dale.m

At right around $100, the Veritas wins hands down. I bought one just to see what the fuss was about and they really are very nice rods for the price. Might even go back and buy some more!

I use white/chart and black/blue single blade exclusively. I fish the black one in low light or clear water. I fish the white/chart one in bright lite and murky water. While the best times to throw them are morning and evening, I've busted out the buzz during the middle of the afternoon before and literally caught what seemed like the entire lake. They are picky with the buzz though. If they aren't nipping at it within 15 casts, I switch to something else.

The things I would do to land a fish that big! Good grief! It's a whale!

It does sound pretty sketchy. Good thing nothing got stolen I guess. I'd try to keep it locked and parked in a super visible area. If it happens again notify a warden and let him know what has been going on. I wouldn't fish with whoever it is again though. He sounds like a total "donkey."

Good info here! I'm going to stop by my local Dick's today and try this out now! Thanks man!

I primarily fish with a bait casters. However I still keep a spinning rod on the boat with me at all times. I use the spinning rod for finess fishing where presentation is crucial and the lures are lite. Spinning rods can cast lures like these farther because there is nothing that has to spin for the line to pay out. I feel like lighter lures fall better with a spinning rod as well. Just my .02 cent.

Smack him with a 10" plastic worm. There is nothing more satisfying.

I caught a duck once as he was flying overhead, but thats all so far! Your story cracked me up! Thanks for the laugh!

Chances are, the bass are hanging out waiting for things to float by in the current and then ambushing them. This way, they don't have to exert too much energy, and the food basically comes to them. At a lake where I live, we fish an inlet where fresh water spills in from another lake. I throw anything from worms to topwater lures in the current and let it float by calmer areas. 9/10 times, the bass are hanging out in the calmer area and destroy my bait. Good tactic OP!

Mmmmm I love it when they strip off line like nothing. Good post OP! Congrats on the PB!

I like to work mine while using a rhythm in my head. Twitch, Pause, Twitch Twitch, Pause (and repeat). I work them over submerged vegetation close to the surface.

Wow looks like you had a heck of a time! Makes me wanna go fishing right now!

As long as you let the fish take the frog for a second before setting the hook, you should rarely miss a bass on a frog. The only time I miss a bass on a frog is if they short strike or I react to quickly.

Haha your boy looks like he's about to eat that fish!

I recently acquired a Kister Helium LTA 7ft MH fast action micro guide rod and I have been using it for soft plastic fishing. Specifically, I've been using it for fishing t-rigged worms. Ever since I have started using the rod, I've started to gullet hook a lot of fish. When I say a lot, I mean 3 or 4 per trip! Before I was using a 6 1/2 foot MH Veritas and I very rarely gullet hooked any fish with a soft plastic. Am I using the wrong rod for this type of fishing? Have any other Kistler LTA users suffered this same problem? Thanks!

All around its gotta be NC. We have everything from mountain fly fishing, costal deep sea fishing, and everything in between! I personally love living right in the piedmont area because its only a 2 hour drive to the mountains and a 3 hour drive to the coast! Plus...the bass fishing in the piedmont is amazing!

A few weeks ago I went to Colorado with my father and brother. Before I get into the fishing stuff, may I say that Colorado is the most beautiful place I have ever been. After this trip, I am seriously interested in moving to Denver just to be close to the beautiful mountains! We drove up two that were over 14,000ft and it was incredible. Ok back to the fishing.... We decided to go fly fishing why we were there and got an outfitter lined up to take us out. We fished near a town called Deckers in the South Platte River. We strapped on our waders and got ready for a great day of fishing. The type of rig the outfitter set me up on was called a Nymph rig. It consisted 3 separate flies and a strike indicator. The amount of leaders really surprised me! Fromt the rubber floating line, there were three sections of mono that connected to the strike indicator. From there, there was another 3 leaders of flurocarbon that connected all the flies to the line. The leaders tapered down all the way from 10lb mono to 3lb fluro! The rod also had an extremely light action compared to the bass rods I am familiar with. The rig may of confused me, but once our outfitter told us about how the trout fishing we were doing was all sight fishing, I was in my comfort zone. I love sight fishing when it comes to bass, so I knew that I was going to love this. Trout are very hard to spot in a rushing river. They almost look like a grey ark that you would see on a fish finder screen. After learning how to cast, I found my first trout and threw it up the river about 10 yards away, I let the flies float by and the trout struck it instantly! I totally missed the strike completely!!! The speed in which trout strike took me by surprise! You have to be quick on the hook set with these pesky fellers. After a few more casts to various other fish, I finally caught a rainbow trout.....all be it, it was probably 6 inches long! I was determined to catch a larger one though. Finally, after spotting a few upstream, I made a perfect cast and hooked into a nice 14 inch rainbow. The fight was on! Because the line is so light, you can't really reel in. Instead you have to fight the fish until its close enough to you to net it with out reeling in when there is tension on the line. I swear I fought that dang fish for 4 minutes. It got stuck under every dang rock and log in the river but I finally got it over to my outfitter where he could net it! It was the most beautiful fish I had ever caught! What a rush! My brother ended up catching a nice 13 inch brown trout and a sucker fish which is kind of like the catfish of Colorado rivers. My dad unfortunately got skunked, but he still had a blast enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery and amazing weather. All in all, my first time fly fishing was a huge success! I had a ton of fun and I am considering buying a fly fishing rig and fishing some of the rivers in the mountains of North Carolina. I still love bass fishing more than anything, but it was a lot of fun exploring a new realm of the sport that I have never tried. I'm still waiting on the outfitter to email the pictures of the fish we caught to us, but we did get this picture before the expedition began. As I get the pictures in I will upload them here. And of course...Colorado!

Dang man I hate to hear that happend to you. I'd keep checking craigslist to see if it pops up. If you find it, send them an email like you are interested in buying it so you can get his address and such....then notify the authorities. I'd also check a few popular local fishing holes around and see if anybody is using your rig. I hope you find your gear and the person who stole it! Best of luck!

As stated previously, you can't go wrong with a black jitterbug. I also love to fish a black/blue buzzbait at night.

Me and my buddy were fishing texas rigged zoom trick worms the other evening. I felt a fish hit my worm and then suddenly, a bass jumped out of the water a good 3 ft in the air. At first I didn't believe that the fish in the air was the one that hit the worm. My flurocarbon line was still in the water. However as I set the hook an instant later, I found out that the fish in the air was the one who had my worm. As he splashed back down I reeled him in as I was simultaneously laughing my butt off. I had never seen any thing of the sort! I'd say the fish was about a pound. Has this ever happened to any of you guys when you fish plastic worms?

The past few evenings have been great here in North Carolina, so I decided to take my brother fishing last night. He hardly ever fishes and has never caught a bass bigger than a pound in his life. The bass have been sluggish on the bite this summer, so I tied him and me on a t-rigged watermelon seed/red flake trick worm. I taught him how to fish it and after around 30 minutes, we finally established where the bass were. The first bass he caught was a dink. He was very excited just to have caught the first fish! However, on his next cast, he would soon forget that excitement. As he lifted up on his rod I could tell that it must of felt heavy. I told him to set the hook now! As he did, the rod tip bent down a little farther than usual. I could tell he had a bigger fish on, but I don't think he could. As he pulled it up to the boat though, his face lit up. On the end of his line was a 4.3lb beast. He was so excited! It was truly special to watch him catch his first big bass. After we released him, he turned to me and said...."I think I've caught the bass bug." Looks like we have another bass fishing addict. As the evening faded, I could tell that with every cast he was anxious to catch another big one. We went on to catch a total of 6 bass, 3 a piece. What a fun night! Owen's Dink. Owen's 4.3lb'er

Buzzbait.....anything buzzbait.

In clearer water, I fish natural colors like watermelon or pumpkin. In murky water, I fish the exact same colors, but with a chartreuse tail on them. The bright tail seems to get them striking in stained or murky water.

I'll go ahead and agree with everyone else in this thread by saying that you can't go wrong with zoom trick worms. They were my favorite bait when I first started bass fishing and building a tackle box and they are still a staple today. Me and my buddy caught 12 bass within 2 hours on them yesterday. Also, the Booyah jigs are pretty good as well. They are cheap and I don't mind loosing them as much as I mind loosing more expensive jigs.

Pressing down the barb and sliding the hook out has worked for me. I'd rather sacrifice a hook than a fish.