Hyrule Bass

could be the shortness of the rod, i would try a longer rod...

the thing about senkos, fish will eat them on more than a fall or slack line. ive caught them while swimming my senkos slowly, or reeling them slowly across the bottom where the line is tight in both instances.

i like a drop shot around stumps honestly. may not sound conventional but it works for me. also like a t-rigged worm

12lb sufix siege mono. i use mono for all my bass fishing, no matter the technique

Berkley Red Shad Shakey Worms 5" and 7"

these kind of threads usually kill me though. theres always a group of people who think removing one bass from a body of water is going to destroy the fishery

I have prescription ray bans with coppertone polarized lenses, theyre awesome

i have never had that problem either. i get multiple fish on all my rage tail plastics. ive even flipped them upside down and fished them, torn some off the end to get fresh hook spots on a t-rig, and fished them with one claw or no claws where bass or bluegill bit them off and still caught fish on the rage craws and baby rage craws. but still, never just had a claw fly off on the cast...

how about getting a net with a 4 foot handle to get the fish out of the water and over the dock railing?

this has nothing to do with catch and release. not everyone are catch and release people, and not everyone has to be unless its regulated on a specific body of water as catch and release only or the states that have seasons and such. now if theyre not legal size then the person is breaking the law. in VA, where i do most of my fishing, i believe it is legal to use bass as bait so long as its caught by rod and reel. i couldnt find anything specific on the website saying it couldnt be when i looked in the past. also, for those asking. big catfish, namely flatheads, love to eat bass. a catfishing forum i visit from time to time has people that say bass is their favorite bait for large catfish...

all you really need to bass fish ponds is soft plastics, top waters and spinnerbaits.

i got prescription ray bans, they were pretty expensive...

id go with the senko. but seriously now i am wondering why i have no red eye shads in bluegill color, i got a bunch of other cranks in that color...

those little rebel floater-diver lures are fun multispecies lures to fish with. whether its the bumblebug, or crickhopper, or the craws, and even smaller the tad fry...

none of that really matters to me though. if i want to fish it deeper i reel slower, higher i reel faster. i think it can all be based solely on the weight of the lure and the retrieve speed. and i can vary any of those regardless of line type, which is why i say/believe the floating properties of mono shouldnt even come into play when fishing a spinnerbait on a tight line, there is no slack line to float. im not saying the lure wont react ever so slightly different on fluoro, but still the depth is ultimately controlled by the lure weight and retrieve speed. what good is floating line if the presentation is fished on tight line in which there is no slack to float? see what im saying now?

when i feel the strike, the rod is loading or a split second away from loading, thats why i say set the hook right away when you feel the strike. by the time you wait to really feel the fish is there, he could be gone that quick. i feel the strike, i react and set the hook. i have had good hook-up success when fishing a buzz bait when i do tie one on and theyre hitting it. i figure by the time i react to a strike to set the hook and the rod loads up to set the hook that the fish has it, any much longer and the fish is going to spit it back out. thats why i dont subscribe to counting 1-2-3 before setting hooks on frogs either, soon as the frog goes under i am swinging. this method has worked well for me. but from reading the OP, it still sounds to me like the person is setting the hook too slow and too soft. also, the OP says "I wasn't even setting the hook hard. I just firmly pulled the rod tip up, reeled until I felt it, and then set the hook, not even viciously. Most of the time when doing that, they were already gone before I could set the hook." isnt the rule of thumb, as Catt says "drop the rod, reel the slack, set the hook". the OP says he pulls the rod tip up before reeling the slack and setting the hook. everything he says leads me to believe he isnt getting a good enough hook set and that it isnt hard enough because by raising the rod tip he is getting less swing in his hook set. The OPs post also implies that he is waiting to feel the fish, that he is waiting too long(ie-too slow) before setting it because the fish is already gone. where as if he set it the second he feels the strike theres a good chance the fish is there and hasnt had a chance to spit the bait yet...

whats that got to do with anything? just because they have had problems with it doesnt mean everyone will. lemme pose you a question this way, based off your wording not mine: if these other supposedly "non-vets" are having success with it, what does that really say about the "vets" you're referring to? my intentions arent to de-value anyones opinion on the line, but to put equal weight in them so people can fairly make a decision for themselves to try the line or not...

i fish a pond that gets loaded with weeds and algae. the best things i have found that work are t-rigged weightless soft plastics, shallow diving cranks, and top water baits...

i think there is fault in your reasoning here. the fact mono floats will not matter when fishing a spinnerbait because the line is tight as you reel in. the speed in which you reel and the weight of your spinnerbait is whats going to affect the depth of your spinnerbait. the floating properties of mono should not come into play there. also, to address the OP, i like to fish spinnerbaits on 12lb mono. but have fished them successfully on 10lb and 20lb line also

i like mono, for everything...

well i was going to suggest a pflueger supreme, but its out of your $60 price limit, but really light weight. you should check out the pflueger trions or the abu garcia cardinals. both are about $40 i believe. i have one of each and never had a problem in several years of owning them.

youre setting the hook too soft and too slow. as soon as you feel the strike, set the hook hard atleast harder than you have been, and dont waste time, set it right away when you detect the strike. its just like a spinnerbait to me.

i'll take 3. the lizard. (though i wouldve made the lizard #4 on purpose, just because #4 was the lizard in the classic kung fu movie Five Deadly Venoms lol) id use the lizards because its an effective bait for bedding bass. plus i love to fish lizards, weightless. the picture and time of day says topwater to me, but the spawning bass say lizard all the way.

once the fish is in the algae and covered in it, there pretty much is no fight, might as well crank him in instead of trying to play the fish. try to horse it in so it rides over the algae to you and not under it...

There is one down at Smith Mountain Lake on White House Road in Moneta, VA. Its called the Mayberry Drive-in