Must be the fall weather but the bite has def turned on in the local ponds. Tonite was no different. Got out about 6 with my little 1000 series reel and some small gulp shad I picked up on clearance that looked like they had potential.
It was a slow start but didn't take long for the fish to get in gear. Had the shad pegged to a 1/8 oz jig head and spent most of the time swimming it. Picked up a few then switched tactics and cast to the middle, let it sink, and slow jigged it. Picked up a couple more.
Couldn't figure out what I liked more: when they attack it as it's swimming, or the subtle thump as they inhale it on the fall. Variety is the spice of life, no?
So I'm really beginning to lose light as I come up to my second favorite culvert where I know I'm gonna score. Sure 'nuff, a nice 2lber grabs the jig as I swim it by. I'm happy because this pond doesn't yield up 2+ lb fish often enough, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in volume. (Sound familiar?)
I figured that was the culvert queen right there, but 1 or 2 casts later and I'm hooked up to a drag puller! This fish is going to deeper water and I'm not stopping it! Right away, anyways. After a good 3 or so minutes, a solid 4 gets landed, which is also a PB for this pond, on probably the smallest lure I've used in it.
One more close by and it's time to quickly work my way to my favorite culvert before all light is lost. First two casts are hit but the come unbuttoned as I worry about spooking the others which sometimes happens at this spot. No problem tonite, though. Third cast has another bruiser attached that tries to make a run "upstream" into the culvert, but the trusty Shimano Clarus turns her back to open water. Play her out a little bit and a nice 3lber gets unhooked and back in she goes. One or two more after that and it's a wrap for the eve.
On a side note: It's been bothering me lately with some of the deeper hooked fish, the amount of wrestling and tissue damage that's occuring while unhooking them. And since these are "my" fish that are visited often, I've taken to crushing the hook barbs. First I did it just to the trebles, but now all my hooks get the treatment when not meat fishing. I can say there hasn't been an increase of lost fish, either. Out of at least ten landed tonite, I may have lost 3 small ones on the first jump. There are also selfish reasons to do this to your hooks: Unhooking is a snap. I take great care of my fish and are as delicate as possible, and unhooking now is ten times easier AND faster, which translates into more fish being caught.
I highly recommend it.
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Originally Posted by capt louie
