senile1

If your water temperature is mid to high 50s you have plenty of options available to you - fast moving and slow moving lures - depending on recent weather trends and what the bass are wanting that day. Lure selection can become a little more limited when water reaches the 30s to 40s, though on any given day the bass can surprise you.

Tom, I am sorry to hear your son has not seen any improvement. The hardest thing on earth is watching children or grandchildren going through something like this. Keeping your family in our thoughts.

I agree, but would reverse these two with catching the angler as number 1.

You should go until you know for sure your water is solid. Your temperatures are similar to what we are seeing in northwest Missouri. We had some single digits to teens for a couple of nights with highs in the 20s and 30s on those days. Following the cold spell, today the low was in the 20s and the high was in the 50s. I went to a 70 acre lake an hour north of me and the surface water temperature varied between 40 and 41 degrees. Some ice had formed in some coves and in some very shaded areas, but the majority of the lake was still warm enough to fish.

Nice work, Dwight. What a bunch of porkers! Excellent write-up as well.

Super nice fish and congratulations, not only on the PB, but on your perseverance!

I think @Bird may mean this is the end of bass season for him, and the start of deer hunting. Assuming his location information is correct, the Virginia DGIF website states that there is a continuous year-round season for freshwater fish, other than a few exceptions. Bass are not mentioned as one of those exceptions. https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/regulations/game/ Whatever the case may be, enjoy your winter activities!

They didn't even have records of who performed the sentinel duty when he did it. Fortunately, he knew things that only a sentinel would know and was able to prove that he had the position. This is pretty cool.

@Russ E, you will love the prescription sunglasses. I need glasses for reading and computer work. The nature of being far-sighted is one gets more far-sighted as he gets older, thus being able to see a greater distance while everything up close gets worse and worse. For quite a few years, I have been wearing progressive polarized sunglasses with a small sliver at the bottom of the glass for reading and tying knots. The rest of the lens is setup for normal distance viewing.

Interesting. I wish they had one with an Alabama rig sticking out of it. ? On another note, years ago I had my left ear pierced. I think I need to pierce it again and wear a fishing spoon as an earring . . . . or maybe a Ned rig. ?

@Paul Roberts, your take on the original post is similar to mine. Thanks for the additional interesting info on brown trout as well. ?

@Bartableman7, are you able to get enough of the bunks wet to allow the boat to be pulled off the trailer with a rope, or as @RatherBFishin stated, you could push it off? I never thought of power loading as a way for people to look cool, though there is always that guy, right. I believe power loading is the most efficient method of removing a boat from the water by oneself. To power load without creating holes at the bottom of ramps, I do the following: Get the bunks completely wet and position the trailer at a depth so that the boat slides right up to the roller with minimal throttle speed. Cut the throttle as the boat reaches a certain point on the bunks, allowing momentum to carry it the rest of the way up. Do not gun the motor to get the boat up to the roller. If you fall slightly short of the roller, winch the boat up. (If unable to winch it up, get back in your vehicle and back it down a few inches to allow the boat to be winched up. Believe me, doing this does not look "cool" but it is still quicker than other methods.) Once you do this a few times with your boat, you learn the right depth for your trailer to get the boat up to the roller without having to get back in your vehicle to adjust.

@scaleface, I missed this thread until now. Sounds like you did alright. I have to agree with you and Blue that chasing reports can be problematic. We all have our own way of doing things. I will watch reports to get an idea what the fish are doing and where they may be located as a starting point to find them. I do the rest my way.

A new vocabulary is required for these lakes. A-Jay's definition of the word, skunk, for Mexican lakes is no 10 lb'ers.

Awesome trip, Andy! Lots of great memorable fish!

My sentiments exactly. I really hope you and your wife can look at this in the rearview mirror in the near future.

I wouldn't want to be limited to one bait, but if I were, my choice would be a jig.

I agree with this for the most part. I'm not one of those gifted anglers who immediately takes to fishing like a fish to water. I have to practice and learn how things feel and move. Take jig fishing for example. I can watch videos all day but that doesn't give me the feel for the jig to know exactly what it is going through or if that bump was a fish or cover. I have to fish it and experience it before I learn it completely, and that applies for all lures though some require less time than others. Then there is the aspect of learning which areas of the lake hold fish and how to approach them. Without time experiencing successes and failures on the lake, it was just a guessing game for me. I do see how the videos and tools of today provide a base of knowledge to work from in a much quicker fashion than back in the day. But honing those skills takes time on the water.

The forecast yesterday evening only called for 20 mph winds and I didn't check it this morning. I hit Happy Holler at 8:00 AM, but by 10:00 the 40 mph wind gusts had kicked up and ended the day for me. I caught a short fat 4 lb'er (on the dot) and another standard sized bass before cutting out. Both were caught in 10 - 14 feet of water off of brush using a black and blue Siebert brush jig and Rage Tail Craw. I wanted to get out of the wind but the places that held the fish were out in the open. Water temperatures varied between 54 and 55 while the air temperature was 44 when I started. The surface temperature at this lake has dropped 6 to 7 degrees since I was on it 12 days ago.

I have only been fishing regularly since the end of June, due to surgery earlier in the year. This is all I have so far. largemouth smallmouth spotted bass white bass bluegill goggle eye white crappie black crappie flathead catfish channel catfish drum

Looking forward to a barrage of mutant fatty pics, A-Jay! I hope a new largemouth PB is in the offing.

Same here. A 22 inch fish is big for my area but usually when I catch one this length they are at least 6 lbs and that has been the case even a month or two after the spawn.

Nice fish! Blowups like that will definitely put your heart in your throat.

Wow! Those are some nice smallies. A spot like that is awesome, but I have a different word for it: Waypoint!

You got it, Tom. I have eaten Ibuprofen like it is candy over the last few months. The doctor prescribed 40 Oxycontin pills for me when the surgery was completed. I took them for 36 hours and then stopped. I still had tremendous pain but 40 seemed like a high number to take and I just decided to tough it out with what you recommended.