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With rain in the forecast there was a narrow window to get on the water. Air temperature was balmy 38 degrees when I hooked up the boat and headed for the Tract to do some fishing. Tide had been going out for about two hours, water temperature was 54 and change as I dropped the boat in the water. I covered a lot of water junk fishing and the bite got better for numbers later in the day as the water warmed. However, my better fish came in the first half of the day. The 5.2lber absolutely crushed a square bill, and my biggest was a 6.8 which smoked a slow rolled spinnerbait. As I was fighting them, one of my the first thoughts was why did I leave the net at the house.... Good Fishing all, JB

Chick-Fil-A sauce

In my experience I definitely wouldn't throw a wacky rig into much of any cover. The large and usually exposed hook will literally hook itself into almost anything - wood, grass, pads, etc. That's when I would pull out a weedless T-Rig at that point. For me it's all about cover, nothing more.

A little bit of information for you guys. I submitted my Minn Kota Edge for the Minn Kota rebate and was able to get a rebate of $25. I know it is not a lot but is something but between this one and the onboard charger rebate it paid for the 2 bank onboard charger.. Just went to their site and registered the Minn Kota SN and a copy of the boat order I had from BPS.

Also consider retrieve rate. When a smallie shoots straight up from 30 FOW, you want to be able to keep up. I like the Stradic CI4 line. I have four, 3x2500, and a 3000.

If they'll take a straight retrieve, GREAT! But, often they need to be triggered. I always talk retrieves in my videos as I fish; They can be pretty important. There's a Late Summer one that describes fishing cranks in vegetation, and describes and shows how to set up "the rip". In the one above, that Choporoz brought up, the water was cold and the pauses were critical. In general. motion tells the fish the lure is "alive"; the pauses let them know they can catch it. As you can probably imagine, the colder, or less aggressive, the fish are, the more important the pauses are. There's another, the Mid Fall cranking one, that shows this even better. There's another component too -horizontal vs vertical- which affects speed control too. Only two fish in the Mid-Fall video broke this long pause pattern: but both struck on the "initial descent", which is essentially a more vertical, and therefore slower retrieve speed (in the horizontal). Hope this helps. I'm also working on one that will address presentation directly.

Thanks Glen. I meant the bait. I paint them whatever I want

Step one...Purchase Pflueger President 6930. Step Two...Fish and enjoy that you got a reel that will do everything want it to for a long time without breaking your wallet. End of Story

I know this one guy... As for your question: Yeah, there are too many variables to figure it out based on air temp. Surface area, depth, current generation, inflow/exflow, precipitation, etc.. Even with the whole add this and this together and divide by this and multiply by this, won't be consistent - much less accurate. This is a heat transfer and hydrology question. If anyone had an answer, it would have been @Team9nine and he says get a pocket thermo. So... get a pocket thermo.

Family vacation to Disney, Had a couple hours between trips to the parks while the kids were enjoying the pool, caught 4 this was biggest and lost another about the same size to a beautiful headshake on the top of the water lol

It's totally dictated by cover.

Put the blades on a couple days ago!

My KastKing Sharky II has been good for me.

Man, I met so many members and BassResource fans! It was incredible! Had a great time meeting and talking to everyone from all walks of life and corners of the country (met more than a few folks that made the trip all the way from California!). And wow, what a Classic! I was pulling for Jason too. But it is what it is. It's a tough tournament, and Jordon earned the win. Congrats!

Went to Caddo Lake yesterday with a friend of mine I've known since the fourth grade. Chatterbait was king for me. Caught 2 on the 1/2oz breaking bream Project Z and 1 on the 1/2oz chartreuse sexy shad Project Z. My friend caught 1 on a perch colored 3/8oz or 1/2oz Booyah spinnerbait. Didn't weigh any of them, but just guessing the biggest one was around a pound and half give or take a little. We had a blast. Can't wait to do it again. ? Today I went to a little bayou around the corner from the house. I've fished it a few times and never caught anything. It looks pretty good for bass, but I've yet to catch one in there. Anyways I was gonna try again today. Had a weightless Texas rigged green pumpkin Z Craw on my Lew's spinning rig and on my second cast hooked into this 2lb 4oz white perch. The biggest one I've ever seen in person, much less caught. May have to give up on bass in there and just fish for perch or bream.

second time out on Lake Norman this season under blue bird skies and a pesky, chilly NE wind. fished up the river, muddy stain and swt in the low 50’s. caught an even dozen pale spots on main lake and secondary points in 12-17 fow. this 18” spot was bf.

Decided to go fishing today. It was a bit warm so I waited until late afternoon/evening to go. The water was choppy and after not having much luck with a carolina rig or inline spinners, I noticed it getting pretty cloudy. I put two and two together: why not try some squarebills? On my 5th or so cast I was riding the current, slow rolling it down a grass line when it got hit hard. I set it, thought for sure I had a bass... turns out, it was this little guy: So this confirms the old addage: a catfish will eat ANYTHING! And he committed to it too, front hook!

Cold this morning and a little windy, but we found a calm pocket behind a long point. She grabbed a blade bait on bottom about 15 feet deep. 23.5" long and 6.3lbs. Another couple weeks and she would have been alot heavier. Still, She's my new longest LMB! Shes my second citation largemouth of the year. PB by weight is still 6.5lbs (23") from a couple years ago.

Basically the title, I'm dedicating this season to throwing mainly jigs until I'm confident in them. As a part of this, I'm looking for some that I can keep tied on and find success on, regardless of what kind of water I'm fishing (a tall order, I know). So after a bit of research, I stumbled upon Siebert Outdoors and from what I have read, there is really no other option when it comes to quality jigs at a good price. As it stands, I'm interested in buying the dredge dock rocker jig pack in 3/8oz. The description says it's a great all-around jig, capable of being fished in weeds, rocks, brush, and flipping/pitching. Plus the colors that come in the pack look hard to beat, and cover what I imagine would be most of my bases. What do you guys think? Are there any other better options for me, or should I pull the trigger with Siebert? Thanks in advance!

He is a great guy. Been friends for years now. Met him at a couple local get togethers.

Here's some @A-Jay waves.

I believe he actually was in one of my earlier topics. Great guy. I gotta hit him up.

Nothing is more accurate than the toe method.

If you can walk on it it's frozen. Really depends on the weather over a longer period of time, what was the average temps the past 2 weeks? The water will not be higher then averaged day + nights temps. Tom

I'm sure glad I drink black coffee, no sugar, much easier to get off the screen and key board. Thank you.

When it comes to jigs everyone has their personal repertoire of confusion! What I look for in a jig is a smooth transition from the line to the eye & around the belly, which requires the eye to be slightly rolled forward. The reasoning is I want my jig to follow the line up to the cover & then slide over or through the cover smoothly. I want a quality brush/weed guard & a quality hook, both are more important to me than head design. Also look at the gap from the eye to the hook point, the greater that distance the faster solid hookups.

The season is so short here in Michigan that if I waited for the Heritage I would miss the whole season. So I took a pro 170 off the floor. It costs a bit more but its basically the same boat built on the same floor plan. The important thing for me is I wont miss any of the season. For all of you that have a heritage congrats to you all and for those of you still waiting you are getting a great deal on an awesome boat.

They both are the same weight. Although the package on one has 5/8 and the other has 1/2, they are the same. I weighed two straight from the packages, and both were 17 grams (approximately .6 ounces)

No, they are not identical. The XRK50 was 5/8 and the Booyah in the same frame is 1/2. The bait size, hardware, and mold are the same. The only difference is the size of the "knocker" weight in the body. The sound is different. It's subtle, but different nonetheless.

Yes ~ A-Jay

When I use bluegill colored swim jigs on the Lower Potomac I have to hold the rod really tight. Average blue cat I catch on a swim jig is about 10-15lbs and they hit like they are stealing something. Allen

We recently received heavy cold rains which not only dropped water temperatures it also muddy the waters. Bass continued moving up & continued pre-spawn feeding, as mater of fact the bite was better in the coldest muddiest water. Once y'all learn to quite depending on water temperatures for clues of pre-spawn the more & bigger bass you'll catch!

I would go Daiwa BG, I got one over the winter and it feels as smooth as my Ci4+ Shimanos and is built like a tank. They are on the heavy side, but other then that I am 100% pleased with mine.

Mine broke at 17.6, it was pretty neat to see that. Also it was nice meeting you Glenn

The 3/8 dredge dock rocker is perfect for you -- buy that 5 jig set with confidence. get them with the wire tie option for better skirt durability

Yes. EXACTLY the same. I've said this over and over folks. I cannot be any clearer - same mold, same materials, same manufacturing process...identical in every way. The Same

I stopped at a pond one night and threw a buzzbait by a tree and heard a tremendous explosion but no hookup . second cast same thing but this time I got him . I thought it was a ten lb bass but just a big channel cat .

I wonder if he tied one on.... Big congrats to him, I am a big fan.

First smallie of the year. Fought very hard for such cold water. Only fish in 2 days in fishing 4+hrs each day....

Intended to go striper fishing but realized while pumping gas that I had cracked my lower unit the day before. Quick change of plans and floated from point a to point b and used trolling motor and paddle. Caught a nice brown trout with a gold spoon

Still fighting tough conditions over here, with water temps hovering around 43 degrees, but had another enjoyable afternoon out on the water. Last couple stops saved the day for me.

I have the HD for one of my swimbait setups (1-4oz treble baits) and it is really nice. It's not really that big I would use it on something like a frog or flipping rod for sure. Tatula 7'4" and Type R 100XS in my Ebay cart right now...I know I shouldn't but the whole combo whispering in my ear (haaaallllfff oooffffff) *Edit, I just realized I have a 100 dollar visa card leftover from something laying around. Yup, this is gonna happen. At least I already have line lol.

LOL, Sorry?? The BaitMonkey has done work on me this winter. I just need this weather to start warming up so I can start fishing and not have all this free time looking at gear. I really like how the CT palms. I was considering the Type HD for the larger capacity but I have a Tranx for my heavier duty stuff. I’ll be using the CT for bucktailing fluke and casting light plastics in shallower water.

I am a big fan of their "pond magic" spinnerbaits. I like the compact size and overall durability. Lower price doesn't hurt either.

Not a clue at this point. When I get out there, I'm first going to paddle around a little and see what I can find out just looking around. The 100 acre pond has about 500 yards of rip-rap at the dam, with a lot of brush around the rest. Some of the brushy areas are partly flooded, so I'll work that with something. I also plan to try slow fishing a jerkbait and see what happens. Mostly I'll just be doing a lot of guessing. I've never fished this one at all before. I don't have any electronics, so if I can't see it, I don't know what's there. The smaller 2 acre ponds which I have fished this last year, for them I know that weightless 4" ribbon tail worms get bit, as do 5" senko type worms, and I've also caught them there on poppers. I'm expecting that fishing fairly slow with weightless plastics, or T-rigged with a 3/16 tungsten bullet will probably be my best bet. I've never fished this early in the year, so my challenge just trying to figure out what's there, what they might want to eat, and how to present it. It's only a couple of weeks ago that there was still ice on all 3 bodies of water. Getting skunked is a definite possibility, but on a sunny, 70° day, just being out in the canoe will be reward enough.

I'm picking mine up Friday (ordered on February 4th) I'm going to ask about getting matching carpet for a deck extension and will pass along my findings. I emailed Bass Tracker and was informed I needed to contact my local dealer.. Hopefully the Bass Pro Deluxe Marine brown will match up but looks a tad light on screen..

I used my buddy, @Maico1's reel. I'll defer to him, as he has a ton of experience with them. It was basically, here try and backlash this, as he let me use it.

Thanks. The Berkley rep running the tester even sort of stopped the show and called out to everyone about it. I felt the need to brag about that one, just a quick palomar (as carefully tied as I could in a moving line). I tied another one (double san diego jam) that only made it to 15.4.

Splitting hairs, lol. There are so many ways to look at it as you’ve discovered that it gives me a headache when I do it myself. ? For me, generally speaking a technique that benefits from needing the line to be recovered quickly will be the reel I’d use with a higher gear. Else, I honestly can’t recall ever losing a fish or hook set because I couldn’t reel up line fast enough. If that were the case, how did the old timers do it with reels with perhaps half the line recovery rate of today’s reels? See? Now you got me thinking too much again, lol.

I think if you lose a fish, it breaks the rod it's on and throws itself in the lake.