Hammer 4

30 jars..? Man..my wife is on me like rain for having 2 jars ... ;D

Paul, I agree, I take certain things into account, but don't depend on them as an absolut. In the high pressure city park ponds I fish, I think the bass are conditioned to seeing every lure known to mankind, yet on certain days the fishing can be wide open, others you'd be lucky to get 3 decent bass in a 6 hr session. What I'm thinking about, and correct me if I'm way off base here, is to put more thought into what the baitfish are doing, have done ect. i.e when I see shad slightly boiling, I normaly get fish, no shad boils, it's a hard day. The only thing is...how does a person track baitfish..?

Wow, that had to be a ugly feeling.. No offense, but next go Preparded, a longer rod and like Senco said, pre set your drag...it's the little things that can get ya.

Depending on how thick the weeds are, ect..ya might try slowrolling a weightless T rigged lizard over the top of the weeds, this has worked for me, when nothing else would. Also as someone mentioned, cast out along the weedline.

Dang, nice 1st bass..congratz...I'd say a tad over 5 lbs..harrd to tell from pic's..still a very nioce fish.

Welp, aside from all the baits mentioned, which I use too..I'll throw the Roboworms in here, size and color depending on conditions. Great fro finesse, and dropshoting.. Oh, yeah....Ragetails Rawk!! 8-)

What kinda baitfish/forage are in your lake/pond..? Get cranks to match them. You can get shallow divers, i.e. 1 to 3' depth for shore fishin..check with some of the sites vendors or TW...I fish from shore alot, and while I don't throw many cranks, I do toss em now and then, haven't lost 1 in almost 4 months.. ;D Also consider the wide square billed cranks, you can bounce em off almost anything, cept Heavy weeds.

Are you using Weedless jigs..? What are they getting stuck on..? The Key is to fish em Slow, if the bottom has rocks ect wher the jig can get hung up on, Never pull hard to free them, and don't reel in any slack..gentely lift the rod tip as high as you can, and gentely pull at a stready pace. Knowing what the bottom has will allow you to lose way fewer lures, it takes time, but well worth it.

My garage gets Hot once in awhile..so, I take my small igloo and toss in a couple of blue ice paks..put my JJ's in there, making sure the caps are Tight! lol..so far, all is good..

Agreed, I'd go with the med.. Sorry Dubb, I misunderstood your question..doh!

My hat's off to you Sir...

I've had them little suckers Try to eat my 10" ragetail anaconda a few times..lol Minnows never fail..

I throw everything from shore that I would from a boat...The key is to learn the bottom of the body of water your fishing, takes time I know, but will be valuable later, you can use a weighted T rig worm for that. As far as cranks go, get Shallow divers, i.e. 1-3' Swimbaits..yup, get the floaters..jigs, definitly, use the football heads with weed guards, and yup, you'll lose a few, nature of the beast..Spinner baits, the key is to keep your rod tip High, and retrive as to keep the spinner bait in the upper part of the water, the lighter weight spinner baits, i.e 1/4 & 3/8 oz work best for this. I never fish lippless cranks, i.e. rat l traps ect, to easy to lose in the weeds ect.. As you gain experince at your lake/pond, you'll find out what works, unfortunatly by trail and error, been there done that..lol I would recomend that you use a spinning rig to start with, use a good quality line, such as Yozuri Hybrid Ultrasoft, it's a copoylmer and very strong for pullin some of the lures out of the weeds. I'm sure others will add to this, I'm tired and can't think very well..lol

Shimano Clarus rod, and the Shimano Sahara 2500 FD reel, great combo imho..althought it runs about 160.00 well worth the extra 10 bucks.. BTW mine is the 7 rod mf.

X 2, except I'll use a 1/0, 2/0 alot of the time, of this depends on the bait also.

No problem here, and I have a junky pc.. ;D

Muddy, you must really like those bouncying green smileies huh..? ;D

Looking at your pond pic..there has to be weeds in there..? If you can spot the weeds/weedline, that's where I'd toss a Senco, or a dropshot with a roboworm..Also try the Ragetail Toads, t rig weightless and drag it across the top of the weeds..Then again, you could always throw a 6" swimbait.. BTW, I'd use a spinning rig so you can cast with the best distance, my guess is the larger fish are out in deeper water, unless they are feeding. Also, try not to lay the bass on the ground, could remove some of it's slime coat..wheich makes the bass more likely to contract parasites, and deseases.

In most, but not all cases, you'll feel a tap-tap, time to set the hook..nibbleing is likey a bluegill or a dink, if you wait and let them take the whole bait, your likely to gut hook em, not worth it to me, I'd rather lose a dink...Other times you will feel a tap-pull, set the hook, this is a more aggressive fish, and sometimes a larger fish..With the Ouctopus hooks I find you don't need a real hard hookset, if you use the Owner hooks.. Once you start gettin bit on a dropshot, you'll feel different bites, find ways to fish it, and hopefully catch more fish when the going gets tough..just my 3 cents.

Hmmmm, I think the rod and reel are sexy... Very nice..

Glad that worked out for ya ....as for line, I have all my reels spooled with Yozuri Hybrid Ultrasoft, in mist green and clear, not to say other lines won't work..Izorline xxx is fairly good to.

Clear your cookies, and restart your pc..that almost always works for me..

Bunch of guys here in so.cali have those, complete with sonars, rod holders..pretty much the works..The neat thing is, they can go where boats can't..Sorry for the OT Paul..

Welcome ..I'm sure if you ask in the proper forum, these guys can get you on fish..There's more info re: bass fishing than anywhere else..enjoy your stay.

Nice post Paul.. I'm one of those that will fish regardless of what the conditions are, lighting not withstanding..I fished yesterday, was cloudy, a 8 mph wind, slightly humid, the BP was 29.89 and falling, supposedly a falling bp causes a fishes blader to expand, causing the fish discomfort, anyway, I got skunked, where I normally catch fish. So, does the bp come into play, or did the bass feed earlier, or later that day..?