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A follow-up to this post: This finally came true As of January 7th I will be the Graphic Designer for Big Bite Baits.

Had one heck of a weekend! Started Friday going back to the same river as last weekend chasing smallmouth, but this time took some trout gear. Well the smalls were uncooperative, and so were the trout to some extent. I think they’ve seen every lure out there, so I did some digging around in my little tackle box and came up with a creation that I was hoping would get the smallies to eat. They still wouldn’t! Turned out the trout loved it! Caught a half dozen stock size rainbow and brook trout on it, and then I found some big girls! 18” brook trout. New PB! Caught another small rainbow and then not even 30 minutes later... 19” Brook trout! New PB round 2! I was stoked on the first one and was almost too excited to fish anymore after the second! Beautiful mountain scenery, small stream and awesome views with super clear blue water, capped off with some big trout that I was not expecting or even trying to target. Saturday we were out again chasing big bass on Briery. Cloudy day, 46° water, storm front coming in, we were expecting good fishing... Did not turn out that way. Spent the first few hours of the day just looking for a bite. Finally found a fish in the 10-15 foot depth range. Nice 2.5 lber. Spent another hour almost in that area and couldn’t find another bite, so moved on and kept trying some key areas, but kept coming up short. Finally around 3:00 I managed to hook into another 2.5lber with a crankbait. And about 5 casts later got my big of the day on the same crankbait. 21”, 5lbs on the nose. Just above the freezing mark and cloudy all day, made the struggle bus that much worse. But a solid fish capped off the day again!

Hand poured worms in the most awful colors imaginable. My Dad poured them by mixing old plastics together. Weird colors abounded but the action was amazing. We caught fish on them. I still have a few of them and wouldn't sell them for $100 apiece. I get them out every so often, take a deep smell of them, and go back to a better place when things were so simple and easy. I'm sitting in the back of a 12 ft John boat and Dad is easing around the bank while we toss those old ugly worms to the shallows and waiting on that signature "tap-tap"... I can still hear his most often repeated advice every time I fish a T-rig. "Son, you CANNOT fish a worm TOO SLOW!! SLOW DOWN! You're fishing way too fast! That's the only reason I've caught 5 and you've not caught anything. SLOW DOWN!!" I've tried to use that advice in many other areas of my life as well. We all live way too fast.....

My favorite Christmas lights!!!

A little R&R at a local hotel and spa. Pregame with some white wine, then dinner and jazz by Gap Mangione.

Sunday morning, waiting for my breakfast.

The dogs will be happy when Christmas is over and my wife quits decorating them. LOL

Why? This salmon was caught on a #10 hook. The smallmouth was caught using a #6. You match the hook to the size of the bait. If you're bending hooks out, then you aren't properly setting the drag. With smaller baits, I mean finesse fishing, you use finesse gear. It's not a smash and grab affair. There's really nothing wrong with what you're doing, except when it doesn't work. Then it might be time to bust out something smaller and lighter.

Cold but sunny Saturday afternoon along the Susquehanna river.

Someone isn't to happy about her outfit her mom bought her.

Tackle Warehouse has Dobyns Sierras at a DEEP discount on the 25 Days of Christmas sale. Some selected Loomis and Megabass too. A Sierra at 109.00 is a heck of deal.

(a) cause I hate retying all the time (b) cause I hate it when line kinks in the reel then breaks on a subsequent cast (c) cause I have no trouble catching fish with mono (d) all of the above

Play is exactly the term I'd use for bass. It sure isn't a fight. I've said it before, if you're in it for the fight, there are other species that will fight. Regardless, if you're bending hooks, and others that fish like you aren't then you need to look at what else you might be doing wrong. I fish some heavy cover and use some pretty heavy handed tactics to land fish, and I don't bend hooks. Everyone likes to say, "but my cover is heavier...." but I've fished many places on the east coast, from Vermont to Florida, and while cover varies, every place has areas of "heavy cover" that poses about the same challenge. Be glad you don't have EU milfoil with zebra mussels growing on the stalks. That's fun.

The only issue I have ever had with Bull Shad is THE OWNER- SOB -probably eating jelly donuts and his fingers slipped off the eye of the hook while using pliers -PUT THE DONUT DOWN

Winter isn't about numbers for me, it's when I catch some of my biggest bass of the year though. I believe our winters in Kansas are a little more harsh than what you're dealing with and as long as there is open water, there are fish to be caught.

And right now they're running a special, 10 to 20% more for trades depending on the value.

Dak will always be THE limiting factor. But that doesn't mean we can't be a contender in spite of that. Defense and a solid running game travel anywhere you go. And regardless of who was in the field for the eagles we won. The same way we beat the saints and everyone else placed before us for the past month plus

This is what I use for jigs, t-rigs, etc. I'm not too worried about the fish seeing it, I'm more worried about me seeing it. Tom

Go BG Solar. Bass aren't the smartest fish in the water, and sometimes giving them a little help to know your baits in the area, maybe even a way for them to follow a trail right to it, seems to help ?

Grin away, it's a free country. I'll just go on ca$hing folks entry fees with my inferior mono.

older folk run this show I will never win...

Absolutely false ? I'll take your entry fees everytime!

I may be wrong but I could add my own scent to the plastic before it is poured. I've worked with a scent company before I figure they could help me out and I could add that into the mix after sorting the baits by color. Also I want to give you a big thanks for the help and bringing these issues to light but I'm more determined now than ever also once this is rolling expect a pm maybe I can send you some free baits if this works out and test them out to to see if you skepticism was correct or not.

I'm a die-hard and was skeptical of amari. If I ran into him I'd have to apologise. He makes us look like a contender. HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!!!!!

X2. While there is a place and time for larger baits to target larger fish, the trick is to show your wares to larger fish.

Why not? (rhetorical question of course) I can see a whole bunch of timers who might come across this start chuckling when mono was pretty much all there was to use, lol. Just have a little fun lightly ribbin’ you. I use mono most of the time and have been consistently for the past few years for most applications. Sometime I’ll treat myself to a spool of 6# sea guar fc, but it’s mono on economic grounds. I like braid and fc for all their traits but it’s mono for economic reasons. I tend to lose more line than anything else since I face nasty rip rap (break offs) primarily drop shotting going for smallies from the shore. 6# mono has done nearly as good and mono works well for the moving baits I throw. Hence, my primary use of mono. Besides, the last time I used crutches was when I broke my right ankle in two places, lol.

Man, TW is making it dang difficult to save for the Costas next year!

If this is accurate then I am exactly opposite of 'most' fisherman. Once I started upgrading rods and got my first "good" rod I thought I would want to stick with a single manufacturer. I was wrong. I've found that there is such a wide range of rod power, taper, and "feel" characteristics that I'm gradually collecting a variety of brands that work best (for me) for different techniques. Best case scenario would be that you have retailers in driving range of your home where you can go handle the rods before you purchase. @roadwarrior is giving his usual great advice. Find three good rods as he suggested to get your start and branch off into other techniques/rods from there. Enjoy! Oh, and you're penniless for the rest of your life now...

A few of my Black Friday order. Also picked up a Dobyns swimbait rod.

We heat our house with a woodstove and the "paper basket" seems to have more and more Japanese news papers it it every year.

Heck, I don't know what fish can see. There is little hard evidence on this topic. I find that what I can see is more important. I admit that I am a line watcher and braid is getting the call more often these days. I just like it. I like pink best, yellow 2nd. If I had noticed my hookup ratio fall off, I might have rethought about it, but I have not

Upgraded the reels on my jig and finesse rods. Going straight to work...

This one time at band camp . . . . . . . . A-Jay

I met nearly all my fishing buddies at local tackle shops. Friendships that lasted a life time, we would meet at the tackle shop and go to lunch as a group along with the shop owner. Take off work, drive to the shop, then to lunch and back to work. Every pro in the area would be part of this group from time to time. We curried the worlds problems and told war stories along with more than a few fishing stories. The shop owner passed away, the anglers dispersed and I miss those days. Tom

Given cabin fever is setting in, might be a good time to resurrect this thread. Aaaand Go!

It's not a photo but well worth sharing.?

Not quite the same , but, I'm fishing in a small cove, casting, and it's quiet as can be, SUDDENLY , it's like a 12 guage shotgun went off right next to the boat, bout had a heartattack!.....d**n! About 50lb beaver smacked his big tail on the water to chase me away from his den!....I mean to tell ya that was scary!

Never understood why anglers attach a Texas rigged hook with a clip! Tom

Took over a month and a half to edit and countless hours spent on the smallest of details, but I feel it was all worth it. Don't Let Your Dreams Be Dreams

Day light I wear polarized sunglasses that affect line visiblity and the translucent mono or FC lines tend to blend in with the water surface regardless of color and they all disappear underwater. Use a line color you are comfortable with and have confidence using, bass don't care what color line is. Tom

It does bare a resemblance to the hairdo they're usually sporting when they first wake up.

Have been a line watcher for years...many fish have made it to the boat without feeling the bite but seeing the line walking off. Now I need the yellow line and clear line to watch it better.

The internet has destroyed a lot of things. Toy stores, newspapers and magazines, tackle shops, book stores, etc etc. It's a digital age.

A-Jay

I upgraded to the NuCanoe Frontier 12 this year.

Well finally got to wet a hook yesterday! Tried deep structure and could not get a bite. Went into Mill Creek and caught several short fish but did manage to catch an 18-1/2" and one just over 15" on texas rig junebug centipede in 10 to 15 fow. Fish where in the front 1/3 of the creek. Hope this helps someone.

Only to my friends lmao. Side note talked to a local this morning at the station in zwolle, they had been out night fishing them white perch, him and 4 family members limited last night. Said live shinners at 23 feet of water, said they caught probably 50 small buck bass as well.

Don't mind Clint. He is an a**hole.

Nice lookin boat you could gimme a race in my Bullet this comming week at SML.