BigBassCatcher

That's very encouraging! I've gone back to the pond and it isn't very big and I haven't yet seen the bass floating around so I'm assuming it survived so far or something already got to it. Not sure if there are snapping turtles in there though or anything big enough to eat a chunky bass like that.

I'm not sure what you mean. Those are the owner single replacement hooks, they are meant to replace treble hooks.

Usually the bass is hooked in the mouth, so I just flip it into my hand. I make sure to try to not let the fish touch the ground though because of their slime coating. I didn't know at the time that the bass was snagged in the gill. Lesson learned though, next time I'm definitely not flipping.

I've never eaten a bass before. I felt really bad I thought it might be able to survive so I held it in the water to see if it can still swim and it swam off decently. I've also read that bass blood coagulates in water, so hopefully it doesn't lose too much blood once back in the water. I realize that I took probably a 1/6 of the total surface area of its gills, but I figure the bass will still be able to breathe but as you said maybe it won't be able to chase down baitfish anymore.

I think I snagged a bass with my lipless and when I went to flip it onto land the gill ripped out of the bass. I eventually released it and it swam off just fine, but I'm still in shock this is the craziest thing that's ever happened to me while fishing and I still feel really bad. I fished for another hour there and I never saw the fish surface so it definitely did not die while I was there. Any chance this fish survives long time?

Wow great catches! So the general consensus is that it doesn't matter if the bass can see the spinnerbait well or not right? I would assume if you slow roll right in front of them they would be able to get a good look at the lure.

Alright so both techniques work, but which one is better in the summer (right now)? And generally how fast do you work yours in the summer? I've been experimenting with both a faster retrieve right at the top and a slower retrieve at the top with my rod tip high and both seem to produce.

I was watching a KVD spinnerbait tips video and he said that you should keep your spinnerbait above the bass so they don't get a good look at it. I've also heard that you should slow roll it at the bottom. Those two techniques contradict each other though. Should you fish your spinnerbait high in the water column above the bass' eyes or lower in the water column at the level of the bass or lower?

By fastest do you mean the taper? Is that a good thing or does it make it hard to cast?

Gotcha thanks. I might try it out.

TW has a nice sale on it $200 rod for 130. But I can't find many reviews on it, never heard of Ark. Is it shady or worth the plunge?

Is that generally spring time when they hatch?

I'm interested to see how that Z man spinnerbait performs in the water. It's got a lot of cool high end features it seems by the video, so I'm assuming it will be at a pretty high price point.

Would you have a link for this lure? I tried looking it up but couldn't find it. This really interests me because I need a spinnerbait which can get through weeds better. Thanks.

Oh wow, that's not inspiring haha.