biggiesmalls

As of now my color selection will include two colors, black and white. I am still considering adding a baitfish pattern (baby bass or bluegill) and a clear pattern, waiting to see Bluebasser's thoughts on when to use which color. If I feel like it will benefit me to have the extra colors, I'll definitely get them - but if there isn't a use then I will just keep it simple. I am debating what popper to use. The Rebel Pop-R, Damiki D Pop, and Strike King HC KVD Popper all look to be great baits, under my $12 limit on a lure - but they don't have a flat black pattern. I am considering the River2Sea Bubble Popper or the Yamamoto Shibuki Popper for popping duties, because of the black pattern. They both seem to have great reviews as well. As far as my walking bait, it's between the spook (or super spook, or super spook jr, or chug'n spook) and the SK KVD Sexy Dawg. There were others I considered in my price range (Damiki Rambler, One Knocker/Rattlin Spook, and the Ima Skimmer) but they didn't have the color patterns I wanted. It's kinda surprising, almost every answer in here and in other threads I've looked at has been black and white, maybe with clear or a few other oddball colors. And when you go and look, only two or three manufacturers have those two colors. Tight lines Drew

Thanks for all the answers. Looks like I'll definitely have a black and a white of each color - chrome, baitfish (my bass mostly eat bluegill), and clear all seem like options to consider as well. Clear is definitely for gin-clear water conditions, but when are chrome and baitfish patterns best used? Like, what would make you choose a chrome or baitfish pattern over a black or white pattern? @Bluebasser86 I have to disagree with the statement that the top and side colors of a bait don't matter. A bass looks at the bottom of the bait only... but only when the bass is directly under the bait. Go throw a frog, popper, spook, etc in some water in your sink, and look at how it sits. It doesn't sit flat, it's butt is down in the water and sometimes a good portion of the sides, so if a bass is at any angle to the bait it will see the sides, and depending on what the angle is, it'll see the top of the bait at the butt end. I would agree that the bottom colors are more important than the top and sides - but I think those colors are still important. Although it's just like almost any lure color, they're made to catch fishermen, if they catch fish it's a bonus. Drew

How many colors of spooks/poppers do you think one should have on them at any given time? I was thinking bone for both the Super Spook Jr and Rebel Pop-r for daytime fishing, and then a black shiner spook and an ole bass pop-r for night fishing. I am also considering R2S Bubble Poppers, and possibly Megabass Pop Max's if I can get a group order from Ichiban Tackle going. Thanks, Drew

We've got them here, they fill up the hydrilla in some of the ponds. They seem to work well but they haven't lasted long in a livewell/bucket and don't seem to stay on the hook well either. I'm interested to try those grass shrimp hair jigs though. Not at all a scientific experiment, I never enjoyed those. I'm just getting an excuse to fish more, and an excuse to buy more tackle - and hopefully I'll end up finding a few new lures that I like As far as the Alaskan fisherman vs the Biology major, I'd say experience trumps knowledge, most of the time. Knowledge will get you far but experience gets you things that you can get in no other way. This has taken a turn, actually. I've been gifted a MTB subscription, so what I will be doing now is getting panfish lures every month, and testing them, I will probably review each lure as well. I will still test baits, hooks, rigs, etc though. And I am trying to get in contact with the guides on Richmond Mill Lake to see what they prefer for their big bluegill (pretty much the only lake in the world where a 2+ pound bluegill isn't a pipeline dream).

As far as artificials go, I want to do a comparison between live baits and artificials - so I have decided that I'll be using 2.5" Gulp minnows, 1" Gulp crickets, and 4" Gulp earthworms, in colors that mimic the live baits of the same size. That means watermelon pearl minnows, breen crickets, and red wiggler worms (which look similar to fathead minnows, house crickets, and red worms, respectively). I want to try spinners as well, so I'll be throwing 1/32 ounce Beetle Spins, 1/32 ounce Road Runners, and 1/24 ounce Rooster Tails. Of course, jigs are popular. I'll probably do a shootout of jigheads (although I doubt it really matters) - the Beetle Spin jigheads vs the Lindy jigheads. I'll use both for live bait on their own, live bait with a slip float, and for use with plastics. 1/32 ounce size on a black jighead for both of them to make sure they're consistent. Both jigheads carry a #10 hook on them. I will be using some custom-tied hair jigs made to imitate grass shrimp, PM me if you want to see how they're made (idea from a thread on another forum). I am not testing any crankbaits right now - I have a bunch I want to try out, so this will wait until I narrow the list down and it'll be its own shootout. Then of course, I've got to try soft plastics. These will mostly be fished on jigheads, although I may try some with the clothespin spinner from a beetle spin. I want to try the 2" BPS Squirmin' Shad in a jighead, to see if the big bluegill are aggressive enough to try and get at a live fish. I've also never tried a curly tail grub for bluegill - so these need a try. I will probably buy some 2" BPS Triple Ripple Grubs to see if they live up to the hype. Aside from artificials, I might try a few flies. These will either be bought from BPS or hand-tied, going for size 10 on all of them so we can get consistency throughout them. Rubber/foam spiders, bluegill poppers, hare's ears, and black woolly buggers will be used (again, this is if I decide to fish flies in this experiment).

Rigs used will be: Spinner blade rig Slip float rig Drop shot rig "Naked" rig (nothing but hook and bait) Carolina rig Jigs (both straight up jigs and jigs suspended under a float) Split shot rig Three-way rig Baits used on these rigs will be: Nightcrawlers Crickets Red worms Leeches Minnows Wax worms Grasshoppers Meal worms

I'm not sure how the bottom will play into it - might be an interesting thing to test as well. I think genes have the most to do with it. Some ponds can put out hundreds of 16-ounce gills and never put out a fish that hits 17 ounces. Not sure if bluegill eat snails or not - I thought that was only redear/shellcrackers. Will be interesting to see though - maybe I'll sacrifice a few fish to see what they've been eating. Or if any die from a guy hooking or anything. I'd say genes are the most important though, followed by a good food source, for growing big gills. But my experiment is just on catching them, if you know they're there

Hello everyone, I have found something that I would consider to be amazing - a pond where any time you go, catching a sunfish (believed to be hybrids, but more on that later) that is 16 ounces or higher, is practically a guarantee - and catching multiple fish is still very likely. I have decided that I want to make the most of this, and see if I can learn what the absolute best way to catch big bluegill is. These fish are in a neighborhood pond, with relatively clear water. I have permission to, if I so choose, move these fish into another neighborhood pond. I may or may not do this, but the reason I am considering it is so that I can have another variable to play with - clear vs stained water (don't have access to dirty water). Still thinking about this, but for now they are in a relatively clear pond. So, my experiment will basically involve me fishing on this pond for at least one hour per day, every day. I will be testing various rigs, baits, and artificials, and keeping a detailed log of my results, which will be moved into a spreadsheet by the end of the week (or by the evening of that day). Each rig/bait/artificial will receive a specific amount of time to be fished - no more, no less. Right now I am using a cheapo 5' ultralight rod - although I may not start this experiment until I can get a custom rod built (which will be done sooner or later). I want to test an ultralight and a light action rod, to see which is better suited to specifically targeting big bluegill. I will post a link to the spreadsheet, after I get everything for this experiment figured out. I will also update this thread when I decide on the rigs that I will test, baits I will use, and lures I will throw. Tight lines, Drew

Lots of awesome pics in this thread! Right now, my rod arsenal consists of: Custom 5'8" 50-100# stand up rod. Built on an old Shakespeare blank painted black, black shrink-wrapped EVA foam grips, black aluminum reel seat and gimbal, six black ceramic turbo guides, silver and black wraps. Using this rod for land based shark fishing Custom 6'6" 30-50# stand up rod. Built on another old Shakespeare blank painted black, black shrink-wrapped EVA foam grips, black plastic gimbal, black graphite reel seat, six chrome ceramic turbo guides, black and gold wraps (this one is still at my builder's shop, but it should be finished up soon). Will be using this on the boat to fish for pretty much everything that can't be caught on a 3000 spinner (2) Penn Squadron 7' medium spinning rods. Got them for like $40 each, so I don't care if I beat them up too badly. Using these for inshore fishing from the boat, as well as the kayaks and docks I fish from 9' Star Aerial surf spinning rod. Rated for 1-4 ounces I believe. Nice rod, especially for the price. Haven't gotten to use it more than a few times, but I will mostly use it for bait fishing in the surf - although I think it could throw artificials pretty well, too 5' Field and Stream Inferno ultralight. Gets the job done, and it was on sale at Dick's for $10. I use this mostly for bluegill, but I've targeted bass on this rod as well - it's pretty fun 7' medium Abu Garcia orra spinning rod. Using this for all of my bass fishing right now (also using the inshore rods for frog fishing). Came with the Orra, so I never ended up replacing it And the reel arsenal: Custom Penn 9/0 Senator. Powder coated externals, mostly stainless steel internals, custom 8-disc carbon fiber drag stack, handle upgrade, few other things. I am still working on this but it'll be done soon - it's my land based shark fishing reel Custom Penn 980 Mag. Just bought this reel, but I will be doing the exact same thing as I did to the 9/0 - I will use this on the boat with the 30-50# rod, as well as for heavier surf casting (2) Penn Battle 3000's. Inshore fishing is the game with these, and right now I am using one on the 9' surf rod as well Pflueger Trion 20, great ultralight reel for the money Abu Garcia Orra 30, used for bass fishing right now I want to add/get rid of: Get rid of Orra combo, I have a friend who wants to get into fishing so I'm selling it to him Get rid of F&S ultralight rod and replace it with a custom 7' or 7-1/2' ultralight rod Add a custom 11' 3-8 ounce surf rod, to use with the 980 Mag. I'm looking for a blank to do this with right now If I get a little bit of money to play around with, I want to replace the Penn Squadron rods with Star Aerial rods - great value for the money Add two Johnny Morris Signature Series rods - one 7'2" MHF baitcaster and one 6'8" MXF spinner, for my bass fishing. Will be adding some kind of Speed Spool to the baitcaster and a Trion 35 to the spinner I am respooling all of my reels soon, so I'll have to get a picture of all of them out and post it. I will post a few pictures shortly. Phew, that was a lot to type!

Looks like it's decided then - a 6'8" medium extra fast will be my new plastics rod @d-camarena: I'll be fishing some spots with weeds, but that's about the extent of the cover I'm fishing. I will probably be sticking with 4" Yamamotos for my wacky fishing, then standard-sized trick worms and both super flukes and super fluke juniors. Reel will probably be a Pflueger Trion 35, spooled with 20# Jerry Brown braid and a rod's length of 10# fluorocarbon leader.

I'm probably going to buy a BPS Johnny Morris Signature Series spinning rod, to match the casting rod I'm buying from my friend (he's letting it go for $80, tough to say no to that deal). I plan to use it for senkos, zoom flukes, and trick worms for the most part, maybe along with some smaller frogs (1/4 ounce or less) as well. I am wondering if I should get the medium or the medium heavy version of this rod, as well as the length. Length options are either 6'8" or 7'2" - I am leaning towards 6'8" for this purpose, but what would you choose? Medium power is 4-12 pound line and 1/8 to 1/2 ounces of weight. Medium heavy power is 6-17 pound line and 1/4 to 5/8 ounces of weight. Let me know what you think, and tight lines -Drew

While I am trying to thin-out the amount of setups I have, I am also trying to thin out the number of techniques I fish with, to just a few or so that I really can enjoy and get as close to mastering as possible. I'm not really trying to get it all done with two setups, more of try to see what I can get done with these two setups, that I might enjoy. Right now, it's heavier frogs, buzzbaits, and snakes on the 7'3" and then weightless wacky rigs, "froglets", and probably flukes on the spinning setup. Good to hear, I'd love to get a really good technique with a fluke. How'd your tournament go? I think I will try some super fluke juniors, the baitfish I am imitating are mostly bluegill that are 4" and under. With that in mind, the super fluke junior is about the perfect size. Interesting to hear about the other sizes though. So in the end, I think I will be fishing a wide range of frogs, some buzzbaits, topwater snakes, wacky-rigged stickbaits, flukes, and maybe trick worms. Getting six topics down to a tee should keep me plenty entertained/busy. I will likely go with a MH rod instead of a heavy, in order to fish buzzbaits and frogs on the same rod. I don't have a lot of super heavy slop, so I think a MH will work.

Great suggestions so far. Another technique I have been slowly leaning closer and closer towards is buzzbaits. I think they would be alright on the 7'3". I actually have not been that much of a spinnerbait fan - and I don't think they'd do too well fished with 50# braid on that longer rod with a high-speed reel. My older setup that I used was a 7' medium heavy rod with a moderate action, paired up with a 6.4:1 reel and 17-pound fluorocarbon. I also used this for swim jigs and chatterbaits, and I found that it worked pretty well. I have never actually tried split shot fishing - it might be something interesting. I fish from shore (at least now I do), and have never been successful with fishing a drop shot from shore. My understanding is that it is meant to be dropped and worked, rather than casted and retrieved. I'm thinking a fluke in a lighter color would slay bass in my clear pond.

Hello everyone, After years of fishing pretty much every kind of lure out there, I got into shark fishing - and to pay for it all, pretty much got rid of all my bass stuff last fall. Now I'm buying all new everything (except for a few old faithfuls), and need to decide on what techniques I like to throw. This is where it gets sketchy - I don't actually know much of what I like to throw. I know frogs and snakes, because of the awesome blow-ups, and because I'm in the south and there's a lot of them. And then I know wacky rigs, because it's simple, allows me to fight bass on lighter tackle, and flat out catches fish. Aside from those techniques, I just kinda fished everything else at random. So I guess what I am looking for, is a technique that you could suggest that I may actually like getting into fishing. I don't want to carry one of every bait around for when I might need it, I want to focus on however many tactics and get really good at them and actually enjoy them. Please let me know what you think Tight lines -Drew Oh, and a few other details that may be important: I will (hopefully) only be fishing two setups - a 7'3" medium heavy or heavy rod paired with a 7:1 reel and 50 pound braid (focusing on frogs over 1/4 ounce and topwater snakes), and a 6'10"-7' medium light or medium spinning rod paired with a 2500 reel and 20 pound braid, with a spare spool of 8 pound copolymer (focusing on wacky-rigged stickbaits and frogs 1/4 ounce and under) The main three ponds that I fish are under 2 acres in size, with a max depth of under 10 feet - one of them has clear water and little to no structure, while the other two have stained water, and lots of plant growth, and one of them has some decent wood/rock structure in it I plan on fishing at least 4-5 other ponds this year, which pretty much all are in the 3-5 acre range with small amounts of structure and lots of plants

As of now, I have landed the biggest bass I have ever hooked. He was a 6.5, I'll admit I "cheated" a bit and got him on a live bluegill - although I didn't know he was there, and I was dropping them on a ML spinning setup to catch some giant sunfish and smaller bass, since I got tired of throwing frogs at the *** pounders. I was standing on a big concrete pipe, as soon as he saw that bait struggling in the water he darted out, grabbed it, headed for the other side of the pond, and then ran back into the pipe as far as he could before I horsed him back out. That was probably the closest I have come to having a fish break a rod. A buddy of mine said he's seen a 10+ moving around in the pond in front of his house - I might just have to head out with a snake or a big worm and see if I can't snag him

Walking around the neighborhood today, I stopped at my favorite pond (pulled a few 6 pounders out of there, plus huge sunfish more towards the summer months) just to see if there were any fish in the shallows. Well as soon as I walked up, a 12-incher swam away from the bank. Then I got out to the big concrete pipe that I usually fish from to sight fish, and probably a 1-2 pounder swam away from the deeper water on the right side, and another 12-incher swam off of the left. I stood out there a bit, within the next five minutes I had seen another 3 fish in the 10-12" range and another one close to the 2 pound mark (plus apparently a snapping turtle that I need to relocate, since he snapped out at a passing bass). Needless to say, I will be taking out a pack of senkos and an ultralight tomorrow

Sorry Roger, they are definitely open to negotiation. If you have a suggestion other than those reels I would love to hear it.

I am referring to the ones with the cork grips, they are $50 on TW. Not the white TP-1 models

Doesn't look like that deal is around anymore - I would've put that one right up with the Pro Qualifier if it was still around

Okay, so AIRD is out of the equation. Which would leave the Pro Qualifier and the Fuego/Tat-CT at the top of the pack. Like I said - if the PQ's are only $50 right now (or will be soon), I will be buying two of them immediately.

Well if the PQ's are on sale for $50 as of now - I will 100% be going with a pair of those. $50 for that reel is insane. If not - the Tatula CT for $100 is in the picture, as is the Fuego and the Shimano Casitas and Caenan. A NIB Lew's is on the table as well. Although if I can get 2 Pro Qualifiers for the cost of one of the reels I just mentioned - then it's immediately going to be a pair of Pro Qualifiers. On a side note - does anybody use or know someone that uses the Lew's Speed Stick, the IM6 version? For $50 it seems like a pretty nice rod. And if I can get two setups for $100 each - I will be quite the happy man.

I definitely could if need be. If I can get a Tatula for $100 shipped, I'd be a happy man. I'm headed out the door right now, I will send you a PM today.

Which of the popular $80 reels - Lew's Speed Spool Laser MG, Daiwa AIRD, and BPS Pro Qualifier - would you prefer and why? Is there anyone who has used all of them that could weigh in? I will be purchasing two of these - one in a 7:1 gear ratio to fill with 50 pound braid and use with frogs, big texas-rigged worms, plus jigs and snakes - and the other in a 6.4:1 gear ratio filled with 15 pound Yo-Zuri hybrid to use for squarebills, lipless crankbaits, and spooks. I am pretty sure the Pro Qualifiers are still on sale - but please do correct me if I am wrong!

Okay, I guess I won't be cutting down any rods. Anyone have anything to say about the Lew's Laser SG Speed Sticks? They are IM6, and while they only have five reviews of them on Tackle Warehouse - they all say that they are great rods for the price. Not bad looking at all either. If I dropped the $150 on them, I'd probably buy: 6'10" medium heavy casting rod (1/4-3/4 ounces, 10-20 pounds) 7'3" medium heavy casting rod (1/4-5/8 ounces, 12-25 pounds) 7' medium spinning rod (1/8-1/2 ounces, 6-12 pounds)

What I might do for a rod (I love the suggestions you posted J, but I have to unfortunately keep the rods on an even lower budget than those) is buy two Blackout rods (on sale for $55 at TW) and have them cut down. The specs on them are: 7'6", extra fast tip, 12-25 pound line, 3/8-1.25 ounce lure 7', fast tip, 10-17 pound line, 1/4-5/8 ounce lure Those are both a bit longer than I was hoping for in the rods (would need 3" taken off of both to be completely satisfied with the rod). So, I will talk to my rod builder and see if he's down to take the grips off of those rods, cut the blank down, and put new grips on. If that's the case, I can have three rods (will also purchase a spinning rod from them) for about $180.