MIbassyaker

I have only fished about 12 hours total this year. My biggest bass so far was the first fish I caught, in the first 10 minutes of my first (very brief) outing this season, May 4th. A bit over 4lbs: Haven't lost anything bigger. Yet.

Excitement is justified. Congrats.

Maybe a good source of protein if they weren't so small.

Yellow grubs are pretty common in a lot of fish. They're not harmful to humans and cooking kills them. If you want to be absolutely sure, check with your local DNR about local parasites, but here's what my own state's DNR has to say: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_52259_10950-26966--,00.html https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_52259_10950-26964--,00.html

I also have never used a baitcaster. I grew up on spinning tackle in northern water and have just never made the switch. I keep thinking I should get a nice baitcaster and learn it but I haven't really felt the urgency, since spinning gear still seems to work fine for the various locations and presentations I fish.

Heh. I still throw a texas-rigged ribbontail worm very frequently for largemouth. When I don't, it's because I decided to put a craw or creature of some kind in its place. I came to bass fishing from just general, casual, multi-species fishing, and gradually started getting serious about it maybe 15 years ago. But initially and before, the thing I could always count on catching SOMETHING with was an in-line spinner. I still occasionally use them when fishing rivers for smallmouth, but that's about it anymore. That's the only thing I used to use that i've gotten away from, but there are tons of lures I've never gotten TO. The big one is...........ready for this? Swimbaits. Never. Fished. One.

After reading this, and glancing at your profile, I remembered having seen this article on BR a while back: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/smallmouth_record.html Sounds like you may be in the right place for good-sized fish if you can get to them.

Hmm. Never had any particular trouble with hooksets on tube baits. A quick, solid overhead pull does the job usually. A second hookset after reeling down following the first one sometimes helps. But for smallies, even more so than largemouth, not keeping a tight line is your worst enemy.

If he passes, he's not a fisherman!

wacky rig or weightless t-rig, cast near cover and just let it F-A-L-L. When it hits bottom twitch it up, and let it fall again. Watch the line closely for any movement. do this a few times, if you don't get hit, cast again to a different spot.

Seriously. Several decades of controlled experiments have shown pretty conclusively polygraphs don't distinguish truth-telling from lying well at all. I would not put much stock in the lie detection results.

I crimp the barb down on all my single hooks now, and even trebles on some lures. At first I just did it occasionally when I had a difficult unhooking, and was momentarily too lazy to switch hooks, thinking "oh well, I'll just make sure the line is tight so the next fish doesn't throw the hook." What I discovered was (1) my hooksets got more reliable now that I didn't have to make the barb penetrate the fish, (2) unhooking went a LOT faster letting me get fish -- and my line -- back in the water quickly, and (3) I actually didn't notice an increase in fish throwing the hook at all. It's possible I lose a few more due to the lack of a barb, but I probably make that number up, and then some, by having more hookups that penetrate all the way to the bend, and don't tear large holes in the fish's mouth. People forget, the barbs on hooks were originally there to hold live bait, not to hold the fish.

actually....that just makes the ALL CAPS of jakob1010's first post funnier.

The response options are a little odd, since "Many Times", "Sometimes", and "Rarely" of course are also "Yes".

Droooooooool!

Not to dispute anything anybody has said, but its worth pointing out that your chances of being harmed in some way by a random stranger while fishing are rather less than your chances of having a car accident on the way to or from the lake. I'm just sayin'.

See, what you need is a rod that secretly converts to a Zulu spear. Like a cane sword.

Morning before sunrise? Just a couple of young guys out for a morning stroll, I suppose? No hurry to get anywhere? Sounds pretty suspicious, but maybe even they weren't sure about their own intentions. Or they'd already done something and wanted to gauge whether you were likely to have seen them do it.

7" ribbon tail worm on a texas rig.

Growing up, I mostly fished for catfish in the local river. Sometimes, if we wanted to try for pike, we'd catch leopard frogs and put them on a hook. It did work, occasionally.

When bank fishing I go for mobility -- a backpack with a few bags of plastics + a couple plano boxes, about 3500 size, usually one with a few cranks and topwaters, and one with some jigs and terminal tackle. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits in a secondary pocket on the pack. Scale and measure in the pack, pliers in a pocket.

I still have one of those from back when it was called the "Dance's Eel"; the thing must be about 25 years old. Never caught a thing on it either, and I don't think I've even tried it in the last decade, at least.

I have eaten smallmouth before and thought they tasted fine. I haven't eaten largemouth, but I've heard they're pretty bad if you don't take the skin off. Bluegill are excellent.

Another vote for buzzbait. A walking bait or a hollow-bodied frog can get sometimes get strikes just sitting there doing nothing; buzzbaits won't even sit. Never used an A-rig.

But technically a true bass!