OddChase

Been busy working lately but I hear that Geist has been producing some big bags during tournaments, 20 lbs +. Winners have been using a Ragetail Structure Bug on a rugby (swinging head) jig.

Anyone get out for trout this morning? New Castle was blown out, saw 1 fish in 3 hours. Heard Missy was producing before the rain. Smallies were feeding heavily this week in the White River around Muncie, rain will shut them down for a few weeks unfortunately.

I can hear the pan sizzling already. Sounds like a great day on the water, thanks for the update about the spawn.

Seems like several others suggested the Ned - I used a TRD in the color "Real Deal" on Sugar Creek and the smallies loved it. My father used an old Mepps and caught just as many. Just use whatever you happen to have!

My father, brother and I took a kayak trip down Sugar Creek last summer and it was fantastic! Beautiful area and plenty of fishing holes. We drifted from point 5 to point 7 on this map and caught more smallies than we could keep track of. There are also gar in the river as well. Be warned though - there are some spots in the river that are only about 6 inches of water and we frequently had to get out and pull our kayaks into deeper water. Not sure about the hardiness of kayak hulls, just something to keep in mind. Floating down the river and fishing takes a lot longer than I had imagined. The stretch of river we fished was measured at 10 miles and a leisure 'yaker would take 4 hours to complete the trip, whereas we took about 6 and a half. Bring the sunscreen and have fun!

Swimbaiting is pretty addictive! I'll have to pick up some different ones soon but I've caught a lot of fish on the KVD Swim'n Shad - they have a strong coffee scent that I've never had before on a bait and the bass seem to love it. Also it's nearly impossible to rig wrong on a screw-lock hook.

Took a wade through some headwaters this weekend and slayed the white bass on a small paddletail as well. Good time to be out in the water!

Brookville is still two or three weeks away from the bass spawn. With the warm rain coming in it should help a little. I've been fishing the area this past weekend, temps around 45-50 F. If anyone here likes to fly fish for trout, the Brookville tailwaters are on fire right now - incredible midge hatches and lots of healthy fish being caught.

Whitewater typically has some nicer fish. I've heard of people catching 4 and 5 pounds fairly regularly. You'll encounter a lot of 10-14 inchers as well. We're expected to receive a lot of rain this week which typically doesn't hurt whitewater too bad but just something to keep in mind. Got out in the nice weather this past week and broke out the fly rod. Caught a few largemouth up shallow in local ponds and destroyed the bluegill on a dry fly. Visited Summit on Saturday and still no activity there. Will be out looking for mushrooms and crappie this coming weekend.

Visited Summit yesterday - being a higher elevation lake, the water is still pretty cold and none of the fish have moved shallow yet. (I fished the western "river channel" where I see a lot of bluegill fishermen). That being said, if you wanted to take a drive, there's a smaller lake that feeds into Brookville called White Water State Park. I love this lake as its small and manageable and the bluegill were already fairly shallow 3 weeks ago when I was there (S/O even caught a 12" bass in 1 foot of water on the ole trout magnet). Kayak friendly water for sure. You'll find bass in typical prespawn locations and maybe even cruising shallow. No beds sitters yet. I'd avoid a pleasure lake such as Brookville this part of the spring.

I'll be hitting Summit and Westwood a lot this spring and summer if you want meet up. Planning on renting some kayaks as well as staying in the campgrounds a few times. Prespawn should be happening with full spawn starting mid-april. I'll be spending my time restocking the freezer with crappie during that time though.

Instead of using hooks with an attached weight - try a free moving bullet weight. The ole T-rig works well in deeper water with a 1/4 or 3/8oz weight. Could even go up to 1/2oz but I think that may spook bass this time of year. For a plastic you could always use a zinkerz or any other stick/senko type bait. You might also try a craw/beaver imitation in darker colors.

That's the plan right now! I'm just wondering what others have to say about working in the fishing/hunting/outdoor industry! Would love to be an amateur angler in the BFL or something once I have some time and money to burn.

I'm wondering if any of you have worked in some form of the outdoor industry and what experiences you've had? I graduate this coming winter with a bachelor's degree in accounting and I plan on pursuing my CPA certification the following year. However, I know that I would rather work in the outdoor industry, not an accounting firm.

I don't have a boat yet but how painful is fishing the Ned in 20+ feet of water? I imagined it as a shallow water tactic, especially when most people use a 1/10-1/16 oz jig head.

Went out on Saturday with my S/O and we got skunked. Water was up about 2 foot and the bass just weren't having it. Nice day to be out and about though.

Oh I didn't know about this! I'm usually mushroom hunting or catching crappie in the spring. I've been watching some coverage of the bass masters this week and they are looking for bedding fish.

Hopefully the fish come a little shallower thanks to the warmer weather! I'll be fishing from the bank at a new spot - maybe I'll get to see some fish getting ready for beds.

Warm weekend coming up, anyone have any guesses on what the bass will be doing?

You can catch bass as soon as the ice melts. However prespawn is generally around 45 to 50 degrees, and spawn starts around 55. When fishing the Ned, I typically have two kinds of retrieves. Low n slow - which is what I assume you practice. Getting hung up but able to catch finicky fish. Or you can go with a quick jig retrieve which is constantly reeling and just twitching your rod tip to give the T(u)RD some action and keep it up out of the rocks. I find this retrieve is especially good for smallies in rivers. Tight lines. I'm hoping to try my hand at ice fishing on Summit this winter. However I've heard there is only half an inch of ice on the lake so far.

Has anyone fished Chain O'Lakes just north of Fort Wayne? Might take a week and go camping up there with a kayak in tow during the summer. Looks like a fun place.

Those are looking like some healthy fish! Sounds like a great day on the water. Looking forward to the prespawn already.

I've seen this brand for awhile now but never committed to looking into it. Looking forward to learning more about it. Congrats on the new sponsorship.

First off, welcome to Bass Resource. As for what kind of line you should use, this is typically dictated by what sort of techniques you will be fishing as well as your rod strength. Most rods have a limit on the weight of line, this can be found printed on the rod just above the reel seat. For a great all around line weight, I like 12 lb flouro for jigs, t-rigs, cranks, jerk baits, etc. If you fish heavier cover like grass or hydrilla, 30lb braid is also a great option for t-rigs, frogs, and punching/pitching. Would not recommend throwing cranks on braid due to the chance of it breaking on a hookset. If you are new to baitcasters, it is a lot easier to learn to cast using braid as bird nests can more easily be pulled out than with flouro. The downside is that braid is sometimes expensive and limits the amount of techniques you can employ. Tight lines.

I don't believe we have a GroupMe but you can get some info in our state over at the Hoosier Forums: (Un)official Hoosier's Thread