Marty

Look under my name for a picture of a Jitterbug, my favorite topwater.

In New York, a foul-hooked fish is one that does not have at least one hook point inside the mouth. Foul-hooked fish here may be kept, excepting trout and salmon. I agree that there may be some luck involved. However, I believe most foul-hooked bass struck the lure and for whatever reason didn't get mouth hooked. But the angler accomplished his goal and had his lure in the right time in the right place such that he elicited a strike.

I agree, I don't care where he fishes. He is an engaging, likeable guy and his show can be very instructive.

I would tend to start off with the fast movers. If you are fortunate enough to be on the water when they're active and chasing, then fast lures can potentially catch you a lot more fish. Last week my partner and I caught 32 keepers on topwaters, probably more than 20 of them within an hour or so. No way we would have caught that number if we were slowly dragging soft plastics.

I can't help you very much. But if you locate them, smallies will readily take a full variety of lures. So whether it's a crankbait, topwater, jig and grub, spinnerbait, inline spinner or whatever, if you're fishing a lure appropriate for the conditions, you stand a good chance of catching some.

I'm no expert and if I kept secrets, nobody would be hurting. The one thing I shut up about is small ponds that can easily be ruined if they received more fishing pressure, especially from the meat hogs. And if someone else shows up and asked how I've been doing, I'll tell the truth unless I caught some good ones, in which case I just say I caught a couple of small ones. I share this type of information only with my two regular partners and a trusted friend or two. I've seen too many small ponds go bad. All it takes is one fisherman at some places. A town park pond just two miles from home used to be a great place for quality bass. I've caught a few hundred keepers from it over the last ten years of so. What if I kept them? This place is only 13-15 acres. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of guys who DO keep quality fish and this little gem so close to home is now not worth a &*%$!! :'(

How can you be certain that they were bass that were surfacing?

Within the last month, I fished two consecutive Fridays with heavy rain. One day wasn't so great, the other was quite good on buzzbaits and Jitterbugs. So as long as lightning is not a threat, keep at it.

Will, There are some spelling and usage errors, which are an absolute no-no on resumes. That document should be proofread and corrected. If you want my help, that's fine, if not, that's fine too, but you owe it to yourself to send out an error-free resume. I presume sponsorships are not easy to come by; don't give any prospects an excuse for rejection for reasons which have nothing to do with your fishing or selling abilities.

In my neck of the woods, I consider a four-pounder to be a "big bass." However, while it is a very satisfying fish, it's not a bragging fish.

Predatory animals, presumably including fish, often capture a prey animal that is different from others in the group. Perhaps because it's slower, has drifted away from the main group, appears injured, or whatever. I'd consider using something that's not even close in appearance to an alewife, on the theory that it's more likely to be noticed by the bass and, hopefully, zeroed in on. Chartreuse may not be a bad color choice, as smallies like chartreuse, even though they'll hit all colors.

My partner has a 50HP Merc which developed a problem which forced us to cut our outing short today. In both forward and reverse, the boat would go OK at slow speeds (5mph maybe). But when he opened up the throttle, the motor would rev up but the boat wouldn't move. There was nothing apparent that looked problematic. Any suggestions?

There is little doubt that it will catch fish. But what do you have to buy? I'm always leery of having to purchase a "fishing system", as opposed to a lure.

Rattling Rapala.

Throw whatever seems appropriate for the conditions and the cover. For me, any lure that works in lakes also works in ponds.

Alternating twitches and pauses, and letting them sink next to cover or in holes in the weeds and at the edges. And every so often walking the dog when I want a weedless topwater.

Forget it, the guy's a jerk with a chip on his shoulder. There's not a reason in the world for him not to give you a civil answer in response to a civil question.

I agree with ww2farmer. Keep it simple. Some dark, some light. I usually fish soft plastics with two colors, black and pumpkinseed. Would I catch more fish if I used more colors? Maybe, maybe not, but I have confidence that the two colors will suffice.

It's trial and error, as you can't predict in advance what will work on any given day. But there are some general guidelines which you can start with. For example, slow-moving baits in cold water, topwaters under low light in warmer water. It goes without saying that the lure must be suitable for the conditions, e.g., no crankbaits in heavy weeds, to state the obvious. Confidence and personal preference enter into the equation too. Take a situation where you're fishing over submerged weeds that come to within two feet of the surface. That situation can be fished effectively with topwaters, spinnerbaits, a variety of soft plastics, shallow crankbaits, inline spinners, and perhaps others. You need to put in your time, experiment, figure out what works, what lures you have confidence in, what ones you enjoy using, and the like. After awhile, you'll find out the decision-making process might clear up a little. And don't forget that if you're in an area holding fish that are willing to hit a lure, much of the time there are multiple lures that they will hit. So you don't have to choose only one thing that will work, which is pretty fortunate, since many of us wouldn't catch anything if the decisions had to be precise all the time.

I bank fish a lot. If you have visible cover or structure, fish it thoroughly. If not, move around and cover a lot of water until you learn more about the particular body of water. Go often and try to be there at higher percentage times, like low light conditions. Don't rule out any types of lures, as fish can be caught from shore with the same variety of lures that succeed from boats. I'm almost always fishing weedy waters and i use a lot of topwater, shallow crankbaits, spinnerbaits and soft plastics. Good luck. P.S. I wouldn't count on using more colors as the magic bullet.

What do you mean by "knots in the line"? If you're talking about tangles, a possible cause is not getting rid of the slack and letting loops form. Try to take out the slack as you retrieve and if you notice any loops on the spool, don't cast until after you pull the line out by hand, past the loop(s) and crank it back in under some tension.

I don't know when. But I use duolock snaps (no swivels) all the time.

This is a question that comes up fairly frequently. A few years ago, on another forum, a guy answered by saying the questioner should check the wife's closet, count the number of pairs of shoes, and that's how many reels he can own. ;D

I'm not good at ID'ing weeds, but I'm trying to learn. I've been using that first site that Rolo recommended and have found it helpful.

I know nothing about smallies in your part of the world. However, in general, they are found in somewhat clearer, cooler and deeper water than largemouth and are not as cover-oriented. Rocks and rocky bottoms are good. Smallies are pretty pugnacious and will hit any lure that a largemouth will. Cranks, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, a variety of soft plastics, topwaters and others can all work well. They'll take any color but seem to be drawn to chartreuse a little more.