roadwarrior

Frank19, That is the traditional set-up for both types of reels.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1158577137

Welcome aboard! I suggest you put it back in the pond. Otherwise, it can survive is a regular equarium if you feed it minnows every week. The bass will lose most of its color and become pale. Even if it stays healthy, they tend to look sick.

Bass from murky water and deep water are often pale.

A friend of mine in Houston once told me ya'll had three seasons: July, August and summer.

Laggyman, Bass don't "think". One big difference about pond bass is that they can be found anywhere. They have to move around the pond to find baitfish rather than waiting on a meal to come to them. The options are just more limited which changes their predatory pattern significantly. In lakes and rivers, cover and structure hold fish, pond bass can be found throughout the smaller body of water.

Bass are still all over the lake, but deep structure is a high percentage choice. Lures may vary from region to region, but in the Mid South I fish soft plastics and jigs year around.

Shhhhhhhhhhh...

Nope. Tennessee smallmouth like the smell of tobacco and taste of beer. If there is any value in "scents" it's after the fish has picked up the bait. I sometimes use MegaStrike because it has the consistancy of Vasoline which gives soft plastics a slimy feel. I don't really feel that it or any other "attractant" adds much.

I posted this response earlier today: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1158764602

Yep, you're right. This thread has made me disfunctional, too.

This thread is disfunctional. I would guess that there is not a bass in a hundred that weigh 8 lbs. So, let's do the math: (8000 X 100) / 35 acres = 22,857 bass per acre. George Welcome says Stick Marsh/ Farm 13 is one of the most densly populated bass lakes in the country with an estimated 800 bass per acre. Sense of smell? Not bass or at least not much. The only time bass can't feel vibration (lateral lines) is when they float, belly up. Oops! I just noticed fisherman_bob is no longer with us.

Oops! I forgot to mention line size, which I find to be very important when smallmouth fishing. As Deuceu72 suggested, light line should be used for live bait and soft plastics. For the hard baits, I don't think it is important.

"Matching the hatch" is a trout fishing term that has infiltrated bass talk and I don't think it applies. You need something different to make your presentation stand out. Color, vibration, profile, rattles and especially size are all considerations. Lots of guys think you need to downsize for smallmouth...Wrong! I like bigger baits than whatever is the main forage. Sometimes natural colors are the ticket, but I like American Shad, green and blue & silver with an orange belly, too. Here are a couple of specific suggestions: Fat Ika Mizmo 3 1/2" tubes, Kent's Classic (squash green) GYCB Single Tail Hula Grub (watermelon with large black flakes, 194) GYCB grubs (green, smoke and white with silver and black flakes) Lucky Craft Pointer 100 or 128, American Shad, Baby Bass and Original Tennessee Shad Rapala Husky Jerk, blue and silver. In low light, LC Sammy and Zara Spook If you decide that you really want to get after them, fish the biggest farm raised shiners you can buy and fish them on a split shot rig. Be careful, you might get your arm broken!

Your cast should place the bait 10 to 15 yards off the bank. A slow horizontal sweep of 6 to 12 inches will move either lure off the bottom. Play with this in clear, shallow water and you will see exactly what kind of action you have while fishing.

Ick! I would fish somewhere else. There is nothing about those conditions that sounds interesting to me. All of the decomposing plant materal simply steals oxygen from the water. The fishing environment sounds terrible. I wouldn't fish that section of the lake.

Well, on my original response I was just talking about myself. I haven't caught big bass. From the get-go I thought about some of George Welcome's posts where his clients have had full days of topwater only. I'm glad he picked up this thread and had the time to post some pics. No doubt, those are some fine bass!

A Fat Ika looks like a solid tube, but the action is completely different. I like tubes, too. Tubes are killer, but they are not Fat Ika. The Kinami Palm Tree is the same bait marketed by Gary Yamamoto's son. You can buy the Fat Ika direct: www.baits.com

Many of our members are minors whose parents don't want any personal information disclosed over the internet. Anyone (including you my friend) can put that in their signature as I suggested.

Everyone has that option in their signature. Notice mine at the bottom? Germantown, TN.

Agreed. I have never caught big bass on topwater, but I still like to fish them. My biggest bass was actually a smallmouth several years ago on a spook. We were fishing east to west and just as the sun was beginning to rise a big girl smashed my lure. When she came up and out of the water the light of dawn made her sparkle like a gold nugget. I guess she didn't like that spook, she tossed it back to me from about twenty yards out! So, my "biggest bass" doesn't really qualify, she was not even close to being boated. p.s. KU_Bassmaster, I thought the same thing about crankbaits until you caught your PB at Fork. I fish crankbaits quite a bit these days, but have only caught one big bass on these lures. Oddly, it was my PB, too!

Norm, Summertime is my very best season. That is when I have caught ALL of my 10+. I fish soft plastics year-around, but this is why I posted this thread: This particular approach works ALL OF THE TIME! Maybe you haven't noticed, but several members have caught their PB in the last thirty days. Wassup with dat? Temperatures are trending down, but this EXACT tactic will continue to work, in every part of the country. BTW, All but one of my best bass have been caught on the hottest, bluebird days of the summer around midday.

Wow! National Spokesman, that's tremendous. Congratulations, C.A.S.T. for Kids has gotten themselves a good man.

Yep, I think so if you are really after bigger fish. The trade-off is far fewer bass or maybe none at all. A lot of guys, I would say most guys, don't fish deep water at all. If you were tourney fishing, I think it would be silly to past up easy fish early, but I don't fish tournaments. This is a major reason tournament fishermen, including the pros, rarely catch double digit bass- they are not really fishing for them.

Touche' FatBoy, You are technically correct unless there is an outcropping that allows you to stand out from the general shoreline. I suppose 45 degrees is reasonable, but it is important to try to fish "approximately" parallel to the bank in order to keep the bait in the strike zone. BASS Fisherman, I think a big splash attracts bass, but with these baits, that is not really an issue.