The Fishing Thread

[scott free]

Searched around & only found the video fishing & BassMasters threads, i know their are plenty of outdoorsman here, so i figured it'd be cool to draw upon the Planets vast experience in all things fishing.

I only use spincast reels & fish mostly large/smallmouth bass & cats. My choice of reels is quite the source of derision from many people i know 'duffer gear', but i haul in my share of 6 pound bass & 10-20 pound cats on that gear no problem. With a little know-how you can use just about any technique you want to on 'duffer gear'.

Berkley Powerbaits are a big part of my trick bag, the difference between those & regular stuff is night & day. My best action last summer came on Mister Twister scented white curly tail grubs, on one day fishing from shore to a bridge pier, i caught smallies, bigmouths, perch & even 1 carp believe it or not... great day. But my bread & butter is a texas rigged Berkley worm, it'll wiggle through any kind of cover without getting hung up.

With cats i strictly bottom fish, no bobber & bait is just as basic... but its always in 2's to give'em a real treat... a shrimp/with a nightcrawler, liver/chunk of cheese etc. Cats are mostly for night sport to me, time to kick back a lil...

So thats me style, how do the rest of you guys get your fish on? What do you fish for, what do you use? IIRC Missouri's trout season just kicked off, anyone getting anything?

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Stocked my pond today.

The race is on to the 8lb bass.

Feeding? I have bass that were stocked on June 22 3years ago at 4-5 inches that are running a solid 17-18 in with a couple 22 inch plus. Granted thats exceptional but they had massive amounts of forage with Bluegills that had not been fed on for probably two prior years. Pond is 3.5 acres, max depth 26 feet

Im seeing a real benefit in the bluegills from feeding. Cant say bass pay any attention to the feed but the will bust hell out of a BG when ty are on the feed plus its a rush to see the catfish.

[Donger]

My son and I caught about 20 Rainbows this last weekend. It was great. Fought like Hell.

[allen_kcCard]

Originally Posted by Donger

My son and I caught about 20 Rainbows this last weekend. It was great. Fought like Hell.

I've only been once in my life, this past opening weekend. Want to get back out in the water, was really fun fishing.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Donger

My son and I caught about 20 Rainbows this last weekend. It was great. Fought like Hell.

With what, fly rod, ultra light?
Rainbows are scrappy little fish, fun to catch on light gear.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

With what, fly rod, ultra light?
Rainbows are scrappy little fish, fun to catch on light gear.

Just a spinning reel and whatever that rod is called. Crazy stick?

Just a bobber, weight, hook and bait.

[El Jefe]

Originally Posted by Donger

Just a spinning reel and whatever that rod is called. Crazy stick?

Just a bobber, weight, hook and bait.

Hey Donger, I have heard you like to fish for brown snub nose sewer trout. Could you verify the validity of this for me?

[tooge]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Feeding? I have bass that were stocked on June 22 3years ago at 4-5 inches that are running a solid 17-18 in with a couple 22 inch plus. Granted thats exceptional but they had massive amounts of forage with Bluegills that had not been fed on for probably two prior years. Pond is 3.5 acres, max depth 26 feet

Im seeing a real benefit in the bluegills from feeding. Cant say bass pay any attention to the feed but the will bust hell out of a BG when ty are on the feed plus its a rush to see the catfish.

sounds just like my situation. I feed the fish 5-6 times a week, and the 'gills and cats come up for it. The bass sit below and wait to pick of one of the unsuspecting 'gills. Pretty cool to watch. I throw 10lbs of minnows in about every other year also, but the 'gills are getting huge and there are several 7ish lb bass in there now. I'll post a pic of the one my son caught last summer.

[tooge]

here's one. water is way up from where it was last year

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by tooge

here's one. water is way up from where it was last year

Damn, look at the mouth on that!

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by tooge

here's one. water is way up from where it was last year

Awesome!!! Thats what kids should do! look at that expression!

[Iowanian]

I built a lot of structure. I'd been wanting to do this for a long time and had looked at a lot of stuff on the internet.

Here are some samples of some of the items I made, in addition to rock piles, ledges, drop offs and a large dirt ridge in the water....and a garden of cement lawn deer and large tile piles around my island and other strategic locations.....I have enough time invested in them I hope it pays off.

It was funny listening to some of the old timers talk about it when they didn't know I was in a store or who had done it.

I have a smaller pond I drained that would run directly into this one with a pipe and I plan to fix it and put a 6" pipe running into the pond I can with a valve...and stock the small pond with minnows and crawfish and twice per year open the gate for a while to flood food.

Also, I'm tinkering with an natural fish feeder idea.
I want to hang a battery powered bug zapper over the water with a shepherd's hook....put a solar panel on a battery with a timer....even if it runs a couple of hours/night, it'll work.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I built a lot of structure. I'd been wanting to do this for a long time and had looked at a lot of stuff on the internet.

Here are some samples of some of the items I made, in addition to rock piles, ledges, drop offs and a large dirt ridge in the water....and a garden of cement lawn deer and large tile piles around my island and other strategic locations.....I have enough time invested in them I hope it pays off.

It was funny listening to some of the old timers talk about it when they didn't know I was in a store or who had done it.

I have a smaller pond I drained that would run directly into this one with a pipe and I plan to fix it and put a 6" pipe running into the pond I can with a valve...and stock the small pond with minnows and crawfish and twice per year open the gate for a while to flood food.

Also, I'm tinkering with an natural fish feeder idea.
I want to hang a battery powered bug zapper over the water with a shepherd's hook....put a solar panel on a battery with a timer....even if it runs a couple of hours/night, it'll work.

You probably already know about pondboss.com.


Great resource...

Read up on crayfish, you may find thats a bad idea. Can reallymess up habitat, many are invasive/non native, and can brutalize spawn.