BassDeaton01

Congrats on a good top water day. (most exciting for me as well) I would definitely check your line though. Also, what kind of knot are you using. I tie a palomar on almost everything. That knot is very easy to tie and it is very strong. I've been stuck on logs before and actually reeled my 8' pond prowler boat to the lure. Also learn to shake the rod tip with a little slack in the line and the majority of the time your lure will come off of what it is stuck on. It will save you a lot of money.

My daughter turns four in a couple of days and she absolutely loves to go fishing with dad. I swear she asks me almost every day if I want to go fishing! Her attention span is pretty short right now and I try to make the fishing trips we take more about her fishing than me fishing. Right now I have her set up with a push button rod, bobber and night crawlers. I really want to get her casting so I can tie on a small spinner or a top water that she can just reel back in. I feel that fishing with a bobber when the fish aren't biting really bores her! But if she could throw something out and reel it in, even if the fish aren't biting she will still be interested.

Holy crap that is an awesome fish!! It just goes to show that you DON'T need a 50,000 dollar bass boat to catch hawgs! Congratulations!

Awesome fish! Congrats on the new PB. I'm a catch and release guy but that would sure be hard not to hang that one on my wall!!!

Simply awesome

Congrats on your first bass. Definitely won't be your last! Just keep at it!

I am going on an all night fishing trip to Lake Wylie this weekend and I was reading about the Jitterbug yesterday. I was in Wal-Mart last night and decided to pick one up. Unfortunately they didnt have black so I got the darkest color they had. It is the green with the yello dots...looks like frog colors. Will this work at night?

Ok maybe the females yall are talking about aren't as talented as my wife. She peed in a mountain dew bottle when she was in a traffic jam one time. Didnt spill a thing!

I'm actually going smallmouth fishing for the first time this weekend. I'm going with my father-in-law and he told me he is wanting to go to a creek near his house to get some hellgrammites to fish with. We're going to the Broad River in SC I believe. I'm not too fond of live bait fishing but he swears that these bad boys produce size when it comes to smallies. They look really weird. They have a pincher for the head :-X

I would...and I'm sure they do. I mean those guys put their pants on just like us in the morning. WAIT.... I have watched a video of KVD pitching a jig into his closet and pulling his clothes from the hanger while simultaneously jumping right into his clothes ;D...come on! Ok I took that a little too far.

Glad to hear your canoe is doing well! She was probably text messaging. I hear that experts are saying text messaging while driving is becoming more of a hazard than drinking and driving. Not saying drinking and driving is ok...just that you should probably not text while driving.

Yeah I saw something on the news a few weeks ago about how bad the burmese python problem in FL is becoming. Those things are huge!!

I successfully quit drinking a year ago but I dont think I would enjoy bass fishing while drinking IMO. Never done both at the same time. I think that there is a place for drinking and it is not anywhere near a bass boat. I think there is too much concentration involved with bass fishing to need to worry about having a beer. Just my personal opinion.

I'd say give it a shot. You say that there is cover there so I assume bass would find that to be a good ambush spot. 2 feet of water is definitely not too shallow.

Oh ok I was trying to let the bait sit there and float. So a steady reel back to the boat will keep this thing on top? And I will give it a try on the bottom as well. Thanks for the help guys. It seems like an awesome bait and I want to learn it.

I bought some rage tail frogs the other day after watching the video on them from this website. I was dying to try them out so I went to my local pond last night and boy was I disappointed. Not with the bait...but with myself. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but the frog keeps sinking. I thought this bait was a topwater bait. I'm using a 5/0 EWG hook and rigging it T-rigged. What am I doing wrong to make the bait sink?

ok i fell kinda stupid. i looked at how much line was on the rod....wow! was it low! so i re-spooled it last night. thanks for the advice guys. im still bumping up to a better reel soon. im looking into daiwa reels. dont know yet though.

I try to stand as much as possible. I fish out of an 8' Pond Prowler and it took me some time to get used to standing in it. I have found they are pretty steady on the water. I feel I have way more control of my casts when I stand but I do alright sitting too.

The only dumb question is the one not asked. I'm sure I've annoyed some people on here with the "dumb" questions I ask but it is all part of the learning process and this is the place to get your questions answered. Good luck on catching your bass!!

Sorry that last sentence got messed up...trying to type too fast. I meant it is one's personal responsibilty to make sure that fishing does NOT split up their family!!

Rhino I completely understand where you are coming from. Especially with the divorce thing. I try to include my daughter and wife in my fishing experiences. My wife won't have anything to do with it and I sometimes feel guilty for always wanting to go. My daughter on the other hand loves to tag along to the fishing hole when I go. So in turn that gives my wife a break from having my daughter attached to her hip all day. I try to stay balanced so we dont run into any issues. As far as the lakes getting crowded and the fishing becoming pressured....there are so many lakes to choose from and there are plenty out there that rarely get fished. Unfortunately the ones I fish are heavily pressured and the fish have seen every lure thrown by their face. I think promoting the sport is good in some ways and bad in others. If it keeps kids off the street and people off drugs then we need to start promoting it more but it is one's personal responsibility to make sure that fishing to does come between families and split them up.

Sorry about that....the reel is a Zebco spinning reel. I may try taking it back but my wife will definitely be against me looking into new reels...lol. I may just get one and THEN tell her about it. I know it is just the quality of the reel and I need to bump up in quality. I was just wondering if there was a cheap way to fix the problem. Thanks though.

I probably already know the answer to this question but I am going to ask to see if there is a cheap way out there to fix the problem. I bought a zebco spinning reel from wal-mart a couple of months back...not expensive...prob 30 or 40 bucks. When I first got it, it seemed like it would cast way better than it does now. I can throw the crap out of this thing and it seems like the line isnt coming off of it right and it doesnt cast nowhere near as far as it used to. Is there anything I can check or do differently to make the reel cast better or do I need to go invest in a better reel. Thanks for any advice and sorry if I waste your time. Thanks. Also, I do a lot of finesse fishing with 3/16 and 1/8 ounce jig heads....could this be why it wont cast that far? I just remember when I first got it that it would cast a lot farther with those same jig heads on it.

Those things scare me too. I'm from western NC but just recently moved to Beaufort, SC. I am still trying to get used to sharing the water with these things. I try to keep my distance and for most of the time they will keep their distance from you. Last night one snuck up on me and was trying to stay hid in the water. It started getting dark so I high tailed it out of there! But one of my rods was on the bank near where the gator was...as soon as I got near the water the dang thing swam under the water so I grabbed my rod quickly and took off!! For the most part, as long as people aren't feeding them, humans dont really seem to be an appetizing meal but it is still smart to be careful and respect them.

I have a similar question to this post....I caught a bass on saturday and it literally swallowed the hook. It was bleeding through its gills and i started panicking trying tp get the hook out as quickly as possible. It took me about a minute but I finally got it out. I then release the fish and it swam off. Will this fish be ok since his throat was cut up pretty badly?