the reel ess

No pike in SC. There are pickerel in a few places but nowhere I fish. Yet.

I bought a Hvy stick just for frogs and jigs and told myself I was going to learn jigs or die trying. But jigs tend to get hung up a lot more than T rigs for me. I'm not a big fan of jigs for this reason as well as the bites don't feel as positive. I started fishing T rigged craws and got really good at it since I've always fished T rigged worms. I like the Berkley Chigger Craw, the Zoom Super Speed Craw and just bought some Zoom Z Craws. My biggest 5 fish came on the craw last year. I bought some heads that allow you to t-rig them that has a weight like a jig. Hopefully this becomes so much like jig fishing for me that I can just transition to a jig. The advice about starting smaller is good and I need to heed that myself.. I've found that the Hula Grub is a good smaller jig option as well. It'll pull more bites an help gain confidence. I need to buy some Bitsy Jigs and just practice, practice, practice until I have a feel for it. If you have a place where the fish are dumb and hungry at your disposal, take the jigs there.

I fish a couple places with so many carp it's not worth trying to get away. The bass are captive so I imagine they're used to the carp. My friends bought some sterile grass carp for their pond. The carp got huge, yet there's still a lot of grass in the pond. Hmmm...

Not that I think he's in any way justified in this behavior, but it's kinda (evil) genius to even think of this. As I understand, he was measuring the same fish on 3 scales and 2 of the scales were not accurate. So he was basically catching 3 fish to others' 1 fish. The lengths to which people will stoop to cheat never cease to amaze me.

Heddon Tiny Torpedo in natural perch pattern. I caught 50 bass in a couple hours on one last spring. I had to fix the blade a few times because they wouldn't stay off it . And there aren't any perch where I was fishing. But I keep trying to make the Devil's Horse my fav.

But beware, if it's on top it will come at you like a missile.

I have a black frog and the rest are natural frog patterns or at least a shade of green. If the bass is looking up at a frog or if it's a low light time, it'll see a silhouette. But if it's open water, a good bit of the frog hangs in the water. Honestly, when's the last time you saw a frog walking across the surface in a place with bass? That's suicidal. A toad will swim on top to land, but I imagine it's rare for a toad to cross a pond by choice. But then I catch bass on hard bait topwaters in frog patterns. It's universal. I guess I don't believe that the bass is thinking "FROG" when it sees one. It's just thinking "there's something in my domain and I am honor-bound to murder it." And as long as it looks like it kinda belongs, he's good-to-go. So, from that POV, it could be a bumblebee, bird or cicada-colored frog and they'd still kill it. All that said, I buy frog colors.

I go 99 problems, but a pike ain't one.

Me too. I have a slot I'll keep. usually between 12-15" fish. That works out to 1-2lb fish and every pond, lake and river has plenty of those size bass. When a bass reaches 3 lbs, it's starting to beat the odds and you should leave it alone if you like catching fish over 3 lbs. I never see a bass that's 14" and 2.5 lbs where i fish. Even the big bass over 5 where I fish don't haev big guts on them, but 5-7 pounders are common.

I was really looking for a bare Arky jighead with a fiber weed guard for Hula Grubs. But Academy didn't have any. I saw these and liked the look of them. I don't know who makes the hook, but I use braid so it shouldn't matter too much.

It was a black/blue Strike King Colorado blade spinnerbait and I caught two. But not on the first cast. One was 3.86 lb. I also caught one on a T-rigged craw. It was Jan 2. I keep a log so I can go back and check things like that. Although lately I've gotten lazy about the log. There hasn't been much to write about on my last 2 trips.

I did a poor job of showing the line tie, but it goes up about 30 degrees or so.

I bought some of these just because I love to fish craw type baits. Has anyone tried them? Sort of a cross between the T-rig and a jig. Looks like they'd remove the need to peg a sinker, but also cast and come thru grass quite well.

Booyah Pad Crasher! I have some of the others mentioned here, but this is the one I use. It gives me the best hookup rate and keeps floating. The price is right too.

I 2nd what a couple guys have said. When they won't bite your standby downsize and/or use a more finesse approach. I usually don't take my own advice here because it feels like you're just fishing for small fish. But after a couple goose eggs, small fish are just what the doctor ordered. My latest favorite for tough times is a T-rigged Yamamoto Hula Grub with 1/8 oz bullet weight. It has saved the day twice since I discovered it. Another good one for tough days is a weightless Trick Worm. I usually fish it like a jerkbait or fluke, but when fish won't take it, I'll just toss and drag it as slowly as I can stand. The Wacky rig is good for really slow days as well. Experiment and you'll get a great feeling of accomplishment when it works. You'll learn a lot when it doesn't.

I don't know, but I'm doing it too. Only 1 bite last 2 times out. My main mistake is not going where I know they bite well and grow big. Probably just bad luck. Why they call it fishing, not catching. I followed a front last 2 times and there was a stiff northerly wind. The mistake I made last time was going to a public lake and taking my daughter in her kayak. She makes a lot of noise and hangs right on my shoulder and bumps onto me all day :). But it's well worth trading a few bass to spend the time the with her while I can. She loves her daddy. I guess what I'm saying is take your daughter so you have an excuse.

When using a soft plastic, I'll usually allow a second while I reel down to set the hook. If no movement, it was not a bite. If there's a surefire nibble so quick that I can't react, I chalk it up to bream like bluegill pecking at the bait and continue the retrieve. If you want to see that, put a worm loosely on a hook and toss it into a bluegill bedding area. They'll tear it to shreds like piranha-death of a thousand cuts. Now, when the bait goes in a direction I'm not retrieving...well, I'm kinda thick, but even I can figure that one out. With experience (almost 40 years fishing) you just know. The more scent a plastic has, the longer bass will hold. They'll fight you for a Chigger Craw. They won't let go even when you make a mistake.

Get a good topo map and tie on a Carolina rig. Keep a diving crank handy too. This time of year, at least around here, you can focus on cover you can see in coves. You can make a good guess at structure be looking at the bank contour. The mass migration to very deep water should not have taken place yet so the fish should be in pre-spawn to post-spawn. To me that means you can rule out all the main lake. The mere "bassiness" of a cove can tip you off. Find a "bassy-looking" cove with good older, mossy docks and concentrate on them. If they look like people crappie fish off them, take several casts around and under them. There's brush somewhere there. Without any electronics or map, you can hit main lake docks or those with a creek or deeper water nearby. pay attention to other bassboats you see in a place more than once. There are places they all know and will "stage" to fish during a tourney. Go during the week and try those spots. If everyone is fishing them, no one "owns" them. You have to have a good eye to return and get the spot right, so use buoy marker when you find fish and then triangulate your location and mark on the map.

The best place I fish around here for quality size bass is almost all weedy bottom. It limits the baits you can use and I had to learn new ways of getting to them. But man, the bass seem to grow big there.

The ones I catch from clean waters are good eatin' indeed. Better than the crappie from the local hydro lake. And waaay better than the catfish. There'a another place I fish where they get the yellow grubs. No thanks to that. I've been told my a DNR employee who ran a fish hatchery that you probably couldn't fish a pond out. They simply won't all bite. He did say you could pressure fish so badly you'd think there were none. And there are other factors that can cause them to die off.

Today and tomorrow. Always. But looking at the weather, Sat & Tues. Those look like the days where fish might be most likely to chase bait. We like to fish under bluebird skies, but usually, fish don't seem to agree. My best days have been lower-light conditions. Cooler, even.

Yeah, that's a color that doesn't match anything perfectly, but mimics a lot of things.

They're throwing a bait with the equipment it was designed for. They tie to that snap and cut the line to change baits. They don't remove the snap and use it for another bait it was not intended for. And you can bet those are high quality snaps that came with those baits. To each his own. I see the need and usefulness for snaps. But I also have a recollection of a 6 lb bass swimming away before I could land and photograph it. Hey, I've had stripers straighten out the split ring on the back of a quality crankbait at the boat when I thought it was subdued. Why put needless accessories between you and your potential personal best or your favorite bait?

If it has a split ring, it's intended to be tied to. I can't bring myself to use a clip or snap after losing a big fish to the clip last spring. If you watch the people whose paychecks depend on landing fish, they won't be using a clip or snap. But then I don't do everything they do like changing hooks.

I do that almost every time I don't know what else to do. In fact, I do it almost every trip. A black/blue T rigged Chigger Craw stays on all the time. I would only take it off for another color. And for crystal clear water, I'd probably go with a more natural color like watermelon or a brown. Lately, I've had a T-rigged Hula Grub pay off a couple times when they wouldn't bite anything else. I've used them on a jighead a couple times too, but the T rig with 1/8 oz. weight seems to get more bites for me.