ClackerBuzz

I leave the city to fish suburb and country ponds/lakes. But I ride my bike over this river a lot b/c its only 10 blocks from my house. The weather has been so nice that I'm gonna give it a second try and wet a line. This is the Schuylkill River that runs through Philadelphia, merges with the Delaware River and into the Atlantic. It's tidal water. There is a dam 1/2 mile north of these pix/map link. I have tried fishing above the dam but it's a barren waste land. It is a very heavily populated area. Every small fish ends up on the end of a bait hook and every decent fish ends up in the frying pan. This lower section however is tidal and less pressured so I think it may produce some fish. I know guys just below the dam catch shad, striper, smallies/LM, catfish and carp. There is a nice park along the river so I was going to walk the path and flip a tube along the walls for smallies (and I never see anglers along this section as opposed to above the dam). And I can fish the eddies behind the bridge pillars from above (the pillar in the pix with my finger covering lens are at least 10x15'). I don't know much about large river fishing and/or tidal water. What is the best time to fish it?--high tide, on the back end of HT, incoming/out going? Any suggestions on how/when to fish it? https://maps.google.com/maps?q=schuylkill++river&ll=39.954516,-75.180219&spn=0.000789,0.001321&hnear=Schuylkill+River&gl=us&t=h&z=20

soooooo nice to get off shore. you can access much better water ie big fish; bish; fig's

when people aren't catching fish on bottom contact and/or finesse baits (jigs, weightless worms, t-rigs, drop shot, shaky head, split shot etc) its usually b/c they are over working the lure. you really gotta slow down especially in august. instead of moving the lure with ur rod tip high try a slow 12" drag wtih ur rod tip low. that's usually my cross over movement to let me know its time for some patience with lots of dead sticking and small inch reel drags. yes you can def speed up again in fall (but you'll still have sluggish days). my rule of thumb is start fast and slow down as much as they want or till i nod off , which is usually when i get a bite on tuff days

here's my painfully slow weightless soft plastic summer method. i've been killing it lately but it takes a BIG OLD jar of patience. there are 3 important factors: 1 ultra slow retrieve 2 rate of fall 3 small splash/entry I start with a 5 inch senko. if that doesn't work i try a fluke. if that doesn't work i'll move to a 4" tube. all weightless. if any of these work i'll bump up to a 6 inch senko or a 7-10" ribbon tail worm. sometimes you just have to experiment to find out what soft plastic gives the rate of fall they want. color is the least important factor. i do experiment but keep it simple: green pumpkin, junebug, black, white. retrieve: cast out a soft plastic and splash down as lightly as possible. allow to fall on a semi-slack line (i don't worry about line size; 6-12 lb has been working all the same). once plastic settles to bottom dead stick it for a solid 60 seconds (i like to envision a giant bass nosing down on it to pass the time; realistically there probably is a fish inspecting it, just maybe not the monster i prefer to think of ). reel up 1-2 cranks of reel handle. you should only bring up some slack in line. it still transmits to the lure though. (resist all temptation to use ur rod tip during this method). wait 15 seconds. reel up another 1 crank of slack. repeat 4 times. now ur worm has been still on the bottom 2 minutes. it depends on how much slack you had out but approx the 5-6th time reeling up should finally make contact with worm. this gentle little bump has been getting a crushing hit for me. its been slow and painful but i've been handsomely rewarded while fishing soup bowls in august (Pa soup isn't hot as Fl soup but its all relative and this is a brutal time for our bass just the same). hope it works for ya

now that's what i call a spinnerbait!

way to stick it to em!!!

come on ur like a teenage fresh/salt/multi-species fishing ninja. didn't u ever open a reel yet!?

but I might for a Pa 7lb'r. I stopped at a Gander Mt. on my way home from vacation in NC and snapped this shot of their Wall of Fame. I asked if he was signing autographs in the fishing section but they said he was out on the water chasing hawgs. Made my day during a very long drive.

anybody know which one has a dedicated button for the red light? i'd like to turn red on immediately instead of having to click thru low beam white and high beam white to get to red

x2. i'm def a better angler b/c of learning how to finesse fish the heavily pressured lakes around me. and i can consistently catch fish in august just about anywhere when other guys hang up their rods till fall. plus i get a thorn in my side till i figure out the situation at hand. i've been working on this pond for 3 seasons and this is going to be my year. i've literally tried everything there during every season of the year (cranks, jerks, spinners, top water, 8" Hudds, A-rigs, float and fly, jig and pork, live bait, finesse, frogs, punching etc etc etc). I haven't gotten anything over 4lbs. its gets very little pressure but the water is gin clear and is completely over run with milfoil. the bass are buried deep in the under weed canons. if the depth is 10ft in an area, there is literally 8ft of milfoil and 2ft of open water. punching doesn't work b/c the water is too clear and the conditions to stable to crash a 1.5oz lure down to get a bite. a father and son fish it from kayaks often. they use ultra light gear and love to brag about their number days: 25 crappies, 10 dink bass, 4 pickerel in one day. they think i'm crazy and don't believe there are 6lb+ bass in there. there are for sure and i am going to snap a pix to show them. the answer is something i've never done: night fishing. i don't know why i didn't see it in the first place. i've never gone so nobody ever taught me the benefits and how aggressive the fish are. i'm a much better angler for the persistence. to be fair and keep it real i have access to much better water than prjavelin. my mistake to good ratio is probably 20:1. i'll fish good/unpressured and/or 'new' bodies of water 20x's for every 1x fishing the body that haunts me.

a PB dream

shoot me a pm if ya want to get some hooks wet in central or south jersey. i pounded the banks for years before getting a kayak and know my way around shorelines well

can't comment on either rod but i can suggest not using braid. braid cuts like butter when backlashing big baits. nothing worse than hearing the crack of a backlash and watching ur $50+ lure sail off into the sunset. i bought a set up and i'm looking forward to casting them more during high percentage windows (spring/fall and night fishing).

I kill it fishing them weightless on the bottom like senko's (and settled down on top of weeds) with VERY light twitches here and there (almost just reeling up slack). the slow/dead stick bite is virtually always on so i start there and experiment/increase speed from there (and its best in summer). next would be light switches like walking the dog keeping the fluke in the strike zone a long time while gently darting side to side; add pauses here and there so its a 'dying fish' that starts to sink to bottom but gets another rally again. then try adding long sweeps during the dog. the subsurface fluke bite, topwater action, or jerkbait/fluke bite window is smaller (good dusk or dawn, and in cooler water ie spring/fall; or when they are busting on shad etc). i always give it a try, even in summer, but don't have as much success as slow action. spring/fall is the exception i like RoLo suggestion for weighed flukes: "An unweighted Gamakatsu 4/0 Superline hook weighs 21 grains. That's perfect for the decent rate I prefer (about 2 ft in 5 secs)." x2 this guys philosophy from another site: "IMO, time of day dictates more HOW you fish them than anything else. I will throw one any time of the day, however I will tend to fish low and slow during the day, higher and faster in both morning and evening."

#1 its summer so set down the fast moving reaction baits for now ie spinnerbaits, crankbaits, swimjigs etc. the power bite will turn back on in sept/oct. BUT the exception is dusk, dawn and night fishing. experienced anglers can still get bite with them but for now focus on slower/finesse presentations (soft plastics, drop shot, shaky head etc) #2 you might be fishing soft plastics too fast. bring a case of patience. go weightless. cast and dead stick them. after 30 sec give a very light twitch (sometimes don't even use ur rod. just reeling in the slack twitches enough to initiate a bite). #3 crankbaits are all about the deflection. you gotta bounce them off a log, rock, stump etc. MANY reactions lures are like this. this does not make for good shore fishing b/c you will loose so many lures. its much better from a kayak b/c you can cast and bounce off the nasty cover that lands you fish and still paddle over to free when snagged. are you fishing from shore or boat? what state ru in? fill out ur profile and you will get lots more responses. are you fishing streams, ponds, small or med size lakes? private or heavily pressured public waters? this is a great read. don't worry so much about the exact soft plastic or rod/reel set up. just slow drag with patience.... and relocate up stream often. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/13845-guaranteed-to-catch-bass/ good luck and feel free to ask more questions/ update the thread

i love experimenting with diff retrieves. every new/creative trick leads to more hooked bass. many on this site swear by trying 7+ different retrieves during 1 cast. and make sure you note which one you got bite on to duplicate. sounds like the technique you needed to land that hawg was a reel, reel, reel, sweep!

you'll love it.

i like yellow or white b/c you can easily see ur line run sideways during those sneeky bites. (matched w/ fluoro leader)

its dinner

do you pick out backlashes often? if so ur whole length of line is compromised. sorry to hear about the lost fish. you'll get'm next time

haha never saw that coming! stop "fishing" with them. u have to be putting way too much action on them. just cast out, sink and dead stick'm. and relocate water often.

I recommend the pendulum effect for guys that are constantly gut hooking fish...and to complete beginners. the pendulum won't dramatically effect ur catch ratio. its much better to have tension on ur line when learning how to fish. you will 'feel' ie hook more fish. hooked fish dramatically help you learn how to detect the many different styles/types of bites. this will advance you much faster than keeping tons of slack and missing bites.

here's my home made one. works every time. i've since removed the 4/0 treble. it wasn't necessary and only tangled everything up. i'm gonna upgrade to a chalk line in the future.

i live in the city so i need to hide, transport and protect all together. i use an old, plain rod tube (not one that has *** written all over it). i also use rod gloves b/c it keeps the lines from tangling and they slide in/out very easily. i can slide 4 baitcasters in one tube. i taped 2 tubes together and slide 2 spinning set ups into the second tube. funny part is the 2 tubes together lay perfect on my arm rest (honda accord) so i just rest my elbow on them. and the tubes go thru the hole/hatch into the trunk. had an old rubbermaid in the trunk that just happened to be the right height to support all the reels and/or cork handles while in the trunk (similar concept as Goose52 but not near as COOL as his box!).

tighten down ur drag. yes you may shave 15 ft off ur farthest cast but avoiding backlashes means more time fishing. i loosened mine after mastering my righty cast. but i was still getting lashes when casting leffty b/c of a jarring swing w/ an abrupt ending. more drag fixed it. and it helps with the 'spinnerbait into the wind' learning curve. also switch to braid. the 'waxy' coating makes it easy to pick out and it doesn't backlash near as easy. and the sensitivity sucks