fishballer06

I'm fishing a lake this weekend that has a bunch of old road beds and sunken bridges. Most of these roads and bridges are in 10-20' of water. Being that they're not that deep, I'm guessing that it leaves cranking them as an option. Obviously I have quite a few other spots on the lake that I want to hit, but if the bite is tough, these submerged bridges could be the ticket to a check. I've never really fished submerged bridges before, so I'm curious how some of you guys would approach these? Fish should be post spawn and the water should be around ~70*. I'm a big fan of cranking, but if I'm going to get hung up and spook everything down there, then I would probably be best to jig or dropshot (I'm guessing). Whats your take on this?

There is a custom mold maker who has done this. If you search ebay, you should be able to find them. They're called Predator baits. They make a DT10 that has a DT16 bill on it. So essentially, you have a DT10 that will run 16 feet. As a guy who fishes DT's a lot, a DT6 that dove 10 feet would also be nice to have as well.

Are you sure he isn't using a black Sharpie?

If you're using a bag that holds 4 of the 3700 boxes, do yourself a favor and go buy yourself 5-6 of the 3701 boxes. I bet you'll they'll all fit in your same bag.

"The dead sea" has been tough this year, but that doesn't mean there aren't still a few in there.

He got me for $50 from DSG, $165 from TW, and $100 from F&S...

Plano 3701 /Thread

If I were you, if you want one rod to upgrade to that will handle your two favorite techniques, I'd get a 7' MH fast action graphite rod. If you're trying to stay on a budget, look at rods in the $100 range. There's quite a few quality rods in that range (Abu Garcia Veritas, BPS Extreme, Fenwick HMG, Duckett Ghost, ***).

A black cavitron with a red blade was my top producing topwater bait last year. Does the blade make a difference? Who knows?! But the red blade outproduced any other color blade.

Squarebills - usually 40lb 832 braid with a 12-15lb FC leader, or 15lb Fluoroclear Anything deeper - Sniper 12lb FC, and I have one reel spooled up with 40lb 832 braid with a 12lb FC leader I know most guys will use 10lb for deep cranking, but I feel much more confident with 12lb.

Again, how small is small? And how weedy is weedy? The type of weeds matter as well. More often than not, if the weeds are too thick, don't fish through the weeds, fish OVER the weeds. Topwater lures can be a good start, regardless of size or weed types.

Yup, perfect.

Cool video. Too bad the music drowns out the talking so much.

!!!!!

Well, my grandfather is up there right now with a few of his buddies. Can't wait to hear a report back from him. I'll be leaving on the 6th.

Nice fish. I'm glad to see people are learning from the website and enjoying their time on the water more. For future reference, a larger bass like that is supposed to take some drag. You should never winch down the drag to where it can't be pulled. A general rule of thumb for me is if I can pull on it firmly and it peels off slowly (but still smoothly), it's probably set about right. Remember, you don't want it set so loose that your drag is slipping while you're setting the hook. And like deep said, your 16.5" bass wasn't ~6 pounds. A bass that size is likely in the 2.5-3 pound range. Still a quality fish though. Once you start getting up into the 20-23" range, you'll start seeing 6 pounders! Keep up the researching and fishing, you'll trump your new personal best in no time.

One thing you have to realize, is that whenever talking to the average Joe (or Sue), their opinion on an "excellent fishing pond/lake" and the opinion of an advanced bass fishermen like yourself, are more than likely going to be totally different. To the average Joe/Sue, a 2 pound bass (in the 14-16" range) might be a really big fish. These people are more than likely the people that enjoy just sitting on the bank with a bobber and worm and catching whatever bites. More often than not, they probably catch mostly bluegill/perch/crappie/catfish. So if they can catch a few bass scattered in there and they're bigger than the average 6-9" panfish, they're going to be tickled and think that the bass in their pond is a quality fish. This is where your opinion of a quality fish and their opinion will differ. It's good to have some big bluegill and crappie in a lake, because those large panfish are likely spawning and producing baitfish every year whenever their spawn hatches out. However, too many of these fish will also create competition for food with the bass, especially the larger crappie. Larger crappie will be aggressive and eat basically as much as a larger bass will.

A wife who goes onto BassResource to ask what equipment to buy for him?! Sounds like your husband already has everything he needs in life! What a lucky man.

I've got the HDS 7 Gen 2 touch and I prefer the blue/white color. This seems to make the colors pop the most for me.

Welcome! From another local.

I've got a small, private pond back by my parents place that the fish will never hit a crank. The owners of the pond feed the fish there almost daily with bread, corn and hot dogs. It's the oddest pond ever because most of the bass in that pond are 3-6 pounds each, and you can only catch them on doughballs and nightcrawlers. I guess since they've been raised on that food their entire life, that's all they'll eat.

I personally only like to use EWG trebels on rattle traps (or baits that typically get engulfed). Anything else I prefer a standard round bend hook. With the design of an EWG, the bend sticks out further than what the point does, so if a fish just slaps at a bait, I don't have as good of a chance as grabbing the fish and getting a good hookup on it. Hopefully this makes sense to you.

My local store had a Core in stock this weekend that they have never had there before. Only a matter of time until that thing will go on sale, since they have already been discontinued.

Went to my local Dicks last night. Keitech - buy one, get one 50% off Havoc - $2 for everything Arashi - Buy one get one free Yamamoto baits - 20% off Rapala - buy two, get one free Plano - boxes were on sale, I forget the deal Rods - buy any reel at retail price, rods are 50% off