OddChase

About time for me to put away my gear until the Spring! Does anyone here fish for white bass (also wanting to catch a wiper) when they run up rivers during their spawn? I'm wondering if there are any rivers within a 2 hour drive of Muncie, IN. I usually go to Brookville. I'm thinking Mississinewa? Never fished further North than Muncie. Also if anyone wants to get together for the white bass slam PM me.

Not sure what you mean by spring loaded - but having a big head myself, I can usually find a decent pair at wally mart that fit and are polarized. They may not be the most fashionable, but I'll be back to buy another pair in a few months when they get scratched up.

Awesome new jig head Siebert! I'll be stocking up on these in the Spring. I'm sick of my Z-Man bait keepers breaking off.

Lipless crankbait was still hot this weekend. Caught 6 out of a pond that was less than an acre as well as a 22.5" walleye on a chartreuse squarebill... I have pictures if you can't believe it, I didn't even believe it myself. Sunday caught several more in a different pond on the same sexy shad colored lipless as well as snagged a 10lb carp. My father was throwing the original Rat-L-Trap and didn't get a hit. Are you pairing the swim-z with the finesse mushroom heads?

Sorry for double post - but wanted you all to know it's lipless crank season!

The Ned rig might be the answer to your problem if there are smallmouth in the area that you're fishing. The Z-Man Finesse TRD and Finesse ShroomZ jig head are all you need. If your river has a lot of current try the 1/10 oz size head but I prefer a 1/15 when the water is a little more calm. Keep colors simple - green pumpkin and junebug. Depending on the size of smallies, you can also consider getting a pack of the Turbo CrawZ; have not been able to get mine wet due to the fact that the river smallies here are just too small. Here's the Ned Rig BR resource. Tight lines

Visited a very nice park in Anderson, IN on Friday called Shadyside - this place is definitely on the radar for any local fisherman and unknown to anyone else. Spent an hour walking around the beautiful area and even caught a few nice bass with my S/O. Definitely kayak water - will be visiting again in the Spring. We found the bass stacked at the mouth of a canal and feeding on small minnows. Ned rigs and small crappie-sized swimbaits were the ticket.

Not sure if there is a real easy way to do it. But if you do attempt it - you'll know when you've killed the fish if you start to smell the gut rot smell that comes when you tear a stomach. If you don't smell it, the fish should live just fine.

Thanks for talking about shadless lakes. It's hard to find information regarding the fall transition for us Northerners.

Welcome to the forums. You have a lot of great advice here. The only thing I might add is as the summer gets hotter, try fishing either 1) deeper or 2) smaller bodies of water. During really hot days, I would fish very small ponds to up your chances of getting bit. Bass are predictable creatures most of the time so if you find a few lilies or a laydown near the bank in a pond, you know there is at least one fish there (providing there are actually bass in the pond). Tight lines.

Welcome to the forums and welcome to the world of the Ned. As others mentioned, fishing barbless requires a bit more concentration when fighting a fish. Additionally, Midwest Finesse (commercially called the Ned Rig) has the ability to attract strikes from all species of fish. When you feel a bite it could be a bluegill just biting the tail of your worm. Just yesterday I managed to catch a sunfish the was just barely longer than the TRD I was using! As for hookset, I generally just start reeling in, the thin hook can get set pretty easily in most fish mouths. Good luck and tight lines.

Great catch and great photo quality! Do you find that the color of frog matters? I have an all white frog that I cannot get bit on for the life of me. Haven't tried any other colors as I have little confidence in frogs where I fish.

Would be nice to see some events later in the season as well. Possibly a fall roadtrip? Being an accountant, that time of the year tends to be a bit busy for me.

Going to be spending a few days on Summit in the coming weeks and I'll be bringing a boat with me. I've never fished for bass in the fall on such a clear lake like Summit - does anyone have any suggestions on where I can find them or what I should be using? Fall is usually the time I fill the freezer with crappie. Thanks. I've read that there are no shad in Summit Lake, so should I focus on jig fishing, top water, or even a perch-colored swimbait/crankbait?

Sugar creek is a fantastic fishery. A month ago my family and I rented some kayaks and floated through some of the state parks that the river flows through and caught more smallies than we could count with the largest being about 16 inches.

Got out Saturday and managed to catch several bass on a reaction bite during the windy hours of the evening. Tossing a soft-plastic swimbait into shallow water and killing it next to small weed points or isolated lily pads.

I like this tip the most. As Albert Einstein once described insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

After two years of trying to use swimbaits, I finally got on some fish this morning. Was waking a caffeine shad in about 1 foot of water around some grass and mats and was able to watch the fish dart out and grab it. Caught about 6 but missed 15 or so, assuming they were too small to really inhale my bait. So how can I improve my swimbait game? I have a few of these paddle-tailed baits as well as a jointed hard body lure than I got in a MTB a few months ago.

Despite the hot weather, been slaying bass in shallow grass. The bluegill in a local pond are bedding (they have eggs in them?) and the bass cannot control themselves around a senko or soft swimbait. Great fun.

You're getting a lot of good advice here, especially thinking about a technique and just going for it. When it comes to the senko it is very easy, which is why I always recommend it as a first lure. It can be rigged weedless as well as weightless and it will produce fish. The ned rig can potentially catch 10 times more fish than the senko, but most times you will have an exposed hook (there's another thread on here talking about different ways to make a Ned weedless). As for colors - keep it simple. A green pumpkin/watermelon for your clear water, a black or black and blue/purple for murky waters or cloudy days, and you might try a ghost/white color during shad spawn times. Might be surprised. Tight lines. Can you explain how you'd use a jerk bait from the bank? I'm just curious as a bank fisherman myself. I always considered them a deep water bait. However I do use flukes if the fish seem to be in a jerk bait mood.

Depends on what you want. Personally, I pitch senkos with either 1/8 or 1/4oz weigths. However for most beginner anglers, weightless seems to provide a better chance of getting bit (mostly dinks but still fun). It's hard to fish a weightless senko incorrectly. Just the other day I was fishing a weightless 6" like I would a soft jerkbait and was getting smacked almost every cast, and if I didn't hook up I would often times get a second hit.

I teach a lot of people how to bass fish here at school and the first thing I tie for anyone is a senko. Here's the senko bible. If you find that you can go out and put two or three hours on a senko and not catch a fish - you might want to find a new place to fish. I really like a 4" watermelon seed Yum Dinger on a 4/0 hook. Tight lines.

Something I haven't seen mentioned here, I have nose-hooked the TRD with a weed guarded wacky hook. It slips through salad perfectly and it should get through sticks just fine as well.

Might seem obvious, but some species of fish tend to fatten themselves up for the long winter. So that may be why you are finding them skinny this time. Other speculations: Hazardous run-off in the river is destroying a food source for these fish or they have to travel farther for food. Over population Something that has recently been brought to my attention, is that fish who are extraordinarily skinny (which these do not seem to be) have been found to have a stomach full of soft plastics when opened for autopsy. So trash in the river may have some effect as well, hard to tell. At least you are still able to catch beautiful fish in that water!

Took a kayak trip down Sugar Creek in Parke County fishing for smallmouth. Landed around 40 with my brother and father. Our largest was about 16 inches. Took my new casting set up out to a pond last night and managed to catch a few 1 lbers pitching to the edge of dying weeds with a 4inch senko. Downsizing seems to be the key right now if you're having a hard time catching fish.