Jonister

@stk44 I do quite a bit of tying already! I have gotten into tying bugs and such, along with some bass jigs. Thanks guys for the help! I have a ways to think on this as I'm waiting till the holidays are over. I think I'll try to get an aluminum reel. I do like the okumas now that I look at them.

I have just gotten into fly fishing this past summer with a very cheap 5 wt combo. It is amazing fun, and i would like to add a decent 8 wt to my setup when bass fishing. i currently know very little about brands, reels, fly lines, etc. My plans are to use this rod/reel for lighter saltwater use, bass, carp, shad, I also have some great steelhead water around me and would like to maybe mess around with that one day. I was hoping someone who knows their stuff (or more than me, ) might be able to point me in the right direction towards a good rod and reel or a combo that is in the 250$ range. I don't want to drop to much but would like something with enough quality to last me a while and provide quality enjoyment. I also know absolutely nothing about fly line besides the fact that some float and some sink. What kind do i want? size? etc. I am kind of hoping to end up with the "power Pro" of fly lines. something that can touch on everything. Im basically looking for the all around do most 8 wt. Any suggestions are great! Thanks guys!

Honestly I agree with the people above who say to get a real biologist evolved. you would really kick yourself if you introduced something and couldn't get them back out. ie perch . they eat a lot and that could mean disaster if they all spawned and overtook the pond. it also sounds like you only have permission to fish. I mean honestly I'm sure the owner wouldn't think it a bad Idea to try to grow the bass but maybe talk to them first, and then get a real biologist in there to check it out. even if they can't give you a definative survey, they might suggest something less drastic. maybe a few sterile fish could help, or they might have just got back from the quarry over and might have some simple yet good tips. you really would feel bad if you exterminated the bass in whole by adding something else.

The invasive species laws actually help a lot more than one could think. They make it illegal, because people create their own stocking programs, use live bait, etc. There is a popular trophy trout lake up here called Diamond lake. Some idiot (or a few) thought tui chubs would make for fun live bait.... It ruined a productive fishery and caused the state to go to measures of poisoning it and restocking a few times. Now they are trying tiger trout to predate because the stupid things are coming back, so I'm excited for that. Another lake got perch, so it gets tiger musky, also excited for that. The river got freshwater prawns. I tell you, I have never caught so many football smallies in one year. I mean they have their pros and cons, but it only takes one guy with different fish values to try to stock the river with something illegal and then you end up with something like the Asian carp in some areas.

Thanks guys! I went out again today to try to get my anchor back after losing it yesterday in bad current. Had to abandon it. I did notice today that even on the peak incoming, water was still moving out. I only brought one rod today and caught some sturgeon, I mainly wanted my anchor back. Same thing though, bait mid-level down about 12 ft up, and down stream of the adjoining slough in 56 degrees. I think I will have to try the jerk bait, and some slow stuff next time.

I could definitely try that. It's kinda hard to disect out there, as most of it is 60 foot deep. There is some knarly structure out there, and steep ledges and flats though. I can also think of a few other areas out in the river that I noticed this summer, that might hold fish. Do you think they would move 10 miles to winter? There are some pretty deep holes closer up this slough. Up the slough it's mainly 20-40 foot as far as the main channel goes, but there are a few holes to 70 ft. Any ideas as to what I could fish that deep? A Texas rigged crank bait? a drop shot?

So I was out in my kayak today, in a local river. Now I say river, more like a tributary of a very big river, but big enough to be it's own river, say a slough. 3 weeks ago it was a fine 70 or so degrees. After a very good rain, and some chilly weather, it has dropped to 55 or so. I was thinking it would be in the mid sixties, as the water was last year this time of year, but it wasn't so I found myself kinda stuck, and not catching fish. Now there are large mouth here, but they are few and far between, so I was mainly targeting smallmouth. Anyways, I fished all day, throughout both tides, bank beating with spinner baits and crank baits, and then off shore with plastics. I sturgeon fished for lunch, and then went for bass again. After no luck, I went looking for warmer water and found it went from 55.6 to 56.7 in a creek arm so I fished there. I could not scrap up a single fish throughout the whole day. Not even a dink. Towards the end of the day, I started marking shad (American shad migrating out to the ocean) up this creek about 300 yds in. I thought about putting on a spybait, or perhaps a jerk bait, but ended up going in. (Today is homecoming, otherwise I'd still be out there) so my question is, what should I have done? I feel I was a step in the right direction looking for bait, and with the warmer water, but couldn't connect on fish. Any help is greatly appreciated! Any lure suggestions? What to do? Thanks! One more thing, around here we have crawfish, and Siberian prawns as the main food source. I have just noticed the prawns this year, but the bass have been stuffing on them. Once a year in the fall to about late November, the juvenile American shad also are around Migrating to the ocean. There are also little congregations of panfish, or usual minnows and such.

If your stocking a private pond, buy some bass from a hatchery. Don't take ones public fishery and take from it to benefit yourself. It's also pretty cheap to stock a pond yourself, and you know the strain of the bass. I mean unless your stocking a coi pond.. Just my 2cents.

I have a Lowrance Elite Ti 7 on my kayak. It is a little overkill, but I've found random crap that one would never find 100 feet off one side. Refrigerators, boats, a sunk bridge. All unmarked that would just look like a hump if you got right over it. I had one of my best days this last summer fishing a pinnacle I ran over. I swear I have made runs up the river all my life and never noticed that before. Once I marked it it was easy to fish and I caught fish till it got dark. Get what you can afford, but if you dont mind spending a bit more, and a couple days on the water just playing with downscan, you will greatly increase your fish catching! Beat the bank beaters and learn to fish a little deeper and out of most comfort zones! It's tons of fun too!

We were getting spooled all day long on deep cranks. Turns out, we got one up close to see it was a sturgeon almost the size of my 10' john. Probably about 7'. Stupid things were stacked so thick we were snagging them nearly every cast. Big and small, they would eventually straighten the hooks. We gave up and fished a different spot ?

If you have never ever seen a replica, you probably have. A lot of those DD bass, or paddlefish, or sturgeon, etc in bass pro or cabelas are replicas. You can look at those and get an idea of quality/realism.

Bang on the trim motor with a crescent wrench. ?? Ok don't do that but in all honesty it might be seized and a light tapping might fix that.

Yeah! The turtles are all over in it. Usually a bare hook dangled in the weeds will catch them. They think it's a bug or something.

There is also a heavy population of otters, and they still live by where I fish, so I assume there is some sort of food. there is rumor going through the land owners that sometime this winter they will dredge the rest of it, and they have been surveying a lot of it. My hope is they will go through with it soon, and it will clear up on my end. I'm hoping at some point I can get to the dredged spot again and bring the lowrance to help me find them. Right now I am enjoying carp and turtle fishing.

I have yet to try with my fly rod, but I do all my hair jigging by sight. Carp get a truly bad reputation, but honestly they are waryer, and spookier than bass. I spent about 6 months trying to figure out some canal carp, before I started to catch them consistently. What kind of flies should I use? I might try tying up something marabou like.

So basically, I fish this awesome little canal, and I used to slay the bass. Nothing giant, but I knew they existed because I had lost a few nice ones, and caught some bigger ones one canal over. I would catch like 20 in an evening, and that was a normal day. Lots of panfish too. Last year at some point the water district dredged about a mile of it, and has since been preparing to dredge more as the winter comes. Since they dredged, there are very few fish in the stretch I fish from shore. I have no way to go up it (private) and have put my kayak in it and fished down to the dredgings and further. It basically is 3" average with deeper pockets, except at the dredged mile where it drops to about 12" and gets very very clear. I can see the bottom and all the rocks. What happens is it makes a "T" with a shorter canal that pumps out of a quarry. So it goes from a mile of clear water, to shallow chocolate milk on both sides. In essence, all the bass stopped biting. No panfish, no bass. Just the usual notable heavy population of Carp, along with the bullhead catfish here and there. I am not sure if the dredging moved the fish, even though I didn't catch anything kayak fishing the clear stuff. (Still doesn't mean they weren't there) or if the fish had a die off summer of 2015 when we went without rain for some time. (I caught fish well into fall though) I am thinking the fish moved, and the biology was altered, but Idk. I have no clue. The canal just a stones throw away still has bass in it last time I checked, and big poo- gill. I'm stumped!

My favorite trash fish to catch is green or brown, and will hit many lures of many sizes. They don't get giant, but they are a blast to fish for, and once you think you have them figured out, they decide they don't like your lure. They are voracious predators, yet they are picky eaters all the same. Yeah I'm talking about bass. Talk to most guys around here and you might as well be fishing for carp. I call it the "salmon mentality" that is, that salmon are superior to all fish in the world and if your not fishing to fill the freezer than you shouldn't be out there. It just leaves more for me though! I enjoy seeing bass fishing getting more popular here though, along with other warm water species. It means more caring anglers who want conservation of all the fisheries, not just one. Carp are fun too. They are fun to shoot, and fun to catch. I'm weird about it though, I put them in my garden when I shoot them, but release them when on rod and reel. Lures are fun. If you want practice with hair jigs, go find some carp! (Red marabou) They fight great!

Usually herons spook me before they spook the bass, especially at night!

I broke the rod tip to my flyrod somehow the other day. The smallies were jumping, with absolutely no wind. When I pulled it out of rod tube, it was busted! It was an easy fix, but still sucked!

Sometimes I'll ride my bike down the road to a canal and fish for frogs. Once you find them, you will soon realize they will eat anything, including bare hooks. They usually aren't hard to find.

Get a good sit on top! I would recommend to anyone a Jackson kayak. As far as rods go, I have a short 6'6 for stuff and don't like it for kayak fishing, I usually have 4-5 rods and that can limit you, so I like to keep my rods very multi purpose. A 7' or 7'3 can do more than a 6'. At least for what I mainly do. I think it's most important to get a rod that fits You though, one that fits your situation best!

Hello from the boring state (Oregon) ! Haha. My name is Jonah, I do most of my fishing from a kayak, and I will fish for about everything, but almost exclusively smallmouth and large mouth. Most people around here salmon fish, and have yet to catch on to the warmwater fishing. Bass fishing is getting more popular around here, but a lot of them are catch and keep. I think there is only one actual bass boat around here that I see on a regular basis. I kinda have the waters to myself most of the year (knock on wood) I am quite active on Tackle underground, and make/carve a lot of wooden baits. It's not hard to find me around there. I like to talk, and will probably lurk around here. Anyways, I thought I'd just say hi!

I have caught panty hoes, toilet paper, chairs, clams, full rugs, rods, that sort of garbage, but the grossest was hooking a big turd on a Senko. That stupid thing wouldn't flick off either. I had to get a stick, and probably made 100 casts before touching the hook again. That called for a good hand wash

Otters hanging out in trees is something scary! Those Little weasels just start whistling when you get close and plop off into the water, only to follow you a couple hundred yards down the bank. There's this one place I fish occasionally for panfish. The one time I ever went alone, I sure regretted it. It was last summer with one of those Full Full moons. I rode my bike to the spot, and started a few hours before dark. I only planned on fishing till then but the moon was so bright I decided to stay. I was catching fish so time flew by and at about 10:30 it just got weird. It was off the river by a canal pump and some thick sticky fog moved in. In about 45 seconds it went from full visibility to just plain weird. Something felt off, like my hair stood up for no reason. That feeling you get when your just yards from a cougar, or a bear, and you can practically smell it's presence. I decided to keep fishing. To anybody out there, when your body tells you something's up, don't keep fishing! So basically it still lingered, and the pump station I was by started pumping a little water, nothing special. But whatever was there took their chance to creep closer to me. It was at that point that I started to hear noises that I took off like a bat out of hell! Clearing over a hill, and hauling a** down it, I noticed that every cow in a plot of land next to it had circled the young like they do when a predator is around, and were all in that planted stance. I swear I got home so fast on that bike! I have never been so scared in my life. It was one of those moments you would only understand if you'd been there. I still remember that feeling, and it's one I never want to feel again!

I do most of my bass fishing from a kayak. I really enjoy getting close to the water, and being able to draft in inches of water. I have a few places I frequent when I'm not catching and go look for lures. There's a spot behind and island that I know of, where the water Eddy's up in a pocket and everything that floats collects there. I find mainly salmon lures, which is funny because I don't really fish for salmon. It gives me something to play around with though. I probably have 11 kwikfish from just this season all out of the river. I also pull line off of pilings and trees at low tide. Not many bass lures, but I do have a gallon zip lock crammed with herring flashers. Along with lots of wobblers. It is a fun pastime of mine. Also, baking soda and a scotch bite pad work wonders on any lure scum!