Squarebill79

10 days per year? There is a small lake that I fish often from May-September. I can always produce a topwater bite from dusk until about 10:30 right on cue every night in the summer. As far as the plopper, I just picked one up a couple months ago. I think Ive gotten a 4 and a 3 off my plopper, but I would agree with you, its not as big of a producer as I thought it would be after reading some reviews. My standard poppers seem to catch more fish.

Nope! Only time I ever resort to live worms is if Im fishing for catfish or catfish bait. To me its cheating and takes out all the reasons why I fish for bass to begin with.

I fish on a regular basis on both my kayak and my bass boat. I only take my kayak out on no-wake lakes around here. If I want to fish the big lake I'll get out the boat but the kayak stays on the no-wake 4mph lakes. Its just not worth the extra saftey risk to me, I dont trust drunken idiots running 40 mph all over the place on the big lakes.

I normally get out 5 days a week on average. My work schedule allows that I can go in the morning for a couple hours and then in the evenings.

The problem is alot of people dont abide by the "rules and regulations". I have one of the numerous fishing apps on my phone(I wont mention names) and I can't tell you how many times Ive seen people keeping largemouth bass that are well under the length limit. It does make me cringe a little when people catch trophies and eat them but if its legal then I trust the fisheries biologists know what they are doing and there will still be others out there. One time I was on a weekly trip, this particular lake has a 12-18 inch slot limit. Towards the end of the week the guy at the cabin next to me comes walking up with a bucket of three bass that were about 15 inches. I told him if he knew the lake had a slot limit, his reply was, "Well yeah, but weve been here all week and havent caught much so tonight we are going to have a fish dinner". To this day I regret not turning him in to the game warden.

No, unfortunately I didnt. I was off the water before they were finished that day. I quit around noon and they were still going into the mid afternoon.

Lake Sugema in southeast Iowa.

If the ramp isnt very busy I would fish it, but be mindful of boaters. As a boater and bank fisherman myself there is nothing more frustrating than launching the boat and a family of 4 has setup shop on the ramp complete with coolers, lawn chairs, and 8 rods in the water. If its busy I wouldnt recommend fishing there long, youll have some annoyed fisherman. I fish ramps sometimes when bank fishing but I always make sure its not busy and if someone comes Ill stop what im doing until they are gone.

I've been fishing for years and consider myself and intermediate level bass fisherman. I can generally catch alot of fish when Im out. I know nothing about tournaments however, never been in one, havent even considered it as something I would do. I generally liike to fish for relaxation and fun. Last Sunday I pulled up to my favorite lake about 7 in the morning, noticed there were about 25 trailers already in the parking lot. They were all from the same county so it quickly dawned on me some kind of tournament was going on. Well that morning I proceeded to nail a 6.2lber on a wacky rig, followed up by a 5.3lber on a crankbait, I also caught 3 others in the 13-15 inch range which I estimated to between a pound or two. Another boat pulled up by me and I overheard a guy saying, "If I could only get another 3lber I'll be happy with today". This got me thinking, had I been in this tournament what kind of success could I have had that day? I estimate I had probabably around 16lbs of fish for the my five best. For you guys that fish tournaments, is that competitive with what guys catch in these? Should I try my luck at a tournament sometime? Did I just happen to get lucky that morning by bagging two over 5lbs? Disclaimer.......this is a midwest lake in Iowa, i know in the south the fish are generally alot bigger.

I have 2 of the original Carbonlite rods and I love them. They are extremely sensitive, I use them for wacky rigging senkos and for topwater stuff. I throw cranks on them also but I prefer other rods for cranks as it seems you get alot of vibration and movement in the rod when throwing for example squarebills. I recently bought a Pro Qualifer 2.0 casting rod just to try something new and I dont like them as well. They dont seem near as sensitive and the guides seem cheaply made.

The other day I was fishing a local pond, I threw some sqaurebills in the shallow....nothing, tied on a senko and fished the deeper water.....nothing, tied on a frog and worked it over the weeds......nothing, tried a popper just outside the grass line....still nothing. I decided I had enough bass fishing so put away the baitcasters, got out my ultralight to fish for panfish instead. I tied on a jig and 2" gulp minnow, proceeded to catch about 5 bass just working it really slow. Now, Im not saying go out and try minnows for bass, thats doesnt sound like much fun to me, but the point is maybe try downsizing a little bit.

Techniques that Ive caught thousands of bass on: -Squarebill Cranks -Poppers -Jerkbaits -Senkos Techniques that just dont work for me: -JIGS -JIGS -JIGS -Frogs -Dropshotting -Oh and did I mention JIGS

You were running 45mph at night? Wow, just wow. Maybe start there when you are trying to figure out what went wrong.

I remember as a kid going through my dads tackle box, he must have had a hundred different bass jigs or varying color. I got back into bass fishing heavily 5 or 6 years ago, started out with crankbaits, then learned how to Texas Rig and Drop shot, fish various topwater techniques. A few weeks ago I decided to give jigs a shot, since everyone on here talks about them and Ive seen local guys do really well. I bought about 5 different colors ranging from brown to chartreuse. I took them out to a local pond one night, absolutely nothing. I watched some videos about pulling it along the bottom similiar to worms, tried swimming it straight it, tried bouncing it off the bottom, but not even a bite. I rigged up some senkos on a wacky rig and proceeded to catch a few on that within minutes. So my question, what am I doing wrong? Were they not in the mood for it that night? Will it only attract the bigger bass? Do I need a trailer? I see alot of guys using a craw trailer but in my local ponds crawfish are non-existent, then only places i could see bass eating craws are places with alot of rock structure, this particular pond is just a dugout mud pit, no rock to be found.

Rapala Crankin Raps, the 3 and 5 size squarebills. I think they discontinued them a couple years ago but Ive caught thousands of bass on them through the years. They are my favorite crankbait for shallow water.

I always use 3/0 EWG for senkos, if Im not getting bit Texas rigged I just flip it over to wacky rigged, leave hook and weight the same, Ive actually had more success this way than the straight Texas Rigged. I bought a pack of the BPS Sticko the other day. I love this bait! Seems they are alot more durable than the traditional Yamamotos, I hooked 11 bass last night before having to get a new senko, with the Yamamotos sometimes its one fish per senko I noticed. They also seem a little heavier than Yum Dingers also which is a positive.

Im over it, been going out the last few nights and have been getting a nice mix of 14-17 inch fish. I think my main problem is I generally dont set the hook when Im using squarebills. When Im using Texas rigged worms or jigs I always reel down then set the hook but squarebills they usually just crush it so I assume its hooked well. Ive lost a few smaller fish on this lure also, its a Rapala Crankin Rap CR-3, Im wondering if my hooks are junk?

I don't fish exclusively for bass. I like to fish year around so I kind of have a schedule that I follow every year. January-February, ice fishing for trout and panfish March-Walleye fishing rivers, trout fishing April-May, crappie and bluegill, bass once the bite picks up in Mid-May June-August, Bass and Catfish September-November, Bass and Walleye December-Walleye, early ice fishig Some of the reasons I fish for Bass -Enjoy being outside and nature -I like getting on Google Earth, searching out new ponds, looking for spots on a pond that might be productive, look at the wind direction and how it will be blowing that particular day on a body of water -I enjoy the challenge of catching them on different lures, learning new techniques -I enjoy the pursuit of the trophys

So I decided to go out last night to try out my new baitcaster, got the new Pro Qualifier 2 combo that was on sale. Im more into Carbonlites but decided to mix it up a little this time. The bite was pretty slow, only caught a couple dinks. Finally I hooked into something nice, fought it up to the surface and it was a 5 or 6lber. Right as I was about to land it swam into the weeds and somehow slipped off, left a huge boil on the surface. Any of you guys have a simliar story of losing a trophy? It might not seem like much if you live in the south, but here in Iowa anything over 5 is a trophy and I only average a couple in that range every summer after fishing pretty much every evening from May until October. Needless to say, I didnt sleep very well last night after losing it.

I have that exact lure, that might be the 1.5, I have the same one only in the shallow runner version. I use it only flats that are only 1 or 2 feet deep ad it works well. On the subject of found lures, a couple of years ago I found a Luckycraft RC 1.5 floating around, has turned out to be one of my most productive lures.

I have a BPS about 10 minutes from my house so I go there frequently. Im a big fan of their reels, I think I own 5 different models. Im on a budget so I feel like I get the best bang for my buck and they have many rods and reels right around the $100 mark. Im not a very big fan of their own line of lures though, alot of them Ive tried are junk so I just go with the brand names. I will say, Ive caught hundreds of bass on their $2.99 bargain bin poppers.

Thanks for the replies. I was able to do a temporary fix myself until my new pawl arrives. I ordered a new Pro Qualifier 2.0 as they are on sale now for $79.99, so now Ill have a backup reel.

Hello all, just got back into bass fishing heavily in 2014, bought my first baitcaster in 2015, a BPS Pro Qualifier. Last night I had it out and the line roller is stuck in one spot so at all spools up in the same area. Now, Ive been using this reel extensively from about May-November the last 3 summers so its gotten heavy use and this isnt the first thing that has gone wrong. My question is this, what do you guys do with you old reels that finally give up? Is it worth fixing? Should I just buy a new one? Some of you guys that have been fishing for 30-40 years, how long does a baitcaster last usually? Should I be happy with getting 4 years out of it and retire it?