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My brother and I took kayaks to a stretch of the Shenandoah River today and had a pretty good time! Between the two of us we landed 8 largemouth and over 40 smallmouth. No big ones today, we had a couple of chances but just couldn't make it happen All of the largemouth were caught pitching jigs and texas rigs to wood, that is usually the only way we catch them there. The smallmouth were caught on a variety of baits, trick worm on a wacky jighead, shakey head, swimbait, crankbait, jig, texas rig, and my tried and true smallmouth-getter, a 4" stick bait on a 1/16oz texas rig. I can't get over how pretty those river bass are

Congrats on the nice fish! I recommend getting a fish grip jr and attaching it onto your scale. They can't jump off that! Jeff

No need to be concerned. You can catch more fish by going than by not going though.

It stared for me back in the 70s when I use to make lures, one night I decided to stuff a bullet weight into a rubber skirt. It was so difficult I gave up after only making a half a dozen. This little trick when paired with a craw worm won me many a tournament. Scott's Marina on the Texas side of Toledo Bend is a one room building, a small wharf big enough for a couple jon boats, and a launch. Scott sold Community Coffee which is the #1 coffee of Cajuns and why I hung around. He had maybe a dozen packs of worms, 4-5 spinner baits & traps. On one particular morning I notice some new lures lying on the counter, I picked one up & the little card read "Big Red's Flying Jig". Inside was the lead head of a spinner bait, a skirt, & a 3/0 offset hook with a hitch hiher attached. I bought em all! This was the perfect answer to putting a skirt on a bullet weight! Later I found Barlow's Tackle sold just the weights and then Cyclone Lures made a Slip-n-Jig. For some anglers its how they can get a bullet weight through cover easier than a jig, a problem I don't have with jigs. For me it's changing the profile of a t-rig, the added action of a skirt, & eliminates buying a skirt bead. Like with a jig I use skirts with round strands, flat strands, fine cut strands, or wide cut strands. I can't really explain its fish attracting abilities but what I do know is I've fished behind guys throwing t-rig & jigs and caught fish they missed. Is it the bait? I don't know but it works which is all I care about!

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.

Sorry about the dirty fish, she jumped off the scale 6 or more times and was tough to get her in the water to rinse her off as I was by myself. I have been fishing a local pond that has thick hydrilla that almost reaches the surface in some areas. I was throwing a black Stanley Top Toad and she came busting thru the grass and hammered it. Knocked the frog body across the pond. It just about ties my PB on a frog. This is a 4lber caught today also ..shows the dense hydrilla you have to wrestle them out of.

Guys do seem to like to look at skirts.

A gift card for yourself and save it for a few months and buy another one. I would continues to do this and buy something(s) you really want at their Thanksgiving or Christmas sales.

Good gravy man, that's a fantastic blow up. At Lake Gaston on vacation, threw a big jitter bug and got a fantastic hit, no take. I threw a wacky worm to follow quickly (hey @A-Jay they really do work) and hauled in the little fella. I dream of big bass hitting topwater baits....

Bass candy mail day. Babywake action

This about what I was thinking. Stick to avid and up or a new gen mojo maybe.

Its not even close to being the same thing as a jitterbug lol.

Best fish so far this year. Bed fishing with a shakeyhead. 5-16-16

It would be a shame to rate one of the best blank manufacturer by one of the cheapest products they make. I have a lot of there rods and the SCIII blanks are the poop. I have the legend series as well and there good to go. Fish an avid or one of there better series to get the real feel for what their about. Discount rods are made in mexico or china and are not even close to the same.

Hooked into this bad boy today using cut bluegill for bait. Bass fishing was slow so I decided to toss a line out and let it sit. Took awhile to get it in but man was I stoked for this fish. I've never caught anything over 6 pounds. This flathead weighed 23 pounds 14 ounces. LC

InvisX is thinner per pound test that Most Monofilament equivalents. 17lb Seagaur Invizx Fluorocarbon is advertised at diameter of .015 inches - 12# test Big Game mono is advertised at a diameter of .014 inches. So besides the difference in each line's properties & the price, that 100th of an inch in diameter might not make that much of a difference. Nylon line diameters between .012 - .015 often make decent open water deep cranking lines. Diameters of .016 inches & larger do well in more cover & / or shallow water cranking situations. A-Jay

If you are trying to keep the price low, take a look at the Pflueger Trion's. They retail for around $30. I have a couple of them and for the price they are nice little reels. Then there are always the Pflueger presidents which are highly regarded. Those retail in the $50 range. Hope this helps.

I would be looking for BPS house brand stuff or exclusives, which will make $30 go a little longer way. To me, heat = worms fished slowly. BPS 7" ribbontail worms come 16 in a pack for 3.50. I would also get BPS stick-os rather than senkos if I was looking for a stick worm. BPS also carries cylindrical finesse weights for mojo rigs that can be otherwise kind of hard to find. I'm probably not going to fish a crankbait at all for at least another month, but if I was heading to BPS, I might grab one or two of their exclusive rattling KVD 1.5 squarebills while I was there.

That should be enough for lunch.

Sounds like you are comparing prices between a discontinued name and the new name and both are the same charger. As for Dual Pro, first off, as they claim, they have a very proven track record and they are MADE IN THE USA, One of the very few that are. If you use yours more than about once a week and especially if you use it on back to back days very often, do yourself a huge favor and get the Professional. It will actually pay for it's difference in cost with the first set of batteries, plus with those smaller chargers, you most likely will not run the batteries down one evening late, and have them charged and ready to go the next morning early. Yes, the cost more, but are worth it. A second option that's cheaper is the Minn-Kota, which you can get in a smaller 10 amp model that works good, but not as fast as the 15 amp for making quick return trips to the lake. The Precision, would be a good first option because it has a more advanced and better maintenance feature. Second would be the Digital, good but does not have the same charging technology as the Precision. They are also brought in by boat, not made in the US. Also understand, when I refer to a 10 amp or 15 amp, I'm referring to amps per bank. Don't confuse that with a 10 amp than is only 5 amps per bank. Those are not what you want in a bass boat if you fish more than about once a week.

RealPro Series battery chargers (formerly Recreation Series) are an affordable, reliable and safe battery charging system designed for everyday use. The system is engineered for users who need a charging system on an occasional basis and may not want or need the capabilities of a heavier duty and higher amperage product. The RealPro Series provides 6 AMPS per bank http://www.dualpro.com/product/realpro-series/ The Professional Series are known as the safest, most reliable, and best performing battery chargers in the industry. Across a broad range of fishing and recreational boats, Pro Charging Systems keeps boaters on the water longer while extending the life of their batteries. Dual ProTM charging technology has been and continues to be the choice of over 50 boat manufacturers and professional fishermen on the B.A.S.S. and FLW tournament circuit. The Pro Series provides 15 AMPS per bank. http://www.dualpro.com/product/professional-series/ I'm running the PS4 for 48V (to include the cranking Battery) and I'm a completely satisfied customer. For me the small difference in price equates to piece of mind. A-Jay

Long story short, contacted G Loomis and ended up with a NRX 822S SYR

What I like about the Texas Rigged Jig is once I zip tie my skirt in place I have a compact one piece jig. I don't have tackle boxes full of pieces & parts; I have a tackle box of jigs ready to go. Name brand doesn't matter, just try em!

All night ops this week, too dang hot to be out during the day. Linn Valley was decent Wednesday night with a healthy 3 pound fish being the largest, minus the blue heron I caught on a wobbler Never saw the stupid thing until it leaned into my line as it was taking off from the dock. Line caught around it's wing and hook buried in it's side. Tried hard to get it loose with the lure retriever, no way I was getting within reach of that beak. Line ended up breaking so it has some nice black and blue bling hanging off it. My favorite night fishing spinnerbait, a black and blue with black nickel bladed War Eagle, finally broke when a smallie went airborne.Sunfish and bluegills out there are unreal out there, bought a new fly rod yesterday to make use of them . Tied on a buzzbait with about 3 hours left in the night. First cast sounded like someone dropped a brick in the water, almost glad that fish missed it because I doubt it was a bass. Sight fished 4 fish that were cruising below the surface and easy to see in the bright moonlight, pretty unique experience. Thursday I tried La Cygne. Water was high, dirty (couldn't even see the trolling motor head), and HOT (94 at the ramp at 10pm). Tried the dam, shad so thick you could walk on them instills little confidence. A full trip down the dam with 1 3.5 pounder and a drum to show for it didn't help. I bailed and went to Miola. Had a lot of fun catching fish on a buzzbait, BHW, frog, and flipping a pit boss in the grass. Had to leave the headlamp on to deal with the grass, which I don't like doing. One cast with the wobbler, I was looking down when my bait got close and saw 2 big glowing eyes right behind my bait. It spooked when it saw me, but it was pretty cool to watch a saugeye track the bait like that. Frog fish were just mad at the world, scaring me bad each time, which was weird since the buzzbait fish barely made a sound, I just felt them. Biggest was right at 3 pounds and 18" on the Code Blue.

They're a solid bait, much louder than the Crazy Crawler and they move through the water easier. I'd suggest getting the larger version over the smaller one. It's a noisy, obnoxious bait that I think really benefits from having the extra bulk of the bigger bait for added drawing power.

Yes it can. Today I caught a 7lber on a frog in 90 degree weather.

Heavy cover , heavy liner and jigs lol like pb n j

Man you guys all are missing out. Company bizzbaits.com Sassy Stick $4.99 heavy like a Senko feels a whole lot like a Senko to the touch equal or as good as shimmy on the fall Bizzbaits is a forum sponsor

If my boat is not being used, the charger is plugged in. If you are scared to leave your charger plugged in to maintain your batteries properly, you should buy a better charger. Well, I guess that would depend on if you even bought a good enough charger to start with that has the maintenance mode.

I think I'll stick to slow Indiana bass fishing... Way to many things to eat you down there

A little basic education and you can do the math. For explanation purposes, lets assume you have a 100 amp hour battery. You run it until it has discharged 75%, the max you should ever really discharge one for good battery life. That means you have used 75 amps from your 100 amp hour battery, so the charger has to replace that much. Your charger can only replace a max of four amps per hour so all you have to do is divide that 75 amps you need by the four amps the charger can put out. So, with my limited math, that looks about like 19 hours. Now, you just have to hope you don't fish till dark or a little after and fully discharged your batteries, and then plan on being back on the lake by daylight the next morning with fully charged batteries to go the next day. That ain't gonna happen. I hate to say this, but what you have is more suited for a maintainer than a charger.

@Bass Turd look up Cyclone's Slip n Jig! Those pictured are painted lead weighs

Texas Rigged Jig!

man there's some big fish on here this week!

The fact that all my giant bass over 15 lbs caught over 45 years were pre spawn-spawn during the 5 day period coinciding with the full & new moon phases is hard to ignor. I realize that 10 days of the 29 day moon cycle is about 1/3rd of the cycle. I prefer to fish during full moon nights and that is when our local summer night derbies are scheduled. Whn you believe in something it can motivate you to be on the water and stay focused on catching big bass and I only missed a few fishing pre spawns. Tom

45 yrs of night fishing from April through October during every possible moon phase I've logged no distinct advantage of one phase over another.

Once you weigh 'em, they stop growing.

Have never heard of those, thanks

I'm sure I would love it, I'm just not very experienced at fishing around deadly lizards, ya know, Indiana and all

Catt u look a bit younger than i had ainticipate!!

Jig-n-Rage Craw.

Those baits do seem big at first but once you start catching 2lbers on them you won't think twice about throwing them. I would start with the rat and fish it near shallow cover (I am assuming you have the 40 size, correct me if I am wrong), even 1lbers will eat it no problem. I like casting right next to a patch of pads or a laydown, and after maybe 10 seconds once the ripples settle I walk it, pause, walk it, pause, and then steady retrieve it back to the boat if nothing appears interesting. Also, @j bab posted an awesome link above me, matt has some great videos on fishing big baits.

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

That's true, it'd be hard to say no to that. But from a customer point of view I'm hopeful that TW doesn't ever sell

Congratulations, glad to hear you've holstered the hammer. A-Jay

Congratulations!

Each job I changed I moved up the ladder with experience and pay. I lost many good jobs due to recessions. My last job I hit it like you with all my experiences I could fabricate and build anything mechanical. I worked for a top ten engineering group in the world. I was happy for 19 years. I rode the wave to retirement. My point is time flies brother. Before we know it were planning retirement.

Well.... I've been working on just such an animal: a video documentary on bass behavior, shot from both above and below. Got the spawn pretty much wrapped up and am working my way through the year. Not sure where to put it: YT, Vimeo, a pro videographer I know suggested I contact outdoor channels. I don't think I have the visual quality to make TV though. I'm shooting in/on public waters with clarity limitations (there's a reason Glen Lau moved to FL), but I've got some good stuff. As to fishing vids, I'm making some of those too -with actual content. We'll see how it all shakes out. Not ready to publish yet. Quality takes time.

Yea there's a lot of fishing going on...not much catching!

Ouch!!!! I would say a little bigger maybe 5 or 6