear) in that spot and think thats a culprit and have also seen a small painted turtle in the area but have no sure idea of what this thing is thats destroying my plastic worms. Another strange thing is ,I have thrown Zoom worms, and Robo worms in that same spot but they always came out of the water fully intact. Im just kinda puzzled,Anyone care to give ideas as to what this thing might be ?

I go fishing every day for at least 7 hours per day,every day ,sometimes less if the fish arent biting. How can I get away with this? Im a Disabled Veteran rated 100% So all I have is Time. I talked to my shrink and asked him if there was any harm in doing this,he said he'd rather see me fishing or doing something outdoors constructively than at home on the couch eating chips and watching TV. So he equates it to a kind of "Therapy" for me because I suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder and a bad heart. Keeps me from worrying about little trivial things and lets me just be in my own world.

Went out "WET WADING" in my float tube recently in the pond I fish frequently. I was just trying to access some of the spots in the waer that werent reachable from shore. I also did some research. There were spots in the water where i would cast and not get any bites,but if I were to cast 2-3 feet left or right I would get bit. Found out why. The spot I cast in originally was choked with milfoil. But when I cast 2-3 feet left or right(by chance) there was a DEEP hole where bass mustve been holding. I dont know how deep this pond is but man those holes are DEEP!!! Makes you kinda wonder whats lurking down there. When I do cast into those holes theres usually some dinks that intercept my bait right as it hits the water. If I wanna get down deep, How can I get past those little fish? Not saying catching the little ones isnt fun but it gets redundant after a while. I wanna catch something bigger to break up the monotony. Oh and back to the whole reason I posted in the first place. As I was cruising along in my float tube I noticed some real warm spots(like someone had just pee'd in the water),then suddenly it would get cold again. I noticed this especially as I was tangled up in the milfoil trying to cross the pond. That stuff is SOOO DENSE . I often would pull one of my fins out of the water and I couldnt even see it,I can tell you I must have looked like "MILFOIL MAN" So whats with the temprature change and does this signify anything? Warm or cold, do the fish tend to act differently in some temps as opposed to others? I am sure you all understand what I mean by the density of the milfoil. Would it be wise to try to fish directly in the middle of the stuff with a heavy bait(jig) or should I just stick to the "HOLES" and weeds edges? Sorry for being so long winded and as always thanks for the input

This topic has been moved to [link=http://bassresource.com/cgi-bin/bass_fish/YaBB.pl?board=Fishing_Tackle_ID;action=display;num=1130143722;start=0]Fishing Tackle[/link] by Chris.

Hello all,Went out today and caught a few and on one the strangest thing occured. As I was reeling the fish in ,I saw another fish Dart out from under some vegetation and chase the fish I had hooked. I am almost certain theres only Bass,Bluegill and Yellow Bullheads in this pond. What could that behavior indicate? No big deal,I just thought it was strange. These Bass are very actively feeding on Dragonflies. Fully leaping out of the water to catch em. They are jumping all over the place. What bait would be good to throw in these circumstances? Im not a flyfisherman and no good at it so thats out of the question . The same Bass I mentioned above had a whole dead dragonfly hanging on its snout and in the fishes throat there was what appeared to be a "Mini Fish Filet" sticking out. All white meat,no scales,skin,fins,tail,just the filet.Wonder what kind of fish that might have been sticking out of its throat and why it looked like that ? Could this have been a sign of regurgitation? I Was throwing a Green/red flake Strike King Zero today. They tore up the green ones(Caught 9 dinks) but when I tried the white Colored baits they wouldnt even look at it. So guess color does matter!!! Thanks for the replies

Was wondering if anyone has used it? Its almost like the other frog that Strike king produces but it has a cupped face. The problem im having is that I wanna cast it out and pop it and then crawl it across the weeds. I cant seem to do this because when I cast it,It sinks and then as I retrieve it to the weeds, it picks em up as its being brought in. I was under the impression its supposed to float. Anyone ever have a similar problem. Its a "Popper" so I thought you were supposed to cast out,let the ripples go down and then begin "twitching" and popping. Well I just cant do this with this particular bait. Anyone care to let me know why this may be happening? Im fishing it straight out of the package,0 modifications.Thanks to all

Thats the trouble with this guy that I see at this pond as well,He keeps anything he catches,Be it small juvenile Bass ,or teeny Bluegill. He asked what I do with my fish,I told him I just pull out my Cell phone and take pictures and then release em. I cant help but feel for those fish when I look into thier eyes. Im not much of a cook either so keeping em would be pointless. This guy tells me he takes em home and cooks em(even when they are only 5 inch dinks) Such a shame. Suppose I could say its selective harvest but since the pond isnt stocked and is self sustaining,then too much selective harvest can be a real downer,and eventually a new location to fish will need to be seeked. Around here you have to drive about an hour and a half, to the next closest location and 9 times out of 10 I get skunked,whereas in this pond I catch at least 1 or 2 per day. Its not even really the fish Im after,If they are aggeressive and striking good,then thats all I need to have a heart pounding good time.

Hello ,Havent posted in a bit,but been reading regularly. I have a lil bit of a dilemna and cant help but take it personally. The Pond I fish at is on a Military Installation and is "Self Sustaining",Meaning theres no stocking,or maintenance done to the pond whatsoever. Well Myself and this other guy fish this pond regularly and theres one part of the pond thats off limits. Its a Dam where several years ago a kid was fishing on and fell off and drown. Ever since that event, the dam has been off limits. Well my guess is this guy that fishes there is kinda hard up to catch something. He fishes on the dam even though there are big government signs posted"OFF LIMITS NO FISHING OFF OF OR FROM DAM." Theres a fence that is supposed to discourage going on the dam but its easy to walk around it. Everyone knows that since the dam is off limits,and doesnt get any pressure,theres a big likely hood that thats where some decent fish would be. It upsets me that someone would break the rules like that just so they could catch a fish or 2. I have observed this guy fishing for hours while I was there and he NEVER catches anything. He has told me hes caught some but I never see anything. He expressed with his hands that he caught one "This big" one day. I swear his hands mustve been spread out at least 2.5 feet. He claims he threw it back and is gonna catch it again. All I thought was "Wow,You caught the world record Largemouth and let it go?" LOL LOL He is amazed at how I might catch 1 or 2 everytime out and always wonders how I do it. So with this guy fishing an area thats not very pressured,and getting skunked tells me his skills are in need of honing,But back to the issue of fishing an off limits area,what can be done? and should I take this so personal? Thanks

I went out today with a Zoom Motor oil colored plastic worm "T" rigged and I used the biggest worm weight I could find. Im not sure how deep I got but I just kept getting hung up. Took some force to move through the stuff and at the end of two casts and landing at least 4 pounds of weeds, I said screw it!! Its just too much work. And as far as Carolina rig,I just cant cast it without looking like a monkey f***ing a football. I cant get any distance. I was using a medium action rod on a baitcaster. Could this have been one of my troubles With getting through the thick stuff? I hope so cause I just went out tonight and purchased a 6'6" Medium Heavy Rod to try to help me with dragging through this stuff. While im here I might as well ask about Jig /Pig combos. There are only 2 places in town that have any inventory of Uncle Josh Pork baits and they have been on the shelf for at least 3 years according to the dust. 1.)Do pork baits break down or have an expiration? Meaning I dont wanna try using it and have it just fall apart on me. 2.) How do I put the Pork on my jig? If the jig is sitting as it would in the water ,is it meaty side up or down when rigging the pork or does it matter? 3.) Jigs are supposed to be weedless? I was using a Bitsy Flip from Strike King and I pulled in a bunch o weeds, Any doctoring I can do to prevent this?. 4.) Are trailers such as pork/craw imitation always necessary? Do bass strike a jig without a trailer? Sorry for being long winded,thanks for the tips.

I havent posted in a while and just started fishing again Aug 1. Had my kids for the month of July so I put off fishing for a little. Back in June,I was having great luck throwing Senko style baits. I would at least ALWAYS get a strike upon the bait falling and caught at least 7-8 fish in a short time span. Now Its rained,the water has risen a bunch and it seems the fish have lockjaw. I get to the pond at about 9 am and leave at sunset,usually about 7pm. Needless to say I am sore and fatigued by the days end and frustrated at not catching any decent fish. A 12 incher would be decent in my book. I have thrown spinnerbaits,plastic worms,Senkos,Jitterbugs,and even a Mepps spinner. I tried to do some finnesse fishing by going to a 4" Junebug colored plastic worm and fishing weightless and weedless on a 1/0 hook. All I catch is Bluegill and green Sunfish. Occasionally I catch a Bass,only dinks 4-5 inchers. I wanna know where the bigger ones are. In June I caught and released 3 Bass that were at least 2 lbs. The vegetation is thick in this pond ,thats why I dont use any weights when I fish plastics cause all I get is Algae,weeds and snot and I dont even think my bait makes it to the bottom where the fish are because this stuff is so thick,and that really discourages me . This pond doesnt get much action,Ive only seen 3 other people fish it on rare occasion; but me,Im there every single day. All day long you can see fish,Im sure its a combo of Bass and Sunfish leaping clear out of the water to go after Dragonflies. They land with a "KER-PLUNK" at times and its unnerving cause I know those fish might be a bit larger than the dinks Im catching,But to no avail can I get them to bite. Any suggestions?

Some people are such d**ks!!! I bought a craw trap and had it in the water ,was on my float tube,out a ways and saw someone pull my trap out and walk off with it. I guess they didnt see me as I waved my arms and yelled at them,or they didnt care. Now I take a 2 liter soda bottle,cut the top off where it begins to taper from the main body,invert it and staple it together. Havent tried it yet but in theory it should work as a trap. Saw it in a Field and Stream magazine.

No worries there,I used to do that EVERY weekend after my dad taught me how to fish.I would beg him to take me fishing but either it was too hot or windy or he was busy,he still took me lots though. Man was I hooked on fishing(still am) I would go in the yard and out in the street with my Zebco 202 and fiberglass rod,Send a bass casting sinker flying,sometimes hitting peoples parked cars(WHOOPS--SEE). I could probably open a terminal tackle store if I were to climb into the tree that was in the front yard of my old house and retrieve all the swivels and sinkers I broke off up in there.' My friends would even "pretend fishing" They(my friends) were the fish,and I would cast out and reel in my sinker and they would have to chase it,MAN did they put up a fight when I "Hooked" em. Then it would get hot and they would get "Lockjaw" and no matter what scenario I would put together I couldnt get em to bite.(they basically got bored of the game) Eventually they sprouted legs, crawled out of the water(which was the grass in my front yard) got on thier bikes and pedaled home for dinner.........AHH the child hood memories. AND FRESHLYHOOKED THOUGHT HE GOT STRANGE LOOKS FROM PASSERS BY

I went out yesterday and was near a guy who was having some trouble catching fish. I was tying on a Baby Bass colored Kinami Flash(same as Senko),and I was telling him how I was tearin the fish up with this color. He came back at me saying "Thats ridiculous,Bass dont eat thier own kind". Well I responded with : "Why are there so many crankbaits patterned after baby bass?" I proceeded to throw my Bait and had 5 "Dinks" within about 25 minutes. The bait is 5 inches and these fish couldnt be more than 8 or 9 inches long. See ,I guess I showed him .........huh!!

Was fishing today and 1 other person was there as well and we got to talking about the pond and how its prone to dry up. He said he had caught 3 or 4 "Dinks" today(8-10 inchers) and intended on keeping them. I was almost sick. While he was there he also caught about 5 decent bluegill,but threw those back. This is the only place to fish for miles around,Why would someone keep those small fish? My theory is throw em back,so you and others can enjoy em too. The pond is in a "self sustainment" condition. Either it needs to rain or else the pond will dry up. Well lets look at it like this,this guy starts pulling all the bass out and suddenly we get a good rain,the pond fills back up(wish ful thinking) and the pond sustains itself for a little while longer. The fish population will have suffered by taking all those tiny ones out and not let them grow up. But then theres the "harvesting " aspect of it too.......right.........any thoughts?

This pond lies at the bottom of a mountain,the mountain has a resevoir tank on top of it and what usually occurs is,they release some of the water from the resevoir to keep the pond filled. But tree huggers have come in and said its a waste of water so "no more". I have been told this pond has to be self sustaining to survive and if it dries up then.............OH WELL. I think this pond is used for flood control. One area of it has a dam with a small 3ft X 3 ft hole in it for spillage. The other side of the dam has a creek bed that runs right into the main military installation and if the dam wasnt there and a hard rain occured there'd be some havoc. I have a pond in mind to transplant them to. It the "OLD HOLE" I spoke of in another post,but just how do I go about transplanting the fish when the time comes?

I have a question concerning the pond I am frequently fishing lately. It appears it keeps getting lower and lower, Eventually It will be dried up. What if anything can be done with those poor fish as the pond dries up,I would hate to see those poor things die. I have caught at least 15 small(10-12") Bass and three other Bass 2- 2.5 pounds out of this pond,I always throw them back,Theres really nowhere to fish around here so I throw em back so I can catch em again. There are also green sunfish,hybrid sunfish,bluegill, catfish ,oh and a few KOI as well in this pond. There are a few places nearby that the fish can be taken to,but im worried about the whole transplant aspect,Here in Arizona its illegal,Putting the whole legality issue aside what would be a good way to help these fish,So I can fish for them in the future ?

I found out the true reason the area has dried up all the ponds. Seems I live in an area thats supposed to be "Last of the mohicans" as far as rivers in the desert go. So some enviromentalists have pursuaded the post to dry up the ponds here on post so that the post doesnt use so much water and dry up the water table. Basically the post is wasting water by having the ponds. Its a very complicated subject and I read all about it and never knew it was such a big deal,I talked to a rep from the outdoor recreation division here on post and he said his hands were tied. Below you will find a link to the whole reason why this dry up process has happened. http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/Programs/watersheds/spr/bo2-notice-3-17-05.pdf

I "accidentally" caught my largest (a 5lb 9oz Largemouth) while fishing with a bobber for bluegills on a small piece of live night crawler on an ultralight rig spooled with 4 lb test line. The fish was 19.75 inches long and 15 inches around. Never caught or even had the opportunity to fish for smallmouth,but will jump at the opportunity when it arises.

When I decide to gear up to try this hole,what would be a good overall bait to throw to probe with and see what may be in the water,The water is stained brown and im not exactly sure whats under the surface,as far as cover,structure and snags and such. My guess would a soft plastic rigged weedless or a weedless jig. If any of you just stumbled onto something like I have what would be the first order of business to be successful on this hole. Like I said its very desolate,about a 3 mile walk in temperatures of 95 degrees or better (Southern Arizona),yesterday it was 102 so Im thinking unless its a great hole and lots of people know about it,people will find other places to go. Like I said its here in Southern Arizona so I seriously doubt theres any gators at all. But Beavers have been reintroduced to the area,do they pose any kind of threat when fishing?

Went out today to a spot way out ,probably a 3 mile walk to an old hole I was told about when I was younger,Probably back in the early 90's. Its a hole probably 300 feet long and about 100-150 feet wide. Theres really only 1 open spot to fish at from the bank as everything else on the shore is populated with trees and vegetation. I have a float tube but im leary about whats in the water and thats one of my questions(the approach of this body of water,Would it be wise to venture into it being in a float tube?),I went there years ago and the top of the water was overgrown,its clear now but the water is stained brown. How do I know if theres even any fish still in there. Story is its an old quarry(you can see the enormous hills of rock nearby) Could this mean the bottom is rocky? The water thats in there is the natural water table and hasnt dried up in years and years,someone at some point mustve stocked it. Its not really on a map and of all the people I have talked to ,noone has ever heard of it(thats great for me IF theres fish still in there.)I have no idea how deep this thing is and dont think too many people fish it anymore ,I used to see a few people there at times.. I know theres bullfrogs,large turtles and lots of tadpoles that continously bubble the surface. Years ago( MORE THAN 10) I went there and saw 2 huge bass , 1 huge carp and I caught yellow cats out of it. How should I approach it to try to be successful as I dont even know if theres any fish still in there. Its a ways out and I doubt anyone ever goes there anymore except to watch the birds as it lies on land thats used as a birdwatchers paradise. Thanks for the suggestions,like I said im leary about the whole float tube thing ,what would you all do?

I find it disheartening because SENKOS are the only thing I wanna use,but I know theres other things that catch fish as well but I just feel I dont have the confidence or patience to use them and the SENKOS are costing me a fortune up to this point.

I have been throwing SENKO type baits for about a month and man its exciting,I have caught more bass on a Senko than any other time in my life......seriously,I feel they are just awesome. But expensive and not too durable. The problem I have is I know theres fish in the pond,I have had so much luck on SENKOS that Im almost afraid to throw anything else for fear of being discouraged by not getting a bite. I have a bunch of different length lizards and worms,I T-tigged one today with a light worm sinker and as soon as I felt the weeds and the lure binding I gave up,and put on a SENKO. Then I tried Carolina rig and got discouraged the same way. The fish,no matter if they are bass or sunfish or catfish always strike my Senko. I threw everything at them today and maybe wasnt patient enough but again and again I found myself throwing Senkos,(this is getting to be very expensive)Im sure I can catch em on other things,how can I discipline myself to stay away from those darn SENKOS,and learn how to use a different bait and still have confidence that I might catch something..? Guess the Senko is my confidence bait cause I always have "something" hit it as it falls,but rarely anytime other than that. Thats why I find myself reeling in and recasting my Senko if I dont get a strike of some kind on the fall.Please help. This is very disheartening and I may just give up.Thanks

I am wondering if it might just be darn green sunfish pecking at it,Some of the time I know I ended up with bass cause I saw him jump before he spit the hook. Its a matter of timing I know,I let em "tap tap" and I prepare ,but then theres nothing else,But then theres the run,and just as I am getting ready to set it ,the fish drops it. Exciting but aggravating at the same time. I always get my strikes on the fall just right after it hits the water,barely enough time for me to prepare but if I dont get get any strike I have a bad habit of giving up and reeling it in and recasting instead of slowly working it back to me. Guess I just dont have patience .

Today I was fishing(again) just like I do everyday, Some of you may wonder how I can do this well,Im a disabled veteran and dont work. Anyway I recently picked up a some Berkley trilene xl easy cast 8lb line . I am replacing the 10lb Shakespeare stuff I had on my baitcaster. After servicing (lubing) my reel and respooling it I gave her a go at the local pond. The new line casts like a dream,easy to throw yadda yadda. Im very happy with it. Had a large amount of strikes today while fishing a SENKO but as I set the hook it seemed I wasnt able to "sink" the hook hard or deep enough to keep the fish from coming off. I mustve lost at least 8 fish today. Could this be due to this new line? The old "Shakespeare 10lb stuff was better,I almost never missed a hookset and almost never lost a fish.