Big Country

I picked up the blue back shiner, but have yet to fish it. Detail is fenominal, let's just hope the fish think the same thing. I'm anxious to see what kind of wobble it'll produce while in the water.

I like the Strike King KVD series spinnerbaits, with either the colorado/indiana blades, or the double willow blades. And the fact that all of these spinnerbaits automatically come with a trailer hook makes them hard to pass up. They're always good for 2 or 3 bass in the boat on my trips to the lakes here in GA.

I was two. My dad and grandpa had taken me to a farm pond and upon arrival were working hard to set up my zebco snoopy rod and reel. I became bored, grabbed a stick and started walking along the edge of the pond. A short time later I returned to my dad and grandpa, and with their backs turned I asked, "Is this how you fish?". They turned around to see me holding a blue gill. They both looked at eachother, a little puzzled at first, but once they saw the stick in my hand they realized what had happened, lol. From that point on I was hooked, no pun intended. My dad taught me the basics of fishing and I grew up fishing with him, but always using live bait (minnows or worms). When I was 8 I went camping with friends of the family and we stopped off to fish one day at a lake I can't remember the name of. This was my first time fishing with lures, and I used a good old jitter-bug...all day long!! I only had one bite all day, but that one bite is what gave me the fever. I fought for a few minutes and ended up with my first ever largemouth, and it just so happened to be legal size. I was so proud I came home to show it off, but refused to lip it b/c I thought the teeth would cut me, lol. That was the start of my want to become a better bass angler. At 10 years old I went trout fishing for the first time with my uncle. A new kind of fishing, that I was horrible at!! Didn't even have a bite the whole first day, but my uncle went out and limited out in about 2 hours. I ended up quitting and just sat and watched what he did. I wanted to do what he was doing and I was determined to catch a trout! A few months later I was at a sports show with my dad and they had a trout pool that you had to pay to fish...for 5 minutes!! All I had was a hook and a piece of red metal just above the hook. I jigged that thing for all I was worth and I ended up catching my first trout. From then on I fell in love with trout fishing. At age 11 I went ice fishing for the first time with my best friends dad. A day later and a cooler full of fresh crappie, perch and bluegills and I was hooked on ice fishing!!! Fast forward to my jr year of high school. Dad comes home and starts to tell me of steelhead fishing in the creeks flowing into lake erie. It sounds like a blast and we both decide to go. I use my knowlegde of trout fishing and apply it to steelhead's. I fish hard all day and see 100's of fish, but only come back with one, which I thought was a monster...When I open up the cooler there's a 10 pounder sitting in there and there's dad with a big old grin on his face! Afte that I couldn't wait for the fall of the year, when I knew the steelheads would make their move up the creeks. At 18 I had graduated high school and was working full time. I didn't do much else except work, so my days off found me at Lake Arthur in PA. I mainly fished for bass, but always enjoyed getting into some crappies. Then one night while fishing for catfish I hook into something that takes me for a ride!! After 30+ minutes I land a nice 8 pound hybrid. After that I was hooked on fishing for stripers and hybrids!! Now I'm 27 and living in GA. When I'm able to I'm at a body of water fishing, mostly for bass, hybrid and stripers, but I don't limit myself to just that. There's no telling what the future will hold, but one things for sure I'll always want to fish. And now I have the opportunity to pass it on to my son, who's now 3. Hopefully the tradition will carry on

Hey all, I'll be coming home to visit my folks for 10 days at the end of June and wanted to know if there's anyone fishing Lake Arthur right now. It's been at least 6 years since I've fished it, just wanted to know what's been hot up there this time of year. I always did fairly well with crankbaits and carolina rigged worms, and usually caught LM and an occasional hybrid. If anybody's got any helpful info it would be appreciated. I'd like to get my 2 year old son into some bluegills if I can locate a good school of em too

I too am the one sitting at the back of the boat when I go fishing with a buddy of mine, and have run into the same dilemma on occasion. For me it comes down to a few different things. First is the condition of the lake, is it clear, stained, cold, warm, ect. If its stained and cold, from rain, then I know the fish are going to hold tight to cover and casting accuracy is going to be key. I'll pay close attention to where my fishing partner casts, then pick a different spot to cast to. Sometimes this could be 15 ft away from his cast, somtimes it could be less than a foot away from his cast, just depends what I feel. I'm always thinking, "will that spot hold fish, or will it be empty?". And we could be throwin the exact same bait, but if the fish are holding tight they may not take his bait, but they may take mine, even if the cast is only a few inches off. If the lake is clear and the water is warmer then it's anybody's game. The fish in the lakes we fish tend to roam a great deal more in warmer, clearer water. Post spawn is fairly unpredictable. We could catch fish throwing to the bank or we could catch fish throwing into deeper water, its very random. Second is presentation. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes my fishing partner and I throw the exact same bait, and sometimes he catches fish and I dont, or I catch fish and he doesnt, and it really just comes down to how each of us presents the bait. Even though the baits are identical his bait could look completely different to my bait when seen by the fish just b/c of the presentation. The great thing about our fishing adventures are we both could care less who's catching the fish as long as we're catching. And if one of us gets hot we let the other in on what we're doing and we also take turns casting into certain areas, but I'm sure our situation is unique. It might be a different story if we were tournament fishing or something.

I know for me it's catching any fish in water deeper than 6'. One reason being b/c I have no boat, but even when I fish with someone in a boat I've never got a bite in deeper water, no matter what kind of lure I use. I hope to refine those skills though b/c I feel its crucial in the overall effectiveness of my fish catching abilities.

I surely appreciate your offer to fish from the back of your boat and in the future wil take you up on it, but I will have my 2 year old son for the holiday weekend so I'll have to pass on the monday fishing. I do hope to go fishing with him though, we'll just hit up a little private pond here in WR, hopefully I can put him on some brim or shad. He doesn't care what's biting as long as it's on the end of his line, lol. And when I do make it out to the PFA I'll be sure to look for that white Triton

Wow, must be nice living so close to the Ocmulgee PFA, and to be able to fish it from a boat is even better!! I live in Warner Robins so for me the drive isn't too terribly bad, but its when I get there that the fun begins. I'm always trying to locate fish and that requires a ton of walking when there is no boat, lol. I haven't been that way for a few months, how's the bite right now? I was thinking about fishing it sometime during the long weekend, but that will be dependant on the weather :-?

I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but I use Diamond Illusion line, 12# test. It is by far the best mono I've used on my baitcasters or spinning reels. It's super smooth, super tough and I can cast most baits a country mile. If you're looking for an excellent quality mono I highly recommend trying it. Only downfall is it can only be bought at Bass Pro Shops.

I too had this problem with mine, and I throw a lot of lighter cranks when I fish docks after dark. At first I was using 12 lb test mono and I could feel the line wanting to backlash and my casts were fairly short. I was also trying to throw the lighter stuff with a MH rod, which also cut my casting distance down a bit. I now throw my Code using 15 lb braid using a M action rod and no longer have problems throwing lighter baits. And if I know I'll be throwing into some thicker stuff I keep my MH rod on hand so it's not hard to switch up. Hope this helps

Oh yeah, it's my go to rod when throwing spinnerbaits and cranks. And I absolutely love the feel, every wobble of the crank and every spin of the blade

I too, fish with a Code and have no complaints. I can cast just about anything with it and have had very little backlash, actually I've only had one and it was 100% my fault b/c I forgot to set the reel after I had changed baits. I can't speak for the rod b/c I use a Pro Qualifier from BPS with my Code, but if its IM8 graphite I can't see how it would be bad. I mean it's not the best graphite blank out there, but its not the worst either. For $120 I'd go for it.

My choices in that price range would be the St. Croix Mojo (already mentioned), Johnny Morris Signature Series BPS rod (which is on sale right now), Rick Clunn Signature Series, or a Shimano Compre. I can remember when I switched from spinning gear to baitcasting and I know one thing that helped me out when I first started was using a Medium action rod. It allowed me to throw crankbaits and spinnerbaits a bit easier than a MH, but once I got decent with it I bought a MH rod and fish mostly with that now b/c my style of fishing has also changed. I use to fish more open water, and now I fish a lot of structure. Don't know if that will help, just my $.02 ;D

LOL, sounds like good times!! I myself tried marrying one of the "local girls" but found out a few years down the road that that wasn't the best choice I've ever made and am now learning that the hard way :-[, but at least I've got plenty of places to fish from to occupy my time!!

Welcome to my world, lol, as i am in the same boat!!! There are plenty of places to fish, but almost all of them require a boat, and for us that's not a good thing. There is one place I've found that is fishable from shore, but at the same time its a very tough place to fish, and that's the PFA in Bleckley County, GA, just outside of Cochran. It's fairly new and they still have a release only policy for Largemouth's but when you do hook into one it's usually a 6+ lb fish, so the average is very good!! They've implemented a lot of atrificial structure for the fish and left a lot of standing timber in the resevoir so it's definitely a haven for big fish. Other than that the only thing I've done is found a few private ponds and got permission to fish them, plus I have a friend that has a boat, so I really don't go more than 2 weeks or so before getting out on the water. Let me know how you make out.

In my experience with crankbaits of any kind I've found that when a fish strikes at it there's not a whole lot the fisherman has to do, as long as the hooks are sharp. 9 times out of 10 the fish I catch on crankbaits usually end up hooking themselves, and it's not unusual for me to accidentally foul hook fish either. My last trip out I had white bass wanting to bump my Rapala Glass Rap, but when they did they ended up getting a nice, sharp barbed treble hook in the side. I caught 3 fish in this manner, and not b/c I wanted to. My advice...try to find that fine line where your crankbaits run just over the top of those weeds and wait for those monster bass to come up out of them and hammer you lure!!! 8-)

Yeah, my fishing partner and I saw a few different area's, mainly back in a few coves where the shad were spawning. Had a few hits or fish bumping a crankbait, but no takers. I hope to make it back up to either lake during the upcoming memorial weekend. And I'm sure everyone else will be there as well during that time, lol.

LoL, I had made that suggestion to my fishing partner, but then second guessed myself and we ended up going underneath that bridge, to the other side and ended up with nothing. I'll keep that spot in my mind for the next time though, guaranteed!!

I have and fish with a Quantum Code and so far I'm very pleased with it. I will say though that when I was looking to get it I handled 3 of the exact same reel before I took the one I did. I've found that it doesn't matter which company you ultimately decide to support, whether it be Quantum, Shimano, Pflueger, Diawa, ect... They all tend to have bad reels that slip through quality control and it's always best to test them before you buy them. But the Code I now fish with is very smooth and does surprisingly well with lighter baits too. I've got 12 lb mono on it and have yet to catch a fish that will take out drag, so I can't say how smooth the drag is yet, but I hope that changes before the summer's out 8-)

Made it back up to Sinclair to fish the full moon Friday night. Fished from sunset until about 2:00am. The only time the fish bit was when they pushed water through the plant, and that was at 10:00pm, after that things just shut down. I'm thinking I'll have to pick up some of the JJ's Magic that has been suggested. I've heard a lot about it, so I think it's time to give it a try. Even though I'm not catching many fish I continue to learn something new about the lake every time I'm there. One of these days I'll be able to fish Oconee and Sinclair and know what I'm doing, lol.

Wow!! Thank you so much for these tips, I will surely try them on my next trip up there. I'm a northern boy, use to rock bottom, crystal clear lakes, so Oconee and Sinclair really threw me off b/c they're always stirred up from the water being pushed in and out of the plant. And my approach thus far has been WAY off from what you mentioned. I've been trying to focus most of my attention to the standing timber areas and shallows, not even trying the docks during the day. Now I have fished the docks on Sinclair at night with great success, but will have to try it during the day as well. Once again your tips are greartly appreciated.

Anyone on here fish either of these lakes. I just recently started fishing them, but haven't had very good luck. A few hybrids, not of notable size, and a few barely legal largemouth are all I've landed. Any tips that might help put a few more fish on the end of my rod would be great! Oh, and the go to bait has been a T-rigged Ribbon Tail Worm, but I've thrown everything in the tackle box at them...

Thank you all for your opinions and input, it really helped me in my decision. I went to Bass Pro and got my hands on the Pfluegers, Quantums, Brownings, Johnny Morris Signature Series, Pro Qualifier, and a few Shimanos. The overall winner ended up being the Shimano Symetre 2500. I thought it was unbelievably smooth, and it felt really good just on the demo handle they had at the store, so I'm sure it will feel even better once I get it on a rod. I'm looking to pair it with a St. Croix Tournament Series Elite 6'6" MF rod. Can this reel handle braid? And the only reason I'm thinking about running braid is for the sensitivity. The fish have become light biters and it's getting hard to detect strikes >

I've got plenty of baitcasters, but only the lone Penn spinning reel, so I was looking to get at least one freshwater spinning reel to add to my overall fishing tackle, although I have had my eye on a Curado for a while now I'm also partial to steelhead fishing in northern PA when I travel home in the fall/early winter, so this new reel will also be used for that, so the drag system will also be important when making this purchase.

The reel I am looking to get will be for freshwater fishing only. I have a Penn Captiva that I bought last year and it had replaced an old Pinnacle that I had been using, but now that I am getting into saltwater fishing a bit more I wanted to use the Penn only for saltwater b/c it's a bit bulky for freshwater fishing. My main target fish for freshwater are Largemouths, Hybrids and Stripers. Sorry if my original post was a bit confusing as to whether or not this reel I'd like to purchase is for fresh or salt water.