jomatty

yeah if this is a pond you care enough about to be willing to put some work into id start keeping all those dinks pronto. also make sure that there is enough of a forage base for the pond, which kinda goes hand in hand with the overcrowding.

jeepcrazy, imho the wind will not make any difference as far as colors go. if the wind has made the water stained or muddy then you generally want t use darker colors but this is because of what the wind has done to the water not the wind itself. senkos are a tough choice for the wind though. ive caught a lot of fish using a senko in the wind but it is definitely not a first choice. its just hard to watch the line and also hard to feel anything on a weightless bait. the wind also can affect the fall negatively. ive guthooked a lot of fish in the wind with a senko which is another reason i try to avoid it. fat ikas are a little better but still not very good.

youve got that demonic glow to your eyes that only a couple of 20+ smallies can give ya...

how did you like the javellon. i made a mold for a similar bait and am looking forward to trying it out today. they are quickly becoming one of my favorite baits.

i doubt eating some smaller bass from a healthy fishery will ever hurt the fishing and it most always will help. the only folks i have a problem with are the ones that catch a monster and either eat or mount it. i dont like that but once again if they are within the law im never gonna say a word. the smaller ones taste better anyways. im going camping with my son tonight and if we dont catch any crappies you can bet we will eat some smaller bass.

ed, if you want to read some more about cali smallies read the posts by fishchris. he caught a few decent ones as fourbizzle would put it lately. i hadnt heard much about cali smallmouths either until this year but cali is obv. a great smallie state as well, esp up north where fourbizzle is. matt

if im fishing in the wind im going to try to get something going with traps and spinnerbaits first. if the fish will not hit a faster moving bait then i slow down with a heavy jig. last resort is any kind of finesse tactic, which i also think is tough in the wind. traps are great becasue you can cast them about a mile so it is not as crucial to be in the absolute perfect spot. they also are are a relatively easy bait to learn to fish if you generally finesse fish, and have been my number one producer here in va so far this year.

if your goal is strictly to save money i doubt you will find that it is worth your time. i thought id save a fortune doing it myself and im sure i have saved some but when you figure in your time and expenses it is not worth it imo to save money. it is however a lot of fun and well worth it. i have a del mold and am very pleased with it. i also have some cheap plastic lurecraft tube type molds that are a pain in the butt for senkos but i can make some 6 inch ones while im at it. i dont use many six inch senkos so it works out, although i had to do some serious modification to get it to work right. these are cheap but you can only pour one bait at a time. matt

brad, ill be placing another order soon and as soon as the bigger bait comes out ill be excited to give it a try. i went out again today and again that bait was the ticket, although all the small bass ripped the last i had to shreds. may need a bigger bait to play some defense against some of the smaller bass (not something im usually concerned with lol). matt

i think avid is right on about a 1/2 oz rattletrap being the classic but with the setup youve described i think that 1/4 oz will work much better for you.

fishing cross current will give your bait a much more realistic appearance. not only that but you dont want a biggun "swimmin around" with your hook in its mouth while you climb down a 30 ft embankment. catching a big bass is hard enough dont compound your efforts by using an inferior presentation and giving the fish excess opportunities to get away.

i pray sometimes but it is usually more a thanking for letting me get out and hopes for safety etc. and not so much about catching fish. maybe thats where ive been going wrong.

i fish a lake in va that is almost completely ringed with dollar pads. frogs (both types) are usually the first thing i try to get going, as i enjoy that type of fishing about as much as anything imaginable. i also fish the edge of the pads with a spinnerbait, and weightless plastic. then its time to start pitching or flipping. i like a bait like a sweet beaver but also use craws or straight tail worms, or tubes. i look for any difference in the pads and key on that. holes in the pads can be a rockpile, so i always make sure i fish that thoroughly. make sure you use braid, as there is no other application where i think that line is as important than when your in pads. matt

for me nothing beats a pointer. i also like the x raps a lot and usually fish them with fishing from shore, where it can get expensive to fish pointers.

i was just getting ready to post on the LFT live magic shad which i believe is a javallon knock off. i fished mine for the first time yesterday and it took me awhile to figure out how the fish want it. now i have the lft version which is 4.5 inches and equivalent to the javellon 110's so all of this may not apply but here is what i figured out. when i ordered and bought these i imagined swimming them seductively just underneath the water and watching monsters explode on them. this was my plan, but the bass wanted nothing to do with it. i fished the bait on a very slow retrieve for a long time and didnt get a single fish. then my son distracted me and when i went back to real in the bait it had a fish on it. lightbulb time. anyways i started casting near the bank and letting it fall some on a slack line. then i would give it a few slow cranks and kill the bait again. i proceeded to catch a fish on close to every cast for a half an hour, mostly in the same area i had been working. i had as much fun fishing as i have had in a long time. the 4.5 inch version is fairly bulky but not big enough for even my VA bass imo. there is no doubt that it appeals to the bigger fish but it also appeals quite a bit to the 1.5 pounders. i only had two packs that i had bought from brad to try out and they tore them to shreds. well worth it considering how many fish i caught but if im gonna fish a swimbait, even this style, i would want one slightly bigger. funny thing is i chose a smaller type bait exactly so i would be able to target some smaller fish. i was thinking 3 lbers though not 1 pounders. anyhow, you can bet ill be ordering a bunch more of these. they outfished the fat ika and the senko yesterday and that is a feat in itself, especially considering the presentation i was using, which is not that dissimilar to a senko. these baits should be killer in florida where your at and i wouldnt be surprised if you kill em with them. fantastic action. work them very slow and kill it in areas that are likely fish holding spots, like the weed edges youll have in florida and im sure you will do well. these baits are super weedless and that should be great for you. my hook up % got much better when i didnt get in a hurry but braced myself for a really hard sweep set. there is a fair amount of plastic to drive the hook through and with the way the bait feels they are in no hurry to spit it out, especially if you slather it wiht megastrike or something similar. good luck and let me know how you do.

my favorite in this scenario is a lipless crank and also a jig. just about everything else mentioned would also be a candidate, but this is what i would start throwing. matt

i would def be throwing something with a double willow leaf. white would be the first thing i would choose but i wouldnt rule out putting a green pumpkin skirt on a double leaf as well.

i was reading avid and lbh's post and wondering when someone was gonna point out that this guy is in south africa. seems like south africa has some of the better bass fishing outside of the usual hot spots.

as long as the current isnt too strong ive had good luck with fat ikas. i just cast them out and let them fall on a slack line. then i let the current slowly sweep the bait along the bottom. every so often i pick it up with the rod tip and let it fall again. if the current is so fast that the bait wont stay on or near the bottom it is probally better to go with a tube, where you can control the weight. matt

lightninrod, lake orange is in orange county va. its a small lake that gets some fairly heavy pressure for the area. the gizzard shad population has exploded and they are absoulutely huge. there are some fish in the 9 pound range in this lake, but i havent got a biggun yet. it really is funny about those other fish. one minute im reeling it in like ive snagged into the holy grail kinda praying it dosent come unpegged and the next i see that copper flash and im just kinda jerking it in kinda hoping it comes off so i dont have to get slimy with a pickeral. so silly that its so much fun until i recognize what it is and then... maybe it is the fear of losing a big fish that makes it so much fun now and once that is gone so too is some of the fun. the fishing in central va is really heating up. i went out to a local pond yesterday and killed them on a lft swimbait. lots of fun. matt

yeah sounds like all that clean living is paying off for you:) i followed the shocker boat around on lake orange one day last year and learned a lot. it was "shocking" to me how many fish there were and how many big ones. i found it very interesting, but didnt get any cranks for my trouble. matt

very nice!!!!

a small splitshot will not ruin the action. ive done it before in the wind when i was having trouble maintaining contact with the bait. ill also sometimes add a northlands rattle that will look alot like craw claws in the defensive position, and add a little weight. ive added a split shot more to stay in contact with the bait rather than to increase fall rate. i sitll think there are generally better deep water options.

ive fished the maury although not in years. i fish the rivanna and james regularly and grew up fishing the south river often. like others have commented my most productive baits are a grub and a tube. i catch a lot of my larger fish on a jig, but day in and day out it is tough to beat a grub. i like shades of green pumpkin and also yammamoto color 150 smoke with black. you can jig it but i have found the most consistent producer is a slow, steady retrieve. when fishing the tube i prefer long slow hops before letting the bait drop on a slack line. long slow hop, let the bait fall directly straight down quickly, not a gliding slow fall like the rest of the hop. then let it sit for a good while before moving it again. the current will drift it along a little and get smallies attention. lots of your hits will come on the drop. i fish the tubes on a internal jighead almost all of the time when fishing for smallies and think that it is much better than t rig for this kind of fishing. other good baits include jerkbaits, both soft and hard (if im fishing from shore i usually throw soft asit can get expensive quick throwing expensive jerkbaits and getting hung up when you dont have a boat and cant retrieve it), shallow cranks, zara spook jr and puppy as well as poppers early in morning and when cloudy, and spinnerbaits.

let us know how it goes and some pictures would be great