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I am down at Pickwick Lake this week for a college tournament, today was our first practice day. A big cold front moved in and the winds were pretty extreme, so we didn't expect much, but my partner and I had a phenomenal day! We caught a decent number of fish and a handful of them were big (maybe not for here, but for us WV boys). Best 5 were in the ballpark of 21lbs! My partner caught his PB smallmouth today at 5.08lbs, it was an absolute freak of a fish and the biggest I have ever seen. We are facing some challenging conditions and will probably have to do a good bit of adjusting to stay on fish, but that is the name of the game!

If you catch a bass on a crankbait with 2 or 3 treble hooks, reaching in to lip them could result in one of those hooks sticking in your hand. Nets help get them in the boat without hooking yourself. If you ever catch a pike, pickeral, or a walleye, lipping them isn't a good idea. A net will help. If you use light lines and expensive baits, a net will get bigger fish in the boat without risking breaking a line or losing the bait and the fish. Hoisting big bass with your rod can damage your rods. Nets are often a good idea.

I'm never guna save any money

White bass have finally gotten themselves all up in the shoals and are dancing all over the surface. I paddled my girlfriends little sit on top kayak out into fray and caught as many as I could stand for about 2 hrs with a small spook. Even got some video of one catch being watched by a bunch of vultures. It’s supposed to be 35 degrees Tuesday morning, hopefully they stay after the topwater plugs

@roadwarrior the video is exactly what I do...a two handed over head cast but the reel isn't really "overhead". My reel is more around shoulder high, right hand going forward & left hand pulling back.

I fish for river smallmouth quite a bit. Nothing can beat a nice warm summer morning, crack of dawn, slipping into my waders and hopping in the river. I use a rig similar to your description, except I use a Medium/Fast action Crucial rod paired with a 2500 Shimano Sustain. I waffle back and forth between 6lb Tatsu and 14lb YGK X-8 Tie on a #3 gold bladed Mepps and hang on. If the fish are in the mood you can't go wrong. One thing to be sure of is stream flow. It's easy to track on the USGS website if your particular river/stream is tracked with stream gauges. There are even a few smartphone apps that can provide you with a quick real-time look at the data (depth and flow). I only say that because at faster flow rates bladed lures are harder to use because it requires a faster and faster retrieve to engage the blades in fast current, which often ends up being a fast enough retrieve that your lure is back to you in seconds. Makes for exhausting and usually unproductive fishing vs using a bottom contact bait like a craw, tube, or Ned Rig. But if the flow is slow enough, experiment with the spinner, small spinnerbait, or shallow diving crank. You ideally want a slow enough current that you can get that nice good "thump" from your spinner and retrieve it somewhat lazy, give those fish a good amount of time to track it and hit it. Man now you've got me all watered up - ready for these spring rains to dissipate and allow me to get out there in the river!

Oh, come on. You have Justin Bieber.

Female Bighorn Sheep near Apikuni Falls in Glacier National Park.

"If you do what you always did you'll get what you always got!" Some look at the quote as negative, I prefer to look at it as positive! Just because the bite is slow doesn't mean I need to change anything because I understand that next after location is timing. Some days ya gotta cover a lot of water...some days ya don't. I spent 3 1/2 hours without a bump before boating this 8.25# Hawg, if I had abandoned my plan I wouldn't have met that lady!

Clearly the deer was trying to swim across the water and a giant bass took it down. Think of the rod we are gonna need for the new topwater deer bait.

Not to be a hater but they are not my thing. I received one as a gift and was quite enthusiastic about receiving it. I thought: "Here is my opportunity to fish places I can't normally get to!" After a few attempts, however, I have concluded they simply aren't worth it (for me). Here are my reasons (in no particular order): - Sitting so low in the water makes anything other than awkward lobbing casts or overhand casts rather difficult. - Sitting SO low also makes it very difficult to see into the water. Several times I found myself casting into water that was only a few inches deep (or completely chocked in weeds). - Getting into and out of the water is very awkward-especially on steep banks. I made an absolute fool of myself trying to climb up onto rip rap. - Difficulty in tying on new baits without immersing the rod/reel (what DO you do with the butt end of your rod when you're trying to tie on a bait?) - Inflating and deflating boat requires extra equipment, effort, and takes a fair amount of time. - Mobility is limited and SLOW. Fishing anything other than very small waters is not very feasible-unless you are willing to confine yourself to a very small area - Mud tends to suck flippers off your feet if you have to stand up. (Lost a strap on the first time out because of this). - Felt like I was operating in a straight jacket - this cannot be overemphasized. If I wasn't crazy before, I nearly was afterwards. It is quite awkward when you can't move freely about. - Not all ponds are like this but many have a lot of rotten vegetation and sediment on the bottom and stirring it up stunk like a sewage treatment plant. Bad! - Even with a fishing vest with MANY pockets I found lure management difficult. - Small thing but if you forget anything, you're "done." - You wouldn't think so but there is definitely a learning curve with these things (see most of the items above). If you are a fan of this type of fishing, I applaud you. For me, unfortunately, it was not fun. I wound up buying a Pelican and am much happier with it.

Yeah, some of my local ponds have a lot of nesting Canada geese. It only lasts a couple of weeks, but it times out with good fishing every spring. The ganders will hiss display and charge, but usually won't attack. I give them a wide birth while facing them sometimes I say "Hey! I have a great duck recipe". As long as you don't try to fish on top of their nest, they will usually leave you alone. Every so often one gets too close and acts a fool, then I just bop it over the head with my rod, that usually drives the point home, and they just waddle away.

oh boy

Overly optimistic.

Yes. A-Jay

I didn't know how to make one of those evolution, missing link diagram things, so here's the next best thing... Big O Basstrix Rico RC1 Paca Craw KVD 1.5 Chatterbait Rage something or other DEPS Buzzjet Spro frog A-rig Senko Pop X Ned Whopper Plopper. Can't wait for the next best thing so I can strike through that last one.

2018 Triton 189 TRX, 150 Opti, Ultrex 80lb, hot foot, jack plate, tournament series package and tournament trailer. Still breaking her in.

Been using U-40 for a couple of decades now. When cork is brand new, I "season" it with this material, using a very liberal soaking. Let the stuff soak in. Lightly wipe off excess and let it set overnight. Next season I may lightly "wet" a rag with U-40 and lightly wipe it over pre-seasoned cork - once the cork has been cleaned (I use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser), which is paramount to any treatment. Have rods that are over 20 years old and they look almost brand new.

Here ya go! The first image is a smaller bag for Spares etc. The last two images are my main tackle bag. I hope this helps in some way.

I thought they only came in white?

My modus operandi for grubs is skittering them across the bottom as I interpret craw dads to do, so I keep my colors to pumpkin or green pumpkin. I use a soft plastic swim bait in Ayu colors to swim higher in the water column. oe

Blue Fox Vibrax 3/8 oz. #4 in Silver has been a main stay in my lakes for many, many years.

1995 Ranger 481v, Mariner Magnum 150 EFI, jackplate, 3 bank charger, Fortrex 80 w/recessed pedal, Helix 9 SI/DI/GPS at helm and LED's in the compartments. I've got a new rub rail insert sitting in a box in my garage, but just haven't had a chance to install it yet. Got this last month and couldn't be happier so far.

The reel palms nicely, but the real claim to fame is it's weight. I think you will be very impressed with the reel.

Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Being a fan of your school is great and when there is a great comeback the enjoyment magnifies itself. Nothing to do with their life or basing their success on what the team does. But this is the way it is in the SEC where you have the best teams and players in all sports. Sometimes your team wins and sometimes your team loses. It is part of southern culture.

To paraphrase Austin Powers fahza, there are only two things I hate in this world: People who are intolerant of the colleges other folks went to... & the USC Trojans!!

as a general rule, I would say yes. but it depends on the line. trilene xt or big game are both mono, but they don't stretch as much as trilene xl.

Here's what you need to lip those toothy fish: Stainless steel chain mail. However, at $80 for one glove, a net is much better deal.

@Lord Castlereagh Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ Can't help you with your questions as I'm not familiar with that area. But nice job defeating Napoleon, however I was sad to hear about your suicide in 1822. That report was somewhat exaggerated apparently. A-Jay

It depends? The aldebaran is actually the same body as beloved 50e series. A lot of ppl like it but some preferred 70 series with sit just a tad higher on reel seat. I never try newer aldebaran 50 so can't comment on those but this reel is also on my radar. Me 5'7 with small Asian hand, I like comfort of 50 better but I do have 2 of those (more coming) and 3 of 70 series. The metanium MG should be the same size as chronarch 100d which is a tad wider and obviously longer and sit higher than aldebaran mg, think 200i vs 70. I hope this help.

well the trip to San Diego was a blast.got to see the boy, grandkids etc. weather was great. fishing was a short trip to Lake Miramar. 3 hours was all we could squeeze in with all that was planned. have never seen water so clear for the depth !!!!!! deep diving jerk baits,flukes and flipping craws in the cattails. nothing big but had a blast. just to see my son and the new(6 weeks old) granddaughter and grandson(1-1/2) was worth the trip. want to thank everyone on here for their help with ideas and locations.

Thanks for the good advice Rich!! Arrived today and headed straight to the docks to ask around. I found two different boaters in under 30 minuets who were more than willing to share pre fishing and take me along. Everyone is really nice and I’ll be out Tuesday and Wednesday fishing now.

I wouldn't buy a mop jig and cut it down to perform better skipping, buy Sieberts Dock Rocker jig to skip and fish the mop where it works best on the bottom. Tom

I have no idea where you are. The gold standard for me is the #5 Mepps Aglia in shallower water, and the Comet in deeper water. I also make my own; 1/2 to 3/4 oz. won't drive Smallies away. Blue/silver, blue/white and chartreuse/white do it for me. But then, I'm fishing the Mississippi, and that's pretty muddy water. Clearer water could change that around a lot. Personally, I wouldn't use line lighter than 8 lb., and I use 12 much more often. That's because I have pike to contend with, no matter where in the river I fish. If I didn't have that problem, I might go lighter, but not much. I'd not go lighter than a #3 spinner, which is 1/4 oz. For 1/4 oz., I might drop down to 6 lb. line. But to me, that's crappie territory, not SMB. 1/2 oz. colored Panther Martin spinners -- the FishSeeUV with the marabou -- have been productive also. (I love it when some steelheader sees me using those and tells me that I can't catch bass with a steelhead lure. Don't believe all the negative things people tell you.) Whatever you choose to use, go slo-o-o-ow. If you decide to make your own, use two or three different body weights for a certain blade. The lightest will go slowest, the heaviest will go deepest. And don't think that you absolutely have to use french style blades. Indiana work well also. Good luck! jj

because a banana peel would be too slippery???

I don't always fish for cats. But when I do, I'd rather be fishing for bass.

Greedy

The Maumee River is famously known for the Walleye spawning run from Lake Erie. Yesterday while I was participating in the annual run a guy caught a monster of a walleye. I can't take credit for the catch or the picture but I am glad someone snapped a shot of this fish.

When looking at selecting single curly tail grub colors is the consensus that a single tail curly grub imitates a minnow or shad thus a white pearl , green pumpkin and smoke colors would about cover grub colors needed - your thoughts and experiences ? *I am eyeing up the fairly new Gene Larew "Rally Grubs" and need a few colors that would cover me for bass : http://www.genelarew.com/rallygrub

I've always followed Shaw Grigsby, always rooting for him in the Elite Series! One more cast, with Shaw Grigsby!!

Same here. Have had many Curado's along the way, as well as the last 2 (200i and K). LOVE them. Well last year I started adding different Tatula's to the arsenal. I am beyond impressed. I'd put them right up there with the Curado.

Because they may not be hooked well enough to lift them into the boat. Some tournaments, like the Bassmaster series, do not allow nets to be used to land the bass. Club, region and federation tournaments usually allow the use of nets. You can use any type of net you wish. Not a stupid question. No such thing as a stupid question. But there are some stupid answers out there.

Blasphemy. This is an experienced summary (regardless if he caught fish, I can tell by his statement about retrieve speed ) and I agree 100 percent. You can play with the retrieve and get them kicking out sideways pretty decent with just a slightly faster rotation of the reel. They catch bass. I've caught a few nice ones on the scatter rap shad.. one time using the regular scatter rap pulled 3 in a row out of the same hole. Blueback herring and yellow perch are my best colors.

Dustin Jumonville?

This is kind of long winded, but I'd say worth the read. I'd never ice-fished for splake before, but it had always been on my bucket list. These last few weeks I had heard that they had been catching them down in the usual spot I go to off Lake Huron. School had been keeping me busy and overly windy days had kept me sidelined. Finally, the conditions aligned and I had just enough time to give it a shot. The latest DNR report said there was still ice and the catch rates were moderate. This past Friday I had the afternoon off so I packed up my gear the night before. I'd be tipup fishing with shiner minnows and then jigging various lures and spoons in my main hole tipped with minnows. I get to the bait shop (Wildness Treasures in Pickford, MI) and the guy gets me an assortment of some medium shiner minnows, tons of little ones, and just for fun he throws in a 5 inch sucker minnow. I go to pay for them but he says it's on the house. I thank the man for his kindness and get back on the road. I get to the pier where I catch splake from in the spring time and unload my gear. Out about 300 yards on the ice is a cluster of shanties and fishermen. I get out there and the ice is a lot thicker than I expect. 24 inches of solid ice. I throw out my tipups and start running through jigging lures in my hub. I'm primarily using my medium-heavy Fenwick ice rod and reel combo I picked up from Gander Mountain's going out of business sale. I'd been fishing for about 2 hours when I finally get some action. There isn't much current out there and the water is 16 feet of crystal clear water. You can see right to the bottom. This allows for excellent sight-fishing. I happen to be jigging a 3/4 oz Little Cleo tipped with a couple of minnows when a 4 lb splake comes in hot and bumps my spoon. He then circles around and bumps it four more times before taking off. It's nothing I can set the hook on, but it is some action at least. 4 and a half hours of fishing and I have only seen the one fish so far. I'm jigging the big Little Cleo again with 4-5 minnows on it this time (Chandelier Style). It's 5:30 PM and a blur of movement catches my eye. I look down and see a Splake flash its side and missile-lock onto my spoon! Before I can react, my rod gets ripped down hard and the first splake of the day is on! It takes a while to get him in because you have to wait till they angle their head just right to get up the hole. After 10 minutes I hoist the 5 lb beauty. Alright! I stick with the big spoon and minnow combo. I'm running out of minnows though since all of the ones I'm tipping onto the spoon are one by one falling of the treble over time. I pull in one of my tipups so that I can tip my spoon with the last of my minnows. I have two minnows tipped on my treble and that's it. The only other thing I have left is the 5 inch sucker on my last tipup. I have a feeling that I'll see at least one more splake. It takes a while, but at 6:40 PM, the one I've been dreaming about rolls in. He comes in hot and takes aggressive swipes around my spoon. I know he's going to commit, it's just of matter of when. He makes one more turn and crushes the spoon! I set the hook hard, but the drag is set too loose from the last splake! I frantically try and pump him in to make up for the loose drag, but I'm too late. I feel the treble pop out. Instinctively, I quickly pump in the spoon to the top and tighten up my drag a ton. The splake stripped my spoon completely. I now have nothing to tip it with. Oh wait. I have the 5 inch sucker minnow. I sprint to my tipup and hoist the sucker minnow out of the hole and run it over to the shack. There might be a school close by! I chop the sucker in half and then cut the tail section in half the long way so that I'll have two long strips with bits of tail to mimic what it would look like if I tipped my spoon with 2 minnows. I'm just about to drop my spoon down when I ______ my pants. The goliath I just hooked is right beneath my hole sucking up all of the dead minnows that have fallen off my trebles!!! I can't believe my luck! I know I've said on these forums before that once you hook a fish then it's game-over and you have no chance of hooking it again right away. Could this really be happening?! I drop my spoon down and watch as it flutters down towards destiny. I just know what's going to happen. I bounce it in front of it face. He takes a hard lunge past it, circles back, and then Chokes It Down Hard! The fight takes me literally 15 minutes and pushes my 6 lb suffix to the test. After what feels like an eternity, I lunge my hand into the icy waters and grab hold of my new PB Splake. The beast tapes out at 25 inches and comes out at 6.75 lbs. Mission Complete. I get home and one of them is loaded with not just minnows, but a crap ton of tapeworms. I didn't realize it till after I had filleted both fish and threw them in a bag together so it is what is. I've been told by fisheries biologists that they can't physically reproduce since they are sterile and only plant-based fish, so I don't feel too bad. Well it looks like I have an excuse to get back at it while the ice is still strong. FISH ON!

I'd say the 41 is a medium shank if that helps at all? It's not as long as the shank on many hooks, but definitely not as short as hooks marketed " short shank." Either way, the 41 is an excellent hook

3 to 5 pound bass are fun to catch and not that small. Just go out and fish and stop worrying about catching 10 pound bass.

Shi-Diawa-mo

I don't own a pond or private lake, but I gotta say, I watched the video posted here of Bob Lusk talking about myths and facts about bass and it was such an informative entertaining piece. I recommend it to everyone. Wish I could sit and talk to that man in person for hours!