fishhugger

i haven't figured out the # line ratings for rods, but i assumed a rod w a heavier # rating --- basically has a lot more backbone, meaning uh - bending strength against more weight. could you elaborate on your quote... and i don't understand why an in line force along the length of a rod matters. i must be misunderstanding something.... ty

sounds like you were not responsive, as in saying many words, when he offered you the worms. so, i'd guess that's why you're wondering if you were jerky. i think just telling him what you said in your post - i think it was you were trying a certain technique, would've been the best and most open. but it also sounds like he crossed one of your boundaries, like you took it as him questioning your fishing, and maybe that's why you weren't more expansive in your answers to him.

i fish alone. it's so much easier. my own schedule. fish as long or as little as i like. i have taken my niece and nephew out, to teach them how to fish.

frankly, that makes sense..... my friends dad was a gun nut (no offense to uh... people who likes their iron). he claimed gun people was always very very polite.....very. that's what he said.

i've never carried. how in the world do you get in a fight --- while you're carrying? getting in a physical fight with someone, when one of you is definitely carrying, the other --- unknown.... is that how shootings happen? just asking.

i do... it's kind of hard knowing what is tmi. but it's better than relying on my poor memory for these things. i can look at my log, and what actually is recorded is not what i remember.... is it better to go by your successful rigs ----- like, i got this big one on this thing.... or is it better to look at ----- all the failures.... wow, the umpteenth time i fished this, with no success...... i like pencil and paper. computer would be too tedious. i think an 'index' on the rear page of my journal would be good to record actual catches, by date, so i don't have to leaf thru my book.. or color coded...for good daze. happy fishing and logging

GL..... have a good and safe trip

i'm not familiar with slack line fishing... i'll check it out. should i search for 'slack line' and i'm guessing that slack line would work in very shallow water only? (otherwise, there'd be a lot of line under the water...) thank you!

yeah, i agree on the super heavy line... i'm thinking of the random malfunction, such as a bail that snaps shut, i guess it might just bop you in the head??? but that might be the end of the sonar... i'm still don't feel comfortable that the castable sonar would give me that much information - by that much, i mean...well..........fish.... bait fish... castable won't, right? i'm assuming that's doable only with some of the more expensive sonar stuck onto boats...

those castable chirps cost....$429 on amzn. omg. as a pretty inexperienced fisherman, i'd love to be able to have the option of the boat sonar units. but i'm not into having a boat. i watch videos where people know where the fish are, know where the big fish are, know where the bait fish are.... that is so tempting. and maybe it would simply be terrific? a friend of mine spear fishes. once he said, 'yeah, there's always people fishing (in some spot). there's never any fish there....' he swims past there, to get to spots where ... there are fish. i think the logistics of the castables seem poor. all the logistics of casting it, etc, carrying the extra gear... then, if your line ever catches or your bail ever snaps shut on a cast, or anything ever happens on a cast, then your chirp unit is a floating ball in the middle of some lake and you're out $$$.

i've been enjoying roland martin's videos. in one, entitled "tips, how to fish a worm for more and bigger bass" (i didn't post the link; unsure if it's ok for me to) at about 12 minutes he says hold the rod tip high. that way you'll feel the fish first; hold the tip low, and you won't feel the fish, but he'll feel you. he mentions the 90 degree angle of the pole and line. i think he's fishing a 5" senko, although he's also mentioning a couple other sizes and types of worms. then, when he feels the fish, he lowers the rod, and is ready to strike. should i try to heed this advice when i'm fishing for the lmb, in general? for plastics, texas rigs, finesse ned rigs, etc? he's fishing a senko with as little weight as possible..... he adds more weight to counter wind, basically. i guess this is for open-ish water. i generally hold my rod, well, not high. does that mean i won't feel the fish............ and they're all probably having a laugh at my expense down at the fish bar... thank you ------------ happy fishing

ty all.......... i *think* people are saying boat sonar good, bank sonar...... not so good to reeks? altho, bank sonar might be good for contours, temperature... but not so good for actually locating fish and baitfish. also, the pita factor of casting out that thing, carrying extra pole, not dropping your smartphone in the drink...etc. i guess no sonar for me. unless i get a boat to attach it to, lol. i think i'm really looking 4 something that will point out fish, baitfish....ultimately.

thought provoking..............!

thanks for the great replies, guys... i was originally interested in --- i guess finding justification for fishing without sonar. but, lemons from lemonade, now, sonar sounds amazing, as a time saver, efficient... i figure sonar on a boat is the best, most accurate sonar, and also, the just real convenient to use... (compared to castable sonar) but i'm a bankbeater, and ... casting sonar --- seems like it might be a pain in the butt to use on a regular basis... gotta carry an extra rod, which would solely be for casting this 3 oz or so ball out there. reeling it in, and somehow getting useful information from it,. then going back to your actual fishing set up...... is it something that is practical to use on a regular basis, or just on a new body of water. should i should post this in a new thread ?--- gotten off my original query, at this point.

any guys here perfectly fine without sonar ---- ? like, do any guys prefer exploring the water with line, weights, or paper maps, or (insert other old fashioned thing here)? and i guess i'm wondering why it might be preferable to be sonar-less. i've read that with sonar, you can find fish, determine the size of a fish, see how the fish are moving, find bait fish, determine what the bottom is like, what kind of vegetation is there, get a very accurate location of exactly where you are when you spot or catch fish, determine contour of bottom,... uh... everything!!! i'm assuming a boat is attached to your sonar, and it's not the castable kind, which i've heard is less accurate.

i used to mountain bike, in my youth, and we loved our shimano components. i still can't figure out the naming conventions for their bait casting reels, but i enjoy the slx reels i got, with the matching rods. i guess i also have a handful of cheaper shimano reels ... spinning. i been slumming in the low end stuff...

my mom. we'd go to a public pier, back in the 1960's, pacific ocean. i remember casting my little spinning rod --- not out to the ocean, but over everyone's lines! soon enuf, i was casting ok. i was stupefied by the guys, on their bellies, fishing under the pier... wow! we'd go with my various cousins. #6 hooks, mono line, hot cocoa from the little trailer serving food. back then, guys would catch huge fish, occasionally. they'd walk them down the pier, to the beach, to pull them in. isn't that illegal now??? (without a license) anyway, that was our introductions to fishing.....

ty.... i'll try it. altho it's hard looking at my formerly very picturesque pond and now its a shag carpet....

it was fern, aka azolla? the azolla floats, free, on the surface, blown by the wind. it seems to not 'pile up' on top of each other, so it easily covers about 80% of the entire surface of the lake... you really fished and caught bass in that stuff? it just seems like it would decimate the life in the pond, due to the diminished sunlight... am i wrong? hope i am.... @QED yeah --- i normally fish in that 'algae' in your photo. that's the normal stuff in my lake, which is in berkeley. i assume some of it is the toxic blue green algae

it's a fern...as @thediscochef speculated. it's azolla, according to one site, the smallest fern in the world. and i wish i'd never heard of it. i just spoke to someone at the parks office, who deals with water management. they're aware of it, but their 'expert' said it wasn't harmful, at this point. it covers 80% or so of the surface, and it started growing two or three months ago. it's pretty awful. the lake looks like a golf course. the parks guy told me the stuff is so thick, a dog jumped in it. he thought it was a field.

looks about the same as at my lake... looks like you're still fishing it? my pond is about 80% covered... i've caught there, definitely......... idk - this seems like a new menace.... like a star wars thing. i'm kind of discouraged, i have to say. was out there today, just dropping a wacky worm into the depths, where the veggies were somewhat thinner.. felt like a desperate man..... there's another pond i can go to, but it's further, not nearly as nice.

rats............ guess i gotta find another place to fish.........

it's taken over about half the entire surface of the pond. so - i can't see the bottom, at all. i'm sort of content to just be dragging a texas rig along the bottom, for awhile. that's the only way i can tell what's on the bottom, afaik. i'll take your advice and switch to some heavier rig, slightly larger plastics... i may ask someone there about it - idk if it's okay for the fish or ecosystem, or some horrible thing that's choking the life out of it. from what you're speculating - it might be some invasive thing.. with the 'normal' algae, that grows off the bottom, and only is in the shallows, i can at least kind of see what is going on. this stuff is literally a shag carpet just covering huge swaths of the pond... anyone else used to fishing this kind of stuff? oh, well --- at least the weather is warming up.

hi all algae lovers, i've just resumed fishing, with the warmer weather. half the surface area of my pond is covered with these floating small 1/4" diameter 'flowerettes?' of algae(?). the pond surface looks like a 1960's wall to wall carpet of semi-shag, light greenish, with red hues...solid covering, to appearances. these flowerettes are free floating, and form pretty seamless mats stretching out for about half the surface area of the pond. i think they are individuals blown by the wind to the N half of pond. you can't really see the water surface at all in that area. i think it's a winter growth. i'm a new bass fisherman in california. so i'm wondering how to fish these areas, are they 'good', since they certainly provide cover... , the only way i know what's underneath is by dragging a texas rig - that's what i've mainly been doing so far. in the summer, much of the shallow edges of the pond are covered by green mats of a different algae, which seem to grow from the bottom of the pond. i was punching or flipping (not sure of the term) those areas... i guess i'm trying to feel what is down there, fishing very slowly on the bottom, with my texas rig, and braid... currently using as light a sinker as i can - 1/4 oz. sometimes that is not heavy enough to keep the rig on the bottom, with the tension from the surface algae. haven't tried any faster methods... something would have to be fairly heavy to stay under the water, with the added tension of all the algae. that easily pulls up line, and the lure is just skimming along the surface, picking up algae. in the photo, is merely one of the millions of small flowerettes. they're all about this size... they just individually float. any suggestions? is this algae common? thank you!

i think you basically simply need to be more patient, which is what some of these guys are saying...... stay off the coffee for starters, if you indulge in that... as a beginner (me), i'm not a huge fan of the stick to one bait for a super long time method... i think one needs to get at least a flavor of different techniques, at the start. that being said, i'd avoid trying too many things, too fast, too many rods, etc.. which is what you say frustrates u.