BigJohnny

A friend of mine has a pond (probably about an acre) that is full of bluegill, catfish, and bass. I have fished there twice and got shut out both times. Today I threw just about everything I had in my tacklebox at them and nothing. I had one hit a buzzbait but I couldn't hook into em. You can throw a handfull of dog food into the water and all hell breaks loose on the surface, there are tons of fish in this pond and they just won't eat anything I try to feed them. Is this typical of small man made ponds?

I feel insecure about my fish now

I'm using an Abu Garcia silver max for reference Typically I have the mag brake completely off, or on about 25% with very little spindle tension and I usually don't encounter too many backlashes. Yesterday I went out and I backlashed on every single cast until I had the mag brakes up to 100%. As soon as I backed it off I would backlash, even if I increased spindle tension. Anybody have any thoughts on why that is? There wasn't too much in the way of wind either. This is only my second time out since I respooled with 12lb P-Line CXX. The first time I had a similar problem, and with the feedback I got on the message borads I took some line off the spool. It did help a bit, but hardly. I have only been baitcasting for a few months, but I am extremely confident with mono or braid. It just seems that all of my headaches started when I made the switch to p-line. I really don't want to waste all that line, but do you guys think I should make the switch back to mono or braid, or do you think it's more fundamental than mechanical?

I hooked into my would be PB a few weeks ago, I had it within two feet of landing and it shook the hook at the last second. I didn't yell profanity, I was too busy crying.

I was wondering the same thing, at the 3:48 mark it looked like 6 or 7 fish broke water at the same time.

I have also considered trying a drop shot rig with a 3/8 ounce weight. Any thoughts on that?

I was catching weeds with my sinker on the c-rig not the hook. I will probably try going to a lighter weight. The problem is that I fish from shore so I'm already limited on spots I can fish, and there seems to be heavy vegetation in every part of every lake I fish. I usually produce with texas and weightless rigs. Like I said, I'm just trying to learn some new techniques.

I fish mostly texas rigged plastics, but I've been trying to spread my wings and try some other techniques (particularly carolina rigging and shaky head). I catch ten pounds of weeds on every cast. Is that a sign that the spots I'm fishing may not favor these techniques or is it a pretty common problem that you just have to deal with?

I'll take some line off and see if that cures my illness

An Abu Garcia Silver Max, it's rated for 160yds of 12lb. I usually spool slightly under

I just spooled my baitcaster with with aproximately 150 yds of 12 lb P-Line and took it out today. I had overruns on every single cast. The part that puzzled me is that I wasn't really getting birds nests, it wasn't knotting up and I was able to pull it out however it was going very deep into my spool. I was pulling out probably 40 feet of line before it would clear. I haven't experienced these problems with any of the other line I have used so I was curious if anyone had any similar experience or if anyone might know what could be causing this.

Citica D's were on clearance for $50 here since the beginning of summer.

I use an Abu Garcia Silver Max which is pretty close to the Black Max and I love it. It was my first b/c and it didn't take me much time to learn with.

I'm not complaining, I was just curious. I do most of my surfing late at night when most respectable folks are in bed sleeping and I've been caught by it mid post a couple of times.

Does the forum go into "maintenance mode" every night, or just every night I try to surf the forums late at night?

$22 is kind of pricey for a beer bong

Wouldn't stainless be less likely to be effected than aluminum?

I appreciate the generosity guys, but I'm not looking for a handout. I don't regularly use that stuff I was just in a pinch. I was just wondering since I had never used mono on my baitcaster before. BRB-At walmart buying trilene

They probably have pee pee bottles similar to the ones found in hospitals

What ever happened to writing a good old fashioned business letter? By the sound of it if half the people on the board who had a bad experience with them wrote it might be enough to get them thinking.

I toss mine out into the garbage can and use no retrieve. All I get with tubes is frustrated.

Everyone else has already given good advice. One piece of advice I am offering is concentrate on being smooth. It's not about how hard you cast, it's about how smoothly you cast that gives you distance. It's all in the wrist.

I second the motion on the jig video

I keep an extra spool of cheap line around in case of an emergency (zebco $3 for 700 yds) and I have it spooled on my baitcaster right now since I don't have any money to buy more line. I usually don't have any problems with it the first time I use it however, the second time out the line always has lots of memory in it and backlashes every other cast. Has anyone else experienced it? I don't know if it's because I'm using bottom of the barrell line or if it is simply because it's mono (I have never used anything but braid on my caster)

Thanks for the help. The links helped answer a lot of questions.