Leaderboard

The big fish were eating this week for me! Wednesday was my biggest smallmouth of the year at 4lb 11oz on a Luck-E-Strike STX jerkbait. Thursday I only got 3.5 hours of fishing and I took too long to figure them out. Once I did though, I caught 2 4lb 10oz, a 4lb 12oz, and a 5lb largemouth. First one ate a homemade brush jig, the last 3 were on my homemade bladed jigs in black and blue.

We just added this awesome little finesse jig. I've been strictly fishing it for the last 2 months and its a wicked little jig. A Rage Tail baby craw is a perfect match for it. The Sniper Jig comes in 3/16, 5/16, and 7/16 sizes. This jigs niche is finicky fish and light biters. http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Sniper-Jig-492.htm The new colors are California Craw, and Black Red.

We only do this for new members, not members with 200+ posts. The rationale is that by that time, they understand how the site works. You need only click on your name in the upper right, and pick "My Content" to find all your threads and posts.

Big'one sign her up for Trophy Catch!

Correct. However, this is where the OP posted it. Had I moved it to the correct forum, he would've thought this, too, was deleted, and would not have seen the answer.

For those that don't want to watch the videos.

Lake Lopez this weekend with fisherrw. Nothing huge, got a 4-4, two 4-1's, one 4, and a 3-3. Caught probably 50 fish, Mostly largemouth with a couple smallmouth and crappie.

No,not the chronology challenged,but guys like me who still enjoy fishing with Classic Ambassadeurs, and also those who like to upgrade,and tune them. I've been in contact with Jeff Brooks of Boca Bearings, and they're going to bring a new bearing to the market that is a direct replacement for the stock brass bushing. As anyone who has tried to convert a bushing reel to bearings knows, you either had to modify the spool,or change out a bunch of parts to convert them. With this new bearing, all you'll need to do is swap out the bushings,and add a spool centering cushion,and a spool centering shim. The bearings will be ABEC7 ceramics, so the upgrade will be noticeable. The extra parts needed cost about $8 on top of the cost of the bearings, so it's also less than the price of a new spool,and pinion gear. Date of release is not yet set,so I will update this post when I have a confirmed date.

Sunday I headed out to a local hole to try out some new swimbaits I recently bought. A few weeks ago I lost a 5lber on a swimbait at the same pond so I went back to try to find her. I was throwing a Reaction Strike swimbait in the same area that the big girl got off and after a few casts the first bass of the day hammered it. It wasn't the big one I was looking for but was in the 4lb class. My other rod was rigged up with a War Eagle spinnerbait so I threw that along the bank and right when it got close a bass came up and smashed it. For some reason the 10lb mono broke during the process. That bass was around the same size as the first one. Time to respool that reel before heading out again. After losing the spinnerbait I threw the swimbait again and had numerous bass hit it but didn't stay on. Working my way down the bank resulted in 2 more bass on the swimbait. I'll have to get back there again soon and maybe find the bass with my spinnerbait.

This last weekend, due to time constraints I didn't get out as much as I wanted. Still managed to hook into a 30"+ Northern, some walleyes, a few bass, and a crappie who seems to have found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time! The smallie came in at 19.5". Not a bad weekend at all, just makes me wonder how much better it could have been with more time.

Its too bad they both couldnt lose.

You mean, you really don't know, but you dislike him anyway? What if someone told you that Glenn beats up BR members as long as no one is watching? Hootie

how's that powerpoint handle? you throwing this on a laptop or desktop?

The reason why I asked, and I know it's just another thing to spend money on, is you might want to invest in a shallow spool. If you want to cast down to a true 1/8oz, a shallow spool takes all the headaches out of doing so and shallow spools are available for your Shimano's that have the ability to cast lighter weight but still have adequate line capacity for LMB.

I just received my 4600c3. It had 5.3:1 gears in it, so I upped it to 6.3:1 for 31.2ipt (actual, measured, full spool). My other two main reels still run 26ipt, including my jig rod. Though I may up my frog rod, I like my jig rod where it's at. I've enjoyed this thread. There are so many fishing styles that are different than mine, and I have learned to adopt elements of each. Nobody can tell another what fishing style will work best for him, but open sharing of info makes every person who willing to experiment just a little bit better. Josh

If you're mainly using spinning gear I'd stick with the braid and just tie a fluoro leader. I use to use flouro for a lot of things but now I'd down to just using it for bottom contact baits on casting gear. Everything else is straight braid, braid with a leader, mono, or copoly. I just didn't feel it was giving me any noticeable advantage over the much more cost efficient and less finicky line options.

Speed is always an issue on LOZ. Hope he makes a quick recovery.

Grape Mann's Jelly Worm

I'm shocked at how little confidence a lot of y'all have. If you fished against him 1000 times on a random body of water neither of you have been on, he'd probably win a good chunk of time, but there are so many factors outside his control that you would win from time to time.

Congrats. Very nice. I hope your both happy..except for the raiders sucking for 12 years straight.

It sounds like the person who told you that nonsense is a moron.

I'm a bit confused. Which one of you wears the pants in the family?

I had planned on targeting trout on this day. I'm really glad I decided to try for some smallmouth first when this big girl showed up.

Ooh..burn.

I'm guessing that most readers today wouldn't be able to do a lap in either car (standard transmission.)

I always opt for "as little as possible" If you'd like, I'll gladly hold anyone's head under water to demonstrate why.

Easy rule of thumb...as long as you can hold your own breath.

I use 20# braid plenty and so do a lot of people. It has nothing to do with breaking strength as your drag should miles away from ever breaking it. It is about using a suitable diamater for the rod and reel you are using.

Caught this 7.5lb bass on my third cast with a jig today. Missed a couple of bites, but I still managed to catch 7, one of them weighting 5.45lb. I still can't believe this small ponds holds such big bass

Went out for a few hours this morning before work, hit my favorite stretch of river as usual. It was in the low 40s and windy, by mid January that will feel nice but after a week with highs in the 60s and 70s it was brutal! Caught 19 largemouth and one smallmouth, half on my trusty bluegill DT4, half on a 1/16oz texas rigged trick worm (if you fish anywhere that is shallow with current, try this). I now have caught roughly 75 bass on that DT4 and I haven't even had it for a full month yet! 3 identical ones sitting in the box but they still haven't seen the water. 20" 18" 17" I'm impressed with the durability of this bait

Started Wednesday at Lake Shawnee in Topeka in search of the newly stocked trout and maybe some smallmouth. Ended up being a smallmouth trip and maybe some trout. I caught about every fish in the lake (largemouth, smallmouth, crappie, walleye, white bass, drum), but the 4th or 5th smallmouth of the day made the whole trip worthwhile in the first hour. Thursday I was at Shawnee County State Lake, just north of Topeka, this time in search of the alleged big largemouth. I'd only fished the lake once before and the results were less than spectacular. This time, I extracted some revenge on the lake. I missed getting 2 of my big fish on film (both 4lb 10oz), but I did manage to get a 4lb 12oz fish, and a 5lb fish on camera. One of the 4lb 10oz fish was on a homemade 5/8oz sapphire blue jig, the rest of the big ones were on my bladed jigs in black and blue with a sapphire blue pit boss for a trailer.

Hair jig season is just about here and I've been getting a lot of questions about what kind to use and where to use them so I decided to do a post on basics. In the picture, the jigs on the right hand side are for clear water, the top jig is a 3/32oz marabou jig, the 2 under it are both buck tail jigs with one having a weed guard and no trailer and the other with no weed guard and a rabbit strip trailer. The marabou jig will be worked by swimming it slowly or hopping it along the bottom, no trailer is used but on this one I have 2 feathers tied in to give it a little extra. The buck tail jig without the trailer is 1/8oz and can be used as it is or a small trailer can be added like a trout worm or tiny chunk, it can be used in a swimming type presentation, hopped or crawled along the bottom and even dead sticking works with it. The 1/8oz buck tail with the rabbit strip will be used as is, the rabbit strip will give this jig a little more action and it will bulk the profile up a bit, it can be used in the same manner as the other buck tail but I normally use it when the fish are a little more active so it is either swimming or hopping most of the time. The jigs on the left hand side are more for stained water, less than 2' of visibility is where they shine because of the added bulk. The top two jigs are 1/8oz football heads, the top one has buck tail tied in with deer belly hair tied over top and there is a little more hair than in my clear water jigs. This jig is going to be crawled along the bottom slowly with a chunk style trailer, a 2" tiny Paca Chunk works great for this jig and it is going to fished primarily on hard bottom or rock covered areas. The other football head is going to be pretty much the same as the previous one, the difference is that it is tied with a heavy collar made of fine round rubber, and that is not only going to make the jig stand up, but it also provides a different profile, pretty much like a Sculpin so we will often slowly swim this along that bottom without a trailer and it works surprisingly well at times. The last one of that side is what I call the creeper jig, it is 1/8oz round head with a rabbit hair body with some longer silicone strands in for some added action. This is one that is always going to have a trailer and it is always a chunk type trailer and it depends on the size of the jig but one of the ones we find that works well on this is the Ron Yurko finesse chunk by Venom Lures. This jig is crawled along the bottom or slow hopped and dead sticking also works well with this jig and this is what I'll use if the water is only slightly stained as the rabbit hair will offer more visible action but it won't have as large of a profile as the others making it a little harder to find in dirtier water. Now these are all small sizes meant to be using in water 10' deep and under, I usually only go as high as 1/4oz for the waters I use them in so if you need a faster fall or need to get deeper than you can adjust the weight but remember the appeal of these is they offer the fish a small, easy to catch food morsel that they don't need to spend any energy to get so you don't want them moving to quick. I tie a ton of different kind of jigs as well but these are what I learned to fish hair jigs with and they can be tweaked size and color wise to match the conditions you face. I hope this helps those of you who are curious about hair jig fishing in cold water, if you experience water that dips down below 40 degrees in the winter, it will benefit you to learn how to use these types of jigs as they are often the best lure to catch them on.

This summer I witnessed something I never guessed I'd see in a million years. A friend and I were on a marshy lake near catttails. I could see a muskrat on his "hut" and I expected, since we were some distance, that he would go about his business. Instead, the little critter swam right up to the boat. I figured he'd see his mistake, dive down and then swim off but he circled the boat twice. I half expected him to attempt to climb in the boat-he seemed so eager to be near us. He didn't do that but he did stop along the side and began nibbling on some green plant. Then he started squeaking plaintively like he wanted something. Apparently, he got bored with us because he eventually swam once more around the boat and then headed back to his hut. THAT was pretty darn funny! I have a little camera footage of him but I'm technologically challenged and don't know how to download it.

I wouldn't get an inshore reel just to fish a 2 day trip. A quick rinse/wipe and you're gonna be fine with the other. And then a couple drops of oil on the bearings after....good as new.

awesome picture, sir Congrats

Nice work. Were you fishing the Gunpowder? And as for eye rolling... I grew up in northern California where we have some pretty epic fly fishing for trout, steelhead and salmon. After living out here for years I can say that Maryland trout are spooky, to say the least. If you can catch them here, you can catch them anywhere.

I knew it! The dude wears a DRESS! Congratulations and best of luck to you and your new bride. Tight lines, Bob

Hey guys its been a while! Guess my lack of posting is because I haven't been fishing...Guy at work had knee replacement surgery and I've been working almost every one of my days off.....Now , come to find out another guy I work with has prostate cancer, so there is no end in sight to the end of overtime.... There is only 4 of us that work shift and cover the plant 24/7 so when one is missing its hard to find time off....good luck guys....tight lines

Staying with a Basscat. Found one in MO with 25 hrs, two poles, onix 10's for a good price. Hoping to go get it soon!

Yes BPS has trailers, I have a 1542 that came on a load rite trailer that came from there. If your fishing two guys out of it I'd really consider a 15 footer, you'll find a 12 will be really tight with two guys.

Lol....Raul, I'm looking for that elusive 3 pounder that swims my lake. I just checked to be sure. The Ohio state record bass is 13# 2oz. Hootie

Ghetto? I call it "an elegant solution."

Thanks for the tip. $80 shipped - wow. Now I'm stuck and even more indecisive, however. I've had an $89 Mojo 7'4" MM in my Bargain Basement shopping cart for a week....I may end up flipping a coin.

When you buy a $40 spool of fluoro it's nice to be able to spool more than 1 reel with it. A 200 yard spool of line will do 3 reels for me. You aren't making casts over 50 yards. So the rest is just wasted good line. Also braid is known to slip on the spool. Backing solves that issue too. I use 2 wraps of electrical tape on my spools that don't hold much line. It lets the braid bite in so you don't have to worry about any backing or slipping.

I didn't think you were flexible enough to do that.

Since Christmas is coming soon and I need to start formulating the list for the 'rents, what gear would you recommend for a beginning bass angler? I have a $150 limit for a rod and reel, and then anywhere between $100-$200 more for the rest. As well as lures, what kind of line, tools, tackle boxes/bags, terminal tackle, etc would y'all deem necessary to have for someone just starting out?

I'd just buy a new handle myself. But then Diawa is only about 15min from my house. That way if I choose to sell the reel at a different time I could offer both handles with it to whomever wanted to buy it.

It definitely varies. I recently took a vacation to Florida and couldn't believe the amount of tackle the Walmart had down there for bass. Where I live (Colorado) they have a couple packs of Mustad hooks, a few bags of Strike King plastics, a couple square bills and the rest of the aisle is rooster tails, small rapalas, etc. Trout gear. There's more powerbait trout dough than crankbaits. Bass Pro hasn't been here very long, but their selection is big, and they are expanding. I still tend to get more from tackle warehouse than anywhere else though, because they don't have much of a selection of what I use most. They just recently started getting War Eagle spinnerbaits, and their Lucky Craft selection is almost non-existent. They also have pretty much gotten rid of G Loomis except the new e6x, St. Croix (except Triumph and Premier) rods and have replaced them with more of their house brands. Cabela's and BPS are both about 30 minutes away. I've got Walmart and Dicks about 10 minutes away and Gander Mountain 15 minutes away. They all have different things. I've gotten lucky at Walmart, they were clearancing out Strike King Tungsten weights for $1.00. Gander is the only one that carries Spro cranks. Cabelas has different brands as well. Anymore, I only go to BPS because that's where my bass club meets monthly. Edited: Hit submit too soon.