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Ive been a member of this forum for almost three years now. I might not have a million posts, but thats because Im reading yours. I might not put my two cents in much. But thats because Im learning from reading all of the information thats posted by you all. Ive learned so many tips and information from the posts in this forum that it has really brought my fishing tactics and strategy to an entirely new level. Have been fishing for 25 years and once you think you know it all?........ Your still learning!!! Thanks to all of the anglers on this forum and to the creator of this cool place that I get to hang out after work and enjoy some good fish stories. -Lee

http://s304.photobucket.com/user/kyleanimals/media/IMG_20150316_184547627_zpswbxjqf6r.jpg.html http://s304.photobucket.com/user/kyleanimals/media/IMG_20150316_184555613%201_zpsrqrkflyb.jpg.html http://s304.photobucket.com/user/kyleanimals/media/IMG_20150316_184541179_zpse9sj56gn.jpg.html Hopefully these pictures will do it justice. I have never tried to upload anything before. Gave up in frustration and switched to Photobucket. Thanks Bluebasser for the suggestion . Caught my new PB today at the pond! I've caught one in that range before but never had it weighed. The bass I caught tonight was 4 1/3 pounds, caught on a red Cotton Cordell Spot (that I got yesterday). It looks biggest in the last picture, it doesn't look as big as it really is in the pictures (it was official!). If you live in the south, get out there. I've caught the two biggest bass of my life in the last two weeks. Next trip is to Falls Lake on Saturday. I've heard they crush liplesses there. Watch out....this streak might not be over. P.S. Forget the nerdy hat; couldn't find my usual one and was in a hurry to get out the door.

I'm going to cry like a little girl the day I get that first scratch. Pictures can't capture how stunning this reel is.

You are correct, sir. That cold weather pattern is called ice fishing. Great lakes are still 90% covered which means inland lakes are 1,000% covered.

I don't understand the question. Either you are skunked or you are not. When I am skunked, nothing takes the sting out of it until the next time out when I am not skunked. With regards to "swimmers", are we talking about mermaids? That probably WOULD take the sting out of getting skunked. I'm partial to blondes but I'll take brunettes or redheads without complaint. But not of all shapes and sizes. I've seen far too many Walmart gals to be THAT non-discriminating.

It's real easy to high-stick on a short line and break a tip if it's really fast. That's not as much of a concern in the heaviest punch rods which I put on a slightly slower blank. With Mod/Fast you can lay into them and get them coming up all in one motion. A fast action in a rod this heavy to too much of a broom stick.

Spent several days ice fishing over the past weekend and caught some really nice fish including a new PB brown trout. Here are the pics! Jeff

Ice fishing rods are really light.

Simple physics, you are spreading the load of a heavy, lift and separate hookset across the entire blank, not just the tip. It also helps slingshot the fish up out of cover. Moderate does not mean soft. Power refers to that aspect.

It's a confidence thing for me but admittedly it probably makes little if any difference in most occasions.

Stopped by the local lake this past Saturday for an hour. Daughter an I fishing topwaters at first, and then I tied her on a purple roboworm and she cast it out. .. I turned away and fished the other direction, and I hear " I got one! " so I turn around expecting her to be hung up. ... she was. ... on this bass! I was so proud! Her first 100% caught on her own bass! Now she wants a pack of those worms and the rattletraps I was throwing. Lol. Furthermore, since I didn't catch anything. ... she's been rubbing it in for three days! Hahhahaha

Best time I have found for pike fishing is in the spring shortly after ice out. Pike spawn under the ice or right at ice out time. So you would be fishing post spawn during or after their recovery from spawn. You can find them shallow at that time best around emerging weedbeds. Best baits are inline spinners like blue fox vibrax in firetiger color #5 or #6. Inline spinners work better than bass style spinnerbaits from my experience. Spoons, jerkbaits , plastic swimbaits, glide baits & jigs will all work very well. Your baits mentioned will all work but topwater may be slow during cold water periods. Bass tackle is fine. Just use a light weight steel or titanium leader or heavy floro leader. You can get tieable leader spools & make your own with a swivel, leader material & coastlockor crosslock snap. If you wait once the water gets warm over 60-65 the bigger pike will go deep seeking colder water. The small pike will still be shallow. Hope that helps you. Don't forget long nose pliers & a jaw spreader to make unhooking easier or use a boga.

It has more to do with the leverage a fish can put on a big bodied bait than tearing out hooks, and I even doubt this fact as well. The reason I use a moderate action rod is the for the action of the bait when it deflects off something. I use single hooks in place of trebles on spoons and minnow baits for steelhead, salmon, and big brown trout. These are usually fish ranging from 5 lb. to 20+. I still use a rod with a slower action, but a single hook allows you to swing hard on them. I don't have any troubles hooking them, but they aren't bass. The reason I do this is that it's easier to release a big fish, as well as the baits don't get hung on zebe encrusted rock - big problem with spoons. I've never really tried with bass baits, because it doen't really solve any problem. If you're not ready for a dedicated cranking rod, use a medium fast rated rod, and make sure your drag is set properly. There are many out there using this - myself included. In fact, I prefer a faster action for traps and square bills over weed tops. For topwaters and jerkbaits, I even ramp it up to an Extra Fast rating because I get better control of the bait with that kind of rod. Like everything in fishing, there's no hard set rules, and there's a ton of opinoin centered around myths.

Hootie - I was in Lowe's today and picked up a pair for myself. I had eyeballed them before but never pulled the trigger. Seems like a good tool, and is cheap "insurance" to keep in the boat. I had a used 3/0 EWG hook laying on the tackle bench and it cut through that like butter (using the off-hand Andy). A better test would be a superline EWG.......but I'll have to wear out one first - don't have any used ones laying around...

Here's My Bait Casters , Shimano Calais. (4) Duckette Rods On These , (1) Falcon Rod (1) Diawa Swimbait Rod. Have Another (6) Ducketts , As Spares and/or On My Spinning Reel Set-ups. Mike

Illuminati!^^

The more you visit the site, the higher your prices.

Depends on the price. Yes to normal priced baits. No to high priced baits.

Up North, we aren't even fishing yet!

I've heard the same thing before. I've tried the line conditioner, it's works good. I don't use it anymore, I soak my line in warm water and troll my line out. Every time I use a reel with mono or copoly it gets trolled out before I fish with it.

For dropshot I'll generally use size 2 to 1/0 hooks. For wacky I'll use 1/0 to 3/0. Go with some finesse wide gap in 1/0 to start and go from there. I was using VMC spin shot hooks last year, but I'll be ditching them this year since they're a pain to rig. I'd rather tie 1 knot than 2.

I use them on a drop shot weight so I can change the weight out fast.

Don't shy away from casting a Dropshot, it's deadly when the fish are shallow and holding on specific pieces of cover!

What a nice thing to post, Lee. So many guys arrive on the Forum, post some queries, and then they disappear. Your post highlights the fact that at least one person is gaining some knowledge of bass fishing from the guys and gals no the Forum. When you thaw be sure to send us some pics of your catches this summer.

I made it.......1 blowout and 4 tires later.........didn't want anymore surprises so I just replaced all 4 since I have no idea what shape the old tires were in........next time I won't buy a boat so close to the Roadtrip. I need to visit the local marine shop first thing in the morning and then hope to get out on the water.....cautiously!

Decided to finish my crate today since it was warm out and I ordered a new kayak to sit it in. A 2014 ride 115x advanced angler will be arriving in the next 7-10 days. Pretty excited about it.

I've seen enough madness surrounding whne the spawn starts, and what gets it started, moon, temp, length of daylight, wearing red jeans..... I'll say this...tempaterature has an effect on the viability of the eggs laid, and can even have an effect on the gender of the hatching fry. That's true for just about ANY egg laying fish. Lower temps = longer incubation time, which means more time with a male guarding the nest, and vice versa. I can't remember the relationship with temp to gender, but there were several farms using to influence the gender of the "crops." So, if temperature can affect the outcome of the spawn, then I hypothesize that there is a optimal temp. I have no way to test this, but research (different from expieriments guys!) shows it's somewhere in the low 60s. Up here, when water temp is on the rise, approaching 60° F, I start checking my ponds. They always spawn first. Then it's shallower, warmer Lakes, finally, the bigger deep lakes. I've seen smallies on beds in Lake Ontario a full month after I've caught smallies on beds in the bays. And then I've seen largemouth on beds in late July on Chautaqua Lake. Crazy stuff. I do think temperature has a big effect, but I also think that there's a ot of other factors. Moon phase, wind, suitable, calm locations, etc. Basically all the ideal conditions have to come into alignment. There's probably a window of time around this alignment that would be the "spawn." Anyway, that's how I think of it. Anyone that says you can predict using one parameter is lying or deluded.

Pretty sure OP is a younger teenager so it's all relative. It's funny though, I'm only 32 and my gf has two kids- 8 & 10. I hadn't ever felt old until one day they asked me "Were you really born way back in the 1900s??" I thought about it for a second and had to answer yes. I had never felt so old in my life. I really was born 'way back when' in the 1900s- before the internet and mobile phones- which is the ultimate "old person" litmus test for young kids these days apparently. Tell them there was no such thing as a mobile phone or the internet when you were a kid and they act like you churned butter by whale oil lamplight to pass the time haha

I personally wouldn't dare moving on from a spot where I caught multiple and sometimes a single fish on a moving bait with out throwing something on the bottom even if only quickly. It can be anything from a jig, grub, tube, worm, drop shot, anything really, but I don't want to miss out on easy potential fish because I didn't. The whole "search" bait term is subjective but to me when bass are active enough to eat moving baits, even in the cold, it means to me there are likely less active fish in the area that will not take a moving bait but may take something on the bottom. Like always, only one way to find out.

Old-timers...Slug-go was "the bait" before senkos and flukes

Was it heavy?

No, I mean I actually prefer fast, some prefer extra fast.. A bit more important is a length that facilitates " jerk, jerk, pause" cadence or what ever type of retrieve style you may use. That's my opinion anyhow..

Somebody's been paying close attention on this forum! Smart fella! Oh, super nice fish bud.. Keep on it!!

Do you ever fish Harris Lake? I live in Southeastern Wake County about 3-4 miles from Harris and fish & kayak there often. I've never fished Falls Lake but have heard it's pretty good.

WTG on the new PB. Congrats

Nice Bass ~ PB's are Always a Blast. Congrats A-Jay

Nice fish. Hope you beat it soon, and keep the streak alive.

NICE! Pb's are always great and your new one probably won't last long...

There is your answer this guy knows jigs.

Disappointed. I thought by the title of the thread I was going to open it up and see a 10 pounder

Actually, the power refers to the stiffness of the blank, whereas the taper or action refers to how much of the blank flexes. A moderate rod will flex deeper than a fast rod with the same power rating with same amount of force applied.

Using aquaifer spring water feed waterways to support your theory where water temperature do not vary are isolated to a few locations. Most bass lakes are not primarily spring feed or have constant water temperatures. Okeechobee for example, the largest Florida lake, varies from 59f to 86f annually. Florids strain LMB have evolved in waterways where water temperature rarely drop below 50 degrees and this limits there distribution to waterways that don't drop below a core water temperature of 45f, they can't survive. If water temps are a constant ideal spawning temperature, photoperiod becomes a primary factor, agreed. Where water temperature drops below 50 degrees in the winter and warms to ideal spawning temperatures photoperiod becomes secondary, if the longer sunlight period doesn't warm all the regional water equally. Lets agree to disagree until someone can prove otherwise. Tom PS, update on the lakes I mentioned earlier; Casitas, 1st wave is complete with fry schools. Castaic, 1st wave moving up and will spawn any day now. Big Bear, the lake is now ice free, spawn should begin in May.

My Alphas SV will be here tomorrow. Tracking says it arrived at my post office at 11:32. It was $203 shipped.

I found this rather funny. You went outside and found an artificial lizard in your driveway last year and would like to try it out? When I saw this thread title I so thought you were asking someone to identify a small natural lizard you caught and wanted to use as live bait.

It is my personal favorite fluoro. Tatsu is all I have personally used that is better, and I can't justify the price difference PERSONALLY.

Anecdotal evidence from today... Launch ramp area water temperature was mid 50s. I didn't get to practice so I didn't know where and at what stage the bass were in. So we're thinking ok, traps in the grass. Prespawn mode right? We go to an area that usually has grass. First fish was 5+ then nothing for an hour. So time to move. We go to a cove that warms pretty quickly and temp was a few degrees warmer. About 57-58. About noon, clouds clear out and when the sun is up enough to see beds, guess what? Beds all over. Bass in full spawning mode and the temperature was still under 60 degrees.

Lews, pfleuger, bps, and many other brands handles by the same oem manufacturer should fit. Daiwa handles will also fit

May seem ghetto, but I just take a small rag, fold and roll around the bottle and rubberband it. Keep the glass from breaking and the rag soaks up any over drips and can use for cleanup etc.

I like fishing the thickest nastiest cover I can find. The kind of places that other fisherman wont cast to for fear of getting stuck. I would prefer it to be unobvious, sunken and way off shore. I guess I would call myself a jig fisherman above all else. I do fish onshore but again I want it to be the thickest nastiest kind of cover. I would cast directly into the center of this:

Always an interesting question. I like to fish for bass that other anglers either don’t know are there or are in remote areas most are not willing put the work in to get to. What I mean by “don’t know they are there”, is fishing “Trout” lakes and other lakes that get a ton of recreational use. Both often hold a fantastic population of healthy bass that live out their entire lives relatively unmolested. And the looks received by the trout chasers when they see a spinnerbait get launched to the bank are pretty interesting too. Many of these waters are very easy to get to and fish but by mid-summer, the fishing can be tough. So this requires a special approach; night ops. It’s a ton of fun; usually a good bite and I Never see another angler at night - Ever. It’s totally worth whatever it takes to always have the entire lake all to myself knowing that by noon time, the place will be like NASCAR with ski boats and jet skis. Mid-week nights (Tues, Wed & Thur) are often the better evenings on the really busy places. But the bass are there and are almost always willing to play. Just being out there is half the battle. So what’s my style ? I don’t really know what to call it, but I do know it often includes a head lamp. A-Jay