Shane J

Yeah, Wagn, that's good advice. I actually tried a Rat l Trap yesterday, but nothing going on there. Didn't really give it much of a shot, and I was actually using outside of the milfoil areas. My buddy did get one on a Senko rigged wacky on a weedless 2/0 hook.

What do you do to adjust to the milfoil breaking down? It's happening all over for us up here, and the water is nasty and murky. For me, I've just been concentrating on topwater, or large colorado bladed spinnerbaits, but how are you all handling it?

Thanks. Yeah next time for sure.

Alright I just got back from my little local "bass hole", and for sure the bite is slower, and comes in waves. They're on, and we're either landing bass, or missing a hook set on one, or it's off and nothing works. Tonight was like that. I ended up with a couple nice fish, and my buddy ended up with one chunk. My first was a 2-15, that I was totally fooled on, by thinking it was a solid 3 1/2 (oh well). Then my buddy Mike landed his first ever Rage Tail fish on a Shad I let him throw. Tomorrow he will be buying a bunch of new stuff! His went 2-4, and not a bad fish. Then I got one more at about 8:30 on a Rage Shad (black neon) that was 2-8. Good fish, but the fishing was not quite what I'm used to in here.

I'm with you, M Starr. Somebody would have been on the floor. Scary stuff right there.

That's awesome, man! GO RED SOX!!! I love Fenway, and you're right, being there IS magic !!

Welcome, Alluriana. Try them Senkos wacky rigged on a weedless 2/0 Gammy. Or better yet, get some Rage Tail Anacondas and Shads! By the way, Nice chunk there, UNH. I only managed two 2 lbers this morning. Windy as a mofo!

Well, you made me curious. I have no idea how many total bags of plastics I have, But this category is definitely where I have spent the bulk of my tackle money. For the past year, I've been addicted to using Rage Tails, and so I figured I'd count the bags. Right now I have 117 unopened bags of Rage Tail baits alone, not to mention 2 Plano 3700 tackle boxes of Rage baits in my boat, and 2 more 3700's full of 'em in my Jeep. As for all the other stuff, probably another 200-250 bags of other stuff like Senkos, Power worms, Brush Hogs, Sweet Beavers, and countless craw trailers. Too much, really.

That's Tpayneful's (BR Member) boat! I knew I saw it on the "show your ride" thread! Seems like a nice starter boat to me!

I love my Oakley Shallow Blues! They were $180, but like others have stated, no price on your eye sight, and direct and reflected sunlight can be a real problem.

That is really cool. If you need any of my old fishing gear, I'd be happy to donate it to you for future outing like this. Send me a PM if you need anything.

Those are cool diagrams, Fluke. The milfoil is much softer, and appears fluffy almost. When it gets really grown in, you can look across the water, and it looks like a field with the tips that grow out of the water. I like to toss a plastic toad that makes some noise like a Rage Tail Toad right across that stuff, and bring out the bass that are hanging around under it, or punch through it with a tank of a Tx rig (pegged), with a creature bait or big plastic worm like an Anaconda! It can be a pain to fish, but the fish often use it for cover, and you can always see baitfish and bluegills cruising around these areas of dense milfoil and hydrilla.

You'll be fine. Like you said, a trailer with brakes would be nice, but towing should be o.k. See if your Jeep came with a tranny cooler, and if not, it might be worth the little extra cost to have one put in to protect an expensive tranny replacement. Good luck.

Well, I'm 200lbs, and my co-angler another 200lbs, plus trolling motor and group 27 battery, not to mention 2 tackle bags and around 6 rods. Like I said, only for small ponds, and only when I need to. I love it for just me, because it's easy to handle on my own and storage isn't bad. I just sit in the very rear seat to operate the TM, and my passenger sits on the far front seat, with the gear in between us, and the battery behind me. Like was mentioned, communication is a must, because I've never been so close to getting hooked, as I have been in the jon boat, not to mention, almost tipped the thing last week when my buddy stumbled over something and lost his balance.

I try my best to not have 2 people in my 10' jon. It sucks. The boat is perfect for me and my gear, but when I gotta bring someone who doesn't have a boat and we're going to a small pond where my Nitro can't go, those days are more stressful than relaxing.

I had issues with this also at first, but seriously, you do get better at it.

Some really good info here. I will get out on it this week and do the temperature test you mentioned, Paul. I fished it this morning, and it's still just as dark, and the fishing was still tough. I did manage 4 bass, though, 3 of which came on a black/chartreuse spinnerbait with one black colorado blade, and one copper colorado blade with a black twin curly tail grub trailer. The other bass fell for the old black neon Rage Shad.

Nice Fish!!! She's a beauty!

Go Pats!!!!!!!!!!

Man, that looks sweet!

Oh, boy, here we go...

Yup, that's why I come here! Thanks a lot, guys. By the way, it's brown.

Thank you, Paul. I have measured max depth, and it is 10'. Most of it is 5-7'. I think you might have hit on something with the weed breakdown, because there was a solid week of sunny weather, and no rain at all. As far as it's location, yes, it is in the woods, and I don't know if it's groundwater fed. Your advise is right on, as far as lure selection, as all my bass were on a Rage Shad in black neon. I'm not giving up on this pond one bit, because it's like "my" pond, nobody fishes it, and I just caught my PB here. I want to learn every little thing I can about this place and the behavior of the bass. On a side note, I also caught the biggest crappie I've ever seen here on that outing, and I don't target any species other than bass, it was caught on the shad. I've also seen a ton of bluegill, and caught a few pickerel. One of the 4 lb bass I caught the other day spit up a pretty good sized gill. The reason I want to know this place so well, is come spawn time, I believe it may give up a 9 or 10 lb hawg, and I definitely want a piece of that! Thanks for the help.

Koopa, I appreciate your input. Does the turnover happen in smaller bodies of water before larger lakes? This place is small, around 4-5 acres, and has a depth less than 10 feet throughout. If it's not the turnover, then what could have happened to my water? Visibility was non-existant, at less than a foot.

I brought a friend of mine to a local pond for some fishing, and something was different. I had fished this pond 2 days earlier, and it was clear. No rain for over a week, and now the pond is completely muddy/murky. We got some fish, but not like I'm used to in that pond. He said he thought that the pond had "turned". Could this be the case, and if so, how do the fish react, and how do I adjust? Thanks for your input on this puzzeling phenomenon.