Bluebasser86

Wyandotte had 70 degree water this morning, you should be good at any lake you'd want to go to.

Hit the 'Dotte this morning from 6-11 and finally did really well, for numbers at least. They ate a bit of everything and only had one keeper but managed 29 fish, only one of which was a smallmouth. Was nice to finally kind of feel like I knew what I was doing out there.

I have caught one on a fly rod and it is a thrill. The bigger ones don't seem to feed off the surface as much and are much more difficult to catch.

Have yet to find a beer I like. Whiskey on the other hand

I'm a behavior modification specialist.

I feel for you. I've been at work since 8pm and won't leave until 6am. Good thing is when I leave I'll be getting on a plane to South Carolina to do some fishing and relaxing!

I think it would be real easy to call the local police in that situation also, at least around here they'll come for cases of animal cruelty. It's pretty much just a DNR officer issue until you start torturing your catch also. Most places have a catchall law that almost anything can fall under like criminal mischief. I know I wouldn't have been shy about calling them for something like that. If there is such a thing as disturbing the peace law in your area usually one of the ways it's described as is "anything that will cause shock or alarm in the general public." As long as you would be willing to sign as the complaintant and possibly go to court and explain how it caused you shock or alarm anyways.

1/2oz dark colored jig or a dark colored chatterbait.

Little dab of superglue or mend it around the nose will keep it from tearing as bad. The 6" is a great bait also and a little more durable.

Common Carp are also in the minnow family. Grass carp behave very differently though. I caught one sightcasting to one that was feeding on shoreline vegetation with an olive woolly bugger, only one I've ever caught on an artificial.

I bet I could toss it on my swimbait rod. The main head is probably 1/2oz or less, put 7 1/8 or 1/4oz heads on it and add the plastics and I'd be around 3 ounces. My Mattlures hardbass is 3.5 ounces and I don't have any problem tossing that thing.

That's what I guessed last week when nobody caught a keeper You're probably right though since I won't be able to fish this week.

It's not on your list but I'd go with a BPS Carbonlite in that price range. Super light and sensitive.

I guess I consider baits like a 1- to be more of a topwater than a crankbait but if you're talking super shallow a 1- or subwart are my favorites. A little deeper and it's a LC 1.5.

Crawfish will often climb up weed stocks to graze on plankton and will let go and flip away quickly if something scares them, sometimes for long distances. True your bait may travel way further than a craw could ever swim but the bass may only have been aware of it for a short distance so it still looks natural to them. Don't over think it though. Why does a fish eat a bright chartreuse spinnerbait or buzzbait, what does that look like that they eat on a normal day? They eat them, I know that for sure, and that's all that matters

Put some Megastrike on them so they slip through the fishes teeth without tearing as much and do what you can to keep the fish from jumping once they're hooked and they'll last a lot longer. We usually get around 10 fish a bait on one, sometimes close to 20. HSD-don't bother fishing them, they don't work. You can just send them to me and I'll get rid of them for you

I call them dorkfish after Bill Engvals skit about catching a fish with a bad overbite on a corndog. I'm sure if you fished a mini corndog long enough you'd catch one. I've had my heart broke more than once by one of the ugly things. They fight so much like a big smallie until they start to roll.

Wacky rigged senko or a shakyhead is what I'm usually going to fish in those conditions. Dragging a C-rig can be really good also.

All the above. Sometimes they're on the walkways, sometimes the ladders, sometimes the lifts, sometimes they're tight under the bottom of the dock, sometimes they're suspended 30' under it on the cables. Sometimes the foam docks are better than the plastic float docks. It's all up to you to be able to figure the pattern out on a given day. Don't always get hung up on just the docks either. A dock on a long, featureless flat will hold far fewer fish than one with significant structure, bottom composition/contour changes, or other cover nearby. One great trick I've found to find docks that have brushpiles under them is to look for rod holders on the dock because whoever owns that dock fishes from their dock. The best way to bring fish to their dock is to add cover around it in the form of brushpiles. I've found some great docks that way.

I fish 10lb Red Label on my shakyhead rod and my wacky rig rod at times.

Congrats man! You'll never want to be without one now.

Best reel at it's price point and a steal when they're on sale.

I let the fish do all the paint scratching on my baits

For me in this area it's a jig.

I hate to make it seem so easy but fish where there's big fish. Is it possible the ponds you're fishing just don't have many big fish in them? I know when I want to catch a big fish I don't go to the local lakes because there aren't many in them. I'll go somewhere with a good population of bigger fish to increase my odds. That may not be an option for you if you're restricted to where you can bike to though.