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I was cleaning an old computer when I found an old picture of a Big NY Upstate Winter Bass through the Ice. My Brother and I used to fish a lake near his house which was pretty big and if you fished it in the spring through fall, you would each catch Stunted bass on almost every cast. We used to assume that all the fish were stunted in the lake with an occasional 2lber but my brother discovered that targeting them through the Ice in the part of the lake choked out with Hydrilla so thick that you really couldn't fish most of it (This is before Braid & b4 we knew about Hollow frogs etc.) I forget how much this fish weighed, we used to call everything over 21-22" 5-6lbs and I kind of think this fish was 23" since that was a really good quality bass in upstate NY and in this lake, you could literally catch 5-6 Bass over 21" in a solid day of Ice Fishing. This Fish barely fit through the hole and I believe it was caught on a small Road Runner or small Jigging Spoon (We used to use a Hopkins spoon) We only caught the big fish in the deep areas over 15' in the areas that you could not fish during the year. I guess the lesson of my story is if weeds are too thick they can cause bass to be stunted which I have seen in ponds, but if you have a lake where you only catch small bass, try fishing it through the ice. Live Minnows will also speed up the process & it makes the cold not seem so bad. Here is the picture of my brother with one of the biggest through the Ice and this was Mid Winter with thick ice. Bass eat in the cold, especially the bigger ones, you rarely would catch the dinks in winter which still seems strange to me.

All you backseaters need to wear a helmet! Can't imagine a 8'11" crankbait rod with a few feet of line hanging down with 10X crankbait whizzing past your head all day! Tom

Hmmm, I've fished for over two decades with Big Game, have caught thousands of fish with jerkbaits, actually my first 10 lber was caught with a jerkbait and .... godang, I never thought I was fishing with the "wrong" line. If you feel 12 lbs is too stiff then use 10 lbs. Of course, what the hell do I know ? I have only been in this sport for just over 40 years .....

I seriously don't understand who buys Vanish more than once for Berkely to keep producing it. If you don't want to drop a lot of coin but still want some solid fluoro properties try some Yozuri Hybrid or some P-line CX. It's cheap and super strong. You won't need 17lb. I wouldn't suggest anything over .15 diameter as it will be harder to manage and you're not catching a bass that will require that much line strength.

I've had a slow 2017 until this week. Caught both in the same area, maybe same bed, 3 days apart. Both off of watermelon trick worm on a bubba shot. Battery was dead on scale for the first one, but it was 22.5". Second bass was much thicker, 22" @ 6lb13oz. For whatever reason they look kind of small in the photos, I'm guessing its camera angle. PBs for retention ponds+bank fishing.

Well, Facebook famous anyways From the Rage Tail Facebook page today.

Tomorrow will be the only day I take my laptop to class. This is my March Madness.

New Lines? How bout: "You got any sisters?"

I'm curious about any comment that starts with, "You don't need..." I mean, has "need" ever dictated what we buy when shopping for tackle?

Was it this guy, the African Cichlid compressiceps? I had one. Entertaining little fellow. Lived in a shell at the bottom of my aquarium. Retreated into the shell to sleep and when it sensed danger.

I used be heavy into the hobby. Had a fish rearing/hatchery in the basement, and several display tanks around the house. I eventually got onto the industry, worked as a livestock manager for an importer/wholesaler. That was around a 120,000 sq. ft. facility. Later I ran a high end "boutique" style pet shop and built and installed custom aquariums and filtration systems. The freshwater closed system actually used a huge ozone reactor of my design. In my years working with fish, I've had over 100 species reproduce. Some of my favorite spawnings were some unidentified Ancistris sp. "Bushy Nose" pleco, Lemon Tetras, and some shell dwelling dwarf cichlids. One year, we collected pygmy sunfish from the Pine Barrens in NJ. Those were really cool natives. Look up "Elasomma" and check out some pics. I don't do anything with them anymore, but I've been thinking of setting a small 40 breeder tank for some drwarf cichlids.

I don't think everyone is realizing the demographic for these rods. Every single one of these rods are built for a very specific purpose/technique. Techniques that the average fishermen probably just gets by with something else that he already has. Even further on the average fishermen aspect, these are Legend Tournament rods. These are $300 rods. Again, something that the average fishermen isn't spending for a rod that is specific for just one specific technique. The fishermen who is going to go out and buy that 9'11" Flipping Stick isn't the guy who throws everything into his Honda Civic and goes down to the local pond. The guys who are buying these rods are competitive tournament fishermen, guide services who are on the water almost every day of the week, or the guys with deep pockets who always want the best edge they can have no matter what the cost is. These are people who know what they need and they know how to treat their equipment. If these rods were being offered in the Triumph line ($80-90 retail), then yeah. You might see Joe Schmoe's buying these and breaking them because they have no clue what they even have. As for St. Croix not knowing what they're making with these rods, I beg to differ. St. Croix isn't just blundering blindly into a rod over 8 feet in a power that they've never made before. We're talking about a company that has been in the rod making business 70 years. A company that has been producing rods much longer than the traditional bass rods for applications like trout and musky fishing. From just looking at the St. Croix website, I see that they make a 9' Heavy powered musky rod in multiple different product lines. So this is certainly an area where they have familiarity with.

Columbia Men's Watertight II Front-Zip Hooded Rain Jacket. $40 at Amazon. I bought my dad one last season, and it was so much better than my 10-year-old Columbia rain jacket that I bought myself one too. I wear it even when it's not raining because it's terrific at blocking wind.

holiday is hot. fished from 2-dark and smashed them. biggest fish was 6ish and a mess of 3-5 pounders. I've got a tourney in 2 weeks so ill hit it a couple more times to dial it in. it'll take 30 pounds to win for sure.

Would love to have one of those but how will this fit into my Nissan Sentra ? it gotta hang out of the windows or put on the Thule Rack !

I would put away the Q-tip and focus on my knot-tying.

Anybody seen this thing? I wasn't sure how it would work at first but after seeing it in action it looks like it would be a really effective bait. Who hasn't had a fish blast a popper or just follow it to the boat after giving up on a retrieve and cranking it back in? Seems like this might be a great way to get those fish to commit when they're just following or not quite willing to break the surface to eat a bait, or maybe the bait taking off all the sudden triggers a reaction when they think it's making a run for it. I'm thinking it's one I'm going to have to give a try myself.

Seaguar is running a very strong value promotion for TATSU: buy 2 spools and get 2 spools free. In essence this allows an angler to get TATSU at around $20.00 a spool- close to what InvizX costs. It's a great deal. The website for details and rebate form is: http://seaguar.com/promotion/tatsu/Tatsu-BOG2-Offer.pdf

Looks like St. Croix is revealing their extra long rods to go with BASS now allowing rods up to 10' in length. What does everyone think of these sticks? https://www.bassmaster.com/news/st-croix-debuts-half-dozen-extra-long-legend-tournament-bass-casting-rods-bassmaster-classic

No, but I had calvus and compressiceps. The calvus came from the Brichard family's collection camp on Tanganyika. Compressiceps are a pretty large fish as an adult. I had a L. brevis, L.multifasciatus, and what I thought was L. meeli, but was probably something else. I had real Lanistes shells, but most of my fish seemed to prefer the empty apple snail shells! I never got the calvus to spawn. Actually, your pic looks more like a calvus "Black" but they're pretty similar. Really a stunning, if not a little shy, display fish.

i have a 9 ft. swimbait rod i've been using for over a year ..

I would assume it will become available tomorrow - once the classic starts.

I have had many tanks over the years. Mainly Cichlid tanks South American variety and then Africans. My favorite fish to keep were Oscar's. They are intelligent, as far as fish go. Mine recognized their owner and did a dance when they knew they were getting fed. Anyone else besides me entered the room and they barely got a second glance. Oscars get quite big though and the most I had room for is a breeding pair. I also liked the African Cichlids as they are very colorful. The Zebra Cichlid is a mouth brooder, very cool to breed them. The female scoops up the fertilized eggs in her mouth. When they hatch the fry come out but will quickly retreat back to the mothers mouth for safety. Now all I have is a small aquarium with a Betta fish.

I use & enjoy Suffix 832 braid. Braid may help with line twist on most any spinning set up. 10lb on the lighter side, 15lb braid's a good middle zone and 20lb on the 'a little heavier' side of your spinning gear. A-Jay

Frogs Togs rain suit at walmart camping section aprox $15

my local lake had iced out march 8 which is the earliest on record since 1873. due to the recent cold temps were back to almost 3 inches of ice hopefully some warm windy days and not freezing nights will get us back on track.... I have uncovered my boat and almost started it up.

Gin clear : Watermelon candy on sunny/blue bird days, green pumpkin on cloudy days Lightly stained water: Green pumpkin on sunny/bluebird days, green pumpkin w/chart. tip on cloudy days Green algae bloom stained water: Green pumpkin w/chart. tip on sunny/blue bird days, black and blue on cloudy days Muddy water: Black and blue all the time Wild cards: White for late summer/early fall when the algae blooms start to fade as all the bait in the bait in this color water seems to be "washed out" in color from being in low light conditions for weeks on end and white just seems to produce hogs this time of year. Bubble gum for bed fishing, and some lakes I go to watermelon red flake out fishes everything else in clear water. This is pretty much my formula for ALL soft plastics, not just senko/stick bait type worms.

The problem for Dee was not rod length but the fact he had no reel attached, he was in his own words a "Tule Dipper". “I started tule dipping in California in the 50s,” he said. “In that technique, you have a 12- to 18-foot rod. There’s no reel so you either attach a length of line to the tip or you run a length of line down through the rod tip and affix it at the butt-end of the rod. Either way, you have a length of line, about as long as the rod, and that’s what you use to present your lure.” Reference http://bassfishingarchives.com/features/the-birth-of-the-flippin-stik-part-one

Next 5 days or so day time air temps in the high 40's AND night time air temp ABOVE freezing ! That's the deal. Most local lakes have water on the ice, this bodes well for the home team. Without getting overly optimistic (yea right, who am I kidding ?) I could be reintroducing myself to the local bass population the first week of April. That would be 2 weeks earlier than last season but still Not Soon enough. A-Jay

I had success on the 3/32oz 4/0 twistlock light last summer while using 5" senkos. The bait still had the tantalizing shimmy on the fall and the bass seemed to enjoy it.

Walmart. They cut the price in half too. Last time I bought them from clearance a week or two ago, they were $1.50 a pack and that was when I really loaded up. For some reason they have all of the Mustad, Gamakatsu, and a couple other good brands on clearance and everything they are keeping in stock is cheap Eagle Claw bait holder hooks and pre-snelled hooks. Kind of irritates me but i guess after going through the clearance rack a few times, I shouldn't have to buy hooks for a while.

The acting in this is better than in the real movie.

Cabela's rain jackets are good and reasonable price range, Rain Stopper is on sale. Tom

This is where tossing the bone copper head RES where I have one with stuck rattles and another with them free, will give me an idea if it makes a difference. If I had a fully rattling bait last vacation would the musky have jumped at the bait as I was pulling it out of the water? All I know is they killed that bait, this summers test will be more telling because I will know which bait is different. Until last night I had no clue the gill bait had a stuck rattle. Obviously rattles or no rattles make a difference since SK makes three versions of the RES and XCalibur had two versions. Even saw a new bait on TW that has two types of rattles in one bait. Just not sure if minor changes make enough of a difference, but will be marking the good baits this summer. If I did buy multiples of certain colors and some were better than others I would want to know why. If I could pinpoint the reason and like someone said with the Cordell spots pick out the good baits in the store that would save me some cash and fishing time weeding out the bad baits. With a lipless bait I would think sound matters much more than color, just due to the nature of how they are retrieved. A Jay's magic bait is proof of that.

I don't use the weighted ones, but I use the 3/0 owner twistlock for both 5" senkos and 5" flukes; I believe that's the size Gary Yamamoto recommends too. I'm sure 4/0 would be fine too.

7'1 MF St.Croix LTB 7.3:1 Tatula SV/30# PP A really nice all around setup that comes in at mere 11.2 oz.

Got all this for $25.00. Clearance rack had all sizes and types of Trokar, VMC, Lazer, some elaZtech plastics, and other random things all for $1.00!!! I didn't have a cart so this was all I could fit in my hands walking to the cashier. I may go back tomorrow too good to pass up!

Amazing. All the double taps are hilarious!

Bring a large quilt or comforter to wrap around you when you get out of the water, or a zippered sleeping bag. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. You get in trouble and your buddy might not be able to haul you back onto the boat, and end up in the drink trying. Chalk it up to a life lesson, and move on. None of us wants to read about a fisherman who died trying to retrieve a seven hundred dollar cell phone. You hit that cold water and it could literally paralyze you in seconds.

I was buying 14 lb Sunline Shooter 200 yard spools in the early 90's from a Florida supplier named GS Trout Supply. Agree leader spools were first from Seagaur. Let me think, 1/2 the line drag going through the water hmmmm...braid! ROF can be critical, keep in touch with the jig is essential. Tom

With regard to the weights used by professional anglers, I haven't seen any paradigm shift. From day one, the pro angler tended to use more weight than the recreational angler. To begin with, pro anglers are pitted against the clock and finesse fishing eats the clock. In addition, the majority of a bass’s life is spent “OFF-the-feed”, which plays right into the hands of a faster sink rate. There’s no better example than KVD, who built his career on the effectiveness of the 'impulse strike'. I will say this, 20 years ago (mid 90s), fluorocarbon rose to fame as the new 'leader' material (I used it for saltwater leaders). Today however, a fluorocarbon main-line has become commonplace. Fluorocarbon is 'twice' the diameter of braided polyethylene of the same breaking-test. In spite of the overblown property that fluorocarbon line sinks, let me pose a question. Which main-line do you believe would require a 'heavier sinker' to hold bottom during a brisk drift: Fluoro or Braid? Roger

In surf-fishing, a long-cast is necessary to reach the swash, otherwise buy a boat. But the long freshwater wands I see kicking around violate the point of diminishing returns. The longest one-piece rod in my arsenal is 7'6", and that will be the first rod to find my overhead fan Roger

There are some nice fish being caught. In the upper midwest I'm just happy to get out. Last Sunday was my first trip of the year, this was the second fish I caught of the year (first was a dink). About 1/2 dozen like this one, not a bad start to the season.

Bass hunter and jon boat.Keepin' it simple.

I have no desire to get a rod that long. For me, transporting and storage would be a pain. I wonder how tip heavy they will be.

The line getting into the screw lock was the first thing I thought of too. I use these Owner Twistlock hooks almost exclusively and never have problems with the line breaking. BUT to make sure the screw lock doesn't interfere with my knot I screw the plastic bait onto the screw lock BEFORE I tie the hook to my line. It helps keep the screw lock out of the way. Oh, and my knot of choice is a Trilene knot...

I don't know what kind of boat you have but maybe this will work? I use something similar with a generic Bass Pro cover.

Pure knot failure. Hooks with screw locks attached to the eye you must use caution not to get the line in or around the screw wire. Tom

I have the 71XHG and I typically use 2 on - 2 off with the "dial" set about 2-2.5 and I cast quite a ways with it having no backlash