bassr95

If i remember my chemistry right, water does get more dense until about 4 C. Then it begins to form into a crystalline structure, which is less dense and is why ice floats.

I too was duped by the yum dancin eel. It ran sideways at speed and just plain didn't catch fish

Kicker Fish Hightail Holeshot Shakey worm. It literally floats off the bottom indefinitely, and it seems to outproduce other worms on a shakeyhead.

#3 Mepps Aglia

My personal preference is to throw jerkbaits (I like husky jerks) on a 6-6 M/f spinning set up with braid and a mono leader. I think that both throwing and working jerkbaits is far simpler and more effective on spinning gear, if I were you I would give it a shot. On the other hand, most guys seem to prefer casting gear, so obviously that works too.

Thanks guys, and i will try to take better pics next time!

Well, first I waited for a good earthquake...haha yeah, i never know which way will take straight pics on my phone lol

This evening I went fishing with a buddy at a fairly big (15 or 20 acres) sub-devision pond near us. I used a texas rig, and put my new rage tail anacondas on it. It was about 54 degrees, windy, with intermitant rain showers, chilly compared to what we have been having lately. Anyway, I started casting around and working the t-rig slowly when thunk, nice hit. He was a good sized bass, and i thought "Well this is going to be a good evening". A couple hours later, it was getting dark and I had not gotten another bite. There is kind of a bottleneck between the two sections of the pond with a bridge over it, and i cast to the center pillar of the bridge, gave it a hop, and thunk, another solid-feeling strike. That fish faught harder, and turned out to be a bit longer than the first, with a really fat, round belly. that was it for the night, but I was really happy with the size of fish, considering that northern IL ponds are not really known for consistantly producing big fish. I was pretty impressed with my first time using rage tail products, i think they have a good chance of becomeing one of my "go to" plastics. I'll attach a couple of cell phone pics (the second fish's pic was taken by myself at arms lenth, so it didn't really turn out, i think you can still see the belly though:))

My best advice to you would have to be to go out and try it. find a bass-filled private pond (somone you know probably ownes one-I personaly have plenty of them) and use that texas rig. slowly hop it along the bottom, casting both parallel and perpendicular to shore. after setting/attempting to set the hook a dozen or so times, you will a technique down that works for you.

Yeah, I think I agree that using a RH casting reel is probably just something I got used to when I learned to use a baitcaster.

I love swim jigs. to me, they have the advantage over spinnerbaits in either very clear or very weedy water. in clear water they look alot more natural, and in weedy water they do not get tangled in weeds like a spinnerbait's blades do. i mostly use either 1/4 oz bluegill color for shallow/weedy water and 1/2 oz blue/black color in deeper, clearer water. i use berkeley riple shads as trailers. (swimbait)

my friend has the 6'8" m/xf st croix mojo bass for wacky rigging, and i really like it. it costs about $100

Drop shot

IMO the braid/flouro leader will work fine, if you are worried about the rocks cutting the braid, just tie a longer leader. it's less work anyway, because you don't have to tie a new one on as often. 3-5 ft works pretty well.

I dont like trolling either, but that doesn't mean that it is easy, or takes no skill. somtimes the only way consistantly catch scattered walleye is to troll shad raps on the outside weed edge. i'll do it, but would far rather fish some other way. that said, the people who troll a lot usually have some pretty complex methods and should in no way be looked down on

I fish barbless myself and really dont think it causes me to loose more fish. in my opinion, the most important thing is to get the hook set completly to the bend and barbs just make it harder to do that. as others have said, barbless hooks come out of me and my fish sooo much easier.

Definatly the president...i love mine

well, a few years back i was trolling for northern and walleye with a shad rap and caught a little pike about a foot long. while i was trying to unhook him, he flopped out of my hand and landed in my lap. he was hooked on the back treble and with one quick jerk set the front hook deep into my thy. i got a death grip on him and took the hook out, threw him in the water and then tried to take the hook out of my leg. my cousin then tried his hand at hook removal, but it was deep into the muscle and only resulted in a lot of screaming on my part. The ER is a crummy place to end a fishing trip.

fishing on a budget, i refuse to pay for gary yamamoto anything. the best replacment i have personaly found for senkos are yum dingers. they work well and are not too pricy. i wacky rig them with a weedless hook and put about 3 turns of 1/2in electrical tape around the center of the bait to put the hook through and catch more fish per bait. love senko style baits!

hey guys, i have been snooping around the forums for a few months and decided to join today. im 17 and live in northern illinois. i mostly bass fish in ponds and smaller (25-150 acres) forest preserve lakes in the area, due to the lack of a fishing boat. i also have recently been trying to learn the fox river for smallmouth, with on and off success.