Onvacation

On several occasions when I have been out with my wife and she has a good bite going with a Ned rig (her favorite way to fish), I've joined her and we have cycled between four and five different colors playing around. Didn't make any difference at all to the fish. Like Catt said though, I've had hours spent trying to get a fish to bite a t-rig, changed to a white worm (always my last ditch effort), and finally start getting something. Jigs, I have almost gotten myself to the point that if it isn't black and blue, I leave it in the tackle box. This leads me to believe that the action is more important because it will be at the same time and place I am having success with green pumpkin soft plastics. I swear in the spring in particular that red crank baits trigger some sort of primal rage. I'll do my part to help the rest of you out and I'll keep fishing two to three days a week for the next twenty years or so. When I figure it out for certain, I'll share my results.

You can't compare these to real burgers. Heck, White Castle doesn't even call them burgers. Krystal to me is a refined White Castle. Both are well below even McDonalds in quality, but when you've had a hard night of partying, not even a friendly fat girl beats White Castle.

I fish a lot of ponds and 9 times out of 10 in the ponds I fish, the carp will end up in one area of the pond. This has almost always been the least productive part of the pond for LMBs for me.

I would think any place that sells guns should have something you can use.

Not even sure why I opened this thread. When I saw that you had titled a thread number four, I already new what you bought. Lol.

To be honest, I would try to make it through the season and hang on for some of the Black Friday deals. It will give you a chance to save up a few more dollars and buy some gear that will be what you want as opposed to what you can now afford. In the meantime, You can do an awful lot with a medium spinning rod. I fish for bull reds with my med spinning rod and I wish just once I would land a bass the size of an average red in October. As stated above, one rod for all is going to be a compromise. Many people on this site have at least one rod for each of the methods you mentioned above and I suspect many have multiple. Check that, I know they have multiple because if you take one of your categories, crank baits, a deep diver and a square bill are thrown on way different rods by most people. When you do upgrade, a MH fast in the 7'-7'6" range is about as versatile as you can get. For example, I have three 7'3" MHF rods, one is used for jigs, one is used for top water, and one always is rigged with a Carolina rig. All have Lew's reels, but that's just personal preference. The big difference in each set up is the line that I use. Other than that, they are real close to the same although If I remember correctly, the top water reel is a slightly slower ratio than the other two.

Ok. So I am in the pool 25 and 26 catfish and sunken stolen cars zone.

I'm sitting at work goofing off during lunch and thinking that I have seen everything I need to see on Bass Resource, and then, what do you know, I discover a Bigfoot thread that is 18 pages long. Score!!

Living in St. Louis my whole life, this whole thread intrigues me. Where on the Mississippi are you guys fishing for bass? I know where I wouldn't do it, but obviously you guys are a bit north and having some success.

Don't think I didn't check though. Looks like Pickwick is the far one for me just under five hours. Who knows, I might get desperate in January and give you a call.

No need to add to that. Good work.

I like my Tournament G but I own three BB1 Pros. The BB1 Pro is like an old pair of comfortable jeans. Nothing fancy but always does the job.

More importantly, paying it off monthly will build fiscal discipline which is tough to do.

Wish I was closer. All the local bass clubs have buddy tournaments and I don't have a buddy. Lol. Guess I could travel.

When you get to Orlando, I can't say enough about the great value the boat rentals are at Turkey Lake. It's a cheap way to get out on the water with limited boat traffic and good fishing. Of course a guide trip on Toho is nice too. I can't wait to go back. http://m.myfwc.com/conservation/freshwater/fish-orlando/turkey-lake/

Thanks for the info Wayne. I am very new to this and Sonar Chart sounds like a great place to dive in. The price is right. Feel free to keep sharing any tips and tricks to lessen the learning curve.

Wayne, to add on to this question, I fish a lot of small private lakes and ponds as well as at a local conservation areas where the ponds range from around four to fifty acres. I want to use my Helix 5 DI to begin to chart some of these bodies of water. Is Autochart the way to go and then follow some of the suggestions given above? Thanks

Lot of great advice here. One I would add, if you are waiting for the bass to slam the bait and run away, you may have already missed dozens of fish. Your gear is plastics heavy which is great, but probably 50% or better of the summertime hits I get on plastics could be mistaken as a hang up or disregarded completely by someone new to bassin. WRB always offers excellent advice, so if I were you, I would follow his guidance and then be prepared to set the hook on the most subtle of changes. You will be hooking water a whole lot when you start, but once you get that first one or two under your belt so you know how the fish feels, you will catch them all the time.

I didn't make it in on time if that's any consolation. To add to what a great day this was, since your a local Bankbeater and can understand the frustration with catching fish anywhere within two hours of STL, this was at Busch. Not exactly known as a bass hotspot.

Very cool. Keep up the good work and good luck to both of you.

That is a giant for anywhere in Missouri. Of course if you listen to people, you would think stringers of five pounders are Commonplace here and everyone has a buddy who caught a ten pounder in this pond just last week.

My wife and I both woke up about 4:30 am this morning because of heavy rain. I told her there was no way I was going to be able to go back to bed so I was going to go fishing and test out my BPS rain gear before work. She was so enthused that she said , "whatever" and rolled over and went back to sleep. I decided to start off with a loon colored 130 size Whopper Plopper. First cast, nothing.....until I was just ready to take the bait out of the water. Then the guy I'm holding hit the bait right at the bank, literally splashing me in the process. After muttering, "found you", I started working close to the bank because that's where they were hanging out. Four fish later, and with the light a bit higher in the sky, I concentrated on a fallen tree In the water and got two more. Seven fish in about an hour. Nothing too big, the little guy was a pound and a half and the rest were all between two and three. What a versatile bait. I used it more like a popper today. Pop, pop, rest. Pop, pop, reel in the fish. Made up for what then turned out to be a really crappy day at the office.

Shimano Spirex 2000 on a 6'6" Med BPS Bionic Blade which seems to always have a Ned rig on it. The rod has seen better days and has a bit of a curve to the tip but no one seems to mind. My four year old nephew calls it our "guest rod".

Baby bass always have some fight in them but I've had three and four pounders which have probably been my biggest disappointments. Nothing like a lame strike followed by a single surge and then a fish that acts like its tail hooked to make you want to fish for bluegill with a bobber the rest of the day. I had a catfish hit a 10" worm on Sunday and I could not get him to the boat. He was pulling line like it was an episode of Wicked Tuna even with the drag cranked down. Six minutes of fighting and he ducked under a log and cut the Carolina rig leader. He was definitely a fighter and it was cool watching the baitfish freak out and set the top of the water on fire when this fish was running and broke the surface. He was massive. Would have been my biggest freshwater catch. Had a three pound channel cat hit a Ned rig yesterday. He actually jumped out of the water to try to shake the hook. I don't specifically fish for catfish, but those two incidents certainly make me disagree that catfish don't fight.

I would tell you to panic, but everyone beat me to a response and they were all nice about it. Check out those YouTube videos. Your reel is very easy to keep wiped down and clean so make a habit of it. Kind of like weapons maintenance to me. You don't always need a full out clean and lube, but some TLC with a soft cloth and some q-tips (I like the foam ones) goes a long way. I'm not a big fan of the BPS reel covers. I think they require much more effort to put on than the ones from Tackle Warehouse, so I find myself not using them. Sort of defeats the purpose. The TW ones are more of a clamshell fit with a Velcro strap to secure it. I'm sure there are similar offerings by other companies. I can't stress the importance of rod covers enough either but that's for a different post.