Tony L.

X2 on the rocks. Hard structure in general is good. Rocks, concrete, bridge pilings, boulders.... they also seem to have a preference for more oxygenated water than their largemouth cousins. Cooler water and moving water, as a general rule of thumb, have these higher levels of oxygen (which is why you don't typically find a smallies in the backwaters /sloughs of the deep south where the monstrous largemouth are). I'd look for rockpiles, areas where streams are entering and churning oxygen into the lake, or the streams themselves. As far as baits, it is hard to beat grubs, tubes, and 4 inch senkos.

Talk to the lake association president about how you are worried about all of the extra litter that you have seen in the lake recently. Nothing more, nothing less. If the other boats are practicing catch and release, they aren't really hurting too much. And if it is the association president that is letting them in, you don't have too much leverage to get them out anyway. It is his duty, however, to preserve the integrity of the lake, and he would most likely say something about the trash to the people that are launching from his land- maybe even tell them not to fish anymore...

I've started using twin tailed grubs as trailers on my buzzbaits. The two curly tails almost resemble the kicking legs of a swimming frog.

X2 on the pflueger. Also, I have been pleasantly surprised by the quantum accurist pt. I had no intention of purchasing one until I found it for $40 last year at gander mtn's black Friday sale. It is normally priced in the $90 range, so the deal was too good to pass up. I'm sure they were probably cleaning out to make room for the newest version. In any case, I have been very, very impressed. I would advise against the bottom shelf stuff from quantum though. I recently bought a cheap-o for one of my bluegill/crappie rigs and was highly disappointed in it compared to the entry level Abu Garcia's that I have had for the same purpose. All the same, quantum's higher end models (and I know they go a lot more expensive still) are pretty top notch, and I have loved my accurrist. I just used it the other day to horse in a 15-20 pound turtle that I hooked while bottom fishing for channel cats. Smooth as silk.

I'm not sure what my 2 cents is worth at this point because so many people with more knowledge and experience have already answered, but I would have switched over to a Senko or a soft plastic fluke as well. Since that has been covered pretty thouroughly already, let me switch directions by saying welcome to the forum!

Anticipation is building! Cant wait to see pictures/description when you get the chance.

I don't anticipate that you would ever fight a fish that would run your line all the way into the backing on a large spool, but there are a couple advantages that I can think of. 1) line management- if you are fishing a line like monofilament, you will have less problems with line memory on a larger spool because it is not looped as tightly as it would be on a smaller reel. That can be a pretty significant difference once you get into the heavier line. I'm sire this would be less of a factor if you were fishing no memory lines like braid or flouro. 2) inches per turn (maybe)- with all other things kept equal, a larger spool is going to pick up ever so slightly more line per rotation than a smaller one. I honestly don't know that the difference between the two is noticeable enough to really make too much of a fuss over though. Maybe someone with more experience has a better idea than I do. The only other thing that I could possibly think of is the fact that, if you were fishing a really thick diameter line that fills the spool quickly, you might be better off using a larger spool to ensure that it holds enough for you to make long casts-- but that would be kind of a stretch. For all practical purposes, I've never had the need (or ability) to throw my lure to the moon.

Two thoughts: 1) go to a non-mainstream sporting goods or farm and fleet store and look into getting either a pond prowler or a canoe/kayak. In my area, for instance, you can find entry level kayaks at places like Big R and K-mart for a very good price. If you have a Dunham's sporting goods nearby, I have seen off-brand fishing kayaks for as little as $150, if I am not mistaken. 2) if you have the vehicle to tow it, take to craigslist and buy a small, used aluminum boat and trailer. A small 10-14 footer that has seen some love can be really cheap. It doesn't matter how old it is because the baseline, featureless boats with bench seats have been exactly the same for decades. They have them on craigslist and in the classifieds all the time-even with trolling motors or 5-10 horse outboards. They go cheaper in the winter months, and I have seen them under $500. Both of these are on my list of things to do once we close on a house in the next few months and I have a place to store a fishing vessel. Until then, I too am a shorebound angler unless I buddy up with a friend or family member. I understand your frustration, but they are certainly still catchable from the shore. It is a disadvantage, but it is not a dealbreaker. When I can't buddy up with a boater, I sometimes only have access to 2-3 good looking bass locations on any large body of water. If I fish them thouroughly and have no success I switch it up and catch some bluegill or some catfish for the frying pan. It's still fun. In the meantime, try looking for some ponds where boat access is uneccessary.

I grew up on a farm, and the nearest population was indeed a small town. Just a single flashing yellow light. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Moved away for college and then to a big city for graduate school and i can say that it does indeed call you back home. Now, I am working a job that allows me to travel around and serve disabled individuals living in the rural areas of the counties surrounding the one I was raised in. I was very much pulled right back in, and that is fine by me.

^^^^ This one for the win. Well played, good sir. Well played.

High water is definitely a factor. Lets start with the fact that the high water probably doubled the fishable area of your lake. Even though you have really invested in becoming a fisherman now, you are still at a disadvantage in locating them because they are scattered to the ends of the earth. Also think about the available food supply. The rising water had to have flooded out all sorts of terrestrial insects and earthworms burrowed into previously dried ground. Unless you jumped on board at the start of the feeding frenzy, chances are you were fishing for bass that had already gorged themselves. Was the water still rising, or was it starting to recede back to normal levels? I have heard that the initial stages of rising water (the start of the aforementioned feeding frenzy) can be good for fishing, but falling water, even just dropping a few inches per day, puts the fish on lockdown. Finally, and perhaps the least satisfying, even the best fishermen will have the occasional off day. Its not personal, it just happens (for me, more often than not). You'll get them next time.

I seem to have pretty good success in dropping a weightless Senko in the little open pockets or on the edges of lilly pads. Not sure if anyone else uses this strategy, but it has been a producer for me this year.

I am just going to echo everyone else. 7ft, MH, Fast action rod is about the most versatile rod you can own, but it is not going to be able to do everything. You would have one heck of a time casting smaller lures and weightless plastics any further than 10 yards. A spinning setup would compliment it nicely. Tywithay has a really good point too. For some reason the Mh rods made by abu feel a lot stiffer than ones made by other manufacturers. Their MH feels like anyone else's H-- but that is just my thought and i am sure that others would probably disagree. Great rods though, i really like my abu garcia veritas. Of course, if you live further south than I do, the heavier rod would suit you just fine because you probably catch bigger bass than what I find around here.

I tihink that it is less about the weight of the fish and more about the angle at which pressure is being put on the rod, but 3lbs seems fair. Anything bigger is a really high quality bass in my area so i would probably be netting it anyway. I have been known to sometimes grab hold of the line and swing the fish in that way. No strain on the rod at all. Careful grabbing too far ahead of the reel. If I am not mistaken, rods are designed to flex throughout most of their entire length to absorb strain. The further up you grab, the more you are forcing all of the pressure to be taken up by the outer portions/tip of the rod.

I would definitely recommend a Berkley rod. Cherrywood is a good choice, but I actually prefer to step it up to the Lightning Rod. Last I checked, it was still under $40, and you really can't beat that for the price. They fight well outside of their weight class. Another one that i've never used but heard good things about is the bps carbonlite series. Other than that, keep an eye out for sales. I heard rumors that Abut Garcia is discontinuing the Veritas models, which was normally an $80ish rod. I think they can be had now for $59 if you keep an eye out. I have been very impressed with mine.

If you find what they are biting on, you can catch fish all day no matter who else is fishing that spot. I was on a recent camping trip where a few buddies and I did some recreational fishing. Nothing serious, because we were shorebound and the real purpose of the trip was to enjoy each others company and have a few beers around the campfire. We were restricted to the public access spots where a lot of people were showing up to family reunions and clumsily plunking in a partial nightcrawler under a round plastic bobber. Not exactly ideal.... it was a heavily fished lake to begin with and to make matters worse, they were holding a junior bass tournament there that weekend. Being limited in the places that I could stand and wishfully watch boat after boat pound my little fishing spot relentlessly without success, I still managed to land two very nice bass right out from under everybody crowding the area. I think mindset is everything, and fishing a heavily pressured lake is not something to shy away from. Rather, it is an opportunity to show everyone else what they are doing wrong. You are a member of this forum, which means that you probably know quite a bit more about bass fishing than most of the people on the pressured lakes that you fish (whether or not you would actually admit it). Chances are that most of your "competition" are weekend warriors that religiously fish the same spots with the same lucky bait day in and day out regardless of conditions. They are just out there to have fun, which is what it is all about. Go in with the confidence to catch the fish that others arent getting, because it is pretty satisfying to have an audience when you land them. The actual experts like you are so few and far between that they really cant catch enough to pressure the lake as much as you'd think. Besides, bass gotta eat regardless of where they are. Meals are few and far between, so they can't be too picky, or they'd starve to death. Sure they learn to be a little selective over time, but I think that we in this sport give way too much credit to a creature with the intellect of a flip-flop.

On a recent camping trip with the guys, I set down the bass gear to go after a pile of bluegill for the frying pan. We used simple slip bobber rigs to lift a bucketload of gills out of some near shore lillypads. Our winning baits for the weekend were from the Berkeley Gulp Alive series. I had one jar of "crickets" and one jar of "maggots" and they both performed incredibly well. As most of you know, the draw on these baits is the scented liquid that they are packaged in. Unfortunately, I accidently spilled the jar that had the "maggots" and lost most of the fluid. I was was wondering if it was a good idea to pour of some of the "juice" from the cricket jar to fill in what I spilled or if I should just go and grab new cannister. Would this be mixing scents/flavors, or do all of the Berkeley Gulp jars come filled with the same stuff?

What are you fishing for? That could help point you in a good direction. Bass? Small catfish? Bluegill/crappie/perch? Could make a difference... What is the length/power/action of the rod that you are using?

I bought a small one back in high school for a panfish rig. I still use it from time to time and it has not let me down once. Like everyone else has already mentioned- I don't know how they are making them now, but they were really solid as of 8 or so years ago. Great reel at a modest price point

Make sure that you look up a couple of videos on youtube that will give you a good demonstration on the correct way to tie a fluoro leader to a braided mainline. I messed up the first few times and lost two fish because the knot connecting my line to my leader failed.

Power Pro is excellent. I like the Suffix 832 as well. Absolutelty no complaints on it. To comment on a few of the other things you said... Braid is incredibly strong and really doesn't break very easily at all UNLESS it rubs up against something abrasive like a rock. If it frays,it is gone. That is part of the reason that people use fluoro leaders- to protect the last little bit of line from fraying and breaking (also because fluoro is invisible and braid is not). A big reason to fish heavier braid is because it is so incredibly thin. Lines that are too thin will dig into themselves on the spools of larger reels. Going up to 30lb braid (though I use 10lb on my spinning reels) will give you the diameter of almost a regular line with a lot of added strength to horse your fish out of the heavy stuff. As far as backing goes, that is just filling your spool about halfway up with mono and then finishing the rest of the way with braid. It serves a few purposes. First, braid is really $$$, and it would take a lot of the stuff to fill your spool because it is so dang thin. That could be overly expensive, especially when that back half of the line does nothing but sit there anyways. It never leaves the spool, so why waste money? The other reason to consider using backing is to keep the braid from digging into itself deep in your spool, again because it is so thin. Try it, you will not be disappointed

I actually use shampoo to remove smells from my hands. Not sure why, but when I am done cleaning a mess of catfish, its the only thing that removes the scents of both the fish and the stinkbait. Use a handful and wash as if it were any other liquid soap

Amputation

My last concert was Paul McCartney on his most recent US tour. I don't even have words to describe it what a humbling experience it was. Got tickets to see Zac Brown Band when they come to my hometown on July 13. I cannot wait! I honestly think that they are some of the most truly talented musicians touring today (and they seem like they are a LOT of fun to see live).

Welcome Josh! I was just fishing up in your area this past weekend. We tried the tailwaters behind the dam on Salamonie. I live on the west side of Indy now and that's kinds my new home turf, but my wife is originally from Wabash County---so I fish there every time we go up to visit her family. Somewhat familiar with Greensburg too. When i was living in Ohio for school, I used to stop through there on trips between Indianapolis and Cincinnati.