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These hasn't been a tackle shop close by my house for thirty years now. I got word of a new shop opening in a small town about ten minutes from me. I stopped by yesterday and spoke with the new owner. He was busy stocking up, and getting ready to open on March 1. He told me he'll have a whole wall of bass tackle. Also, rods and reels, lines of all types, and rod/ reel repair. Also stocking hand tied jigs for bass and crappie. He's a very nice young guy, an avid fisherman, and he's made a serious investment here. I'll probably be hanging around there, sipping coffee, and talking fishing, as well as being a customer too. It's a tough business. I sure hope he makes it.

Went out this past Sunday with the plan to fish the power plant lake as long as the wind and boats would let me, then go to a smaller lake to get out of the wind. The wind didn't let me stay long and the fish weren't cooperating anyways, so around 9:30, I was already on the move. My buddy was already fishing the lake I'd planned to go to, and he said it was really slow, so I drove to a different lake I hadn't fished in a few years. Very small lake, no shad, mostly very small fish but I've caught a few big ones. Really just wanted to get a few fish and avoid the wind. Started on the dam and caught 10 or so pretty quick on a jerkbait and Ned, they were all copy and paste of this. For some reason, once I left the dam the bite stopped completely. Unfortunate considering the dam is pretty small. Once I got to the far end of the lake, the water got a little dirtier and a few degrees warmer. It's only a couple feet deep, but there's some laydowns and I had a jig I'd tied a couple weeks ago tied on, so I flipped some trees. Didn't expect anything but after a few flips I had a very distinct "tap". I finally got to slam the rod back into a decent fish and catch one on my new jig. Caught a couple more small ones on the jig from that shallow water. Made one more lap with a few different baits but only caught a few more small ones and one decent one on a Ned.

Just the other day I followed a chinese balloon for almost 200 miles. Turns out, it was just bird sh** on my wind shield.

Went 45 minutes without a bite and almost left. Then I decided to fish in the brunt of the wind (blowing 22mph with gusts to 35 mph) at the mouth of a small pocket and caught 18-20 in the next hour. Was also able to stick one nice one for this place. Some of these smaller guys have great color and markings in this cold, clear water.

I bought an Evergreen Combat swimbait rod from The Hook Up Tackle and got a free $200 JDM box with the purchase. Some interesting stuff and some baits I will definitely try out.

Wasn’t long ago the red was invisible to bass now it highly visible, got love how fickle bass anglers can be. Tom

Here we go. Headwaters from start to finish. Sit back, relax and if you ever want to venture out on this water, hopefully this will help. Lodging There are a few options for lodging. A lot of Airbnb places are popping up. There’s a guy who rents out 2 travel trailers on his property and there’s a guy who has a travel trailer in an Orange grove that is fairly close. A lot of guys stay in the many hotels in Vero Beach or Sebastian. Some are set up for boats and some are not. We opted to stay in a 4 room set up on Blue Cypress Lake. They call them cabins but they are like small efficiency rooms with a full size refrigerator and a cooktop. Can be set up as 2 twins or 1 king per room. Blue Cypress Lakeside Cabins, Vero Beach, FL, (772) 770-2067 https://bluecypresslakesidecabins.com Would we stay there again? 50/50. Rooms were spotless clean, beds were fantastic comply, shower was a little small and we found that at the end of the day we were too tired to cook and ended up eating at a couple of places in Fellsmere on our way back to the rooms. The trip to the launch was about 40 minutes and there was really no traffic. The drive allowed my fishing partners to catch up on emails, etc. places we ate were the Marsh restaurant, which was very good and a true Mexican restaurant called Tapatias. The Launch Much is said about the road to the launch. I can’t remember the exact length but it’s like 3 or 4 miles long. It’s graded once a week and is the consistency of flour or baby powder and gets everywhere. We trailered everyday with the cover on the boat and it still got coated really bad, not to mention my truck. There is a car wash in Fellsmere where if you are like me, you can rinse your boat and truck off. We did it right before we headed home. The road to the launch is very, very rough if you are getting towards the time it is to be graded. The ramp itself is very nice. It is privately owned but patrolled by FWC to enforce rules. Rules are no entering earlier than 1 hour before sunrise and no parking on the grassy areas, which are clearly marked. There is an open field across the road from the launch that I used a couple of days because the lot was nearing full and there is some drama that goes on everyday. I also witnessed the vultures and crows that liked to perch and walk on any of the trucks parked near the water. One day there was a huge hyacinth island that blew across 1 lane of the ramp rendering it useless. There are 2 lanes. Normal ramp drama is people cutting line and rigging in the launch lane. I have a story about that and will post if asked. There are also a lot of guides that operate out of there. The road to the launch is that same road to Stick Marsh Farm 13. The Lake The lake itself is pretty straight forward. It is your typical Florida shallow lake with deeper canals for general navigation. Remember the lake was designed for habitat so up to date mapping software and waterproof plastic maps to identify areas is paramount. We had to rescue a friend who got high centered when he ventured out of a canal. Because of the canals, you get some great weed edges close to deep water, there is hyacinth mats, reed islands, milfoil, Kissimmee Grass and even rock islands from the dirt they excavated and piled up. We found a submerged old orange grove and there is an area of cypress called the Cypress Maze on maps. We fished it all in the week we were on the water. We have been to Kissimmee and Okeechobee twice and saw the most gators here. My one major takeaway from the lake was that it fishes much, much bigger than it looks on a map. I was a little concerned we were going to be crowded due to the popularity and the size but we were never once crowded and there were days we didn’t have a single boat near us. No air boats allowed and that was refreshing. There is a 25 mph speed limit on the lake and a requirement that you slow to idle when passing in the canals but those 2 rules are pushed by quite a few. The lake is a gem for sure. Lures Thrown We threw a good selection of baits and opted for all artificial. The guides will give clients the option and most choose shiners because, let’s face it, that’s the easiest way to catch a trophy fish. There is a circle hook rule if shiner fishing. We took the gear to float or free line shiners (against my better judgement) but there was a shortage of shiners coupled with the fact that the guides had first dibs and the price was $30 plus a dozen with reports of guides going through 6 dozen a day, made artificials much more attractive. Here is a list of what was thrown: Senkos 5 & 6 inch weighted and unweighted.*** Speed Senko weighted and unweighted*** Yamamoto Heart Tail weighted ewg hook*** Yamamoto Kut Tail 7.75 inch with screw in nose weight*** Yamamoto Cowboy & Mermaid on Shakeyhead** Yum 4in Worm on Ned*** Jerkbait* Dropshot* Bull Shad Chatterbait Yamamoto Zako Trailer Swim Jig Yamamoto Paddle tail Zako trailer Yamamoto DShad and Zoom Super Fluke weightless * 1 to 4 fish **5 to 10 fish ***over 10 (5 day span). We averaged 10-15 fish per person, per day. We put a 6lb or bigger in one of the boats everyday. There were 3 boats 2 days and 2 boats the rest of the time. The days of 3 boats we had 6 anglers the days of 2 boats we had 5. The biggest producer by far was the 5 inch Senko with a nose weight and a screw in hitchhiker blade in the tail. My big fish came on the Kut Tail and a lot of fish were caught on the Speed Senko. The Yum 4 inch on the Ned rig caught a ton of small fish and was a surprise because my buddy rigged it up for his nephew who flew in from Boston and wanted to make sure he got on fish. He did catch a 6 pounder on that rig. If you want any details on how or where each was fished, just ask. General consensus was that we were a week early for the big spawn wave. We saw a lot of empty beds and did catch a few off the beds. Now on to the pics….if you want an explanation of any of them once again, just ask. I’ve got a lot more pics if there’s something specific you want to see. Will we go back! ABSOFREAKINLOUTLY!??

If you have a robust sense of humor like I do...... this post has to make the Bass resources Hall of Fame. Clear image to boot.

Well I didn’t NEED another rod but I was looking for a slower taper casting rod that could handle my jerks/cranks/other moving treble hook baits as well as having a higher weight rating to throw my smaller glides up to 1.5… Yesterday I saw an Evergreen Combat Stick 7’1M/regular (3/8-2oz) on Amazon for $145 and I had a $20 gift card in my balance so she came home for $125. I already had the 7’8” wakebait rod in that line and have been super impressed with it especially for a $200 rod, there was no way I could turn down one for $125! Now I just have to figure out if I like a Exsence DC or PXL-R better on it. ?

Went for extra thick strip steak tonight to share for Valentine’s Day (21 oz after trimming and no bone). Sous vide to medium rare first and then cast iron pan with a ton of butter that I used earlier to fat wash some bourbon. Very tasty steak. I still prefer ribeye, but my wife doesn’t so I went a little leaner.

Not exactly a tackle purchase rather a tackle holder. I added the extra rod holders to be able to take several combos rigged and ready to go.

No big ones, but I managed to catch 8 in 4 hours.

That’s my ‘Rick Clunn’ version of getting myself accustomed to the weather elements. I don’t feel hot or cold when I’m fishing - I’m just ‘one’ with the fish

Our local lakes are around 2,000 acres with very little shore cover, mostly dead brush. The terrain is mountainous with steep and rocky narrow canyons. Every boat launches and runs to a cove or point, puts down the TM and starts pounding the bank. I like to deer hunt and learned to study topographic elevation maps to locate where the big bucks should be. Reading topo maps helped to understand what was underwater when bass fishing. A 2D map your mind converts into a 3D picture of the structure. 1959 Lowrance offered their 1st flasher a portable unit Fish LO K TOR. I was in high school and bought the unit because It could define what I knew was there on my maps but now I could see real time fish on the structure. Now I wasn’t pounding the same shore as everyone else and catching bass that only trollers blindly ran across. Humming Bird Super 30 & 60. Replaced the Lo K Tor. Lowrance 1510 & 1610 paper graphs where added along with the flashers to detail what the flasher indicated. Soft or hard bottoms, rocks, sand gravel, brush, trees, all kinds of structure elements were available to sonar anglers. Velexar was the 1st color sonar flasher unit, soon Lowrance advanced the pixel density to the point I put away my flashers and paper graphs. I feel blind fishing without sonar because spent 50 years looking at sonar returns to determine where the bass and bait were located, if a thermocline had developed or lake turned over. Now I am back seating occasionally and fishing basically blind unless the boater shares the sonar unit or let’s me have the front seat for awhile. I can catch bass pounding the shore blindly and my memory is still functional and can picture what’s under the boat or coming along the shoreline. Given the chance I move the boat to a off shore hump or some rock piles I know of and enjoy bass much more then simple casting toward the bank. Sonar was essential to me for decades because it opened up the entire water column to knowledgeable anglers. Tom

I throw em cause they work

Hey yall I'm new to the forum which is kinda of obvious i guess. I have been fishing since i was 16 so about a year and a half now. I didnt have much of a chance to fish as i lived in california most of my childhood. Moving in with my dad who owns two, two acre ponds (turning them into pay lakes!!) was probably one of the best things that could happen to me. The first fish i had ever caught was a bream, just a tiny lil thing yet i was so happy. I mostly bass fish tho i do enjoy catching carp and smaller fish like bream and crappie, but anyways i hope to learn lots from those of you who know way more then me. Thank you!!!

i love this dudes vids. mainly because i am way over on the left side of the country and i am facinated by his fisheries/scenery. what drives me nuts is that dude NEVER wears a PFD. he has a lot of followers, LOTS!!.. so you could draw the line that he is an influencer in the sport. he can really use his power for good and get some holdouts into a PFD. on the bright-side, he is by far the most gentle and respectful fish releaser ever. he never tosses them from a great height. just a quick and easy release. he influenced the way i let them go as well.

Getting ready to get after some smallies this spring -

That’s awesome. I wish I had something like that around me. I would happily pay a bit more for my soft plastics and hard baits to support a good local shop. Unfortunately it would take more then my $20 a week to keep the lights on. I really hope he does well.

If looking for a squealer, crimp the rivet in place with wire cutters, side-cutters... Then for some extra squeal take some pliers and squeeze the rivet and blades where they make contact, as hard as you can. This will create little noise making ridges. I pour my own and do the later before assembly.

Ain't no braided line gonna cut lily pad stems! Early stike detection, as soon as you feel the bite, don't wait on nuthin, set hook. Set hook with authority! Turn that head, get em coming to you, all on the hookset. Be ready to move, sometimes ya gotta go get em. What happens more times than not is your hook point has penetrated the fish & is exposed. This exposed hook point will stick the lily pad stem. Watch some Hack Attack videos

Don’t be shocked if a red lipless or flatside wins 2023 Classic. Tom

I always have one tied on. No trailer, no trailer hook. Great way to fish a big mud flat with lots of lay down...especially in the summer.

My Exsence Ci4 finally came in yesterday so I spooled it up with 20# X8 grand and popped it on the Kameyama. Going to be hard to put this combo down this summer, it feels as good as it looks! Hope I have enough time to put the cork knob on it after I put my son to bed tonight I think that’ll be the icing on the cake ? I am really excited to get back out on the water this summer. It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to get after it like I used to but now my son is old enough to teach the joys of fishing. My combos are pretty dialed and I’ll be fixing up the flotilla so we can make the most of the warm months!

Midway got me again. Ordered a St Croix Legend Glass crankbait rod, total was 284.00. They instantly emailed me a 200.00 gift card for that purchase. I used that gift card to buy a Lews Custom Speed Spool and some crank baits. Cost me a few bucks. With that Lew's purchase, They sent me a 100.00 gift card. So now I bought a 6'10 Veritas Tournament Edition spinning rod and a RKcrawler. Used that gift card and that cost me a few bucks. So, for under 300.00 out of pocket, I think thats a good deal for all of that stuff. Midway is offering different amount gift cards with a purchase of certain St Croix and Lews gear.

I don’t see any real innovation. DC been around for a while. Ya it’s in more models. Daiwa has gone backwards imo. 2000 almost every model had full floating spool and dual pinion bearings. Now reel makers have cool names for that like they just thought it up. T wing is a gimmick. Smaller cheap fasteners are biggest peeve. That goes for all of them. I’ll take a Core or OG Zillion over anything current.

Tactical bassin got me tonight. $206 later I have 8 dirty jig finesse jigs, 10 dirty jig pitching jigs, 6 dirty jig swim jigs, 11 bags of trailers coming from tackle warehouse.

Crawdads get bright red in hot water? I add 4 strands of red crystal flash to my hair jigs and seems to help. Black/red is a go to in low light conditions...why? don’t know but it works. Tom

In 1984, Humminbird unveiled the LCR series, the industry’s first Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) fish-finder. Since then I've been happy, happy, happy

Fishing in lowland reservoirs, there are times when the fishing is hot near the bank and maybe sonar doesn't seem necessary, but it can often provide understanding as to why the fish use a particular shallow area. On the other hand, it is difficult for me to fish deep, clear highland reservoirs without using sonar. For a lake such as Table Rock shallow water is often considered to extend out to 15 feet (some anglers claim even deeper) and fish will spawn at 10 to 15 feet in certain places on the lake depending on the water clarity. A few weeks before and after the spawn I usually catch the majority of my bass in 15 to 25 feet of water there, and again in mid to late Fall. In summer and into early fall, fish will stage on gravel points, etc at 35 to 45 feet of water which is typically at the thermocline and are often caught on dropshots. I don't think I would find very many fish in this lake without my sonar. I use sidescan and downscan by the way and haven't felt the need to go to FFS yet. As for the deepest water in my lowland reservoirs around Northwest Missouri, it can be 25 feet all the way to 55 depending on the lake. The thermoclines vary from as little as 8 feet to 20 feet on these lakes. Even if I am not using the sonar to find actual fish like with FFS it still allows me to learn the structure and cover in the lake and helps me find fish away from the bank.

Those are some deals! I’m a sucker for those Savage Gear Gills. Nice find!

As others here have said I could do it, but I'd much rather not. There are tremendous benefits to using it in both shallow and deep water. Structure is structure regardless of the depth and fish will relate to it. There's a few lakes around that have a very shallow average depth which makes the small depth changes big deals. Without sonar, you're not going to find those no matter how many times you jab your rod tip into the water. I love fishing visible cover too and it can be great at times, but there are also times you need to fish cover that isn't visible and without sonar, that's very hard to do. To each their own though, but if it doesn't effect how you fish, you're under utilizing one of the best tools in your tool chest.

Doing what I do. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

i've been eating way more veggies these days. i did sear a small steak to share with the wife. i used the hotass pan to char some broccolini, and the prerequesite sauted mushrooms.

To make it easier to raise the lid while turned around on the yak, my left hand partially works due to a stroke. It’s also the reason for 8 rod holders, it sometimes takes me up to 20 minutes to tie on a lure. I try not to re-tie while on the water.

Don’t think you can skip a buzzer, not a easy lure to cast accurately do to it’s blade aerodynamics. You want to keep the cast under 90’. Shad spawn is a good time before 9A when the Shad are still in the brush. Single buzzer with gold blade and chartreuse/white skirt Shad profile 3” trailer. Double Buzzer with Chrome blades pearl white skirt no trailer. Tom

It almost always takes 'some amount' of significant loss of life that indicates self-regulation isn't working and insurance companies have to pay for it before there's a change or action is taken. Then there is often some type of 'regulation' that makes what everyone is currently doing 'illegal'. Which can let the insurance companies off the hook. Seems they don't actually care if we kill ourselves or each other, they just don't want to have to pay for it. During the course of my life time examples are but may not be limited to; Seat Belts, Motor Cycle, ATV, Snow machine Helmets, and the list of 'required' boating safety equipment, including Life Jackets / Throwable devices. Not saying any of this is good or bad. Just saying. A-Jay

Problem in water that gets pressured, so is everyone else. Finding that same stuff in 20-30 ft is an art. Or at least it used to be. Now just requires seat time and a willingness to burn gas. Payoff can be decent. A-Jay

No I am ! They are filled with mutant alien brown bass ready to spawn and take Lake Menderchuck to another universe. ? A-Jay

Seems February-early March is when everything red gets hammered around Chickamauga—that’s the word at the bait shop, anyway (year after year). I guess that’s the pre-pre-spawn. I need to get out there and test it for myself.

Found the boat already rigged with what I'm looking for and none of what I don't at a great price. Lucked out a little bit. Thank you all for the suggestions and info.

Whichever bait comes out first when I reach into the compartment of reddish baits …depth appropriate, of course ?

Tournament fishing is tough on your body and your mind. Sooner or later they all retire. Clunn is an anomaly. I can't imagine what he feels like. Tom Mann wrote a book about this titled "Think Like A Fish". Roland Martin lives in the Keys. He fishes for salt water fish as well as bass. Your mind stays sharp, but your body breaks down. KVD was one of the best.

Can I fish without it, sure. Did it for a long time. Last weekend I was finally able to use Active Target like I believe it to be designed. 25-30' of water here in the south. Slow day fishing, and found a couple bass laying on the bottom. (55* water temp). I switched from a DT 16 and DT20 to a 3/4oz black and blue jig, and in 3 casts, I beat my previous PB in a row. 1. 5.8 2. 6.3 3. 7.1 This is why sonar, especially FFS is awesome. It wasn't just that I saw them on sonar, but I was able to see that they were not interested in the moving baits. It showed me that I needed to change tactics, and when I did, I watched them eat it. It was a great day of fishing with those 3 fish. I also caught 3 or 4 2lbers as well.

Only noteworthy fish today, got a crappie that just touched right at 13" on the tape, my biggest out of this spot. Bass bite was trash but this was a nice little surprise.

Very good Overnight trout fishing, Catch my PB on Senko wacky when I was fishing for bass at the side.

Riggs: I'll be good if you take me with you. Me: I definitely do not believe you. If this is the first "fish" pic you know it was slow... Beautiful morning and unseasonably warm. Almost made up for the lack of action. First fish of the day... a trout on an underspin. And another accidental trout! Finally a bass. Pops caught one too, but it was a tad small and abruptly returned to the lake to ensure there was no photographic proof. ?

I finally bought some fishing stuff again, it’s be a couple months. Kind of a little odd for me lol, I was on a knife buying kick recently. I was waiting for a local store to get a different variety of beast coast jigs in. I went in today and lo and behold they had a new variety yay, poor wallet. Missed 3 days off work two weeks ago due to the wife being in the hospital and me having to watch the children, but family comes first. 3 beast coast working man’s swim jigs 1/4 oz, dirty money, special shad, dope gill 2 beast coast ow sniper jigs 3/8 oz stealth pb&j, mb melon 1 beast coast 5/8 oz baby dozer in elite craw 1 megabass 110 jr in pm twilight chart back feels good to be back, almost forgot the one in the trunk of the car 4” mister twister grub in yellow.