Black Hawk Basser

The lake adjacent to my town is extremely weedy for the first 15 yards off the bank. It's the stringy type of vegetation that breaks apart easily and grabs onto everything. Soft plastic buzz frogs like the Yum Tip Toad and Stanley Ribbit are my best friends once the veg gets thick. Zoom Super Flukes also play a big role. A Texas rigged plastic is literally the only option once we get into mid-June here.

I've done well in one of my favorite ponds with a white Berkley Havoc Flat Dawg, which is similar to a Senko. There's nothing remotely close to white for forage in this pond, except maybe a frog's belly. Matching the hatch is sometimes overrated, IMO! I am more focused on what shade/hue creates the contrast one needs for the sky/water conditions.

I'd say a spinnerbait. Close 2nd is a 3/8 or 1/2 oz skirted jig with a craw trailer. Senko is probably the most universal fish catcher. But, snooze.

I don't use circle hooks for bass, either. I have been using the Berkley Fusion hooks that have a mono weedguard. I set the hook, but I would describe it as more of an upward sweep as opposed to swinging for the fences like with a T-Rig. So far, so good. I do use circle hooks often for catfish. Just start reeling and lift the rod a bit ; that's generally all it takes.

Early on it was a red craw Super Spot. That progressed to square bill cranks. Lately, it has been spinnerbaits during wind, and a Poisontail jig/Grass Pig Jr. combo during calmer times. Wacky rigged BPS Stik-O has also nabbed a few. I'm in west central Iowa; weather has been very inconsistent. It has rained every other day and I'm guessing 75% of our days so far this spring have been below average temps.

I'd agree that it was probably carp making that commotion. It has been raining every other day here in Iowa too, and I have been doing just fine on dark and bright days. The best bait for me during clouds and wind has been a spinnerbait(obvious choice), and brighter days have called for a jig.

B Fish'n Pulse-R has the best tail movement at slow speeds that I've seen. They get their tails bit off often, though. The Berkley Grass Pig Jr is a pretty good and inexpensive small paddle tail.

My favorite squarebill for smallmouths is the Bomber Square A. The 1 5/8" size is perfect for the small river I fish. They do catch some dinks, but I also catch more large fish on the smaller size. Many, many by-catch opportunities with white bass, walleyes & catfish. They aren't expensive, so I'm willing to throw them in risky places, which can pay off. The best pattern for me is firetiger; shad, Foxy Mama & white/chartreuse back also score well.

Cloudy, windy days beg for a spinnerbait. Or after a good rain that stains up the water.

Something with some appendages, like a zoom brush hog.

This isn't exactly true. Look up how important it is to NOT harvest big bull bluegills during their spawn. Genetic makeup of a smaller body of water can get wrecked pretty easily when it comes to bluegills. I wouldn't say the same thing about crappies or perch. I, myself, don't see much of an ethical issue with fishing for a bedding bass. However, I think that it is incredibly boring.

I've had issues with Power Pro. I like Sufix 832. It's more expensive, but ends up costing you less if you don't have to strip off yards and yards due to backlashes and wind knots.

To some degree, I have noticed that higher quality=longevity. Not exactly "high end", but I have a Rapala Husky Jerk that has caught dozens of bass and walleyes, and it still runs true, and still catches fish. My Whopper Plopper has survived some crushing strikes from big bass and muskies alike. I've broken the wire on many cheap spinnerbaits, and some of the more spendy ones definitely seem to last through more fish.

I use a 1/0 or 2/0 EWG offset worm hook, same as what one might use for any other Texas rigged plastic. I usually "Texpose" them, as I am mostly working them on top where it's relatively clear of vegetation. I don't weight mine often, and if I do, it's only a 1/32 or 1/16 oz Water Gremlin Bull Shot sinker right against the hook eye. I want to be able to work the bait slowly if I have to, and still keep it on or near the top. I don't use anything larger than a 2/0 hook; I think anything larger impedes the bait's movement too much. I have 'nose hooked' them before with an octopus style hook. It gives them more action, but the hookup ratio suffers. Flukes catch a lot of fish. For me, they are a good bait for catching numbers, but none of my largest fish have come off of a Fluke.

My home lake is similar. From shore, I'm limited to Texas rigged plastics, frogs & buzz toads after mid-June. The lake is heavily settled, so I often target docks.

My top 5 from shore: 1. Double Colorado spinnerbait, usually black/red, sometimes double willow in shad 2. Smokin shad or bluegill flash Flukes 3. Storm Chug Bug, clear or bullfrog 4. Texas rigged worms/Senkos 5. Black/blue or white Chatterbait Honorable mentions to red craw Super Spot & silver Husky Jerk, but they are nearly impossible to fish from shore after April here.

I don't share mine other than maybe my fishing buddies in person. I don't do any social media, and rarely post pictures on here. I put my photos in Google Drive, and fill in the name of the picture with date, time, lure, & fish size. I have a folder for each body of water in the Google Drive. That's my lazy way of having a journal.

Good ole salt & pepper 1.5" tube is almost always deadly

I cannot speak to the quality of the Veritas, but I have a 7' medium Veracity spinning rod, and it had two guides break off, and the tip broke about 8" down. The hook keeper also started to get loose in the epoxy. I don't think I was being overly rough on it, I think it had to have been poor quality control and weak components. I didn't bother to mess with customer service; I just replaced the guides myself, put a tip on, and now I have a 6'4" medium heavy rod.

I just put my fish by my face, almost touching it, reach out as far as I can, and snap. As mentioned, having the camera level with the fish helps you scale the size with your body parts. If you put the camera too far below the fish, it makes it seem much larger. That said, I really don't care how the fish looks size-wise. I just want it to be a nice photo with good lighting and color, no glare.

Great tips so far, and I would not do much different. I will add that if you don't want to mess with worms the whole time, sometimes just a little 1/64 or 1/32 oz hair jig will work great with no bait, especially this time of year! Fish it the same way as the worm setup; 1.5 to 2.5 feet below a very small bobber.

I've only used two, Bass Pro Shops' version and the Stanley Ribbit. I don't know if the BPS toad I had is made anymore, but it worked great, and was pretty tough. I bought them years ago and didn't try them much until a two years ago. The Ribbits also work great for me, but they are a lot less durable than the BPS ones I had, and way more expensive. I just bought some Yum Tip Toads in black, we'll see how they work in comparison. I just use a EWG worm hook and don't have many failed hookups. Definitely try them; I love topwater soft plastics, and even use some that aren't intended to be on top, but work them that way anyway. This is a great option when they are a little too finicky to hit a big popper, prop bait, or buzzbait.

I've never been much of a buzzbait guy, but I threw them more last year and had nice results, especially at dusk. I now own a black and red Cavitron that has not been out of the package yet, but I'm eager to try it.

I have the ability to make a variety of lures and I tie a lot of flies, but personally I still wouldn't make inline spinners. I just don't use them often enough to justify the investment it would take to make them. 30 spinners for $18 is not bad. That would be pretty much a lifetime supply for me. However, I prefer the ones dressed with hair or feathers, so that would be the way I'd go.

I find that you can start fishing using the general color theories, then refine from there. When you fish enough at a particular body of water, you can really hone in on what seems to work best. This obviously applies not just to color choices.