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Caught a long and super skinny one today.. dinks were out in full force too.

We all know that the good folks at Savage Gear are one night of hard drinkin/weed smokin away of coming out with the 3D Suicide Manatee but man do their baits look cool! Yep! After two ducks, two rats and one bat... i´m gonna get me a couple snakes!

An Australian Bass and its close cousin the Estuary Perch from a hot bite the other night.

My buddy demonstrates when you "long arm" a 2 pounder

With the temps rising, the midday bite has fallen way off. So I’m hitting it in the morning with success. 7 this morning on the black/blue and junebug Dingers. Largest went 3.2. I was catching them in twos, on almost back to back casts. And this one(top middle of the collage), was just mean. He smashed the bait, and fought like Ali. Then I discovered a potential reason why—obviously some eye trauma(not caused by me).

I actually needed some hooks, so I figured I would just go ahead and upgrade. The plastics just fell into the basket. Accidentally.

I'm assuming that's why Mike Iaconelli pulls line out on EVERY fish he catches......

Is there any better sound than a screaming spinning reel drag?????

Most largemouth bass have learned that if they try to gulp a spoonful of cinnamon, it will dry up in their mouth & they won't be able to swallow it. Cinnamon brown Senko's bring back those painful memories...

Every time I try casting with my reel I have problems ? My rod does a way better job!

Sounds like the problem is your just not experienced enough yet. If you are still setting up your reel tight enough you don't need to thumb it you are going to struggle with lighter baits. When you get better at controlling the spool with your thumb and can back off the breaks the lighter stuff (and everything else) will start getting more distance. If there is some magic reel or brake setting out there that will let you get good distance with light lures and no thumb... well, that would be interesting.

Seems overly dramatic to me.

I started last April, and for me, all it took was one confidence bait that I could consistently catch LMB on. From there it just snowballed as I got more confidence in other techniques, and continue to commit to learning new techniques. Wacky rigged senko started me off. Just keep at it until you find your stride.

We are expecting 90+ Degree weather in the northeast this coming week and I thought I would reminisce... Dec 29 2017, -20F. Thick, black Sea smoke; These iPhone pics do no justice. this is looking strait to open ocean, I could see this black cloud 10 miles inland. It’s about a 1/4mile offshore and a couple hundred feet thick. The sun “rise” was 45 mins prior.

The monkey bait caught me again .. who can residence those price at academy

Because I'm a firm believer in our lord and savior - Green Pumpkin

Caught these last Saturday in Minnesota flippin pads and swimming jigs. Had a 22lb bag between the 2 of us

Used Sexxy shad 5XD to catch these Bass. All with in 1 week..

Finally got one on a Magnum Squarebill (or as I like to call it “the Mondo”).

A family friend came to visit this weekend and asked me to take him fishing. We asked my son to come along and he did. While we were fishing my friend suggested we have a competition to see who can catch the most fish. My son is very competitive. Little did I know that was all it took to get him into fishing. We fished 2 days with my friend and 1 day together after he left. So far I am winning by 1 fish. I didn't have to use my excuse that I am the knot tie, snag and tangle person on all our trips. Luckily we are doing quantity over quality because he had the biggest catches.

They watched Wicked Tuna.

I was totally thrown off by this tournament being Friday to Monday. I just logged in to check BassTrak and realized this...

Nothing against used boats but I just have been burned to many times trying to find a good boat. I have been scammed out of thousands of dollars and yes now at days i know a little more of what to look out for but its just left a bad taste in my mouth. I recently found a dealer near me for these and that is exactly what I am buying now (it will be ready for pick up tomorrow). I do not think this is the best boat available, but I do think this is the best boat for me. I appreciate the advise, thank you!

All you hear is Ike screaming giant bass giant bass....running from one end of the boat to the other, talk about drama! Set your drag and trust it, you paid a lot of money for it. Tom

All the cool kids are doing it! ?

A Texas rigged creature like a beaver with the weight pegged doesn't have a hook eye and knot exposed. The bullet weight being pointed doesn't pick up weeds very easily and a worm or creature bait with few appendages will also go through weeds or grass good. Tom

On lakes, from shore, nope...not a crank in my box...as @Bluebasser86 can tell you, I'll toss a Wart from a boat.

Keep on keeping on. I've been at for 45+ years. Fishing will give you a life time of good memories, clean fun and great friends. I'v gotten a lot more out of it than just the fish caught. In fact, the fish are probably pretty far down the list. As said above keep it simple while honing your skills. Learn how to crawl a jig through the heaviest cover without hanging up and it will make you better at all other techniques.

You want my rant? Why this obsession to throw finesse baits on a baitcaster? Can you do it.....yes, but is there a better tool for the job? I say there is....a spinning rod/reel. It's what it is designed for. The stigma of throwing a spinning setup has long been discredited. If you take your cues from the pro's how many do you see throwing dropshots, ned rigs, senkos, etc., on baitcasters? Not very many and only if they have upsized their weights and taken it out of the finesse category. I love my spinning rods and have an equal number of spinning and casting on my deck every time I go out. Rant over, carry on.

Young anglers are at sort of a disadvantage now days compared to when I was a young angler because of all the lure choices they have . Drop shots , wacky rigs , huddlestons , shakey heads , Ned rigs.... the list goes on and on . A cousins kid is getting into bass fishing and he is routinely getting skunked at a lake I routinely catch 50+ fish .He keeps asking about all these lures . I tell him where to go , where the brush and laydowns are and stick with spinnerbaits , buzz-baits , Texas rigs and crankbaits but he still says he struggles to get a couple of dinks . Sometimes you need to forget about all your lure choices and stick with a few that will work well in the conditions you encounter . Over 90 per cent of the time I am either throwing a Texas rig , spinnerbait , buzzbait or crankbait and put them where bass hang out .

In our kayak tourneys, we have to put an identifier (e.g., a random number provided right before the tourney) in our photos. We usually write it on the back of our hand and hold the fish down with the identifier visible in the photo. There’s less chance of losing a fish that way.

Travel Rod Arsenal ~ A-Jay

If you fish alone you need to make one these.

Cinnamon senkos don't work, you should send them to me to be disposed of properly, especially if they're cinnamon/purple flake.

I am a ned rig noob. BUT I have been catching tons of bass on it, and some really good ones to boot since I started using it. I watched a ton of videos, read articles, etc... to get the basics down. It probably helps that I have been fishing 30+ years, and have been known to catch a few fish here and there too, but the learning curve was rather short for me...going from "lets see how to do this" to "well that's darn effective" in just a few hours. What works best for me (so far) is a medium short cast....I can best describe it as, longer than a pitch to cover, but shorter than I would cast a moving bait...IE...about 25-30 feet away. I cast it either along deep grass lines in 7' to as much as 15' deep, or right into areas of sparse grass rock mix in depths ranging from the bank out to 15' as well. The 1/15th. oz head gets the most bites, the 1/10th gets a few, the 1/5th so far gets ZERO bites for me. I don't have any 1/20th...yet. I fish on a 7' M spinning rod w/10lb braid, and a 6lb FC leader, on a 2000 size reel. The rod is more like a ML than a M, and has a nice limber tip. As soon as I get a bite, it's a lift and reel set. The little hooks are buried every time, and I have yet to bend one or break a fish off. A lot of the fish I catch are 2-3 lbs, but I have caught a bunch of 4-5lbers on it so far, and other than a longer than normal battle because of the light leader and light wire hooks, have had zero issues so far getting them in the boat. The only bait I have used so far is the Finesse TRD's, and in my K.I.S.S. mind, they will be all I use until they stop working. As soon as it sinks all the way to the bottom (a lot of bites are on the first fall), which takes a while the deeper you get, I either A.) point the rod right at the bait if there's a breeze, or B.) hold the rod parallel to the water at about the 9' o'clock position if it's dead calm. If the bait makes it to the bottom without getting bit, and with the rod held in either of the above mentioned positions, I simply give the reel 2-3 moderate paced cranks to lift it off the bottom, and then wait for it to glide back down, pausing a good while (8-10 seconds) to insure it's on the bottom, and repeat the 2-3 cranks/pause all the way back to the boat. I impart NO action to the bait with the rod tip, the most I will do is a shake/pop if it catches a piece of grass, or hangs on a rock. I would say, 80% of my bites come on the initial fall, and 20% come on the retrieve. The bites on the fall are 50-50 largemouth to smallmouth, and almost ALL the big fish I have caught on it, bite it on the first fall. The bites on the retrieve are about 80-20 smallmouth to largemouth, when it's a bass that bites it, and about a 50-50 ratio of bass to "other" species, with rock bass being the most common fish other than bass to bite it on the retrieve. It's kind of impressive on how much water you can cover with it in a short amount of time, even with having to "wait" for it. IMHO the Ned rig is not "magic", as in it won't get bites when your not around fish, and jig head weight is SUPER SUPER critical, as in the the lighter the head you can use the more bites you will get. BUT it will get bites if your around fish that absolutely will not bite anything else. For me so far this year it is out fishing the drop shot, flick shake, shaky head, and other finesse/tuff bite techniques I lean on by a wide margin. The only thing close to keeping up with it so far this year is the Neko rig, which has produced less numbers than the Ned, but a higher % of big fish. IE, for every 3-5 lb fish I have caught on the Ned, I have caught double that on the Neko, but the Ned is producing it's big fish when I can't buy a bite on the Neko rig.

Experience, experience, experience. Pick one bait, (ideally a texas rig) watch as many videos on it as you can, and then just fish it. Also, try to fish somewhere that has a good bass population. It'll make things a lot easier. Edit: Almost forgot. Fish shallow cover. Trust me, it works. There will be fish in shallow cover on a bright summer day.

I took a friend’s son to Ponkie for a couple hours this afternoon. Evan came up with a nice 3-5 Larry on a T-rigged fluke. Water temp was 74.x and the level is down a couple feet from Spring. I’ll go back tomorrow, weather permitting. Sorry Mike, centerpin fishing !?!?!?!?!?!, can’t help with that. Never heard of it.

If you don't feel it bouncing along the bottom put on a deeper bait. You would think they would hang up more than they do but they tend to run nose down with the hooks out behind them. You can tune them to make them run better also.

Honestly, any baitcaster and M rod should be able to cast that bait. A 5" Senko is 3/8 oz by itself.

It's my wife's car, hence why the pink sunglasses were there to be worn. She's a couple years older than I am and still has a huge collection of CD's. Most of mine are so scratched they won't play anymore. My car has a cassette player in it ? East side of the house @ 2pm West side of the house @ 2 PM

Update. Surgery was Friday, triple bypass, no heart damage. He may be going home today. Thanks to all the good thoughts.

I feel your pain! If you fish another tourney like that get a "fish grip" and attach it to your kayak with a 3 to 4 foot length of paracord. Let the bass swim while you get the board, camera and identifier ready to go. Take your time and make sure to wet the board before you place the bass on it. I generally angle the board down so that the bass slides down to help keep the mouth closed. Take your photo then put the bass on the grip back into the water while you check the photo. You should be able to get the shot without having to hold the bass down.

Gotta show off the little grandson reeling in an Oscar at over 1 pound

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

I hope this pattern continues through the Sunday tournament

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.