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A pack of Senkos- $7 Pack of gammy hooks- $3 3/8 flipping jig- $4 A pack of rage craws- $5 And a sunkist- $1

I think a small tube (2.5”-2.75”), like this Gitzit tournament tube (Brown Craw in pic below) is the most underrated spawning bed bait around. It’s so fun to sight fish and watch the males go tail down when you drag one across the nest. Landed 2 decent ones this late AM.

I have said this before: I don't have brand loyalty, but I do have model loyalty. There's certain baits that just do it for me. I know what they're doing, and what to expect, and they get bit.

Fished for the first time since early February. The pattern isnt dialed or something special. Basically I went your regular 12 year old with a boat fishing. Flipped anything and everything I could. What i figured out was watermelon magic/ green pumpkin gold flake got the most and best bites for me. Just a tip take the the plastic with the most action possible with you it helps. Also if you can get by with it go to the lightest weight possible. I know people are saying the weightless sinko bite is on but if you're like me you don't have the patience for that. Plus I went behind several groups on that pattern that were not catching and caught show them something different I guess. Also the better fish I caught where setting up on secondary points, and on the outside of spawning pockets in 5-15 fow. I figure by the weekend these fish will be doing the dead. Also I did see one pair about to do the dead as the Male was doing his crazy spin stuff, and also had friend tell me he saw one do that today also.

Caught this fatty or a white biospone worm. Texas rigged with a 5/16 oz weight. Really slow.

nice work everyone! spent about 4 hrs on the water saturday, had a wintery week leading upto the weekend so wasn't expecting much as the water is still very cold. Continued to move and eventually found a nice largie, hit a lucky flash pointer in the shallows. So satisfying to feel that pop on the pause, the only bite of the day. Crappy pics as I was in a precarious landing spot. 3.74lbs

Two casts! Two fish! This was the second. Bass were going airborne in 40° weather crashing on shad, but They were picky and wouldn't bite a lure for nothing. Finally got a few on jerkbaits, then two in a row on an underspin. This one was big of the day.

Biggest fish I've caught in a while. Didn't have scales. Somewhere between 7 1/2 and 8 we guessed. Made the ole lews bb1 scream.

Went out night fishing tonight, threw a spinnerbait a little bit but switched over to a zoom curly tail junebug worm. Fished for a good while and caught a 12 incher but didn't seem to be getting the response I was hoping for so I switched back to the big black spinnerbait and moved further down the bank. I was just rolling it along, not burning it but not slow rolling it either when at about 5-8' out from the bank it felt like my spinnerbait was just sucked in....well I loaded up on her and here we go!! I clicked my head lamp on and when she got close to the bank and I saw her I was scared to death I was gonna lose her! It didn't actually take long to work her to the bank and I was able to lip her. She went 9.44 lbs. 23" long and 20.5" in girth. I tried to make the pics snappy and get her safely back in the water where she swam away strong! Man what an awesome night!!

I don't remember how long ago I joined BR, but in terms of maturity and when I started fishing, I more or less grew up on these forums. Between YouTube and the members on here, my fishing heroes include people like Scott Martin, AJay, Deep, Catt, Buzzed Bait, Bluebasser, the list could go on. I got to meet Scott Martin a couple years ago. He's a pretty cool guy. And everyone on here has taught me a ton about the sport. One of the coolest things about bass fishing is the way that people pass it on to the next generation .

My wife, two daughters, and I enjoying some class 3 and 4 rapids on the Arkansas River in Colorado, circa 2005.

Speed worms are always in my rotation. For the standard size I use a 4/0 skip gap hook with a 3/16 tungsten weight. However, in the spring and summer I always grab the magnum first. 5/0 Owner spring lock hook with centering pin. Either weightless our with a 1/8. Another thing.... Don't over look the Speed Craw. Rig that thing with a 3/0, peg the weight and pitch it in holes of any kind of floating vegetation. Or if they're not hitting the standard sized worm change to the Craw with the same set up. Mike

Stuck a good one pitching, only fish I managed to land for the day.

Eastman Fish Are Getting Ready For Pre Spawn Find the Right area And Big Fish Are Biting I got Mine 2 Nights Ago on A Wightless Sinko... Time For them Giants 5Pounds 11 Ounce large mouth

I was messing around with different colors today and kind of like this pattern. Should I add anything else to it?

LOUISIANA - It's likely the most Louisiana thing you'll see today. A video posted on Twitter by user Skinny Vinny shows a crawfish clinging to a beer can and smoking a cigarette. Obviously, the crawfish isn't really smoking a cigarette. But when the crawfish picks up the cigarette in its claw it gives the illusion that it's smoking.

As long as I don't have to pay sales tax... ZMan TRD (8 pack), CA Craw - $3.99 Zman 1/16 oz Shroomz finesse jigheads (5 pack) - $4.99 Fish Sticks Lure enhancer, crawdad scent - $10.99 I should be set for a month...

Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm 3 pks 9.87 3/0 straight shank round bend hooks 3.99 1/8 oz weights 5.89 $19.73 ?

Fluorocarbon sinks and has stretch in it. That is 2 things you don't want when frog fishing. It would greatly affect the action and your hook up percentage would be super low I feel like. Minimum 40lb braid for frogging

That was a sweet deal. Keep looking! Be patient.

we just finished up building this covered deck for a friend. his daughter will be getting married there in about a month. maybe now i can get some fishing in!

The OP is in Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan, has a $6-8K price limitation, and it's his first boat. A tiller or side console deep would suit his waters better. A mod-v or glass bass boat would severely limit the water he could safely fish.

I just pulled the trigger too! If it's fake I trust eBay and PayPal will have me covered and if it's the real deal...wow, what a deal it is!!!

This is a neat solution.

When I bought my setup at Appomatox River Co here in VA, the method used to determine proper length of a paddle was for me to stand straight, lift up my arm next to a paddle and bend my fingers over it. If I could do so at the middle finger joint, it was perfect. With wider kayaks today, this doesn't always work perfectly. You don't want to be scraping the sides, esp. if you have short arms. A longer paddle will help. And as for bright paddles being a waste of time, that is an entirely subjective statement. A flag is great, but if you're standing up and not being recognized, having something else to flail could be useful since you're above the flag visibility line of sight. Pick your tool...LOL. My paddles are white. I like black, too. In fact, I'm rarely using a paddle given I motor everywhere. And those who use pedal boats are not using paddles. So yeah, a flag first for visibility, but if a paddle helps you feel safer there, then go for a hi-vis color. If they're not seeing you, blow your horn. You have one, right?

That Crestliner would be on the TOP of my list. That's a real nice boat. My buddy has the 18' version. There is a difference between some brands. Lund and Crestliner are top level boats. Lund are riveted, Crestliners are welded. Both hand made in the same factory. Both far better made boats than Tracker. That isn't to say Tacker are not good - to the contrary, they pack a lot of value in for a low price. Personally, if you're looking at deep-Vs, Alumacraft, Lund, Crestliner, PolarCraft, would all be in my top choices list.

Very popular around here and something I have tied on regularly. Depending on where I'm fishing I use both the regular and magnum sizes. 3/0 for regular and 5/0 for magnum. They are great for swimming around grass. GP with chartreuse on the tail is deadly. Another little tip that I haven't shared too much is to take a .22 bullet casing and take a notch out the tail right in the crease. Changes the action slightly and also keeps the tail from ripping as easily

Speed worm has been my goto for over 2 years now! Texas rigged on a 3/0 straight shank round bend hook with a 1/8 oz bullet weight. Casting, flipping, & pitching it in shallow vegetation of the marshes around south Louisiana. Quiet often I'll speed reel it on top like a frog!

3/0 or 4/0 Gamakatsu offset shank worm hooks (round bend). They're excellent around vegetation, and you can fish them several ways. You can rig them with no weight (weightless texas rig) and reel them fast while keeping your rod tip up and they're almost like a topwater. You can also Texas rig them and fish them like any other T-rigged worm. My favorite back when I fished around grass was just T-rigging them and swimming them. It's simple and easy, but can be very effective.

The Tatula line of reels adjust different than any other reel. This is because of the MagForce Z brake system. Take a few minutes to watch these two youtube videos. The first video will explain how the different versions of brakes on Daiwa reels operate. The second one is Brett Ehler showing you how to properly adjust one. You are located in VA I see. If you ever want to meet up here in Baltimore I would be happy to show you how and help you get used to these reels. 8 out of my 12 baitcasters are Tatulas. Once you properly adjust the spool tension so you have the proper side play I set my brake adjustment around 10 out of 20. I rarely ever reset it even if I change weight of lures. The internal system compensates so well. As for the Abu I would do some research on youtube as well.

I was fishing saturday, caught a LMB, SMB and spot all within about 20 feet of each other. They were stacked on a rock.

$45.00

My experiences are very similar to Scott F’s. Lots of lakes up here with both species in them, and you can often get both in the same spot, especially if there’s either weeds or wood mixed with rock or gravel areas. Also, on Georgian Bay where I fish a lot, in the dead heat of summer you can find some absolute pig smallies in a few feet of water and thick weedbeds acting like largemouth.

Ok there is the eyeball! Lol!

If I posted my fish pics in lates cathes pic thread everyone’s fish would make mine look bad so I post here

I regularly catch smallmouth and largemouth from the same spots at the same time. Where I get them, there is almost always a combination of rocks and weeds that hold both species.

Fish early and late on Wednesdays, and maybe put a fake 1/2 off at the weed dispensary Facebook post.

I select a popper over a ChugBug when I want a smaller profile bait and one without a rattle. Unlike many anglers, I don't walk a popper, I just work it two pops, pause, one pop, repeat the majority of time adjusting the speed as needed. I pick a popper over a Spook when I'm target fishing cover in fairly calm water. I like a Spook for drawing fish up from structure and a prop bait when there's a ripple on the water. Prop baits, like Torpedos , and ploppers are used in the same situations and just offer a different sound IMO When in doubt, I always start with a Spook. That's just me. I'm a Spook 'freak"

I love topwater (who doesn't) but barely run poppers. Here is my general outline... Water is dead calm - Spook, popper, floating prop bait. Anything you can stop and let is sit before continuing the retrieve. Think subtle. Chop or current - buzzbait or walking baits with a continuous retrieve or at least less stops. Basically the noisier the water the noisier I make the bait. The calmer the water the calmer I make the bait. Frogs and heavy cover are in their own category. However I will walk frogs up the sides of docks regardless of conditions.

Spent a very nice last 2 hours of the day on the water . Perfect temp. and wind. The fish are back on the beds again. Got this skinny 4.12 on a pumpkin zoom lizard. Caught a few more on zoom trick worms.

I remember the first good rod I bought years (and years) ago. I think I fished it a couple years before realizing it was 2 pieces. That's how much I knew back then. All the rods I fish locally are 1 piece. I have a couple Elite Tech 2 piece rods I pack when visiting family, etc.. They catch fish like the one piece rods do.

The less developed gland bass have is the ability to detect odors. This doesn't mean they are unable to detect minute percentages of odors in the water, they can and do, it's just not a primary prey detection sense. Cat fish with their highly developed sense of order detection with barbels for example rely primarily on their sense of smell. I used 100% pure anise oil mixed with fresh garlic as a scent for bass fishing for decades, long before commercial fishing scents were availble and it works. I have caught several big blue and channel catfish fishing for bass using scented jig trailers that I wouldn't have not using scent. Why use a scent when bass fishing? I don't believe bass are attracted by the scent we use, they definately can be repealed by offensive odors. My theory is why not use a scent that doesn't alarm the bass and may cover orders that can. If a bass strikes my lures and holds it in their mouth a second longer, that gives me an advantage. Tom

I think I know....I just want to make sure I am correct when the wife questions my obsession with purchases and acquisitions of the fishing and marine kind. I do need to blame something for my actions and blaming things on a monkey seems pretty logical.....doesn't it? I mean c'mon...A monkey? They're cute, they chatter, chicks love 'em. Am I goin' down the wrong path? ;D

I went out today scouting some of the water closest to home. Should have taken a thermometer with me, but since the air temp was only 48° at noon, the water can't be too warm. This is Tamarack Pond, one of the 2 small ponds (2 to 2½ acres) that I use for practice. I caught some small LM here last year. I haven't wetted a line yet this year, but I'm thinking that Thursday I'll take the canoe out to a 100 acre pond just a few minutes north of this one - that will be it's maiden voyage if the wind cooperates.

Casting into wind, magnetic brake all the way. It is easy to adjust and less bird nest. Centrifugal, doesn't matter how well train your thumbis, you gonna have some problem or suffer a lot on distance. But like everyone mentioned a spinning gear might be better than both.

I've said it before, as much as I love my baitcasters I'm finding my spinning rigs to be much more practical. There's definitely a place for baitcasting gear. In my applications baitcasters are toys to be tinkered with but spinners are tools to get the job done.

Thanks man, definitely proud. Was fishing against the best in the world. Didn’t win the $100,000 but walked away from the weekend with $950. Good start to the year.

Thanks alot guys. Here's a few more pics of some chunks we got last year.

I ve learned that the bait monkey is just a little voice that comes to you as your browsing the fishing section telling you that you need more line,or weights or soft plastics even though you have much more than enough of that stuff at home. He controls your actions,pulls your arm and makes it reach for your wallet so you can kindly give the salesman the money/credit card for a purchase. I get bit by him everytime I visit Wal Mart. I always walk out of there with stuff I dont necessarilly need for fishing.