AndyPlaysDrums

Pics for reference, as I had to load them up today for the wife and the kid.

MOST recently (within the hour), I forgot salad dressing on the way to work. So, I made sure I got salad dressing. Bait monkey has me real bad lately, though, highlighted by buying a kayak last week. It's all been downhill from there as I reinvigorate myself on bass fishing after some years of unweighted soft plastic laziness.

I just bought a Lifetime Teton 100. It fits in the back of my Hyundai Santa Fe fine with the hatch partially open. I use a camlock strap and run it through the hatch latch ring, then through the kayak handle loop (though I will be adding actual hardware loops shortly), then through the hatch grab handle. Pull the hatch down and cinch the strap. The kayak only sticks out about a foot and a half and the hatch is down far enough that the backup camera is still functionable. I can even put a second kayak on top of it if I need to.

Hold on tight!!

Find success with the jig. Numbers, so that I grow confidence in my choices and knowledge of patterns

Read this thread last Sunday afternoon and thought, "Hmm, this has never happened to me." Monday morning, fishing for smallies at a local pond and there's another guy there drowning nightcrawlers. Nice guy, we chatted and fished, and while he was telling me there was nothing biting, I could tell I was playing something that was likely sitting on a bed just out of sight. After a couple losses, I finally catch it. He comes over as I'm taking the hook out and admiring this beautiful 2lb. class smallie and says, "Can I have it?". All he had to put it in was a net, not even a bucket. I was like "Really???". I said there was no way in hell that I was going to take a spawning smallmouth out of that pond, and I put it back. He took my spot when I was leaving and said he'd keep it if he caught it. Fine, not my control, I guess...

Agreed. There's no negative to trying whatever you think might work. I agree with all the topwater suggestions, too. My addition to something to add to your arsenal would be lipless cranks like Rat-L-Traps, Strike King Red Eye Shads, etc. A 1/2 oz. is great, especially if you're fishing from the shore.

You and me both...

Don't have gators up in our neck of the woods, but I could see myself having to get used to that. However, the other morning, while at my current favorite hole with my four year old, I was talking to a guy just off shore in a canoe who informed me that the afternoon before there was a black bear cub and mama standing right about where we currently were. He said the mama bear didn't much like him being on the water in the canoe! I've gotta' get a boat...

I made the mistake of putting too heavy of a flouro on my plastics spinning rig the first time, and was way frustrated. I didn't know the problems I'd have putting regular Berkely 20# on a 2500 series Cabela's reel. For this year I've gone to BPS 8# with some KVD Line and Lure, and it's fantastic!

This is exactly what I was thinking I needed today as I was throwing into pads!!

No, definitely not the same! I thought about it all night, and went straight back there the next day. Caught another one on a Baby Brush Hog, which was also my first Brush Hog fish, so I was very pleased with that. I'd really like to get out there on a 'yak or a small boat, as I'm sure they'll be deep soon.

Indeed, thank you for your service! Those bass should just have to jump right in your boat after having to be over there all this time!

Yeah, a couple years of it actually! Although, right now I'm on on as good a streak as I've ever been on. I'm not getting big fish, or even lots of fish, but most trips the last few weeks have not been for naught. Today, I caught a couple dinks, and I'm cool with that. I was more pleased that I got my first real jig bite today, and that I know what that feels like, and that I made a smart decision on a cast to a suspect looking stump and immediately got hammered. I snagged hard on what must've been an underwater branch and didn't end up with the fish, but I was still pleased that my knowledge and decision got me a good solid bite.

Caught a pair of somebody's boxers today.

Caught my first smallie today! It was a total surprise, in a pond I would've never thought would hold them. But what a great fight! I now understand why you guys love catching them so much!

This year, for the first time, I took up trout fishing in some of the stocked streams we have around. These are the haunts of the "pros" that fish for about a month and a half a year. It's appalling the amount of garbage left around some of these beautiful stream spots that are basically in the woods. And I don't know what gets to me more, that d**n night crawler/meal worm containers and lids all over the place, or the miles of line strewn about. Just this past Tuesday I was at one of these spots, when all of the sudden my line stopped reeling in. I thought I was snagged but then detected just the slightest pull on the line and realized I had a stick or a fish on. I reeled my line in to discover a small stick caught on my hook at the end of my rod, but then realized there was still line going into the water. I was greatly confused for a second until I grabbed the line going into the water and started pulling it in by hand. On the end of a mess of line was a beautiful little rainbow trout with a hook WAY deep inside of it. With my hook, I had caught this small stick which, in turn, had yards and yards of line wrapped around it and a poor fish on the end of that! I'm thinking someone must've snagged, just cut their line and moved on, leaving a baited hook free in the water, and this little guy took it. I cut the line up to the eye of the hook and put it back in the water and it swam away ok, but it was still a disappointing sight to someone who cares. The frustrating part is that this stream is not at all big, and it probably wouldn't have taken too much maneuvering to de-snag that baited line. And no, I did not count that as a fish caught!

I'm with you, so far, on that.

Going to try this this year, as well. How far up the line were you tying the hook?

I have a Cabela's Tournament ZX, which is Daiwa made, and wouldn't hesitate to buy another. They're $70 normally, and on sale pretty frequently.

Cabela's Tournament ZX, especially when on sale.

Connecticut keeps trying.

Haha, in a custom lumber mill I used to work in, it was tradition to send the new guy over to the moulder department to ask for a "Moulder Punch". One sore shoulder later, and I was initiated!

Nice! Congrats!

This. Seeing it work, trying it out and having it work for yourself is the ultimate confidence builder.