Glaucus

Nope. Might be the best sound in the world.

Bass do this all throughout the summer in one of the ponds I fish. They get so shallow that you can see their dorsal fins poking out of the water. They're always facing the bank too. Just sitting and waiting to attack. Minnows are all along the shore, and frogs sit right at the bank too. You'll see or hear the bass blowing up on minnows or frogs all the time. The pond is crystal clear. Aside from getting a great visual on them to 100% identify them as LMB, I've also caught them while they do this. I'll cast past them or onto the shore and drag a weightless trick worm right to them and they destroy it. Those who haven't seen it, well that sucks, but bass do do this. Because *you* haven't seen it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. The world doesn't revolve around your personal experiences.

I pulled one out of a muddy river near a dam under a bridge that was barely even green and had no stripe. I've seen many others as well, but not to that extreme. Fairly common.

If I'm not getting bit, I keep trying different things. If it continues to be slow, I pop a squat, drink some brews, and start junk fishing a wacky rig. I'll throw it here, there and everywhere while relaxing and enjoying the freedom of the outdoors.

Mostly spinning due to my preference for weightless plastics and finesse techniques, and living in the north where vegetation isn't typically too thick - lots of clear water ponds, quarries, and lakes for Largemouth, and rivers and creeks for Smallies. I'll use a baitcaster when necessary due to unusually thick vegetation, worming, jigging, and reaction style moving baits.

You shouldn't be adding weight to a Senko. 3/0 EWG, no weight. The slow fall and shimmer is the entire point of the Senko.

I'm aware that they make left handed baitcasting reels. That's not the point. The right tool for the right job is the point. And for finesse, my preferred style, spinning is far away the better and right tool.

What do you bass fish with the most, a baitcasting setup or a spinning setup? For me, it's spinning. Probably 75/25 in favor of spinning. I really love to finesse fish over power fish. The only time I pick up a baitcaster is when the vegetation gets thick or I'm throwing a crankbait, swimbait, or heavy top water, or fishing a river. I really love light line and weightless or lightly weighted plastics. Senkos, trick worms, Ned Rig, etc. I'm not a trophy bass hunter or a tournament fisherman. I'm usually on a pond or a small lake having a blast catching a ton of bass, many of which are 3+ lbs despite the belief that finesse catches dinks. Once in awhile if I've had my fill of bass, I'll throwing big baits out deep to try and hook into a monster, which at that point is all baitcaster.

It would be unusual to *not* get hung up and lose lures. If you never lose anything, you're not throwing them in the right places.

I understand that it happens and I'm pretty much over it. Just a bummer. Consolation is knowing you can catch the big ones.

My PB is just about 7 pounds. I just got back from bank fishing a pond. I was using 6 inch lizards. Hooked into a giant, got it close, realized it was way bigger than my PB, and then with one final jump and head shake it got off about a foot away from being landed. For a split second every part of me was ready to jump in and grab it real quick before I realized how dumb that would be.

What the heck is the deal with SMB attacking the face of hooked LMB?

My buddy and I found a fairly large crystal clear pond. Fishing wacky Senkos we were pulling out healthy Largemouth and Smallmouth from it. Caught upwards of 40-50 each, mix of both species. I've of course seen bass following hooked bass before, but something especially interesting was going on. Sometimes when we would catch a LMB, as it got closer we could see a SMB attacking it's mouth as if to steal the bait from it. Never vice versa. Btw this place is forever our secret. Bass bit every type of lure readily and plentifully, no signs of fish being caught before or any signs of humans having been there.

You know how many people are too late to retaliate before they are killed themselves because they didn't want to react? Gasoline can be deadly and painful. Who knows what the next move would have been.

1 keeps me doing what I'm doing and where I'm doing it, if I get a 2nd pretty quickly it will hone me in, and a 3rd is definitely a pattern.

Wouldn't be hard to justify shooting the jerk at all. Poured gasoline on people who would then fear for their lives thinking he was gonna spark a flame.

I have a friend who rigs up all of his worms that way and swears by it.

Green Pumpkin is the best and most commonly sold, bought and used color.

I've seen bass eat my worms far too many times to believe that the second tap is the fish generally spitting it back out. They get a portion of it in their mouth, and then slurp up whatever portion is still left outside of the mouth. Hence tap, tap.

You may be getting the wrong idea. My abilities are simply average or perhaps above average in terms of bass fishermen. Perhaps I am blessed to have excellent waters. It's the same anywhere I've been though, if the population is good and healthy. I think at worst anyone can throw a wacky Senko and catch some bass from any decent pond. That's not to say you'll be walking away having caught anything but some dinks and maybe a 2 or 3 pounder. But the fish is a very catchable and predictable species.

Hunting the lunkers is a challenge, but, in my opinion, the fish itself is not challenging. They're just fun. You can go to any bass pond and throw soft plastics and catch several fish. You can go to any lake and, with a little knowledge, identify where they will be. It is indeed hard to consistently find the quality bass, but I'm speaking generally. As for your comment about moving on to something else should it become easy for you, well, we have different reasons for bass fishing, then. For me it's a passion. It's something that I love. Difficulty or lack thereof has no impact on this passion of mine.

Also, most bass anglers are sport fishermen so how a fish tastes is irrelevant.

Plentiful, easy to catch, put up a good fight, can be handled with ease, lots of fun techniques to use to catch them. They're just a fun fish and the fishing is still enjoyable if you're not necessarily catching.

I'm just going to run in here for a bag of Senkos and Trick Worms. $165 dollars and packs on packs on packs of plastics, and a plethora of crankbaits and swimbaits later, here I am after just going in here for a couple of things. ? Nobody warns you about what will happen after the first time you pick up a rod and catch a fish. ?