Buzzbaiter

I like my ultralight rod. I’d love to start catching bass on it but I’m not sure if it’s capable of throwing anything large enough to catch bass (other than Neds and small senkos). Does anyone else here fish for bass on an ultralight? What do you throw.

I’m not from the area, but Neosho smallmouth bass are on my bucket list. They live in the southwest corner of Missouri, and I hear that the rivers they live in are pretty easy to kayak. Again, I don’t even live in MO, but I’m just going off of what I’ve read

It’s hard for me to do it with largemouth since all of the lakes I have access to are really pressured. River smallmouth are a different story. Some jigheads, a small assortment of plastics, and a spinning rod to match has been my primary setup, and I’ve hammered down hard with it. A Heddon Puppy Spook as well if you want some explosive fun on slack-water

I’m a Junior in high school. I would never cut school just to go fishing (it’s my favorite thing in the world to do, but I value my education and I’d like to have a future). Still, last year in virtual “learning”, I would get out of the house the second school ended to fish the creek by my house. It’s filled with smallmouth. They’re not big, but they fight pretty darn hard. Many good memories were formed last spring/summer.

My largemouth game was awful. I hardly went for them this year. My smallmouth fishing has taken off though. Most of my summer fishing trips were for river smallies, and I had a ton of fun. I also learned a lot about bass after fishing for smallmouth in clear rivers and seeing how they react to lures. Trout fishing at the start of the year was also great, I caught my first brook in February and my first brown just last weekend. I’m looking forward to catching some colored up brookies this fall

Stress also plays a factor. The longer I fight a fish, the darker they tend to get

Spro is a company, are you referring to a specific bait?

Sometimes I see something and I’m not sure whether it’s genius, or stupid. This is one of those things. I’m excited to try it out, but to me the flukes look a bit too close together to be natural. But who knows, it could be the next big thing.

That might be tough for me, since I’m a bank fisherman and the heaviest rod I have is a MH-F

What do you throw for freshwater striped bass? My fall/winter goal is to catch my first striper but I have no clue where to start.

My parents are Indian. Whenever I catch a decent bass, they always tell me I should have brought it back. Whenever I bring back bluegills or crappie, they always ask why I only bring back such tiny fish. Whenever I filet a fish, they lose their minds and ask me why I’m wasting so much meat. I remember this one time that I foul hooked a decent carp while bass fishing. I sent a picture to my mom and she got SUPER excited. She couldn’t wait to turn it into fish curry. I had to explain to her that I’m not going to eat a fish that has been kissing the bottom of the lake and whatever garbage lies there for God knows how long. I love my parents, but I don’t think they understand fishing, lol

I know, I don’t plan starting until mid September. As for catching them on the fly, I’ll have to buy a fly rod to do that. It’s not ideal, but I’ll definitely try it if nothing else works

? those are some big brookies. What size and color Little Cleo were you using?

A wonderful idea recently popped into my mind: catching a 12 inch brookie (native to small streams in MD where I live, so they don’t get very large). I think that this is the best time to catch a trophy char, my reasoning being that the fish are probably feeding very heavily in preparation for their spawn in October. I think that their movements should be quite predictable this time of year. In the summer when the water is warm, brook trout move into tiny feeder creeks to stay cold. When the water cools back down, they move back into the main river where food is more abundant and spawning conditions are better. As we know with big bass, the largest fish in the system tend to be the first to take the prime real estate when they spawn. The smaller fish get the sloppy seconds. I’d imagine that this is the same with brook trout too, especially since the smaller fish aren’t concerned with spawning and probably feel more comfortable in the small feeder creeks, leading to a separation of sizes. My question now: what do you throw on spinning gear to catch big trout? Keep in mind, “big” is relative. I’m going for brook trout over 10 inches. I’d imagine the the prespawn migration would separate the big fish from the small fish, but I’d still like to spend my time throwing baits that are most likely to draw attention from sizable fish, not little 6 inch dinks that I usually catch.

I fish for trout, and if you stand right above them (or anywhere within eyeshot of them), they hide and refuse to bite. I imagine that pressured bass also do the same thing when they see a boat above them

This is probably a shot in the dark, but has anyone here fishing for striper at Liberty Reservoir? I hear so much about how big and plentiful they are in that lake, yet Ive never seen anyone catch one. I tried once with chicken livers, but skunked. I’m hoping to try again this fall. Where do they go in the fall? What do they eat? Is it possible to target them from the bank (I don’t have a boat)? I’m clueless when it comes to striped bass fishing.

Fluorocarbon: overrated Old Bay?

Buffalo chicken pizza: overrated. bacon-ranch pizza is the best if you want something unconventional. Hammocks?

First you have to get rid of the tiny fish so that big ones can grow (only if you’re allowed to, of course). That aside, it seems like you’re using small baits that are only good for catching numbers. Instead, try jigs, swimbaits, big worms, and buzzbaits. These baits have a tendency to catch bigger fish.

I read @A-Jay‘s piece on smallmouth fishing. IIRC he said that he liked using them for fishing offshore structure, but that he started using swinging jigs instead

I try to avoid having knots in my reel because line that’s coming off of the spool can catch on the knot and screw up your casting. Personally, I’d leave to 6lb on. Going from 6lb down to 4lb test doesn’t make much of a difference, so you’d be better off without joining any lines.

This is because water striders produce a foul (to the fish) scent/taste that deters predators

One of my goals by the end of the summer is to catch and fry up a mess of crappie. The problem is that I know absolutely nothing about crappie, other than they eat minnows and insects, and they like to suspend. Where do they live? Is there a particular time or set of conditions where they come shallow (I’m a bank fisherman, so I can’t reach deep water)?

I think you might be right. Now that I think about it, almost all of the fish I land on stickbaits rigged with EWG hooks are hooked close to the lip with the line tie sticking out. I might try flipping hooks or worm hooks

Today it was a Medium-Fast action spinning rod with 25lb braid mainline to a 6 foot long 8lb mono leader. The hook I was using was a standard Gamakatsu EWG, but I also use Eagle Claw heavy wire EWG hooks and experience the same issues. I use this setup for Texas rigging weightless stickbaits