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Great day for me. Especially since my Dad was there to take a picture. My prior PB was 4.43 lbs from November 2020, before that was 4.32 lbs from October 2004. Thanks for looking.

Went to Goose Creek, it branches off the Potomac River, hoped to relax and wade for some panfish, ultralight style. I've always known that smallmouth, and largemouth, were in Goose Creek, but I could never seem to find/catch them. The creek is tiny in width, not to mention that the water level is super low right now, so I usually don't expect to find bass as far as Kepheart Bridge Landing (where I started). The bait of the day was a Mr. Crappie 2" Grub on a Mr. Crappie jig hook in a size 6. Like I said, I was targeting panfish. After 2 hours of wading and endless panfish fun, I hooked into a fish that peeled drag on my ultralight setup, jumped 3 feet out of the water, behold... my first ever smallmouth! Twas a dink of a bass, maybe only twice as big as the sunfish I was catching but it was incredible to finally catch a bass. Another hour of sunfish, then I catch another smallmouth, relatively the same size. Right before I'm about to head in, I make a cast into some slack water behind some rocks (textbook cover), and a much bigger smallmouth destroys my bait. After approx 2-3 min fight on 4lb test mono, I landed a 1lb 2oz smallie and ended my day. In total, 3 smallmouth, 2 baby largemouth, 2 bluegill, and endless sunfish

Every other weekend my brother and I check out google maps, then hit a new small body of water in our Jon boat. We asked around, but couldn't get any solid intel on this weekend's choice, so we winged it. I found a small path to the water, but it was a no go to launch, but I just had to chuck a bait. Got one to bite a Fat IKA quickly, but the weeds were intense. The only place we found to launch was through an impossibly nasty field of goose shiznit and mud. Thankfully, we both had our hip waders in the truck or it would've all ended there. This 50 acre joint was 100% choked with a trolling motor's nightmare of weeds nearly right up to the top. Maybe 10% of it offered 3-4 inches of relief between the top of the weeds and the surface. That was enough to throw wake baits, which were the only thing they seemed interested in anyway. My brother's fish was about the same size as mine, but the trebles from his Tater Hog HoochieMomma were a bear to remove, so we set her free without pics to reduce her stress. My boat fish came on a Livingston Bullnose Wake/Crank. Glad we beat the skunk, but we were happy once the rain chased us out of there. Perfect spot for a daylight punching mission, but less than zero pleasure for a night trip.

Fished a Central Ga PFA Thursday night/ Friday morning and got one hit in 8 hours. 6 lb 2 oz on a Yum 10.5" Mighty Worm in Plum in 18' on rocks. Utilizing my 360 Imaging more everyday. Water temp was 89.9

Hi, new here. How is everyone? So recently I’ve been doing some fishing with my boys in some local lakes. They are really interested in learning how to fish. So I took them the other day, and they caught a few bass. I have 2 questions. 1. They are using a “OWNER #1 size hook” with a bob, no split shots. Not sure about line. They are baiting with live shiners. Is that the best way, or should I get some lures and let them try that? 2. What kind of bass are they catching? Pictures below. Thx guys.

Only had two hours to fish today, and rather than hit it at first light, I waited until 9:30. Had a nice breakfast with eggs, bacon, English muffins and apricot preserves and coffee, then hit the pond. Not earth-shattering but still caught three bass. The first was this scrappy bass on a #956 Senko WR. Caught another on the WR, then switched to a blue/black jig w/Rage Menace trailer (followed by a Rage Tail Craw trailer). Nothing on that. Finally cast a Mann’s Jelly Worm in blackberry. It’s been well-used and kinda torn up. This bass didn’t mind. He took it before it sank a foot and ran with it. He was a scrapper as well. This week I plan to hit the water around 7:00 pm and fish until dark and see what happens.

A friend and I each caught a 37 inch tiger muskie this morning in the rain, 10 minutes apart.

It was the middle of winter. I was slowly dragging a Ned rig along the bottom in 20 feet of water. I caught a five pound bass and netted it. When I removed the bass I left the net laying across the back of the boat with the net part dragging in the water and continued fishing. I went a bit further then turned around and went back the way I had come because the fish finder showed the fish were back there. As a side note, because it matters... this was the same area that I rescued a man and his wife that turned their canoe over a week prior in 42 degree water. I went over and took them to the shore as they clung to the side of my boat, (neither had a lifevest on) then went back out and gathered up what was floating as another boat secured the canoe. Anyway, back to the story... I was heading back through that area when I felt a possible hit on the Ned and set the hook. I had something on but it was sure not a fish; I figured it was a big branch. I reeled it up and it was a nice shiny landing net. It was so new I figured it was the one those people lost when their canoe overturned. I got the net and turned to put it in the back of the boat and then I noticed MY landing net was gone! Well silly me, my net had slipped off the boat earlier. I figured the net itself was hanging in the water and moving was enough to pull it off and it slid into the water unnoticed. What's the chances of losing your net over the side without even knowing and snagging it 15 minutes later without even looking for it? I've never bought a lottery ticket but that would have been the day to get one.

With a ridiculously busy work schedule this year, and moving to a new house in June, I’ve had almost no time to get out for a proper bass fish this year. I finally got out first thing this morning, headed out to the big water of eastern Georgian Bay, where I’ve had some pretty good success with the smallmouth the last few years. First area of the day was a new area to me, a group of offshore shoals and islands that are surrounded by deep, open water. Found a few that absolutely hammered my spinnerbait burned across some shoals, and boy did I need to feel that! I then found one shoal about the size of a house, that topped off at about 10’ deep and dropped off the one side to very deep water ( basically the open part of Georgian Bay). On pretty much every cast along the side of this shoal, for a good half hour or more, I caught bass after bass, and they were all pretty much the exact same size, right about 4lbs. Such a great fight on a long drop shot rod and 6lb line. After a while, the wind picked up to the point where it was getting hard to hold the boat in position, and the school finally seemed to shut down the bite, so I headed to some other spots and caught a few more in the 3-4lb range. Got off the water right before noon, just before the ramp gets loony. I sure needed a day like this, and hopefully I can find the time to get out again for more soon.

I really like using worm hooks with a grip pin on the Z bend. What I don't like is the price, so I decided to add my own to some of my worm hooks. It's a simple hack if you tie your own hair jigs, or flies. I used what Quill calls their Ideal paper clips. they're made from a heavier gauge wire than regular paper clips, more in line with the diameter of a 3/0 hook shank. Cut off about a 3/8in. piece and tie it to the underside of the hook at the bend allowing a short piece to extend out. Secure it with a drop of super glue after tying and you could add a drop of head cement, or clear nail polish after drying if you'd like. I can purchase a dozen EWG 2X worm hooks for about the same price as five KVD grip pin hooks. In less than a half hour, I have a dozen hooks finished. The other thing is, I haven't found any round bend offset worm hooks offered with a grip pin. I now have a bunch in different sizes.

Really tough day yesterday for this lake. Don't know if we even caught 10 fish, we threw the dinner table at them. This was big fish for this lake, that usually gives a 4 pounder. He came on a 1 ounce Hybrid Hunter on my new Shimao SLX combo.

That is a very effective pattern. Irs too warm for hair right now, plastics are more effective. I am ready for the cooldown so lures like this craw become more effective

Several years ago I was fishing on a flat that was about 5 or 6 feet deep. I dropped the anchor over the side to hold my position, and about a minute later I noticed that I was still moving. At first I though the wind was causing the anchor to drag, but then I saw the anchor line about 40 feet away floating on the surface. I had forgotten to tie the line to the boat.

182 spinnerbaits drying on the rack. All I do anymore is make spinnerbaits with the heat its too hot to pour lead. Allen

Also started making some beefed up beetle spins and walleye hammer them

I've been busy with work and haven't had much time to fish after work lately and the lake is filled with pleasure boaters and jet skiers on the weekend and I haven't felt like contending with that. The water temperature on the shallow end of Oconee has been 89 degrees and the daytime fishing has been lousy. So I woke up at 3:30 this morning and thought I'd try some nighttime fishing from my kayak. So I rigged up my port, starboard, and stern lights, grabbed a couple of headlamps, and headed out on the water by 4 am. My hotel is in a narrow cove and most of the dock lights are lit, but there's a stretch exiting the cove heading to the main channel where it's a black out. It was quite disorienting at first, and when I got my bearings I noticed I had covered a lot more water than I thought. Next time I'll turn on my nav map instead of the sonar. There was no one else out on the water, and with the dead calm is was kind of creepy out there. I made my way to the causeway and fished for a bit, but the sonar was showing the usual baitfish and nothing else. I made my to the bridge and the other side of the causeway but once again it was just baitfish out there. There was one cove that I wanted to hit, but as I neared there were no dock lights in that area so I erred on the side of caution and passed up that area. I'd prefer to get more experience at night and feel more comfortable under those conditions before navigated an area of heavy docks in a narrow cove in the pitch black night. By the time I pedaled to my next spot it was first light. I fished a little while longer but still drew blanks. The one spot I wanted to fish was littered with floats and cutbait and that kind of ticked me off. I can see dropping a few floats, but this guy just carpet bombed one of my favorite areas to fish, making it nearly impossible for me to fish that area. I saw one of the floats go under and took off after it. When it surfaced I managed to grab it and hand line it. The next thing I know I'm going for a little ride. The fish tired a bit and I pulled it close to the surface - it was a decent 20lb or so catfish. I don't even consider what that guy did to be fishing. It's not very sporting at all. Even after sun up there was no one fishing in my end of the lake. I'm convinced that now that the stripers moved off for their spawn, it's pretty much catfish, carp, baitfish, and bluegill on this end of the lake until the water temps come down again. As for night fishing, that was weird to say the least. I'll probably try it again, but next time I think I'll head out at 10pm or 11pm. The first picture below is heading off into the dark where I didn't realize how much water I had covered. The second photo is just a small section where this guy carpet bombed the are with cutbait and floats.

Interesting bait to combine the action of a chatterbait into a crankbait. May just be a gimmick but I will see. Everybody knows that a squarebill crankbait and a bladed jig are some of the best ways to catch fish all throughout the world, the 13 Fishing Jabber Jaw Hybrid Squarebill Crankbait combines the action of these two highly effective baits into one. To achieve this, the 13 Fishing Jabber Jaw Hybrid Squarebill Crankbait is fitted with an oscillating stainless steel bill and metal jowls embedded into the bait, which creates an aggressive hunting action with a metallic clicking noise that is unlike anything the fish have seen before. Its square-shaped bill also helps create a super strong vibration and gives it the ability to wildly deflect and be fished over heavy cover. Ideal for anytime the fish are holding in shallow water, the 13 Fishing Jabber Jaw Hybrid Squarebill Crankbait will trigger ferocious strikes and is deadly when fishing behind other anglers for pressured fish. Finished with 3D holographic eyes, an ultra high definition paint job, and premium VMC black nickel treble hooks, the 13 Fishing Jabber Jaw Hybrid Squarebill Crankbait will introduce your local fish to a new level of chaos. 13 Fishing Length Weight Depth Hook Jabber Jaw Crankbait 2.3" 9/16oz 4ft #2

Sort hard to tell for me with the pic, and this might not be exact but the 4 inch Chompers Crawtube looks close. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Chompers_Crawtube_4/descpage-TRCT.html A-Jay Belay my last ~ it's a Big Bite Baits Craw Tube https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Big_Bite_Baits_Craw_Tube_8pk/descpage-BBBCRTB.html A-Jay

Big fish for the day.

My 12yr old son's new PB at almost 7lb. Caught on a 3" Storm wildeye swimbait of all things!

Finally got my prototypes finished and was able to make a mold. This I pieced together parts from 3 other baits. Allen

Had to share with folks who would appreciate. Most would probably keep to themselves. Out on the yak last night and the water started to get active at late dusk. ..it was pretty dark. Saw/heard bass crashing on the other side of a narrow channel….too narrow to get through but wide enough to give it a shot casting it. Paddle over and put a cast down the gut… 12 o’clock as it was the only angle I had. Give the frog a couple twitches and it gets crushed. Give it a moment and slam on it-hard-as I had been catching some nice size fish all night. All I can describe is getting subsequently smacked so hard in the forehead that I didn’t know what happened for a sec. In sum…Fish didn’t hook up, braid gave it no forgiveness and my yak/cast angle was aimed directly at same point of attempted hook set so it came in hot smashing my noggin. Went home bloody, humbled and literally have the frog hook imprints on my forehead as scabs but am not wearing a patch so am grateful for that. Top 5 stupid things that have happened to me fishing. Thought it could be a fun post to ask you all who are comfortable sharing out something that happened to you on the water that all you could do was shake your head and laugh when it was over.

https://fishingdiscoveries.com/bait-finesse-system/#tve-jump-1703b7f8188

Ladies and gentlemen, Tangent Airlines has now departed...

Just do yourself a favor and don't add up the receipts whatever you do, you'll probably stroke out on us.

I told myself when I started out bass fishing that I would only buy what I need as I need it. Turns out, "need" is a pretty flexible term in this hobby....?

More like 31 ~ (for the 2nd time) A-Jay

Thankyou so much everyone!!!! yall are going to help me out so much, Heading out tomorrow and am excited to try all these techniques this upcoming week! thanks guys!!!

I might throw some Ol Monsters today and have a 3/0 standard wire EWG tied on already and was going to upsize, but now I'm questioning that. As if I didn't question what to throw and when and where isnt hard enough, now I'm going question if my hook is long enough!!!!!

I always change the whole hub that comes with bearings in it. Lots easier and not much more expensive

I’d say the first pic is a nice bass!

Somebody call the ambulance, roadwarrior has been bitten by the BFS bug!

Those are really cool too. I know a guy that makes custom spacers to enable them to use the 30mm spools from the Steez/Millionaire/Alphas CT reels. He's making me a set in polished aluminum as I'm not a big fan of the orange on this reel. Those spools start up lightning quick. This is my other bushwhacker combo, Millionaire CT, SLP Works shallow spool, and Roro micro bearings on a 4'10" Major Craft Troutino. It pitches like a dream.

Nice... ? I still don't own a round reel, and a round BFS reel would be a heck of a way to start! I sort of cheaped out by a hundred-and-a-quarter or so and ordered an Alphas Air TW20 LH instead. (From Digitaka.)

Nothing special but I caught one on a rage tail menace in summer craw with a 3/16 tungsten weight pegged. Was a struggle to find where they were hiding. He ran straight into the salad like I figured he would, this is why I normally use braid don’t want to have to worry about snapping off on a fish. Today was only 10lb invisx. Got a little water in my waders trying to go get him out lol, that was not going to work got deeper and softer quickly. We are both fine and back to doing what we do though.

Messed around for a couple hours Thursday evening in the backwaters of a small dam, with a 4" senko. Caught 15; mostly dinks. Here's a 14"-er:

Went out this AM with a true man of God, fine fisherman, and a great friend. And in this case, it was just one guy ? Anyway, we had a fine day on the water between fellowship and fish catching. We put 12 in the boat, 10 bass & 2 bream. Here are a couple of my buddy’s catches. Black TR worm. I think this was the big fish of the day. Chrome/blue Rattletrap. Huge bream. All mine were caught on worms, mostly Tokyo rig with a couple on the wacky rig. Dean wins the prize for biggest fish … multi-species. ?

Just placed an order for these today: Megabass DESTROYER P5 F0st-66X SHIMANO CALCUTTA CONQUEST BFS HG (Right Handle)

Went with this: Megabass DESTROYER P5 F0st-66X SHIMANO CALCUTTA CONQUEST BFS HG (Right Handle)

Been going out during the middle of the day to see if I can put a daytime pattern together, well the pattern that emerged is not the one I expected, I've been catching northern pike up in shallow vegetation throwing 7" senkos and 4.8 keitechs on weedless flashy swimmer hooks. Summer pike really put up a dog of a fight, a 31 incher I caught recently was one of the hardest pulling fish I've encountered in years, it weighed in just over 6 lbs, boy was she fired up and angry!

I might be naive, but I believe if you treat someone decent, they'll treat you decent. That's just human nature. Common interests just break the ice sooner. jj

A couple of decent buggers I caught on my last two trips out, including a 25.5" walleye. Bass caught on a Morning Dawn Roboworm and Jackall Gavacho Frog. Walleye caught on a Norman DD22.

Little Cunner he thought he was 5lbs. We had a wave come in and rocked us when I took the pic…little lumpy out there today. Dillon got big fish of the day. I had gotten a nice one earlier in the day. Later in the day I added a little Megastrike to his bucktail which caught the attention of a beauty cod. So glad to have this time with him. It’s going to change real soon as he gets older. I just hope that he has the relationship my father I have later in life. Ok, you can put on Harry Chapins “Cat’s in the Cradle” song. LOL!

Went up to fish Headwaters for the evening bite with the Hawgtech team. We took two boats & put in around 5:30 & fished for half an hour before getting chased off by T storms & lightening. Waited it out until the storms passed & got back out for about an hour before dark. Probably caught around a dozen or so fish. Couldn't get them going on top water baits so I switched over to a deep diving crankbait & finally got a better fish about 12-14 deep.

I take advantage of welded loops on my fly lines, or add them to lines without. I swap leaders to fish between dries and nymphs. For dries, I fish tapered nylon without a tippet knot, and will go to 6x for presentation. Literally for decades I've fished Beartooth/H&H braided butt leaders for nymphs and my first love of swinging wet flies. I know all the good BWO riffles/chutes/pocketwater on our tailwater, and may bust a long way to get there - this is Mad Rock (named by the float guides). The Beartooth/H&H leaders are knotted fluorocarbon below the braided butt. You charge the braided butt with mucilin, and it's all the strike indicator you need. When it swamps, you wring it out with a piece of chamois. The float of the leader butt also keeps your fly line tip from swamping. Of course its easy to swap tippet size, dictated by the size of the hook eye. Swimming BWO on size 18 scud hook will let me fish 4x Like all tailwaters, tiny midges make up 70% of the biomass. Size 22 is the smallest hook eye that will take 5x tippet. Unless you find first-light spinners or that great afternoon dry fly hatch, tiny midges are the only thing that works in slower, deeper runs. If you're forced to size 24, has to be 6x. A trick I learned from Frank Smethurst when we filmed TU On the Rise, for attractor with tiny midge dropper, take a quilting needle and run an Otter's milking egg up the leader, slide up a bare size 10 egg hook, tie your dropper tippet with a triple surgeon's knot. My PB buck just above took the size 22 midge. The same day in a deep chute, this little girl took the egg - she's on the bare hook, and the egg slid up to my split shot. Bottom, center you can see the size 22 midge dropper. At the end of the day, when I'm done with this complex rig, I'll snip it above the split shot, and tie surgeon's loops in both sides. The rig goes into a leader wallet, and I loop it on next time out. Frank has to catch trout on camera every week. His description of Otter's milking egg - "when you absolutely, positively have to catch a fish right now" Another thing Frank taught Jimbo and me in 3 days of filming - skittering a sofa pillow to work trout into a feeding frenzy. In this last pool, we had them impaling themselves on anything, I handed my Thomas rod over to the cameraman, and he caught his first trout. Frank also called our big tailwater rainbows "Guadalupe steelhead" me, Frank, and Jimbo

The longevity of any machine is dependent on regular fluid changes and lubrication. Change out your fluids and filters and you're golden, in most cases. Following the OM's suggestions on maintenance is a lost art. People these days seldom even crack open an OM, much less follow the maintenance guidelines.

Good evening gentlemen, finally got some free time?. Hit the local retention pond, here’s the results?. Bass weren’t too cooperative, but the bluegill were in a mood. Here’s a couple of the better ones.

Another late-night stop at the local neighborhood pond produced a few fish, two keepers. I'm loving the spook, even on these calm nights--heaviest fish of the trip came on the ned rig though, 16.25" and 2.29lbs. I just started fishing it a few weeks ago and it definitely gets bit.

With the newer bfs reels and the right rod you don't have to try.