Hyrule Bass

forget about bass for a moment. go catch a bunch of bluegill, big and small, and load them up in the pond. let them spawn 2 or 3 times, put in bass next year or the year after even...you want them to have plenty of food

i have a BPS hat signed by Roland Martin...

lizards and creature baits are good bets. but you have to put them on that one "sweet spot" of the bed before the fish will even think about biting your bait. and yeah, sometimes you can try forever and not get bit. also, sometimes you just have to tick them off enough to bite, like keep running a spinnerbait right by them...

my guess/answer to you and others would be that sometimes people like to fish different presentations instead of just one all the time, people have new lures they want to try, and some choose lures based on conditions and what they think will work on a given day. now i'm not saying there is a magic lure for people either that always catches fish, sometimes no matter what you just have to take the skunk. but people do have confidence in certain things and in fact, i rarely fish my favorite bass presentation because i enjoy catching fish a variety of other ways too. when i went to NC and went pond fishing in a jon boat 2 weeks ago, the bite was real tough. my bro-in-law and a friend of ours had each caught a fish. were coming down the last stretch of a pond before we have to call it a day. not wanting to be skunked, as there was friendly trash talk going on lol, i tied on my "go to" bait and ended up catching a bass. that bait is a t-rigged 5 inch berkley power bait red shad shakey worm.

hooks arent really that troublesome to carry. they come in small thin packs, id look elsewhere to cut back. i carry a variety of hooks in all shapes and sizes, i swear i got hooks i will never use probably. but i do love to fish for multiple species, and if i find i need a small thin wire hook im going to have it. if i find i need a large heavy wired hook, im going to have it. something in between im going to have it. well ok, i dont have every style of hook but i have a wide selection that goes beyond just bass fishing. if you really want to cut down on hooks id go 1/0, 2/0, and 4/0, but i wouldnt keep them in just EWG, get some straight shank hooks or regular worm hooks in the same sizes for thinner profiled baits. but dont be mad if the fish are being extremely picky and you dont have that one sized hook that gives your bait the exact rate of fall the picky fish want that day.

wait till it warms up some is what i would say. you've caught a bass from there, and seen a forage base. i know the pond on my uncles farm is tough fishing until may and this is in VA. but if you want a couple of lure recommendations to try, go with a silver rapala husky jerk with orange belly or a manns 1-minus of the same color and fish them slow...or go out there with some nightcrawlers and see what you get, the best way to figure out whats in a pond is live bait and nightcrawlers will work very well in most all instances... does the creek flow directly into the pond or is there a dam of some sorts? maybe study the creek and see if fish are using it to travel to and from the pond and river. a bass can swim in a foot or less of water. may be better off fishing the river. or you could stock it or have it stocked, there are laws on this, but many people stock their own ponds with fish they caught other places regardless. i wouldnt stock anything more than bluegill and bass if i you decide to go that route, bluegill first and then bass in a year or two after the bluegill have had time to spawn and build a sustainable population. knowing the depth would help though, if its too shallow it may not be able to hold a viable fish population with the winters yall have up north. ask some of the older locals there the history of the pond, you might be able to get some info and if it ever did hold a population of fish...

Pflueger makes excellent spinning reels. Look at the Supreme MGX for around $100, and the Supreme XT for around $150.

the women used to have their own section on the forum, more guys posted in it than women

lose the leader altogether, you dont really need it...

so what did you get? you cant leave us just hanging...

for 150-200 you could buy one really nice combo. or two moderate but still quality combos and have a couple of more options. if you go for 2 moderately priced combos, whether bought paired up, or you put them together yourself it would be big step up from the 33. you could get a 6'6 to 7ft M and 7ft MH for rods, and also be able to vary your line sizes on each. plus you can get different sized reels and models if you want. i'd recommend Pflueger for spinning reels, mine have been great to me. i'd put a Pflueger Trion on the M and a President on the MH. and stick to rods in the $40-50 range...

naw, havent seen it. thats still wild though, i had never heard that

no snake is a good snake, not even a dead snake, man...

oh wow, thats a wild story. i never heard that moccasins travel rivers in balls of 100s. that totally freaks me out. im not sure i could ever wade fish a river now. im seriously terrified of snakes, dont matter what kind. venomous or not. dead or alive.

while i agree with setting the hook right away, bass will "double strike" a bait. fishing a live crawdad last year off a dock in shallow clear water i witnessed it. bass hit the crawdad head first but didnt have the whole thing or hook in its mouth, i watched this, it the second strike was to inhale the rest of the crawfish, and thats when i set the hook. but the only way to truely know is if you can actually see the fish biting your bite

interesting about the delivery, but since this thread asks about baits, im going to name a couple anyways. Lizards of course are a classic. but i also love the pit boss in this situation.

amazing you mention a Polaris Slingshot, i saw one in person on my way home from work this past saturday. i had no clue what it was or who made it, just that it was a 3 wheeler that looked like a cross between a car and motorcycle. then i read this thread, googled it and sure enough that is what i saw...pulling out of a winery no less...

its possibly funner than bass fishing. they fight hard and are great to catch on light gear and small line...but i guess youre just too used to those big ole ocean fish lol...

i use mono for everything, and before line stretch comes into play my hook is already set in the fish...

i also do a lot of clear water sight fishing and ive rarely ever seen a bass bite the tail off a lizard or worm. if theyre short striking your lizards try changing colors and see how they react...

youre probably getting the tails bit off by bluegills, theyre notorious for that. and myself, id have a hard time questioning catt's experience, not saying he is always right, but he is one of the more knowledgeable and respected members here. just like frog fishing, some people say when the bass hits the frog, count to 3 before setting the hook, i set the hook as soon as the frog disappears. i figure by the time i count to 3 the fish will have spit the bait. when you feel a bite, you set the hook. only time i would wait is if i can physically see the bass doesnt have the hook in his mouth...perhaps you should learn to distinguish a bluegill bite from a bass bite, because more than likely thats whats taking the tails off youre lizards, they do it to worms too

lose the "search bait" and tie on something that works. you can call anything a "search bait", but if its not working is it really a "search bait" or are you just wasting time fishing something the fish dont want?

-re-signed mark sanchez -cut todd herremans -chip fought with gm howie roseman and got him pushed out of the personnel department, then couldnt get any outside candidate to take the job and promoted from within...all this because they also disagreed on the firing of tom gamble, who roseman felt threatened by due to his bond with chip.

I use mono for everything. 12lb is a good all around size for most any technique. i go as small as 6lb line for lighter weight lures. but the 12lb i use for t-rigs, top water, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, drop shot...etc.

if i realize my cast is going further than the intended target then i do exactly what you mentioned, and i pull the line in with my index finger and pin it against the rod.