Leaderboard

So This Just Happened ~ Sometimes it works out. Introducing my new 2016 Lund Pro V Bass ~ for me, it's a Game Changer. I’ll be loading in the gear tomorrow. The Maiden voyage is scheduled for this weekend, weather permitting (Big Rain in the forecast) Here's the Stats ~ Length 18’ 9”, Beam 96”, Standard Boat Weight 1475, Weight Capacity 1650, Fuel Tank 36 Gals Powered by 200 HP Optimax w 21 Tempest Prop, Mercury Smart Graft Gauge Upgrade, Sea Star Hydraulic Steering w/Tilt Helm, Vinyl Main Deck, Removable Port Console w/Wind Screen, Dual Pro PS4 4 Bank Battery Charger, 36 V system powered by 4 Optima Blue top 31’s, that's the power for the Minn Kota Fortrex 112/62/US2, 12 ft Talon x2, Hummingbird Helix 10 SI KVD X2 (flush mounted at console & bow), Hummingbird Precision GPS Receiver, all sitting on a Custom single axle Galvanized Bunk swing tongue trailer, w/ LED Lighting & a Travel Cover. Huge Props go to Maple Bay Marine in Brutus, MI. True Professionals in every sense of the word. Both the Sales & Service dept displayed a real commitment to working with me on getting this as close to right the first time as we could. With the Pro V Bass being in a totally new model, there were a few items that needed some TLC. Additionally, I had a few A-Jay Alterations I wanted to make that required some fitment modifications & in house fabrication. These guys were all over it. So this project came & went together seamlessly. I couldn’t be happier. Massive thunderstorms on the way home from the dealer required the custom cover - worked well. More pictures & info later. So who's Crazy Excited ~ This Guy ! ! ! ! A-Jay

First off, I am or will be okay. I had a terrible accident yesterday , but I am doing better now. I decided to go horseback riding, which I haven't done in quite a while. Well, I got on the horse and started out slow, and then we went a little faster, and then we were going as fast as the horse could go. All of a sudden I fell off and caught my foot in the stirrup and the horse was dragging me around in a circle. It wouldn't stop, it just kept going around and around. Thank goodness the store manager at K-Mart came out and unplugged the carousel.

For everyone that has been interested in Siebert Outdoors pre-orders of Rage Swimmers I now have them on the site. Strike King has not provided a color chart as of yet. The orders will be filled as received and shipped once I receive the product. http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Rage-Tail-Swimmer-414.htm Thank you Mike

A-Jay

Got myself a little graduation gift.

Okay guys. I am obviously a better caster than any of you because I can get my Lew's to backlash almost effortlessly. OP. Doesn't bother me to fish with a "heavy" reel all day either, but have to agree it is awful nice fishing with a light combo.

Steez parts are finally back from getting painted. I wish the sun was out to show it off better. It's a green/gold chameleon.

I'm pretty sure those worms are catalpa worms. They're like crack to smallmouths, and the chartreuse w/black stripes Bettle Spin imitates them pretty well. Tom

I've spent many very memorable days & nights in the old Town and it will always have a special place ~ in my garage. So retired ~ Sort of I guess. In the sense that my days of farting around at 2.9 mph in the wind with the trolling motor are pretty much over. I'll still get out in it here & there, but realistically it will only see the very smallest of waters and they'll be the "Paddle only" locals. Since my wife & I are both former US Coast Guard small Boat Coxswains ~ who haven't been behind a helm in A While, there may be some challenges sharing the wheel time. (which I will gracious loose Every Time). A-Jay

Whaddya think ? Texas rigged 7.5 Culprit Ribbontail Black Shad But of course I like Red Shad, Tequila Shad, Green Shad, Purple Shad and Fire n´Ice too.

They're on Cali time, if you're on a different time zone it usually starts later in the day.

The bps carbonlite was one of my first casting rods and I still use it. It's a great choice, but I have one of the original ones and don't have any experience with the new model.

#1 First light, be on the water as early as possible & late evening #2 Over cast days #3 Cover; grass or wood Weighted or weightless plastics; Texas rigs, Senko types, & Flukes Frogs; solid or hollow Spinnerbaits or swim jigs

Looks like some kind of Cheerios marketing idea that went horribly wrong.

Sometimes I think people are scared to admit they use spinning gear on this forum lol

I bank fish almost every evening. My house is surrounded by a number of man made lakes. 1). I would say be quiet at the bank, and move around slowly. No fast moves. 2). Look for different types of vegetation in close proximity together. Two or three different types of plants are always better then just one type. 3). Isolated clumps of veggies is always better then one massive clump. Fish will gather at the isolated clump, from the surrounding open areas, especially on clear sunny days. 4). Figure out where the deep drop-offs are located, and fish them slow with contact at the deepest point. I have caught more fish at deep drop-offs, then any other spot at the lakes. Big bass love these drop-offs close to shallow flats. 5}. Fish parallel to the outside edge of a weed line, if you can. 6). When things get real tough, slow down, with Texas Rigged plastics. 7). Hard to beat watermelon red, June bug, and black 4" inch Texas Rigged Plastics. They will catch all size bass. 8).If you catch one fish, go back again, sometimes they stack up in one location. 9). Be a constant line watcher at the furthest distance from the rod, the line will jump, way before you will feel it. 10). Constantly look for birds, pads moving, grass separating, swirls at the surface, and baitfish fleeing. The birds know where the bait fish are, and so do the big bass. Constantly monitoring you surroundings. You can learn a lot by being observant. I forgot one important thing. If you live in snake country wear leather boots. I see snakes almost every night. Don't move unless your being observant.

With whatever you like as long as you can cast the bait.

Man... at least it was the horse and not the rocket ship... could you imagine being dragged to the moon?????

Me personally as long as I'm catching something I'm happy. Just put them back and keep on fishing. Most people get to focused on catching the biggest fish in the lake and fail to enjoy fishing as a whole.

But have no clue what it weighs while it's hanging off their thumb . . . A-Jay

what have i done??? NRX 853cJWR came in yesterday! Will be my new jig rod, teamed up with a Team Lew's Pro Z 7.1:1 and 16lb Sniper.

While having a cruddy go of it in finding Smallmouth in Erie, we happened into a pod of Walleye. To lessen the sting of sucky bass fishing that day, dinner that night was certainly tasty...

Man o man I have been in a small drought for finding big bass. We have had a lot of rain and the ponds look like chocolate milk. Welp, I have a few ponds that I fish from the bank but I also have 3 that I put my boat in. One is great. I've caught my PB of 7.13 last year at this pond as well. I had 3 hours last night and so I hit it up. It was muddy...not orange but still. After an hour I had thrown a black zoom worm, a black/blue Ned rig, a black and blue jig, then with a rage craw trailer and was getting ready to throw a spinner bait but then..... With a black 4" lizard, I casted into a spot that I had caught a 5 on the spawn last year. It's under heavy cover and I can't skip sitting down so... My lizard landed on the bottom of the tree limb. I get this a lot but this time my lizard was dangling in the water. Well, since it was slow fishing and I hadn't had a bite, I let it set there and pulled it up and down letting it tap the water and go in and out. Since it was up in there deep I thought "hey maybe I'll get lucky" so after about 15 seconds of this I let it fall to the bottom (2 feet deep here) and I pulled it back and let it rest on the surface and this big fat girl took it!!! The entire limb went underwater!!! I set the hook so hard that my back is a little stiff this morning!!!! She fought and fought hard! I knew it was a new PB! Maybe over 8 this time! She went under the boat and I knew it was over but my 30 pound braid and 5/0 hook stayed true. She finally gave up the ghost and I netted her. She was just 3 ounces from last years PB! 7.10. I haven't checked my notes and pics but she may Just be that PB from last year. I just wanted to share. It's been a tough grind for a week for me. A total dinkfest but that's why we go back right?!! For the record her tail was mangled and had open sores on the belly side as well as her stomach. I was sure the spawn was over as its so late in the year but she was in an area that holds beds and was in 2 feet of water but I just don't know. This water has been in the 70's for a month now. Besides her bite I didn't get a bite at all. Nothing. Hence the title I'll take lucky over good any day! Have a great day guys!!! And yes she went back in. Big catch and release guy here. I have also got full video of this. May slap it on YouTube. I'll post a link if I do. It even shows the limb going into the water lol.

Welcome aboard! If you have a Bass Pro, Cabelas, or Gander Mountain near you, take your reel in and put it on several different rods to get a good feel for how it balances. House brand rods can be a great value here. I really like Bass Pro's Carbonlite series, and they fall right at $99. They are often on sale as well... Just something to think about...

I would recommend the Daiwa Tatula 6'10" MH casting rod. Very light (less than 4oz), sensitive, and great as an all around rod. You can find them for around $100 or less.

AJ, you seem to have stolen my life. Please give it back. Very nice, I would have gone XS, but either way great rig. Let us know how it runs and fishes.

A hair under 13", this fish was out in the middle of nowhere over 60FOW

that is a thing of beauty @A-Jay

seems long for a river kayak to me. I like my river kayaks no longer than 12' and tops on the list are maneuverability, stability and a comfy seat. There are a lot of good boats out there and out of the three kayaks i have owned for river specific use, i still fall back to my coosa (wish i never sold it actually). It has a good balance between stability and maneuverability. I didn't like it for flatwater as much because it did tend to get pushed around in the wind more than I like. I would say the top river kayaks these days are the ride 115 and the coosa. The beauty though is there are a lot of good boats out there so go to a demo days and test paddle as many as you can and the decision will be a lot easier to make.

Ended up getting the Alpha SV 105SH

Can't answer the first question, but I learned how to bass fish in a clear water gravel pit with 15'+ visibility. The fishing is far better at dusk, dawn, and night. Another great condition is rain or wind, the more the better as it limits the amount of light penetration. The biggest bass that I have seen was caught in the middle of a rain storm during the middle of summer. Good lure choices are baits with a lot of action, like swimbaits, 10" ribbon tail worms, jerkbaits, Topwaters, etc. all work well. The bass usually (but not always) are a little deeper than normal because of the amount of light penetration and the weeds grow much deeper, which helps keep the oxygen level up in the deeper areas. Another thing is that you should always keep a sight fishing lure tied on in clear water, at least in gravel pits you can sight fish in fifteen feet of water. I usually use a trd as you can deadstick it in front of there faces till they bite, and it can do just about anything to match the fishes mood. Anyway, I fished this morning before the storms came in for about five and a half hours. For the first three and a half hours I threw a pop-r at rip rap banks working it very quickly for the active bass because of the approaching storm. It caught 38 bass, most were again just little 13-14 inch bass but it was till fun seeing them blow up on the bait. Only six bass were over fifteen inches. Then for the remainder of the time I forced myself to put down the pop-r and just use a savage gear line thru trout. I hooked three bass and had five followers. I only landed one nice ~20 inch fish because the drag on my reel decided it couldn't tighten past about three pounds of pressure, so I had to thumb the spool to make up for it. Even with that it was extremely hard to get a good hook set though, so I guess I am going to have to find the cash to get another reel. I have no idea how that could happen, It used to get tighter than that but it is an old reel. I still figured if the drag was going to go it would altogether lock down or be on permanent free spool.

The reason hair jigs are not popular with the general fishing public is they do not have sale appeal, no glitter and few colors, they appear very bland. I don't use hair jigs with soft plastic trailers very often, prefer living rubber or silicone skirts. I do fish hair jigs year around under all conditions with pork rind trailers and there lies the biggest reason they are unpopular. When anglers think of hair jigs small 1/8 to 1/4 oz jigs come to mind. Recently heavier 1/2 to 1 oz white hair jigs have become popular because of success from tournament anglers ledge fishing Tennessee lakes and catching big bass feeding on larger baitfish. Why do big bass like hair jigs? Several reasons; life like movement , texture and natural colors that don't give off anything negative. Anglers tend to look at lures like hair jigs and want action with lots of movement and don't see what they are looking. I grew up fishing hair jigs with pork trailers and know what to look for. Pork swims as it falls down through the water column with slow natural movement and so does the hair. When the jig hits bottom the pork floats upright and the hair flares and to bass watching the jig look life like resulting in a strike. When the bass has the hair jig with pork trailer it taste and feel life like giving the angler time to set the hook. The only way you will ever know how good hair jigs can be is fish them. Unfortunately today very few good quality hair jigs are available commercially and fewer sources for good high floatation soft pork trailers. Tom

Get the big one. The smaller Shine Glides are probably the best gliding smaller bait I've found, but they're not nearly as good as the big ones.

Congrats, mate! Sooooo, will your canoe be retired?

Just picked up two Lucky Craft baits for 6 bucks a piece at Cabela's, a bone pro blue flash pointer 130 and a fat CB bds1 OR Tennessee Shad. Not sure if I did good or not with these as they are my first Lucky Craft baits.

The Hookup Tackle has 20% for Memorial Day. (Replenished my Whopper Plopper inventory ) My local Dick's Sporting Goods has a buy 3, get 3 free off their clearance rack. I was able to score some Yakima Bait Maglips in the 4.5 size for Fall Chinook Salmon in the rivers here in CA. Can't be it. They were already marked off 35% from MSRP, so the 3 free just sweetened the deal.

Ok, so now I have to update everyone. I broke my crankbait rod this morning walking out the door to go fishing, so I ran to Academy to see what I could find. I usually try to stay away from Academy and shop at my local tackle stores, but the 2 stores I frequent don't open until 10AM and I didn't want to wait. I'm still in the process of designing my custom rod for cranks and other moving baits, so I didn't want to spend too much. Found a Lew's American Hero combo with a 7' MH-F rod and a 200 series reel. FYI I was pleasantly surprised with this rig. It actually performed quite well today. But anyways... I was looking to get some 20# Power Pro to put on the reel, but in typical Academy style they were out of everything but 10# and 65#. I saw that they had Sunline Super Sniper FC, and I've heard nothing but good things about all of Sunline's products, so I grabbed a spool of 12# and bought it. Needless to say, everything I have heard about Sunline is true. GREAT LINE!! It does have some memory (line staying kinked from being on spool) but nowhere near as much as some of the others I've tried. Very little to no stretch which is awesome. Just enough stretch to not pull as many hooks as I normally would with braid. All in all I've found the line I'm gonna use for my moving baits. While I was at Academy I looked but didn't see the Mustad KVD Triple Grips. Going to order them this evening. Definitely need them bc I hooked up with a nice one today and lost him close to shore. Sure enough I grabbed the lure and looked and 2 of the hooks on the rear treble were just about straightened out.

If it's sunny, get a good pair of polarized sun glasses, and they even work when it's overcast. Look for cover, if there is any. Lilly pads, fallen tree, a stump, a log, even a shade line. Sometimes cover is right below the surface, this is where the polarized sunglasses come in handy. Even an indentation in the bed of the body of water is a good spot when there's it's no visible cover to be seen. I prefer to pitch or cast Seibert Outdoors arky jig with a Rage Chunk trailer, but you can use a spinner bait or even a square bill crank bait if you prefer. Try to keep treble baits away from the Lilly pads though. If it's cloudy a search bait is good to use, like a spinner bait, crank bait, swim jig/bait, bladed jig. If all else fails chuck a wacky rigged stick worm our Ned Rig. Hope this helps a bit.

Good thing the zebra didn't trample you from behind

Infused with real PCP!

Depending on who replies, the answer will likely be: Uni-Uni, FG, Alberto/Modified Albright, Albright, Seaguar, Blood, or J knot The best one is likely going to be the one you tie best. If you can't tie a good knot, it doesn't matter how strong someone else says it is. Personally, I pretty much stick to just the Alberto, with the random FG, Seaguar or 'J' knot thrown in for variety and testing purposes. -T9

this thread seems like it's bait monkey propaganda

I think what you are hearing is "pressured" water. Which means there is a lot of "fishing pressure". Lot of anglers, the bass see a lot of lures, many of them have been caught and the bass get wary of presentations that they see over and over again.

Fish what you have confidence in. During a tournament is no time to be trying to learn a new technique. I'm guessing you'll probably have fish either near spawning or spawning in your area. I would probably cover water in spawning pockets with a spinnerbait or squarebill and be ready to follow up on fish swatting at the bait (defensive/protective strikes), with a T rig or Senko.

I dont think about lost fish. Ive lost hundreds but I just fix my bait and go back at it. Fish probably tells his buddys, "I lost a 200lb human today"

That's one seriously Fugly Bass ~ Immediately reminded me of Blinky A-Jay

5 Falcon Bucoo, 7ft micro guide rods brand new for 19.99 each at a walmart where my daughter goes to college. All had original tags, with 129.99 each. They had 5, soooo i bought 5

I have enjoyed greatly every single bass that I have taken to meet Mrs Frying pan. If taking away a fish causes you discomfort look for another hobby.