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Got off work at 7 and decided to hit a pond that I've only been to once or twice. After about 2 hrs and only one blow up and no fish, I make a bad cast and get a blowup. Got nothing to lose so I make the same cast it gets hammered by this beauty. Didn't get a weight or measurement on her but she was a nice one.

The wife and I went camping a couple weeks ago and since the bass fishing kind of sucks on the lake we go to, I always spend some time chasing down muskies. They were tough this year, but managed some good ones. The first morning, as I was leaving the dock, I looked down and there was a musky sitting right there. I made a half ass cast with the blades and figure 8'd a 41 incher right at the boat while my wife watched from the dock. PRetty cool. Spent the rest of the day grinding. Raised 3 more, but no takers. Fished well into the evening. Gorgeous area! The next day, we did a long hike to see some awesome views, then spent the afternoon chasing critters. Raised 4 fish and had one commit after what felt like the longest figure 8 ever. OVerall, very fun trip.

Some shots from the last couple days on the water and my last regular tournament of the season. Started out chasing smallies in practice, but the sunny/breezy conditions went away and we had rain and calm winds for the tournament day so I leaned more on largemouth. It was sort of a grind since the dams weren't moving any water at all, which is usually the kiss of death on this lake/river. Managed to put together a 12lb limit (3 LM, 2 SM) and take 2nd place . This is probably the coolest fishery I get to fish...You've got 'traditional' largemouth fishing - flipping, grass, wood, etc...Then there's great smallmouth fishing on the main lake/river...Then, if you're brave enough, you can run far up river and get into true river smallmouth fishing. Add in the great scenery and the fact that there's quality sized fish of both species and it makes for an awesome place.

The WVU bass fishing team hosted a tournament on stonewall Jackson lake on Saturday. In between blast off and when I had to bump fish at the weigh in, I did a little bit of kayak fishing. Nothing big but a pretty spot and a 2.5 largemouth were the highlights.

Modern day anglers are weight weenies Hootie, we old farts ( and don't look around cuz you are included in that stellar group of fellers ) grew up eating spinach so we developed the strenght to fish with such heavy item.

Just like Bass Archives proves......If you want to follow tackle trends, look at the lures made every 25 years, you will see they all come and go...painted vs. non painted is all preference, no right or wrong answer imo.

Just wanted to share my new PB bass pulled out of my buddies farm pond. I caught her on a mojo bass 7' 1" spinning rod with a less Mach 1 reel. 20lb braid to 10lb fluoro. Throwing a weightless senko. She weighes about the same as my ak. I'm giving her a 10lb lol Can't say officially because I forgot my scale... Nonetheless still a monster!

NEVER punch a hole in its mouth. Instead, slide the "hook" up under his jaw, near his gill plates. Trust me, you'll never damage his gill plates doing it this way. I demonstrate how to this using culling tags in this video:

No problem!! If things change let me know. Very Very sorry to here about your Ma. Condolences to you and your family, from me and mine. May God Bless her. Mike

Nice fish! I'd like to give you a standing ovation for not guesstimating the weight and starting that war. Nobody ever agrees on it, but we can all agree that's a nice fish. Perfect post when the fish wasn't weighed

Family is all good down here. It could have been a lot worse if it got only 10 miles more west. Lots of debris, my boy had some trees down, pool cage is a mess but that's about all. They're still under a boil water advisory but other than that it'll be back to normal in a few days. I really feel for you folks farther north. I stayed home for Charlie and will never do it again. You guys be safe prayers to all No Fla Mike....I don't know exactly where you're at but I have generators, blowers, trimmers, rakes etc. If you or any family needs something I'd be glad to load up and bring it all to you or meet you somewhere. I'm in Indialantic so I can be there in 2 hrs max. Post or PM me if you need anything and I'll be coming you way. Mike

I do, I do. Got less than 100 rounds through my pistol but man it fun... And loud. Very loud. Complete andro Corp upper on an Aero lower I assembled.

Bass "can" live in a pretty drab world where color is almost nonexistence . Maybe just maybe under these situations a color that stands out from the surroundings triggers a basses curiosity . We will never know for sure but bass fishermen through trial and error have found productive colors for clear to muddy water . My first color choice is based on water clarity and then I will expand from there .

My take on color is this: I think it depends on the location you are fishing in relation to the sun. Case In point One day me and my old fishing bud, were out on his crawdad in a good largemouth bass lake. I was fishing the left side of the boat (deeper water) and he the right (or shoreline) as we rounded a mainlake point we started hitting them good. He was throwing a red shad ribbontail powerworm, and I had green pumpkin with brown centerline zipperworm, what was odd was I was hitting them regularly, but he wasnt getting hit unless he cast to a spot with no shade. Now red shad is well known to he and i as a good sunny day color. As this had been proven over and over to us. And the green pumpkin just a good all around color. So it seemed as though things were in line and correct,.. what was apparently odd was his "hits" came on the shoreline facing side of the weeds, (in the weeds shade) and mine from the deeper weedline facing the sun. Being perplexed we switched casting directions, and the "hits" stopped abruptly. That red shad should have produced in the suns rays, but didnt, and my green pumpkin should have produced as well,...we changed sides again and we were back "on them". Does color matter? In some instances,... I say yeah it does. And I beleive that its the correlation of the suns direction, to the backgound of the "covers color",.,... Meaning the green of the weeds and the brownish color of the shorelines bottom. Now, we had also determined other days, that any color we threw worked, no matter where, when, direction, conditions,... etc. So, in summary?,.. some days I say color does matter, and some it doesnt, My theory is, the suns direction "may" play part in color selection as long as the water clarity, and cover present, provides the conditions condusive to allow such. Is there a "key" set in stone? I dont think so, as nothing is in bass fishing as we all know. But Im sure,... that sometimes color does matter. We proved it to ourselves. Keep ya line wet!

Had a very interesting one just last night. My MIL and wife were planning on having a bonfire and making s'mores and enjoying the cooler weather. My wife was running to the store to get their supplies with our son and my MIL had a roaring bonfire going next to our shop. I got a migraine and was about to go to bed to sleep it off when my wife was leaving when she asked me to leave my .22 pistol with my MIL in case there were any coyotes out there. I had the shop bay door open, all the lights on (which lights the outside up like a rock concert), and my MIL has this fire the size of my car going behind the shop, no coyote is coming within half a mile of our house but I took it and showed her how to use it real quick and go in to go to bed. I'm just about asleep when my phone rings and it's my MIL. Irritated that she didn't just come inside to ask me for whatever it much be she's looking for, I was shocked when she starts yelling "There's a coyote out here trying to get me!". She'd grabbed the gun and got into her car and said it was still out there right in front of her car. I grabbed my .40 Glock and ran to the deck and sure enough, a big, healthy looking coyote was pacing the tree line 20' in front of her car. It's a good 50-60 yards to the tree line from our deck, I know guys who can make that shot with a Glock, but I'm not one of them. Ran back in and grabbed the only other thing I have, my scoped 30.06 I use for deer. Chambered a round and ran back out, got the crosshairs on him right as he got out of her headlights and I couldn't see him anymore. I tried kissing him back and my MIL said he was right next to my shop staring and growling at her car but it wouldn't come back out where I could see it. Sling my gun and grab the Glock and headed down the stairs to see if he wanted to be brave enough to try coming after me. She said as soon as I started crunching through the gravel he started trotting back towards our pond. The whole time this was all going on the rest of the pack was right across our driveway going nuts howling and yipping. I had her park her car and told her to go inside, closed the shop up and walked back in right when he started howling just inside the tree line again. I've lived around the things my whole life, never have I seen one be that brazen. I always kind of chuckled when someone gets nervous when they start howling around our place, I guess I'll take it much more serious now. To give an idea how close this all took place to my house, the fire was right on the other side of the trashcan in this picture and the coyote was outside of the treeline several feet in the taller grass when I first came out. The picture was taken from our deck almost exactly where I was standing trying to get a shot off.

Find a local custom canvass shop....they will make whatever you need.

Usually, I'll fish right up through November. But with the truck in need of some TLC, I decided to call it a season and put the boat up for the year. But not before one last outing! I really wanted one more good fish to end the year on. The fall season is in full swing here, with the daytime highs not even cracking 70° and the nights dipping well below 40°. With a strong cold front moving in, I was hoping the fishing would be hot. The pickerel were certainly active. I boated 10-12 big picks, with another half dozen coming off at the boat. But I wasn't there to catch pickerel! In between the pickerel, I boated one 2lb bass and had another come off boatside. We started to head in, as the temps were dropping fast and it looked like rain. On our way in, we stopped and fished a mid-lake brush pile that sticks out of the water. I pitched a @Siebert Outdoors grass jig with a paca craw trailer deep into the brush pile. I felt it hit branches, then bottom, then a hard thump. I set the hook, and stuck the good fish I was hoping to end the year with. This 4lb football-shaped girl should be the last fish of the 2016 season for me!

Choose the COLOR YOU LIKE and fish it with confidence. Where you put your bait and how you present it is much more important than of which color it is. I know it ...... now if I could only convince the BaitMonkey of that ...... or maybe it´s the other way around, he knows but convinces me I need more .....

If your looking for bigger fish, use a jig and craw combo. I also do well with a jerkbait such as a rapala x-rap. Of course in the early mornings a topwater is staple. For no wind conditions I use a walking bait, like a zara spook or sexy dog,... slight ripple? a pop-r,... choppier waters? a heddon torpedo. later in the day if the wind kicks up I will switch over to a spinnerbait. Hope these help some Keep ya line wet!

Hobby Lobby!

I hear ya BB ~ And that's a valid point. I have 2 thoughts . . . . 1) It's a tool and when used incorrectly it's hard to expect useful results. 2) Regardless of the results - hooks in the net are way better than hooks in the fingers / hand, especially with treble hooks. Some consider getting hooked as a hazard of the job, I see it as almost completely preventable. btw - not trying to Hijack the thread but it's a somewhat related to the OP's topic. A-Jay

We may never see it - but it's always there - Lurking in the shadows . . . . . A-Jay

Apologies in advance. Just can't hardly believe this is real.

Wow, it's blown your pool on it's side!

You put them back?!?!?!? Wait till the bait monkey gets a hold of you mister! He is not gonna be happy about this.

Currently I really like the Keitech Easy Shiner in the Smallmouth Magic color but I hate how easy the tail tears off. What are you guys using? Specifically this is for a trailer on a jig head.

Got out on a much bigger lake today. Trying to increase my odds for multiple Bigger bass. Wind was southerly & warm but still kicked up a little wave action. Hadn’t been on this one in a couple of weeks and was surprised (but happy) to see the water temps still in the low 60’s. Accordingly, I stayed with the horizontal presentation program ~ Spinnerbaits, Squarebill & Medium diving Cranks, Lippless baits & a small swimbait. They all caught smallies of various sizes in the 2-4 lb class. I had to move around a bit to find concentrations of fish and today it ended up being an all out Flats bite. Had to be near deep water with some green weed on them. Here's an example of todays catch. A-Jay

Can anyone tell me about the Gene Larew Pattletail worm ? I saw it being used on MLF ,it looked like a fishing catching machine . How do you fish it , and where , your favorite color's .Can you throw it on a baitcaster , i hate a spinning reel ?

When you decided to learn to fish what steps did you take , where did you start to learn to become a better Angler .I want to learn to fish & become a better Angler .Where should i start & what direction should i go. Would location be first or would finding the bait be first , maybe then migration & migration route . What steps should i take to learn to catch fish .GodBless & Thanks

Yep Hobby Lobby. And print out a 40% off coupon from website.

Thanks! She drives really nice so hopefully continues to run well. Had her checked out by a friend who is a mechanic and he said all checks out. Just put in brand new spark plugs and oil, filters, ect. As for stereo, got the head unit and front door speakers in. Doing back doors tommorow. Easy as pie

My initial response was in reference to the OP catching these fish and no having pictures. (A common way of saying "pics or it didn't happen)How you linked my post to your dumb bell anchor and raft story is beyond me. You may need a hug.

Me too. I have WAY more than I'll use the rest of my life and I keep on buying. I like to buy unknown, unpopular or obscure brands to try out. Some have been really good but they often go out of business and you can't find them anymore.

DSG online is running a buy 4 get 2 free on almost every bait...including whopper ploppers.

I'm not bashing Shimano spinning reels. I love my Shimano spinning reels and in fact they are really all I ever need. I'm just bashing that one Shimano baitcaster reel I have because I spent $200 on it and then three or four years later I buy this Lews for only $130 (I read it has been on sale for $99) and it casts so much better. I suppose I should stop being a brand loyalist.

The new HPs are xf actions. power ratings are more accurate than the previous DX and lower series of rods. The 4 powers in the Hp are in between a MH and H. The 3 is in between a M and MH.

Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper and Little Dipper.

I'm torn on the whole net issue. It's great when it works, but I've lost some really nice fish to poor net jobs when the hooks got stuck in the net.

I'd give the daiwa a shot.....it got a pretty good review here. http://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/bg16.html

STRIPERS IN A FARM POND!?!?!??! Yessir! Caught 3 of em. Plus this 6 lb beauty.

Over a decade ago painted blades with baitfish patterns in every imaginable all color scheme was the rage. This was followed by hologram finish blades. Prior to all those about 40 years ago white, black, fluorescent orange and chartreuse color blades were the hot ticket. Been there and done all that. Tom

Lew Tournament MB. 130 on Ebay. You won't find better at that price. It's an opinion, but even if someone can come up with another brand at that price point...it's splitting hairs. Lews has great customer service also.

Before you buy, take a good look at a Pflueger President or President Limited and Supreme. One more to consider is an Okuma RTX30. It is super smooth but much more like the size of a President 2500

I like them in clear water when I want to kill the flash (usually white blades), and muddy water when I want extra color (chartreuse, orange, or red). It can be very effective.

I believe in clear water a white spinner bait with a willow blade having one side painted white is great for Fall shad pattern . Where Spots & Small Mouth roam - a willow blade with one side painted bright orange or chartreuse will create greater reaction bites . I also believe under certain circumstances a painted willow or Colorado blade on a spinner bait can provide just enough difference from the norm to get a few more bites. I also believe the same holds true for under spin baits ...

If anyone ever needed convincing of this....

I will most likely be in the minority on this, but for bass fishing, I prefer to not use a net (especially if I am by myself). I am not saying that lipping is better than a net, just that I prefer it. I find that large fish are easier to grab at the boat compared to smaller fish. The huge mouth of a hawg is such a large target and typically a large fish is never green by the time she is by the boat. With a smaller fish, you often have to avoid the hook(s), but once they get over 5 lbs, the extra room in that gaping mouth makes it a non issue. I have landed numerous fish over 7 lbs, all by hand on the first pass and have never lost a large one at the boat in over 40 years of fishing. I've lost them away from the boat, but never when they are close enough to grab (or net). I fish from a smaller boat, sitting low to the water, so it is very comfortable & easy to just reach over & lip fish. If I am standing to fish a particular bait, I often sit down after I hook up, so I am in good position to land the fish. It isn't as awkward to grab the fish in this setup compared to what you sometimes see from people standing on the deck of a larger boat, trying to kneel or lie down to get at the fish. In a smaller boat, a net just takes up valuable room & since I don't fish tournaments and release everything I catch, it isn't a big deal if a fish becomes unbuttoned at the boat. Of course, that is easy for me to say since I have never lost one that way...

That Symetre is a great reel at a very good price. I have several Shimano spinning reels but also really like my wife's Pflueger Supreme XT.

Where are you in Illinois. bring it to me. I'll fix it for a cup of starbucks.

Poor Boys for me as well.