Josh Smith

I was going to, but the bass had already been out of the water too long. I've never in my life seen a largemouth with a mouth that small, though. Before I looked at the coloration I thought it was a smallie. Regards, Josh

Hello, I snagged this in the river this evening: That's some really thick mono; I'd say 25lbs at least. There's an egg sinker on the line, and it almost looks like a catfish setup, except for the plastic lure there. Thoughts? Regards, Josh

Hello, I need some advice here. This year I've been concentrating on improving my crankbait techniques. As most of you are aware, as the water warms up, a bass's mouth skin gets soft. A soft mouth is excellent for retrieving dogs, but not so desirable when you're trying to keep a bass buttoned to a lure. At the lake early last week, I lost a bass near the bank on a crankbait, then another on a frog. Though I'm not sure how well the bass was hooked on that frog, I do know that the one on the crankbait was hooked well, and it fought for a bit. Later that week, I lost two smallies on the river. This evening at the river, I lost one bass but landed another (see With these crankbaits, I'm only batting about 50%. I did loosen the drag a bit more and that seems to have helped. I'm already running mono line on an IM6 M rod that has a fairly soft tip. I'm thinking about going back to my KVD glass rod to see if that helps, but I really like the rod I'm using now.) Any thoughts? Thank you, Josh

Hi Guys, Not sure where to put this. I was smallmouth fishing but hooked on to this: What is this critter? The coloration's wrong for a smallie but it's not a largemouth; there aren't supposed to be any largemouth in this section of the Wabash, and its mouth was too small, anyway. It only weighed 12oz. Spotted bass? If so, it's my first. Thoughts? Thank you. Regards, Josh

Hello, I thought I'd share. I was fishing at a local lake recently and a guy wandered down to talk. Turns out he took fishing seriously as well, and we swapped information. He told me of a local large pond/small lake he used to fish. It's not pressured because it's harder to get to (you have to hike in). He said he'd pulled some really nice bass out of it before moving away several year ago. I knew of the large pond/small lake. It's on land in the Salamonie State Forest. In fact, I'd tried fishing it once, briefly, one day, and hadn't been back because I wrongly assumed it was too shallow. (It turns out the part I was fishing was shallow, but it was deeper elsewhere.) So, I went back to catch these large bass. If found this: Yep, that's a birdhouse that used to stand in water... This was one of a couple "twin" ponds in the forest by Salamonie Reservoir. I checked out the other one. It's much smaller than above one was: I tossed a Ned Rig into this pond and something did start carrying it away, but when I went to set the hook I had a quick fight and then it came free. I was bummed about this first lake and I didn't really try too hard. That second pond is hard to get to, as well. It looks like maybe one person fishes it -- it's a lot better kept, litter-wise, than the other local bodies of water, anyway. I saw one small container that had had worms in it. There were no other signs that people fish this pond. Two questions: 1. Why would the DNR drain a producing lake? I don't understand. How would I get info? 2. Assuming the drained pond/lake had bass, do you think it's a safe bet to assume its smaller twin does, too? Would you try it again, at least? I'd be interested in your thoughts, folks. Regards, Josh

Thank you. I've not been around here lately; my free time is consumed by family and fishing, and I didn't see that. I really appreciate it. Regards, Josh

Hello, I'm going to be trying night fishing for bass. What lures work for you? I'm thinking black Jitterbug and a black buzzbait. This will take place in light to heavy cover. Some cover is just topwater moss and submerged weeds, but other cover is harder; downed trees and similar. Regards, Josh

Bad night this evening. Hooked up with a largemouth with a crankbait -- the critter was almost to me and spat it at me. A few minutes later I hooked up using a frog. It got halfway to me and got off. Not my best showing. Josh

Hello, A few years back I bought a Yum rig. I can't remember what it's called, and the packaging is long gone. It's like an umbrella rig but for subtle differences: First, there are four wires at angles with flashers on the ends. There is no provision to attach jigs or hooks. A central wire comes straight back. It's longer and there is a provision for a jig or hook. It makes the jig or hook stand out and it's therefore targeted by gamefish. This rig netted me a fun fightin' walleye on its first cast, with a pink ball head jig and white curly tail grub. More important, it showed itself to be extremely snag resistant, and that's very important in the area of the river I fish. It's almost exactly like a Yum Foxy Lady, but with a slightly longer center wire, jointed, with the joint covered what looks like shrink tube, and with spinner blades on the four outside wires. Regards, Josh

Hello, I've always used Mann's Jelly Worms (paddle tail) for deadsticking. I like the way the tails float up and wave in the current. What other plastic worms have the floating tail, though? Thanks, Josh

Spawn is now full-on in the Wabash and surrounding areas. Couldn't find a bass not on a bed today! Josh

Waders= old shoes and jeans.

I used to have one of these. I actually hooked it. It looked to be a fossil of some sort, maybe coral, but with a few tiny holes in it. When I hooked it, I thought it was a catfish or something, but it wasn't pulling. I passed it on to my boy, and he lost it. Josh

That's a cool lure. Where'd you get it? What is it? Josh I caught this guy last year. That's a 4" Yum Dinger and a smallish Eagle Claw hook. Josh

I'm pretty sure that when I don't locate bass I won't catch them. Josh

Chinese reels break.

Hey Guys, Think there's any chance of getting slot limits for most lakes? One of those I fish really needs one... Josh

Thanks Mike! You know, if you spell "Seaguar" wrong on Google, it doesn't pull it up? Found it with your spelling: Thanks again! Josh

It depends on disparity of force, and the state's laws. In Indiana, if I were outnumbered like this, I could, though I would definitely explore other options first. Know what? We're thread drifting. Post down in the firearms forum and we can talk about self-defense. Regards, Josh

Escaped cons? Dang man, I carry a .45 and don't have a lockup of any sort close to where I fish. Is the fishing really that excellent there?

You were attacked. Why didn't you fight back?

You know, I was doing some fly fishing at the time I learned it. I think it may have been named after a line... Seagur Knot, maybe? I used their line on my fly rod. Did they make up a knot? Josh

I may have invented the bloody thing, though I don't think I did. Even if I came up with it on my own, I'm sure it was already around. I did used to sit around playing with knots, but I just can't recall making this one up. When I was splicing 30lb braid to 12lb mono this evening, my Albright knots kept breaking, so I tried this one, which I've not used in quite a while. Turns out that for thin braid, it works better. The Albright had the braid cutting the mono at the bend. Regards, Josh

Hi All, I use two leader knots. One is the Albright. There's another one, the first one I learned, that seems to work better in some applications. When I went to answer a question here the other day, I realized I had forgotten the name! I've tried looking it up, and either I can't find it on Google, or I tie it a totally different way than shown. Here's the knot: As you can see, this is a small, compact knot that holds better than it looks like it would. That's a Gammy medium snap, which isn't very large at all. What am I tying here? Thank you, Josh

Dang, guys, there are times I want stretch in my line. When I don't want stretch, I use braid. FC and plain mono, in my experience, stretch the same. I got rid of the FC because it just wasn't giving me benefits over plain ol' Trilene in my waters. I have two rods rigged with mono, one with straight braid, and two with braid with mono leaders. These are the rods I use regularly. The ultralight sometimes has a leader; right now it doesn't, but that's only because I snapped it off last time I was out and decided to see if crappie would bite without a leader. (Crappie fishing with a bobber while smallie fishing with a spinnerbait here; only caught a drum on either!) Josh