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Quick trip to BPS then a little Ned rig fishing from the shore late today. Caught a couple little rats then this big girl. 3lbs, 7oz. I'll be putting the boat in tomorrow and be bringing one Ned rigged rod for sure!

40.43lbs between the two of us, but my top 5 alone were 38.66 including my US PB of 9.30 Jeff

My fishes just as much as I do, competes in tournaments, and even competed professionally. Here's her latest video on tackle organization:

I know at least one - and she has turned me into an all day net man on more than one occasion. A-Jay

People that leave trash... Are trash.

July 19th (a Tuesday). I took the day off work to take a friend of mines sister fishing. She was visiting from out of state and he couldn't get off work. We caught 60 fish, including an 8-0 on a Ned rig (ZMan TRD) in the first 30 minutes and a 5-5 later on skipping a Senko under a dock. She had never seen a bass over 4 lbs before, so those fish were memorable for her. She was interested in learning some of the techniques I use, so I was able to teach her both of the aforementioned methods. Bonus was she caught fish as she learned them while I played guide for the day.

I know one lady who catches 2 to 3 bass to my one. Thanks to her, I'm a crackerjack with the bass net Roger

Makes it a little harder to keep the bait down but no, it doesn't negate the usefulness of the technique. You should be concentrating on eddies and other quiet water for bass anyway.

Perhaps if you two start off the morning with one of these, it could carry you through most of the day ~ A-Jay

What I did on my summer vacation

No bathroom.

During the winter, you should be looking for water with minimal current so the jerkbaits or any other bait, shouldn't be effected.

A-Jay

Graduating from a Jon boat and getting my first full rig bass boat its an old boat but had a marine mechanic check it out and he gave me the thumbs up!!! Very excited!!!

Like @Scott F said, you should be looking for deeper, slacker water in the winter. When it does warm up though and fish start becoming more current oriented, suspending jerkbaits will absolutely not work in current whatsoever! I would not even try to throw them. Like I said....not worth it, wouldn't even bring them with for a river trip.

This is an absolute must! The biggest mistake anglers make concerning pre-spawn is it starts long before they believe. This time of year I ignore the "calendar" & pay attention to the body of water. It might be a tad bit early for full on pre-spawn but the urge to do so is growing.

Yep, spot on. And the Big 10 was not all that great this year. Look at their overall bowl record. The ACC was the top football conf this year - great overall bowl record plus the NC.

I was in a park once and started picking up the trash off of the shoreline. My girlfriend and daughter followed suit and before I knew it every kid in the park was lending a hand. We filled 4 large contractor bags full of bottles and cans cleaning the entire park. Meanwhile all the parents sat and watched in disbelief. Ghandi once said "be the change you want to see in the world". Leading by example many times has wide reaching results.

Had some really good days . New years day 2016 I was on a great bite the prior week caught my only d.d. for the year on 1/1/16. Just over 10. This year was my first father's days as a new dad. On father's day Sunday it was hot as he'll here. Caught fish all day. Then got on a school of big bass around 3 and went literally 3 hours and didn't make 3 consecutive cast without catching a fish. Idk how many. Wouldn't doubt if it was over 100. And big ones. Didn't weigh any but the biggest was probably pushing 7 pounds. I was sad because my dad couldnt make it here this year. Or he would have been there share that special day on the lake with me. Those 2 stand out. Alot I loved it. But it's days like that I wish I wasn't fishing alone.

I keep a log for all the fishing I do on my home lake and for the 2nd year in a row, the Ned rig was my top producer (I first used it April of 2015, so it is 2 for 2 as yearly chanp). Zman Shroomz heads fitted with TRD's, Hula Stickz or Finesse Shadz accounted for 34% of the bass I caught, outproducing the number 2 & 3 baits combined (Stickbaits & Texas rigged worms). In addition to numbers, they produced the second largest bass of the year (8 lbs even), a couple of big catfish (14-6 & 11-2) and even a 7 lb carp. Despite all that, after I read the BassMaster article this month featuring Ned himself, I think I still have a lot to learn about the system. I get a little too caught up in only fishing one of the Ned versions while out or only fishing it a certain way (usually hop & shake). As great as this bait & system has been for me personally, I get the feeling that I am only picking off the low hanging fruit and that there are a lot more fish out there for the taking if I expanded my repertoire. I know some folks think the Ned rig is nothing more than a grub on a small jig head, but the nuances of the baits & the system make all the difference in the world. I would highly recommend following the advice given by those who have refined the system and as opposed to just throwing together what you think would work and then wondering what all the fuss is about when your results are not above average.

VMC 9650 replacement treble hooks are good and not too expensive @ $2.50 for 7. Test the hooks before changing them usiing your thumb nail, if the stick or scratch the nail you are good to use them. Tom

Ever heard of Derrius Guice SEC threw the gauntlet down during the BCS era with 9 national championships including 7 in a row. Some teams like Clemson stepped up, others not so much. Everyone talks about the bottom of the SEC, how about the top 6 from each conference? Big 12 & Pac12 are still all offense & can not play defense!

I average out to about $50 I bought several rod and reel combos last year, which brought that average way up. I have the setups that i can use to effectively present most baits. now I can invest into more tackle. I am only fifteen. I have saved all my money up. I have spent some of it on a boat and a computer. I don't spend money on much else. I will likely only spend around 25$ probably less. once I have a dece t tackle arsenal, i will spend 25$ a month and also replace lost baits

Just scored 15 bags of Lime-purple passion and 18 bags of sapphire blue. At least I'll get through this year.

It's become a very highly used modification by several Midwest Finesse anglers. Instructions per Ned: -T9

long winter guys, don't spend it all before spring (july)

What's up, everyone?! Figured I'd bounce on here, say hi. I got so tied up in chasing fish this year, I forgot to do anything else. I hope you all are happy and healthy in this new year, and have big plans for '17, like I do! I had an amazing 2016, both fishing wise (had the best year I've EVER had), and life wise (started my own business), and I'm gonna ride that Freight Train right through the record books in 2017. I broke my PB (for New England) this year, which has stood at 9-1 for over 5 years, and inched me closer to that double digit mark for NH fish. I'm at 9-4 now, and have a handle on at least 3 places that I've found fish as big or bigger, so I don't plan on holding onto this PB for 5 years. Hope to see you all on the water this year, and best of luck to you all!

If one uses split rings that will handle trophy bass, it's pretty tough on the nails. The best tool is a very good quality split ring plier. I think Texas Tackle are excellent. The cheap sheet metal ones simply don't work, or don't work well.

I thought I'd be fun to share the stories and conditions of our best day of 2016. Here's mine: Late March, private lake in the Poconos, Pa: it was the first set of warm days in early spring. Four days of sunshine and 70*+ weather. I arrived at my honey hole with winter gear tied on (ice was only two weeks prior), but quickly found the bass schooling and demolishing bluegill in the shallows. A 1/2oz Bass Pro Chatterbait boated me a 7-2, two 5+, and dozens of 3-4lb class bass. The action was non-stop and everywhere. I live for those days! Share your story!

My wife, who's a guru when it comes to organization, made this video about how she organizes her fishing tackle. Some really good tips here!

Not a lot of huge fish but lots of numbers.. We always do a few kayak / camp trips on the Upper Potomac. Load up the kayaks with camping gear, rods, tackle, drinks, and food. Always have a blast and it's just a beautiful place to fish and get away for a bit. (10 feet from camp.)

Looks a lot like coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum) to me. -T9

Just read that retail will be $199 for it.

The outing on May 12, 2016 only showed me 6 smallmouth, but the 5 best made up a 20+ lb. limit. The morning fish came on a Spin Bait 80 which they didn't want in the afternoon so I changed up to a 2" chunk trailer on an 1/8 oz. bucktail jig and they liked that fine for the rest of the day. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/174776-light-gear-for-heavy-smallies-51216/#comment-1976609

Just so you know, there are thousands of folks at ICAST every year, employed by the fishing industry in some way, shape, or form. Many of them are my friends. All of them got into it because of their passion for fishing. The most common theme I hear every year is, "Ironic I work in this industry, yet have very little time to actually fish anymore these days."

Yea my lady can Texas rig any soft plastic and take bass off herself. . She can also set up a slip bobber rig with livebait and nail some crappie. By herself.

Actually, I think buying a good, used boat is much harder for the average individual that buying a used car. Most anybody can look around under an automobile and see it's eaten up with rust, dumping fluids every where and things not moving when they should be, or moving when they are not supposed to be. If they can't, there are hundreds of places with lifts and some type of mechanic that can look at if for them within a few minutes of bringing it in. That's not the case with boats. You usually have to find a dealer or someone very knowledgeable of them because all it's "rust" is going to be in the form of rot, and it's all covered with something. Instead of finding someone on every street corner, you are lucky to find someone in every city and they are usually going to laugh if you ask if they can check it now. Usually it's leave and check back in a week or two, something not many sellers are going to agree on. Most cars also have four stroke engines. When things start getting worn in those, they tend to make bad noises and smoke badly, making it very obvious it has serious problems. That's not the case with a two stroke. Without a qualified mechanic to check it, many times you don't have a clue what it's internals are like. Then you have ego's and believing the person trying to sell the item would "never" tell a lie about it's condition.

Structure underneath current creates current breaks. Anyone that has spent time stream fishing for trout will have learned to "read" the water. What the water does on the surface gives you clues to what's below the surface. For instance, a deep ledge - a major fish holding feature, regardless of species, can be traced in current by seeing the seam created at the surface. Again, this all relates to structure, though not commonly mentioned since we *usually* fish for largemouth where there is very little current. Smallies, in my experience can be a bit different. They are less territorial, and while bound to structural patterns, a little more fickle in their location, from day to day. Smallie hotspots come and go, but like Catt's example above, good largemouth spots always seem to have some fish.

I didn't do much fishing in 2016 due to illness. Here is my most recent best day December 2014. Cold front bassin at its best.

Two points I guess: -When there is enough food in a specific spot, bass can be tight homebodies. If food is sparser bass can be travelers. -Then... bass are also individuals, so some are more mobile, others more sedentary than others. Now way to know for sure, so I defer to A-Jay's post.

It was early June of 2000. My buddy talked me into night fishing. We left at 8pm and fished till the sun came up. It was one of those nights where you caught a bass every other cast and I didn't realize how long we were out until the sun came up. My wife was not impressed with the story seeing as she was 8 1/2 months pregnant and I had no cell phone. Still for bank fishing it was the best night ever.

My best day , I only caught 1 keeper though it was my biggest fish of the year . What made it my best day Is I got on two schools of fish .It was probably a 80 fish day, could have been 100 but I ran out of time . The first school was on a long point . The second school were just fish I saw on the depth finder on a deep featureless flat .Caught them on diving and lipless cranks . My best days for 15 inch keepers came November at Mark Twain . I limited out fishing shallow diving crankbaits in the cuts along bluffs .

My best day on the water in 2016 was part of a weekend fishing trip. I was staying on a 500 acre lake in the mountains in early June, and the top water bite was on fire. I was getting hits on almost every cast with a Rapala Skitter Walk. I was catching multiples in a row, sometimes on 5 consecutive casts. The biggest was around 3 pounds, but the way they were jumping in the boat was incredible.

Go For It ~ A-Jay

Looks good. One of these days my crankbait storage will evolve from "pull the whole lot of them out of the box all stuck together, and shake the wad until the bait I want falls off"

I'm sure the Big TRD will be great, but I'm probably going to stay with the Hula StickZ as my 4" Ned body.

nearly exactly the same as last year's just smaller for easier portability to the bathroom