skekoam

If we are talking about Summer/spring I'd opt for shallow. Like someone above said, I don't have a boat so the decision is easy. Also, when I went on a guided trip a few months back, guess what we were doing? Casting towards shore in about 5-10 ft of water. We were also working in about 15-20 ft, and only got 2-3 fish. The other 25 or so were caught in the shallows.

I don't fish drop shots often as it is my least favorite way of fishing. With that said, I've caught fish on it each time I've tried it. Nothing big though. I would throw it out, tighten the line and let it sit. I would get bites as the bait sits, but I'm assuming its just a bluegill. Each bass was caught when I was retrieving the bait. Probably goes toward A-Jay's suggestion above about making the worm look like live bait.

Great story there. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry Tom, you are right. Trust me, I read everything you guys recommend here and try to implement it. I appreciate all the feedback- Thank you.

Thanks for all the info guys. I tried a whopper plopper R2S 110 last night and no blow ups. All it did was pick up the weeds on the retrieve. My son kept using his wacky rig thin senko and got 4. It almost seems like the whopper plopper is too big as the fish in the pond all range from maybe 1-2 lbs. I'm going to try a fluke and creature bait next time. The zoom trick worm looks interesting as well.

Thanks A-Jay. First thing he said after releasing her was, 'I wonder how a DD fish would fight'

Not sure it counts, but I had to hook her and let my son landed it. He's never fought a bass this big so far. Lucky we had 50lb braid on a MH rod. Beautiful fish. Our scale kept acting up going between 7.5 and 7lb.

Seems to me like a sinker will take you right into the grass every time and would be hard to give the fish any clean presentation? Have you guys tried the thin senko yet? I learned about them from a guide and was only able to find them on ebay. Really good bait weightless wacky rigged.

Lets say you are fishing the above scenario. Very shallow pond. Probably .5 ft at the shore and then 2-3 feet in the middle. To make things harder, there is some type of grass or week growing from the bottom up. I've had some luck throwing Yamamoto thin senkos on light spinning gear but curious what other baits I can try with a casting reel. I really want to try a new 110 whopper plopper I bought. Either that or a lunkerhunter prop frog. thanks

Curious how big of a fish you guys were able to land on light tackle. I'm talking about 4 lb test with a UL rod. We have been playing with my daughter's ugly stick set up using a thin senko. So far our record is about 2 lbs. Had some bigger fish on, but the drag was too tight and the fish would wrap us in the weeds and break off very quickly.

No real reason, but I've just never got acclimated to fishing trout and don't really have the baits. The few times I went for trout, we used a carolina rig with powerbait and the fish kept on getting gut hooked and it was a huge pain getting the fish released safely. If we end up making the trip, I will likely buy some lures to avoid this. I'm strictly C&R as I don't eat trout. In the end, I'll be happy just fishing so let me know of any lakes that might be better than others to try. Thanks!!

If the bite is super hard and laws allow, I would try live or cut up bluegills. Leave a few rods out with these baits and open the spool. Keep another baitcaster handy to fish other lures. This is just my opinion from a noob.

We are thinking of heading up to Mammoth in a few weeks and was wondering if there are any bass lakes out there. Everything I've looked up in the area only has trout. TIA.

Give J street a try in Vista for some spotties. Also try Lake Murray in SD for some LMB. I've only heard about the fishing at both spots and it is supposed to be pretty good. There are other LMB lakes producing too in the SD area like El Cap.

Caught a few more nice ones today.

Just found this frog today in the garage and want to try it out. I've never fished a frog yet, but cannot wait for my first top water bite. Just curious if these frogs are good or is there something better for the price? $8-$10. thanks!!

3.75 +/- Nice catch!!

If I was a teenager, here is what I would have done. Move to state with tons of rivers/ponds and a high bass population. Buy myself a kayak and learn to edit videos. Next thing is start a youtube channel and hope to amass tons of suscribers. Sit back, fish and let the $$ come in. I know its not quite that easy, but you get the point. I'd assume that working within the fishing/boating industry would be like anything else. Once you find a job, it becomes work and no longer a fun hobby. Either way, best of luck to you.

Very cool. Be careful, soon he will be asking for a few baitcasters and wanting to fish everyday. Trust me, I know all about this. lol

I'm taking my son and his buddy to Lake Cahuilla to fish from the bank and was wondering if anyone has any tips. Our main target is bass, but I hear they have nice size crappie there too. I plan to start fan casting a spinner bait and squarebill initially and then switch to plastics if I can find some fish. thanks!

so jealous. One day, I have a dream on owning a property with pond and stocked with bass. You are sooo lucky!!!

So cool. I can only dream about a place like that.

We have fished this small lake for about a 2 yrs now trying to catch a bass. To say this lake is highly pressured is a gross understatement. There are a lot of smaller bass in this lake, with some in the area of 5-7 Lbs, but we have never witnessed them being caught. We went out yesterday just to mess around and catch bluegill. I hear my son yelling that he has a fish amazingly he caught this little guy on the jerkbait. First jerkbait fish for him.

I'd love to meet Hank one day. Congrats on that hog!!!

I took my son on a guided trip a few days ago as a belated birthday gift. We had scheduled this trip a month or so back, but got delayed by the whole Covid issue. Overall, the trip was great and we had a great time. The guide charged us $400 for a full day. The cool thing is he let us bring a baitcaster to use. The other guides I spoke to said we would only be using his spinning gear. On the day of our trip, we started throwing reaction baits first just to see what the bite was like. I had an A-rig tied on my baitcaster and my son was throwing something top water. On my 3rd cast I caught a 2 pounder. Had another one on a few casts later and it shook the hook right at the boat. The guide was throwing a spinner bait and crank bait. He caught one early with the spinner bait. After about an hr, we moved to a different spot where he had luck a few days earlier. Basically, the idea was to cast out a thin senko weightless and drag it around with the trolling motor. We caught maybe 8-9 fish using this method. I would say we spend about 3-4 hours trolling back and forth along the same stretch of 200 yards somewhat near the bank. The fish were there, but didn't seem to be biting. I though the method was really boring, but what do I know. I lost a few fish just because I wasn't paying attention. We then moved on to a different shore area. The idea here was to use the same small senko and cast to the shore. Let the bait sink to the bottom for 10-15 seconds and then reel in and do it again. We caught the most and biggest fish doing this. For about the last hr, it was getting super windy and we didn't catch anything. For the day, we landed 25 fish and lost another 5 at the boat and another 5 or so with bad hook sets. 25 fish seems like a lot, but it wasn't really given the time lapsed between some of the catches. Also, I was hoping to catch some bigger fish. I'm not sure how I felt about the guide fishing too. I think it was fine. At least it gave some idea if fish were in the area or not. A few of the other guides I spoke to said they don't fish during the trip. Overall, the guide was very nice and helpful. I appreciated the fact that he was patient with my son who literally went non stop with the guide about fishing, gear, tournaments, etc... Here is a pic of my son and I with our biggest fish. My son caught the biggest at 4 lbs. Notice how I'm only carrying 1 fish? Right before the picture, one of my fish shook and he flopped right into the water. ughhhh....