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well I had my surgery last Thursday.got home today.was a total success.now just have to recover.5 days in the hospital was the most pain I've ever had.the gas pains were awful.but finally everything passed and now can get on with my life without that nasty C word hanging over me. thanks to all who have prayed and sent well wishes. now can't wait to get down to any lake, stream,pond or puddle just to cast anything.

Here's a big ol ned rig brown fish from East Tennesee This one is from PA

Got my first fish off a spinnerbait the other day! Probably one of the last fish of the season for me, the waters gonna be freezing soon and I have the flu ?

No joke, I was reading this, and as a bachelor I thought to myself “well neither”. Right then someone sent me a text with a picture asking if my tree will look like this; (Something from Facebook I imagine) to answer the question, I think I might go with fake this year ?

Being in North Central Illinois, the fishing season has been over for me for a little while now. Looking back, I had a really fun season. For the first time ever, I largely skipped out on LMB fishing in favor of SMB fishing. I had the time of my life on the river. First fish of the season. What a donkey: First (and one of few) decent LMB of the season. I didn't go to work that day because I had Norovirus. It was my 28th birthday too. As it was my birthday, I mustered up some strength to go to the tiny pond a couple blocks away to fish for 20 minutes: The season got juicy from there as I spent 99% of my time on the river chasing Smallies. My first big SMB: I looked like a little kid after catching this fatty: Another nice one on the Ned Rig: Whopper Plopper fish? Whopper Plopper fish! This thing was a beast. I've never had a bass peel drag on a casting setup the way she did. Absolutely incredible to watch her fighting in relatively clear, green tea water, right in front of me: I got this one on a KVD 1.5 right before the lightning struck. What was a promising night was cut too short, as was my season: It was an amazing season and I can't wait for spring. My wife had a great season too, but she doesn't like her photos online. We've restocked our gear and have ordered some brand new kayaks. We're going to start the season with a river tournament with 2 other couples. Guys vs Girls, 3v3. Here's to an even better 2019! This is what happens after you end a day long fishing trip with your wife and buddies at the bar. You end up passed out drunk in a shopping cart somewhere. Or maybe it's just me:

Had a fun day chasing spots around after our first cold weather finally came through. This poor guy looked like he drowned. Couldn't find an exit hole, no visible trauma, and no roads anywhere near the part of the lake we found him.

Archer is ready for Santa!

Caught a couple around that size, cold front coming in, rained on me. Bite was off

I'm surrounded by them ~ But there's only one problem with having the real McCoy in my home . . . Happy Holidays A-Jay

@WRB and @Catt… they didn't want a thing to do with my usual green pumpkin jig with green pumpkin trailer, so I figured what the heck and dug out the brownest jig I had and added a Falcon Lake Craw menace trailer. First cast I caught this one and a few more followed on what was otherwise a pretty slow day. Thank you to two of our biggest legends on the forum.

couple more crawfish eaters from the cypress knees. caught same afternoon as one above.

I love going to these emergency calls! The guy got some air, took out limbs on a pine tree about 5 feet up, and buried the truck trying to back out. Oops!

Oldham's Jigs Siebert's Grass N Swim & Sniper Jig XL Lunker Lure's Triple Rattleback Flipping

Christmas traditions: Decorating the Christmas tree Wrapping presents Trying to find the post where some guy hacks the TW site and tells us what is on sale for each of the TW 25 days of Christmas!

I carry what I call an “attack bag” which holds my most productive lures in there original bags (plastics, trailers, jigs ect.) I restock this bag daily from a stock pile of several Plano hard sided boxes which are stored on shelving in the camp.

As promised, here is my Tackle Warehouse Black Friday purchases. Sorry my girlfriend's phone does not take very good pictures, and I did not want to ask my oldest son to borrow his camera as the reel and the Mojo Bass Topwater rod are Christmas presents... Tagging @Burke as he requested pics in another thread.

Myself, and many guys on the forum like mono and still use it for all fishing.

I store mine like this guy, in 3707 04 PLANO® ELITE™ 3700 SERIES

Do crawdads hibernate? What water temps do they stop becoming active? or Do the migrate deep? Water temps up here in MA are 43-46 degrees

Do you ever feel like you mark fish all the time but don’t catch them? Well today I dropped a spoon straight down on this and caught an 18” smallmouth! It Renewed a bit of confidence for me as I typically mark fish and bait everywhere and rarely drop straight down and catch them

Look forward to this time of year out west when we breakout the 1 ton* jig. Our reserviors are being drawn down for the winter runoff during the rainy season, or (mismanaging my lake Casitas) and the crawdads are migrating deeper to the mud/clay lake bottom areas. The colder the water gets the more the crawdads are gathering up. This is 1 ton jig time, a 1 oz heavy brown skirt jig with brown/red crawdad trailer, it doesn't get any better for jig fisherman. Everyone thinks is cold water so slow way down, the truth is it's crawdad feeding time for the big bass fattening up for winter and a faster bottom bumping retreive kicking up mud clouds like a crawdad escaping is what triggers more strikes. I am setting at home wishing I was fishing 1 ton jigs instead of taking Advil and going nuts. Tom * In memory of Cooch, Andy Cuccia RIP

Daiwa Fuego with 8 lb Big Game mono should make an excellent ML casting combo. Tom

Went out on a high pressure day, knowing it would be tough. Fished about 4 hours. Checked several deep drops, including deep flats along the river. Saw a lot of shad balls, but the bass seemed to be suspended away from structure at about 10 ft. deep. A Table Rock guide would wax 'em, but not me. Before I quit, I moved to the back of a small creek, and found them along a sunny bank, just a few feet off the creek, 5-8 feet deep. They wouldn't chase anything I tried, so I went to the last resort--a spinning rod with 10 lb. mono, and an 1/8 oz. shakey head with Zoom finesse. Saved the day! Nothing big, but caught 9 in a short time, and missed a couple. Left them biting for another day.

You can put any size line on a baitcaster, it's when you start getting into light baits, less than 1/4 oz. that you want a reel with a light spool and fast start up.

The tubes are nice for storage in the off season. I can usually get three bubble wrapped rods in one tube.

Festivus for the rest of us! No needles and no hassles.

So after much research on this site I ended up picking up a St Croix premier MH moderate action rod from TWs BF sale. Not a big splash, but for my budget and needs spending 100 to 200 more there wasn’t enough benefit to pull the trigger. To be honest it was also difficult to find higher end rods in the moderate action I prefer as well. The big big surprise after reading horror stories of rods being broken during shipment, was how TW packaged the rod. The rod was in the original rap with bubble wrap on the tip and the tube weighed a ton and is probably darn near bulletproof;) Comparing this to how my rod from cabelas was shipped I would for sure order a rod from TW again and they included it in the free shipping.

So I decided to go after all. First, did a couple mile hike out to a local land bridge so I could collect some samples for my Geology capstone project at school. Bought some supplies at WalMart but they didn't have any hair jigs (the plan was to try the float 'n fly technique to see if I could catch anything). So I bought a couple mini-jigs in 3/16th oz, some bobber stops and some beads. Already had two bobbers, so I didn't get any (though I found out that mine were weighted... ). Went to Wolf Run State Park and fished the dam area. I though, "Well, no hair jigs, but let's try a float 'n jig instead!" So I tied on one of those 3/16th oz jigs and used the bobber with it. Figured I'd improvise with what I had and see if it worked. (Sorry for bad focus, didn't see that when I took it) Didn't have any luck with it. Wasn't too bummed - but that's when I realized I had a weighted bobber. Kinda makes it hard to know if you've set your stop too deep when the bobber won't fall over. lol So next I tried a wacky-rigged (sans o-rings, couldn't find my wacky rig tool) a green pumpkin with flake senko with the bobber. My thinking was it was pretty windy so with the bobber... bobbing... it would make the senko flutter and look enticing to the fish. I used this the rest of the evening but couldn't get anything to bite. I used the Deeper Pro+ that I have to see if I could find anything along the dam but was unsuccessful. Here's the Deeper data - https://maps.deepersonar.com/#share-34978a8d-2ba6-4b09-8f93-0e158769c05d Anyone see anything on the deeper data that looks like fish or anything? I don't trust the data on the northern shore as there is no way it's over 80ft there. The problem is that it was windy so the deeper was getting submerged and when that happens, it gives off strange readings. The rest along the dam I didn't get anything. I did, however, spot some possible plumose structures in one of the rocks used in the dam wall - So - it was an absolutely gorgeous day today, but the fish just weren't biting today and I didn't bring a lot of tackle. Was glad I went.

Thks everyone i wasnt gettin notifications with the last response thks again yall ...progressing along pretty good i suppose .each time i go for therapy they push me up a few steps say im goin faster then expected tommorow i go to neurologist for a review and hope fully a releash to go back to work all depends what my doc says in conjunction with Motor vehicle admins doctors. Gotta go down to a class c license till im cleared this is trying times for sure ...thks again yalll

Well I got a question for the forum legends, I need to invest in some new jigs, what are ya'lls recommendations. I need a tough jig that can fish lots of timber, and hold up to mudfish chewing on them all day? I've been looking at seibert jigs and noticed quite a few people liking them...

I received the Bass Mafia Bait Coffin 3700 Deep as part of a BF order last Friday. It will please you, @Burrows that my crankbaits are no longer rubbing against each other. Even though I will need to carry a smaller box for the six deep divers that are usually carried on the kayak, I am quite impressed with Bass Mafia Coffin. It definitely has to be the best built box out there. Bass Mafia has built a tough box and although I wouldn’t recommend testing it against a block of C4, it sure feels bomb proof. I’ll have to make some adjustments to the dividers in the kayak crate as it is slightly higher than the Plano Waterproof Stowaway that I’m accustomed to. It is also noticeably heavier and that will also take some getting used to. Some dividers (7) had to be removed to accommodate the wide bodied S-Cranks and Big Z baits, but even then, I was able to fit 41 baits into the Bass Mafia Coffin. The real test will come this spring when the kayak hits the water, but as of right now, I like this box.

I'll go, but only on one condition... We long arm the smallmouth in photos

I always use trailers, and never use trailer hooks (gasp!). But when you use these tips, you'll never need trailer hooks:

I launched at Hinckley’s at dawn. It was foggy with light wind. Water temps were 43.x. I packed up after 3 hours of nothing, tossing a gold blade bait, black/blue jig, and black maribou jig. The highlight here was a bald eagle chasing an osprey around. I moved over to Flax, figuring I’d have a chance at smallies and trout. I caught one shiny rainbow on a perch Rapala scatter rap. Flax’s water temp was 44.x. It was sunny and fairly windy. I left Flax and headed back to the main land, stopping at Hedges, still looking for a smallie. I launched a little after 1400 and stayed until dark. I continued with the same lures I used at Hinkleys until the last hour when I switched to a Mepps spinner and wacky rigged Senko. Wouldn’t you know the Senko would be the winner, netting a bright shiny 1-12 smallie in my lap. Water temps were 43.x - 44.x. Seven ponds over three days netted me two rainbows, one yellow perch, and one smallie. No matter, I fished with Mr. Aquarium, had a great lunch, and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: I caught fish in open water each month this year. Next year’s goal is the same and breaking the 5 pound mark added to the fun.

Picked up a discontinued HHS drag star for the SV103.

They aren't balanced until you put a reel on them. I know, go ahead and beat me up. But IMHO, balance does not occur until the reel is on the rod. And then, that darned lure is there to screw it all up.

The first wave of Black Friday stuff showed up...i'm not proud of my lack of self control. I do appreciate whoever gave the tip of getting the free t-shirt in your wife's size! Hopefully that helps get me in the clear! Biospawn's 40% off was hard to pass up, as well as TW doing an extra 10% off on 6th Sense stuff. Didn't realize how many jigs I had until I ordered a box that was too small to fit them all...whoops! Still waiting on some odds and ends. Took the 20% off BF deal as a chance to put myself on the Curado DC waiting list.

Took my son, visiting from Nashville, out to a local pond today to do a little bank fishing before supper. The 2-4 pounders were aggressive, probably in pre-spawn mode, and we caught a bunch. The lure du jour was Gambler's "Big EZ," the color "forty-niner."

You always can. Mono didn't suddenly stop working because of the popularity of braid, fluoro, and hybrids. Fish don't suddenly have an aversion to it because some guys tell you you have to use fluoro now.

I only got one today but it was cool. I was trolling a break line, looking for a key piece of cover on the drop off like @Team9nine @Catt and @WRB are always talking about. I found what I think was a tree with a smallmouth on it! Dropped a spoon straight down and he attacked it immediately. I have never read anything by buck perry but I think he caught me a bass today

I cut 1" of the tail making the overall profile shorter ?

Mostly top water and crankbaits but you can use it on everything. Just because it has been around for a while, don't make it bad.

About that time of year, I need a bigger board makes my 18" board look like a ruler.

New personal best. Unfortunately, I left the scale at home, so I'll just have to catch another one to weigh it! Pickwick Dam, TN, 11/28/2018.

I've gotten to the point where I use mono for everything except punching. Usually, 15, 10, and 6 pound line will cover 95% of my fishing.

The problem FC main creates with bobber is the line sinks between you and the bobber creating a belly in the line killing any subtitle strike detection other then watching the bobber go under. Mono line is the way to with F n F or braid with a FC leader. The F n F is really a light line (5 lb to 7 lb) presentation where a spinning outfit works good for me. Tom

I’m asking for spring, but like every year, I’m sure I’ll have to wait about 4 months for it ☹️.