Preytorien

Yes, this. It's been killer for me this year.

Yes, this.....I've used this method many times with a swallowed senko hook. Thanks Glen for posting this again, I remember seeing it some time back.

Ha, yea I have. Fortunately it's not a work overload problem as with my job I can work remotely, check emails if I need to, etc. Sure it might require me to put down the rod and answer an email, but I get to do it from a boat, and not a laptop in a grey cubicle. So it's worth it IMO. Speaking of......the weather's supposed to be nice and mild next week

I think that may be the issue - my lure being too large. The area these fish are in is 1-1.5ft and a good bit of grass on the bottom. I'm casting parallel to the bank. If I had to guess it's just the profile of the lure doing it. I may go the route of spinning gear with a senko, fluke, or some other light-weight lure, preferrably one that's mostly weedless since this pond is very grassy.

I've considered the spinning rig option. My only concern is that there is a good deal of grass/reeds in this pond, and I don't know if my spinning rig (set up for finesse) has the power to winch em' out if I need to. But considering I'm not catching any with a casting rig, I might risk it with the spinning rig. Concerning the waiting a bit to let the bass acclimate to the lure.....I've never heard this. A bass will essentially "come back" to the same place? If this is the case, I think it would work. How long would you wait for it? The other suggestion of standing a few seconds to let the bass get used to my presence is also a great idea. I will try that next time. Like I said, it's odd. I've had fish spook because of my steps, but never because of my cast. My reel isn't loud (even though the ceramic bearings are a bit noisy), maybe it's the whipping of the rod or something.

I have a honey-hole type pond I found this week. There is a significant number of good sized fish in this one, and there is an abundance of vegetation, food, and cover. I caught a few last night while I was out, and they were good ones. I found though a problem I'm having is that before I can get my lure to the area the fish might be holding, I spook the fish. Now, understand I bank fish almost exclusively, I know the stealth approach stuff, and I did what I consider a great job of being silent, I even wear soft sole shoes to minimize the walking impact I have. But it was strange, they didn't spook during my stepping on anything, they took off the second I cast my rod. I don't recall this ever happening to me. Even 20-30 yards out the fish were spooking enough that I couldn't get my lure to them adequately enough to catch more than a couple. They only darted off the second I shot the lure through the air, not from me stepping, not from my lure hitting the water.....it was odd. What presentation would you guys suggest in this situation?

I added a swivel, a small barrel swivel, about 22 inches long, and it made all the difference. I fished about 2 hours today, and had zero tangles. Glad I did this, now I hope to have no more hassles!

I live over in Indiana too, and I fish neighborhood ponds quite a bit. I'm no pond management expert but it sounds like almost every fish on the freshwater chain is stocked there! The number of fish might cause it to be that the abundance of food is so plentiful that lures would be tougher to use than other places. Additionally having no vegetation makes it tough. It's a hard call to make to deem a body of water a no-go. That said, persistence is the only way to tell. Keep at it. Maximize your time at dusk/dawn for the more productive times for our region. With murky water, thumping blades, neon colors, and dark baits would probably work best. Myself personally, I'd hit the pond at dawn and dusk with a topwater anything....buzzbait, frog, spook, jitterbug, and work those until my fingers fell off. I hate fishing "chocolate milk" water.

I will have to try a bigger hook. But I'm considering switching to just casting gear too. I just like to wade and go for smallmouth in a river near here, I'm not too excited about using casting gear for it. I just like a spinning reel a bit better for the river. But hey, I may just do it with the success I'm having with flukes this year.

I use a Carbonlite Heavy/Fast rod for froggin, buzzbaits, spooks, poppers, etc. I love it.

I fish the fluke weightless. I am pretty attentive to making sure the hook enters/exits the body in a straight line (thanks bassresource) and I use a decent sized hook....a 3/0 offset worm hook The only part I could see is fishing it fast. When it's weightless, I fish it a lot like a jerkbait, with pauses in the retrieve. Maybe I'm doing it too fast, but my problem persists even when I fish it almost as slow as a senko. When I use this presentation, then take up the slack line as I'm working the fluke it wraps it on the spool (spinning reel) with uneven amounts of tension. Some of the line is tensioned by reeling with the weight of the fluke providing tension, some has no tension since I'm reeling slack line. This causes me to get tangles due to the inconsistency of the line tension on the spool. I'm hoping that some of it can be alleviated with a swivel somehow because I'm tangling line about every 5-7 casts. The spool's not overfilled, and I am careful to close the bail by hand before the lure hits the water. Basically every tip that can be given on preventing spinning line twist I've applied, but I still get tangles with this presentation - however I've been killing it lately with flukes, so I don't want to abandon it. I'm hoping the swivel will help some, if not completely. Any ideas you can throw my way?

I've heard of using a swivel when fishing a fluke, and the most common flukes are probably Zoom flukes. However, I use almost exclusively paddle-tail flukes, like the Strike King Swim'n Caffeine Shad......do I need to use a swivel for paddle-tails too? Of course the purpose of the swivel to prevent line twist?

*mumbling....."wish I had that kind of budget" Ha! Good luck and have fun!

I thread my hooks on safety pins in my stowaway boxes so they're not all getting tangled up with each other Also, for those of you that use stowaway boxes, and have had the dividers loosen up, causing tackle to "run together" - frustrates me to no end - I figured out if you put a drop of superglue on a piece of paper, then dip the end of a toothpick in it, then dab the toothpick onto the center of the bottom of the loose divider, it keeps it in place, but it's not so much glue that you can't pull it out if you really need to

Guys, I just found out a friend of mine was killed last night, working on his firearm. He was cleaning/maintaining his gun in some manner (I don't know specifics yet) and somehow, infathomably, a round discharged and killed him. I know he was adept at the "rules" of gun safety, he was even in the military, where firearm safety is (hopefully) ground into conciousness. Like I said, I don't know the details, I just know that somewhere he was distracted or not thinking straight. Whatever the circumstances, no matter the fault, now a friend of mine is dead, and it was almost certainly preventable with some common sense. Guys, when you're cleaning your guns, check, check, and re-check the receiver and clip for rounds. Never point the barrel anywhere near your body (or anyone else of course), and never EVER assume either of these prior two points are a sure thing. Be careful.....be.....careful

This year a weightless SK Swim'n Caffeine Shad (in pearl white) has been my knock em' out lure. I hadn't tried one before, but I went out fishing with our pastor and he made a believer out of me!

I'm in Indiana, I can't even imagine anything bigger than 7 or 8 pounds. My biggest is 5.5

I've been looking at getting those kind also. Keep us updated on this, it'll help make my decision.

I would think the primary importance to a sponsor is getting that giant colored/logo'd jersey up on stage. Whether they used their specific product is the second. I'm sure marketing-wise Livingston would've loved to have pictures of Howell holding up a giant bass with their lure in it's lip, but if he used a DT6, they don't mind too much, he caught what was needed to win, using what needed, and now Livingston's name was on the stage of the biggest tournament. If I remember correctly, TW sold out of the Livingston's pretty fast, so I'm sure they're not complaining too much. From a marketing standpoint - exposure being the name of the game - they're likely still revved up from seeing him in front of people with their name clearly visible. I know myself I went and checked out Livingston lures after that, I really didn't know too much about them. Now I do. Mission accomplished for them, right? I know in cycling, concerning customized equipment, they have a pro-cycling rule that all equipment used by a sponsored pro MUST be available to the market within I believe 6months from the time it's first used in a race. Pretty much anything you see a pro using, you can buy, with the exception of custom paint jobs.

Oh man, that's cute. Great looking dog. And you're right, every boy needs a pup, they become best friends REAL quick.

I think you've pretty well got an idea of what the fish want in that pond. There are some new-to-you techniques you can try, such as the jigs, and that'll increase your odds if the fish have becomed any bit conditioned. Really though, like one person said, we're starting to hit the mid-season slump - some of my consistent "money" waters have skunked me the past couple of weeks. It tends to take the confidence right outta you, but you just have to remember this seems to happen every year. Fall will heat up the action again. One other thing I'd recommend. I don't know how often you fish these waters, but I would try to keep them pristine in their conditon. What I mean is try your level best (and believe me it's tough), to only fish it a couple days a week, even go for maybe 1 day a week. If you and everyone else in the neighborhood hit the water a few times a week, that ends up being a lot of lures, bobbers, and hooks the fish are used to seeing, and may get wary of lures after a while. My closest fishing hole is like that. It produces great until about mid-June, then flat out shuts down once the bass get wise. They won't hardly hit anything until again the next spring, when the water thaws. It's a brutally tough thing to hold yourself back from fishing your favorite spots, but it's pretty well worth it when you can keep the spot infrequently fished enough that you're consistently catching when you actually do fish it. That's why I'm constantly on the lookout for more little honey-holes, that way I can hit each of them once every week/10days and prevent the fish from conditioning. It's sort of a fishing spot management challenge. I even have a little spreadsheet on my phone that I track my frequency to these spots and my results from those days to see if any patterns seem to do better than others. I've found that 1-2 times a week on a decent sized pond is usually fine, but 3 or more and it starts to suffer. Once a week is very good, once every 10-days and the fish might as well jump on the tip of my rod and say hello. (just kiddin')

I think it's inherent that each year you want to look back and see improvement. Some measure it by how big of bass you catch, others by how many you catch. Whatever way you view it, we all look at it as a challenge, and that's why we do it. This year my challenge has been to be able to fish more often, and to fish different waters than I did in years before. So far I've done it. I bought a small Sea Eagle boat, and I just got some waders. My fishing world has opened up. New waters, more opportunities, even some new species. So for me.....mission accomplished.

Been using these about 10 days now, and the soft plastics, in my case Caffeine Shad's, are lasting MUCH longer. Thanks for the help A-Jay. This is essentially what the parasite clips are. The thread on the hook so the front of the plastic can't slip down past the bend of the offset in the hook shank. Great idea, I'm sure before parasite clips were around this is what started the idea. Thanks for the tip!

That's one other thing I forgot to mention, the variable throttle. That REALLY helps when paralleling a shoreline or something and you just want to barely creep along, it's nice to have such adjustability.

Most.....frustrating....thing.....ever..... I just keep thinking about a topic I once saw about us fishermen being "historical" fishermen. We approach water the next day the same way we did the day, time, or trip before. Fish move, water conditions change, weather changes, even the contour and structure of the bottom can change with current.....so it's not all that unheard of for lures to be good one day and then bomb the next. I guess we just have to adapt and try to anticipate what they'll want.....which is really the challenge of fishing. I know if I was a fish I'd take every lure in my box - I know I'll be thrown back and boy do those Seibert Jigs look delicious