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My style has change over the years. Started out I just what to catch a bass - any bass and it didn't matter what I had to do to get one. Then I wanted to catch lots of bass. Then I wanted to catch big bass. Then I wanted to catch Lots of big bass. Then I wanted to catch bass the way I want to catch bass. (which may or may not be the best way) Currently I'm looking to catch lots of big bass the way I want to catch them - pretty sketchy. A-Jay

Yesterday morning, I was mentally preparing for a tough day of fishing knowing the lake we were headed for is normally a tough one. Normally, it's not too hard to get bites, but the size is always the issue. The DNR has gone as far as removing the size limit for bass just to reduce the population in order to allow fish to grow (our club still maintains a 14" minimum). Don't get me wrong there are some big'uns in there, but they are pretty hard to come by and weights there usually reflect that. The lake or chain or lakes rather are fairly unique and almost overwhelming at times due to the sheer amount of grass and the lack of anything else. I would estimate that 85% of the shoreline of the entire deal is covered in grass flats that extend out between 50 and 125 yards. Almost all of these flats grow up within a foot of the surface, with some patches reaching the surface. The weather forecast was shockingly good, with overcast skies supposed to be holding throughout the majority of the day with chances of scattered showers. Winds were fairly light (3-10) and coming out of the south-west. It was just gloomy enough to keep most recreation pressure off the lake. Despite that, a local perch jerker was sitting right where I wanted to start things off so I moved up to fish a large weed point. To cover water and hopefully call up any early aggressive fish, I was throwing a rattlin' spook and dad was using his tried and true wacky worm. It didn't take long to put a couple in the boat after doubling back to expand on the area where we caught the first few fish, Dad had switched to a wake bait and pulled in one more fish that was about 1/8" shy of making the well before the sun came out and the bite died. We ran through a few more spots fairly quickly; a stretch of docks, a fairly steeply sloped point, some shallow cabbage beds, and a shallow mat of lily pads with trash grass that filled in the holes making a canopy. All of which held fish, but they were all tiny. We decided to move out to the deeper weed edge and hit that with a combination of creature bait and wacky worm and moved up in size and picked off two more keepers and some others that were at least close. Around 11:30 we headed over to another deeper weed line thinking we could replicate the pattern. The spot I pulled up on had some weird stringy type of grass I'm not fond of since it doesn't create shade and it tangles in your trolling motor prop like nobody's business. I kicked my trolling motor up to move up to some better grass quicker and picked up my jig. A few seconds after I stood back up I saw a thick patch of coontail moss so I let off the tm and dropped my jig down a hole almost right off the edge of the boat. I let it fall all the way to the bottom and let it sit for a second and my line just tightened up. I laid the wood to it and flipped it up in the boat, keeper number 5. Dad and I boated 4 or 5 more fish in that small little patch about 2 1/2 times the size of the boat. We ran back to where we started knowing there was some coontail in about the same depth of water (5-7') and sure enough, caught a few more legals, all about the same size. I had moved to a bigger creature bait hoping to pick up a bigger fish. We made another move back to the deep weed edge we fished earlier, but found a few boats around it so we ran to another spot I knew had some coontail, but it must have been just a little too shallow because we didn't even get bit. With about an hour left in the day we went back to the first coontail bed in hopes more fish may have moved in or it had settled enough to catch whatever else was there. Three pitches in a row I caught 3 more but they were all dinks, and then I hear dad yell "NET!" from the back of the boat. I turn around and see his rod doubled over thinking he's got the keeper we need, and that's when I see it shoot out of the grass...it's a 32 or 33" northern! I hear a noise up front and the rod I set down to pick up the net is starting to slide out of the boat, so I jump back up there to pick up my rod and there's no resistance, apparently a northern grabbed that one too and cut me off (someone really needs to invent braid cutters made of northern teeth as they would be the best on the market haha). We ran back to the lake with the landing in it, and fished a deeper section of grass with little patches of coontail mixed in, caught 3 in the last 15 minutes none even close to being keepers. In the end, we had caught over two limits of legal's and probably 25-30 fish total. Our keepers were all within a few oz of one another, so we were just missing 1 or 2 keeper bites that would have moved us up enough to win it. Ended up taking 3rd of 25 boats with 12.31lbs, missing out on 2nd by about 2/10ths of a pound and about 2 lbs out of first. Tournaments on most lakes in the area it usually takes 15 to 17 lbs to win so you can see how this body of water fishes. It was nice to put some money back in our pockets and build some momentum going into the second half of the season. Above all it was fun, and a great day spent with dad out on the water making memories.

My little one shares the same passion for bass fishing as I do. For a 6 year old she displays a lot of patience. In fact, there's times when we're not catching that she has more patience than me. Last weekend was special. After reeling in a few fish for dad she really was complaining about not catching one on her own. Then it happened, she said "Dad I got one". I gave her my usual response, "I'm sure it probably just weeds Ava" and then she said the magic words as she had listened to me before. "No dad I can feel it swimming". She was sure right and got to catch one all by herself displayed in the excitement of the top photo. For those of you dads with girls who are hesitant to take them fishing, girls can fish too **Edit- One more special part of the story she didn't catch that fish on a Barbie pole or even a Zebco push button reel. She caught it on a Stradic spinning reel and a 7'1" spinning rod that I had taught her how to cast that morning.

3.84lb chunk I got this morning. Texas rigged Senko to the rescue.

My personal preference is the dog days of summer, deep offshore structure, at night! I caught my personal best throwing a Rat-L-Trap on a cold rainy February morning. I won back to back tournaments slow rolling spinnerbaits against Lonnie Stanley I beat Larry Nixon & Tommy Martin throwing a Kill'r B in standing timber. Lost by 7 ozs throwing a Pop-R to Zell Rowland (still got that lure) If ya think I can only fish t-rigs & jigs, you'll only under estimate me once!

The WP 110 is quickly becoming my go to.........fished it like a popper tonight.

21 inches 5lbs. from local Kansas City lake on a shakyhead. caught at 10:00 am today.

Still running slow for me. Both PC and mobile

Parts delivery 1/3 New Zpi spool and some Hedgehog parts. 7.6g with Zpi Sic bearing is just crazy. Can't wait to see how it performs.

A good swim jig fish from yesterday.

I dont consider covering water run and gun . Ive covered most of the shoreline of a 200 acre lake in 1 day a couple of times . To me run and gun is pulling up to a spot ,toss a lure a few times , start the big motor and moving on .

Let get back to our topic of catch show case, would ya? It's been pretty d**n hot here in Canyon Lake CA. I think the highest reach 115 and still stay hot during the night. The worth part is my home AC went south and the guy won't be able to come out to fix it until Tuesday, that is SUCK. My friend manage to catch 3, two on walking dog and last on jerkbait (LC pointer) edit video added

Hauled in this PB on the lake I caught the first bass of my life on. The trusty popper at about 7 in the morning. She was a beaut. If any of you all have Instagram accounts, feel free to follow me: @derekjonfishing Take care!

My family and I are on vacation this week at Lake Harmony Pennsylvania. I rented a Old Town Vapor kayak for an hour. I took my Kastking Sharky II 1500 reel on a 6' Daiwa Crossfire rod. I rigged a 3" Yum Dinger green pumpkin with purple flake wacky style. I did this in order to appeal to the most species this lake offers. Bluegill, Crappie, Bass and Pickerel. I concentrated on casting at the numerous docks along the lake and landed this Largemouth Bass. I can see while people love kayaking so much. The Old Town Vapor was very stable. I never felt like I was going to tip. It glided through the water with little effort. The fight with the fish was exciting as I felt closer to the action than I ever have. I will definitely be purchasing a kayak when I return home as I really loved the experience

I respool with fresh line. I don't like low spools, personally. You can leave much of the original line on as a constant backing, then simply add 75-100 yds of fresh line (connect the lines together) whenever you start getting low. That helps keep cost down.

Let me just make sure I understand, a 2 lb fish was pulling drag? ya'll LMB guys is funny... The only time a fish that size should take drag is when he's bait, and everything goes dark. i think I'm going to open up a fish fighting school, and have the fresh water guys come out with med gear and catch 8-16 lb bluefish. It's hard to really learn the limits of your tackle when the green blob at the other end is just waddling around.

The key is being able to do both and KNOWING when it's right to do so. Personally, picking a fishy area apart is more my style, but there are times it's right to run and gun. Having a good pattern, or lots of local knowledge will allow you to do so. For example in my tournament this past weekend, we figured out there were better fish in little patches of coontail in about 5-7' of water. Since the whole shoreline from the bank out to about 12' is all just solid grass we bounced around from patch to patch of the good stuff. Most of these patches were only 2-3 times the size of the boat so we'd stop and fish them for about 10-15 minutes picking just that little section apart and then we were gone. I'm sure there were some fish in the surrounding grass, but there's no reason to spend 3 hours combing water that "might" hold fish if there's water that you know that IS holding fish.

All of the above are great options. If there are some open pockets or weed lines, I'd also recommend a weightless fluke t-rigged. It's very weedless. My favorite is the Yum houdini shad. Walk it fast and it will skitter across the surface, or work it slow with long pauses in open pockets. It's deadly on the fall.

First time ya break off a personal best you'll quit that nonsense!

@A-Jay @12poundbass In the famous words of Bugs Bunny at the time of his tangle with the Krusher, it was time to employ a little strategy when it came to my recent purchasing. Now to complete the box of 1/2oz squarebills and crankbaits....I think I might even use the same line...lol Picture below of the combo.

pick it apart with my texas rig, but i am admittedly hard headed, and this probably hinders me at times. i will throw a rat-L-trap in the fall (or early spring) along with some flukes or the occasional spinner bait. my old football coach ran the wishbone and we only had about 10 plays. but we could run them in our sleep. thats the way i feel about my texas rigs.

I admittedly spend way too long in one spot. I change lures too quickly, and locations too slowly...

Finally got one.

he "grand experiment" has been an unqualified success. Every bit of scrap/trash has been put in the barrel. Since I put the barrel in a convenient, but out of the way place, I have not seen a single piece of litter at the ramp. I remove and replace the barrel liner every other week, give or take, when the barrel is half full. No one stole the barrel. No one has used it to get rid of their home rubbish. Last Friday, I went fishing at Lake Webster. There were two barrels overflowing with trash. When we got back to the ramp, someone had emptied the barrels and picked up all the trash that was on the ground. There is a public swimming area at the ramp that gets a lot of use on nice days. Here's an image of the ramp at Sawdy. It is on the return trip. You can see a culvert that runs under 177, and the ramp is the light color just to the right. You can just make out the guard rails on the road. The upper level of the ramp is where vehicles with trailers park and the lower ramp is kept clear to provide access.

Simmple enough.

Do some Speed Wormin with the ultravibe from zoom or the paddle tail, Junebug or Green Pumpkin. Or throw a sluggo on the surface, still a killer soft bait just like it was when it blew up when it came out. kind of hard to beat a swimbait over weeds rigged on either a weighted hook or with light bullet weight, sometimes a small punch skirt. Gambler EZ series stays on hooks really well, Skinny Dippers work well, then maybe try either a Horny Toad or something more finesse like the Manns toad. Or just swim your favorite creature bait like the Rage Bug, Yum Mighty bug is awesome as a swimbait/topwater and not sure why but it is easy to rig weedless, all the appendages seem to make Bass Curious as they often follow it slowly and only strike when you kill it or speed it up. I love the houdini shad as well since you can adjust the tail to make it buzz the top,and or leave it as a paddle tail or a forked fluke, but I figure everyone is throwing Flukes and frogs so I try to use something different if in a lake where everyone fishes the same areas. A grub like the Menace or Devils Spear also work good over weeds. Lastly, I always try the MJ rig in and over weeds as the flash and thump behind the worm makes it easy for fish to find and catches quality fish. Best part of this rig is you can use a lighter weight and it will fall through the weeds when you kill it easier than other baits & sometimes you just catch more below the service. I like a small colorado hammered blade but most guys use willow blades. When it works, it really works, worth a shot and a senko is never a bad choice anyway.

My Kistler Rod collection.

If this is usually where you fish I would suggest switching to braid. Don't let them run around and hang you up, pull them out. This is easier to do with a stiff rod and baitcaster. But if you are running a spinning set up and are dead set on 10lb mono, I usually tighten my drag almost all the way down and once I'm hooked up give the fish some drag if I need to. I have 8lb mono on my spinning reels and couldn't tell you the last time I broke a fish off. Even had a surprise 10lb channel cat a few weeks ago. Not sure if and when your going to snap line but if it has been working for you don't worry about it. It's not a problem until it becomes a problem.

Same here. I prefer to catch them shallow, and on a jig or frog. But they don't always prefer to bite that way. I have won tournaments in the dirt with anchor rope line tied to pool ques, and I have won them off shore with a spinning rod

"I fear not the man that has practiced ten thousand kicks once. But I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times". Bruce Lee You are a Kung Fu fisherman!

I have had this issue for periods this season too including last Friday. I caught probably 30 bass in about 4 hours and I swear that 25 of them were the same size (12-14 inches, about 1-2 pounds). I moved a little deeper and that seemed to help a little bit as I started catching bigger fish. Seems like the most common responses to this thread are to 1) move deeper, and 2) upsize the lure/bait.

I'd go with the upgrade program and would get the Legend Elite. In my opinion the new Legend Elites are the best rod on the market. This is coming from some one who has switched from all Dobyns (I only used Champions and Champion Extremes) to St. Croix. I'm going to get yelled at a lot for saying this but IN MY OPINION (remember this is just my opinion) Dobyns are a little overrated. Sure they have a nice balance and they offer a lot of options but I think there is some better options out there for the price. I have the 7'MH Legend Elite and it is one of the most versatile rod I own. With it I fish jigs, trigs, senkos, paddle tail swim baits, swim jigs, chatter baits, spinnerbaits, and power shots. If you were to upgrade you'd be paying around $285 which is an absolute steal. I can honestly say that the sensitivity in the Legend Elite is about the same as the NRX.

It all depends on how much time i have. If i only have an hour or so,I will run and gun to hit a bunch of spots. If i have 3-4 hours i typically spend an hour or more in one spot picking it clean before moving to the next spot,regardless of if i'm catching them or not.

My style is to catch bass by whatever means necessary

Probably no tournament fisherman would ever accuse me of "running and gunning" but in terms of whether I spend a great deal of time in an area/spot depends a lot on if I'm trying to cover a lot of water and/or get a reaction bite OR if I believe i need to fish very slowly and methodically to get a reluctant fish to bite. I tend to fish fairly quickly until it's apparent that won't work. Then I slow down. then I'll slow down some more. OR, sometimes I may fish fairly slowly from the git go. Too many variables (including my own mood) to predict.

Crazy how hard they hit hellgramites isn't It? Catching them is fun too.

It sounds like you were at last finding fish, so that's good. With river smallies, you may have to think bigger, though. Like Smalljaw, I fish the Susquehanna a lot and there are stretches where you may cover a mile of river, even under ideal conditions and not find many quality smallmouth. Some water is just much, much better habitat than others. High water will cause fish to move and concentrate differently than they would in low water. The banks are a start, but choosing the right banks makes a difference. Look for areas of protected still water along the bank - small points and seams near oxbows are terrific examples - where the current is close by, but there's also a good deal of calm slack water that's protected. Fish will sit in the slack water often facing the current break. This is a good pattern in high water. Because the water is muddy, you may be able to get close and pitch jigs at the seam and any lay downs blown into it to target more active fish and then pick apart the back water behind it with something more finesse for the less active fish. Another effective bank pattern is looking for flooded shorelines (rock, preferably, with weeds). Flooded shoreline flats will have active, cruising fish of all species out moving and feeding. To present, you're going to want to stay back, make long casts, and be weary of your splashes since you're going to be fishing 6" to 2' of water. This is why a jet boat is such a huge advantage to even a decked out kayak. This is where being able to move quickly to high percentage spots can make or break your day. Knowing your river also makes a HUGE difference in being able to identify these spots in different water conditions without wasting a lot of time.

What happens when you snag your fishing partners lure on your back cast. I think this is the only backlash I've ever had to cut completely out.

Had some luck on the new Sprinker frog on Thursday. I wouldn't spend the crazy money some folks are for them, but for the $14 I paid, they're pretty awesome.

I always like to show the fish something they don't see on a regular basis. Although hollow body frogs and weightless worms work great, I still like to throw a Johnson Silver Minnow with either a curly tail grub, or the back section of a ribbon tail worm. Let it wobble across the tops of the weeds and when it reaches open pockets, let in drop into them, Same goes for the edge of the weeds. Between the wobble and flash of the spoon and theqaction of the trailer, you can clean up behind guys pounding the weed tops with frogs.

Lake Okeechobee this morning at 6:31.

My daughter "The Wacky Woman" is in town til the end of this month - so we got out in the West metro this morning. Holy Hanna! She caught a PB 5.91 lb largemouth - just an ounce shy of 6 pounds. Dad was just honored to net it for her

Had one of the best mornings spent fishing in my life. A friend of mine from church took me out to the local powerhouse chucking wire flies beneath bobbers and it was a blast! In 5 hours we hooked probably 27 fish and landed about 20 of them. Roughly 6 steelhead ranging from 12-18 inches, 9 whitefish ranging from 10-17 inches, 1 dink Atlantic Salmon, and 4 brute Atlantic Salmon in the 20-26 inch range. This guy has these fish dialed in! We threw all fish back besides two whitefish and my first true Atlantic pictured below. This guy weighed just over 6 lbs and measured 25 inches. Literally took 15 minutes to land this beast! Can't thank that guy enough for an unforgettable experience. Will definitely be back for more bobber take-downs in the near future.

Jerkbait crappie

Had a fun day yesterday trolling a keitech 4.3 inch pro blue red pearl. After hooking the second smallmouth on it, the swimbait got thrown off and that was the end of that. Tried different baits, but couldn't replicate the success. No complaints though. The chunkier one went 3.06 lbs at 17.5 inches (maybe prespawn at 54 degree water temps?) and the skinnier one went 2.86 lbs at 17 inches. Both were lowered back into the water after taking pictures and length/weight measurements. Fish on.

I've never catching a bass on a yum dinger so this was a first for me, I wanted to change things up. I went with a pack of Watermelon Red Flake and June Bug in four inch. After waiting for countless hours and wanting to give up my sister and i both caught alright size bass on them and best part we both didn't lose our bait Release was easy got em right in the lip, Overall an okay day.

Largemouth bass strike nearly everything by the head or front end of something moving. One exception can be big worms that are bit as they fall down through the water column can be grabbed in the middle or by the tail end. If you are retrieving a big worm along the bottom the hook set can be as quick as any other size worm. On the fall I usually wait a few seconds unless my line is moving, then I set the hook quickly. My retrieve technique with big worms is a slow drag then pause and shake the rod tip into slightly slack line pause and drag about 1' and repeat. Big hopes and longer lifts rarely work for me. Keeping in touch with the structure and cover with a slower retreive takes time, concentration and dedication to fish big worms, the results are usually worth the effort. Tom

Caught this one on a grape shad culprit worm last week.