Hyrule Bass

i dont think this is the problem at all. i think its related to leaving his reels in a hot vehicle all day making the line weak. i dont get why people feel the need to respool every trip or even multiple times per year. line does not go bad that fast unless severly mistreated. its one thing if the reel is low on line and doesnt have enough to fish effectively with or something along those lines. i never respool unless im low on line for that reel or just want to try a new line. my line never goes bad over the course of a season or 2 and i never have break off issues...

definately bluegill

i didnt see much of an advantage in flourocarbon line when fishing this past summer in shallow water and bluegills kept swimming up and attacking my line under the water...

i might take you up on that if i ever make it down that way. id love to learn about salt water fishing, doesnt bother me to leave the scale at home for the day...

depending on the length of the worm, it may take away some of the action if its a shorter worm

if you qualify for student loans and accept them, dont let them sit around and build interest after college like i did(whether you graduate or drop out). i never paid nothing on my student loans for a couple years. then one day i get a letter in the mail stating they took my federal income tax return...and i still went years without paying, letting them take my tax returns. they used several various collection agencies trying to collect. i always ignored them. then a couple years ago they finally started sending me an actual bill with a minimum payment amount. after years of garnishing my tax returns i owed just short of $300. i might have paid over the years had they sent me bills like this earlier on. but anyways i finally paid it off in one lump some once i got a couple of the bills. i got my first federal income tax return in like 10 years and i was thrilled. those student loans dont go away, ever. they charge interest once youre outta school for a certain time period. they will find you and get their money one way or the other, you cant hide from them seemingly. just something to be aware of

i agree with the bolded part for sure(not that i disagree with the rest). Most of my reels are spinning reels, and ive used them all for most everything. frogs no problem, i successfully fish them with an abu garcia cardinal 104 with 12lb trilene xl on a 7ft M ugly stik. the other side of that, ive also successfully fished frogs and numerous other artificials on a zebco 33 combo with 8lb line. to be honest i dont even know what the gear ratio is on most of my reels, dont really care. i dont put much stock on specialized rods and reels. like when i can use the same ugly stik for plastics, cranking, drop shots, jigs etc and be successful at it, just dont see the need to have a dedicated cranking stick, a senko rod, a drop shot rod, a jig rod, etc when i have success doing all that on one cheap rod. its kinda the same with reels, i really dont care what the gear ratio or ipt is. that zebco 33 i mention above, once hooked into a 40+lb flathead at the lake, thing swam right at me really fast, i just reeled faster. now i didnt land it, but i was able to get it up and see it roll on top the water before snapping my line. its often why i think people overthink what they need to catch fish. i'd prefer to spend more time finding the fish than worried about how fast my reel turns

both sound like good trips to me. i know it felt pretty good when i took my 3 year old niece fishing and she landed a 1.5lb bass using night crawlers. shes like 5 or 6 now, but she absolutely loves to fish. she always gets mad at me saying i catch all the big fish and she only catches little ones, then i remind her of that 'big bass' she caught at the pond that day. she also always says shes going to catch a big big bass. sometimes you cant help but put down your gear and go help a kid learn to fish, the joy they display makes me just as happy as if im catching the fish...

Wu-Tang Clan Heltah Skeltah The Left just to name 3. all hip-hop, but i do love lots of other kinds of music...

its nothing to cut a couple cables. two weeks ago a thief or thieves came down the street i live on in the middle of the night and hit any vehicle that was unlocked for the batteries. popped the hoods and cut the battery cables on all of them. got 7 batteries total on the street. lots of people cussing outside that morning when they went to leave for work and found out they had no battery. it takes seconds to cut a cable.

try rage tail craws and/or baby craws t-rigged weightless. also try a white spinnerbait with a red head on it, and if that dont work try adding a 3 inch white grub as a trailer for it. i would also try a husky jerk silver and orange or a manns one minus silver and black those have been my best pond baits this year where i live. oh, and try using mono for line... if all else fails, go with nightcrawlers just to see what kind/size of bass the pond is holding...

he probably got the girlfriend he was looking for awhile back. if so, probably barely has time to even fish now lol

i seriously doubt you hurt the catfish. theyre extremely slimey and real tough. its probably looking for its next meal right now. as for handling it, if its not too big or fat, i usually grab it by the belly with my thumb under one of the side fins, and the other fin between my index and middle finger. you get a good grip that way and you subdue the side fins from stabbing you, watch the fin on its back as well. if you do get stung, just rub some of the catfishes slime where you got stung and it should stop stinging relatively soon, works for me anyways the couple times i got stung. the bigger ones you have almost no choice but to lip them if you cant get your hand around them. when i got to Smith Mountain Lake several times a year, i do a ton of night fishing off a dock for cats(ironically its how i caught my PB LMB). since i hate getting the slime all over my hands, i bought a cheap pair of berkley fishing gloves from walmart for like 3 bucks. keeps my hands clean of the slime and if you have to lip one and it clamps down, atleast its not directly on your skin. keeping pliers around when catfishing is also beneficial, their mouths are tough and they swallow a lot of hooks sometimes. i realize you werent after cats, but its still beneficial to always have pliers, even when bass fishing...

i would have to say the membership sets this forum apart, everyone is willing to help others and offer information when they can. the level of maturity here is outstanding as well, you dont see posters squabbling and bickering on a personal level, only fierce fishing debates in which the posters are attacking the subject matter and not the other poster. Also the layout and the last upgrade was great and enhanced greatly the userability of the forum...

ok, ive never heard of this till today, what is an alabama rig?

this reminds me of something that happened to me recently at the bank. i went through drive-thru to deposit my pay check and asked for $300 back in cash. later on i realized they gave me $500 back in cash. the teller made a mistake and gave me an extra $200. i dwelled all weekend about whether i should keep the money or return it to the bank, it was too late to return it that friday and i had other things to do saturday than drive an hour back to that bank. started worrying if the teller had taken that out of my account by mistake and such. then i started thinking how she could and probably would lose her job and maybe had kids to take care of and all that, and getting a job isnt all that easy sometimes. well, that monday i ended going by the bank, went inside this time, and told the teller there what had happened, and she sprung up kind of surprised after initially looking disinterested when i started explaining what happened. she told me a teller had came up $200 short on friday and probably wouldve lost her job. she went and got that teller from the drive-thru and told her i was returning the money, she had such a look of relief and joy on her face. they thanked me and said most people wouldve kept it, and also checked my account to make sure it hadnt been affected by it. ultimately she probably still couldve been fired, but even then atleast they couldnt label her a thief on her work history because i was being greedy and dishonest. once the money was returned i felt much better about myself, and a few good things happened to me within the next week or two, including catching my personal best LMB. i do realize this is different than buying a mislabeled item at a huge discount price though.

im not making accusations or implying anything, but this totally seems like a thread a stoner would make lol

thanks BobP, thats the first time anyone has explained what a thermocline is that ive actually understood it...

if you want a good all around multi-use rod i would be looking at the MHs. as for length, are you fishing from shore or from a boat? if from shore a 6'6 rod might be more advantageous, if youre near trees and stuff it will be easier to cast. if from boat it wont matter as much but i would go with atleast the 7'0 rod. i got two 6'6 MH casting 2 piece rods, but theyre nothing in the $150 range. mine come from cheap shakespeare tiger spincast combos, one still has the spincaster on it and is my lucky reel, the other has a abu garcia 5601 bcx on it. i use them for everything though. plastics, cranks, jigs, live bait, dropshotting, etc...while i love my shakespeare rods(i have more than those two in other models) im not neccesarily recommending them to you, moreso, just giving you an idea of how versatile my 6'6MH 2pc rods have been for me. those recommending 1pc rods maybe arent privy to your needs. personally i cant fit 1pc rods in my car comfortably, so i go with 2pc rods myself. and maybe its just me, but personally i find rod sensitivity to be overrated and not vastly different between similar rods. i once started a thread asking for rod recommendations here, stating specifically what i was looking for as far as specs, and got a bunch of recommendations for rods that were only made in 1pc, didnt match the specs, and/or didnt suit the reel i had said i wanted to put on it. dont get me wrong, people listed some fine rods and i appreciated them taking the time to recommend a rod, but the best thing you can do is research them yourself, maybe go to a store and get the feel for a few of them...

probably a result of you having more time than most others to go fishing almost everyday

funny, last time i seen a heron at a lake he wasnt going after no baitfish, i was bank fishing at night at lake gaston with my bro-in-law. kept hearing splashing, shined my battery powered lantern over there and a heron was pecking in the water, next thing we know, he picks up a 20+ inch fish outta the water and flies off with it, was pretty cool to see... as for bank fishing, you just have to work the area, you may not know exactly whats there but you can find out some info. like if youre pulling in grass, you know theres a grass bed out there, i form a mental line of the edge of the grass and work that line. if no results ill try something that i can work above the grass. maybe theres a spot where you keep getting snagged, work a radius around that area, could be a stump or log underwater, maybe a rock bed.

If people are keeping fish legally, then the state of your game officers doesnt even matter. if they are keeping fish illegally then i dont know what to tell you exactly. keep calling and making reports till they decide to come out your way and take action. one phone call might not accomplish something, but several might put them on alert that they need to check that area out. or is it something the local sheriffs dept can handle? but if no one is doing anything illegal, then you dont have a valid complaint at all...

that was gonna be my guess, same fish

or sometimes you can just throw all the scientific overthinking mumbo jumbo to the side and just fish

if theyre not doing anything illegal then you really have no basis for complaining, you dont own the water or the fish. if theyre breaking laws then you have a leg to stand on and something to complain about. i dont get why people find it so absurd that another person would eat bass. look, im 99% catch and release of all species, dont even eat fish, but i have no problems with someone keeping fish to eat of any kind so long as theyre taking them legally. what i really take offense to is the ignorance displayed in your last two sentences. i often love to just sit back with a couple poles out in the water and relax while drinking a few cold budweisers. yep, love to sit there and just wait for a bite. i guess i was just waiting when i caught my PB largemouth bass, not fishing. what i suggest is you quit blaming your skunks on other people and look at yourself first. maybe you should change up your baits, presentations, and locations if youre getting skunked. obviously the two russians are catching fish. theyre doing something right, youre doing something wrong. and i doubt two guys are gonna fish out an entire 100 acre lake...