FishDewd

I don't have polarized lenses, not even sure how they work, but I doubt there is any strong enough for my chocolate mud water around here.

Speaking of Z man, they also have floating soft frogs in two sizes: larger "Hard Legz Frogs" and small "Finesse Frogs". I have a pack of both that I've played with. They both seem like they'd have promise in the ideal circumstances, though I like the larger ones better because the small ones are somewhat hard to match a hook with, and kinda difficult to throw cause they're so light. Both are walkable, I'm just not real good at it on my current rods. But they skip like no tomorrow for sure.

Muddy water... I feel ya! That's pretty much all I have here is muddy water. One thing I've learned is that the bait action seems to matter more than the color does. I don't think they see baits very well in muddy water, not unless they are right in the fishes' face anyway. The main way I've had success with stickbaits or senkos has been wacky rigged. That extra flap action seems to help them locate it a bit better. Have you tried that? Also works well on a dropshot wacky rigged too. Especially when there is a little chop to the water so you can get that secondary movement going on the bait without you having to do much.

Flukes and other soft swim baits are definitely a weakness for me. Just never messed with them much because I'm not exactly sure how to fish them effectively, especially the larger super flukes which tend to float when rigged weightlessly.

First thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title, "Steve Urkel". My uncle did this last year. He had the front winching strap or whatever it's called going under the pulley instead of over it. As he had told me, every time he went to trailer the boat it was a real PITA. I noticed the first time he took me out on the boat as we were putting it on the trailer. He was dumbfounded what a difference it made when I fixed it to go over the pulley instead of under it. "Well, yeah... we're pulling up on it instead of digging it straight down into the trailer the way you had it." Lol.

Absolutely, you can also fish really deep with one though I've never gone farther than maybe 10' deep or so. I know guys who use in salt water pretty deep though. Another thing to mention is the distance between the hook and weight. I tend to shorten the weight leader with shallower water and extend it with deeper water. Also makes a difference with how far you are putting it out there too. The farther you cast it, the longer your weight line should be. Think of it like this. Your line is creating an angle back towards you kinda like this "/". Adjusting the distance from the weight back up to the hook will determine how high in the water the hook sits. Sometimes you want it higher or lower. If the distance is too far in shallow water then it sits too high. If it's too short in deeper water then the angle is going to be such that it'll sit too low. But I'd say it's better in most scenarios to be a bit too long. Reason is that you can adjust the hook depth by simply raising or lowering your pole. However, you don't want to create a dip in the weight line below the hook either, so it's kind of a trial and error type of deal. Which is why spinshots rule on drop shots. Rather than having to retie the whole thing you can just cut the line off the lower eyelet and retie a shorter or longer line for the weight.

Dropshot is am amazing technique, it's probably my favorite finesse technique and has caught more fish than anything- catfish, perch, bass, it'll do it all. The whole "it catches only small fish" thing is a myth. The size depends upon the hook size and bait size. I love it for catching perch as bait though, they will nail it with a little piece of earthworm on there. Spinshot hooks work best I have found. Eliminates many issuse you run into with a traidtional dropshot by allowing the hook to swing around so it won't get caught up in the line. Also allows a low-strength weight line as a sacrifice leader in case it gets stuck. Just tie a new line and attach a new weight and back in action in under a minute. The ONLY good use for Berkley Vanish, I keep 6-10 lb Vanish in my bag whenever I am dropshotting. Technique wise, it's similar to a jig. Twitch, twitch, fall back down. Or, lift, hold, drop. Trick is to move the bait/lure without moving the weight. After some x minutes, drag it 2-3 feet and repeat. It's like a fish locator.

Yeah I normally use a leader for a few reasons... generally it's fluorocarbon though, which still has a fair bit of sensitivity. It's not that I can't feel it, it's just by the time I do it's more of a "it just got spit" feeling so when I set it they are already gone. Big problem with line watching here is the wind. I can try straight braid and see if it helps, I'm really not a big believer in the whole "the fish can see the line" deal I just worry about the buoyancy not allowing the lure to settle in choppy water. My braid gets the wind bow in it and it's difficult to get it tight enough to eliminate that since the lure is always moving in the water column. I think I need better braid to solve that issue, eventually I will try something better than the stealthbraid I'm using now. Could help a lot. Also, I like to use a leader since there are catfish in my waters that could well decide to eat a bass lure. I've had my leader save me a few times from main line twist cause of that. I am pretty good at working a fish though, so far I haven't had a line ever get destroyed from that. Tungsten weights... yeah I've been wanting to try those. Just the expense has stopped me. I don't really have a lot of money to mess with most of the time so I usually get steel as a middle ground between lead and tungsten as far as density goes. They all sink a little differently but tungsten is definitely the best at transferring vibration. Oops, I just exposed my inner nerd there lol. This is how I usually do it, minus wacky style. I do wacky sometimes. Usually it'll be on a dropshot if I do that though. Normally I rig them standard worm style with an offset hook of some sort. Wacky style would make it easier to feel the fish though for sure I need to do that more often on non-dropshot rigs for sure. This is the meat of the issue right here. I know when my lure hits the bottom most of the time but I find it hard to notice if it's taken on the fall since there is normally a little flutter to it as it falls. Baitcaster is the issue there, I've managed that a few times on spinning gear when my line just kept pulling off the spool long after it should've hit the bottom lol. I've been using Mega Strike and got a deal on Pro Cure crawfish scent not too long ago. I haven't really noticed a big difference so far, but then again I do fish really pressured waters where the fish are leary. I like that challenge though, makes one a better angler when you can catch pressured fish. Enforces that you're doing it right. Setting on structure... yep done that a few times lol. Think it's kind of inevitable though at some point. Concrete blocks usually get me since they can give that "tap, tap, tap" just like a fish.

I have a hard time with techniques that involve light bites where line watching is required and there isn't much feel to it. I can never determine much from line watching, haven't yet figured out how that works. Don't think I've even thrown a senko more than 3 times this year, and I don't even bother with jigs or shaky heads anymore. If they don't jerk on it, high chance I will miss it. So there's a lot of lures I need to work on, bite detection wise.

I'll throw senkos on casting or spinning gear, depending on what I want to do. Braid to a long fluorocarbon leader for me on casters. I don't like using the polymers for a main line on casting gear. Spinning I like to use a co-polymer mainline with a fluoro leader.

I only got chased by one once, and that was when I was 4 at a park and was messing with one. I had it coming as it ran after me nipping at my butt. Nowadays... they aren't much of an issue around here. Lot of ducks and various water birds, but not many geese anymore. Biggest danger with the birds here is accidentally hooking one that is submerged under water trying to eat the fish that I am trying to catch. Gators are another story... there's a gator in just about every pond. Oh, and snakes. Yeah, lot's of snakes. They like to sneak up on me while I am wading into the taller bank grass.

Plopper redeemed itself today. Caught two on the same stretch of bank, one of them was probably my PB smallie. I have good luck running exposed grass lines. Both were front hooked and very cleanly done on the lips. So yeah... just a bad one last time. I know it happens. Sorry for the trouble of this thread, I was rather just wanting it to die.

Google isn't really reliable with this... keep in mind we had a hurricane last year. Some of these locations are closed. Thurmond lake being one of them. Maybe it'll open again at some point. Some of those other lakes also do not exist/are no longer there. You can look at them on google maps to see what I mean. Also, if you're from Alvin that's kind of cool! Never met anyone else online who was. I usually go to parks these days. Went to Challenger 7 in Friendswood today, I go there quite a bit because I usually catch something there.

Well currently I only use three... but I'd like to add a few more... so let me list what I use and then dream a little just for fun.... 1.) A ML/fast rod with a KK Royale Legend- weightless texas rigs, ned rigs, light topwaters, general finesse set-up. Baitcasting. 2.) M/F for drop shotting, weighted texas rigs, carolina rigs, light live bait applications (cut bait, crawfish, worms, minnows, etc), buzzbaits and whopper plopper: heavier topwater up to about 3/8 oz or so, light jigs. Baitcasting. 3.) M/F that is closer to a moderate-fast. Used for light drop-shotting, heavier finesse stuff, accuracy applications. Spinning. Yeah, they're all fast action. I feel like that's a good action for the most part. Is comfortable to me, I can generally make it work pretty well for me. Now we go to dream world... 4.) A MH/mod-fast for heavier topwaters, crankbaits or chatterbaits and the like. Baitcasting or spinning. 5.) A frogging set-up. Not sure what power/action I would want. Leaning towards a medium/xfast rod with a high speed reel. I don't do much punching so a medium should be fine. Baitcasting obviously.

This monkey has got to weigh like 1,000 lbs by now...

But I don't watch it... and don't know how to

Hey, good job! It took me a year to catch a fish with a crankbait, and it wasn't even a bass, but a catfish! Those rock fish are pretty tasty... thing is, they are very tough and you have to boil them for a very long time with lots of herbs and seasonings. Might wanna toss in some onions and lemons to get that earthy taste out. As far as hook-ups, if this is an old lure it could well be dull hooks, so make sure they dig into your fingernail when scrapped across at a slight angle. Just don't stab your finger tip in the process! They should at least scratch your nail if not dig in. If they don't, you definitely get a hook change unless you can sharpen them. Most OEM hooks that come with the lure aren't very good when new anyway. A part from that, could be the hook set. Should be more of a sweep at waist height as opposed to a jarring upswing. Anyway, keep at it! You cleared the first hurdle!

Spring is here... usually. Still get a day or two where it's bit too cool for me. But getting rarer for sure. Next few weeks look pretty good, except for wind. The wind here is always an issue since I live facing the Gulf Coast. As far as baits/lures... idk. I don't really following trends. If something is really good I will generally hear about it at some point. I've learned it's best for the wallet to not go intentionally looking for something new just cause it is "new". I wait for stuff to be proven, then consider it for use. Right now I don't have any plans to even go into a fishing shop since work has been slow for me. If I were to buy anything... I need at least one more rod/reel more than I do baits/lures. I could do with a good set-up that is a bit heavier than what I have for specific applications, but I'm not in any real hurry.

A palomar knot shouldn't ever "slip" in the sense that knots that use wraps do, since you are passing the loop over the hook/lure and securing it over the tag end and mainline. That to me points to something not being done properly when tying. I'm yet to have one fail for any reason, even when my lure gets dead-stopped in midair due to a bad backlash. On topic: I do think the line makes a big difference with backlashes. I do worse with mono and fluorocarbon that I do braid, but I recently started using stealthbraid from spiderwire because I liked that it was round rather than flat and had a smaller diameter compared to other similar strength braids. Also that I wanted something with high visibility and thought it being yellow would be beneficial. However, I have decided I don't like it like I thought I would. It frays pretty easily; I'm always singing my tag ends or else they will being to fray and concern me after so many casts. Also, it seems to be really bad with wind. Proper thumb control be darned a lot of times, it just digs in like a tick at the beginning of a cast and the lure drops down like a dead duck. So when I'm throwing light stuff, I want the cast control knob to be fairly loose, yet I can't do that if there is headwind because it's a guaranteed backlash. Which means my distance is greatly limited. So... after I get done with this line I'm gonna try something else. Maybe some suffix 832 or something.

Most banks here are "nothing looking" banks. Cause at first you can't tell if there is anything below the muddy water that may hold fish. Until you actually start fishing it. So I fish those sorts of banks a lot, especially in new waters. Never know for sure until I drag a carolina rig or something along it whether it is really a nothing bank or not. I don't really use a ned too often anymore... I keep some TRDs and ned heads among my tackle, but unless the wind is manageable I'm not going to bother with them. They don't produce very well for me anyway. I spent a whole fishing session today focusing on topwaters lures in such aforementioned nothing banks, and along grass lines. Found out I need a lot of work with frogs and poppers in general. Never messed with either one before so I didn't know what to expect.

This thread made me buy two poppin pad crashers: black/blue and black/yellow. You fed the bait monkey!

I have one, it's like a perch color or something.... I've used it a few times. Action seems all right, but I've never tried bouncing it off anything. Normally since I fish from banks, I'm running these sorts of baits along grass/weed lines or where I know transitions are. Haven't caught anything on it yet, but I think it's a good choice for cloudy days where I know perch are. Which is basically everywhere.

Not really illegal, the pond just had a 14" minimum limit on bass. I basically did release it multiple times it never tried to swim, never stayed upright after 5-10 minutes of trying to revive it. Even when I jumped away from it cause a crawfish tried to eat my toe, it never moved from its side. I only knifed it primarily to cease the nerve signals, cause from a blood loss standpoint, I was done for. When several rakers are torn in half and blood pools faster than it coagulates, the fish is done for. If it loses enough blood in a short amount of time, it's done for. It's anatomy stuff and applies to all species on earth, even us humans. Anyway, only like one drop of blood came out when I fillet'd it so that rather proves it was done for. I could've released it to be fish food, sure, but legally here one can keep a mortally wounded fish so long as it isn't considered protected. I kinda felt obligated on this one. Anyway, I'm not the best at story telling so maybe I didn't emphasize enough in my OP. But yeah... I hate trebles. I've only use them for perch fishing for a long time now cause they are just dangerous for the fisherman and the fish in several ways. I never have had good luck with them other than perch. I do use frogs sometimes, I've used buzzbaits and spinners a lot, but I've never had them get any reaction yet. I'm not sure my rods are heavy enough for those rigs anyway. Too much tip bend. Not sure I can actually set those thick hooks if I ever do get a strike, but guess I'll know for sure if/when that happens.

Oh no, I've gut-hooked a few, but only on slip floats and carolina rigs. But I can usually deal with those unless they imbed into the jawbone or something crazy like that. I was mainly implying the ones with treble hooks. They tend to be a lot of trouble. More roundness and less gap means they are easier to get deeper and take a lot longer to remove since they can't just be rotated out normally. A regular hook that would've been hooked through the cheek. I wonder if I can switch the trebles to a straight hook without sacrificing hook-ups? The lure itself is pretty cool. Kinda messed up the topic title btw, didn't phrase that quite right since it wasn't actually the first time I've done topwater. First catch is what I meant to say.

So yeah this was a weird fishing day... started out well enough. I did some T-rigging with a craw around the bottom and found some areas where bass were holding, though I didn't manage to hook any. I happened to bring some nice live crawfish with me, and I tried a few times to toss them out, hoping maybe for a catfish or two. Got lot's of bumps, but I ended up losing a few on the cast, and lost the rest while trying to hookset. No doubt these were bass, not catfish. Too cautious for catfish. So they got a free crawfish meal. I was about to head out cause I was getting hungry, so I started to reel in my hook that lost the craw, when it snagged on something along the bank. I gave it a little pop and with it came a nice surprise- a whopper plopper! I think it's a 90 size. Anyway, this changed things for me a bit. I decided because I had seen some bass hitting the topwater to tie it on and see what happens with a few casts. I used a small snap swivel since I wasn't familiar with how it rode through the water and didn't want to twist up my line. "Let's see if this silly thing lives up to the hype I've heard about it, blah, blah" I was really skeptical it would do anything since I've never had anything hit a topwater lure, ever. So a few times I tossed it start out towards where I had seen a larger bass hit the topwater, varying the retrieve a little bit with each cast. The action reminded me a bit of a buzzbait. Nada. So I changed gears and focused on this grassline to my left where I had some bumps earlier from the T-rigged craw. I pitched it right along the edge and started reeling it in, stop and go. I reached the edge where I was about to bring it up to me so it didn't get stuck in the muck there, and BOOM! Big splash and I had a bass nail it. I did what I've heard to do with treble hooks, reel in, sweep it sideways about waist high. Got him! I brought him back over to my bench to grab my pliers, and took a quick picture of him, seen below. Then I noticed blood pouring out of one it's gills. "Oh ****!". Double-trebled right through two different gill rakers. I took him back down to the water and got the hooks out as quick as I could. I didn't mess around, I just flattened both barbs and pulled them out, sacrificed the hook. But I couldn't get the fish to stop bleeding and it was listing on it's side. After a few minutes I got the bleeding under control, but the fish was still listing on it's side. I tried for 5 more minutes to revive it- I splashed water in it's gills, pulled it back and forth, shook its tail- you name it, I tried it. Note that the bank was partially flooded and I was standing in snake infested waters in my flip flops during this attempted revival. I felt something bite my toe, so I jumped out of the water real quick, but one of my flip flops stayed put in the muck. I pulled it out to discover the front strap had popped clean out and it was busted. So now I had no shoes. What bit me was a little crawfish pinching me, but it surprised me none the less. Probably one of the ones I lost coming back to get me in revenge. But I was more concerned about the fish. Finally figured out it was a goner, to my dismay. I had no choice but to sever the brainstem with a knife and claim it. It was about 2" under the legal limit for this pond, but this is one of those cases where I either claimed it, or it was fish food anyway cause it wasn't gonna live. It's about 12" and maybe right at 2 pounds. Little fatty. Took it home and fileted it out, not a bunch, but it will be some decent sized fried fish chunks. I feel really bad though. That's the last thing I wanted to have happen on my first topwater catch. It's rather deterred me from trying topwater again, especially the whopper plopper. Figures I find the cursed one tangled in the weeds! At least I ended my skunk funk I've been under lately? So at the end of the fishing trip: first topwater catch on a possessed found whopper plopper with death trebles, no wearable shoes, and a bass I didn't intend to keep. I'm lucky I found a bag in my car big enough for the still somewhat-bleeding bass! I think I'm good on bass fishing for a while, this was a strange day! Note, even though this side was bleeding a bit, the other side was an absolute horror show at this point when I turned it back around.