beardown34

Wow, that's pretty dramatic! And you are a crack addict. Addicted to cracking that Hookset!

cry, wipe my tears, and repeat

my super ESP powers say .. Lund Lake?

Free shipping no minimum: Gander Mountain Academy Field and stream Feel free to add to this list

The same threshold as when you start throwing them in the spring right? 55 degrees?

looks like a couple warm days coming up this week, but i was wondering -- let's say there aren't really many warm days strung together from here until winter. are there seasons where it just goes from hot hot summer to cold cold fall, with no real moderate time in between, and that season the bass just don't feed and fatten up very well?

with this unseasonably warm weather, i'm going to see if the buzzbait will start working again. maybe even a frog?? the last few weeks all i've been able to catch em on are spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.

Dern, nice largies. Yeah I'm waiting for the bite to pick up here. In the meanwhile, lots of casting practice

western suburb folks -- has your bite been garbage lately? for me i'm talking small ponds. in august and even into early september, the topwater (frogs, toads, buzzbaits) and t-rigged worm bite was awesome. since it turned to fall weather though, i can barely catch anything. i was looking forward to the fall feed, but did it just get too cold too fast, and the bass just aren't quite aggressive yet? i've caught 1 t-rigged fish in the past 2 weeks. zero on topwater. my only "success" has been with a slow rolled spinnerbait or chatterbait, and we're talking like 4-5 fish over the same time span. i've tried a dropshot and c-rig with no luck either. part of it was my MH spinning rod broke, and while waiting for a replacement, i came up with the genius idea to learn how to use a baitcaster. i suspect years down the line i will view this is a slam dunk positive development, but there have certainly been challenging moments! but now that i'm at least adequate with the baitcaster, the bite still hasn't picked up. just curious if you folks in the same are are noticing the same thing. the other variable is there has been some landscaping going on around the banks of one of the ponds i fish -- the weed growth was whacked down and they laid down some straw grass seed blankets around the perimeter. i was wondering if either the commotion or maybe some runoff chemicals were giving the fish lockjaw.

lol

i am here to tell you there is hope. how much? who knows, but there is hope. i did the exact same thing with a lip gripper jr. i had just bought it and never used it before. i had no idea what the purpose of the wrist strap was. as i bent over to release the fish from the bank, the bass shook its head and off it went into the pond ( see at 05:55 in the video below): i went home and tripped balls about it. for the next 3 days, i walked the edges of the pond, expecting to find a dead bass with my gripper attached to its mouth. wouldn't you know, 4 days later i found the fish gripper, with the grip still closed, and no bass in sight. i have no earthly explanation for how this came to be. i can't see how the bass could possibly have generated enough leverage to spit the gripper. if another angler had caught that bass (i doubt it, it's a small residential pond and i barely see anyone fishing there), i don't think they would have just tossed the lip gripper back into the pond. so you will never know, but at least rest a little easier knowing it is possible for the fish to escape. the kicker for my story? a few days later, one of my toddlers was playing with that lip gripper and lost it somewhere and i've never found it since. aint that a b*#!?

You mean a mono leader on top of the braid? Or you just spooled the entire thing with mono

I'm newer to the master bait casting game as well. I bought a Berkeley Lightning (not shock) Medium rod to go with a MH 13 rod I already had. I found the Berkeley Medium to be almost as stiff as the 13 MH. I've since replaced it with a 13 M and now can cast 1/16 T rigged worms without backlashing. I have found that the lighter I go, the more exaggerated I need to be with setting the tension knob. Like to the point that the lure barely moves even after shaking the rod tip. With my MH, I had a light bulb go off when I started tossing 1/4oz lures and heavier. I fish small residential ponds so I mostly use 3/16 or lighter lures. That caused me immense frustration while trying to learn baitcasting. The MH rod only made things harder. My point? Maybe try heavier lures, or a lighter powered rod. And again, my experience was the Berkeley lightning rod seemed to fish heavier than its rating. I use 40#PP with no leader. I tried some left over 20#PP one time, and saw my cavitron buzzbait snap off and go flying into the darkness. I'm assuming it was a line digging problem because the line snapped on the spool side of the line guide. On the times my 40#PP has dug in and cut my cast short, the line did not break. I may eventually try 30#PP but I'm good with 40# for now.

I have a one piece rod that my wife is no longer interested in. It is sensitive, but as for action, I'd have to rate it "none lately." It's missing the guide at the very tip but it's been that way as far back as I can remember, and doesn't seem to affect sensitivity.

Alternative? I use Duck Brand Wrap-Fix Self-Fusing Silicone, $5 at Walmart. One roll wraps three 7 ft rod handles with some left over. Wipes down easy. The cork underneath has literally never been touched. The plastic wrap is still on it. I personally like the look and feel. Different strokes for different folks. It's more sturdy than a tennis grip wrap because it fuses to itself. It's used for low pressure water repairs so for all intents and purposes it is waterproof.

Mosster47 -- deadsticking for 3 to 5 minutes blows my mind

Ah, I see. It's gotta be that 00 -- keeping the hat from flying off during boat runs. No wonder I never understood. My hat has no problem staying on when I run from one end of the pond to the other

what is the reasoning behind the buff going OVER the hat? does it stay up better that way? i tend to wear the buff under my hat.

I fish subdivision ponds at dawn and dusk and this is what I look like even when it's 80 degrees out. Freaking mosquitoes.

I'd use a frog, a frog, and a frog. After that I would use a frog.

Mosquitoes can and will bite through them

i've texas rigged both the 3" and 4" TRDs with a 1/16 or 1/8 oz sinker with tons of pond success. i caught 31 on one TRD before i broke off my line, and i hadn't even flipped it around yet.

Gama SuperLine Offset EWG 3/0 25pkQty: 1$17.99 ea. ah forget it. just put on my big boy pants and buy superline edit: actually i didn't notice BPS has a "Magna" line of their hooks. at that price point i'll give those a try first. really what i'd love to find is a hook that lasts close to as long as these z-man plastics have been lasting me.

sigh, this is my red gama 2/0 hook after 7 fish, all under 2 #. i loosened up the drag on my pflueger supreme (max drag 10lb) about 4 to 5 clicks, and the drag is clearly slipping on hooksets. i either quickly lipped the fish in the water or very low close to the ground. maybe gama hooks just aren't for me. i just fish for fun and will never be a tourney fisher. i'd love to find an alternative closer to the BPS price range, and not the superline price range. is it possible that the direction of the hookset swing is causing the hook to bend out? like if i just set the hook straight up, as opposed to swinging across my body?

speaking of the bait buttons -- anyone know if they will work with snelled hooks? i've been tying my texas rigs with snell knots lately.