DrMarlboro92

As I've stated elsewhere in the forums, I've caught the same fish 3 times in the same day, a few hours apart, with different bait. Catching the same fish multiple times is normal and likely happens more often than people realize but we only know when the fish is either tagged, or has some unique marking/scars.

I throw chatterbaits with paddle tail trailers, so not far from a spinner bait. I've been finding that if you find the right water a snake head will way anything a bass will.

Snakehead are incredibly fun. I haven't caught a bowfin yet, but I'm sure it's a similar experience, and if you are set up for bass you don't have to get anything else. Aside from snakehead, which are my favorite non-bass/trout fish, I'll catch just about anything. Sometimes I really like targeting chain pickerel in the ponds around me with my fly rod because they tend to be incredibly aggressive and put up a great fight. Sometimes I'll fly fish for shellcrackers as well which are really fun to catch.

Noodling is prohibited in some places.

It's definitely cheaper to build your own. The cost of 12 nymphs normally runs me about $4. Buying 12 nymphs can cost $6-24 depending on brand. I never understood paying $2 for a fly when I can tie my own for pennies.

I own a scale, but I forgot it at home today and I caught what had to be an 18lb bass. I didn't measure anything but instead relied heavily on feel and the all entirely accurate beard measuring system which put it somewhere between 28 and 32 inches. Somewhere in there. In all seriousness though, I don't believe estimated weights either and scales are a cheap investment. It doesn't really matter though since I'm normally happy other people caught something they are proud of rather than worried about how much it weighed.

My (and many other peoples) crankbait rods are moderate action. The extra give from the moderate rod allows fish to grab the lures better before the tip rips it away from them, and the parabolic bend helps keep tension on the trebles while fighting without letting the tip snap back introducing slack like a fast or xf would. that is the only real reason a lot of people use them exclusively for crankbaits, and I think you might find a moderate action to have a bit too much bend for single hook baits, or anything that requires a sweeping hook set. In my experience moderate rods are amazing crankbait rods, but not so great for spinners, swim jigs, and other single hook situations. As far as short shank trebles go, just like many other things they are situational. If I'm fishing heavy cover with cranks, I may switch to short shank hooks to prevent hang ups, and if the bass are hitting the crankbaits hard I will switch to short shank as I find it increases hookups on really aggressive fish. However, with wary bass, or if the fish are frequently slapping the crank and not getting hooked, it's time for long shank; in the same way that you throw on a trailer hook when your spinners are getting struck short, you use long shanks on your cranks. My top water always has long shank trebles as I feel it gives me better hook ups. I've also heard that many people prefer long shank for fishing grass, but I've never noticed much of a difference in that regard. And as to line, I've never used the yo-zuri hybrid but have heard awful things about it. I use almost exclusively braid with a fluoro leader, with the only exception being my crankbait rods that have fluoro because I want as much depth with my crankbaits as possible and floating line seems counter productive. I haven't used mono as a leader or main line since switching to braid because I find the stretch infuriating. The only purpose mono has for me is as backing for my braid.

My dad has a friend that took us to a "pond that doesn't exist" that had tons of huge fish in it. There was no blindfolds involved, but there were many promises, lots of turns and a few extra miles driven, no stops and a contract written in blood. Great pond, and I eagerly wait to be invited again. This is how you treat your honey holes...

I'm not retired, but I recently left my career and went back to school, but could only get enough grants to go part time. What this means, is im in a situation close to what you are describing as what your retirement would be like. A few hours of school a week, a small chunk of money to live off of, and tons of free time. This past spring I was going to claytor so much I have it down to a science, and yes, I burned myself out a bit. The biggest thing I found, is even though I absolutely love fishing, going fishing 4 days a week every week was just a bit much. I didn't do anything rash, and just waited it out. After a couple months it became a fun occasional thing, and now I'm back to fishing several days a week. The key is balance. Don't force yourself to go, and if you don't feel 100% like going, dont. Just take a break that day. Make sure you keep it a hobby and not something you feel obligated to do, or something you feel you are forcing. Several people I know who did what you described locked themselves in a rhetorical round about saying "I said I was going to fish more when I retired, now I'm retired and have fished so much i don't want to fish, but I told myself I would" eventually removing the enjoyment. Just ease into it when you get there, and see how much you can handle. Hopefully this is insightful even though I'm young and not retired.

One thing I've noticed, is that a red hook can make interesting changes. I had to replace a hook on one of my lipless cranks a while back and all I had was a red trebble. I put it on the back, and started noticing all my fish were slamming the back of the bait and only getting the back hook. I moved the red hook to the front and started sinking both hooks. I have a theory that it gave them a target to key in on, whether it was because it was red, or just a contrast I'm not sure, but I do know moving the red hook changed the way they hit the bait.

I have them in a few colors. I mostly use them as jig trailers, so I can't really say whether the fish I've caught were because of it or the jig. But i have no real complaints.

coming from someone who thinks a cheap lure is under 25$, cheap is definitely a relative term. Check out tackle warehouse; they have all the eye candy anyone could ever want, and you can choose how much is cheap.

I couldn't have said that better. But after he begins figuring this out, he will need to be working on a few techniques to catch them. With all that in mind, however, he didn't tell us what type of water he is going to be fishing; is it a small pond with a grass/silt bottom with some hard flats mixed in? Is it a lake that has many different biomes near that you prefer to fish? We really need a good idea of where you are, and what you at this point. You say spinning gear some I'm going to make an assumption here, please correct me if I'm wrong: Dropshot, Carolina rig, Texas rig, flukes, weightless soft plastics and senkos are all in your repertoire yes? The next move for me would be to use small poppers, 1/4-3/8 spinner bait, a smallish buzz bait, and then finally jigs under 3/8oz to start. Once you get a baitcaster you can start the other techniques, and I would wait with the crank and jerk baits. They can be far more frustrating than you would imagine, and require a bit of rod feel (more so for cranks) than you might think.

It's a solid 3lbs. Maybe 3.5 but that's all you're going to get from my slightly tweaked visual scale. Holding it out to the camera is an awesome trick, especially when you aren't fat with big hands like me. All bass look small in my hands, so I just go with it. But that is a 3lb bass. Now photoshop it, and make it 20. edit: I also measure my bass on the highly accurate beard scale. so it's like a 32 inch bass... or maybe only 21. You lose an inch or two in translation.

I remember reading a while ago (and I think that someone has already spoken about everything I'm about to say in this thread, but I will restate it anyway) that just because a bass is big, doesn't mean it's old, or smart for that matter. Quite a bit has to do with how aggressive the fish is. If a fish eats more, and gets there before the other fish, this would in turn make us reason that a bigger bass would be more aggressive. It would also mean that the big fish would be more likely to be caught if you are in the right area. I believe the problem lies in harvesting. I think that more potential huge fish get caught and harvested while they are "decent" fish, lowering the number of aggressive bass in a body of water. If you look at fisheries like briery creek here in VA (a place known for absolute monsters until recently when the bass were running out of food due to the sheer number of monster bass) it has a slot limit of 14-24 inches. Less bass are kept despite VDGIF asking for the sub 14 inch fish to be kept, meaning hooking into a 5+lb bass is the norm. You will fill the boat with fish that size and he ticked because you didn't find the 10 pounder. The only reason I can figure is because the aggressive, potential huge fish aren't removed too early due to the slot limit, making for better genes, more aggressive fish, and a better fishing trip. Edit: forgot my example. About 2 years ago me and my dad were fishing briery creek, and we caught the same bass 3 times, in the same spot, just with different baits a few hours apart each time. It was 5lb 4oz, and had a big knot of scar tissue on his bottom lip, and a big gash on his side. Is this bass stupid? No, he's just aggressive. This is what gives the aggressive fish theory credence to me, but again, it is just a theory.

Ranger has always been obsessed with metal bars. My 77 ranger has bars that run almost the whole length of the gunnel. I think it's mostly a ranger design choice thing.

I would be really interested to see how long it took her to get back to six mile. I think it would give insight as to whether she went there out of memory, or if there is something about six mile that draws bass; and if it's the second option, what drew her there? It's still cool to see it travel so far and get caught again though.

I've gone fishing at night many times, and the trips can often be summed up as "d**n, where did that cast go?"

I've been really liking the bass assassin boss shiners here recently. They have great colors and work pretty well. Another favorite when I'm looking for something in the 3" range would be culprit minnows.

My best advice would be slow down. I started fishing when I was big enough to cast a rod and Like most here I was only after anything that grabbed the line. It wasn't until this spring that I really got into bass fishing heavy, and the biggest mistake I made was taking on too much information at once. Try to figure out one thing first, and that one thing is up to you. My only recommendation on what to learn first would be to focus on fiding patterns. Just fish everything to start, and then remember what you did and see if it keeps working. Eventually establishing a pattern will come easily.

I'm starting to feel like colors are close to irrelevant. I know I'm going to get blasted for this, but I normally try to imitate the primary food source and that's about it. I've never noticed that color massively effects my productivity, although on occasion I've noticed a darker yet similar color might work better when the water is muddy. However, there is one thing I know for certain: everyone thinks a certain color works best. For instance, I may spend all day catching fish on a red shad senko, then when I go to the bait shop to talk with the other guys one will say that nothing but a purple with blue flake will catch fish, another will say he's wrong and that only June bug works, and the third will say only green pumpkin can catch a fish on this lake. The same is true when I've talked to tournament fishers. Color conversations seem very anecdotal to me, so I normally just stay out of them.

The only real difference is fall rate. It goes like this: Yamamoto Senko: fastest Wave fishing Tiki-stick: medium Strike king Ocho: slowest (Put knock off brands in the same category as the original) In your particular instance, I would say that it was a combination of color, placement, and keeping the bait in front of the fish longer that got you more fish. One really isn't better than the other, but each fits different conditions. I can't tell you what those conditions are since I'm really not sure and it ends up being trial and error; sometimes a tiki works the best, and some times an Ocho or Senko will. Just keep a ton of them in your bag and go back and forth until you find what they are hitting that day.

It's ToDay I Learned. I guess it's just another one of those things us youngsters use to be lazy. It's often shortened further to TIL.

I have no real experience with daiwa's spinning reels, but from what I hear they are pretty good reels. All my spinning gear is in the 2000-2500 or comparable size, and I think it is perfect for bass fishing. Currently I have two spinning set ups that go with me on every trip, and that's a St. Croix mojo bass with a Mitchell 308 pro, and a st Croix triumph with a shimano symetre 2500. Both are great, but I tend to like the mojo bass/Mitchell set up better. It's a good setup for right around $200 and I would recommend it to anyone.

That's about what this place feels like. I've never caught this many fish there. Many of them were small, but it felt good having that nuch luck on water that normally doesn't seem to have fish. I know a guy who calls lake Anna the desert haha.