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Caught 28 + 2 Crappie + 1 big Channel Cat in the middle of what seemed like millions of shad, and hundreds of Bass. At one point I watched a wolf pack of 15-20 fish cruising on the surface. I knew they did that when corralling bait, but it's the first time they were close enough to the surface for me to witness. Bass will never stop impressing me, they're just such a supreme predator. I watched a 25-30lb sack blow up all around me for hour after hour but never even caught a single big one. I've said it a number of times in this thread over the last several years, but schooling Bass can easily be one of the most frustrating things I've experienced in life. Watching 5lb+ fish clear the water over and over and not being able to catch them is akin to being waterboarded 😂

This will sound silly but to catch big bass you must fish for them where they live. Can’t catch em if you don’t fish where they are at. For whatever reason became fascinated catching the biggest bass where I fished. Study big bass habits and learned everything you can about them. For example big bass are females. Female bass are their heaviest weight prior to spawning or “pre spawn’ and feeding heavily to add body weight to get them through the spawn cycle without feeding. The big females don’t eat once they start laying eggs. The big bass will protect their beds but that is a makes basses primary duty. Target the big girls before they go onto beds! Big bass ear high protein prey and avoid spiny prey like bluegill. Sat what big bass avoid eating bluegill!….yes! Big spawner’s will attack any egg eater like bluegills but not as a high protein prey source! The big girls prefer softer ray less spiny prey fish and crawdads. You want to catch big pre spawn bass use lures that replicate their preferred prey source. Tom

A friend took us out to the local nuclear power plant lake on Thursday. Water temps about 77 degrees. It was my buddy's birthday, he caught all the numbers and I caught the big bass at the end of the day. Probably like three to four pounds. Nothing like fast squarebill fishing in mid February. I haven't been out since, work took me away from a trip I'd hoped to make to a special central Texas lake. Spawn is just around the corner

Today’s catch of the day is this Floridian shivering during a Texas cold front holding a 12 bass. 12 ounces. We caught small ones today. I picked up 3 more. Where are the bigger fish???

Had an interesting fun fishing trip on Super Bowl Sunday. The water was incredibly swift, my buddy with his robot trolling motor and spot lock was fishing nearby and the spot lock was no match. I beached my craft in an eddy and started casting a swimbait. Whilst doing so, I noticed a bunch of shad swimming by. Got the trusty cast net out and got some, then deployed one on a jighead. Something took off with it and swam really fast, I thought surely a striper. After a few good runs in the current, I got some video rolling. Some bald eagles were up in a nest nearby, noisily cheering me on. If you turn the volume up on the video , you can hear them well. I took this as a sign that the eagles would win the Super Bowl, go birds! When I finally got the fish near the boat, it turned out to be a medium sized drum. They aren’t typically that fast but this one sure was ! I then caught another small drum and decided to go try something else for a bit. Found a slower spot tucked in behind a bridge pillar and tried some night crawlers. My first fish was a nice shellcracker that I let go. Then I got a couple nice bluegill and a yellow perch that I also let go. Well they just kept biting so I decided to start keeping some and ended with nice little mess of tasty fillets. A largemouth even decided to show up and bite a nightcrawler. After I ran out of nightcrawlers, I went back down to the eddy where the drum were. This time I got an even bigger 26” drum but it didn’t fight nearly as hard as the first one. Cleaned the fish and froze the fillets, took a shower and made it to a Super Bowl party in the nick of time. Water temp was 48 the blooper pics near the bottom are a goose that identified as a pigeon, trying to nest on a bridge 60-70 feet off the ground. And an accidental photo of a shellcracker that flipped up right when I hit the button

Thanks! She hit like a freight train. And yes, I have. Just over 40lbs since mid November. I appreciate that you noticed

If I catch a big bass it is because of my superior bass fishing skill. If some one else catches a big bass, they just got lucky.

I watched Founder last night, a movie about Ray Krok and the founding of McDonald's. He had a quote that summed up my fishing philosophy spot on. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” If I had a superpower it would be persistence. To that end, the more I'm struggling, the more I'm going.

What's your bass fishing superpower? It might be reading an FFS screen or casting or skipping or boat control or record keeping or having good hunches or anything else. Only share one: Mine is paddling. I fish some pretty tight quarters where I have to squishedy-squeeze my canoe through the slots and there are rocks and trees that I cannot bump or I'll spook the bass, so I have to paddle like a creeping cat. Plus, I often have to paddle several miles, which requires straight line paddling and efficient strokes. The pics below aren't to share bass I've caught, but where I catch them. For me, good paddling lets me fish places like this:

Just about every basshead at some point gets the itch to fish for and catch big bass. Some even go for it. However success comes at a cost. IMO it boils down to Location, Timing, Presentation & Persistence ~ The list of bassheads that make it happen is far shorter than the ones that do not. Main two reasons might be fishing on water that has no big bass and or just plain giving up. Is one big bass better than several smaller/juvenile bass ? Only you can decide. Fish Hard A-Jay .

Well, it's been over 6 years since I initially listed most of the Brown Bass Tool baits. There's be some changes / refinement during that time. Totally snowed in this weekend, offered the perfect opportunity to do an update. Chapters are listed in the video comments. Fish Hard A-Jay

Before anyone chimes in, yes, I know it’s a bit of both. But what do you do to tilt the odds in your favor? I’ve tried using big baits only to catch fish that were barely bigger than the lure. I’ve also caught one of my three biggest fish ever on a Ned rig. So how about you guys?

I'm the driver of the struggle bus, but in a good way. I thrive in tough conditions. If they're jumping in the boat, I spin out and try to do too much it seems like. If it's a grind, working for every bite kind of day, that's when I'm the most dangerous. I'll pick things apart and squeeze every fish I can out of an area. I'm also an expert junk fishermen, which I think the two things kind of go hand in hand.

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”

My ability to find the loudest dock or pontoon and hit it with a jig at 630am. That and making areas work that other people dont bother with. I hate competing for water and wondering if my lure, presentation or timing is wrong or if its just been beat to death by 5 anglers before me in the last hour.

First fish of 2025 2 Leopards on Saturday soaking anchovies 3 trout Sunday bottom bouncing a gold kastmaster.

@woolleyfooley here ya go. One thing this pic doesn't really show is the difference in the "bulk" of the double wide.

First thing is making sure I’m on a body of water that holds or can eat least grow big fish. Most bodies of water around here can produce 3lber, but not every body of water can produce a 4-5lb fish or bigger, which are the ones I’m after. This is usually based on the abundance of baitfish like yellow perch or golden shiners. Another factor that is important to me is depth. Apart from early and really late in the season, most of my big fish come from 8’ of water or deeper, up to 17’. The shallower I’m fishing, the shorter the fish tend to be, unless it’s April/may or October. So my two most important factors are depth and forage base when I’m PB hunting.

Enjoying myself. That’s my superpower. I used to be the one who went out there and if I didn’t catch a limit or a big fish, it was a wasted day. Now I realize I should enjoy anything I’m voluntarily doing. Like I tell my golf buddies: We paid money to be out here; let’s enjoy it.

Yeah I'd say that my key trait is persistance. I just know she's gonna bite on that next cast. 🙂

Mine would be eliminating productive water.

Made it out on Sunday in the yak on the power plant. I thought about skipping it and going to a different lake to avoid the crowds after the idiocy I dealt with out there last week, but I decided I'd go and stay until boats got bad or until the fish quit biting, whichever came first. It was a cold morning with a pretty good breeze, I headed straight to my point that I got ran off of last week and it was on right away. There was tiny shad everywhere, looking like they were stunned from the cold snap, and fish were occasionally boiling on them. Water temps had come up about 6* since the week before and I don't know if that or the cold front rolling in or maybe a combination of both, but something had them moving. I had several baits to try but my guides were freezing all day, and that always messes with my willingness to switch up too much. They were chewing a Ned real good like usual, but I had some Geecrack Neko Hack neko rigging tools I wanted to try, so I tossed a Neko rigged Big Bite Baits worm and stuck a nice one. When I say these fish were gorging on dying shad, I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for a bass to eat itself to death? 18.5" and 5.08lbs, a fitting football on Superb Owl Sunday. Very next cast with the Neko, another bite, another heavy fish. I was thinking megabag at this point. This one was "only" 4 and some change. Those would be my only big bites of the day though. I caught fish steadily the entire 9 hours I was on the water, to the tune of over 30 fish and constantly had them boiling around me, but the big ones stopped biting after those 2. I did catch the biggest little bass I've ever seen. I thought it was a white bass when I first saw it flash under the surface. Nope, just a 13 incher that weighed 1.75lbs. Huge winter storm coming again this week. We're looking 6" to a foot of snow on Wednesday and really cold temps, not looking good for next weekend. Might have to finally do some trailer maintenance that I've been neglecting all winter.

Take your drum and beat it!

Fish are not high enough on the intellect scale to have a temper to be angry. Territorial protection shouldn’t be confused with anger. Crayfish (crawdads) are high in protein as a food source, don’t know where your information is coming from? The majority of giant bass caught in California were caught on live crawdads. I am an exception using jigs that replicate crawdads because jigs allowed me to cover more water and not anchor. Tom

We've discussed this before, but I'm in total agreement with you on moving baits vs. realistic slow-moving baits. I consider an outlier fish to be greater than 8lbs. The vast majority of fish I've caught over 8lbs have been caught on reaction baits where I don't give that big, old, smart fish a chance to examine the bait. She's put into a position of either eating it, or letting it fly past her face. Going back to the live bait thing I mentioned in my first post, I just think big LMB have too big of eyes and have likely seen to many artificial baits to be tricked into eating a slow-moving bait during the daylight or at depths where plenty of light penetrates to. Night fishing is different, but even then, I still catch 90% of all my outlier fish during the day, and many when the sun is at the highest from about 10am-2pm. The bait most responsible for the highest numbers of trophy catches (8lb+) recorded in FL's program are from soft plastics like a big worm........so as usual there is always a counter example to any theory you hold in Bass fishing.

Except when it doesn't. I've caught just as many big fish (8+ lbers) ripping and burning baits around as I have dragging or dead sticking. I would probably say a significant number more!

Just an observation from Super Bowl Sunday. I went to the Stones River Sunday morning and froze my fingers. Got skunked and only fished for an hour or so, but I did manage to net a couple dozen small Shad for the pond. Here is what I observed. When the Shad are released, the healthy ones scatter, only to regroup in small pelagic schools. The weaker Shad swim weakly with no intended direction, often on their backs. The extremely weak Shad swim weakly to the pond bottom and unintentionally bury themselves into the bottom vegetation. The largemouth become super aggressive when the shad are discovered and don't mind at all coming right up to the bank where I am standing to feed. The clear water allows me to observe everything. What I have always wondered, until now, is how bass remove and consume prey that inhabit the pond bottom. Here is how it goes. The LM will notice movement, move in for inspection, hover over movement, creep close, then inhale movement, vegetation, leaf debris, sticks, everything! The LM will then slowly back off, and gradually work the debris away and separate debris from prey. This takes several seconds to complete. I do not know how prey is retained while debris is expelled but I witnessed it several times Sunday. When satisfied, the LM will slowly search the targeted area then move on. Don't know if this info may help those that like to Texas Rig, or Carolina Rig, but maybe somehow it will.

I think we all know why you didn’t hook up in the first part of that video when they were jumping all around, because you threw a spinnerbait! That footage proves the uselessness of that lure beyond the shadow of a doubt! 😂 in addition to @softwateronly’s spoon suggestion, a weightless fluke can sometimes trigger them. I’d even toss a spook/popper into that madness, I’ve seen hundreds of white bass ignore everything but walk the dog action many times

That's spoon water! https://thehookuptackle.com/products/metal-adict-01?variant=42594966208679 https://shimreels.com/search?page=2&search=little jack metal adict zero Ripped and killed, give em the erratic flash they want! Seriously though, these two salt spoons have been magical at times when my fish behave like you're describing. scott

@AlabamaSpothunter @Rocky998 standing timber is synonymous with TX. The area in that photo is covered with it. He is sitting next to the last visible standing timber before it becomes fully submerged. Seeing big trees in 60ft is not uncommon around there. We fished a lot of timber today

This is how I feel when I’m throwing a spinnerbait. Even if I’ve cast 100 times in a row, that 101st cast still feels like it’s gonna be a fish as soon as those blades start thumping.

For me, I guess it would be adaptability. That and being able to enjoy myself no matter if they’re really biting, kinda biting or not biting at all. i really do go by the Henry David Thoreau quote, “Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that is not the fish they are after.” Don’t get me wrong, I much prefer it when they’re biting, but if they’re not I find beauty in being out in Gods creation.

Hopefully it's ok I post this here. I will be selling some rods soon. I feel like the pricing is quite fair but wanted to get feedback from you guys if you think some are too high/low. I'm hoping to do pickup/meet up so I don't have to ship. These are the casting rods I'm selling. I take great care of my rods (kind of OCD) so most rods are like new. I'm talking no scratches or anything. Perfectly straight blanks and guides. Some older ones might have a few surface scratches by the hook keeper, but nothing crazy. Rods are listed by length. Thanks. *ALL RODS COME WITH ROD SLEEVE* Major Craft Benkei 6'9 MH/MF $100 (retail $150) Ark Cobb Series 6'9 M/M $40 (retail $100) Legit Design Stand Out 6'10 MH/MF $140 (retail $225) Shimano Expride B 6'10 M/MF $175 (retail $280) Megabass Levante 6'11 M/F $125 (retail $200) Shimano Poison Adrena 6'11 M+/F $250 (retail $380) Kistler Feel N Reel 6'11 MH/MF $100 (retail $250/previous model) Daiwa Tatula Elite (new model) 7'0 ML/M $125 (retail $190) ALX Zolo Dream (custom- full carbon handle, metallic red accents instead of blue) 7'0 M/F $180 (retail $290) Kistler Chromium 7'0 LMH/XF $100 (retail $300) Ark Invoker Tour 7'0 MH/XF $100 (retail $160) Kistler Chromium 7'0 MH/XF $100 (retail $300) Level Fishing NGX 7'0 MH/M $120 (retail $170) Kistler Helium 7'1 MH/XF $150 (retail $300/previous model) Dobyns Kaden 715 7'1 H+/F $115 (retail $180) Savage Gear Black Ops 7'1 MH/XF $175 (retail $300) ALX Zolo Deputy 7'1 MH/F $150 (retail $260) Phenix Feather 7'1 H/XF (feels more like a MH/MF) $110 (retail $169) Ark Cobb Series 7'1 H/F $40 (retail $100) Megabass Orochi XX Diablo 7'2 M/F (feels more like a M+) $170 (retail $300) Phenix M1 7'2 MH/F $120 (retail $185) Shimano Expride A 7'2 MH/F $170 (retail $280) 6th Sense LUX 7'2 MH/MF $100 (retail $150) Shimano Zodias 7'2 H/F $150 (retail $230) Kistler Feel N Reel 7'2 MH/MF $100 (retail $250/previous model) Shimano Expride B 7'2 MH/F $185 (retail $280) Kistler Chromium 7'2 HMH/F $100 (retail $300) Level Fishing NGX 7'2 MH/MF $120 (retail $170) Shimano Expride B 7'3 H/F $210 (retail $310) Dobyns Sierra 734 7'3 H/F (feels more like a MH) $110 (retail $190) Powell Naked 7'3 H/F $130 (retail $200) Daiwa DX Type H Glass 7'3 MH/M $60 (retail $100) Ark Tharp Series (new model) 7'3 MH/F $90 (retail $140) Okuma X-Series 7'3 MH/XF $185 (retail $280) Cabela's Tournament ZX Frog Rod 7'3 H/F $40 (retail $100) Dobyns Champion Extreme 745 7'4 H+/F $230 (retail $350) Daiwa Tatula Elite (new model) 7'4 MH/M $125 ($190) Dobyns Kaden 744 7'4 H/F $120 (retail $190) Ark Cobb Series 7'4 MH/M $40 (retail $100) Dobyns Champion XP 744 7'4 H/XF $175 (retail $270) Lew's Custom Speed Stick Cranking (older version) 7'6 MH/MF $75 (retail $140) ALX Ikos Thunder (custom- light gray accents instead of green) 7'6 XH/MF $100 (retail $160) Okuma X-Series 7'6 H/F $200 (retail $300) Phenix Feather 7'7 XH/F $125 (retail $189) Dobyns Fury 795 Swimbait 7'9 MH/F $90 (retail $140)

Just the opposite. I love 'em, and added them to several other reels.

Choosing a starting point. My first spot to catch ratio is pretty good.

That video was EXCITING, Alex. In 2023, I couldn't catch any wolfpacking bass, but I had some success in 2024 reeling an underspin right under the surface. I moved it so fast, I'm guessing, that they couldn't differentiate between it and shad.

My super power is the ability to make a bad day good, by using my imagination, combined with a willingness to substitute BS for facts at any given moment. Any mortal can make up a good fishing story, it takes a gifted, story teller with super human powers of persuasion to actually believe their own BS. I would like to see Super Man, Spider man and Women together try to stretch a 2 pound bass into a bass just a hair short of a DD. I doubt they could do it, even if they hand the invisible man holding the scale. I can not only make the two pound bass grow in to a true giant, but I wont even blink an eye while telling the tale.

Imagine compounding extremely pressured water with fishing from the back deck behind a very good fisherman who gets first crack at everything. That's what I deal with once a month in our club tourneys. My super power is being able to remain focused and disciplined and not get spun out or frustrated in that scenario. There is a simple secret behind it though which is the real superpower, clue... it starts with the letter G and rhymes with attitude :-)

Beat me to it! Yessir! Fish bit a spinnerbait the first cast today and then completely ceased to hit it despite being on the money with my casts

For real. I'd be chucking anything I could into that stuff, taking my time picking it apart.

Did you look in that incredibly juicy looking standing timber to the side of you? 😁

Mine twisted a bunch on a m/f casting setup. For me it's on the cast, lots of helicoptering when I'm bombing for surface busts. I fished it pretty hard before it became time for me to untwist my line. It seemed like a swivel and clip messed with the action. I need to try it again to be sure, but that's where I'm at now. scott

I would say that in the last 4-5 seasons, my dock skipping skills with a plastic has gone from minimal to masterful. It is very rare nowadays that I miss my spot. I've actually called a bite several times in recent memory before it happened to my partner.

I have dual super powers. My first super power is my wife that works full time and wants me to stay retired. My second is that I can still get @Fishing Rhino on his boat, fishing, a few times a year. I've posted before that Tom's in his 80's and no longer drives and can't operate a boat by himself. He was generous with his Nitro's back seat when I joined this forum in 2013, so I now put him there with his favorite baits and run his boat. There's going to be a last fishing trip for all of us, and for now, I can keep his off in the distance.

To look at a contour map and depth finder of any kind, even going back to flashers and paper graphs, and “see” the bottom of the lake as it would appear without water.

That separates the men from the boys.

The goal is to never have to go beyond "B" 😁

My rod lineup... Mix of nrx plus, megabass p5 and orocchi.. Shimano exprides, Zodias and 1st Gen Cumara.. Dobyns Champion xps for cranking duties... Eventually will sell off my megabass and dobyns to get everything to shimano/g Loomis in the next few years...

First trip in TX this year because I’ve been busy. Turns out they are still biting a jig. These bass have no style, man. They just wake up, eat jig, go to bed. Caught a few small ones and missed a bunch unfortunately. Here’s the best one at just under 3lbs. Happy to be back on the water 😎 #returnoftheshades

Sacked up a bit over 21lbs for a nice day. The 6.5 came on the Deps MIDST 1/4oz Drift Fry combo.....then the other 4 fish that made the bag were between 3.5-4lbs and all came on the spinnerbait. If I'm catching them on a spinnerbait, I've thrown the entire tacklebox 😆