Bassun

You are correct, we do not have kids. That would likely change the dynamic for sure...unless they went with me - but that's a whole new can of worms lol.

LOL I can imagine. That could put the stops to it pretty quickly. I remember once, many many years ago - before we were even married being very late from fishing. We (her and some of her family) were supposed to meet at like 6pm to go eat and then to the movies. Well, her brother, brother-in-law (now removed) and I went wade fishing. We knew the area fairly well, and fished much of the creek before. Well, the in-law suggested start at point X and wade up to point z and it should be a couple hours. Well ... the creek took a turn around a mountain that we didn't realize... We were hours late, and ended up stopping fishing and just walking to try to get back. Needless to say, once we made it back to the truck - we were all three in hot water. We ended up fishing then walking for a total of like 8 hours on what we thought would be a few hours of fishing. Yeah, the ladies were not even remotely happy. Needless to say, we didn't make it to dinner or movies...

Oh man... he must have gotten the paint on himself. He's dissapeared too!

It looks like you nailed down a good place to work. The two of you working together should be a ball - you guys can buy and share molds and learn together which is always fun. I would suggest looking into buiding a cheap "fluid bed" for powder coating. While it may not be "necessary" somethings just work better and ultimately the finish may look better. Well worth exploring since the solutions are pretty cheap.

Heh, never thought about that. Most of my mods are hardware, not color. Different hooks, blades, dressings etc. The most effective I can remember was simply going with a larger black colorado blade on a small blue and black spinnerbait for smallmouth bass. They came with some flashy silver ones and something in the gut said to try a big black one, mind you I was fishing a stream mid day - mid summer. I traded it off and the lure became twice as good. I thought it may have been one of those luck of the draw things, but that mod continued to work well for at least the next couple of years. I suspect it would still work if I had the chance to fish it again.

I tie off a few dozen trebles with marabou, some with flash and use them on jerks and some topwater baits. I've never used bucktail though, unless I'm tying... well bucktails lol. As for dressing a jig head for grubs, nope --- I just dress it with the grub But, having said that, those hula-grubs would basically be the same thing, so I suspect there could be a use for it. I may play with that idea on the table some.

I like that advice in general. I think too often people try to see what other people are fishing, and often assume, catching fish on -- then tie one on. Sure, sometimes that is a great option, but if you are fishing a pressured lake, and hundreds of anglers are all throwing white and chartreuse spinnerbaits, that black and blue jig may be just the ticket!

I agree with flyfisher. I also like to downsize a little to coax bites when things are tough. I know "fall" means big baits, but I still have better luck downsizing when the fish aren't being active. The fish are there, and they will eat...eventually You can try the deeper areas, but with the size of the pond I expect they will be scattered. *Skipped the "what" to try. I've recently found new love for small grubs in cold water. You may have a little luck out of a small white grub fished on a light jighead and line. IDK if its regional, or me, but it seems like the grub bite just keeps getting better and better over the last couple of years, lol. I lost a really nice bass just a few weeks ago on a 1" white grub fished w/ 4lb floro. The bite should have been hot, but instead they were in finesse mode -- for me the grub was the answer. Granted 1" is a little smaller than what I would recommend, lol.

I had the same problem getting backlash on my overhead casts -- Then I noticed two things I was doing. One, I was generally casing harder changing the speed in which I was despooling but secondly I noticed I had a habit of "snapping" the rod. It worked great on spinning gear and will shoot the lure out like a rocket, but with the baitcaster I was snapping it and not modifying my thumbing. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing and for a while I actually avoided strait overhead casts it was so annoying. I used the reel brakes for a bit to tame things down, but then once I realized what I was doing, thumbing it became natural. Having said that... I still backlash more than I would like to admit, lol.

LOL! I've been slimed, peed on, bled on, stung by cats, spashed and smacked... not never have I been pooped on. That's epic! All told, I would rather have a deuce dropped on my deck then stung by another cat though... IDK if it's rude or not, but hit hurts like the dickens!

Sometimes I amaze myself at how I can miss some of the most obvious ideas. Every year we (wife and her family) head out shopping as the fall approaches. Usually we end up at outlet malls, or other big shopping areas. The wives shop, the guys kind of follow them around and hope to find a "guy" store to kill some time in. Hours and hours of the day spent in a concrete hell of screaming children, long lines, and just general crabbyness of other disgruntled shoppers. Well, a couple months ago we were planning another one of these trips and I was naturally dreading it. What's worse, I was going to be the only guy going as the others were indisposed of... ok, yeah no biggie been there done that but meh. So I was looking at a map of where we were going and noticed a small lake nearby. That's when it clicked. DOH! Drive them down to the outlet, then go fish while they shop! I would get to try new places, and still be there to drive etc as needed. So, off we go to Mebane, NC. They shopped I went to a little lake about 5 mins away from the outlets. I had a bunch of bass gear in tote and had hopped to take a john boat out on the lake... skipping the story, I ended up fishing some bait feeders for catfish and had a freaking ball! I fished, they shopped -- then called when it was time to head back to pick them up and go eat. I mean really... fish all day, then go out to eat. Man was it rough, lol. This past weekend we did it again. This time headed to the Tanger Outlets in Pigeon Forge, TN. Well, there is Lake Douglas just about 25 mins away (depending on traffic). But, I know they pull the lake waaay down in the fall, so I figured why not try fishing the tailraces from the dam. This time I scaled back the gear I took and built a rod pod out of 3" pvp pipe and strapped it on the roof of the suv. I headed to the dam to find a good few people fishing. First off, it is excptionally well designed for bank fishing near the dam. Secondly - my lord it's amazing how big of a difference in water flow there is when they are generating power vs when they are not. If you are along the banks anywhere near this dam, be prepared to get back up the bank when they start releasing water. I know, kind of common sense, but I've never seen water rise as much at a dam before. Anywho -- I ended up only fishing for a few hours and discovered a fantastic Hybrid and White bass bite at the lower end of the pool next to the dam (2-3 inch white grubs fished in slack water or casted out and drifted over the newly covered rocks when generating water). I didn't keep an accurate count, but I know I was around 3 dozen (maybe more) in just a couple hours time. I didn't catch any monsters, but I had a complete ball catching new fish in a new place -- and at the end of the day, ended up again at a pretty nice restaurant (AppleBarn this time) to wrap things up and then headed home. So, now instead of dreading shopping trips with the wife and family, I start looking for new places to fish. So far it works out great, and to check in with her I just send a pic of a fish that I've caught. She knows I'm ok, she replies and I know they are ok. It's been win / win so far, and the only bad thing is that I've been drug along for these shopping trips for years now and never even thought about turning it into a fishing trip. What's worse, at times there have been places where I've even said, "Man I'd love to be fishing that." while we were shopping. Maybe everyone else has already been doing this, and I'm just a nub who missed the obvious -- but if not, then I recommend looking at it as an option. Sure, you may need to pay for a non-resident license - but pft, who of us wouldn't spend a little money to get to go fish. I know for us it keeps everyone happy. I will suggest building or buying a rod travel case to strap on top of the car. I have traveled with the rods on the rack and it works, but for a few bucks you can build a fairly cheap and very effective "rod pod" as I call it out of 3 or 4 inch PVC. I may have went a little overkill, but I made mine 8' long, out of 3" PVC. I glued an end cap on the front and placed an end cap on the rear. I drilled a single hole in the end of the cap to avoid vaccum and I then cross drilled throught the cap and tube and use a trailer hitchpin and clip to ensure the cap cannot come off. (Sanding the pipe down will make it easier to open). Then I took a few old rag socks and bundled them up and shoved them in. My thought was to keep the tip from smashing into the front of the pod when breaking, but the rods kind of slipped past the socks a little and they held the rods in place. I wouldn't leave them like that for days, but for a few hours it worked great. I have some other ideas on what may work better, such as a piece of elastic near the butt of the rods pulled tight to hold them in place. But for now this works great and was a lot cheaper than a hard rod travel case for one peice rods.

Obviously practice, practice and practice, lol. If you are seriously looking to improve your back hand cast, use it when you don't need to. Find a bank that you want to fish, then instead of fishing it with your normal casts - back hand the whole bank. (Or if you want to really expand your angle, off hand it.) Once you get the muscle memory down it will become second nature. (I say that, and I still suck casting with my off hand lol.) But I do backhand without thinking about it now.

Only one backlash...that sounds like a fish tale to me, lol. Just picking, that's pretty awesome - expecially considering it was your first day on the water with one. I suspect, you will find that you will get worse with the baitcaster before you get better. Don't sweat it, it's normal. As you become more comfortable you will cast harder, loosen the weights etc more and you're going to spin up some nests. I'm a firm believer that you learn more from your mistakes then by getting lucky the first time. Once you learn what not to do, you will slowly lock down what to do and soon it will all become second nature. As for feeling the bit -- congrats. And like was said above, gear makes a huge difference in feeling the bit. And now that you know what it feels like, you know "what" you are feeling for - and that means you are going to only become better and better at perceiving fish. Congrats and welcome to the addiction lol.

Wow -- I understand that tournament fishering it's nice to have a honey hole...but let's step back for a second and think about what the OP is talking about. He is a new angler asking about local ponds - he obviously is looking at his ability to catch the potential of the pond. You say "any true fisherman isn't going to tell you about the pond...", I say why not? Why not help a new angler become more successful by telling them good places to fish. I can out fish Bill Dance, Roland Martin and KVD all at the same time, as long as they are fishing water with no fish and I'm fishing a good ole' farm pond full of bug eating bass... In my opinion helping put new anglers on fish is a huge benefit both to them and the sport. Imagine if no one ever shared good places to fish, or good techniques, with each of us when we first started - or if the magazines kept everything a secret - if forums didn't exist where people give advice... I'd be wiling to wager that some wouldn't be here sharing their stories today. Let's be honest -- how many seceret spots are there that only one person knows about. Unless it's on private property, probably very very few. Sure there may be spots we "think" only we know about, but reality suggests that spot has been fished by many other anglers with varying levels of success over the years. Personally, I love to see new anglers catch fish, especially kids. I will gladly tell a new angler a few "hot spots" to try in an area if I know of any...what do I have to be afraid of? Maybe they will catch a bigger fish than me? Good for them! I'll gladly give up my next 5lb'er to a new angler if it means they will get to enjoy a sport for the rest of their life and hopefully pass along more advice to the new anglers they meet over their life.

I think this wraps it up neatly. Mastering different types of casts, with both hands, just gives you a little more advantage. Admittedly though, I still need to spend more time working from my left side.

Went Tuesday -- Beautiful day, and the day before a big front. Got out early hoping they would be in full tilt. Found tons of bait back in a cove, and about a dozen striper fishermen casting for them. Apparently they turned off the bass in the cove -- only caught a few dinks and they weren't feeding on the bait. Fished around and only had decent luck until early afternoon, mostly dinks on a jerkbait. Bite picked up a bit, but it was on a very finess presentation. I lost my biggest fish of the day off a 1" grub. (I was looking for crappy in a creek arm) that's when I discoved they wanted small and gentle. Talked to a couple other guys who either did horribly powerfishing, and the other picked up on the finess bite and caught a few keepers. All in all not the kind of day I was expecting. And on a side note -- I was really put off by 3/4 of the striper guys running up to the back of the cove to toss for bait. It's a small cove and they just plowed through it waking me to death. A few were polite and eased up, but the bulk of them just hammered down. At one point, I was about 2 feet off a rock ledge coaxing a lure out of a limb, and a dude roared by. I mean seriously... have a little respect for other boaters.

Same here, no matter how I'm using them, or the conditions I always end up getting the best results out of the dark purple. I'd have to look at the bag for the name, but its basically black with a purple accents. Black Grape maybe? idk

Speaking of the more inventive ways to rid yourself of extra lures, small boats and tackleboxes not strapped down is a good method. More than once I've been fishing the river and seen stuff go floating by that shouldn't be on its own. I've even on a few occaisions managed to benefit from the purge of extra lures. The funniest though was many years ago, me and a couple friends were waiding and we started seeing some trash float down the river. Well, it was out in the current and I wasn't about to head into it, but one of the guys I was with was a phenominal swimmer so he just slipped out in current and started snagging stuff coming by. It ended up being a parade of bobbers and trash. I don't know what happened up stream but most assuredly someone lost a few dozen floats. I don't get too ansy uless I see a PFD - then things change real fast.

The biggest change I'm planning for next year is simply to get to fish more. The last couple of years have kept me off the water more than I would like. Hopefully, I can get more time in on the water next year.

I keep disenfectant on the boat but honestly rearely use it. Now if I hook myself, or get chewed up I'll slather it on. But I don't sanitize my hands every day after fishing no. Now if my wife goes with me, then it's a lock. She wont even ask if I want any, she just hands me the bottle. I figure if it keeps her happy, then I'll slather some around on the ole' mitts.

Bank to abyss here too...and I agree you can definitely use it to annoy bedding fish - although I rarely fish beds anymore.

I agree with the Snook. I personally don't get seasick, but my brother in law and nephew both discovered they did...on a 75 footer headed out for shark. They had both been on my bass rig during super choppy / rolling small lake waters during a holiday, and didn't bother them. But before we were even in open water they were both sick on the ocean. They were lucky in that they didn't get so sick they were purging themselves, but they were both right on the edge. Needless to say, they didn't enjoy themselves very much - and to top it off, didn't catch any sharks...

Thanks, I didn't want to circumvent anything and get called out for it, lol.

lol - I didn't do that. It would seem there is a word censor turned on to disallow that word. To appease the mods, I wont circumvent with dashes etc, but I was referencing the Black River which feeds the Amazon in Brazil in case the Peacock reference didn't lock it in for anyone.

Two words: Rio *****. Of course I would like to fish some other fisheries too, but the Rio Neg.ro, SA is my ultimate bucket list fishery. Naturally I would firstly target world class Peacocks, but there are soooo many other great fish you can catch along the way...