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Had a great day yesterday with almost 22lbs, all on the whacky rigged senko. Also included are a couple good fish I caught on Saturday and Sunday.....all on the whacky rigged senko. Over the last two weeks I've blown through about 6 packs of yamasenkos, and countless O Rings/cross over rings. Today though I tried the VMC Crossover Ring in #4 and might have finally stopped hemorrhaging senkos. Still need the VMC Cross Over pliers because these things are near impossible to get on the bait. There's a nod to you Katie on the second fish in the video 😁 These fish on a pixie wand crank up the adrenaline level to 10. 6.6 5lb 15oz 5lb 14oz 5 Lastly I caught a Spotted Bass and it had what looked like a few eggs coming out, and sure enough they were. These are two individual Bass eggs.

Myself and Mrs B are back from camping. I'm off work through Monday so I'll fish some more. I didn't catch them like I wanted to while camping. I averaged a Bass an hour, but the biggest was a 17 inch spot(pictured). Mrs B went out one time, but didn't fish long due to the cold and wind. Dolly (our Yorkie) went out with me several times. She get's really excited when I catch a fish. She love to lick them. She thinks she's a BIG dog, so I tell her the fish are all big, even if they aren't. She thinks the one she's licking in the picture is a 5 pounder. Alex, hats off for mastering spinning gear. I can't do it. I simply can't cast accurately. I have arthritis in my right trigger finger, perhaps that's part of the problem......or just my excuse. It doesn't bother me shooting. I use wackys with a bait caster all the time. I'd estimate that 1/3 of what I caught, including my biggest was on a wacky. Weightless Bizz Baits sassy stick. Most of the others were on a spinner bait. (don't tell Tnriver) To the haircut police. I don't want to cause any more stress. I'll try to keep my hat on.

Dunno how I skipped over this thick beauty that was part of our banner day yesterday in my post but here she is! Another tank on that bizzbait spinnerbait!

I've caught a lot of big bass on spinning rods and a lot of big bass on baitcasters. Where I'm casting these days, gonna have to be a baitcaster - Alex, the bait monkey fully and completely applauds your choices regarding rod, reel and line, knowing full well that breaking off means more money in his pocket, but he and I had a talk and as long as I keep throwing my baits into trees and heavy vegetation, we're good. Got my first frog bass of 2024 and Jake got his biggest frog bass yet yesterday on a nasty muggy drizzly cold day where we caught the snot out of them. Best 5 would probably tick 20 lb for the day which is pretty insane for my lakes. I also caught my PB crappie on the spinnerbait which also caught the big bass for the day! Bizzbaits 3/8 oz tandem Tn Shad color with no trailer.

Caught 6 Spots and 4 LM today on the T - Rigged TRD

So many great photos, guys. 👍🏻 We’re still stuck in winter water temps here. I snuck out today on Lake Ontario, looking for some early pike with the backup plan being the early catch and release bass season. Sadly, the sunshine they promised never came and it was very cool on the water. The surface water temps on the main lake were the same as two weeks ago (35F) and the back bays that were up to 42-43F on March 8 were only 37-38F today after a cold snap last week. We didn’t even try pike fishing. I was going to try a big rock flat area for smallmouth, but with a SE wind the rollers were not to my liking in a small aluminum bass boat. So, we went for a boat ride up the Cataraqui River to have a look at where we’ll be slaying big largemouth in the summer. 😊🤞🏻 So, no fish… but I own a boat and was out on the water for the third time in March. If it was only 20 degrees warmer…

I was walking the banks getting shad for bait and this behemoth just appears and chills there forever. Even when it left it would come right back. You can see all the big threadfin flashing around it

Braid to hook has worked well for me. 😉

Running errands took me by a dam so I stopped and fished in a deluge and got soaked , forgot my pants weren’t waterproof…….. snagged threadfin and pitched them out on bobber rig, of course I got 7-8 drum but they were all big

With all of this said, I think it illustrates how proud we all are of @Bluebasser86, and what he did at his recent Bassmaster Kayak Classic. We already knew the hammer he was, but doing so well in an event like that really solidifies his hammer status.

The haircut police is burned out for the moment. I've spent 4 of the last 5 days shoveling and blowing snow here. Don't have the energy even though it's an obvious violation.

Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to fish. Yesterday was beautiful but I was working OT so I could render unto the bait monkey. I made I promise to myself that I was gonna fish today no matter what. Well I got 50 degrees, winds from the south-southeast gusting to 37 mph and a steady rain. Decided on the Crappie Hole since it has been producing bigger fish for me. Managed two on a Booyah Blade white/chartreuse spinner bait which had been successful for me there before however I went with an Indiana/Colorado combination instead of the willow leaf/Colorado. Results were similar with two fish today. Smaller than usual from that particular body of water but still bigger than what I had been catching at the Gun Club and the Old Reservoir.

I took my first bass fishing trip of the year on Saturday the 23rd of March. I hit the Columbia river since it was a the perfect alignment of not too much wind, decent clarity and no family obligations. That is a rare trifecta in the spring in Oregon I started fishing a little after daybreak with no idea whether the fish would be in 5 or 50 feet of water. I figured I would fish shallow first and work deeper until I figured something out. I started out throwing one of my favorite springtime lures. A 1/2oz white-ish Jackhammer stealthblade. The smallmouth around here love that thing in the spring! I fished a first small point with nothing to show for it. I moved to a second longer point that is usually good for at least a few bites. I fished shallow with the jackhammer with no bites so I kept changing lures and moving deeper and deeper. I went all the way out to the end without a sniff. I was starting to not feel too good about the day at that point. I was getting ready to leave when I decided to dust off the shallows of the point one last time with the jackhammer. On my 2nd or 3rd cast with it I felt soft hit and struck back. Fish on! I played that little guy with all the care you give a trophy fish. I needed to get that skunk off! Fortunately, he agreed and I landed my first fish of 2024. Just a little guy but I was really pumped. I fished that spot for a while longer but that fish was the only one dumb enough to bite my lure. I figured I would cover some more shallow water (fish was in about 6') and try to figure out if that fish was telling me something useful or was just a liar fish I moved to another spot that seems to hold fish pretty consistently in the early spring. It is not very different from the surrounding water (just a 6-8' deep flat) but the bass seem to like it in the spring. On my second cast I hooked a fish and lost. Next cast I had two hits and missed both. I was both excited to have found them and frustrated to not be hooking up. On my next cast I had another solid thump on the jackhammer and landed fish number two. A decent 2lb 9oz fish. A couple more casts with the jackhammer and picked up another 2+lb fish fish. It was on baby! (Narrator's voice, "it was not on"). Well after a half dozen casts without a hit I switched to a rattletrap and on the first cast I hooked up again and land a nice little guy. A few casts later I picked up number 5 on the rattletrap. Once again the bite died. So after a half dozen casts I went back to the jackhammer and hooked up almost right away but lost it on the way in. That was my last bite from that spot but I was really pumped. I was not expecting much on this first trip and it was already better than I had hoped for. After that flurry I hit a pretty long lull while fishing similar spots to the that flat that was holding them. I could not buy a bite on the next handful of spots I tried so I figured that maybe I just ran into one errant school and that most of the fish were still holding a bit deeper. The day had started calm but now there was a decent amount of wind out of the East. I went to a spot that my one friend loves in the spring. It is a small ridge in 12-15'of water that barely sticks up but the bass seem to like it in the sprint. I tossed the drop shot around and missed a few fish (it is a little difficult to fish a drop shot in the wind and current in the kayak) but I was encouraged by once again knowing that I was around fish. I kept at it and was able to finally get the hook to stick in a nice 2lb 10oz bass (my biggest of the day up to that point). I kept at it with the drop shot, missing some bites, when I finally struck paydirt again. Right away I could tell that this was a better fish. I kept good pressure on the fish and let it pull drag when it wanted to. After not too long of a fight in the the 46F degree water I was able to slide my net under a beautiful 4lb 3oz bass!!! The day was just getting better and better. I was really stoked. I went back to the drop shot but after missing another fish I thought I would try a Ned rig to see if they would eat that better. That turned out to be the right call because on my first cast with the Ned rig I caught a nice 3lb 2oz smallmouth! A short while later I caught another 2+lb bass on the Ned but then the wind shifted directions on me and between having difficulty holding the kayak in place and perhaps the fish changing how they were set up I could not get another bite. I figured I would move to another spot and maybe revisit this spot again later. So I decided at that point that since I had caught fish in ~6' of water and in 12-15' of water the different groups were in different stages of moving up. I went to another spot that has a nice little flat in the 6' range and some nice 10-20' water right next to it. I figured one of the two spots should have some fish. I started out tossing the jackhammer on the flat and picked up two more nice smallmouth in pretty short order. However, I could not coax a 3rd bass of the flat and I could not find any in the deeper adjacent water. By then it was getting late in the day so I figured I would head back to the ramp and only stop at the 6' flat where I had caught 4 bass in the morning. The wind was 180 degrees from where it was in the morning and I was pretty tired and not expecting much as I tossed the jackhamer around when I was surprised by a hard hit and some good weight. I was really stoked when I was able to slip my net under a 3lb 5oz beauty! That was my last fish of the day. I ended up with 13 bass, over half of them were over 2lbs and the best 5 went 15lb 13oz. A respectable bag - especially given that my only goal was to not get skunked Here is some video from what turned out to be a pretty good day!

I'm slowly starting to work my way through this past week. I have so many stories and pictures to share. Everyone here was incredible with the support. I needed 1 big bite and I was walking the Bassmaster Classic stage, that sounds crazy to say but it's 100% true. We went straight to Grand Lake and stayed in a B&B on Monkey Island for the Classic and fished Thursday-Sunday after my tournament. so I fished every day for a week straight last week. There's a lot to get to and unfortunately work is going to get in the way of me doing that too quickly. I'd never fished or even seen Tenkiller before and it fished a lot different than I expected. Water was mid to low 50's the closer to the dam I got, upper 50's to low 60's the further up the lake I got and the water was much dirtier. I struggled a lot down the lake and did decent from midlake on up. One real key thing I noticed, every pocket that I went into had shad in the very back getting blown up on, every one. The further north I went, the more shad and the more fish there were chasing them. I fished around Chicken Creek where we were camping the first day and did pretty well on a shakyhead, tube, and micro football jig. Day 2 I went to Strayhorn by the dam and did terrible for the first half of the day. I think I'd caught maybe 3 or 4 fish and only a couple were the 12" minimum. I drove a complete lap around the lake, checking out ramps and looking at different areas. I wanted to fish the river but it was so windy that it wasn't safe in my mind. Hindsight, I wish I'd gone to the furthest north ramp and tried there, I think it was more protected and the winner was in the river. I ended up in Snake Creek the last few hours of the day. It reminded me a lot of Chicken Creek and I did well again on the shakyhead and micro jig. Day 3 I went to Barnacle Bill's and struggled a lot, but there was shad everywhere and fish chasing them a lot. The water was dirtier and I did catch a couple nice ones towards the end of my day. The rock snot made fishing a crankbait impossible, and I couldn't get bit on a jerkbait or spinnerbait. I really expected all 3 of those baits to be huge players. By the end of practice, I'd caught 2 on a jerkbait and 1 on a spinnerbait. It really felt more like I was fishing a late summer/early fall tournament than a prespawn tournament. I never found any really big ones, and certainly couldn't find the big smallmouth, but I did find lots of quality that I was pretty happy with.

Top lures of the 2024 Classic - Bassmaster Besides swimjigs I have always said you only need 3 colors in general for jigs; black, brown, and green pumkin or a combination. If you scroll through the link above shows the baits the top guys used in the Classic. The 3 colors I mentioned are what 95% of the jigs listed are colored along with the trailers. You can also see that most of the spinnerbaits were white with some accent colors. I bring this up to reenforce the fact that you do not need 15 colors of jigs or spinnerbaits to catch bass. Now I know there is going to be that one odd color or combination that works well in a specific body or water. Generally speaking I would feel confident fishing anywhere in the US with only a few colors. Allen

I was skunked today. There were three limiting factors: I fished from a narrow shore. I only cast about 20 times. I walked through snow to reach the water. I remember biking through snow to fish with my brothers about 60 years ago and catching nothing. Clearly, I've learned nothing in 60 years.

?????? On casting gear maybe. But when done correctly, not on spinning tackle. Don't make me come over there . . . 🤪 A-Jay

As you take the parts off, put them in a line in order of removal. When you're ready to put it back together, the last part off is the first part in. Orient things also in the way you're taking them off (if you have a screw left, top and bottom on a side cover, orient them that way if they're different lengths). I find baitcasters more fun than spinning reels. Keep stacked parts stacked if you can as assemblies. And do it all in one sitting!

I agree with @MN Fisher Having a process is a good thing. And I think @J Francho has mentioned that the Egg carton method (for parts) can be helpful. I use something very similar. Either way, I ALWAYS stay in my lane. Meaning, I'll only break a reel down as far as I "Know" I can reassemble it correctly. No guessing for this hack. Finally @Delaware Valley Tackle has serviced 'several' of my reels every few years for the deep clean. #topnotch Checking and replacing worn parts in advance of failure is an important aspect of that IMO. Between full service visits, I'll Clean and do a 'light' & 'as needed' deal. Oil, grease and a drop or two of fine oil on easily accessed bearings takes care of it. A-Jay

Makes you wonder how much they've been cheating all along.

Got out this morning for the first time since last Tues. Surface temp had dropped 5-6 degrees. I only had about four hours to fish today. I spent the first couple fruitlessly chasing muskie, then picked up the flippin stick for the last couple hours. I figured I'd find some LM in deep treetops, but much to my surprise they were shallow. All were caught from sun baked wood in 2'-5'. No bigs, but I caught four of these, and one about 2.5#. I get to fish a full day tomorrow. I'll split time between muskie and bass again. Well... I'll split time again if the muskie aren't chewing. 😉

I’m not one to discourage DIY if you’re up to it. I take plenty of calls helping folks through their projects. But in the words of “Dirty” Harry Callahan, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.”lol Getting fully or partially disassembled reels isn’t ideal but it’s not a deal breaker for me and you wouldn’t be the first or last. Hit me up for whatever level of help you may require.

Apparently if you pitch T - Rigged TRD in Goby Bryant to a Striper they'll eat it.

Braid to leader merely creates more headaches in my experience

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Does being okey-dokey with spinning gear make us these two? If it does, I'm good with it because, well, they're riding a hawg!

I feel you, I started with spinning tackle and I was proficient with it before I ever touched a baitcaster

As someone who used spinning gear 99% of the time, I just can't relate. I can hit the pockets with my spinning rods. I guess the credit goes to decades of using them.

Is it possible you can make your argument for or against FFS without attacking someone personally. Maybe like saying Hank Parker has been out of the game for awhile, and I feel his opinion may be out dated. This would have made your point without insulting anyone. I am getting older, and don't mind someone telling me they feel my opinion is outdated, but I would take offense to being called a has been. There appears to be a trend in our society for people to personally insult, or give a derogatory nick name to any one they don't agree with. I don't know when this trend started, but I do wish it would stop.

An egg carton would work. I use a muffin pan. If you have to stop mid way, cover it with plastic wrap.

I've been using 3/8" clear heat shrink tubing for years on my wacky rigged senkos. Extremely cost effective, matches any color worm, hugs flush to the bait, and the durability is phenomenal. I paid $15 for 50 feet of it back in 2017 and I'm not even close to the end of the spool. No special pliers needed!

Whenever Alex's girls ^jump,^ he gets a little nervous, but they don't get away.

I don't do a lot of either one, but I happened upon Jimmy Houston's Catch a Better Life channel and I really enjoy it. Some of the tips he gives for fishing are pretty good, and of course, a boost in my spiritual walk is always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2divTSMepiLzm0Hs4L5bhw

Short float with a buddy, got a spot , thinking Ky instead of Alabama

Just posted! https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/square-bill-spring-tips.html

Take a hike you has been wild bush plane pilot, multi species fishing guide, ocean navigator, Sport fishing freak of nature ! A-Jay

It's heat shrink tubing, so just a lighter held near it for a couple of seconds will shrink it. I find the best way to get a tight fit is to stretch the senko a little bit as I'm applying the heat so it shrinks to a smaller diameter. The 3/8" tube diameter is perfectly sized to slide over a senko.

Yup ~ My 'tackle room' has this dark grey carpet that absolutely EATS small parts, springs, even hooks & split rings. Collectively I have spent Literally hours doing the hands & knees with a flash light & a magnet trying to locate anything dropped. It's Never where I think it is. And if I manage to be lucky enough to locate it, it's Always in the last place I would think to be looking. I spread white towels down now. Sometimes it helps. 🤓 A-Jay

It's a methodical process - taking pics or video as you dis-assemble for cleaning is one of the best hints given. I doubt there's vids on every single reel since some people keep and use reels a long time (decades even) and the sheer number of reel models is overwhelming. Even those of us who do our own reels occasionally make an 'oopsie'...like me installing the A/R Ratchet backwards in one reel this past cleaning cycle...easy to fix, but took me a bit to figure it out. Mike at DVT is probably your best bet for helping get them back together properly.

As someone who doesn't fish professionally, I've no opinion on it's use in the big leagues. A few folks have already noted a salient truth: the pros' job is to advertise. The point about accessibility in high school leagues (or, say, opens) resonates with me, though. If FFS is beneficial enough that it stratifies the field between users and non-users, that's an issue that will ultimately dampen interest and participation in the sport. Not great. In lakes around here, I've noticed quite a few more boats spending their time offshore. It takes pressure off the bank where I usually patrol, not only for the fish, but the added experience of seeing more birds, otters, turtles, flowers, trees, etc. More power to the offshore folks if they are catching 'em, but I go fishing to get away from screens. Regardless of what happens with electronics in competitions, I would love to see the conversation shift to conservation. Do we need to revise bag limits in response to more effective harvest by folks with FFS? Are other factors like pollution or invasive species having more of an impact? Protecting the sport means protecting the ecosystems where it's played.

Younger folks can't afford a 21ft glitter boat with a 250hp motor for $80K either. Or a 70k truck to pull it with. I'm middle aged with a good job and I can't afford these things either. Not with a family and all that goes with that. And yet, at the elite levels you need a 21ft boat with a 250hp motor. Garmin Livescope is $1200 or so. Add a 9" SV UHD on sale for $700 and you get FFS for less than 2 grand. I just spent more than that for a Garmin Force. For a 5-year-old Tracker 175 with a 60 HP pulled by a 20-year-old truck. I do not for a moment buy the cost argument. FFS is cheap compared to the trucks and boats. And screens were multiplying with 12" and 16" units before FFS. There are many arguments for/against FFS, but cost is not one of them.

Trey McKinney is at the top of the BassMaster AOY race ahead of all the old long time favorites and he’s only 19 years. He makes use of Livescope and credits it for his victory at Lake Fork. It’s easy to give LiveScope all the credit. Let’s look at the other evidence of McKinney’s success. In 2018 he made history by winning the Junior Bassmaster Championship and the FLW Junior World Championship at age 13. He won his first boat at age 16 and has won 3 in total. This was before LiveScope. Kids are getting heavy exposure to tournament fishing at a young age. They are using FFS to learn how fish actually behave and they do not have to unlearn all the bad information we all learn before FFS. It’s a new world and it belongs to young guns like McKinney. Don’t disrespect them. Many of these guys are proven hammers.

So watching someone who’s dropshoting watching 2d is ok but watching someone who’s scoping isn’t? Mega 360 is ok? Side image is ok but livescope isn’t ? Watching someone fish on tv is boring no matter how they are fishing. If we were still watching a half hour edited bass master tv show showing all the highlights the complaints would be less then watching 4 hours of live coverage. This technology has been out for years but now it’s a issue because most of the older elites didn’t adapt to it. I seen Chris Lanes video yesterday saying he just wants to fish how he likes to fish doesn’t everyone. Maybe some pros aren’t as versatile as everyone thinks and it’s definitely showing as more anglers cry about getting beat by not being able to flip bushes in every tournament. As far as it’s to expensive that’s a bunch of B.S you can get a 7 or 9” screen and a transducer for the same price as one big SI unit you don’t have to have a 22” NBT screen ans 6 transducers. If you can afford a bass boat or any other nice fishing boat you can afford to buy livescope that’s a fact. I’ve been bass fishing for 40 years and this year I will have FFS on my boat it’s just another tool to me.

Sturgeon are fascinating to me. They live 50 to 60 years average and can live 150 years. They don’t spawn until they are 15 to 20 years old. A huge one was caught on Old Hickory a few years ago that was probably older than the lake itself. Thanks for posting the video.

Roadwarrior is going to be so jelly 🤣

Just showing me being victimized by the bait monkey 🙈 🙉 🙊 that and I saw a post with baits so I figured I’d include my latest order. LoL my bad everyone… 🤦🏻‍♂️

There is a very limited season here on the Rainy River (MN-Canada border) in the spring for lake sturgeon. One of these years I am going up there for it. Those fish were decimated to the brink of extinction and they have made an incredible comeback.

Got some of Chris Zaldain swim baits and the beast hooks to try in lieu of a small underspin/swimbait I've been catching pretty well on and stuck this nice one in the pads. Ya think she wanted it!?! Missed 4 bites on the bait before catching this one so it definitely gets bit! I missed my first good frog fish of the year sadly and Jake had a good one come unbuttoned in the pads (he thought he was hung for a solid minute of the fight before realizing he was dragging a good fish and giving her slack with his retrieve). I missed one on a bigger worm and then switched to a smaller speed craw and never got bit on the t rig again. Weird day!

If they are going to ban anything, they should ban live wells. Catch a bass, take a photo and immediately put it back in the lake where it was caught.