Leaderboard

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!

First deps fish

Sometimes it just feels like one of those days......

Because @papajoe222 was taken . . . . A-Jay

New glasses

Coffee in the AM, then water. No alcohol in the boat, save that for when I'm safe at home.

Wife and I did a little fishing Sunday at the neighbor's pond. She was able to get her first fish of the year along with several others on a little X-rap. I caught several including one decent one that about swallowed my Storm Twitch Stick. Also caught several really big crappie, the biggest being in the 15-16 inch range. Monday I went to settle the score with a lake that is usually good to me, but wasn't very nice my first trip out to it this year. It was much nicer this time, although the weather was pretty bad with a cold wind and drizzle almost all day. We caught lots of largemouth, couple smallmouth, bunch of super fat white bass, couple crappie, several trout, and several drum. My biggest bass of the day seems to know what to do with all the tiny trout they stocked in the lake a few weeks ago. She was only 18" long and 3.81 pounds with about a 10" trout in her throat/stomach, so don't think "there's no fish big enough here to fish big baits".

It's common for them to hang together around here. Here's a LMB SMB double I caught from last year.

Day #2 my flipping bite completely died which I blame on the cloud cover. Today I boated between 30-40 best 5 was 20+ lbs all on a weightless fluke and Carolina rig except one 7lber on a frog and 2 or 3 on a jig. She kept pushing shad off of her bed and unleashed on my frog. Best fish came out of about 5 -6 fow in scattered grass which was a mix of young hydrilla, and dollar lillies, and remember were the old bank was before that water came up also alot good stuff is being passed up by people following the new bank.

Well, I guess I answered my own question. I caught my PB today on a black/blue lizard.

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

I watched the video on here, and also a minute long youtube video on how to set the reel up. I already have 2 cheap black max combos i tried for bottom bouncing last year that worked great for that. The setup was the key. Wow. Awesome!!!!!!! It took all of 5-6 casts to start really throwing them well, with a little more comfort. Im good with spinning reels since Ive used them for 25 years or so, but the backlash thing got me a couple times years ago when i picked one up. Its all about the reel setup, which took about 10 seconds after i knew what to do. I just used a 1/2 oz weight, and it was almost dark so i just thumbed it when i knew it should be close to landing in the yard. I broke both wrists a couple times racing motocross years ago, and pulling heavy spinnerbaits and cranks always hurt my wrist after a while with a spinning setup. Thats one big reason for trying it, since I noticed my wirst is at a much better angle with the casting rod/reel. I dont know why Im posting this other than I am TOTALLY pumped seeing how easy it was after taking the time to set it up and try with patience. I have no idea why it was so fun, but man im glad took the time to learn. Wish i hadnt waited so long!!!

I try to do most of my fishing tackle business from local mom & pop bass stores, avoid Walmart, BPS or Cabela's unless someone gives me a gift card. If the local stores don't have what I need then TW gets my business. Tom

Spring is like that girl at school who you were prepared to do anything for and who would bat her eyes at you, but never give you a second glance unless she wanted something. Constant disappointment over hope!

Jerkbait wasn't just catching bass this weekend.

Table Rock has a bunch of those 12-14 inch fish, but there's certainly plenty of bigger ones in there too. We won our club team tournament there last March with 30 pounds for 2 days and had the big bass of 4.5 pounds. Sad thing is, before the tournament during practice we caught a 21lb bag (I use the term "we" loosely, as all I did was drive the boat and net fish). They were all off the same spot too. It was such an impressive feat that @gardnerjigman retired from fishing shortly after that, I guess figuring he had nothing else to prove

Mine are done and packed up ready to be packaged with everything else and shipped. So I don't have exact pictures, but they'll look something like these.

A 12 pack of Bush Light for $9.99 for my bass attractan, A pack of Horny Toads for $3.99, Mustad Big Mouth 2X Fine Wire Hook 3/0 for $2.99, and a can of Grizzly for $2.99. It 's fun down here!

Megabass vision 110 woops...don’t have enough money! Lol

My first serious recommendation to the OP is: punctuation...

After worms, these might be the easiest soft plastic to find around me. Surprised they're hard to find. As far as techniques go, I'm not sure you can fish them wrong. If I take someone fishing for the first time they'll be throwing these. They can reel fast, zone out and deadstick, hop, etc. and not hurt their chance of catching a fish, plus you can rig it weedless which might be useful if they don't have a lot of casting experience. Swimming them slowly on a 4/0 with a 1/8 weight is extremely effective and how I've seen most people fish them. Around eel grass flats this will often be the first lure and technique I try. Pitching and hopping around hard targets will work as well, but I really feel grass is where speed worms shine. For night fishing, I'll t-rig and c-rig these guys and do pretty good, I think the tail puts off just a little more thump than ribbontails which helps the fish to locate the worm in the dark. Ripping the worm out of deep clear grass flats on a light jig head can work very well. Working them as a topwater like @Catt mentioned is a solid technique that has won a lot of money around here. I've even caught fishing while using them as a chatterbait trailer...Pretty sure whatever technique you use is going to work as long as there are fish around.

Is this a 5 bass heavist weight or MLF numbers tournament? We use our boats? Either tournament scenario my boat has everything I need, $20 for lunch. Tom

Casey Atwood, 1999 Daytona 500

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

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.

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!!

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

Scenario: You have your choice of a rod and reel spooled with whatever line you want. Now you have $20 to spend on lures/tackle for a day on the lake. What are you buying? For this exercise let's just say that weather, lake, temperatures, and all other conditions are irrelevant.

I have a pair in black. Have had them for about 4 years. The sole is wearing out a little, but I love them. I am a size 14 (sucks) but my wife and kids slip on the Aruba to step outside quick to get the mail or something out of the garage. They sit by the door all year long. I am a huge Keen fan as you can tell. I wear their casual dress shoes to work (have 3 pairs), wear the sandals all summer long (have 5 pairs total). Love the wide toe box on the shoes and the sandals offer toe protection but let air in. All have anti-microbial treatment.

TMI A-Jay

Pack of Zman finesse TRD's Pack of Zman Shroomz jigheads Pack of Yum Dingers Pack of Finesse wide gap hooks for wacky rigging Pack of EWG worm hooks for weightless Texas rigging

Chartreuse black back Fat Jon

Water or ice tea.

I'm thinking 20 - $1 Wal-Mart spinnerbaits. That'd probably last you a year and catch you gobs of fish lol ?

I'd probably use the last $20 to fuel up my car for the trip. I have plenty of bait/lure selections already.

Pack of watermelon green pumpkin senkos $7 Owner twistlocks $5 Berkley half head jigs $4 Z-Man TRD CA craw $4 Pretty much guaranteed to catch fish anywhere around here with these combos.

Sam, I was hoping you would see this! Geaux LSU, Geaux Saints!!!

Or I just get a pack of flukes and a six pack.

Haven't tried the tdz spool, but if you want a real boost in performance, the rcs1016 spool is outstanding in the T3 MX.

5 years active duty with the US Army, Vietnam Vet, VA Hospital attendee

I just spotted a Crestliner 1650 Fish Hawk that might be a fit. Check your PMs.

Braid is best for frog fishing. I explain the reasons why, plus a whole lot more about frog fishing in this video:

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

Just barely making it to 5 pounds on my cheapy scale

One more from the same morning Deer were a little curious