JediAmoeba

I use.an equal amount of 3/8 and 1/2 oz chatterbaits. I don't think I have any 1/4 oz.

Depends on the wind, the current and the trailer. Swim bait trailers seem to get down further where as crawfish and beaver style will come up toward the surface better. Most of the ones I use are 1/4 ounce.

A few jigs. A few packs of Keitech or similar swim baits. EWG hooks. Whatever worms you fancy. Pack of ned hooks. Pack of ned worms. A jerkbait, you need a jerkbait. That about does in 60 bucks.

Unless I am fishing 6 lbs on a spinning reel I don't think I have ever had drag pulled if set correctly for northern bass.

Sounds like it would be a good crappie rod

It can also be the rod. If the rod doesn't have the guides put on with the natural spine it can cause the rod to throw off, left or right as it loads and unloads. Record one of your casts from behind and you can see this occurring sometimes.

I could drive where I wanted to but for each species it was drive to a different spot for a certain species and I wanted a place that was diverse enough to hold them all but small enough it was easier to pattern. There is still time...I better start digging.

I fish with someone that I discovered only uses a double overhand knot - I was floored. He uses straight braid and claims he has never had his knot fail. I use a variety of knots and have never heard of anyone using an overhand knot with success. Does anyone else use this knot? I have never seen the break strength of this knot listed, nor can I find it. I told him he should at least learn a palomar knot, and he told me he doesn't need those fancy knots...

In the early spring when I took stock of what I needed, I ended up went buying about 100 dollars worth of Zman baits on top of all the other stuff I bought... My local tackle shop has an early spring sale with 15% off everything. Yesterday, I found a bag of roughly 100 dollars in zman baits in my closet that I forgot I had...I bought it back in December of last year with a sale and coupon from DSG. This is when you know there is a problem.

I had a dust devil throw me off my bike into the ditch. I got some pretty good road crash from it

I was rifling through some old shoeboxes and I came across this drawing of a lake I wanted to build back when I was 17...23 years ago. I thought maybe people here would appreciate it. I thought about fishing all the time even back then.

My thoughts are when I tie to a split ring I put.on oval ones so it doesn't get in the gap. Where those split rings are cut off they have some sharp edges sometimes and I would like to avoid a lost fish.

Pink and any wild colors are my crux in fishing. It's one of the reasons I don't like saltwater fishing - all the lures are wild colors and it turns me off. A wild color when fishing for me is yellow and white.

Depth matters a lot. 10 acres is small but big enough to target certain areas where the bass may congregate. If the entire pond is weed-ridden I am going to guess it is much shallower than 20 feet deep

Did you check how deep it is? Assuming it is 20-25 feet is a mistake. Get a heavy weight, paddle around and check some depths. Most ponds of this nature are deepest by the dam and shallower on the opposite end

And this is why I have a whole box of Banjo minnows and a whole box of walking worms. Not to mention every time I go out in unfavorable conditions I come home, watch youtube videos and read articles on fishing; by the time I get my mail-order, the fish have turned on and I am catching them.

One truthful answer would be a lot of people here have had a bait over the years that is very successful for their waters or certain conditions they encounter. It may be a bait or it may be a pattern or color. They lose said bait and go to buy new ones only to find out it was discontinued...so now they have to pay through the nose from someone or on an auction site. And then there are the baits that a manufacturer changes due to technology, maybe outsourcing it and maybe the exact material is no longer available and this bait no longer performs like you remember. Anyone having experienced the old wiggle warts knows this... so when they find a bait that works they buy bulk for the future.

I know I have an illness, do you have to yell at me?

They weigh as we go. There are 2 roving weigh stations and weigh stations around the lake. Makes it easy

Canoes, jon boats and kayaks. There are quite a few people doubled up in canoes and kayaks too plus some fishing from shore. It's not too bad.

The cool thing about river fish is they usually have oxygen at all levels of the water column. The fish go where the food is and where they have cover.

Yeah, but I have been helping a few people out by taking them out and assisting them plus I always tell everyone what I use. I do - I was also going to try some rage shads but I haven't had luck elsewhere with them. Top water spoon would be interesting. I have used all sorts and brands of frogs and you would think they would be money, but just don't produce well. I think they see too many of these lures since it's the obvious choice.

I am curious what everyone's approach, more or less what tackle they would be fishing in a small local bass tournament I am fishing again in a few weeks. The water: About 42 acres that is very shallow. Probably averages 4'. The deepest spot is about 8 feet but that is a teeny area maybe 100 feet by 100 feet. Deep holes are about 6 feet. It is extremely weedy, has mostly grass that grows a few inches from the surface with some milfoil and a few other grasses mixed in...no real lily pads, just some sparse areas of pond weed. The bottom is super soft and silty. Basically this is a glorified swamp IMO. The fish: Perch, Pickerel, sunfish, bluegill, bullheads and Crappie. There are some decent large mouth in here despite being so shallow. The largemouth are very dark probably from living in the grass and having the sun beating on them all the time. Fishing is for 4 hours in a few weeks, 8am until 12. So this is the 3rd year I am fishing in it, and it's a lot of fun regardless with the past years having about 30 entrants. You can use electric motors if you want but I usually just take my kayak out and paddle along because it's not too big and I don't have to worry about getting tangled in weeds all the time. They weigh all the fish as we go and take your biggest 5. The problem is the last 2 years no one has caught 5 fish. Last year out of 30 people only 4 fish were caught in the cold October rains, that's why it's in September this year so we expect probably 40 anglers. I won with 2 fish at about 3 pounds last year and 3 fish at 5 pounds the previous year. I fished here about a month ago and caught 14 fish in 4 hours with the 5 biggest being in the 14 pound neighborhood. These were all caught on 12 different baits. I went last week and caught a total of 0 bass...I lost 4 nice ones because they were just not committing and short striking everything. In previous years I see everyone typically using topwater baits - a lot of frogs and a lot of buzz baits. Attacking this isn't a lot of fun. With all the grass and weeds dying off now fishing anything moving is tons of fun. You spend more time cleaning off lures than actually fishing. My plan of attack is usually start off with spinnerbaits to cover water and get those reaction bites which is usually pretty effective. I stay away from buzzbaits because they just wrap grass up so bad it's frustrating plus they see them from everyone else. I pull texas rigs through the grass but they don't seem to be too effective despite throwing rattles in there and beads. Weightless tex-posed worms tend to be ok but they haven't produced tons of bites. I have a fair amount of success fishing weedless flukes but they tend to attract more pickerel than anything and that results in a lot of bite-offs. I have gone about flipping and punching jigs and heavy beaver style bites down into the weeds but the bite is very slow and you clean off a lot of weeds/muck. Plus they bury right down in the muck. Swim jigs have been very ineffective and seem to do worse for me than anything. What am I missing here? Should I be flipping a power shot rig perhaps to get the baits into the thick of things but off the bottom? The weeds are very interesting, they are soooooo thick but there is almost nothing on the surface for about 4-6 inches except for all the strands of grass sticking up that grab everything. Anything with a treble hook is put of the picture except for a small little 50 foot by 50 foot hole that never seems to hold any fish (nothing ever shows up on my graphs). Thanks for any suggestions.

I don't see why - I love the way the Daiwas work and casting side by side with someone with a Curado DC I can outcast them...but usually distance is never a concern so that point is moot anyway. I think the answer is to put a shimano reel on a rod and see how it feels. Every rod and reel pairing is different - some just don't work well for one person but are great for another person. One of my big complaints about the higher end reels is the weight. I don't like a feather light reel. I can go out casting 1oz+ lures for 10 hours on a 300 sized Lexa without complaints

Somehow I have never owned a Shimano reel. I never liked the feel of them, but I know they work great.