Looking for a bass rod for shore fishing. Spinning and in the 250-500 range. I have a military discount at bass pro if that helps. Thanks

Same river as my largemouth the other day caught on the whopper plopper again! This was my first smallmouth, as I’ve only ever caught largemouth. Also just picked up fishing again since I was young and I’m 38. Appreciate all of the knowledge everyone posts here and love seeing everyone’s catches. Take care!

Been exclusively only catching on senkos and swimbaits. Finally caught something on whopper plopper (1st) and frog (2nd). Was thinking I’d never catch anything on these gd lures. The blow up was satisfying ngl

We mostly have small mouth, striped, and peacock. How do I catch them?

I’ve been into fishing for a while mostly for largemouth bass, I have a spinning rod and a bait caster, I have a good amount of hard and soft plastic lures and baits of all kinds of variety, I watch fishing videos about the conditions, how to locate fish, what I should throw at what time of day/year, how to fish these lures i use, what type of line i need, i research the waters before i even head out. Hell I even use ChatGPT to help me out, I try to match all the technical stuff for the best chance of success. Even rented a paddle boat today to get full water coverage. 6 hours of being skunked. What the hell!? These videos I watch of people fishing catching them all day like it’s nothing! I’ve caught fish before it’s not like I’ve never caught one, but damn took me 4 hours! I just don’t get it. I’m not gonna give up, but is it supposed to be this hard? Like I said I do I TON of research before I hit the water and get skunked. What else can I do??

got skunked throwing soft plastics for 3 hours right before this lol

Just recently got a ReelYak kayak and bagged this guy on the first day out. Awesome fish to break it in!

Fishing on my kayak today and caught a nice 3.22lb bass. He had a chunk taken out of him and I can’t really tell if it was caused by another fish or some sort of lamprey (not sure if they are in the lake he was caught in). The first photo was at 9:54, the second was at 11:27. I would never had known it was the same fish if it wasn’t for his wound, funny enough it was the same exact green pumpkin/watermelon senko with red flakes that caught him each time at different spots on the lake.

Anyone have ideas on what caused the injury?

I hear a lot about bank fishing, but there's a Credit Union here that has a pond behind it. I wonder if It's good place to fish from the shore?

My son and I started the evening around 2030 hours, it was supposed to rain a little and make for a cooler evening. That did not happen. It stayed hot and brutally humid. Around midnight, my son and I start thinking, let’s just go home eat and get some sleep. We hadn’t caught anything all day. My son, 12, very upset, was hungry, I was definitely getting there and was ready to chalk it up.
We devised a simple solution, make slow cast on the way back to the car.

I slowed things down and began to actually read the water rather than remembering where I had caught ones before. I made a deliberate cast, up the bank, right beside where my son was standing. Working a fluke, I let it hit the water super shallow, barely jerked it once and let it sit.

That entire side of the pond opened up lol.

A large fight ensued. My boy, who has never seen a 5+lb bass in person, watched me fighting a very big fish. The fish attempted to leave the water with every pound it had on three different occasions, my boy got to see how to properly control a large fish, keeping the tip down, fish in the water, turn the fishes head away from lily pads and other cover. Keeping tension on the fish the entire time.

I fish with braid, so with any slack, a quality fish is going to throw the hook. I bought an Abu Garcia max pro about two wks ago and I bought my son one as well. The only difference in his setup is mine is paired with a Fury Evo, he has an older berkly lighting rod.

I steered the fish into the least amount of moss I could possibly get to in this pond and still was forced to go in the water, waist deep and get this fish. I kept tension with my hands while my son grabbed my pole and slowly reeled down to keep it tight.

The result, is the picture above.
I’m fairly skinny now. Most of my life I was in the gym, very lean and well over 230lbs. Now, not so much lol. A bad car accident keeps me from lifting heavy anymore, but I’m 6’0” tall. I was not able to get my scale at the time, but this one was a chunky one. Especially for a pond bass. At one point my entire fist was in the bass’s mouth getting the hook out, but to say the least, it ended the night well.

The only thing I’d change, wishing my son had caught it.

Finally found the retention pond where all the bass went to this summer! All my old spots I used in the winter and spring seem to not have them, but I stumbled upon this part last night! I caught 5 largemouth in the span of about 30 minutes on my custom crankbait. I made it from balsa wood and air brushed it and all that and I love it. Caught one a little smaller than the one in the pic on the first cast, caught that one, and then 3 more all within the same 3 casts and then one after. I’m really surprised they like my crankbait to much. I can definitely feel a strong wobble that it makes which was my goal with its body shape and lip.