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Just a little impromptu recording my wife & I did last night. We are opening at a few house shows these next few weeks & we're needing to brush up on some of our songs. Still working out the kinks but all in all it's coming along. Martin B-1 bass (guitar in case anyone was confused on this forum ), Olson Acoustic, room mic & a groove . Hope you enjoy. Jeff http://youtu.be/Nwye-9NMeBo

Well after a couple seasons of bass fishing I finally scored a new bass PB of 2 3/4 lb. I know it's nothing to brag about but for me it's a fun accomplishment. Was able to lip 11 largies yesterday with most between the 2-3 lb mark. Next milestone is a 3lber. Hopefully it doesn't take me another two years! Oh, and no pics...I was too embarrassed to take pics in front of real bass'ers ;-) Oh, all caught drop shotting a worm.

It was one day on Lake Erie. I was cruising on idle on the main lake in about 15' when I noticed a bunch of "hooks" on the graph right on the bottom. I tossed out a marker and proceeded to land 24 smallies in two hours. Smallest was 3lb, largest over 5. That doesn't count the ones that shook off. I never moved more than 3-4' from that marker the entire time. Lure was a 1/2oz Silver Buddy. When I left, my right arm felt like wet noodle and my thumb was all tore up.

Kezar Lake bound, lets find some bass worthy to be caught.

Technically mono (monofilament) refers to any line that is a extruded as a single strand, the term is more commonly used to represent nylon fishing line which in also a monofilament line. I prefer copoly line. So what is the difference between a nylon monofilament line, and a copolymer monofilament line. My understanding is this, nylon line is made from a single polymer, or monomer if you prefer. And if you were to give it a graphical representation it would look like this. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A . Copolymers on the other hand use multiple monomers and combine them at the molecular level, through a process called copolymerization. There are several different flavors or these copolymer blends but they can be represented here for sake of argument to look something like this AAA BBB AAA BBB AAA BBB AAA BBB. By using different monomers, the makers of fishing line can control different aspects of the fishing line such as abrasion resistance, limpness, and to a degree line diameter. So what about a Fluorocarbon coated copolymer line. My understanding is this, it is still considered a monofilament line. It can be represented here by something that looks like this. FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC AAA BBB AAA BBB AAA BBB AAA BBB AAA FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC FC

Tip #1...........if this is how you fish tournaments....Please PLEASE enter tournaments I fish in.

10 FUN FACTS 1. You can’t wash your eyes with soap. 2. You can’t count your hair. 3. You can’t breathe through your nose, with your tong out. 4. You just tried no. 3 6. When you did no. 3 you realized it’s possible, only you look like a dog. 7. Your smiling right now, because you were fooled. 8. You skipped no. 5 9. You just checked to see if there is a no. 5 10. You can’t believe you read this thing.

If bluegill are spawning, don't worry nice bass are in the vicinity. They also know bluegills are spawning and payback is a ..... rhymes with twitch. lol....

Finally got around to making a rudder. Pretty simple really. Cut the ends off an old trolling motor that didn't work. Cut a piece of sheet metal to size, and bolted it in to the shaft.

There is no absolute rule on this but I tend to fish the Texas Rig when I am pitching/ casting into grass and the shaky head on sandy, rocky areas or where the grass is light. What I like about the shaky head if using a buoyant plastic with a well designed jighead the bait will stand up and give you an opportunity to tease reluctant biters. If you do a search for shaky head fishing you will find a number of tutorials on how to do it, I basically drag, shake and sometimes hop the bait. I personally would not use this technique in a tournament until you get an opportunity to catch some fish on it and are proficient at it. My favorite combo for shaky head fishing are Senko style baits that I have custom poured without salt on a 1/4 oz ( sometimes 3/8 oz ) Picasso football shaky head. The reason I like the football head style is won't tip on you and the flat spot on this jighead tends to let me rock it in place if lightly shaking on slack line. With my no salt Senkos I have a bulky worm sitting at a 60 degree angle at the bottom of the lake and nearby bass have a hard time resisting it. Watermelon Candy is my most consistent color.

January 15 & 22 2005 On Saturday January 15 I caught fifteen smallmouth on the Tennessee River below Pickwick Dam. Eight of the fish were over 5 lbs. The following Saturday I caught the two smallmouth in my avatar. The fat one was the hardest fighting freshwater fish I have ever caught. She weighed in just over 7 lbs. An hour and a half later, around 1:30, I landed the second fish. Although she was nearly 4" longer, she was only one pound heavier. That fish remains my PB smalljaw.

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale 'He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there. 'You talk?' he asks. 'Yep,' the Lab replies. After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says 'So, what's your story?' The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so... I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.' 'I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running... But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.' 'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired.' The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. 'Ten dollars,' the guy says. 'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?' 'Because he's a ***ter. He's never been out of the yard'

I have a small arsenal of lures, putting my lure where I think the fish should be works best for me. I don't change too often and generally only have 2-4 with me. When I do get a hot bite I like to change lures after each fish, I find in those cases the lure makes no difference, they all work. On a hot bite you can fish on your mother's old garter belt. On a dead bite, go home and take your wife out to lunch.

Great fish A-Jay, that is awesome! Way to go man

Very similar to oval bashing.

" Usually when i think of a jig it is flipping and pitching into shallow cover.." That is exactly what that pro was doing, you just don't consider weed beds as cover. Cover they are and IMO the best there is. A weed bed not only has pockets you can flip or pitch to, it has points, inside and outside turns, transition areas where the bottom content changes or where another type of weed takes over, etc. The main reason many anglers like pitching and flipping in this is because water clearity doesn't have the effect it does on other forms of cover. A fish holding in the weeds has limited visibility vs. one holding in wood, or rocky cover. Even fish holding under a dock have a better view outside their surroundings.

Started getting stuff together and packing up for my annual trip to Rainy Lake, Ontario. Can't wait..........leaving Saturday 4:00 AM. Whoo hoo!

Plop plop fizz fizz. I mentioned "Time to make the donuts" to my 25yo step daughter recently and she had no idea what I was talking about.

My best day for largemouth was best five fish weighing 43+ lbs down in Mexico at lake baccarac.

Easy solution is for the state to ban all tournaments during spawning season like PA does. I also like the catch, weigh & release concept for tournaments.

Hello, everyone. I am new to these forums, and I am here to seek advice, hear fishing stories, and meet new people during my stay. I started off fishing saltwater as a child. In between my teen years and the past two years, I haven't fished for quite some time. Until I started working, and was able to afford my own equipment, I picked up fishing again but I began in freshwater this time. My goal is to catch as many different species as I can, so I do not restrict my fishing.

Fished for 2hrs after work last night. We had a crazy storm yesterday but it didn't effect the bite at all. Think it probably helped. 7:30-9:30 and I managed 18 fish. 4 in the first 20 minutes. Everything was on a rage craw Tx rigged except 5 of them were on a cavitron. All but 1 were decent fish. For some reason I just thought it'd be worth tying on and I'm glad I did. First fish on it went 3.6 We had some more crazy rain last night and some light showers today. I'm gonna go give it another shot after work.

The white Okuma Stratus that Dick's sells is actually a pretty serviceable reel for the $30.

Long read but very informative.. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/12403-jig-fishing-questions/#

Sorry I forgot to update after the trip.. though doesnt look like anyone was was anxious to hear a report. Got out at sunrise. Perfect conditions to fish. No wind, water was calm. Water was not too clear and not to murky. Lily pads were there but not too thick which made for easy casting between them. Was out there for about 4 hours and caught the one and only snakehead for the day. But it was quite possibly the largest I've caught to date. Decent activity in the water too. Going out again tomorrow morning. Though looks like steady rain, it might make for a good day for fishing.

How much blood loss and stress the fish has gone through makes a big difference in whether or not that fish will survive. Blood loss can be all but eliminated if the fish is immediately immersed in the water after hook removal. A fish's blood clots in the water and not when exposed to the air. I've known guys to actually remove the hook while the fish is still in the water. How much stress a fish goes through before and after it's released is more difficult to control. Getting a bleeding fish into the livewell quickly will stop the bleeding and to some extent reduce the stress it's experiencing. Leaving a fish in your livewell for extended periods causes stress whether or not that fish was bleeding and reduces the survival chances for that fish.

I can throw a pigskin a quarter mile

I insert the hook into the tubing and then through the body of the lure. The hook penetrates both no matter if the hook is perpendicular or parallel with the lure. My avatar is the weedless wacky rig for Trick and Finesse worms. It starts like this: This is with a Senko:

The term deep water is relative, what do you mean by deep water; 20', 30' or 40'+? Natural lakes in your area often are aging by filling with decaying vegetation and silt creating muck bottom areas that are void of life do to very low dissolved oxygen levels. Dragging a heavy weight through the muck isn't productive period. Fishing deep hard structure at 40' can be productive if there is life and bass located that deep. You can't fish standing timber because no trees are there in older natural lakes. What is there are reefs or rocky areas and that is your best bet for deep structure jig fishing in natural lakes. Otherwise targeting weed growth with lighter weight jigs is a better choice. Tom

i'll take 3. the lizard. (though i wouldve made the lizard #4 on purpose, just because #4 was the lizard in the classic kung fu movie Five Deadly Venoms lol) id use the lizards because its an effective bait for bedding bass. plus i love to fish lizards, weightless. the picture and time of day says topwater to me, but the spawning bass say lizard all the way.

In terms of quantity, I took my kids out one evening about 2 years ago. I didn't even get to make a single cast, because they were reeling in bass after bass and all I could do was be their first mate. Still, probably the best time I've had fishing.

I agree with Tom. I think the majority of the top guns really do care and are careful about handling the fish. At least I think they do. They have major sponsors and get paid something just by going out on the water and other obligations. The weekend warrior is another story. I've seen a guy actually toss back a short fish like it was a frisbee. Pretty sad. Dwight brings up a good point as well. Close tournaments during spawning season. There's a lake somewhere were they aren't spawning. I think Major League Fishing has the right idea. An official in the boat, and penalties if the fish are mishandled. Putting something like this in place at local tournaments might be a bit tough to implement though.

SPRO Bronze Eye Frog Missile Baits D-Bomb in California Delta color.Texas Rig with 3/8 EcoPro Tungsten bullet weight. Jig with Rage Craw -------------------------------- Why Spro Frog? I love fishing frogs and walk it to towards the lily pads then twitch it onto the water surface then BAM. Why Missile Baits D-Bomb? I love using D-Bombs in general. They are my top baits in my gear bag. Seems the fish here cant resist the bombs. Flip or Pitch in the grass. Twitch it, let it fall. Repeat. Why Jig with rage craw? Flip or Pitch the jig. Imitates craw. Twitch it, Reel, fall, Twitch it. Repeat. Rage craw is amazing. Durable plastic.

Bass are cold blooded fish and don't have extra blood to loose. The amount of blood loss and the injured organ that caused the bool loss are important factors. Gill aracker are tough and can take some abuse without the bass dieing, if the blood is stopped quickly using Please Release Me directly to the injured gill racket. Do not pore soda of any kind in the basses mouth, that adds to the stress. If there is enough blood to run down the basses body, it will die! Rule of thumb with bass out of water is about 1 minute or as long as you can hold your breath. Tom

Man, and I thought we were gonna be friends....LOL

I'll take the Chug n' Spook and cast it in the open pockets in the weeds and along the edge of the weed line. I'd Work slow with a lot of twitching and shaking in place. Why? Because I love fishing topwater in the evening and especially with zero wind. I like your idea for this thread. You should post some more locations periodically.

Shoulda just yelled, "Get off my hump, Hottle!"

I haven't caught a bass on anything weird but I saw someone on Instagram who caught a bass on a home made lure... The lure was a 5 hour energy bottle with treble hooks fished top water LMAO!!! Found the pic gonna be hard for someone to top what this guy did lol

I have learned the hard way to NOT grab a smallmouth by the lip when using treble hook baits....Even if you think you have a firm grip on their lip , the chances are great that you will end up with a hand full of hooks. Just when you think they could not possibly shake loose, they do just that, and , uh oh , it hurts when the smallmouth is on one treble and you are on another treble......Talk about screaming like a little girl!...I even tried begging the smallmouth to hold still just so I could let him loose, they don't care about your pain.

Three Tap Theory as explained to me by Shaw Grigsby The first tap the bass has inhaled your lure The second tap the bass has expelled your lure The third tap is me tapping you on the shoulder asking way you didn't set hook!

My shakeyhead and other finesse fishing is done with 8lb Invizx flouro, tried mono, and co-polymers but found bite detection with the flouro was a lot better. The density of flouro helps on slack line techniques.

And this link tells about it's origin.... Hope tis helps http://www.ragetail.com/news/06/the-rage-rig/

I personally don't get the whole "sit on this bedding fish for 10 minutes until they go crazy and swipe something" deal at all but regardless... Inside the mouth = catch Outside the mouth = only if you're bowfishing! Basically what I'm saying is this:

Welcome to Maryland Greg! Check out all of the links on this page: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/keepfishing/?page=wheretofish On your side of the bridge, the many public ponds are bass fishing heaven for you. I like them all as the bass are usually willing and fairly easy to find along with other species, perfect for kayaks. Each pond has their own "personality". Also, if I was you, I'd also buy a Delaware license and fish those waters. There are many good tidal bass fishing spots near you or within a reasonable drive. The Nanticoke, Choptank, Pocomoke Rivers, and right in Salisbury's downtown location on the Wicomico River, and most of their tributaries are very good too, that can provide excellent largemouth bass opportunities. If you don't mind the drive, you can come chase smallmouth and largemouth on the Western Shore rivers. The Potomac has some great access and plenty of fishable water from your kayak. Good luck and post some pictures and stories on the ongoing Maryland thread!

I finally caught a smallmouth! The rivers in my area have just been too high to kayak until now, and the fish hadn't migrated up into the small river near my house, but after the crazy flood receded, the smallies were here. My first smallmouth was actually about 10" long but the 2nd one was much more impressive. She measured 18" long, I caught her on a 5" yum dinger texas rigged with a 1/8oz weight (lots of current). Hopefully the fishing will get a better after the water goes down a little more...Here are the photos: Also caught a chunky largemouth

Got out with my 5 year old today did some sight fishing got these two smallies on a itty bity no name rubber craw.

I have no idea what my best numbers day is. A couple buddies and I hit the smallies just right a couple years ago and caught 256 of them in a day. A couple years ago when I kept track of every fish I caught I broke the 100 mark a few times. I'd rather catch bigger fish though and would have to say my best day was the day I caught a 30lb 2oz limit, in Kansas, in February, all on swimbaits. On top of that monster bag of largemouth, I had over 30 wipers from 4 to a little over 8 pounds. I was exhausted from fighting fish by the end of the day.

Caught over 50 in one day...including a 5lb smallie and my PB largie of 7lbs 2oz Second best was boating my first tarpon...she went 130ish pounds

I use a Plano Elite 3607 Spinnerbait Organizer in a backpack.

Or you could use who ever caught the biggest lunker at your tournaments then those three qualify. I would approve the kids that showed up more, sure they may not have finished high but if you sat them you would be saying dedication counts for nothing.