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My partner and I trailed the boat on Sunday, fished Monday, Tuesday, Wed and returned to Jacksonville on Thursday morning. Day one we found the lake heavily silted up as we fished the southern end. FP-13 had a week of northerly winds and cooler temps blowing across it which shut the fish off, after 6 hours of fishing we managed only 8 smallish fish to 4 lbs. Day two was a slight improvement in water quality because the winds had switched back to a normal southerly direction and we found some fish eager to eat. We caught and released 18 up to 5 lb. Day three we found the lake was clear and the fishing was pretty hot on the edge of a large eel grass bed just off the only point in the lake. We caught 38 fish up to 7.2 lbs but had to leave them biting as around noon on the last day of our trip we drive over to a car wash and hand wash the truck, boat and trailer prior to returning to the hotel to clean up our selves, and go get a few adult beverages plus a steak dinner. We want to return next week because we are close to the end of our season but found a cracked weld on the trailer that needs to be addressed prior to rolling down an interstate.We shall see. R/ Chris

Couldn't have done it without his Strike King tooth whitener.

What's your post spawn strategy? Catching bass The only time I struggle is when I aint on the water!

Took a few pictures of the boat before it headed to the repair shop and had to share. Luckily I've had some good friends help get my boat together and all my new goodies on. Got hurt at work and haven't been able to do much but hopefully ill be back at it soon and the boat will be ready.

Sold the bass boat, then fished the last three years out of a Jon. Could not take it any more so I pulled the trigger on a 2002 Lowe 180W.

I just can't stop

When stored properly - I'd say indefinitely. Or at least until I can't cast any more. A-Jay

I usually have a plan before I start . I even have my rods and reels set up before I leave . Then I get to the lake and do something else .

say hello to 90% of my tackle.... LOL

I'm in northern MI and Guess what The Dealer just called - - - the boat is there. I'm on my way there now ! More to follow. A-Jay

Yes Mend-it. A-Jay http://www.menditglue.com/

Nope, no list. But to clarify, an accidental trip in to *** territory doesn't automatically result in a ban. It's when people deliberately try to promote those brands that lands them into trouble. Same as always with any and all of our rules designed to eliminate spam on the forums. It's nothing different. It's just that some companies are slow to understand the "no spam" concept, hence the ***.

bait during normal production = OK, catches fish discontinued bait = best thing ever, hard to find, super rare, CRAZY money on the resale market!!!

Just be careful and do not do anything illegal. I loved my dogs but prison time is not worth it. You could always catch it and take it to a local Chinese restaurant for the general tso " chicken" Just kidding they make it with cats

I use the same rods I use in a boat, on shore, whatever. Has more to do with location and conditions than what craft I'm fishing from.

The game plan right now is to learn as much as I possible can from my home lake, I think when I start tournament fishing next year that all of this will change but for now it's just me and sometimes the family, I don't have any pre-determined spots, I'll just go around areas I haven't visited and scan and mark waypoints of interest and then do a little fishing if I find some good spots.

You kin to Bill Dance ?

why would you want to fish bass in Gulf shores, such good oil rig fishing off there . make sure ya go to the florabama , and the pink pony pub and order a few baskets of their Deep fried blue crab claws. omg best thing ever made on this planet earth

Loctite gel for glueing baits to jig heads and Mend It for soft plastic repairs. "Super glue" tends to leave a hard spot where it is applied to the plastic where Mend It does not.

For glueing baits to a jig head, I have found the loctite gel control to be the best thing going. Unlike most super glues, even the thick ones, it stays right where you put it. Pretty funny we posted at the same time the same thing lol

Went to Canandaigua lake Tuesday and killed them! All seem to be super shallow, and normally Canandaigua is a poor bass fishing lake. Water was around 48 degrees. Good Ole jig and Colorado blade spinnerbait.

Fished Wolf Creek from 9-2 today. The 10mph North wind predicted felt like 25mph today, holy cow! Quality of brown fish was substantial from last Friday but quantity was down. Solid fish were not right on rocks, out in 6-10 ft. Only fished south end of lake. There were 10 boats on lake when I arrived. Water temps were 70-72.

After getting many different answers on the boards here, I will post the response I got from Zman about storage of their baits. In my email to them I did ask for permission and was given it to post it. My email, I have a question about the storage of your Elaztech baits. Being a newer user to your product, first tried it last spring, I haven’t quite figured out all the do’s and don’ts with storing them. Thankfully I have not had any meltdowns yet so I have been careful enough. Here is my setup, and dilemma, I fish 4-6 days a week with mixed baits and don't want to put a Zman on a jig head back in the original sealed bag wet. I would be concerned about rust since I generally carry about 8-10 baits prerigged and ready. I currently store them in a double sided Plano 3500 size box that I drilled holes in to allow the water to evaporate. I also added some paper towel in each slot to help with moisture. With this I haven't had any serious rusting issues or worry about what or how I set the used baits in my truck to dry, the box stays in the truck the entire fishing season. My question, is the reaction just a contact reaction, or if this vented box is placed in the same compartment of a soft sided bag with either crankbaits or other soft plastics will I have issues? I do currently have a bag that allows me to keep them separate, but once that bag is gone I am not sure the replacement bag would give me the same luxury. The answers I got on the forum were that Plano boxes do bad things to the baits and the original bag is the only safe option. I figured it would be easier to get the answer from the source. Also let me know if I can post your answer on the forum, I think many others would benefit from it, I get the impression there are a lot of misconceptions out there, including about baits melting due to heat. Answer from Zman Thanks for using our products and for getting in touch about proper storage of ElaZtech plastics. There’s a little bit of a learning curve with our material, but once you get it down, the benefits of the material far outweigh any changes you need to make in how you store or rig the baits! As you already are aware, we recommend storing ElaZtech plastics in their original packaging, as that is the safest bet to prevent them from coming into contact with a foreign substance that may affect the ElaZtech baits, or vice versa. It is also important to keep the baits out of extreme heat (i.e., out of the direct sunlight on a hot day, do not store inside a vehicle in the summer, etc.) because the melting point of ElaZtech is slightly lower than other soft plastics. We are located in South Carolina where it gets pretty hot; I store my baits in a compartment in my boat year-round, and I have never experienced any temperature-related issues whatsoever. Our warehouse reaches in excess of 100 degrees in the summer, and we’ve never had any baits melt here. As far as storing ElaZtech baits in a Plano box or similar storage tray goes, I’m not aware of any storage boxes that will cause our baits to melt. Over time, ElaZtech may cause the box itself to warp, but the baits should be fine as long as they are not mixed with other soft plastics. I would recommend against storing ElaZtech and conventional plastics together in the same storage box, even in different compartments, to avoid the baits inadvertently being mixed and to prevent any kind of cross-k I think the setup you described would probably not present any issues as long as you are very careful about not mixing PVC baits with ElaZtech plastics. While I don’t have any hard evidence to support this yet, I believe that a Plano box with holes in it will allow air to flow in and out of the compartments and eliminate, or at least reduce, the warping issue. Plano actually makes a box with holes in it, and I’ve been using it with ElaZtech for a few months without any negative effects on the box. We are currently working on finding a cost-effective source for ElaZtech-friendly storage boxes and hope to have a series of boxes on the market by next summer. In the meantime, it’s worth mentioning that Flambeau’s K-Series boxes are compatible with ElaZtech. They can be ordered online from several different sources including Flambeau. If you are going to use a Plano-style box, another thing to be cognizant of is how the baits are laid in the compartments. Our material is prone to ‘taking a set’ over time, so the baits and the boxes themselves must be stored carefully. This is not as much of an issue with baits like ZinkerZ, FattyZ, TRDs, Finesse WormZ, etc. but is something to watch out for with baits like swimbaits with 3 dimensional tails or appendages that don’t lay flat as easily. I think that you are correct that there are many misconceptions about the material, melting, etc. When we get complaints from anglers about melted baits, we typically ask the customer to return the baits to us so we can check them out. Almost always, the angler insists that they did not mix ElaZtech with other soft baits, and virtually every time, we find a shriveled up PVC bait among the melted ElaZtech baits! And those are just the people that contact us and send the baits back to us, so I’m sure that many of the people complaining about baits melting have unknowingly and unintentionally mixed them with a foreign substance. Here is a link to video we made about proper storage of ElaZtech baits that you may find helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1wkWQPMcPs. The bottom line is that if you take a few basic precautions, you will not have any issues with ElaZtech. Please feel free to post this on any forums as you see fit. Thank you again for using our ElaZtech plastics and for getting in touch with your question! Mad props to Zman for getting me a very prompt answer. The two times I have dealt with their customer service they have been awesome. They seem like a group that stands behind their product and want to do as much as possible to make it succeed.

Okay, so You know those days when nothing goes right, and you have one disaster after another? Well i think i almost took the taco today. so here is what happened today wake up with non-charged dead batteres 1st time ever happening , but my boat came free from the dock and was floating away, luckily i was able to hop on another persons boat to retrieve my boat ; but when i hopped onto his boat i fell backwards onto my head in a kind of half backflip (feet way up in the air.) So i get on my boat , and first thing i noticed was there was still 1 old screw hole that i had not been able to plug (installed 3d structure scan transducer , and few other ). so now my boat is slowly sinking. when i turned to check the water level again i noticed that one set of acessory wires was on fire (yes i had a fused on that, but still caught on fire). great , my sinking fireboat. great. So my reaction was to just remove the wire on fire (which had not burned through 4 or 5 other sets of wires ) , well that was't smart cause i grabbed a bare wire that was on fire and sliced my index finger very deeep (one of many times i would gush blood ) . as i spend the next 2 hours trying to put it all back together so i can go fish , i end up I slcing both my legs really bad where they are gushing blood , 2 shin brusies , 1 bad lump on my writst and one more deep slice for my right index finger, so im covered in blood and sticky sticky black undewater hole plugger stuff that has found its way into all of my open wounds. I had spent 2 hours trying to rewire everything and i go to relaunch , and no, i managed to get the black goop everywhere but the leaking hole. r So I manage to get my boat back on the trailer. where i spend the next 2 more hours rewiring all my accessorries and plugging the leak in the lake parking lot of oreilly autoparts parking lot. I had to replace the majority of my boats wiring . By the end of it , its now 4pm, i had gotten to the lake at 1030am. so i get on the lake by 5pm, guess what ? trolling motor batteries got no juice, so im without a trolling motor, and there were more major malfunctions and i caught no fish.

Today I hit the river for a few hours after school. I ended up catching about 15 1-2 pound largemouth on a weightless fluke. The biggest fish were a pair of 3 pound smallmouth that i caught on a jerkbait. Pretty good 3 hours on the 'doah.

Bass can definitely survive being hooked in the gills. I've even caught some fish that had a gill completely ripped and hanging out of the gill opening (previous injury not my doing) and they were fine. I've read some people pour Sprite or Mountain Dew on bleeding gills to stop the bleeding. I've also read that you shouldn't do this. So who knows? Me personally, if I have a fish bleeding from the gills I return it to the water ASAP and hope for the best when she swims off.

awesome little thread right here from @FryDog62 it should answer your questions....

Weird how much difference 100 miles south can make. Josh

Post spawn is my favorite time to catch a huge stringer .If timed right the females will seem to be on every shallow point , fence line ... leading to deep water . Floating minnows are often a good bait to use . Some days they will be in pockets close to the points .This window doesnt last long because the other anglers will figure it out .

Thursday nights I cook supper for 3 of my 4 boys, their wives, & 9 grandkids!

They've been spawning for at least 3 weeks in the Batesville area.

Hello, As of Wednesday the bass look to be on beds, at least a few. I saw a bass hanging out by a boat ramp. I tossed several lures at it, and the only one I could get it interested in was a plastic worm. It picked that up well aft of the hook and carried it away. It's definite spawning behavior, but I didn't see a bed. Also, I proceeded to catch one largemouth with a jig; it definitely was not bedded, and its tail didn't look as if it had been building a nest. So I'm going to say that early spawn has started here, the Peru/Wabash/Huntington/Ft Wayne area. Josh

In my area there are usually enough males guarding the beds to keep things interesting for the week or two after the females lay eggs. By then, the girls start to get active and I start targeting bluegill spawning sites as that is where many of the bass will begin getting their feed on. By the time the gills are off their beds, both the female and male bass will be settling on their summer homes and routines. Those four weeks or so, though frustrating at times, are the best junk fishing period we see around here.

As for trailers for that jig a Zoom swimming chunk,Netbait Tiny Paca craw, small twin tail grub. But I agree with Indiana,so when you do set the hook-set it extra hard with them jigs,but you can get them with that jig!

Chatterbait, soft plastic Swimbait, and a spinnerbait over the thick stuff.

Max 5, 6 MPH. BTW...put me in the group that thinks this isn't a good idea.

My latest video!

Baby rage craws go well with that bait.

A 4 pounder and a 3.5 from the past week. Got the 3.5 last Thursday after work and the 4 on Saturday. Those NOLA City Park post-spawn bass have been biting really good the past couple weeks

My wife was working out of town last night, so i went to chase some girls.... at the pond!! This little honey hole has been good to me lately, but last night it was on fire! I fished from about 6:30-9 last night and caught 10 fish and lost 2. The last cast was a tank too, somewhere between 3.5 and 4lbs. It was right at dark and she didn't really "hit" the bait, more or less just inhaled it and started peeling off to the side. All except for 1 fish were caught on the 5" wacky senko which has been the bait of choice out here the last few trips. The 1 loner was on a keitech swing impact and 1/8oz weighted hook, caught on the new to me Adrena from @Grantman83 Funny thing is the bait was really too light for this rod, but i tried anyways. i had an errant cast that sent the line over a tree limb and a little overrun on the reel. once i got the reel straightened out, i looked at the line and sure enough, it was swimming away from the tree limb, set the hook and fish on! I love her to death, but sometimes it's nice when the wife is gone!

Geez, what a dream rig!

Caught this little lady last weekend skipping a dock with a senko. Caught another of similar size on a 3.8? swing impact on an owner underspin.

My first bigger bass of the year was on a custom painted Rayburn Red 1.5. I like red moving baits though, I even carry some of my bladed jigs with me in reds.

Best rule of thumb, if it's not a Zman, don't mix it with Zman baits.

When I had a 10' riveted jon boat, I used 24V bow motor with it. No such thing as "more than enough". Enough is when you run out of funds and space.

All ready for the years first boat ride. Symetre Fj-7' mf sc3 stradic fj-7ml sc3 certate-rx7 781 calcutta-imx 783 50e-imx 782 100b-primere 66mm fingers crossed for something worthy of latest pics catch thread.

Great, Another "Cranky old man" You'll fit right in Hello and Welcome! Mike