everythingthatswims

Today was pretty miserable weather wise, windy and rainy with air temps in the low 40s, but my little brother and I decided to take the boat out to see how our new fishfinder would do. We went 3 hours without a bite, and he finally landed one on a blade bait. From there we pieced the puzzle together and managed to land 9 largemouth, and a bonus walleye! I also discovered that largemouth will still hit the Alabama rig even in 40 degree water, which is encouraging. Had to call it a day when our fingers weren't functional enough to change the trolling motor battery . Wet, cold fingers and wind are a bad combo!

My brother and I fished a river in Southwestern Virginia today and we had a blast. Today was probably our best "big fish" day, we landed 4 over 18", one of them breaking the 20" mark. The big ones were all holdover fish I am pretty sure, we catch a lot of wild fish in this area but when they get that big it's hard to know. Very good looking fish either way. In addition to the big fish we caught many small wild trout and a few decent sized stocked trout in the 13-16" range. The stretch of river we fished is several miles below the stocked portion, so it doesn't receive much pressure from what we can tell, and has very nice fish! This rainbow taped out at 19" This brown must have been older than dirt, you could have fit a baseball in his mouth and he had one heck of a kype! Had to break out the Conquest 50 for a little fun too!

Mattlures Hardgill fishing the heavy floater as a wakebait, hands down.

You can do a lot of things with that bait, they catch a lot of fish, price point is awesome, and each size has its time and place. I have nothing bad to say about the pit boss. However I don't think I would opt for a smellier version of one.

Caught a couple little guys dragging/dead sticking a jig in a pond yesterday. The best method was honestly to drag the jig about a foot and then do something on my phone for a while, then drag it a little more. They wanted it SLOW!

These did not come from the 70 degree nuclear water, had to switch things up today and fish in cold water like the rest of the world has to

One year I got on a bite in February throwing a chartreuse/blue back colored rebel wee-r squarebill in dirty water, man it was something else, the bass would have that bait in the back of their throat! The bite almost felt like a jig bite. Tried other brands and they just didn't have the action or cadence that the fish wanted.

The latest and greatest from Lowrance

On clear water lakes it can definitely still be a morning bite. I prefer the evening in the winter over any other time, for me personally I just do best then. The way I see it is that the lake has had time to warm up and has reached its warmest point and now offers the bass low light to chase their prey in. In the summer it's the opposite (morning) because the water has reached its coolest point and now gives the bass a low light opportunity.

There have been threads about this here before, basically there are several theories as to why they get black spots, such as a healthy population, or being handled by fishermen, but no one knows for sure. I find it fascinating and I love it when I catch a bass with hyperpigmented melanosis

Man that is a wicked looking fish, awesome! I saw one with coloration similar to that on Sunday that looked to be at least 5 pounds. She didn't want to eat though!

While I have never been there, I would definitely try looking for schools of bass chasing bait and vertical jig spoons or blades in them.

Congrats Raider, you made it on the Tailgate Heroes snapchat story. Guess you couldn't find a black and silver santa suit.

The cold front was crazy here in VA. It was 60 degrees, and the winds were very light on the lake, then I heard this noise coming, and turned around to watch a gust of wind coming across the lake, then the trees were all swaying and as soon as the gust hit me it felt COLD!

My brothers and I spent the day yesterday on Lake Anna, both the hot and cold side, and we had a blast. The wind was absolutely horrendous, but we made it work and only suffered sore arms and shoulders from paddling. We started the day on the cold side, to target stripers, and I caught a 21" saugeye on an underspin on my first cast in the dark before we even launched the kayaks, pretty cool IMO. We then went on to catch a few stripers and largemouth on Alabama rigs and swimbaits, including one 25" striper. (in the evening we went back out after stripers again and they were really feeding, we caught over 40 stripers total that day) Then it was off to the hot side. We had to paddle over a mile in white capping waves to get to where we wanted to fish, but it was definitely worth it, as we landed well over 40 bass between the three of us. Most of these fish are small, and unfortunately the only two good bites we had (both fish pushing 3-3.5lbs) spit the hook. Nearly all of our fish were caught on 4" keitech swing impacts on 1/8oz jigheads, that is an extremely effective bait there in the clear water. I did have a school with 3-4 bass in the 4-6lb range swim up to look at my kayak while I was pulled off on the bank to re-tie. Once they are looking at you they definitely won't bite, but it's a bummer because I knew what that area held and made two passes fishing it before I saw them! Smart fish! Dinner guests

Guess the weight of this fish. Headed to the lake where I caught all the A-rig fish in November. Water is down to 44 degrees now, and the past two days here in VA did not get above freezing, with nights in the teens, so I'm sure the fish were affected by the drop in temps. Lots of fish nipping at the rig, but I did put 4 bass in the kayak with me. I am hoping to head back out there later in the week once conditions stabilize, maybe those fish that were bumping the rig will be eating it by then. Off to the power plant lake tomorrow!

Powerplant lake or a tailwater that draws water from the bottom of the lake

Got my butt handed to me today. Weather was doable and the next two days will not be so I spent the day on a local reservoir. Only bite I had was this 2.5 I caught on a shad rap, so I did avoid the skunk. Rain dropped the water temps into the low 40s. Should have gone to the magic A-rig lake again!

I learned how to fish an Alabama rig and have a lot of confidence in them now. There is a lot more to understanding that bait than people think. Also getting better at fishing with electronics.

Yep that is definitely the fish I hooked

I snagged one that looked to be around 30lbs the other day on a medium action rod with 12lb line. The only fish I have seen behave like that one did is honestly a sailfish. That thing dumped 75 yards off my reel in seconds and was going completely airborne every 10 or so yards. Came unbuttoned but I didn't mind. Kind of makes me want to target them now, I had heard about how hard they fight but that was astonishing.

You've got plenty of time ahead of you to get situated and slay them this spring. Looking forward to hearing about it.

@YoTone is in fact catching bass at that weight though

I have spent a lot of time trolling deep diving crankbaits and Alabama rigs from my kayak. This also catches bass on occasion, and recently when I have been on an Alabama rig bite for largemouth, I have trolled to find fish since I did not have a fishfinder on my kayak. I would drop a marker buoy when I got bit, then I could position myself near that marker to cast to where the fish was hooked, sometimes there was a school, sometimes there was not. I would imagine you could do the same with a bass boat.

Won't be a match without @Raider Nation Fisher