schplurg

Only thing I've ever hooked with a frog is a bullfrog. 2 actually. I haven't been fishing very long so that should change, but I thought it was funny to catch one that way. It was sitting in the brush a couple feet off shore. I knew he was there the first time. He leaped for it and grabbed it out of the air. Barbless so at least the little dude was easy to release.

I went to a pond I frequent to go bass fishing. When I got there I saw at least half a dozen bluegill apparently establishing beds. There were others too trying to take the beds from the others. They were 2 to 8 feet off the bank just sitting there. I'd never bed fished for bass but the gills seemed to behave in the same manner as a bass should. Pulled out 8 and 1 accidental bass. It was hard getting them to bite, they'd slam it or move my bait out of the bed. It took some patience and I really had to tick some of them off, and boy were they ticked! All gills went right back to their beds on release. Was unexpected and fun.

Wait, your fishing spot is 8 miles long? That's a big spot!

It's been my experience that these people don't know what the rules are. In my county there are 5 or 6 lakes to bring a boat or yak on. You have to get an inspection for the mussels. They don't inspect jack squat by the way, at least they never have for me, they just take my cash. They ask me if I've had my boat outside of the area and all I have to do is say no. That's it. What a crock. Then it gets really stupid. They put an inspection tag on your boat so that if you go to another local lake you don't need to pay for an inspection again as long as you have not been outside the area with your vessel. Except at Coyote Lake. There they make you pay every time. When I asked the people there they said I was wrong and I have to pay every time no matter what. But every other lake in the county honors the tags and I do NOT have to pay for another inspection. When I asked about it at another lake the guy said "They don't know what they're doing at Coyote, they're wrong" I went back to Coyote again and the woman said that everyone else is wrong and she is correct. Why even have the tags if I'm supposed to pay for inspection every time? Hello? McFly???? Even stupider: Me and a friend brought his jon boat to Coyote. He'd just registered it that morning. The guy there said technically he's not supposed to let us launch for a MONTH after getting registered because we couldn't prove where the boat had been previously! What? That makes zero sense! We did launch that day because he "looked the other way". LOL whatever dude. And that's California in a nutshell. California IS a nutshell - all the nuts are here! As I said earlier in another thread today - I am outta here early next year.

Or move away from Cali like I'm doing early next year. This place has gotten ridiculous in just about every way. I'd move just for better fishing and lakes alone. Love the state, hate the idiots running it. Not all states, if any, charge as much, and some don't have fees at all so I disagree that they need the fees for upkeep (addressing another poster here). California just likes to waste our tax dollars on other things. I mean where does the money go? Almost last in education, first in homelessness, highest in poverty, poor electrical grid, poor/corrupt water management, sanctuary state, gas prices, insane taxes. Why am I still here? Oh yeah, I'm leaving!

Me too which is why I'm selling my kayak (maybe I'll end up keeping it) for a small boat. I don't really go into skinny water and I found that being stuck in a seat all day was aggravating for me. I can get a used 14 foot (maybe 16) aluminum and build a nice casting deck and throw in a trolling motor for about the same price as my used yak, and a lot cheaper than a new one. Obviously many people love these things and I thought I would too, so just giving a different opinion here. My kayak is no easier to get on the water than an aluminum boat, in fact for me it's more difficult. I'm almost 52 and I'm risking straining my back just dragging it out of the water onto the ramp, or out of my truck. Just getting it into my truck at home I have to be careful. The kayak is fun but I find myself fighting the yak too much on the water, and off as well. Too hard to turn and cast another direction, having to grab a paddle every time I want to turn just a little (get a mini-paddle for this! One handed!) Plus most of the good fishing is far from where I can launch a yak. I considered a motor but that's when I also started thinking about a boat. Why bother at that point? Gotta register it then just like a boat! I'd rather stand up and operate a trolling motor and ditch the paddles. I also have tendinitis so that has something (maybe a LOT) to do with my decision - more paddling = less fishing for me. Same with lifting the yak. Final "plus" for a boat is that I can bring someone along comfortably. I can lay on the deck if I get tired, I can pack more food and gear if I want, bring the dog. My friend tandem fishes with his GF in a yak and he likes it fine. It isn't even a good one. There is something very cool about yakking but, like you, I'm there to fish and it isn't the best answer...for ME anyways. Anyways just food for thought.

Or is a bank fisherman! I know some days for me (and I quote) "Everything hurts, ankles, knees, hips, lower back, shoulders, elbows, wrists, & muscles." P.S. Why won't this emoji window get out of my way after typing my little smiley? I can't even see me typing this. Weird.

At 14 times the price I would want more than a placebo effect I haven't lost 14 pair of glasses in my life. If I paid $100 I probably would! I only spent $20 on mine. Only complaint I have is that they are pretty dark, but I can see fish great with them. And bank fishing - I'd rather stuff em in my pocket than carry a little case for them (or a string). Amazon says these glasses are "unbreakable". Haha ya I doubt that but so far so good with them stuffed in my front pocket when the sun gets low. One drop in the dirt and those expensive glasses get scratched and ruined. Actually, they fell out of my pocket or something one day recently. I went back the next day and found them in the dirt - no problems. So ya, cheapies for me. If I had more money I may spend up to $50 for a pair. I can't really think of a reason too though. Fishing can get dirty and I just don't bring expensive anything when I go.

New public reservoirs in California - never heard of em Well "New" Malones was new 40 years ago.

I don't. Closest I get is opening the Plano with all the crank baits and looking at the pretty colors. I plan on fishing all winter too so I doubt I'll get cabin fever enough to do that.

Ask a question get a thousand different answers - that are all correct! I've had my best fishing the past couple of weeks, every fish I caught was on a crank bait, evening time fishing til dusk. From the bank. I caught 2 fish on this lake all season. Now suddenly I have 9 in maybe 4 hours on three separate days. I'm enjoying the heck out of it.

I feel like the hook eye and maybe the knot will help hold the bait on. Maybe it doesn't. The line pivoting around may actually work it loose quicker. It just ends up that way though the way I rig it. I like the way it looks too.

ok

How about now? I removed the name of the lake so no fishing report?

Dude you have to pay to "launch" a float tube here in the Bay Area. You know, an inner-tube? You have to pay for an inspection (where nobody actually inspects anything), you have to pay to "launch" (drop it in the water) and you have to pay to park. Can't swim, can't touch the water! Oops old thread. Still applies though

I don't this thread should have been moved to fishing reports, this is me asking why the fish suddenly started biting at this lake. I didn't even mention the name of the lake until later as an afterthought.

I've been bank fishing a small lake that's two miles from my house just over a little hill. I've been doing so for 5 1/2 months. For about the first 24 trips I caught approximately ZERO bass, and just a three inch 'gill. No boats, yaks or contact allowed here. It's maybe 2 miles long at the most and pretty narrow. This whole area is tough partially due to the drought. Not nearly as tough as THIS lake though! I never gave up, I knew there were bass. Then one day maybe a month and a half ago I caught 2 one-pounders or so. I thought I'd finally cracked this lake! Nope. I went dry for another 10 trips, and I fished the whole dang thing almost, and many spots I have tried repeatedly. Over and over. One night I officially told the lake to tick off. Never would I come here again! But of course I got bored a few days later and dragged myself there (it's so close!), across the dam to a place I fish sometimes, and BOOM I catch 4 fish and lose a fifth at shore. All on crank baits. What the...? It's fall so I guess they're hungry which is why I went. I fished for 1.5 hours. I went back to the same spot 2 days later and caught 3 more in the same amount of time or less. Then I went this evening - maybe 4 days later and caught 2 more right away then had to leave. I was astonished, like "mouth hanging open double-you tee eff" astonished! So what the heck happened? Is it fall kicking in that's causing them to come up and play? I figure it is but this lake was totally dead until now. Practically nothing - at least for me. Hey it's just a web forum it could be a million different things I know. I'm enjoying the heck out of this fishing though! Also maybe some can let this be a story of perseverance or something. I hate this lake but I just couldn't give in. Plus there aren't many better places around the South Bay. I was getting really discouraged then suddenly this became the best lake around! For now. Crank baits have caught every bass from this lake and most very close to shore banging 'em off the rocks (first time I've really done that and it worked!), and it isn't the bait I use the most. It has become my best bait all around in recent months though. How long can I milk this for? :-D

2-5 hours. If I go late in the day I fish til dark. One thing that determines my time is the difficulty of the bank. A few days ago I was on my local lake sliding down the steep bank on dirt, rocks, and falling on my back-side several times. I have it on video and it's funny stuff. I want to fish all day and I will if my tendinitis holds up. The fishing kinda sucks here. I fish several times a week anyways.

I've only heard of the Banana Curse thing. Never heard of the others like the First Cast thing so they obviously can't affect me

Me too. Sure am getting some walking and hiking exercise though, but I get that when I catch too.

I guess I'm wondering now if there is an affordable way of having some kind of forward looking system specifically for detecting obstacles in the water that are well in front of the boat. It could be high end gear maybe for tournament fisherman since they go so fast. Kinda just a random thought but is it feasible? Maybe it's stupid LOL I dunno. Probably wouldn't work well with floating logs. Would anyone even want it? Maybe a such a system could be used for detecting possible vessel collisions too.

Seems like with all the fish finders and electronics that you should be able to see them coming at slow speeds. No? Just turn on that underwater RADAR and start pingin'! Seriously though wouldn't something like this be easy to implement? We can see fish but not dangerous stumps? (I've never used a FF).

I made a three lures over the past few months. First thing I have to say is I learned a LOT, and I learned a lot of it the hard way. Here they are... My family owns a cabinet shop and it's about 75 yards from the house. I can make baits whenever I please, although I only use a band saw, long horizontal belt sander, a drill press, and my hands. I used rattle cans for paint and that has been my biggest problem, plus the clear coat. Plus a few other things First lure - looks better from a distance: I made this popper from a dowel I found. It was too heavy I think because this bait sits too low in the water to work properly, and it gets pulled underwater a little which screws up the action. It can be fished slow though. It is somewhat usable and I'd love to catch something on my first bait. Fishing here sucks though so I haven't had much chance. I used a fat drill bit and a lot of sanding to make the mouth. There used to be scales on it but I rubbed them out I think. For the stripes I used a paper mask - ah I think that's when I screwed up the paint! The first time anyways. Used a sharpie to clean em up. Cotter pins and size 4 hooks. I don't think I weighted it. This thing casts about a quarter mile, and it can probably catch a fish, but I consider this a failure. Maybe half-success. It does float and pop some! Next bait: This is what my Super Spook rip-off (I wish) looked like before I totally messed up the paint. Pretty funky but I only had 4 paint cans and a black sharpie. I was afraid to spray the top stripe and screw it all up... Problem is I used some Hard As Nails clear nail polish and it smeared the spray paint. Man I was ticked. So I sanded it down and started over with white and decided to keep it waaaay simpler and get 'er done... The eyes on these two baits are some weird apricot colored transparent-ish nail polish. I applied the polish one drop per coat and it dried in "3D" after several. I used a pen I think for the red - there was no way I was screwing this up again, and I didn't have red paint. Here is something that I can contribute to the knowledge base here - I made a custom painting bracket out of some wire LOL. The idea was to keep the split rings and hooks out of the way so I could paint. I masked the hooks later. This Spook actually works well on the water! It walks easily. I also built a mini popper mouth on the nose so it will move some water too as it goes. I was stoked to see this one float properly and act right. I weighted it with a split-shot and I guess I did it right because it pivots like crazy. This was also a dowel but it was much lighter wood. Very cool. Oh I tried thinning my "clear coat" (JB weld or whatever it was) with alcohol but I got bad results. Globs and very uneven surface. Which brings me to my latest and not-greatest lure: I knew going in that this one might fail. I did NOT drill holes first and they are not centered, and the thing is not symmetrical. It's kinda close but it seems like it bends a little to one side. These wooden things feel so smooooth until you paint them and you see all the pits and grooves. What the...? The bill is a Plano box divider. It seems a little big. I made eyes out of some clear plastic "jewels" I got at the fabric store for like $3 for 70. I painted a pupil on it. I like it okay. They had wobbly eyes at the store too but they crush easily (sorry to whoever bought that pack with one crushed eye) and they looked stupid anyways. These shine and reflect whatever color is around them. I kept the paint simple. It's frickin scary shooting that black top stripe with a rattle can! I ended up getting overspray on one side so I traded between spraying yellow and black until I got it like it is here. Gawd I need an airbrush. I thought this thing might spin and do barrel-rolls - and I was right! I was shocked and disappointed at how bad this thing behaved. What a bummer. This thing spins, flips upside down and pops out of the water. Totally messed up. I did put some tiny split-shots in it, and the bill looks straight, so I assume it is the body and maybe too big of a bill and bad placement of the line tie. I think I drilled the weight hole too deep so the weights may not help much. I will not give up, but I would love some advice on the crank bait. It's pretty small by the way - maybe 2.5 inches, and pretty flat. If I sand that bill down or off can I use it, possibly? Or is it better now as a keychain (sans hooks)? The hooks are kinda big too. Is there any hope for it? Is the bill too high up on the face? Can I use a line tie that is not attached to the bill like I did? What did I do wrong in that regard? For my next crank, is there anything I can do to make it more idiot-proof? Like would a bigger, or rounder body be more stable? I know I need to do the holes properly and get it closer to symmetrical. Would lipless be easier to start with as far as stability goes? My two split-shots were really small, possibly smaller than a BB. Maybe way too small? I'm not a craftsman and I don't work at the shop but I grew up around it. I want to make more! Thank you for any help! I may do another one this weekend. Whenever I do I will show my progress.

Now that you know what to watch out for, the answer to the thread title is... You. You are the biggest danger (and also advantage) to yourself, for you can't control the weather or what other people are going to do. People are going to come around a corner on the wrong side, people are going to be drinking booze, etc. Keep your eyes open. Yep.

It did At least I know why.