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When it comes to fishing, I consider myself a nice guy. I practice fishing etiquette, will never horn in on someones area and make sure to give plenty of space to shore fishermen so as to not spook fish in their area. I am friendly with other fishermen and will happily share what I know if it seems they have a genuine interest in learning and are respectful themselves. But I have a little devil on my shoulder who always whispers the same thing: "Catch a fish when they are watching you..." Yesterday, I come into small cove and there is a man still-fishing on a public access area on one side of the cove with his two young sons (under the age of 6 or so). Like most young kids, they are already bored and doing everything on the shore except fish. I waved, carefully went around him, well beyond how far he could cast and began working the opposite shore. That little devil is whispering "You have an audience", forcing me to focus a bit more as I make my first cast. I make 3 casts around & under the first dock of the cove with no results and I hear one of the kids say "Daddy, why does he keep reeling in?" (it is amazing how how well sound carries over water). The next dock is paydirt, I pull a 2 pounder out and let it jump a few times before I land it. Next cast, I hook & land her twin sister. 2 casts later, I hook up but she throws the bait. Next cast I hook up and land another. I glance over at the shore angler and now in addition to the 3 lines he has out, he is casting what looks to be a crankbait. From the 9 docks along the opposite shore, I have 6 hookups, landing 5 of them. Not only did it catch the anglers attention, his kids stopped what they were doing and were watching as well. Before I leave the cove, I move out slightly deeper and start flippin' a jig along an area where the concrete on the bottom of the lake has shifted and there is a ledge that fish often back up under. In 4 flips, I land three fish, all over 3 lbs. Typical of flippin' fish, I hammer the hooksets and all hell breaks loose as the fish come up out of the cover. I see the father furiously casting whatever lure he has while one of his sons says "Why is he catching fish & you aren't". Like a jerk, I can't help but smile...

A fisherman is a jerk on one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other

I thought about this, this morning. We've got cops getting killed, civilians getting killed, and act of terror happening at home and abroad, and people are worried about catching imaginary creatures

They "twirl" because they are not hooked exactly straight.

River 2 Sea right now

Yesterday i hit the river in different fashion than usual. I was by myself (wife dropped me off at the launch) and the take out point was a long ways from the truck so i couldn't take my ride 135 as i have no cart for it. so instead, i loaded up the wife's paddleboard and used my yeti roadie for a seat, 1 rod and off i went. stability was terrible, but i made it work! so the usual hat trick seems to be spotted bass, smallmouth and largemouth. since we have no smallies around here a hat trick is almost out of the question, UNLESS you hit the Chattahoochee and managed to land the shoal bass. so yesterday i nailed it! 2 spotted bass, 1 shoalie and 1 largemouth (nice one around 3 pounds) for my first ever hat trick! all of them caught on the johnson beetle spin blade with owner ball head jig and white (glow in the dark) yamamoto curly tail grub. only managed to snap a pic of the spots though because after that my phone kept saying temperature warning from it being in a dry box on the paddleboard i suppose, so it wouldn't let me take a pic or anything.

So you flipping out because he killed a fish? The fish was caught on a worm? The guy used a cooler? I wasn't there but from what I gather he planned to eat the fish hence the cooler. You know people have ate fish since the beginning of time contrary to today's PC media hype to release every gosh darn fish ever caught. Judging people not knowing the entire situation isn't always the smartest move. Not everyone was raised the same from the same country. Much less following the internet PC rules for proper fishing. Could be where the dad was from this is normal fishing. Could be his family was poor and hungry. It would be very hard to know all that from a duck feeding picnick. If your issue was it was under the legal limit fine save yourself the heart attack play it cool stay the heck out of it. Make the phone call and amazing the game warden shows up and does his thing. You sticking your nose in ruined the whole bust. No evidence, no perp, etc. Also some people don't take lightly to some stranger coming at them aggressively because they don't approve of whatever someone else is doing. Might try self control. In this day and age going in all hyped up like that could get ya shot.

Yes, it is always great to hook up and land a bass when others are in the area and they notice your success. If I was in the same position, I would have trolled over to the guy and offered some suggestions and even shared a plastic worm or two. I even stopped on the road to my house one day when I saw two teenagers walking from the local pond and I gave them some Zoom trick worms and some jig heads. They were really surprised that I had stopped and offered them the necessary tackle to go back to the pond and catch something. As for guys who are fishing in a tournament or are dressed in their special bass fishing tournament shirt, I don't give them the time of day. I just smile and move along.

Seems everybody's an expert fisherman nowadays posting their fishing exploits and equipment reviews on youtube. The challenge of catching fish takes a backseat to gaining a following. Were it not for the editing process, their fishing trips would be just as boring an uneventful as mine Just an observation.

My 5 year old son doesn't need Pokemon Go to get exercise... He's a real man, and goes bass fishing to get exercise

If you're repeatedly breaking rods you're doing something wrong. A different make or model may suit you better then again it may not if you don't get to the bottom of what's happening.

I'm in my kayak this evening doing my thing. Went 5 for 6 on wacky senkos in PB&J, with several fish over 3lbs. I make a cast up against a standing cypress tree in 6' of water...I felt the bump, dropped the tip, and set the hook. The fish takes off like a rocket, and I quickly get her right next to my kayak. I think we may have made eye contact for a brief moment. Then she went back down and started running like a d**n tuna. She made a very hard and fast run, not like any other bass I've caught. My drag went completely slack, and my spool was spinning freely creating a disgusting birds nest. I dropped the rod and started hand lining it. She continued to run, and the line got wrapped around my hand in the mayhem. The the line parted, and away she went. I screamed every single word in the bad-word dictionary (glad nobody else was around). I am estimating the fish around 26", and very round. I have never seen LMB that big before. It was an absolute stud of a fish. I have NEVER bought cheap gear before, but now that I have kids to feed, I have no choice but to buy inexpensive gear. That was definitely the last cheap piece of gear I ever buy. It was a Daiwa Revos 2500....now it's an ornament on the bottom of the reservoir.

I wouldn't do that, the little 'feller might fall off.

Ok guys, here it is - the Suicide duck, Rad bait (rat), and more new baits from Savage Gear. Check out how they look in the water!

Caught this girl In a local river

So you yelled at a guy for legally fishing?

There are LOTS of rods that are optimized for worms & jigs...BUT, when you add cranking as one of the presentations, the selection gets much smaller. I recommend that you look at a Loomis Mag Bass (MBR) 843 in the price range of your choice (E6X, IMX, GLX, NRX). The Mag Bass rods are sensitive enough for bottom contact, and the Mag Bass blank taper provides a soft enough tip for cranking, and enough backbone to set single hooks. Jigs/worms, and cranking, normally mean two different rods. However, if you MUST do both with one rod, the MBRs are a good compromise.

I unintentionally did something like that this spring. I was pulling into a spot off the end of a fishing pier where there was a sharp drop that came up onto a spawning/feeding flat. We'd had a good warming trend so I was sure the fish would be filing in and out of that area. As I pulled up, there was a dad and 3 young boys that seemed to just be exploring along the bank and woods. I heard one ask his dad if they could go fishing, to which he responded it was too cold, the fish wouldn't be biting. I proceeded to catch 11 fish in my next 11 cast and a few more after they slowed down. His kids were spellbound and were more excited each time I set the hook, dad didn't look thrilled at all however. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I have to admit I did take the "It's too cold, the fish won't be biting", as a sort of personal challenge.

You might see if you can do the same thing I do with my Garmin and plug it into the boats 12V charging port to run it off that all day. My video from Mound City fishing with roadwarrior. I missed getting a good one I caught on a frog almost to the south ramp and another good one I caught on a big worm back in the stumps. Other than those 2, it wasn't until I finally stopped trying to force them to eat the Golden Shiner Wobbler and switched to Ivy that I really started catching them. Wish I would have done it before there was only 2 hours left in the day because the numbers and size went way up.

I swear every one of my friends, and coworkers under 50 has that app, I refuse to download it.

Depends on how nice their boat & equipment is ... Being a smaller lake with only homeowner access, I know nearly all of the other bass fishermen and we share information. I think we all want to show off in front of each other. Same with younger kids or folks who it is obvious are novice, holding a spinning reel upside down while trolling at 10 mph down the middle of the lake in a party boat. I'll tell them all they want to hear, I think much of it goes over their head. Amazingly enough, a huge majority of the residents here have no idea what a largemouth bass is or what methods are used to catch them. I am constantly being asked if there are trout in the lake or being told that the best catfish bait is hot dogs. That's Southern California for ya'...

I've been having a lot of luck a little east of buffalo tons of nice smallies and some nice large mouth. All fish are coming from johnsons creek in Lyndonville and the hulberton quarry's

Might have been bluegill biting

I'll take 2 please.

I'm trying to figure out who's OCD is going to max out if they don't put a leader on there line when using this. It looks like spare parts from a coat hanger factory.

Caugh this 6lb 1oz on a texas rigged trick worm

Anyone else excited about this lure? I just saw BR's iCast video with the savage gear booth and it looks awesome, in and out of the water! I like the thought they put into the design, instead of just throwing on two treble hooks and calling it a day. The ability to add the on-top stinger hook and take off the bottom trebles to fish it in thicker cover really caught me on this. I love my Spro rat but I wish I could throw it into some thicker stuff sometimes. The dual line-ties is also a very nice feature depending on how you want to fish it. And it is very affordable considering the price of other rat lures in the market. I will definitely be picking one of these up at some point.

You'll get the ambitious bluegills with the Ned rig to

That's what I do now. Just direct connected to my 12V with a 6' cord I got on Amazon. SO CONVENIENT AND EASY. Hoping Mozingo shows out this weekend when Keith and I have a 2 day EKB tourney there.

He might well be doing you a favor. As your DNR probably figured out, the lake might have been getting stunted by having too many small bass. Thinning the one pounders MAY make a profound improvement in the number of future trophies in there. Too many small ones can and does lead to too few biguns.

It is ponds near roadways that are created by digging a hole to get the dirt to form elevated roadways/overpasses. The dirt is "borrowed" to make the elevations. Any contours that some may have is whatever the digging equipment made when removing the dirt.

You mean to tell us that it's not actually as big as your thumb?

If they broke just casting or retrieving then I would get a different rod all together. See if they will give you a store credit and then look at the St Croix Mojo Bass rod.

You are welcome lol

Here are a few of Drew and I's fish from Mozingo Saturday (and a bonus bullfrog). Fished pretty tough and the decent fish we caught were all super skinny. T-rigged craw and big worm were the most effective where wood and grass were mixed. Biggest was 4.25lbs. Need more battery for the gopro, missed out on a few of our other respectable fish late in the day.

Get to know those who actually fish your area. Join a club or find local fishing forums so you meet someone who can show you where to fish and what to use. Reading or watching videos, will help, but actually fishing with someone who knows what they are doing can be much more effective.

I was pretty impressed with it too. Wait until you see it in person. Here's the video for reference:

Good weekend in all got my girlfriend on a couple fish and my 91 year old uncle got on a ton of smallies was a good hot weekend..... Best part of the weekend though landed my new PB for NH 6lbs 1oz largemouth on a hula popper she was a tank

Shaw Grigsby took some time to talk to me about the new finesse line from Seaguar. I asked him a few questions that made him reveal some secret tactics he'll be using on upcoming tournaments!

Early yesterday morning while out fishing, I saw a woman walking her dog, cell phone in front of her in an apparent attempt to capture some Pokemon. I didn't see if she pointed towards the water to try to catch any sea monsters...

Watch Carl Kalonka on The Extreme Angler. He fishes mostly Canadian (Ontario) lakes, except for his crappie shows which are mostly done in the US. His bass fishing episodes are great. You can find full episodes of his show on YouTube. The Bass Resource YouTube channel has a lot of good stuff too!

Change it to "The Fisherman Formerly Known as Carolina Bassin"

You can tell when I'm going to be working with micros by how short my fingernails are!

i bet Itll catch some alligator snapping turtles, gators, and birds of prey. too.!!!

Caught this bass today at the Charles River on a Cabin Creek jig. Biggest fish of the year so far at 5lbs. I also lost 3 that were similar in size.

I pre-ordered the small duck. I will post pictures of all the pounders that eat it.

I have a berkley lightning rod that I use for lighter bass jigs which works marvelous.,.. i think I paid like $40 twelve years ago

Looks like a bait with a wire rig to hold multiple lures together to cause a schooling bait effect to me lol I will meet ya in the middle and call it a Alabama buzz rig lol tight lines boss