CoBass

Started using blade baits last year and love them. The vibration is awesome and the flutter on a drop is hard to beat. Popping them off the bottom and letting them flutter like a spoon works great in really cold water and working them faster like a lipless crank can be deadly on more active fish. They are a killer walleye bait too.

My feelings exactly. I fish to relax. Around here anything over 3 lbs is pretty respectable and DD fish are almost unheard of. I'll take dozens of 1-2 pounders with a 3 lb kicker any day over getting skunked. I have a few friends that throw big swimbaits exclusively. They catch 20 or so fish per season in the 4-8 lb range with lots of skunks in between big fish. In the same time period I catch closer to 1,000 fish in the 1-3 lb range with a few 4's thrown in the mix. I like my numbers better.

Most of my bass fishing is done on smaller ponds. I have 3 within 10-15 minutes of my house that I hit regularly and another dozen or so a little further away that I go to several times per year. Most of the bigger lakes/reservoirs around here are geared towards trout and walleye fishing so when I hit those it's usually when I feel like taking a break from the bass and chase those species for a change of pace.

Happened to a buddy of mine at a local lake that is notorious for clueless pleasure boaters. He was trolling and another boater cut about ten feet behind him at full speed catching both of his lines and spooling them in just a few seconds. Luckily the ranger saw what happened, chased the guy down, wrote him a ticket and threatened him with a laundry list of other charges if he didn't pay my friend for his lost line and lures right there on the spot. Guy got a quick education on how expensive lead core line and lucky craft lures are. My buddy whipped out his phone, went to BPS website and showed him the prices right there. Two spools of line and two LC pointers cost the guy $100.

Always good to see someone who is willing to go the extra mile to right a wrong. We have a local lure company that will replace any lure for any reason and you don't even have to return the lure you had a problem with. He will usually include a freebie or two just to keep his customers happy. Needless to say his company is very well respected among the local anglers.

Float n fly is an awesome cold water technique for all black bass species. You can use baits other than hair jigs too. There is a local pond I fish that is fed by an underground aquifer. They set it up so the water is pumped in through a small waterfall. In the Winter when every other body of water is iced over there is always some open water where the waterfall spills into the pond (the water from underground is a constant 50 degrees year round). Throwing a 3 inch curly tailed grub under a small float and letting it move along with the current from the waterfall produces bass all winter long. I have caught fish out there when the air temp is in the single digits. It's pretty cool being out there with steam coming off the water and the fish when you catch them.

For the trout in the lake I would go with inline spinners (Mepps, Panther Martins), smaller sized crankbaits and jerk baits, or something like a kastmaster or daredevil spoon type bait. Last week we got into some nice 18-20 inch rainbows at a local lake throwing blade baits with a steady retrieve. The bass weren't cooperating so we went after the fish that were. The same baits should work in the stream as well or you might want to go with a fly and bubble set-up. Smaller nymphs and egg patterns work well here in the Fall and Winter. I fish for bass until ice on and then hit the rivers for trout until all of my bass ponds thaw out. If you want to go the bait route, a smaller sized baitholder hook (sz 8-10) with a split shot or two a foot or two above it with either a chunk of night crawler or some salmon eggs can be very effective. Cast upstream and just let it tumble downstream along the bottom. Keep enough tension on the line to detect strikes and set the hook as soon as you feel the hit, don't wait or hesitate, trout won't hold onto a bait like a bass will. Lighter line is a good idea too, trout can be pretty line shy. I never go heavier than six lb mono or floro with the drag set accordingly. Trout can be a fun diversion in the Winter months, but for me they're just something to do until ice-off when I can go back to bass fishing. Good luck and have fun, if you find some actively feeding trout the action can be really fast.

That pretty much sums it up in my neck of the woods too. Plenty of guys who don't own a scale holding up 3 pounders and claiming they weigh 5 but the legit 5 pounders are not very common. In all my years of fishing here I've only see one double digit bass caught and that was on private waters.

I used to work in downtown Denver and there was a woman who would sit there with her young daughter asking everybody for money and giving the "poor,homeless, single mom" sob story. I found it odd that you would never see her once the weather turned cold. That is until I went to visit my parents in Phoenix one Winter and saw the same woman and her kid using the same sob story down there. She was making enough money panhandling that she was able to spend her Winters in a warmer climate and then come back to Denver when it got too hot in Az.

Never been to long Island but when I want to find smaller, out of the way waters to fish I just use google earth. It's easy to use and you can just scan around your area and zoom in on any small bodies of water. I have found tons of small ponds that hold nice fish doing this. Some of the ponds have a bunch of dinks in them but if you look around long enough you will find some really productive, low pressured waters.

I'd rather look goofy while catching fish than not look goofy while getting skunked.

I hear ya Greed. Washington doesn't have a monopoly on stupidity when it comes to fisheries management. In the ten years that the Colorado DOW has been relocating or killing those fish the population of native fish hasn't gone up one bit. The Yampa river used to be a premier smallmouth and pike fishery. Now you're lucky if you catch a few decent sized fish a day out there. And they are protecting trout because none of the trout in that river are native species but they don't kill them, just the smallies and pike. At least Washington is only removing limits on fish they don't like. Colorado is shocking, collecting, and killing the fish they consider undesirable.

The one thing I haven't heard mentioned anywhere is how stupid it was for Jennings to even attempt to catch that ball. As a defender in a hail Mary situation you are taught to knock the ball down, not try to intercept it. If Jennings had simply swatted the ball to the ground there would have been no way any Seattle player could have caught it. Plays like this are the exact reason you don't try to intercept the ball in the end zone on the last play of the half/game. It was a horrible call by the refs, but if Jennings had done what he was supposed to do, there wouldn't have been a call to be made.

I'd leave it alone if I was you. You have access to a nice private lake and stirring the pot could get that access revoked. Next time, don't forget your pliers and don't let the old man near any of the fish you catch. Besides, can Fish and Game really do anything about it? I don't know how things work in NJ but where I live Fish and Game doesn't have jurisdiction over private waters.

The danger from asbestos comes from breathing it in. The land you were on has probably been identified as having asbestos contaminated soil. If it's in the soil it could become airborne and be inhaled. Eating fish from the pond wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as being there on a windy day. If the levels are high enough for them to post warnings, I would find a different area to hunt and fish if I was you.

I do a lot of shore fishing too. I approach new water from shore the same way I would from a boat. Look for points, drop-offs, weed lines, submerged rocks or timber or any other irregularities that look like they would hold fish. I usually start off working shallow and move towards deeper water until I find the depth that's holding fish. In general, I will stick with the same bait for thirty minutes or so before changing. Fifteen casts to one area before switching or moving seems a little quick to me. If I'm convinced that an area I'm fishing holds fish, I will work it until I hook up. Sometimes persistence pays.

Almost every lake in my state has stocker trout in them. Very easy to catch using bait or artificials.

Papajoe hit it on the head. Even though he's an adult, he will be doing something he's never done before. The things you take for granted, casting, accuracy, hook sets are all going to be foreign to him. Having you right there to offer tips and assistance will help a lot. If you do decide to go with artificials, keep it simple. Spinnerbaits and lipless cranks can be pretty easy as far as being simple cast and retrieve baits. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Me too. I was fishing for brook trout way up in the Rockies and had that weird feeling like I was being watched. Looked up and there was a mountain lion sitting on a rocky ledge on the other side of the creek looking down at me. When he noticed me looking back at him he just casually got up and walked away.

Most of the larger waters where I live are managed for trout and or walleye so if I want something for the table those are the species I target. Most of the bass fishing I do is on small ponds where keeping legal sized fish (15") would have a negative impact on the fishery so I release all bass I catch. Like others have said, there are other species that taste better so for me keeping bass isn't even a thought.

FISH ON!!! sometimes followed by %#$% FISH OFF

As mentioned above, depends on where you live. Around here (Colorado), 1.5 - 3 pounders are the norm. Anything over 5 is considered big and double digits are very rare. Our state record is 11-6 and it's been on the books for 15 years. Northern strain + a short growing season isn't a great recipe for growing trophy sized bass.

The carp around here jump completely out of the water. Not sure what they're doing but if you go out to any lake or pond around sunset you'll see plenty of airborne carp doing their thing. They're not the Asian carp either, just regular old common and grass carp.

No way I would stop fishing because of West Nile. West Nile is getting a lot of coverage on the news but in reality, the vast majority of people who get seriously ill from it are either elderly or have compromised immune systems. Most younger/healthier people who get it either wind up with very mild symptoms or in a lot of cases they show no symptoms at all and don't even know they had it. To put it in perspective for you, Maryland has 12 reported cases and only 1 person actually died from it. That's 12 people out of 6,000,000 or .000002 percent of the population. Stop worrying and go fishing.

I completely agree with you on this. When I go online and read the news from my local newspaper and television stations I just shake my head at the number of errors I notice. Making mistakes while posting on a forum is one thing, but I expect a lot more from people who are paid to write. I guess proofreading and editing are lost arts.