Bankbeater

Siebert Strike King Bitsy jigs Booyah

I fish some ponds that look like that. I've found that darker colors work better. Black/blue, grape, black, and junebug. If there is a lot of sunlight, and I'm fishing less than 3' deep I will go with green pumpkin.

3/8 oz swimjig, or a spinnerbait.

Congrats on the catches. That is a beautiful fish.

I've had days where I've lost a bunch of baits. Makes me glad to get home and do some chores.

I fish a lot of small ponds that are between 5 and 10 acres. These waters see daily anglers that fish for whatever they can catch, and bass in these ponds have become extremely wary of baits over the years. I try to fish with bait that other anglers aren't using. I usually use 1/8 jigs and crankbaits but not over 1/4 ounce, 4" and 6" plastic worms, 4" and 3" Senko style baits. I fish the plastics weightless if I can get away with it.

Since the body of water is clear of vegetation, the bass can see farther. Because the topwater bite is over I would try a mid depth crankbait, or shallow running crankbait. If that didn't work I would try a lipless crankbait, spinnerbait, or bladed jig. I'd let them sink to the bottom and then work them back slowly.

I use 15# Big Game on all of my BC reels except the punch rig. If the info on the website is accurate the diameter is about .015". I've tried the 20# Big Game, but I felt that the number of bites went down, so I switched back to 15#.

I have a 5500c3, 5600c3, and a 5600c4 from back in the mid-90s and early 2000s. They get rotated in and out of the lineup. I use them for punching and fishing for cats. Those reels are built to last and will probably be used long after I'm gone.

R.I.P.

Around here it's a spinnerbait. I don't see a lot of A-Rigs being used.

I like a 1/16 ounce bullet weight with a craw. I try to fish it at the edge of the rocks where the rocks meet the actual bottom.

That looks sharp!

Have a good trip and stay safe.

I worry about the wind speed, air temp, and what is on the weather radar. Around here, if the conditions are right the weather can change in a split second.

The sound of the sun and wind breaking up the ice on the surface of the water.

The sound of the bottom of the boat dragging on a submerged stump.

Usually what happens in October is that there might be one or two days when I'm on the water and I can catch a bass every other cast. The rest of the time all I'm doing is practicing casting, and pitching. If I'm lucky I will catch one or two bass during these slow trips.

We keep the house clean. My wife and I learned that from our parents. I have given up trying to keep the dirt off of the car. If it doesn't get dirty driving to the fishing spots then the birds will use it for target practice.

My dad was born in NE Arkansas at the start of the great depression. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 83. He grew up dirt poor out in the country where everyone knew each other and helped each other out. He never met a stranger that he did not consider a friend, which I learned isn't always a good thing. He taught me how to fish, hunt, and get along in the great outdoors, but we always seemed to do more fishing. I am grateful that he passed that love of fishing on to me.

It depends on the size of the rocks I'm fishing around. Fishing around gravel I will probably be using a little bit of everything. Fishing around chunk rock like on a dam I will be using more weightless plastics, shallow running crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. Baits that will not get hung up so easily.

That is fantastic news! Glad she is doing better!

Congratulations!

Glad she is getting better.

Around here a t-rigged worm fished on top of matted vegetation with a steady retrieve is a bass producer. I've never tried putting a bend in the worm.