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Mom and dad are vacationing in Alaska. Last week they went white water rafting and today out on the charter boat. Neither are in the greatest of health and they are living every minute like it's their last. Dad sent me a pic today of mom and the charter captain

Trial and error, fish as much as you can, with someone who is experienced if possible. Nobody learns how to catch them overnight, it takes years of practice. Read, watch how to videos (legit videos, not some random yahoo with a Go-Pro), and probably most important of all, fish where there's fish. I don't know the lakes you're fishing, but if they have poor populations, you're going to have a big uphill climb ahead of you.

I hope this pattern continues through the Sunday tournament

One of them went flying across the top of some bushes right by us like a Jesus lizard on the water when my wife and I were walking into the BPS in Ft. Lauderdale. My poor wife screamed and ran, I laughed, one of us barely escaped with our lives and it wasn't my wife.

Got on a frog bite at my favorite pad covered hydrilla pit in the woods. Stuck 4 on the black scum frog. All right around 12 inches (there’s gotta be some studs in there, I won’t give up on the spot!)

Whatever happens, if in the end my state & local governments end up with more revenue to work with, I really hope they repair some of these roads . . . . . . A-Jay

I've been meaning to reply to this all day, but every time I sit down to do this I sorry. what was I saying?

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

If you follow the development of the soft plastic worm you will trace the birth of modern bass fishing. It all started with Nick Creame in the mid 50's and a group of Texans creating a presentation to affectived fish The worms. Prior the Texas rig Creame sold his worms with a nightcrawler rig, 2 hooks on a leader with beads and a small propeller. Creame's worm were so popular in Texas he moved his company to there. Several worm companies started offering soft plastic worms like Stembridge Flip tail worms and Tom Manns Jelly worms, 5 decades later new soft plastics are introduced nearly every week. Thank you Nick Creame and those Texans who showed how to fish the plastic worm. Tom

Pick up some good books on bass behavior, and fishing for them. Watch good quality videos- there are some good ones available on this site. Buy a practice plug, set up some targets in your yard and practice accurate casting to and past you targets. Also ask questions on this forum. Many good fisherman on this site who are glad to help. Good luck, and have fun.

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

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.

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

I fricking hate gators. Lately they've been a huge bother when fishing, and tonight was no different. We had just arrived to one of our favorite lagoons in Sun City Hilton Head. The same lagoon where a small gator chased me a few weeks ago. I've caught some 4 pounders here, but I know there are 7+ pounders in this lagoon and tonight I was going to find one. I was fan casting a Booyah Pad Crasher starting out and working my way in. On the fateful cast I was casting to my left down the shoreline and my intent was to put the frog beyond an outcrop of vegetation and walk it past that spot. But I hooked my cast a little to the left and it landed behind the vegetation where there was a lot of aquatic algae. As soon as my frog hit the water I caught a glimpse of something big, white and green flashing out of the water behind that vegetation. I reeled down, set the hook, and it felt like a lure hung up on a log. But there are no logs in this lagoon. The line tightened and nothing moved. I reeled some more and still nothing. Maybe the fish was hung up in the slop. So I moved closer as I reeled in. Awww frick! At that point I yelled for my son to grab my multi-tool and bring my phone to take a picture of the event. That's when he started to video. The video below is highly edited because for some reason he pointed the camera at the ground while repeating his new catch phrase about a million times (you'll here it in the video - ???) instead of actually filming the action. There was a long period where the gator had his head well out of the water and was chomping away at my favorite frog. There was another period where the gator raised it's body while in the water and you could see how big it was. It was a decent size, somewhere between 8 and 9 feet long. You can hear me opening and closing the spool when the gator went under and started moving. I wasn't about to wrestle with him or chance the line going tight and having him move towards me. At one point I made a loud noise and tried to scare him, but that didn't work. I tried popping the line but he kept shutting his jaws when the line was still attached. After cutting my line I set up my rod again and packed up to try another lagoon. And just as we were packing the gator came steaming through the water towards us again. I'm done with that lagoon until the HOA takes action. But wait - the day gets even worse. We moved to another lagoon and while my son was fishing a frog a little gator - about 3 feet long - started cruising towards his bait and picked up speed as he was reeling in. The gator was moving so fast that it actually raised itself out of the water. I'm screaming at him to get out of there and he's not moving. I start running towards him yelling and waving my arms like a mad man - hoping to scare off the gator - and Matt finally moves of the shore and the gator stops at the edge of the bank. But wait - there's more!. We move to another lagoon and I'm fishing a frog again. This time a bass hits it, I set the hook, and it feels like a decent sized fish. I start reeling and the line goes slack. Really, really slack. Like no frog on my line slack. Yep - my knot failed because of angler error. But wait - there's even more! I tie on a Whopper Plopper 110 and make a few casts around the fountain in the lagoon and wouldn't you know it, I snagged the rope cable and hung up my lure. I didn't get it back. Yeah - it was not a good day. Also included is a screen capture of him trying to devour my lure. Some day I'd like to post on here again about the fish that I caught or a new PB instead of dinosaurs ruining my day.

30 years ago, I attended a seminar at a sport show in Kansas city. The speaker was Larry Nixon. His seminar was on structure fishing, and was very good. At the end of his seminar he held up a plastic worm and said " learn this". Looking back over years of notes I've kept, this has been true for me. The simple plastic worm has landed me more fish than all other lures combined. On a typical hot summer day, I can usually score a couple of fish very early on topwater baits. My grandson calls this the easy bite. Other faster moving baits may work good too, but once the sun starts beating down, this faster fishing doesn't last long, and we switch to plastic worms. Its also, along with jigs, one of the harder baits for a novice to learn. Plastic worms make up 80% of my fishing time through the main part of the season. How many others feel this way? Regardless of brand name, size, color, etc, do plastic worms make up the bulk of your time on the water. Would it be your #1 choice, if you had to pick one bait? What percentage of your time is spent fishing worms- in all their forms on an average day? My vote goes for the plastic worm as the number 1 bass lure of all time. How many others agree or disagree?

It could be a bowling alley. ? I entered a contest on the Twitters and ended up winning a $100 gift card to Bass Pro Shop. I’m needing a good baitcasting crankbait setup. What would you do with a $100 gift card, I’m needing some ideas.

About the first 20-some years when I fished tourneys, I almost never fished worms. I usually only kept one package with me on the boat along with a few hooks and sinkers, "just in case." Could probably count on 2 hands how many times I actually fished them. Once I stopped fishing tourneys, along with older age, the rise of the shaky head and Ned rig, I now probably throw them about half the time in some form or fashion. In fact, just walked in the house from a 3 hour trip and the only bait I threw was a worm - lol. Caught nearly 50 on it today.

I sit back a little , stretch, rest my back ,look at the scenery , eat a little ... Sometimes a short break is needed to get recharged .

I've learned to deal with that issue fishing here in S FL. They'll follow the boat and even try to get in!

I would rather fish a jig, but I fish a lot of worms too, especially big worm during the summer and straight tail finesse worms during the winter. Had the hottest jig bite I've had so far this year yesterday. Went for 3 hours and caught over 30, plus missed about 10 more. Couldn't hardly make a retrieve without getting bit.

I've been watching MMA and am now a lot tougher .

When I receive a gift card for BPS or a similar store I use it to buy things I need but am reluctant to buy myself.... Tackle storage boxes, storage chests, weights, hooks, waders..... stuff that I need but don't necessarily want to spend MY money on.

We can fish where ever you want bro, I got a truck I can drive. I'm giving thus bed rest thing a few more days, then I'm getting back on my feet and living life.

Ok...so today I go out. Perfect morning. Decide to throw a spook or a Hula Popper along a duck weed line for some early morning topwater action. Realize I do NOT have my topwater box. Crap. I DO have my frog box. In that frog box is an OLD Poppin Pad Crasher. Good enough and I can work it into the duckweed a bit. Make first cast and it starts raining confetti. What the hell? Frog was so old the leg tassles were brittle and just came off. COMPLETELY. So now I have just the body. Looks weird...couldn't possibly still be any good. Chuck it out again right along the line and start twitching it in. And then all hell broke loose. BAM! 6 lber. BAM! 4lber. BAM! BAM! 2lber! KABLAM!!! 7.4 lber!! UN-FRIGGIN-BELIEVABLE! I threw this all FRIGGIN day and had one of the best days of fishing I've ever had. I THINK it was a Poppin Pad Crasher Jr....which I'm not sure they even make anymore. All I can say is give this a try. Cut the legs completely off a poppin pad crasher and chuck it around. Throw it in the muck. Throw it along the edge. It walks like a dream and I even had it doing 180's in place in open pockets. The worst that can happen is you are out 6 bucks and think I'm an idiot. I can live with both of those. WOW! *Update* Regular old Poppin Pad Crasher. Went to Wally World and bought a couple more. Legs already cut off and they are ready to throw.

Zman are more durable for sure, but the Christie Critter is 2.99 for an 8 pack, tough to find a better bait for that price. You can always get some Mend-it and fix those tears, but I don't even bother with it, just get a new bait out of the pack. The Zman Boar Hogz are a much smaller bait if you're using a standard sized Christie Critter too. It's closer to the size of the Jr.

Nothing is more durable than Z-Man plastics. The stuff is elastic. You can catch a dozen or more bass on 1 bait. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Turbo_Crawz_6pk/descpage-ZMANTRB.html http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Boar_Hogz_5pk/descpage-ZBHZ.html http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Palmetto_BugZ_5pk/descpage-ZMANPAL.html

Its been years since I've fished north of Pendleton but I'm sure we can manage.

The reel is too small, too light and a mismatch for the rods, line and lures you are planning to use. Tom

I look for what's under the grass first, this tells me where to start. Then I look at the grass itself for indication of what's under it. Thick matted areas usually indicates shallower water while sparse grass indicates deep water.

- - - - - - - - - - Just updated the layout of my Football Head Jig Box to incorporate the new Strike King J-Lee Comeback Jigs... Red Box - Pepper Custom Baits Jigs - 3 Colors x 3 Slots Per Color x 3 Jigs Per Slot (27 Total). Green Box - Stike King J-Lee Comeback Jigs - 3 Colors x 1 Slot Per Color x 3 Jigs Per Slot (9 Total). Blue Box - Strike King Football Jigs - 7 Colors x 1 Slot Per Color x 3 Jigs Per Slot (21 Total). WolfyBrandon

Suggestions: 1. Use Provider jig heads. 2. Use weedless hooks. 3. Cast randomly along the bank and at anything that is out of the normal, like a grass point, a patch of pads sitting by themselves, a stick-up, opening between pads and grass, wood in water, rocks, changes in the grass, skip under trees and bushes, throw next to bushes along the bank. Just put your bait in the water and be ready for a strike. 4. There are was to prevent your bait from sliding down or off your hook. One is from Glenn. Rig your plastic Texas style and bury the hook's eye into the plastic bait. Take 10 to 20 pound mono and jam it through the plastic, through the hook's eye, and out the plastic's other side. Cut off the excess mono on both sides and your plastic ain't going anywhere. Or, if you want, use some super fast drying glue and glue the head of your plastic onto your hook's eye. Messy and you lose both the hook and plastic but it works. Give the above a shot and see if it helps.

Good luck with that blood clot.

I watch a lot of YouTube and then pretend like I'm really smart and I'm spending that time on the water. Really, I'm on my couch where I have pretty good luck with swedish fish. Bass Baitcast 80% Spin 20% I have a fly rod that was a gift, and only use it when I fish with the buddy who got it for me. Once in a while I'll get some chicken livers and head to a private farm pond and catfish with the ole ugly stick. One in a blue moon I'll throw some powerbait on the bottom and gut hook some trout for lunch.

sometimes yes, but today I did OK

i just enjoy the fact that i am able to be fishing at that moment, whether im catching or not. obviously we all would love to be catching fish on every outing, but it just doesnt work that way normally. i just take solace in the fact that i am able to fishing at the moment, and enjoy the sights and sounds of the nature around me. really its just mental therapy for me basically, i forget about everything going on around me in the real world for awhile, a temporary escape sort of, its just really refreshing for me...

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. ?

Things are picking up on the reservoir. Now, if she would just let me catch some fish.

Nylon monofilament line is weakened by heat over 105 degrees continuos temperatures, Fluorocarbon and braid are not degraded by heat in your car. Direct sunlight, UV and Ozone also affects the polymers. You are better off storing your fishing equipment in a cool dark place in lieu of your car. Tom

Short story that might make you feel better, laugh or just flat out feel sorry for me... Went out bank fishing shortly after first thaw. Muddy water. Hands almost numb. Tied on a black and blue chatterbait hoping they could find it (zman original so luckily only $5). First cast into a tree. 1 lure gone without getting into the water. Second cast, wedged it in what must have been a rock pile that I couldn't see. 2 lures gone. Get in my box, tie on the last bladed jig I'm carrying, snip my main line instead of the tag end, and watch it fall into the water. Lost 3 lures, and only one of them ever had a chance to get in front of a fish (while connected to my line). I always like to try and learn something everytime I go out. I no longer tie any knots over the water. ?

See my edits above for the wind warning.

I've got two. 6'6" MLM Aetos and Dobyns Champion 704CB Glass.

Just picked up my Hobie Compass!

Yes Sir, I put them under my cover if there is a chance of rain. other than that just on deck.

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!).

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:

If you're not losing lures, you're probably not fishing the right spots.

New jigs/heads from Siebert Those darn ebay coupons get me every time

Color is important to me, if I don't like it the lure stays in the box. Over the years color has proven to be critical during a tough bite and it's tough where I fish 80% of the time. When it matters it really matters, when it does't everything works. Tom