Bluebasser86

Mine was the sinking model. I know they don't last forever but I was hoping for a few more fish at least. They have great action and the fish I caught crushed it.

I got some of the Gulp! spray to put on my homemade jigs because the skirts put off a plastic smell at first. That spray has a strong crawdad smell and if it doesn't make a difference then I just spray it on at the perfect time. I can think of a couple times off the top of my head that the fish seemed to ignore our baits until we sprayed them with Gulp! and started catching fish. I've never been a big fan of spray scent but if that stuff doesn't help it sure doesn't hurt anything!

Big red ears are a challenge, they seem a little pickier than other sunfish. I know what you mean about not being able to catch them when you're planning on keeping them. Seems like anytime I catch a few crappie or walleye and decide to try to keep it and catch a couple more to eat the bite stops!

Crappie never seem to be good for a pond unless that's all you want in it. I'd take a bunch of crappie and smaller bass out and maybe talk to the pond owner about stocking shiners or fathead minnows.

You might try a big, dark colored worm with a light weight at night. Big jigs and single colorado bladed spinnerbaits can be good too.

Sounds like it would look kind of like this, http://www.***.com/Stanley_Y-Not/descpage-STYNOT.html only without the ribbing on the legs.

If the hook is in the right place you can always go with the push it the rest of the way through and pinch down the barb option. It hurts a little more but it's not hard to do. I don't think barbless hooks loose that many more fish. I think it's mainly giving fish slack line that gives them the chance to shake loose. Your right about those shots, they suck!

Braid is too expensive and unforgiving to teach a kid to fish with IMHO. He's going to get some tangles that probably aren't going to come out and you'll have to cut them out. Mono makes it not such a big deal. Plus he'll be less likely to rip the hooks out of a fishes mouth with the stretch in mono than he would with braid.

Crankbaits are just another tool in the toolbox. With that being said do you want to have to break loose a rusty bolt with a bargin bin pair of dollar pliers, or an impact wrench? Not saying that cheaper baits don't get it done, they'll outfish the expensive baits sometimes, but expensive baits are built better. The vibrations they put out, the sounds they make, the finish and details on the baits, it makes a difference for sure. Get a good lure retriever and retie often and you won't loose many. Someone was saying on a different thread a few days ago how expensive is a crankbait really? Say you buy a LC Rick Clunn 1.5 for $15, a good chunk of change for one bait. You catch hundreds of fish on that one bait and have it for 15 years before you bounce it off a rock and break the bill. That bait cost you $1 a year and put tons of fish in your boat. It really works out to make "expensive" crankbaits cheaper than a bag of plastic worms if you think about it.

A small spinnerbait like a Strike King mini king or a wacky rigged senko are 2 of my favorites to teach kids how to fish. Some need to be doing something constantly, they get the spinnerbait. Others seem to be a little more patient and will at least let a bait sink, wacky rigged senkos work great because you don't have to do anything, just let them sink, and when they reel in and a fish is there they don't even have to set the hook! Not a big fan of giving kids treble hooks, I've been hooked on the backcast enough times with single hooks, don't need to have that many more chances to get hooked!

Stable conditons and prefrontal conditions seem to be good for me. I haven't noticed a big difference in moon phase or anything. Time makes a difference though. Seems like about 8-midnight is good and then it drops off until about 3 or 4am when it picks back up again until the sun comes up. Most of my night fishing is for flatheads and blues but channels should react about the same I would guess.

As with every week my friend and I were making fishing plans for Tuesday on Monday. I could tell he had something on his mind so I asked what was up. Turns out his step-son and all his friends had gone to camp for the weekend, minus one who got left behind because his parents wouldn't let him go. No real reason, they just didn't want him to go. My friend said the boy was really upset and he thought maybe we'd have room in the boat for one more on Tuesday. I told him I'd be more than happy to have another person on the boat and we were going to the perfect lake for him to tag along! Well they showed up at the house at 4am and I probably got thanked half a dozen times by little Bradley for taking him fishing before the truck even left the driveway. My friend had stayed up late teaching him how to cast a baitcaster and he was really excited to get to try using one out on the lake. We had pretty good conditions and I started catching fish right away, on my first cast actually. I put 5 or 6 in the boat on a buzzbait, popper, and jig before I thought maybe a spinnerbait would work. So I switch Bradley over to a spinnerbait and told him to casts across a rock pier. He was almost back to the boat with his bait when his rod slammed down and he put his first fish of the day in the boat! Not a monster in size but in meaning it was. It was his first fish ever on a spinnerbait. Then he picked up his baitcasting rod that had a jig and started testing the waters. He did pretty well casting and even managed to pitch with it fairly well. We got to the end of the next pier and I look back to see him fighting another fish! He swung his first fish ever on a baitcaster and a jig in the boat! Again not a monster but a good fish anyways. We went on to catch between 50 and 75 fish between the 3 of us, nothing huge but lots of solid fish around the 3 pound mark with an even 4 pounder I caught on a crankbait being the biggest. My friend caught his first ever fish on a swimbait and I caught several on mine to help build some confidence. Bradley ended up with 16 fish on a spinnerbait, jig, and even one on a swimbait! Not bad for an 11 year old. I almost felt bad when I told him we had to go at the end of the day. I did feel good on the way home when he was already talking about next time we go fishing. I don't know if he will ever be as consumed by the passion for fishing that I feel, but I am certian after this day that there is one more kid out there that is hooked!

I've caught plenty of fish out of very clear water on mist green P-line, doesn't seem to bother them at all!

Anyone have any experience with them? I bought one and it looked great in and out of the water. Reel it just right and it fished just below the surface throwing a slow wake like an injured sunfish. Caught a couple fish with it so I know it works. Problem is that fish number 2 decided to jump and my bait tore in half and flew back at the boat, leaving me with the weight and a piece of the head . Did I maybe do something wrong? The only thing I could think of was maybe the heat while the bait was in my bag before I tied it on softened the bait up real bad? I really liked the bait and would like to get another one but I can't afford to spend $20 on one bait if I can only catch a couple fish on it!

I've caught them on crappie jigs and small crankbaits but not plastic worms that I can remember. My dad caught one on a #7 shad rap while he was trolling that had it so deep only the bill was sticking out of it's mouth. They are great fighters and a ton of fun to sight fish for with small jigs and light tackle. I landed a 12 pounder on a 1-4lb test rated ultralight with 3 1/2 pound test with a 1/100 ounce jig sight fishing last fall in a small stream, it was a pretty awesome experience.

I've got a bunch of St.Croix rods and really like them but I also have some Shimanos and like them a lot also.

I would be another member of the gut hooking club if I waited for a 5 count to set the hook. I set as soon as I feel the fish and don't miss many fish. It's possible they're just small fish that are biting. If a bass isn't big enough to suck in a 4 or 6 inch bait I really have no interest in catching it anyways.

My favorites are Shimano for both but I have fished with and owned many brands and have liked several of them very much. I just like to stick to a certian model reel so each one I pick up is the same so I don't have to make those first couple bad casts while I relearn all that is unique to how each reel works. I've just always fished Shimano and had good success with them and until I get a reason to change I plan to stick with them.

Well I haven't made it back to the lake I was describing but I did get to another lake with similar water clarity and tore them up on a swimbait! Nothing huge, 3 1/2lbs was the biggest on a swimbait. I think maybe the conditions were just right with the wind blowing into the pocket we were in with lots of baitfish on the weedlines. We were just using straight retrieves and they would engulf the whole bait, even the smaller fish would. I'll just have to keep throwing them and maybe after a little experimentation I'll get the fish at the lake I was describing to eat them!

Personally I like to try to find things that look or feel familiar to me, like the bodies of water I'm trying to fish. I'll study a map and try to read what I can about it and use that to the best of my abilities. If there isn't a lake map then I get on google or bing maps and look at them on there. I've found lots of underwater bars and humps doing that along with hidden ponds that are connected to the lake. I'd fish the same baits I'd normally fish with the conditions I find. I'd probably start trying to cover a little water to see if there is an active bite because they just finished spawning and then slow it down if I don't find active fish. I'd be looking for fish to be on secondary points or pockets in potential spawning coves or maybe still in the coves if there is good water/cover/food availiable.

We have been having really good luck with the pit boss and craw fattie the last few weeks on the texas craw color I think it's called. They've been pretty durable for me and for $3 I have no complaints other than 8 of them in a bad doesn't seem to get me through a day on the water.

You can also download the fishing atlas on KDWP's website but I like to have my own so I can have it with me when I'm looking for a pond. I usually try to find them on google or bing maps because they can be really hard to find with just the atlas!

Great story and it looks like you had a blast! Too bad you didn't get that monster in the boat but just gives you a good reason to go down there and try again!

Maybe a front had moved through and the air pressure changed. Your picture looks like you had bright bluebird skies and calm water, that's just going to make for tough fishing. If that's the case I'd either go really slow finesse fishing or speed it up and look for a reaction bite with a crank or spinnerbait.

When I was in highschool I had several friends that would go fishing but they really weren't that in to it. I had a couple of friends that were pretty into it but they were both actually younger than me. Now that I'm a few years older I have lots of friends that fish with me and I almost never fish by myself. One thing that I found that is if you buy a boat you will all the sudden have people wanting to be your friend and go fishing with you that you never talked to before.