Red Bear

that is awesome, what do you use for bait to catch those?

heres how i would find out. use a small hook and night crawler to catch a tiny blue gill. hook the blue gill through the back part of his lips and toss in the water near the bank. if a bass doesnt come looking for the struggling/jerking blue gill to eat it, then there probably not any in there. when i do this, if there are other blue gill around the one i have hooked the bass just seems to know which one to go after, it knows something is just not right with that blue gill. atleast this seems to work well in ponds for me anyways.

sweet, i went to college at NC State. its about time they won something

i had a zebco 33 until earlier this year, a no more than 1lb bass hit it so hard and stripped the gears on it when i was fishing a pond. i got the fish in but couldnt stand it slipping and grinding so called it a day after a few more casts. but my shakespeare tiger spincaster has been great to me and never given me problems. i actually consider it my lucky pole. i put 20lb stren on it and it will cast everything from light weight to heavy weight lures. i do plan to buy something to replace my 33 though as i cant stand seeing the empty rod without reel where i keep my fishing stuff. maybe the 33 platinum or 733. i also own a zebco 808 combo i use for catfishing at night, got 25lb trilene big game line on that...

its very much worth it to buy a license and have it and possibly never get checked for it than to not buy a license and have to pay a lot more in fines if you do get caught

i tend to agree that it doesnt really matter what equipment youre using, but its more how you use it. you can catch just as big and as many a fish using a coke bottle set up as you can a $500 rod and reel set up. i was getting skunked on a pond last night and it was getting close to dark, i was about to pack up and go home but then talked myself into throwing out a kinami/yamamoto flash red shad again and WHAM! first cast i throw out, let it sit about 30 seconds a couple of jiggles using the rod and a nice 2lber grabbed it, i set the hook and brung her in. it was the confidence that i could catch atleast one bass before leaving that kept me there, and the confidence i have in red shad colored plastics. i had thrown that the first half hour i was there and couldnt even get a hit on it, but i just knew that it would still work and produce me a fish.

NC has some great lakes, ive been dying to get down there this summer but it hasnt worked out for me yet, but me and my brother in law are planning a night of fishing on gaston lake and a night on kerr lake. you should also look into falls lake. i dont know if this is going to help you any, as im not familiar with the real estate in NC, but i do know there is some great fishing there, especially at gaston and kerr. dont know how true it is, but when i was a kid i heard stories of some divers studying kerr and said there were catfish in there big enough to eat humans...

is that the shakespeare rod you recently bought? seems to be working well for you if it is

i think they will be fine if you just let them dry out.

sounds like you need better line ...or maybe just loosen that drag up

Fish Chris is my hero, lol. the guy should have his own fishing show...

the thing about fishing on top of algae/grass is you may not get the desired/intended action from the tail of the lure until it drops into water, im not sure, but im thinking a bright color and patience may be the key in this case. mine is called a tournament frog, its weedless and a double hook is built in, chartreuse color. and unless its really far out on the pond i can lift my rod tip and make it hop across the algae like an actual frog. im not gonna recommend brands and colors though, because like i said above i dont have much experience fishing frogs, mine is cheap and im sure there are better ones. im just noting what worked for me the other day and i personally was thrilled to finally figure out a way to get to the fish under the algae and grass without picking up 10 lbs of it reeling back in. and if you start seeing ripples around your lure under the water, hold tight and watch out, youre probably about to get hit. oh and make sure you leave a little slack when youre letting the frog sit there, so the fish can run with it when it takes the frog under and it gives you another second or two to prepare to set the hook.

does this mean youre changing your name to mrultralitetackle?

no matter what you use youre going to pick up some of the weeds and algae in a pond like that. i fish one frequently. your best bet is gonna be a weightless t-rigged worm or a top water frog. i just found out about the frog being a good choice tuesday evening on that pond, its not something ive used much. the pond im refering to can get pretty tough/annoying with all the algae floating around on top, the best fishing is when the algae is spread out over the pond everywhere because that means the fish are spread out too. you just have to pick and choose your holes where to cast. when all the algae is on one side of the pond all the fish are under the algae keeping cool and it would limit me to casting along the edge of the algae and hoping to draw the fish out. but that all changed when i finally tried my frog there. i just throw it right on top of the algae and let it sit a couple minutes. then slowly start moving the frog in a little at a time stopping to let it sit and repeat. and try to direct it through any 'holes' in the algae and let it drop into the water at those spots. the fish will come up and get it even if they have to go through the algae. the biggest problem i have with this is the fish missing the d**n frog altogether, or they will come up to get it like a second after youve moved it at the spot you just moved it from...just be patient and remember to let the fish take the frog under before you set the hook, or be prepared to dodge a flying lure coming back at you lol

actually i have one of the shakespeare tiger combos. i picked it up on the fly a few years ago when i was without rod and reel and the opportunity to fish came up. i dont know what it is, but i have incredible luck with it and it will cast and handle anything i throw, i ripped all the prespooled line on it and i put 20lb stren on it and it casts lightweight stuff fine for me too. the drag is getting a bit weak on the cheap reel but i always said i would use it till it broke, then put a much better reel on it, because i really like the rod

good luck on your trip, you should be able to catch some fish during the week. the weekends are really tough, and holidays are nightmares. there are definately some nice fish in SML, it gets so much pressure in the middle of the summer though, fishing can be tough. in the craddock creek area of the lake you will see a light house(right around the corner from the dam), across from that you will see a cove in a no wake zone with a ton of sailboats and a huge boat dock with a green roof behind that. my uncles lake house used to be there, but he moved to a new spot and put that up for sale because they allowed that big green roofed dock to be built and it blocked off the whole view of the lake. someones palms were definately greased to get that thing built, but anyways, there were constantly big bass back in there, they would be swimming in groups of 2-4 mostly. my aunt even caught a striper off the dock back in there and had it mounted. plus over the years we hauled in a bunch of nice catfish. my last time fishing there i pulled in a 20+ lb catfish. even nice white perch and carp came back in there. that cove was loaded with fish, i even caught a musky fingerling back in there haha. and all of this came in the back of the cove. good times =]

my 6'6MH shakespeare rod just happens to be my favorite. seems ive caught more fish and bigger fish on it than others i own. ive seen it bend like a "U" and never had a problem with it. it just proves to me that in some cases expensive isnt necessarily that much better(in many cases it is though). i paid $20 for the rod and prefer it over the berkley rod i own. i hope yours is as good to you as mine has been to me...

typically its grass carp, not common carp, that are sterile. This is because the department of fish and wildlife puts grass carp in a body of water for weed control. Don't ever kill a grass carp because they are there for a purpose, and you are just killing the money you spent on your fishing liscense. Common carp are ok to kill though. to be honest, im not sure what kind of carp they were, i released them regardless. i was more curious about the sores two of them had...

youre not lying about it being like I95 backed up. the water was real choppy saturday and looked like it was boiling. i felt like i was on the roughest jet ski ride ever instead of in a boat. it even makes night fishing from a dock tough. i know an old man down there who wont even fish on weekends because it gets that busy out there. i didnt even have any luck with the catfish. i did manage to catch a PB carp on a night crawler. i think the best time to go there is in the spring and then fall when there is less recreational use of the lake going on

i think all the recreational activity on SML in the summer affects the fishing. i was down there this weekend for the 4th of July and it was insane with all the traffic on the lake. i typically prefer to go in the spring and fall. i had decent luck there back in mid may and early june. if i could get my uncle who has a house there to take his boat out more i probably could give you some tips, but thats like pulling teeth. i havent seen much in the way of lillipads and grass patches there, some of the coves have good vegetation but the water is shallow in those spots. a lot of people fish around docks and banks that have rock lining the shore. there are also plenty of spots with fallen trees in the water. SML is pretty big and i havent seen the whole thing so i dont know too much.

i caught 2 carp around that size and 1 bigger, night fishing off a dock at smith mountain lake this past weekend, apparently they were hungry for night crawlers. i would have never guessed either weighed 10lbs though. when i set the hook in the biggest one, it was like setting the hook in stone, there was no give other than my drag popping when i first set it. it was a fun fight and the thing was jumping when i got it near the dock. two of them had sores on them and such, like a bass does when its bedding. do the carp reproduce in SML or are they sterile? anyways, bow fishing sounds fun, id like to try it one day

nice fish, i had an old push button zebco 33 i would use for pond fishing till earlier this year, a 2lb bass nailed my spinner bait and stripped one of the gears in it. i did manage to get the fish in, the reel is trash now though lol

thats awesome, i cant wait till im a father with kids old enough to fish

thats great. hopefully its something that will stick with him and carry over to his kids

haha at the broken rod, funny how things work and you go out and catch your pb smallie on it, congrats. you should really invest in some needle nose pliers though, much easier to fit in a fishes mouth