everythingthatswims

For the record, we know you are a closet robowormer

I have some trips planned months in advance, others planned in 5 minutes. Although the most common time for me to plan an outing are during the last 15 minutes of class!

Wait til the summer and get out there before daylight, troll deep cranks like 6XDs, DD22s, Bomber 18' fat free shads, etc. and keep a rod rigged with a super fluke on a 1/4oz jighead in case you see schooling fish (people say use weightless flukes and spooks but that doesn't work as well). They shut down for us around mid morning because of boat traffic, then we target the thousands of channel cats in there for a bit and then go to crappies on deep docks and bridge pilings. If I want to bass fish I don't go to Anna

Get some #16 fly tying hooks, 2lb test, worms, and go to work!

I doubt it, I tested different baits on them and after catching them 2 or 3 times they got really cautious and wouldn't eat any baits, even weeks after seeing any baits

Just get a little centerpoint 4x32 airgun scope, should be perfect for plinking and pest control with a crickett. And at least you don't have dogs trying to attack the skunks, my shi-tzu thinks he is 200lbs and tries to fight everything, he got sprayed and after numerous baths with all sorts of suggested remedies he still smelled for two weeks. Right when he quit smelling bad, our lab attacked one on the way to a duck hunt and got sprayed too .

I'm going to be throwing 1&1/4oz loads of #2s @1550fps at some lesser canadas

I think since they don't move around much in the winter when it's super cold you would have to drop a bait on their nose to get them to bite. If you can make a ton of casts to find the fish this works and you can pick off a few fish in the winter, but through the ice you just can't cover any water. I saw a video with some guys catching nice bass on tip ups, they used large shiners for bait, If I were to target bass through the ice, I would probably use shiners.

Y-E-S!!!

Luckily I have a nuclear power plant lake to play with when it gets cold and everything freezes up

I will probably pay more attention to it next year...Mostly morning and afternoon but it wasn't necessarily low light times. Sometimes they would feed in the middle of the day for no apparent reason. One bass was 2.5lbs ish and the other was the 5.5 in the photo.

Put her in August 1st and she was 3.5lbs on a scale...so she packed on some serious weight haha

If you are in SoCal the bass should feed well all winter...I'm jealous

I had a pet largemouth in my back yard "goldfish pond" this summer. Released her today in my neighbor's pond so that if we were to have any issues with the pump in our pond freezing this winter I won't have to worry about the big bass. I fed it all kinds of baitfish, like bluegill, creek chubs, golden shiners, and suckers. The pond is only 3 or 4 feet deep and 11'widex16'long, it's located in my back yard so I could observe the fish through the window from my couch, I spent quite a bit of time studying the bass's habits... Watching this bass taught me a lot, I kept the pond chocked full of food so she could eat whenever she wanted to, and it was interesting to see how when she wasn't feeding, she would just hang out in the shade, and even when 20 little suckers swam by, she would just sit there. But when she did decide it was time to eat, it was an all out blitz, no ambushing, just chase them down, sometimes in full speed pursuit for 10-15 seconds at a time, and CHOMP! I also had a smaller bass in there, one particular time the smaller one managed to grab a bluegill so big that it took him 5 or more minutes to swallow, I was worried I would have to catch him and take it out so he wouldn't die, but somehow he swallowed it. The bigger bass was right beside him the whole time just waiting in case he spit it out, they are pretty bright creatures. It really was an eye opener for me, I was surprised to see how small of a time frame one can have to catch a big bass, a spot that may seem to be vacant could be on fire 10 minutes later. It also showed me that bass will use a significant amount of energy to capture food when they are in a feeding mode. I'm eager to get another one next year to study, may even try to get a couple pre-spawn and see what they do when the water warms! Measured 20"x14" today, fish calculator says 5.5lbs (I need to get new batteries for my scale)

Suffix Siege 20lb is what I use to fish my swimbaits, up to 4.5oz, never had any issues with it at all. I have used 17lb for my jig rod too, no issues. Not sure about the 12 though, I tried some suffix elite 12lb on a rod I use for t-rigs, spinnerbaits, etc and I thought it was a little springy and large in diameter. But it never dug in, you probably don't have it spooled on tight enough.

Get a light or UL spinning rod, some 6lb test, and a couple rebel floater (the little 2.5" ones shaped like a rapala original) cranks. When the water gets cold the fish will crush these, I have no idea why and have tried lots of other brands in similar sizes, none of them produce the same results! Very special bait, problem is you need a shallow pond in order to present it to the fish in winter, because in most lakes/ponds they will be too deep. If there is any wood or rock at all, I'm talking even one little stick 1/4" in diameter, deflect the bait off of it, and you will get bit, but they will also hit in open water. I caught one in early march (very early pre spawn for us) this year on one of the little rebel floaters that measured 24", didn't get a weight on her. So the bait will catch everything from the 8"ers all the way up to the bucketmouths. https://plus.google.com/u/0/106371515902969758858/posts/TophYYYZXxK?pid=5991176638729431250&oid=106371515902969758858 https://plus.google.com/u/0/106371515902969758858/posts/FEYpYK5RX1N?pid=5991176810948736002&oid=106371515902969758858 Here is a link to a couple photos of the 24"er

I bet they haven't seen an 8" swimbait. That will get "THE BIG ONE"

Casting overhead: Spinning gear- OK Casting gear- Makes it more difficult for me

Went on a kayak fishing trip at Lake Anna on Saturday with my friend and my little brother. We planned on targeting stripers but the cold front messed them up, everyone we talked to on the lake was struggling with them. We marked plenty of bait and even found birds diving in the early morning but the birds did not have stripers with them, the baitfish were just on the surface. Jigged flukes and slab spoons, trolled deep cranks and an A-rig, and cast paddle tail swimbaits in areas with lots of bait as well as just covering water by trolling. I landed the only 2 stripers, a 15" and a 19" both on an A-rig. We did bass fish quite a bit, but the only fish landed were a 1lb or so fish on a shaky head, and a hefty 22", 5lb 6oz on a cranking rap by my friend (in true "One Fish Anna" fashion). The best part of the day was when we crappie fished, we worked docks and found the fish in 15-20 FOW, had to jig 2" straight tailed plastics on 1/16oz jigheads, took forever to get to the bottom but it was what they wanted. We landed at least 50-75 fish apiece, but most were too small to keep. We did find one good dock with lots of fish in the 9-10" range, I landed a good number of keepers and one that was 12", my brother caught his biggest crappie ever @14", (and also caught another 14"er on a 6XD while striper trolling!). Ended up with about 30 in the cooler, enough to send some home with my friend and still have plenty for a fish fry My brother's two 14" slabs 12" 15" 19" 22" 5lb 6oz For anyone who wants to know we put in at Hunter's Landing and fished for Stripers from Days Bridge down to just beyond Stubbs Bridge. The crappies were caught within 2 miles traveling up lake from Hunter's.

Guess we will be seeing more stuff like this from the guys up north who are losing their minds during the next couple of months staying cooped up all the time...

When the big girls are revealing themselves and following your baits, and actually committing to the darn things!

Wait you caught steelhead on a swimjig???

So do you just take two dozen silver buddys with you? Standing timber and blade baits sounds like a nightmare!

Stud!

"Search Baits" get their name for a reason, but location is more important when trying to find fish than bait choice (no one has ever said that on here before ) and you have said nothing about your location/body of water/conditions etc. to help others on the forum provide advice. This time of year it can really vary since the guys up north are in a completely different world than the guys down south. Update with some details and I'm sure you will get help.