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As you may know, I have been in the market for a new boat. Well I got one! It is a 14' Sea King from 1968. The boat was painted last year. Has a casting deck and rod locker that are ok but may need to be to be fixed in the further. now all i need is a motor and I'm ready!

Water is cooling off bite is picking up. Found a small very clear lake that stocks trout. Oo giddy giddy. Falls right into my weapon of choice.

I've literally set the hook in my sleep more than once. I always wake up so disappointed...

After dealing with the process of buying a house of the last two months we closed yesterday. After all of the grief and annoyance the actually closing went off very smoothly. Now begins the process of moving all of stuff and getting the horses moved. This is the first time in my wife's life she has had a place where she could have her horses with her. Instead of being in a townhouse with people everywhere I can enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning on a front porch.

About 5 years ago I was on a fishing trip in the most beautiful spot you could imagine and was pulling in LM after LM. It was incredible. and then I came out of the anesthesia after being under for approximately 12 hours for MAJOR back surgery. The kind of surgery that had about a 50/50 chance of fixing the issue or leaving me paralyzed. Either way was ok with me because I was in so much constant pain and so worn down from the pain AND the heavy narcotics I was on that it didn't matter anymore. I was in the hospital for a week and have almost no memory of that at all....except for that dream. I can recall it perfectly. I'm not really a religious man but that was about as close to a religious experience as I've ever had. If that was MY heaven and what I have to look forward to in an afterlife, it looked ok to me.

A ten foot rod is going to have to sport a four foot handle to keep everybody from whining about it being tip-heavy.

i've seen that bobber going down 1000 times in my dreams. love them crappie.

I've got a similar dream. The street in front of my parents house is flooded. Its only a small trickle of water covering the entire street but I'm pulling smallie after smallie out of it. Talk about sweet dreams.

I don't know what it is, but there is something about the texas rig that just teaches you about bass. I was fishing long before I got into bass. But before I learned how to fish a texas rigged worm, I really could not shake the feeling that most of the bass I caught were by accident. I believe they probably were. But once I got used to using a texas rig, I stopped getting skunked so often. It taught me how to observe, how to watch and feel. I started looking at cover and depth and clarity and conditions much more closely. I started being able to tell much more clearly the difference between a strike and bumping or hanging in cover. I started being able to anticipate better where and when I'd be most likely to get bit. And It taught me how to properly set the hook. I'm definitely not a bass fishing expert, but if there is any single thing that has made me a more successful and more confident angler, it has been learning how to use a texas rig, no question.

When I was in college I use to have dreams where I would walk into a class and realize that I had missed the entire semester for that class. I use to get up in the middle of the night and double check my schedule to make sure I was ok.

I have a dream all the time that I get expelled from high school and have to come back and take a test . And for some reason I'm very nervous in the dream. Horrible feeling it's kind of like a nightmare .. I'm not sure what it means but I graduated in 2010 and was never held back. Sometimes i wake up and feel like I didn't pass highschool for a split second even though it's been almost 7 years. Very weird.

fixed that for you.

It all comes down to preference since some people can get a crankbait through and over some nasty stuff, but it takes alot of practice. Flukes are easier to fish imo because you can let them sink on slack line and still see and feel strikes, but I always try working a hardbait first if I can to pick off active fish since I seem to do better reeling a crankbait or waking a jerkbait faster than say working a fluke fast. I have used paddle tail swimbaits more this year than any year before since I can use them with a light weight, no weight, jighead (Snapping a paddle tail swimbait off of grass like a rattle trap can be very good and I find that I only use Crankbaits when they are easy to use (Which probably explains why I do not consider a crankbait one of my top tools). I prefer swim jigs, chatterbaits, instead of hardbaits but....... If I can fish a weedline or place a Floating Minnow bait like a Rapala or long a Right on the edge of structure, I will slow down and really try to fish it since I find hardbaits will often catch bigger fish for me. One of the things I have learned this year is you can take a fluke like the Havoc brand (Never used it but the Caffiene shad is similar in design) and I have been catching fish putting them on a scrounger head and fishing them on bottom. I almost gave up on the Scrounger but I forced myself to keep using it when I knew active Fish were in the area instead of going the same ways I always do, and I am glad I kept at it because I have finally gained confidence in the scrounger. It all comes down to preference, but I am noticing using different methods than other people like the scrounger with a fluke or sluggo is a big fish bait, just takes a long time to learn the ways to trigger strikes. I am still learning but I believe in the theory that you want to give fish a new look, most lakes and ponds I fish see the same baits over and over, I notice that Senko's are not effective in many places they were 2 years ago..Same with toads, I catch more fish running a paddle tail near the surface than I do on a horny toad....I guess my point is to try both. If you can get good at feeling weeds ticking a crankbait without getting snagged, that is a great skill to have. I have gotten crushed by other people who were really good with placing a crankbait in pefect spots and getting it back clean in areas I worked with other baits and I will try the same technique and not catch fish because I am simply not as good at doing it. I always give surface feeding fish the first chance but in my waters I am rarely fishing over 6' deep. To me that is texas rig/weightless plastic areas. Just easier and usually just as effective.

Hello everyone, I am from Texas and temporarily moved to Plymouth for work for the next 12 to 18 months. I am an avid bass fisherman and am sure glad I found this site. I left my boat in Texas and plan to bring it up here next spring assuming that I can find a place to store it. By reading through these threads, I cannot wait to get out on some of these bodies of water. Hopefully, I will survive my first New England winter and maybe do some ice fishing. I am looking forward to talking all things related to bass fishing. Thanks, Jay

I'm guessing you are using spinning rods? If that is the case the slower action is going to make your problem worse, even with straight braid. What size jigs are you using? I'm going out on a limb as I don't know what size and type jig you are using but if they are over 1/4oz I'm being that even with braid the rod you are using does not have enough backbone to get good hook penetration. Spinning rods are more forgiving than casting rods, most fast action spinning rods in ML or M power have enough forgiveness to fish crankbaits on so what would help you do better is a MH spinning rod with a fast action, the added backbone will drive the hook fully through most of the time and it still has more forgiveness than a casting rod. You thought would be correct if you were using casting with 30lb or heavier braid but with 10lb braid and a ML or even a M spinning rod, you just aren't always getting the full hook through. This is all speculation as maybe you are using smaller jigs or casting rods but just from the info you gave it sure sounds like you are using to light of tackle for the size jigs you are using.

I copied this as well with a Berkley digital. It's so much easier weighing the fish and is much less risky compared to trying to hook the fish under the gill plate or jam a big hole in their jaw just to weigh them.

It's a very unique bait. It nearly walks in place and makes a heck of a lot of commotion while it's doing it. That said, I've probably had 12-15 strikes and have yet to hook a single fish with it. It's a very portly bait. First thing I thought when I opened it was it looks like a tiny manatee. I'm not sure why the fish miss it so much, but they sure have for me.

Yes ~ Long & Heavy . . . .(kidding) I didn't measure / weight her. Thumb & Eyeball Scale read as "Good One" A-Jay

I'm still catching plenty of fish with worms, creature baits, jigs, and crankbaits that really buying more lures right now is a waste. I cant use all the lures I have now and get mad at myself for taking so many. I have to start cutting my tackle back to a single bag. So no I haven't bought the latest craze and probably wont. At least not for some time unless it shows up in my LTB. And if that is going to happen it better be soon. I got to stop getting these lures.

I have 3 and have spent a few hours throwing them and no bites. So it's not some magic bait that makes fish bite, it's just another tool like any other bait.

I can respect a fighters ability but to me the minute it was promoted on TV it became "fake wrestling" all over again. It had nowhere to go. Unless you get into the soap crap (circus) it gets irritating. When it was new it drew a lot of attention but when filling seats becomes the business it isn't the same to me. Ill take a good solid boxing match over the Kardashian ignorant rambling.

I've dreamed about catching bass in the yard where I grew up( there is a little water in the lawn in the dream) My other recurring fishing dream has me fishing in a deep pool in the lake by where I live now.In the dream you can see huge bass down in there.Something Always happens so I don't catch anything there.

Now we know who the Bait Monkey is!!!! Get'em boys.

Exactly, trolling is not just stupidly dragging a bait behind the boat.

Another vote for a shotgun. Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 are pretty cheap and super reliable.

FWIW.........For your specific needs of home defense and hunting while not needing range, I would suggest a shotgun. Slugs for deer, shot for home defense and you also have a wider range of hunting opportunity if you are into bird hunting. For home defense a shotgun is optimal as there's not as much marksmanship needed and you also don't have to worry about over penetration depending on the round used.

Tenkara smallmouth?!

If you're going to keep it moving, I would think any floating minnow would do the job -- rapala, rebel, bomber, smithwick, et al. If you want a suspender, the smithwick suspending rogue always seems to stay shallower than I want it to. But I'm terrible at jerkbaits.

I never got the same feeling as LSD to each their own

And there it is ~ The First U-Rig Bass. The 20 kt ENE winds weren't making it easy but I hung in there. Nice confidence boost too. Because if I can make it happen in the mini-hurricane I fished in today there should be better days ahead. A-Jay

Is it really that good of a lure? Is it all that and the kitchen sink? I remember when the chatter bait came into existence, that lure caught on like wild fire.

Me too - that's why I'm making a concerted effort to give the rig a fair chance - still have some work to do. And no blades for me - I'm starting out with & sticking to the basic rig. A-Jay

This would of been my exact advice if you had asked for other suggestions

I can answer this one...it really is cool. A buddy just bought one and I tossed it around a bit. Dead simple to walk and it has some hellacious action. I know he's caught several fish on it already. Buy it...you know you want to! BTW...whereabout you at? I grew up right across the border from Vincennes in Lawrenceville Illinois

That was the first baitcaster combo I ever bought. I'd say it's an ok combo but I don't love it. Spend just a little more and get a Lew's Mach 1 or the new Mach 2 that should be in stores soon.

Peyote was my fave

Very Cool ~ You're Welcome my friend. Those results pale my own u-rig results so far - but I'm due. On the other hand, I WORE TEM OUT today with a lipless bait & a squarebill. Water temps at 59 and I could not get a bite on the rig. But the hard baits were getting CHOKED. Good times. I'll be posting some thing about the day in the reports thread later . Congrats again. A-Jay

It was one of my top 3 baits this summer! I couldn't even tell you how many fish i caught on it....including 2 over 6lbs and many over 4. Loon and bone is all I fish.

Not trying to advertise another website but trying to help a fellow bass angler out - scsurffishing.com is an amazing resource for surf fishing in SoCal especially in the LA/OC region. Create an account and post up your question and you should get a lot of responses. Be sure to check https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/MPAs for the restricted areas. Newport/Huntington should be safe but if you ever start to head south towards Laguna/Dana Point a good chunk of shoreline is off limits.

Trolling the bane of bass fishing. I am so old that trolling was the preferred technique to bass fish. One reason may have been the Dacron line knuckle buster bait casting reels didn't cast very good and it was easier to troll a lure, only the expert casters could cast lures to targets. World record smallmouth was caught trolling. I still teach new bass anglers to use deep diving crank baits (plugs) by trolling them so they can learn how lures feel and what strikes are like. There is skill envolved maintaining the right depth, speed and trolling where bass are located. Tom

Someone please delete this thread. I read it yesterday before going out yesterday afternoon. I havent had a backlash in a while. It was pretty windy and I had one so bad i had to cut it out. I'm blaming it on this post. I don't remember last time I had one that bad. Fish were blowing up all around me and im picking at a reel. Its like talking about shanking a nine iron. It's just something you don't talk about. As soon as you do... look what happens.

How about this amazing weather gents.... Now to decide, spend my weekend in the tree stand bow hunting or hook up to the boat and hit the lake. Decisions, decisions, decisions man this is a tough call.

I haven't tried it but what about melting the rip with a lighter to re-seal it for a fresh skin hook? I've experienced the same thing and do the following in order as the worm wears-out 1. re-hook deeper under skin 2. rotate and re-hook 3. trim off tip 1/4" and re-hook 4. deeper skin hook 5. rotate and hook 6. Discard and replace

Rotate the worm and re-hook works some and so does bitting a little off the top. Screw lock hooks might help too.

This past Saturday, after some plans got canceled, Dad and I found time to have our 3rd round of our bass battles. We had a decent amount of time to fish, but with days getting shorter, we decided to stay somewhat close to home so we wouldn't waste as much of the day traveling. The venue dad chose (since he won the last one) was the Dairyland Flowage. It's an 1870 acre impoundment that is unique that it is situated in between two dams. Roughly half of the flowage is no more than a river. It has a few various wider points and few places small streams run in. The southern end is a much larger open bowl of a lake. There are some interesting structural features as well as plenty of cover now that the DNR has made a large effort to help bring back the lake. In 2007 it was drained down to the level of the original river as repairs to the south dam needed to be made. Unfortunately, I had never went up there to look at the lake when it was low, otherwise I would have a much better knowledge of the structure out there. I did find a few pictures online that I included. With the incredible amounts of structure that has been added to the lake, I have no doubt that it's going to be a great fishery one day. At the present time, it's a good fishery, but many of the fish haven't grown to maturity yet. This smallmouth only fishery is better for numbers than it is for size, there are however decent fish to be caught. With all the rain recently, I had figured they'd be running water through the flowage. After launching on the north end I ran up towards the dam and started tossing a tube to all the eddies thinking that the fish that are up there should be stacked up to stay out of the swift current. Unfortunately, for me there weren't many fish that I found up there. I managed to boat a few dinks, one that was just a hair under being a keeper and a northern. In hindsight I wasted too much time up there. I believe my one almost keeper came off this rock structure in the middle of the river, but it gives you an idea of what I was targeting. I rand down to the main lake and cycled through a few spots, fished about 1/4 mile of riprap without even a bit. Things were looking bleak, especially knowing dad was going to be catching plenty of fish with his wacky worm. He always seems to do well enough there and cycles through enough fish to find at least a few keepers. Meanwhile, once coming down to the main lake I hadn't as much as a tap or anything. I had cycled between lipless crankbaits, crankbaits, tubes, a jig, things were not looking good for me at all. With about 2 hours left I ran over to a few cribs I had marked a few years ago before I had side imaging, or at least I thought they were cribs. I had scanned a little bit trying to find a few more. I was close to a point I thought I remember being rock, so I was trolling that way just tossing my jig out and hopping it a few times as I was cruising up on it. I managed to catch one close to the point, threw the marker buoy over while I unhooked it and dropped it in the well. I got back up to my mark and made another cast and got bit but wiffed on the hookset and then nothing. I moved to the "crib" that was closest and looking at side scan, it looked more like 4-5 logs stacked up. The rest of my fish came off and around this piece of cover that was close to a weedline as well as I alternated back and forth between the jig and DT-10. When I left, I had 3 in the livewell as well as catching a bonus walleye and a few other shorts. I stayed as long as I could hoping to put one more in the box to seal the deal. I made it back to the ramp with only 2 minutes to spare. When dad pulled up I could hear his livewell pumps going so I knew he had something. Final catch totals had dad in the lead with 13 bass, a northern, and a walleye to my 7 bass, a northern and a walleye. Round 3 Results Dad - 4 fish for 7 lbs 0 oz. Me - 3 fish for 8 lbs 7 oz. I lucked out that the ones I caught were all solid, with the two big ones being a smidge over 18" and just a smidge under 18" my 3rd was about 15 1/2". Had dad been able to find one more keeper, it would have been super close Series Score Me -2 Dad - 1 The pictures are horrible, but at least the important part turned out ok haha In case you missed the first two battles, you can catch up here

Trimming any Rod top will slow the action and raise the lower end of the lure weight range. The level to which it will be affected depends on what it was to start with. 3" off a MH or M fast action Rod may leave you with something useable but nothing like it was before.

I agree, I can't bring myself to buy those. That's why I always go with the Rebel Craw crankbait. It works well too, already been catching tons of fish on it this year....

Ha! I've thought the same thing myself. They swim backwards using their tail. It still looks odd on a bait that's designed with a wider head than tail. I just painted a (backwards) craw on one of my homemade baits and actually considered flipping it around.

Harvesting a deer with any weapon, Firearm or Bow, is extremely rewarding. In my opinion, the feeling from shooting a nice deer with a bow will give you a better feeling than dropping a deer from 300 yards away. Although the reward is higher, the skill needed is also higher, and you may spend your first season (or more) without getting that perfect shot on a deer. If you put in the time and effort scouting and patterning deer, and take the kill with the compound... i feel you will be much more satisfied.

Paint or dye white feathers, perhaps?