Clark Stewart

try using a smallish (not necessarily crappie sized) spinnerbait. Either white or chartreuse/white will do. Booyah makes the pond magic which is the perfect size, but all the spinnerbait makers make smaller version of the same thing. White is good if the water is clear, but here in alabama the water is generally a little muddy/murky so we use the char/white. I recommend a spinnerbait because it covers a lot of water but the MAIN thing is that you won't have trouble keeping it off the moss on the bottom which causes all kinda hell when fishing worms. Just last week I caught a couple on the spinnerbait in water less than 5 feet deep with a ton of moss on the bottom just reeling it fast enough to clear bottom.. If you have a hard time getting bit on the smaller spinnerbait then switch to a rooster tail or other inline spinner. I hate to admit they catch the crap out of fish because I feel like it takes no skill to fish em and imo they should be fished by those still using a snoopy rod, but truth be told the old guy who fishes with me won't tie anything else on and he always outfishes me for any species in the water. Hope this helps!

I'm gonna go ahead and catch the flame for this one but, have you ever tried a rooster tail on that pond? I find that when you just don't know what the hell to throw you will ALWAYS get bit on a rooster tail. Go with a bigger size so you discourage all but the bruiser bream and crappie. Went to Guntersville Lake last week for a conference and couldn't get bit on anything I took. Nearly threw in a buddy of mine for raping the bass with a tiny chartreuse rooster tail! I hate those baits as I feel like it's akin to using a snoopy rod and a worm, but the dang things just work!

Anybody ever bass fish in gulf shores? I don't plan on buying a saltwater license to fish off the beach (wouldn't know what i caught if I did!) so I'm looking for any places to bass fish down there. I know there's lake Shelby, but I don't know much about it. Any advice on where the bass might be and what they like down there. Heading out tomorrow morning so get back at me!

no grass or anything? What about down the bank? I'm not above hopping in the car - or maybe paying 20 bucks to rent a john boat if there's something nearby

Going to a conference at the state park next week. We'll be in the lodge fishing from the bank and around the state park docks when we can. Anybody ever fished that way? What's the water look like around there? Any weeds, rocks, anything? Hows the depth? We don't have a boat so we're slaves to the bank. Let me know if ya'll have any luck there ever.

I grew up on weiss on the lower powerhouse section of the lake. The upper end around JRs marina is pretty good. Look for areas where the channel meets the bank especially in the chatooga river channel. I know of a couple of places where the water drops from 2 to 25 feet 40 yards from the bank under docks. We were up there for that aforementioned BFL and didn't do too well around there, but like said the bass were still deep. That area should be great (just north of hog island - literally 5 inches straight up the paper map is the bank i speak of) due to the fast drop with dock cover as well as a ton of brush in there. Good luck!

rig it up and enjoy! I've never fished on of those but i do have a shimano bantam mag 10x that's from the same era. Mine is a very small reel (thus the bantam name) but they never made a better reel for small worms or finesse fishing. I've even used my 6'6 with this reel for crappie fishing and it can cast a 1/16th crappie jig with few complaints. You can do an ebay search but they're getting harder to find. Look around on there and you can find one like mine or yours for around 25 - 40 bucks. One of the truly classic reels that never get old.