ottosmagic13

Get a warm day and some friends and a bunch of snorkels. Pull that stuff up and put down a barrier to prevent it growing back. There might also be a company around you that offers this as a service. There are machines that do this, basically underwater rototillers. The pond in my parents back yard is small so we were able to just yank it all in a afternoon. There is also chemical eradication methods but I have no idea how that would effect the fishery.

Some of the best smallmouth fishing that I've encountered was on urban streams. Anything with rattles and movement (Chatterbait, Crankbaits, even rattling swim jigs) and reel in with the current like J said. Slower less "currenty" aim for structures in the water. Bridge pillings are excellent smally gathering grounds. Drop shots are excellent, I've had a ton of luck with a nose hooked roboworm in morning dawn color rig. Most of the Erie Canal is at least partly urban and I fish that all the time. It's by no means a hidden fishery so you'll probably have more luck in a less pressured fishery you're describing.

You'll have to be a little more specific by "reversing": Is the drag set to low? Are you not re-engaging the reel after casting? Are you "bird's nesting" due to poor casting technique? What is the situation around the problem? Casting? Storing? Fighting a fish?

I use almost 100% barbless with trout flies, and if you can keep them off slack line they are fine. I feel like jumping fish are more likely to spit the hook but that might be selective memory. Very active bass that like to breach during the fight might do better with barbed hooks. All of my bass lures (and flies) are barbed. I think you could get away barbless on large single hooks like t-rigs or chatterbaits (or even doubles like frogs) that often get through the roof of the mouth but don't think I'd do it with trebles as I find those skin hook more. I fish 100% catch-release ftr.

DALLMYD a YouTube fisher and river treasure hunter has a video where he catches a fish and releases it with the camera and himself completely under the water for the whole thing. LunkersTV (another YTer) has some good underwater lure action shots. Google underwater hookups and a ton of youtube videos pop up.

I'll fish both with a wacky or T-rigged Senko. Brush I like a swim jig. Sunken tree stumps I love squarebills or chatterbaits to bounce off them and get reaction strikes. Deeper submerged stumps I like a drop shot to the cover.

I have never fallen out of a boat. I have, however, slipped down a few banks pond fishing trying to land a toad. My buddy that I often went with in college fell out of boat on one trip. We rented a skiff with a electric motor for scooting around the small lake (read: large puddle) near our school. Late summer frog fishing the slop on the leeward side of the lake in some thick scum. We had caught a couple of small ones already but nothing huge. I was in the front and my buddy was in the back controlling the motor. He gets a 4-5 pounder to miss a blow-up, come back and blow-up his frog again. In his excitement he stepped back to get leverage on his hook-set and in the process swung the arm of the motor to lock almost 90* from the direction of the boat and the resulting jolt put him in the lake. It was only 5-6 feet deep but the mat was so thick he came up looking like the Jolly Green Giant Swamp Thing.