trout123

Decided to stop at Lake Pleasant to eat lunch and do a little fishing, we talked to some guys on boats and said they were marking them but couldnt get them to bite, figured wed fish for trout while we ate lunch instead of bass. Well I was using a 5.6 ul and 4 pound mono and on my first cast hooked something that just felt like dead weight, I thought I was snagged on weeds or a log until I saw a bass that was 5 pounds easy jump out of the water and spit my hook. Pretty sad but I was stoked to hook a fish on my first cast at a new lake. Well maybe 5 minutes later I went to twitch my bait and felt more weight, set the hook and drag started going for 30 seconds before we saw another fish around 3 pounds jump spit the hook again. I never had so much fun losing fish, they completely bent the rod over and Ive never had a bass feel like dead weight before let alone hook one fishing for bass!

Im staying in Arizona for this week and wanna do some fishing. Can anyone share a local spot or lake/pond/river/creek that has some good fishing or what works good right now? Doesn't have to be bass fishing, I've got rods for trout and catfish to.

Shallow cranking sounds perfect for me right now, i fish almost exclusively from shore right now.

I live in the middle of the Bay Area, not much giant lake fishing for me ?

If you had to pick a rod and reel combo for baits like shallow crankbaits, jerk baits, and poppers while staying around 250 dollars what would you pick and why?

Living in the bay area getting skunked is normal lol

The harder you work the luckier you get!

Go finesse i have no idea how much pressure your lakes get but in the middle of SJ, CA theres no such thing as to finesse and Id figure big bass get big being careful. I caught my pb maybe 5 feet out in about 3 feet of water on a t rigged worm in the most pressured pond I know of.

If the bass have no or very little predators in the lake then the bass population may grow a lot and all of those little bass will compete for food with the larger ones stunting the population.

Thank you for the advice, I will make sure to add it to the list of colleges Im thinking about going to!

Do you know if they have an archery program? Im a very competitive archer and being able to shoot on a team there would be really helpful.

A little of topic but Im thinking of studying Fisheries Biology (I think thats what its called) in college. Do you know what its like and if it is a good major? I want to do something in the field and not sit infront of a computer as much as I can lol.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I guess I just gotta go fishing more and see what Im missing lol

Im probably thinking about pitching then. Ill be doing underhand casts into some thick nasty stuff but not the thickest of the thickest. Im fishing from the shore 95% of the time and other 5% from a kayak so i dont have the best options lol.

BPS pro qualifier.

Mine is rated for 3/8 to 1 1/2 oz and 20 pound line. I think cranking is fun but i fish lots of heavy pressured ponds in the bay area so i dont find myself doing it a ton lol

Just like the title says I've got the all around MHF with 15 pound floro and a 6.3.1 reel and a 6 foot MF ugly stick for more finesse presentations. What should I look into getting next, Im think a HF with a faster gear ratio for flipping and frogging but if anyone has any other suggestions feel free to let me know.

Awesome! Thank you for the help, definitely gonna have to spend some time checking out the area. Thanks!

Im headed down to Tempe from about April 8th to the 18th for an archery tournament and I figured I might as well bring the fishing rods. Gonna be fishing from the shore and not to picky about species as long as they put up a fight lol. Any tips about spots or baits would be really helpful as its gonna be my first time there.

Is this just for plastic worms or do plastic craws fall work time after time? I might start using plastics only on the pressured ponds I fish right now lol.

Thanks! I might try some of the smaller roboworms to, i just grabbed what the guy at the tackle shop suggested lol

30 pound braid to an 8 pound floro leader and 6 inch straight tail roboworms

I try to keep it straight up but I'll move the rod around if I have to pull the bass around a bush or something, Im keeping good pressure on the fish though, theres no slack line. Im using a 6 foot MF rod and giving the rod a sharp pop up with my wrist and elbow, no giant cross their eyes hookset lol!

I've had plenty of success catching 6 inch bass on a drop shot and bringing them on land but some of the bigger bass I'll set the hook, start reeling and a few seconds into the fight they pop loose and the hook flies out. This has happened on both of the biggest fish I've hooked on a dropshot, one splashed around in the water so I'm not as inclined to think it was my fault but the other had plenty of pressure on it and it seemed it just randomly popped out the hook. When I'm setting the hook I try to pop the rod up to where the tip is pointing almost straight up and down from where I have it when I'm giving the bait action and then very quickly afterwards I start reeling them in. I'm also fishing with size 2 gamakatsu dropshot hooks.

Thanks.