Bazoo

I think the thought is that mono floats on the surface during the retrieve when fishing.

Got a couple yesterday. I just happened to have a fluke on and it was about at the end of it's life so I fished it for one more. I got one after dark on a jitterbug, but didn't get a picture. ------ Went down to the river today and got a really pretty dark goggle eye. I got a nice 3 pounder Same fish.

Thanks for the tips all. I found a weight that I think is tungsten, and I have no experience with them.

I get tired of fishing the same 3-4 spots all the time, so I'm always looking for new spots to add into the mix, and new techniques to try. Bass fishing is so multifaceted that it's hard to get burned out.

Interesting idea, thanks for sharing.

I do a bit of both. I rarely will swap hooks on a new bait. Mostly I sharpen treble hooks as they need it. I rarely will sharpen a worm hook, though I sharpened one just earlier. It just depends. I use a DMT diamond sharpener most often, but I don't have one with the groove. I need one, as I catch the hooks on the little holes sometimes.

I have been working on learning to cast with my left hand (off hand). I can't pitch left handed yet, but I am working on it. For that matter, I ain't so good pitching right handed yet. --------- I have learned to switch hands while the lure is still in the air. Might be an option for you too?

Howdy and welcome. There is of course, worms and bobbers. There is another option though in the live bait category; Minnows. Not sure if that's common over in California. You use them the same as you would a worm, hook them, throw them out, and wait. Don't forget to take needle nosed pliers to help with hook removal. Knots that are suitable would be the Improved Clinch knot (fisherman's knot), the Palomar knot, and the Trilene knot, with the Improved Clinch being the old standby. I normally use a size 1 or 2 aberdeen hook for panfish. It will work for minnows and for worms. Available at Walmart in the Ozark Trail brand for only a dollar. As for lures targeting bass, or even panfish, I suggest starting with a beetle spin. They are very easy to use, inexpensive, and they generally will catch fish pretty good. The 1/8oz size will cover both. I usually use the 1/4oz size for bass, but I occasionally catch other varieties also. Black is the go to color around here 75% of the time.

I for one am convinced that bass/fish can hear braid better in the water. I fish braid sometimes for a weightless texas rig, but I'm very careful not get my line caught or jerk it through the water.

I lose a lot of hard baits at the river. Other places, I rarely lose one, so I think it would be soft plastics.

No, but I need to get into heavier jigs, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits.

Howdy and welcome. I've never been down there to Dale Hollow. Growing up in Kentucky it was the place of legend because of the world record smallmouth.

I seriously considered putting these in the oil. We don't get fog much here, beautiful.

What is strolling?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll explore all of those.

I learned how to do it via this video - ----------- I went to Freeman Lake today for about 2 hours and I was able to entice one with a crankbait with tied hooks. This a Fat Free Guppy.

I haven't caught any big ones on it, but I have had some smaller ones on a Shad Rap 6 with the hooks tied. That makes the lure totally silent. Might be worth a try for you. I actually caught my PB on that lure, out of a pond I fish a lot. That pond has a lot of small fish, but the big one came on the corner I always hit when arriving, and probably the other few people that fish it does too. I don't have a picture of the PB, but this is a gratuitous picture of the lure.

Pre-rig your spinnerbait with a short leader that ends in a loop knot.

I have caught a good handful of frog bass on a medium rod, specifically my Abu Garcia Black Max. It's my all around do everything rod. It doesn't cast light lures as well. But it does good with 1/4 ounce roostertails and beetle spins, squarebill crankbaits, and is a bit light for some things like frogs and large crankbaits. But I make do with it often because I bank fish and I don't want to carry a rod for everything. I might get out to a spot and decide to throw a frog for example. Hooking up is not a problem, I normally set the hook twice with a frog because I am always running mono. Braid is hard to deal with on a baitcaster in my opinion. It digs into itself whenever you catch a larger fish, or whenever you have a snag. It gets wrapped around the guides, the lure's hooks, into the split rings. It is just generally less manageable than mono. That said... if you're into making do, braid is okay, and you can make do with it for the things it's less than ideal for. I'd rather make do with mono most of the time than the other way around.

The other day I was there at those lake ponds, and I met a guy and started talking. He had a glide bait, probably about 8" long and tall, and I asked him about it. He said he wasn't really familiar with them and just bought it to try because it was on sale. He fished some other stuff a while, then tied that on and almost immediately got a 3 pounder, then in short order a 2 pounder. It was on probably the most heavily pressured corner of these ponds. The fish were hugging the bank, which is a vertical bank in about 3' of water. Most anglers fish out towards the middle and then pull their lures before they get close to the bank. It was more in the middle of the day, but still, it goes to show that the fish will bite something they don't see every day.

I've had some limited success at the aforementioned lake by using soft split rings on crankbaits. That is saying something though, because this lake has some very high pressure areas. The northern part is basically divided into two attached ponds, each attaching to the main lake but separate from each other. These have a nice parking spot attached and are nicely mowed with walking trails. As a result, they see a tremendous amount of pressure from after work and weekend fishermen. Now... of course not everyone is throwing the same things, but for me to fish it after work hours and catch ANY fish I think is a success. This 4-7 was caught during just such a time period. A nice day in fall, lots of traffic. But in a spot that is a little bit less pressured. By that I mean, the spots within 50 yards were both more pressured, but this bank appears innocuous. Soft split rings, but otherwise a stock H20X squarebill. But in a color that I feel is a bit less popular. I think it's safe to say that bass, being that size, has seen it all. Now, I can't consistently reproduce success with my methods, but I do catch fish there whereas others do not. I have talked to other anglers that say they haven't ever caught a fish there. Other things I've had good success with is a texas rigged Zoom Fat Albert Grub, a Zoom finesse worm (or some vintage powerbait worms which I have 2 left of) on a split shot rig, weightless lizards. Most of my friends hardly will fish it because the fish are so educated, but I like the challenge.

All of the TRF videos I've watched was his 100 ponds videos where he fishes exclusively from the bank. Now, granted I am just starting, but it sure seems easy enough. In one of the videos he used a bullet weight because he didn't have a drop shot weight in the specific weight he needed. So, that's exactly what I did. I started by working it faster and didn't get anything. I slowed down and got those 3 pretty fast. And this is one reason that I want to learn drop shot because many people don't fish it from the bank. The public lake I fish has so much pressure, I want to give them something they haven't seen before.

This flicker shad wouldn't have been my first choice, but the boy wanted it on. I gave it a couple test casts. Got 2 more on flukes that I didn't get pictures of. I have been watching a lot of TylersReelFishing videos, and he uses the drop shot sometimes and speaks highly of it, so I decided to give it a try today. Got 3 from one of the spots that's somewhat lesser productive.

For the longest time I semi-retired a buzzbait that I caught this fish on: I lost it later on a limb fishing some heavy bank cover. Then I retrieved it a few weeks later from my boat. I still have it and still fish it occasionally.

Thanks!