Brett Strohl

Got a lot of bites on 5" whites today. For whatever reason we are getting more bites on brighter colors, but I'm starting to suspect there is no rhyme or reason to what fish bite on I really prefer the 6" as far as casting etc, but if we're going to get a lot of bites on 5" 's I'll probably have to get more of those in the future.

I just started using Yum plastic worms with a drop shot rig and got a few nice fish but not as many as I had expected. I was using 6" blue Yum worms in a muddy farm pond. I was wondering is 6 inch possibly too big? And would darker colors or lighter colors be better in muddy water? Thanks so much for any suggestions, I'm very new to this type of fishing strategy.

Ah cool, thanks for the suggestion! I haven't really fished any buzz baits (besides my buzz plug jr before) so I'll have to try that!

I know there are a lot of threads on farm ponds so please forgive me if these questions are answered somewhere else. My friend and I just got access to a farm pond and so far the fishing on it has been a little slow (possibly b/c of weather). The pond has 3-5ft of overhanging brush and trees completely surrounding it, where most of the fish like to hang out under. Is there a good way to fish those areas or lure the bass out away from the bank? I caught a couple nice bass by throwing straight into overhanging limbs, but we spend way too much time being tangled up that way. The only thing we've really had success with is a couple bass on spinners, and I caught a couple decent fish by drop shotting 6" blue yum worms (both within 10 minutes, and then nothing for the next 6 hours). I've never used that kind of rig before, but since it's something I don't even have to keep an eye on I'll probably keep doing that. The water is extremely muddy however, and will likely stay that way so I'm also wondering if anyone would have any advice for plastic worm size/color selection? Also about how far off the bottom should I keep my worm? Thanks so much for any advice!

I feel like there are too many anglers and rivers etc are getting too polluted along with people being extra uptight about access etc. I would agree that ponds aren't the most sporting situations, but at the same time I don't know that there are many ideal setups left.

Awesome thanks so much! Now that I've been doing some research I'm not 100% sure if what I saw was a burbot or a bowfin, but it is in a 70ft lake so I'm sure it could have been either. The pictures of Bowfin seem to have small scales, but the fish I saw had very large scales that made it look almost prehistoric. Well hopefully I'll catch one next time and I can figure it out

I'm just curious. I fish a lake sometimes that I know has burbot and I'd love to catch one, but I'm trying to think of a way to fish for them on a second pole so I don't have to worry that I'm wasting my time all day

I'm pretty sure it's a medium action ugly stick and I'm using 30lb spider wire braid. I'm not sure about gear ratio etc. I could see that stuff effecting walk the dog lures, but I've been fishing my buzz plug jr, and hula popper quite a bit and aside from one very tiny bass, have got nothing from them. I'm actually a little curious about getting a full sized buzz plug b/c I think it would create more turbulence with the larger spinner, but I probably don't need to spend another $7 on one bait just to have a variation lol.

Would it be worth throwing a smaller lure? I got a bunch of zara puppies for 50 cents a piece in a discount bin without even knowing what they were. I had a little trouble making them "walk" I think partially b/c they were so small. Is that something I should go back to, or should I just stick with the larger walk the dog lures?

I live near Muncie, so that isn't super far away. Sometimes my dad and I will go up to fish Shock Lake, which I'm guessing is pretty close to you, but we've never had a lot of luck. One year we caught 8 or 10 giant blue gill, but they were all gravid so we threw them back.

Ah thanks for the advice, I live in east-central Indiana. I'm not sure about water temp, TBH but we've been trying them about all year. Will water clarity affect these lures? We've been fishing slightly muddy spots. So far the lures that have worked for me really well at my friends pond are a Rapala shallow scatter lip crank bait, and a plastic worm with a chartreuse tail. (so lures that I can get to go just under the surface but over the weeds). The rivers around here are pretty bad for fishing, but we've been able to catch smallmouth and rock bass on square lipped crank baits. I did have one strike from a rock bass on my super spook jr, but the fish was at least 6 inches away from the lure lol. We found a new pond to fish yesterday and got some strikes on spinners and diving crank baits. We're going to be fishing that place a lot this summer and it has tons of cover around all the edges so I'm going to be trying top waters around the edges of that place so hopefully I'll be able to produce some strikes. What time of the year do you think the fish might be done spawning here?

How do you guys feel about lipless crank baits? I think they're an interesting bait to use, but haven't had as much as nibble on one. I've been wondering if the noisy rattle might possibly be a turn off? I've noticed if I'm lucky enough to get a bite it's usually off crank baits that don't have a rattle.

I've been having trouble with top water lures and I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong? I haven't used them before this year, but I've spent a large amount of time trying to get them to work. I've even been fishing a lot on a pond that no one has used in years, and has very aggressive feeding bass, but so far I've only had one bite from a very tiny fish. I've been using a hula popper, super spook jr, and rebel jumpin minnow, rebel Frog-R, and buzz plug jr. Is there a time of year, or day that these baits are only used? I've great reviews for many of these, but I wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or if I just need to give up on top water all together?