the reel ess

I rigged my Johnson Silver Minnow with a grub on the hook. But I should probably use a trailer hook and rig it with the grub.

Are you saying you T-rig the spoon? I'm having trouble picturing this. Can you show a pic?

It has been my experience (and I'm only speaking for myself here) that it's difficult for me to get a bite on a frog when there are bluebird skies. That's why I didn't buy white ones. I suppose that's because I'm not usually fishing really thick vegetation with a frog. More like sporadic lilies and a few floating mats.

Congrats! And when you fish, you may be empty-handed but not a failure.

I only have natural colors and one black. Doesn't seem to me that fish are that picky as long as they can find it. Some people who claim to be in the know say black and white are the only two you need.

Early in the season, I got good numbers, small size. Now when I go late I'm getting a handful of good fish. I got three 5 pounders and one over 6 lb in one week. I'm only catching maybe 3 or 4 a trip, but size more than makes up for low numbers. I'd rather catch one 5 pounder than twenty 1 pounders. Topwaters just before dark seems to be the ticket right now. My guess is that should last through the dog days.

After looking through the possible species of my area, I can see why they'll bite any color.

I used a Johnson minnow at the beach to catch a couple flounder. So I thought it might be good to try at the local pond since it's weedy. I managed one bite from a dink. I was using a 3" grub as a trailer. Cool thing about the Johnson Silver Minnow is it wobbles, but won't twist your line if you don't reel it too fast. That's sort of a guide for how to use it. It would probably do well in real slop with a craw or frog trailer to keep it on top. Where I fish, they don't seem to be under the slop, but rather around it or in open water. There's submerged grass too and that seems to hold them until the low light periods when they'll chase bait near the surface.

If I was still a kid, I'd ask for a job on the grounds crew as a way to get into the good graces of the pro and the management. Then I'd ask for permission to fish there. If I wasn't granted permission, I wouldn't show up for work again. But, alas, I'm not a kid.

Finding enough time to go fishing is my biggest obstacle. I try to got to places where I have a lot of confidence-smaller bodies of water. If I were still chasing dinks on public lakes, locating fish in the dog days of summer would be an issue. Never been very good at locating offshore fish. I might fish for 3 hours for one fish. I'm not very good with finesse techniques either. But I rarely have to fish very clear water.

I had one of those little BPS in-line buzzbaits with the bucktail hair skirt and a single hook with a weedguard. I tried it a couple times without a bite. If I had gotten a bite, I wouldn't feel great about my chances because of the weedguard style. I gave it to a kid along with a tackle bag and 3 Plano utility boxes and a bunch of other lures I either never used or have no confidence in. I hope he has luck with it.

I don't think the bass where I fish know there exist black, ELECTRIC BLUE and white crawfish. I think they're just biting a bait they can see that somewhat represents something they normally like. Black/blue can't hide, even in stained water. If the bite was extremely tough and the water was gin clear, I'd probably feel I needed to more accurately match the hatch.

I like the original bags too. For one thing you don't mix up scents. But I use a kayak and have to travel light sometimes. I'll just throw a bag of each plastic I intend to use behind the seat. I pack 5 rods with different lures and that's what I'm using for that trip. Unless I'm there all day or at a small place and can paddle back to the truck and tie on something else. I have one friend who has a pier at his pond. I'll leave several rods and the tackle bag on the pier then and only take a couple rods until I find a good pattern.

Because they're freaking idiots who know nothing about fishing and don't care about it like we do.

And weeds

That's right. Sometimes bass will hit that frog as soon as it hits the water. And you can make really long casts with it. With braid you'll stand a chance of catching it. Mono can stretch as much as 10%. You won't get the same pressure on the hookset.

Overhanging limbs, laydowns, points, stumps, creek beds.

Right. I mean if they'll bite black, electric blue or white...

Cockroach color.

I use tungsten for T rigs-smaller profile. But I also fish weightless Trick Worms and flukes. I try to swim a Rat L Trap just over the grass just fast enough not to bog down. Then I use topwaters early or late. Of course you can use a weightless stick worm, T rigged. But I haven't had any luck with it yet.

Now that I see your profile pic, I realize we have messaged about this place and Godale. It just looks so bassy. I will have to give it one try.

I've always thought those courses on TV look like a huge waste of good fishing holes. Our local CC has one pond and it's tiny. I could ask permission, but the pond is so small, I could cast and get in the tress on the other side. I already have 4-5 better places. I'm going to a new one Wednesday that belongs to an older couple at our church.

I have different color jigs/chunks. But when I throw a t-rigged craw it's Zoom black sapphire. I've never seen a black crawfish, but these plain work for me. The waters around here always have some stain to them, so I guess these are easier to locate. I caught a PB on it.

I use a Med spin rod that's about 80% backbone, 20% lighter tip. All you need to do with a quality hook is tighten up the line and start reeling. Problem with this rig is the fish will get it deep in there mouths before you can get a hook in them. Then you get it way back in the fleshy parts. On a big bass, that won't hold the hook. Contrary to what a lot of others will tell you, a 2/0 offset shank T rig hook will get them in the lip or jaw more often. And you can give a little more hookset. I listened to everyone on this board about hooks, but that works best for me.

Around here, in the days before most people owned trolling motors and a fishing boat was a 12' jon, old timers used to "circle stumps" with minnows and cane poles with the motor running in reverse. They claimed the noise attracted crappie. I've seen no evidence that it works. But as a kid we used to sometimes fish a spot in our pontoon with the motor running and if they bit, we would turn it off and throw out a cinder block anchor. I imagine they were just biting so well nothing would stop it. Since then I am as quiet as can be. But sometimes nothing would stop a fish from biting. Sometimes nothing can pry its mouth open.