Starchalopakis

I know that it harms the protective coating of the fish, but is there anything else that this does? I see a ton of people doing it on Instagram, and I put a fish on the grass every now and then when getting pliers or something out of my backpack. Is this basically signing a death warrant for the fish? I even see some more seasoned anglers than myself boat flipping and letting fish flop around the boat on a lot of youtube videos.

I would have to agree with my other Californians!! Not many places you can you can go snowboarding/hiking and then in 2-3 hours be at the beach surfing. RB 77 pretty much summed up the fishing with this one sentence

In what situations would you want to peg your plastics as opposed to weightless? Would you want to use it if you have to get it through vegitation/cover? Or if you were fishing deeper?

I got a pretty good size blue gill the other night with the Ned rig!! It was at night so it surprised the heck out of me when I get it up on the shore!

Like others , I have a Pflueger President which I paired with a Berkely Lightning rod. Which I am very happy with.

Yep. Works splendid

" I was born for a storm, and a calm does not suite me."

Got my first bass on a jig! Got it hitting the banks of a golf course pond at night.

x2 on the Ned rig. I tried it out last night for the first time and it worked out awesome!

I am learning on the BPS PQ right now , and it has been a relitively pain free experience so far. I have only had a couple of bad backlashes and one was because my lure got snagged in a tree so it was my fault. So I would definitely recommend it as well, like mentioned above you can usually pick one up in the $50 range. I did however just order a Daiwa Tatula h100 so I am interested to see how that compares with BPS PQ

So I am fairly new to bass fishing, and was at local pond tonight I hit frequently trying to improve my crankbait game ( I have been using mainly plastics). When finally after about an hour of throwing a crankbait I finally got hit. I get him up and land him and after I remove the lure I notice a really odd and nasty looking growth on his lip. I went to see if I could move it with my finger to see if maybe I could lightly pick it off, but it was on his lip pretty good. I thought about maybe trying a little harder to get it off, but then thought that after I get it off it might bleed, or get infected and what not so I decided to just leave it alone. I have fished this pond a lot over the last 6 months with a lot of fish caught and have never seen another fish with this on it. Does anyone know what it is? Should I have messed with it and tried to remove it? Edit: After thinking about it some I think this fish might just be a lady of the evening and it has contracted the herp. Time to wash my hands!

Don't mean to hijack the thread but is a rod around 7' (give or take a couple of inches) what you would recommed for plastics?

Got a pretty sweet deal on a bunch of plastics from a local dude who was doing some spring cleaning. $50 for everything, and all the stuff in ziplocks are full packages never used, he just chose to put a lot of them in ziplocks.

Although I am not a sponsored fisherman and most likely never will be, this advice is priceless no matter what kind of job or career you are pursuing. Hang around the guys who have already "made it" so to speak in the world of sponsored fishing, and learn everything you can from them.

x2 , I was like wait, what??

Was visiting a relative in Grover Beach, CA which is minutes away from the Tackle Warehouse headquarters and retail shop so I stopped in to check it out for the first time. I must say I was a little let down on the size of the place. I had envisioned it being like a Costco size store full of fishing tackle! Hahaha. But nonetheless it was still an awesome store and anything they didn't have in the store front they had in the back and were able to grab it really fast. Luckily my brother was with me (he doesn't fish) , so I wasn't in there very long and only walked out of there doing $50 in damage. I have never fished the Fat Ika and have been hearing good things, so that was the main thing on my list: Fat Ika 4" Watermelon/ W BLK FLK x 2 Fat Ika 4" Black/ W BLU FLK x 2 Rage Tail Cut R Worm Black/ W Blu Flk x 2 California Swim Jigs by Dirty Jigs Tackle x 2

Excactly! I was fishing at a pond using senkos, but ran out. I remembered I had a pack of Cut r Worms I had bought on a whim at DSG because they were on sale a few days earlier. I haven't used any senkos since! hahaha. I get a lot of topwater blowups on them, just as I am about to pull it out of the water to recast! I am usually fishing at night so it scares the crap out of me everytime!

I am lovin the Rage Tail Cut R Worm right now

I too was looking to pick up an inexpensive reliable spinning reel, and ended up ordering the President for $45 shipped new on ebay. From what I hear sounds like it will be a good reel!

Was there anything other than LMB caught in the classic?

I would second this also, I am relatively new to bass fishing as well, and using senkos helped me catch a ton of fish when just starting out. I was almost too reliant on them , and I was hesitant to try other things because I was catching so many fish with them!

I am new to jig fishing too, but depending on depth and type of structure you are fishing I believe makes a difference in the type of jig you are going to fish. I am sure someone A LOT more knowledable will drop a line soon enough.

T - Rigged Senko

Thanks bud! I am in the Kern County area, not quite that far north. There are some good sections of the aqueduct that are pretty easy to get to . But to be honest I haven't been doing much aqueduct fishing since I picked up bass fishing. Castaic is not too far so I am hoping to visit that legendary place sometime in the near future! Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!!

Hey everyone, just wanted to drop a line and say hello!!! I have recently picked up fishing again. I fished a lot with my grandpa when I was younger, but like a lot of other people, other sports, girlfriends soon took precedent over fishing. I recently stopped drinking, and have been sober for 5 months now and fishing has been a big help in my recovery. I started off just bottom fishing with a buddy from work at the aqueduct and local lakes, but after I caught a couple of stripers on some Storm swim baits from walmart, I was officially hooked on bass fishing! Just wanted to say hello and thanks to everyone for all of their knowledge. I have already learned a great deal, in my short time here!