PABASS

My top producer for me this year has been a Smithwick Suspending Rouge chrome/black orange belly and with red hooks. Caught my 3 Largest fish on them this year. Going out Sunday and hoping it produces then, I believe its still pre-spawn but since the last time I had fished a month has past and Bass still appeared to be in pre-spawn.

Awesome fish, up here if you catch a snakehead you must kill it, it is the same in FL?

I take photos with my smart phone and hold the fish out to arms length, I take pictures for archival/journal reasons, this year I have only taken pictures of bass over 15 inches. This year I want to try fishing for big fish, especially if I have already caught a few dinks. The picture tells me, date, time, location, water clarity and weather, worth a thousand words.. I am a tall guy so my fish look small compared to me anyway, so it doesn't much matter how I hold the fish.

Add another to the list of quality issues with this reel, I purchased one for river fishing mainly and this reel just cant handle the fish, for the quality of the lews baitcaster I keep reading about it amazes me that the speed spool was such a cheap afterthought.

Hmmm, does the person know what a drop shot is? The salt water guys been using this technique long before it was discovered useful for BASS and I never heard of anyone using topwater bait underwater with a drop shot?? I am all for trying it once but the concept sounds broken to me, it would have to be open water which isn't near me, it also doesn't imitate a frog or fish what would it be, floating vertical with a bunch of hooks lol..

Right now I have not hit the tourny scene which is another story, I grew up with Bill Dance and he always advised you to ask questions about lure, and depth. I will ask and in return answer however I can see what they are using anyway so its not really a secret, plus I don't run into many people that fish the way I do. Boaters when they pull up to my area will get a yelling at, you have the whole lake don't take my little spot, again it doesn't happen often.

I watched this tourney on TV and the way its was stated by the announcers was there is a unspoken rule that you don't take a spot from someone poised to win(Rojas) the tourney when your back 7th place(Alton), they then showed Rojas making several comments about the situation, BASS made the situation worse, they fed the troll and the troll took the bait. During this it was stated by the announcers Alton didn't fish this area all week, so whom is trying to create the drama?

I have access to several golf-courses some are public land, and others I just called and asked. If your ponds are anything like mine they are filled with vegetation in summer and right now is the best time to fish them, jigs, suspending jerkbaits, tube baits. Start with the N/W side of the pond, find any laydowns or rocks, fish it with the jig, fish around laydowns and rocks with the jerkbait, fish the jerkbait slow as mentioned to find active bass and focus with the jig when you find them. I will tell you in my area all the fish have been in the same area about the size of a king bed in three of the ponds I fished these past weeks. They were near deep water with a living tree on the bank in about 2-6' of water.

I agree with Paul its all about location, are on you on the females? I don't always believe bigger baits = bigger fish, I caught small fish on big baits and large fish on small baits, depends what the fish want, will upping the size hurt probably not but you still might only get the dinks and not the pigs, the key is locating the females.

I am bank bound and the typically windy day doesn't bother me once I figure out how to cast so that my lure lands it where I want it , in some ways I can hit targets better with wind. Plus the fish seem less spooky in small ponds and lakes.

I use tubes allot more recently for SMB and LMB, so far they haven't been the biggest fish but a small fish is better then no fish. I am trying to find my favorite OME, Gitiz, Cabin Creek, Havoc, are three I am working with and I don't like the Cabin Creek brand because the tentacles are not cut and clump but the fish like them lol.. I want to try some from Confidence Baits but I need to stop buying and start fishing lol..

My PB came at dusk/dark. Largest fish of this season came around 1:30PM last weekend, 3# roughly.

Location, Location, Location, and you guys had the location, congrats and thanks for sharing, yes I am interested in your tackle as well, line, reels, rods? And what was the water temps?

Caught a LMB on a hair jig few weeks ago in the same ultra clear water with grass carp. Small hair jigs worked slow might yield some better results.

I live right on the river but didn't notice any, I only ever occasionally fish from my back yard as the water is shallow, fast moving, tons of snags and large fish don't topically feed here. I don't believe there is any trout in this area, I also live about 30min north, near lewisburg. Water temps are making fishing tuff, got two LMB in a local pond on Saturday and got skunked same pond the next day, however this also had allot to do with the lack of fish in this pond.

Ultra clear water, try some testing with this kind of water and see what happens. Local pond I fished recently had ultra clear water so much so the bass and other fish were being spooked by my line, white fireline. Lost a few lures this weekend and my leader knot never broke the line did.

Nice fish, fish are in spawn in FL, what a difference a few hundred miles make..

Good report, since I am bank bound I don't bother with the river till late spring/summer, I am further north and the fish are still not where I can get to them. I did see a few boats on the part of the rive I normally fish, typically boats don't have access to this but river is high.

I will use last weekend, went to a new pond that I have never seen before in person, I used Bing & Google Maps to get an idea of the layout. It was two very large ponds feed by a small stream. Weather was partly sunny high of 41 and windy. The night before I tied on a suspending smithwick and black/blue jig with a zoom crawdad trailer. When I get to the pond I noticed water clarity which is ultra clear. I wanted to hit the n/w side of the pond but I figured I needed to work the area first since it’s located on the other side of the pond and with clear water I would spook the fish. I worked this area for a few minutes and nothing. On the S/E side of the pond it had a live tree on the bank and deep water, toss out my jerkbait and crap a snag, no o wait a fish it felt like I caught I tree and once the lure came free the bass hit it, reeled in this big girl maybe 3#. You can see she was caught before. So I work over the area with my jerkbait then the jig and nothing. I see a laydown on the N/W side, tossed my jerkbait and lost it on submerged tree, crap. Tossed the jig and slowing pulling it over the tree and whack 2# bass, pulled him over the tree, this should be a good day, so I had thought. I worked both ponds for another few hours and even came back the next day and nothing. I saw all the bass this pond had to offer same with bluegill(they were schooling on the N/W side in shallow water), basically a dying pond. Ran into some locals whom confirmed my suspicions. It’s a shame because it has the potential to be a great pond, but the owners just left it go. On the second day I tried, jerkbait, spinnerbait, chatterbait, jigs, and even a drop shot where I had caught the two fish prior. At the end of the day all of the bass which was only 5-8 where under that tree I caught the big girl. I might come back during spawn to make sure it’s as dead as I believe it to be, but I have many other ponds that have allot more bass whiling to bite. This is typically how I attach any new area, assuming I can’t find any topos as well. I just wonder why all if not most Bass where under this tree

I typically don't respond to posts that have been brought from the dead so to speak and I already posted too.. Like I said, I don’t own a boat I personally believe my PB was luck and I will never have that luck in this state again. Since I don’t own a boat when I catch a 3,4,5# bass from a very limited shore line, using bank oriented tackle I say this takes patients and skill. You get me on a boat and I figure out the electronics and have the time I will catch far bigger bass then I ever have. So no its not cheating if it’s all you have access to. I am downright envious of Gene and what he has access to and do not consider what he is doing as cheating and respect that Man and what he does then most in this business, Gene thank for the videos, the knowledge it truly has made me a better angler!!!!!!

Yes it could be we have Blue Heron's around, never seen one at this location but there is a ton of water/food to support them. Although I cant recall if the scar was on the opposite side as well.. I have never seen a LMB that yellow, all his fins are yellow. Sadly I think this pond will have a large die off as they introduced grass carp and the water is ultra clear with little to no cover and now no vegetation.

Yes, with all things being equal was the comparison as Tom pointed out. The SMB in the rivers I fish are crazy and I mean nuts, they will bury themselves under rocks they bite down when you lip emm, then instinctively know to swim down stream when they are hooked. A quarter# SMB fights harder then a 2#LMB around here. I am not a biologist but when you compare a fish like the SMB whom is typically in current to a LMB or spott that typically isn't, its fairly easy to see why a SMB is the harder fighting fish. Lake SMB Vs Lake Spott Vs River LMB, whom would win lol..

We don't have Spotts in PA and I recently watched a fishing show that said spotts put up more of a fight then a SMB?(This was in a lake) I have never fished for SMB in anything other than a river and these "river" SMB fight like nothing I have caught before, so whats your opinion do spotts indeed fight harder?

Modified Albright has one of the highest breaking strength with braid to FC and Mono. Also has a slim profile and makes it easier to cast, fairly easy to tie and while I never lost a fish using this knot I will tell you my big hands struggle with this knot on 6#FC but as others have said practice, practice, practice. I have a 10# spool of line at work that I practice knots with and this knot always gets tied to keep me in practice.

I have never done this but Jeff of confidence baits makes his own hair jigs and adds material just for soaking in scent, you could find the video on youtube.