Bankbeater

Small reel, light whippy rod, line is 6# or less.

I start out the trip fishing with 3 bottom contact rigs. One bottom jig, one Texas rigged, and one spinning rigged up for finesse fishing. Most of the time, this will change depending on what happens when I get to the water,

I fish with them mostly in the fall and spring when the bass are wanting to chase. I work them past brushpiles, and any submerged vegetation that I can find. I'll burn the bait back for a while and then slow it down. I keep doing that until I get it back in.

Most years around here the bass want to chase baits from ice out until late spring. Around the middle of fall or so they start wanting to chase again. In summer you have to draw them out of the cover, or punch the baits down to them. Last fall my top 3 were stickbaits, spinnerbaits, and jigs. Most bass were caught in the deeper parts of the lakes and ponds. This past spring it was spinnerbaits, plastic worms, and stickbaits. I had my best luck fishing in dead lily pad beds. Fishing summertime, Jigs, jerkbaits around 3" to 4" in length , and inline spinners caught the most bass. I was fishing them in and around vegetation.

Sometimes private lakes aren't so private. It depends on the owner of the lake and their willingness to let people fish on the property. I fish a lot of pressured water and the bass will start to recognize certain things that turn them off. It may be the bait, it may be the presentation, or it may just be the amount of boat traffic on the water.

I cleaned my round reels some years ago. I started taking the reels to a local baitshop after I bought some new low profile reels. I started cleaning them again when the shop started charging $40 per baitcaster and $30 per spinning reel. One thing that I did was to take an old Revo apart and mess around with it to get familiar with how the parts fit together. Also, the forums here on BR were a source of assistance when I had a problem a few years ago.

I'd start off by fishing the grass. I'd also keep using what you have been catching them on and throw some crankbaits and lipless crankbaits into the mix as well. You might try fishing with different sizes of the baits that are working. Sometimes around here the bass will turn up their nose at a 1/4 ounce crankbait, but choke a 1/2 ounce version in the same color.

If it's only three months old I would contact Daiwa.

I found this Rapala Deep Diver 90-7 in the mud yesterday. The hooks are rusted off, but the paint looks to be in good shape.

If your using a Bitsy Flip, then you will need to trim the weed guard back away from the hook a bit, and sharpen the hook so that it is sticky sharp.

Some good tips in this video, thanks Glenn.

Crappie will go after shad and small minnows on the surface around here. Bass usually make a bigger splash than the crappie.

I would change locations. You may have caught all of the bass out of that one location that were willing to bite.

Good job @FishTank! It looks like a brand new reel.

Thanks for all you have done over the years. Enjoy Retirement.

I don't like anything over 6'6". Sometimes those are too long.

Ultravibe Speed Craw.

I hate fishing lilypads. If your hook gets stuck in one of the roots, then your done.

I was finally able to get out fishing again yesterday. Fished for 6 hours I managed 8 small bass. Most of them came on a 1/8 ounce jig worked through the coontail.

I'm in hay fever season.

That is amazing. I wonder what type of forage is in that water.

Years ago I spooled on the Stren clear blue and the Stren golden line. These days I use Big Game green most of the time. I've had fish sit and stare at all three colors, but this seems to mostly in water that sees a lot of fishing pressure.

Most of the time around here the bass will bite craws better than creatures, but a creature will work if the conditions are right. Earlier this year when we had high water from all the rain, a Texas rigged Super Hog fished in the flooded grass was the ticket.

Sweet!

I fish with chartreuse, black, or a crawfish color with a lot of orange in it. Most of the time around here they are near some type of cover.