OmegaDPW

I've already been to my two local places- a private pond and a PFA with like 60 lakes/ponds. Work is sending me to Athens, GA in April and I've already looked around on-line to find a place up there. In October, I hope to go back to Helen, GA and fish Lake Unicoi. I had decent luck there last year at a work convention.

Best producing over the years has been bubblegum. I've had great luck with black finesse worms recently, so picked up a bag of black tricks the other day along with some green pumpkin. I'll get to them sooner or later.

I just picked up a few bags of Chinese finesse worms and am really surprised as to the quality. They seem pretty durable and have a lot of wiggle. Funny enough, each bag is labeled by a different company (Bearking is one- can't remember the others) but there's no doubt that they're the same exact worms in each pack under the different labels. The plan is to try them out tomorrow morning!

Thanks much for the detailed reply, buddy. I'm going to try something totally different and ditched the split shot for a free rig. I found one old free rig weight at the bottom of my tacklebox and may as well try that out. Rain is supposed to be coming in tonight but out at the early morning. I'll give it a shot!

I picked up some 3 inch finesse worms the other day from one of the overseas sites and found some #4 offset round bend hooks that work perfectly with them. They're too light to cast weightless so I'm going to use a simple split shot rig to help cast 'em out. I have never fished for bluegill/crappie with a hook set up like this- always an exposed hook on a small jighead, etc. Seems the bluegill like to "snap" at the bait and basically hook themselves. Does anyone think this set up will actually work? Will I have enough time to feel the bite and then try to set the hook like my favorite TX rigs for bass? My local pond is full of stumps and weeds and whatever else. I've lost hundreds of dollars in Beetle Spins over the last 20 years out there, which is why I thought about trying this weedless set up. The bass there have a tendency to go after whatever bait I throw, so I'll hopefully catch something, regardless. Guess I'll find out Saturday morning... 😁

I have never fished a jig like you're describing in my life. Sure, I've taken a Beetle Spin off of it's spinner and bumped one of the large ones a few times off the bottom over the years but that's it. None of my local ponds have any noticeable crawdad populations, so things like jigs and fat creature baits have never been anything I've gotten interested in. I guess I should try one out sooner or later just to see how they work down here. Texas rigged worms do it for me in all situations other than hunting panfish. That's what I have confidence in and I know I can fish it in just about any situation. Weeds and muck are prevalent in the ponds I have access to. I've always figured jigs would get hung up or need to be cleaned off after every cast and that has swayed me not to use them.

Thanks Mike. That's the warmest welcome I could have received. I signed up for this forum many many years ago and posted a couple of times and then went on to other things. Fishing has always been one of my main hobbies, but sporadically, and I never spent much money on it. That old Ugly Stik is the most expensive rod I've ever bought. I also have a Pfleuger reel and the rest of the stuff has been given to me or picked up at junk stores, flea markets and WalMart. They all work well enough for what I do. I have two kids in college. Gotta save everywhere I can.

Here's my story: A couple of months ago my 20 year old MH Ugly Stik broke at the plastic connector that holds the reel and I tried some things like zip ties but they always got in the way of where I hold it so stuck it in a corner. I decided to try some athletic tape the other day to hold the reel on and found an old Shakespeare reel that wasn't being used and taped it up. I had a bunch of 6lb mono and stuck that on there. Went out to the pond to give it a shot with a Creme stickbait (Baby Bass type of color) and a 3/0 EWG weightless. The rod and reel worked well enough and I hooked into a decent bass after about an hour of nothing. It made a beeline straight to the weeds at shore and got tangled up pretty well. I tried to lift him and 10lbs of weeds at the same time to get him on shore and the line snapped. The fish was stunned and fell onto the weeds at shore and I had to walk into the pond to grab him and get my bait and hook back. He was fine and swam off. I have a pic but the fish is on the ground next to my redneck engineered rod and I know how some social media sites are about posting a pic of a fish on the ground so don't want to get hollered at here for it, but I didn't have much choice. 🙂 Caught one more after that one so it was a decent enough winter day.

Like most years, I never threw a tube at all. I also didn't fish a lizard that much this year, which is odd because a curly tail worm and lizard are basically interchangeable for my tastes and I had good luck a few months back with some old Culprit worms on a split shot rig. The lizards will come out again soon, though.

Definitely a stick bait. The Creme 5 pack in Green Pumpkin at Walmart for $1.24 worked great and I was able to catch multiple fish on each one. Of course, now I own a whole bunch of those (including other colors) so I hope it continues. I also fished a Zoom Trick Worm more often this year with good results. With panfish, I've always fished a black Beetle Spin of some sort. Been doing that for 30 years, so there's no sense in changing now. Most productive bait ever for me.

Played around with some tiny #4 hooks and a few finesse worms wacky rigged today. The bass bit more than the panfish, though (not complaining!).

Same problem here. At least 2 days out of the 6 day workweek for USPS, the truck never comes down my road at all. We also had one carrier that would constantly deliver packages addressed to my house one street over to a guy with the same house number. Luckily, I live out in the sticks where you know your neighbors and he'd always let me know.

Sounds like my places right now. I'm having luck with wacky rigged finesse worms or weightless and weedless stick baits in the shallows from the bank. I'm losing more hooks than ever right now with the wacky rigs but catching more than my family that comes along.

I fish a worm 90% of the time. If it's not a worm it's usually a lizard. Rarely throw hard baits at all. The only things I change up are the rigging. We have a PFA down the road with a lot of lakes- big and small. My wife likes to kayak and she'll usually go around picking up the lures and bobbers she finds while I spend the majority of time fishing. Almost 100% of the time she brings back a bag full of Ozark Trail hard baits. Big, little...they're usually something you can find at Wal Mart. On the off chance that I throw a hard bait, it's not one of those. I figure the fish have seen hundreds of them over a week or two. I'll stick to the soft baits and I intentionally go to the ponds that have lots of noticeable weeds. Most of those "once a year anglers" with their new crankbait aren't going to risk losing it in lily pads.

I'm at 42 right now. Started up again around 6 months ago after a few years of life getting in the way. Fishing through the winter this go-round. EW

These folks know more than I do, but I wanted to chime in and say I was very impressed with the Storm swimbaits that I've used down here in Georgia. For around a buck a piece, they have worked extremely well for me. The 2.5 inch ones had excellent action and have caught both large crappie and large mouth bass. Are you catching fish with them up there? EricW.

I'm an odd one, I guess...I don't change too many things around for different types of seasons (I live near the Florida line and we don't have very cold seasons). Normally, I'll throw a swimbait or finesse worm- carolina or split shot rigged- or a jighead worm. Cast, wait, retrieve -over and over til it gets back to the shore. Depending on the size of the bait, I can target everything from panfish to bass this way. EricW.

Another vote for a wacky rigged worm or a weightless creature bait of some kind. Good time for lizards in the South.