Hyrule Bass

i have two tiny ratl traps i use for white and yellow perch, cant remember exactly but smaller than 1/4oz. but they will chase bigger baits and hit them. i had a nice yellow perch follow in a t-rigged zoom super fluke i was bass fishing with before, wish he wouldve ate it. it was probably a 2-3lb yellow perch

you forgot the shoestring story you posted on here some time ago...

shouldnt count if you dont land it, but thats just my opinion

if you can set up a spot light to shine in the water at night, a good chance a lot of bait fish will be attracted to it after a couple hours. after they build up in numbers cast your net on them. i catch alewives like this at smith mtn lake. or perhaps you could buy one of them minnow cages, put the bread in there and toss it out on a rope and come back and check it in a few hours. usually the minnow cage just gets me a tiny bluegill or two. before i leave the lake, i throw the cage in empty off the dock, in a rocky area, usually yields me a couple live crawdads when i return a month or so later...

you may need a bigger hook or atleast use an EWG hook. i use 3/0 to 4/0 EWG hooks for senkos. and i usually fish them weightless. if youre using weight that could be why youre getting snagged in the rocks...

Chris Cooley Fred Smoot John Riggins

i would tend to agree with this. that fish will survive while frozen in ice(atleast some fish). ive seen it with minnows. ever add too much ice to the minnow bucket on a hot summer day to help them survive longer?

well, as luck would have it, my striper fishing this year has been non-existent. unless you count sitting on the dock at smith mountain lake, va hoping one takes your bait one night. went down there to SML in mid-April and was going to go out fishing for Striper a few times that weekend if not for an unfortunate accident. in fact me and my uncle were loading up the boat getting ready to go out for striper, well, dag-gone battery was too weak to start the boat. so we hooked up the charger, my uncle said while its charging i am going to go finish cutting the grass. well his backyard leading down to the lake is a pretty steep hill. im down on the dock fishing, getting ready to toss out a couple lines and then grab another rod to bass fish with. baited up one hook, heard the lawnmower hitting a rock, then it stalled out, or so i thought. never heard a bang or crash or anything. then i hear my uncle yell out ALLEN!!! i look up the hill and he flipped the riding lawnmower over on himself. lawnmower laying on the side, his foot is pinned under the steering wheel. i took off running up the hill (and i dont run, smoker, and lost a big toe to lawnmower in 1996). i managed to lift the lawnmower off of him, and he told me to call my aunt in the house to come down with a bag of ice while he called 911 on his phone for an ambulance(that got lost 3 times trying to get there). theres a fire and rescue boat right across the cove from their house but the guy was out of town that week, go figure. so the ambulance gets there about the same time as the boat which had to come from another county(lake is in like 3 counties). he didnt break anything but went to the hospital to get checked out anyways. had some cuts, swelling, and bad bruising. he was sore but ultimately ok, probably pretty fortunate. so my aunt follows him to the hospital and i stay around the lake house because the boat wasnt even on the lift and not tied off well, so i figured id take care of that and what not. while theyre gone for the next 4 hours or so, i came down with a fever of 102 degrees, couldnt even fish off the dock that night. having cold chills and a fever, and my whole body was aching sore from it. between his flipping the lawnmower and me getting a fever that ruined any and all striper fishing that weekend...

definitely consult a professional. you will probably need permits and everything. and if you plan to install something like a boat lift its going to need to be super strong and need a roof. honestly though i have no idea what kind/style of dock you have in mind. if its nothing too elaborate, maybe pay someone to drive the posts for you and then you can build the rest around it.

my question here has to do with the location youre fishing. you said pond in the OP. is it a private pond? if so then i doubt its regulated by any size or length limits.

go ahead and take him to your double secret pond sam lol

no need to spend heavily in a rod, claims of sensitivity are for suckers

i would claim the state record, if the fish died, so be it. there are plenty more bass swimming around. im not worried about added pressure or the likes, and i cant stand that "put it back so someone else can catch it bigger later" crap. you mean put it back so the same fish can become someone elses record later on when it couldve been mine? no thanks. im keeping the fish, having it certified, and if after all that i get to keep the fish i am having a skin mount made, dont like replicas at all... in fact, i think bass fishermen take catch and release too far at times, i prefer to subscribe to selective harvest myself, that said i dont eat fish but i have no problem keeping and giving my catch to friends or family who may want some fish. a 20,000 acre lake isnt going to miss 5 bass... sound selfish? probably, but i really dont care. if its a legal catch, then im free to do what i want with it...

if its not feasible to take the rods and reels with you everytime you come and go, maybe you can take just the reels when you leave. atleast then you dont risk losing both. some people might even ignore the rods once they see no reels on them.

sufix siege, before that i used trilene xl, also use big game or original stren on some reels...

i call this movement the "pu**ification of america"

you obviously seem to have some possible bigfoot related stories, share them, i wont think youre crazy

if its a true honey hole then why alter it in anyway to begin with?

sorry, i was having what i thought was normal debate until someone resorted to childish name calling. i will leave it be and move on though...

fishing can be as simple or as difficult as you want to make it. i like to keep it simple, why make something i enjoy feel like work or be stressful. im not trying to shoe horn anyone, just stating and debating my opinions like everyone else. i see a simple question i gave a simple answer. i didnt try to turn the question into a bunch of "what ifs" and "what nots". i viewed it as if i had a choice which is more important to me to invest in, i prefer to invest in the reel instead of the rod, regardless of what techniques i use to fish. i gave my reasoning for such above. if people want to disagree that is fine, i disagree with people all the time, no big deal. so yes, you can make it cut and dry, its a simple question if you stay within the confines of it, dont over-think it and make it into something its not...

i dont get all the line twist problems people seem to have. it rarely is ever a problem for me on ANY reel. so for me, its a non issue to begin with because i just havent experienced major or "extreme" line twist problems on any reel ever. and i fish a ton of drop shot too... all i know is my 2 pfluegers have served me well and i will definitely buy more of them in the future, and will recommend them to anyone...

i know when i fish, its like an escape. i just seem to forget about everything going on around me in "the real world". i think fishing is great for clearing the mind for awhile, kind of like taking a mental dump. and the clearing of the mind and forgetting about lifes daily happenings for a little while is one of the main reasons i fish. its helped me through some rough patches in life. some people table fishing when dealing with stuff like you described 5 dollar, but i think its for the best that they probably dont, everyone needs something in their lives to provide a moment of clarity during rough times...

or one could just keep it cut and dry and give a straight answer. its nothing to do with being right or wrong...

because he is one of those brainwashed into thinking shimano is the only reels worth spending good money on... love my pflueger supreme and trion too, btw...

nope, i disagree. the line is what gives you the feeling of a fish on the line, simply put, what good is the rod without the line? it aint no good. ive detected bites by line watching before there was ever a bow in the rod. and also its as if youre saying a cheap $35 ugly stik doesnt have the power to get a fish in to a boat. this has me completely baffled there. your reasoning just lost all merit with that. also, an ounce difference in rod weight isnt going to bother me casting all day. its not that much difference in weight, especially to justify a huge price increase. so yeah, great job of convincing me even more that the reel is more important. also, i wish people would just answer the question as is, without throwing in caveats. just answer rod or reel regardless of technique and what not...