RenzokukenFisher

At the end of the day you need to find out what your fish like at your ponds. As a bank fishermen who has access to like 20+ ponds at all times, I've learned first hand that every pond's fish has preferences. I could catch multiple bass on a jig alllll day long at one pond while at another pond they won't sniff a jig but will slam a Texas rig. Learning your fish's habits comes with time on the water. More often than not you will begin to piece together what they like and can start hammering them. Pair that knowledge with going during odd hours like noon, nighttime, or early morning and you'll get em. Goodluck!

As some have mentioned on this site, often lure presentation is more important than the lure you are using. Learning angles is important as an "angler" and dropping a bait in the water is part of this. Sometimes it needs to be a low angle for a silent entry but other situations call for a nice splash. Just dont go try to recreate Hiroshima with a drop shot ?.

Oh darn. The fishing seems to be hit or miss in my area right now. Goodluck on your next outing though!

Hey goodluck out there! Did you end up catching any?

This is a long one: Once I was out bank fishing a small lake with a buddy of mine and we were getting absolutely worked by the fish. We threw everything and the kitchen sink at them for a good 6 hrs without a lick of luck. The only 2 bites I had the whole six hours resulted in 0 landed fish and 2 stolen senkos. Eventually I got so bored of not catching anything I started goofing around pitching my senko at bullfrogs that were soaking up the sun on surface weeds. I did this to about 3 or 4 bullfrogs who just kept on sitting there minding there own business. Its was the 5th bullfrog that was different. I put my senko a little in front of him and danced it on by and he didn't move an inch, but the second it got behind him he lept into the weeds and was gone. About a second after that though I felt a tug and noticed my senko had disappeared so I gave it a set. Next thing I know I'm reeling in the bullfrog! I flip him onto the bank and start yelling at my friend that I caught a frog and as I do the bullfrog gets of the hook and plops in the water. By the time my friend looks over the frog is long gone and he just stands there acting like I'm joshing him or something. I genuinely was not expecting a bullfrog to eat a senko, in my mind I was just doing pitching practice. He was a solid 1lb frog and was very lightly hooked so he was unharmed. What's funny is that isn't even the best part of the day. That came another hour later, still with 0 fish landed. My friend and I had made our way onto a dock that had multiple sections so we split up to cover both sides of the dock to fish. We walked up and down our sides of the dock casting and just praying we wouldn't end the day with a skunk. While fishing I hear my friend start swearing and complaining about how bad something stinks on his side of the dock. I make a couple casts not thinking much of it, I thought maybe he was overreacting to the smell or something because I didn't smell a thing. Sure enough when I head over to switch sides with him I get a whiff of the nastiest smelling otter poo i have ever smelt and I immediately turn around swearing and waving my arms around. In that moment I had completely forgot about fishing, and was thinking about how funny the whole situation was when I then heard a topwater blowup. Turns out when I had turned around on the dock in reaction to the smell, I had lowered the arm my rod was in enough so that my brush hog unknowingly landed in the water by the dock since there was about 3ft of line out from my rod tip. While I'm over here escaping this otter poo gas cloud, my brush hog happened to just plop right in the water and apparently a resident bass found it appetizing. Just the sound of the blow up alone caused my arm to instinctively set the hook, I didn't even need to think, and when I did I already had a fish on. Both my friend and I could not believe what just happened. The fish was only about 2lbs but it was probably the funniest catch I've had to this day. What makes this so crazy to me is the 7hours that went by doing every single thing I could to catch a bass and i just plain couldn't. But when fishing is the last thing on my mind and my lure happens to fall into the water when I didnt mean it to, a fish blows up on it. Stuff like this is what keeps me fishing.

I really get a kick out of nighttime bass fishing and find I often catch more and higher quality bass at night. Anyone wanna share when they start throwing at night here in Cali? Days have been pretty warm but the nights still seem chilly.

Man hearing about what some of you guys toughed out makes me feel pretty lucky lol. At the end of the day gotta take care of health and responsibilities so even though missing out on fishing is a bummer it is what it is. Probably gonna really focus up on college in the mean time and get back to fishing when the time is right. Tight lines!

I've found it tough to get out this year and really haven't been able to fish much even though I would like to. This February I had an inguinal hernia come back and is causing chronic pain and I am healing a pulled lower back muscle for the past month or 2 now. Working towards getting surgery for the hernia which will most likely be another 2+ months away from fishing. I'd really love to fish but life is making me take a break. Anyone else have times like these and how do you look back on them today?

Lots of good points. I'll probably start tinkering with my hookset to see what happens if I try a sweeping hookset and such. I think winter made me lazy and I started doing a jerky cross body hookset lol.

Hey hope everyone is well. Lately fish seem to be coming off my chatterbait left and right and I swear it seems like they aren't even hooked half the time. My set up is a 7'2 MH moderate fast action rod and I pair it with 50lb braid to a 15-20lb mono leader. I'm starting think maybe I've just weakened up on my usual hookset because I didn't have this problem until recently. Does this look like a gear issue or maybe user error? Thanks - Elias

I recently bought a fishing kayak and have a trip planned in a few days on a clear water fishery. 10ft+ visibility. Weather is looking like clear skies and low wind. I've only ever been a pond bank fisherman so I have way more confidence in dirty water than I do clear. Big jigs, big spinnerbaits, big creatures baits are my usual, connected to 15-20lb mono leaders. What should I try using in clear water? I have some underspins, small t-rigged craw and worms, smaller spinnerbaits, would those work?

Thanks! I caught it on a texas rigged 4inch black and blue soft plastic craw with a 3/16th oz weight. Nothing too out of the ordinary but the weather was just perfect. Partly cloudy Mid 60s after about a week of stormy weather. Was pitching it around flooded bushes in about 4ft of water from the bank.

Thanks A-Jay! It feels good to make it there :)!

New PB and the first bass I've caught to break into the 8lb range. She weighed on the digital scale right at 8lbs 0oz. Super stoked to catch a fish this big, looking forward to more and bigger ones in the future ?. Figured I'd post her here to document the catch. Goodluck out there ya'll, go catch some bigguns!

Thanks for all the replies you guys! I'll be sure to keep these words of advice in mind when i finally get the chance to explore these spots. Tight lines!!!

Hello All, I've recently joined the Forum after regularly reading up on the many questions others have had about the sport for about a year. Im still a novice when it comes to bass fishing, I started August of 2019, and I'd love to get more involved with this wonderful community. Very soon here I am going to buy a Fishing Kayak (waiting for the one I want to be in-stock) which should open up many new ponds and small lakes to try out here in Cali. Most of these ponds and small lakes are off the beaten path and almost impossible to fish from the bank, only accessible by kayak, but im able to scout the terrain and get a basic idea of the what waterbodies layout is. I am in love with hooking into big fish and I was wondering what the tell tale signs are for a waterbody to have big largemouth bass? So far I suspect deep water to be essential as well as water with decent water clarity, but im not entirely sure. What type of cover or structure should I keep an eye out for when I scout these waterbodies by foot? I can count all the 4lb+ bass ive ever caught on basically 2 hands so my experince with big fish is fairly limited. I have some general ideas of what to lookout for but I'd love to hear from you experienced guys out there. So far the Two water bodies I've scouted have a ton of standing timbre or have their banks covered with water primrose, water visibility both have about 2ft or so. Seen baitfish creating small wakes on waters surface and saw many old bluegill spawning beds so atleast there are fish hahaha. Any tips on finding some Hawgs? Thanks!