PABASS

I think a Bank Fishing sub forum would be a welcome addition. Around here ponds have been slowly going away due golf course going out of business and farmers selling the land, its hard to find a fishing hole anymore especially one to take my kids to. We have lakes, streams and rivers but without a boat your area is limited and heavily fished. A group of ponds that I fish is just impossible to fish until summer or winter the vegetation is so bad you cant fish it with anything that doesn't float.

Big fan of Spro frogs and the few I have take on water as does my KVD sexy frog, I will say the spro takes on water more quickly but its just part of the frogging game. I just purchased a SnagProff frog as I hear these do not fill up with water and are awesome in think vegetation, cant wait to try it out next year. My Spro Bonze-eye shad seems to take on less water....

Here is my question about the magical "spawn" temperature mark, in south FL does the water temps even go down to 55? I thought I read somewhere 55-65 and this depends on location, for example in PA I could see the lower 60s would trigger spawning migration and this would make sense that in FL 62+ would trigger the same migration, no?

Buzzbaits are a killer for me as well, some of they craziest top water action you will see is a buzzbait hit.

I find with smallies and I have yet to lure one anywhere near 5#, even with an open hook you still need to give them a nice hook check, nothing hard but still a hookset. I cant stress sharp hooks enough, even thin wire hooks need to be sharp and after a day of fishing on the susky's bottom hooks get dull and need sharpened and or replaced. Allot of people mention checking the line for frays, rarely do I see people checking the hook for a point which I do allot. Also what type line/rod action/power are you using?

Very good read and I love the analogy. I have noticed that with all my boaters they will not put there lure in the fishes home, I always try to put my lures in the fishes home and I loose allot of lures lol. My biggest weakness is accuracy I am just not that accurate and time constraints keep me from lots of practice, so for me I only "practice" in tournaments. I don't know if this is boat educate or not but I always ask first when I see a laydown or structure that I know will hold fish if I can flip/pitch it and 100% of the time the boater says go ahead and 40% of the time there is a fish there. One of my first tourneys ever boated a 4# doing this, I just knew a big fish was there.

Thanks for the information, I wasn't referring my warranty question to accidental damage just pointing out the reason why I am leaning towards aluminum. I am glad motors where brought up as I am about as clueless with motors as I am boats. I hear good things about mercury, who in this field is the Honda/Toyota and the Chevy/Fords? As for boats my price range just about keeps me out of fiberglass anyway but I do have my eye on a nitro z6, I also like Tracker boats which I just learned they are the same company. Ranger is making Aluminium boats and when I was a kid I always wanted a Ranger boat but as I understand it this is the first time Ranger is bringing an Aluminum boat to market with the "Ranger" name so I never like to be a beta tester. I also have looked at Lund and thanks for the awesome perspective on your boat "slonezp", I am just not sure about them, they sit very high in the water and I am a tall guy 6'8" so I am afraid they will kill my back trying to lip a fish, plus how hard are they to get back in after the off chance I fall off, do they come standard with a boat ladder?

Big O awesome story/pics, question for ya do you switch to the KVD chunk in cooler months or do you fish the RAGE Craw all year round? Do you ever find the fish want a more subtle action what do you toss then?

I hopeful that within the next two years I will be the proud owner of a boat, however I am just starting preliminary research. Does anyone know what the best boat warranties typically are? Ranger seems a bit short ranging from 5-1 years depending on item of defect, is this a typical warranty? I am looking at Aluminum boats, especially since this will be my first boat ever, I feel as if I will be better protected from accidental damage.

I have seen lots of nature shots and the ones of the seal are magazine quality, thank you for sharing them.

From my experience I would say pre-spawn as well, the fish for me are easier to catch and its when I catch my biggest fish. Mater-o-fact I will only visit certain locations during pre-spawn because any other time is just a waste because the fish are harder to catch. The one location is a larger pond that only allows fishing from one side, jerkbaits in the late winter and early spring bags me the biggest fish in the pond. In the summer you cant get to them and in the fall they don't seem as aggressive. Its funny this is brought up because I have thought about this and wondered is it the fish or the fisherman? What I mean by that is around here I don't see many guys fishing ponds in late winter, so the bass had time to relax so to speak the fisherman's pressure is less, so are they easier to catch because of this? To me it might be both but more on the side of the fish are just much more aggressive.

This is a tough one as I have never been out west but FL is where the big girls live and specifically they eat how I love to catch them.

Ahh but some do as there has been inter breeding between Grizzlies and Polar bears. Due to habitat shrinking and food sources in decline Polar bears have been moving more inland and breeding with bears in the woods..

Yes he was using Prism Gill, we are north and shad are not as abundant as they are in the warmer states. I will say the prism gill is a nice balance since its shinny has some contrast and slim like a minnow. Also I belive these baits put off vibration as well. I was using a swimbait and caught more bass, he caught more fish using his lure.

Does a bear crap in the woods, well so does this guy. I have learned very quickly in my older age TP is a must..

Here in PA mid to late November depending on how the temps have been. It seems you may be able to catch them but there are better lures to get the job done.

Very nice fish, what did you entice her on?

I have had bedding fish hit lures after being caught that day. I grew up pond fishing and all ponds around me had duckgrass which basically turns the pond green with little green dots. When I was young I would use a wieghtless tube and drag it over top and any fished I missed followed up with another weighted tube and it worked well. I have had bass miss my topwater Pop-R two and three times and on the last time get hooked.

My boater few weeks ago was using this technique in stained water and it produced. He was using a Duo Realis Spinbait love the action of this bait, the main problem was I think he caught more pickerel then bass.

I like fishing the salad so a frog would be my choice, need to try more brands but spro and kvd's produce and hookup ratio is about the same.

In my younger years an ugly stick is all I had and it worked, however its a tool and as we all know some tools are better for certain jobs. Before websites like these and youtube learning as a young man I could not for the life of me catch a fish on a jig. I was using an lite ugly stick and stren 8# mono, recently I went out and caught some bass on jigs using this same rod with my son, whats the difference? Age, experience, nope it was line, I was using braid. I do feel there is a point of no return meaning a rod can only transmit so much, does a 800$ rod do it better then a 150$ rod, don't know as I don't own any 800$ rods. I can say that my 80$ Veritas is every bit as sensitive as my st croix premier and sometimes more depending on the lure. I have always been a line watcher, not just a liner feeler, many, many times I will see my line going off and not feel a thing, sometimes I will feel a dink and see my line go off. Personally feel that choosing the right rod for the job is the way to go, by that I mean power and action not by much how much it costs.

My longest break was about 10 years, still kept all the tackle and equipment though.. Picked it back up few years ago and I am hooked again.. I fish whenever I can which isn't as often as I would like. I am hoping to get a boat in the next year or two and plan to go out at least 4 times a month especially since the kids will be older and can come along..

I think chain pickerel are a beautiful fish but when they are not the targeted species they can be annoying as they cut through line like butter. In all the lakes I fish around PA I have only caught them in a few so its not a big deal, however this last lake was pickerel heaven probably caught 10 of them, but more bass then pickerel just no bass that went 15"..

With only 4-5 combos allowed on deck I need versatility so I use spinning gear with 7' Med/Fast Rod using 10#nano tied to a 10#FC leader,/Seagar InvizX, tied to a Gamakatsu Weighted Superline Spring Lock Hook 4/0. Fished with it for a few hours and this rig netted me three bass all under 15" and two chain pickerel, didn't miss a single fish, I even hooked a bass under the jaw, from a short strike. What an amazing bait, I cant wait to try there tubes out..

I always have had questions about red mouth observations, its not the first time I have heard when they are red they are feeding on crawdads, however I fished several ponds that have no crawdad population and in winter months the top of the mouths are very red and this goes away in warmer months, however I typically only see red mouths in cooler months even with crawdad populations.