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Caught this toothy critter on a skirted punchrig glad i got my tungsten back

Isn't this just so Mayweather can pay off back taxes?

Last time I looked, Vegas has you betting $750 to make $100 ~ I'll not be donating my $$ for this circus act - A-Jay

Quit fishing the grass & start fishing the structure under it! The weed edge is a breakline The reason the weed edge is not straight is because of the structure under it.

I bank fish small ponds with a jig quite often. A jig may scare off some of the smaller bass so I am more likely to use a jig if I think there are larger bass in the pond. I didn't have much luck with jigs when I first started using them, but I stuck with them because of their reputation and with time my success increased. Now the jig with craw trailer has become a confidence bait for me, from a boat or from the bank. Also, at first I was screwing up the hook set a lot by doing a hard snap set, and I thought I just wasn't fast enough; but that wasn't the problem. Rather, the problem was that I was jerking the jig out of their mouths. Now I reel up the slack until I start to feel the weight of the bass and then I do a strong upwards pull, and I don't miss many that way.

Might want to check that second hashtag @Glenn Haha, I thought this was family friendly!

i fish 99% ponds, i love jig fishing, use them more when the weeds arent an issue. spring fall and winter. i love love love black and blue, black, black red, any color variation with black. i crawl em along. mainly jiggle. what i mean by jiggle, shake the rod tip. so the skirt and trailer move but the whole jig barley moves. i caught some of my biggest fish on jigs in the cold water seasons

If you look at the "weed" line & everything looks consistent but one area looks kinda sparse/thin odds are there's a depth change that is deeper. It maybe a cut, gut, drain, dip, washout, whatever y'all call it. If the grass gets thicker or even surface matted odds are there a depth that is shallower. It maybe a hump, ridge, rise, or whatever y'all call it. The key is these depth changes create an irregularity & should be given a few extra cast, flips, or pitches!

Fresh from the taxidermist. So realistic the cat is licking his chops.

Bank fishing with jigs in ponds is my bread and butter. Fish it any way you want. Grab a 3/8oz jig of your choice,throw a Rage Craw on the back and pitch it in the weeds and pads then tell me what you think.

Millennials need bling, loud splashes of color to hold their attention even long enough to spend money! Have you seen the color of the Winn grips and body on the new Lews reels. It is almost like a burnt orange. It actually looks cool. You should be able to have it stand out in a dark rod locker.

Had a really good day on the 6th. Came up just short of 20 pounds for my biggest 5, which is the cutoff for what I consider a really good day here. It was my first time fishing a craw tube, and it won't be my last. I had the fish I needed to go over 20 pounds. The one I broke off in the video slammed a YUM Magnum Christie Critter and had no give on the hookset, but unfortunately the line parted almost instantly.

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.

I like the new logo: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/

During a visit to a mental asylum, a Boudreaux asked the Director "How you tell id a person is crazy or just couyon?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub with water, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the water out of the tub." Okay, here's your test: 1. Would you use the spoon? ... 2. Would you use the teacup? 3. Would you use the bucket? "Oh, I understand," said Boudreaux. "A normal person would know to use da bucket cause it's bigger than a teacup or a spoon." "No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull out the stopper."

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.

If you pay attention, the big name brands are sticking to the plain old colors that we're all used to. Only the newer/smaller guys are using these obnoxious colors in order to get people's attention. My opinion? If you need to make something obnoxious colored in order to sell it, maybe you should design a better product...

Caught this last week just before sunset. Took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting a flathead to hit a topwater bait. It did put up a good fight.

This looks like fun. I just joined so that will keep everyone else from finishing last.

The last thing I care about is the rod color as long as it's a good rod.

Lebron james vs tom brady in 1 on 1 hoops..who ya got?

I catch fish on jigs anywhere ponds, lakes, rivers, creeks, etc. If there are bass there they will eat a jig

In a hearbeat - Don't fight the bite!! -T9

My neighbor has decided to create a wildlife sanctuary in her backyard. I suppose she's trying to bolster the local population of frogs and mosquitoes. The frogs are fine, and actually nice to listen to at night, but the skeeters form vampiric clouds, even during midday, so I decided to do something about it. I thought about buying some goldfish and putting them in there, but if she saw goldfish in there she would know someone dumped them in and might cause a stink. The next best thing? Gambusia (mosquito fish) these guys are native and will eat the crap out of some mosquito larvae. A quick drive to a friend's lake house with net, bucket, and of course a rod in tow, because you can't ever get next to a body of water without at least taking one cast. An hour and a few dozen mosquito fish later, I'm about to leave and take a cast with a swim jig. Reel reel reel pop reel reel pop reel WHAM a short fight and there she is, my personal best large mouth bass at 7 lbs. I wonder if I should thank my neighbor?

Time for a selfish stick

Buying this ppv will be like some of the lures we buy. They're meant to catch the fisherman.

I snatched this 5-3 out of heavy pad cover while bank fishing tonight. The formula: Powell Max 3D 8 foot punching stick, #65 Seaguar braid, and a Missile Baits D Bomb in Candy Grass on a snelled flipping hook with a pegged 1 oz weight.

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

Just got a glimpse of the newly redesigned Legend Tournaments. No more sk2 reel seats and different guides. I'm pretty excited!

I find reels with just the external systems are the easiest to get dialed in, easiest to adjust, and the pins inside can be tricky to get right, you can be losing distance and not realize it until you grab a different reel. Just my opinion but my buddy just picked up his first casting reel, He grabbed the Orra sx combo which is actually super nice and only $79. It is built with same material as the Revo for most part, just doesn't have the same internals but I think it is pretty much the same quality as the Revo S but that reel is on sale for $79 at several stores, the STX is 104 on Ebay as one seller puts the revos really cheap for a week every month. IMO the STX is not the easiest reel to get dialed in, but once you do it is super nice, so are all the abu reels down to the pro max. Keep this in mind....Shimano reels like the curado and citica hold their value so you can get a good chunk of your money back after a few years if you keep it in good shape. Same with ABU REVO's, Guys pay $70 for Gen 1 reels that look fished. Daiwa reels are also a good deal, as mentioned the Tatula and Fuego are great options. Check out combos from cabelas and bass pro, they put the vengeance with the Revo SX and few other reels I believe and you save money. If you want a reel that is priced awesome right now, casts super easy, light, looks really nice, good drag etc...Okuma Cerros or the calera which has 1 less bearing but they are great for any size lure, super easy to adjust, quality frames, bearings etc. Okuma also has great service if you have any issues. I like the Cerros better than many reels that look just like it and have similar features etc. If you have a Gander mountain by you you may get lucky....reels and rods went 60 percent plus for everything if store is closing, They carry tons of options since nobody buys fishing gear their but you can find your rod and a Citica for under $110 for both or Lexa etc. Guys are winning top quality reels in auction right now for crazy prices, notice all the citica reels going for under $100 and reels like ducket 320 which is 229 going for $80, Komodo under $100, Exo etc. This is the best time of year to be on point with Ebay and look for auctions or buy it now and search Just Entered. Prices will only go lower with Icast coming up. Just get the best value for you, if you like the feel of an Ardent Apex better than a reel more expensive, get it since all major brands have reels in same category. Orra sx is a fantastic combo. Rod feels just like a Vendetta without the color. Cabela's rods in a combo are the best way for price and warranty. I love Cabelas rods, the $40 Rod lifetime is just priced low, quality is fantastic, they use pretty good blanks many guys like. The combos put Revos or curado with $100 model rods and only cost $179 or something. Soon they all go on sale where you can get the Carbonlight and PQ at bps for $100. Time to fill stores with 2018 stuff at list price.

Jigs are great in ponds because you can not only fish them slowly through cover, but you can also swim them along the shoreline and around cover like a spinnerbait. I've caught lots of big pond bass swimming a jig I originally tied on to flip into cover.

Bottom composition can effect weed growth as well. If you see dense weeds, then a small hole or strip where there are no weeds, it's possible there's a rockpile, log, or other form of hard cover/structure that the weeds can't grow on. Find a spot like that and you'll find fish, probably more than one too. It isn't always about the weed edges either. Sometimes they'll bury up in those weeds and you have to go right through the middle to fish below the canopy. Those are times when it's really important to fish the bottom below the weeds. Fish will still use the breaklines to cruise and look for prey.

Well, after 2 months of skunk city, I have a 5 day streak going...even caught a gill on a 7 inch yum worm...and 2...TWO turtles. The latest bass, first cast to a laydown and it hit, I wasn't really ready lol...missed it. Cast right back same spot, another hit, missed it. then again. So I tried another overhanging branch for a few casts, and went back to the first one. It hit and I hooked it. Crazy. Then caught two dinks and 2 turtles. Moved to the pond across the street (haven't caught anything there but a 4 foot gator that gave me a run for my money. It even ate a bobber and kept coming after my weightless fluke. It attacked it and after I realized it wasn't a bass hung up in the thick weeds, cut the line. Then retied and caught a gill on the yum worm. So I feel like I got my mojo back, and FINALLY learned something about using plastics...Mainly from reading posts and articles here. 5 day streak, tomorrow I'll try to make it 6. If anyone from around here wants to bank fish with me, let me know. It's a great little quiet spot behind a business park, and the workers there come out and feed the turtles. We strike up some great conversation too. I have a few other places also, and I'd love to meet some local fishing buddies!

Boxing was also awful for years because of the "cold war" between some of the promotion companies. 2017 has been a ridiculously good year for exciting boxing matches, but I think the damage is done. A lot of the top fights are barely pulling any numbers now because only the hardcore fans care now.

I have such weird feelings about this thing in general. It's going to be an awful fight unless Mayweather either carries him or McGregor gets ridiculously lucky. If it somehow goes long (unlikely), it only gets worse for McGregor whose gas tank has been questionable at best. This is why boxing and MMA are both a mess right now. Boxing has improved in recent years, but it still suffers from a narrow appeal, fighters not knowing how to sell fights, and important fights sometimes taking years and years to materialize. On the upside, guys get paid. For MMA, since the UFC was sold, it's become a gridlocked disaster that's wasted talent by focusing on nonsense fights and selling fighters like Connor McGregor, Michael Bisping, and Jon Jones because they're marketable, and not for any other reason. I mean, Bisping, a healthy champion, just watched ringside while two guys that would finish him within two rounds fought for his interim title. So because of this, guys like Jacare, Romero, Maia, and THE ENTIRE 125LB DIVISION have been basically screwed. Meanwhile, fighters continue to not get paid, typically have little to no medical, have little to no endorsement opportunities of their own, and are essentially property of the UFC brand. The quality of the fights suffer tremendously, unless someone is a completely casual fan only buying the drama.

If you don't have confidence in jigs start small. Start out by using a small finesse jig and after you've caught some fish on it and begin to have confidence in it move up to a bigger size.

@EastNcBassinThanks for asking this question. I am in the same boat. Or on the same bank. Thanks for the info @Yeajray231 @hawgenvy and others. I will give it a shot myself.

I can promise Conor will last longer in a ring than Floyd would last in an octagon.

Come on....that's the same color I painted my house.

Ummm. Yea! Especially in ponds !! Get an 1/8 oz "bitsy bug" or any finesse jig and use a SK rage chunk... Not only will they eat it with the pitch method but they will also eat it with a slow swim, and those days end up being very fun. I use many trailers for jigs but in summer the rage chunk has been the best for me on a finesse jig. My girlfriend caught 4 or 5 using this bait last time we went and she lost a few as well. From lakes , rivers , big ponds (5+acres) , tiny ponds ( 1/2acre) a jig will catch those bass YEAR ROUND. I believe it is the most versatile lure a bass fisherman can use. The reliability from a jig is undeniable. An amazing part of bass fishing is all the ways they can be caught, but when struggling or looking for bigger fish there is a jig combo out there for every situation. Do yourself a favor and pitch, swim, drag and hop your jig all over your pond and see what happens.

On any weed edge, I look for transition areas where the bottom composition changes, or where a different type of weed starts. These are generally the areas where you see indentations, or points on an otherwise straight edge. Even on a slow tapering edge, you will see areas that thin out quicker than others. In your case, those tall stalks of weeds are either spots where the bottom composition changes, or small humps. Either way, those are the type of spots to key on. You're basically doing the same thing an angler fishing a piece of structure is doing, looking for something different along an extended piece of structure. In the case of weeds, it's a change along a large piece of cover. Another way to attack a slow tapering edge is to cast perpendicular to the edge. Your jig will swing back toward you as it falls, following the weed's downward taper. You may need to adjust the fall rate of your jig, or pop it off the tops of the tapering weeds to keep it following the slope.

Unnecessary. I have trailered bass boats for over 50 years all over this country and never had additional hold down straps. The big issues are bad weather and parking in a lighted area when staying over night and locking every up securely to protect from theft and making sure the rig is road ready and it sounds like you have everything in good condition. Enjoy your trip, what route are you taking? Tom

I left my mid-depth crankbait box on the deck all day on my last rip. The high was 91 degrees. Four expanded and the finishes split. SOLAR RAYS -4, Normans DLN-0 To Norman's/PRACO's credit, they offered to replace them but it was my failure to put them back in the locker.

Thanks again ~ And so how long before the 'old' LTB line starts showing up in the Bargain Room ? Oh my. A-Jay

Pennsylvania Bluegill

So, you've fished all the Cabela's rods?

Early Morning Topwater is tough to beat ~ #ilikesummer. A-Jay

sometimes you find something pretty in the livewell... at least we know what they were eating under the spatterdock.

@GrumpyOlPhartte very well worded What you do is not run-n-gun, it simply moving locations. During the 70s when tournament fishing took hold of this sport & I'm not talking just Pro Tournaments but local Amateur Tournaments the argument started over which "technique" is most productive. "Run--n-Gun" vs "Stay-n-Play" The Run--n-Gun angler selected a shoreline put his trolling motor on medium to high and away he went. This is the timeframe when we experienced an explosion of handmade/hand painted crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbait, & topwaters. The thought was cover as much water as possible thereby putting your lure in front higher percentage of active bass. The Stay-n-Play crowd believed in selecting 4-5 major fish holding structures and dividing his time between each. Now we experienced refinements in electronics, plastics, line, & rods. The answer in my estimation is the angler who is versatile enough to combine both and experienced enough to know which to select when.

I have the Cabelas Tourney Trail 6'6" mh/mf Casting Rod that I used for chatterbaits. I love that rod and I have no problems horsing fish in. All cabelas rods have a lifetime warranty. I have nothing bad to say about my rod, I actually recommend them guys that fish on a budget like me.