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After waiting all day on my wife to get home, we went and got a Christmas tree. I had from 5-6 pm to fish after we set it up. I drove directly to my offshore SMb grounds and started fishing. Not much luck so I sat down at the console just letting the boat drift along the edge of a drop off and watched the graph to see if I was close enough. A crappie must have gotten lost and ended up out there, I got a funny picture of the screen after I caught it . You can see where I pulled it straight up off the bottom. No skunk and a pretty evening

Stopped into academy today. I was out in town and just farting around. Didn’t look at BF sales flyer, so just winging it…. All of their rods, reels and combos at 25% off. Didn’t need anything, but at 25% off, I actually think it would’ve been illegal for me to not buy? Anyway, didn’t even know Daiwa made an AridX combo. So, picked up a combo of 6’6” MF paired with a 2500 Laguna. All in, $60. Them, why not look some more? So, I picked up a 1000 Shimano Sienna paired to a 5’0” Falcon ULM. All in, $60~ish. Lastly, didn’t need any tackle. (“DO NOT BUY TACKLE”) is what my mind was saying, but my eyes were saying “that looks cool”. So, for no other reason than because it was there, I picked up a 2 pack of VUDU Shrimp. Living in N Alabama, the only shrimp we see is at Kroger.

Moved to house on a few acres in 2018....and it had 40x30 building. I've been slowly and steadily making improvements through the years...walls, loft, power, lights, workbench...etc. Took this... In to this... Wife has done amazing things in the house, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, basement...she's pretty amazing!

Spro had a crazy sale. 4 frogs and the rest cranks for next year.

Clean, lubricate and protect fishing gear. Read about fishing and fishing gear. Buy and Sell fishing gear. 🤓 A-Jay

I always keep a document with all my fishing goals for the year. I usually write it at the start of the New Year, so I haven’t thought about it too much yet. My goals this year will be modest. First, I got a really nice UL rod (Daiwa Trout X NT), which I’ve paired with a Daiwa Revros and 2lb P-Line. It’s not the most expensive setup in the world, but it’s my first actual quality UL setup. I’ve used it to catch a single stocked rainbow so far, and it fishes beautifully. I’d like to use it on some Potomac smallmouth and see how light of a rod I can get away with. On the opposite side of that coin, I’d like to catch a 4+ pound smallmouth. I caught a couple of decent ones last year, but my scale died on me. I’d like to spend more time targeting big fish. Frankly, I didn’t spend as much time fishing for smallmouth this year as I’d like to have done. I’m going to Ireland in the spring, so I’m excited to target Atlantic salmon, sea-run brown trout, normal brown trout, pike, redfin perch, and European sea bass. None of that stuff has anything to do with bass, but they are fishing goals. Beyond that, I can’t think of any other goals I’d like to accomplish. I still want to catch a Kentucky bass and an Alabama bass, but I doubt I’ll find the time to fish the southeast. I’m just happy to be fishing another year.

No plans. I'm just going to cast my line and see what bites.

Things are still slow on the river but got once decent stripe yesterday

It's all relative. Some places get really hot, other places get really cold. Everyone either adapts or moves. A-Jay

I'm jelly. That's some great bass-water you'll be fishing! @Jigfishn10: @king fisher is the man!

One of the best things I heard from yesterday was that pat forde got hit with pepper spray at the big game in Columbus, that’s simply compelling and rich

I am going to spend 5 days fishing for smallmouth in Sturgeon Bay, WI in May. Then the rest of the year I am going to fish the Mississippi and St croix rivers in my new kayak. completely off topic but I am also going to Colorado for 2 weeks and I hope to catch some trout.

This weekend I’ve been restoring an old DR wood chipper that’s about 20 yrs old. Finished this afternoon, the carb was all jacked up. I’m pretty proud because I’ve never done carb work and figured it all out. It went from not cranking to starting right up and purring. Tomorrow I’m hitting the woods to see how it works under heavy load, clearing my bank fishing area. @DaubsNU1 nice! I have a metal building that’s similar, I’ve built an office and man cave in it. Really want to do a loft but I’m a little intimidated by that project.

Took advantage of the Spro sale 5, McStick 110s 4, McStick 110+1s 2, McRip 85s 3, Aruku Shad 65s 1, Wameku Shad 70 2, Aruku Shad 75s 3, RkCrawler 50s 1, RkCrawler DD50 2, RkCrawler MD55s 2, Hunter 65 SBs 1, Fat Papa SB 55 1, Fat Papa SB 70 1 Blade and 1 Bumper spinnerbaits all this for $128. Never used Spro lures but I hear great things and the deals looked too good. monkey should be satisfied now

The unit's clearing height is 22 inches I think. So anything over that will fall back on the machine as I go. Usually require a lot of backing up and then re-clearing that section. I do not always take full width bites because if the snow is very wet or as you mentioned, too deep, it's more effective to take half or even 1/3 of the width of the unit and the machine will eat what falls into it without bogging down. The secret sauce is the right combination of speed (relative term) and clearing width. Easy to get right and easy to know when I don't. btw- the Dual track drive provides exceptional traction through most snow conditions. Pliable, rubber tracks providing solid traction and good balance. Provides Great control on inclines, rough or uneven ground, and icy conditions. A-Jay

Big Fish Jeff comes to visit us. Usually in the spring. You might be able to figure out why . . . A-Jay

Making it to 2026

No bass yesterday but caught this toothy dinosaur (longnose gar) pitching a Baby D Bomb to some shallow wood.

I think Something's Up. Once a product begins to disappear from the usual vendors, and then shows up on E-Bay for 3X the regular price, I start to wonder. Often ends up disappearing all together. Hope @Bobby Uhrig can tell us. Please tell us it isn't so. I put this stuff on everything. #ritzcrackers A-Jay

Just finishing up repairing the bathroom ceiling … again. Seems like I do it every 5 or 6 years. Had a mold and mildew problem this time around. Scraped the ceiling down and dug out the PIA spots. Weird tho, mold was in the compound under the paint. 3 coated with USG 90 covering the whole ceiling. Primed yesterday with a mold and mildew preventer additive. 1 coat painted today with the additive added in as well. Will final coat tomorrow. New exhaust fan and light fixture waiting on deck. What’s your project?

MegaStrike is like American Express; never go fishing without it

No goals yet but a pseudo-goal is to not stop fishing this year. We just got our first cold snap here in Pa so that and the holidays will keep me off the water but any found time I can slip out I will. The one place I fish has some really nice perch in it so I want to target them. They usually hang with the bass at this spot so a by-product bass will never be complained about.

Last year we paid a pro to paint our cedar-sided house. We couldn't afford to do the same for our 1800 sq ft garage, mostly because it needed a significant amount of cedar/carpentry repairs and I just can't pay thousands for what I can do myself...so...for two months I did the carpentry and my wife and I painted. Some of the lap cedar couldn't be salvaged so I replaced sections with board and batten. The walk-in door wasn't properly flashed and sealed originally so I had to replace sheathing, insulation, and the door as well as new board and batten on that side of the garage. My wife was a super-woman. I worked on it every evening after work and ten hour days on weekends. She was right there the entire time painting. I kept her on the ground and I did all the carpentry and the painting from the 32ft ladder.

Thanks to Susky starting this thread. Because of Susky, I've been thinking about giving myself a goal for 2025 and I've settled on one. 2025 will be the Year of the Big Bags: I'm going to keep a running tally of my five-bass-bags over 15 pounds. My goal will be at least four bags over 20-pounds. It's hard to achieve at my latitude because when I do it, I typically do it with three four-pounders, one five-pounder, and a three and a half-pounder. The last one is the only easy slot to fill.

latest monkey attack

Makes me want to be a Maineiak more and more … … I would love to get away from the crowds and congestion

Y'all laugh but kneel-n-reel absolutely works for getting a trap a couple of feet lower. I hear it said, "just let it fall", that will work but sometimes the bass want a steady retrieve not a "yo-yo" retrieve.

It was a good college football day yesterday! There were several good games! My favorite though; NC State, for the fourth year in a row beat unc! Nationally it means nothing but regionally, at least if you're a Wolfpack fan, it's a big victory!

Try out the brand new Bois D’Arc lake here in north Texas, Make a trip or 2 out to Fork. Maybe do a little more catfishing than I have been

Something I learned from @Catt right here on these forums is that the trick to fishing a jig in grass is to incredibly gently finesse it through. I used to tie on T-rigs only if there was a lot of grass until I gave it a shot, but it really works. There are certain grass jigs with pointed heads designed to part grass, but I've been able to finesse a standard pitching jig through just fine once I learned what to do.

More fishes and more bigger fishes in 2025 is essentially the plan. Keep trying to get better at the stuff that I seem to excel at rather than expand all over the place - kinda done doing that. I got baits that work for all times and depths so it's all about continuing to deepen my understanding of presentation and timing for each bait category at this point!

Pre-spawn starts around the 3rd or 4th week of January.

My plans for 2025 are shaping up quite nicely. I decided to rejoin my bass club after a 2-year hiatus. I plan to fish the majority of the tournaments. The club made a couple changes that made it a lot more attractive to me; #1 Travel tournaments only consist of a Sunday tournament. This is great since I don't feel the need to necessarily take Friday off to prefish. #2 Our state man team will be determined by our top 6 events not the entire schedule and all our meetings. In the past, if you knew you were going to miss a couple events and meetings, you knew you had no chance for the state team. Now, you can overcome that if you do well at the events you fish. Besides all that, I have a great schedule lined up with club events (great schedule), a spring break trip to southern Illinois (there are actually some good lakes in Illinois that fish great in the spring), a week-long, summer trip to Door Co, WI for smallmouth, and all my local fishing where I have done very well the last few years. I don't plan on taking a trip to Grand Traverse Bay in June as I've done for the last 10 years due to be very busy with club events and a family vacation. I do have a small window I could squeeze it in if the weather forecast is perfect but that is probably unlikely. And I'm really looking forward to fishing locally. I often do better fishing my local waters during the week than I do when I drive hours away to some hot lake that I don't have much knowledge of. In terms of fishing, my plans are to be more focused and prepared with a well thought-out gameplan. I've been winging it the last couple years just fishing confidence baits and the spots I've always fished. I haven't really learned any new techniques and don't really feel that I've gotten much better. Fishing tournaments again will force me to prepare more and actively try to learn new techniques to gain an advantage on my opponents. I don't have any specific goals about big fish or placement in tournaments. If I am prepared, focused, and give 100% while on the water which are things I control, then the results are just part of the process. I can't control the results.

More of the same, i.e. continuing to learn the pond where I bought land and fishing four other ponds/bogs. I'd like to break my PB, of course, but I think it's unlikely. Looking out the window, I see snow and it'll be white here for three to four months, limiting the growth of bass, so my 2024 22.25" bulging girl might be the biggest I'll ever see at 44 degrees north. Rarity-wise, In-Fisherman compares her to a 12-pounder in the South and you guys know how rare 12-pounders are, even in Texas with forward-facing sonar. I've caught thousands of bass in Maine and a fish like her is so rare, so rather than chase Moby Dick, I'll enjoy my busy boat and I intend to use my baitcasters more. I see that you guys sure love yours and I used them to musky fish, so I'm comfortable with them. I do hope to catch dozens of four and five-pounders and I plan to use some new lures, like creature baits and burner worms. I especially enjoy the challenge and thrill of 20-pound bags, so fingers crossed I can land a few. I'd love to fish with @Glenn, but like Glenn, I hate to travel. Airports and traffic jams are my unhappy places. See the wild shoreline in the photo above? That's my happy place. Lastly, I hope to catch some more drop-dead gorgeous bass like this one:

Told my wife the catfish were biting, so she asked me to catch some for her for the next fry… Mission Accomplished!

I know there is some coyotes in my development people get them on their cameras. Creek farmer fields some marshy area deer. I walk my dog very early in the mornings and believe I saw a yote already. I’m more worried about two legged predators and peoples loose dogs than I am a yote. Not saying one wouldn’t attack but, the others are a lot more probable.

Where do I start?! Haha. I got a lot of stuff to do but I’d rather put it off and go fishing or chop wood got drywall to finish in the basement, new toilet/tile/vanity to do in a bathroom, new deck to build, probably a few more I’m forgetting

Daiwa Zillion SV TW is the easy button.......right in your price range. I'd get the Tat 300 for big swimbaits. An Alpha Angler Rebound or Chatterbound paired with a Zillion SV TW would be sublime for just about any moving bait. The Rebound is a little better cranking rod, and the Chatterbound is better at chatterbaits, but both are exceptional for crankbaits.

This has some great tips! https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/catch-bass-cold-water.html

Had to get this one on video ~ A-Jay

Am I the only one feeling this way? 😂

Love it! Been that way for a couple of years. Get my parents squared away and hit the water. Nothing pretentious, just let the chips fall where they may. Love your post @king fisher

I'm always trying to learn more about deep water jig/ worm/worm fishing. That's an ongoing thing. Keep on learning everything possible about bass behavior. For me, learning things is where it's at. We can spend a lifetime at bass fishing, and still have things to learn.

I hope for a personal best each year, so that is my hope for 2025. Barring that, at least getting into more in the 7+ class range, only one this year and one last year. My plan is to jerkbait fish hard in the next couple of months and fingers crossed I'll hook into a jumbo. But overall I just want to be able to get out more than I did this year and have fun fishing.

My godson moved to Post Falls Idaho and asked me to drive over and spend a week on Coeur de Laine and maybe Dworshack. I missed out on peak spring fishing this year. My wife had to take care of her mother, out of state, for almost seven months. It would be nice to capitalize on that period. Finally, I have acquired Swimbaits that need to be torn up.

Child support and 3 years of alimony begin for me so 2025 will just have me doing more fishing and less gear buying….but don’t worry, I stocked up throughout all of 2024 with some good JDM goodies and a great rod/reel fleet 😎 Wouldn’t mind taking a solo trip from up here in Northern IL down to Fork or Lake O for a week of bank banging in April/May though

Gold weedless spoons work good! Tom

There's a plethora of "cross over" lures. Any soft plastic lures & techniques. Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs, Pop-R Single spin spinnerbaits Buzzbaits Various spoons Alabama Rigs Hard Jerkbaits, shallow crankbaits

I generally agree. However, I wouldn't really call stray or feral cats anyone's pet anymore. And there are A LOT of feral cats out there (that shouldn't be). When I was deer hunting last season one morning I saw a big black cat walking across a recently harvested open bean field. It did not have a care in the world. Well here comes a coyote from behind it and the cat didn't even know it was there until the yote basically got on top of it. The coyote grabbed the back of the cat's neck and it was over quickly. Then the yote trotted off with its meal. You can probably tell by my responses in this thread that I have a problem with feral/stray cats. They should not be out roaming the countryside killing birds and game birds. They are not a native predator, whereas coyotes are.

Bucktail jigs with jig strips will catch a variety of fish. Just need to pretty much swim it along. Diamond jigs with a surgical tube will be your friend on windy days. The soft plastics mentioned above were all great suggestions. Good luck Edit…forgot to mention If you using your freshwater rigs and lures make sure you rinse with freshwater and dry. I make my bucktails with black nickel hooks and use freshwater rods and reels. I dry with an 18v leaf blower. Been doing it for years with no issues.