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I never really learned to fish offshore structure very well and now I usually fish small bodies of water. But I like to take the new techniques to my friend's pond that's full of stunted, hungry, stupid bass and gain confidence there.

It seems to me the shallower, weedier and smaller the body of water, the more likely it is to produce more topwater strikes. Pond bass may not have an endless supply of food like those in bigger lakes. And they live their entire lives closer to the surface. I like the quieter topwaters for slick water and noisier ones for when there's a chop. My current favorites in order are: Frog, Spook Jr., Chug'n Spook Jr., Chug Bug, Pop R, buzzbait. Use darker colors during lower light and lighter colors during daylight. I have caught more bass on one Strike King black/blue buzzbait than any other in my bag. I just keep putting skirts on that thing. Morning and evening is the best time, but I can often get some strikes during the day when there's some cloud cover. If it's raining, throw one all day.

You can plug the bait once and show yourself taking it out of the package and unhooking a fish from it. That's enough for the person with a 2nd grade education to understand. You just have to know when they plug a Spiderwire but you use PowerPro, they really just mean "braided line". When Bill Dance says "Stick-O" he means stick worm, like a Senko. When they say "side-finder" they mean something I can't afford. I have noticed that Bill has his sonor unit blurred out in some shows. Apparently he thinks more of it at times than he does the one he's sponsored by.

I really want to try live shiners under a float in my reservoir. They're in there and fish prefer the gold color on baits so it seems the most natural thing to catch the big'uns.

I only use them for T rigging and I only have 3/16 and 1/4 oz. But I use them with 50 lb braid so I haven't lost but one. Academy has unpainted ones at a decent price. I fish a rather weedy place and I think the small profile of these helps cut through the weeds better.

I usually do as everyone else and fish them early or late. But on a really weedy body of water I'll use them anytime. I've also caught some bass on a Spook Jr in the middle of the day lately.

Every word is sage advice. I do both of these, but I don't use any leaders. I don't fish anywhere I would describe as clear.

Is a tube basically the smallmouth equivalent of a 6" plastic worm as that bait relates to largemouth? I have tried tubes several times for largemouth with no luck. I think I just don't have the confidence in it like a worm or craw.

And one with a Fast or XFast tip if you can find it. I bought a Cabela's Frog BC rod a while back. I planned to use it primarily for frogs, but also for jigs. At first I was not pleased with it for jigs.A little too stiff. But after a visit to a very weedy pond, it's just the ticket for frogs. My point is, 7'3", HVY-Fast is just the ticket for frogs in vegetation.

With free shipping. I know people on here complain about the fact it's usually not repairable. But, honestly, it's priced at a disposable cost. It's as much reel as most $80 name brands. With an average rating of 4.6 stars, out of 5. For all the guys is see posting "BC reel under $100?" you can get two with a 1-piece solid aluminum frame! Or you can get the rod, all for $100. Hard to beat.

Wear a hat, a buff and long sleeves. Slather the SPF 70 on the hands, legs & feet. Take 2 bottles of water and one beer. I use a kayak most of the time, so I can hang my feet over the side and transfer some body heat. You'd be surprised how well it works. My buddy with a sit-in kayak just can't take the heat like I can. You can also fish a river below a dam (tailrace). There will be cooler water coming off the lake bottom and fewer people to contend with. But be very careful. I usually go about 6:30. The hotter and more humid the season gets, the better the sunset pattern works. When I get an occasional vacation day, I go very early and do the same in reverse. But it seems to me that bass are feeding at night so they're fuller in the AM than in the PM. And they MUST feed due to the high metabolism. My buddy will go AM

Could be a male fish that has grown larger than average. Could be there's not enough food at this particular time, but there was for most if the fish's life. Could be a genetic freak. It could the the balance is out of whack with the majority of the forage fish (bluegill) getting too big for bass to eat and in turn, eating some of the food the bass would normally eat. Once a pond gets into this condition, it's very hard to correct because you have to remove a large number of both species to return it. And if you're fishing someone else's pond, they usually look at people taking their fish as theft. I've seen the Pond Boss shocking fish up to remove them and restore balance. Some ponds stay in balance on their own, but most don't. I fished a place recently that nobody takes fish out of. The average bass was over 2 lbs. I caught a 3. And the owner said the largest to ever come out of it was 12 lbs. He has an 8 on the wall. I feel certain it has a healthy self-sustaining balance of predators and prey.

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I usually have my best luck right on the outside of lilies or in the open patches. I'll let the froggy sit there for maybe 10 seconds before I resume the retrieve. That seems to tear a bass's nerves up. They just can't allow something smaller to survive in their den. And sometimes, I'll get the bite as soon as the frog hits the water before I even retrieve.

A parasite called fish grubs or yellow grubs. If you fillet the fish you'll find them throughout the flesh. The fish is host to one of the stages of the life cycle of this parasite. Snails are also host during another stage of the life cycle. If you can get rid of the grass, the snails will die out and the worms will disappear. If you introduce shellcrackers, they'll also kill the snails and solve the problem. Grass carp may help as well. My friend's pond had these last summer, but I haven't seen any this year. They don't hurt the fish and if you cook them thoroughly, they won't hurt you. But once you know they're there, it's hard to forget.

I did this as well. It's funny how many things have changed over the years. A lot of the conventional wisdom of the past has been turned 180 degrees. And if you subscribed to one year of Game and Fish Magazine for your state, you really didn't need to buy another one for 5 years. The articles are recycled over and over. Nowadays, more than you really ever need to know is FREE! I do appreciate that advertising is what allows us to see free content and watch informative TV shows. I try to avoid the ones that are basically info-mercials.

I either fish alone in the kayak, with another kayaker (my buddy or my daughter) or from the back seat of my other buddy's boat. They're all fine with me because they all have advantages, but I just seem to catch more and bigger fish when I'm alone in the kayak.

My favorites: Bamabass, Brendan's Fabulous World..., Sea-Money & Adamitshalnu (Uncle Steve). I'm subscribed to these and watch all their videos, but i also just click and watch the suggestions based on these. And I don't like unboxings or reviews that don't include some fishing. You cannot actually review a bait or a rod or reel unless you use it.

You use spincast reels when you LOVE twisting your line for no good reason. Or if you're fishing for fish that you know are extremely slow swimmers. Or putting yourself at a bigger disadvantage than necessary to the fish. I know there are expensive spincast reels, but they are still not as useful as $40 spinning reels, IMO.

I'd say no less than 2 years. I'm on my third year of some 50 lb that I'll probably replace with 30 lb when I finally do respool. You can reel used braid onto another reel and you'll be using the new end again.

Pretty fish. There's a large pond I go to that has a landing. They spawn on the gravel at the landing every spring. Shellcrackers are pretty hard to catch the rest of the year. But they'll bite in plain sight when spawning.

According to my Petersen's Guide To Freshwater Fishes, it looks like a yellow, brown or black. And the maps show only the yellow and brown in FL and the yellow stops about the Everglades, while the brown covers the entire state.

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You can rip the big, strong hook thru the lips too. I did that recently. The bass came off at the water's edge and I could see I'd pulled a hole in the soft tissue, dragging the fish with 5 lbs of lilies.