KSanford33

So I started fishing our local city pond this spring. It's fairly small and heavily fished. There are decent sized bass in it from what I've seen on FishBrain, but I'm having a heck of a time trying to find fish. There's zero cover and very little in terms of structure either. Below is the topo map from the DEC. The bottom is covered with that kind of gooey weed that seems to melt onto whatever bait you try on the bottom. Any advice? https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/irolkmap.pdf

I was fortunate to play a sport for a living for about 5 years in my 20's, although very low level minors. The one thing I used to tell people is it's a fun job, but it's still a job. If you have fun doing x (whether x is fishing or whatever else), it's probably a good idea to keep it as fun. Because once your livelihood depends on it, it's no longer fun. Even if you enjoy the pressure of tournament fishing; saying, I need to catch x number of inches or pounds of fish to finish in the top 3 or whatever it is, having to do that week in and week out just to survive begins to wear on you. A lot of it also depends on where you are in life. I was able to do what I did because it was my early 20's. I had nothing to lose. But now in my 40's with all of the accoutrements that come with being my age (family, mortgage, etc.), I have a lot more to lose and I wouldn't be comfortable gambling all of that on my ability -or lack thereof- of catching fish.

Can you point us in that direction?

Congratulations sir! We're trying to catch up to you!

Bear with me because this might get a bit wordy, but it's worth reading. My wife and I have been together for 17 years. I've learned the most important thing is what I call 'the gap'. In boxing, if I'm too far away from my opponent, I can't reach him. But if I'm too close, my punches get smothered. So the key is to find that perfect distance where you can fully extend on your punches so they have the maximum effect. The same goes for relationships. I fish, play golf and hockey. It keeps me very busy. So I find that if I spend too much time away from my wife, she gets mad. But if I'm not doing any of these things (if I'm injured or whatever it is), then we're together too much and we watch Forensic Files trying to figure out the best ways to dispose of a body (kidding, of course). So it's all about finding the right amount of time so you're happy doing your thing and she's happy with the amount of time you're spending together.

Yikes... I wish you a speedy recovery @Catt

@Choporoz @Tennessee Boy You both make excellent points, and I think with nebulous definitions we can never really nail anything down. Other than the two ends of the spectrum -dead sticking a ned rig and maybe burning a spinnerbait just under the surface- everything else falls into that, ehhh... maybe, maybe not area.

I completely agree. I don't think there's any definitive line there. I've always thought of it by what kind of bite you're going after. If you're going after a reaction bite, that's power fishing. If you're trying to coax the fish into biting, that's finesse. But like my wife likes to constantly remind me, I could be wrong.

That's an interesting thought. Can you explain what you mean?

Can anyone recommend a solid bass guide on the southern part of Lake Champlain? Thanks everyone.

You hit on something interesting for me. This is what I usually do, however I almost never catch anything on the power presentation and anything I do catch is on the finesse presentation. That got me wondering if I should just start out with the finesse. But like everyone else, I want to be versatile and able to adapt, so I still bang away with cranks, chatterbaits, etc.

Correct, I shouldn’t have said all the time. But I’m wondering if there’s a time when finesse fishing wouldn’t work and power fishing would.

Mods, feel free to move this into a more appropriate forum. I got my first Bassmaster magazine in around 30 years today. I distinctly remember a comic on the back page that was about these two hicks (Charlie and something, I think). When did they do away with that?

I know finesse fishing can produce bites when power fishing can’t, but can finesse fishing still produce even when power fishing produces a bite? Basically, can you get bit on finesse fishing all the time?

I have a similar background. I grew up lower middle class (emphasis on the LOWER). When I was 12 years old, my uncle owned a repair garage and I used to work for him doing odd jobs to make money for fishing gear. This was around 1992 and there were two reels I had to have: The original Abu Garcia Gold Max for a baitcaster and the Quantum HyperCast for a spinning reel. So I worked for about a month straight, earning $10/day until I could afford them. The Gold Max has been lost to history, but I still use the HyperCast as my primary spinning reel. For lures, it's always been Rapala and Strike King. Mainly from watching BDO and Hank Parker as a kid.

For these tournament anglers who fish in many different states, what do they do for licenses? Do they just get 7 day licenses in whichever state they're fishing that week?

If you don’t mind me asking, how cold does the water get at your dock?

I would imagine just before the body of water freezes and then shortly after ice out. I would think the water temperature would just be too cold.

I have an ongoing debate with a buddy of mine about docks. He says you can catch bass off of docks 12 months out of the year (barring ice), even here in northeastern NY. I disagree with him. What do you guys think?

The answer to your question is YES. Whenever someone wonders if they should try something -that isn't destructive- the answer is always yes. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't pan out the way you thought it would. My wife makes fun of me because in conversations with people, I tell jokes to make myself laugh, not them. So if this makes you happy, you absolutely should do it.

That video is exactly what happened. It's a little unnerving to see in person.

So places like the Hudson with freighters like this commonly going up and down the river isn’t the place for a kayak then. Crap, I was looking forward to the striper run in a couple months.

I was fishing from shore today on the Hudson River to scout out some places to take my kayak when I saw something concerning. The Hudson regularly has cargo ships going up and down the river and I noticed about 100ft behind the ship was this good sized wave. About 30ft before the wave got to me, the water level dropped like a stone (probably 4-5ft) then the wave came and crashed over the breakwall. It even sucked a ton of water out of the creek that feeds into the river. Pictures below. My concern is that would be potentially dangerous on a kayak. Has anyone experienced this and if so, how did you deal with it?

Fair enough. I've seen some blanked out in other posts, so I wasn't sure. So this is in reference to the Z-Man Finess TRD and the TRD Craw.

I don't want to break any of the forum rules, so I'll do my best. There's a bait that is has very elastic properties that is commonly used in ned rigs (I don't know if I can use their actual name on the forum). For those of you that have used them, how have you found bass hold onto them? Is it similar to senkos or do they let them go quicker?