Bluebasser86

This is the important part about taking a guided trip. Catching is great, but you already know how to catch fish, you want to learn how to catch more and better while with the guide. Sometimes, catching doesn't necessarily happen in the process of learning. I like to go to tough lakes, because I learn more on those lakes where the catching is tougher. I must pay more attention to the details and concentrate more to catch the fish I catch. Anyone can catch them when they're jumping in the boat, it really takes skill to catch them when it's a grind.

We have no rivers with any fishable population of bass near me. If everything is open, I'd choose to fish smaller lakes with decent water clarity, bonus points if it has grass in it.

I found a promising lead on some affordable replacement trebles if anyone else wants to give them a try with me. https://barlowstackle.com/victory-30101-bn-treble-hooks-sizes-8-2/ I've been using the Victory hooks on several different kinds of jigs and jigheads and been very happy with them. If you like to replace trebles during the cold weather months like I do, these might make it a bit more affordable if you're willing to give them a try.

Not exactly what I'd consider fancy, but they are fish catching machines. https://www.lurenet.com/lindy-little-nipper

I've had some big largemouth that fought pretty good, but nothing like a big smallmouth.

I like to see other people catch fish almost as much as I like to catch them myself, so I'm always talking about what worked for me. Having a Youtube channel would be pretty counterproductive if I was trying to keep secrets also. I've seen too many times when 2 people in a boat are fishing almost the same thing and 1 of them is catching while the other isn't to worry about someone else fishing what I'm fishing with.

I use a jigging spoon to cover big flats for fish schooling on small baitfish. Cast and reel it as fast as I can. It doesn't do much, except catch fish ?‍♂️

I also never nose hook my drop shot baits. The pros don't outweigh the cons IMO. I use an Owner Cover Shot 1/0 or 2/0. I'm probably fishing around way more snags than most when I drop shot, so that in itself is enough to keep me from nose hooking baits.

Before and during the cold front passing are usually active feeding periods. It's when the front has passed that the bite gets tough. I'd go and start out looking for active fish.

The Hella Craw has largely been a dud for me. Haven't caught many fish while using them, and when I do, they don't have a very high survival rate for a Zman plastic. None have survived more than 5 fish, kind of defeating the purpose of using a Zman. Plus you have to deal with the extra care to keep them in shape and away from other baits.

Weatherman can't even get close to the right forecast lately. I went out Sunday in the kayak with another local guy. Supposed to be a nice day, upper 40's, partly cloudy, light wind, so we opted for a small, cold water lake instead of the power plant lake to avoid the crowd. It was super foggy, and cold, cold enough it was freezing on my truck the whole way to the lake. Water was actually a little warmer than I expected, 41-42.5, and the fish were very active. Normally, this lake is a great multispecies lake, but this day I had caught nothing but largemouth, until the last couple hours, then I found the motherlode school, and it seemed like all species of fish in the lake were in it. I was getting all different kinds of pecks and thumps, different from the dead weight bass bites I'd been getting. I only managed to hook a few of them though, a few warmouth, a big green sunfish, and 3 trout. Not sure how many bass I caught, I'd guess around 30. Nothing overly big, but they were all fat and healthy fish that fought pretty well for the cold water. The fog never really burned off until the very end of the day and it never even made it to 40* out, the wind was also much stronger than it was supposed to be, made for some numb fingers by the end of the day. The guy that was with me did get a couple cool action shots of me while I was working down my first bank of the morning also.

It needs to have big fish, other than that, I have no real reason why I choose where I decide to fish most of the time. Sometimes it's past experience. I've done well on this lake at this time of year before, so I'll go there. Or, I've done well at this lake when I had the conditions we have now, so I'll go there. Sometimes, it's just "I haven't fished that lake in a while, I'll go there". Other times, it's where I think the fewest number of boats will be.

When I'm dragging, I like to "count rocks". I try to pull it slow enough that I could feel each individual rock on the way in on my cast and count each one of them.

Big rock, be it riprap, chunk rock, ledge rock, some kind of larger rocks, or water willows. If I can find either of those, I can catch some fish.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I was marking a ton of fish in deeper water last Sunday. Water temps were 41-42. Couldn't hardly buy a bite in deeper water but it was almost non-stop action if I moved up in 3-5 feet of water near those fish. I stopped trying to force it and just enjoyed catching the fish that wanted to be caught.

Deep brush right along channel edges. If you're looking right after ice out, I'd probably look for the channel edges near where they'll eventually spawn and near deeper coves that shad like to concentrate in.

Zman Slim SwimZ, either the 2.5" or 3". Rig one bait and never have to rig another unless you lose it. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Slim_Swimz_Swimbait_/descpage-ZMANSLM.html

Welcome!

What are they? I have a huge box of assorted baits.

I've had some good neighbors, and some bad ones. Right now, they're not real great. I'm usually friendly to people outside and do my best not to be the bad neighbor, but most of those around us have stopped talking to my family completely since they discovered what I do for a living. I still wave and say "hi", but just get ignored. Had a bunch of trash dumped on top of my truck when I came out to leave one morning. Pretty sure I know who it was but trying to keep the peace the best I can to protect my family so just cleaned it up and went to work. Be really careful in your situation Mike. If the guy is willing to shoot someone's dog just because it's barking, there's probably not a line that he's not willing to cross.

Greg B? He chooses some odd times to boat flip vs net fish it seems like.

Great catfish rods. I'm sure the higher end rods are serviceable bass rods but I've never tried one of the Elites or Carbons. At that point, they're getting into the price range of some pretty nice, lower end rods though.

I'm in this same boat. I'd love to have a new truck. Find myself looking at them more and more often, then I see those monthly payments ? I can buy a lot of tanks of gas for what 1 truck payment cost with what they're asking for them right now.

I caught several from a cove that was partially frozen over on Sunday. The back and edges were skim ice but there was a little ditch that went from 2 to 4 feet of water that had patches of grass. Picked off a couple pretty decent ones from that grass.