David P

Haha, thank you, I hope the 1/4 will work, if not, I'm coming after you! As for spinnerbaits, any reason you don't fish them? Or you're a swimbait kinda guy? If you let me know what kinda popper and how to fish it, and WHERE , I'll go for it! I'm just trying to open up some options and see what else is out there!

I do sometimes, but I do pray every d**n time that the weather starts to look bad, or when the weather report for the ONE day off a week I get is bad, I pray and pray all day every day for the weather to be good. In all honesty, the past several times it has worked

Holy crap, I've never fished a Lipless Crank, but in fact just bought one today on my way home. Crazy.. It's a RatLtrap, Blue top silver body, BUT it's a 1/4 :'( Should I return it? Or will that catch me a pretty 3lber?

Hey guys, I'm not sure I'm going to do this, but just thought of the crazy idea. Just curious as to the MINIMUM Size a pond needed to successfully hold crappie and bluegill. I'd love to have bass, BUT, I have a feeling the pond size would need to be much bigger then to just hold Crappie and blue gill.. So to make it short: How big does a pond need to be to hold Crappie and Bluegill, if you can give me a size in yards that'd be great! Thanks!

Guys, I'm getting very into looking at this spinner bait website where you can design your own. How does the size of the Willow blade affect the fishing? Is it good to have colored blades? There's chart colored blades, and all that, would that help or do you want silver so it reflects and shines in the water? Is it better to have the willow blade on top or the colorado on top? HeavyCover.Com is what i'm looking at, I figured I'd order 3, so if anyone doesn't mind, help me build 3 solid ones that I will have the best success with and that are the most VERSATILE.

Thanks guys, yah spinnerbaits are what I'm leaning towards. I have a few white and some white with chart, also one black with chart, so we'll see how it goes. What's the best place/way to fish them? I've only used them a few times, and just casted any which where and reeled it in, any special techniques? Anything else guys? Thanks so far!

Ok guys, so the last couple of times I've been out fishing, I've gotten very impatient to fish plastic worms, and want to try something a bit more "Exciting". Don't get me wrong, I'll always fish Senkos and Finesse worms, but I think its time to improve my range of fishing skills, and learn something new. What would you guys suggest? Fast action, Easy to Catch, and not the sitting looking at your line to twitch type of fishing. I'm looking into Crank baits , Spinner baits, Swim baits (although it must be light cause I fish a 6"6 ML Rod and 8-10lb line), or anything else for that matter. So advice on any of those (which is most effective more often then the others. Whatever you suggest, if you could give me a brand / model / colors that work best that'd be great. Thanks all!

Oh, and thank you guys for the advice. The reel is a Shimano Bantam Crestfire 200B The rod is a Shimano Scimitar graphite rod. Any suggestions what to use it for?

I'm going out today to practice with it. What types of situations / lures would you use a BC over a Spinning ? And what's the advantage to using a BC reel ?

BANJO MINNOW. This is the ONLY time I through a banjo minnow, the smaller size, 3 or 4 inch I forgot what it is. Throw white or silver with white, the other colors work fine too. Firefly ones work well. At a small reservoir near me, in Oct-ish , I had 3 weekends in a row that I was fortunate enough to witness the same thing. I caught at least 30-40 bass in 3-4 hours, along with my friend who was fishing the banjo minnow who caught 27 (he counted, I didn't, but I caught more). None the less, Banjo Minnow or any swimbait that looks like the shad.

Ok, so I've been fishing for years but never attempted to use a baitcasting reel, always just spinning reels. Every time I cast, the spool just shoots out, and it gets tangled and tons of loose string. I've adjusted the Cast Control that tightens and loosens the ease of the release, but it either has trouble casting due to being tight, or it is too loose and tangles and what not.; I dont' think a reel can be this hard to use, I'm probably just being dumb. Please help?

Go a few pages back in Fishing Tackle, there's a 3 or 4 page thread about this same thing. The banjo minnow does work, especially when there's schools of feeder fish that the bass are feeding on (Only time I've consistently caught fish with it). I have a few 4-6 pounders from it. But as many say, it's no better then anything else on the market.

Greatly written.

The Mann's website has them. I was tempted to order them along with some Crankbaits. Maybe after my next paycheck i'll order a few things from them.

I love C-Rig and no mater what depth i'm fishing I have more success, especially when the bass are active and in a cashing mood. I just seem to get more action from a C-Rig then a T-Rig, and love the fact that it takes a few more seconds to float to the bottom as opposed to a Trig with a weight right on top. Then again, weightless T-Rig senko is nice too. I've never tried just dragging a C-Rig, i'ma go try that this week =) I do a pretty quick retrieve with a C-Rig and get great results when the fish are active, lota jerking motions.

Senkos are the best and easiest to catch fish with. You can't fish a Senko wrong. (You can, but you'll still catch fish, just maybe not as many.) Use 4" Senkos to start, you'll catch more fish, although some won't be as big. Just to get started use the 4" and move up to 5" where the big fish are or in not as clear water. T-Rig a senko weightless, with a weight, or Carolina. All work well and have produced for everyone. Fish it any way you'd like, weightless let it drop (watch on the drop you'll get TONS of strikes), put a weight on it and just drag it on the bottom, there's unlimited uses for the senko.

d**n I'm too broke to buy a new rod / reel. My rod is a 6"6 ML and I have a MH 6"6 but both don't hold lures over 1oz and the reels I have all are only up to 8 or 10lb line. Any suggestions for good swimbaits for those setups? I really want to get into using swim baits, but just can't afford another setup. Thanks =)

I just ordered one yesterday. I would have ordered the kit if I had seen it earlier but it's too late. This one will be an experiment. The reviews on the site all said a nice tight wobble and that they were great. I bought a random STORM Crankbait today and caught my first crankbait fish on my 2nd cast. I'll let you know when I get the Grave Digger how it works. I say order a few, $2.49 or whatever isn't bad.

Hey, I had a question too and didn't want to start a new thread. I was thinking about starting to use Mattlures and other bigger swim baits. What size rod and action and size line.. I'm not going for 12 lbers, just 6-8 lbers and what not!

Whatever you feel more comfortable with. I can detect a hit better with a worm, so I use worms 99% of the time I fish. I'd like to get better with a jig, as they're very similar. They both work well, and during all times of the year. Try both and see what you like best!

My favorite trout lures for small creeks and what not are Rainbow Runners and Kastmasters. Great stories with those puppies. I caught one trout that had one of my lures from the previous day AND another hook with 2 split shots on the line both in it's mouth.

This is the same thing I've been having a bit of trouble with. I've gotten it down a bit, but still don't have that confidence with it. It takes time to really get used to it, but from what I've seen, it's well worth the time.

Depends what kinda fishing you like. Soft plastics are my favorite, I'd get some Jerk shad , plastic worms, there's tons of appealing things to me. They have nice kits too under Bait Kits, 5 Piece rattle shad kit, Jerkbait kits, and tons of plastic kits. It really depends on what you like to fish.

Exactly, it depends on what you want. There's several things I would buy from there, but that's just me. I actually just got a rod from there to tryout. There's tons of baits I wouldn't mind ordering either.

Great way to think of it, and a great way to live life. I'm going to remember that.