jimf

I wish I had a dime for every time I set the hook thinking "No way" and finding out "Yes way", that whatever it was I thought I might have maybe sort of kind of felt was actually a fish. But if I had a dime every time I set the hook thinking "No way" and was right, I'd probably even be richer. If in doubt, set the hook. Once you start catching fish like that it will haunt you thinking about all of those fish that were clamped down on your lure that you decided weren't worth a hook set.

I watched a little bit. By far the best part for me was watching KVD picking a birds nest out of his baitcaster after a cast, and then having to do it again 2 casts later. In all the years of watching fishing shows I don't think I've ever seen a pro make a mistake until then.

The article mentions that "fishing deep should be restricted if fish are intended to be released". That sentence needs some clarification. First off, what exactly is deep? 20'? 50'? Second, the time between catch and release is important - i.e releasing a fish immediately vs putting it in a livewell and then releasing it after a weigh-in hours later. It is my understanding that bass will come up quickly from depths of 20 feet or so and ambush baitfish near the surface. They can't stay for any extended period of time due to the fact that they can't adjust their swim bladders quickly enough, but they don't suffer any ill effects from rapid changes in depth. If you catch a bass out of 20 feet of water and release it immediately, I would think the fish would have an excellent chance of survival if handled properly. On the other hand, catch a bass from 20 feet and put him in the livewell all day and release after a weigh-in, not so good. And I just can't believe fizzing a fish is good for it long term.

Definitely not my area of expertise, and I don't know that I've ever trolled for black bass, but I do occasionally troll for Walleye and have caught bass with this method. I use a rod holders which keeps the rods at about 45 degrees while I control the boat. I catch a variety of fish with crawler rigs, not sure how they would do for bass but I have to believe they would work. Good luck, and if you figure something out I'd love to hear about it.

I'm with @RichFin keeping it simple. It's amazing the options with jigs now, compared to 30 years ago when there was like one jig on the market. I like the BPS Enticer jigs, sturdy hook, simple, and right how less than $3 a pop on sale. I do have a few cone shaped heads, but mostly what I use are the football heads.

I never knew that about bananas on the boat. Good to know, yet another excuse not to bring fruit with me when I'm fishing.

To me it almost seems too fluky to be a fluke. @Gundogsaid it perfectly - spending the next few hours realizing you don't have the pattern. You get stuck because you lucked into one, and it screws your thinking up. @ChoporozI did not have a banana in the boat, is this a bad luck thing I've never heard of?

I don't put much stock in stuff like this, but it's kind of mind blowing when something like this happens to you. Yesterday I motor over to start my day fishing a rip-rap section of shoreline that drops off quickly into 12 feet of water. Throw a 7.5" grape shad Culprit plastic worm and end up with 2# on the first cast of the day. I thought I was just going to kill it, but what happened was I went 4 more hours before I put another bass in the boat. A few light hits, a lost fish at the boat, but nothing in the boat. I did finally move on and ended up finding a pattern late in the day that produced well, but I wasted time because of that one fish. In my defense, recent history played a role in this. Last spring, first part of April, I just killed it on that exact section of rip rap throwing worms on a day very similiar to yesterday weather-wise. When that first fish hit I was like "Here we go again!". Lesson learned is take the first fish of the day, but don't assume you have magically found the killer pattern just because of that one fish.

It turns out that BP still has an online sale going on, but those prices are not reflected in the actual stores. However, I found out that if you take your merchandise up to the Customer Service counter they will look it up and apply the sale price. My favorite worms - Culprit Original - $3.97 for an 18 pack. It's a good deal.

One day I noticed that my boxes had many things bought that were never used, and in most cases it was some knock-off that was in the 5/$5 bin at Gander Mtn or whatever. One of those too good of a deal to pass up things. I've stopped doing that, now I look for sales in brands that I have confidence in. It's not that I won't use knock off brands - I actually like the BPS rattling jigs for example, but crankbaits are trickier and I'd not stray too far from the proven. You asked if you would be better off buying Rapala's over Storm, and me personally I would say if there isn't a sale on either then yes, it's worth a few bucks more for the Rapala's. However, if I saw a good sale, I would jump all over the Storm crankbaits. Nothing wrong with those. I just did that with Cordell lipless crankbaits, I like the original Bill Lewis or the Rapala's but they were selling the Cordell's 5/$10 a couple of weeks ago at BP. I bought $20 worth, because it was a great deal and I will use them. So moral of the story - take advantage of the sales, but don't just do it because it's a sale.

I spent about 20 years fly fishing 90% of the time, and do have experience with teaching kids that age. My advice is to talk him out of it. Promise him ice cream, or a new conventional rod and reel, or a new video game. Do whatever it is you can to distract him from this idea, and direct him another direction. If he still insists on learning, then visit a family therapist and see if they can convince him. If you still are at that point where he wants to fly fish, then ... ok first off learn to roll cast. Lift the rod and line off of the water, form slack and then snap the rod down and hopefully it loop forward 20 or so feet. Practice this in the back yard. Next, buy some flies. Or send me your address and I will mail you a bunch free of charge. I tie my own and have literally thousands sitting around in boxes. Size 10-12 or so, get a few beadheads so they sink. Hare's Ear Nymph is fine, a small Wolly Bugger etc... VERY IMPORTANT: DE-BARB them. I can not emphasize this enough. Crimp down the barb, because your son will hook himself at some point and it will be in the face. Did I mention you should talk him out of this foolishness? Ok, so I did... continue. Now, get some sunglasses or safety glasses and make him wear those. Because ... he will hook himself at some point and it will be in the face, and the eyes are on your face. Protect them. Now, find a pond with a bunch of stunted bluegill and be prepared to take swallowed hooks out of little fish after virtually every cast. If he can get the line 20 feet out, they will devour them. Good luck and have fun!

Agree with looking at the IPT rather than ratio. I forgot what big name pro is was that said they use the exact same gear ratio for every reel they own. I really wouldn't overthink gear ratio, get the one you are most comfortable/used to would be my advice. And congrats on scoring a BPQ2 for $49. Sounds like BP did right by you.

I was there Sunday as well, I didn't catch the numbers you did (about half of that) but I did ok and had a couple of those fat 16" fish. Caught everything on either a ribbon tail worm or a 3/8oz jig and craw. I was pleasantly surprised as well with the crowds, I actually got there around 10am and didn't even have to wait to launch.

The best way to see if you will like using a baitcaster is to start with a decent combo seriously. Could not agree more. I think you can still get a Bass Pro Qualifier on clearance for $49, which is a great price on a decent reel.

Generally speaking, the rod is more important imo.

St. Croix LTB + Lew's TP.

There are some nice fish being caught. In the upper midwest I'm just happy to get out. Last Sunday was my first trip of the year, this was the second fish I caught of the year (first was a dink). About 1/2 dozen like this one, not a bad start to the season.

Pitching and flipping are two different terms to me, and the term flipping has not replaced the term pitching. However, I think the technique pitching has replaced (maybe too strong but getting there) the technique flipping. When I first started seriously bass fishing in the 80's it seemed like everyone was flipping, and now everyone is pitching. All the cool kids now are pitching.

I actually think most if not all of us, whether we like to admit it or not, are influenced by marketing to some degree. And a pro discussing the baits and gear used is just that - marketing. I think we are all pretty aware what they are doing, but subconsciously when you hear KVD (or fill in your favorite pro) talking about their gear, clothing, sunglasses, truck etc.... you are probably being influenced even if it is only at a subconscious level.

The lightening stories really scare me. I'm usually one of the first off the water when bad weather comes in. The most dangerous lightening risk is often before you see any lightening or rain, right at the front of the storm. The deer story where one went flying off of the bank would have been cool to see. Ever accidently sneak up on a bedding deer and not know it until you practically stepped on. That's a good test for the ol' ticker. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when thing jumped up and decided to bolt. Snakes .. never caught one but I had a Fox Water Snake just fly past me when I was wading in the river and I swear it went right under my arm. I didn't care for that much either.

The bat, the eel, and the other thing that happened which had a Rmax story kind of theme. Took a boy scout troop fishing/camping trip on private property, guy had two nice spring gin clear ponds with nice bass and bluegill. Kids caught on pretty quick that bluegill could become bait if you weren't in a hurry to reel them in, and one kid had a really nice bass - 5 lbs easy - attack the bluegill on his line. Had the fish(es) both near shore when they both broke off. Nighttime settles in, kids are doing the campfire thing so I decide to get a little fishing of my own in. Using a fly rod cast a big deer hair popper and I hook up with a big one, reel him in, and it was the same darn fish with that bluegill stuck still in it's gullet. Kids just loved it, they all have a story just like this that they can write about in a thread just like this. I have a story about a topless sunbather too, but I'll keep that for later.

It's not unheard of that's for sure. I also caught a bird once in the same manner. The evening hatch will bring out the bats right at dusk, they are eating the same things the fish are it's just they are picking them out of the air instead of eating them as they have stumbled or fallen into the water. When you cast you throw the fly backwards and then forward at least once, maybe two or three times as you work line out so that fly is in the air for a bit. It's a weird feeling as the rod loads up all normal like, and then you start forward and the weight thing is just all messed up. Think of that sensation of picking up an empty can of beer when you think it's full, reverse that and x100 and that gives you an idea of what it feels like.

Like most everyone I've had my share. I caught a bat, but that was fly fishing for trout, and that's actually not that uncommon. One time I really got the heebie-jeebies - I was fishing a river at night and hooked into what I'm pretty sure was an eel, and it was huge - 3-4' maybe. It was dark with just a little bit of lighting so I can't be sure. At first I thought it was a carp I foul hooked, it was heavy but didn't fight all that much. I probably had it 20 feet from me when it finally came up and rolled the surface and in the dark river it looked something straight out of a horror movie. I fought it for another minute and saw it come up again to the surface and cut the line. I'm not ashamed of it either. I had convenient place to beach it, I wasn't sure what it was or if it could bite me or spear or lord knows what, so just enough of this and let them go.

This winter I got a new bag - Plano Guide Series, the big one and it carries quite a bit. I like it a lot, but it made me realize something about myself. Early this month my wife and I went to Mexico for a week, I did carry-on for the trip and my bag weighed 23 pounds. I am not sure, but I think my Plano might weigh close to that, and it probably couldn't fit in those carry-on bag checker deals at the airport. So what I learned was that I carry more crap with me on a day of fishing than I do for a week of vacation out of the country.

It was pretty windy yesterday, I was fishing a power plant cooling lake that is perched to catch the wind and that it does. Not terrible, but enough to where being in a light aluminum boat it presented challenges with boat control. First time out, and I'm always rusty with boat control and the like and it took me a bit to get my bearings straight and realize what I had to do was work agains the wind at a setting on the motor that basically just kept me in place while I methodically worked a spot. I was fishing a TR worm on rip-rap and doing pretty well when I was able to get the boat where I wanted and keep it there for 20 seconds or so while I worked the spot.