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Yep, it happens to the best of us. Snagging something on the back swing is the biggest culprit for me.

Nice job ~ Next you can tell her about the Bait Monkey . . . . Just explain that he's closely related to shoe & hand bag baboon, she'll know what you mean. A-Jay

Cool fish. Fishing in your favorite jeans soon means they will be "fishing jeans" as I guess you have learned.

My buddy hit me up to fish after work tonight. Local reservoir that can only be fished from shore and it gets hit HARD. I was fishing from probably the most popular spot too. Felt some weight and saw the line move. Set the hook and started reeling. Realized when it was just my handle turning and not the spool it was a good fish. Then the whoosh noises definitely let me know it was a good one. Made a small jump close to shore and then I landed her. My buddy said that's probably a 5lbr. I told him it's over 6 for sure. I never usually fish wacky but I'm sure glad I did. My Pb thus far is 6.5. That was until tonight.

Went to the newly found local pond and caught my personal best, 2 times! 1st one was on my 3rd cast with a spinner bait. the 2nd was about 4 minutes later on the same spinner bait. I do not know the exact weight, but my guess is around 4-5 lbs for both of them. I WILL be getting a scale soon though. I was super pumped! It reminded me why I love fishing so much.

Tied my PB smallmouth today fishing the River2Sea S-Waver 168, the fish was 19" long, a mark that seemed impossible to beat, I had landed about 5 or 6 that size and never one bigger. Then I totally blew my PB out of the water with a 23" smallie, it was definitely the biggest smallmouth I had ever seen in my life, and the fact that I was able to spot him, back off and give him some time (about 10mins) to calm down, then go back to the pool, fish for him, and actually catch him? Priceless! I was fishing some heavily pressured water (although not known for smallmouth) and I acutally watched some fish spook off of senkos that I threw at them, but I guess they haven't seen swimbaits before here in VA. Released to be caught another day!

You are da man! What a wonderful thing to do and it is great of her to get involved with your fishing. May you both have many hours on the water together and I hope she kicks your fanny each outing so you can tell us about it. If you do get married she will be a fantastic role model for your kids. She sounds like a good catch!

you can get there without ever touching gravel on the west ramp.

I fish with braid and about a 6' flouro leader, and I am a patient guy. If I have a severe backlash, I will park the rod and pick up another. When I get home I put the offending reel under a magnifier and slowly remove the backlash. My worst one took me over an hour to remove. One of the great things about braid is that it's almost impossible to damage it while picking out the knots. Now that I have finished patting myself on the back, there was one occasion when I inadvertently threaded my line through the foot of the guide on the tip of the rod, instead of through the eye. I made what was to be a long cast and the knot on the leader hung up in the foot. The line on my reel exploded into the worst backlash I had ever seen. It actually looked like a real bird's nest. I never even considered taking that one home for a rescue. I cut it off the reel.

. As I am a greedy one I would like to do both. Having just finished Billy Westmoreland's Them Ol' Brown Fish I am all fired up to get a new smallie PB. I think the largemouth will be easier to obtain.

. As I am a greedy one I would like to do both. Having just finished Billy Westmoreland's Them Ol' Brown Fish I am all fired up to get a new smallie PB. I think the largemouth will be easier to obtain.

Occassionally, just for fun, I'll take the rear treble off of a Jitterbug, and replace it with a T-rigged trick worm. This gives the jitterbug sort of a rat tail.

Went with the fam to visit my cousin at the shore this weekend... Needles to say I didn't go to the beach to get a tan instead I covered up, and went to hunt for some ponds and lakes, and catch me some bucket mouths. Recieved gifts for my effort. Caught them both on Strike King 1/4 oz black blue Bittsy Bug one with the black and blue Rage Chunk, and the other on green Pumpkin Rage chunk. Then I lost it on the third hooks set, It looked like the knot had broke from being smacked a few times against the conrete trying to skip it. So theres probaply a Bass or something swimming around with a lovely lip piercing... Hope not though. The same fish nice 2lbr. The second one 5 minutes later. And the third one... Er, well we know what happened. Caught them both, and almost three under here. Its been awhile since Iv'e caught multiple fish in the same spot.

It's been my experience that lakes with good water clarity are also good at night . Keep in mind the bass do not have a problem finding prey that are trying to hide from them in the water the bass live in. I think we as anglers over think and don't know how bass see our lures. If you use a swimbait in off color water then select colors that contrast darker with lighter, the bass will find it if you tie it on and use it. Tom

I no longer believe getting a strike or catching a fish on the first cast is the kiss of death. Made my first cast at 4:am, snook #1 then on the next 3 casts 3 more snook landed. A lull in the action for about 5 casts and it started up again, 6 more caught, from 7 to about 12#. No tarpon today. Tide changed and that's all she wrote.

I was fishing some matted grass with a frog yesterday morning. I bring the rod back to cast out, and feel weight as I am throwing out. Now I have a backlash in my reel. I turn around and see line, and the frog wrapped around the trolling motor. Lucky for me it was turned off. Took about 10 min. to get everything untangled, but I think the frog is shot.

I hear you on fishing waters that can grow big fish. I see "location" as meaning -within a given water body. It’s interesting that a lot of the thread is wrangling through the jargon. We anglers often coin our own language, adopt jargon, and use words interchangeably. I’m also aware of the multiple levels of time and place scaling involved when people talk fishing. Scaling is a tough thing to get a handle on. It’s easy to make the big broad predictions –like water body and season. But things get hairier the closer and finer we get in specific locations and timing. My giving 10% away to "entropy” was my paying humble homage to the complexities inherent in fishing. Granted, it would have been less complicated had I just used 100% at each step. As I understand it, fishing is a lot about being in control, understanding, knowing where you’re at and what’s up. But to be brutally honest with my ego, I must concede to the fact that most often it’s my hindsight that’s 20:20. My foresight is not so finely resolved. There are too many things (I call them conditions and circumstances) that rear up and dash my best laid plans. So I re-think, adjust, adapt, and in the end, I have a cohesive story. But the story wasn’t written before I left the house. And my final story is always just a little piece of what’s really going on out there. I’m proud of what I do know, and that I know enough to predict at some level and, often, how to adjust. Yet I’m well aware that this works best when I can fish every day. It would work even better if I were an otter. But I’m not. Well… interestingly, one angler’s bad day can be another’s boon; even when they're sharing the same boat! We all start as one-trick wonders, and add versatility over time. I’m sure we’ve all had conditions and circumstances when we couldn’t catch a fish, and had someone show us how to do it, or we just figured out a new wrinkle. Some can be real eye openers. I’ve had all kinds of ideas as to why the fish weren’t biting. Many were and are true. But there are more ways in than I presently understand, or manage to decipher in the moment.

No, Never.

There was a day this past spring in which I went thru 3 bags of pink 5" senkos before 11am. Bright colors seem to work best for me on sunny days in clear water.

Would either of you gentlemen be interested in making an upgrade ? I do believe I am ready for at least one. A-Jay

July 2012 10lb 14oz caught on a bomber deep diver Released Jeff

1/2 oz arky jig with Uncle Josh #11. Thread a 1 inch piece of worm (I use my old discarded ones) up on the hook shank first.. then slide on your #11. This keeps your pork from sliding up onto your hook point and adds some color and buoyancy.

I throw xcalibur 100 & 200 in rocks as well, they are tough crankbaits and do the job.

I use from a size 2 - 1/0 for wacky rigging. Colors: black; green pumpkin chartreuse tip; green pumpkin hold flake; watermelon magic, red. Also TX, Jika rig them.

Caught these today.

sometimes I drop down to 1/0 or 1 hook size to get things just right - they still stick big fish.

8 lbs. even on my 55th birthday - 5 yrs. ago and change. 8lb. test - 1 power lami rod / Okuma metaloid spinning reel, 3/16ths "homemade" finesse jig, 3/o lt. wire hook. One HELL of a fight! Transported it to our local kids only pond. Anything under 10 lbs. here can-not be transplanted into another water, but knowing most of the law enforcement in our county and calling them frist made it O.K. to do so. Note; Our company sponsors & runs the annual fishing derby in our town.

Went to La Cygne this weekend with PB Russell.....holy smokes can you say hot and tough. 5 hours of fishing and not a single bite all day! Plus we forgot to get beer ugh..

OUTSTANDING Jeff - looks GREAT ! That should keep the memory alive !!

If CA never had FLMB transplanted into our lakes back in the early 70's (1959 was the first in San Diego lakes) swimbaits may have never been developed. FLMB in Florida waters were genetically wired to eat golden shiners, a large bait fish. Out in CA we didn't have any large bait fish the FLMB preferred, hatchery size rainbow trout filled that gap. The fact the FLMB were far more difficult to catch on the artificial lures we had back then, coupled with the fact our NLMB were easier to catch on lures, it took about a decade to develop trout like swimbaits. We did learn how to catch the big FLMB on jigs and hand poured worms before swimbaits became well known. Matts bluegill swimbaits were introduced about 15 years after the first wooden and soft plastic trout swimmer and the bluegill have become very popular across the country. Bruce at Basstrix introduced the hollowbody swimbaits and this type of swimmer has a broad appeal to all types of bass. Keep in mind that NLMB are not wired to eat 8"+ long baitfish, yes a 10 lb+ NLMB can and that size are rare bass in most lakes. If your lake has NLMB than 5" to 6" swimbaits are good choices for targeting 7 lb+ bass. The NLMB reacts to lures easier than FLMB that seem to prefer more natural lures. Bass are bass, but FLMB are different from NLMB, try to keep that in mind when using swimbaits. Select a swimmer that represents that baitfish the bass are looking for, size and shape is important. Tom

She's a beauty Jeff...well worth the wait Roger

Earlier in this thread, I said that Where, When & How are all key players, that no single element can stand alone, because success depends on the whole ball-of-wax. On the other hand, I never suggested that equal time should be devoted to each component ‘Location’ is a comprehensive science that begins with Waterbody Selection and ends with Cast Placement (geographic location to bass lair). The lion’s share of my time is spent on ‘location’, both at home and on the water. Before fishing any new lake, I’ll always have a 'paper route' of trial sites that were meticulously pinpointed at home. The original waypoints will be tweaked over the years, but the basic framework of the route usually remains remarkably the same. It goes without saying, this isn't possible without a deep understanding of location, which makes a compelling case for learning as much about ‘location’ as you can (depth ranges, bottom contour, cover types ~ ~). Roger

Tom did you get a girth measurement? I find it interesting to look at length & girth measurements and their relationship to the actual scale weight.

Nice ~ That always makes me smile . What a huge fish . . . . . A-Jay

I fish out of the central basin between the vermilion river to geneva in 20 to 30FOW. It's stained, but even on the western basin by Kellys Island where the water is shallower and a bit more clear it works well. I believe smallies just like the color.

I got one of these in the gold black color through the flea market from another member, and was floored by how well it worked. Nice little bait even with the rather steep price. You won't be disappointed!

Interesting thread, several points of view from some very accomplished anglers. I love reading this kind of stuff. Really makes me think about my own approach to fishing for the bigger fish in a system. Quite a bit of the focus of the discussion has revolved around location and with good reason. My simple but true addition to the thread is this ~ For the past several years, with very few exceptions, my fishing style has consisted of techniques & presentations that target the bigger fish in the systems I'm fishing. This style, though often not super productive, has rewarded me the biggest bass (both lmb & smb) I've caught in those systems - meaning I don't believe that I caught any of these fish by accident. I was targeting them and I'm very satisfied with that. But I always believed that I was capable of more. What may be noteworthy here is that once I made a commitment to travel & fish habitats that have traditionally given up larger fish than I have been able to catch locally, my Big Bass catching success improved - Dramatically. I didn't do anything different,(except use slightly heavier tackle) there was no special / magic lure or technique. By simply fishing an environment that supported the size of fish I have always wanted to catch - I did. So my perspective on the role that location plays in the quest for larger bass is ~ It's not only an important factor ~ It's The Whole Show. A-Jay

19.3 lbs, jig, 20 years ago, 28.5" L , released. Tom

For me, Canada... Smallies...

I agree with a lot of this post, but that 10% ain't luck. If you do everything right with location and presentation, then it is completely up to the bass after that. Either they eat it or they don't. Let me preface that this is all my opinion, none of it is to be taken as fact, come to your own conclusions. There has been two fishing definitions of location in this thread; location OF the water, and location ON the water. In the beginning of your pursuit of big bass, location of the water and habitat conditions in the water are the only factors that matter up to this point. Some regions of the world have climates more conducive to creating truly big bass, and if the habitats within these waters are not optimal, then you are handicapping yourself from the beginning. Once you get those right, many other factors play into the percentages, with none, I think, being more important than the other. Catching big bass requires a full effort on the anglers part to do/get everything right.

X2, they'll catch bass every way you can rig a plastic from weightless on a spinning rod with light line, to pitching into heavy cover with heavy line on a baitcaster. I own dozens of different colors and brands of straight worms but it's pretty hard to beat green pumpkin, watermelon red, and black. A 1/8oz shakyhead is my favorite way to fish them.

Well I guess that blows the "replicas don't look real" argument right out of the water Looks like that thing would swim away if if touched the water.

There's no wrong way to fish a trick worm.

There is soooo many ways to rig is you could fill a book... 1/4oz Texas rig with a 2/0 round bend hook is a great way to fish it, I like the color bruised banana the most! Throw it on a wacky rig, Texas rig, Carolina rig, shakey head, dropshot, you name it!

Made an order ahead of a recent trout fishing trip. I need a few items to restock my trout bag, and also ordered some Columbia SPF gloves.I received everything except the gloves. The package had a note stating the gloves would ship in a different package. The trip came and went, and no gloves. I forgot about them until Cabelas sent an email asking me to rate the gloves. I sent them a note back saying I had not received the gloves. They sent back a note saying the gloves had shipped and gave me tracking number. I tracked the shipment, and discovered the Post Office had delivered them the day after the first package arrived. I replied to Cabelas that I had not received them. I explained that the USPS had, in the past delivered some of my packages to neighbors, and vice versa. I have delivered a couple of neighbor's packages to them, and have had them do the same. I told Cabelas that either I now had neighbors who were not so neighborly, or that they had been stolen. Cabelas emailed back that they would credit my account for the gloves. I sent back that I did not feel they were required to pay for a USPS mistake, or for "un-neighborly" behavior. They replied that crediting my account was no problem for them, and that the gloves were out of stock, and they would notify me when the items were back in stock. Customer service does not get any better than this. Hat's off to Cabelas from a long-time, and now even more loyal, customer.

6.7 lbs on a DT14 in 14' of water.

I flip dinks. Anything else I lip.

The only thing antique around my place is me.

Depending on the water you fish, fishing deep isn't always the answer. I fish a deep natural lake filled with trout, perch, pumpkinseed, rock bass and crayfish. More often than not, the fish I catch are found between 3 to 15 FOW. If smallies have no reason to go deep, they won't. There might not always be a cloud of baitfish to find on your sonar, so you have to think outside the box sometimes. I would usually start with main lake or secondary points with rock and/or weeds on it. The bigger the boulders, the better (in my experience anyways). Start fishing for active fish first with reaction-type lures like poppers, jerk baits, spinnerbaits, etc and comb through the area. If you don't get anything, then it's time to slow down and fish the same area with a jig & craw, tube or a drop shot. Work the contours and let the fish tell you what's going on that particular day.