Preytorien

We have without a doubt the best consumer reel support on Bass Resource that you could ask for!

I like the Palomar for braid, but the SDJ or reverse clinch for flouro/copolymer seems to work great for me. Not to get off the OP, but the reverse clinch seems to cinch down very well too, and it's one that's easy to visually distinguish if you've tied it effectively.

A fellow I fish with just got sponsored by TFO.....I'm looking forward to seeing what his input is on these. From what I can recall he uses mostly St. Croix / G. Loomis rods.

Excellent post. I have an 8 month old daughter and I can't wait for times like this. She's already eyeing the Snow White poles at Wal-Mart. Great post, I love it!

I have a Carbonlite with microguides I have a Shimano Crucial with standard guides It might be me, but I think I get just a bit more distance with the microguides, especially on 3/8oz or less lures.

Those are the heads I use, they're insanely durable. I've never chipped or hung one, and I throw that thing in the nastiest stuff you can find.

Very beautiful. Glad you got to do some fishing, looks like you had a great time with family!

I see it's your first post? Welcome to the site, it's a great place to share ideas and share some of your own fishing wisdom! Glad to have you Kevin......... ________________________________________________________________________ Judging by the pictures on that site, I've got a couple of observations to make.....maybe some more experienced guys could chime in too. 1. That dock would be a good place during summer. In such a cover-sparse pond, the fish will gravitate to any shade possible, which means that dock, and also means any shady portion of the bank, or under some of that slop on the top of the water will likely hold fish in the heat of summer. 2. Never underestimate the slop, it holds fish because it provides shade. If your pond has more and more as the warm weather progresses, you might try a frog on top, or try punching it. 3. I see you've caught a crappie. Now I preface this statement by saying I'm no expert in pond/lake biology, but if I've read correctly, crappie are a very aggressive fish and compete with bass for food, usually winning. In my experience where there are crappie, the bass are either very sparse, or have stunted growth due to heavily competing food supplies. In larger lakes it's not so prevalent since the food supply is pretty extensive, but I could see a small pond like that being a virtual warzone for food between Mr. Bass and Mr. Crappie. Try using a good ole' fashioned bobber and a minnow and see which one you catch more of, that'll determine the dominant predator in your waters. Hopefully those big bass you've caught will start to tip things back in the favor of the bass. 4. As mentioned above, ponds are ideal for finesse tactics - senkos, T-rigs, flukes, etc. Almost all the success I have on ponds comes at the hands of a finesse tactic. 5. During the spring, cast parallel to the bank. The fish will be moving up shallow. If you approach the bank head-on you'll spook them, cast down the bank parallel to have a good shot at them. 6. As with all bank fishing, walk VERY softly, make no sudden movements, and try to wear light colored shirts to blend into the sky better. Fish can see you on the bank and will spook easily. Last note..... Cool website bud. Post some of those big bass pictures on it....and also on here!

Welcome! Glad to have you. Likewise my hooks aren't partial to just bass, I'll catch anything with gills, fins, and scales. Glad you're aboard....do share your wealth of advice on the forums!

Very true. I have a BPS Carbonlite with micro-guides. I've used all of the above knots and while some are more low-profile than others, none work really well. Sure the knot might be slim initially, but the second you get any kind of gunk buildup on the knot, it starts having trouble passing through the guides - or - the gunk starts to accumulate on the first (extremely tiny) guide as the joint passes through and you get binding soon after from just the amount of slop buildup on the guide. I finally decided to just buy another rig with standard guides and keep my microguide rod as my punching/frog rig with 65lb straight braid on it......no problems yet.

I've been using Mike's jigs now for several months and I can attest that the head paint stays put, the skirts are very durable, and the quality of the jig is simply impeccable. He takes great care in making sure his jigs and products are high quality and boy does it show. I get a kick out of throwing my jigs in the nastiest cover I can find, as many here probably do, and I have yet to even hang one because his weedguards are perfect. Add to that the additional benefit you get with customer service. I've asked Mike questions about fishing certain jigs and certain conditions. He's always prompt with his reply and offers great direction on the use of the lures he crafts. I use the Dredge Brush head which has the Owner Deep Throat Hook, which is top notch quality. If you were to compare almost exclusively and based on the prices for Terminator, Strike King, and Booyah jigs, Mike's price beats em' and you get a custom product that I've found to be better quality and more durable. Sure you pay a few bucks in shipping, but comparing his shipping costs and time to BPS or Cabelas, he's got them beat hands down. You'll be glad you pulled the trigger on the ones in your cart. They're good stuff.

Well.....this is a great deal of information. Looks like I'll just throw what I think they MIGHT like and if I don't get hit, try something else. Fish are so finicky.... Thanks for all the help guys.

Yea, all my jigs are specifically from Siebert....which are hand tied, so they should last me a while.

Thanks guys for all the advice. I'm looking forward to some good fish with these jigs!

I've really made it a point to get better with jigs this year. It's been a bait I've been intimidated by them in the past, but after reading thread after thread, multiple articles, and replaying Gene's videos about 50 times, I am confident that I can hang some quality fish with my newly stocked (Siebert) jigs. That said, most seem to recommend green pumpkin for clear water, and black blue for stained/murky water. My question is.....how clear do they mean for green pumpkin? I'm pretty good at figuring out the visibility, especially since I've completed training for search and rescue SCUBA diving, so I know several methods of determining visibility levels. So what's considered clear? What's considered stained? Thanks for any help guys!

Looks like it's slated to be finished by spring 2015 The countdown begins.....

Got news today, offically from the city, that they're putting in a Cabela's.....literally 10 minutes from my house. Great, I thought I had appeased the baitmonkey, then he moves in next door. For those of you interested in the location,they're putting the Cabela's at Hamilton Towne Centre - Interstate 69 exit 210 in Noblesville.

I use a Red Eye Shad on my Shimano Sahara/Shimano Clarus M/XF rod w/8lb P-Line CX Premium copolymer. That thing goes so far I can't hardly see where it lands.

Excellent. Good call switching it up until you figured out what the bass were after. That's one of the more finer points of fishing that can be pretty frusturating. But it looks like you figured it out with some great results. Excited to see some more hawg pics coming from you

Correct, take the spool off, remove all parts that you can possibly remove, THEN soak it. Should've clarified that

I didn't experience any negative issues from it. I was careful and removed the drags and any other parts before I did it, then dried it off very thouroughly. I fished for about 5 hours yesterday with it and didn't notice any problems at all.

Watched the video by Glenn about spooling a spinning reel correctly. I've never heard of the bit about dunking the spooled reel in super hot water. But I did it, soaked it in hot water for about 5 minutes. Went fishing today with it and noticed that the spool memory was very slight, and what memory existed was the size of the reel spool. Very impressed, even in a pretty solid wind today I got no knots or tangles, which to be honest is a rare occurance for me! Thanks Glenn!

Indiana it's $17/year for under 65 resident

Thanks Tom, that makes sense considering even after ice out the water temps were in the low-mid 40's. I thought that was a bit warm for water that had literally just thawed totally this prior week. The turnover must've influenced the fishing too, we didn't even have a nibble. What happens to the water after this point?

After waiting so long, many of the ponds/lakes here in Central IN have thawed, and I was able to get out fishing for several hours yesterday. My buddies and I fished a filled in pit. The water was pretty stained. We ended up getting skunked, but it beat a day in the office. While fishing, we probably saw about 15-20 shad, about 5-8 inches long, turned belly up, slightly twitching, as they were about to die. We also saw several dead on the shoreline. What does this mean? Is there a contaminant in the water? Is it a fish kill? Any ideas?