Hyrule Bass

oh man, why yall gotta be mentioning snakes. i dont like them dead or alive.

ive seen a bass eat a bluegill tail first, may not be the preferred way, but ive seen it but it was sorta forced kinda sorta. the bluegill was on my line after taking my rebel crickhopper. it was a clear shallow pond, and the bluegill was near the bank when this all happened so i had a great view. so i hooked this bluegill not even paying attention, i was looking out in the field across the highway from the pond. the bass just werent biting that day is why i tied on a crickhopper, atleast give me a chance at some bluegill and still would catch bass. so i hook this bluegill and turn my attention back to the pond, see its a little blue gill on the rear hook and im like "man i dont wanna get my hands all slimy for that little guy, maybe if i let it jerk around a bit it will free itself". so a few seconds of letting it jerk around near the bank and all of a sudden like a rocket from underneath a floating algae pad shot a bass and violently engulfed my bluegill tail first. she came up in a wicked tail walk and then started swimming towards deeper water. as the little bit of line i had out tightened the bass felt the pressure and turned back towards shore, literally shot out of the water looking like superman or a spanish mackerel jumping. its mouth was wide open, bluegill inside with the tail at the gullet of the bass and my tiny crickhopper in the bluegills mouth. i really didnt know what to do, i was in awe watching this amazing piece of nature take place. so i decided to yank just like a hook set...while the bass was in midair and out of the water completely...saw the bluegill go down the basses throat tail first oh btw, my crickhopper ripped out of the bluegills mouth and hooked the bass in the top lip, i landed it a few seconds later. she went 4 1/2 pounds... also, there are times when fish, not just bass but including bass, will key in on a certain food and go all out on it for a time period while ignoring other readily available and easy prey(or baits). they will key in on crawdads for awhile. then all of a sudden they want nothing but alewives for a time period, then next thing you know their keyed in on shad or bluegill...of course that mostly applies to larger lakes with lots of forage...

i dont use traditional drop shot sinkers, i use bass casting sinkers, i attach a split ring to the line tie, and a swivel to the split ring, i rarely if ever have line twist problems.

this pretty much sums everything up...

its called a night crawler lol...

Oh, so give no credit to NC States defense for stifling them and forcing them to work the ball instead of just launching threes on nearly half their shots. If Nova shouldve won they wouldve won. It wasnt one of those games where the team who played better lost still by some chance. NC State has a solid team, has beat some solid teams, and outplayed Villanova. You will see that tonite vs Louisville i hope. in the regular season NC State knocked off an undefeated #2 at the time Duke team. a #9 Louisville team in Louisville. also a #14 or 15, i forget, team in UNC at Chapel Hill. All quality wins right there. Also played close games vs other highly ranked teams. Also, another fact is, the ACC is just a better overall and tougher conference than the Big East. they may not always have the best team(s) in the country every year, but as a whole the ACC is and has been the best conference in college basketball for a long long time. The bracket makers dont look at it like this, but the best team in the Big East is like the equivalent of being the 6th or 7th team in the ACC...Maybe my beloved NC State Wolfpack goes down tonite, but to say Villanova shouldve won is kind of insulting...

and you still didnt take a picture to show us? couldve confirmed your thoughts possibly anyways....

dont buy overpriced gear like spending money on $300 rods and $200 reels, both are unnecessary and not essential to catching fish...

"only" caught 18 bass LOL, too funny.

nc state got duke in the regular season, but man, they laid the smack down on us in the acc tournament...

a little too early for the docks to be majorly productive, the panfish arent even around them yet, unless theyre deep water docks. youre going to have to back off and go deeper. try pearl white flukes, and maybe even a double fluke rig. try jerk baits and x-raps on secondary points and around wood and tree stumps. bait fish are probably still holding up in the creek channels, itll be 2-3 weeks before the alewives move in coves at night to start spawning. so you may want to also try cranking creeks channels and the mouths of the creeks. a lot of the coves have just iced out recently the last couple weeks. i heard some people been catching them on jigs and spoons in 15-25 feet of water as well. further up the river arms the water may be more stained/muddy and more warm because of it. not sure where you are at on the lake... the lake can be a cruel mystery, especially for bass this time of year. you should come back in mid-september. that dock bite will be explosive by then...

i just saw them on TW right now, appearing to be in stock, with one color out of stock. plus you can order them from the BPS website. i always bought them in store at the BPS...the color selections on the website seem limited, but with lizards all i ever needed where any with a shade of green as the primary color...

its his right not to return it to the water, if im not getting a skin mount of it, i wouldve put it back myself personally. especially in a pond not known for a decent bass population. but its his fish, his choice. and i will not criticize or question what he chooses to do with his fish....

id attack the 3 points by the 6 foot water lines on your map, from shallow all the way out and into the 6 foot water until you find where the fish are holding. from there you can make lure adjustments if necessary

dude, you went on to give a history/biology lesson of red algae blooms. you brung it up specifically, not me. you felt the need to call me wrong on a post that was not wrong, and then took it off on this whole tangent. but if you feel the need to "win" and point fingers in a discussion that you seem to be taking as an argument and getting all butt hurt over and taking personal then go ahead kiddo, you win its all yours ring the bell and drop the ticker tape confetti, im not going to argue all day with 13 year olds. if youre going to take it personal and go on a tirade everytime someone responds to one your posts and it dont mesh with your post then you got a lot to learn about message boards and life in general.

tobacco road baby

im speaking of algae blooms in general and in relation to the original post, plus the OP mentioned nothing of dead fish. you cant just assume it was a "red" algae bloom as you have...

actually i dont recall it being tied at all late, yall never got within 3

Should give Smith Mountain Lake a try, might not be the best lake but its a great lake. the largemouth population out numbers the smallmouth 10 to 1. Plus it has some great scenery and is a very relaxing environment. if you can during the week its better because of less traffic on the water. the dock fishing is great, and there are a ton of docks on SML...

an algae bloom does not always equal a fish kill. fish kills from algae bloom usually only happens in bodies of water with low oxygen levels, as the algae bloom depletes the oxygen in the water even further...

congrats on the PB, and the bigger ones definitely bite lighter on baits such as plastics. my PB came on a drop shot with a night crawler while catfishing one night, rod wasnt even in my hands, I had four rods out watching them, one in a rod holder, three leaning on the back of a bench on the dock. i saw my rod tip just barely move a couple times then nothing, then it happened again, then nothing. i figured current yanking it a bit or small white perch nibbling at it. then it happened again, i mean the tip was barely moving when it did. i said to myself if it happens again im grabbing the rod and setting the hook. was glad i did, did not expect the rod to bow up like it did when i swung the rod. the bass jumped most of the way in, got it up the front of the dock and swam off to the side taking a little drag then jumped right behind the boat, my line went over the center cap on the prop of the boat, luckily not completely over the prop though. the fish was hanging there with its head out of water, i stuck the rod out and freed the line and quickly netted it

dont honestly see how you can say villanova played down to the level of the competition. NC State is a much better team than you think, but you have to watch them enough to know that. we simply just beat yall, at every aspect of the game. we limited your 3 point opportunities until late in the game. we played more physical than yall and set a tone in the paint, whether with our big guys off the pass, or with our back court driving in for layups. mark gottfried had the perfect game plan to counteract that version of press defense yall tried playing. yall shoot an insane amount of threes. if yall "played down" to us, the score wouldve been a lot lower too. nc state is a team that likes to work the pass, move the ball around and set up their shots. not afraid to run down the shot clock if they can control the game. Nova ran into a buzz saw and got outplayed and outcoached...i'll give you this, Villanova are a good team. they had me nervous down the stretch, that hilliard guy started nailing 3s left and right. NC State, well they love to pull off the upset and they play great team ball, everyone does something well and has a role. Villanova was a #1 seed for a reason, wont argue that, but last night NC State was the better team...

the nc state team played with a lot of heart this weekend, whitwolf. lets hope they can keep it up, it took everyone to win tonite....

Villanova just went down to my NC State Wolfpack. they had me scared at the end though. great win for NC State, this is their best all around team in years and theyve won some big games this season. LSU really blew that huh? they hadnt made the tournament in a few years, tournament experience speaks for itself... that was a great comeback, nice to have another wolfpack fan around here.

both my pflueger spinning reels, trion and supreme, are on ugly stiks. they are fine combos despite what some might say. many people here have a preconceived false notion in their heads that ugly stiks are no good and wont catch fish. dont listen. an ugly stik is less likely to break on a hookset or from general wear as well...