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Got two LMB around 21” which was totally unexpected! SMB were fairly normal compared to other years, lots of good ones. Caught a couple nice stripers. Barely caught any of the evil Alabama spotted bass so I guess that’s good? Business as usual. Still got over a month of great fishing to go yet

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.

Decent year for me. Got a new PB but not by much. Spinnerbait was good to me. Also started to figure out jig fishing later on. New (to me) techniques like floating and swimming worms did very well once the weeds started topping out. Had a memorable trip to McGregor Bay Ontario with my dad and son in August. First time targeting small mouth. It was an absolute blast there. Already planning a return trip next year. Stupid tube was my weapon of choice there with honorable mentions going to the ned and drop shot. Some firsts this year with other species. Hybrid striper, Northern Pike, and saugeye.

If you are already using quality hooks like @A-Jay suggested, and you are still bending out hooks, I would look elsewhere in your setup to see if there is a reason why your hooks are bending. Drag too tight, line such as braid not having enough give, rod too stiff, etc. can all lead to too much force being applied to the hooks.

2024 was a frog year for me. Also got to take a young lady fishing. When you teach, you learn!

Much too early for me to answer!

2024 was a tough year bass fishing for me. I let work get in the way of my bass fishing again this year, and when I was able to go I had less success than previous years. I managed to remain good friends with the Bait Monkey, but even though my tackle box was always full, I struck out more than I care to admit. The good news is my wife and I had a cabin built one kilometer from a lake with bass. The bad news is I am having a difficult time catching bass there, and when I do they are not very big, with the biggest being around 6 pounds. I spent most of my available bass fishing time there, because it is now my home lake. When I was able to go to other lakes I did ok at one and horrible at another. I only fished Presa Pocho a couple times, and managed to catch one 10.2 pounds along with a couple 7.5 pounders. My success on large bass was down from previous years, but I had just as much fun, and even though my new home lake isn't as good as I would like it to be, I enjoy having a lake I can call home. If five small bass is a good day at new lake, than I will try hard to catch 6 bass. It is all relative, and a 6 pound bass on one lake is equal to a 10 pound bass on another. I hope to take more time away from work next year, and I still have time to catch my PB before this year is over.

I lose count around 4ish

No typo. The bass were bonkers for two, straight days and we fished from can until can't, i.e. from four in the morning until nearly ten in the evening. I pinched the barbs of my Mepps for quick releases and released most of them in the water to shorten the release time. The Mepps was the key. That's what they wanted. Sadly, we only had one Mepps and I offered it to my partner more than once, but he declined. He said he was afraid he'd lose it to a pike. So, while I caught more than 250 each day, he caught around 50 each day.

I haven’t tried them all, am currently using and feel good about recommending, Mustad KVD 1X strong 2x short triple grip, Gamakatsu Short Shank Magic Eye and Owner Short Shank ST-35’s; all EWG of course. Owner Hyper wire split rings are also a must need part of the upgrade IMO. Also there's this . . . https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/241684-treble-hook-replacement-~-one-man’s-theory-application/ A-Jay

Rivers are FUN and they keep on being fun when it gets real tough at ponds and lakes IMHO. Biggest this year was a 9 lb 3 oz on a red eye shad in January. Caught an 8 lb 9 oz on a BPS Swerve glide bait last week. Caught an 8.4 and an 8.0 and a nice pile of fish well over 7 lbs. A nice pile of fish over 6 lbs and a very large number of 4-5 lb fish. It was by far my best year for numbers and size I've ever had but I didn't get a new PB or a second DD....yet. 😎😉 Fished the frog and became a frog monk of the order of the frog and now I can catch fish on a frog anytime and anywhere. It's one of my super powers in bass fishing and it's a good one because it tends to reveal big fish that don't do much revealing themselves otherwise. I fished the jig and lipless a lot also and did quite well with both. Less fish on t rigs and buzzbaits than years past but still plenty of those too. Got some really big dropshot fish also which was cool. Overall 2024 was one of my favorite years ever for bass fishing and in terms of water temperature: looks like Nov - Dec is gonna be a GREAT shot at a new PB for me this year so fingers crossed. We are still hovering around 60 on the surface up shallow here in NC and to me the ideal late fall early winter temp window is 58-51°. It looks like that temperature is gonna be stabilizing into view during the remainder of the year and we may not even have much of a winter this year. I feel as though they're probably gonna be looking for places to spawn in late December and I plan to act accordingly this year.

Today, my family and I had the pleasure of attending the graduation ceremony of the 147th Michigan State Police recruitment class which included our niece’s future husband. We’re pretty proud of that kid.

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.

Crank baits, drop shot and spinners were probably my three best baits. Surprisingly ned rigs and top water I never got going this year. I had a great spring and summer. But, late summer into fall my river fishing has stopped due to dangerously low conditions. I ended up lake fishing a lot this year and doing decent for large mouth. This was however the worst October and November I’ve ever had. I blame that on not being able to fish the over and the abnormally warm fall we had. All in all I had a great year and am looking forward to 2025! Edit: One thing I always try to keep in mind is my worst days are someone’s best days and my best days are someone’s worst days. I enjoy these puzzle piece days when they aren’t crushing it. I also enjoy when I stumble on the jackpot pattern for the day. The mystery interests me.

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.

Second order showed up. Some 4.5 Spunk Shads and some 3.5s for the MiniMax. Some 2.0 and 1.5 decoy snaps for the chatterbaits, and some more Thunderhawk Sergeant lipless cranks in a new shad pattern, 3 in the 3/4 oz rattling version and 2 in the 1/2 oz silent version.

Pretty good year overall. I wanted to fish more crankbaits and I did. Not as many as I wanted but I did keep them in rotation. Fished a spinnerbait on our rivers more than I had previously. Caught some big ones early in the year on it. Will go back to it for sure. Got heavily back into flukes, they were just working. Got more into jig fishing as well. Might start making some micro jigs for the river this winter. Fished 2nd in one of my wading derby's, had a better year there overall as well. Lost a lot of time to fish moving in the summer but that's life. Caught my first Northern Pike too. That was neat.

Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and beetlespins were the ticket for me this year. I caught my new PB...8 lbs, 8 oz... on a KVD 1.5 in sexy shad color. It had been years since I had any sort of luck on cranks. Same for spinnerbaits. Black or white willow leaf spinners worked great for me as well. Sometimes the bite was better if I down sized and threw a beetlespin, again in either black or white. What did not work for me this year was wacky rigging. Over the past 2 or 3 years the wacky had been my go to bait but not so this year. It just wasn't happening for some reason.

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

@Pat Brown Good advice, especially when the water temperature is in the 40s to 50s. I suspect this is as cold as the water gets in North Carolina where you are, but correct me if I am wrong. Further north, the water gets colder and when it reaches 39.2 degrees its density reaches the highest point. For any readers who aren't aware, as the water temperature continues to cool this 39.2 degree water sinks to the bottom and the cooler water between 32 and 39 degrees is above it. At this point, many baitfish prefer that warmer water near the bottom and this is the point where fishing on the bottom is probably your most high percentage location. I catch almost all of my big fish in the winter either in the deepest basins used by the bass or on the edges of those basins or underwater creeks per Pat's post. The biggest issue on a huge lake of a few thousand or tens of thousands of acres is finding the basins and creeks where the bass are congregated. It is easier to find them in small lakes that haven't frozen over. Having said that, I only have an idea of how cold the water gets in Connecticut since it is on the coast. If it never goes below the low 40s, fish the underwater channel banks or steep drops. Of course, no rule of thumb ever works 100 or even 75 percent of the time. I have caught a few good fish in basins and dragging a jig up the side of a drop into a basin when water temps were 40 to 43 degrees.

You know it! Bout to get good

I love Mepps too and catch a few every year on Mepps. My only two 250+ smallmouth days were with a Mepps, the only one I had on that trip. I sure got my money's worth out of it. Me too!

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.

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!

Count my wife out. She's a city girl from Manila. Her idea of camping is any of our time-share resorts or the Marriott in Aruba. Me, I'm in. Opposites really attract.

It was a wilderness lake in northwestern Ontario, but there are days in Maine when, IF I STILL HAD THE STAMINA, I could catch 100+ bass.

@Aaron_H - 1000% I never have my drag super duper tight on any bait - even frogs - that's not the purpose of drag! Also most people use too stiff of a rod for the job they're doing in bass fishing IMHO. I lose more fish ripping holes in their mouths or breaking my line or when my rod is too stiff and unloads during a fight than I do letting my drag slip a bit during a fight. Can't count the number of BIG fish I landed that made a run or two where they would have come off if my drag hadn't been a little loose. Don't want to think about the number of BIG fish I lost that I might have landed had my gear been set up right for the task.

2023 and 2024 (so far) have definitely been more of a struggle than 2022 was. In fairness, 2022 was a bonkers year for me, with my best five bass going 45lbs 6oz. That may well turn out to be the year I peaked. Last year I only got two 5lbers and one just over 7lb in October, and this year is the same result so far, two 5lbers and one over 7lb in October. Still plenty of time to fish and we're getting into Big Girl season so I have my fingers crossed that I might tangle with a giant here soon. I ended up having some pretty frustrating days this year and last, lost some really big fish that caused me to rethink some of my setups and how I'm throwing certain presentations. One of which I got a real good look at up close and I strongly believe was a DD. It can be a little soul crushing but I know they're still out there and hopefully I'm a little more dialed in on my presentations for the next time we cross paths.

Probably the rivers actually -- but they're the least convenient, so lakes get the call more often.

@gimruis no doubt about it. Especially since he’s been a part of our family for around seven years and knowing how he grew up. He broke his family cycle and, he’s been absolutely great to our niece.

Is there a reason you want 15 hp in-lieu of 20 hp, same engine weight and price? 4 stroke? Any authorized Mercury dealer will work on and/or warranty the engine. Do you have a TM and battery? If so get the electric start, you will thank me some cold morning. Tom

250+ days ? Typo perhaps

The S&W shield 9mm is a good choice, I have trained women in the safety and use many times. They seem to function well. I might recommend, you go to a range, where the have rentals, she could get the feel, and choose the right one for her. Biggest mistake made when buying firearms for the spouse, is the guy buying what he thinks she may be able to use. Let her handle it, rack the slide, get a feel for it. Any quality gun shop can help her with this.

Fall has become more of an extension of summer here. September and October have been VERY warm the last few years here. In fact, the last two falls have been the warmest on record here. And this one (with about a week left) is on pace to break that, even with a cold front brewing next week. Kind of too bad. Fall is a very enjoyable season for me. Or at least it used to be when it existed.

Thank you very much @Dwight Hottle The school of hard knocks teaches some very valuable lessons. Almost as much as men like you. A-Jay

Review 🤔

Yes and heck, yes! My home lake also has smaller bass than other lakes, but I still love it. Congrats on the cabin!

Tim, I don't often miss musky fishing, but seeing you with your two torpedoes makes me miss 'em.

Appreciate all the advice. I decided to order the dobyns champ. Love it in the flipping stick, so I decided the extra 100 for exactly what I wanted was probably the way to go. If anyone wants a review I’ll test it out this weekend.

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

Mine came yesterday. Water temps are just about to hit the 40’s … one of the first baits I’m using.

Got mine a few days ago, great looking jig @WRB and @Siebert Outdoors. Well done gents!! Looking forward to getting some time with it before the ice, but downright ecstatic for the prespawn. scott

I’m actually having that debate in my mind right now. Already sitting quietly on a few that never saw the light of day last month 😉

Edited for @T-Billy, #punctuation matters

DIY Microcast SV spool for my Alphas 800.

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

The 3 colors are Shad, PBJ and Fritz (Dave Fritz) color for Smallmouth or LMB. I use a Hitchhiker spring to attach a 2” piece of finesse worm cover the hook point for a weed guard. Bluegill PB&J with Green pumpkin Chigger Craw trailer claw tips dipped in chartreuse Spike-It. Chigger craw swims like a bait fish. Tom PS, wash the bucktail hair with Dawn soap to remove sticky oils.

After a short scrap with a little hairy midget I managed to escape walmart with my wallet mostly intact, found some big game in an interesting coastal brown color which might help for Floridas tannic colored waters, we shall see.