Leaderboard

A-Jay

Answer - when she gulps down a catfish prior to eating your jig!! This nice prespawn female was just short of 20" long and should have been in the mid 4 lb range. However, she had a hankering for catfish and still hadn't digested it when she thought she would add a small crawdad-looking jig for desert. She ended up weighing 5lb 2 oz, but didn't look odd or misshapen with the whisker fish on its way to her belly. She looks to have the frame to continue to grow over the years, especially if she continues to gorge herself like this.

A great day out on Lake Norman! We were catching them off isolated docks on secondary points. The reason I'm grimacing a bit is because that bigger spot just thrashed and ripped up my thumb. Gotta love that bass thumb!

Great topic title. You got my attention. Love crankbaits. Here's some suggestions... Don't just chuck-n-wind. If that's getting bites at a satisfying rate, great! A great way to catch a bunch of bass, fast, is by burning a lipless -hyper chuck-n-wind. It doesn't tend to work in cold water and sometimes it just doesn't work. But when it does, there's no faster way to put a bunch of fish in the boat. That said, there are often much better ways to trigger bass than by relying on the plug to do it for you. Often you have to trigger strikes, and straight chuck-n-wind often isn't enough: -Vary your retrieve -accelerations and pauses. -Crash into things. Bang bottom, wood, rock, weeds. For the latter, you need broken cover (openings) and clump edges. Fishing a crank in weeds is a lot about probing the area, finding the clumps, mapping them in your head, to set up casts that count. Crawl up over an identified clump, then when you get to the outer edge, RIIIIIIPPPPPP! it free. Often this will account for the majority of your strikes. You'll need a stouter rod for this -a MH casting is about right. You can rip off wood too, but it's more dangerous; Make sure you have a plug knocker handy. -Fish slow and methodical. I often use a crankbait like a jig, slow rolling, with lots of pauses. I once shared this with a friend who had started tournament fishing as a non-boater. After I shared how to fish a CB like a jig, he came back from a T having placed for the first time. Early spring lipless stuff worth doing: -Tiny lipless, like 1/8ozers, are dynamite in the spring. Spinning tackle, 6lb line. Don't be bashful, speed often turns the trick with them. -Yo-yoing: This works all year but is esp useful in cooler, even cold, water. Great in spring. Cast, sink, pull up a short ways (feeling the plug vibrate), then let sink again. Keep track of your depth control by lure weight, line diam., and sink rate. Vary the height of your pulls to find out what fish will react to. The colder the water, the shorter the rip (minimizing horizontal movement). -Vertical ripping: Similar to Yo-yoing, but amongst weeds. Great anytime, but very useful in cold water as you can minimize horizontal movement (which discourages cold fish from chasing). You will be fishing nearly vertically, so line up to weed wall, esp those with ragged edges, and cast short. Sink, come into contact with edges and rip free. Sink again, and repeat. Hugely effective. Remember to minimize horizontal movement. Plenty of other stuff to do too... Be creative; Crankbaits simply catch bass. Period. The only thing to veer away from, unless it's working, is the straight chuck-n-wind.

Texas Rigged plastic & Jig-n-Craw ?

#1 most productive lure for quality & quantity I've researched all B.A.S.S & FLW tournaments (Pro & Amateur), all amateur tournaments I could find results for (2001-2017), and the Texas Share-A-Lunker program. What I would have to mention is under the category of plastics would be T-rigs, C-rigs, Wacky, Drop Shot, ECT which are techniques. This list includes all worms, craw worms, lizards, creatures, tubes, Fluke type, & Senko type baits; which is why it's listed as plastic lures. The data shows a staggering 5 to 1 ratio. #2 is a Jig-n-Craw ?

I'm a plastics junkie, I throw em all ? Rage Tail, Zoom, Bass Assassin, Big Bite, Yum, Culprit, GrandeBass, Gene Larew, Lake Fork, Mann's My most double digits came on Gene Larew's 7 1/7" Salty Ringworm Cinnamon Pepper Neon Junebug Laminate

I think the answers you will get is that the best is whatever each angler has chosen as his favorite.

One of my more productive tactics is to hop Red Eye Shads off the bottom like a worm .

Seems like maybe a safe way to communicate would be to wave...from shore.

2 easiest line to line knots I know of. Alberto Knot Double uni

Conservation is a multifaceted plan that includes catch and release, habitat, and harvest. They all work together to make a healthy productive fishery. Any one of them can upset the balance dramatically.

It works the same way here too. Fish a black buzzbait all day through the timber you mentioned. I like a 1/2oz black on black Cavitron, or 3/4oz black on black Crock-o-Gator. As much as I don't like them, banging a squarebill through timber is a great way to get a big bite too. A jig, beaver, and big worm would be top options for me as well. Another that doesn't get used a lot but has been a great big fish producer for me, is a 7" stick worm (senko), T rigged with a 1/8-1/4 ounce bullet weight and flipped at the trees. Catches fish of all sizes but the big ones really like that big hunk of plastic gliding down.

Saw something kind of rare for the middle of suburbia. While at the back of a cove, I heard a group of coots scatter from the shore towards the water. I turned around and saw a Golden Eagle pinning a coot to the ground. Within moments, about 2 dozen crows appeared and started swooping & harassing the Eagle. After a minute or so of that, the Eagle released the coot and took to the air. As the stunned coot tried to get to his feet, the Eagle circled a few times with the crows still attempting to chase him away. Finally the Eagle did leave the area, after which the coot limped to the water to join his buddies. Pretty amazing for a non-country boy to watch.

I've found, albeit coming from Michigan, my bigger bites came on a Jig-n-craw or bladed/swim jig. But those are also my confidence baits so.... bias?! lol

It’s not just the lure it’s where and when you fish the lure. Catt always says he has jig and T-rigged craw worm tied on, start with those and add your confidence lipless lure. Me it’s a jig, big worm and swimbaits during pre sawn that going on right now. Tom

I was down in the Orlando area and fished one day on the Harris Chain. My first largemouth bass of the year weighed six pounds, two ounces:

Ran out just before sunset to beat the bank. The color purple ruled the day, with three 3-pounders in quick succession.

I had a great time at Toledo Bend, but boy was it tough! My partner and I couldn't get locked in on anything consistent. We were getting 13-15lbs worth of bites a day, which we figured would be flirting with the cut line, but they were never in the same place or on the same baits. Our main two "patterns" were steep humps and points close to a creek or river channel in 15-25FOW with a c-rig and football jig, and a ratltrap (ONLY 1/2oz chrome 1 knocker, they wouldn't touch red or rattles) on banks that had 7-10FOW where the boat sat, with a creek channel behind you. You also had to be in the outer 1/3 of the creeks for that bite to happen. The issue was, the fish weren't really following a pattern, you would find a good stretch of bank or two, try to duplicate it in 10 similar areas, but would never find them again! Same with out deep, we would fish 3-5 spots for every one we found fish on. We had 4 deep spots that produced multiple fish in practice, two stretches that had been decent with a ratltrap, and one small spot where we found some schooling fish. They were all spread out, so the plan was to just make a big loop throughout the course of the day hitting all of the spots. We had a 2 hour fog delay on day one, which gave us less time on our spots, but we still had plenty of time to be thorough. Stop number one was on our spot with the strange schooling activity. It was a very small spot in 1-5FOW, in the back of a pocket, unlike anything else we found all week. It was the only place we got them to eat a jerkbait, but since they were schoolers it made sense, and that's what I started with there. I quickly put 3 keepers in the boat, all in the 2-2.5lb range, we caught a couple shorts too, but that was all. We figured we would maybe get one fish there so we were way ahead of schedule. Deep spot #1 didn't produce, and neither did 2, 3, or 4, but we still had a couple spots for the ratltrap to pick up a keeper. First shallow spot produced a keeper for me, and 4 shorts (14" limit), which got our confidence back up. At this point we were no longer concerned about a 4lb+ bite that we had gotten every day, we just needed our 5th fish! No more ratltrap fish in those areas, so we headed to our starting spot with about 20 minutes left to fish. We put 5 in the boat there, but none were big enough! We were pretty bummed, because from what we did in practice, even though it was tough, 5 should not have been a problem. We sat in 69th place out of 248 with 8lbs 8oz after day one. Day two we decided to completely abandon the deep bite, and try to expand on the shallow stuff, even though finding areas with fish was really hard to do. We started again on our schooling fish spot, and we didn't get bit when we made our first pass, which was disheartening. But we knew they were there, so we put our heads down and stuck it out. I saw something break out behind the boat, it didn't look like a bass but I threw out there anyway. A few seconds later I popped a 16"er which went in the well. On the very next cast I leaned into what ended up being a 5+lber, our biggest of the day and of our whole trip! 5 minutes later my partner stuck a 4, and then a chunky 2lb+ fish. That spot was super strange, it was very shallow, and you had to just keep casting, but when they turned on, it happened QUICK! We stuck with the jerkbait for several hours, finishing out our limit and then culling our smallest with a 3.5lber. The jerkbait bite died once the sun got up, so we went and ran some dirtier water with ratltraps, where I was able to make one more small cull. That was it for the day, we caught a lot of fish, but none that would help. Our bag went 17-0 on the scales, which jumped us from 69th to 37th place, missing the cut by a mere 13oz! I sure which a little spotted bass would have latched on to one of our baits on day one, or any keeper for that matter! I was very pleased with our work, after a tough practice we were left scratching our heads, but we used what we learned on day one of the event to turn things around and give the guys in the top 30 a scare. We still have another chance or two to qualify for the BASS National Championship, and you can bet we will be giving it our all!

This may be because I've been reading spoonplugging too much, but focus more on where you are fishing rather than the bait. Once you know location, time of year and depth you can effectively choose a bait based on that. personally i would go out with the following T-Rigged plastic beaver or worm depends on the depth and cover squarebill or deep crank again depending on depth and cover and a big swimbait or glidebait which again can change depending on the depth of the fish

@june-bug Know exactly where ya at ? I started my career on the Big Pond in Jessie Lowe's Creek, Millionaire's Point, Jessie Lowe's Bay, & Tennessee Bay. I would probably consecrate my efforts in the north coves of Lowe's Creek or Indian Mounds.

"Uncle" - Strike zone creates a nice visual for understanding potential bass behavior, but is otherwise relatively meaningless from a practical standpoint...but use whatever works for you as an angler.

Well we can't so for sure one way or the other, but I'll leave you with this tidbit of information: I've launched many a time in areas like this. Most of the time, no issue - but I've gotten my truck stuck too. I know this doesn't help you at all, but knowing the material, and the capabilities of your rig, should give you an idea. For me, it's less the weight of the boat/trailer, because as soon as I unload the boat, the trailer is darn near weightless behind the truck. It's always more of an issue of 'will my truck get stuck in this knowing how far I need to back it to properly launch my boat?'

It's not so much the type of rod, but to get something in a rod that isn't available OTC. For me, it started with a 7' crankbait rod with a 8" rear grip. At the time, all rods of that length had grips that we're too long for my liking. Now Im on a Tennessee grip kick. I love them on my DS rods.

The growth rates listed are misleading, but I think it's designed to spark conversation. To that end, mission accomplished. Those values are higher than only 10% of the fish across their range (i.e., slow growth). The average growth rates for smallmouth bass are much faster: https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish-biology.html

I was supposed to go into Scheel’s only to try on sunglasses and I couldn’t resist these on clearance. I bought all that was left... I did however, achieve my original goal and am now in the market for some Costa Jose or Blackfin 580G Green mirrors.

Me with my lund in April.

Probably the easiest to tie is the Palomar knot. It works with almost any line, for any lure, it's easy to tie, and easy even in inclement or cold weather, it's strong, and relatively weed-free - it's a great general purpose knot and easy to learn. I'd take a look over at Net Knots....they have an excellent library of knots to start on for almost any application and include intuitive tutorials on how to tie them. https://www.***.com/fishing_knots

This is a great screen shot posted by EverythingThatSwims . The shad are clearly trying to evade the bass . A lure that goes through there probably gets hammered even though there are thousands of baitfish .

I love the Shine Glide 185, enough that I sold all my Deps 175. It swims and glides great, affordable, and flat gets bit. I fish mine on a Dobyn's 795 with a 300E Curado loaded with 20lb Big Game. I use the reel to move the bait, fast crank for a turn or two, then a pause, repeat. Sometimes I'll use the rod a little if I'm fishing it fast.

Caught a lot of <3lb fish Monday and had the lake all to myself, it was really nice other than being pretty cold. Got my first fish on one of my new swimbaits too. Just a little guy, but he smacked it.

I work there and I can tell you that someone made a mistake. But good deal for you. They are supposed to be 50% off regular price so you got a deal because one of the new girls at the counter didn’t pay attention.

Ol' Monsters(red bug, junebug red and black red glitter) and 1/2oz chatterbaits have aided in catching my biggest bass. I read a book by Bud Andrews and he's caught quite a few trophy size bass by dead sticking a worm near areas he believes hold bass. He would let the worm sit still in that area on slack line for up to 30 mins. It agitates the bass due to their territorial instincts. They see something that doesn't belong there and they will move it away. When you see your line moving off, reel up slack and set the hook. I'm gonna try that soon to see how it works. ?

I almost always have a zoom ol monster somewhere on deck in black or junebug (FL). And a double weed guard jig in 1oz with a big rage lobster as a trailer. Same colors as the worm above.

Pick lures that will fish well in the conditions you encounter and the bigger bass will come . A combination of bottom bouncers , crankbaits , spinnerbaits and top waters will just about cover it all .

Always Weightless wacky Jig Any surface bait

You can’t beat a big black jitterbug at night.

I'm way north of you. Balls cold here man. I've picked up on more than one occasion over the years that my first bass of the season was caught on a Rat-L-Trap. I have one on all the time, or its setting there to be tied on. On a bad or slow day a Rat-L-Trap has many times saved the day. The Red Eyed Shad is the rave now. Most likely as good if not better. Proven lure that you can cover a lot of water with it.

Awesome to see this! I picture @A-Jay with one of those cyclic shirt cannons, packed with soft plastics, just shooting them into UPS boxes around his garage!

You are near Livermore east Bay Area and as I recall De Valle has regular trout plants. Your lake is in pre spawn and the bass may be in 20'-30' depths staged on major points depending on water temps. I would focus on the multiple points near the dam using 1/2-3/4 oz football jigs with GYBC Hula grubs and ROF 12, 68 dark trout swimbait. If you want numbers slip shot or drop shot Roboworms. Tom

The mouths of both Josephine and Arbuckle Creeks are always good areas especially if the water is running. There is a spawning flat on the right side of Arbuckle and all the way in Josephine for a few hundred yards. Also try the back side and between Bumble Bee and little Bumble Bee island. Good Luck Mike

That commercial tanker is "constrained by draft" (which in terms we can all understand means - the pilot (driver) is not putting that multi-million dollar vessel & It's cargo aground for you) and that boatnick (not an official term but is a synonym for Dead Man Soon) looks to be in or very close to the navigable channel - once again - rule of gross tonnage applies - seen it time & time again. While assigned in the vicinity of several deep water seaports on the east coast - we would routinely have to 'clear the boatnicks' out of the shipping channel and path of larger vessels (escort). Because apparently there is some type of contest & cash reward I guess, to see who could kill their family & friends in the fastest & stupidest way possible. The competition was stiff ! I do not miss that part of the job. A-Jay

Fish on LMB, as TnRiver46 mentioned, I’d have to agreed this time of year 20-30 foot range along bluff walls and points might be the place to start. And the dam was always very good in the late afternoon. I know a jig, especially spider jigs work well there for bigger bites. I haven’t been there in a while, but the fishing can be very good. Good lucking let us know how you did, JB

Closest I've been to a bass in 3 months!

Get a decent VHF radio to communicate with boats in your area. There are two main channels which you can use to contact other boats in your vicinity, or to hail the Coast Guard. It is the designated channel for hailing other boats or to put in a distress call to the Coast Guard. Once you contact another boat via channel 16 you should switch to another channel for further communications. Channel 9 is generally used by commercial navigation traffic. It is used for hailing and for conversation. In this area channel 6 is generally used for conversation, but it can get crowded. Check with someone in your areal, and they can tell you what channels are used. It is an important tool for safety and navigation. Learn and know the rules of the "road" and learn what buoy colors and types of buoys indicate. Remember, in busy waters, the big boys, (freighters, cargo vessels, tugs, etc., cannot maneuver quickly so stay well clear of their course. You can hail them. You are not likely to know the names of those vessels, but you can call them using a description of where they are and where they are headed. For example. This is -------- calling the southbound freighter in the vicinity of buoy 6 in Buzzards Bay. I can assure you they will appreciate it. I lobstered for well over twenty years in Buzzards Bay, most of it in the steamer channel. On foggy days with next to zero visibility, when I'd see a large vessel headed in my direction on the radar screen, I'd call them, telling them what I was doing and then asked them if I was in their line of travel. If I was, I'd go to a set of gear that would take me out of harms way, and provide peace of mind for the other skipper. Generally I had the radar set on the six mile range which provided ample time to get out of their way. Like most other things in life, communication can be critical. A safe boating course should cover all these things.

Found this antique oak tool chest. Makes a great display case for some of my reels and lures.

Thanks to google for putting a *** article on the wifes phone about the prespawn, she wanted to go out today. Had another 4lber slam the chatterbait!!

I had a day on Friday that I have to share. I fish from noon to 1 PM nearly everyday during my lunch hour with two of my colleagues. We catch a few fish but rarely many big ones, but it gets us out of the office and lets us enjoy the south Florida sunshine. Friday, January 26 the wind is blowing 20+ but the skies are clear so off we go. With the wind at my back I send my first cast out about 35 yards and light a smoke. I start working the lure and on the second bump I feel that all too familiar tick and wind down and set. The first picture is the resulting 4-6 fatty. All three of us keep fishing and each catch 4 really little guys (I mean really little, 8" or less). Its gets near 1 PM and we call last cast. I have worked my lure nearly to the bank when I get torpedoed. The second picture is the last cast 3 - 15. Last year I only caught two fish over 4 pounds so I get two in that range in an hour was special. I was using a spinning reel loaded with 15 lb mono with a 6" medium action rod and a Havoc Rocket Craw (Watermelon with purple fleck) Texas-rigged with a 3/16oz bullet weight.

After 3 weeks where I couldn't even buy a bite, pulled in this nice 4.5lber in FT Stewart.