Leaderboard

Caught this morning around 10:45. Hardly any bites rest of the day. 3.6lbs, short and stocky. T-rigged black/blue Yumdinger. Interesting dorsal, or lack thereof.

Had a half hour to fish today between work and sunset, so I raced over to a local pond. The bass were going nuts all over the place chasing little fish. I threw out a Menace grub and caught about ten 1-2 pounders in 15 minutes. I then tossed the grub to a wooden retaining wall and something big grabbed it, but I lost the fish on the hookset. I tossed to the same spot, and same result! Third time I had him, and after a spirited fight -- he was pulling out drag on 17 pound fluoro -- I landed, to my great surprise, this huge blue tilapia. Must have been at least 5 pounds. I should have weighed it but it didn't occur to me at the time. The gash in its flank may have been from one of my prior hooksets. It is unusual for tilapia to bite a lure, so my guess is that the fish was defending a bed and not trying to eat it.

My last scheduled tournament of the season was last weekend, the FOBA Classic on Lake Gaston. This lake has really changed over the past several years with the spotted bass population finally reaching 'tournament quality' size. The LM fishing was pretty tough, so the majority of fish weighed in overall were spots, I'd guess at least 75%. I was one of the few that got on a LM pattern and weighed 4 LM and 1 spot on the first day and then 2 LM and 3 spots on the second day. Weighed 9-0 on day 1 and 11-12 on day 2, which was good enough for second place...But only 3oz behind the winner . Only two patterns for me...Covering A LOT of shallow water with a spinnerbait for LM's and fishing a Vision 110 on points for spotted bass. On day 2 I had to give up on the LM pattern after getting only 2 fish by noon, spent the rest of the day targeting spots, worked out OK but I wish I would have pulled the plug sooner - might have had time for 1 more cull . Oh well, still fun and getting paid is never bad!

Went out Sunday to check on the migration of the Crappie in the Potomac. Currently, they are in the creek channels and canal channels. In the process of searching with 2 inch tubes on 1/16 oz jigheads we caught Bluegill, Catfish, Ring Perch Bass and of course a fair amount of Crappie. Key was to find them on electronics and drop the jig down to them. They should be pulling up under cover with the upcoming cold weather in the forecast.

With big baits more of a lob cast or sidearm cast is safer on the backlash front. Select an average weight bait & set the spool tension so the bait just drops on free spool. Then try all six weights on. Use a lob or sidearm cast. Then try five weights on & keep adjusting the number of weights down to none on. What ever works best is what you need to use. Once you have the brakes figured out you can just leave them alone. Then when you want more distance slightly adjust the tension knob to fall more freely until you encounter a problem. Always make slight adjustments until you get the hang of it.

If you are bank bound, I wouldn't worry about deep divers. I would suggest lipless cranks instead. They are very versatile in that you can fish then at any depth. I will suggest strike king baits because that is what I'm familiar with and they are readily available in most outdoor stores. -KVD 1.5 square bill- colors: bluegill, sexy shad, chartreuse black back, and delta red craw. -KVD flatside crankbait- colors: bluegill, sexy shad, perch, brown craw, delta red craw. -Strike King red eye shad lipless crankbait- gold black back, chrome blue back, delta red craw, bluegill or perch. The last 2 baits I suggested also work very good in cold water.

Love chasing crappie this time of year about as much as I do bass. Buddy and I picked up over 100 today.

Side view looks like he’s got a nice scar across his back. Assuming that’s why the dorsal is abbreviated.

Can also push them shallow. Best week of fishing I ever experienced was on Ky Lake in March during flood stage. The water pushed the bass into the buck brush at the backs of the creeks and into peoples back yards. Caught my PB as well as more fish over 4lbs than I ever had before. I've also won more big bass pots during high water than during regular or low pool. That being said, any quick rising or falling of water levels will scatter fish. It will also cause them to congregate in eddy's. The latter is true especially for river smallmouth and walleye

Bought this from DSG. Somebody messed up and miss marked the Megabass lures to 75% off. I took all they had. Manager wasnt too pleased but honored the pricing.

WEATHER JOKE .... It's late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new president chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. But, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He slipped off and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" “Yes,” the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter." The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could fin Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen." "How can you be so sure?" the chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting a s***load of firewood."

Agree with @J Francho on the Premier series from St. Croix. Good, stout, and sensitive rods.

Then the Premier series would fit your budget PS66MHF2.

40s Ned Rig 50s Ned Rig 60s Ned Rig 70s Ned Rig 80s Ned Rig 90s Ned Rig

Menace Grub, hands down. Bluegill and Smokey Shad for moving bait trailers. And for jigs, green pumpkin, watermelon seed, and my personal favorite - green pumpkin w/ gold/purple flake.

Texas Rigged Plastics & Jig-n-Craw ?

When I'm going to be out for the full day, I put a Bass Pro flotation cushion on my seat. It's cushy and it's a safety device.

I been throwing a sexy shad One Knocker. I love rattlebaits anyway. Hadn’t killed em but I’ve caught a few. Yo-yo retrieve mostly.

I can't emphasize enough, fish with an experienced fisherman. A good fisherman, a great one is even better. Id pick an experienced angler over books and the internet any day of the week and two times on Sunday.

That depends, for early fall it would be a rattletrap or shaky head, mid fall would be a trap, shallow crank, buzzbait, shaky head, ned rig, or jerkbait. Once the water temperature is in the low 50s (as long as clarity is good) the jerkbait is my got to most of the time, followed by blade baits, bucktail hair jigs, shaky heads, and ned rigs.

Had a really good week fishing jerkbaits and blade baits in the C&O canal and potomac river. I've gained a ton of confidence in blade baits in particular. They've been catching all kinds of species. A 3 caught jigging a lipless crankbait off a point in the canal 14" crappie caught hopping a blade bait in the canal Small walleye caught jigging a blade bait in the canal. Never seen one of these in the canal before. 2lb smallie fishing a jerkbait with a slow steady retrieve. Biggest fish of my life, PB blue cat at 42lbs caught jigging a blade bait for smallies/walleye. Fought for 10 minutes on my bass gear, was surprised my rod held up. No wonder the target fish weren't around.

Here's a nice big one back in April, I didn't have a scale with me but this was a perfect time walking along the banks and seeing them protecting their bed. Hit them with a nice Shad like swim bait. I usually never catch anything out of this lake but I heard a lot of people go there for catfish. This is at APPLING LAKE in Bartlett. Since the winter is finally here, I took a break from bass fishing and did some White bass fishing out at Sardis Lake Mississippi. Here's a quick link to my youtube of catching loads of white bass, these things are so much fun to catch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn1TGu91cJQ&t=14s

They sent me one of these things. IT'S A HOOT!!! Don't think there's a chairleg, table leg, wall or piece of furniture in the house I haven't rammed it into. It may be indestructible. I now have a problem. Two grandkids, one Redneck Roadkiller. Looks like I'll be buying another one.

It's sometimes hard to remember that the original Ambassador 5000C gear ratio was 4.7:1, high speed 5.3:1 and remained that way for the 4500C reels my generation fished with. IPT wasn't part of any conversation back then, everyone wanted the high speed 5.3:1 ratio reels. The 5000 was the wide spool and 4500 the narrow spool, I opted for the 4500C and fished these reels for decades. Shimano comes out with the Bantam 100 with 6.3:1 and this reel is nearly 1/2 the weight and 3/4 the size of the 4500C, so I bought one and added it to my arsenal. The faster gear ratio 6.3:1 felt the same as the 5.3:1 as far as casting and retreiving crankbaits etc. Along comes Daiwa TD HTSA103 $ 105 in the early 90's, smaller, lighter than Shimano green Curado and had instant anti reverse no other reel had then. The HTSA was the fastest spinning light weight spool of the decade and I retired my other reels becoming a Daiwa reel users with 6 new HTSA with 6.3:1 ratio. This was the first time I noticed that after making a long 50 yard cast the retrieve was vey slow and hard to keep up with and control hooked bass. My partner used the green Curado with larger wider spool and higher 7.1:1 ratio and I had no issues keeping up the bass with these reels. Was it gear ratio? So I measured the spools diameters and compared diameters of spooled line after making a long cast...wow what an eye opener. Measuring recovered line my HTSA was 18" per turn, the Curado was 23" per turn, my old 4500C was 24" per turn after making a long cast. The slowest ratio reel was faster then the highest ratio reel, no wonder I was having issues. When Daiwa came out with Tatula R100 I bought 3 with 8:1 ratio to equal my old 4500C IPT when casting my standard distance and it feels the same. There is more to small bass reels then gear ratio indicates, IPT is important during the cast and retreive distance. Tom PS, Appologize for the long post.

Make 5 turns of the handle and divide total distance by 5... more accurate oe

I've got the Navionics app that works well on my Android.

Jesus, I hope none of your clients read this. With spelling that bad, (what are "creditials" anyway?) I would think that your "finance/banking/economics" knowledge would be remedial at best. Good day, sir.

Hi Folks, Found a Sears Gamefisher boat on Craigslist today. Planning on looking at it tomorrow. It is a 14 ft boat, tri-hull, white in color, and in good shape. The trailer is supposed to be in good shape as well. My main question is this: Did the factory put flotation material in the benches or in the hull of these boats? It appears to have sealed benches etc... I really like the idea of having flotation material. The guy wants $300.00 for the boat and trailer. Thank you, Lonnie

Thank you Bucky205, and everyone else! I've read every response, looked up every lure that I wasn't familiar with, and just normally liked everyone's response. I started to like your comment Bucky205, then changed it to a laughing face because I laughed about the just not where. But then didn't want you to think I was mocking you either and so I changed it to commenting instead! Appreciate all the comments my friends!

Had another good day out on the water this afternoon, I fished from 3:30-6 and caught 23 fish. Mostly largemouth, but a few white bass and a decent crappie annihilated my vision 110 too. Two soft twitches and a 1-2 seconds pause was the ticket today. Water temperature dropped another two degrees last night, down to 52-54 depending on where you are in the lake (still 6-7 feet of visibility). There was a surprising amount of bass that moved onto the winter areas today, much more than yesterday. Almost all of them came on steep dropping banks.

I’d call him “Spike”.

best I have herd in a while

Topwater then swaiver

The "right" way to fix that is a re-wrap. That said, if you put super glue on the foot, insert it then put a drop where it meets the blank it may last indefinitely.

First off, ya, I know it's not about fishing, and it is kinda corny sounding. But dang is it fun! I think this would be a good Christmas gift for nephew, neighbor kid, etc. But really, it's fun to play with as an adult too. It's all in good fun.

Virginia isn't too bad compared to more northern states. I recently was on vacation up north and got to fish in 35 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures with wind gust of +30 mph. From my understanding the wind chill for those conditions is 21 degrees...thats something I won't miss much. The ''fall clouds'' (dark ominous clouds that cover the whole sky) where very gloomy and I can see why so many people from northern states go to Florida for the winter and eventually move down here. I did get to catch a couple nice smallmouth bass while it was snowing and liked it, so I will still consider going ice fishing for one of my future trips up north.

I couldn't go 511 for sure but I think I'm sticking with 631 I have a hard time slowing down with 741 so I'm not changing. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

The new legend elite & legend extreme are highly similar blanks though slightly different. The elite has a cork handle & the extreme has a proprietary handle cover called extreme skin. It is not slippery when wet & feels good in the hand after you get use to it

I had a Jackson Cuda 12. I really liked their stadium seat design but still got some serious pain on my bottom and lower back. Mainly because of sitting in one position for 6-7 hours at a time. I spoke with an orthopedic doc about this and he mentioned that they are seeing a higher occurrence of this connected with increased kayak/small watercraft popularity. This was my main impetus for moving to the full bass boat as (coupled with lifting and moving the kayak) I couldn't tolerate it any longer. I do miss it. Just wish there was a way to mitigate this issue altogether. Hope you are able to find a solution that works for you.

Man those spots are some beautiful fish. Crazy colors/patterns!

For deeper darker waters the chrome/blue has been a killer for me .

Fished Monroe Saturday with some friends. It was tough fishing. Of the 4 of us I was the only one to catch any. I caught my first hybrid striper and a nice 6 lb LMB along with a few smaller ones. The water temp was in the mid 50’s with some wind creating some current around the weeds.

+1 on Navionics. Just an awesome app

So I always have packages sent to my office, so that someone can sign for them. Last time I was waiting I checked the tracking later in the day and it said: "Delivery Exception: No one to sign or business closed" or something like that.... I called FedEx, got through to the local supervisor, and was raising holy hell. He was taking his driver's side saying we must have been out to lunch, didn't open the door, etc..... I confirmed the time of attempted delivery and asked the supervisor if he had an email address. He said of course I do, why. Told him I was going to send him 16 different timestamped security footage angles of an open office with 3 people in it and a FedEx truck never even coming within a block of the property within any direction. About half an hour later a very angry driver showed up with my package

No giants to see here, but some solid chunks that I'm pretty proud of. Been bank fishing a few new ponds, and this one particular one has been very stingy. It's clear water, very shallow and dishpan like, coverless, with grass growing over the bank edges. Turns out, that's where the bass like to just hang out, nose to the bank (literally) in just 4"-6" of water. If you walk fast or heavy, or get close, you get a splash of water at your feet as they spook and shoot straight to the center of the pond. Throw a heavy bait along the shoreline and splash the entry, they're out of there. Land more than 2 feet off the bank, they won't come out and get it. Too close to the bank, your line ends up over the grassy edge, bait spending half the time out of the water. Needless to say, this was a tough nut to crack, and catches have been meager, but I finally put the pieces together last night and managed over a dozen bass. Something special and satisfying when you finally make a good catch from a place that seems to have your number most days

You didn't hurt it. About the only thing you could possibly do is bend the skeg and that didn't happen so no harm done. A lot of times when changing steering cables and needing to disconnect the motor to get them out/in, unbolt the motor, crank the tongue jack up until holding it balanced on the skeg so i can move it around to get the cable out. This is with two people, my arms are not long enough to reach the tongue jack and hold the motor at the same time.

One doesnt have to spend a ton on fishing lures with all the info on the internet . Even deep diving crankbaits . You can buy a few to cover every depth . If you get a Berkely Dredger in every size then you have 8 to 22 foot covered . My Long Lipped cranbaitk fishing this year consisted of all the Dredgers , a Wiggle Wart , Deep Wee R and a Fat Rap .

My motto is go cheap on plastics and expensive on hooks. A bag of Yum Dingers and some Gamakatsu hooks is all you need. With hard baits that I get cheap I will switch out the treble hooks with better quality ($) ones. Fishing doesn't have to be expensive but going too cheap will cost you in the long run.

? I ran the unit directly to it's own battery, and most of the interference is gone.