Hey guys I have been lurking on this forum for a little while now and finally decided to join. You seem like some great people. Anyway, I am officially hooked on bass fishing and I try to go to a local pond almost every day. Here is the thing. Today for instance I got bites/nibbles on roughly 15 separate occasions. Sadly, only one time did a bass stay on the hook (it was a good one though!) Is this common? Am I doing something wrong? Sometimes I try to jerk it hard but then my lure just shoots away from the fish....

WELCOME! You a probably getting bites from small fish. Use some larger baits, that might work.

First off, Welcome to the forum.

You might try some scented plastics or salted plastics or add some spray on scents to get them to hold the bait a little longer.

Matt.

GULP!

P.S. welcome to the forum

WELCOME!!!

I would agree that alot of the bites you were feeling are probably small fish like bluegills, etc.   Just stick with it, you'll get em sooner or later.

Jason

Something I just thought of if you are using soft plastics:

When you set the hook and it flies away from the fish, do you ever find that the back end of the lure is missing or roughed up?

This used to happen to me all the time when I was fishing a pond with a good population of large bluegill or green sunfish. Those little buggers will attack a plastic worm that is longer than they are. Quite often they will end up biting off the back end of the worm.

You might try using a smaller bait and hooks just to see what they are. Beetle Spins are great for this.

thanks for the advice guys. I just got back from some night fishin' and i used some small baits and hooks. I actually caught some little perch so those most of been the guys nibbling at my big baits.

By the way, I got my personal best LB using a scented GULP minnow. 4 pounds and 2 ounces. It may not seem like a lot to you guys, but I am proud of it. Now for a 5+ pounder!

I used to play video games when i wanted to relax.. Now all I want to do is go out and fish!

Fishing is alot more fun then video games! Keep it up!

One of the things that took me a long to learn was just how big a bait and a hook an average bass can eat.

For years I was fishing too small.

Step up and get those bluegill away from your lures.

try a 5" senko in watermelon/black on a 4/0 T rig in the weeds.

or wacky rigged in more open water.

If there are bass in that pond bigger than 10 inches, you'll catch em