Bankbeater

I use to drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee every day at work. Now I have a cup of coffee before I leave on the fishing trip. The rest of the time it's water.

Depending on the time of day, I will start with a topwater or a crankbait.

I have some green pumpkin Yum Dingers with the chartreuse tail that I inherited. I've been removing the chartreuse tail and fishing them as a straight green pumpkin color.

Probably a KVD 1.5. Old School crankbait is the Cotton Cordell Big-O,

Good job breaking in the new rod.

I will either be carrying a Buck 110, or a Buck Ranger.

Warmouth. Around here they hit a jig and craw like a freight train.

I haven't taken the ML spinning rig, and the drop shot rig out of the basement yet this year.

Creme Scoundrel 6" Worm. Zoom Super Hog. Zoom Ultravibe Speedcraw.

Over the past two years Spooks have become my favorite topwater bait.

A few years ago I started changing up the presentation before I would change the bait. If I was fishing with a weightless worm, and getting no bites, I would add a split shot up the line. Instant bite magnet. Same with a jig. If the trailer was just hooked on the jig, I would pull it off and thread it on for a smaller profile. Made me think that the bass weren't so much remembering the bait itself, but what the bait was doing during the retrieve.

I had this happen to me one time while I was in the boat. I was mounting a trolling motor on a jon boat. I got up to go and get the battery out of the car and I was about 15 feet out in the lake. The boat slid right off the bank and I didn't notice anything.

Tackle, product reviews, and the cover and structure threads are the ones that I pay the most attention to.

I'd be working a crankbait, spinnerbait, or bladed jig along the edges of the weed beds. Look for spots where the weed bed ends abruptly, and the weeds form a vertical wall. There could be a change in the structure along the bottom.

I use Strike King Bitsy Flip jigs. I lose a lot of jigs throughout the year and these don't break the bank.

Welcome to the forums!

I don't think the ponds I fish have thermoclines. I usually start off by targeting weed mats on the surface this time of year.

If the water around the bank is open and clear I carry 3, if there is a lot of cover around the bank I carry 2 rods.

Yesterday the air temps were cooler, and it didn't get so hot in the afternoon. The water was still warm in the ponds, and the bass were not coming up on any topwater bait.

I currently have two Premier casting rods, and one Premier spinning rod. I had a Mojo casting rod when the first came out. No matter what bait I was using, or what reel I had on the rod, the Mojo always felt heavy at the tip. I ended up selling it.

3 Best: Weightless Plastic Worm Topwater Texas rigged craw 3 Worst: Crankbait Lipless Crankbait Jigs A complete 180 from last year this time.

Weightless Fluke Split Shot Rig with a 4" or 6" straight worm. Weightless Senko Texas Rig

Some of the ponds I fish have rip rap, brush, or vegetation growing around the water line. I usually start with a topwater fished up and down along the bank. When the topwater bite dies out I will switch over to a Texas rig or a jig depending on the cover around the bank. Later in the day I'll be casting out into the center as far as I can with a Texas rig or a crankbait.

Real original names here. Whitey 1966-1977 Blackie 1971-1982 Peanuts 1982-1996 Penny 1997-2008

If I am filling up a spool for the first time I don't use any backing. The mono from the first fill will become my backing. When I'm ready to add more line to the reel I just cut the line and use a small piece of masking tape or painter's tape to hold the end down.