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Couple nice ones from last week. Caught these all day (about 20 total) the largest went almost 4 lbs:

Y'all had a backlash so bad ya had to get the knife out? My grandson & I were on the bayou this afternoon, he had me down 2-1. I decided to make a long over head cast but misjudged an overhanging tree limb...instant backlash! Now I'm one who keeps his thumb in close contact with the spool feeling for stray line. What I felt was line all around my thumb! One look & I knew it was knife time, not only knife time but I had to cut it down to the spool. To make matters worse I had just re-spooled yesterday & Aiden ended up 7-1! All I could do was grin & wink at him

My wife Carol walked up on the bridge above us & asked "dang Tommy what happened?" Before I could open my mouth Aiden yells "operator error"! Knew I taught that boy to well

Went over to a small private lake after work just to relax a bit! And BOOM! I didn't have a scale, but she was big! I spent 5 months unable to catch an LMB in Georgia, and only recently broke the streak. Pretty happy!!!

I disagree with not using grips on bass. I use bogas and will continue to do so. I teach my sons to properly use them. On the flip side, here's an old pic I recently posted of one of my boys holding a 4lb bass - his first drop shot bass on first cast. The (not boga) is dangling from the mouth. This is NOT good, and an example, IMO, of improper use of the grip. It was released immediately after the pic. He's 17 now, doesn't hold like this anymore. Why didn't I fix it before snapping the pic? We all learn. But FWIW, you see that hole in its lip to the right, under the eye? That was already there. This bass had been caught before. Hooks make holes, sometimes gaping holes. So can we also argue that using hooks is bad? Especially hooks with a cutting point like Trokars? A little education goes a long way....

Just a quick Public Service Announcement about using scent be sure not to get the scent all over you and on your watch that you wear everyday or you will smell like fish oil and garlic and it will drive you nuts trying to get rid of the smell. thank you

For me this comes down to priorities. And mine start with my own safety first and then for the safe handling of the fish. That said, I feel confident that I'm taking reasonable care to handle & release the fish responsibly. When landing a fish caught on a bait with treble hooks, after netting it in a Frabill Conservation series net, it's placed on a clean, food grade non-toxic silicone mat, I then use a Boga grip to hold / maintain control of the fish. I choose to use a 'hemostat' type pliers to remove the hooks. This is a light wire tool that does not possess much in the way of grip, so care & finesse are required to back out the hooks. This ends up being a little easier on the fish, (and the hooks) as well as being safer for me. This process keeps me away from the trebles mostly, and allows for minimal handling of the bass. Beyond whatever damage the treble hooks inflicted, I have not ever noted additional injury or hardship to the fish as a result of this process. If there is any at all, I have to believe that it's fairly minimal and I'm perfectly willing to accept that. YMMV A-Jay

Noticed nobody "liking" this post. Lol When used correctly, which is almost impossible not to do, they do not damage anything. Ever. It's actually impossible to hold the fish past vertical with them so the angler must support the fish which solves almost every case of dislocated jaws. They are also best for the bass when weighing the fish as you don't have to gill hook it. I almost always use them with treble hooks as I've had a bad experience that I do not want to re live. With the disturbing number of people who post pictures of their fish laying in the grass or on marine carpeting, it's hard to take this thread seriously.

Perch!!!!

tried out new lake this evening wow! is all I can say, caught 18 lost 4 more six of them above 4 lb. got two 4's two 5's one 6 and one pushing 7. two hogs right at the boat lost them. guess my new favorite lake!! they hit a frog a sammie a spinner bait and a bubble gum trick worm. i'm still grinning !! yeee haaa!!!

Who is Jon B.?

Here is my video from Perry last weekend. Only had five keeper bites all day and landed four of them. Managed the win with four fish for just over 14 pounds

It gets better in the fall when you can whack 5 tanks at a time. #23pounds

Over 58,700 members on BR - perhaps only a few will "get it"... So - the explanation: How to get the classic offset-handle style BUT with a modern blank? AND, keep it all in the family? Easy - start with late-60s/early-70s Garcia Conolon rods, salvage the handles, add modern Abu Veracity blanks - presto - form AND function! How to do it? Buy some old Conolon rods off of eBay that look like this: cut off the fiberglass blanks, strip the original handles until they look like this: send the lock rings in the photo above over to Hawgtech for anodizing, repaint the handles like this: THEN, send the handles and a couple Veracity rods to DVT for some "hybridization" ! So, what did I end up with? Well, with the slow IPTs of the Ambassadeur reels, what is their niche? For me, that would be cranking and slow-rolling spinnerbaits and bladed swim jigs. To accomplish that, I started with a 7' Veracity Winch Med-Mod, and a 6'6" Veracity MH-F. Due to how the handles turned out and getting the Veracity blanks married up with the handles - we are left with a 6'10" Med-Mod and a 6'7" MH-F. Perfect matches for the Ambassadeurs. MY THANKS to Mike (DVT) for taking on this very weird project ! I have a whole bunch of classic Ambassadeur round reels that will be rotating on and off these Conolon/Veracity rods in the future...

I would like to add one of the great lessons I learned in life. If you chew Redman put it in your mouth BEFORE adjusting your jig trailer you just drenched with Kick-N-Bass craw. Allen

Good to have you on board, but why hijack our fantasy fishing thread with self promotion?

If your true intent was to educate on the proper use, perhaps that would have been a better way to begin. I'm afraid that your OP comes off as a scolding, if not an insult, to all who do use them. I won't hesitate to land treble caught fish in my kayak with fish grips. In fact, the smaller the fish, the greater risk to me, IMO. I'm more likely to use them on a 14 incher caught on a DT6 than I am on a 5 pounder. The larger the mouth, the more room there is for error in lipping them.

I've very confused. I like JJ's so much that I sprinkle a few drops in the car every now and then...just because I miss it. And don't ask if I've ever just cracked the lid in January and taken a good whiff.....just because

Think the Russian's hacked it & deleted that part

thought I'd post up some pics of some of my favorite fish species Eastern freshwater cod (very closely related to the more famous murray cod) Australian bass Bream

i've kept my mail lady busy here in the last week or so..... jackall cover craws: islide DSG flash sale items daiwa ardito travel casting rod (been wanting to try one) replenishment order (all of it was 30% off!)

Pretty much this. Also, I'll net a crankbait fish, and then use the grip to keep the fish still while get the trebles out.

I was thinking the problem with certain grippers was the fairly thin or sharp metal variety would tear or gash the fish's jaw? I haven't heard of any issues with the plastic fish grippers I guess. I use them on my scale for weighing, much better than jamming the big hole in their jaw or going under the gill plate imo. I don't use them for landing or holding bass, most bass I catch are swung in and grabbed from the air.

NEVER! name your dog "Fetch", and then try to teach him to fetch. It simply will not work! Hootie

I'll try that. What do you recommend as far as lure types this time for fishing deep water this time of year? Crank baits? Jigging? Carolina Rigged?

Last year when my wife was with me and decided she wanted to try out this bait casting thing.

Same places I fish during the day

I opened the reply box last night to respond to this thread, but realizing the number of unknown variables, I got cold feet. => For instance, a misty drizzle might have more affect on fisherman than fish. In contrast, refracted light caused by a torrential downpour can be a big game changer. => Rain formed in the upper troposphere is usually colder than the lake water, but runoff water that traverses sun-baked soil is usually warmer. => A downtrend in water temperatures normally degrades fishing activity, and if you're dealing with muddy water on top of that, you've got yourself a BIG monkey wrench! => In a perennially dark lake, bass are well adapted to pursuing food with their median lines & auriculars. But in a gin-clear waterbody, a sudden influx of muddy runoff can take away the punch bowl In brief, adding a list of lures to an unknown scenario would only 'muddy' the waters Roger

Ouch! that looks like a nasty wound. Your point is well made if you think about the hypocrisy of a fisherman ripping a Bass out of its natural environment then complaining about using a fish gripper. If we were that worried about damaging Bass it would be better not to fish for them at all.

Taking the rig out for a spin on a perfectly quiet evening of solitude on glass... It never gets old! Didn't even get a nibble that day and didn't care.

Why? I never used to. Until I did this. Now, I use them all the time and a pliers to manipulate hooks out of them. I have also heard that your hands brushing the slimy layer of stuff off the scaly side of the fish leaves it vulnerable to parasitic infections that can also kill the fish. So whatever you do, if you have set the hook (in most cases hard enough to rip its head sideways in the water) then landed it (another fight as you rip it through weeds, over timber, through water as it thrashes about getting drug along by its mouth with big hooks jammed into its flesh to keep it coming your way) then flip it out of its environment into the air and onto your boat or into your hands or into a net, sounds to me like the fisherman has already given that fish a lot of "trauma" already. Getting the hook out and securing it with a plastic utensil is probably the LEAST brutal thing you are going to do to that fish while interacting with it, unless you put it in your live well and drive around all day keeping it in Fish jail. I am not going to get too sentimental about God's precious creature when I set about handling it to get the hooks out and get it back in the water. I love bass FISHING, I don't worship "bass." That thing has survived everything else I just put it through to get it into my hands, it will survive a plastic grip in its mouth (which has to be a darn sight more pleasant than the HOOK I just set into it minutes or seconds before), it will make it through the last minute or two of me getting it released back into the water. To me, the LMB is not an endangered species, it is a game fish, it kills without hesitation in its own environment, it is a predator in the food chain, it lives by the kill or be killed survival of the fittest mentality, so I'n not too hard pressed to treat it with kid gloves. It's a bass, not a Faberge' egg. Now I have zero tolerance for flippant disregard for the thing, or abusing it, or using it as a football for sport or whatever, but there are 100's of thousands more where the one I am currently holding with a gripper to remove a hook from its mouth without impaling myself came from, and its not made of fine spun sugar. It will live. And I doubt it will go off into the wild thinking "man, I didn't mind that big hook driven halfway through my skull, or that dragging me across the lake through the moss and over that log by my face, and even the getting hauled 6 feet into the air wasn't that bad, but those darn plastic grippers! Those things just irritate my jaw, that smooth plastic is like chalk on a chalkboard! Whey can't they just manhandle me with their big fat fingers squeezing me tight over my back scraping against my skin!?" So anyway. That's my take on pampering the catch. No need to be cruel to the thing, but no need for kid gloves either. The best thing to me is to get it off the hook and back in the water as fast as possible. That is what that fish wants most of all. To be back in it's own environment and away from you. So if grippers make that a faster and smoother transition and enhances my safety from getting hooked again, then grippers it is.

Thanks for the info. I did plan on spending most of my time fishing shallow. I do enjoy really deep fishing, and would like to at least try it a little bit during Mid-Day. I've been looking at my navionics maps this week, looking for deep points and humps. I'm hoping I can pick up a few throwing some deep diving crank baits. I don't know why I enjoy deep fishing, maybe its because I don't usually get to do it.

I thought that only happened with me, now I don't feel bad anymore lol.

With only 3 days to work with I would not recommend trying to learn deep water structure. Fish your strengths, there's plenty opportunities up shallow. How y'all are? The "pool" is Lacassine Wildlife Refuge in southwest Louisiana.

I always like to start with a reaction bait in over cast, and/or rainy weather. In 50-60 degree water temps, and lightly stained water, the entire tackle box is in play. Depending on wind conditions, my choices would be: Quite windy/breezy: Lipless crank bait Chatterbait Square bill Light wind/chop: Swim jig Suspending jerkbaits Bumping/grinding a Biffle head with a craw or creature bait on the bottom or Pitching flipping a jig to cover if they don't seem to want to chase in these conditions. Slick calm, yet rainy/drizzly/cloudy: Frog or other topwater Soft jerkbaits Wacky rigs. Now these are just general starting points, the mood of the fish tell me what to go with most of the time, because there are days when it's really windy and you would think they would chase, but are not, and vice versa some times on calm days they want something moving. I'll have all of the above rigged up and on deck during all those conditions described and rotate through them until I get an idea of what they are doing.

Best popper out there in my mind, nothing walks the dog better, nor produces such a good range of sounds. It has the perfect "blip" action.

Odd man out, I guess. I wear them only because she who must be obeyed tells me I need to. The one I prefer is the buff.

My Last Cast of my last trip - that's how I knew it was time to go . . . . . . My bait clipped a GroPro mount on the 'launch. Reel Blew Up. I made the 'are you kidding' me face, unceremoniously 'placed' the rig in the rod locker & went home. Tried unsuccessfully to pick it out the next day but eventually ended up taking the scissors to the spool which resulted in 12lb flouro all over the garage floor. Good Times. A-Jay

Got bit by several large reds, but none of them committed... broke off a huge black drum trying to land him (too big for the net, also Berkley Vanish...). Caught a lot of dink trouts.

There are nice brownies out there. Personally I've only caught one that would weigh. Lot's of shorts. That was May 2014.

LOL, have you ever actually bought ZPI parts? (Yes, I have)

Battery is heavy but if it's a wet cell you are asking for trouble. Put a plastic heavy duty milk creat in the bow with your anchor and any other heavier stuff in front of the middle seat. You have a gas tank, battery, OB motor in the back. Put your trolling motor up front. Tom

Thank you for inviting me to participate in your project. It was a fun change of pace. Enjoy the results !

I use the plastic fish grip on a 4' tether of paracord. I do not use it to land a bass. I just clip the bass and let her swim while I get my board and camera ready. Get on the board quick, snap the photo and then back into the drink.

I flipped my yak last year. Lost my cell phone, Garmin Virb Elite and camera mount, 3 rods and reels, pliers, a few loose lures, and a terminal tackle box. I was able to recover a couple of rods, but ended up not being able to recover most of my gear due to the standing timber I was in at the time. It was late March with water temps in the high 40's/low 50's, so it could have been a lot worse. If you were in an area with fairly open water and you have a good idea where the rod was, buy a chain stringer (the one with all the metal clips), open all of the clips and start dragging it around where you think the rod went over. I've seen several rods recovered like that.

Welocme If the hooks aren't rusted on your old baits, why not just add new skirts to them? You said you had some success with them. I'm a fan of Stanley's VibraShaft, although Hart and Hidlebrant are also found in my box.

Can someone translate?

Cast to catch video of a nice Wisconsin bass, caught on a 8.3" Mr. Zorba perch glide bait.

Finally get to take a picture without the Huk jacket. That one had the length of a 5 pounder and the belly of a 3 pounder. Looks like the spawn is underway on Lk St Clair. Another swimbait fish.