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New combo. Steez SV6.3R and MB Orochi XX fast moving special.

The Silver Buddy was mentioned on this forum very recently as being a very good cold water bait. Recently, there has been nothing hitting my baits of choice. Visited Academy looking for Silver Buddy. They don't carry. Got a couple of "knock offs". Happened to be just what the bass wanted. Had a fun hour of fishing. Nothing of size except a couple of 2 pounders, maybe, but all very healthy, strong fighting fish. Thanks to the Maine fisherman who gave the excellent report. M not savvy enough to look up his name while doing this. Just thanks.

Another component of speed control that is sometimes over looked, especially in colder water, is how long the bait actually sits on the bottom. Bass, especially smallmouth, have no problem picking a blade bait up while it sits motionless on the bottom. When I first started having success with these baits I was under the impression that they needed to be on the move to get bit. Strikes on the fall are super common. And there are days & times when that's the way the fish will eat it. But after having a few bass eat the bait off the bottom on the initial cast & fall while I was fiddling with something else, I started experimenting with the "Pause" as it relates to how long the bait sits there between hops on the retrieve. What I found was there are times when after 1 or 2 or even 3 or 4 hops, if I let the bait simply rest there, when I went to pick it up there would be a bass on it often not feeling anything in the way of a strike. Other times, I could actually feel the bass pick it up, especially on a very hard bottom. There seems to be a fine line between waiting long enough to allow the fish to get to & eat the bait, and waiting too long to where there may be a loss of interest. Sort of like the pause when presenting a jerkbait. When the fish are chewing, a little experimentation here will get you an answer in short order. So there's something else to consider when presenting these most effective lures. I'd encourage everyone who does to give it a try. You might be surprised . . . . . A-Jay

TW and Keitech sales did me in! Fully stocked until spring... Or maybe just I-cast! Some views of the same like just different angles plus one pic showing it all.

Todays weather was forecasted as being the warmest in the next 15 days so I headed to a pond about an hour and a half south to see who wanted to play. Water temp got up to 52 which is warm enough for them to chase. Caught 5 over 3lbs and eventually lost that lure in a tree. Not ready for this winter stuff.

I usually count to 10 in between hops, after the bait has already fluttered to bottom. I have my best luck near the steepest drops. I like targeting rocky areas, boulders, ledge or "hard" bottom. If I pick up any weeds on the treble hooks then I move to another spot. I do not have nearly as much luck near grassy bottoms fishing a blade bait.

I'll be interested to hear your results Paul. I'm betting you'll have some. I debated a little about giving this particular gem up. I could tell you that "I got them on a blade bait" and a motivated angler could fish a blade bait for a while and may not unlock this one for some time. It's been a pretty major producer for me the last two seasons (works with lipless baits as well) but it's really what this site is all about. Best of luck to you as those temps plummet ~ bundle up. A-Jay

Me Too. Big Smallies will lay waste to the stockers in short order. Been there, Done that, got the T-Shirt. A-Jay

Caught this on a pointer 100DD! Love the jerkbait bite!!

Ever drive down a street looking for an address, and you turn your radio down so you can see better? Hootie

If you have dirty water in the winter in a pond, and you get 3 sunny days in a row, go find water 5' and less, and fish one of the little rebel floaters you can find in the bargain bin at walmart. Don't ask me how I figure that out, but I do that every single winter with great success. Caught one that taped out at 24" doing that one time.

Easy to tell who has a good understanding of the basics of catching fish The beauty of "jump lures" as we Spoonpluggers refer to them is that you get to check three different speeds on every cast. There is the speed of the "rip," the speed of the "drop", and then the speed of the pause (non-speed) in between those maneuvers. Speed control, along with depth control, are the absolute bedrock of putting together a successful day on the water when considering presentation of lures. Suspending jerkbaits are no different this time of year. The length of the pause can often be as critical as the rhythm and cadence of the "jerks" or "twitches." -T9

The Rinky Dink is a 1 ½" x ¾ oz chunk of solid lead that vaguely resembles a small fish, a small spinner is attached to the tail end. Thrown in is a small treble hook that not even attached to the lure; the line is threaded through a hole in the body and tied directly to a split ring/hook, meaning the weighted body can move up and down on the line. The lure was developed in the early 1990s by local angler Hugh Rinkle molded off another local bait called a Wing Ding that had been discontinued. Once the bait was put on the market, anglers began learning just how effective it could be but the only problem now with the lure is it's not longer in production. However, there's still an option: the Norman Knock Off; as the name implies, it's a copy of the Rinky Dink. Rinky Dinks are late fall and winter structure bait fished deep on the main lake or shallow in the creek channels. While many anglers equate cold temperatures with slow moving small lures this can be a big mistake. Rinky Dinks are most productive when casted and fished with a yo-yoing retrieve, the bite all most always comes on the fall and will be extremely subtle. When you feel something that's just not right, set the hook! To effectively fish the Rinky Dink or Knock Off, I usually use 12# fluorocarbon matched with a medium to medium-light rod; even at ¾ oz the Rinky Dink (5/8 oz Knock Off) is definitely not a power bait. Lighter line makes a difference in the number of bites and the lighter rod will give you a better hook sets without ripping the lure out of the bass's mouth.

Not me . I try to pick my days and spots to catch the maximum amount of fish .

There's a lot of good lines and as you can see you're getting plenty of suggestions. One thing I learned a while back is to compare lines by diameter ( in mm not inches). There's no common standard for strength ratings.

Looks like a little over 3/16oz. I will do a half zlinker in a bit. I have actually been meaning to make a thread for people to post the actual weights of common plastics and lures but have thus far been too lazy to write an OP. I bought a little scale when I was getting into BFS and it was surprising how many lures weighed more than I had thought they did.

This is my seasonal rant. This holiday season please don't drink and drive and remember to wear your seatbelts. You know how you always hear and see commercials on TV that say don't drink and drive and wear your seatbelt or you might die. I say that is a bunch of crap. A buddy of mine works in one of the largest and busiest trauma centers in the Northwest and I can tell you from his stories that those who die are the lucky ones. Those commercials need to say don't do it or you will end up paralyzed, limbless, with skin grafts on your face because the windshield peeled your face off. You will ruin your life as you know it. In many cases, after you get better, you will be arrested and spend several years behind bars. You could kill or injure other people. When you come into the trauma center this is what will happen to you if you aren't dead. You will be laid on a hard board to support your back. They will proceed to cut your clothes off and you will be laying there naked for everyone to see. After the nurses stick a couple of IV's in you and draw some blood, the doctors will roll you up on your side to check your back for spinal injuries then before they lay you back down they will put a glove on and stick a finger up your butt to see if you are bleeding internally. Then they will lay you back down on that hard board and you will be poked and prodded and questioned by the police. Then they take an x-ray or two, and possibly take you to surgery, or to have Cat Scan to see if your brain isn't swelling. They may put a catheter (large tube) into your pecker so you don't pee all over yourself, and draw your urine to give to the cops. Eventually during this process someone will take a thin sheet and cover you up. Then there you will lay, cold, until all your labs and workups get processed. Trust me, this sucks. This is what happens to YOU. Now think about what your family has to go through, and those of others whom you might of injured or killed. So be smart and be careful. We want you around for another year of great fishing and stories. Enjoy the holidays responsibly.

Braid...Power Pro / frogs, swim baits, all top water and punching (considering trying Seaguar's fipping braid) Flouro...Sunline Sniper / All bottom contact presentation's. Co Poly...Yo Zuri / All other moving baits Don't use mono for anything Mike

It should work great. I actually can't stand most "frog" rods I've tried. They may be great at slinging them, but not always so great at setting the hook and extracting them from the slop. For a long time, I just used my flipping stick. I now use a rod with similar specs as the Lew's rod. I think it's a 7-3 HF.

Once the water temperatures drop below 50 degrees the silver buddy, fished in the proper areas, is hard to beat. I have a lot on confidence in this bait. It has produced for me year after year from late October until ice up. The baits are very versatile too. At times you can catch them on the initial drop on the cast. When that doesn't produce a simple lift and fall presentation worked back to the boat will usually get bit. When lifting you only want to feel the bait vibrate 3 or 4 times at most before letting it fall back down to bottom. Another approach is "video gaming", you se the fish arch on your graph/imager and drop it right on there head. With the proper settings you can see your bait fall towards bottom and see hoe the fish react to it. It usually doesn't take long before they bite if they are going to bite. If they nose down on it or rise up from bottom to look at it then that fish is almost always catchable. If the fish doesn't react to the bait then you should move on to the next arch until you find one that is more active. It can be an extremely productive pattern and it is exciting to see the fish hit your bait on your graph. A silver is very effective for deeper water bass. I typically catch fish from 15-30 ft and at times as deep as 45 ft.

I almost never use snaps on crankbaits. I tie to the split ring. If I need to change lures, well, it's probably time to re-tie anyway. Tom

I like trying to find them in overlooked places, which often leads to tough fishing until the fish are located. Finding tough fish is one of my preferred tournament strategies also because I know most guys won't bother with them. As long as I feel like I can get enough bites each day, I'm good.

I don't take my ball cap off but I do remove my hearing aids. I don't take my ball cap off but I do remove my hearing aids.

If you want to branch out, I suggest you try out Invizx first. Its a very manageable fluoro line that cast extremely well.

I had similar problems with my curado on the smallmouth rod. Excellent rod but man was it annoying. Almost cost me an arrowana! I added a small piece of heat shrink tubing to the reel feet and shrunk them down to fit. Easy on an off with no gross residue.

For weather, I want want easy - overcast days with occasional sprinkles. Not only does it tend to make the fish more active, it keeps a majority of people off the water. For location, I will pass up an easier, high pressured lake for a slightly tougher one with less folks around. I'm not looking for a challenge, just the opportunity to fish someplace without rubbing elbows with other anglers. I know it sounds like I am anti-social, but I live in a county that is 948 square miles with a population over 3.1 million people. Do the math, that is over 3000 people per square mile. I interact with people all the time, part of my fishing enjoyment is having at least a little solitude.

I'm a plastics fisherman 90% of the time. When my senkos, trick worms, Zoom centipedes, speed worms, u-tails, Beavers, creature baits ect., Get torn up at the nose I will turn them around and rig them the opposite way. Sometimes just bite off a half inch where they are torn up, works perfect! Fishing 300 days a year this really saves a bunch of money. When their really torn up on both ends, you can wacky rig in the middle. The more torn up the better the action, as they fall through the water column. I love when their torn-up in the middle, because now the action really increases as you jerk and slack the bait. Get the max out of your baits and at least a 50% discount at the same time. I guarantee the bass don't care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have that rod, my favorite one for: Keitechs Chatter baits Cranks Pointer 128's Big Spinner Baits

Winter .... whut ?

500 packs or individual worms ?

I've been a fan of Seaguar InvizX for fluro and PowerPro Super8Slick for braid. I've gone away from mono and am okay with that. I fish a lot of reaction style baits including jerkbaits, topwaters, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits and stick with the above two types as they are easy to work with and have little to no memory. In many respects InvizX handles much like mono as it has a small amount of stretch which I find works well for crankbaits when matched with a glass rod setup. I also use it as my dedicated UL line at 4lbs test. The rest of the time I am using it as a leader attached to my main line which is braid as described above. I like Super8Slick as it's very easy to cast and I haven't lost any noticeable time dealing with professional override situations. The only application I use it for as a standalone line is topwater fishing. I find that using braid as a mainline gives me a better connection to the lure and I can control what it's doing more easily while fishing which is important when it comes time to change up retrieves for one reason or another. Along with the above handling characteristics, I think you'll find the cost associated with both types of line to be in the moderate to low category. They come in a wide variety of pound test which means I can always find one that suits the type of fishing I'm doing. From a strength perspective, I don't think I've ever had a fish break off either of the above, and that includes landing some decent sized musky which were running up against some rocks during their capture while I was out bass fishing. Cheers, hope that whatever you decide to do that you have confidence in your choice!

I was hoping someone wanted to share success stories about one of my favorite cranks... ha-ha. Booooo

The progression of the angler (any fish, many fish, big fish, hard fish). Nothing better to me personally than pulling a lunker out of pressured water.

Seems perfectly natural to me. Music can be distracting at times.

Oh definitely, I like proving people wrong. "Too cold/rainy/windy" "They aren't supposed to do that this time of year"

I am the very opposite. I will very seldom even leave the house to fish if I think fishing is going to be tough. I do a lot of road trips to fish so I plan my trips to be on the water during "prime time". During the summer, I fish rivers almost exclusively because I know the fishing will be much easier than lakes would be. I fish because I like catching. I spent a lot of money on boats and tackle to catch bass. Not catching isn't nearly as much fun.

The 3000 NASCI would be my choice and I do own this reel. It is the same weight (8.8oz), size, etc. from the 2500 but the 3000 has the 6.0:1 gear ratio vs. the 2500 with 5.0:1. The 3000 hold about 40 or so more yards of line and has a "T" shaped handle which is quite comfortable. The 2500 has an equally as comfortable traditional paddle handle. I like the Mojo 610MLXF, but other good choices would be the 68MXF and 71MF. It's funny I asked this post a day or so ago about matching similar rods out and when I went in to Dick's Sporting Goods yesterday with my son, an employee who was friend's with my dad before he passed handed me a friends/family discount for 35% off. So I got a 6'9" Avid X MLXF for $130!!!

During the winter months there are certain conditions one must pay attention to if one wants to be productive. The first is stability as in stable weather; I don't care what the ambient temperature is as long as the weather has been stable for 3 or 4 days. In order to take full advantage of stable conditions one must have the ability to pick and choose the days you fish. And no all bass DO NOT swim all over the lake seeking warm water. I've caught em on wind blown points & in the shade behind a high bluff, both were in the coldest water around. The second is the bass itself; a bass's metabolism is finally tuned to its circulatory system temperature which is the same as the surrounding water temperature. In cold water their metabolism slows down, their brain slows down, so the bass slows down. In cold water a bass's instincts are less finely tuned, it has less appetite and it mostly stays suspended at or near the bottom. None of these means the bass will not strike moving lures like spinnerbaits or crankbaits. It does mean they will not chase it far, ya gonna have to hit on the head. Y'all ever head the term "strike zone"? Right now that strike zone is tiny! My personal best of 12.8 was caught in February on a nasty, overcast, rainy, cold morning in shallow warter.

Yes, the radio can be distracting. We are taught, and teach, in Archery that the human mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time (and there are a lot of things to do to send a pointy stick into the middle of the bullseye). Concentrate on one thing and you're better off. When I get back home and start to back my boat trailer up into our driveway, the seat belt comes off, the windows come down (no matter how cold it is) and the radio gets turned down/off. That's just the way it is...

I caught fish on Grand in 38 degree water on a shakyhead, and I wasn't ice fishing Shakyhead is one of my go to baits in winter. It turns into more of a dragging presentation than a shaking or hopping. Everything that lives in the water slows way down when it gets cold, so I adjust my retrieve accordingly.

The 2500 is listed as holding 140 yards of 8lb test, that is a ton of line. If you're mainly using it for dropshot, I'd look at the 1000 size honestly.

Hey Hootie, there's an app for that. Now go ask your grandkids what an app is.

Use braid to a fluorocarbon leader. I used to fish straight fluorocarbon but switched to this the past fishing season and it works great.

buy good gear the first time.

Picked these up about a month ago. First pic is 2 Daiwa Zillions one 8' H SBR & one 8' MH R Glass CBR. Got them both brand new for less than the cost of one, $250. Next 2 is an NRX 894C and a Dobyns Champion Extreme HP 842C. Paid full price for the NRX and got the Dobyns w it for $50 bucks. The Dobyns is really nice, the aesthetics, quality control, cork and balance are all very good. It is heavier than the longer NRX, I think they add weight to the butt of the rod to balance it.

It's not pretty. I'm the guy that gets to come sit with you at the hospital to make sure you have leg irons on one of your ankles that's attached to the bed, so when you finally do heal up, I can transfer you to jail. Call a taxi, call an uber driver, call a friend, just don't drink and drive.