Rich0775

Hawg, It's mostly Hydrilla and Elodea-type grass. Long and stringy and stands vertically in the water. There's a few places within driving distance (still 30 minutes or so) where this isn't much of a problem but literally all of my local ponds/lakes have this everywhere. Tue-Sat I can pretty much only fish locally given my school/work schedule so I gotta figure something out to bank fish this grass ?

I predominantly bank fish and my area has tons and tons of weeded/grassy areas - I've almost eliminated square bill cranks and, even, spinnerbaits from my box. Up until now I felt I could only exclusively fish topwater (whopper plopper, spooks, buzzbait, poppers, and frogs are what I bag) because I haven't been able to teach myself to punch and drop shot "correctly" or "effectively." Even throwing drop shots or punching with weedless rigs I still get snagged on almost every cast and I stopped trying for a little while. But, I will not be defeated so I'd like to ask you guys if anybody can give any advice on drop shotting or punching? For reference - I was using Sasuteki punch weights, EWG hooks, slim cylinder weights, and I have a ton of soft plastics to choose from.

Quick update! Have yet to buy a new rod and reel but I plan to buy a Lew's combo. For now, have just been slowly accumulating lures slowly as the weeks have gone by. I've been trying out a lot of stuff and playing around but I'm finding topwater baits at sunrise to be amazing for producing bites. Went out tonight around 7pm and threw a topwater frog through some brush/weeds/lily pads and hooked my first few fish since picking up fishing again. Have gone to a couple spots over these last few weeks but the frog (which is the newest lure I've bought) turned out a lot of fish! Also threw a Hula Popper and hooked a pretty nice pickerel ? -Richard

I guess I miscommunicated! Haha, I threw upstream so the lure could be retrieved with the current. When I casted straight in front of me, about 1/3 of the way through I would end up fighting the current in my retrieve. So, I was casting and immediately retrieving but casted so the current would push the lure to a straight retrieve at the end. Fighting the current, I figured, would seem really unnatural to fish so I tried to avoid that! :)

Yeah, sounds like I'll have to find the deeper areas of the river next time I head out that way. I live in Cook County so I'm gonna be checking out a lot of the local places over the next few months to get some insight. Really, I originally went out just to mess around with my baitcaster since this is the first one I've ever bought but I figured it out pretty fast and could cast pretty far. Once I got the casting down I started to cast upriver and let the current take my lure down past the objects (in this case, I could see some fallen logs in the water) but nothing was biting. Thanks for the feedback so far, guys!

Sup everybody, Went out to Momence a few evenings ago to do some bass fishing as the sun set and while there was activity everywhere around me for a solid hour I just couldn't get anything to bite. Momence has offshoots from the Kankakee river. I read that topwaters and spinnerbaits are the best at night/evening so I was going with white spinnerbaits and buzzbaits but nothing was working. I think the river was also like 2 feet deep at it's maximum depth where I was at if that has anything to do with it but, yeah, I just couldn't get anything to become interested. Anybody have tips for river fishing for bass or night fishing?

Thanks for the warm welcomes everybody! I currently don't fish much, actually. My entire life I've heard "You need a boat to REALLY fish" so I didn't pay it much attention or devote much time to it but I think that mentality is foolish. Anyway, I'm working full-time now I can add to my tacklebox slowly. Apparently there's lots of places around me to do some fishing which is why I've refreshed my interest but the fishing market is SOOO huge and there's so much stuff between lures, jigs, plastic worms, etc. that you can get into some analysis paralysis. Really what stops me is knowing when, how, and why to use one strategy over another. When do you use topwaters over plastic worms, etc. Currently I've got an Ugly Stik rod and Pflueger reel. Since the majority of fishing I've done has been in Wisconsin with my mom on vacations she's got most of my stuff but I know I've got some; -Spinnerbaits -Watermelon and Black Worms -Poppers -Jitterbugs -Buzzbaits and some topwater frogs

Hey everybody, I'm from the Cook County, Illinois area. I've enjoyed fishing for a long time (I'm in my early 20s) and for the majority of that time I was ignorant to the science and tactics innate to fishing. It wasn't until I saw friends of mine posting pictures of giant bass or Northerns and listening them go back and forth about which lure was best, etc. that I finally buckled and decided to take fishing more seriously. So, my first question is what is the best gear to buy to get started in fishing. I'm not looking to spend $1000s of dollars but are there any lures, rods, reels, etc. that I should look in to? Any books or videos you'd recommend to understand the art of fishing better? Things of that nature! Thanks for your time, -Richard