Sifuedition

I believe the key is the slow horizontal sinking action. If the hook is light enough, the worm will sink horizontal, or close to it. Based on that, you are popping the slack periodically to keep it constantly "sinking" in that small range. Also, it makes a big difference in how your hook hangs on the line when you rig it. If your hook is laying flat to the tag or lead line when you hold it straight, that is how the worm will present. You want the hook to stand away from the line when you hold the line taut. If the hook is laying against the line when you hold the line taut, then try taking the tag end back through the eye of the hook. Whether you go over the eye and pull back down or go under through the eye and then back down depends if the hook is tight to the tag or the lead. This added tension on the hook should help it stick out from the line, which will make a significant difference.

I picked up some Reaction Innovation swimbaits to use as a chatterbait trailer. Finally got to throw one today and I like the tail kick on those better than the grass pigs.

I've been fishing some ponds in Yukon. If anyone is in the area of Yukon to Edmond and interested in teaming up some weekends, hit me up. I'm badly out of practice, and wondering if my tough luck is down to that, poor ponds, or just an odd year. How to do approach a new pond? Do you test depths and somehow map the pond? If so, how? This seems especially challenging for me, and it might come down to me not committing to it, or not really understanding how. All of the ponds I've been fishing have salad (moss and sometimes vegetation) a little ways offshore and only a few feet under the surface making it difficult to use even a squarebill without just pulling in green constantly. The wind has been such that it is difficult to line watch and count down how long it takes for anything to stop sinking. I've seen a method of a bullet sinker with a bobber on the very end of the line. Then you pull the bobber to the sinker. Once there, pay out the line until the bobber hits the surface and you just got the depth. Given that this is fishing time spent NOT fishing, I have not even come close to trying it, lol. Is this something you do? Is it worth the time? These ponds do not have obvious structure or features, so casting off-shore is basically random guess-work for me so far. The weather here just hit our first sustained cold spell. I think this has slowed the fish down, but, slow baits are hard to use because I cannot cover much water and don't have any idea where will be my high percentage spots.

I picked up some of the grass pigs and have recently tried them as a trailer on a chatterbait. I wasn't real impressed with the tail kick, but, I will say they do seem durable.

I'm just getting back into fishing after too long away. So far, my kit is this: https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress™-tackle-pack#repChildCatid=995812 https://www.academy.com/shop/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&productId=3421565&catalogId=10051&categoryId=15562&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&urlLangId=-1&attr=&langId=-1&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10151#repChildCatid=3421566 The backpack has four small planos. I have my artificials in those. I have one more small one with terminal tackle I leave in the truck in case I decide to do some live bait fishing that I could just switch with one of those four. In the main compartment, I have the worm-bag. The small plano in that has my worm hooks, jig heads, bullet weights, etc. Gets me around ponds pretty well. I've looked at a lot of other bags trying to find one more efficient, but haven't found one. The only ones I see that would seem to hold as much run $150 - $200+.

As soon as you said cinderblock, I guessed it. Good description. I've had that fight, but on live bait.

I've heard some of the reusable shopping bags you might be able to find at a store like Wal-Mart are very similar in size and construction. Saw a youtube of a guy who had some, but can't find it now.

I currently wear my all around tennis shoes. I've been seriously considering some neoprene wader shoes, in case of a steep bank, etc, while pond fishing if I wanted to put a foot in the water to pick up a big one, or something. I have no idea how comfortable any of them are. They almost seem too cheap to be really good. I guess I could piggy back your thread on that, lol. I've been looking at the ones in Academy. https://www.academy.com/shop/browse/fishing/waders--accessories/wading-boots

Had a weird issue today. Lews Tournament Pro, just under a month old. I already returned it, so no emergency, but, I'm curious. Been fishing it for a few weeks now and it's been great. Today, however, first cast and it only goes like 15'. Cast a little harder and it goes like 17' and hard left. About ten casts in, I actually caught a ~1.5 lber. Throwing a 3/8 oz lipless crankbait. So I struggle around the first pond. I have three rods with me and so I simply spend more time on my other rods/baits. Just up the hill is a second, bigger pond. I get to the bigger pond and this distance limitation is driving me nuts. I open up the side plate and investigate the breaks and disc for too much oil, water, grass, whatever might be hosing up the breaks. The side plate has only been off once before and that was weeks ago and it's worked plenty of times normally since then. Nothing looks funny. I turn down the spool tension knob. No more distance, no backlash. I keep tweaking it down but it never changes the outcome. I tweak the breaks down and down and down until they are on the lowest setting. Still getting 15-20' casts. I turn down the star drag and get another 7-10'. That's weird. Work my way around the first half of the pond. Actually catch two ~2.5 lbers, one of which INHALED the LCR and put up a great fight. The back of the pond is a spillway from a third pond, so I pack up and head back to where I started to start working down the opposite bank. First cast, bird's nest. WTH? Oh, I turned the breaks all down/off. Maybe it's working now. Turn the breaks back where they should be. Bird's nest. Pick it out and turn the breaks to max. Bird's nest. So the breaks have gone from locked to non-existent. Open up the side plate. Pull out the spool. Looking for something that MUST look obviously wrong, but it all looks normal. Put it back together. 15' cast. Turn the breaks down and down and down. Breaks are locked again. Won't throw more than 15'. Cut off my LCR and tied it on another rod. ~15 cast later, landed a 4.4 lb. The reel was recently discontinued by Academy, so I got a great deal on it. However, that also means I couldn't just exchange it. I chose to pay the extra and pick up a Curado 200k HG. I suspect this might be something relatively easily repaired, but I'm not paying to repair a 25 day old reel. Any thoughts on what it might have been?

Saw a youtube but I can't find it now. Guy had tons of similar sized tackle boxes and stored them in reusable grocery bags he found at Wal-Mart. They looked something like the bag in this video. He had like 8 of these things full of plano's that he would just pick out what he needed that day to load on the boat or whatever. Seemed like a handy system.

Should be fine. That combo is a decent quality for entry level baitcasting. My personal preference would be the 7.1:1. I recently decided to test using a left-handed retrieve and made a cheap combo in a local sporting goods store. Abu Garcia Black Max ~$40 https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/abu-garcia-black-max-3-low-profile-baitcast-reel#repChildCatSku=106268312 All Star Classics ~$38-50 https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/abu-garcia-black-max-3-low-profile-baitcast-reel#repChildCatSku=106268312 This has surprised me with how well it fishes. Casts really well with 15 lb Yo-Zuri hybrid line. I'm not saying this combo is any better than the Lews, just saying there are options.

Unfortunately, Grand is 3+ hours from me. If I'm traveling that far, Grand would be on the list, but I'd need a boat. Of course, I'd like to hit Cedar Lake and Mountain Lake, too. Heck, anything with Florida strain bass, would be nice. http://newsok.com/article/3866796

My PB LMB is only ~5 lbs. It was probably a little over. Witnesses thought it was 6, but if I can't weigh it, I estimate 10-20% lower because excitement tends to get to us, you know? Anyways, I'd like to beat my PB. I'm in Oklahoma. Currently living in Yukon. Where should I go, without a boat, within, say 30-45 minutes of me to try to set a new PB?

Any suggestions for a landing net that would be compact and might be handy for bank fishing ponds? Typically, I wouldn't really consider it, but, some of the ponds have steep banks, like the dam side, and I typically don't even try them because if I get a good one, I don't want to try to pull it up 3-6 feet of embankment and I don't want to have to walk it around 50+ yards to the lower bank. I don't know that such a thing really exists, to be compact but handle that kind of embankment, but, I thought I'd ask.

I took an unplanned ~15 year break from fishing. Dad wanted to go for his birthday, so this August I went again and the bug is back as strong as ever. Unfortunately, this year has been odd since then, and nobody I've talked to in Oklahoma has had a lot of luck in late summer/fall. I don't think anything new has become a confidence lure, yet, but, I'm still excited about Senko's, Chatterbaits, Whopper Plopper's, drop shot, soft-body and hard-body swimbaits and flukes. Still looking forward to trying more shaky-head presentations, too. When I fished a lot 15-20 years ago, Slug-go's were popular, but I never caught very many on them. Those were very similar to the fluke's. Obviously, soft-body swimbaits were around then, but I never knew anyone who used them in this region because they didn't seem to catch much. I have a theory that may be odd... Baits like the Zara Spook were around then, like soft-body swimbaits, but nobody threw them. At least, nobody I knew or saw in this region. Now, it seems like everyone is throwing them. I wonder if fish go through cycles that may be generational, with baits they see too often and the next generation doesn't strike them as well. When the bait stops producing, fishermen stop throwing them. Some generations later, those baits are effective again after being rarely used for some time. Obviously, some will never go "out of style", but it almost seems like what has happened in my hiatus, some baits coming "back into style". Maybe it's just the fishermen, not the fish.

Perch/sunfish/bluegill - you feel how short the headshakes are and they tend to be like having a bat (the flying kind) on the line. Erratic, rapid turns and spins. LMB - headshake just feels different. More often a turn and pull, rather than side to side, unless your gear is too heavy for them to get their head around. Carp/drum - tendency to feel like dead weight that may make runs straight away from you. Catfish - whole body shakes rather than just headshakes, hugs bottom most often, may make runs in any direction. Telling the difference in the shakes is just time learning the feel of your rod/line combo. This is largely how the rod tip is pulled, with bigger or smaller tugs, but, it is also in the finer sensations coming up the line and through the rod material. I can usually tell when the line runs across submerged limbs or fish just from the subtle drag - tap feel. With most of mine, I can immediately tell if I have even a little bit of moss/weed on any kind of moving bait, like lipless crankbaits, swimbaits, etc, just by the difference in the feel of the action on the lure. The quality and features of your rod can make a big difference here. This pic was just the first that I found with this feature visible. Notice just in front of the finger-grip on this rod. The surrounding material is gone leaving your finger touching the actual rod blank. Features like this can give you much more sensitivity in the feel of exactly what is happening on the other end of that line.

Another little tip I've heard. Maybe some here can confirm/deny. Pay attention to the roughness of the bass's lips when you catch them. The hard shells tend to wear down the sandpaper like edge on their lips. The more crawfish they are feeding on, the less rough their lips will be. If you feel significant grip on the roughness of their lips, it is likely they are feeding much more on baitfish. I only heard that this year, but it sounded very logical. The local pond I fish the most has tons of shad, and I mean a lot. I have not seen one sign of crawfish. Their lips are very, very rough. It's too small of a sample size for me to confirm or deny, but, it is consistent, so far, with what I heard.

It's entirely up to the fish. I'm going to keep constant pressure on the fish to prevent it shaking loose. If that pressure is enough to end the fight in seconds, then it ends in seconds. If they are big/strong/active enough to hold against moderate, constant pressure, then the fight will last longer. Sadly, the ponds close to home where I do most of my fishing average only 1-2 lbs, which leads to shorter fights. I have no goal based on how fast/slow the fight is over. My goal is only on the technique of a high rate of success for landing the catch. Bass are pretty good at shaking a hook, so I don't ease up my pressure just to extend the fight.

I like the way you're thinking, but jigs/chatterbait/worms have been...unproductive. I've caught one on a wacky-rigged senko. Haven't even had a nibble on any of them otherwise. I have had some luck since originally posting this. Everything has been some form of shad imitation. Shad pattern hard-bodied swimbait - 1 ~1.5 lbs Weightless fluke - 1 ~ 2 lbs (fished slow and fast, but the one strike was fishing fast) Shad pattern 3/8 oz lipless crankbait - 7 from 3-1 lbs. They seem to want a faster presentation, but not topwater. I've tried slowing down with things like the swimbait and the fluke, and of course, the jig/worm/chatterbait, but getting bupkis. I'm not just outright burning them, but, I do have to pick up the pace a bit before I get strikes. Water temps still have not really dropped. Weather has not stayed cold more than a day or two at a time. Makes it tough to find the right lures for that presentation; fast, below water, not deep enough to pick up moss/lettuce. I'm really thinking the bass population is not great here. I've heard rumors of 4-7 lbs being pulled out of there, but, I suspect that they are either exaggerating or VERY few of those in there. There are a metric ton of shad in there and some of them are huge. I've foul hooked two shad that were each 8-12 inches. All of the bass I've caught have had full bellies. I think the baitfish outnumber the bass by a lot and so they aren't hungry often. Not sure why there aren't more large ones. It is a catch and release pond, but, it's kind of secluded. Secluded is an odd word...it is in a neighborhood, surrounded by houses on two sides. Rarely do I see any homeowners, however, and there aren't many people fishing it, or even know it is there. I'm kind of wondering if people have been harvesting a lot of the bass, in defiance of the rules.

Even small square-bills have to be fished really slow to allow them to float up to avoid the lettuce in all three of the ponds I've been fishing lately. Really makes it tough to figure out what to throw. The fluke may be the money-bait.

I don't know why, but I didn't see this post until now. Ironically, I was coming back to question why nobody suggested a fluke. As an update, two weeks ago, I caught four on a 3/8 shad pattern rattle trap. 2.8, 2.4, ~1.5, ~1. Since then, I've caught a few more ~1's on a rattle trap. Still haven't had much luck on anything else. I was hitting a new pond about 30 minutes away and couldn't pull anything back without weeds and/or moss at about 5-10 yards out. It hit me, just before dark, a fluke would let me run near weedless simulating the same baitfish. While I started throwing it too late at the new pond, it occurred to me that I haven't tried it yet on my regular pond. I'll probably check this out tomorrow.

I'm seeing a surprising number of Shimano Chronarchs on ebay for $140-200 that claim to be new. Honestly, it sounds too good to be true...so I assume it is. Any thoughts?

Any idea why Academy might be discontinuing the Lew's Tournament Pro? They marked them down from $199 to $129. I bought two real quick and two days later they don't have any left in Oklahoma or Texas. The employees say they don't know why. Is there a new model for this coming out soon?

Thinking about trying hi-viz yellow line on a spinning rod I use for some finesse pond presentations. Tired of not being able to see my line. The ponds I fish typically are muddy, at least somewhat, and a 20 lb braid should have a thin diameter, somewhat offsetting the line color. Does anyone feel convinced I'm throwing away money or fish?

I had that thought, too, about 3 minutes after hitting Post. If they absolutely consumed the whole bait, the front hook would go in the lower lip. Seems the rear hook would likely catch behind the tongue or in the gullet, though. All of these, the rear hook was clear of the mouth. I just pictured it coming from below and hitting the middle. Front hook is in the mouth and the rear is to the side, That would likely lead to a side-mouth hook. So, next thought is it rolling over to dive back down... And now I'm trying to be Dionne Warwick and her psychic friends, I guess. I was just hoping to take something away about the fish location and feeding pattern, right now. Water temps have been dropping. I'm thinking they went deep. Here, the temp dropped suddenly. Hot straight to chilly, no real gradual fall. The bite has been turned completely off for multiple weeks on this pond. Maybe the fall feed that seems to have been skipped caused aggressive fish to move up to strike, despite their desire to go deep right now. Just speculating, but not sure if I'm just filling in the details I want to believe or if it seems reasonable.