RipSomeLips

Well you made a wise choice IMHO. Have you had a chance to give them a whirl? Any luck?

For starters the biggest trout I ever caught was from Roaring River, a little over 3lb rainbow! I even made it into their "Lunker Club". Aaaahhhh childhood memories But that being said I have caught hundreds of small ones to get the few big ones. I have fished a few stocked places here in Kansas and the size has been pretty on par with roaring river and in several cases smaller. But they are from a small stream so that could be a big part of it. The parks department said they actually get their trout from MO to stock, but not sure if its Roaring river or not. I do agree that the trout park atmosphere is pretty lame, but I love fishing for them in a clear stream, you learn a lot by watching them react to your bait. Has anyone fished the Kanopolis Seep stream? I know they have been making lots of improvements the last couple of years.

Ummmm...on a totally unrelated note...after reading this thread since it started I feel like going and watching the movie "GRUMPY OLD MEN". Like I said, totally unrelated

I always use headphones when fishing ponds close to my neighborhood. it helps drown out the barking dogs! There is always a BARKING DOG. I actually listen to podcasts or a mixture of all music except heavy metal or rap.

From reading several experts and personal experience...The double uni knot is the way to go. I use flurocarbon as a leader to fire line and this is the only knot that works well.

Dynamite or buzzbait. Or a buzzbait with dynamite attached. Yeah that would get em caught....muuuuuhahahahahaha

In that case I change my answer to eyesight. Can you imagine being a blind bass fisherman out on a boat...casting all over the place haha. That would make a good ed bass master video.

Seriously though I will vote with the polarized sunglasses people. It makes a huge difference.

Banjo minnow...hahaha (my first post on BR was about the Banjo minnow, classic newbie mistake.)

I love going to roaring river the catch trout because I did so often as a kid on family vacations. Has anyone been recently. I would love to go in the next few months.

I pay plenty in HOA dues every year (just got a letter that they want to raise them because of erosion around the ponds). We have spent part of those HOA dues stocking the ponds in our neighborhood, and I have personally put hundreds of fish in the pond behind my house. With that said I would happily take anybody I know fishing in my neighborhood and would be happy to let their friends catch and release there as well. I go to the neighborhood next to me and fish quite often, but I have 3 friends that live in that neighborhood and they don't mind. I am super particular however that I always try to take great care of their lake, catch and release of course, and I even make certain that when retying a lure I collect the couple of inches of fishing line I clip off after tying my knot and put it in my pocket.

This thread discussion reminds me of something I read this last year in the book "Largemouth Bass; an In-Fisherman handbook of Strategies", circa 1991. They did a study of two lakes close together that had similarities in as many ways as possible: structure, size, water clarity, depth etc. I want to say they were even originally stocked in the same way around the same time. The big difference was that one ended up being a public access lake that was heavily fished, and the other was on private land and had low fishing pressure. They had a team of fisherman use the same lures and techniques on both lakes in similar conditions, trying to keep as many variables the same as possible. Their goal was to determine the impact angling pressure has on bass. The results (based on my memory) were the following: They caught an average of 1 bass every 3 hours on the heavily pressured lake, and caught an average of 3 bass per hour on the low pressured lake. The math of course works out to mean that 9 times as many fish were taken on the low pressured lake versus the highly pressured lake during the same period of time. With that said I personally feel giddy like a 5 year old everytime I catch a bass regardless of where it is at, and on the inside I'm telling myself "act like you have been there before", but I just can't help the feeling of excitement! It has been that way for years and years and honestly I hope the feeling never changes because that's what keeps me wanting to get back on the water as soon as I leave.

I am thankful for this forum. After typing about spinnerbaits above...I forced myself to use only that for the last week. Caught 4 bass with the biggest at 4.5 pounds. That's pretty decent for this time of year where I live. Anybody else try their least confident bait after sharing in this forum?

I would do a forum search for senko worms and read all that you can. Then give it a try.

I have done equally well on a single Colorado and a double willow over the last couple weeks. No technique worked except reeling as slow as possible but still moving the blades. I tried the pump etc and no luck like some others posted above.

First of all nothing I hate more than the scenario I had a couple of days ago. Was fishing for 3 hours and then my first fish hit my spinner bait about 3 feet from the bank, I got to fight him for about 1 second before lifting him out. Usually its a blast to see the strike right in front of you, but when you work so hard for it and don't get to enjoy it you just feel robbed! But to give you a straight answer I am probably on the shorter end of fighting the bass, I basically go as fast as I can but still try to keep it from coming up and jumping. I hate to see a bass ripped to shore, and I hate to see a nice fish played to exhaustion. So medium fast I guess you could say.

I went on a canoe trip in Canada, Ontario to be more specific. I had parked the canoe on a small island that created about 100 feet of water between it and the surrounding bay shoreline, I was standing thigh deep in water doing some wade fishing and I heard a crash in the thick woods coming down just to my right. I was thinking "BEAR...BEAR...BEAR, how quick can I get in the canoe and get away". Before I could really do much out of the woods sprang an otter! He saw me and was just as surprised as I was to see him. What an amazing rush of adrenaline.

There is a chance I will be in that area soon and will have to check it out. Nice tip!

Do n't worry about the slow replies. I'm new here too after watching for some time and I have noticed people are a little more tight lipped with newer members. Human nature I suppose. Anyways about your question... I watched some incredibly I formative videos on youtube about tricking out Jon boats. Just do a search and u will find them. Most of the modifications center around adding a casting deck, Orsome kind of plywood flooring with storage compartments. I even ran across a company from New Zealand I think, that professionally converts jon boats into bass boats. They have some great ideas and designs on their website.my biggest takeaway, was the quality of improvement in not burning yourself on the hot metal boat, when you have carpeted surfaces. I was also amazed at how several people took out the center seat for additional storage in room. Hope this helps.

It would be great for trolling...or just gun it when u need to set the hook...vroom vroom haha.

Hey can one of you guys swing by Kansas next time your on your way to the alley so I can go too. I'm totally jealous!

I live in Kansas and never fished in FL, so this information may not translate, but I do know a thing or two from years of fishing ponds like you describe. I would challenge you to do the following without quiting for at least 30 minutes. #1 - Like one of the BR members names says....be a bass ninja. I think from experience as well as reading the technical information about bass eyesight abilities from In-fisherman books etc that bank fisherman often times underestimate how much they scare bass away with their commotion. In heavy traffic areas bass will often times maybe not flee, but will rather be hyper aware to common baits thrown at them, this may explain why they are only taking a live bait. The higher above the water level you are...the easier it is for a bass to see you, so if you have a chance to get close to the water level vertically speaking...but can stay 5 feet plus away from the bank horizontally, do it. I often times will even kneel down or crouch next to a tree etc and wear natural green colors so I don't draw attention to myself. #2 - Based on what you typed above, a lot of fish present, fairly clear water, and you had several bass come close to your topwater frog but just nibble; I would recommend a buzzbait. My first reason is that a buzzbait can oftentimes create a competitive atmosphere for fish, as well it will annoy the crap out of some and they will bite just to get rid of the annoyance! I prefer a white buzzbait, but a black and blue is also a popular color. Work this bait 5-10 feet from shore on the longest cast you can make ahead of your position. Slowly work your way along the shore. Obviously if you have any weed cover or brush piles or areas that you know hold fish throw beyond that point and work the bait back to you. I have cast to the same place 20 plus times before getting a strike! This brings me to my second reason why I recommend the buzzbait, because you will stay interested as a fisherman and will 100% know when you get a strike. Try reeling the bait in as soon as it hits the water, and reel it as slow as possible while still breaking the surface and hopefully creating a bubble trail behind it. When this doesn't work for me I will let the bait splash and sink a foot or so before reeling it in, and I have caught some of my better bass on the initial drop. If this doesn't work then come back here and tell us what your experience was like and I am sure more suggetions will follow. Hope this helps.

Been out 4 times. Caught 7 in an hour 2 weeks ago on a wacky senko dropshot. Then got skunked. Then caught a 4.5 fats and a small one on a bleeding bps spinnerbait with double willow blades. Last trip a 3 pounder on a silver single blade spinnerbait. Will try to post pics soon.

Because I live in Kansas I would love to hear if this senko and bobber trick is effective. Hopefully somebody could enlighten me on this technique.