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Hit a pond on the way home today and paid off. Caught on missouri craw jig with rage tail trailer. OH YA!!!!

Yep, steals your man card, don't use pink under any circumstances.

I finally have something somewhat worthy of this thread

Picked up my first bass of the year and it was a pig (for me?). Went after work for an hour at a friends subdivision pond and got a 5 lb 6 ouncer and 21" long using a 3/8 oz black and blue football jig with trailer. Water still pretty cold here but getting there? One thing that sucks when you fish alone is you can't get any good photos and I had to lay him down to take a pic. But put him back in the water pretty fast.

@Master Bait'r this is your fault...

The Latest Victims..........

You and every single Tournament & Recreational Bass Angler on the Planet . . . There are tons of theories, load of conjecture, plenty of notions most founded on probabilities without any demonstration of their truth. In other words, if you ever find out, you'll be the first. A-Jay

Phenix Recon 682 light with a beater tdz. 7:1 gear set - Ko air spool - Boca os7 bearings - carbontex drag washers - 90mm 100m handle - basszone knobs - #6 yozuri

Couple smallies from yesterday.4-2 and 3-11.Thru the ice.

caught one my biggest bass, and my 4yr old was nice enough to take a picture of me. this is what i found on my phone AFTER letting the fish go! btw this was with a 5/16 war eagle spinnerbait that i found earlier that day for $1 at walmart. they were listed as $5 but rang up as $1!

Picked up my first bass of the year and it was a pig (for me?). Went after work for an hour at a friends subdivision pond and got a 5 lb 6 ouncer and 21" long using a 3/8 oz black and blue football jig with trailer. One thing that sucks when you fish alone is you can't get any good photos and I had to lay him down to take a pic. But put him back in the water pretty fast.

Went out this morn expecting to crush em again. First 4 casts had my first fish in the boat a 6.15lbr another 20 min goes by hit a 4.87lbr thinking ya this is going to get better. Wait another hr or so think hmmm im going to go flip some reeds well about 10 min of that i hit a 5lbr on 65lb braid on a berkley havoc pit boss in black and blue. Fished like that another 2 hrs and nothing went back to the deep crank had a giant hit me get him up to surface one hook in her get net and she leaps and pops off. Go pro didnt want to work. Been having problems with it lately. Thought it was a card issue but i guess not. Guess ill give them a call. Anyway here are the pics.

Yep, adjusting the drag won't have any affect on the problem. Here's how to adjust your reel properly:

Got out early, about 6am and fished till 10. Nashua river. Got six, all of them were under a pound. Caught them all on a Rebel pop r. The bite is back!

Because BTS (before the scale) This bass was "easily well over 5, maybe even close to 6lbs." (see below) Either way - Nice bass Sir A-Jay

Not sure who makes them, but they do a good job at it. I have 4 of their reels and 9 of their rods and have been happy with all of them.

If I am going to long term marry one rod manufacturer (that is not G Loomis) it is going to be St. Croix. Their customer service is solid and they have a good accidental damage replacement policy. I am confident I could cover every rod I need $200 at a time from the Avid line and be happy.

First thing I do is rip the price tag off and pretend I don't blow my whole check on baits. I try to forget how much it costs

Some version of white, smoke, pearl etc. I like to see the bait and that shadow come up and eat it.

Yes, they don't.

Got a jighead order in today, gonna try my hand at tying skirts!

I'm sure you are aware that different retrieves work at different times. In general, I've found that a steadier retrieve works better in the spring, a stop and go ( including ripping it out of vegetation) during the summer and yo-yo or stroking better in the fall-winter. I choose the bait accordingly. A trap, hot spot and red eye shad

Well I fish every chance I get, which is usually a few times a week, and I've been doing it pretty much since I was born and I turn 30 in a couple months, so I have to be getting close if I'm not there yet.

Checked out a local pond this morning............... IT'S THAWED !!!!............ I see suspending jerkbaits in my near future.

The YUM Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr. is the one I buy if I'm having to buy one. Make sure it's the junior, the regular flash mob is like trying to reel in a barge.

Yes. I have owned them both and to me where G Loomis starts to separate from St. Croix is the GLX and NRX lines. Up to that point, I think St. Croix makes a better rod for the money. For me, from what I have owned, it goes something like; Loomis NRX > Loomis GLX > St. Croix Tournament Bass > Loomis IMX = St Croix Avid > Loomis E6X = St. Croix Premier The separation between the Loomis NRX and GLX and the rest is pretty large, both in performance and price.

On windy days, I'll set up a drift across a big weedy flat and throw a spinner bait.

How to deal with the wind ? Depends on your approach. Many bass anglers today have adopted the fast paced tournament style of bass angling seen on TV where the trolling motor never goes off, the boat is always moving and rarely is an anchor carried, let alone used. The advent of the newest shallow water anchor systems have helped in some regard but they too have their limitation, mainly depth. I hate saying it this way but, back in the day, anchoring one's boat was the way we fished - windy or not. At least that's how I was taught. Clearly not as convenient as "Spot Lock" or Power Poles - but that's all we had. And we caught fish. Learning to "use" an anchor in 10 - 20 ft of water (or more) takes some time. It's easiest learned in mellow conditions rather than when it's blowing a gale. Knowing how your particular craft rides on the anchor & how to adjust that to best present a bait is a big key to the techniques success. I fish from a canoe. I use an anchor (sometimes two) Every Trip. I fish (and catch) in wind - all the time. I see anglers on the water who don't know how to, don't have one or won't bother to anchor, sit on the leeward side of the lake in the "Pleasant" conditions - not getting bit. At the same time, I'm on the hook, blowing around a little but I'm using the net here & there. If there's a choice (and there almost always is) I ALWAYS fish & do better in some wind. A-Jay

Learning boat control in high sustained wind 15-20 mph with white capped waves takes practice and a boat heavy enough not to be blown sideways. Keeping the bow pointed into the waves and wind is essential to boat control. Get yourself marker at least 2 buoys and place them about 50 to 75 yards apart at the top and bottom of the area you plan to fish. The buoys help to give you a reference point without needing to watch them every second, letting you concentrate on your fishing. Using heavier weighted jigs snd various rigs like T rigs, C-rigs, drop shot etc., helps. Cast into or down wind not sideways to keep the bow in the line at a minimum. Use just enough electric motor power to maintain your position, don't keep getting on and off the power. After you get better at boat control GPS markers work OK, however take more consentration to watch the unit, less hastle than buoys with anchors. Tom

Fished Lacygne today from 7-3. water temps range from 72 by the water outlet to 55 further up the creeks. Believe it or not we caught one on a frog, yes a frog in March, that was just under 6. Caught a couple on spinner baits, caught a few flipping bluff walls, caught one good one(4lb2oz) on a megabass ito natural, and lost count of how many 2 pounders I caught on a shakey head. Our best 5 for the day were right at 19lbs

19 lb Defier is .014D = to most 12-14 lb mono, about 125 yards on a 200 Simano Tom

WolfyBrandon

It may surprise you the Sunline Armillo Nylon 25 lb is .016 dia., same as most 15 lb copolymers like P-CXX 15 lb line. Lure that exceed 2 1/2-3 oz., impact strength is important IF you should backlash the reel. The line can snap and your expensive glide lure sails off into the distance slowly sinking before you can retreive it. You can use a low profile 200 size reel, the problem is the spool diameter reduces quickly as 50 yards or more line is cast off, common with bigger swimmers, reducing the IPT nearly 50% making it difficult to get hook set and controlling bass that strike at the end of your cast. 300/301 reels with larger diameter spool reduce that problem. Tom

The bait monkey is ashamed to even know you, OP.

Something else in his favor - I heard that the Denver Team bus has very low ground clearance . . . . Makes it a little tough to throw your teammates under. A-Jay

I hate to be that guy, but that is a chain pickerel. A nice one though!

His play consisted of holding a clipboard while wearing a red shirt without shoulder pads.... Not good, indeed.

Quite a bit of RG3's play looked a lot like Peyton's last season. Not Good. A-Jay

Caught a few dinks late this afternoon. Gonna head back tomorrow. Good to be back out. Looks like this weather is here to stay.

the 10,000 hours thing is a myth..... if it were true, i would be a master sleeper, but instead i am a horrid sleeper!

In that case I am a 3x Grand Master at making poor decisions and enjoying them. Anybody want an autograph?

6 packs of Hazedong magnums 15# Smackdown 8# Gliss OMTD tungsten weighted swimbait hooks 4/0 weedless Ned Heads 1/10oz warbaits warblade crappie D&M Flip N Spin bluegill A new 3600 Guide series tackle bag 3601 trays x4 Bento Minnows x3 VMC HD EWGs 4/0 x3 Rod Glove in Platinum Spyder Noisy flappers in pumpkin frog Biwaa Divinator x2 Josh pork meat crawlers Egg snaps #1 & #2 Trokar Mag Swimbait hooks 5/0 Swimbait Hedz XL trouts in 3/8oz Mendota rig replacement packs in 5/16 & 1/2oz Texas Tackle split ring pliers (orange handle) Savage 3D craws (the big 'uns) Dry Creek double dip tubes in hot craw Larew Biffle-O 5" leaches Huddleston Hudd bugs 12# CXX MA State fishing license 4-pack of Heady Toppers Definitely forgetting a few things... Still waiting on my cache of trick darters and 110 Jrs to show up from Arigatostan too. Also taking my new Destroyer/Exsence DC combo out for the first time today and can't wait to let that pony run.

20lb CXX has breaking strength of over 30 lb and 30 lb CXX has breaking strength of 40-50 lbs. They are ridiculously thick lines and are over kill for the baits OP is trying to throw. A 200 size holding 100 meters of .370 mm line is perfectly fine.

I don't believe I would be as successful but if I had to pick one color it would be green pumpkin.

That's what rainsuits are for! Plus it keeps other guys off the water

Curado 70HG arrived from TW today and I paired it up with a neglected Extreme HP 742C that's been sitting abandoned on the rod rack since Black Friday. Can't wait to get this combo out on the water!

Get a vasectomy right out of high school. Yep.

Leave the pot and broads alone