TriStateBassin106

Yeah so my favorite lake/retention pond here in NJ got heavy rain a couple days ago and now this nasty algae bloom from the runoff has pretty much taken over, the lake is a max depth of 7 feet and little to no cover. Bottom contour is muddy with some scattered rocks and grass. Anyway this stuff has pretty much taken over the shoreline and expands about 2 to 3 feet out with it not being near any of the fountains. Water temps are 65 degrees and I don't know what to throw, in the summer time I made a similar thread but I still caught fish during this while using traditional dirty water baits. Now all the dirty water baits are now working, they won't even bite senkos. Any advice?

No struggle here so far, it was a bit brutal in the first week of october but I've been getting them on the ned rig and some jigs, is the moving bite people praise the fall for dead right now? oh yeah it's dead and buried, haven't caught a reaction bite fish in 2 weeks.

You need to find yourself a local bass/fishing club my friend, best decision I ever made in my Fishing passion, learned a lot about local waters and tips for them. Also met amazing people, some I have developed strong friendships with and I fish with weekly.

why is 3/8oz such a popular size? can it be used in shallow water effectively?

What would be a better size jig for ponds? The lakes I fish aren't very deep max is 7 to 10 feet, so far I've had luck with both but I don't know what's a good all around size, in the winter I understand that the fish will be on the bottom and a 3/8oz is probably better.

it has better action and prevents the bait from rising.

I target high percentage areas from the bank if other anglers are around or not, most of the time they're either going after bluegill or if they're targeting bass they'll throw the completely wrong bait for the situation, I've seen people throw deep divers with weights and rubber worms with bobbers in 5 feet deep water, saves me fish lol.

it's actually pretty stupid to follow that pattern, fishing a spot after somebody worked it is just a huge waste of time, imagine wanting another anglers sloppy seconds.

I don't know how the temps are over in Indiana that time of year but here in New Jersey the prespawn bite can be really good, if the ice is gone by early march expect the largies to hit traditional early spring baits once the temps reach above 55 degrees, smallmouth in the creeks around here also become aggressive.

Not even bro, no ice = Fishing, We had a 55 degree streak in Mid January and I was catching them deadsticking ned trds and finesse jigs, one of the best things about now and until April is nobody is on the water, if you're like me who fishes smaller bodies of water from the bank all the annoying bobber kids who catch bluegills and the karens who feed the ducks are long gone from summertime. when I was little and in my teen years (Early 20s now) I used to hold this very stupid belief that my fishing began on the opening day for trout and ended on labor day.... I've had a great fall so far chasing them. if anything my September was waaay better than august. October fishing has been fair so far. I usually don't catch my first quality bass until April or Early May, this year I hope I can get something bigger than half a lb in the winter months.

Would a junebug trailer work if I was throwing it in dirty water?

In terms of bite detection line is the number 1 factor but from using tungsten for awhile now I've noticed that the tap tap bites I usually get when dragging stuff on the bottom is much more sensitive than using lead, there's no difference really when the fish bite on the initial fall or start swimming with it but sometimes I can literally feel the fish pecking at it and my line doesn't twitch or bounce, if I was using lead I would've missed fish in those situations.

Because Smallmouth are much more moody fish and can only be found in certain regions/climate and specific types of waterbodies. When I say smallmouth are moody I mean this because they react harder to sudden weather temps/changes but one thing i've noticed about smallies is once you find them especially in river holes there's a million of em and the fight they put up is amazing.

1. Zako 2. Rage menace 3. Paddletail upside down.

Tungsten is a much more compact and heavier metal, a 1/4oz tungsten weight is soo much smaller than a lead weight in the same size, obviously if you're new to our sport you're better off with lead for now. It's still effective in bite detection and will save you money, I started using Tungsten this year made by the guys at WOO! Tungsten and I'm sold on em, the sensitivity thing isn't a myth, I've had better bite detection with tungsten and can easily feel what's a rock, grass, or wood underwater. Definitely many times where lead wouldn't have been able to be that sensitive. Plus tungsten is better for the environment!

What about the weather conditions? Do the fish see it better when it's sunny or overcast?

So I picked up a bunch of PB&J jigs and stickbaits I plan on trying soon. But the only problem is most of my lakes I fish are heavily stained from algae blooms and runoff.. My favorite lake only has a couple inches of visibility, would this color work in this water clarity and if it does would it work better on sunny or overcast days?

Rapala used to sell the 25lb scales with the clamp, the 6 size model I believe. I can't find that setup anymore anywhere so I just ordered the size 6 from Bass pro a few days ago. Dicks sporting goods used to sell the combos a lot couple years back.

I have a clamp coming in the mail.

You do realize you're supposed to slide it in through the gills and it doesn't hurt the fish.. You actually think i'm "stabbing" the fish....

Had a fun time catching em on the ned rig lately! Had a good time sunday with a buddy of mine caught a couple nice ones biggest being 2.3lbs! Best part was we shouldn't have caught anything because the conditions sucked but we were persistent!

Biggest this year was this monster 3.9lb monster I got on a black brush hog. (First pic) My PB was caught in 2012 and weighed somewhere between 4.4 and 4.6lbs which was caught on a black n blue senko wacky style (second pic)

That's literally what he does to casual guys who go after anything. he'll have small talk to the other Europeans there but he wouldn't have the stamina to watch me slowly drag a jig for 1 bass an hour.... literally the only reason why this altercation happened was because there was a family fishing for catfish next to me which he was already bothering and he saw me with a bigger fish than the one's they were catching, literally a vulture in human form...

Every year my bigger lake has a public tournament which our bass club sponsors, many property owners bring their annoying pleasure boats and use either coolers or the horrible livewells that are in the pontoons, last year this one family came in to weigh in and they had at least a 4lb bass and multiple pickerel which were all nice size, none of them survived but were still weighed, I was heartbroken seeing this beautiful healthy bass now dead floating at the boat launch. We talked to the property owners association about this and they have now banned boats without functional livewells from partaking in the tournaments.