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I am subscribed to Ken Smith fishing so this popped up in my YouTube feed... Ken Smith fished this tournament!! It was his first time fishing in a kayak tournament, as well. What a great video. Love Ken Smith and love his content. This is a good video. It's funny... I saw his name listed before I fished the tournament and I thought... nah surely it ain't him. Sure was! I did not see him at the weigh-in but may have missed him. They posted some photos for the tourney. Here I am on two hours of sleep.

I posted a 2024 recap about a month ago of my season. No reason to burn it down twice. These two were my best largemouth. First one in May, at the time was a second best PB. By golly, in early October, I bested it, with a new second best PB.

DIY Microcast SV spool for my Alphas 800.

Well, it's been a fishing season for the ages for me. In many different ways. Definitely did not get out on the water as much as in previous years and tried to make the best of the opportunities I was given. There were a few fish caught, some pretty decent one's too. While still hunting big smallies, highlights included: Several 5 lb class fish, two that went over 6 lbs, and my 2nd ever 7 lb mutant smallmouth bass. I was lucky to see many beautiful sunsets and sunrises, throw in some plus size pike, one freak of a musky, and that pretty much took care of it. As for productive presentations, it was another year dominated by Jerkbaits & Jackhammers. First season throwing the Megabass 110 in Shrimp and I can say quite confidently, that it will not be my last ! On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most out on the Jackhammer Mini Max - This what some of my 2024 fishing season looked like . . . . . https://youtu.be/V3OYj82bUXQ?feature=shared Fish Hard Stay Safe & warm my friends. A-Jay

Bass bite was off today, but the crappie bite picked up at dark, and the sunset made for a great ending to the day.

You can tell by the sky in the background that I was out today as a decent front was working its way into the area. It completely moved out the shad from the areas I was fishing a couple days back, and subsequently, many of the bass. I did find a couple in some shallower areas upriver, so it wasn’t a complete shutout…and the high hit 70, which is nearly 20 degrees warmer than the next couple days are supposed to be. Maybe we'll finally drop water temps into the 50s which I think would help the bite.

Coming from decades of fishing rocky lakes for smallmouth, 2024 was the year I fully flipped to fishing weeds for largemouth. Like this: And this: I'm so conditioned to hauling bass out of weeds that nowadays, if I'm in the veggie section of the supermarket, I want to run to my car and fetch a rod. For the first half of 2024, I fished an underspin with a Crush City Mayor, a great lure for throwing into weeds and wood. And I became much better at keeping them off-balance, I.e. applying so much pressure that they can't dig deep into the weeds and shuck my lure. I understand that this is Bassing 101 Weeds and Wood, a class all of you took decades ago, but you gotta start somewhere. I'm still waiting for my grade. I hope it's an A! Here's what I caught on the final exam: I did catch my PB early in the year and also likely caught the Maine state record chain pickerel.

It was an 8.5 hour grind today without much action, but I managed to add two more to the count. A 42" on a crappie, and a 37" on the rig. I only had a few other lazy follows the rest of the day.

I can't say I'm done yet, but it's almost Thanksgiving, so I'm starting this thread to see how the membership's done this year. What technique worked best for you? What technique didn't work? Any big news, PB, new species, great trip? Let's hear it!

8 bags of 3" Zakos showed up to my door today. Picked some up in green pumpkin, green pumpkin/white, white, and electric shad. I did not expect them to be positively adorable on the back of a MiniMax. Tossed it in the canal out back to see how it looks, action is as promising as its big brother. I have some 3.5" Spunk Shads coming in a separate TW order that should be here tomorrow, as well.

I had a good year, didn’t fish as much as last year, but many good trips. I do have a boat and fish from that, but I also really enjoy taking shore fishing trips at my local park, has some great channels off lake Winnebago, WI. I do a lot of short 1-2 hour days. I believe 30 was my best day from shore. Overall, no complaints. Very good crank bait bite this fall. Today it snowed. Season is pretty much over.Also did very well on a Tokyo rig in the spring, and forced myself to do more jig fishing, which I did great on! New convert to that! Bought like 50🤣

@Team9nine, that looks like a tasty sandwich !!!

😂 yeah I went up there and they hand me a big piece of cardboard and I think, well I guess I just stand and look pretty with this

Most of my biggest bass have been caught on a Lipless crank. All on a steady retrieve.

Weak year. lower sizes and numbers than usual; no PBs. 30 trips, 105 hours, 190 bass; Largest was 4.18lb, 19.75" Visited 16 natural lakes, 3 river bayous, and 4 sections of three rivers. Top Techniques: 1 (Tie) Spinnerbait 1 (Tie) Stick worm 3. Buzzbait 4. jighead + swimbait 5. Fluke 6. Finesse worm 7. Popper Other techniques I used to catch bass this year: T-rig Creature, T-rig worm, underspin swimbait, vibrating jig, jig & craw, frog, in-line spinner, ned rig, slider

Well my year was slow, I wanted to fish mostly crank baits this year. That didn’t work to good so as far as catching fish, one arm is bigger than the other from cranking so much, also I took a treble in my finger and lost some brand new lures. The plus side I did get some cool new tackle, square bills, med to deep drivers, some flat sided cranks, and an array of jerk baits. I even picked up a Krej….. I haven’t caught anything thing on about 80% of them, but they sure do look good when I open that Plano 3700 and ta-daaah!! ( and the crowd goes wild) I’m going back to my old way of fishing first of the year, I said I’d give it a year. Not giving up on cranks just not going fish them exclusively.

Since everyone is posting mostly their shimano/loomis, here's the two i have Scorpion mg 1000/chronarch 50 mg hybrid and Metanium mg7 sitting on original wiebe seat glx 783 and 844

I didn’t spend as much time bass fishing, but had a successful year otherwise. New species caught in 2024 are as follows: shoal bass, bowfin, longear sunfish, warrior bass, shorthead redhorse, white catfish, channel catfish, Atlantic croaker, and southern kingfish. That brings me up to a total of 47 species on my lifelist. I also caught a new PB smallmouth. I didn’t get a measurement, but I think it was between 3 and 4 pounds. Not huge, but a step in the right direction going from numbers to size. It was a fun year

I think the absolute biggest mistake folks make fishing in the winter is slowing down. I actually generally speed up when it gets cold and fish things like lipless crankbaits and Jerkbaits and heavier jigs and things like that. In the winter I'm trying to make a fish react and bite and I'm looking for large concentrations of baitfish near main lake structure. In winter I prefer a warm low pressure rainy front or a calm bluebird sky day with very little wind. Things that get bait fish up in the water column a bit and feeding tend to also get the bass active and feeding. If you're going to be throwing your bait up to the bank and feeling for bites, I like very tight contour lines and I like to fish rock and wood on tight contour lines, usually just outside of the creek or on the point or just inside of the creek. Depending on what kind of mood the bait fish is in and sometimes right in the center of the ditch can be the deal.

For rods. Anything ultra light, and light will work great for trout and panfish. Medium light can be used for panfish, trout, and bass. But should really be only used with ned rigs, and very light baits for bass. Medium rods are great for bigger trout lures, but will be mainly for bass fishing. Medium rods excel at smaller and lighter bass baits, like weightless soft plastics, jerkbaits, and crankbaits, Ned rigs, tube jigs, paddle tail swimbaits on a jig. Medium heavy rods are more for things like Texas rigs, jigs (football, flipping, pitching, skipping, swimming), buzzbaits/spinnerbaits, bigger jerkbaits and deeper diving crankbaits, among others. And when buying a rod for catfishing dont go by its power, but its ratings. For example i have a medium heavy rod thats ratings go to 1oz at the highest, but i have a swimbait/catfish rod thats only a medium, well its ratings for lures go up to 6oz. For reels. 500-1000 sized are for trout and panfish. But some guys have used 1000 for very light finesse fishing for bass. 2000-2500 (even a 3000) are the best. Holds the most line, while still not being very heavy. 4000-4500 these are really only for musky, catfish, salmon and steelhead. Thats up to you. New rods and reels wont do a single thing to catch more bass, they will just make the experience on the water nicer. Its a tradeoff half the people want, and the other half not. @Glenn makes a ton of helpful posts on here that would be beneficial. Then theres youtube. Learn as much as possible before hitting the water.

Uh oh. @Team9nine crappies might be making a return here. Only a matter of time until he starts posting bigger crappies than most bass here.

And a canoe too. As I have shared many times, my canoe is Kevlar, 32 pounds, and 15' 6". The only way you can make a canoe that long that light is to make it skinny and being skinny, it's very tippy. So, there's no standing and there's no moving forward or aft, for the canoe tapers, making it even tippier away from center. I tried to cross their eyes and failed. You might remember me reporting my pathetic landing percentage in early 2024. Other BR anglers reported landing 90% of their bass* and I had a couple mornings where I landed 50% of mine.** Over the course of 2024, I developed a way to land 80% to 90% of the fish, which wasn't crossing their eyes, as I tried that and just didn't have the footing under me to do it well. A canoe is the opposite of a bass boat weighing thousands of pounds, where you're standing on a casting deck. A long, 32-pound canoe is slippery. It slides over the water. Newton's physics are at play. For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Crossing their eyes means my canoe is yanked toward the bass, substantially negating my hook set. So, I de-emphasized hook-setting and focused on playing the bass well, which meant not giving them a milli-second of slack and keeping them underwater and off-balance as much as possible. Keeping my line taut sets the hook in the course of the fight, I'm guessing, for by the time they reach my canoe, it's solidly in them. Maine bass pull hard. One of my favorite YouTubers, Old Lady Angler, fishes both Florida and Maine and all the states in-between and she noted in an early 2024 Maine video how hard Maine bass pull. They'll set the hook if you can stay connected to them. I am not suggesting this for everyone. If you're standing on casting deck or on shore, whale away, but if you're on the aquatic equivalent of a skateboard, a canoe, focus on your mechanics. *One or two even reported landing 100% of their bass. **To cut myself a little slack, I was fishing reeds, which are as fibrous as an oak tree and as dense as a jungle. When I hooked them, they were surrounded by dozens of reeds and each one could free them. P. S. - I started watching the Ken Smith video embedded above. At one point, he's struggling to land a 14" bass in weeds. And when he does land it, he says, "Well, that was a fiasco for a 14" fish." He also mentioned missing some bigger fish due to "funky" hook setting angles. I've been there, Ken. Even when it's utterly calm and you've coasted to a complete stop, just retrieving my lure will rotate my canoe, producing funky hook setting angles. P. P. S. - At the end, Ken says, "If you can catch them in a kayak, you can catch them in a bass boat. If you can catch them in a bass boat, maybe you can catch them in a kayak."

@Fishlegs Thanks friend! Katie, not much of a story but she sure was a blast to catch on the pixie wand. Some fish are just destined to be caught no matter how much the angler screws up, and the opposite seems true as well. She ran under the boat and then jumped on the other side of the boat before I knew it, couldn't believe she stayed hooked up. I feel like big LMB are akin to bucking broncs or bulls. Every Bass seems to buck differently, they truly do have their own personalities. That might be my favorite quality about LMB. They really do seem like individualistic critters.

This guy has been wondering around my yard at night.

Whoa, that's slooooooowwwwwww fishing. Next time, if you can finagle some summer vacation time, come to Maine, where you'll have a shot at two bass on one cast:

I didn't do much bass fishing, but I did pretty well when I did. I only got one over 5#, but was on solid numbers of 2's and 3's in the limited time I spent chasing bass. As usual, it was the flippin rig and my homemade chatterbait doing most of the work. On the other hand, I've had an epic year of muskie fishing. I've put 86 over 30" in the net so far, with a few weeks left to fish. Sitting at the top of the heap are a matching pair of thick 46.5" beasts.

Don’t give up on the cranks, GRiver, that being said, I definitely have certain times of the year they work great, and times of the year, not so much. Nothing wrong with sticking to what works for you! During most the summer here, I rarely use them . I will add , as I mentioned, previous to this year, I had zero confidence in jigs, but stuck to it and now love them . Good luck to you

I personally don’t fish much after a cold front . I’ve never done well fishing then, ‘specially with blue bird skies and wind.

Edited for @T-Billy, #punctuation matters

Ask again in mid January for my 1,000 word answer. 🤣🤣🤣

Whoa!!! I can't agree with ya on that one. The crappie looks tasty though. 😂

For years I used Traps in blue back bleeding Shad it’s all I needed. A few years back started using Yo-Zuri 3D Prism Gold back black and prism Tennesse Shad Followed by One Knock Rattling Vibe Metallic bleeding shad. The Yo-Zuri 3D is 1/2 oz and has a good triggering strike on the fall unlike any other lipless. The Vibe is 5/8 oz and cast like a bullet in the wind and stays the depth you count it down works with a slow steady retrieve with a few rod pumps. Tom

I would have to agree with a steady retrieve, I also try all other stuff, but for me a steady retrieve with maybe just a little bit of slow pumping of the rod works best. I know ripping out of grass works, but I don’t fish a lot that way.

You do realize that equation results in a negative answer. To be a little more specific, a whole lot less.

I get on "kicks". I'll have good luck using a certain type of lure and it'll inevitably be the first lure I tie on until I have good results using something else. However, I have those lures that will always be my faves...spinnerbaits, suspending jerkbaits, shallow water crankbaits. Fly fishing...hair's ear or pheasant tail nymph.

@LrgmouthShad= big carboard checks

Thanks, Dwight. It's been an awesome year already, and the grand finale is about to start. There are balls of shad scattered all over the main lake basins, and the muskie are scattered with 'em. Hopefully this big cold front that's blowing in tonight will be enough to get them concentrated into those giant schools. The A-rig bite will be in full swing at that point. I've learned so much this year, I'm already looking forward to putting the lessons learned from this years failures to work next year. As incredible as this year's been, I'm expecting next year to be even better.

Multiple retrieves are explained and demonstrated in this video:

Cypress was sprayed & the hydrilla is no longer a problem. Toho on the other hand is almost unfishable & navigation is a problem from outboards overheating. I was on Cypress yesterday & it fishes fine.

This was my final morning in the deer stand last week. Absurdly thick fog when legal shooting time was approaching. It took until almost 10am for it to completely burn off.

Nope Thats why my head is only flat on one side Mike

Yes, it is literally Amazon Japan

Setting Sun a few nights ago.

BOOYAH Single Colorado Spinnerbait - 3/8 oz. - White/Chartreuse Bandit 100 Series Crankbait - Baby Bass Bass Pro Shops XPS Mean Eye Swimmer - 1/4 oz. - Dark Goby Rapala Original Floating Minnow - 4-3/8'' - 3/16 oz. - Live Pike Bass Pro Shops Lazer Eye Pro Series Spinnerbaits Single Colorado - 1/4 oz - Firetiger STORM Suspendots Weights - 80 Pack

Tough conditions today with light winds and bluebird skies. Rode the skunk for almost 6hrs, then had this purty 40" follow my rig in. It made one lazy turn through the 8, then turned off and SMOKED my crappie rig. That's the first fish to eat a crappie since last Friday. I was starting to wonder if they'd turned off of them in favor of shad. I had lots of lookers but no takers on crappie over the weekend, but went 2 for 4 on the A-rig. Today's fish is #84. Chipping away at 'em. Big cold front coming through in a couple days. Hopefully the rig bite will be on in earnest by next week.

I have moved away from: 1). Drop shot I know it effective, but I find equal success without the the line twist frustrations from other techniques like a Ned rig or swimming a grub. 2). c-rig Sort of like the drop shot it’s a pain for me to rig and awkward to throw. I’ve had moments in time where I’ve done well on one but it’s not a go to for me. I would rather fish a heavy jig in the same places. 3). a-rig Again, awkward and frustrating at times. I remember catching a good smallie on one about my 5th cast ever, that sent me down a rabbit hole. I’d Rather throw spinnerbaits. 4). swimbaits I don’t throw any of the big swim baits. I will always have a small simple ball head jig and grub in my arsenal for smallies though. 5). chatterbaits Ive had some good days on one, but it’s never out produced a Spinnerbait or lipless or swim jig in the same areas. It seems you have to spend a small fortune to get a good one, and it’s a northern pike magnet. I just don’t like em much. 6). Deep cranks I have a box full of these if I ever go to Kentucky lake. My waters don’t require them. 7). whopper plopper I can count on one hand the amount of bass I’ve caught on one. It’s a great lure for pike. I’d rather throw a classic buzzbait, comes through cover better for me. 8.). Swim jig I remember learning to throw a swim jig before it got “big”. Early 2000s up here it would have ran toe to toe with the senko, and was a top technique for me for years. It’s not as magical is it once was. I can’t just wind it in year round and fish smash it like they once did, something has changed. I pitch a jig a lot, always have always will. I’m confident that that basic jig is a bait that has stood the test of time. Sure there are days a t rig out produces it, especially in the summer, but I rely on it so much. I quit buying specific swimjigs. I still swim a jig, but it will be my standard flipping jig to gauge the mood of the bass. I may modify that same jig to suit the situation, but I’m done buying the “balanced 28 degree line tie, tinsel skirt swim jigs”. The windows that it works for me anymore are very small. This year I stuck with: punch/weighted/weightless t-rig (senko, put boss, fluke) Jig n pig 1/2oz trap pop r small spook jerkbait (limited use) ned grub spinnerbait buzzbait frog These baits worked nearly everywhere and if I wasn’t catching fish it wasn’t the lures fault. I plan on lightening the boat next year but removing stuff i didn’t use. I won’t get rid of stuff, just pull it out of the boat.

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.

If two of my most productive patterns, GG Perch OB and M Western Clown could be crossed ~ M ENDMAX might be the result. A-Jay

I got out for about 4.5 hours this afternoon. This cold front has 'em eat'n. I ended up going 2 for 4. Caught two on crappie, and lost two on the A-rig. I'm 1 for four on the rig lately, so I switched back to a 9' HF rod. I have been throwing it on a 9'5" XH Prorex, and while I really like the way it fishes on that rod, I think it's moderate action leaves it a little lacking in power for good hooksets with the heavy wire 5/0 hooks I'm making my jigs with. Anyhoo... The first fish today was a nice thick 42" and it was #80 over 30" for the year. The second fish today was this beautifully colored 37". I didn't get to see the first A-rig fish I lost, but it didn't feel that big. 30 something I'd guess. The second was a pretty nice fish about 40"-42". I got a good look at it when it shot 4' out of the water and did a backflip about 10' from the boat. That's not something you see a lot in 53 degree water. That fish was fired up! It knocked a few feet of slack in my line when it hit. So... I'm sit'n at 81 muskie with six weeks left in the year and the rig bite is getting underway. I'm off the next four days and still have a week of vacation I'm taking the first week of Dec. + 15 more regular off days. There's no guarantee that I'll get to fish all of December though. Even so, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of getting to the century mark. 🤞

Not to disagree with your statement but I’m 76 years old & have been fishing for at least 60 +years. I have never had to exercise a reel warranty in my lifetime. I have always adhered to buying quality products over price so I don’t buy cheap reels. Buying JDM reels is a no brainer when the yen disparity is in your favor because the warranty is not important when buying quality products like Shimano or Diawa. Just my experience based on about 20 some JDM reel purchases.