IdahoLunkerHunter

I would also start on a buzz bait in the morning. A good rule that I always use is cast about 20 times in the general area and if nothing, move to another spot. In the shelves try using a s-carolina senko, fat ika, or grub t-rigged. The spinnerbaits and cranks are a little bit easier to hang up on stumps etc when you are trying to explore. If you are fishing a wide area and lots of places the spinnerbait with a white/chartreuse skirt will cover lots of area. Fish the soft baits slow.

welcome to the site

Welcome to forum. I agree with Road Warrior on a 5" senko and the Fat Ika. They are also my most productive baits. You might want to try rigging these Texas Rigged. It makes a great snag proof lure if you are fishing in heavy vegetation. I take a couple of friends' kids fishing and they love pan fishing plus it's much easier than bass fishing, especially if you are just getting into the sport. A bobber and a crappie jig will catch you lots of pan fish (perch, bluegill, crappie). Every once in a while you will hook up on a bass if you intrude their territory. My favorite colors are chartreuse/black and chartreuse/red.

Welcome

If I get put onto the PETA billboard for a non-lit cigarette in a fish's mouth. Go for it. Wet paper is the least of my concern for hurtin' a fish.

I absolutely agree with thinking outside the box. I love fishing places people wouldn't dare throwing a lure. It's fun bank fishing or fishing with friends when someone will walk up and be amazed that your flipping through 5" of gunk with milfoil and dirt in water that is 3' deep. I pulled a 6lb hawg out doing this last weekend and there were a couple bystaders with their mouths dropped by my technique. An older gentleman stopped by and said "It's great to see someone actually fishing places that the public would never fish. It takes a true fisherman to understand where and when to fish places like that." I felt very pleased and kinda honored that he would say something like that.

What ever you bring to the lake, leaves when you leave, and what ever comes from the lake, stays with the lake.

If your going to filet... Get a filet board and an electric filet knife. I only keep crappie but without an electric filet knife I would kill myself. I start at the head and work back. There are 3 parts of the fish you have to know where they are. The gill plate, rib cage, and backbone. Once you know where these roughly are are you can start cutting. Your first cut is down the backbone just behind the gill plate. Angle toward the tail. Don't cut the stomach. Cut two: slide the blade through the body and cut the other side near the pectoral fin. Cut 3: Using your electric filet knife, slice back toward the tail until you've seperated the filet. Cut carefully over the rib cage. Cut 4: Pinch the skin at the tail and slide the knife between the skin and the meat. There you have a nearly boneless filet and ready for the frypan. Once you get the hang of it you can filet about 30 crappie and hour.

I caught this one last week. We sat down and had a smoke, chatted about the kids, what his weekend was like. He had to get back home though.

I know where you are coming from. I fish with a couple of guys who are older than my parents and about my grandparents age. Retirement comes with the benefits of a 50k bass boat which I don't have . I always ask about helping with expenses , cleaning, etc. They always say no when asked for help, but it is always the right thing to do. I usually buy them a beer and a thanks at the local pub, after a great day of fishing and that seems to fit them perfectly!

The new shad color worked awesome. Fished Saturday for about 3 hours and landed 15 fish between 2-5 lbs. Pictures soon to be posted. Wife has the Camera. It only took about 10 seconds after throwing the shad for them to hit. The color is brilliant reflective in the sunlight even 10-15 feet underwater. Keep your lines tight and your hooks sharpened!

So yesterday me and a buddy were fishing at one of our local lakes that is extreme peat bog territory. We have never had a problem before jumping from island to islands. You just usally sink about 2" and thats it. This was an understatement. After about an hour of fishing and landing one fish we decided to move down that lake a bit. So on one of my back casts before we were going to move, I feel straight through into about 4-5 feet of smelly bog. As my buddy is just laughing hysterically and I'm cursing him to come help me out he falls about 5 feet from me. I have not laughed that long and that hard for quite some time. So after about 15 minutes of us both trying to get out we figured out by falling that the bogs were about 3 feet deeper than we thought. The beaver population is huge in this lake and they have trails that are now covered by little lillies so we couldn't see the bottom. We started to target the beaver trails and WALLA! FISH ON on the first throw. We had been fishing the outter parts of the lillies before and figured a much easier way of landing some Hogs. We fished the bogs openings the rest of the day and caught 13. Don't have pictures because we were afraid of falling in and destroying camera. Atleast my phone still works. Biggest fish was right under 4 lbs (Largemouth) Have a laugh on me

I use a football jig head every once in a while. They seem to work roughly the same.

Yeppers. Fishing a senko weightless isn't something you learn overnight. It takes time and enrgey to perfect your way of fishing a senko. It's like an art. If you can't get anything to bite using it T-rigged weightless throw it wacky rigged, S-Carolina, or on a shaky head. I go through all these different approaches before switching tackle.

Have you tried any weightless senkos? Try throwing a senko weightless or S-Carolina. I have this same thing happen all the time on the lakes and ponds where I fish. When I can't get anything to take anything from the top of the water I throw something to bounce off the bottom.

Couple weeks ago wife almost caught state record crappie. 3.1 lbs. Its bound to happen some day that is all she likes to fish hehe. Trying to get her into bass

To Everyone, I Member Challenge you this weekend. The Challenge: Use a lure you are not familiar with, new color, or have never used. Monday tell us your outcomes. My Challenge: I just recieved some watermelon/Chartreuse/gold flake shads and going to S-Carolina rig the rocks for smallies. (New Color to me)

I stick to spinning. It's not worth the hassle of a birds nest. Just carry two rods with ya. Thats what I do. Well It's actually 7 when I'm on the boat .

Welcome Aboard

I tried as much as i could also. Photoshop can only do so much. The originals were crap as the sun was setting.

A couple Pics from yesterday... All we had were camera phones so quality sucks. Im bringing the camera later today

Yep, The colors sound good to me. I store all my plastics in the original packaging with the zip lock. I have a fishing bag I have set up with different liners that has everything sorted out. I know lots of people that store them in the binders but I keep them preserved in the original packaging, probably because I would need like 6 binders for all the plastics and I don't want to take the time to sort. Keep in mind that it is a good idea to try and imitate the bait the bass are feeding on. On sunny days try to fish your plastics that have any flash or sparkle in them. The sparkle magnifies under water and will help attract fish. On dark and cloudy days fish your darker colors.

I barely ever throw jigs. We have a very small craw population on the lake I fish. Only a few small tributaries and down by the dams have the population.

I use the Palomar Knot on any terminal tackle. This knot is my favorite and I never get line slip. Spot fishing is a great way to catch fish but it is hard to do. Try throwing your lure into open ares where you 'think' there are fish. This will get you used to feeling for the strike instead of watching the fish bite. Once you get used to the feel, your technique will become much stronger.

Here is the picture of the frog