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Got her today on the rapala jerk bait. 24” Virginia Stud. Was noticeably larger than my 9.3 from January.

Got to go for a few hours yesterday with my oldest son. We kept 12 of the smaller ones for a fish fry Friday to celebrate my baby boys birthday. Biggest fish is 7 pounds even and next is 5 pounds even. Now we got flash flood, tornado, and severe weather watches for the next 24-48 hours. Glad we got to go yesterday!

I do a lot of bank fishing in the evenings after work, usually for an hour. I also fish club tournaments with a local club about once a month, usually at Lake Okeechobee or in the Everglades. My biggest catches have been from the bank, usually from waters with little pressure and walkable banks. I consider myself very lucky to have such places nearby. They give me lots of hook setting experience for tournaments, and have allowed me to become reasonably proficient in most categories of bass lures and techniques. I guess I prefer the bank over the boat.

Got out again today for a few hours . Decided to take my worm boxes only. I wanted to fish the east side of the lake and tried but it was too windy. Did get a fish off a tree in the water. Got down south to some calmer water and picked up another fish. Both fish on the red shad culprit. Lost a nice fish and they quit for an hour or so. Changed to the watermelon red / chartruese tail trick worm. Finally picked up 2 nice fish on consecutive casts. The one pictured is the smaller of the two - That pic was even blurrier than this one. Not a banner day, but better than yesterdays attempt at jerkbait fishing.

Bass in off colored water are lateral line feeders, throw lures than make noise & move water. Jigs: Lunker Lure Triple Rattleback Jigs Trailer: Ragetail Lobster Spinnerbait: Stanley Vibra Wedge, Double Gold Willowleaf, white/chartreuse, 1/2 oz Texas Rig: Lake Fork Tackle's Worm, Blue Bruiser Rat-L-Trap Toledo Gold 1/2 oz Jerkbait: Smithwick Rattlin Rogue, gold, black back, orange belly

Congrats, man! That's a freakin' beast! That's definitely NOT a Patriot's football...waaaay too inflated - with shad!! LOL

The lake near my house is being drained. All of the fish are at the back of the dam trying to get back into the lake. I took advantage and caught a few of them. We had about a week of temps greater than 40 degrees to thaw the water so I am thankful to get a break in what would normally be a long brutal cold and barren winter. This was the nicest one at 5.29. Caught several just under 5.

First Christmas!

I believe it's the fairly large profile in combination with the strong vibration that gives the impression of a bigger prey item that makes them feel they need to strike it hard at times to stun the bait. On a side note, some of the biggest fish I've caught on bladed jigs were strikes that barely felt like anything at all, almost like the bait just got a little lighter or the blade had caught on some grass. So don't be afraid to check swing if you're not sure.

Just watched a Christmas story and could not help myself. I did not win the leg. Actually I entered KastKing's holiday gift giveaway and received an e-mail stating I won a prize. Today a Speed demon pro crankbait rod was delivered to my door. I put my spare Tatula loaded with 12 pound Flouorokote line on it and proceeded playing around in the yard. It is a very nice rod. It will see a lot of action, throwing rattle traps. Can't wait to try it out. Ironically I almost bought this same rod a couple weeks ago, but decided to wait until after the holidays.

Just a note to say thank you to all of you for turning me on to chatterbaits. Didn't fish for 20 years, a lot has happened since then. Fishing some ponds in clear water for a few days (Green Pumpkin on both) and an 80 acre stained water lake (chart/white). Zman Elite in both colors, which I wouldn't have chosen those colors without yall either. GY Zako trailer in matched colors. Looked way too big to me, but WTH lets go for it. Fished it near the bottom, pretty slow, kicked in the vibration in about 1/3 of the pulls. Ponds are full of dinks, they wouldn't touch it, but once they got a little bit bigger they seemed to like it. It's been a long time since I've seen something get hit this hard, especially in winter. No nudge, no tap, just hammered. Every time they were deep in the mouth, mostly on the roof. Thanks, that was lots of fun and I learned something new. Ps: why do they hit this thing so hard even though it is chilly out (for Texas)?

Clark got a puck that went over the glass.

Pop Up Ebay flash sale - 15% off most everything - today until 6pm Pacific. code: POPUPSAVINGS

Fussy, complicated, expensive, and I'm not sure what this rig solves.

Janderson45 nailed the possible "issue" but otherwise there is nothing wrong with that unit and screenshot. You can see digital depth reading correctly at 5.3 ft. Doesn't look to me like you even have the unit on auto depth in the first place. This is one reason why I never run my units in auto (Hbird or Lowrance). I say nothing wrong here..

@Basson66 Here is my take on the two images you posted. The problem with the first image (with 3 bottoms) is that the lower depth range is to deep. You're in 5 ft of water and the screen is showing 29 ft of sonar returns. Sonar signals keep bouncing around after they are recieved. The signal is bouncing off the bottom and you are reading it a 5ft, then it bounces off the boat/surface and back down off the bottom again and is shown at 10ft and then again and is shown at 15ft. The hard bottom and shallow depth make the bounces stronger so the problem is worse. This is still happening on your second images but you don't see it because range is set to 10ft and the second bottom would be a 17ft (twice the depth). In shallow water, you will see these extra bottoms on any sonar if you manually set the range to more than twice the depth. Your unit is interpeting the depth correctly but the range is not being adjusted to match the depth. THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM. There might be a simple solution to your problem. Make sure you have your lower range set to "Auto". If you inadvertantly set it to a fix range then this would explain what you are seeing. If it is set to "Auto" then it is a software problem that Humminbird needs to address.

I have two each St. Croix AVS63MLXF and AVS63MXF, all saddled with either 2500 or 3000 series Stradic CI4. They're all spooled with 6# Tatsu. I upgraded the drags to dry Carbontex. They perform flawlessly.

I just got my January PB mount in the mail and on my wall in early December and she was a 9.3. This bass was noticeably thicker and fatter... so YES i will have to get a mount. Just sad the scales wouldn't stay on long enough to read her because she's a 10.0 minimum. Still have tons to be PUMPED about though, catch of a lifetime!

You’re seeing numerous “bottoms” in shallow water with a very hard bottom. This is an echo since you are using “high CHIRP frequency. The bug or issue that Humminbird is struggling with is the digital depth readout in scenarios like you posted. Your particular helix appears to be reading the correct depth and functioning correctly. If you switch the sonar frequency to 83khz or decrease the sonar sensitivity what happens? My guess is that the double or triple bottom issue disappears. The issue arises when the sonar unit is not able to differentiate between the numerous “bottoms” that the sonar return is showing. So in the first image you posted, the unit would be reading 15-20’ of depth when you’re really in 5’ of water. Based off the sonar readings shown in each photo, the first picture has a significantly harder bottom than the second photo. Notice the red vs. yellow coloration of the bottom? Red is going to be your strongest sonar returns (hard bottom in this case) and as the colors change to orange, yellow, green then blue the sonar returns are getting progressively weaker. He’s still very active on “another forum” posting pretty much daily on Humminbird related topics. Much of what I’ve learned in regards to Humminbird is straight from the horses mouth, and I’ve been doing my best to share some of that here. I’ve still got plenty to learn myself though, Wayne is a fantastic resource for all things sonar, especially Humminbird. I made a bit of a mistake in my original post, the bug/issue isn’t specific to the Helix 10 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N, it’s been reported across the whole line of G2 Helix MEGA units as well as the G1 Solix MEGA units. The issue however, is not the units showing numerous bottoms like posted in the photo above, but rather the unit not being able to decipher which one of those “bottoms” is real- the digital depth readout will jump around between all 3 echos and show 5ft, 10ft, and 15ft of depth for the same location. I read yesterday that Solix received a recent firmware update that supposedly addresses the issue, but still nothing on the Helix units as far as I can tell. The biggest concern with this bug is when using AutoChart live - if you’re not careful you might end up drawing a map with sharp depth contours that don’t exist..

Not necessarily related to their rods, but felt like I had to give them a shout out. I haven’t used the rod, yet, other than making a few casts in the back yard. It definitely looks good, and feels great so far. Bought a new Fury from TW, and it came with a pretty cool little EVA rod tip protector for shipping. I really appreciated the extra care they put in making sure my rod got to me in good condition, and I really liked the tip protector. A lightbulb popped in my head, and I thought “I definitely need more of these, especially for when I travel with a bunch of rods”. I googled, but couldn’t find anything like it, so I emailed Dobyns customer service, and asked where I might find some. I got an email back from them asking me how many I needed. Long story short, they sent me about 7 or 8 of em free of charge. I’m sure they aren’t expensive, and they probably order them by the ton, but that meant a lot to me. They were also very responsive and quick to get back to me, even though I didn’t have a real problem. That kind of service is worth gold, in my book. I’ll probably end up ordering a shirt or hat off their website this week, just as a thanks to the company.

These may not be anything special, but it's been a while since I've had multiple bass in such a short period of time. These sweet baits did not cost much. Bait monkey saved my wallet this time.

Really wish @Wayne P. would poke his head in here - just once of old time sake. Miss him. A-Jay

I do not see 'the problem' ??? What am I missing ? A-Jay

The real question is, Does Mike put the brown trout in the livewell or drop them in the lake?

Whipping the handle around is an unnatural motion for a reel and not an indicator of anything.

Yo-Zuri Hybrid is an excellent line, smaller diameters for spinning, and 12# an "all-around" for casting... It is a great leader to attach to braided line. I use braid for mainline on every one of my reels. Just how I roll. I feel it manages better, especially on spinning gear. And using YZH (and other lines) as leader, I am able to keep my braided mainline for longer periods, cutting it less thanks to having a leader.

Clean them, and put a little grease in them. There is no benefit to using oil in the level wind bearings they are not high speed. Should make them nice and smooth.

Only one?

Interesting. The weakest part of a line is always the first acute bend in a knot . . . assuming the line isn't otherwise flawed. Lines break at knots because the act of creating it stretches the fibers or material on one side, compresses them on the other. Flourocarbon failures owing to overheating is not the issue; fluorocarbon is less sensitive to heat than monofilament. It is just harder to form it into a tight knot that causes some failures . . . and people attribute that to line burning. So, my guess is since you pulled back a "C" shape with some additional straight line beyond the "C" and toward the end, is that it didn't break in the knot . . . but slipped apart. Palomar knots can slip apart, most knots can. What it lacks in friction, it makes up for by being a doubled line knot, that, and the fact that when you slip that bight over and around the hook or lure, it "anchors" the end of the knot better than knots with just a single terminating tag end clipped off. It sounds to me like the knot was just old, needed re-tying. I suppose a good rule is to visually check your line every so often, first, then at least visually inspect the knot, replace it after "X" number of fish are caught and certainly after a big fight with a large one, then always retie junction and terminal knots between fishing trips. Brad

Got a new vaccuum sealer for Christmas , hoping to try it out with a bunch of white bass that I threw on ice yesterday. Those pesky smallies kept getting in the way too...........

+1 Just sold my Aldebaran 50's and got 10 Metanium MGL XG's, love 'em....

Nice Fish!

Wow. Great bass. What a beauty!

Sorta the same principle as a fluke but you get to stay in the strike zone longer. Sometimes your pauses will take 6 all the way to 15 seconds. Just a matter of finding the right cadence.

Gotta love a jerkbait bite, even better when it's a bass like that! Nice fish man!

Technically, we've already had ice out. 51* and 2" of rain today. It's all gone. Bottoms going to drop out next week and back in the teens for highs.

fish, have fun, repeat....

At 18'7.5" in length and sporting a 90.5" beam, Triton's new TR-186 is perfectly sized for weekend bass tournament competition on both the local and regional level. It's rated for 150hp outboards, has a fuel capacity of 36-gal and features Triton's legendary wood-free composite construction.

I do better with blade baits, JBs, square bills, lipless, and inline spinners than plastics in cold water. If I'm throwing a jig in the cold it will usually have feathers and not plastics.

Well P44 it seems that you have made your mind up so I think this is a mute point.

I think I just saw a commercial where for $ 9.95/month you can adopt an endangered Small-mouth. They will send you a picture of the adopted fish along with monthly updates as to the size. ?

I never win anything. After receiving the winning e-mail, I was expecting a hat, koozie, or keychain. Blew me away when UPS dropped off one of their top tier rods.

Swimbait fishing is exponentially easier if you have a basic understanding of fish behavior and can generally read productive cover/structure. The problem is people see big fish caught on swimbaits and think "I should start bass fishing so I can do that too." That's not how it works.

FFO stands for Fishermans Factory Outlet in case anybody is scratching their head and trying to figure it out. That sucks....Many really good deals can be had on ebay these days if you time things just right.

Water temp was 55° and wind was howling, caught 27 overall, my dad smoked me on rapala jerkbait. But DT6 Demon won me big bass. Just a 10 acre pond full of stumps.

What lb test? Reel spool capacity is dependant on line diameter. Look at your reels spool capacity, usually listed as mono line by lb test, then look at the diameter of your braid compared to the mono diameter. Tom PS, TW list Suffix braid diameter with a mono lb test conversion.

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

A buzzbait and a Pop-R are two entirely different baits, though both target the top of the water column. For a buzzbait, I use any longer extra fast rod that I'd use for a spinnerbait. match the power to the size of the bait and the cover you're fishing. The extra fast taper allows you to get into the power section of the rod for a powerful, lightning fast hookset required for big buzzbait hooks. For a treble hooked, floating topwater, I like a shorter rod, medium or medium light power, and x-fast taper for a quick recovery after twitching. I like shorter to keep the tip out of the water while using downward strokes of the rod to twitch the bait. Pop-R's are pretty light baits, and I actually use a spinning rod with 20# braid, and 12# CXX leader for them to get extra casting distance. A good compromise for both would be a 6-6 medium/x-fast rod.