FatBoy

BTW, the Thornwood Lures web page says their sidewalker is 5" long and weighs 0.9 oz. This converts to 127 mm and 25.5 grams. Hmmm....

Go to google a search for "thornwood lures". Click on top water lures then take a good look at the sidewalker. The pic below is from the thornwood web page. It does look uncannily similar. Especially suspicious is the identical long cut for the "mouth". I don't know who, if anyone, is at fault here. But something smells extremely fishy!

Here's the deal... 1. She puts out a hunting/fishing magazine online, so these people are not new to fishing. This is not a case of someone new to the sport not knowing about C and R. 2. If she had posted her story and then said "Man, we screwed up. I'll never do that again. Just thought y'all should be aware of the law so the same doesn't happen to you." that would be a totally different thing. But that's not what happened. Instead she tells her story then asks for advice on how to get out of it. This is kind of like getting arresting for DUI and then going to a Mothers Against Drunk Driving website asking for advice on how to get a light sentence!!!

You must be kidding me! I'm from central Illinois. IMO those fish are stolen...from me and a bunch of other guys around here. You came to the wrong place for help...

I don't have any good tips for finding fish other than the obvious -- look for the right structure and cover. But I just got a boat this year and I can tell you the biggest part of the learning curve is going to be boat control and positioning. Once you find a spot you want to fish, getting the boat in the right place to make the casts you want is the first thing. Then keeping it there, or moving along at the right speed and direction, can be a pain. Especially if there is any wind to speak of. I don't have a foot control on the TM. Seems like I spend as much time with my hand on the TM handle as on my reel. This was pretty frustrating at first since I felt like I could actually get more casts in from the bank. But it gets easier with practice.

For storage I keep them in the original bags. I carry a few of each that I think I'll use that day in a plano box. Replenish from the bags as needed.

Welcome to the family!

The action is definitely different between the zoom horny toads and yum buzz frogs. As a result you'll hear a lot of guys say they don't like the yum frogs. BUT in my experience the yum frogs excel UNDER the water. I like to hop them along the bottom in thick weeds. Let sink to the bottom, let it sit for a second, pop it off the bottom a few feet, let it glide back down to the bottom, repeat. When they're under water the legs kick really good. Give it a try, you might like it!

There are three phenomena invovled here: absorption, scattering and refraction. Refraction has to do with light bouncing off of or penentrating through a surface (like the air/water surface). This has to do with the light's polarization (up/down or side to side). Up/down goes through a surface more than side to side. Polarized sunglasses are polarized up/down. As a result the side to side light that bounces off the surface is blocked while the up/down light that comes out of the water is not. That's why you can see better below the surface with polarized glasses. BUT this has nothing to do with color. Absorption has to with light being absorbed by an object. Water (pure water) does not absorb any of the visible wavelengths. So this is not an issue with the color of lures either. Now if the water is stained there are colored molecules dissolved in the water and different colors can "disappear" in the water depending on what is dissolved. Scattering has to do with light bouncing off of and being bent by particles. Light is scattered by particles that are about the same size as the wavelength of the light. Red has the longest wavelength and is scattered by larger particles; blue/violet is shorter and is scattered by the smallest particles. There can be all kinds of particles in water from microorganisms to itty bitty dirt particles. But typically they are "big". So red is scattered most (i.e. first). That's why red light is the first to "disappear" in water. How deep you have to go before red disappears depends on how clear the water is. The clear it is, the deeper the light goes and the deeper you can see red. We will have a quiz on this next week and this material WILL be covered on the final exam ;D

Wow! That's amazing Burley. With that many rods in the water, those fish didn't stand a chance! Looks like some of those kids ended up with a great catch and I'm sure they all had a blast.

WELCOME!!! And congrats on the first fish. That's not a bad way to start at all.

SWEET!!! I'm still waiting for my 5 lber...Iknow it's coming this year

;D ;D ;D Maybe that was my problem!

Like the others said, you've gotta keep a tight line. BUT when he's fighting don't horse him. Don't be reeling and pulling all the time. Let him fight and let him run a bit. If you're yanking too hard you'll just rip that hole bigger. There's a delicate balance between keeping the line tight and fighting em too hard. When the adrenaline is pumping it's hard to do, but try to be patient.

I went down to my local pond for some bank beating yesterday. I was fishing nothing but senkos. I tried my best roadwarrior impersonation: cast the senko out parallel to the bank 10-15 yds from the shoreline, after it hits bottom let sit for 30 sec, move 1-2 ft falling back on slack line, let sit 10 sec, repeat until the bait is out of the strike zone. But I got NOTHING! I caught 9 bass, but all of them came casting to known/visible cover. The pond is wrapped in coontail that extends 5-15 ft from the bank. All the fish I caught came out of that. Once I get out past that line of weeds the bottom feels pretty much clean. So the question for RW and anyone else who has success fishing senkos this way: Are you casting blind or do you know you are casting to some cover or structure? Are you catching fish out there off a clean bottom? Do you think RW's method works only with certain kind of pond/lake like whith a particular kind of structure or lots of cover in the right places? I'm not giving up on this strategy since I know it works.

I think both the first two replies are saying the SAME thing (in different words). The hook should enter through the flat side and come out through the round side. Is that correct? In all honesty I doubt it matters... Even on the lizards I'd be surprised if you see much difference sine they're pretty much symmetrical (except for little "eyes" on some lizards and I doubt that the bass really notice those).

I've heard this bubblegum thing before but never had the guts to try it. Now you've gone and got me thinking about it again. I may have to break down and let the baitmonkey have his way again. What water conditions would you use bubblegum or merthiolate in? Surely not in clear water!

I'm not familiar with the jobee jig heads. But Charlie Brewer makes some that are similar to the luck e strike ones. Go to BPS and do a search for "slider" and you'll see them. I've used these with tubes in the river for smallies and had pretty good luck.

Welcome!!! And great first post! I think you captured exactly how most of us feel. Now let me introduce you to my little friend the baitmonkey... ;D ;D ;D

Just today I cuaght a snapping turtle. I know that's not all that uncommon. But man was he mad! And last week I caught a canadian goose. It swam over top of my line and the bait (super fluke on a 4/0 EWG hook) rode up his shoulder. He got spooked and tried to take off setting the hook. He was flapping as hard as he could trying to get off the water and into the air. I was trying to hold onto my rod with one hand while digging through my bag trying to find my scissors with the other hand. I finally got the line cut. As far as I know he's still waddling around down there dragging about 30 ft of braid behind him.

Wow, those are small (to me). With the senkos/kinamis I always use a 4/0 EWG. I'm not familiar with the other baits. But for a small worm (less than 5") I'd probably go with a 3/0 or maybe (rarely) a 2/0.

OBVIOUSLY, that fish is 1 lb, 11 and three quarters oz.

Thanks for the tip jerkbate, but... Just went to check out the usangler.com web site. I saw a link to closeout items. Alright! I'm always looking for a good bargain after all. When I clicked on the link I see 7 pages of stuff! This is getting better and better. They have some great stuff in the closeout selection. BUT...every single item I clicked on was out of stock! What's up with that? Why have 7 pages of stuff listed if you don't actually have any of it to sell? It's stuff like this that turns me off real quick and makes me never want to go back to their site. Ugh!

Right up front I want to apologize for the gross pics. Also, I hope this is the right place for this since the question really has to do with bass forage... Anyway, I found this fish on the bank of my neighborhood pond (about 4 acres). This fish was about 5-6" long. It's obviously not any kind of bass. It's not a carp, since the mouth isn't right. And it's not any kind of sunfish since the body's not shaped right. The closest thing I can find to this fish is a gizzard shad. Could that be it? And could gizzard shad thrive in such a small pond in central Illinois? Regardless, if there are forage fish this large in this pond it would seem like that would be a good thing for growing big bass. Is that right you think? Again, sorry...

Try the palomar knot like Alhuff said or I like the improved clinch or trilene knots. I only use palomars on plain hooks.