Hog Basser

Every single time I tie on a Rat-L-Trap, I lose it. I've lost 4-5 this year already. Doesn't matter if I'm in stumpy weedy waters, a rocky creek or what seems to be wide open waters, they always get hung and break off. I may just give up on that lure for the rest of the year. I usually lose it on the first few casts too, so have yet to catch a fish on one.

I think you just need to be careful about products once manufactured in one place that are now produced in China or another developing economy for cheaper. This goes especially for reels, where quality is paramount. One that comes to mind is Abu Garcia, you can still get the Swedish made reels, but you need to be real careful you don't end up with one made in China when you purchase them.

I keep an excel spreadsheet log, but only for when I fish on my private pond. I use it to keep records of the overall health of the fish in the pond so that I can make adjustments to my management practices if I need to. It also helps me keep track of where I am with culling fish for the year, I have a lot more to go, which is good news to me! I do track what lures are working, weather, time of year, weight, length, etc. It is fun to go back and look through it and I learn some things, but if I'm fishing anywhere else, I just enjoy the experience.

I'd stay away from a riveted hull if you can. Welded hulls are much more durable and will have better resale value down the line. As for motor, we use a 9.9 on a similar size war eagle boat and it moves just fine with a bunch of duck hunting gear and hunters, but we don't have very far to go in it. It just depends on how fast you want to get there.

I agree with the seine or throw net approach. You don't have time to fish them all out. Get on some muck boots and take a buddy out there and seine them all.

Congratulations!!! And great writing!

Rebel Craws came in! Also, my birthday is coming up and had a get together with my family last night. Got some Ned Rig setups, 6th sense crush flat 75x's, Siebert Jigs assortment, Shimano Sedona C5000 and a Denali J2 7' MH

I think they've been protected so long that no one has really taken a look at their numbers lately. I see them all the time duck hunting too. And this place is also our duck hunting spot. You can get a permit to shoot cormorants as a farm that raises fish, but we just shoot over their heads to run them off, problem is they keep coming back. There's a reservoir nearby that uses propane cannons that go off every half hour to keep them away, not sure if that works. I put that bream in our fish basket to use as catfish bait that night, but didn't catch anything with him. He was a little on the small side to eat for me. I think it was a fluke that he even got on that lure, lol. Yep! I always use the 410 shells with it. I got it to use as a snake gun.

They've been killing it for me this year. I have to force myself to try other baits so I don't end up using them exclusively.

My Yamamoto Tate Pencils did pretty well last weekend and I lost one, so I replaced the color I lost and picked up a black one too. Still 2 for $10 at DSG. Live Target (excluding sunfish and bait ball) is all buy one get one free at DSG right now, so picked up a crawfish and a blueback herring. Also grabbed some Keitech in Silver Flash Minnow. Oh yeah, and I ordered 10 more Rebel Craws at Amazon that should be coming in today in 5 red, 5 brown-my nephews lost all but one of my stock last weekend.

So, I'm going to continue updating this thread with info and stories from my trips to the pond. I've been working on statistics of our catch over the course of this year so far. Keeping tabs on how healthy my fish are. I'm using a table of average fish weight for length I found in the lake management section of Bass Resource to calculate Wr* value or relative weight of the fish compared to the average weight for a bass that length. A score of 100 on Wr value is actually better than average, the biologists who developed this table indicate that a score of 90-95 is actually closer to the real average. I'm using these values to determine what actions (if any) need to be taken on management of the pond. Currently, we cull everything in the 10-15 inch range to prevent overcrowding. The body of water itself is 53 acres, so we need to cull around 1,000 lbs of bass per year to keep it healthy. If I notice dips in Wr* value or if it is significantly better, we will make adjustments to the cull limit or even possibly stock additional forage. My long-term goal is to produce multiple double-digit bass. I've heard stories that the previous owners caught a few double-digits, but I'm not sure they're in there anymore due to inactive management for a few years. There is potential we could add some outside strains (Florida strains, etc.) to help with genetics in the pond in the future, although I think there is some already in there. Here are my stats for 2016 YTD, keep in mind this is only what I recorded, some relatives did not record their catch, but that is probably 30 more maximum. This includes fish we put back that were over 15 inches. Bass Total: 98 Average Wr* Value: 87.21 Average Weight: 1.19 lbs Total Weight: 116.52 Total Fish with 90 or better Wr* value: 33 Best Wr* Value: 131 on a 13 inch 1.5 lbs. bass in March Total Fish over 100 Wr* value: 10 Largest Fish recorded: 5.19 lbs. and 21 inches **There was a 23" fish caught, but it was not weighed or recorded Fish below 80 Wr* value: 26 Lowest Wr* value: 65.71 on a 20.75" 3.45 lbs. bass I caught last weekend (I'm worried about this weight/length range not having enough of the right forage) This one is pictured in the first post on this thread. So overall, we still have some work to do. A lot more to cull and forage to add. The cormorants have taken a bite out of our gizzard shad population lately, but there's all types of forage available. Known Species in the pond include: Large Mouth Bass Crappie Channel Cat Blue Cat Bowfin Bluegill Gizzard Shad I've caught one channel and no blues, not entirely sure the blues are still in there, but haven't really focused on catching one yet. There are probably other types of bluegill in there as well, just haven't caught them all or observed them yet. It is a fun process to learn everything about a body of water and make adjustments to help it get to where you want it to be. Overall stats are pretty decent, really just below average and we have fish all over the charts, so some things are definitely going right. I just need to nudge them a little more in the right direction. Until next time, tight lines!

I tie Palomar on everything and never have problems with it cutting into itself. If tied properly, it is one of the most solid knots out there.

I'm picturing all of you guys smelling your lures this weekend to see if this is true! Post pics if you do!

Welcome to Bass Resource! Good job getting that jig head out, I'm sure he/she appreciated it! Nice fish!

Bob Lusk is one of a kind. I enjoy his articles the most when I'm researching pond management. Not only is he very insightful, he's a great writer with a story to tell that keeps you engaged.

Still have to **** it, but a little easier with a cocking string with handles. I like my excalibur, but I just got it and haven't used it on deer yet. It is very simple (not compound) and is very tough as a result. I've sighted it in and it is pleasant to fire.

You need to figure out which size you need to cull. Likely as many of the smaller ones as you can. For me, I have a 53 acre lake I'm managing through cull and it will always be an ongoing process (albeit a fun one). We need to cull about 1,000 lbs. worth of bass per year to keep it from getting stunted (there's research to back this up and biologists have confirmed these numbers). Our slot is 10-15 inches, we keep everything within that slot, if it is over 15 inches it goes back (unless visibly unhealthy) and if under 10 inches it goes back to get a chance to grow big. Also, the ones under 10 can be additional forage for the really big ones. Your slot might be a little lower based on how many large bass you have. With this slot, most fish are in the one pound range, so it equates to about 1,000 fish per year on my lake and it doesn't hurt to take out a little more than that. Bass recover quickly. It sounds like you need to thin out the numbers of those little guys quite a bit to get started. Read and study the articles here: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ Decide what your goals are and manage accordingly. You will want to keep length and weight records of your catch to track progress. Best thing to do is get professional advice, hire a consultant or a fisheries biologist to come out and take a look. You can even have someone bring an electroshock boat out to get a real idea of what you have (and they can cull a lot while they do it to get you a head start). Most of this costs money, fishing them out is the least expensive and most fun method. The amount you need to cull is based on how many surface acres you have. If already overcrowded, many recommend to take out 35 lbs per surface acre per year. Remember this is over the course of a year and doesn't need to be done all at once. But a jump start for an already overcrowded pond won't hurt too much.

My lab used to try to retrieve bass I caught on the creek after work. She succeeded a few times. She was a good hunting lab with a really soft mouth and the fish survived.

^^This!! Don't stock before you cull.

Lol, they are a part of it out there, it's why I always wear a gun when I go fishing....the fish in this body of water are worth it.

Thanks guys, I feel better about this already. Glad I didn't get a faulty reel.

I recently purchased a Abu Garcia 6500 c3 for an all-purpose bass and catfish reel. I figured on tossing it out with cut bait for catfish while I'm bass fishing on the other side of the boat. After trying it out with some bass lures, I'm a little worried I won't be able to reel in any fish of size. Let me explain. I rigged it with 30 lbs. braid. I cast it in the yard and noticed it would reel, but with any pressure on the other end, it would just slip and the spool wouldn't spin. I tightened down the drag as far as it would go and still the same problem. Then, whenever I put it in the car, I noticed the line would slip loose every time something touched it and my lure would come unhooked from the pole. I figured maybe something was wrong with the way I tied it to the spool at this point. I took all the line out and re-tied it tighter with a better knot and it seemed better at first, but now I'm still having the same problem. One thing I noticed when I took the line out is that the spool is much smoother than other spools with no holes or rough spots in it. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the drag, the spool itself is spinning underneath while the line just stays in place. Is this a common problem? Do I need to switch lines and go with something other than braid? Will different line fix this problem? If i can't fix this, I will be looking for a different reel for this setup soon.

Caught most of mine on a yamamoto tate pencil topwater and zara spooks on Saturday when it was overcast. The sun came out on Sunday and I was catching them on the KVD swim n shiner and various plastic worms. This guy had some black growth in his mouth, not sure what this is from. Sorry about the bad pic above, camera on phone wouldn't focus right. We keep our 10-15 inch fish to keep the pond healthy and grow bigger trophies. This is just a small sampling of what we kept. Sure tasted good for dinner last night! Broken rod (dangit!)

Could be a lot of things. I would take this question over to the pond boss forums for a more in-depth analysis. Those guys know what they're talking about when it comes to pond management. A pond that small makes it difficult to maintain a bass population. We have cormorants come through after our baitfish a lot and other birds can do some damage. Could also have been a fish kill happened from low oxygen in the water or some other issue.