It’s challenging because it’s such a shallow lake/pond with tons of vegetation near shore- from the bank and out 10-20 feet. The fish don’t seem to congregate near the dock, which is the only place that protrudes past vegetation. I’ve never had any luck off the dock- not with frogs by the lily pads, weedless jigs, Texas rigged worms, wacky rigged worms, night crawlers, tubes, etc. The rest of the options I typically use are impossible with the weeds.

I’ve had the best luck on the east side but have only caught 12-15” largemouth or small crappie. I’m nowhere near as good or knowledgeable as many on this site, so I can’t give great advice on what else to try-anything with a weight or swivel seems to catch weeds. Frogs are getting strikes, but struck short by small fish preventing hook ups from my medium level of experience.

Agreed. Teaching kids how to fish is such a fun experience. I’m nowhere near an expert myself, but seeing their excitement when they catch one by themselves is contagious.

Thanks for sharing the picture, Whitey. This is of my son’s first bass from July. I’m still trying to find a good fishing spot in NW Indiana, so we started small fishing bluegill at a local pond. He helped two older gentlemen fill their buckets for dinner and was hooked. Bluegill quickly became old hat and all he could talk about was how he wanted to catch his own “big mouth” bass.

A couple weeks later we went out to the Hocking Hills, OH area and he got this guy off a sinker and plastic worm on his first cast. He’s hooked for life.

Cicada killers are solitary wasps and don’t make hives. They burrow and dig out sandy dirt in your lawn or under bushes (looks like a big ant hill with a quarter-sized hole). I’ve mowed the lawn regularly over several of these holes with no problems, but never feel comfortable about it. The burrows can have a few chambers where the female drags in a stung cicada lays her eggs but there’s only one adult wasp per hole. I see the males, who don’t have stingers, perched somewhere aggressively running off other males but they don’t dive bomb me when the mower is out.
I have two younger kids who don’t like them, so I get rid of them every year by spraying dust in the holes. If you do that at night or early AM when they’re in the hole it kills the adult and larvae, but others come by and just find another spot to dig. That’s been the cycle every year. They like my lawn because the dirt is sandy and it gets lots of sunlight.
Hope that helps.

Every time I read your posts I think you would be a helluva interesting guy to fish (or now golf) with.