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Sometimes we need a reminder to pay attention and read the labels, I got mine. I love ice cream, and I thought I had bought some seasonal hot chocolate (cocoa), and caramel flavored ice cream. So I was a bit surprised when after the first couple bites, my lips were burning. I don't know who in their right mind wants spicy ice cream, but I guess if I'd paid more attention to the package, I might have noticed the red pepper and the label that said the ice cream was spicy. More than a little disappointed with my purchase.

I recently received permission to fish a nearby neighborhood pond. The guy told me that it was stocked 20 years ago with crappie and bluegill and no one has done anything with it. It's less than 2 minutes from my house so I planned to use it to try new gear and practice techniques. It's been completely frozen for more than two weeks but a few days of warm weather and rain opened it up. I hardly took anything with me as I was only trying out my new Terex MH spinning rod. I worked with it for awhile and then grabbed a M/XF Powell spinning rod (the only other rod I brought) and put the smallest thing I had on it in the hopes of catching some panfish. The smallest thing I had with me was a Shroomz jig head and I cut a coppertreuse ZinkerZ in half and stuck it on. I've only tried the Ned once before but I was moving too fast and setting too hard and kept missing. I've been reading and watching videos on it and this time on the third cast I caught this one. I had to leave at that point but where there's one, there's more. Looking forward to telling my friend that his lake has LM in it! I always love catching on something new. Looking forward to more Ned fishing!

Took advantage of some real nice weather today and caught several on a small marabou jig including this 3 lbr. Foul hooked a bigger one on a blade bait but didn't take pic because he (she) doesn't count. As slow as I was fishing I have to believe the fish took a swipe at it and got hooked in the side. I keep hoping I can keep this up all winter. Years past this would never happen in Indiana

Something I made today. Edit since I have so PM's about the bait. This is a fine starflash skirt, copper blade, and Gamakatsu 345 30 Degree swim jig hook. Allen

You can't debate Cajun cooking with a Cajun Tom

I don't know that you can "dial in" any one type of fishing in one year. I've been at this for almost a half a century, and I'm still adjusting the rabbit ears, and turning the broken knob with small vise grips.... Where did I put the clicker?...

I think I got a new “pb “ as the kids say . 23”

Awesome getting out on a near empty lake today. Bite wasn't on by any means, but we still had a great time with hit/miss action. I was expecting something a bit bigger with the big SB! (9.5" Explorer) (8" S-Waver) Nice spot on a Ned Pops getting in on the action

I use these regularly. Barlow's offers the blade bodies and I attach the hook (notice I didn't say hookS). Very cost effective. Here's what I'm fishing.

Another good about these jigs is their availability, every Wally World has em!

Alright guys, I went back and showed them the website and they honored the warranty, really glad they did this. Thank you @Junger for posting that link!

Well, you covered PCB's and Mercury. Add to that prescription drugs and hormones from women's birth control through water treatment plants. Overflows from those same waste treatment plants. Agricultural, industrial and residential chemical runoff. Around here there's also chicken houses dumping litter into some major rivers. Coal Ash from power plant operations (heavy metals). The list goes on and on. Then you read about what get's fed to the "Farm" raised fish and that's totally disgusting. There's a lot of concern about our fish supply to me. I'm 61 as well and would like to make it to 62. I do enjoy a good fish fry though. I really do.

There's a possibility Not every bite is from a fish large enough to actually eat your bait; hence the short strikes. Your speed of retrieve may be too fast - What size are the fish you're landing ? If the bass you're hanging on your thumb are sizeable, perhaps that hook is too small. And finally, no one lands them all, but other than frog fishing, a landing rate of below 50% may mean something's a miss. Change whatever you're doing to land them - do something else. The worse thing that can happen is you lose it - but you're already doing that so you can only improve. You're nailing the hard part; finding bass & getting them to strike. Tweak the rest and you're Golden. A-Jay

To me there's no difference between "pan frying" and "deep frying" just the method in which you submerge your battered fillet in hot oil. Since the majority of my locally caught fish are Crappie, the methods are (ranked in order of my taste). First and best is battered in my turkey fryer with a good quality peanut oil then hushpuppies and home cut fries after the fish in the same oil. Batter is either a simple flour, beer, egg wash, spiced cracker crumb or believe it or not, Uncle Bucks is a good batter. While I love spicy food, I have found you can overpower the taste of Crappie pretty easily, so I go light. I go a little heaver on the spice with Perch or Walleye because they have a more pronounced flavor that you can still taste through the spices. Cleanup and the cost of peanut oil makes my favorite kind of a pain in the rear. Second is just the fillets on a fish rack basted with garlic butter on the grill. Third is broiled in the oven, no batter. I do like to consume fish and will say some of the best I ever ate was Cajun Catfish nuggets. I grew up eating fried Carp sandwiches from Joe Tess' restaurant (don't knock it till you've tried it). I've had my fair share of many species of ocean going fish prepared in many different ways. Many other fresh water as well. I'm not that fond of trout. My wife and daughter ate a lot of Tilapia until I showed them how it was raised. They switched to Salmon and I make sure they purchase wild caught and not farm raised (another bad internet expose'). I like sushi a lot. I do consume my fair share of fish but I am getting more concerned with all of the consumption advisories nowadays.

I’m seriously thinking about picking up another 3700 series box and go through my stuff and pull out a bunch of old school plastics, hard baits, jigs, and topwaters. Proven stuff that I’ve gotten away from for one reason or another. Things change and that must be the nature of the business. I’m surprised that many major companies have not kept up with the times. You hear a lot of talk about how the bass get use to seeing certain things. May or may not be true. But if that be the case I have stuff that they have not seen in a long while or in their life time. I’m not referring to antique lures but lures and patterns from the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s.

Arcs, Simply put, it's because fluorocarbon's composition is of denser materials, so it sinks. Mono is less dense than water, so it floats, fluorocarbon is denser than water, so it sinks. Fluorocarbon's sinking properties creates a shallower degree of line bow, so when you set the hook the energy is transferred more efficiently to the lure, creating a more solid feeling and better set than mono. Most people say that fluorocarbon has less stretch than mono (pros included...), but that's generally incorrect. A few select fluorocarbons truly have less stretch than mono and that's because they're made of harder materials than the traditional castable fluorocarbons. There've been several studies regarding stretch and it's scientifically accurate that nearly all fluorocarbon line has as much stretch, if not more, than monofilament line. It can be verified by a little research and doing a little experiment at home... Sunline Shooter, a very popular fluorocarbon, is harder and more dense than the average fluorocarbon, so there's less stretch, making it a very good flipping/pitching line. Also, because of its hardness, it's also more abrasion resistant and resists water absorption longer.

BigAngus752, yours is a case of classic wind knot. Do take a look at how the line is stacked on the reel's line spool. If it isn't flat or evenly distributed, that is, there is more line toward the back or the front, you need to add or remove a washer to adjust it. Many models are shipped with an extra couple of washers for making these adjustments. I'd also watch for spool face crossings where a loop of line is only partially lying on the spool and a part of it is over the lip. This is the source for many wind knots where that misplaced loop is grabbed by the line going out and it can get really ugly fast after that. Brad

I lost one of the Biggest largemouth That I have ever hooked today but it could have been worse. No bites at all where we found the big smallmouth yesterday

This is a good answer. Like Catt suggested you need top of the water, middle column & bottom. The jerkbait can cover both top & middle. The jig can cover middle (swim jig) & bottom. These two baits can cover it all.

I guarantee you that aint Cajun cooking! ?

Division Champs

Glad to see this thread back on track. WRB almost ruined it......?

Doomsday turtle in green pumpkinseed (two tone earthy green with gold speckles). Thanks @LadiMopar!

Been waiting for almost two weeks to get back out. Finally got rid of the ice today and got out briefly after some rain just before sundown. Only had about 45 min. but managed a couple on a 3" wacky Senko. Both were about this size. Not real big but a lot of fun in mid Dec. in Indiana. I'm planning to get out Sun. and have time to really focus.

Best winter jig numbers day I've ever had today... Fat Albert!

On advise of counsel, I would like to invoke the rights granted to me by the Constitution....

Blew up my old boat last month and bought a tin boat. Rewired, cleaned, changed the impeller, spark plugs and lower unit oil. Took it to the lake, Lanier, this afternoon where my buddy was fishing just to have some help if needed. Launched, parked the truck and the boat was running on 3 cylinders, it has 4. It planed @ 18 mph on 3 and I went fishing. Saw a bunch of fish on the screen and dropped a spoon down for naught. I threw a worm @ a marker pole and caught my first bass, 11" spot, on my new boat. I ended up with 6 spots and 2 LM, all on worms with the largest 2-4. On the way back in the boat suddenly ran on all 4 and the GPS said over 30 mph. It's a 16' Grumman Renegade with a Merc 45. Loading the boat it started missing a cylinder again and stalled several times getting loaded. At least it doesn't leak.

I finally moved to Florida permanently not just for the winters. Got a chance to fish Rodman Reservoir up near Ocala for the second time. First day of a cold front with 46 degree air temps & water temps of 62.5. The bite was a little slow but not bad considering the effect cold front conditions have on Florida bass. Had over 50 fish for the day with two over 7lbs and the big girl of the day weighed in at 9lbs-4oz. All fish were caught on swimbaits in gold shiner color.

Turn them down as low as possible. You'll probably have to fiddle a little if you drastically change weight of lures. It's best if you can train your thumb to handle it. Thumb trumps all.

I used to run half of the internals on, the other half off. As far as the magnetic's, I had them on 5 to 7. I still set them like that at first of the "season". After I'm comfortable, I turn everything off.

I start with the magnetic brakes on 7 and work down until I am comfortable with how well I can cast a lure without backlash. I keep my internal brakes at 2 on, 2 off for mostly everything. I use my baitcasters for heavier baits generally around the same weight. If I was going lighter baits I would pick up my spinning gear

I usually run centrifugal breaks have on and may breaks a little under half way. Spool tension knob fairly loose

On my dual break baitcasters I usually have 2 brakes on 2 brakes off. The 9 and 3 breaks I have on and the 12 and 6 off, if you look at the brakes like a clock.

The Pocket Fisherman and the Flying Lure is one thing... the Vanish? Now that's just down right crazy talk!

wind knot. probably had a loose loop of line on the spool. t happens once in awhile with braid. If you have a lot of twist in the line a loose loop will twist and cause a knot. one thing I do with braid is, manually close the bail and make sure there is no slack in the line before I start reeling

Nylon isn't elastic, it's a strong engineering thermoplastic and doesn't yield until it reaches it's yield strength. Try lifting 4 lbs dead weight using your MH or 4 power bass rod with 15 lb test mono. Take note of any line stretching occuring. 4 lbs will bottom out your rod so be very careful you don't high stick the rod. If you can't strecth 15 lb mono using the average bass rod with 4 lbs, how do you strecth it when fishing? The answer is you don't. 5 lbs will yield 15 lb test Nylon line. What anglers feel as line stretch is drag going through water putting a bow in the line that you pull tight. Tom

Save $30 and get the Daiwa Tatula CT Typer-R at Tackle Warehouse. It's on sale at $75 discount. $104.99 will get it.

Check out ZPI F-Zero Reel Oil ~ With only limited use so for, I've been impressed with it. TW carries it -some of it's currently on sale Info here ~ https://zpi-japan.com/products/F-zero.html A-Jay

So you are saying a Pocket Fisherman won't cast a Flying Lure well? Even with some Vanish?...

All I want for Christmas ?

My Christmas letter goes something like this. Dear Santa, I was already given the best Christmas gift possible, the gift of life. On December 12, 2018 it was confirmed that I am now 100% cancer free! While I would like to upgrade my tackle storage options somewhat and will need some line for next year, I already bought myself new rods, reels and lures for next fishing season so there's really very little that I want or need -- besides a bass boat but I will have to figure out a way to work towards that. I guess if I have to ask for something else, can you do something about my oldest kid's poor worth ethic and please help see that he doesn't fail out of high school (and maybe helps out a little around the house too?).

A-Jay

"If I had one wish this Holiday Season, it would be for all the children of the world to come together, hold hands and sing in harmony"....

So I got out on the home lake for a few hours. Very slow for awhile up at my end of the lake. I started noticing some commotion in the water a ways off. As I got closer, I starting seeing a fish flapping in and out of the water. I got there and saw a 3 pound bass had swallowed a bass only an inch or so shorter !!. In all my years bass fishing Ive never seen this before. I was able to pull the fish out of the others mouth, took a pic of the two side by side with the head on shots before releasing them apparently no worse for the wear. Do yall think the bigger one was trying to swallow the smaller one ?? Or maybe they were zeroing in on a baitfish at the same time ? I went on to catch some really nice fish too , on this cool , cloudy afternoon.The biggest was the last one, which was 4 lb. 13 oz. All they would bite today was the 5 inch pumpkin chartruese tail yum dinger. Nothing on a spinnerbait, craws, or worms. And it was the same pattern as its been being the last several times. Caught them around eel grass moving it through or dead sticking. Very enjoyable, and interesting afternoon indeed.

Got the Tatula 100XS today and opened it before Christmas. It’s definitely ? Ive been waiting a good 15 years for this reel. All around amazing feel. Just hope it fishes well on a rod. The round gear box is somewhat strangely oriented, but everything else appears too well put together for the price. My first impression is this is what the Smoke should have been. And it smells like a different oil than anything else I’ve ever smelled. More like a synthetic or Teflon smell, like a fresh no stick frying pan set. The stuff is always the easy part. Getting the fish is another story.

Got on a nice bass this Tuesday. Water temps were 42. Wind was around 6-7 mph (cant remember which direction). I was throwing the Rapala Shadow Rap 5-6' diving jerkbait in a perch pattern when this hog slammed it. My line went heavy, and she pulled off, then came back an WACKED it! 8 pounds 12 ounce Virginia STUD! Tight lines yall!

One of the coldest days I have ever fished! Wind was blowing 20 and gusting to at least 40 at times, air temps in the 30s. New PB for the year @7.3lbs, she was only 21.25" long, super chunky fish. Catching a big fish on a big bait is a heck of a time! Hoping to find a couple half her size tomorrow.

Friday I threw a huge soft plastic shad swimbait on an Owner 10 ot belly hook with underspin. Landed this Virginia stud!!