Andy B

Guys, Thanks all for the welcome. Took today off to go hit some local ponds. I am over in the northwest part of Houston, a little place called Cypress. We did not too bad considering the rain that we had this week. No boat for this poor immigrant, so restricted to ponds, lake shores and the occasional trip to the coast for some surf fishing. But still luv to fish.

Howday Y'all Well that's what the locals tell me to say. Been over here about 9 years now and luv to fish for Bass, Crappie or anything that I can get to bite. Probably been pulling them in now for about 7 years. Got a couple of decent rigs, a 5 year old Curado Bantom SF bought new, and just a couple of months ago treated myself a new Revo STX. Enjoy both of these reels, but the Revo is super smooth....might just be the age and extended use on my "old" Curado.....but still a great reel. Anyhoo....enjoying this forum very much and looking forward to learning and helping.

That's a great link.....just saved it to my fav's....thanks I have always just rigged the swim baits with an offset hook, the same way I would with a worm rigged Texas style. If you find it too light then I would add a small split shot a couple of inches up the line. Seams to work OK, just need to make sure that the hook opening is wide enough that when the bass bites, the hook comes through the swim bait to allow for a good hook set.

One thing to do is ask around - 1.5 pounds maybe a decent fish in that 2 acre pond if the pond is fairly new. If lots of structure, then running a worm, weedless, rigged Texas style is as good a choice as any. If the pond gets lots of fishing pressure, then the bigger fish may already be wise to a lot of the artificial baits, so triggering a bite will become more of a challenge. You could try some floating rattle traps that should keep you out of the structure if you are worried about getting hung up. Maybe some minnows, if nothing else you might find that the pond is stocked with some other interesting fish.

Had the same prob about a week ago no matter how often I threw on the bed.......nothing. :-/ Wasn't till I switch to a jig rigged with a craw-bug (pretty big rig) then I finally got the bite. Ended up with two caught and released and two missed within about 50 mins (seemed the two that I missed just wanted to pick the bait up and move it to the side).

I always have a pack of 3" Berkley Power Grubs in a pearl white color, rigged on a small 1/8th or 1/16th oz roadrunner. Bass hit them all the time and if the bass aren't hitting, then the crappie do. Great little bait For finesse on a budget, I like to use Zoom Trick worms in watermelon green or Pumpkin seed brown-ish rigge Texas style with or without a weight (depending on how agressive the fish are). Been using these natural colors for a few years and they always produce.