Due to a few technical problems these past few years, I have not been fishing.

As of March of '08 I coulod take the anxiety no longer and started hitting the creek behind my house. Recently I and a few co-workers hit pay lakes and various local parks in our area.

   Most of these places, like Possum Creek, in Ohio, have a nice size pond with very little cover. Just getting back into the fishing game and learning new waters at the same time I am at a stand-still with figuring out which lures etc... I should fish.

My best buddy and I fish every weekend at least and he catfishs' alot while I try bass fishing. Eventually I drop to the bottom and work on Mr. Whiskers.

Please help a fellow fisherman ease his discouragement.

Jim Arnold....Life Member

Bass can be very skittish in small open water lakes. These are usually heavily fished waters and the bass learn what to avoid. With a lot of these lakes you will see bass feeding predominantly at night. These bass have seen every lure there is. They know the difference between real and fake. Can they still be fooled. Yes. Think small finesse baits, drop shot rigs or a float rig. Tip a 1/4 oz. jig with a small minnow and suspend it under a float. Twitch and pause the float working it across any structure there is. You might consider using berkley gulp alive baits. They are expensive but i have seen them take bass that ignored everything else. I use the gulp alive 3 inch minnow on my drop rig.