Leaderboard

Who cares about fishing, I just want to be back in 1991..

Went bank fishing for a couple hours after work. Had to. The weather was so nice! I actually got a bit chilly in the shade lol. Not much action. Caught one about a 1 lb. followed by this one, about 2.5 lbs. Both on a weightless TR with a black Senko. Didn’t get a bite on anything else.

I've got both JDM models, the TW HD is like an Abrams tank. The SV TW is like a Porche 911. The HD TW feels SIGNIFICANTLY more robust than the SV TW and just about any other reel I've used besides the Shimano Calais/Antares lineup. If you're casting it, and it's under 1oz, I'd just stick with the SV TWs. If you're casting it and it's over 1oz like big deep cranks, A-Rigs, smaller swimbaits, or if you're flipping or punching and it's over 1oz the TW HD is likely the more appropriate reel.

Oct 16, 2024 5:00pm-6:30 super windy 30• cloud cover neighborhood lake We have our first cold front coming tonight, so the wind is crazy. Went to the neighborhood lake which I often fish. Since the waters are so hot all I have been catching were smaller black bass and some peacock bass. The big old girls have been avoiding all contact. With the wind at my back, I was making extremely long casts and covering as much water as possible. After catching 8 fourteen inch bass, I felt a very subtle tick for a bite, and then very little movement. Upon setting the hook I knew it was something big. It has been months since I caught a big girl in these waters and the wife was joking that I lost my Zen! Well it just goes to show even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!

I have been fishing south florida for 50 years now. I have had days when 200 fish were a real possibility in 6 hours and now we have the possibility of catching Peacock on every trip. I would have loved to fish with Tom and observe his techniques and pick his brain for a while. Catching a huge double digit in one of his waters would have been icing on the cake. A wealth of information, experience and knowledge is the real greatness of this sport. We are just lucky to have Tom with us on this great site. God bless you my friend, and hope many more years sharing with us!

Not me....but I shop at Kohls, too

I believe a Dottie size bass was in Casitas during mid 80’s and we missed the opportunity to catch her. We forget the mid 80’s was 40 years ago before swimbaits were created. A few early swimbaits were around and kept secrets. The trophy angers back then used live crawdads anchoring on spots known to hold big bass. If the WR bass was hooked using a crawdads it more then broke the line. Casitas had areas closed off to fishing and a WR bass would have lived in a sanctuary area. Lake Castiac had a WR bass a few anglers had a shot at catching including yours truly. Can’t make a mistake with giant bass they will break your line and heart. To those anglers who wouldn’t want a shot at a WR during the zoo period I understand. Tom

Got on some rainbows, could have limited out, but I guess I made the mistake of leaving fish to find maybe bigger fish. So made off with two, couldn't get a third.

It was my best bud’s 40th birthday today so we fished the same ole spot I’ve been going that’s not flooded to chocolate milk. The fish keep dissipating but we didn’t get skunked, even got a catfish double

For whatever reason a spot is good, it will “reload”. I don’t believe in educating fish when I have broken off a bait, come back in a short amount of time and caught the fish with my bait hanging out of its mouth. When I was guiding I had a “milk run” that was productive for most clients. I fished it over and over (multiple spots) and it most always produced. If I were you, other than trying not to be obvious on the spot, I would fish it until the bite died. Give it some time and come right back.

Lots of finger pointing going on during late 80’s to early 90’s at both lakes Casitas and Castiac regarding using illegal live bait. The handful regulars at Castiac were Bob Crupi, Danny Kadota, Gary Harrison ( guide), Dan Sampson were on the lake everyday during March. Each angler had their well known areas and camped out on them using live crawdads. Never witnessed the regulars using live trout but watched it happen by other anglers. March is a rainy month in SoCal with fronts coming and going creating unstable weather but it was also the height of pre spawn at Castiac. Casitas was a month earlier in February and most of the same group of anglers except Crupi* were there plus local guides. You get to know these guys and leave them alone ( lower profile the better). Since I was fishing jigs was mobil moving around avoided the anchored bait anglers as much as possible unless I was there 1st. Tom *the late Bob Crupi was a cop who took the month off to fish. Kadota and Sampson were San Diego skippers and Fed/March was their off season.

No, come on.. there’s only 1 Tom (WRB) he’s experienced California and its heyday of trophy largemouth bass fishing. Albeit w the help of the Florida strain Lmb. And a state stocking continual feedings of Rainbow trout. No disrespect, but I’m content with my own wild adventures not only in central Florida but In Puerto Rico too.. We all have shared some incredible stories on here and for that I’m grateful to hear everyone’s experiences. 😉 much respect to the Man..

Castiac is a small 2 + mile 2,235 acre 2 arm V shape lake and very deep with steep rocky banks and a few humps. Being deep with cool water the lake supported biweekly stocking of hatchery Rainbow trout. The lake to fishing in 1973 and was stocked with adult size Northern LMB from Van Norman water supply reservoir and Florida strain LMB from San Diego lakes. Lots of high protein prey and excellent fresh genetics created good population of big bass grew to be some giants. The perfect storm. 1993 MWD decided a 20 year inspection and gate repair was needed to the Fore bay dam located at the end of the Ski Arm. The lake behind the fore bay dam (Elderberry) was used to pump water between Pyramid lake and Elderberry to manage water supply. The Elderberry dam repair occurred when Castiac was at 1/2 full pool. Releasing water from Elderberry into Castiac resulted a too much pressure on the fore bay dam the engineers decided to open the gate releasing all the Elderberry water into Castiac. The result was thousand of big Stripe bass were dumped into Castiac changing the predator pry ratio in favor of Stripers, the LMB suffered and never recovered. Casitas is older opened in 1958 and 2,730 acre deep rocky lake similar to Castiac with 1 big island. FLMB were introduced in 1970 and like Castiac Rainbow trout were stocked biweekly. The FLMB grew fast and 21 lb 3 oz was caught in 1982. Fishing pressure was intense at this time. 2008 Quagga mussels were discovered in nearby lake Piru and Casitas shut down stocking trout and crawdads. The state would close fish hatcheries about this time do to a law suit that only indigenous fish could be stocked. The result without the Rainbow trout stocking the big bass didn’t survive and the population crashed. Casitas also went into a drought and mismanaged when it did rain no water was reverted from the Ventura River into the lake. 2 years ago Casitas was 30% pool. The lake was allowed to devert water and today it’s 100% pool and the LMB are recovering slowly and could be good the next few years. Tom

I’d like to reel in a few 18 lb bass but I can’t afford lunch in so cal

Fish were fairly active today. Caught everything on spinnerbaits and flat side crank baits, sexy shad. Overcast, water temp 63*

Went with a buddy on Sunday to a lake I use to fish all the time but haven't much the last several years since it took a huge downturn due to fishing pressure. Use to have a lot of big fish and October was the best month to catch them, wanted to see if we could find any of them that were left in there. The lake doesn't have a huge population, but it has a ton of big shad and the bass in the lake utilize them to the fullest and grow to some pretty crazy proportions because of it. The lake was way down because of our lack of rain, but I still found a few future giants. The catfish were very bitey too, 5 on bladed jigs and 2 on a spinnerbait. My buddy Deric took big bass honors for the day with just a football of a bass that weighed a hair over 6 pounds but was only 19.5" long. She fell for a super, secret big bass bait (Ned rig 🤣)

These were the biggest catches (apx 4lbs). First two photos are the same bass. these were my smaller bass catches. They fought HARD though! Gotta love em

Start of the cold front hit us today. Pretty tough conditions, then didn’t realize I was about out of gas until I launched, so stayed close and just burned up the trolling motor. Tomorrow is the only cloudy day all week, so hoping to be able to get back out. Surface temps falling fast now, down to 70-71 deg. today. Did score a couple bass along with a handful of crappie.

I fished for an hour this evening at my pond. The north wind has been blowing pretty steady for three days and will blow for another three days, but it abated just long enough today for me to cast for an hour. I used three baits: popper, walking bait, and spinnerbait. I caught four bass total, but had four hits on the walking bait that didn't stick. Two looked big as they came completely out of the water. I did drop my spinnerbait on the head of one hit and miss and I had her hooked for a few seconds, but she charged my canoe and I never got a good hookset. It didn't help that my hands were cold as it was raining. A cold rain. And it's going to reach 34 degrees this week. Here's one of the bass. I like how plump fall bass are: Congrats to @gimruis, @The Baron, and @Fishlegs and all hail @TnRiver46 for showing us, again and again, how to really live.

Got to fish the other day for the first time in a while. We caught 12. All dinks except for this chunky 4 lb 6 oz smallie.

Fish are still biting up north. 19 largemouth and 10 pike in about 5 hours with a friend and the dog made for a productive day. One of these days my season is going to be over but for now there is still a good bite going.

Well, my fall fishing bonanza has taken a sudden downturn. I fished a week ago and water temp was in the low 67’s… this afternoon it was in the low 58’s. I was really looking forward to the great fishing I had last year as water temps fell through the 60’s, but I seem to have pretty much missed it this year. 😞 Only one 4# fatty on a plopper today, and a couple smaller ones. Had another good fish on a deep crankbait but it got off before I had a chance to see it. Might be time to winterize the boat and start hunting. 😕

I have found a good area on my home lake that has produced some really good bass over the past month. Four over 4 lbs, one over 5 lbs. Water is 3-4' deep with lay-downs and trees, adjacent to a creek channel that is 12-16' deep. I've had good luck by first tossing a spinnerbait or square-bill. If that doesn't yield any bites, I move to t-rigged plastics or a Senko. I generally make one slow pass of this area, spot-locking a few times to make just a few extra casts. And then I move on to other parts of the lake. I do not want to over-fish the area, run bass off, or educate fish. And I don't fish this area when others are around, or within eye-shot (made that mistake on another area of this lake earlier this summer....I see boats fishing that spot hard....and I have not landed a fish on that spot since). When you find a good spot, do you pick it apart? Or get in and get out, saving it for another day?

I was out fishing off my dock early this evening and two chuckleheads in a crappy jon boat pulled right up and fished right where I was fishing and casting. It’s too bad I had only one rod with a weightless Freeloader on it. If I was throwing a Carolina rig I would have been tempted to do some target casting 🤣 I told them it was a #%$& move to fish a man’s back yard while he’s out there fishing that exact spot. Who the rolls up on someone like that when there’s 26 miles of lake to fish? I steer clear of everyone including people fishing from the bank. Sometimes I’ll ask the bank angler if they want me to livescope the area for them and call out what I see. But otherwise I never even come close to their casting distance.

Note: I took most of the stream and river pics on the way back, not when it was low light. Well, this morning's trip wasn't for sissies. You see, the dang dam broke and one of my beloved swamps is now just a clear, shallow river. I reached it dragging my canoe down a trickle. I had to exit the canoe and drag about a dozen times, going and returning. I felt like I was back in northwestern Ontario, struggling through the bush. Being wet and cold was the hardest part. The air was 48 degrees and the water was 54 degrees, so I had wet feet and pants legs all morning. The river slowly grew in size. And grew. Unfortunately, my beloved swamp was now just a mud field. Going down the little river, I could see the former banks. Even though I was fishing in a very unlargemouthy place, I still caught bass. 52 in all. They were chasing shad, so I used my Yo-Zuri popper to imitate a wounded shad. They were well fed. I caught some bigger ones too. Here are some lipped and gripped. And I put some on the bump board. Once again, my bag was over 16.5 pounds. I am proud of my consistency in very different environments. I was fishing shallow current today, but I do well in swamps and on ponds too. One more to say, "Thanks for paddling down the stream with me! Sorry your feet and rest of you got so cold on the way."

personally in that specific situation I would quickly hit the area if possible (others around or not) and confirm thats where the fish are and at what elevation they are hitting. If I'm trying to not overfish it Id then pick up and hit other areas that match the same conditions (depth, drop off, cover, etc.) and see if I can replicate it with what I know they are keyed in on. Should make exploring those new areas quicker and give me more confidence in what I was throwing. Just one mans approach.

I prefer to get in quietly and fish slowly, then get out. I will come back later if it is a really good spot and I want to test the timing. A much better fisherman than me would already know the proper timing and he would be set up prior. I will only anchor down and camp if I catch two quality (5+) bass in a short period. Then I’m locking down and throwing everything in the tackle box at them. Once I’m done, I probably won’t move far. Just check out another angle or another small spot nearby. The game of do I stay or do I go is entirely results driven. If I see and catch the quality of fish I am looking for, I am going to stay until that stops happening for a while and I just might be back later, too.

Keeps going like this and I might still be shore fishing on my B-Day - 35 days and counting.

I'm going fishing four times in the next six days because we've got Indian Summer coming, so I'll be posting a few bass pics. Starting tomorrow afternoon at my pond. Then the river that was a pond and bog on Saturday morning. Then my pal's pond Sunday and Tuesday mornings. Fun comin'!

Here's a few jerkbait eating specimens ~ A-Jay

Absolutely not! Just about all of my fishing tackle came with a warning that says it causes cancer in California. I’ll never fish there. 😆

Yall are crazy. Just come to TX. Just remember TX is not responsible for any feelings of overheating or constant need for a cold beverage

Had a buddy in town from AZ for the football game this weekend. We got in some fishing on Sunday. All the jumping white bass had vanished but we found plenty of shad for bait and caught LM to keep us busy

My favorite pond a few weeks ago My favorite pond today.. they’ve dropped the water so much you can see the pollution.. people are the worst species. Yes, I removed the battery.

We're alike in many ways. I targeted big bass in 2023 and caught half a dozen 6.5+-pounders, which are equivalent to southern DDs on the In-Fisherman Master Angler chart, but I've been more relaxed this year, happy to catch scores of four and five-pounders along with hundreds of three-plus-pounders. I think what switched me to happy fishing as opposed to focused fishing was landing my PB in April, a bass that I don't expect to ever surpass. She was a freak, with Hulk's shoulders and a softball for a belly. Also, since buying waterfront acreage, I've focused on learning my pond and managed to catch dozens of bass that were nearly four pounds. I think the coming years will only improve my catches. However, there are times, like this coming Saturday morning, when I still target big bass. Of course, targeting them doesn't mean I'll catch one.

I have one of those 6' M Fenwick Venture rods! I have a Shimano SLX on it. It's my main Spook rod. The shorter length and nice short handle make it a breeze for walking the dog!!

I’ve mentioned before here that a ton of baits work really well as a neko bait. Spunk shads, flukes, craws, and the list goes on. The new neko hack tools also make rigging things like reaction innovation beavers super simple. I’ve moved almost completely away from just using a worm because I can change the presentation so easily to find out what the fish want.

That could be it. A little moisture can introduce rust, and even a miniscule amount can hamper rotation. Bearing manufacturers store their bearings away lubricated to mitigate this, especially large manufacturers that keep a healthy back stock. For long term storage, I would use oil for storage since it's easier to remove and refresh with your oil of choice. FWIW, I did try a set of these bearings in one of my Millionaires right out of the package and while they didn't rotate the greatest, the reel did cast good enough. I've read of many instances where people will pre-service a new reel and find the bearings greased from the factory. What I believe is happening is the manufacturers are putting the bearings straight into the reels without cleaning and lubricating as they get them from the bearing suppliers. I've seen this happen on some of my own Daiwas.

Randy, you can find the 2024 Tatula 100 for $120.01 on Amazon right now. I will take the Tat over the SLX A every time and I own both.

@spartyon8 https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started is like bass resource but for this question. Please go there before you hire anyone on a long term agreement or make any big changes. Bogle is the guy that started Vanguard. What people seem to like about it is that it's dead simple to implement, and has a big community for help. Bogleheads investment philosophy We suggest you start your journey by reading the Bogleheads investment philosophy first. In short, this is: Prepare to invest Create a portfolio Maintain discipline Live below your means Develop a workable plan Never bear too much or too little risk Invest early and often Diversify Invest with simplicity Use index funds where possible Minimize costs Minimize taxes Never try to time the market Stay the course[note 1] There are some short video segments that introduce these principles. See: Video:Bogleheads® investment philosophy.

I would say Jordan or Badin, both are fantastic.

Same here. 6 or 7 days here near or at 70 degrees. Think I’ll give it another try too. Fishing has been ridiculously good lately.

https://www.suzukimarine.com/promotions/

Nope I’d rather be right where I’m at fishing the south Florida everglades!

Absolutely! As a bit of an angling historian, there’s so many old “hotbeds” of fishing history, conditions and fish we’ll never see again, only read about them in newspapers, magazine stories and forums. If I had a time machine, I’d probably spend the rest of my life revisiting these angling pioneers and places, and die happy

Lots of big trout are caught on jerk baits.

Pretty sure @WRB would agree, only if I could bring today's tackle.

I grew up in south Florida in the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s. While we didn’t have the size of Tom’s fish, we had quantities. I fished the glades canals and Alligator Alley when it first opened. Most of the times we were the only people out there. And in saltwater I got to fish the Keys, Flamingo and Biscayne bay when they were still great. I’m good…

I'm not knocking Kistler specifically because this is a strategy other manufacturers and retailers regardless of industry employ, but with the rods always "on sale"... are they really on sale? It feels deceptive to me if the item is never available at the "regular" price.

The only crankbaits I "burn" is a Rat-L-Trap & yes they are extremely deadly in cold water.