Sword of the Lord

Sounds a whole lot like "I can't find them, help" but I digress. I don't think it would be obscene to you if you've seen people around your spots just cut the line on gut hooked bass instead of try, harvest illegally, or bring the whole neighborhood down.

This was my first bass of the year awhile back. Not a very impressive fish, but it is my favorite fishing picture. I never got to meet my grandpa, so when my wife looked at the picture later on and commented how I look just like him, it has become very special to me.

It takes so much more time to get a technique down and know when and how to change it up than most people realize. I guess I'm just super protective. I don't want to go fishing one day to find out that my blabber mouth resulted in heavy pressure, gut hooked and killed fished, illegal over harvesting, etc. I like my spots, and I want to keep liking them.

True. Last weekend I took my buddy out to a little pond that basically nobody fishes for bass because they don't believe there's anything in it, but awhile back I quickly found out that it's a hot spot and has some good ones. He hasn't caught a bass all year so I figured he had to be able to catch one here. NOPE. No luck. I even tried him on a Senko rigged Texas style, fishing slowly and showing him exactly how to do it. I caught my share including big mama pictured below but his technique was just not the same no matter how much I tried show him.

There's a river near me that is giving me big time trouble. I rarely catch any bass here, but others report good catches and I have had some good days at different locations on this river. That part of the river that is near me looks to be bass paradise. Bridges, eddies, weeds/grass, currents and current breaks, downed and overhanging trees; just a really beautiful setting. But this area is overrun by ducks and geese and has been for decades. The area is actually nicknamed Duck Park. I'm talking a good hundred of them in about a half mile stretch. They come back year after year and people feed them. Could they be why I have no luck here? Usually I'll hit up my favorite ponds, a couple of lakes, and even a quarry, but this little strip of river is where I grew up and I'm still located near it (walking distance), so sometimes I'll venture on down. I've tried other locations too and covered about 5 miles from this spot over the course of a week without any luck, however, but it's from one dam to the next not far from the ducks and geese. The river is rated "good" for LMB and SMB and I had a 40 fish day here a few years ago. Nothing like it since. I've tried everything from soft plastics to crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and top water baits, to even inline spinners and beetle spins. There has to be SOMETHING that's up. I highly doubt it's just me because I kill it at any of my other locations just about any time I go.

I never knew that it could be this bad, but I do cringe when I lose a soft plastic on a cast. If 90% of the strikes are on the initial fall, I hate to think of how many get eaten free falling hookless.

I've been fishing two new ponds this year. It took the bass from spring until a couple of weeks ago to finally stop biting wacky Senkos at one of them. At the other, the bass learned to not bite them after 4 or 5 trips in 2 weeks. Oddly enough, the pond that they learned faster on is the bigger pond (by more than 2x) with bigger bass.

Long story, but yes, the 2 12" bass were released. I've also had people respond with, "It's just a fish", to which they receive an ear full for.

I call out the people I see putting fish in a cooler in catch and release waters. I'm very blunt about the fact that they can return the fish immediately or I will contact the proper authorities. I've pulled out my cell phone camera to record such behavior, and I've documented license plates. A couple of months ago a couple of guys said they would kill me. That was interesting.

That's where I'm best. I'm a tactical, patient person by nature. Power fishing is always my last choice whereas it seems to be the first choice for most people. A lot of it is an uncanny ability to call exactly where a fish is by reading the surroundings.

Same. 3/0 EWG Gammy hooks.

Funny story about that. I was fishing with my wife and son this evening when an old man known for eating every single thing he catches came up and asked if I had any luck. I told him nothing yet. My son being 9 chimed in and said, "What about that big one earlier?" Oh, that. It wasn't that big. The guy asked me what I used and I just said, "bait." I think he got the point. My wife laughed and called me a jerk (jokingly) afterwards. That whole exchange prompted the thread.

That's different. Most of us aren't fishing the same location. The same lakes and rivers in some cases, but different spots. Plus we know if you're here, you're a responsible angler. It's just different.

When asked where I'm fishing at what I used, I never tell. Too many people around here catch to eat, even in catch and release waters, and I don't want that pressure.

Small fish like bluegill will nibble on Senkos just like any other plastic stick or worm bait, thus making it feel like a bass tapped it. I've also had bass barely bigger than the Senko try to eat it, but they only get a small portion in their mouth and you lose them. What's interesting about those bass is that they never got hooked, but the reel in with the bait for a few seconds before letting go. If you're using the Senko on a Texas rig with the hook barely tucked back into the bait, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. You probably just didn't get a bass or it was a little guy. More often than not they hook themselves when they run with the bait.

No. But the Bullet catches good ones just fine, is the point. That old girl ran into heavy vegetation. I was using a M/F rod with the Bullet and 10lb mono and got her out of some bad stuff. They tell me these things are not good for that. A few people were interested in tests and results, and I'm just saying those YouTube videos aren't phony. This thing is the real deal.

Caught with the Bullet a little bit ago.

I don't know the exact ratio, but more than a few of my hooksets are false. No fish. Whether it be weeds or whatever. Sometimes weeds will make my rod feel like there's a tap or make my line look like it ran. More than a few lures have swung back my way! My wife and son and a fishing buddy laugh, but what I always say is, hooksets are free, you can always cast back out, but you might only have one shot at the fish.

About a month ago I went to a new pond with my wife and son. I met a guy in the pub who told me all about it, how it was great for bass and he'd caught an 8 pounder out of it. We show up and it's surrounded by weeds and trees. Very little space anywhere to bank fish. We finally found a decent spot. There is a concrete slab about 3 feet off the shore. Looks like a better place to fish, I think. I can get out there further and it's further away from the trees. Great! My wife remembers hearing, "Hey, do you think I can stand on..." *splash splash splash, flailing, drowning* Nope, I can't stand on that slab of concrete. It was like stepping on ice. It cost me a new phone, a new rod (broken eyes), and what should have been stitches in my right leg but I'm stubborn.

We don't know anything about the longevity of the Bullet yet being that it is just a year old. However, it is all metal, and there's a YouTube video of a guide who got the Bullet out of curiosity; he's had it about a year, using it himself and lending it out to others on the boat, and it's held up flawlessly. He caught one with it using braid and a spinnerbait in the middle of demonstrating on video. The price does suck. It really does. I guess when nothing else on the market in its class can truly compete with it, they can afford to jack the price up because they know interested parties will pay it. If there were a bunch of others like it, I bet it would be no more than 80 bucks. The weight of the Bullet balances out on the rod. It's seriously not even heavy. I wouldn't use it with arthritis though.

I second Catt. My 9 year old son uses a Zebco Platinum 33 on a Shakespeare Excursion casting rod. $30 for the reel and $20 for the rod at Wal-Mart. It's been really great for him. The Platinum 33's are really good spincast reels at a good price. I recently got a Bullet and it's a beast. The Bullet on a M/F Lightning Rod and an AG Silver Max on a MH/F Lightning Rod is all I've been taking out for almost a week. Nobody will believe that the Bullet is everything it claims to be and more without seeing firsthand. This is 2017, not 1987; spincast these days isn't what grandpa used.

The rod and reel has very little to do with why you didn't catch a bass. Just because you have an Ugly Stik doesn't mean that's the reason for not catching a bass. I think we need more information. What kind of water are you fishing? How are you fishing the Senko? My 9 year old boy throws them wacky style in ponds and catches anywhere from 3-5 bass ranging from a pound or so up to two and a half to three pounds or so. He's learning on a Shakespeare Excursion Rod with a Zebco Platinum 33 Reel, spooled with 10lb Berkley Vanish Fluoro. Not exactly great equipment or what people go to for bass fishing. But the point is, it works, and it works for a child. It isn't the equipment. You won't catch bass where they aren't located, you'll have trouble if you fish too fast, and you need to know how to work your presentation, which we don't know as of yet.

As you well know, most strikes come off the initial fall. A lot of people fish wacky like that. Cast to your spot, drop, no bite then bring it back. Otherwise a lot of times you're just wasting time and potentially getting hung up. That's pretty much how I fish wacky 90 percent of the time, and how I get more bites. I don't really mess with wacky after the initial fall.

Engage the reel handle. I'll have my bait flying through the air then "click" it just when I need to and it lands where I want it. You don't understand that there are many people out there who are one of the following?: 1. Old time spincast users who are excited to be able to throw burner baits. 2. Newbies 3. Wives and children 4. People who hate baitcasters and spinning equipment because of backlash and line twist, so they're glad something exists that can use braid and has the speed of a baitcaster with small bait capability of a spinning reel. Etc. There's a lot of reasons people would want this. It was hard to find in store for months after it was released and online ordering was put on back order. It's still not that easy to find one in store. When I went the other day they had 1 left in stock and the BPS guy said they fly off the shelf. Having actually used one now, I can see why. Extremely well built and fast. Casts a mile and still no lock up. Drag works great. I'll use it far more than any spinning combo. Taking this and a baitcast combo is all I need anymore.

It was trash for me straight spooled, but now I use the leftovers for leaders and it's fine.