Team9nine

Believe I’ve got 50/65# original PP in dark green on the heavy outfit, and 40# 832 on the small frog/open water outfit. Only play with the specialized stuff (YGK) on the finesse outfits.

Hoping everything stabilizes quickly and starts heading back in the other direction - and that you’ll be able to get down there soon yourself. Keeping you both in our thoughts.

Thermoclines don't have to be just a single small zone of water. Though there are several different ways to define a thermocline, many often referring to just the zone of greatest temp change, but by technical definition, the water (zone) dropping at least 1 deg. C per meter of depth is a requirement. On larger thermoclines, you can have an upper and lower level to that band of falling water temps ('top' and 'bottom' of the thermocline). So you can have a large band of water that meets that technical definition, especially early in the year, like now, when stratification hasn't set up well, yet have certain depth levels within that larger area where you have more dramatic drops than the rest of the overall zone. The chart below from a local reservoir demonstrates this well. The area highlighted by the red band represents the thermocline by the technical definition, yet you can see two smaller depth ranges where there is a significantly greater drop in temp over a shorter range (gray boxes) which might be enough to show on a graph similar to what you posted. That said, and as has been mentioned by others, there are other possibilities that could explain what you saw on your graph depending on exact weather and water anomalies in your area. One thing not mentioned yet since you mentioned "night," is the bottom band could simply be zooplankton or similar making a migration upward in the water column due to a low light situation (referred to as a "diel migration"). This is very common in summer on some of the reservoirs I've fished. So short answer - maybe, maybe not

Jighead is the simplest way to accomplish what you want. Just be sure to adjust hook size to the bait being used (typically larger hook for traditional stick worms).

Unexpected change to the weather forecast for the better made me sneak out for about 2.5 hours this afternoon. Very slow bite, but if you’re going to only get one, it’s nice when it turns out to be a good one 😎 Crushed a deep crank.

Guessing most anglers might pick spiral, all things being equal. But, you need depth to perform a spiral, and current won’t help, either. Then there is the greater line twist, and avoiding snags on the rocky bottom - all reasons I suggested a lighter glide type rigging in your case.

Top - the lighter you can get away with, the better. Will vary with depth, cover and current.

They are…just saying they aren’t the only way to rig and fish a tube “weedless.”

Basically, what we know as the largemouth bass is now Micropterus nigricans - the equivalent of the northern strain. Existing all-tackle WR (Perry & Kurita) fish are going to be placed in this category. It will likely forever close off those records to being broken. New separate species is the Florida bass, now Micropterus salmoides. The new all-tackle record for that species will have to have genetic testing data to support the record. Other line class records in that category won’t. Alabama bass also becomes a new species, separate from spotted (Kentucky) bass. Also, “hybrid” bass (FL x northern, F1, Fx, etc) will no longer be eligible for all-tackle WR consideration in either category as I understand it. Finally, not all states will follow these guidelines, so each state’s DNR will decide the future path for that state, which might be different from its neighbors - even to the point of possibly not recognizing ‘largemouth’ as two species. You can Google search to find several recent stories that touch on the highlights of the changes, or watch this podcast for an in-depth discussion: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkcOfgFOE

In open water, around light cover, or say skipping docks, probably. If you're flipping tubes in heavy brush or weeds, I’d go more traditional TR of some sort.

They tend to spiral better with insert heads fished with open hooks, not rigged weedless. Lighter weight heads and lighter wire hooks on lighter line help in that regard. But you'll still get good gliding action with the top heads pictured compared to more head heavy riggings IMO.

Should get better glide action out of the top head because more of the weight is transitioned down the shank of the hook and begins just slightly under/behind the eye. Ballheads would be a bit more Texas-rig like - a more direct drop because the weight is all focused right at the top of the head around the eye (more forward) and is spherical.

Crunch with pliers. A little twist, if needed, will usually clear the barb. Maybe not the prettiest, but pretty quick and painless.

Separate northern vs. FL species recognition going forward - great. Vacating all existing historical IGFA LMB records to the northern category and opening up a new FLB category - joke.

I’m going with “tradition” and mental hurdles. “Junebug” just doesn’t compute (mentally or physically) as a great base jig color. I’ve seen it as a good looking accent color in some PBJ mixes, as well as a good trailer color in some combination, but an ‘all Junebug’ metalflake skirt just ‘looks’ wrong - lol - but I’ve tried them and caught bass using them…it just ‘felt’ wrong

Thought of this thread while reading through yesterday’s Musky Insider newsletter this morning. Apparently, some of the muskie pros seem to agree with the idea of FFS making muskie catches a little less mysterious on some waters. Opening quote from the story: Open Water Tips “Forward facing sonar has made it extremely easy (maybe too easy) for folks to locate and target muskies in the open water on smaller bodies of water. But, it’s a different ballgame on large acreage low density waters. It’s more about eliminating the “dead water” as quickly as you can. “Obviously, there’s a lot of debate right now about whether eliminating that “dead water” should be done with or without a line in the water and what kind of electronics you should use to do it.”

A 20+ inch crappie is a seriously big and rare creature. It is also, most likely, a white crappie. Black crappie, which all my big ones except one have been, are shorter but fatter - weighing more than a white crappie of equal length. I have measured several of my bigger fish, and they tend to run between 15”-18”. Here’s a couple pics. One is obvious; the other, look closely at the length number in the depression/middle of his tail.

My Spoonplugging friends always joke - Musky: the fish of 10,000 casts…or 1 good trolling pass 🙂 But I understand, it’s obviously going to be seasonal and situational.

Depends on whether you have FFS or not 😉

One more test for the umbrella setup today. High of 90, just a few clouds, and NE breeze at 5-7 mph. Definitely makes a difference when out in those conditions. Found a few bass on one structure that I was able to trigger on a deep crank. Couldn’t buy a bite on slower stuff. Also picked off a dozen crappie on a brushpile I found in the area. That will be it most likely until we drop back to 90 or below, which isn’t supposed to be until late next week.

I’ll try and remember that. Mostly for those sunny, hot, calm days (dog days) where you feel like you’re baking out in the middle of the lake 🫠

Trial run for the new boat umbrella setup - and everything worked great. Sets up and tears down in about 2 minutes. Made a big difference out on the water. High of 88 deg., partly sunny, NE breeze at 7 mph. Scored a couple largemouth on Ned and two dozen nice crappie. Only snagged the umbrella once 😉 @Blue Raider Bob

Will do - don't have a console or bench seat to attach to, so making a floor mount. Hoping to get the umbrella today if I can find the right sized one locally.

Still picking up a few bass in this heat from the local res, along with some slab crappie. Water temps 86-87 deg. Just about done with the boat umbrella addition to my rig - a pretty popular and common sight down here.