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I just learned the fishing community in my state has been hit again with another sudden loss. Without going into any details, I wanted to share a few helpful encouraging words in case you or someone you might know is struggling. Winter can be hard on us all, days are long and dark - especially for those who fish hard in the summer! If you or someone you know is struggling, here are a few resources that can help. If you’d like to add any resources that I might’ve missed, please add them in the comments. - Call OR text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - The National Mental Health Hotline: (800) 662-HELP (4357) - National Alliance Mental Illness (NAMI): (800) 950-6264 OR Text Helpline to 62640 - CRISIS Text: Home to 741-741

Greetings All, Wishing each of you well and Happy Thanksgiving. This past weekend brought some gusty winds to the region so I decided to find a place to fish from the shore easily. Because we are in the cooler months they have begun trout stocking. So I've shifted focus and have simply been determined to taunt trout as they are also great fun on-line and for a meal too. OK, so many of the nearby angling destinations are pretty steep and not suited to shore fish. So I decided to travel to the Gila River Valley and have my angling adventure there. I had a simple objective and that was simply to do a bunch of catch and release. While doing so I would investigate the handling characteristics of several fishing rigs under real use conditions. Hey, these are stocker sized trout so just how much stress can come from an 8 - 12 inch trout, right? Yeah, none of the rigs were intended for larger fish. One of the reels I was going to put to good use was my recently refurbished now smoother Zebco Omega Pro Z02. It got cleaned and lubricated so things are pretty nice. As an alternative to my BFS reel I did not struggle with any backlash in the gusty conditions. The premium Zebco reel was mounted on a basic Zebco fiberglass rod, both ends of the Zebco product line. It was a great time casting, catching and releasing trout like an exuberant angler. As I was doing so I decided to probe the deeper water areas. I made a long bomb cast, as far as I could with the 1/48 oz jig head with a small soft plastic worm segment. Nothing happened as the bait settled to the bottom. OK, the water is a bit cool so I'll give it a few seconds before beginning the slow crawl back. A few slow winds and I feel a slight tap, then another tap, then nothing. Much like trout as they either try to kill it or sample it without committing. Ok, no real action resulting so we are moving again. A few more cranks and this time there is a TAP! Wow, that didn't feel like a trout. Let me see what is going to happen, I simply hold still to monitor for anything. Nothing...OK, that was fun while it lasted. So I cautiously began to reel in. This time there was a heavy but mushy resistance felt. Much like when you hang a plant versus a rock. There was some give to it. Odd, then it responded. Much like a train locomotive it starts slow but strong and gains speed gradually. There was not much slack to begin with, so the new cleaned drag responded quickly and loudly. I raced to lower the drag setting. The thing about spin cast reels is the line pickup pin is usually a very small diameter so the line has to bend about this pin and that bend puts a focused amount of stress there. 4 pound mono can only handle so much stress. The fish makes a direct line towards deeper water and is not deterred much by the line resistance. Golly! Not knowing what I just connected with, I was thinking I hooked into some catfish as those are stocked frequently too. Regardless I've got to do what I need to and stay connected so lower the drag tension setting should buy me some forgiveness. I'm simply holding on and letting the line peel out for some time. Eventually the fish showed signs of getting tired. I managed to work in a bit of line before the next surge. Over time I did manage to work the fish in slowly and I simply kept things at a modest tension level. I didn't feel any head shakes so I was still of the opinion it was a catfish. Eventually it got in close and eventually came up towards the surface where it made a roll over and I finally got to the bass profile. Not huge, but also not what I expected to tie into either. Great fun and it made the day just that bit more special. Rather fun on the hybrid Zebco rig. Also good to know that I can target nicer sized fish in that location. Whaaahoo, Whoopee! Please enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday. Be well and Cheers!

I had an awesome day on the water today. Ended up going 5 for 6. 3 for 3 on the crappie rig, and 2 for 3 on the A rig. The drag backed itself off on the Tranx AGAIN, and cost me that fish. 🤬 I wouldn't call 'em junk, but they have some issues.The Tranx offer 400 capacity in a 300 size reel. Aside from that, the Daiwa Lexa HD is better in every way. Anyway, 33, a pair of 36's, a 41, and a 43. I didn't take a pic with the 33" or the first 36". The second 36" got it's pic taken for being #90 this year. 36" 41" 43" She's a fatty. Should be interesting tomorrow. I'm taking a buddy with no baitcaster experience, and it's gonna be mid 40's and blowing 15-35. 😲😂 Ain't no way I'm trying to teach him to cast in that. We'll be trolling all day. I'm with ya brother. I took vacation next week as it's traditionally the best week of the year for the A rig bite. Now the forecast is calling for teens and twenties. Yikes!!! I think there's gonna be a hot bite going on, but it's gonna be painful out there. I'm guessing my guide buddy and I should pretty much have the lake to ourselves.

Got out to one of my favorite little cold water lakes this past weekend. There was a bad algae bloom an the water was still just a little too warm, but I caught quite a few healthy fish still and had a good time. The Besotted jerkbait was on a pretty good tear in the morning and I finally caught one on one of the ABS Bull Shads.

Got a couple nice eating size bullheads…

I'm going to assume the guy your speaking of is Randy Blaukat. We are about the same age and fished some of the same derbies , He is a Table Rock guy also and I see him at the ramp some. I know he uses a whipsnake to throw stickbaits. I respect his fishing ability but when you make a statement that you will "wax' anyone with your spinning rod here in the Ozarks, I have to call it clickbait. The stick bait was invented here when guys my Dads age drilled out balsa Rapalas. I can tell you that you can shop for whatever rod,change hooks do whatever. It's the Indian not the arrow, You won't become a stick bait fisherman watching you tube.

Problem solved.

That's a great find, a pre-Rapala Chug Bug. Those are fish catching machines. I still have a couple and still put them to work. I've been slacking on my posting here, but it's the time of year when I really find a lot of baits now and even makes trips just for finding baits. I went fishing/lure hunting 3 times in 3 days a couple weeks ago. The fishing was good and so was the lure finding. I found the first big swimbait I've ever found, even if it was just a BPS glide. This Black Label balsa was just floating next to a laydown. I actually yanked a nice largemouth out of the tree right as I motored over to pick it up. It was a little dinged, but I coated up the cracks so it should be good to go. They're very nice baits, and not cheap, so that was an exciting find. I found one of these one day, and the other the next, 2 Megabass 110's in 2 days isn't bad. The 3rd day was more of a lure hunting day than a fishing day. I didn't find as many as I'd hoped (never do I supposed), but the quality was good. Know what's better than 2 Megabass in 2 days? 3 Megabass in 3 days! The almost brand new 110+1 JR was snagged in some water willows 10' off the shore. Looked like someone must have been shore fishing with it, which I'm sure they now realize was a terrible idea.

Enjoy that while it lasts . . . Because like so many things in this life, those valves wear out a bit over time. Someday, at any given moment, you might know exactly how far you are from and the precise travel time to each and every head within a 10 mile radius of your current position. #dudewipes 😎 A-Jay

Not sure if you're using something like this as part of how you maintain your gear. But it's been very good at helping to maintain the the stuff I use. A-Jay

I have a few good #2 stories. Most occurred during tournaments. None can be told here.

I tend to work the 110 Jr faster so I'm not as concerned having the heavier G Finesse hooks, plus I love the durability and strength of them. On the 110jr +1, I use the Gamakatsu #8 Round Bends like Tactical Bassin recommends. I actually really like the OEM hooks, and in a perfect world I could back even more down on my drags and preserve the hooks. I just have to use a little more drag than a finesse treble calls for because I've lost a number of baits/fish around brushpiles and laydowns. The reason this is obviously so important is because of weight and how it translates to the suspension of the bait. With that said, it's pretty surprising to see how random Vision 110 baits suspend straight out of the box. Some will sink, some will float, and occasionally you'll find one that suspends. Ultimately if you really go down the rabbit hole, you have to constantly adjust split rings, hooks, and play with wire/suspend dots/strips to get the baits to suspend properly across the wide spectrum of water temps anglers encounter. Imho, no other technique is more of an artform than jerkbaiting outside of maybe glides. It's the ultimate angler input bait. From creating its action on retrieve, to perfectly calibrating the baits, to finding the perfect rod/reel/line for them, they require lots of time and tweaking in my experience. A slack line jerkbait eat on a perfectly suspended and paused bait is about as high level of Bass fishing as it gets in my book.

I don't get it - it drops 20 degrees and heavy 15 mph North winds blow across the 50° surface and all I can get them to eat is a topwater! 😂😂😂 Got a couple snags on the lipless and finally nailed my first colder water lipless bass day before yesterday: All the big ones that have hit have been basically silent/zero fan fare/zero blow up and that is TOUGH to detect on a windy day! We gonna get one though. Just a matter of time.

Welcome to the price is right.

Purples of all kinds. I also have a lot of success with bright green worms. They are hard to find but when I do find a pack the disappear fast. Something about the color of a Mountain Dew bottle.

I just get soaked, part of living in a rainforest. Even those pros will tell you (off the record) that you will get wet no matter what you buy if it’s raining hard enough @Pat Brown just catches 9 lb bass in a poncho

I prefer Junebug. A statistical analysis of my fishing journal is inconclusive in determining what my local bass prefer. 🙂

How hard did it rain, and how long were you out in the rain? The great advantage of Gortex over traditional rain gear is it breathes, and is very light. A Gortex jacket is very comfortable, and you don't get soaked with sweat when you are active. The one disadvantage is Gortex does have a saturation point. If you are in very hard rain for a long period of time any Gortex jacket will start to leak. Gortex waders with triple layers of Gortex fabric are an exception, but most jackets are not built like the waders. There is a reason you see deck hands on commercial fishing boats in Alaska still wearing Grundens, or Helly Hanson traditional heavy cumbersome rain gear. Gortex is great for most situations, and is so comfortable many times I don't even take it off when the rain quits, but if I'm going to be out on the water in heavy rain for a long period of time, I put on my old heavy, uncomfortable, Helly Hanson bibs and jacket.

I had to return the kistler klx, it was faster in action and more powerful then I anticipated. Exchanged it for another helium, a 7'3" mh/f, paid $198 #winning

Not for what you think.

But did you use your index finger J ? A-Jay

I own many SIMMS rainsuits, although not a CX, and have nothing but good experiences with them. I've been in some pretty harsh weather in them too. I suggest reaching out to SIMMS for a replacement. No company is perfect, and sometimes mistakes slip through, but they stand behind their products and should take care of you. I've never heard of anyone having problems with SIMMS customer support.

I’m surprised on the review of Simms products. I don’t own any but there seems to be a lot of satisfied customers. I’ve got a set of Cabelas Guidewear Lite. It’s uninsulated and a thinner version of the standard Guidewear. I fish a fair amount in summer rain so I don’t need warmth. I just add a layer underneath if necessary. I have been applying re-waterproofing to the outside of the jacket and pants once per year in an attempt to maintain its ability to shed water. My last set eventually just lost its ability to do that so I’m trying to stay on top of it.

@T-Billy Must be the Hat ! Congrats 🤓 A-Jay

OK, but how does the wildlife (fish/birds/frogs) pay the fine?

During my Lake Fork tournament the other week I had an emergency beaching of my kayak and had to run into the woods. I forgot to pack my emergency TP, so thank goodness it’s the fall and nature’s TP was covering the ground.

TW phase 3 stuff. Spoons aren't new just the buzbe box for them.

Cold, high water; cloudy and windy. For some reason known only to them, the bass wanted the Hybrid Hunter Jr today. Three nice fish! Then hands on coffee...

Similar to my NC July Fishing thread, here is the winter edition. Once again, I’ll be headed to NC to be with family over the holidays. My family knows I am quite enthusiastic about fishing around Christmas and New Year’s. This year, my expectations might be a little too high. I am bringing my electronics with me and installing on a kayak that the family keeps there. In the summer, I bounced around to a lot of lakes. This winter, I plan on focusing on just a couple in vicinity of @Pat Brown. I’ll be tempted to make it out to Badin and I might make a trip, but for the most part I plan on fishing around Greensboro. Hopefully I get to see @Pat Brown, Jake, and @FishTax again. I’ll revisit this thread as it gets closer to my leave. As you can see, I am already planning a few things for the trip. Stay tuned….

I went through every one of my trip reports and added all the bass I caught this year. My 2024 total is 2,044. Now, I know a few BR members might sniff at my total, as I caught a LOT of 2.5 to 3.0-pounders (I also caught my PB and several 20-pound bags.) One of the BR gang once posted that he'd rather catch no bass than three-pounders, but I don't feel that way and here's why: There's a TV show called "The Good Place," which is Heaven, and when the main characters finally reach Heaven, they find it's filled with bored people and desperate angels, for the angels have run out of ideas to amuse Heaven's inhabitants because Heaven's inhabitants have seen, done, and tasted everything again and again and again. No three-pound bass will amuse them. Nor forty-pound bass. Nor 4,000-pound bass. They've been there and done that ad nauseam. I'm not there, probably because I know I'll die and I only get to dance with bass for a few more years. So, I'm grateful for all of them. As an old fishing pal once said, "They're all good." Here are the per trip totals, with a few dates here and there: 1, 3, 2, 11, 3 (including my PB on April 17th!), 14, 6, 13, 15, 11, 18, 23, 37 (May 13th), 75, 42, 47, 39, 40, 45, 26, 28, 31, 37, 52 (June 2nd), 28, 56, 38, 55, 45, 10, 19, 34, 39, 36, 36, 49 (July 5th), 27, 24, 49, 9, 21, 40, 26, 57, 15, 8, 9, 25, 17, 9, 17, 26, 18 (Aug. 18th), 25, 14, 9, 26, 9, 11, 20, 20, 22, 5, 9, 9, 4, 25, 20, 6, 35, 4, 70, 24, 8, 9, 25, 20 (Oct. 3rd), 22, 19, 52, 15, 27, 20, 19, 58, 5, 12 (Nov. 1st) A lot of my single-digit totals later in the year were me scooting down to fish my pond for an hour or an hour and a half in the evening. My best day for quantity with quality was my 58-bass day, in bold font, three trips from the end. That day might have been my first 25-pound bag. Here are three of them from that morning. Clearly, I thrill to catching bigger bass too: Yeah, it's the good life and I'm grateful.

I use all those baits and I throw them in the same areas I catch my fish on normal baits. Too many people think you need to tie on a swimbait then turn your back your fish and go cast glides out in the middle of the lake. Stick to where you know the fish are and have been catching them.

In my waters the fish prefer green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon red, watermelon candy, cotton candy, honey candy, hard candy, candy craw, Falcon Lake craw, Bama craw, Okeechobee craw, crawdad, ghost shad, sexy shad, gizzard shad, electric shad, Tennessee shad, California 420, Bama bug, red bug, junebug, pumpkin, purple pumpkin, PB&J, huckleberry, plum apple, plum, bubble gum, black, black & blue, black & red, white, pearl, tinfoil, motor oil, merthiolate, disco violet, glimmer blue, chartreuse, moon juice, rootbeer pepper, bourbon blaze, tequila sunrise, sprayed grass, baby bass, sungill, baitfish, tilapia, and KVD magic...not necessarily in that order. I talked to the bait monkey, and he approves this message. 🤣 Seriously, I classify my colors into four categories: 1. green 2. white/grey/yellow 3. red/orange 4. black/blue/purple The conditions (sunny vs cloudy, water color, time of day, season, etc.) determine what variations of these colors I use. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't.

If we’re talking worms…. plum apple, black grape, scuppernong, and green weenie are some good colors around here Jigs there is a color pattern that Oldham makes that is absolutely killer around here. It’s called watermelon pepper chartreuse. I like it with a watermelon trailer.

Update: unfortunately I didn’t get to use this setup as much this season as I wanted to. I fish as a co-angler and got super busy with my tournament schedule. A big bait rod is not the most ideal to bring on the back of someone’s boat! 😂 I did spend some time chucking baits from shore throughout the year. I do regret getting a 300 sized reel. I feel like it’s majority of the reason I don’t enjoy casting this setup. Something like a Tranx 200 would feel way better. Don’t have the largest hands in the world so palming that 300 sized reel feels cumbersome to me. Will see if I can trade someone the 2023 Lexa 300 with a Tranx A 200. As far as the rod goes, Dobyn’s rating system just always seemed out of whack to me. I know there’s a huge following for it, but I’ve owned a few of them and started to shift over to other brands. Before I get any hate, I used the heck out of my Champ XP 734C and loved it for chatterbaits. Their customer support is great and really back their product and provide helpful advice. That being said, considering Dobyn’s power rating are a little ambitious to me, I think the 794.5 was the right choice for the treble hook baits I’m throwing. It has a good amount of give in the tip and a solid backbone. I still have to catch a fish on it but have casted it a good amount to say this. Hopeful to see how to rod performs with a fish on next season and I can provide a complete update after that. Definitely need to lock this one rod in my hand all day next year (and get a fish on the other end of it somehow lol). I see so many people catching largemouth on these big baits from shore. Always fascinated me but I have no idea how to differentiate my approach from throwing the usual baits in the arsenal. I know how to work my glides and swimbaits, just don’t know where to target fish especially from shore yet. Any help would be appreciated! Umair

I both pee and occasionally poo in my canoe. I'm always in the stern, so when there's a guy in the bow, I just ask him to not turn around. I use a plastic cereal bowl with a lid and wet-naps. Easy-peasy fresh and breezy! Going ashore where I fish would be real challenge. It's either boulders, bushes, or reeds.

I’ve been using Aftco rain gear for awhile and it’s been performing great. Several friend use Simms and all seemed very satisfied. Sorry to hear of your problem but I would recommend contacting Simms. They’re a good company and I would guess they would help you out.

This is a great and timely message. Never underestimate the value of just checking in on someone.

Bear bair season is hear in northern IL (sub50 water temp) Unfortunately ive been busy and with temps looking to plummet probably not going to be getting to really hit it until spring.

6th sense is having a big sale. . Including their gift-cards for 15% off. which you can immediately turn around and use on items already for sale. They selling bundles for 34% off and up as well as what seems like everything else. They have some bogo rods too.

I use the Nikwax products as well, @A-Jay. Most rainwear has a DWR (durable water repellent) coating. Keeps water from soaking in to the fabric. DWR needs to be re-applied occasionally. My old Gore-Tex has held up okay. Some seams leak, and could use more DWR. I don't fish much in the rain, but I do like Gore-Tex to cut the wind. When it does rain, I have a cheap pair of Frog Togs I throw on over the Gore-Tex...manages to keep me pretty dry.

I bought an old Gore-Tex jacket for $20 on eBay and spray coated it. The quality is high and fingers crossed it keeps me dry.

I've got a lot of fishing buddies who won't go out when the temps get below 50* 😂 "But the winds gonna blow and then it feels colder on the water, I think I'll just stay home". I guess I shouldn't complain, those fairweather fishermen are the reason I enjoy winter fishing so much, just me and the fish out there.

I grabbed a pile of 4As when someone online had them for 3 bucks a piece. On 17 lb copoly it runs right around 3 feet deep, and losing them to toothy creatures doesn't hurt so bad. I also love my Bandit 100s, as many of you do.

Looking forward to wetting a line with you again sir. Hopefully we can get into some really big old hogs out of some real cold water. 😎😎😎

I know many of you are getting snow, so I’m not going to complain about 43° this morning. It did warm up later (74° now). But it was slow. Started promising with a 3 lb’er on a Zoom Trick Magnum, but nothing for almost two hours after that until I caught a 1.5 lb. bass on a Rage Bug on a 3/0 EWG TR. That poor bass! Its jaw had been ripped bad previously. Still looked healthy overall but that had to hurt! Caught a dink after that one and that was it.

Here's a nice addition to the Rebel collection! It in near mint condition considering it's 50 + years old.

I assume most of you indicating that you'd head to shore are going to public land? Heading to the nearest shore wouldn't really work here. Its almost exclusively private land. And entering private land without permission is trespassing. I'd hate to think what a landowner would do if they caught you squatting on their lawn. I know what I'd do.

That assembly diagram looks nothing like mine. Merc 50 4 stroke w/ Bigfoot LU. Spec says 40 lbs. I've never dragged my torque wrench out it's case for this since I have a Merc prop wrench. I keep it in the boat. This looks exactly the same as the last four Mercs I've owned - a 90, 115, 2.5 L ProMax, and this 50.

I agree with these two opinions. I have a helix 9 and mega live. It’s good and the update helps. But even on flat calm water I can’t dial it in as well as the livescope images that guys get. I love the side and down imaging from my helix but if ffs was the priority megalive is a clear third.

I have Hummingbird MEGA Live. Don't buy Hummingbird MEGA Live.