Hog Basser

That is a faaaaattttyy!!! Good job and be safe!

No lengths or any measurements? Wow, those are nice!

Something's wrong with that fish, it looks more than just skinny. My vote would be plastic worm or worms stuck in the stomach.

I keep a log for my pond since we have to cull a certain amount every year. It also helps me keep track of overall fish health so I can make adjustments if needed. I track species, weight, length, date, conditions, etc. Everywhere else I just fish and enjoy it without counting. It is interesting compiling all the data together.

I'd say 6-6.5 lbs.

Honestly, she's very understanding. It's just that right now my birthday is coming up and she does get mad when I buy a bunch of stuff for myself right before my birthday. It can be hard for her to understand that you can never have enough fishing gear. And I've got more lined up for gift ideas to give her. She duck hunts and even fishes with me occasionally, she just doesn't want to stay out all day like I do.

Well, I forgot to call UPS and go pick it up and it showed up at about 7:30 last night. I met the driver at the door with my wife right behind me. She said "Good God, what is that!?" I said, "A fishing rod". She just rolled her eyes and said okay. I neglected to tell her there were two rods and two reels and waited until she went to bed to open them up. Now they're safely stowed until I load up to go fishing again.

Thanks Scarborough!

I'm interested in the blue sapphire, black/blue, and green pumpkin colors. Can you post pics of those?

Would it be possible on your website to have it change the picture to show the color you select on jig skirts when you make the color selection? I want to order, but I would like to confirm the skirt color I'm getting is what I'm actually looking for.

Lee Creek is good. If you have a boat, you can put in at Fort Smith Park and go almost straight across to where it feeds into the Arkansas River. If not, there's a park over on the Van Buren side where you can fish from the bank.

Got about 15 on this Rebel Craw last weekend. It's my confidence bait this time of year, but I forced myself to try some other baits after I fished it a whole day and started with it the next morning.

Nice haul!!

Abu Garcia Silver Max Casting Reel - $59.99 Abu Garcia Vengeance Casting Rods - $49.99 to $59.99 about as close as I could get to budget... I like Abu Garcia stuff and usually great for beginners....most of it is pretty tough And welcome to the site

Not good, always throw them in the trash. What's worse, they can block a bass' digestive system too. The pic was from an article about fish health, this fish was dissected to determine why it was so skinny.

Tried mine out briefly on Saturday. Throws good, has a satisfying plop when it hits the water, action is good. I did not fish it very long because they weren't hitting topwater well that day (did not get a hit with it, but to be fair, I only fished it briefly). I will be giving it a more thorough test in the coming months. I used a hollow body frog on Sunday and caught a few with it, I imaging the same would've happened if I had this one tied on then. It's a nice bait to have in the arsenal, but I don't think I'll be running out and stocking up on them.

Made my first TW purchase ever, and found out they have to ship to the billing address for your first order, so my wife is gonna find out (unless I can sneak home that day and grab them). I was trying to ship to the office and they called me and said it was a no-go on the first order. Almost canceled it, but will just ship it on home. New heavy cover bass and catfish setup: AG 6500 C3/AG Vengeance 7'6" Heavy New all-purpose bass set up: Lew's BB-1 Pro Series speed spool cast reel/Falcon Lowrider 20 split cast rod 6'10" MH Seaguar Smackdown Braid Green 50lb Had some equipment issues this weekend with some older gear, so need to start slowly upgrading and replacing so I'm not stuck on one reel most of the time.

It's very likely that if the pond hasn't been managed consistently, you have an overcrowded and stunted bass population. There may still be a few lunkers in there, but it sounds like some of the smaller ones will need to be culled so others have a chance to grow bigger. Check the resource page here for more info if interested: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/

2 of our 7 crappie caught while bass fishing this weekend. These two were the biggest at 1.65 lbs and 14.5 inches. The rest ran about 12-13 inches and 1 pound each.

Total count for today was 22 bass and 4 crappie (on bass lures). I was a little off on the crappie count earlier, but that's why I write down everything, to get clean records at the end of the day.

21" and 5.19 pounds this morning, just stopped for lunch and going back out again. We got about 5-6 crappie and another 6-8 bass in the 12-15 inch range too! The 5 pounder went back and we're culling the rest to keep the pond healthy. I will update with a full report and accurate numbers for the weekend when we're done.

Good thread! I'm a huge fan of Rebel, but I don't have a collection nearly as good as that! The Rebel Crawfish crank is one of my all-time favorites and a must to have with me at all times.

No problem, I mostly learned it from studying the info in the lake management section of this site. A little bit of hands-on application as well. Once you get the gist of it, it all becomes much more common sense. Not all ponds are alike though, so do what's right for you and keep records of everything in case you ever need to employ an expert, this will get you to where you want to be a lot faster. Most people preach catch & release, and understandably so on large public waters, but it's a whole different game in pond management.

Ha, I'm still figuring this lake out, we've had it less than a year and it's about a 3 hour drive away from me. Once I get it dialed in real good, there's a possibility we may open it up to outside fishermen as a weekend retreat with a lodge, etc., but right now that's a long way off and we may decide not to do it at all. There's a ton of stumps and trees in it, so all you can use are small aluminum jon boats and trolling motors. It was a private hunting and fishing club (one of the oldest continually operating ones in the state) since 1921 until we bought it, but the fishing lake was created in the mid-90's.