Leaderboard

It was definitely a jiggin weekend. Caught 6 small ones today. 5 on a jig and 1 on a senko. Photo’d four of them. I tried a lot of baits. Even walked a frog. A jig was the deal, at least for dinky bass 😄.

First fish of my Christmas break. Caught on a watermelon seed speed worm.

Went fishing this weekend both days. Went to the lakehouse to grab my wife’s kayak, paddled it across glass slick waters to load it up on the daily driver Honda and go to a different ramp on the same lake where people are catching nice big smallies. Somehow this access point was in a sunny hurricane with the wind blowing the same direction as the current. Two older guys with a huge boat were sitting in the parking lot saying it was too windy, and here I am with a kayak. Well two of my buddies pulled up with a bass tracker so I left the kayak in the parking lot and hopped in with them. Right as we are about to launch, a guy pulls up and asks if we have a scale. He had a 22” 6 lb 10 oz meanmouth and two other really nice smallmouth. Said he had launched at 3 am trying to catch walleye haha. Anyway here’s a pic of that monster so now we are fishing, but can’t do a thing on the main channel with the wind and current going through same direction. We retreated to a creek arm I knew held small largemouth and caught a bunch of those, better than braving the sunny hurricane so Sunday rolls around and I can’t stop thinking about the potential for PB so I go back to the same spot in the pouring rain, this time the wind isn’t blowing tho. I paddled upstream and broke off a fish , re rigged and found out why I broke off, I was amongst the toothy critters. Got one for the ice box !

Green Sunfish were the deal today. Beetle Spins and lite tackle.

Stillhouse was strutting its stuff yesterday. Have to share a couple of pics

^^ This ^^ It's one thing to forget to renew something, it's another level to willingly submit false information to get a $10K reward. It speaks to his character. It makes you wonder what else he's done.

Got into a dinkfest today, caught eight in about an hour and a half. Nothing big. But also the lake was busy and I caught more than anyone. And sometimes that's the real five pounder

I would try a spinnerbait, because I always try a spinnerbait.

*** The following reply is based heavily on bodies of water that hold large amounts of Shad. 2D sonar and finding schools of bait are the two most important things to consistent success in the winter months I've found. Once you find the bait, you can then see what part of the water column the fish are feeding in, and also if the fish are feeding up or down on the bait. If they're feeding down on the bait, within a few feet of the bottom.....a blade bait is impossible to beat. A smaller spoon is also quite effective as a backup. If they're feeding up on the bait, within 5-10ft of the surface.....strolling/shaking a minnow is really hard to beat. A jerkbait is another staple bait to have in this situation. 5ft or less......go with a traditional 110 styled bait. If they are deeper than 5ft....go with a 110 +1 or +2. It's good to have both a fullsize 110 size bait, as well as a 95 size bait like the 110jr or the Shimano Zumerno. If they're feeding down or up on bait in the middle of the water column between 10-20ft......a tailspinner like a Damiki Axe blade is fantastic choice. An A-Rig plays in all these scenarios, simply find the depth the fish are at, and count the A-Rig down to a foot above or below their depth based on whether you think they are feeding up or down. The terms 'feeding up' and 'feeding down' are quite important, and that's because in the winter fish will be hyper focused on bait, will be suspended chasing around that bait, and depending on the conditions will be very specific about how they setup to predate the bait. On nice warm up days, that bait will move high in the water column, and fish will most likely want that bait over their heads. On frigid freezing days, the bait many times will be hugging the depressions of deeper water, and the fish will want that bait beneath them. Winter fishing can be very frustrating, but when you put it all together, you can have days that are nothing short of electric. Nothing compares to when the fish are chewing in the winter. Just keep putting in that work, you'll figure it out soon enough. Time on water is the ultimate teacher.

Got to fish below Pickwick dam the other day. The temp was in the 20s the previous night. It had probably warmed into the upper 30s by the time we started fishing. The sun was supposed to come out, but it never happened. It was tolerable, but didn't warm up liked we hoped. The fishing started out as cool as the temps. We had good current. We were drifting 3 mph without the trolling motor. We did a 2 1/2 mile drift and caught nothing. We tried the other side, and only caught one. We went back to the other side again, but all we caught were drum. Hopefully @roadwarrior won't be too disappointed that we don't have pics of those. 🤣 Since we were having no luck on the bank, we decided to try fishing along the channel. Turns out that the fish were in the middle of the river. We only caught 3 in the first 5 hours along the banks, but got 6 in the last 2 hours in the middle of the river. Nothing too big, but one solid 3 lb 6 oz smallmouth. The most interesting part of the day came as I caught the first fish along the channel. We noticed a boat speeding toward us. While I was reeling I said, "He sees us, right?" He sped right up to us, and turns away at the last second. When he turned we see "Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency" on the side of the boat. I pulled the fish out of the net as he pulled up beside us. I said, "I'll get my license out in just a second." He said, "I don't want to see your license. I want to see the fish." I was confused since it was just a dink smallmouth. I held it up for him, and he said, "No, I want the fish." So I gave it to him. He measured it, and asked me if I wanted it back. I said, "no" so he released it. I thought we were about to get checked by the game warden. Turns out that he was with the TWRA Angler Survey. He asked us several questions about our fishing experience. He wanted to know where we were from, how much our trip cost us (counting gas, meals, etc.), how satisfied we were with our experience, if we'd fished there before, and if we planned to fish there again. It was actually a fun, and interesting experience. We had a nice chat. He seemed like a good guy. He went on his way, and we started catching fish. Too bad he didn't see us when we caught a bigger fish. 🤣

Went to Percy Priest Res. near Nashville Sunday. Cold gusting winds, colder sprinkles, muddy water, perfect conditions for watching football on the couch. But.....I was on the water, albeit only three hours. Wind made boat control very difficult, but I wanted to use Team9's suggestions and work with the jerkbait and the blade bait. After a fruitless hour or so, I came across a totally submerged tree and the little fish were all over it. Using the Damaki Vault (Thanks Alex), I caught two dinks and a 17" Smallie that went 2 Lbs. 5 oz. Unfortunately I had to use my back-up scale which consistently weighs 2 oz less than my favorite. Sigh. What the water gives, the water takes away. The Damiki caught a submerged log and that was that. Alas, I had ANOTHER! a few short casts later, I hooked and landed a fat 16" LM, and ended the short session with four. Shad were all over the screen so I filled up a cast net on the first and only toss and headed home to Shad stock the pond. Thanks for everyones advise! Can't wait for Sunday!

I do not pay attention to daytime temperatures, instead I pay attention to nighttime temperatures. Until nighttime temperatures are above the water temperatures you will not get any sanificant increase in temperatures. What is gained during the daytime will be lost over night.

I may be a week or so late posting this thread this time around and truth be told, I'm not 100 % sure Lake Menderchuck is even totally frozen over yet. But we've already had two fairly major blizzards in the past few weeks (first one broke an 80 year old single day snowfall record), so at this point, that's good enough for me. This is the part where I make my (never even close) obligatory ice out / open water date prediction. This year I'm tossing convention wisdom (like I have any of that) right out the window. I placed several random dates in a dog bowl and let Tank Pick it. He'll probably just nail it knowing Tank. Friday 11 April 2025 is what he's telling me, and I'm going with it. So that's 117 Days from today https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20250411T12&p0=5787&msg=A-Jay's+Annual+Ice+Out+%2F+Open+Water+Countdown+Thread+~&ud=2&font=cursive I've already started working on my gear and there always quite a bit to do with that. Even more this time around. So I've got time. As always, please feel free to add your comments, support, and yes, even the jabs; as I know they're inevitable & always quite entertaining. And for those folks that can & will get out on the water while I shovel my roof, don't forget to add a few pics of recent catches. All of which may help to pass the time, while I day dream of doing this again as soon as possible. Stay Safe A-Jay

To help develop some mercy for us northern anglers, open your freezer. See the ice cubes? That's how our water looks. I can only look at my old trip reports so many times and I go back in time and read other old trip reports, but go back too far and the photos are no longer there. So, I rely on you southern anglers to share your tales of glory and woe. They keep me warm and limber. Otherwise, I'll lock up solid like our ponds and bogs and the coroner's report will read, "Calcification by bass deficit," which, in case you don't know, is the number one killer of northern anglers.

That looks like textbook balls of bait to me. You're likely correct about the Threadfin, as they'll die off starting in the low 40s. Crappie will stack up more vertically, with a bit more space in b/t the returns. You're certainly on the right track being around those areas. One thing I always try to remember in the winter as a general rule is that you can find bait without Bass, but you can't find Bass without bait. Many times including yesterday I'll see what your seeing on sonar, lots of bait without Bass feeding on them.......which just tells me I missed the feeding window or they're just not actively feeding. On the other hand, every single one of my epic days in the winter was around huge swaths of baits. Literally every single time. I've never had a magical day where I was catching fish without bait nearby. In your videos, I didn't see much in the way of Bass, might have been some small ones in the last video. Either way if that were me reading it, my interpretation would be lots of bait, no Bass. When you see 'spaghetti' above or below those bait balls, it's going down like donkey kong. That's when they are absolutely fired up down there screaming through the bait. Other times you'll see them on the edges of the bait stacked up like sharks circling their prey. Below are screenshots from days where I smashed them

Cold foggy morning on the river. Post front, pre front, all the fronts conditions. First fish of the day, 23" didn't get a weight, pulled off the bottom near a flowing pump with a 3/4oz swim jig. Second and last fish of the day, also swim jig on the bottom. Mr. Owl did not approve

My personal opinion is that the rod is more important than the reel. Most of my reels cost between $150 - $350. I choose them based upon how they feel in my hand as well as the gear ratio, then pair them up with a rod. During the course of a season I may swap up the rod/reel combos for one reason or another.

I will definitely try a couple zillion HDs, I like the idea of brass gears.

I have a friend and customer who is adamant about having all the same reels to eliminate adjustments in technique from one to the next. I don’t do that personally but can see the logic. Each brand has models that shine in certain applications so there’s a good argument for an eclectic collection which is how I lean. For serious tournament angling I stress the importance of bullet proof workhorse reels over anything more refined and “pleasurable “ to fish.

Rainbow, brown, and landlocked salmon.

No. One of "our own" doesn't do stuff that winds up in the headlines if they do what's right and follow the rules like the rest of us.

Get FFS,just like playing the game and you have a chance of actually catching a fish.

One of my favorite Fogy or Tremor trailers is a Missile Spunk Shad. https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/spunk-shad

Jeez man....Poacher, Cheater, Fraud..... Dude forgot to renew his license, it happens. He got popped when it was submitted, he paid the fine, and his submission wasn't entered. But the Share Lunker program still got the benefit of having the fish, which is a net long term gain for all TX anglers given what the program does. So who or what is being harmed in this situation? Yes, I agree everyone should play by the rules...Which is why he was fined for not having a current license and his submission didn't count. To bring it back up almost a year later really seems like someone just has a personal axe to grind. Back in the day Aaron Martens won $200k in an FLW tournament....Turns out he didn't have a license, must have forgot to buy it when he got in town or something. They fined him for no license but didn't make him forfeit the win or money. Which one of y'all is gonna call him a poacher, cheater, or fraud? I certainly won't.

@Blue Raider Bob Are you using straight braid? If so try using a short mono leader, it’s stiffer & won’t foul like braid. The attachment hole closest to the front of the bait is what want to use for horizontal retrieves. The center holes are for vertical jigging.

He can't say anything like that until the legal process is completed. His best bet is no comment, which is what every other criminal would say, lol.

There's a Facebook bass page that deliberately posts controversial and provocative things just to get a rise out of people....and it works. Dumb people take the clickbait every time and comment without fail.

Grab four Daiwa Steez SVTW 100HL and use your winnings to pay them off.

Whopper Stopper is the company that made the original Bayou Boogie. At that time Heddon's number one lipless lure was the Sonic, and larger Super Sonic. The summer of 1976 was when I started bass fishing, with lures which everyone I new referred to as bass plugs. Up until that summer the only bass I caught were while fishing for trout with night crawlers under a bobbers. I bought my first pass plug which was a Heddon Sonic in June, and by July I had a new friend the Bass Monkey. Everyone fisherman I new swore by the Sonic, and I also had great success on the lure. By the summer of 1977 I had acquired a half dozen plugs, and the sonic was still my number one plug. Then the Bait Monkey convinced me to order a Rattletrap out of the new Bass Pro Shops catalogue. A friend of mine who swore by the Super Sonic had turned 16 got his drivers license and his dad let him take their small boat to lake by himself. He invited me to go, and I couldn't wait. His dad always insisted on fishing for crappie, and now we were going to be able to fish solely for bass all day. I tied on my new Rattle trap the 1/4 oz version in baby bass color. My friend started with a Super Sonic. I caught bass on almost every cast, while my friend tried every lure in his box and couldn't get a bite. That was the end to my Heddon Sonic addiction, and the Bait Monkey made best friend for ever status on that memorable day. I always wanted to buy a Bayou Boogie but at that time every tackle purchase was agonized over for day's, and the Sonic always ended up in my box, and after my discovery of the fishing catching power of the Rattle Trap I never even looked at another lipless for 35 years. The Whopper Stopper Bayou Boogie and Hellbender are probably the only two popular bass lures of the 70,s that I never tried. I always wanted to buy one, but my local hardware store didn't carry that brand and I always ordered some other lures from Bass Pro. I may have to buy one and give it a try simply to satisfy my curiosity after all these years.

Not that this detail matters, but he entered the tournament when he signed the dotted line for the prize packs/shopping spree he got a chance at by submitting his big fish. Tournaments come in all shapes and sizes, and if entries are received and prizes handed out, it is legally a tournament. It even says it on his booking sheet and the blurb released by the law rep. Lots of people seem to think this makes a difference-poacher, cheater, fraudster? Pick one and try to brag about it like Ben is doing by using his mug shot as his IG avatar. THAT will surely ingratiate himself to those prosecuting him! (NOT!). His lack of seriousness, and not recognizing he needs to show remorse and humility during this time will not serve him well. He is doubling down on behavior/character that causes many people to dislike him.

The weather finally agreed with me, above 55 with little wind, so I went fishing in the afternoon. Caught 3, one dink and a couple 15 to 16" Alabama bass. A good one came unbuttoned. All on T/R worms in 5-15' near brush piles. Water temp was 50*, down 5* from the last time I fished. There's a window early next week where I'll try it again.

The guy fishes for a living. How could he NOT be current with his license? I have fishing licenses in multiple states and always keep up with my notifications and renewals.

Voice of experience? 🤣

My fourth 34-mm Daiwa was SLP Works Zillion - based on HD, and doesn't come with spool or handle, which suits me just fine. Here, it's two different reels - 1/8 oz (more and less) with Ray's SV spool, and big weights to great distance with SV Boost (and will still cast light). Both spools above are shallow for braid. Throw in fixed-inductor super-light Roro, AMO or KKR spool, and it will cast 1/16 oz into next week.

Cheating is not the right phrase. However, with the type of prizes and winnings on the line it’s definitely fraud and at the very least it is poaching. There is definitely a pattern developing with him and it is never his fault. It is always some one else’s fault or thing. It must be ego because, anytime a high profile fisherman or hunter gets caught doing somthing unethical or illegal. They can never say “i knew better but, did it any way. it’s my fault i’m sorry”. Him saying that would go farther than trying to explain the situation and talk his way out of it.

Nope. They're one of my longer casting reels. I'm sure there are lighter spools available for them also, should you feel the need.

I admit that I'm only faced with that cold of water for a few weeks in the spring after ice-out. During that short window, I rely on two presentations; vertical yo-yoing a blade bait. Notice I didn't say jigging, just a slow lift of a foot or so enough to get it vibrating and letting it fall. I'll let it sit on the bottom for a while before repeating. Dragging a hair jig slowly along the bottom is the other. I use 1/4oz.- 3/8oz. maribou jigs that I tie myself. I underwrap a layer of deer belly hair to keep the maribou from collapsing completely and again, I'll let it sit for a while after moving it a foot or so.

Welcome to BASSCAR

Do you like to change things up and ‘see what this does’? Is consistency more important? What reel feels best in your hands? I’ve tried almost every major brand reel and can say every brand has a lot to offer above $200. After a lot of mixing & matching I use different brand reels for different situations/conditions. My favorite jerkbait reel is an Abu Garcia, Diawa Tatula SV TW my #1 crankbait reel, and a Curado DC is my most used jig reel. Everything, however, is subjective, sort of the Mustang/Camaro for best pony car argument. Best of luck picking out your reels.

^^^Zillion HD^^^ Tom

My thought process is to buy quality reels first & be done with it for years. At one point I had nothing but Shimano Calcuttas & Cardiffs, served me for well over 30 years. That ment for 30+ years I could spend all my budget on rods.

Ok, it's SNF at Seattle. If you like drinking games, take a shot every time the broadcast plays a grunge song going into the break. You'll be drunk before halftime. LOL! Besides grunge, the Seattle area has produced other famous musicians such as Heart, Jimi Hedrix, Dave Matthews Band, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Macklemore, Sleater-Kinney, Queensryche, Quincy Jones, and yes...even Bing Crosby. But NOOOO! They gotta play grunge! LOL!

2025 will be my first year trying bladed jigs. Just got some good ones from @Siebert Outdoors to try. My plan is to try them with trailers. I never use trailers on a spinnerbait.

Some folks in emergency watch, some run away a few run to help that is courage. Having the heart to stick too it come hell or high water doesn’t take courage it takes internal drive to grind it out staying focused on the goal. Few people have both courage and heart my hats off to those few. Tom

Points that I would call “roll offs” (flat points with sharp drops at the ends), were the only places holding fish for me yesterday. The one with grass had more fish, but I found a big log on another that had 3 big fish sitting on it and every one of them bit my jerkbait.

One reason the Rat-L-Trap became more popular down here at least was availability. I could buys Traps out of Bill's station wagon, local stores around Toledo & Rayburn carried them. Bayou Boogie & Pico Perch we had to wait for tackle shops to receive their monthly allotment.

Exactly. I’ve heard his license was expired for 5 months, never mind the fraud part. Too bad his brain isn’t as big as his head.

The thing that complicates this situation, and enhances the punishment is the fact he entered a fish into the Sharelunker program which has a prize pool attached to it. Somehow the news has conflated that with cheating in an actual traditional fishing derby. If he simply caught a 14lb fish without a license, it would be nothing more than a misdemeanor...fishing without a license charge.....but because he entered that fish in a program that has a monetary value attached to it, it's now considered fraud. It doesn't say whether or not the charge is a felony, but usually $10k is enough to elevate a charge to a felony.

Unless the air is warmer for a few days the water wont warm from the air. A warm rain from cloudy skies can change that a little. Hours of sunshine will warm shallow water and there will be some activity. Usually craws then minnows then the fish you want. Slow shallow water near winter haunts in the afternoons on sunny days.

My apologies to anyone who was asking for an update, I promise I didn't forget I just would sit down to type something up and I'd just get sidetracked so I never got around to it until now. So with that being said I understand if the update isn't relevant any more lmao. I also don't really know how detailed I'm gonna go with this so I'll just run down the order of events without going to in depth. Well for starters thanks for all the tips, I made sure to be respectful as I could and helpful. I showed up earlier than a lot of people though except my boater and a few others who had been on the water since before I got there. I texted the guy after sitting in my car for a while letting him know I was there and to text me when he got there. Low and behold he was in front of me the whole time. After grabbing my 2-3 rods and small tackle box of hand picked stuff as to not take up too much room I hopped on the boat and definitely almost ate it in front of the guy. Once I sat down I realized how under dressed I was, since it's been so long since I have been on a bass boat I seem to have forgotten just how fast they go when heading to your spot and in the boat lanes in general. So my t-shirt, light jacket, and shorts were absolutely NOT going to cut it in the cold front that just hit and the wind chill. I think my partner realized that because he let me borrow a pair of wrangler jeans which might have saved my life not gonna lie. After we took off and got to the spot and began talking about what the plan was I think we both realized how miserable it was gonna be because all we could (and anyone else for that matter) was just flip cypress trees. Which it turns out he hates doing because he claims it'll make you lose your mind, and to be honest by the end of the day I completely agree especially when you aren't getting bit. So after a couple hours of nothing and just flipping various jigs/Texas rigs and a lot of random discussions of whatever two 20 year old guys talk about, someone told us they were biting wacky rigs. This was heart breaking for us because flipping is boring enough and when you add something as slow as a wacky rig it just hurts your soul. So we started trying that out of desperation and low and behold my partner catches one flipping a weightless wacky rig in trees like we had been doing. It wasn't anything to write home about, just a 1 1/2 to 2 pounder, nonetheless a fish in the boat. It was however a good learning opportunity as he tried to use that moment to teach me some about netting, tournament rules/scoring, live wells, etc.. So for the rest of the day we did that, of course everyone now and then we'd get too bored start throwing random junk out of desperation. To make a long, boring ad tedious story short, we didn't get anything else. Which was to expected because he had explained to me earlier how this wasn't gonna be a memorable first tournament since al the conditions were pretty bad. Around 1:15 he said we're gonna go ahead and head back since it looks like we are just losing it out here. It was a long ways to the lane and we just cruised there while he explained to me some tips on buying boats and what to look for which is always appreciated. When we got back it seems like everyone had a terrible day, our VP said "This is the first tournament in four years here I've not caught a fish." which made me feel a little better about getting skunked although it's a little sad to hear in his case. While waiting on all the others with only like two other guys at the dock, the guy next to us who was solo said he caught two 7-8 pounders and had a 5 shake off. Of course me and the others are kind of chuckling at him because we don't believe him for a second, well I'll be damned if he didn't reach in his live well and spend 2 minutes wrestling what sounded like a wild boar of two 7 pounders out of his boat. Proceeds to pull out two fish bigger than any bass outside of a Bass Pro tank I've ever seen. Casually beats my PB 2 times. Said he had to fish so slow, that he'd just toss a wacky rig out on a cypress tree then just sit on his phone and wait. So I'm sure me and my partner missed quite a few just because we like to fish fast but it's ok because at the end of the day I had a great time and learned a lot. That guy won by a landslide beating two other 2 pound fish. After helping pack up and taking yearbook pictures in jerseys we left out. I took some advice from here and offered the guy $20-$40 in gas money but he strongly denied and insisted I save it for the guys who WILL take your money, said he signed up to be a boat and it's his responsibility to pay the expenses. I'm really appreciative of him because he was very understanding of it being pretty new to me and teaching me a lot. Again my apologies for such a late response, and for the essay. 😶‍🌫️