OmegaDPW

I hate to admit it, but I use the Zebco 4lb or 6lb test on my spinning reels from Wal-Mart. Omni-something. It works great for me but the 10lb I tried had a lot of memory.

I looked through my stash of stuff and only found one pack of chartreuse...so I happened to be in a town for work today that had a local mom and pop shop. Picked up a card of black/black. My waters are always muddy and cloudy. Most everything I fish is a dark color. Hoping these black ones keep up the streak of catching fish with dark colors.

Used to be a big time crappie fisherman and remember catching a good bit of bass on Marabou style jigs. May have to grab an old pack out of the tacklebox next time I head out and intentionally fish them for bass. Anybody else use them?

Great point and I never thought of that. I'm usually a split shot fisherman and drag the baits. I may have to get these shorter ones out more often, now. Thank you all for the great replies!

Are there any? I have a few that I've collected/been gifted over the years and they don't see much use- outside of using my regular "sit in" kayak a few times a year just because it's easier to manage than a 6 1/2 or 7 footer. But for guys that fish in a boat or even from the bank, are there times you would choose a shorter 5.5 rod for certain applications?

@WRB and @Catt Thank you both. The water clarity is terrible in this pond. You can't see anything 5 inches from the bank. It won't be very accurate, since I can only take a temp from the bank, but it'll give me an idea. I'll head out there again next weekend. 👍

Thanks for the detailed answer. Just for some more info, all three were caught perfectly in the jaw and I was using a 6.6 M rod with 6lb test. Two were with weightless stickbaits and a 4/0 EWG hook and the other was caught on a split shot lizard with a #2 EWG. With the temperatures being in the high 70's last week, the water would have been definitely warmer than what the winter fish were in. All were caught fishing from the bank and the deepest part of the pond is approximately 8 feet or so. These were all caught in maybe 5 foot of water and parallel to the bank. I'm also located about an hour over the Florida line, so pretty far south. Could any of this mean spawning season is close?

I've normally fished for crappie in the colder months but this year the ponds I fish are pretty sparse with crappie and I've just targeted bass or bluegill. The weather for GA has been very cold this winter with numerous days in a row under freezing and recently the temps have fluctuated from 30's in the morning to 76 being the high one day this week. Outside of the freezing temp days with no luck, I've caught pretty nice bass. I went fishing yesterday morning and the temps were 42 degrees with a slight wind. I caught three bass and every one of them fought harder than ever before- jumping out of the water trying to shake the hook and pulling drag out of the reel. It made you think they were monsters but each were 2.5-3 lbs. Is this typical pre spawn? Do the temperatures fluctuating so wildly have anything to do with it? Or is just coincidence that all three fought harder than any other fish I've caught out of this pond before (started fishing it in October of last year)?

One of my favorite memories was fishing Loxahatchee in Florida as a kid. The gators learned that they could get an easy meal from the bank fishermen. One day an older guy (probably my age now) pulled a chair up to the water's edge and hooked a panfish or something. That gator grabbed it about a foot away from him when he was reeling it in. He threw his rod at the gator and fell out of the chair backwards. Everybody but him laughed. The gator bit the panfish in half and he was spared his rod. I actually saw him numerous times after that, but much further up the bank.

Great questions. My pond always has a couple of geese and a couple of herons. They typically fly off when I get close (the geese) making a ton of racket. Seems I never catch anything for 15-20 minutes after that. I've seen one beaver but it was far off and I couldn't cast out anywhere near it from the bank.

Just a typical farm pond bass. This one was caught on a red 7 inch lizard and split shot rig. Caught two more on a weightless senko. My tiny finesse baits didn't get a bite but the water was terribly cloudy and it is still cold and windy. Called it after 2 hours.

No Smallmouth down here. Never caught one anywhere, actually. I rarely change lures and really don't fish hard baits so mine are simple as can be. 1. Beetle Spin 2. Stickbait (weightless) 3. Finesse worm (split shot rig or wacky depending on my mood) 4. Lizard (split shot) 5. Trick worm (same as 3)

Born and raised in Miami so fished the Glades and the Ocean all the time. Had a canal in my backyard and caught a lot of fish there. Took a vacation as a kid and went up to Maine to visit some relatives and fished a summer up there. Graduated high school and went to college in GA. Met my wife and never went back home. I've fished all over the state here. Any time work sent me somewhere or my kids needed a little vacation, I usually planned a way to catch an hour or two at some lake. At home, we have a PFA and local farm ponds that I fish about every weekend. I guess I throw a Beetle Spin the best but a weightless stickbait is catching up. Beetle Spins have been my favorite lure forever. I have only fished a super clear lake twice- both up in North GA. Our ponds down here have no visibility whatsoever. I researched clear water fishing after the first time of getting skunked years ago in Blue Ridge, GA. Went back North last October and had a lot more luck up in Helen, GA. I was pretty proud to catch a few on a very pressured lake with super clear water.

I recently bought a black popper that I'll give to my wife and a couple bags of their stickbaits in black blue flake or something like that. The stickbaits worked well and I've looked for them again each time I went but they're never there. Both were around $2.50 or so. Mine is still carrying quite a few styles of soft plastics but not the sticks.

I can't wait. You telling me about them led me to start looking at my usual haunts and how I found these #4 and #6. #6 was as small as I could find. I've got some 4lb test but usually only use it in clear water a couple times a year. My local spots are chocolate milk right now and I fish everything from Senko style baits on a 3/0 hook to these little things with the same rod most of the time. Just keeps it easier. I'm all about simplicity- and to some degree minimalism but that goes out the window when I see new worms to try out.

Yep, while I love to catch bass, bluegill and crappie are still my passion. I'm fishing these finesse worms with 6lb line and a ML rod if not lighter. I just got in some #4 and #6 EWG hooks just for the gills. Had some #4 RB hooks but it didn't look like there would be enough gap between the worm and hook for the majority of my baits. Can't wait to give these a shot!

@ChrisD46 Thanks so much for this. I never really knew what each shot weighed. I normally just keep the 4, 5 and 7 in the tacklebag. Thank you all for the replies! Really interesting reading for me. I may throw a few pops in the slow retrieve from now on and see what happens.

I've read a lot about people dead sticking their baits. I never expected it to do anything. A couple of weeks ago, I was fishing two farm ponds connected by a dam and had just reeled in a stickbait when I heard a huge commotion coming from the other pond. I turned with the lure in about a foot of water at the bank to watch a group of deer run through the woods and jump into the pond to swim to the other side. There were six of them and I continued to watch them after they swam and got to the far bank and ran off into the woods. While all this was happening, my rod jerked so hard that I almost dropped the whole rig into the water. I didn't catch the fish that found that dead-sticked stickbait, but it made a believer out of me- at least this one time. Unfortunately, I'm way too impatient to just cast out and wait forever, so it'll never happen again unless it's just another fluke of nature.

I never fish topwater lures but my wife loves it. She doesn't know any tricks to topwater, so usually just does a cast and retrieve with a few pauses in between. Like anything else with the majority of fishing, the pause is the key. She usually catches more fish than I do dragging around a worm.

That would be my wife. Went fishing yesterday and she tied on a popper. Right when I said "it's not the right time of year for that" she caught the biggest bass of the day at 3.5 pounds. I see you're in SGA too. Weather was great for fishing yesterday. Today is terrible. Typical.

Let me preface that I've fished the split shot rig for about 40 years. It's what I learned with and is still my go-to rig. I dabble with Texas Rigs, wacky rigs and free rigs- and have fished weightless stuff quite a bit over the last couple of years- but for confidence, I go back to a weedless rigged bait with a small (or two) split shot about 2 feet up the line. Most of my baits are 3 or 4 inch straight tail worms as I'm basically a finesse guy and just want to catch fish. I have always just tried to keep contact with the bottom on the retrieve. The other day I started watching some videos on-line about split shotting and numerous ones show the guy fishing (Bill Dance being one) popping the retrieve back to the boat. The underwater footage shows the bait looking more like a Ned Rig than what I normally do. So, I'm curious how others fish the split shot. Thanks in advance!

Outside of Roland Martin, Bill Dance and KVD I don't even know any other professional guys to emulate. In all honesty, if I didn't get some fishing magazines in the early 2000's, I probably wouldn't know KVD. He was in every single one back then. Of the folks here, I'd like to thank @RRocket and @looking45 The other day when I posted looking for a specific worm these two fabulous members sent me a PM saying that they'd be happy to send me some that they think would fit the bill. Hopefully, I can emulate their generosity when the time comes. Class acts.

That book has never left my nightstand since I got it about 20 years ago. 👍

I grew up fishing the Creme worms but I'd have to keep those intact in the package. I just really like stuff like that. They still make 'em (maybe not those colors, but...) and I'd just buy some new ones.

Thanks! 😄 That day, I was catching some dinks on the regular split tail grub and wanted a bigger presentation. I bank fish and carry minimal tackle so my best option for a larger "spinner" was the trick worm. I cannot tell you what the catfish sees in this, but this one particular pond catches catfish regularly with Beetle Spins. They're all decent sized, too. 2-4 pounds. I'm under the impression that bass will bite just about anything if it's thrown in their face enough. There was a video on YT where some dude put a bunch of hooks on his waterproof Go-Pro camera the other day and eventually caught a fish.