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Went out today with Jake and @LrgmouthShad for a little pre X Mas / Post frontal NC LMB chasing! We had some good structure picked out when we got to the lake around 11 to check out. We split our way and LMS went his way in the yak to see if we could sort them out faster. We went up the sunny side and made it all the way to the lily pads on the flat sunny side and I say to Jake - let's go fish the deep shady side - they're supposed to be on steeper Banks this time of year - or something to that effect. Jake agrees we need to change it up and steeper contours seems smart to him so we put the motor on high and jet to the opposite side of the lake and start fishing our way back into a spawning pocket adjacent to a main lake point. I figure offshore and flat banks have been a bust and LMS struggled on humps and points - why not try spawning areas. I look at my Garmin and start seeing bass shaped arches suspending over 11 feet of water in very scattered ones and twos very near the surface - not doing very much. No bait. The sun is getting low - only an hour until we are required to get off the water at this particular lake. I throw my 1 oz 'Pats Gizzard' @Siebert Outdoors grass jig with a Watermelon Seed Zoom Mag Speed Craw on the back at some targets at the back of this pocket and we start bouncing around the channel swing back out to the point. I see some really good looking overhanging trees with some sun hitting some clear sandy bottom with some laydowns just beneath the surface right where the pocket transitioned to the channel swing and I throw that jig right up to the bank. Our boat is stationary but I have the sensation that my trolling motor is on high and my jig is stuck in something on the bottom.....but the boat is stationary.....SET THE HOOK DUMMY *screeeeech* and away we go.... She's out from the cover now and making a mad dash for deeper water. She starts to really load up and I can tell we got a real big one on the line. I ask Jake for a net and he quickly locates it and asks where she is and up she pops almost exactly on cue - his jaw drops and he says 'YOU'RE GOING TO WIN THIS MONTH!' (referring to the local big bass bash - I have submitted 3 bass and had each one taken out by ounces near the end of each respective month) Jake gets her and I lip her and we both realize she's a bit heftier than even dad thought. She may INDEED be worthy of submission I decide. We fill the livewell and crank the O2 and she seems happy chilling in there - I call the Marina. I am informed in all three lakes - 4.99 lbs is the largest submission for all of December. Jake and I smile and tell the park attendant to ready the scales and we high tail it back. She beat the current big bass by 2.36 lbs coming in at 7.35 lbs. She was all of 20" making her quite possibly the fattest fish I've ever caught and I am currently leading the month of December! Here she is! Here she is on marina scales getting certified for the competition! Here's the lovely jig that got her to bite 😏😏😏

Open the tool box and wrench to loosen a 9/16” hex nut. You have a 9/16” opened wrench, box end wrench, socket ratchet tool, Crecent wrench and channel lock pliers. Which tool do you choose? The Cresent wrench and channel lock pliers may work but not application specific, you have better choices. To select the proper tool location is important, can you turn the nut with the other tools or is the socket the only tool to perform the task. You select the tool that gets the job done. If you only have a crescent wrench you make it work. Tom

All of my rods are very specific. They are all used for fishing.

Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays to all. Best wishes from our family to yours.

I just try to stay in the middle of the rod power rating.

OK so I'm coming in here saying the term 'technique specific' is over and perhaps even misused. And I lean that way because rods are tools and selecting the right tool for the job is what I strive to do every trip on the water. Could I fish one or two rods for a Jig, a swimbait, a crankbait, an A-Rig, a topwater bait, a hair jig, jerkbait ? Maybe but I'm certain I'd struggle. If one fishes a Texas Rig 24/7 - might not need much variation in the arsenal. Otherwise, matching a bait to a rod, reel & line for me is simply part of being an experienced basshead. So I'm not buying the technique specific deal. If an angler is successful fishing his or her deals on a few of the same type of rods, that's cool. But I'm a hack and need all the help I can get. So there's that. A-Jay

There’s a balance here, and it’s probably different for everyone.. For me, tying and retying a few rods all day long for different techniques is inefficient and a PIA in my opinion. That said, I might only fish 4-6 different techniques any given day. The challenge is, you don’t always know which technique(s) will prevail before you set out on the water. In my boat, I had 15 rod tubes.. I always felt if I had more rod/reel combos than that, then I was inefficient and over-thinking things. It seemed to work well -

I didn’t catch anything 🫡 I provided moral support

I am in love with @FryDog62's organization. They say opposites attract and anyone who's seen photos of my canoe know that I'm the utter opposite. If you haven't seen any pics of my messy canoes, here's one: Still, I'm in love @FryDog62's boat. I will grab a different rod for smallies. I'd use a ML or M, but I quickly learned that you can't keep an lmb from weeds with merely a M, so all my lmb rods are MH and all about 7' 2" long.

Other than a fiberglass rod I prefer for surface baits, I use all my other rods with all my lures. Yep, I fish with crescent wrenches and make them work.

OK - Not Football jigs specifically, but I have multiple rigs for just spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, vibrating jigs, topwater baits, and a few others. But I'm an OG and have had time to figure out what I like and more importantly, what I need. And in bass fishing, NEED is almost always a relative term. But what I do might not be right for you. Also, my rig has a truly Ridiculous amount of usable storage for it's size. Clearly, I take full advantage of that. A-Jay

Anyone else able to recall almost all your fishing catch memories, such as time, place, conditions, lures, what was working, what was not working, etc? But then I'll go see if my car needs an oil change and I had just done it last week. It's like I have a photographic memory related to fishing, but then amnesia for everything else.

There are more of us crescent wrench-ers than I would have guessed. Well, this wrench wench is happy for the company!

I don't give my rods names, that way if I throw a worm on a spinnerbait rod it doesn't get confused. My favorite "worm" rod was a Shimano Crucial 6' 10" Medium Heavy X-Fast, it was rated by Shimano as a spinnerbait specific rod. Sorry but not even Gary Loomis can tell me what I like in a rod.

I’ve got 8 Crescent wrenches.

100% Catt specific 😉

Space for rigged rods on my boat and on my personal pontoon is limited and I hate having a bunch of rods get tangled up. I’ve never had more than 5 rods, and usually 4 on the deck most times. I just don’t have the room and always felt that technique specific rod labeling was just a way for companies to sell more rods. I carry a medium lite, a couple of medium spinning rods and one or two medium heavy baitcasters. Those will do a good job throwing anything in my tackle box that’ll catch a smallie.

My RAM is reserved for fishing, besides our wedding Anniversary and my wife's DOB. My recall on where I've caught bigger fish and what I caught them on is strong. So don't ask me what I ate yesterday.

Rage Craw & Lobster Zoom's Ultravibe Speed Craw & Magnum Speed Craw Gene Larew Salty Hawg Craw

Christmas Monkey delivered.... The BOTTOMUP baits came in 5 packs. Both great free rig baits. I also picked up a couple of Ryugi bait bags. These are amazing for what they are. Also not pictured are about 20 jigs from Beast Coast. More to come.

Exactly. Most reel designs are usually reinventing the wheel with a pinch of sugar to sweeten it up. From what I can tell, the only real standout innovations the last 2 or 3 decades have been with braking systems like Daiwa Magforce and Shimano FTB. Truthfully, the manufacturers are mainly focusing their efforts on 4 fronts; speed, drag capacity, bearing count, and lightness. Those are the primary factors that push reel sales because of the "more is better" mentality. Super fast retrieves are good for some things, not so much for others. Drag capacity is overrated because it only matters to people that don't understand how drag works. How did we land musky and Chinook salmon 30+ years ago on reels capable of a measly 6-8lb of drag? Bearings are important, but what's more important is how and where they are implemented. One can find endless examples of off brand reels with a very high bearing count. Lastly, being lightweight is nice, but how it balances with a given rod is more important. Balance will always be favorable to total weight.

I took a 10+ year break from the sport, and I feel like that gave me a unique perspective on how far and fast the technology of gear changed within the sport from the early 2000s......and then from the 2020s. For the most part I only buy Made in Japan reels, so the reels before and now would be considered the higher end models from both Shimano and Daiwa. Reels like the Calais and Steez from the early 2000s, and reels like the new Zillions from today. What I learned is that the differences b/t early 2000s and 2020s reel technology is not nearly as significant as most other aspects of the tackle markets. I don't feel like a Calais or Steez from 2007 era is all that behind the Zillions of today in terms of tech and usage. For me I feel like reel technology evolves extremely slow, with very small incremental changes happening to them. On the other hand, it's beyond mind blowing how much both hooks and lines have improved. The hooks and lines of the early 2000s are no longer usable for me given the massive gap in effectiveness and tech in the current ones. Look at lures innovation from the early 2000s to now......insane. Whole new categories of baits like Glides, A-Rigs, Jighead Minnows, etc. Look at electronic innovation from the early 2000s to now.....beyond insane. Literally real time tracking of fish using sonar. The thing that has changed the least from the early 2000s to today is reel technology. Like the AR-15, the modern day Bass reel has been refined to death, and any technological advances are happening on such a small scale year to year that's its hard to notice.

^^ Same ^^

My Dad remembered every deer he killed and big buck that he saw in great detail. We'd drive the gravel roads in southern Illinois where he lived and he'd tell the same ole stories year after year. It kinda annoyed me as a teenager and young adult but I gained an appreciation for them as I got older. I'd give anything to go on one of those rides right now.

I forgot to answer the day to day memory part, lol. I have doorway amnesia. As soon as I enter I different room, I forget why I went there.

X2 I have limited space in my boat. I do have 2 rigs for pitching( braid and heavier rods) but one is a spinning rig for skipping under docks.

I can fish just about any bait on a 7’ MHF casting rod and did that for years. But over the past few years I’ve added other weapons to my arsenal. Often times the difficulty comes down to what my load out is on each trip. Space is limited on my kayak, so I have to choose wisely.

Guilty to the point of excess. 3 cranking rods, 2 jig rods, 1 worm rod, 2 swimbait/swim jig rods, 3 topwater rods, a tube rod, a jerkbait rod and a number of other dual purpose rods. I really don't count my spinning rods as technique specific. To my way of thinking, they're all finesse rods.

Almost no technique specific rods here. I pretty much know the actions and ratings of all my rods, so when I select a bait I want to throw, I just tie it on to the outfit I think it will work best on. Sometimes that means swapping reels onto different rods first to align line type or test properly.

Whoa, that bass is FAT! And look at the muscle in her tail. W-O-W!

Excellent fish @Pat Brown!

When I am on the water looking at specific areas a flood of memories come to mind, brain needs that little jog to recall. Now I need a list or calendar to look at for day to day choirs or appointments, fishing memories have faded into the mist for the most part. When I do recall every detail is vivid as it just happened. Tom

Tangent airlines now departing.... Keep it on topic guys.

Bon Chrismeusse!

I have some version of that still. But some of it has slipped away at least a little. Having a video to go back & review is very helpful, especially now. I get just about all the info I could want. Not sure I need it or or if it even helps, but it's there if I want it. Now if I could just find my pants, I'm a little cold. 😎 A-Jay

Laugh all ya like! I got the skunk out the boat! Only caught two dinks but I got to go fishing! First picture is an otter. The nightmare follows me forever. This is Normandy Lake in middle Tennessee.

Went to Christmas Saturday at a daughters house and my grandkids got me two gift cards and a Mystery fishing Box. The box had a Googan Spinnerbait, a Blade bait, and EWG Hooks! Wish I knew how to rotate pictures. I'm online today finishing the fun! I did such a great job with my kids!

I can’t see any mechanical reason for the drag to back off aside from moving the drag star intentionally or unintentionally. The detail that it only happens during certain motions and positions supports this idea. I have seen Heavy jerkbaiting put a beating on AR clutches causing a handle to intermittently back turn but that’s another story.

I like stuff that can do lots of stuff but generally I like some heavier stuff and some lighter stuff for throwing bigger and smaller baits.

My starting spot is a 7' MH Fast for casting rods. If the bait doesn't work well with that 'control' rod, I usually find that I need a technique specific rod for the bait. Jerkbait......doesn't work well on that control rod, so I've got a p5 Destroyer 110 stick Chatterbait.....doesn't work hardly at all on the control, so I got Alpha Angler Chatterbound rod. For spinning rods, my starting spot is a 7' M Fast. Everything I want to do on a spinning from skipping senkos, to shaking a minnow, to throwing a neko rig......all perfect on that rod. I don't own a single technique specific rod in terms of spinning gear.

Thanks man. December has been a GRIND - but I'm so blessed to have caught and released that fantastic specimen and right before Christmas with good friends and my son with the net. That jig is going in my 'not for fishing anymore ' drawer with some other special lures to be passed down to Jake when I'm gone.

Awesome fish Pat! I guess that's why you get a lure color named after you 😎

I fished on average probably 3+ times a week all summer and I still can recall almost all of the great days from memory, but the regular and even pretty good days I’ve almost completely forgot. I definitely need to start a journal next year. For remembering big fish, I take a couple pictures of everything 18” or bigger, one pic with the bait in its mouth so I can remember, and one without so my buddys wont won’t be throwing the same bait in my spot 😉

Are your @Big Hands bumping the drag while you're working the bait, eventually causing this deal ? If not, I got nothing. A-Jay

Like Jig Man, it's not uncommon for me to fish 5+ times a week, and everything really does start to blend together making it almost impossible to pick out individual details of importance from a particular day. I write about a paragraph worth of info in Notepad for each session with a few main data points that always get listed.......Hours fished, number of fish caught, sub species breakdown, baits used, big fish, and water temps. I don't worry about weather or moon phase because I can always look those up using a historical weather app. On a true banger of a day, I'll record every single detail I can remember that I think might play a factor.

My wife asked me what I wanted this year for X-mas, and I told her she already got me a present, then proceeded to pull this bottle out of a bag. Now all she does is have to put some lures in my stocking and I'm set.

Cuda scissors are the best. I have probably 20 pair laying around. I buy them 5 or so at a time! Thanks to @MN Fisher and @Siebert Outdoors, I received a package from Santa today. Thank you again @MN Fisher! I really, really appreciate it!

Understood, no judgement felt on my end. To add to my above post, frugality doesn't mean buying the high end stuff either, lots of great value reels are in the sweet spot, that $100 to $300 range. In general, that is where you strike a happy medium between durability and parts availability. Even then, some manufacturers, like Daiwa and Shimano, will only keep stock of parts for the higher end stuff long after production ends or the model gets revised. Abu Garcia, prior to being bought by Sycamore Partners in 2018, still kept stock of parts for every Swedish made reel in their catalog. Now they don't reproduce parts for reels designed prior to 1997, so this eliminated production of parts for reels from the classic era, pre-1979. That said, it is worth mentioning the BFS crowd. Lots, and I mean lots of them buy seemingly every reel from the fly-by-night manufacturers in China. In the same breath, they will proclaim they can't afford a JDM or USDM reel, while posting a picture of a dozen $50-$100 Ming Yangs, Tsurinoyas, or something along those lines. Some of them will then spend another $10 to $20 on a set of bearings plus other parts. At that point, they could've had 2 or 3 reels from more reputed manufacturers. Granted, I don't see any of that going on here, that's more of a Facebook thing. I won't mention any YouTube channels, but some are influencers who drive sales of those reels. One I talk to regularly supplements his income reviewing and doing open box videos of CDM BFS reels. Some of them do perform well, but durability and parts availability are questionable. I've serviced some of them on occasion, and there are almost always corners cut somewhere.

Tried one spot in the morning to no avail, was pretty windy at 34 degrees with some snow so I punted and got some lunch, re launched elsewhere. It was pretty tho, could see snow on the high peaks Second spot was much more productive (out of the wind) but all dinks, got SMB, meanmouth, bluegill and shellcracker, all in the exact same spot. And more snowy views