Leaderboard

Broke my PB walleye today on Cheat Lake, WV. I was slow rolling a 1/2oz war eagle spinnerbait and at first I thought I hooked a rock until it shook its head. 30", and 9lbs15oz of MEAN.

Nabbed a 12lb limit in 2 and a half hours this evening. Water temps ranged from 42-47. Blade bait, ned rig, and a slow rolled spinnerbait.

Decided to fish the south (deeper ) end of the lake and caught 7 , mostly on zoom super flukes in watermelon seed and red shad. Also Picked 1 off on the ultravibe speed craw.

So for my dad's Birthday I decided to make him some wall art for his new house using lures from a few tackle boxes I have found this year. We both love to fish, so what the hell, I gave it a shot. I'm not the most creative person in the world, but after 6 hours, I think it looks pretty decent. I numbered the lures and I'm going to put a list on each side of the box with the name, manufacturer and a rough estimate of when it was made. Y'all have helped me identify a few of these odd balls but these 2 seem to be a problem. The one with a hole in it I thought was a Spinno Minnow but it isn't. So any help would be appreciated and any input on the finished product would be great as well. Thanks!

Braved the brutal cold this saturday in NY and was rewarded with my first smallmouth. Hit a jerkbait on the test cast lol. Chunky guy too. Brought my new scale with me but was too cold to open the package with frozen fingers. Caught a good size pickerel on the same jerkbait

That's the kind of stuff I learned on. My grandpa taught me how to throw a baitcaster in the driveway on a fishing rod made of stainless steel. And to think fishing rods weigh ounces today. I have a Silaflex rod from the 40's or 50's that belonged to my grandpa. I believe they were the original fiberglass rods. My mother and grandmother bought it for him as a gift and paid $100 back then. As far as favorite pics, I have 2. My deceased mentally handicapped brother fishing with some guy wearing a Tennessee hat and the other of my grandfather on Lake of the Woods. Almost forgot. Love this pic of @Fishing Rhino on his lobster boat

when you have a 3 month old baby you don't see a lot of water.... when the wife says you should go fishing today YOU GO! nevermind that it was cold and wet.... i was in heaven yesterday, had the whole lake to myself and couldn't have been happier. also managed to land about 6 fish, all on the spinnerbait or s waver. great day!

This is an image of my son and daughter float fishing for blue gill. They're wading about knee deep placing floats along the edge of the foliage a few years ago. This is one of my favorite fishing related photos ever. They've both become pretty good anglers better than their old man. My daughter's tactile senses are superb and she's been like that since day one. An ugly stik would be sensitive in her hands. She'd always say, "I got one!" before I even see the line move and as she instinctively sets the hook, much akin to when Bill Dance hooks into one and smiles toward the camera as he sets the hook. Hard to believe my daughter turned 18 last month. My son is no slouch either and isn't too far behind with regard to bite detection or natural fish catching abilities. Also, I consider it a huge success when they out-fish me. Although you can't see their faces, the focus they had was pretty intense on catching 'dem gills, lol.

This was a great day!

My PB. It was quite unexpected that particular day: This Is a memory I will never forget. Big Nate(grandson) was on fire and his unbridled enthusiasm was a real joy to see/watch.

Number 11 is a lure called the Fincheroo by a company called Robfin. It came out in the early 70's Number 19 is a lure called the Water Scout from a company called CA Clark company. They started production in the 30's and continue today as the Spence Scout by Strike King Lure CO. P.S. Nice display he can be proud of.

I made an effort to point out the importance of being able to understand 2D maps or sonar and seeing in your minds eye 3D details by looking at local physical terrain. If you can't do this fishing deeper than you can see the bottom becomes very difficult. Bass move around they do not sit in one spot all day waiting for something to come to them to eat. Like the shoreline there are specific areas bass use to hunt and feed at and areas they rest, usually not very far apart. Suspending is how bass rest, they just float suspended in place at a specific depth using their fins to keep stable in a near sleeping state I call being inactive. When you see suspended bass over deeper water on your sonar screen with nothing near them those bass are more than likely inactive at that time. The depth these inactive bass are at is important because those bass will remain at or very near that depth when they become active feeders. Look at your lake map find structure nearby that intersects the depth the bass and or baitfish are at. Often a few active bass will be catchable on the structure and more bass should move onto that area as they become more active. The term moving up doesn't mean moving shallower, it usually means moving horizontal because bass avoid making big depth changes until it becomes necessary to catch prey, then it's a short burst up and down. It takes over 24 hours for a bass to reacclimate to depth changes of more than a few feet, it's a slow process. Your sonar is more than just a tool, it's your eyes underwater. Can you fish deep structure without sonar? yes if you have intimate knowledge of the structure. Without sonar you can't see the life zone depth without the time consuming trail and error of fishing. Buck Perry refused to use sonar preferring to troll his spoon plugs to determine what depth the bass were using. Perry fished ledge lakes ideal for trolling and pioneered deep structure bass fishing. Few bass anglers troll lures today, use your sonar. If you are not good reading your electronics hire a good sonar expert bass angler and spend a day on the water learning how to use your equipment, it's important if you want to be good at off shore bass fishing. Tom

Here's just a few. This was my first rainbow trout. "Yes, I'm aware i'm not holding my rod right." My sisters first rainbow trout, You can see how happy it made her to catch one as well. My other sister's first time catching her first fish. Here's one of my sister catching her first large mouth. Sister trying to get a rainbow trout. And now what others would like to see.

Caught this one and a couple others and some stripers bank fishing after work. 1st stripers I'd caught. Burning a 1/4 oz yamamoto lipless in some kind of shallow water

Christmas is right around the corner. Don't forget your feline friends.

Yesterday was a good day for smallmouth but I seemed to lose all the big strong ones I hooked. Today was kind of the opposite, I got lucky. Maybe the clouds made the fish eat the hook better, who knows but I got a 20" and a 19" and a some smaller ones. I also got a couple "Alabama smallmouth" (drum). A big smallie ate my lure and I fought it forever and ever with a flimsy spinny pole and 6 lb line. The thing jumped then bulldogged hard and just pulled loose. This fish had all kinds of head shaking moves that felt crazy on the end of the line. No biggie I lose giant smallies all the time. I took a little while to relax and catch my breath, even texted all my buddies that were out on the water that I had lost a donkey. I trolling motor back to the same spot and I think (not 100% sure) that the same durn smallmouth hit it again!!! This time the thing takes off like a rocket and pulled some drag (that I thought I had locked down after losing it the first time). I finally got clicked over to backreel and let the fish go way out in the middle. Took my time and finally boated it, nice 20" fish. That was in clear water medium current, hence the spinny pole. Back down on the main channel stained and raging current, I'm thinking I should go home because I'm just lucky and my buddy eric calls. As I'm jigging a big creature bait and drifting along my line starts swimming away. I dropped the phone and set the hook and boated a 19 inch fish! my lucky day!

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.

I also found onr but mine was trashed. I repainted it (hobby only) and it's a great walking bait.

Lake classifications are named after the terrain they are located in. Using the In-Fisherman classifications of Low Land, High Land, Hill Land, Canyon, Flat land is useful and important to understand when discussing off shore or deep structure bass fishing. My lakes are all small High Land class lakes with steep banks and few few islands and humps, mostly long major points and secondary points, the deep structure isn't miles off shore, it's a few hundred yards. I remember Catt posting an old Toledo Bend lake map and was amazed at the number of hills this Hill Land reservior has. Toledo Bend is a massive lake with hundreds of underwater off shore humps miles off shore that could take a lifetime to begin to learn, a structure fishermans paradise. We need to keep things in perspective to where we fish, how we approach fishing structure should be the same. Tom

If that's your first smallmouth you may want to retire!

Cut the dorsal off with scissors, use a big octopus style hook, and only hook enough of the gill (or other large bait fish) to keep it from falling off. hook it through the nose or just behind the dorsal fin. Wait till bass is heading or facing away and reel tight before setting the hook. Shouldn't miss more than 1 in 20 if any.

The Classic is up for grabs for anyone to win if they can qualify for it. Look at the recent wins. Casey Ashley won because he was on his home waters. Edwin Evers also won because he was on his home waters. Jordan Lee was out of it after the first day and got lucky with a few big fish to win. Same with Randy Howell, got lucky and found fish stacked and caught a bunch of good ones. Then you look at a couple other recent ones like Cliff Pace and Chris Lane. You really don't hear their names much anymore. Well you hear about them but they aren't making much noise in many tournaments. I think the AOY is much more prestigious because it shows that an angler can fish many types of different water and can string together a bunch of good finishes in a row.

The simplest and most straight forward way to find bass in deep water is to troll. Learn to troll and you will learn more about fish behavior - depth and location and your body of water. I know with the popularity of tourn. fishing it has fallen out of favor but it can be an eye-opening experience. I know there are some spoon-pluggers on here hopefully they will chime in - What you learn trolling can then be utilized with the myriad deep water casting techniques available.

The problem with deep lakes where no boats are allowed is that for much of the time the majority of fish are going to be out of range. The pre spawn and spawn is the time to target these fish to maximize success. The other approach is to find places within a casting distance that may hold fish at other times (these may exist or not). I fish one such place. I get puzzled looks when I show up with a 10' jetty stick and a 3/4 RES, but I can launch that thing easily 3 times the distance of anything I could do with bass gear, and I usually come out with a couple of big fish. I also do a slightly 'finessed" version with blade baits in other places. I'd go with "surf cranking" if I was into the whole technique thing....

I'm in PA and topwater was good into the first week of November. This latest cold trend has sent water temps down into the low 50s and I don't see it getting too much better. In all the years I've been at this I can say that once the water temp drops below 55 for more than 3 days straight, the topwater bite here will be done, we will still get some warm days but they aren't long enough to warm the water to get a topwater bite. You can still try it, there are 2 baits that I would use, a Popper or a buzzbait, the popper is slow enough that you may entice a strike or two and the buzzbait may get you a reaction strike from a fish hanging up in the water column. To put it in perspective, you might get 1, maybe 2 strikes on a topwater right now but there won't be a steady bite, shallow running jerkbaits are your best bet if you have enough water clarity, and right now is the best time of year for me with an under spin rigged with a fluke Jr. or small swimbait.

I see your initial guess of them attacking from underneath as the best guess. If they did inhale it from behind, one would think the rear treble get caught somewhere in the bass’ mouth. My bass are pin point bait attacking specialists. They know how strike and kiss a crankbait between the belly and rear trebles and still avoid getting caught on either treble, probably laughing at me during their retreat. ? I wouldn’t believe it either, but I saw it done with my own eyes ?

A lot of successful anglers with a lot of successful approaches, but every water is different and some approaches may or may not work for you. Here's another to consider... Structure, breaks and breaklines. If you don't know what they are, start by reading Spoonplugging by Buck Perry. Then, don't go deep looking for fish; go deep looking for these three features in the same place/area. That's referred to as a 'structure situation' (when combined with deep water). That's where you want to focus your attention to start. In these areas, cover all depths and speeds with whatever baits you want to use. You don't need to fish these areas long before moving on to the next. Revisit them several times a day, and on multiple days/trips. You'll quickly learn which spots are productive and when, and which ones aren't. P.S. A thermocline is just a 'breakline,' so use it as one of the three things you're looking for, together.

If memory serves, I believe the owner's manual for my 200 hp merc says to shift briskly into reverse. Shifting too slowly will cause the mechanism to grind. This is for a mercruiser stern drive. 12 To SHIFT INTO FORWARD, lift the Locking Mechanism with your fingers and then you push the handle forward with a firm positive motion until you "feel" the FORWARD DETENT. Do not shift too slow or the gears will grind. Practice shifting into and out of forward gear making sure to lift the locking mechanism and to use a firm action.

If the life zone is 25’ I usually start looking at the 20’ elevation lines for example, this becomes my new shoreline near or off shore islands or underwater humps. If there is a large flat area at 20’ depth look for coves, points, draws etc associated or connected to that flat that create a deeper break just like the above water shoreline you are used to fishing. No bait, no bass no reason to stay. Tom

i was a Marine Corps tanker stationed at Camp Lejeune. every fall they’d send us up to Fort Pickett, Va for a month to play around on miles and miles of tank trails in the woods and foot hills. awesome duty. we found some nice ponds and did some weekend fishing and camping under the stars.

80 yards of 12# Big Game = 1/2 spool at 40 yard cast isn’t my idea of a deep cranking reel, although the IPT will way down providing good leverage. Great reel however and looks in good condition after all the years. Tom

The terrain underwater doesn't change from what is above the water in a man made reservoir. When you drive to the lake the road is following structure because it's usually located on the valley floor winding along next to a creek or wider open areas with hills and additional valleys. When a dam is constructed the valley is filled with water covering the same terrian. Looking at topo maps of your area you can see the terrian changes in 3D and get a visual of what the map is showing using elevation lines. Being able to interpret maps into a 3D visual is critical to the off shore angler. Today's sonar units do a good interpretation electronically but you still need to be able to see the big picture to put the terrian into perspective. Bass like changes in depth that give them an advantage to catch prey or use as a resting/sanctuary holding area. Largemouth Bass also like to be able to move up into shallower water and down into deeper water without needing to relocate a distance longer than a few hundred yards if possible, Smallmouth tend to roam further distances making more severe depth changes. What I look for; 1. What depth are the bass and bait using now? I use my sonar unit in and around the marina to get some idea what depth the life zone is that day. 2. Where are the bass and bait most likely to be located based on seasonal preference. The answer is what type of prey is most abundant during this time period, bass don't need to go deep if the prey is shallow and will not stay shallow if the prey is deeper. The reason is bass use their air bladder to neutralize bouyancy when resting, so there is a comfortable depth range you see when bass or baitfish are suspended and this depth is what I refer as the life zone you look for with sonar or visually. So let's apply your shallow water knowledge to deeper water structure. Along the shore you look for places the bass uses to ambush prey like aquatic cover changes in weed types creating a hiding place. Deep structure has different elements that provide hiding places like rock piles, sharp breaks, stumps, trees, brush, undercuts, culverts, bridges, road beds, draws, old walls, fences, foundations and river/creek channels. 3. Meter before you start fishing. This is counter productive for shoreline anglers who like to stop and start fishing at good looking areas. The deep water angler is looking for fish on breaks trying to determine what depth to start at and what lures should be productive at those depths. When you reduce the lake to a depth zone the size shrinks quickly because few bass holding structures are present at any specific depth zone. Long points, humps, that have breaks like small flats and saddles are good starting areas. Good luck. Tom

Eufala is a classic deep water lake . Home of the Little George . I have a lot of success catching deep water fish but really dont know that much about it . First thing I do is look for a thermocline .That will be the maximum depth . Then I look to see if there is a depth most of the underwater life is congregating . I dont know why fish congregate at a certain depth but they do , maybe a higher O2 content there. Then with these two depths in mind I search out long extended points or other structure . I almost always use buoy's to mark the depth , fish , stump... My two main lures are Texas rigs and crankbaits . The key to crankbaits is they must make bottom contact . If I'm fishing 12 foot I'll use a crank that touches bottom in about 14 or 15 foot . Those Berkely Dredgers stay at the depth a long time and I have caught a lot of fish close to the boat using them . The Red Eye Shad fished like a worm has been very effective . I also fish channels , humps , road beds , flats... too . I'll often see a lot of activity say at 10 foot and the thermocline is at 18 or so . It will stay that way all across open water and finding structure at that depth may yield several dozen fish . Thats about it for me very simple but effective .

Fish don't care what kind or how big of a boat you're in

11 new replacements parts to repair reels and 4 appear un damaged 7 have varing degrees of anomaly or damaged elements so zero quality control or no pre visual inspection for pass/fail, just ship them. If one part is so poorly inspected how could the reel with the sum of parts be any different. When the consumer becomes the inspector you fail. Tom

My wife took this one of me showing my 8 year old the finer points of frogging this summer.

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.

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

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.

Take a look at this review if you haven;t seen it yet.

I have not thrown them since the cooler weather hit, but in late Summer when I first got them they were an awesome bait around boat docks & wood. I had a little luck over grass, but not as much a I did with hard cover.

they are very different baits as dink said, the bullshad is a multi jointed swimbait which has a quicker swimming action with some body roll and the suicide glide will have a wide gliding action kind of like its just wandering back and forth slowly.

Here in central VA i usually have a walking topwater/popper of some type, swim jig, soft bodied swim bait, chatterbait and square bill on when i hit the water. To be honest though, fall has always been a tough time for me in the kayak. Seems like all the fish busting baitfish are too far away and the bait i am marking on my fish finder don't seem to have anything feeding on them. Oh well, i'll keep trying.

We had snow flurries the other night. (Explain later) my first choice is the yum money minnow using a dying minnow twitch. Little short snappy twitches. One year in November just before thanksgiving I had to go fishing. It was light snow flurries. I tossed the money minnow in a dog legged shaped inlet off the main lake. I have a med/hvy older bass rod. She bent it in half. I never had a fish do that, after around 15 minutes of trying to play her she spit the hook. She felt like a rock but was pulling back. She was moving towards me. This told me to bump up my hook size. i believe in history repeats itself. If I get a second chance this time I’ll land her.

Look closely at those parts. To the OP - for $300 you have too many options to list. You can buy new or you can buy used in great condition. For example you can grab a Megabass IS71 Hyper Lariat for $300 used, or you can buy a Steez SV103 for $300. Shimano offers multiple new and used options as well.

If you add your regional location it saves members a lot of time and effort trying to help you. For example if you are located where Threadfin Shad are predominate then lures that represent bait fish that are pelagic and schools migrating to where their food is located work well, like A-rigs, structure spoons, tail spins or underspins. Tom

Picked up a Destroyer X7 about a month ago. Wasn’t sure if I was going to keep it or not. However, I found a place for it though. Paired with a custom painted Zonda 68l that has some internal and external goodies.

I think my UL casting combo is "finished", so I thought I would post it. It's a PX 68 with a DIY spool and BFS Air bearings. I have it spooled up with 4lb Trilene XL. The rod is a Kuying Teton UL. For a $50 rod I am really impressed with it. It will throw a 1/16 inline very well, but my thumb is not yet up to up to it with how low I have to run the brakes to get good distance. For now I mostly use 1/8 inlines and spoons and with the brakes at 10 a slight flick of the wrist sends them both flying. For the most part I have only used it for white perch so I wanted to try and get a larger stocker trout with it this year to see how it did. For the last day or so I have been trying for stockers with it. I ran through maybe a dozen inline spinners, spoons, and micro cranks without a single trout and only two hits total. At dusk today I gave up and decided to tie on popper and see what my little rod could do. That bass was maybe in the 1.5lb range at best, but it is by far the biggest fish I have caught on this combo. The rod was great, the top section was bent double keeping the pressure on and the backbone was way more powerful than I thought it was. I would have lost against any kind of cover, but for open water I feel totally confident with a fish at least a bit bigger then this guy.

Thanks, I actually just found a place within 3 miles of me that does it. Im just going to bring it over to them and pay the money to have it lubed and serviced and have them check out the drag washers. Im about as handy as a dead person.