Hamby

Oh man...nice thread to post since i caught a gigantic one this weekend. I'll post the pic in a sec. 7 FOW in the green cabbage on a finesse flipping jig fishing for bass. Popped it out of some weeds and she hammered it. Last week i caught a 24" on a swim jig in 5 FOW. Best thing about fall and spring fishing...never know what you're gonna get.

Basically just a big party haha. The females swim up really shallow, and the males rub up against their bellies to knock the eggs loose. So it just looks like a bunch of fish thrashing around in the shallows. No nests.

You guys have no carp down there that spawn? The carp at my lake spawn for a few days at varying times depending on the part of the lake. For a few weeks, it's easy to find a shoreline that looks like a warzone of fish.

Just try throwing something that isn't often thrown and a bit different from the usual tactics. A friend of mine rants about swim jigs all the time. I was confident that the d**n things couldn't work better than a good old pitching jig around docks. I was wrong. The fish in my lake rarely see a swim jig under docks and that made all the difference.

Snagging them on bass rods during the spawn is FUN!!! Tie on a treble hook with a weight about a foot up the line and pitch it over their backs. These are just 8 that i actually landed. I had them taking me under docks and everything. Lost many more.

I'm a college student also. I fish out of a simple 14ft aluminum deep-v that got handed down to me a couple years ago. All i've done is put a trolling motor up front, and built a small deck in the nose of the boat. Simple. Even my boat is affected by the small piece of 1" plywood up front, and it has a 40hp on the back. Not so much with one person in the boat, but it's noticeable with another. I've gotten about 60 days per year on the water with it over the past 3 years and i'm content without all the extras.

I got a 30 on the act and had a 3.18 average gpa. Not much in extracurricular activities. Really, I could've gone to any state university I wanted to without paying a fortune. I'm going to a liberal arts college and i'll likely average about 7-10k a year out of pocket, all expenses included. It costs right around 40k a year to go to my college. I thought i did pretty good. Initially i was pretty worried about it all considering that i'm receiving no help from my parents. This semester i took 3500 in loans and had $500 left over after tuition and books that i'll be receiving. Same next semester. Next year i'll end up taking about 5000 in loans per semester.

With the standard drop shot hook, it can kinda roll sideways when it hits something if you finesse it past the snag.

I'm hoping i get to fish a couple times in november but the boats and gear are 3 hours north at the cottage so when the weather gets cold i don't bother. Kinda hard to get up there without a car. Been riding the motorcycle up there all summer and into fall. Been wearing snowpants on the bike lately haha. Never gone ice fishing, but i hope to pick that addiction up soon. I'll be back to bass fishing once the weather is nice again. If i do get up to the lake and it's a bit too cold for the bass, there's always crappie!

Haha...got me. I HAVE to keep my gpa up when i start college next semester. I can't afford it without the scholarship i received.

I started doing something like this last year and it's very accurate, fairly quiet, and good for shooting the bait in tight places. I have to use two hands though...otherwise there's no accuracy. I say "shooting the bait" in places because that's exactly what it looks like i'm trying to do. When i do it is kinda like a regular side arm or roll cast, but i start with the rod pointing where i want the bait to go and end up with it around the same place. You have to feather the spool to keep the bait low to the water too, otherwise you won't have as much accuracy. What i need to practice is the backhand cast like that. I think it requires more strength in the wrist. My friend makes it look so easy. He slides the bait into places no problem.

Sounds like a crappy job you have...but the pay is good for an 18 year old. I'm 18 and i work for the motorcycle rider program in my area. I could never have a part time job because i go up to wisconsin so often. With the motorcycle course i get to choose when i work, i get 8.50 an hour, and i only work during the weekend. Works for me! I get to go up to the cottage for the first two weeks in june, then i have to come back to work the last two weekends in june. Same thing in july. I work about 24 hours each weekend i choose to work, so i still get plenty of money to fuel my fishing addiction.

I have great scores on my ACT....still struggled with spanish. I don't think that has anything to do with it lol. Quite after spanish 2.

My dad and grandpa love fishing...but they like the easy fishing. For a while at our lake the crappie fishing was unbelievable. Some of the best in the state. For many years we'd simply drop our lines over the side of the boat, let the wind push us across the lake, and watch our ropd tips. We could easily pull in our limit of crappies doing this when the fishing was good. I dunno about the rest of you guys, but that's only fun for so long. I learned how to fish for bass from the neighbor, tv, just experimenting, etc. I've learned an absolute TON in the past 2 years just fishing with some awesome guys. Neither my dad nor grandpa ever had any interest in much of anything other than soaking some minnows. My grandpa is getting too old to be fishing, and my dad is too busy with work.

I fish a jig very often. I rarely catch a fish under 12 inches on one though. If you're not catching many quality fish, then that's probably why you can't catch one on a jig. A jig is definitely NOT about numbers though.

+1 I borrowed a canon that had this. One of the lower end SLRs, probably a rebel. Was a very nice camera and i envied the flip out screen. What i do now is try to memorize where the tripod is and always stand in the same spot. Works most of the time but that flip out screen would be nice.

I caught a walleye in june, in 3 FOW, in thick weeds, on a buzzbait. Top that one. The fish didn't hit it as the bait landed in the water either. It was nearly to the dock and he hit it like a bass. It's actually quite common to catch walleye up shallow this time of the year.

My boat stays at the cottage. I only fish one lake.

You know what sucks more? Fishing line in the trolling motor. Not only do i have to be angered by the littering, but i also can't ignore it if i wanted to.

Had a little pike put a big treble of a large jointed rapala through the back of my finger. Had my brother freaking out when the fish was flopping all over the place while attached to my hand and i was telling him to grab the fish. Finally came off and swam away leaving me with the lure. The skin on the back of my finger is so stretchy that the fish didn't push the barb all the way. It didn't hurt at all though...i didn't feel a thing. Didn't bleed either. Surprising since i thought that fish was going to rip the back of my finger wide open with all the flopping it was doing.

You're welcome glenn. I'm sure you're wondering how you got to where you are without the wealth of knowledge you now have after reading my post.

Got a new pack of rage craws...boy do i love the smell of those things! Makes me want to brew up some coffee. Sorry...just had to share that.

Same here...but only if it's legal and i don't plan on fishing anymore. Sadly my lake has special regs. One fish over 18", and a no-culling law in wisconsin makes it worse. If that fish goes in my livewell, there's my limit and i can no longer fish for bass.

You can pitch and flip with spinning gear. Flipping is the same with spinning gear...pitching is harder though. For pitching with your first BC reel you're gonna want to pitch something heavy. 1/2 or 3/4 oz jig with whatever trailer you want will probably work well. I personally like to pitch a 3/8oz jig with varying trailers. Then change the weight depending on conditions. If i need to make further pitches, if it's windy, wavy, i'll increase the weight. If the fish are a little slow, i'll pitch something lighter to give them more time to look at it.

You stiff them? A bit too much info, don't ya think? I got heavily outfished by a buddy of mine using the same color senko. His had coffee scent though. I switched and began catching fish. Happened a few times later that year when i'd put on a new senko and stop catching them only to realize it wasn't the coffee scented one. Only happened with that one color though. Didn't happen all the time, but it's probably just like any other thing. Sometimes the fish want it, sometimes they don't.