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This is going to require some storytelling later

Okay tournament report. I traveled to Yantis, TX to stay at a motel after getting off of work Friday. It was a busy week so I had to do about half of my tackle prep and packing that night. I got to the motel around 11:00 PM and wound up sleeping about 2 hours for various reasons, including spooling fresh line on every rod that I brought. Tournament morning I woke up very early to be at the boat ramp sooner. Rules stated we could be in the water prior to launch time and just hang around the launch, so I was ready in the water 5:30 and stayed right by the ramp waiting for 6:00 while finishing some kayak organization. There were only three kayaks with me ready at that ramp for when 6:00 hit. Several tournament participants were still pulling in right at launch time. At 6:00, none of us early-launchers said anything to each other. We just parted ways to our first spot. Going back to practice, I spent a lot of time graphing structure using side-scan. All practice weekend, most fish were shallow. But, I was already looking at weather a week ahead and saw some of those cold mornings that Koz talked about. So during practice when I was scanning stuff deep, I was looking for places that bigger than average bass were either already there or likely to show up on tournament morning. The stretch I ran to first was the absolute best I found during practice. The way it set up, I was confident this stretch would still be good a week later. 6:30 was lines in, so I bee-lined to this area and made it there - losing only about a minute of fishing time. The first hour of the tournament, I was running around too much. I just wasn't settled. I was throwing shallow and throwing deep with a variety of baits. I never stayed in on place long enough to accomplish anything. After the first hour, I settled myself down and started to graph and make use of my anchor. Around 8:00, I located some more activity and larger fish. I anchored with the wind to my back and started through a rotation of baits. It was windy! I'd been throwing a couple different crankbaits but then I got the crazy idea that maybe my crankbait wasn't big enough. Truth be told, I don't think it was anything special about the DT-20 I settled on. It was just the right time and right place for one large fish. Anyways, I make some long casts with this DT-20 and on about the 5th or 6th, I feel a thump like a spinnerbait bite. That fish inhaled the crankbait instantly after it deflected off a piece of timber. Good hookset. The fish first runs up and jumps, just to scare me I guess. From this point on, I was aware that the fish could be worth $1000. Next it runs and starts surging in deeper water. I loosen the drag. As soon as it gets close, I'm ready with the net and I perform a clean netting job. The experience with this fish is surreal to me because everything happened like it was supposed to. I take several photos to make sure I have a couple good ones but I did not weigh the fish. As soon as I was done with the release, I was right back to casting. I get a text message from the tournament director that my fish was denied due to photo cropping! I look to see if I have a better one, and I do. The next photo is accepted and they count the fish as 22.75". For the next 2.5 hours, I fish this stretch thoroughly. I catch nothing except a sub 14" bass, a catfish, and a crappie. I'm getting ancy. I do have other spots with potential, but I was faced with a pivotal decision of whether to head back the way I came, or head out even farther and head into Little Caney. I chose to head back the way I came, and I believe that was the biggest mistake I made in the tournament. With two hours between lines out and weigh-in, I could have headed out a little farther with plenty of time to make it back. There were some deep water spots out of Caney and headed into Little Caney that might have done me some good if I'd tried them. Headed back into Caney, I stop at two offshore locations with timber close to the channel and a bridge but I have no luck. I'm running out of offshore locations that I am confident in, so I start fishing docks with a jig until lines out. I catch one more sub 14"er doing this and one jumps me off. All told, I ended the tournament weighing in one fish, but that fish won me $1000. It was a tough fishing day. Many people zero'd, but I heard several comment that all they caught all day were sub 14" bass under the minimum length. The winner walked away with it, catching 180" of bass. It was a cool tournament and the directors are nice gentlemen. A good experience!

Store the rods in your house, and move yourself and your family to the out buildings.

DT-20 cranking timber near mouth of Caney Creek. Fish was in about 16ft of water. I’ll put more in the full report but I found this spot when I prefished. It’s really a stretch but there’s a sweet spot on the stretch. All I did was fish for the big bass. I let everybody else go for the no-limits.

What did you say your address was again ? j/k A-Jay

Another tough day yesterday. On the water from 7:30 to 1:30 and boated two bass. The only bites I got all day. I think that Supermoon played a role. Chilly @ 53° degrees when I started out. Needed a jacket. Warmed into the 70s. Cloudy, slight NNW breeze. Only saw a few bass busting baitfish against the bank. The first one was caught on a 2.8” Keitech paddletail swimbait and the last one on a blackberry Mann’s Jelly Worm Texas rig.

I have moved away from techniques that catch bass. This year I didn't waste valuable casting practice time landing and releasing bass. I hope to go back to techniques that catch bass next year, but only time will tell.

Been fishing a lot at the pond outside my apartment recently, here's a couple of bass from this morning! First time using a T rig tube and it produced.

The paddle tail or boot tail swimbait can be a very effective deal for just about any kind of bass and in a super wide variety of applications. Not news. At this point its common knowledge that sliding one on a jig head can and does get bites pretty much anywhere in the country. Whether it be a solid or hollow belly bait, small, medium or even the larger versions, these baits seem to have some serious strike drawing power at times. I’ll start off with ‘The when’; and this may be the easiest aspect of this one. Seasonally, as soon as there is open water here and straight through to hard water, I almost always have a swimbait on a jig head rigged up & ready to throw. This is the deal I’ll be discussing here and I’ll get to the where and how in a bit. But yea, when the local brown bass population is on the feed, they almost always seem fairly eager to choke one of these things. Now let me get into some of my more common ‘where’ scenarios. Right off the bat, the versatility of these things does lend them to be effective in a wide vary of ‘wheres’. So it can literally be one of those 3 feet to 30 feet deals. However for me, up in this clear water, regardless of season, time of day or body of water, a swimbait on a jighead is an effective way to cover water and it’s usually ‘deeper’ stuff. I’ll quantify that by saying I’m throwing them up on to or off of mid lake humps, up & off points, as well as drop-offs and into saddle areas. Usually targeting bass in 10-20 feet. Bottom composition and cover can vary but in super heavy soft cover (weeds) I am not probing them with this bait. I might swim one over and around it, but IME, they don’t fish very effectively through the slop. Great way to cover a big mid-lake flat though. Slow rolling one over the weeds can help find biters (and a bunch of Pike, unfortunately). On a hard bottom, I like the lift & fall technique, on both a tight & slack line, as well as the cranking it along slow and letting it deflect; trigger deal. On a sand bottom I am all about grinding the bait. Reeling it along in such a manner, and at whatever speed I need, to maintain constant contact with the bottom. This is one of my more productive approaches that also gets me a ton of by-catch; walleye mostly. A Football head is a solid choice. Now for the gear, and it’s really nothing special. I use spinning & casting gear, pretty much interchangeably. Almost always using 7 ft Medium action in both blanks. Spinning gear is done with 10-15 lb braid and an 8 – 10 lb FC leader. And the casting gear is straight 10-12 lb FC. I will say that the spinning gear is usually selected when I’m looking to keep the baits deeper, say below 10 – 15 feet and the casting gear often gets the nod in anything shallower. Incidentally, this is the same tackle I fish a tube with. The Jig heads & Baits ~ There is a plethora of good quality swim baits and matching jig heads to choose from now. On line vendors literally list what seems like hundreds. I’ve fished a dozen or so types & brands. To keep it simple, I’ve pretty much settled on two; listed below. I do prefer softer baits in the 3 to 5 inch size range, with something close to 4 inch being a big player. While clearly less durable, I seem to get more bites. Along with that, having the right action, especially on the fall, is a must for me. When it comes to jighead shape, design and the all-important hook, again I like to keep it simple but here I am fairly particular. Brand Name is my desired direction but will go with a Lesser-known deal when there’s merit. I am eternally looking for jigheads with a quality medium and medium light wire hook that is also The Right Length. Too stout here can be tricky to sink on the medium gear I use; especially on a long cast or very deep running bait. Additionally, too long of a hook seems to ‘mute’ and can even over power a bait. I seem to get the best action when the bend is coming out the top of the bait no more than half way back of the baits overall length. More than that is No Bueno. My favorite heads match up to baits when they only go in about a third of the way (if that makes sense). Colors I keep close to the bait color and my default is just a plain lead, black or tungsten. Head shape & design includes where the line tie placement is located on the head itself. The right local will allow the bait to swim nicely, especially along the bottom and on the glide without forcing the bait to pick up unwanted & bite killing debris. A decent keeper helps; a couple of different ones work for me. In a pinch (meaning I ran out of a certain weight size) I’ve even used my tube jigheads with decent success. Jighead weights range from 1/8 oz for the smallest and shallowest presentations up to ½ oz for the other end of the spectrum I’d say I use ¼ oz and 3/8 oz the most though. Before I wrap this one up, I have two final thoughts. First, a bait type that has been deliberately omitted here, are the ‘pre-rigged’ deals. Not because they don’t get bites or that I don’t use them, because they can be killer at times and I do throw them. Storm Wild Eye Shad and the Megabass Dark Sleeper are two of my favorites. The Dark Sleeper sees local action and the Storm bait is an international Rock Star performer for me. While I fish them in much the same way, I didn’t include them here because comparatively, I only recently started using them. For me they seem like a separate deal, one that I may cover in a future Brown Bass Tools installment; especially that Dark Sleeper. And second, and I sort of hate to add this but it is relevant. Virtually every bait I have covered in this thread, has accounted for at least a handful, if not more, 5 lb plus Brown Bass; except this one. There are few things I enjoy more than adding a too close to the lens pic of a brown fatty to the end of one of these write ups. But alas, I cannot do that, because despite my best efforts, it hasn’t happened. Instead, what I will say and where I find myself throwing these swim baits the most, is to cover water & find biters. Done it a ton of times; plenty of 3’s & 4’s. Can be especially helpful on new water. This style of swimbait is as close to a ‘confidence bait’ for me as I have. Pretty sure this approach has indirectly led to a few tanks, by showing me areas that the bass are using. Strike King Rage Swimmer ~ Keitech Swing Impact FAT Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head Fish Hard A-Jay

It's the same as why I still make music despite not recording, touring, teaching, or even playing with a regular band. It's a hobby that I enjoy, and it defines some parts of me. They're both crucial to my mental health.

I've stored mine in an unheated garage for years with zero issues. Temps are not a problem. Gnawing critters could be.

This sums it up for me. 😁

techniques that you have moved away from Glide baits. Large Huddleston type Swimbaits. Super Deep Diving Crankbaits. Finally, I had to stop using TriNitroToluene. Too many legal issues. 😎 A-Jay

My favorite ways to fish paddle tail swimbaits are flashy swimmer style keel weighted hooks with little blades. They make tiny ones and they make the giant ones for the big soft swimbaits and both are excellent options to try in a pond or lake. In a pond that has bigger bass that key in on sunfish or perch or shiners or big gizzard shad, I'd definitely toss around a 7" zaldaingerous swimbait every so often in rotation with the smaller ones. Another way I really like to fish them in on finesse jigs /football jigs/swim jigs etc I find they often get a bigger bite and more bites than a craw or grub trailer. Last way I like to fish them (this is sneaky juice so enjoy!) is on a dropshot. Just do it - nose hook open water and texsposed around cover. Go with the lightest weight necessary to keep it down and work it slow on a semi tight line. I like points or ditches or flats or ledges or really main structure that seems hard to fish or get bit on for this technique. Try a fluke if they don't want the swimbait. So so deadly in lakes or ponds with mucky/muddy bottoms.

I was bass fishing with a rattletrap, and caught this 5.5 pound, 18.5 inch tilapia. First one Ive ever caught on a lure.

Rockstar far from it! Not going anywhere as long as I can type with my index finger. Tom

That’ll cut down on the number on the number of big fish videos we’ll see from you. 😂

Uh that first photo I uploaded cut off basically right at the fish’s mouth. It kinda just barely let you see all the fish but they might not have been comfortable with it. They are quite strict about the photos

Other than my Deps 6" and 7" Sakamata flukes, I don't use any of the above. @AlabamaSpothunter told me about the Sakamatas and I've scored with them. They feel different (softer) and the local bass like their size and feel. I'm kept busy with the lures I already own. I don't know what JDM rods are and I barely know what BFS is. I think they're light line setups, but for decades, I fished for smallies with four and six-pound line, tossing light lures long distances. I own a lot of crankbaits and would like to use them regularly, but the water I fish is just too weedy and shallow for them. I can use them in early spring for a couple weeks before the weeds rise. I use Whopper Ploppers a lot less simply because I can't cast them into weeds and under bushes. Plus, I catch a lot of bass with poppers, which land on the water without the BIG PLOP that can spook bass.

The only rods that require indoor storage are cane, to avoid mildew and dry rot. Stored indoors, they last a long time (the rod below was made in 1914). Plastic rods will weather fine in outdoor storage. The resins begin to break down about 140 degrees, so storage in a car in hot summer can be a problem.

I have been hunting all week so I’m just now catching up on this. These kayak tourney events and stories are highly entertaining.

To feel a nibble on the end of my line🤷🏻‍♂️ I was strictly a walleye guy for many years. Grew up fishing for them. In ND that’s all anyone really fishes for. I found myself getting bored fishing for them at times and would fish for other species. At one time is was a hardcore Muskie angler to the point of obsession, something happened, I then started fishing for bass. It really fits my style. Fast paced, a million ways to catch them unlike any other species. I have grown to love bass fishing. If I ain’t fishing for the biggest bass in the lake, it’s numbers I’m fishing for

Hmmmmmm - I rotate stuff out based on what the bass seems to want or not want and then rotate things back in sometimes many moons later when I feel they may want the thing again. It seems to work pretty well. I may do more stick bait one year and more trick worm another year. I may do more swim jig one year and more flipping jig the next. Might fish more Colorado blades one year and then switch to willows the next. Might throw a smaller popping frog one year and bigger walking frogs the next. Etc etc. I mostly rely on the same basic lure categories that have been around forever though. Not much in the way of special new techniques or baits. I think I just try to keep changing things around a little bit within the categories I am good with so they get a little thrown off and keep biting it each year.

I like the cold.

It it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and swims like a duck...well, you get the picture. Best to just move on from that group. I'm pretty darn competitive, but never fished tournaments. Didn't own a kayak, and my previous boat did not have a live-well...so no tournaments for me. I likely won't start fishing tournaments any time soon. My time on the water is more about disconnecting from work, and people, getting back to nature, and enjoying God's creation.

Asking us again why many folks don't fish for money. A-Jay

I think as bass anglers we are all guilty of going through phases of different styles, lures, techniques, the newest thing out of Japan, old reliable, etc. Is there any technique you have kind of moved away from for one reason or another? I have a couple. 1. Soft stick baits, I know they work great, but just moved on to other lures. (still have a ton of them to come back to someday) 2. Crankbaits and hard Jerkbaits, shallow weedy lakes make treble baits a bit more difficult and I am trying to improve on flukes, topwater, swimbaits, bladed jigs. (still plenty of hard baits to come back to later).

I just might go down to my pond and cast a few times from shore!

That bass is as thick as one of @Bluebasser86's Kansas bass! What's most impressive to me is the muscle of the tail. I look forward to hearing about the fight!

I had it front and back for several years. In the front it wasn’t very useful. When I traded boats I didn’t get a unit with it and don’t miss it.

I store mine in a shed.... there are some rods in the car year round. If temps are the reason for the question, I would not worry

@LrgmouthShad man I thought you would have caught him on a Big Mac! He eatin good!

Depends, is it an enclosed shed, out building, or pieces of wood nailed together built in the 60's? It means alot in terms of what climate the rods will be in, and what kind of creatures might be chewing on the cork or foam....

I'm getting into bass fishing for the fun of being outdoors and the challenge it presents. Didn't really have the patience for it when younger. It will get me outside with a group of friends that have fished a lot to go with my other buddies I golf with. Funny story. My first real job was working as a lather for my father, a plastering contractor. Worked with a guy, Jim, who was in his 60s. One time, when I was about 22, Jim told me that when it came to either fishing or sex he said fishing was more fun and less work. I looked at him like he was crazy. OK, I was in a band and we always were chasing girls. Now I am 64 and enjoy more relaxing things. My son got into fishing with a buddy of his and I do look forward to spending time with him doing that - he doesn't golf. My oldest friend Steve, known him since I was 5, always fished and always had a boat. We play music together and I started talking about getting into fishing. He sold his boat a few years back but it was expensive and he had it moored at Harbor Island. He'd go out 30-40 miles chasing tuna. His kids now are too busy with work and their own kids and he said the gas bill was outrageous. Another mutual friend I've played music with goes for a month to the Sierras to fish, hunt and prospect. When I get back from my golf trip coming next week, we are going out to San Vicente and rent a pontoon boat. Steve seems interested in getting a smaller pontoon boat like a Bass Buggy and we all would partner in it. It just seems like the right time in my life to do something new. I've been reading, watching Youtube videos and even tournament fishing to learn as much as I can which also brought me to this site.

Man that fight was an embarrassment to all of us, such an obvious cashgrab. I was impressed by Tyson keeping pace with someone half his age as well as he did. No other 58 year old I know could take hits like that. In my heart of hearts I wanted to see Jake Paul get humbled but as was said above, just unrealistic. Kudos to Mike. Would love to see Paul box someone under the age of 40.

Congrats @LrgmouthShad!!!!!!!

That is a CHONK!

I agree with what Glenn says. I have a friend that fishes NPFL and he uses rods by Jewel, FX rods before that and they are 100% factory rods. I do remember years ago Gary Klein had flippin sticks I believe made by Rich Forhan that were spiral guided when that was a “thing”. He then had his quantum signature rods with that same wrap. I also remember when you could order a St. Croix avid with SIC guides and a split grip handle before that got popular, but it wasn’t exclusive to pros anyone could do that at the time, at least I knew several guys who did. Rods and reels are so good now, regardless of who makes them.

I own one, and buying it was a big mistake. Now the Bait Monkey wont give me a moments peace. He reminds me how good my Zillion is every time I use one of my other reels. I have never in the past cared about any financial markets, after buying my Zillion from Japan, I find myself looking up the exchange rate every day, sometimes even twice a day. I find myself hoping one of my other reels breaks, so I have an excuse to buy another Zillion. The Bait Monkey even talked me in to using one of my other reels in salt water, with the idea that it could always be replaced by a Zillion. I refuse to be bullied, and for now I only own one.

I have and still do. I’m also not that precious about my stuff, though all my cosmetic issues trace back to my handling of them on the boat and car, not storage, imo. I think you’ll be fine with backed off drags and kept dry. scott

Every light line finesse type bait and presentation on spinning rods Mike

As long as the rod has a one year warranty I’m happy. Any defects from the manufacture will cause a breakage within that time.

^^ Um...ya, NONE of that is happening. The gear the pros use is the same stuff that's available for retail. NFC, Point Blank, and Batson Enterprises (they make Rainshadow) would never agree to that anyway. I've known Bill Batson for 10 years now (Batson is 2 hrs away from me), and he is a straight shooter. He wouldn't do anything that's even remotely ethically questionable. Like I said, I've been on the boats of too many pros to remember, and looked in their rod and storage lockers....even used their gear, and there's no funny business going on. However some DO have the top-of-the-line gear. Shin Fukae, for example, has all of the most expensive Shimano gear has available. I fished a sweet setup of his out of the back of his boat when we were fishing the free rig at LaCrosse. It was probably a $1,300 baitcast combo. He has spinning reels north of $900 each. That said, many pros do indeed work with rod/reel/bait manufacturers to develop signature series built to their specs. The "signature series" gear is more than just slapping a pro's name on them. It can take years of design and testing to get it right. During that time, yes, they have something that isn't in production, but then again, it's not ready for production yet. And when it's ready, it's released to the public. The SPRO Mcstick jerkbait bait series is a good example. Mike McClelland worked tirelessly with SPRO for 2 years to develop the first baits under that name. And it's been that way with subsequent baits. They're coming out with a new one next year that he's been working on for several years. He showed me the prototype last spring. He had the ONE prototype, and said there were still a few tweaks needed before he would approve it. Michael Neal has several jigheads and baits he designed for Big Bite Baits. Same thing with rods. John Crews works with Cashion to create his signature series, for example. There's plenty more examples across the whole gambit of pros and gear. But the "pro-only" stuff you see in golf or elsewhere just doesn't exist in bass fishing. The market - and money - is just way too small for anything like that.

Started out Workout Day 4 with the Cable Sissy Squat. Always gets my attention. Prior to adding this movement to my training, I had been having some minor but nagging Knee pain. At this point, it has completely resolved. I am a Big Fan of that ! #borninfiftynine A-Jay

I started to submit a fish for Trophy catch (an 8 pound 1 oz. Fish). Then I realized my freshwater license was expired! Part of the submission requirements state that you have to have a valid license to submit a fish! So I immediately went and got my license renewed, but didn’t feel right about it, so I never submitted the fish…🙁 I tried to submit the tilapia, but it says they are upgrading the site at the moment…

What a joke 🤣

I would vote for a decade later 85’-95’ casting reels came out with free running spool and instant anti reverse, bass boats eliminated glass over wood transoms and stringers, AGM batteries and digital TM’s, longer Graphite casting rods plus spinning rods for bass fishing and Super braids , FC line. For me it was the height of giant bass fishing and big swimbaits entered bass fishing. Tom PS, facing the reality that 2025 maybe my last bass fishing year due to arthritis in my hands🤬

Anyone else struggling with big bass? My 5 heaviest Smallmouth this year were the best in a few years. 31.23 lbs which included a 7.05, 6.48, 6.26, 5.86, & 5.58 lbs. Personally, I've been fishing for quite a bit longer than 6 years with some success. So after 50 years and then some, I've come to some conclusions regarding success with big fish of any species; including bass. Some of these came pretty early on, a few some time after that and a few have been realized more recently. A good majority of these lessons revolve around me, my expectations, my approach and my over all mind set. So for what it's worth, this is what I got. Depending on what one considers a Big Bass, (a scale or bump board helps keep track) true big bass are hard to find and catch. Which means 'struggle' is an inescapable aspect of the sport. Learning to manage my expectations and results and not to measure them against what other anglers might be doing, (internet anglers, You Tube anglers, Bass Resource Anglers etc.) can be very helpful. Fishing my own way in the conditions I'm faced with. Each season / year is different and one has Nothing to do with the other. So past results are fun to remember and share, they have virtually zero bearing on what happens this or the next season/year. Sometimes I can catch big bass in the same place at the same time of year and even on the same baits. But not always. And this is when I'm likely to start to 'feel' like the fishing's bad, or I'm struggling. When in realty something's changed and now I need to figure out how to over come that. I've done it successfully many times over, and I'll do it again. If and when I don't chose to do that, these are times when my fishing feels like a struggle. Understand there's no time limit on it. My hours, days, weeks, months and even years on the water, mean nothing to the big bass as they are not interested in or even on my schedule. So to me, that's the essence of bass fishing. Going into each year with an open mind and a clean slate, allows a me to be far more willing to change it up. Really helps if I actually expect this to be the norm rather than an unusual occurrence. Where in the past I would beat up the same water for way too long, doing the same thing for way too long resulting in the famous crash & burn scenario. That "Change" can and often does include, a totally different and or new body of water, and or a different and new approach. Again, more time- but it's fishing time. So it's the good stuff. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (for now anyway) Fish Hard A-Jay

I was the queen of four and five-pounders in 2024. I just wasn't catching the six-pounders I caught in 2023, but to be frank, I really can't say for sure that I wasn't catching six-pounders this year because I wasn't weighing fish this year. I did catch some that were long: And I caught some that were thick: But I assumed that they were five-pounders. Maybe one or two reached six. I'll never know. I also caught my first seven or eight-pounder this year. I didn't weigh her, but she was unlike any bass I've ever caught and I have weighed high six-pounders. However, I caught one four-pounder per session many times and even two to three four-pounders per session quite a few times. So, it was a good year. Quantity-wise, it was a great year with a 70-bass session and a 75-bass session and many 40/50/60-bass sessions, comprised of many 2.5 to 3.5-pounders. But, again, I was the queen of four-pounders. Like this:

I think the added fishing pressure since Covid has taken its toll in many places..