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11" of snow at the start of the week, then 2" of rain through the middle of the week has messed up our lakes big time, so was pleasantly surprised to get on a decent bite this afternoon once skies cleared and the high pressure moved in. Got to go well back into last year for me to remember the last good jig bite I had, but that was the ticket today with the stained water. More than a dozen in the boat today - Good times.

Went to palestine just south of ocean pond outside of lake city got there around 7:15. First cast caught 7 lbs 11 oz bass. From what it looks she was already spaund out. So after that thinking i would have an awesome day kept working the grass and pads with frog, no other bites. Then it was about 9:30 tried just running a speed worm to cover ground. No bites. So by that time got really windy around 11 with no bites other than the first cast of the morning.. moved to a lipless crankbait on a deeper outter grass line. Nothing. Called it a day along with 3 other boats that didnt catch anything. First time ever on that lake. Looks really good but from what the guys that fish it alot said its not too good and worth the extra 30 min to hit locloosa, orange, or sante fe.

A-Jay

here is another token spot pic amongst the fat largemouth ones. she almost made 18”. caught 16 today on Lake Norman and once again the wind was kicking some serious butt. lots more bass boats out there too. that had most of them trying to hide from it and some creeks got crowded. i gotta admit, it blew me off some of my favorite spots too. secondary points, in some fishable wind, was the ticket though and lots of guys were just riding by them ?

Finally had a nice(ish) weather day here in Omaha after what has seemed like endless winter. Air temps were in mid 50's, with water temps that are still cold. First fish of the year came in at 4.19 pounds and was a little over 18". Caught on a Z-Man chatterbait.

Bass dont live forever . I harvest several limits a year . I prefer 12 inch bass but they are protected so I am forced to keep 15 inchers or 11 inchers . A limit of 11 inchers wont feed the three of us , so....

The Linders started "Selective Harvest" as a moto for In Fishermen decades ago and makes more sense then Catch & Release started by B.A.S.S. as their organization grew nationally in the early 79's. Ray Scott likes to claim the idea, I remember a very different Ray Scott when I was trying to get them to release tournament caught bass in the late 60's early years. Scott told me it was impossible for recreational fishing to harm largemouth bass populations and promoting charity fish fry was his goal back then. Scott may have been right regarding the large reserviors in the south, but public perception was agianst what they were seeing. Today the C & R has become almost a cult following beyond any reason, kill a bass and you are labeled a villain. I remember releasing bass and being called a idiot back in the 60's. C & R is a good practice for the majority of the time and for any organized bass tournament. Selective Harvest makes more sense for a sustainable and renewable bass population for recreational anglers. Tom

Been too busy and the weather has been too bad to do much with it lately but finally got a break today. Got new transom wood installed, which was way more work than I expected. Got the new livewell pump installed, and I got the trolling motor bracket in place. Just run some wires and it will be fishable, but still needs a deck. I have some deck boards for it, but haven't decided exactly how I want to do it yet. Feel like I might need to add one cross member to the front part of the frame. I'm not a little guy and my fishing buddies are all bigger than me, might need a little more support up there.

This was taken a few years ago. A few months after my Dad got sick. It didn't stop him from fishing though.

Walmart has lost its dang mind with these deals. I was helping my brother out today when I traveled down to Delaware to fix his car. On my way back I stopped off at a Walmart in Parkesburg to pick up some duct tape for a project of my own. While I was there I checked out their fishing section. In the back of the aisle, in a box, where 3 Z Man Project Z chatter baits. I wasn't sure how much they cost so I took one up to the register and asked the guy to scan it. When he told me I ran back and grabbed the other 2.

One week ago, I fished a local lake here in east Texas, stumbled across a cove point where apparently the LMBs were on beds spawning and I found this out very quickly by pitching a drop shot rig, getting hit fast and repeatedly. Well, the sad ending to this was around 20 bites all the way from holding and running with my rig for 5 or 10 feet and then coming off, to jumping and breaking loose. I was 0 for 20 on my hook up ratio. This was the worst result . . . ever. Three years ago, a friend was on the opposite side of a cove point on another lake, dragged a Carolina Rig with a chartreuse lizard across beds . . . and caught about 20 bass. Same sort of timing, same sort of place, the opposite outcome. So, I suppose in both cases, the bass were picking up our baits and moving them away, getting hooked on his, not on mine. This week, I decided to change my drop shot approach. I have been a big fan of the little Gamakatsu Swivel drop shot hooks with pinch grips that allow a separate line down to a sinker. I still like this product. And, I have been a big fan of Kevin Vandam's approach to hooking drop shot plastics. He often puts the hook into a worm's "lower jaw" area, brings it up and aims towards the "nose," but leaves it embedded in the plastic. This works great for me most of the time and I have learned to let the bass just hook themselves rarely using anything more than a very gentle hook sweep. It didn't work last week. Yesterday, I went out again except this time I decided to use a Roboworm Rebarb hook, but really any of the old style worm hooks would likely do. No EWG, no offset, just sort of an Aberdeen shaped hook except mine have these little barbs on them to keep the plastics from sliding down. I push the hook down through the nose of the plastic worm on a strong angled bias (that is, not straight down), then follow the standard Texas Rigging of pulling the hook through, flipping it over and up on the "keeper" near the hook eye, then I just embedded the hook into the plastic, not through it. To this date, I had always been a "through the worm, skin hook" the worm angler. But, that causes the hook to lie flatter along the bait and I wanted to see if having it just below the surface ready to come flying up and out at about a 45 degree angle would help. It did. And, the hook is much farther down on the bait than a nose hook arrangement. I couldn't find those spawners again in the same location yesterday, but I did get on bass in 3 locations. Again, the T-Rigged version of a drop shot puts the hook much lower in the bait than the nose hooking I was using a week ago. And, it allowed me to slightly increase my role in setting the hook, not really hard, but I did pop the hook a bit to drive it into the mouths of bass. My hook up ratio was about 66%, caught 6 and missed 3 more as I recall. Those might have been crappie. The biggest bass was just at 4 lbs. and it felt great to fight it in feeling I had it hooked really well. A pic of one of my catches below, an illustration of how I was rigging the hook, too. Long post. I'm verbose. Brad

1. wacky rig senko/stickworm -- just to get familiar with and gain quick confidence catching bass. Cast next to weeds or logs, let it fall through the water column, twich it up, fall, etc. You'll learn quickly where bass are and where they aren't. 2. texas rigged worm -- spend a lot of time on this - it teaches you how to feel the bottom, detect strikes, set the hook properly, and gives you the ability to throw INTO cover without getting snagged. In many people's opinion, the texas rigged worm is the foundation of all bass fishing, and once you become successful at it you will never stop fishing a worm the rest of your life. 3. spinnerbait -- work the mid-depth, experiment with speeds and types of retrieves. Learn how to cover water with a moving bait to find active fish. 4. topwater popper -- nothing is more addictive than topwater, and a popper is a good place to start. cast to a good spot, let it sit, pop it with a couple of bloops, reel a bit over to the next spot, repeat.

One of the biggest problems we have is that the smaller bass are better to eat and much more plentiful, but people aren't allowed to keep those. Only in recent years has the state started to try to change that with a 13-18 inch slot limit on a lot of smaller lakes with high population densities. I wish it was more like a 15-21 inch slot to give people a little more freedom to keep smaller fish, while protecting the larger fish better, but it's a start. I really wish I liked to eat fish, I'd keep a limit of 12 inchers every time I went at a lot of the lakes I fish and it would do them a lot of good.

I'd tell people to go somewhere else if I had a lake with fish that size close by

The Silver minnow was my "frog" in the 80's and 90's...............and I learned that trick from my grandfather who had been doing it since the 40's. One of these days I am going to break out all the old timey tricks he taught me again, and I bet they will work as good, if not better than they used to.

I can’t stand the taste of bass but I have no problem with other people eating what they catch.

Just got this vest for my fishing buddy. Cat looks jealous. Pick up my boat Monday!

You can fish a lipless all year around.

Before frogs became popular, we use to cast these spoon atop lilly pads and get crashing bites. One of my all time favorite spoons. And you know what......northern pike and catfish LOVE the 1 1/4 oz. model slow rolled along the bottom.

Most biologist agree selective harvesting is better than catch & release!

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.

My standard Texas rig soft plastic consist of a painted brass 3/16 to 3/8 oz bullet weight, a 8mm tempered glass faceted bead, size 3/0 Owner #5100 for 6-7 1/2" worms, #5103 size 4/0 for 9" to 10" worms, using 11 lb Sunline Diefer Armillo Nylon line. Typically hop the worm a few inches, then shake the rod tip a few seconds and repeat. Slip shot finesse rig on spinning tackle; 1/8 oz tubular mojo weight, Carlolina Keeper for the weight stop, Owner #5133 down shot hook size 1/0 for 4 1/2" to 6" worms, with 5 lb Maxima Ultra Green Copoly line. The Carolina keeper allows adjusting the distance between the hook and weight, about 24"-30" is standard. Cast and slowly drag the weight along the bottom, shake it free from any snags. This rig will catch bass anywhere. Tom PS, Roboworms, Iovino products and Uptons Customs.

Texas rigged trick worm Texas rigged creature bait or jig with creature bait Ned Rig Mepps in line spinners #4

.97 wally world , 8 foot nylon .

I’ve been stopping by 2 local Walmarts periodically over the last few weeks and finally found something worth picking up. The selection in the “clearance” section has been sparce as far as fishing stuff goes. Decided to stop at one on the way home today and found some hooks for $.75/pack and some fishing line for $2. Also, came home to my new Saltist Back Bay LT that I ordered on Fleabay with the recent 15% off coupon. I’ll be putting this against my tried and true Stradic FK’s this year for my all-around Inshore set ups.

There are far worse things that can decimate a fishery then a fish fry.

Boo. A-Jay

He's completed my smallie, should have it in a week. Can't wait to see the smallie in person! His work on both my largemouth and smallie are PHENOMENAL!!! www.davecampbellfish.com

Pre takeoff trader bills team trail stop #2. 200 of the best sticks in the natural state. $10,000 to win. Soon to be running 70 to the honey hole in my best friends skeeter fx21. Love this game

My last name is frost, yes like the snow man, no I’m not related to jack, but I’m good friends with the other jack... the one you don’t know...

I'll never forget one Easter when my older cousin went through the shrubs by the end of our great aunt's driveway and someone had hit a rabbit right by her mailbox. She was wailing about someone running over the Easter Bunny for what seemed like forever.

Man you been doing good lately gundog

Me in my craw/creature bait collection:

@snake95 Yeah I've been checking the 3 WM's in my area for the last few years now and make a habit of checking out others if I'm driving by. The discontinued items I understand but the Gamakatsu hooks go on clearance every year at 2 of the locations only to see them stock up on the exact same ones a month later at full price, same thing as the ratltraps. Packaging is exactly the same. I'm not complaining but it just seems odd in a good way. The deals never last no matter the location. TackleTrap has high end Loomis demos for 20-30% off right now. Find one of those self scanners and make sure that is the price. Most the stuff I see has a clearance price of $3 and when you scan it the lower price comes up. Just sayin Walmart doesn't treat the clearance stuff with any priority.

I run it through my lips more times than a granny threading a sewing needle.

She was a 'one-eye'. Didn't seem to slow her down much . . . . A-Jay

Today is suppose to be the best day of the weekend. I stole away some time this morning to try out a new lake by me. It's still COLD . Lower 40's, I was using a hill by the shore as a wind break. I had fun anyways...

my other boat: 2003 Xpress H51 / Mercury 25hp 2 stroke (with 20hp stickers for limited hp lakes) before: after:

The Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park.

My grandkids call me papa and my daughters call me dude.

Like I said, first world problems! I started bass fishing back in the late 70's. I picked up holding my reel this way off an old Rick Clunn or Bill Dance video. It's just ingrained muscle memory now. I started this way to help with the inferior rod technology back then, and now if I hold a reel a different way it just feels weird.

It's an old guy thing, It used to take me like 10 seconds, now I have to stare at each guide. GET OFF MY LAWN!

Depends on the season / month ~ Early Spring / April ~ it's a Jerkbait or a hairjig Late Spring / May ~ it's a Rattle bait or a hairjig Early Summer / June ~ it's a squarebill or a jig Mid Summer / July~ it's a drop shot or a jig Late Summer / August~ it's a spinnerbait or a jig Early fall / September ~ It's topwater or a jig Mid Fall / October ~ it's a swimbait or a jig Late Fall / November ~ it's a blade bait or a hairjig And we don't do winter here - casts bounce. A-Jay

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

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.

Oh yes. Never used an 8" worm as a trailer, and I don't throw it in open water much (might need to do more of both) but bass, pike, and redfish gobble it up. The new ones have crappie hooks, when I see some NOS or used ones in flea markets I scoop them up.

I respect your opinion, but I keep whatever is legal and eat it. I'm confident that New York State laws make sense.

I occasionally will eat a 2 or 3 lber here and there, or a fish I know is going to die. But I do have a thing against people eating trophy fish. That said I feel like most people who are catching fish solely to eat aren't targeting trophies so it usually works out.