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The first time that I talked to my fishing hero was about 14 years ago when I got a 9pm phone call that lasted well over an hour. Although we have worked on some articles together via phone and email, I had never met Hank Parker in person. Well this past Friday I got to spend a few hours hanging out with Hank and it was awesome. He turned pro the year I was born and started his tv show when I was a little kid. So as long as I can remember, Hank Parker was my fishing hero. It was so awesome getting to spend time just chatting and looking at fishing tackle together. What a nice guy. He treated me like we had been next door neighbors for years. He even bought me a Mtn Dew. lol

My oldest son has asked to go fishing the last 3 days in a row, and I'm not one to say no to that! The great weather has them active, he even caught his first 2 bass ever without any help!

Even though I prefer to have a lake or area to myself when fishing, I do have a soft spot for kids who are learning the sport. Their interest in fishing, no matter how short lived due to childish attention spans or other distractions, can be stoked with a little success and a realization that results are within their control based on their decisions. So yesterday I am working my way down the eastern side of a cove when I notice a dad helping his 2 boys & daughter fish off their dock at the back of the cove. It was like he was spinning plates, running from kid to kid as they cast over each others lines and tried to figure out how to reel. Kind of humorous. In the 20 minutes it took for me to get closer to their dock, I caught 3 bass, which as would be expected, caught the kids attention. After the 3rd one, the dad asked what I was using for bait. Even though I was tossing a Ned Rig TRD, I thought it might be better (easier) for the kids to use a wacky rigged senko & still get results. I motored over to their dock and was going to give them a pack of the worms when the dad said "Oh, those are Yamasenko's, we have some of those". So I spent about 2 minutes showing them how to wacky rig them and told them that the bass were not really chasing today, showing them how to fish it slowly. I mentioned that the bass were getting ready to spawn, how they would be moving shallow and some different areas that they should cast to. I looked over at the oldest boy (about 10) and told him that he wouldn't feel a strike from the fish, more likely he would just see his line moving, so keep an eye on that. I motor away the opposite direction and no more than 5 minutes later, I hear the 10 year old yelling "Dad, Dad". Sure enough, he had hooked his first bass. His mom was videoing the the whole fight and they took a bunch of pictures after he landed it. Dad was handy enough to get the hook out and release the fish fairly quickly. I gave the boy a sitting ovation from about 50 yards away, to which he waved & yelled "Thanks for the help". With the seed planted, it will be interesting to see over the next few months if he is bit by the fishing bug or if this was just a cool moment he got to share with his parents.

Recently asked @ghot to build a new rod for me. It was a trout, crappie, and light bait spinning rod for bass. Took some work to find the blank that would work, but eventually settled on a Rainshadow Immortal 7' UL that Gary cut down to around 6' 8" which made it more like a L/ML. I had foam fore grips and Winn butt grip. Gary suggested the Microwave guides, which I had no experience with, but they came highly suggested by him so that's what I had put on it. I received the rod from Gary 2 days ago, man it feels and looks great! It balanced very nicely with the size 25 Supreme XT I put on it as well. I already caught several fish on it. I've taken my son fishing at his request the last 3 days in a row. I let him catch some fish on it today and he approved!

J E R K B A I T ~ and when things go according to plan - there's really no need to wait for the ice to actually go out; at least not all the way. A-Jay

3-4" curly tail grub on a 1/8oz ball jighead.

I cast, flip, & pitch with the same rod a 6' 10" medium heavy extra fast

Crooked guides end up in jail

I will repeat this story because it was one of my best days on the water regarding numbers of big bass. Dana a friend and tournament angler asked me to teach him how to jig fish, he was a finesse bass angler and wanted to catch a kicker when needed. Dana also wanted to fish out of his boat so I could only take a limited amount of tackle which was OK as we were jig fishing. I decided to take only 3 jigs rods, 1 for Dana, 1 for me and a back up. 1of the rods had a Scrounger jig already rigged sonI cut it off then decided to tie it back on so I had a faster moving lure to fish just in case, grabbed a bag of Sluggo's for trailers as a second thought. Put my jig box together and some bottles of different sizes and colors of pork trailers. The day started out good except another boat was sitting on the spot I wanted to start at, so I just waited for the boat working the point to move on and pointed out where bass set up on this spot and where to cast. Got into position pointed to where Dana should cast and watched. I am looking at the line entering the water for any movement that Dana isn't making, it moved and said to Dana to set the hook, he said why? You just missed a strike Dana! After about half dozen cast without detecting strikes I asked Dana to let me try a cast and watch closely. My line stopped about 2' off the bottom, set the hook into a DD bass, Dana was in shock! We fished for about 3 hours before Dana figured the bite out and caught a nice bass about 4 lbs, he was thrilled. I decided to run up another arm about 3 miles away before quitting for lunch, Dana was driving his boat about 70 mph I am setting in the wind trying to watch were he is going and noticed 3 Blue herons standing in the water feeding on something at the base of a point as we flew by. I yelled to stop the boat! Asked Dana if he minded if see what the herons are feeding on trout, got on the trolling motor grabbed my sluggo rod and started catching big bass for about an hour and half on nearly every cast. Offered Dana to take the rod, he said he just wanted to watch. After using up all the Sluggo's and the Scrounger jig losing it's collar the bite stopped. Dana said the total was 18 big bass released. Gut feeling to take the Scrounger, gut feeling to stop were the herons were feeding who knows but trust your gut feelings and things often work out. Tom

First trip out for the year was yesterday. We had ice on the water earlier in the week, and the water was 41* yesterday after a few warm days. Only caught one fish, but it was a good one.

Finally got a chance to give in

I despise Walmart. What they did in my area was had a tremendous selection of rods, reels, lures, etc. After they ran all the local mom and pops out of business they let their selection dwindle to the point it was not worth looking for ANYTHING there as the selection and quality was worthless.

Is there such a thing? Sign me up. These fish kick a LM teeth in

Hit a local lake by me for a few hours on Sunday. With the air temps close to 60* , I figured get out for the first 2017 trip. This was the coldest water i remember fishing with surface temps being 36/37*. 15% was still covered with ice. I managed three total, which I was happy about, a 1, a 2, and a 3 lber. Fished a variety of lures, but all came on a 6th sense crush flat 75x in around 5 ft of water.

The worm invented by Nick Creme, no other bass lure comes close to the soft plastic worm. Tom

Yup ... I don't spend much time with it but some of the biggest bass I caught were just after ice out with as slow of a retrieve as I can. Not fast at all.

Now we've got a problem! I usually wear a speedo on my SUP.

@awohlwend and I went to MC Saturday morning. He got a good fish pretty quick on the Dam off a finesse jig (3.75lbs), he can post a picture. Then we went about 3 hours without a bite. I caught a short near the mouth of the creek on a sizzle-fry jerkbait (my 1st on a Sizzle). Water temp was 44-47. There were 5 or 6 boats and a kayak out. They guy on the kayak said he was having a pretty good day and we watched him catch a short on a spinnerbait, other than that we didn't see anyone catch a fish.

Got to love northern Michigan

Sounds like they woke up for a day.

Thanks for the insight Tom! Now that you mention it, it is odd that those two were so similar in size. I actually tried straight braid today and caught my PB off of a bed in a power plant lake!

They're waking up ?

"Worth" can only be determined by the one that plans on spending the money. I can say that one of my six PQs was the subject of a 5-year long endurance test in which it reeled in over 1100 fish (up to 48 pounds) and probably made somewhere between 55,000 and 75,000 casts. I feel that I got my "money's worth" out of it.

Just Messing With Colors , The Green On The Top Is A Color Shift Green / Gold Its Shot Over Black. Mike

hey guys. i normally don't wait until feb. to start the new year's fishing, but my schedule just didn't allow me to go until this month rolled around. so i tried to make up for lost time. not the big fish bonanza i had hoped for, but i've been fortunate enough to catch a few over 5 and even some nice bluegill. here's some good ones i was able to get decent pix of. i hope winter fishing is going well for y'all.

So I've had a dry spell the past three weeks. I was itching to try a new spot and on the way I said a prayer asking to catch fish. The size or amount didn't matter, as long as I caught something. Well, here it is. The Lord works in mysterious ways ?!

Yozuri hybrid in 12lb test has been the best all purpose line for me for close to a decade. Three double digit fish. I use it for topwaters, rattle baits, jigs, Texas rigs, etc..Without any issues with breaking offs, abrasion, etc. People will tell you lime conditioner doesn't matter on hybrid- but in my experience liberal amounts the night before does matter.

I always remembered growing up as a kid and fishing as often as I could, searching for a big ol bass to bight but it never happened. Now I'm glad I can put my son on fish so he enjoys it and never looses enthusiasm, this spring it's my daughters turn!

Having spent most of the past 6 decades bass fishing California's deep structured highland reserviors, points are a major structure feature and holding area for bass. Learning to fish points is essential. First things first, are you a shore angler or fishing from a boat? Tom

Same Here (6' 10" is an ideal all-purpose rod length). When working in close quarters, long casts usually give bass a free meal ticket. Roger

Wow, right after I promised myself I wasn't going to buy any more lures this semester

Probably fit in the too big category

I just tried my new 70 out yesterday. What a great reel. I must say it was noticeably smaller than the 200i. I am impressed so far.

Fun day on Lake Anna today...Shame that first one was so skinny, it was looooong. Couple good fish and filled the day with 14 to 16 inchers, awesome for February. I also caught several sight fishing in less than 2 feet of water, which was fun and a little unexpected given the 49 degree water temps. Crankbait, Swing-head, and shakeyhead accounted for all fish.

Apparently this is too big. Seems the bass choked to death on its dinner

If you mount it to the outside portion of the console, make sure you have enough support underneath the console to carry the weight. A small piece of plywood to use as a backer plate to drill into. Rather than stainless wood screws, I would thru bolt it with fender washers and nyloc nuts on the back side of the plywood

I was thinking one of these maybe on the right side of the console ? Or maybe this one mounted where the cup hold is ?

I ways try to help the kids out when I see them fishing. In the past year I've given out probably around 2 packs of senkos and hooks to the kids, teaching them how to tie the knot and Texas rig them and a quick 5 min showing them how I fish em. Usually don't get to see the results but I can only hope those few worms I've given out have produced for em and convinced them to buy a pack or 2. IT was a challenge to teach my 6 year old how to fish with a Senko but he's slowly getting it down and actually got his first bass last year.

Even dinks can potentially swallow something like a hudd 68. Last fish I caught in the fall was on a hudd 68 and only weighed about 2lbs, not what I would consider a dink but it still had plenty of room left in it's mouth.

I have a Nucanoe Frontier, and it's awesome. A lot faster than you'd think it would be for its size. It does have scuppers at the rear though, but I keep them plugged. You can walk from one end to the other, and there's many seating configurations available.

In regards to leaders vs not, I think the obvious needs to be stated: No one wants to use a leader. Conditions, specifically water clarity, time of the year and the type of presentation dictate whether or not a leader is a better choice than not. To uniformly declare that leaders are never needed or that they should always be used ignores the factors one runs into on each body of water. The reason there are "Midwest Finesse" and "West Coast" tactics is because a majority of the bodies of water in those areas differ substantially from those in the South or East Coast. Using 65 lb braid with no leader to fish a small swim bait or tube in Lake Mead is akin to choosing to use 8 lb test with a leader while flipping a jig in Lake Okeechobee. Neither is the best choice.

If I'm being honest my gut feeling is correct more often when I have a gut feeling it's going to be a slow day of fishing rather than the other way around.

took a little trip to the fishing show yesterday and picked up a few things. i got 2 packs of havoc pit bosses 1 junebug, 1 black/blue fleck, 2 packs of craw fattys 1 green pumpkin, 1 green pumpkin blue and 2 packs of chigger quads 1 green pumpkin purple and 1 black/blue fleck. i also picked up a cool crank made by a local company it's about 5" long and 2oz dives 6"-8". i also grabbed a livetarget perch swimbait.

Control the things ya can & work with the things ya can't!

Why would a spawning bass that's cleaning house, decide that braided line is unworthy of housecleaning? For the record, I fish straight-braid all year round without any leader, but then again, I only target stupid bass with poor eyesight Roger

Lew's David Fritts Cranking Rod, $79.

I started recording some of my fish catches a while ago - I use a Garmin Virb. Super easy 1 button on & off switch or with a remote. I see it as a fun way to document catches and clearly offers more of the story than a simple photo, which I still do too. This turned into videoing more of the day to include pre & post trip clips which again allow for even more of the trip documentation. I have since added a GoPro which I'll no doubt use this coming season. Either way I don't do very much in the way of editing; none in fact unless there is a need. I do not add music or anything else. Instead I prefer to just turn the thing on and whatever happens, happens - I'll admit to making a conscious attempt to curb some of what could be considered colorful language. Usually successful. Basically I'll do them the way I like to watch them; including some narrative when appropriate. If a viewer can enjoy it & learn something in the process - I'm good. btw - a super benefit from the video's is one is able to grab Great Pics right from the video - often the kind rarely possible with a still camera - especially when fishing alone - no tripod needed. A-Jay

I use sunline mono and I really like it.

Here's a pic of a sous vide'd steak on the left, and an iron skillet steak on the right.