Senko lover

I never allow the bite to reach the rod tip. I am always watching my line, and the second I see a twitch, or my line going out, I rare back. I always keep contact with the bait too, so I typically don't "drop and reel" or anything.

I would suggest a veeery slowly worked finesse worm with an equally small weight. It wouldn't be hitting the bottom anytime soon after you cast, and it would be the thing to try, I guess. If you can't catch one on a finesse worm-well, go home.

Senko worked slowly. Bass don't seem to recognize and shy away from those like they would a noisy crankbait.

First, why I don't fish: Fillets Money Second, why I fish: Nature + me + quality time with friends Stress reliever Big bite fever It's in the blood.

We all share a passion on here-bass fishing. So I could see that happening, but I wouldn't get your hopes too high as far as finding a bff/ lifetime fishing buddy or anything.

I wish I could help you out. That dream still eludes me. I can't share from personal experience, but what I've learned from others may help you: Don't take an ultralight w/ 4 lb. test! Big baits = Big fish (generally true) Fish the pre-spawn, your best chance to catch giant females. They're hungry and they're fat. Go to trophy waters. Mexico, Florida, Texas, and California are your best bets here. Don't fish for a week just for one bite. Enjoy fishing! Most of this I learned from Better Bass Fishing, a book by Robert Montgomery. Best resource (in print format) I can guide you to. Good luck and tight lines!

Yeah, I hear you. I enjoy that too. But I like fishing with someone who you can joke with and strike out with and land the catch of a lifetime with. After all, if your buddy wasn't there when you caught your PB, who would believe how big it was?

Who is your favorite person to fish with? I love fishing with my Grandpa, but if I had to choose anybody it would be my brother, because we learned (and are still learning) the ropes of bass fishing together. We really enjoy fishing together, trading lures, and exaggerating the size of the fish we catch.

Oh boy. The possibilities are endless..... Largemouth: Okeechobee during the spawn, fishing with Scott Martin. (dream on, I know) Besides that, El Salto. Smallmouth: Bays De Noc, where Greg Hackney just won his Angler of the Year title. That place is full of chunky 4 and 5 pound smallmouth. Lake St. Clair would be cool too.

I love when this happens, especially when it's your first cast. That's where it's at! This happens occasionally with weighted worms, a lot more with senkos, but the most with topwaters. I'll chuck a popper out and a bass will explode on it right after it hits the water. Often time they miss because there's still the initial splash and they can't see the thing too well, I guess. Bass are ambushers. That's why we cast to cover. They sit under a log or into the current and wait for baitfish to come along and ambush. When a well-placed cast puts a lure right in front of their nose, they ain't refusin' it.

Easy choice for me. Lakes. Why? I love current and plus, fishing a lake typically means you're fishing from a boat, which I don't have and I love to fish out of. I've had better luck from the few lakes I've fished compared to an average day at the ponds. That said, I'm an avid pond fisherman, I just prefer lakes.

Ah....a 3-4 pound average would be nice. In fact, my "lunker" is right in that range. I've only been fishing seriously for a year. Actually, my average is more like 1/2 a pound because the pond right by my house has a lack of big fish. It has a lot of fish, but they rarely exeed 2 pounds. On my other pond, my average would be more like 1 1/2 pounds.

Can't go wrong with that!

How did you learn to fish? Who taught you? I started out fishing for all species with night crawlers, my Grandpa's form of the game. We liked catching bass the best, but bream were a necessary evil and an occasional catfish was a big bonus. He taught me the basics of the game. I then quickly switched to fake bait, and acquired a spinning reel (soon to be upgraded to a baitcaster). I am mostly self-taught, but Scott Martin, and Lake Fork Guy (not to mention the pros on bassmaster.com) taught me a lot with their YouTube channels. Where did you start out?

What was the first rod/reel combo you bought and started out with? What was your first lure? I started out with a Shakespeare Synergy spin cast combo (bunch of junk!) and bought a small tackle box that had some beetle spins, bobbers, and whatnot. The first lure I caught a fish on was a Cotton Cordell Super Spot, in bright red. I was hooked (groan) for life!

Man, I feel you. My favorite pond is a once-stocked neighbourhood pond about 5 min from where I live. It has a nice population of chucky bass, including a 7-8 pounder that eludes my hook........ I was fishing there one day (strictly catch-release) and a family was fishing the dock with a cooler full of water, catching turtles and sunnies to stock in their little pond. They were trying to catch a big bass, too, but fortunately, they didn't. (If they had, I probably would have dumped the cooler over the side). I really appreciate being allowed to fish where I do, and it's people like that who may get me kicked out. I also fish a cemetery pond two minutes (by bike) from my house. I got special permission from the manager to fish (out of sight and out of sound) from the woods, and I really appreciate that. I'm very quiet back there and hope no idiots come back there making a ruckus and getting me kicked out from a good hole. Litterers bug me too.

I'm tied between my PB day and the day when I caught the most. I don't fish in Florida or Texas, I don't catch thousands of fish or anything, and my PB is only 3 1/2 lbs. That said, catching him was a blast! (No, that's not him in my prof picture) But I was once in the mountains of Virginia, at a private camp. I took a johnboat out on their pond, and the fish there had never seen fake bait. There were no biggun's in that pond, but I caught 23 bass in about 2 hours on a Hula Popper. My favorite way to catch 'em!

What's the biggest fish you've ever seen and failed to catch? I was fishing from a dock on a private lake. The lake was a clear as glass, and I saw what I thought was some mud rising from the bottom, which was out of the ordinary because the bottom of this lake was covered in vegetation, not mud. Turns out it wasn't mud, it was a mud-colored catfish that was an absolute behemoth. It was slowly coming out from under a large stand of cattails. No kid, that thing was probably 50-60 pounds. It's size was mind-boggling, around 4-5 feet in length and as fat as a sumo wrestler. I only had a popper tied on, but I cast to it nevertheless. It didn't even look at it.

My PB story is pretty unusual. I was fishing with a friend on a (blush) paddleboat on a private lake. We were using corn and worms to catch sunnies for a fry (Something I rarely do). I had a rod with a spinnerbait in the boat as well. I saw a giant splash about 20 feet away, handed my rod with a small bass I was fighting to my friend, and fired my spinnerbait into the wake of the splash. After a couple cranks of the reel handle, my rod bowed over and I landed my pb. It was around 4 pounds; I didn't have a scale with me. No it isn't very big, but I've tied it since and I've only been seriously fishing for a year.

Gain confidence with a few, time-proven lures. -Lipless Crankbait -Squarebill -Popper -Jig -Above any else, a plastic worm. Don't get too fancy with color selection, and don't switch lures every 15 min. because one is not working.

I was really excited to discover a few months ago that three stores were going up near me: a Bass Pro Shops (45 min), a Cabelas (45 min), and a Gander Mountain (15 min). I've been to the Gander Mountain, and am planning to visit the others sometime in the near future. Where is your favorite place to stop for your fishing needs? One of these three? A local tackle shop? I prefer Bass Pro because of selection. You can find almost any bait sold in dozens of colors and a large selection on rods and reels as well. However, it's a little overwhelming and hard to find things sometimes. (Too many rods sticking up in the air!) Cabelas is much more of an experience than a store (kinda like going to a mall). Bass Pro tries, but Cabelas has the better layout and a really good-looking interior in their stores. Which one has your loyalty?

What do you do during winter when it's too cold to fish? I live in NC, so I can fish pretty much year round, but there are definitely days where it's too cold for my comfort. On days like that, (or rainy days, for that matter) I make sure my rods & reels are clean, organize my tackle, clip off all the tag ends from my hooks and swivels, and watch fishing videos online. That's how I get my fishing itch out when I'm not fishing.

I looked seriously at it and its sister the silver max combo when buying a baitcast combo. That said, the rod looks to be terrible quality.

I've heard quite a number of pros and weekend anglers say that they do not use Extra Wide Gap hooks due to a poor hookup ratio compared to other hooks. I use EWG hooks regularly, and I haven't really noticed that, but to be honest I haven't tried a whole lot of styles either. Do you think they don't have a good hookup ratio? Why? What alternatives do you use?

I do a lot more bank fishing than I do boat fishing, but I have done a bit of the latter. I like boat fishing a lot, lot more because you can access anyplace you want to. With the bank, you're limited to 20 or 30 feet out and whatever cover lies in between. Not that I don't love bank fishing; my post on Bank Fishing just got published on here (How to Fish a Spot From the Bank). But boating is more effective.