FishDewd

I've looked at a lot of high-vis braids that are available near me, and I ended up going with Spiderwire stealthbraid. It was the smoothest I could find, I don't really like the ones that are "bumpy" cause I feel like they will affect casting too much due to friction through the eyelets. Unless anyone knows of something better I could try?

Not really baitmonkey, but I did buy 2 inline spinners the other day since I watched someone tear them up with one last time I went fishing.

I also vote for shorelines. All the blow-ups I've seen in ponds have always been in the shallows. I normally look for something like that whenever I go fishing a pond to give me some indication of where they are. Not always easy to fish a bank, but it seems to be the most productive place in most ponds, unless there are standing weeds or logs in the middle somewhere. If you want to know where the holes are you could always attach a float to your hook as a measuring stick... old trick but it is pretty accurate. Works best with an unpegged carolina rig though. Just have to keep track of how much line you are letting out until the float is visible above water. Pretty good measurement tool if you're like me and lack the gadgetry.

Water here is always muddy and dropshot works fine. When I do it I will use either a live or finesse worm on a spinshot hook. I'd recommend spinshot with a light weight leader if you will use it around rocks or sticks. In case the weight snags, just break the weight line and pull free. Its pretty easy to work. Cast and let sit. Every so often jiggle the pole a bit. If no bites in 5 minutes, drag 3 feet in, reel up slack and repeat. Reel in and apply pressure to set the hook.

Spring is basically here along the gulf coast, TX. How I know: 1.) if the skeeters are biting, the fish are too! 2.) my baobab trees are sprouting 3.) the wild "field onions" are putting up flower stalks 4.) The black berry vines have grown their first green buds of the year 5.) the squirrels have returned with a vengeance 6.) it is regularly hitting 75-80* during the days Yes sir... getting very close indeed! Hang in there all you frozen, icicle ridden fellows! Spring WILL return, and soon! If not, I give you permission to plunge me in an icy lake!

I've only had that issue on open face spinning reel, can you elaborate a bit more? What kind of reel, brand and model? Every so often I find my open spinners getting a tad loose, nothing dramatic, but I assume it's due to generally wear/tear when using them for various fishing abuses. Knocking them around in vehicles/boats, jiggling them while reeling, etc. I just check mine after each outing and give it a good King Kong hand cinch down if needed.

I have several public ponds nearby, but I haven't had much luck in them. There is fish in there, I just can't generally catch unless it's by complete accident, lol. Has nothing to do with me or my "skill level" when it comes to bass! Anyway, the farthest pond I frequent is maybe 30-40 miles? I make the drive in about 25-30 minutes depending on traffic and how many red lights I catch. Once in a blue moon I will go somewhere nicer, such as Canyon Lake outside of San Antonio. I'd love to do a trip to conroe or livingston, but without a boat to use it'd be a wasted trip.

I agree, all the science behind infers that the way fish think don't really change. Some days, they just aren't predictable, not acting "normally", are in places or not in places that we don't expect them to be, or just simply not active or not feeding. I've seen large bass get caught off the bank of a lake with no shelter, nothing but a sandy bottom, in 100* weather in full sunlight. Didn't make a lot of sense but there it was. There are certainly some indications and patterns we can follow, and a lot of rules of thumbs but sometimes nature just doesn't do what we expect. And those kind of days are the ones I've been having lately.

It takes time to learn it, but it is rewarding in the end. It's another tool in the knot arsenal. I've been liking it a lot cause the alberto doesn't go through guides as well as the FG does. Due to that, I can now run longer leaders which means less reties on the water.

I used to do that, but I hated having to cut it off the object I tied it too afterwards to finish it. Now what I do is do a sialor's hitch around my big toe and then reel into it to get it good -n- tight for the tensioning. I also pull hard on each wrap around the braid so that when I go to cinch it down it basically already is about as tight as it can be. Nice tip with the screwdriver though, I might have to steal that one! I've cut myself a few times with the fluorocarbon while cinching down which really sucks!

I'm pretty simple because I only really have 5 good reel/rod combos ready to go at any time, but I like to take 3 specific for when I (try to) bass fish. #1 is my favorite: I use a recently acquired 6'6" ML/fast carbonlite 2.0 rod with a 7.0 KK Royale Legend baitcast reel, 50 lb hi-vis yellow stealth braid to a 10-15 lb. fluoro leader, for weightless or light plastics. This is my ned rig and texas rig rod. It has the throwing distance, the sensitivity, and spine power for most of my smaller pond and lake fishing needs. #2, I have a 6'9" medium-fast rod that is closer to a MH/mod with a 6.4 Abu C4 conventional reel that I use for drop shotting, larger crankbaits, or carolina rigging needs. #3 is a 7' medium/fast rod with a spinning 6.2 2500 reel that I can use for a variety of uses, but these days I use it a lot for lipless crankbaits and small er square bills. What I am missing is a true MH combo for punching or frogging, but opportunities to do that doesn't present themselves very often around here. I do do have one other pole for drifitng that I sometimes use up north on the clear rivers to target primarily trout, as well as a few other set-ups for catfishing and perch catching.

I always use the VMC crankbait snaps on my cranks, makes changing lures easy and also gives a lipless better fluttering action, especially when popped upwards. Can actually feel it when I do it correctly. I don't get this from straight tied.

I've been using red label the last few months. Seems to work fine for me. I don't think I've ever seen a leader specific fluorocarbon in stores afaik. Never noticed a blue label Seaguar anyway.

I have a Lew's that will back reel with a toggle on the bottom that cancels the anti-reverse. I've only used it a few times as a substitute for a drifting set up with a proper rod and baitcasting reel. Since I now have a drifting rod and baitcasting reels, I won't need to use it that way anymore. And it's not often I even drift. I've done it a few times down the Guadalupe up north, a few times in my creek after a flood, and once or twice in my pond when it was so windy there wasn't much other option but to let it drift a bit with the created current.

I'm not familiar with the power shot being for flipping in heavy cover, but don't see why not? I've used that to catch bass a few times in weedy areas, although I rigged mine with a spinshot hook with a lighter sacrifice leader. Just made a stopper knot to cinch the dropshot weight onto, kept the weight leader at about 7" long and jiggled it now and then along the bottom.

I can tell when my line moves dramatically, or if they tap it, but I am thinking either the places I fish have fish that know they are getting fished, or they just bite so lightly that my line doesn't move and there is no tap on the line to tell they are there. I know there is the feeling mushy strike, but when I am fishing across a muddy bottom with lots of mossy growth it generally always feels at least somewhat mushy and/or heavy. Still working on figuring that out.

Less than 1% for me. Maybe like .3%. I love to shop online, but I also hate to wait for stuff to arrive. I try to go out on the water at least once a week weather permitting, and when I find something new that I think could work, and know a local store has it, it kills me to wait a week or more for it to arrive via mail to use it. It's distracting when I go fishing cause all I think about is the thing I could be using but can't cause it's arriving via snail mail sometime the next week. I find that usually when I factor in shipping and everything, it's about the same to buy it somewhere physical- BPS, Cabela's, Dick's, or my local private store Serious Tackle. I'm also the type to look at something in person before I buy it, I've had too many bad experiences buying something online and when it arrived didn't meet my expectations. I don't really buy stuff cause it looks good, I buy them cause I think it can actually work. I watch videos, read reviews, all sorts of stuff. And when I see something I think could really help me out I buy it. Plus I don't mind helping out local stores. The internet is cool and all but it really does put a hurt on local and big box stores. I don't want to evolve to a purely online world, and this is coming from an early millennial!

Pardon the ignorance, but is there an advantage to a hair jig vs. a standard jig? I haven't had any luck on standard rubber skirted jigs, but I own a few of them in different styles and am far from giving up on them. I have seen hair jigs in magazines, etc, but haven't ever bought one because I don't understand the difference.

"Well I was born in a small town And I live in a small town" I grew up in a small, country town. It' not quite so small anymore, but it's still country! How I grew up: playing outside barefooted in the mud and rain, chasing after frogs, shooting BB guns, blowing stuff up with firecrackers, riding my bike around, and just getting into general mischief! Wouldn't have it any other way! Cities are fun to visit now and then, I live not too far from one of the biggest in the world, but to live there? No way! Too much traffic, too much hassle, too many rules, and too many people for my liking! Therefore, "Well I was born in a small town And I can breathe in a small town Gonna die in this small town And that's probably where they'll bury me"

I often use the alberto or J knot depending on what lines are being used... I recently learned the FG knot but it took me a while to get it down. I ended up having to invent my own style in order to do it. The hardest part for me was keeping the tension to do the wraps... but the hardest part in the end was finishing the knot. I had issues getting the hitches to hold, and issues cinching down the knot. But now that I've got it, I can do this knot in a few minutes and it looks pretty good. The type of line you use definitely makes a difference, I have found that smaller diameter braid that is rounded works a lot better (for me anyway) than flatter styled braid cause it seems to cinch down and hold better. The main reason I began to use the FG was because I wanted a longer leader so that I didn't have to retie the leader when fishing as often. I used to just use between 12-18" of leader, but when you are using one pole for different purposes and find yourself retying or switching lures a lot... that 12-18" goes pretty fast. Then I'd be stuck retying an alberto outside, in the wind... and it can just be a nightmare to do sometimes, especially when all I want to do is fish and have fun. Nothing like watching fish splash all around you while you're stuck retying a leader in a hurry and getting irritated. In short... use what will serve you the best. I think several of the knots have their purposes, I just have to figure out what I want to do with each set up before I leave and make sure I have lines that will accommodate my purposes. If you're just going to be running cranks all day on a pole, then use whatever knot you want and keep a shorter leader. Use a snap so that you can switch without retying. But I'm you're going to be switching from a texas rig to a wacky rig, etc, then FG may be what you want.

I have a Lew's Mach II speed spin that I like a lot, but it's rated as a 2500 though.

I just learned that my local Cabela's has 4 Favorite rods for sale back in the bargain cave. No idea where they came from. I actually kinda liked one of them, but don't have $120 to spend on a Big Sexy right now.

You know you have the perfect wife when she responds to that with "but honey, I was thinking more of a watermelon with red and green flake!"

Originally I was going to make this thread "what did you learn this week?" cause I have learned three things this past week alone... but decided maybe that was too short of a time frame, so I decided on a month. As the title inquires, what have you learned this month, in regards to fishing or technique? Me, I learned three things that I am pretty proud of in this last week alone: 1.) I finally learned how to tie an FG knot and currently have a 4 foot fluorocarbon leader tied onto my braid. I fished it for the first time today, and it worked beautifully! Didn't get caught in my eyelets (though I could hear it going through), nor did it even come close to slipping or breaking. So that's a win in my book as it greatly extends what I can do when fishing. I think I actually cast a little farther and more accurately with this set up somehow... go figure! 2.) Today I learned how to backhand cast a baitcaster! I'm not like pro level or anything, but I did two really good backhand casts that I was pretty proud of, one landed my senko just inches from a lily bush pile in the water. Unfortunately, no monsters came out to take it. 3.) I think I have figured out what works as far as fishing a lipless is concerned. Today I figured out that when I pop it up a certain way, I can actually feel it flutter and vibrate. Seemed like a pretty killer action, I know that'll entice something one of these days to take a chomp. So, now your turn! Let's hear it!

Well I remember catching my first fish when I was somewhere between 3 and 4 years old. It was a catfish from the family pond, a healthy 2.5 pounder or so. I still have the picture my mom took and dad and me getting ready to prepare it for dinner, I was just a little dink back then! Today I went out on a fishing trip and saw a really small girl fishing with her little pink Barbie pole and she seemed to be having a blast with dad. He really did a good job with her keeping it fun, I was very happy to see that. She even managed to catch a little baby fish... I think it was possibly a drum? That was pretty cool to see, brought back some memories. Minus the Barbie pole of course... I was using the same 5' ugly stick with a zebco 33 that I still have to this day!