WDE

Oh, and those two front ponds are a lot of fun to fish. They're so shallow, that you can watch the fish break off and bee line straight at your hook. So many of them whiffed my lure. Or bumped it and go back for it. Is there anyway to avoid that and encourage a hookset? If I saw them bee lining I'd slow my retrieve, but maybe they're smart enough to realize that the lure wasn't a real baitfish.

Thought today was going to be another bust. Went to one of the above Germantown spots(with the coords) first around 3pm for about an hour. Fish were jumping and breaking all over, but they weren't interested in what I was throwing. Left there to head back to Collierville. Stopped at Grove and made a few casts, nothing interesting there. Decided to spend the rest of the day at Johnson. Back pond had about 8-10 different folks spread out by the bridge, so I went back to the front two ponds. Once again those ponds were bumping, swirls all over. Landed my first bass after about 30 minutes, I'll say a pound or so. I saw a swirl off to my right so I started reeling in my lure quickly to throw at him. As I was bringing in my lure I thought I got hung up, but I yanked again and there was a fish! Hit it right at the bank. Got bumped several more times and the pond started to die down, so I decided to start packing it in and throw a couple casts in the cove in the pond closest to the parking lot. It was literally my last cast and I got bumped, so I went to set the hooks and the lure jumped out of the water--bummer. Then as soon as the lure hit the water this guy just cranked it and caught me totally off guard: So I got him in on the bank and snapped this quick pic and went to see the damage. He completely inhaled the lure down to the gills. I started panicking and grabbed the pliers and started surgery in so little light. Finally freed the lure and got him back into the water. He swam around a bit, but I don't think I got the lure out in time, and he lost too much blood. I feel awful about it, but I suppose it's just part of the sport. He was maybe 1.5-2lbs, and definitely my PB(stifle your laughter) since starting back fishing...could be ever. Here's what was working for me, shad colored H20 Express rat-l trap(I think)bought on clearance at Academy for $3.99: Got my confidence back in throwing things other than worms. Time to celebrate with a Wiseacre Ananda and pour a little out for the one I couldn't save.

I had an Allstar long ago, I believe I broke the tip in a ceiling fan. But I had no qualms with it prior. Thank you for the advice.

Been almost a week since my last outing because I went to Nashville for a few days. But this cold front that came in may put a damper on my plans for Sunday and Monday in terms of strategy. As I said in a previous post, I'm re-learning how to approach bass fishing from a scientific point of view, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of water temps and activity. I did have mild success on a private 1 acre pond about a week and a half ago. Once again on Junebug, about the only thing I feel confident on lately. I had some really nice bites at Johnson last Monday(on all 3 of the ponds, the front two were very active as the sun was almost completely down ~6:45), but couldn't land squat, mostly all on Junebug plastic. Catfish were grazing right on the bank at Grove, around 4:30p. I did see a turtle trying to munch on a bream at Johnson, before I scared him and he dropped it. It was so strange, just seeing that bream floating/swimming perpendicular with the surface until I saw the turtle latched on its tail. Next plan is to attack the Germantown locations and see what I can do. Sidenote: Had to buy a new spinning reel(Pflueger President) because my 15+ year old Daiwa is just done. I hadn't been really using it since picking up the new baitcaster, and my wife kept getting birdsnests on the spinning. Chalked it up to her inexperience. But I used it at the private spot and got a massive birdsnest, and realized the line was catching a tiny nick in the top of the spool. I believe that nick could probably be filed down so I'm not going to trash it--it still retrieves smoothly and doesn't creak and moan; but it gave me an excuse to update . So far I'm liking the Pflueger, but like the Daiwa reel, the rod(similar age 2pc. Berkley Lightning Rod 6ft med/heavy action)desperately needs updating soon. The rod itself twists the guides and the reel out of whack, which I have to correct on just about every cast--going to try to take it apart and see what the problem is. Done with the 2pc in general, but I still like the action of that particular rod. Sorry for rambling, I don't have much in the way of sincere fishing companions that could offer more than, "that sucks or that's cool".

Thanks for the tips. I'll try to get over there this weekend at some point and check them out.

Greetings, forum, from the Memphis suburbs. Firstly, I'm glad I found this board. I started fishing frequently in 6th grade--largemouth mostly. I lived in the Birmingham area within walking distance of a golf course littered with ponds. Every day after school I was dropping a Zoom, specifically chartreuse trick worm, burning up the banks; and occasionally hopping in a buddy's john boat--where we mostly just talked and split a cigarette that one of us lifted off the other's sibiling. Then high school hit, and I stopped chasing fish and started chasing girls. After high school, I bounced around a few cities and states, fishing had been long forgotten and my rods and reels piled up dust. Cut to 2016, I'm married(4 year anniversary next week) with dog and two cats. We just moved back South from Colorado(Fort Collins). Prior to the move, the desire to fish struck me hard for some reason just out of the blue. So about a month ago, and after a bit of research I went out and picked up a beginner baitcaster(Abu Garcia Black Max 3) and a medium/heavy fast action rod. My experience with baitcasters was limited, my first was an old Shimano Corsair--that was rarely used due to major backlash problems. I actually found it again recently in an old tackle box with a long forgotten rats nest still embedded on the spool. Furthermore, after watching YouTube videos and taking advantage of a pool, I was able to learn how to dial in my new AG and rarely backlash. YouTube would've been great so long ago. Closing up, after many hours of internet research, I've come so much further in terms of knowing what baits and lures to throw based on cloud cover, water temp, visibility, etc. in the past month than I ever did so many years ago. So 15-20 years I'm back to burning banks 3-4 times a week and enjoying every minute of it. Many thanks to this forum and its contributors and the YouTube videos I've been watching for helping me re-discover a hobby I'm passionate about. TL;DR-used to fish a lot when I was younger. Then I stopped. Now I'm 32 and fishing a lot again. P.S. I'm also passionate about craft beer and I could talk about that all day too.

Hello from Collierville. After roughly a 15 year break between casting, about a month ago I went to Academy and picked up a new baitcasting setup. My usual stops are Grove Park and Johnson Park. I've been behind Collierville town hall once, but got frustrated quickly with every cast bringing back grass. I also dropped in behind Houston High, but it didn't appear to have much action. Herb Parsons didn't seem to be too advantageous, considering I'm strictly bank fishing at this time and I got hung up more times than I'd like to admit. Primarily fishing junebug and pumpkin plastic worms, and tossing black/blue spinnerbaits since the water seems so murky. So a couple questions: Do the two ponds at the front of Johnson offer anything? I've been hitting the pond with the fountains, across from the bridge mostly and had some luck, though the bite has been slow/nonexistent over the past week. Are there any other ponds I should be hitting, in the Collierville/Germantown area? Anything at Shelby Farms worth checking out?