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This topic got me searching for photos that go back more than 20 years! Let's start with the American shad, an anadromous fish and the largest member of the herring family. I cast for them below the Holyoke dam on the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts. They're a hard-fighting fish in current. On to Quabbin Reservoir in central MA circa 1993 for a look at a big, bold bluegill that came off a bed to smack a Pop R: Peck, peck, peck . . . Peck, peck, peck . . . I was fishing a 4" spider grub at a depth of about 15' and expecting some smallmouth interest. I swung twice at the pecking pest and missed. Thought it was a bluegill. Third time I got it and never expected to see a landlocked salmon circling the boat just under the surface! Lake trout like to munch on hula grubs when they're shallow in the early spring but salmon are generally caught trolling. Ah, here we are on big, beautiful, bountiful and diverse Lake Champlain. The walleye, smallie and pike were all caught within a half hour from the same spot. And hey - if anybody has any 5/8 oz. Arbogast Mudbugs they don't want, you can send them to me. Thanks. We're in central New York now, on the Salmon River. I've been making yearly trips here in the fall and early winter since 1996. Have a look at a plump rainbow trout, a close relative of the steelhead trout but comparatively docile at the end of your line. They're strong and stubborn coming in but no where near as crazy as steelhead. If you burst into a tackle shop in Oswego, New York and yelled, "Hey, I just landed a 12 lb. brown from your river!" you would get blank stares. Maybe someone would ask if it was your first trip here. Boys, brown trout braggin' rights start in the in the high teens here. Oomph! We're back on the Salmon River now. In 2011 there were still quite a few salmon in the river at the time of my annual visit. I was fishing a size 10 fly at the end of a 7 lb. fluoro leader. I had 8 lb. copolymer filling the spool of my Stradic 4000 which was mounted on a 10 1/2' noodle, a slow action stick designed to wear down big fish and, in this instance, the fisherman. It took me at least a 1/2 hour to bring this king salmon to the net. The big, young guy helping me estimated it at 24 lbs. The scale at the smokehouse read 11.2 lbs. for this steelhead. It had been a long, slow day on the river and just as dusk was settling in, this fish took a size 10 Glo Bug. It then ran me 200 yards (300?) downstream and it was heading for a pool I couldn't negotiate - I was already waist deep and having a hard time seeing my next step as dusk deepened. My netman said, "You gotta stop it." So I put more pressure on the noodle rod, bending it into the shape of a "C." The line held and here's the picture: January 5, 1999. I was in my totally obsessed phase of steelheading. Why else would I be standing in a 33º river in Red Ball waders which old timers remember as being made of canvas. If you're fishing the Great Lakes region this time of year you shouldn't be surprised by a few flurries (more commonly known as a "lake effect snow" or, even more serious, a "whiteout"). It's weather your mother wouldn't want you out in. But hey, I was afflicted, had to be there. Hah, it was worth the pain! Now, understand that I love Quabbin smallies, but if you twisted my arm and said, "Pick a fish!" I'd have to say the fastest, most unpredictable species I've fought - steelhead trout. [screenshot from YouTube video by Aaron Holmes]

My stroke would be the "OCD" guy. Place for everything and everything in its place

This is where you show da LOOT!

One may start the day with his baits in the order and place he wants them. Within two hours all things are moved and mixed together. We call it bass fishing.

I use 1/4oz 90% of the time but I'm also throwing them in cover/grass and in very shallow water that's 6 foot or less. I use 3/8 if I need to get down into the grass that's thick. A 1/4oz swim jig will get down and through grass much better than people think.

Since it was so nice out i went to a local pond today and do some fishing. The pond is filled with downed trees and dead standing trees so i only throw topwaters and t rigged plastics. I tied on a pop-r and didnt use any other baits! Tons of action i was getting hits almost every other cast. First taker was a little warmouth then a bunch of crappies and one bass. Not to bad for december!

Like bucket mouth, sow belly, lunker, pig, cow, toad, big'm, dink, keeper, smallie, is the language of bass angler. We can't agree there is difference between micropterus species! Tom

They can be good at any time. I'll throw a black and chrome if it's cloudy and a blue and chrome if it's sunny. I'll also throw a black and gold (chrome) in stained water.

My squarebill box would probably make any super organized guys break out in a cold, nervous sweat. It's a deep 3700 size box, with somewhere around 75 baits, and only 3 dividers in the whole box. My jig boxes aren't much better. Loosely organized into similar colors, but head styles and sizes are all mixed up. I would have to carry way too many boxes to give everything it's own separate spot, it would never fit in my boat, (it barely does as is).

No, I can barely speak English as it is. Adding words with lots of letters arranged in funny ways into my everyday vocabulary would only further prove how big of an idiot I am.

If a boater showed you a brush pile that he sank personally, and no one else knew about it, I wouldn't fish it. But many of his "spots" are probably well known areas and free for the fishing. What are you supposed to do, stay away from every ledge on the lake just because he brought you there before?

Decided that since the weather was going to be in the mid 70's that i would take the kayak out and get some fishing in this past saturday even though i had plenty of other things I probably should have been doing. Since i wanted to keep it simple, I went with only my fly rods, a 7wt and my heavier rod in case i wanted to throw any big. Anyways, got on the water right at sunrise (temps were still in the high 40's) and it was about as still as could be. I was throwing a slow sinking spider that I figured would do well even though the fishing is painfully slow. To make a long story short I caught about 4 Sunnies, 2 bass and 2 chain pickerel. Had numerous other bite offs which i know were pickerel but hey, it happens. Can't beat catching some fish in mid december, on a lake with a fly rod.... Here are a few pics

Well then you better be prepared to open the package this evening! I told my girlfriend to find something to do tonight because I was going to watch some of the Star Wars movies to prepare for seeing The Force Awakens on Thursday, and open the package you sent me.

I have two 50XTs - the JDM, somewhat upgraded, versions of the CT50B. They have a measured IPT of about 17.5" - a bit faster than the book rating of 16" IPT for the CT-50B. Uses? I have one on a rod I use for chatterbaits, the other is on a cranking rod for slooooow cold-water cranking. That 16" IPT on the 50B would be good for chatterbaits and slow cranking as well... File photo:

Maybe like the 30th? Nothing during Christmas week works for me.

Scientific names serve a different audience with a different purpose, mostly. But I may use them in a fishing context when I'm talking about an entire taxonomic group -in part because I'm used to them, and partly because they are more precise and save typing. So I may use the terms Salmonids (trout and salmon) or Centrarchids (sunfish, crappies, and "bass" -but not striped, white, or yellow bass -they are Moronids). Recently I used the word Ostariophysi because it sweeps in an entire group of related critters that share a charateristic -the one that was asked about. I could have listed them all or used "other fish" but that could mean .... perch or smelt or ... and it didn't. I'm not averse to using appropriate nomenclature and am not too concerned that someone may need to look a word up, or not. I'm also a fly-fisher and many of the insects that trout and other insectivorous fish eat don't have common names, especially at the level that experienced trout FFers take it. Being able to separate Baetis tricaudatus from Drunella lata allows you to literally go to the stream at the appropriate prescribed time with just the right set of flies and cash in. It's powerful information, and adds a lot of fun in my book. One doesn't need to know the insects to have some fun and catch trout of course: Here's a good story told by FFer Joe Humphreys: A bunch of anglers are sitting around the wood stove at the fisherman's bar on a cold inclement day, grousing about the tough fishing, and "Latinizing" about the insect hatches of the season. An old codger walks in with a full creel and everyone blurts out, "What fly were they on??" The old guy plucks a wet ragged fly off his vest and says, "Why, this 'ol gray bastid here." I've been fishing long enough now, in such a variety of ways, I am both nerd and codger. I don't discriminate against tackle, methods, or language, be it colloquial, literary, scientific, mathematic, or otherwise.

Longevity.

These should be $100 reels. You won't find a better reel for spinnerbaits, wobblers and top water than these. Will definitely be picking up a FEW.

XCalibur Xr50 Blue Chrome has been my #1 lipless crankbait for many years.

Oh we are, trust me, we're just sharing it with everyone else

They're great, but I prefer the 110 size. Good colors, sharp hooks, suspend well, great all around bait and a staple at most of the Ozark lakes. Norman flake and Spro blue are really popular, as is Cellmate, which is my personal favorite.

To the OP, I personally think that you would have returned your Curado I (if you even bought one) no matter how much you liked it because let's be honest, you are as much of a Shimano Hater as I am a Shimano Fanboy and Elephants would grow wings and fly before a Shimano Hater such as yourself would get on this or any other Forum and rant and rave about how great it is.

Strong, smooth, silent and reliant. May the Force be with you... It's called the Posse, the Shimano Posse. https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVjt9rG5WJeQAwsUPxQt.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcwMDU1OQRfcgMyBGZyA3locy1hZGstYWRrX3NibnQEZ3ByaWQDOHRXTmZndTRUeWVseVZZdkM0ZXdTQQRuX3JzbHQDMARuX3N1Z2cDMTAEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMTgEcXVlcnkDYmVlciBmb3IgbXkgaG9yc2VzBHRfc3RtcAMxNDUwMDkzNzU1?p=beer+for+my+horses&fr2=sb-top-search&hspart=adk&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&param1=20151007&param2=5b713d63-f55a-4cf3-b074-228f1190a5ec&param3=email_xp_1.15~US~pythondirect&param4=pd_gs_email_yahoo_b~chrome&type=pythondirect_em_cr

I would say the proven track record and customer service are both pretty high up there on why people choose Shimano. They've been making a quality product for a lot of years and are willing to back it up. I'm also guessing that it feels like all people who like Shimano are "Fanboys", because those are the ones who are most vocal about it. I love all my Shimanos, but I also love my Lew's, Okuma, Daiwa, Pinnacle, H2O, and Pfluegars. Everyone I fish with owns some Shimanos, but they also own other brands and like them very much as well. I'm not married to any 1 brand, don't get any benefits for being brand loyal, so I buy what I think the best value and fit for my needs are. I think a lot of fishermen are moving towards that view of things too.

Some days are diamonds Some days are stones Some days ya better off not leaving home!

Depends..can gronk wear his super bowl champion ring?

THAT'S IT! Bewteen you and Mainebass1984 I'm getting the heck out of MASSACHUSETTS! I've not caught a bass since 19 November but have done well with Rainbow and my 1st Brown trout, but nothing like your reports.... Of course I don't retire for 15 years, have a daughter to help with a good start in life, and parents/in-laws getting close to 80 YOA (they're all doing great, but need help around their houses, etc...) For the near future I'll just have to get my non-resident licenses and get up there when I can .... Oh yeah, CONGRATULATIONS on such late season success!

Loading a boat in 40 mph cross winds and white caps.

Dinks better than skunks!

No, and I don't ponder the physics of fishing either.

Depends on the type of weeds but a hollow body frog is probably the most weedless bait out there.

Did a little fishing on a local power plant lake last weekend, and threw together a quick gopro video. Caught nothing but white bass and dink largemouth, but it's still fun to catch them shallow in the winter! I'll be posting more videos on my channel, so keep an eye out if you want to see more power plant lake fishing.

Here some pics I did my best. Look for OOW outdoors reviews on YouTube.

Hit up the lake at sunrise. water and air were at 61. Did not mark any fish, and drove around a lot. Threw thw spinnerbaits/chatterbaits early. No takers. Went deep with the normans and 6xd. Even got jiggy for awhile. The bass were busting the shad early in one area, and ONLY in that area. After hours, decided to head out, loaded up the jon boat, and rigged up a wacky worm for my daughter, she always catches at the boat ramp, and that happened to be where the shad were. She hooked a couple. I decided to tie on a white super fluke. Starting catching dinks back to back. Was a tough day for fishing, wind crept up to around 10-12 for a short while, overcast all day while we were there. SO much for catching a hawg deep this trip. No pics....the dinks were not worth wasting a button push on my phone.

We are still thawed up here so I'm still going out. Went out with my buddy today. Air was 25 when we launched at 6:15 this morning. Bluebird clear and flat calm day; just a beautiful winter morning on the water. Started out fishing the blade in 25-40 fow off a ridge. Huge schools of white perch and crappie on the sonar but no bass to be found with them. So we went to the banks and had a little better luck there. I ended up getting 7 and my buddy caught 4 bass and a nice brookie. The brookie came on a TRD on a dropshot. Notice on the deck in front of my friend the eggs that came out of the trout. Is this normal for this time of year? They were spewing everywhere. Not a blistering day by any means but for 38 degree water, I'll take it.

If you can get sunnies when they are spawning yo can catch fish all day long. It is usually when i try and get people hooked on the sport for the first time. they don't care about bad casts and my record is 38 fish on consecutive casts lol

That is intriguing,I wonder how that happened.Don't really believe in luck but I have been fortunate to catch several different types of rare fish.

There's a window ledge next to my bed that I keep lots of miscellaneous junk on. Last night that "junk" included a Rat'L'Trap and some dropshot hooks, as well as my headphones. Well after listening to a bunch of music last night, putting my headphones on the ledge, and falling asleep, I somehow pulled down the headphones into the bed and both the dropshot hooks and the lipless crankbait came with them. So I woke up this morning and felt something hard underneath me: cannot believe the double trebles on that lipless crankbait or the Gammy dropshot hooks didn't get imbedded in my skin, I was laying right on top of both of them without a shirt. Needless to say my baits will be staying in the tackle box from now on lol.

word

One more won't hurt.

Nice collection. I fell into a great deal on a S Waver for $1. That single bait started it all for me. Now I have a good collection. One day i was on a private lake and there was a small little front moving it. It went from blue bird sky to dark and steady rain. I worked a S Waver over submerged vegetation and just hammered them, best 5 went around 17 lbs. Without a doubt the funnest 1 an a half stretch of fishing iv had.

Terrific! Maintain that friendship.

I can't believe all the big box retailers (cabela's, bass pro, etc) still don't offer free shipping for orders over X amount of dollars. Where X is a reasonable amount, it's embarrassing.

There's an older man in my church who has been fishing tourneys almost all of his life, fished FLW as a coangler for a long time. When he first started out he bought literally one of everything in every color, and has over the year amassed an enormous garage full of stuff. He gives as much of it as I want for 1/3 the price, and most often he just gives it to me. They're all old baits but perfectly functional. That bag is FULL of tubes, old craws, and floating worms.

Make sure the guide you get offers some type of money back guarantee if you don't catch fish,or don't get a Bass over 5 pounds(at least).I know this seems like a lot to ask,but almost every body of water down here has 5-8 pound bass that can be caught from the bank.Makes no sense to hire a guide if he can't guarantee a 5 pound bass or better from a boat.Same goes for a Saltwater guide,if he can't give a guarantee find one that does. There's tons of guides here so you have many to choose from.

This is a cool thread. I cant help but fish different techniques for different fish, theres so much enjoyment to be had. I love fly fishing for trout: you can throw tiny emergers with a 3 weight in a small stream, or nymph a hole in a local river with your 5 weight. You can take your 7 weight out and sling some real beefy flies and turn a few heads and maybe catch a nice one. Bass fishing is also diverse: dropshotting for smallies, grinding cranks in search pattern, walking a spook, or throwing a jig under a dock for largemouth. I love ice fishing, and catching crappies, perch , and trout. This year I was very fortunate to enjoy three big trips with good friends/relatives. My bass fishing buddy and I got to go fish Clear Lake for largemouth for the first time. My Fly fishing buddy and I went up to Yellowstone National Park and caught a ton of nice trout on the fly at the Madison river. And Third, my father in law took me to Canada, where we camped on an island and trolled for walleye and pike for a week. I love this sport, and while I respect anyone who dedicates themselves to pursuing one thing, I cant help myself from constantly learning and enjoying this sport to the fullest.

Anything Dwight catches is the size of a pig. I'm surprised he hasn't pull out a real pig yet.

Nice day for sure. Brookies spawn this time of year for sure down in VA but i would think they were done up there by now but like bass, they all spawn different times so that is probably the case with this guy.

Good thread....................................................... I'm so sick of living in the North East. Making the best of it.

Just read a post recently discussing the use of a gimbal mount lock and that person had his Lowrance units on the boat at a restaurant in view. When he went back to the boat, all the cables were cut but the unit was still there. Then he remembered seeing some guys leaving the restaurant and walking across the parking lot but it didn't look like they bothered his boat. Leave your stuff visible and it is a target for thieves.