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A-Jay

Ike’s city limits ! (Well ...... without the limits)

Day 3 was another phenomenal day of big bass fishing. Once again, weightless Magnum Flukes accounted for a few nice fish shallow during the early morning. The rest of this day saw us on our deep flats & suspended big fish spots which seemed to be reloading. We re-visited a couple at least once, and caught 8 Lake Baccarac beasts over 7 pounds. Our Rock Star Guide Manual put us on a few new spots that turned out to be repeat big bass producers as well. This was the first time I’d landed two double digit bass in one day – an 11.30 lb and a 10.22 lb bass. Both hit right under the boat and went complete nuts ! Big Fish Jeff finished up the afternoon very strong adding several high quality & score-able bass to our list. A-Jay

All too often I find myself walking back from the mailbox shaking my head and muttering, "What was i thinking?!?"

Cant wait for the new incredible hulk movie to come out lol

On Day Two, Big Fish Jeff & I were able to hang 8 score-able bass on the scale. Swimbaits & underspins were once again being gobbled with reckless abandon. The High Light of the day and the entire trip, took place right after lunch. Big Fish Jeff made three casts neither of us will ever forget. They produced a 12.23lb absolute Monster of a personal best bass, followed up 2 casts later by another Grande Bass that tipped the scale at 10.58 lbs. Truly an incredible day. A-Jay

I've had both, and neither had issues. I would be looking at build quality and layout over whether welded or not. Right now, a riveted Lund tickles my fancy the most. In pretty much any instance, A Lund is far better a boat than a Tracker.

Swimbait . . . . Gone. A-Jay

My favorite cold water technique is put on my sweats and a warm sweat shirt along with my cotton and fuzzy sox, turn on the family room TV to a football game, put my snacks and drinks on an end table, sit back in the recliner covered with a soft quilt, and enjoy the warm temperatures of home. I do this when the outside temperature drops below 70 and is really cold.

15# brisket just went on. Can't wait for the next 16-18 hours to go by...

The last deer I harvested before my son was born and hunting was put on the back burner. I shot him at 45 yards in a clover patch, with my bow. He made a scrape at 15 yards and didnt turn broadside until 45 yards out. Perfect heart shot. Of course he ran straight down hill 60 yards. Tough drag back up the spoil bank. He scored 146 2/8 inches. The third biggest buck taken off my grandpas property so far. He is mounted above my tv, staring me in the face as I type this lol

Never mind it's full of clothes. It's like getting the JCPenney Christmas catalog, but without the toy section.

Mailing paper catalogs almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century is what really doesn't seem right.

Fish are evil. Even small ones take my lures and stick them into trees, rocks, stems, etc. I knew I couldn't be the only one

Boo! (Source: Orvis)

I was most fortunate to spend 6 ½ days fishing with my good friend and truly a great stick, Jeff Howell. This was my 7th trip to this special lake and once again Lake Baccarac showed out ~ Big Time. Both Jeff & I are not ‘numbers’ guys – meaning we generally do not count how many bass we catch. Instead we choose to fish for the biggest bass; an approach that may not always result is high numbers but hopefully bigger fish. However as this special week in Mexico continued and the numbers of true giants began to and continued to go in the net – we had no choice but to keep track. In an attempt to simplify things, we decided that in order to be a “score-able bass’ the fish would need to be at least 7 pounds. These would be the ones we ‘count’. Before we get to what we caught, here’s what we used, tackle & baits. We both fish heavy action travel casting rods (Fenwick & G.Loomis), Shimano & Quantum 200 & 300 size casting reels, and 20-25 lb Seaguar InvizX & Tatsu Fluorocarbon line. Big Gear is a MUST here. Early morning & near sunset, fish can be shallow in the bushes. We used 7 inch stickbaits & mag flukes weightless on a 7/0 EWG hook. Caught several score-able bass this way. Later in the morning , mid-day and through much of the afternoons we fished deeper on mid-lake humps, off long points, steeper drop offs and deep flats in 10 – 30 feet. We took fish on 6 & 7 inch Swimbaits, ½ & ¾ oz underspins with 5-6 inch hollow belly & solid swimbait trailers, ¾ oz shakey & football heads with 10 inch worms, 7 inch stickbaits and mag fluke trailers. During the afternoon of the first full day of fishing, we started finding the bigger fish suspended in 10-20 feet over 40-60 feet of water over main lake humps and in front of major points. The underspins and the swimbaits were getting choked – the likes of which I have not ever experienced. This bite lasted pretty much the rest of the trip and these suspended fish accounted for at least 75 % of the score-able bass we caught. It got completely nuts. How Nuts you might ask ? Well the best example I can offer is….. the first three casts my friend Jeff took after lunch of the second day, produced a 12-4 Beast of a New personal best bass which was followed up two casts later with a 10-8 tank ! So you can decide for yourself. Btw – It’s all on video . . . . I ran a GoPro the entire trip. Got some insane video which I pulled several big bass pics from. It’s a little tricky getting footage as the boats we fish from, although perfect for the fishing, only offer 1 or 2 secure mounting points for the camera. We made the best of it and I think you’ll be able to see, hear & sense what was going on fairly well. There was a TON of footage to go through and quite a bit of it didn’t make the final edit. Guess that’s not exactly a bad problem to have and I must admit that going through it all was almost as much fun as living it – almost. In an effort to keep the videos a reasonable watching length, I’m breaking them up. First one is the first day & a half and the rest are each day individually. There’s just so many giants . . . . . . More Pics & Video will start showing up in this thread in a day or so. OK so here’s the final count for our 6 ½ days (approx. 65 hours) for two guys fishing on Lake Baccarac: Over 7lbs ~ 20 Over 8lbs ~ 16 Over 9lbs ~ 11 Over 10 lbs ~ 4 Over 11 lbs ~ 1 Over 12 lbs ~ 1 So that’s 53 bass over 7 and of those, when we figured in all the exact pounds & ounces, the average fish was right at 8 ½ pounds. It’s also one score-able bass every 73 and a half minutes. Jeff's biggest 5 of the trip were: 12.23(a PB), 10.58, 10.22, 9.96, 9.61 = 52 lbs 9.6 ounces My biggest 5 of the trip were: 11.30, 10.22, 10.14, 9.83, 9.28 = 50 lbs 12.3 ounces. Told you it was insane. A-Jay

Day 5 was a lot like the previous 4. Swimbaits & ¾ oz underspins ruled the day. Fish were a little more scattered than in previous days. Might have even been a little deeper. But Big Fish Jeff and I would not be deterred bringing 8 score-able bass to the scales. Three over 7lbs, three over 8 lbs, one over 9lbs, and our 4th Double Digit bass of the trip at 10.14 lbs. I’m going to let you decide what to call this type of insanely good big bass fishing – I got nothing. A-Jay

I've ran various Xpress boats since 1966, never had a weld crack. I've ran quite a few Alweld boats over the last 30 years without a single weld cracking. I've been known to jump levees, logs, sand bars, & a few gators! For me the key to a quality aluminum boat is material thickness, I would never go below 0.100 gauge.

I was trying to do a little reasarch and I found this. The H2O line of hardbaits that Academy carries is made by several different manufacturers. Spro makes there rattletrap bait, as it is exactly the same mold as an Aruku Shad. Bandit makes the small shallow and deep divers with the rounded lips. Lucky Craft makes the CRM and CRS shallow divers with the square bills. The jerkbaits and topwaters I am unsure. I was told that a private company contracted by Academy buys the unpainted bodys from those manufacturers and finishes and hooks them out and packages them. This info is from several years ago. If they are being discontinued, my only guess was that the contract expired and they couldn't work out another deal. I guess time will tell, I hope they aren't gone forever though. I've got nothing but good things to say about using H2O xpress square bills.

Based on this fall I'd say my favorite technique is crank baits. Once the water temp hit the 50's I've been loading up with 3 crank baits.....a 0-5 foot, a 4-7 foot, and a 8-12 foot, once I find the right depth I've been having a lot of success with cranks. Probably 95% of my bass in October were on crank baits.

...and knowing you'll be sleeping on the couch again.

Once again, the little guy get the shaft!! I'm taking them to small claims court ?

Ok, now your comment makes more sense. However, since it isn't the topic of this thread, I am going to show restraint and not get into a discussion about that. However, I would suggest that calling other peoples opinions or perspective "crazy" just because it differs from yours is small minded. Go ahead & disagree and list your reasons for disagreement, but to summarily dismiss others without any rationale backing it is pretty weak.

Jerkbait, hair jig, blade bait are the staples for cold water. The last few seasons we have done well with an underspin and fluke jr. trailer in water down to the upper 40s. Another thing is a 3.5" to 4" finesse style swimbait fished like a tube along the bottom on a ball head or football head jig but the big 3 are still the jerkbait, hair jig and blade bait.

If you can effectively cast a 1/8 oz bullet weight and hook with 6" worm your rod is perfect for finesse jigs 1/8-1/4 oz.I use my standard jig rod for 3/16 oz bullet weights and 6" worms all the time and jigs between 3/16-1 oz as mention earlier because I can cast them and effectively set hooks to catch bass. A finesse jig isn't any different then any other jig the same weight regarding the rod to cast it. Tom

Super glad you're enjoying these @NYWayfarer Part 4 coming later today and there will be at least one more video after that but it may turn into two. We'll see. What a crazy week. A-Jay

Working.....

Surprising only one mention of blades. Walleyes love them too.

You're really going to have to pick and choose your days wisely and keep a sharp eye on the weather. A shallow mod v hull is not designed for rough conditions. I think you'd be better off going with a Pro Guide 175. That being said, it is still far from an ideal boat. IMO your best option would be to find a used multi species boat in your price range that is more suited for the Great Lakes.

Ditto DVT. Rods have line and lure weight ratings. Stay in that ballpark. Breakage has more to do with how the rods are treated. If you are rough on your gear, you might consider lower modulus rods. There are of course rod lines out there that go for durability. The Ugly Stick may be the best known. But you lose fishability with such rods. The Berkley Shock series is a durable rod that offers some level of performance. All this said, graphite rods have come a long way in the durability department. They don't break all by themselves.

Caught a limit this past Saturday vertically fishing an ice fishing spoon with my ice rod and Vexilar dropped over the side of the boat. My dad and buddy were fishing with conventional tackle and I outfished them 38-7

Sorry I meant that for the OP who used Med as an action.

Anyone want to estimate the length/weight of this one?

No, but I will admit I have no friggin' idea what you are getting at with that comment.

Daiwa Fuego CT available on Ebay from several reputable sellers for $65. Unless you stumble upon a great deal on a used or closeout reel you won't find a better baitcaster for a better price IMHO.

Those of us who also flyfish get a little insight to this problem. When flyfishing your line is almost always heavier than your lure and you learn how to cast the line and not the lure. In a baitcaster when a light lure is traveling slower than the spool feeding line to it, you either get a backlash or what you are experiencing which is what I call spool puff. There's a number of ways to eliminate it. Tighten your spool control a little which will decrease your casting distance, downsize your line so there is less resistance when casting or change your arm motion when casting. Any wrong motion in your wrist or forearm when casting with a lighter lure will send a "hump" or bulge for lack of a better term down your line towards your lure. When it reaches your lure it reverses and heads back towards your reel. If your lure makes contact with the water before it gets all the way back, you get line puff on your reel, if it doesn't, you get a backlash. If you have an educated thumb you can cast through the puff and get to the tight line on your reel. When you then reel in everything is back to snug for the next cast. I have taught a lot of people how to use a baitcaster when guiding and throwing light lures on a baitcaster is one of the tougher things to master.

Got out for about 4.5 hrs today. After no bites the 1st 2 hrs found a few. Got 9 on a spinnerbait and 2 on a chatterbait with this one weighing in at 5-1.

One of just a few available for purchase so far, a Shine Glide 230. Next to it's beat up little brother.

Good year for you, congrats! It was fun watching you pick out your boat and talk through all that...and to see the "follow up" here caps it off nicely.

Just curious if anybody would be interested in a thread devoted to peoples recent harvests? Doesn't have to be game specific or anything, just whatever your most recent was, accompanied by a story if you wish. I like seeing what people have taken and reading the story's along with the smiles. So if you want, post those pics here and give me/everybody some reading to do!

Seems that way to me. The gears aren't 1:1 so... All I've got is an opinion same as the other guy and not going to run anyone down. I just can't see this.

Karla bait and tackle is having an awesome 75% off sale if you can solve the scavenger hunt!

The Zolo is a lot more sensitive than the Fury.

I would say they are somewhere's between the surface and the bottom. Lmao sorry couldn't help myself lmao

Essentially: Extra Heavy, Heavy, Medium Heavy, Medium, Medium Light, Light, Ultra Light are the terms used to describe the power of the rod. Extra Fast, Fast, Moderate Fast, Moderate are terms used to describe the action of the rod, or where the rod blank begins to get into backbone. Some companies will use medium to describe the action of the rod, but normally that is used as a term for describing power. So you end up rods that are labeled Medium Heavy Fast or Medium Moderate.

I have found that the best way is to...... go home, sit down on the couch, grab a coffee, and watch football works fairly well on those hard bite days. I know, as a tournament angler you have to figure something out but when I'm not fishing one I prefer to stay home. IMO

Good looking largemouth! Even more impressive you got them on a spinning rod with 10/8 lb test

This kid is going places. Likely a homeless shelter, but still... Strong work!