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Saying goodbye to a good friend stolen from us way too soon. She was a mom, sister, and friend rolled into one that once gave a skinny 21 year old who wasn't very sure of himself the confidence to stand up for himself and that he was able to do the job. She was a mother to any child in need and impacted so many, fly high TK.

My girlfriend and I went to Caney Lakes lower lake this afternoon for a few hours. Didn't have much success, but did manage my first buzzbait (toadbuzz) catch. That one weighed 1lb 2oz. It was awesome seeing the blowup then almost immediately feeling the weight. I set the hook and reeled it on in. Couldn't get another bite with it to save my life though. I started pitching a Texas rigged bama craw Rage Craw with a 1/8oz bullet weight around the boat dock. Slowly dragging and hopping it back to me up the boat ramp I saw that little guy pick it up and chomp on it. Set the hook and lifted it out. Not 100% sure but I think that dink is a spotted bass. If it is, it's my first one of those too. Didn't catch any hawgs or lunkers but all in all it was a fun day. ?

Thank God there’s a name for this disorder. This is how it manifests: I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide that it needs washing. As I start towards the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and noticed that the can is full. So, I decided to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first . . . . . . But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mail box when I take the garbage out anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra check are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find a can of diet Coke I’ve been drinking. I’m going to look for my checks, but first I push the diet coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over. The diet Coke is getting warm, so I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with my Diet Coke, as vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye…they need water. I put the diet Coke on the counter and discovered my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decided it’d be best to put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers. I set my glasses back down on the counter, and fill a container with water when suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, and I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decided to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, and quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. I then head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day: The car isn’t washed. The bills aren’t paid. There is a warm can of Diet Coke on the counter. The flowers don’t have enough water. There’s still only one check in my check book. I can’t find the remote. I can’t find my glasses. And I don’t remember what I did with my car keys. Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day. And I’m really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first, I’ll check my e-mail . . . . Please do me a favor, forward this message to everyone you know because I don’t remember who I’ve sent it to. Don’t Laugh . . If this isn’t you yet, your day is coming ! PS I don’t remember who sent this to me so if it was you . . I’m sorry. ? A-Jay A

Yes, they're designed that way so that you constantly have to go buy more and more bags, often after just one fishing trip. In the manufacturing world, this is referred to as 'planned obsolescence.' There's a reason why Gary is a millionaire and us Senko throwing bass anglers aren't ?

Recently I've been going out fishing much more often than I usually do. Pretty much whenever I have time, whether it be before work, after work, or going out for a bit in the evening before ending the day, I'm on the water as much as I can be. And I've gotta say, I'm really enjoying seeing myself become a better angler! I've gone out probably 7 or 8 times in the past week and haven't gotten skunked, generally catch more fish per outing than I usually would, and I'm getting better at catching fish on techniques I'm not as confident in! Just today on my way home from work I stopped at a local and incredibly pressured pond, tied on a texas rigged yum thumpin dinger (I've always been super unconfident in soft plastics and bottom baits), and was able to land two fish within the 30-45 minutes that I was there! People on this website repeatedly say that the best way to get better at fishing is to actually go fish, and I can finally vouch for that! No matter how many videos I watched, how many articles I've read, or how much time I've spent on this forum, all of which can be incredibly helpful, what helped the most was actually going out and getting real-life experience.

Mostly spear, some noodling, the occasional par buckle and I'm just now starting to get into ninja action. A-Jay

Our bass season opens this Saturday, I just spent about 2 hours rigging up rods, all ready to go for some brown and green guys ( finally!).

BreeZo - attracting ticks A-Jay

Meet Spider-Man, he deployed to Afghanistan with my son. Every deployment I always gave my son a keepsake to carry with him over there. He in turn gave me something. This was his 3rd deployment and my grandson was just old enough to realize where daddy was going, he approached my son the last hour before boarding the busses and pulled Spidey out of his “sea bag” and gave it to his daddy saying “ here Dad, Spidey will help you get the bad guys and keep you safe”,,,,,,,,,,,,,I still get a tear when I remember that moment,,,,

Been talking to Rahlow about our Warrior Project rods. He seems to be a straight up, no BS, kind of guy. Just heard from him. He is going in far bypass surgery in the morning. Let's put him in our thoughts.

I hope this pattern continues through the Sunday tournament

You have highlighted the #1 complaint I get on the Senko during my shows and demonstrations. I've been with Yamamoto for 20 years and if I have learned anything it's that rigging is paramount if you want them to last through multiple fish and many don't take the time to perfect their rigging technique. Let's face it, you want to catch fish not spend time making sure your rigging is perfect. That is going to cost you baits. Here are a few of my tips for an upcoming Yamamoto article and that that I show when doing tank demos or seminars. Type of Hook. I prefer a light wire hook for the simple fact it displaces less of the material when rigged. I use a Gamakatsu Offset shank EWG hook (3-4-5.0) for most of my applications which is the hardest hook to rig. You have to make sure you insert the hook point the proper depth in the nose when you start the rigging process. Too far and your line will cut the excess head material in the Senko and lead to premature failure. Too little and it will rip too easy with the first fish or in cover. You want the nose of the bait to cover the hook eye exactly. No more, no less. This next tip is important....I always make sure my hook is wet before I start the rigging process. A dry hook will cause the bait to stick and will rip much easier. Now that you have the first part of the rigging correct, you slide the hook through the bait to the offset portion of the hook....critical point. I spin the hook as I slide the nose of the bait over the offset making sure not to enlarge the hole already in the bait. You have to go slow and squeeze the bait a little to ensure you don't make that hole any larger. If that hole gets enlarged, the bait will move and fail at that point. Now that you have the nose of the bait rigged properly let's move on to rigging the business end of the hook. Here's another major caution area. Gauging where to insert the hookpoint in the body of the Senko. You have to push the bait forward before you insert the hookpoint to make sure the Senko lies perfectly flat when the hook exits the bait on the opposite side. Misjudging this hook placement will cause the Senko to put undue pressure on the nose of the bait and force it forward (see line cutting above) or will pull it back causing it to rip. Once you get it right, make note where in relation to the "egg sack" (molded into the bait), you placed the hookpoint. If the Senko is not flat on the hook, this will also cause it to spin when you retrieve it causing line twist and it will also impede the action that makes the Senko unique. If you "Texspose" your hook (leave the hookpoint exposed) you are done. If you skin hook the hookpoint you have another consideration. How deep to place the hookpoint. If you go too deep into the bait, it will rip too much material when you set the hook and eventually cause the Senko to rip in the middle. Too shallow and you will not be weedless because the hookpoint will expose with very little resistance. I prefer to rig the bait so that the hookpoint when inserted into the Senko angles down slightly. That way when the fish takes the bait, the hook comes straight out of the Senko not tearing it. Finally, Casting. A weightless Senko is a finesse presentation. If you try and cast it 300 yards, more than likely you are going to stress the rigging causing it to rip in all of the pressure points which will lead to premature failure. I'll save for another day my tips for re-rigging damaged Senkos to get more life out of them.

Out Yesterday ~ "The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli." A-Jay

A few good ones from our Thursday night tourney at Olathe tonight. Bite was good for all boats. Took over 13lbs to win and a 4.6lb big bass. We had third with 10.70 lbs.

Just got done with supper when we looked out the window and saw this in the backyard. She's been coming around for a couple weeks now. First time I've been able to get a pic. She has a baby out there too, just never see them together. Maybe I'll get one of the baby before I have to go back to work in the morning. ?

Who would've thunk ....

I ventured out tonight after dinner to bank fish the westernmost point of the Hillsboro Canal, west of Boca Raton. As a result of daily rain causing high water in the Everglades, the gait had been opened, allowing a great torrent of tannin stained water to flow from the Loxahatchee Reserve into the canal. I tossed a Zoom Magnum Ultravibe Speed Worm in Watermelon Red into the swift current near a rocky bank, and procured two glowing 4-pounders in back-to-back casts. This was the first of the two:

with all the new, great, topwater lures out today I still use a jitter bug. I've been using them for over 50 yrs. and the gurgle sound they make brings back so many memories, and is still effective.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads on here and also to all the moms who have to be daddy too, if there's any on here. Well for Father's Day, today, My niece, Amber, her husband Jacob, their 2 kids Brantley and Ariel and my brother in law Warren all went to Cross Lake this morning to do some fishing from his boat. We had lots of fun, got a few bites with nothing to show. Got to try my new baits. Threw the prop frog, had a blowup, but somehow he missed it. Threw my chatterbaits, nothing doing again. So I threw my new 3/8oz green pumpkin swinging swim jig with a bama bug Rage Craw trailer it got bit but the fish came off. My hand was wet and slipped when I set the hook, had him hooked for about a second or two but couldn't keep my hand dry enough to quit slipping. Was a nice one, definitely had some weight to it. Oh well, we can't catch em all...lol! Stayed with that bait since it got hit the hardest and it was smashed by this 3lb 3oz hawg. That's Brantley my great nephew in one of the pics holding her up. He's 5 years old and thought it was totally awesome. Wasn't long afterwards, everybody but me wanted to leave and go home. Needless to say, I was out voted. Hope you fathers caught a hawg or better today! God Bless! ?

*Little lengthy but I'd say worth the read if you have the time I'd always wanted to fish for brook trout, but I'd always been busy or made some kind of excuse to try and avoid the ticks. Tuesday that all changed. I'd woken up early and gone fishing for whitefish from my canoe. For about three straight hours I got tons of bites but for the life of me couldn't get any hooked. I packed up and went home. Sometimes you really just want to catch a fish and that is how I was feeling. I decided that today would be the day that I went and tried brook trout fishing. A buddy had recommended a stream a short drive from town for me to check out so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I threw my waders, bug-spray, fishing rod with a a #6 black panther martin, and some pliers in my car and took off. It was mid-day, but I knew there'd be some wild trout that'd be hungry. I get to the stream and right away am greeted by the tall grass. I barrel through it and jump into the stream. The easiest going seems to be through the water and not around it. Almost instantly I'm greeted by a shedded dragonfly larvae case stuck to a wooden post next to the water's edge. Pretty cool. I start throwing the panther martin beneath riffles and pretty soon I hook into a couple of the little native rainbow parr. Nothing I can keep, but some excitement at least. I keep pushing further down the creek and find another big set of riffles. I tell myself that this spot guaranteed will have two fish under it. I flip my panther martin in and in and almost instantly something jerks my rod hard! Fish! I flip the first brook trout of the day - a 9 incher - onto the bank! Yes, my first ever brook trout! I fire off a second cast and get another fish to commit - another juvenile rainbow. I knew there'd be at least 2 fish here I chuckle to myself. I throw the brook trout on my stringer and keep pushing into the woods. I find another good looking spot with some riffles and an opening for casting directly beneath them. I throw a couple casts in with my spinner and I'm getting nothing. I decide that I'll just double back in a second and drive to a different portion of the stream and fish that section of it. Just as I say that thought to myself, a 10 inch brook trout grabs my spinner and starts thrashing on the surface! No Way! I land the little guy and throw him on my stringer. Two down, three to go. That brook trout convinved me...to go further down the rabbit hole. Quoting from the movie *** "The only way to get out is to keep going down." I climb, weave, and wade my way to another prime looking spot about a hundred feet further down the stream. This has a fish, 100% I tell myself. I wait till the mud clouds settle and pitch out my spinner. A couple more repeated casts in and I just know there has to be a fish. Where is it? SLAP OH MY GOODNESS A MASSIVE Brook Trout just charged my spinner and slapped it right in front of me! And by massive I mean pushing 11 inches. It didn't get hooked somehow. I consider changing to a different spinner, but decide that I'll just keep casting my current one and see what happens. One more pitch out and I realize that that was a great decision. Whack! Fish On! I crank up the 10.5 inch brook trout and flip him on the bank! Alright! I just need 2 more brook trout and I'll have my limit I got my first 3 within probably about 300 feet of stream from the first set of riffles I had stumbled upon. I should be able to get my limit pretty quickly then. Or so I thought. For literally the NEXT MILE of stream it is a deadzone with absolutely ZERO Riffles. Like none at all. It was brutal. There's a constant 2-3 blackflies that are hovering over my head and buzzing in my ears and an occasional assault from a handful of mosquitoes. Everytime this happens I just spray more bug spray on my hat, arms, and hands. This actually does wonders as all the flies leave me after the mile of empty water. I push through some trees and round a bend. No Way! Do my eyes deceive me? Up ahead is the 100% perfect riffle structure with a beautiful wide-open lane for casting a spinner. It's like a 7 foot wide log creating a cascading waterfall almost. I thank the Lord and wade out just above the riffle. This spot guaranteed has at least 2 big brook trout beneath it. Guaranteed. My first cast with my spinner agrees with me. My rod gets ripped down hard and my line is bolting and zig-zagging all over the stream! It's a biggin! I fight the brook trout over the lumber fall and get it on the bank. Yes! God is Good! I'm at 4 brook trout and just need one more to complete my limit. I wade back on top of the log breaking the water and fire off my second cast from this spot. AN EVEN BIGGER BROOK TROUT SLAMS IT!!!!!!! This one looks all of 11-12 inches!!!! I battle it hard but it pops off. Eh no biggie, just means I'll have to dive further into the jungle to finish my limit. Most of the brook trout are so aggressive that you really don't even have to set the hook. They hit the spinner so hard you basically just fling them onto the bank and you're set. Pliers are almost always needed since they are hooked so well. I push onwards another quarter mile through stream. Finally I start seeing some more riffles. I wade past rocks the size of volleyballs and tennis balls. Now I just need to find an opening for me to cast from. I fire off a couple casts in a couple stretches directly beneath the riffles. I know there's got to be a brook trout around here, but where is it? I keep going and come across another spot with a little bit of riffles that is open enough to cast into. Sometimes you can fire off a cast at a new spot before the mud clouds your waders caused, float downstream and cloud up the water. This is what I do. Gotta hit the water while it's mostly clear. RIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPP OH MY GOODNESS IT'S A MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The biggest brook trout of my life is tearing up the stream!!!! WOW!!!!! I flip it up onto the high bank and it is huge!!! It's an 11.5 incher that absolutey choked my spinner! What a way to finish my limit! I jump up onto the bank with my limit in tow and feel amazing as I trek back to my car. I'd never caught a brook trout till today and not only did I catch one, but I caught my limit. I get home and guess what? Not a single tick! I broil the brook trout with lemon pepper and uncle tony's creole seasoning and my goodness! EASILY the best meal I have had ALL MONTH!!!! No Joke! Brook Trout taste like HEAVEN!!!! All fish easily cleared the 7 inch minimum and were 9-11.5 inches long. The giant weighed a full pound! I found some caterpillars and snails in their stomachs so that was pretty neat. I only covered about half of the stream containing riffles so I'm itching to get back out and explore the rest of it! Fish On ?

sometimes yes, but today I did OK

It's downhill now.....pocketbook is going to be damaged!!!

Fished Monday and Tuesday night after work and both nights were decent, with multiple 4+ lb fish each night and good numbers of above average keepers as well. Just kinda junk fishing around. Which is what I like to do. Yesterday I had my opening tournament for the season of my week day single angler series on silver and conesus lakes. The first tournament was on silver, and I did well continuing the junk fishing. I placed second with 17.59lbs. I fished clean, and had two 4+ lb fish, but I couldn't get anymore upgrades to get near the win, which took 19.97lbs. But it's a good start to the year, as opposed to last season where I was struggling bad, spinning out, and not fishing hard through tuff times.

What Catt clearly defined as inside break is a weed line that starts a foot or so deep that has no weeds or grass growing away from the shoreline. Outside break is the outside weed line where it's too deep for the weeds or grass to grow. These are very easy to see and fish. The weed or grass bed inbetween the inside and outside break or line is where the bass are located. The grass mat isn't solid from top to bottom depending on the type of weeds or grass growing. Some areas of the bottom is too hard or clay or gravel or sand where plants or grass can't root and you see open pockets of water surrounded by the mat. Underneath the floating mat of grass is a forest of stems plants and tunnels or paths through the forest. Have you ever crawled under brush, it looks like a solid hedge until you get low under it, then it opens up where the sun light doesn't penetrate, branches overhead open areas near the ground, weed or grass mats look the same with little growth near the bottom and canopy or growth near the surface. Breaks are all the elements that allow the bass to swim without forcing it's way through the grass. Edges, breaks, tunnels, open areas, inside edges, outside edges, pockets, different types of plants coming together, etc. Where do you want you pitch jig/punch rig? In front of the bass! Not into a solid wall of vegetation but through the canopy into open spaces underneath it or along an edge where bass are waiting for prey. Tom

Yakkers like “no public access”

Black and silver Mister Twister Sassy Shad. They are incredibly durable and appeal to multi-species. They must be the early pioneer to finesse swimbaits

My father's day present from my wife and kids. Absolutely love it.

My PB, caught it on my honeymoon a few weeks ago.

Fishing for brookies on a fly rod is my favorite fresh water fishing

Just a little largemouth with odd coloration. Easiest way to tell if you're not sure is to feel them, a largemouth is smooth, spotted bass scales are noticeably rough.

That's hilarious! Probably shoulda just went fishing...lol! ?

More of the same today... I was throwing an Ol' Mr. Wiggley Fly: ...and I kept dropping it in holes in between lily pads that I've not been able to hit in the past...I missed some, too...but not as many as I hit. Score: Me: 7, Bass: 5 ...I also managed one bluegill that was barely longer than the fly, one crappie, and one sunfish-to-be-determined-later.

Well, I’m not so sure about that. The more people there are fishing, bigger chance there is for them to find your honey hole, and no angler would appreciate that!

I think I get what he was saying... for lack of a better term there can be cavities that are either areas in the middle of the slop where there is nothing, or areas inside the slop that are more like a cave. I just learned this the other day on my last outing. The water was clear enough that I saw a good sized bass dart beneath what looked like a sold wall of tree roots from my vantage point. But obviously it wasn't. It was an overhang with an open area beneath it. So I tried for a while to get my bait beneath that ledge to entice it to bite, but it just didn't happen. Am I close in my assessment?

Fish it.... Throw a spinnerbait, chatterbait, or a ned rig... you will then know your answer.

I mainly catch twigs and small logs.

Just took a pass through the clearance aisle at my local Walmart, all z-man plastics and Ned heads were marked down to $1 a pack

Finally got a day back on Toledo today. Ive been on Rayburn the past couple of weeks. We started the morning mid lake and found tons of shad and fish in 18-22’ on ledges. The man I had with me was just trying to learn how to find fish so we idled for the first 6 hours without fishing. With what we saw this morning, I’m confident we could have had “one of them days”. The fish were positioned right and were feeding on lots of shad, and big ones too! I checked a brush pile just to show him what white perch looked like and underneath the perche were a dozen huge bass. Once again, we didn’t cast at them, we just kept looking. Finally at noon we decided to fish for a bit before heading in. We headed back to that pile and the perch were still in there by the hundreds, but only a couple of big bass. First cast I missed a good one. Second cast I caught a 4lber and about 5 min later I caught a 6.5lber with a few small fish mixed in. We then called it a day. There were more active fish today than Ive seen in awhile. Looks to be shaping up well.

I don't think 6' of 3lb test is quite enough to throw frogs with bud.?

Easy fix - buy a Daiwa.

Mepps spinners,Johnson silver minnow,Strike King Timber spoon.Manns Razorback Pig crankbaits.got a lot of older lures that I still use.

I was walking out to my shop Monday night and looked out into the field and thought I was losing my mind or just really tired, looked like a clump of grass was moving? Realized what it was and sprinted back into the house and grabbed my .308 and got into the snipers nest on the side deck. 3rd one I've shot in a month, 50 yards behind our kids swing set right at the edge of the tall grass in our back yard. Nasty thing was absolutely covered in ticks. Lake got to come look at this one up close so he could see that they look just like a dog, because we've had them in our yard in the middle of the day. Oddly enough, I've got quail singing again since I've shot the last 2. Haven't heard any quail in over a year.

My Dad bought an RV a couple weeks ago and had it out on its first trip over the Father's Day weekend. My buddies dad was nice enough to take us out on Smith Mountain Lake For the day. Its just my luck to go to the premier smallmouth lake in VA, and not catch a single smallie. Day started out pretty decent. We worked some top water baits in a cove then moved out into main lake and started working a point not far from the ramp. Found fish out in the middle busting on bait but they didn't want a top water lure. Caught my first and best of the day (2.5ish) on a jekbait suspending in 90 FOW. My buddy and his dad pulled a couple small striper and got one tiny smallmouth. Late morning the lake got super busy with jet skis, pleasure boats, and pontoons everywhere. Not a speck of wind all day but we dealt with three foot rollers the entire time. The chop out in main lake made it nearly impossible to fish out there. I managed a couple more 1.5 lb largies on a Texas rigged Rage swimmer on an island drop off near the main channel later in the afternoon, but we never could find a consistent bite anywhere. Gonna call it a good day. We had fun (despite the 95° heat) caught a few fish on a lake we've never fished before, and nobody got tossed overboard (even though I was mighty close to it a couple times)!

First one of the season on the rat First one in 2 years on a chatterbait

Got the first one (only one so far - lol) on the big JB last night about 15 min after sunset. I'll keep messing with it on some other waters as I get the chance.

Picked up an original wooden Musky JB off eBay a couple weeks ago. Swapped out hooks and ready to try and land one on this big old piece of history. First attempt last night resulted in half a dozen blowups, but no hookups. Still fun for the first time out. We'll keep trying until I find one big enough to actually eat this thing ?

This is a couple days old, but it was one of the last times I went out and one of the best fishing days of my life. It was my first frogging attempt of the year so my drag on my reel was still completely loose and I missed about 8 blowups on only a few more casts right at the start of the morning. When I finally realized the drag was loose, after a fish had held on to the frog and pulled out some drag and then spit it out, I started putting them in the boat, and they were good ones! After the sun got high I switched over to a magnum Christie Critter and started pitching it as far back in the reeds as possible and was glad I did! I caught my new PB for this state at 6.3 lbs (6 lbs 4.8 oz) and my best five fish were right under 28 lbs (2 of the 5+ didn't get recorded on the GoPro). Then I went back 3 days later after a little rain and cold front and found them roaming in the lilies with a black and blue chatterbait. Best 5 for that day were ~23 lbs.