RemyL

Yup. I've got no idea how many, but I saw another one over the weekend, but couldn't catch him. So far I've seen several bass, including a tiny one a friend caught, catfish and some panfish. At this point I'm basically treating it like a challenge. The place is too convenient and I know there are fish, so now I'm determined to figure them out. Folks seem to do ok with live worms so maybe I'll try those synthetic egg strings folks use for trout.

10% more than last year?

Two more visits, nothing landed. Some nibbles and what may have been bite and let go hits or could have been random mud covered rocks or weeds that didn't leave any evidence later, but no fish caught. The weather's been weird though, and it went from murky to stained to murky... No clue what's going on with the fish in there. The turtles were active the second trip. I did "yell" with a guy who has fished that pond and he agreed that it is very hit or miss but has some decent fish. He also told me about another pond in Windsor he had some luck at, so maybe this weekend I'll try there. Funny story. Apparently throwing a texas rigged craw needs very different thumb action and spool tension/brake than the same setup as a worm or other denser setup. I freakin tangled that reel up five times in half an hour before I got it figured out. I wanted to smack myself once I did, but I'm still new at this stuff and the wind resistance of the claws just didn't register for me. My fishing partner was laughing her butt off at me.

Ordered a Sedona 3000 for the heavier spinning rod I got a week ago. I was going to get something nicer but decided that it just wasn't worth the extra money to me right now. Maybe next year I'll upgrade it. I also ordered some green pumpkin plastics in a few types. They've been in and out of stock and I finally caught most of what I wanted. I have been using the Strike King Half Shell's as trailers on chatterbaits but only had the bright color one so I ordered the Magic and Green Pumpkin Purple. I'm down to that kinda buy though, filling out core colors I hadn't been able to get, replacing what gets used... We'll see later this year when it's warmed up more, gotta catch more fish before I spend more moola.

Water's still cold and obviously isn't going to improve much for a bit, but I caught my first bass (maybe first ever, honestly don't remember if I caught any as a kid, I caught all sorts of stuff but was never really after bass specifically). Washington Park in Windsor, CT on Friday. I was the only person there all morning and I caught a nice 2lber on a black and blue Zman Chatterbait with a Strike King Halfshell trailer in Sexy Shad. He was out a bit from the bank but still fairly shallow given the temps. I don't know, maybe he followed it a ways before hitting. I got a few other nibbles but nothing else caught other than a sunken log that snagged me briefly. Pretty pumped about that catch. Until that one all I've caught since I got back to fishing has been blue gill. They're amusing but not really what I am focused on. Tackle worked great, it was also my first ever catch on casting gear rather than spinning. I'll figure out the pic later. I have one but not downloaded to my office computer and don't want to mess with it right now. (added pic)

So far this year the only thing I've caught fish on was a bare hook with a couple little green "egg" balls stuck on it. The fish in question could barely get it in their mouth, which kind of helped select for the larger ones of the school. I think my cost for the setup was about twenty cents.

No pics since I'm at the office waiting on server patches, but I got a new spinning rod that is roughly on par with my lighter casting rod. Still need to pick out and buy a reel for it, but waiting on a sale for one of the options I've picked. The reason I went into the store was for panfish lures/tackle. I caught some blue gill last friday on hooks that were too big and my whole kit was basically too big for them. I got a few snelled hook packs in appropriate sizes, some little jigs, some "egg" type baits in suitable sizes... I caught them on some bigger ones meant for trout so I just downsized things. I also got some smaller/finer wire bass hooks for texas rigs and a few bags of plastics. Nothing crazy, but I didn't have green pumpkin in a couple things and I also want to try the plasma tail worms so I got two colors of those. With all the grass we seem to have around here I'm looking for all the really weedless options I can get and sleek and snag free is getting more attention than I had expected this winter. Still waiting on a couple items I've got my eye on plus the reel. Just waiting for them to come in stock at the right vendor or go on sale elsewhere.

I grew up spending summers near (easy walk) a lake in western NY. From shore you basically were catching pan fish, but sometimes you'd luck into a walleye. Very rarely a family friend would take me out on their boat for walleye and when I was a teen a friend had a small trimaran we'd take out but our luck was horrid. Not the fishing, the boat. We limped home more often than not, or raced a storm. I have pictures from the early 80's of me holding a Zebco rod and reel with a blue gill or sunfish the size of my head. They always seemed so much bigger back then. I graduated to a small set of cane rods with Mitchell spinning reels once I was old enough to not drop them all the time. My grandfather basically cleared out his panfish stuff to me and it was all old even back then. I never did have much luck with anything but the panfish. Walleye now and then, and one trip out on the boat with live worms we hit the mother load. Every couple minutes we'd be reeling in another one. He'd found a few good grass spots the day before apparently and even though no one had GPS he marked the spot and the sonar was good enough to verify we were in the right spot.

I got some 12lb Sniper for my curado k as my lighter baitcasting setup. Basically, anything that doesn't need the stretch of mono but isn't needing much heavier line. I took it fishing Sunday and was shocked at how much more slippery it was under my thumb once it was wet. Compared to the Berk. Sensation mono I'd used previously on that setup it was much more slick. I ended up birds nesting several times before I tightened down the spool and got more aggressive with my thumb. Has anyone else experienced that? It seriously surprised me.

Wow, no joke. At $1.79 with a skirt that's a deal. Since no one's said otherwise I assume the Strike King quality is there too. How'd I miss these? Must resist making another order, must resis aw the hell with it.

That's a bit out of my area, but I'll take a look. Sometimes I don't mind the drive. Thanks.

For me the biggest benefit is the equipment information. Instead of asking the guy behind the counter, who's probably never used half of it and knows the margin better than the performance, I can look here and other sites and get a thousand answers from people who actually use the products. From that I can make a much more informed decision. Ditto HOW to use things. There's not always one right way, but sometimes there's a way that works best for you. Only hearing about the one way that works for the guy you talked to locally sure makes it tough to learn what works for you. Particularly if there are equipment differences. Again, a thousand experienced voices versus one, then filtering it into an informed decision. Reading and watching on the net has helped me get back into fishing without spending WAY more time and money getting started. I still made some stupid choices but I quickly learned that they were stupid and why. It didn't take me two years of trial and error and wondering whether it was just something I was doing wrong. Like someone else said, skinny braid on a bait caster didn't seem like an issue until I did it. Annoyingly, I did it THEN read about the problems, before I'd even cast with it once. Predictably I had issues and ended up respooling with something thicker but at least I didn't waste lot of time driving myself nuts wondering what I was doing wrong. $25 and an hour or so goof is a lot less painful than a lot of wasted fishing time getting frustrated.

Thanks. No reports there about it, but darned if it didn't immediately put me onto a pond that looks even better and is easily accessed. That seems to be the problem around here. The ones with fish are often a pain to actually fish at or get to. That site looks like it will be a ton of help, thank you.

Has anyone fished the little pond at Broadridge Financial in the East Hartford/Manchester area off 291? I saw it on my way by the other day and it got me wondering. It would sure be an easy pond to fish unless they send security out to hassle you.

I bought two little Flambeau organizers. Instead of having my terminal tackle in a 3600 and all in one kit it would eventually overwhelm, I split it. Now it's broken down by use so if I'm setting up a particular rig it's all in one little box. I'm sure that eventually this will result in a ton of little boxes, but for now it works better and freed up an Edge 3600 for other stuff. I have room for one more little guy in the tackle bag without messing anything else up, so there's still some wiggle room if I add a technique that doesn't fit in the other two. I've also managed to resist buying more lures and plastics. I've gotten tempted, but resisted. My goal is to resist until it warms up enough to actually do some fishing.