the reel ess

For me the tail depends on the season. Curly in warmer water, ribbon in really warm water, flat or straight in cooler water or heavy cover. Of course, the presentation matters. You don't use a monster ribbon tail worm to do what a Trick Worm does. And the Trick Worm works all the time, rigged in different ways.

True. It mostly feeds him. I leave everything in his floating basket by his dock and let him know. He comes by in the golf cart ans throws me a beer sometimes while I fish. I can't complain. But I would still like to get a bigger average if possible.

I got together an order on Academy's website. When I clocked PLACE ORDER I got the message that all of it was out of stock. ALL OF IT. So I did it all again. Same message. Looks like, if this thing doesn't lighten up soon, we'll all be fishing with our old reserve stockpiles. I think I'll troll eBay for some Zoom Speed Worms.

I harvest practically every bass I catch there as do a few other people and the owner and his family. I haven't put a dent in the problem. It is a great place to catch a mess of good eating size bass and 'gills though. It's funny because I met this guy through my wife. When we were just dating we had dinner at his place with his family, then he and I went out in his jonboat and I caught a 6.5 pounder. I was ecstatic to have a new pond like this in my rotation. I'll bet you could count the fish over 2 lbs I've caught there since on one hand. It's been 17 years. And I've fished there a lot. The attached pic is of a bass that was maybe 14" and had a bass down its throat. For comparison, that's a 2x4 on the dock. It's by far the biggest bass I've caught there in years. I did throw it back because it's a killer and if it can eat small bass it has a chance to grow large. I even tried monster baits. I catch dinks on them. ? I suspect there's some reason other than just bluegill-bass population disparity. I even discussed rigging up a shocking device to get rid of some numbers for the owner. He's too lazy for that and too cheap to pay an expert.

Welcome. Take a long look at Google earth near you and then get to know your neighbors. You'll be surprised how many people really would like someone to fish their ponds. Also, most bridges across a decent large creek/small river will have some bank access. If you see a dirt road at the bridge, there's access. Consider a kayak. That's what I use. $500 for a brand new one will get you on the water with a decent rig. Cheaper if you get it used. Looks like you're near Raleigh. Check out Uncle Steve's YouTube videos. I think he was from that area and uploaded some great fishing videos at creeks, rivers and lakes in your area. He was bank bound as well and caught a lot of bream. But there are bass in all those waters. Maybe not monsters, but they're all fun with the right tackle.

I think the main thing hard baits give you is noise that you just can't get with soft plastics.

My buddy's pond is a dink factory where all the fish are 3/4 lb. clones. I expect 10 fish min. every trip. I've caught 50 fish there in a day that probably didn't weight 40 lbs. It's an awesome place to learn new techniques. I caught one on a Gummi Worm just to show my friend I could. And the bluegill are enormous...thus the small bass. It's way out of balance. The hard baits I throw most are topwaters and jerkbaits. I could replace those with soft baits if I needed to and still catch fish.

I was thinking 9.9 lbs. If I read that right it's 9 lb 9 oz. No way to round that far.

In all my years of fishing, when I've seen frogs, they were never on the surface walking like a Spook. When you scare them off the edge, they dive to the bottom. So I could see how the T rig would work.

5-ish on a white Hart Throb buzzbait. There has been a 10 pounder taken from the same pond. It's a place owned by my buddy's father-in-law. He doesn't mind me going whenever I want, but he won't allow me to use my kayak. That's a travesty because it's full of flooded timber that I could ply with a jig or monster worm. My buddy says it's for liability reasons, which I fully understand. I would sign a waiver. In fact, I've told my wife not to sue should I die fishing private property. It's my choice and they're doing me a favor. There's another downside to this pond. The road into it goes right through an old man's yard and he's somehow ALWAYS outside. So he assumes you're there to see him. He talks your ear off on the way in and out. He tells me 5 times each way the fish won't bite there when the wind's blowing. I know that you're a man of integrity. 95% of fishermen would round that bass to 10.0.

I put sunscreen on before I go and I'll wash my hands after it's dry. I try to just wash the palms. Then I don't think about it again. I've never added scent to a lure.

I've never gotten a hook in myself or anyone else past the barb. Knock wood. Just be careful and it helps to fish alone. You can use a net to avoid thrashing fish. I fished with a guide for peacocks once and he all but shamed me for not grabbing a fish that had a face full of trebles. Peacocks don't just give up when you lip them. It got off and he said...well, I won't tell you what he said. He told me you could break his spinning rods boat flipping them and they would get banged up and die more easily. I just went back to fishing hard as I could and caught some more.

Normally, I fish all the same baits in a pond. I put more emphasis on topwaters because fish will be closer to the surface on average. I still catch dinks on bigger bass baits. However, I have a pond I've been fishing lately where I can't seem to buy bites on the regular bass baits. Zero on spinnerbait, jerkbait, frog, stick worm or any topwaters so far. But it was a little early in the season for topwaters. There are good bluegill there so I broke out the ultralight and tiny Rooster Tail and started catching bass too. Even some decent bass. I know there's at least one big mama in there because I saw her on a bed. I couldn't get her to bite, but I did catch a decent male off it. I caught a few on the Trick Worm. But mostly, I have yet to figure this place out. I want to fish until dusk there sometime and see if they'll bite better at low light. Also, I have a Pond Magic spinnerbait I'll give a go there.

15 Big Game mono Runner Up: 10 or 12 lb mono. It's all I ever used for bass growing up.

I sold mine for $1000 with a blown head gasket. It was overheating. The guy who got it told me the gasket only costs $14 and his son is a mechanic. It has since become his lawn art. I don't think it has moved from the spot he parked it in. I'd love to have that Mustang though now that I have the resources to work on it some.

I had that same Procraft boat but mine was red. I just sold it last summer. Just like this, but it had a Merc Black Max 135. I stupidly traded a '66 Mustang that needed some work for the boat. Then I practically gave the boat away.

Good story. Just remember that, when you were a baby, pooping your diapers and unable to fend for yourself, they did everything for you. If you haven't had kids yet, it will be good experience. Show them a time or two and then they're on their own. As for your expensive equipment, you have to protect that like you're fishing with children. My dad got me into fishing and was the patient one when I was young. When he got about 65, he didn't want to go in the summer and grind out dog days for a few 2 pounders. So I just let it go. He did go to a pond with me one time the fall be fore he died unexpectedly. He caught a couple on the Trick Worm on my spinning rod. After a couple fish, he had the line twisted and didn't remember how to T rig a worm. I couldn't believe that. He was the one who taught me. I fixed it but he decided it wasn't worth the effort. He went and sat on my tailgate and chatted with our buddy while I walked the bank, catching fish. He did tell me I had gotten a lot better at fishing after he stopped going with me. I didn't know it would be the last time I'd go fishing with him on this side of life. I have people, sometimes the pond owners where I fish, that want me to tell them how to catch bass or how I knew they would bite what I was casting. You can't just impart 40 years of collective experience to a person in one conversation. I will give them a very basic rundown of seasonal situations, water temp, fish migration, etc. and then suggest they go to this site. If I speak with them later, they'll ask the same questions and I'll know they didn't bother. They don't want to know badly enough to do their own study. if I really try to tell them what I know from experience, I get the 40 yard stare. I would say give them a Zebco combo with a Beetle Spin, a Rooster Tail or a Mepps Comet and let them chunk and wind. They're late in life to learn all the ins and outs of serious bass fishing. Also, the Trick Worm is the bomb. I have a buddy that goes kayaking with me and he just casts and slowly reels the thing and catches bass-even big ones-even in cold water.

I go hiking with my daughter when I just want to enjoy nature. Not that I don't enjoy nature when I go fishing. But it is fishing.

Probably a bedding bass trying to get your lure out of the bed. Some people won't target bedding bass and some states don't allow it. When I do it I always try to have a lure I can see with the hook exposed and get a good hookset before the fish can drop it. You will still miss a lot because the bass is not trying to eat, it's doing housekeeping. Bass don't have the brain capacity to be either smart or dumb. They're running strictly on instinct. But instinct during spawn is different than the rest of the year. I walked up to the bank of a pond once and there was about a 3 pounder just laying up next to the bank. It didn't spook so I flipped my frog to it and it killed the frog. All instinct, no thought whatsoever. If that fish could reason, it would have swam away. I asked the pond owner if they feed fish there and he said no.

You can use a main line of braid and a short leader of 15# Big Game if you want the breakoff ability off the mono with the zero stretch of the braid. I've done that and I have also used straight braid. Just depends on the situation. I keep the spool of Big Game in my bag. To the OP: Don't cast it to the middle. ? Most of the time I'm flipping/pitching to targets in an area that's shallow enough to get to if I hang up. If I decided to use that combo for deeper water, I'd put a short leader of mono on. Lots of people would use fluoro instead, but I don't really want to carry three lines with me and the water is almost always stained around here. A Guide in FL showed me you can break the stuff. Wrap it a few times around a dowel or a stick if your bankbound. Also, I use 50# even on my frog rod. But I haven't had to break it. So far, I haven't needed the added advantage of 15# test on top of 50# just to get a bass out of weeds.

When I hear someone try to explain bass behavior as if fish can reason, I think of things like this. They have no clue why they do what they do. If you asked and they were capable of a response, they would say "I don't know." A neuron in that tiny little brain stem flashed "Kill It!" and it was on. Irreversible.

I gave myself a new jig rod for late Christmas gift. I caught one on it first time I tried it. Not exactly sue of the date, but it was Jan.

Ever notice how people ask a question and don't return for the answers?

I have hired a total of two guides in my life. The first was a striper/hybrid guide on Lake Hartwell, SC in my early 20s. He put us on fish and wanted us to limit so he could go home. If we weren't sitting right on top of a rod in the holder when it clicked he would grab it and set the hook for us, then hand us the rod. He hardly spoke except to say things like "Well, they say they don't, but they do" when asked something about fish patterns. We brought home those fish, took pics,cleaned and ate them (all but forbidden from Hartwell nowadays due to mercury) but we didn't learn much we could use at home. Fast forward to this past December. I went on 2 6-hour trips with a So FL guide and got a masters level course in largemouth fishing. The guide told me I knew more than most folks he guided so he was going to run the run the trolling motor, give advice, answer questions and fish other baits to try to nail down what they wanted. he had me change baits every time the bite slowed, not when it stopped. he also was changing baits all day and rigging rods with what he thought I should try so i didn't have to stop to change baits. He showed me more about flipping in a few hours than I'd ever seen in any video and the bites were there, so it was awesome practice. He was friendly, engaging, instructional and interested in my success. He even told me of easily accessible public locations. He said he doesn't do that as a rule, but I did pay and tip him for (2) days. A guide needs to make his clients as comfortable and knowledgeable as he can in the short time they're with him because they paid him a bunch of $$$ to learn.

But not the cheapest. I have a Lightning Rod/Trion reel that really works. About a $70 combo new, but I found the reel in a pawn shop, still in the blister package for $20. Been using it for years. It's just a tad heavier than the President. BPS has a President reel with some no-name graphite rod for $70-80, depending on the combo. They have all the actions/powers/reel sizes. Ugly Stik GX2 is toward my lower limit-$50. I bought one for my daughter and dang if it doesn't work quite well. She doesn't fish anymore so I took the reel off to use on one of my late dad's rods just for the sake of using his tackle. The reel has no reverse. Most everything in Walmart will get you by for a while. If it comes prespooled with line, I would replace it with a good brand. The absolute cheapest way to go would be a used combo or one of the components. Go to pawn shops and thrift stores and look for any used rods that meet your needs. I have sent rods, reels and tackle to our local charity thrift store. Watch out for yard sales.