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After a very, very (very) long summer of slooow Southern bass fishing, the bite is finally starting to pick up. I've been having a lot of fun lately just catching a lot of chunky 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pound bass with a couple of kickers. Just about all of my fish have come on a wacky rigged trick worm, Ned Rig, dropshot, and a jig. With the exception of the last two pics, these are all different fish. And in the dink corner, weighing in at a whopping under one pound, is my 4th and also pb smallie (can't seem to get around any bigger ones) : These three were cookie cutter fish, all caught on a dropshot within a span of 15 minutes. And this is my biggest this fall at 3 1/2 pounds, swimming a custom jig with a rage chunk.

Well I'm officially sold on the strike king rage craws, I have no real experience using soft plastics but I really have been eager to learn. My buddy and I decided to go on a quick fishing trip and I figured I'd dedicate todays trip to trying to figure it out. Started out with the baby brush hog (green pumpkin , blue flake T-rigged) and gave that a shot for a out an hour and a half with no luck. I decided to switch out to the rage craw (green pumpkin T-rigged), and after my 3rd cast I got a strike. No slight tap or thump, the bass hit it hard, I set the hook and landed the fish. 2 lbs, not abig fish by any means but still a fish. Let him back in the water and casted again, gave my reel one full crank before I felt it again, set the hook and landed another fish. About the same size, to make a long story short I ended up with 8 fish of similar size, and lost 4 while trying to set the hook. Needless to say I am very satisfied with how today worked out, not too shabby for a guy that has never really fished soft plastics. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to share their knowledge on this site. It really has broadened my skills.

Put in 7 hours today on the kayak for 9 fish. Slowwwwwww. This was the only nice one, taped out at 18". Hit a chatterbait a few feet from my kayak in crystal clear water, very cool to watch!

Didn't take the time to take any nice pics (or adjust legnths, sorry), but here are some quick ones of three identical (outside of length) combos given to myself and my two brothers by a man in my church. Reels: Shimano Bantam Curados. Rods: H action custom rods, each around 5'6 in length, my friend's ideal length for pitching and flipping. I wasn't sure about using a rod that short, but it was really easy to pitch with and handled some fish nicely. Goose approved!

First fish landed on a buzzbait and I'm a buzzbait believer now! 19 inches and second biggest for me this year.

My first post here. Just a photo of my favorite reel I have owned since circa 1973 now installed on a new Falcon Amistad Low Rider rod. Anyways, hello, y'all have a lot of nice fishing rigs. Thanks for sharing. J

The end of the season here in northern New England is fast approaching. Sunday it snowed. Yesterday morning was a balmy 15 degrees with a day time high forecast of 42 degrees with winds 5-10 mph. Not to be discouraged I suited up for ice fishing and decided to see what the day had to offer. This time of year is my favorite for a number of reasons. I get to the launch to find some ice in the puddles at the launch and an empty parking lot. I launch my boat and head to a very isolated off shore spot that has produced for me in the past. As I made my first cast the water temperature was reading 48 degrees. Just four days earlier it was reading 56-58 degrees. The water lever had also dropped nearly a foot. I started the day off with a crank bait. After I had made a couple casts I could see ice in my guides and in my pawl. It was not warm out there. My game plan was to fish isolated offshore structure all day. An hour had passed and I hadn't caught a fish. I switched it up to one of my favorite jig set ups. It was not long before I caught my first fish of the day. Slammed my jig, She had huge head on her, weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz. After landing her I decided to keep fishing the jig for awhile. It was approaching noon time and the bite seemed to be picking up. I was catching fish and most of them were coming on the jig set up. I did catch a 3-10 on a crankbait and even managed a 3-0 on a senko. I was glad that my isolated offshore spots were holding fish. I would fish a spot for an hour and move onto the next spot. At each spot I seemed to be catching a couple fish then they would shut off. I kept rotating through my spots all day long. Just as the wind started to kick up I hooked into another good fish. She weighed in at 6 lbs 7 oz. The fishing was as good as I could hope for. Even with the cold and the wind I was getting 2-3 fish an hour. It seemed every one of my spots was holding good fish. With few days left to fish I was relishing the moment. I marked a new spot on my gps and fished it about an hour after I marked it. It was far far offshore and I thought that it had potential. The wind had picked up once I had gone back to fish it. On the first cast with my jig I landed a 5 lb 10 oz largemouth. The wind was becoming a bit much for me in my small boat. I persevered a couple more hours but the wind chill was brutal. I ended up fish from 1030 until 430. Landed 13 largemouth and 2 smallmouth. My biggest 5 bass limit weighed in at 28 lbs 4 oz, including fish that weighed in at 7-1,6-7,5-10,4-12 and 4-6. I also landed 3 largemouth in the 3 lb range and a 3-4 smallie on a crankbait. It was an great day on the water. I caught fish on a crankbait, a jig and a senko. The jig by far produced the best. Isolated offshore structure was holding big bass. That pattern should hold true until ice up. Still another 4-5 weeks left and I plan on getting out as much as I can.

Got out today with jitterbug brought him to my secret honey hole. The fish were definatelly on fire today. Caught about 20-25 fish between 1.5-2.5lbs. Caught them on everything from swim jigs to top waters. All in all solid day here's some pics from today's outing.

Hmmm. Wonder what could be in that box in my trunk? It may or may not be one of these!!!

Hey guys, The family and I got to spend a week relaxing in Panama City Beach back in Sept, and of course I'm not going to miss my opportunity to let a few saltwater fish stretch my line! To start the week, my wife and I got out with Captain Justin Leake for the second year in a row. If anyone finds themselves in PCB looking for a guide, look no further! Inshore, offshore, nearshore -- this dude has it all covered, and he's a pleasure to spend time in the boat with. In our 6-hr trip we were able to catch mangrove snapper, mahi, BIG spanish mackeral, king mackeral, amber jack and a few others. We saw a nice sailfish come up and frollic in front of the boat, just to taunt us! I'd never caught any mahi before and while they were only the smaller "chicken" variety, they were still a boatload of fun to catch on small pompano jigs and ML inshore tackle. We even caught a mahi that had been tagged, and I got a nifty t-shirt for my efforts to call in the fish data Mr. Amberjack may not look like much but MAN do they pull! The few that made the ultimate sacrifice to feed the family. We gave them a proper burial in breading, oil and cocktail sauce. My biggest kingfish to date, ~22 lbs. Those suckers are fun to fish for! The tagged mahi A few days after the charter trip, I spent a few hours wading the grass flats in St. Andrews State Park. Dare I say it on a bass site, but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I may enjoy inshore salwater fishing more than bass fishing. Then again since I live in Atlanta, bass will suite me just fine most of the time There's something very appealing to me about the simplicity of inshore fishing. 2-3 rods, one small Plano box of tackle, and a few bags of soft plastics. As long as I have a few topwaters, a few twitch baits, a few spoons, some jigheads and a few packs of Bass Assassin Sea Shads, I'm going to catch fish. And I'm happy to say that after doing quite a bit of inshore fishing the last few years, I finally recorded my first inshore grand slam (a trout, redfish and flouder on the same day). The trout was too wily to pose for a picture, but I promise that I caught one Notice the tackle box in the pic. That's ALL I bring. Quite the contrast to a day our on the local pond chasing largemouth! I know this is a site full of bass fishermen, but I really would encourage all of you to do some salwater fishing if the opportunity presents itself. Perhaps the coolest part is that the bass tackle you already own is just fine for chasing most of these fish, but in my opinion the salwater fish do a lot better job of stressing that equipment than the green freshwater guys.

I went to the Outer Banks with my dad and brother for 3 days back in early October. The weather prevented us from taking the boat in the ocean, so we made the best of what we had to work with. After 3 days, and Lord knows how many fiddler crabs later, we put 47 sheepshead in the boat. Sheepshead fishing is an absolute blast, it's like combining a tiny little drop shot bite with flippin', because once you latch onto one of those guys you better get him away from the pilings!

Out on the water by 7 AM. Cold and windy. I tried fishing back in the shallow areas with cover and in the deep water around structure. Nothing. Finally put on an Ultravibe Speedcraw and tried it around weeds that were close to deep water where I started catching some. The thing was the bass were not in all of the weeds, they were only in the weeds that were facing into the wind. Pulled seven small bass out in about an hours time, and all were between 1 and 2 pounds.

Pool noodles are good replacments for foam blocks. Otter boxes. Wal-mart has really cheap nets. Trilene Big Game. Wally World for life jackets too. Depends on what you're putting in it.

CH50 will pair up nicely.

The Aldebaran 50 would be the ultimate in light and low profile.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/134171-chronarch-ci4-vs-lews-bb1-pro/?p=1528223 See above post--I had a BB1 Pro that the brakes made a screeching sound and read of others having the same issue. I oiled the brake drum but also had other issues that caused me to return the reel. I only oil my CI4 drum when the distance starts getting less and the braking is getting more pronounced it doesnt actually screech at all. And if I did have to oil every outing I would complain about it but it just isnt the case far from it.

Oiling a brake drum ( hub ) is a problem? Lucky for you Lews makes reels in China..

Seems to get loops in the line and that makes loops on your spool slack line and spinning reels dont mix well

bent paperclip a screwdriver /w an L shaped pick. wrap and put a single strip of electrical tape on the point.

I bought one of those when i bought my first ever batch of fishing tackle, at age 9 or so. It was my favorite lure; so highly prized I hardly ever used it. I still have it, but nowadays I still hardly use it.

Like I said above, if the rod manufacturer can't get it right, how can you expect the fishing public to get it right.

It needs to be returned.

I heard some brave souls were going to Raider's house, not me though it's just too creepy.

I have won or placed in many tournaments fishing a Rebel Deep Wee Craw in chartreuse and a J20 broken back minnow in perch pattern.

One of my most favorite cranks is a Rebel: Rebel Tiny Frog, man that thing catches even the sand as it swims, cheap, pretty and effective ( at a much more affordable price when compared to the Megabass Type X ).

I'm a die hard fan of the rebel F30s in gold/black for the big girls up shallow. I bought ten of them a couple years ago when they started making them again. My grandpa bought a crate of them back in the 80's. He still has most of them.

I had a good selection of Deep Wee'Rs for smallmouth fishing on Lake George, NY in the '70s and '80s. We'd troll them over humps and shoals to find the fish. I think I still have a couple in my tackle box. Your collection looks great! Tight lines, Bob

I have a couple of deep divers from back in the late 70's, early 80's period. Also have an old chrome/purple humpback. I use to use them all of the time. Now they are in the tackle box only for show.

I wouldn't consider having to oil the brakes every use or every three uses "maintenance". More like fixing a problem that shimano should have solved to begin with.

I have the apex and Grande cause I got smoking deals.. Pros are they are lightweight, have sweet carbon handles and are smooth. Their Eva knobs are the most comfortable of any I have used. I usually hate Eva knobs because they are too thick but these are contoured to your fingers ala shimano so they feel great. Cons are quality control seems to still be an issue. My grande reel showed up without any centrifugal braking pins on the spool. They sent me a new spool no problem but how does a reel get out of the factory missing half its braking system. Also, the magnetic braking system is 270 degrees but the "max" designation on the side plate is at 360. You can't turn the brakes up to the labeled max setting as it is past the 270 degrees. If you tried, you would break the dial. It's almost like they copied the labeling off another reel but didn't institute the same braking system so it simply doesn't line up. Doesn't cause issues with braking but just seems like a rushed oversight.

Been using there crawdad crank a long time.Really great river bait.

Yes i see now yay niceeee

Nice fish, fly. We were in Chesterfield for a soccer game yesterday. Driving over the James got our juices flowing. I hope to get out this week. First time this fall. No clue how the bite is down here right now. Just need to get out and in the yak, wet some line and feel the life flow through my veins again. Operative word: hope.

20 or 30 lb braid/mono leader would probably get more distance for you.Some of the lures you might try are heavy enough to go the distance you need.Spoons,Rebel wind cheaters,or bucktail jigs even with an inline sinker ahead of them. I have yet to surf Fla,but up here often times the fish are no more than a short cast in the suds, particularly at high tide. Often times I will cast almost parallel to the shore line. Other times you have to get a bait past the first bar to do good. Landing /releasing fish in the suds is a lot different than in a boat.Plan ahead what to do with your rod/reel while dealing with a fish. Laying them in the sand is not an option.

I can't see why anyone even cares. Call it "action", call it "power". Call it "Leroy". Does that really ruin your day?...WHEW!!! Hootie

Pros mix them up? hell, some rod manufacturers can't even get it right. I have had many rods in the shop over the years that were heavy action and medium action......printed right there on the rod.It is my biggest pet peeve when I see or hear someone misuse action for power. It's my 'nails on the chalkboard' moment!

Let them claim all they want. Those guides looked like nothing more than Minimas of a different color. I repaired a Villain that had every guide grooved to some extent. Metal ringed guides, especially the tip, have no place on any rods I build.

I love a split shot rig with a finesse worm for river bass. I use a light split shot about 12" above the hook and let the current take it.

If you plug your scuppers, the kayak might ride a little higher and may be top heavy. I had a friend do that and took a dump in some cold water. I only use a sit in kayak during the winter.

This past year was my first year really going duck hunting over decoys and calling them. First trip my buddy shot two greenheads. The next trip probably ruined me for life because I'll probably never experience another trip like it. Wave after wave of ducks coming over the trees, thousands of them. They couldn't even wait for us to finish setting up the decoys before they were coming in, my buddy didn't even have to call for them. It took a whole hour and a half to limit out, less if we had shot better. Got done so fast that we went fishing afterwords and caught a bunch of fish too It was a good week, my son was born 2 days later.

I am a K.I.S.S. man when it comes to swim jig and chatterbait trailers. 99% of the time I am using a single tail 4" curly tail grub, the other 1% of the time a boot tailed swimming stick bait . For the grub, I use the 4" Berkley power grub..............cheap enough, durable enough, power stank, swims at slow speeds, and, best of all, the Walmart 5 mins. from my house stocks them for $3.49/bag, so when the swim jig bite is on, and I am in need of more, it's an easy re-stock mission. The swimming stick bait I use is the Yum swimming dinger,

Well, your rod is lighter than air...

My first ever St. Croix rod and it seems like it is going to be a very nice combo. Feels perfect to cast. 12lb Trilene mono. Going to be a light T-Rig setup.

Love the coloration of the rack! Great buck and looks like some beautiful land up there! Plans to mount it? Congratulations!

Bluebird.

In the unlikely event that I am so fortunate that I hook, fight & successfully land such a fish ~ She is most definitely going for a ride with me back to the beach and then another one in my truck to the nearest "Certified Scale". I have been practicing C & R for a really long time but this one particular bass will have had it's last swim. And that's just the way it has to be. A-Jay

Agreed. There are plenty of places to fish, plus those guys will be looking for a couple big larrys. I was more referring to "tips on melvern".

I caught a bunch of fish on a 168 S Waver and a Deps SS 175 last winter, couple on a 6" Bull Shad, even 1 on a 7" Slammer, all in Kansas. No big fish, but we don't have many of those anyways.

It was so good yesterday that I decided to go back...28 this time

I'd say bass because no fish has ruined more days for me than that critter!! LOL