Pat Brown

I would agree with this - I have sightfished enough bass to know that they can learn a worm just like anything else. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

@Catt is also a big advocate of that guy. Very very cool. I bet you'll catch at least one huge pickerel 😅😅😅😎😎😎

I have confidence in my knowledge of bass and how they relate to structure and baitfish seasonally. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎😎😎 Baits? Yeah they're fun! Just about all of them in the right circumstances are dynamite when presented with skill which simply takes some practice. Pick ones that look fun and throw only that every day until you can catch bass on it! You'd be amazed how well this works.

Of course! More so just saying that sometimes they float right on up to the surface belly up and flopping even when immediately returned to the water...etc etc etc I just feel for the anglers who get super down on themselves over gut hooking bass. It is just part of what happens when you do everything as right as you can. The best any of us can do is educate ourselves on fish care and try our best to be diligent when feeling for a bite. Getting them back in the water as soon as possible after removing the hook is always a very good idea - blood or not. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Copy Pasted my response to basically the same question in another thread recently: 'Gut hooking fish. If you fish a lot - it happens to you. No angler likes to see it - but eventually you come to expect it to some degree. Baits I have killed bass with for no reason whatsoever that I could even detect (blood pumping out of the fish profusely even though the bait was in a lip): Chatterbait Spinnerbait Buzzbait Football Jig Lipless Crankbait Squarebill Frittside Many Jerkbaits of various sizes and brands. Baits I have gut hooked bass with (hooked the skin at the back of the mouth past the chompers resulting in a fish death): Weightless Plastic Football Jig Frog Popper Lipless Crankbait Squarebill Frittside Jerkbaits Basically I have seen fish that should have died do well and make it AND I've hooked fish in the lip that nicked themselves grabbing the bait in some way that was fatal. We don't have a ton of control over the situation - we just driving a hook point into an animal that's biting our presentation. What you can do if you care is bend the barbs down on your hooks. This will ultimately completely eliminate gut hooking a fish. The ones that nick themselves fatally going for the bait? Yeah I got nothing there. It's a freak show every time that happens and it sucks. The best thing we can do in any of these unfortunate situations is honor the animals life by taking her home and nourishing our bodies or our gardens with her. Leaving her for the turtles is okay too - nature spares nothing. I just prefer to take em home and feed my family.' It's just one of the not so fun realities of sticking hooks into a living things head and or throat and then wearing them out with a long arduous fight. Sometimes they don't make it. Get back out there and keep fishing. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎😎😎

I'm a big ribbon tail worm with a heavier weight and larger hook on heavier line kinda guy but I also very much like a stick bait on braid weightless or a shaky head trick worm. Hard to beat fishing worms if you like catching bass and not just practicing your casting.

I'm as cynical and hopeless as the next guy when it comes to my opinions of human influence on nature/the environment - but bass are pretty hard to get rid of. I think fishing pressure post COVID is 90% of why fishing is harder now than ever. The bubble will burst and new generations of fish will be born. It's all just the cycles of things rising in popularity etc. Bass fishing around here before COVID was pretty much insane according to friends of mine and these days they all struggle to catch a fish. Fishing pressure has a very real effect on small fisheries!

My friends and I talk at the marina sometimes as we pass each other coming or going and here's a thing some of us have observed that I find interesting: On the small pressured ponds with well educated but large bass - the fights are insane. They pull out all the stops. Often acrobatic launching into the air with head shakes etc. These fish have been caught. These fish do not like being caught. These fish recognize fairly quickly when they're being caught. These fish consistently fight like their life depends on it to get off (and often successfully do!) On the bigger lakes - it seems more situational. Sometimes the fish seem like they don't even know they're hooked til they can see the boat.

I fish shallow clear ponds where the 'offshore structure' is often visible from the bank (and the bass relating to it also) and I can tell you - timing is everything after location. Case in point: there's a point that sticks out into a ditch next to a culvert where lots of red ear make their beds. Like clock work - regardless of who's fishing where or what is happening with the weather - if those sunfish are in their beds - every few minutes a 6+ lb bass will SMASH through them and push them up and into the hard high sandbar that comes up off the point where they make their beds. They use that spot to push bait so many times it's worn bare. Just be there and wait and you'll at least have a shot!

Every day is hard bite days here: In the summer - you got two choices (basically one choice) Sneaky slow baits and/or make them react. Sometimes you sorta have to do both at once. Like make them react with sneaky slow baits. It's definitely a very summer time thing in my mind. Baits that are fun to fish this time of year that kinda make them react and/or are sneaky: BuzzToad Hollow Frog Swim Jig T Rig Big ribbon tail worm Fluke Senko Drop Shot Carolina Rig I can just go down a bank on the hottest days on the most pressured week of the year and catch bass on these baits if I make good casts and keep moving.

Probably still use what I use honestly. I'm hard on my gear. Real real hard. No sense in putting lipstick (ultra fancy rods and reels) on a pig (me stomping around in the dark at public ponds and bumbling around our local lakes on aluminum Jon boats)

You kinda get in the zone with it. You learn to anticipate the blow up and not fear it so much once you catch a few. 🙂🙂🙂 Stick with it - I reckon you'll be a froggin' master in no time with the water you fish - and I reckon you'll find the biggest girls in your pond on frogs real good.

Looking forward to that report. Not gonna lie, Crick - I haven't hardly caught a fish in months that wasn't on a frog. A couple here and there on flukes or worms - but this year - I can't stop and I won't stop until they stop biting it 🐸🐸🐸😂😂😂 I mean would you?!?!

Nice one @thediscochef! I know you've been waiting for that bite a long time and I'm so glad you got it. Finally found a big one today: Getting scummy with the big girls in the dark is my favorite way to beat the heat! ♥️😎🎣

Hmmmmm: I'm pretty opportunistic when it comes to "purpose" and bass fishing. I like being in touch with nature and it's cycles and always carefully observing them. I like watching big bass swim and attack things in shallow clear water and the perspective being a big bass hunter affords me to these phenomena. I like preparing for a trip and reading the conditions and solving the puzzle of where the bass are and what they are in the mood to bite. I like releasing fish and watching them swim off to be caught again. But nothing beats the bite from a LARGE bass: just my honest opinion. It's the single most validating moment in all of bass fishing when you can make the apex predator hit an artificial lure. Even better when you time your hookset just right and she grabs the bait just right and you get to hold her. But the bite is special. The thump you feel on a crankbait or a jerk bait or a worm or a jig - seeing your line swimming off to one side or the other - the line going slack - oh goodness....topwater blow ups 🥹🥹🥹🤤🤤🤤♥️♥️♥️ when a fish toilet bowl flushes my frog or my buzzbait as it comes out of some grass or across a limb. This is what it's all for. It's also fun now to help others achieve those goals both friends and family alike. The puzzle is great but when you get them to take your lure....that's when the real fun starts! Good thread.

Already have a couple 😜😜😜

Eager students are fast learners but taking someone fishing - even for one afternoon of pretty sights and sounds in God's creation - is worth the cost of admission! I say go for it and keep expectations low and open mindedness high and good times will be had by all. And who knows - you might just introduce her to something she grows to love.

Frog hookset: Don't set the hook on the bite - set the hook when they pull. This can sometimes require a bit of a delay before you set the hook. Reel the slack out of the line and load the rod tip with it pointed down and just lift firmly and reel quickly when you're sure the fish has committed to the frog and is swimming with it (they wont spit it nearly as fast as you might think). Do NOT do the bass pro shops promo video style slack line SNAP hook set. This does not do much to drive a hook point without torque and all of the slack reeled out of the line and even then you'll miss fish snapping on them. Quick but firm and upward with steady fast CONSTANT reeling will hook them deep. A popular hollow body frog modification to increase hook up ratio tremendously is to bend the hooks up and out slightly so they have a nice gap between the points and the body of the frog. Use a minimum of 40 lb braid (4 carrier) or you will be heart broken a lot more than just bad hook sets. Absolutely NO leader. Direct to braid with a Palomar knot always always always with a hollow body frog. The rod is perfectly fine. Downsize your frog to a smaller model and I guarantee you'll catch a lot more of the reluctant strikers. Good luck! Sounds like you have a very very easy place to learn the frog so it's just gonna be some minor adjustments and you'll be sailing smoothly!

Okay serious answer sort of: Strong: being sneaky/covering water/presenting baits from far away. Weaknesses: boat positioning/staying quiet/fishing one spot for too long/being on top of the fish and hoping they are gonna be stupid.

Spinnerbait caught me my first very big LMB and it sorta kinda changed the whole game for me. I threw them when they weren't cool and I throw them still now that they're cool again and I'm sure I'll throw them still more when they're uncool yet again. The fun thing is they just work and they definitely catch a big bass! 😎♥️👍🏼🎣

I don't like fishing them around any sort of vegetation - for me that's strictly weightless plastics/drop shot/frog/buzzbait/swimbait/punch rig/swim jig deal. For me lipless crankbaits are a hard bottom cold water tactic and I like them after heavy rains that make things very muddy in the winter. Hard flat bottom near deep water seems to be very productive Warmer winter days with wind I throw them out a little deeper on structure and yo yo them slowly. I'm always looking for clean hard bottom areas with pieces of cover (rock piles/brush/stumps)

I believe I could catch a LMB on any lure category - I am not a huge fan of chatterbaits or lipped crankbaits and prefer spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits. It's not that they don't work - I just don't like throwing them.

I'm extremely good at buying tackle.😎 I'm extremely bad at using it all. 😭

Rage Craw Mag Speed Worm 10" Power Worm D Bomb Zoom Super Fluke Color is whatever you already have confidence in! I throw all of these regularly in a variety of applications.

What are your punch set up and your frog setup?