Lead Head

I'm a big fan of sunline fc sniper in 12#. It has been good to me.

An actual skunk is rare but definitely happens. Days with only 1 or 2 dinks are more common and usually come when I insist on trying to force-feed the bass what I want them to eat. Some days I just want to fish what I want to fish... and if it's a poor day because of that, so be it.

Do you fish heavy cover? If yes you will want a heavy rod for frogs and jigs, if no MH should work just fine.

A circle hook since whatever grabs a live bluegill will likely swallow it.

Sounds like your just wanting to catch any fish of size. If that's the case, use anything available to you to catch a small bluegill or sunperch then use it as bait. You can let it swim around weightless or add weight (6-12 inches away from the hook) to keep it in a general area and away from potential snags. Throw on a bobber to gain even more control. When I was young and limited to fishing only a small strip of heavily pressured bank this was my go-to tactic for just catching a fish. Fair warning, this has the potential to catch almost anything that swims.

That would be the most comfortable way for me to do it... ymmv

While it is totally possible to reel super slow with a crank or spinner you will find yourself going way, WAY too fast as soon as you aren't 100% focused on "reeling slow".

I haven't used a tatula (and likely never will since I'm a finger on the line guy) but I have logged some time with a fuego ct. The fuego is an absolutely solid reel and with so many people saying the only difference between it and a tatula is reel knob bearings and the t-wing system (that in my opinion just introduces unnecessary moving parts), my suggestion would be to grab 2 fuegos a 6.4.1 and a 8.1.1. That's just my opinion, I'm not a pro or a reel guru. All I can see is money saved that I can use on a rod. And about braid... don't be afraid of it. It's my personal experience that it is much easier to pick out a backlash when it's braid, and you are less likely to damage braid when picking out a backlash. Going with cheap mono until you get a feel for baitcasters is a good plan, but don't be afraid of braid if it's what you really want to use for heavy cover.

I lean on green pumpkin because my personal experience has been that it works well in all water conditions. Black/blue has never been as good for me as green pumpkin in clear water. I also feel like using a solid green pumpkin jig and changing the color/profile of the trailer let's me quickly and easily imitate several different types of forage.

Good ol T-rig seldom let's you down. Learning to catch fish on a T-rig is what made me fall in love with bass fishing.

I fish mostly dirty water so... Cranks- root beer chartreuse Jigs- green pumpkin w/ orange or red Plastics- CA 420 (black/green with a little red) Topwater frogs- yellow bottom

Really? I've never had an otter water slap at me, they usually just run off and hide. There aren't as many otter here as there are beaver so I don't have nearly as much experience with them. This particular beaver was in a pond I would occasionally fish near my house. Our water slapping battles were epic.

It wasn't... when it was done it came over and slapped the water behind me. Had to get the boat paddle and slap the water back at him.

I used the 15# for a couple years without any problems. Then I ran into an entire spool that would break on the hook set every time. It ended up ruining 2 separate fishing trips before I gave up on it. I don't use it anymore because I don't want to run the risk of getting an entire spool of worthless line.

Thanks! It's rare, but always cool when someone catches it.

I mentioned it in another post but I'll say it again here since you asked. For me, the Huk shirts are far better than Colombia. After wearing a Huk shirt my Colombia omni-shade feels thick and hot. This is just my personal experience and the Huk shirts are more expensive so you might want to try one on somewhere before paying the extra money. With our 95+ degree, 90% humidity summers here in AR small improvements can feel significant.

Start off with plenty of tension on your spool and cast lightly at first. You don't want to bully that reel like you could the older ones. My brother-in-law recently made a similar upgrade and I get a kick out of the creative swearing coming out of the back of the boat every 20 minutes or so. He can cast fine but eventually he forgets or gets in a hurry and tries to cast with way more force than is necessary... then the swearing starts.

Personally, I usually default to a baby brush hog then expand from there. Honestly, Im of the opinion that pretty much anything will work if you halfway "match the hatch" and put it in the right place. So my advice would be to focus more on color (keeping it pretty simple) and location than on type of bait.

Can't speak for diawa (yet, trying out a fuego ct soon) but for just a little bit more than a crush combo you can have a lews tournament mb on a dobyns fury. I have fished with both the crush and mb/fury combo and in my opinion the mb/fury is FAR superior.

I don't know why, and I'm sure it's rare... but there are occasions when beaver will eat fish. After watching one munch on a large perch in a local pond I did a little internet research and it turns out others have seen similar behavior. There is even a YouTube video of a beaver eating a fish. Most documentation I could find was of beavers eating freshly cleaned fish carcasses but I saw what I saw. And before anyone asks... yes it was a beaver, otters don't swim up to the boat and tail slap. Call me crazy if you want... you won't be the first (or last unfortunately)

Thanks for the ideas. I'm sure it's something in the normal food chain. It just really puzzled me to find so many fish with the same wound. I was wondering if maybe someone would see it and flat out know what was doing it. I'll be keeping my eye out for birds from now on but there really aren't many out there. I see all kinds of stuff on the river from herron to bald eagles (even pelicans in the winter) but not at this place.

As far as shirts go, I have a Colombia omni-shade, Magellan, and Huk. For me the Huk shirt is the best and it's not even close. It is the coolest and makes my Colombia feel thick. I like the shirt so much I decided to try out the gloves can't really say much about them yet, only used them once. They have a rubberized texture in the palm for grip that I either love or hate... just not sure which yet.

Let me give some more detail. First off, Central Arkansas. The lake is owned by a mining company that uses the water for dust management. Aside from me and my dad it might see 5 or 6 boats a year and outboards are not allowed. Because of the location and presence of heavy machines I seriously doubt it's a raptor of any kind. Water visibility is really bad, constant dust and dirt (both run off and airborne) keep it at about 4-6 inches. An otter is definitely possible but unlikely. Gar and turtles are super common. All the wounds and scars are almost identical, even predominantly on the same side of the fish. After thinking about it I have seen this in the past just never so frequently.

Hmm... didn't think of birds. Don't ever see them out there but I'm sure they are around.

Have seen 5 different fish with this same wound. 2 were pretty fresh and the others were healing up with one having just a scar. This is in a small private lake that gets almost no pressure.