the reel ess

Full disclosure, my PB is nowhere near as big as the guys who live in the deep south or CA. But it's near the ceiling in the place I fish most. In addition to what I've seen in this thread, fish around the new moon and full moon. Stats show that's the best time of month for big'uns. I'm not necessarily saying to fish at night, though that is a good tactic. Low light periods are better for big bass. Overcast or even rain can be killer too. It's better to have the wrong lure where there are big bass than a monster swimbait where they're mostly dinks. If you know someone who catches bigger bass than you, try to go along with them and study their techniques. Ask them questions. Go in winter. The bites you get, though few, will be better average. If the water is not hard. If it's hard, start fishing as soon as ice is gone. When the water warms all the way to spawn is about the best time for fishing shallow. If I had to choose only two lures that catch better than average fish for me, it would be a full-size double willow spinnerbait and a 1/2 oz. black/blue Arky jig with craw trailer. Don't downsize. I catch dinks on this bait too. As mentioned before, shallow wood is killer.

My $0.02: Just buy other colors and the smaller size of the Pad Crasher models. I've got some other brands and they aren't better. The PC stays tied on my frog combo.

Trick Worm or Senko. They're mostly for specific targets, so the bass will bite on the drop or very soon after. But I like to cast & retrieve. It's the reason I got away from crappie and catfish. They're boring. I went offshore with my bro-in-law and nephews a while back. We spent about $650 and basically dropped cut bait 100 ft and dragged up whatever bit. Good fight, but not fun. Wasted $$$. If I get in a saltwater boat again, it will be for inshore species.

I used to do that too until that wouldn't even "net" me some solitude. I realized I was competing with people with better electronics and equipment than me for a bunch of 1-2 lb bass. I always found myself on second- or third-choice spots because i didn't want to crowd somebody. I eventually just left the big lake/bass boat scene to others. If I wanted to compete, I'd join a club and I like being alone, or at least in the only boat around if I'm fishing with another person. I live with a wife, daughter and female dog. I enjoy a few hours of alone time to be a guy.

A SPRO Rat I think. It catches bass. At least it has on one trip. I think it was about $17 at the time. I see they're over $20 now. I also have a Savage Gear Glide. It hasn't produced a thing yet.

Works in winter as well, but you have to draaaaaag it.

Ask 10 people and you'll get 20 answers. If you're shorebound, I highly recommend the standard size Rebel Pop R. It's one of my go-to's for shallow fishing and it doesn't get hung up. I'd try it early, late and any time there's shade or cloud cover or you see bass chasing baitfish on the surface. I caught a 6 pounder on one a couple weeks ago. The Chug Bug is a variation of the same thing. It's bigger and easier to cast with standard baitcast gear. I usually employ it later in the year when baitfish seem to be bigger. They won't always want a topwater, but you'll get addicted if you have a good outing on them. It's just so exciting to catch bass on top.

Take the back hook off, turn the blade around and replace the hook. Give that a try and see if it doesn't make a better commotion. It will also allow you to keep it in the strike zone longer. Hopefully, it won't cause the bait to spin. I had a 50+ bass day on a Tiny Torpedo once. Awesome bait.

It's a dad thing, especially if they came up in tougher circumstances than us. My dad didn't feel like he actually got the full experience of fishing unless he ate the fish. He would even be tempted to keep more than a limit if that presented itself. He and another friend caught 180 crappie one day. They had to take them in twice and leave them in coolers. But then we crappie fished until I was a teen. Then we transitioned to bass. His mentality didn't change until he got older and tired of cleaning them. I almost never keep any to eat. But I leave everything I catch at one pond in my buddy's basket because the pond is overpopulated. And if I fish from my other buddy's back seat, he keeps all bass in the 1-3 lb. slot as well as crappie and bream. It's a private place so there's no limit and not enough people fishing there to hurt the numbers. That's what I love about fishing more than hunting. You don't have to kill anything and there's no big mess to deal with afterward, if that's how you want it. This is the best time of year for me because most of the "sportsmen" are turkey hunting.

I remember Ike at a major tourney dinged the end of a pontoon pitching to it and on the very next cast caught a monster.

I like to get the hollow body frog near the shallow end of the dock on each side, especially if it's a bit "bassy" back there. ie: if there are any weeds or brush near the shallow end. A lot of times, they'll bite it when it hist the surface. Like you, I like the Pop R in that area as well. There's always some shade at a dock and they do like topwaters better in low light.

If I see it either driving or on Google Maps, I consult the county tax assessor's map. Land tax records are public. But I don't usually go through with that. I have several friends who either own a pond or some land on a small lake. They let me use theirs whenever I want. I was given a key to the only one with a gate on it. I have fished some that I saw from the highway and asked permission to go to. But usually, there aren't any big mamas in them. Or I should say I don't catch them. Most private ponds are terribly overpopulated and completely unmanaged fisheries-that has the advantage of hungry, dumb bass, but not in producing trophies. So I stick mostly to the 4 or 5 best ones I have carte blache at. I also get better at fishing them because I do it a lot.

You could use two weightless Trick Worms for that. But that would be a variation on the double fluke rig. Just realized I replied to an old, OLD post. LOL

There are a lot of southerners named Wade I got the kayak so I could...Row (vs wade)

I don't understand all the specifics of this case. It seems this is a public hunting/fishing location. But the story says the landowner told police the men did not have permission to fish. If it is public, I'm sure they're way over the limit. If it's private and they thought they had permission, there's no limit. At least that's how it is here. Sometimes a fishery needs fish to be taken. Could be that was their mentality. That's about 29 fish/person. I've kept more than that at my buddy's pond before because he asked me to. But if it is public, it's really stupid to take all those. I've known people to take fish only to decide they don't want the hassle of cleaning them and throw them out. It's the whole hunting mentality applied to fishing. It didn't happen if you don't keep evidence.

Every little bit helps. I actually see a difference between the grass and Arky heads, though I use both.

It's good for weeds with that head. With that weedguard, you can also pitch it into the gnarliest hangups and slowly work it through. It is sized for bigger bass, but little ones will bite it too. You could take a little off the head of the trailer to make it more compact. That's one thing I like about the jig. There is some action from smaller bass while you work your way to the next lunker. Agree with @TOXIC regarding possibly using a paddle tail trailer if you want to swim it.

The only difference I see is the vertical tie catches fewer weeds. It's very weedy in some places I fish and a cast is wasted if the jig gets fouled with weeds on the initial fall, so I look for grass or Arky style jigheads with vertical ties.

Used to be purple in plastic worms. I wouldn't buy any other colors. I even looked for hardbaits with purple accents. It was the color de rigueur for Lake Wateree, SC. It's a deepish lake that's mostly devoid of weeds with a little bit growing shallow around the edge. I still have a stockpile of purple. But I mostly fish off-color, weedy ponds and small lakes now. A couple places have water the color of tea. I've mostly replaced the plastic worm with jigs and/or craws and they seem to like black/blue combinations best. I have some brown ones, but rarely use them. When I do, it's with a black/blue trailer. Gold in spinnerbaits and lipless cranks. I'll use black/blue in really off-color or cold water. But they'll bite the gold if fished slowly enough. For flukes and swimbaits, usually some kind of white, but houdini is a great color for me as well and bubble gum has worked. Bubble gum, limetreuse, pumpkin, watermelon, black for Trick Worms, in that order. Frog: Frog colors. Topwaters: Depends on the type of bait I'm trying to imitate or light level. But that's the type bait that the color seems to mean the least. But then, color doesn't matter, amiright? ?

I'll wade a creek or a sandy or rocky bottom in a heartbeat. But in some ponds that I fish, the bottom is so silty you take one step into the pond and sink up to your knee.

It should be noted that bluegill are only one of the family of panfish sunfish. There are 8 established "bream" species in SC and they can be hard to tell apart. So here the spawn goes like this as far as I know: crappie (April), bass (April), redear sunfish (shellcracker-May), bluegill (near the full moon all the summer months). There are warmouth as well, but I don't know how or when they spawn. We don't see them in shallow "beds". It seems when I fish in creeks in the summer I see a lot of redbreast that appear to spawn all summer long.

Tha bass here are in full-on spawn mode right now. But I'm seeing and smelling bluegill around the same areas. Can anyone else smell bream? The bluegill hang around the bass beds waiting for a delicacy of bass eggs. But in a little more than a month, the bass will have their revenge and hang around the bluegill spawning areas picking off easy meals.

Funny because every time I lose a pincer off my trailer, I replace it. I'll have to rethink the kind of trailer I use and if I should replace as often. I have a feeling bigger bass are less concerned about pincers. When I was young, I didn't know that jig required trailers so I threw one without a trailer with no results. I just stopped using them for a decade.

There are a couple guys on here that really like them and will make excuses for the quality and try to argue you down. Your money can be better spent.

I miss enough days due to cold and/or rain and of course work. If I get a day of nice temps and full sun, I won't waste it. That said, there is certainly something to the barometric pressure. Shallow fish are more adversely affected by it.