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The lowly crayfish is a scavenger cleaning up the lake bottom by eating dead or dieing fish and aquatic vegetation. Crayfish or what we bass anglers call crawdads are found nearly everywhere bass live and are a high protein food source for every specie of Black bass year around. Why do bass, especially the big females, target crawdads during pre spawn? The answer is simple, they are available in large quantities following the cold water period as the water warms above 50 to 55 degrees, the same time big female bass are looking for high protein food to fatten up for the spawn when they fast. Crawdads like to burrow into clay banks or hide deep under rocks or under water wood. There is a crawdad migration when they dig out and start the molting process shedding thier hard shells and bass hunt these crawdads. At no other time of the year crawdads will be more vulnerable to predatation from bass, the cover is sparse and the bass are hungry after the long winter cold water period. Jigs are your best lure to mimic crawdads and working the clay banks with rocks and wood uphill or slightly down hill with a crawdad profile jig is hard to beat. Tom

Every two minutes, a child is diagnosed with cancer. To show my support and to raise awareness and funds for research, I'll be getting my head shaved on Monday. Look for before and after pics (if you don't have a weak stomach) here sometime late Mon. morning, or you can see it happening on FaceBook as I'll be streaming it live at 10:30 central time. I should say my son-in-law will be streaming it 'cause my hair would be grown back before I figure out how to. Before and after pics can also be seen at stbaldricks.org I'm shavee #952317 Joe Cortesi

Red Swamp Crayfish from the Tidal Potomac River. He was either giving me the big thumbs up or threatening to pinch me.

When I temporarily moved to Florida from Virginia to a house on the St Johns River with a dock and lift, I thought I was going to wear the big bass out as soon as I dropped my boat in the water!! After all, I was a guide with a lot of experience under my belt, I knew how to find fish, read the water and had fair electronics. WRONG!! 30 days later of fishing almost every day after work and on the weekends, I still had not caught a single bass!! NOT 1!! To say I was frustrated was a total understatement. Then I hooked up with a true Floridian who grew up on the river and was a tournament fisherman and he showed me what I was doing wrong (almost everything). I learned that I was where the fish were but I was fishing for them all wrong.......and it showed.

You have a minor addiction. I have never counted mine but I have a minimum of 300 to 400 jerkbaits. I carry a minimum of 15-18 jerkbait boxes in my boat. For under $15 price point you can pick from Rapala, Smithwick, KVD, Rebel, Bagley, Duo Realis. Ima, Storm, Spro,Yo-Zuri, Bomber, some Lucky Craft and the list goes on. My favorites are Rapala, Smithwick, Ima, Duo Realis & LC with honorable mention to Rebel.

"Wind knots" in braid on spinning reels is from twist. How did you put the line on? The solution is the same for any type of line. Let out 75 yards or so, and troll for a a few hundred yards. Then reel in slowly with some tension, using your fingers.

My lab ended early today and I already had my truck packed just incase. Fished a pond/swamp and had an awesome time! Fish were up in 2FOW which shocked me, (stuff was frozen over less than 2 weeks ago) I had one blow up on my chatterbait as I pulled it out of the water. I also watched one come up out of the grass in 2' and eat my chatterbait close enough to me that the hook set was a boat flip. Also got to cross a couple eyes with a jig on 20lb fluoro which always feels good. Ended up landing 7 bass and they were all over 14" so in WV that is a darn good day. Looks like 2-3" of rain on the way, should be an interesting weekend of fishing for sure

Click on menu, then fishing articles, scroll down a little bit and there is a whole library of articles with seasonal patterns as the subject.

Spent about an hour talking Midwest fishing history with a living legend last night...

I have a serious addiction to jerkbaits, and to make matters worse, I work at Cabelas. Without even exaggerating by 1, I have 51 jerkbaits. They are pretty much from all the different manufacturers, but what I have learned is that the Rapala Shadow Rap, Lucky Craft Pointer, and KVD Jerkbait are the 3 most consistent when it comes to being able to just take the lure out of the package and fish without defects or adjustments needing to be made. I have tried them all due to the fact that I could afford some of the higher priced ones using my employee discount. My 3 faves as I mentioned in order are Shadow Rap, Pointer, and KVD Jerkbait.

I've got a good selection of Rapala Husky Jerks, Rapala Originals, Smithwick Rogues and Rebel Minnows. All work for me pretty good but the Husky Jerks are my go to jerkbaits.

X rap has always worked best for me but they are also the most expensive ones I have ever thrown. Surely rogues Work but I haven’t ever had any luck with them. When it comes to floating jerk bait I like cotton Cordell, although I used to have some lures called Excalibur ghost minnow that were good. I’m not sure if they are still manufactured.

I like to put beer in my coolers .

tracker dealer yesterday told me I could leave footpedal for trolling motor loose or screw it down wherever i wanted.Your dealer must be full of it.

I have been a sleeper on here since Dec. I ordered my boat on 1/16 and she is now sitting at home as of 2 hours ago. I was told today that they never seen this demand coming and they are running 3 shifts and a new boat comes off the line every 45 minutes. How true, I don’t know, but that is what I was told. I have a 17’ Bullet bass boat that will flat out run and scare the demons out of you. I am looking forward to slowing down now and going places I won’t take my Bullet. Let those fellers at the boat ramp laugh at me in my new Heritage and call me a noob. I will take their $$ from them in this boat if need be. I love this boat already and I haven’t set it in the H2O yet. Be proud of what you have and just smile at the ones that want to call you a noob or all that boat ramp trash talk. I do believe I made a wise purchase and see lots of fish in our future. Be safe and hammer some fish with this warming weather that is coming.

One rod and a vest stuffed with lures .

Ordered a set of Ultimate Bunk Boards for the trailer on Monday. Had them on my Roughneck trailer and liked them. Very nice for unloading on shallow ramps common on little lakes and rivers. Tried my hand at a camo paint job on the boat after watching several Youtube videos, turned out pretty well for my first time doing it.

Throw your baits with hook etc on a scale. You might be surprised at how hefty they actually are. Chances are your regular reels will work just fine.

Finally getting some white bass, normal years I'm already sick of them by now

Good morning with spring coming up I was wondering how come as a fourm we don’t help the newer bass fisherman(like my self) understand maps and seasonal patterns. Wouldn’t it be a great learning tool for a lot of people? ideas I had idk if this is allowed but one person who believes they understand it well post a map of x lake. And explain how fish are coming from the deeper water to spawning flats during the beginning of spring and show a great example of what exactly a spawning flat is. Side note when I first started it was very overwhelming hearing speaking flat and saddles etc just because I had no idea what any of that meant but it seemed like everyone (most on here) knew because how long they have fished. Wouldn’t it just a nice guide for people heading to the lake to be ok so they are transitioning over to the spawning flats off this deep point...oh ok that’s exactly what a spawning flat looks like. If this is a a bad idea by no means shut it down. Just figured it would be a good learning thread.

The 2018 Bantam as a JDM model is available in a 5.5:1. Reel capacity is 145 yds of 10lb mono. Pre order @ $284 JDM 15 Curado 200 PG is available in a 5.5:1 with 130yds of 12lb mono @ $159

my guess is it's not a hardware issue but rather a retrieve issue. make sure you have plenty of slack in the line while snapping but only 'take' a little back i.e. slack 36" of line but snapback 38". if you're slacking too little line, snapping back too much, or snapping too forceful you'll end up pull the lure which definitely shortens the glide width. don't start with long casts. practice short 20' casts so you can see the results of each adjustment you make. be light handed with your snap. it's kinda like hitting a balloon across a room---the harder you slam it the shorter it goes vs the lighter you slap it the farther it goes. i know it's difficult but forget about catching a giant for a min and just focus on practicing. finessing large lures is an art. you'll get it

@WRBGreat post! Tis the season here in AZ. Pic was from last week.

We don't delete threads. Even this thread will be read many times over, and be of use to others that may feel the same as you, but didn't ask.

We do this all the time. It's up to you to ask the questions. Read the articles mentioned above to get a basic understanding, then if you still have questions, post them here.

I know the perfect spot for that bite. Hopefully that area won't be high and dry this spring like it was last year.

Number 1 rule of selling used gear: it's not personal, it's business. Number 2 rule of selling used gear: if you (or a seller) are offended by a "low-ball" offer, then you/they are obviously too attached to the item to sell it. Just my experience selling gear at gun shows/online. As somebody said earlier, take the Corleone approach, and make the buyer/seller an offer they can't refuse

IMA flint

I just used a rope attached to my trailer and a cleat on the boat. Back in slowly until the boat is free, pull forward a bit, grab the rope, and tie the boat to the dock. 20' is plenty.

Call Tracker Marine directly, and inform them of this misguided dealer.

GET OFF MY LAWN!

If the butt piece isn't glued on yet, and you have the pieces the epoxy will glue the duplon back together. A little light sand once it's dry and you probably won't be able to see the join. If it doesn't work, just cut the duplon off and order another butt piece.

Some chewed jerkbaits. L2R; 97MR Slender Pointer, 3 78 pointers, a custom painted 110 blank.

I got a Stanley for Valentine’s Day. And a six pack! Looks like it would fit nicely on a kayak, about milk crate sized The second picture is what I wouldn’t recommend for a kayak, I about sank for 12 hrs straight that day

@Catt, let me guess, a lot of bass have fallen victim to a purple plastic worm in that swamp

Practice my frog and weedless spoon casting

The North end of Toledo is starting to make a comeback. The Blue Lake area is producing both size and numbers lately. Jerkbaits produced results earlier this week in that area. I suspect the rise in water level following the rain we are receiving will push some fish back into the bushes in the coming weeks.

The FMJ may not be ideal for topwater or for spinnerbaits. It will be ideal for everything else you mentioned and give you plenty of power to move fish towards you. Keep in mind when you take a 1/4 oz weight and put a piece of plastic like a beaver or brush hog, you will be close to a 1/2 oz. The only place you may struggle with a 1/4 oz weight would be fishing ribbon tail worms. I would just bump my weight up to 5/16 or 3/8 and call it a day. The most versatile rod I can think of for everything you mentioned would be the Loomis GLX MBR 844. It can be had for around $350ish.

FINS has a polyuerathane coating that makes very smooth and quite going through guides and it's color fast, meaning it doesn't lose color or dyes on your hands. Daiwa braids are slightly smaller in diameter but the dyes run. Finns is made in America! Tom

They will climb onto wood and vegetation looking for food and also out of the water looking for grubs, worms and grass to eat at night. Crawdads don't swim in the water column unless trying to escape a predator. Tom

I also use the Trokar hook. Here's how I rig it: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/texas-rig-tube.html And here's how to fish it: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/texas-rig-tube-fishing.html

throw the 7 if you get the 5 you are just going to want the 7 so skip a step

Why would I bring a 360 XBox? I so much prefer playing Space Invaders on the Atari® 2600 when casting from shore...

I found a really good way to go with a bunch of lures but leave with hardly any. Trick is to bring someone who claims they know how to fish, and let them use your gear, that's all there is to it!!! Walk in heavy and walk out light!

My homemade version of a rod runner.

What boat, I just see a field of dried grass...

Sig even knows it's fishing "pre-season"!

Update from this past weekend. Fished Bass Champs and due to the fog only got about 5 hours on the water to fish. Start out in our first spot in Lowes creek with the boat positioned in about 20 feet of water. Caught a few small keepers on carolina rigs. Not getting quality bites so decide to move to the next spot in the indian mounds. Start off in 20 feet and not getting bit. Decide to move shallow (5-7 ft) and start catching keepers that were just about to bust. Move to the 3rd spot in Housen and go even more shallow (3-5 ft) and again start catching females completely swollen up. Knew it was going to take at least 16 and change to weigh in (we had 15.25 on my scales and notes in the boat) so we released our fish to swim another day instead of weigh them in. Not fishing for points or angler of the year. We fish Bass Champs for money and if we don't have enough, let those fish go and not stress them. Best Lures Rattletraps (Brown Eye) Spinnerbait (Coleslaw) Carolina Rig (Anything) Senko

I made my decision and didn’t go with any that I listed. I went with the Ike signature series 7’4 MH. It’s the rod he designed for frogging. 80/20 bend and stout. Thanks for the input though.

In the past year I have sold all my musky gear, and 6 different rods. Almost all of it had not been used in more than 2-3 years. My view is if I am not using it, why keep it around. I price it low and I have sold items within a week. Often within 2 days. I figure it is worth nothing to me sitting in my garage. I get a little money and someone else gets to enjoy the equipment.