the reel ess

Absolutely. I was competing with the big boys with expensive toys over mostly dinks on the big lake. It's hard to beat the feeling of playing a fish that's turning your boat. And it's exercise, to boot.

I have launched my kayak a few times from regular boat ramps. Were I this guy, I would have carried the kayaks over to the grass on the right and lifted them in when ready to take off. If they don't have a regular boat, they don't know the etiquette. But they'll learn quickly. You'd have to sleep on the lake to beat powerboats out on our local lake. My family had a house on lake Wateree. I would trailer the boat over, launch, run it to be sure it was good to go and dock. Next morning, I would get up an hour before sunrise and go straight to the spot I wanted to fish. There'd already be two guys in the cove. If there was a good spot, you'd have to stage to fish it on weekends. That's when I decided I'd had enough, bought the kayak and started looking for private places to fish. Now I have 3 places I can come and go as I please and a couple more that I have access to.

I think they prevent some hooksets, but if you use a jig the way I do, you'll need them to not be hung up on every cast. Set that hook like you think that fish defiled your little sister. You really can't set it too hard if your line is good.

If I paid $30K or more for one, I'd probably want to fish some "clean water." Now I don't fish from the kayak anywhere boats can run gas motors. Some of the places I fish, if you put a boat in, the water level would rise. For me, that's the point of the kayak to start with. These are like two different sports to me. I actually have an older boat but don't like to use it. I do encounter some boats using electric motors. Some ask questions about the kayak, some wave, some ignore me. No one has ever said anything rude to me about it. On the other hand, when I used to fish from the boat at the local big lake, plenty of other boaters did and said rude things. It's amazing what they'll do and then tell you it's a big lake. That's why I got the kayak and sought out smaller waters.

I never just throw them out. But I have given some to a local kid and I've given some to the local charity thrift shop. I just would never have used them. This thread has encouraged me to try to fish with one of every lure I have in bags that I never use.

I mostly fish shallow and usually I'm using either a 3/16 or 1/4 oz. That's just what I'm used to. I think 3/8 is a good middle of the road, all-purpose size.

Most bites on the jig, if you're casting to a specific piece of cover, will come on the initial drop. I don't usually feel them. What usually tips me off is the bait moving sideways. You'll get better at feeling the bite with practice. But bass won't usually drop the bait when you feel them. If they want it, they'll give you a little time. I use the T rig differently. It's more of a cast and retrieve type bait for me. Sure, they'll work in the same places. But to me the jig is a scalpel and the T rig is a knife. To me, these aren't the same technique.

I bought some from @cadman that have been very durable and have caught a lot of fish. You don't need custom jigs, but wire tied is a plus and a good quality name brand hook is a must. My second favorite jig is a plain weedless Arky jighead with a plastic craw or Yamamoto Hula Grub. This will actually get you more bites in my own anecdotal experience. A way of downsizing your jig.

In a smaller fishery like a pond, you would want the bream to eat some eggs. You want the bream to be as nourished as they can be so they in turn spawn better and more often so they make more fry for the bass to eat. Then you should have fewer, but larger bass. How many times have you fished a place and wished the average fish was bigger? That would be the result if more people took bass off the beds or just took more bass in general. Of course, there are many factors that determine size. But the number of bass competing for the same forage is certainly high on the list.

I use a stringer at my buddy's pond because he likes for me to keep everything and put in his basket. I have yet to have a turtle eat any off the stringer, though i've heard of it happening. My buddy used to give me his basket to use, but it put a lot of drag on the kayak. It felt like I was paddling twice as much on one side. And when i would paddle, the door would open from the drag of the water and fish would escape. The stringer is less cumbersome. I would add that I usually only drag fish around his pond once before i take them off the stringer and put in the basket, especially in summer. When i've returned a few days later, they're almost always still alive.

This comes up every year. Why do so many people think it's wrong to do this with bass but perfectly acceptable with crappie? And they keep the crappie to eat. Why are crappie the stepchildren of the fish family? Crappie Lives Matter! This is like the argument that it's unethical to shoot deer with a .223 AR, but acceptable with hogs. Hogs didn't ask to be born hogs. If you actually decrease the numbers that hatch, and I don't believe you do because only a small percentage will anyway, you would probably just be increasing average size. Maybe it can have some negative effect on fish populations in the north, but it never seems to matter one bit here. Add to that, most "sportsmen" around here are hunting turkeys during that month anyway. I'd say, overall, if you think catching fish and releasing them any time of year is unethical, you might want to rethink sticking hooks in their mouths and dragging them from their habitat, just to maybe get a picture. To each his own.

I use black & blue most of the time. When I need a change of pace, I use blue & black.

Good post. It looks like a good read. I ran across this book in a thrift shop, so naturally, I had to take it. It was not fundamentals. I'm neither a novice nor a fisheries biologist, but this was info overload. https://www.amazon.com/Fisherman-Critical-Concepts-Largemouth-Fundamentals/dp/189294734X I'm also shocked at the price. I'm sure I got it for less than a buck.

I should also add that whether or not I use a topwater can depend greatly on where and when I'm fishing. I know in a shallow pond fish are much more likely to take a topwater. If the water is 3' deep a fish can easily locate that bait. Iyt can irritate him into striking. In a reservoir where the average depth might be 20', there are going to be a lot of bass that won't rise to a topwater. Not to say I don't try them. But it's usually just an early and late thing. Even in shallow ponds, your bites on topwaters will be much more in low light periods. Except on the frog, I rarely catch a bass on topwater in the middle of a sunny day away from any shade. If it's overcast or raining, your chances go way up. As for colors, I think that matters least with topwaters. I prefer darker baits when it's dark. Lighter or natural patterns when the sun is up a bit. But you can get bites on a pattern of fish that aren't in your water. Fish can only see half the bait at any given time and most fo that half is the bottom.

I don't know. Now that I'm looking for it, I may be wrong or have the wrong state in mind. I can't find it. Sometimes i misremember things. I'll keep digging and let you know if I can find it. I can tell you though, that my biggest bass ate a spinnerbait as soon as it hit the water. When i made the first turn of the handle she was on. This may be what I was thinking of. It's DE, not MD. It was Feb. https://www.***.com/record-fish/giant-delaware-bass-breaks-state-record/

A topic dear to my heart. Whichever one they'll bite whenever they'll bite it. In spring, I'll usually start with a Pop R. It will work great through the spawn. Right after the spawn I'll experiment with a Chug Bug and smaller Spook. A prop bait like the Devil's Horse can be good after spawn as well. As the water warms toward summer I'll try buzzbaits and Spooks. Then there are times I'll dig one out like a Hula Popper or the SPRO Rat just because I want to try them. There are guidelines, but no rules. Consider the conditions. If the water has a bit of a chop or if fish are actively chasing bait, I'll try to use a noiser bait. Fish probably won't be able to locate a quiet Spook as well as a popper type bait in choppy water or wind. The Spook and buzzbait are good search baits and cover lots of water. Sometimes fish will want you to start your retrieve right away. But try to let the bait sit a few seconds to start off with. You'll get some bites before you turn the crank. Then there's the frog, which is a different thing altogether. From spring through fall I keep a frog tied on a dedicated combo.

Well, I went yesterday. I got one bite on the spinnerbait and missed it because I was reaching for the paddle when it bit. I caught 5. I probably should have switched over to a Colorado blade model to slow it down, but I didn't. Water was very clear and not much of a breeze. Caught one on a Cordell Spot and 4 on a Swimming Super Fluke. As the sun got high the water in the weeds 3-4' deep warmed up to about 62 degrees. I had to work hard for the bites. Fish were very spooky in the shallows.

I'm going this afternoon and, as usual, I have one tied on. I'll let you know. But we are in a warm trend. 73 for a high today. I'm going to a big, shallow pond.

The MD state record largemouth was caught on a spinnerbait in water so cold, the fisherman had to look for some openings in the ice. They'll still bite big willow leaf spinnerbaits here in SC in winter. You can reel them very slowly if you need to. But the fact they weren't catching tells you perhaps they should have slowed down. Sometimes in the dead of winter, nothing works.

He is a good one to watch for novice anglers. Most advanced anglers will know most of what he will tell you. And his shows are usually filmed at private lakes like Bienville Plantation where he's likely to catch lots of bigger bass. But I started watching him when I was maybe 10. His show came on Sunday afternoons at 12:30. I asked my parents to get me my first baitcast reel and filled it with Stren mono because he was using it on his show. I thought he walked on water. It feels like he's an uncle to me.

A frog combo? Never mind. I see you covered that one.

Just my opinion: You get what you pay for. If one fails, it won't be on a dink. But if you already have them, run what you brung.

Oh, I remembered a grandpa story! My "good grandpa" told me of a time he was fishing from a boat at "the river" as they called the lake. They could remember when it was just a river. He and another guy caught a limit of crappie while fishing around a stump. They needed to take the fish back so they wouldn't get caught with more than a limit. So my grandad sat on the stump while the other guy took the fish and dropped them off and came back. This is one of those stories that I feel pretty sure was a "fish tale" told just for my entertainment, especially since I never heard of him fishing any other time. But he told it like it was the Gospel.

The good grandfather I had died young of cancer. The other one was a no-show and not a very good human. I have no idea how my mom turned out to be a good parent. But we had a house on Lake Wateree. When my parents first bought the place we had a pop-up camper. If it rained we had to pack up and get all the cars and camper out of the lot before we got stuck in there. Later we had a used single wide trailer moved in. It was heaven to me. We would head over to the lake on Friday evening and I would bug my dad to buy me some worms so I could fish early the next morning. I would wake up with the chickens on Saturday and sneak out and grab my cane pole. I would fish off our dock for bream and walk the bank down to a blow-down. I would go back and forth until I was called up for breakfast. These are my earliest fishing memories. Later, we used our Glassmaster runabout to go out and tie up to stumps and fish for crappie, still with cane poles. Then we got serious. We got a pontoon. Everyone on the boat used two poles and we anchored (cinderblocks were $.50 anchors) over brushpiles that we put out. These were probably the best days of my life. I tried to pass it on to my daughter, but she isn't interested anymore. But maybe one day she'll have a kid who is before I'm too old to take them with me.

I'm going to use my frog rod for starters.7'3" Hvy-XF. But ideally I would like a longer rod and a reel with wide spool and slower retrieve. I've also used this rod for the A rig (to no avail-yet).