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I spend my time bank fishing and one thing I have learned is don't give up on the cast and always fish the lure all the way in. I see too many people that I fish with start ripping the lure back in when it's 15 feet or so from shore. Today was a good example. We fished a really murky lagoon. Visibility maybe a foot at most. So I tried some noisy baits like chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and whopper ploppers. Nothing. Switched from darker colors to lighter colors. Nothing. Tried a frog. Tried a jig. Tried a Senko. Zip. Zilch. Nada. One hour in and not a strike. Next was a KVD white and grey spinnerbait. I started my fan casting pattern with a few casts progressively further from each shoreline and still nothing. So next I tossed it deep and fished it in. The sun was in front of me so my shadow was not on the water. When the spinnerbait got about 2 feet out I saw the great beast glide out of the murky depths and it hit the bait 18 inches from shore. He hit it enough and I reacted enough that with my rod tip already down I just slid him onto the bank. OK, it wasn't exactly a great beast but it weighed in at 5.6 pounds and that's a good size for our area. Although - last week I was showed pictures of a 12 pounder and two 7 pounders taken near my father's house nearby. I'll be fishing there this weekend. So the moral of the story is if you're bank fishing, never give up on your retrieve. Fish it all the way to the bank. That should be a no brainer because we know bass feed in close, but sometimes - especially when the fishing is slow - we forget. T

My little one and me celebrating our birthdays a few weeks back. It was 20+ years ago when she arrived at the hospital as my birthday present. I am blessed in that she and her sister will still go fishing and to a ball game with their dad...

This was a "XXX" Valentine's present from my wife It took a bit longer to get here than i'd expected, but the wait was worth it! Exactly what i was wanting for jerkbaits and topwaters. Pairing it up with the Aldebaran MG7 for a sweet duo!

Hey guys....i have a fishing buddy i fish with in Indiana and we do the team tournament thing on Geist Reservoir where Jacob Wheeler used to fish when he lived in Indy. I believe he went pro because he couldn't beat us on that lake (slight exaggeration, wait a minute, huge exaggeration!) No, just kidding...this is how good the kid was....a few years ago we had a large tournament on a Saturday with a few days of stable weather leading up to it.......we did ok but didn't place in the money and the winners had about 21lbs.......well, Wheeler fishes a different tournament the very next day after we beat the heck out of the lake. (approximately 1900 acre lake) He and his partner end up with just over 30lbs...for 5 bass....in Indiana! He dominated most tournaments he entered and it wasn't like we didn't know where he fished.....he was just better at presentation, concentration and location at the correct time and knowing when to move or stay on a spot. We can always learn.

Fished Tuesday and Wednesday with good results. Tuesday stayed in San Miguel all day as the wind was terrible. Early morning found shad spawing on the point of a small pocket. Seemed a little early but hey take what your given. (Surprised). Shad flickering by the millions. Fish blowing up in the bushes and caught 8 -10 before the wind picked up action stopped. Frogs and chatterbaits were the ticket. Moved on to points of spawning pockets that had wind hitting them hard. Caught some pretty good fish on chatterbaits and swim jigs. Had a lull around 10 or so. Went to flipping bushes with a jaybug and started catching some better quality fish . Did try a deep spot late afternoon with fish holding on a hump the were staging and were full of eggs. Wednesday fish San Patricio for a couple of hrs. Before the rain set in. Caught a couple of fish early on frogs. Water looked pretty good back towards the back . Not for long lol. Couldn’t get a flipping bite so started fishing cypress trees along the banks where all the camps are. Wacky senko was the ticket. Back to the drawing board now after all the rain !! Lol. All in all had a good couple of days. Couple of 5lbers and some good chunks. All released for someone else to catch .

This is why my second granson, who will be born in August is getting his Shimano Conquest next week ?

Use to be Cajun Anglers Tournament Tackle Now it's Carol And Tommy Thibodeaux ?

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

Ok I'll bite on this topic again.... I live in Michigan and our state record LMB is 11 lbs 15oz so in order to break the 80 year old record I'd need a.......

Reels make the "fishing" more fun.

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

New glasses

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".

Opening day would not be complete without this:

1966 - 1994 US ARMY

Another Walmart clearance find Seaguar floro was $3, Spiderwire floro was $2.50 and all 3 packs of hooks were $2 each. Keep telling myself that I don't need anything else and Walmart keeps telling me I'm wrong.

Mine is a play off of an old Seinfeld episode.

I match the rate of fall with the water temperature. Since my water temps are still in the low 40's I want that jig and trailer to gently waft down. When the water is in the 90's then I will go for a rocket to the bottom. As a general rule I match the profile size to water clarity. Bulky jigs in mud and small finesse in clear water.

I am! Absolutely love bass! ?

A quality reel will last a lifetime ?

For me there is jig water and worm water, the difference is the soil type. If the bottom is soft mud I prefer worms, hard bottom jigs regardless of the depth. Tom

Some guys I used to work with had trouble pronouncing my last name. So I got the nickname The Ess. Later another guy with that nickname came to work there. But since I had been there longer, I became The Real Ess. Since this is a fishing site I changed Real to Reel. Thus, The Reel Ess.

Most fishing forums, (but not so much on this one) have issues with guys hiding behind an alias and saying a lot of rude things that they might not say to someone face to face. On a forum that I moderate, we don't allow people to use an alias or nicknames at all. So I've always used my real first name on every forum I sign up for.

I don't wanna be Glenn! ?

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

Well, I was sitting on the can....

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

I don't see any fish...

I imagine fish think the bait is about to escape to the safety of the shallows and react quickly. I've caught lots of fish while shore fishing within the last few feet of the bank. Nice fish and a good reminder for those that give up and reel in quickly instead of fishing the bait through one of the most productive parts of the retrieve.

Past genetic research focused mainly on the female but the ShareLunker program is showing the equally important role of the male's genetics. 2014 Nacogdoches Texas, a lake record of 12.54 lbs was caught on Lake Naconiche; genetic research showed some interesting facts. The mother was ShareLunker #370; 14.28 lbs from Falcon Lake. The grandmother was ShareLunker #187; 14.05 lbs from Lake Fork. The great-grandmother was ShareLunker #9; 16.13 lbs from Gibbons Creek. Plus ShareLunker #305; 14.67 lbs from Lake Fork. All 5 were from the same father; an almost 8 lb male. Past genetic research focused mainly on the female but the ShareLunker program is showing the equally important role of the male's genetics. 2014 Nacogdoches Texas, a lake record of 12.54 lbs was caught on Lake Naconiche; genetic research showed some interesting facts. The mother was ShareLunker #370; 14.28 lbs from Falcon Lake. The grandmother was ShareLunker #187; 14.05 lbs from Lake Fork. The great-grandmother was ShareLunker #9; 16.13 lbs from Gibbons Creek. Plus ShareLunker #305; 14.67 lbs from Lake Fork. All 5 were from the same father; an almost 8 lb male. Past genetic research focused mainly on the female but the ShareLunker program is showing the equally important role of the male's genetics. 2014 Nacogdoches Texas, a lake record of 12.54 lbs was caught on Lake Naconiche; genetic research showed some interesting facts. The mother was ShareLunker #370; 14.28 lbs from Falcon Lake. The grandmother was ShareLunker #187; 14.05 lbs from Lake Fork. The great-grandmother was ShareLunker #9; 16.13 lbs from Gibbons Creek. Plus ShareLunker #305; 14.67 lbs from Lake Fork. All 5 were from the same father; an almost 8 lb male.

I would install the Terrova that you already enjoy using. Forget what others prefer! I would sell the trolling motor that came with your new boat and look at some reasonably good upgraded electronics. You do not need to purchase $5000 worth of new HDS units or Humminbird Onyx units. Most anglers use about 1/3 of what their units can do. I would consider units like the Lowrance Hook or Elite TI, Humminbird Helix series or even a Raymarine Dragonfly unit.

I just wanted to be incognito.

Same here.

Nice double. I have caught a double of peacock and largemouth or largemouth and warmouth while fishing with jerkbaits in South Florida. Jerkbaits are one of my favorite lures for active bass.

My middle name is Hezekiah...so Hez has always been my screen names when allowed

Pro log catcher was already taken. I may not be a pro. Once in a while I miss a log instead of catching it.

Because what my wife calls me is not code of conduct compliant on the forum.

Because @A-Jay was taken....

Jerkbait wasn't just catching bass this weekend.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.