MIbassyaker

"I'll take 'Predictable Debacles' for 400, please, Alex..."

But...aren't you always about to go fishing?

My last PB was August, 2021. As soon as i get another I'll post it, but when, exactly, is not entirely up to me.

Your intuitions sound reasonable, as long as the current isn't very fast. Generally, though, moving water tends to be cooler and better-oxygenated than still water, and so tends to become more advantageous in summer, and less so in the spring unless it's actually delivering bait and heat (as mentioned above). the only way to know, though, is to check. Bring a thermometer and check temps in the main basin, mouth of the river, and in the river itself, to see what the variation is like. Actually, what you're describing sounds not too different from a situation examined earlier this year by @Paul Roberts on The Nature of Fishing channel, in that case following a spring heat gradient between a deeper main basin and a shallow "back bay" area connected by a creek channel:

Currently tied on: Lunker! (1975) by Bob Underwood. Observations of bass behavior from 1700 hours of scuba diving:

have a look at the VMC finesse rugby jig or the Brewer wide-gap slider head. I don't know if these will fit a 3", but they work well with 4" grubs. They permit texas rigging without a separate slip-sinker, which is what I usually prefer for a swimming presentation.

Yeah, the novelty of snow and ice wears off fast, lol. Summers, though, in the upper midwest are glorious and highly recommended.

Grand Forks area, MN side. Good lord, the wind.

27 here right now. We'll hit 14 overnight tonight. Only very rarely go below zero here, though. I grew up in northern MN, and remember being out, shoveling the driveway in 15 below. When people here complain about the cold, I just shrug.

Getting some snow today but haven't seen any ice yet. In recent years, we've sometimes gone until January before the still water ices up, and a few times it's been here by the end of Nov. Roll the dice.

The major obstacle is time. The second obstacle is Steelhead Season: Dams are constantly crowded, thus defeating the purpose as far as I'm concerned. The struggle is real, isnt it!

*sigh* If I weren't über-busy, and if I were confident I could gear safely for 30s-40s water and air temps in a kayak, I'd still be out there too. No ice yet, at least.

My winter bass lures are split ring pliers, some reel oil, the internet, a TW gift card, and maybe a book or two.

I started using InivisX for t-rigs recently after after avoiding fluoro for a number of years due to a bad initial experience with breakoffs (i don't remember what the brand was, but it was probably the cheapest I could find). I haven't had any problems with InvisX that weren't obvious user error. It's not "low stretch", but most of the time my rod and the kayak I fish in have more give than the line does. Because it sinks, there is less bow in the line - i can get a sure hookset in a kayak with just a firm, quick, pull-back and reel. And the abrasion resistance is quite a bit better than the mono I was using previously.

au contraire! Anything effective ---expecially sneaky effective-- is quite sexy indeed.

I'm right-handed and learned cast-right/crank-left/no switch on spinning gear years ago as a kid. That's what my hands know how to do, and my left hand especially does not enjoy learning new tricks. So when I picked up baitcasting later in life, it took about 20 seconds of handling a right-handed reel to know that I would need a lefty.

The water just downstream of obstructions --like a rock, log, or bridge piling-- especially on a seam where slack- or slower-water areas immediately border faster current, is well-known to most river anglers and gets a lot of attention. But also do not ignore the water right in front of an obstruction. There will be a small area -- a "cushion" of slack water on the upstream side that is a prime lie for fish to intercept food flowing with the current. Even a small log or rock can create an upstream cushion large enough to hold a good-sized fish, and very often a big fish will claim this spot. ^^^Yes.

I do believe I know this place as well, and yup, they got the worms.

What on earth? This guy does not sound stable.

Can confirm -- absolutely terrible color. Bass see it, they turn around immediately and swim the other direction. Might even be toxic, so better off not having it at all.

Found another "hidden" one: While Zoom makes a number of baits in "rootbeer pepper green", they do not appear to have it available for worms.....However! Zoom does offer some worms in a color called "Gourd Green" which, if anything, to my eye looks closer to the Yamamoto "rootbeer green". The 6.5" trick worm, 4.5" finesse worm, 6" lizard, as well as a few other baits are available in Gourd Green. Strike king also has two similar colors I know about, although I don't see it offered for any of the worms: The Rage Craw comes in an "Amber green", and the KVD perfect plastics Game Hawg is available in "Amistad Special".

If you find out, let me know. This is the color I wish every lure company offered in every plastic bait. I would buy this over even green pumpkin and junebug. Sometimes companies offer something similar as "pumpkin green" or Pumpkin green pepper". Check out the Big Bite Baits Squirrel-Tail Worm -- there is a 4.5" and a 6" in "Pumpkin Green pepper."

I have a whole bunch of Mepps, Panther Martin, Rooster Tail & Blue Fox spinners, quite a few of which I have had for many years. I don't use them very often these days because they're not as suitable for a lot of the places I fish where i live now, but they still come out for exercise when I hit rivers and streams, for both bass and trout. Only problem is, with open trebles and light line, they get lost easily, so you have to always buy more to keep your stock up!

The open hook jigworm is still used a lot in northern natural lakes to probe the edges of deep weedlines. Especially where the main deep vegetation is a clasping-leaf pondweed (often called "cabbage"), which creates these underwater "forests" on flats and along drop offs. The stalks can reach up 10 feet or more through the water column with bass at any depth, and the leaves and stems are brittle enough that an open hook will rip free pretty easily. Strikes often occur as the worm begins to fall right after a "rip." The usual presentation is to work vertically around the edge of a cabbage bed with a lift-drop motion, without letting it stay still very long, to find more active bass. Then you move into the bed itself where the veg. is thicker with a more weedless presentation like a t-rig rig, for less active fish. Anything from a 4" to 7" worm on a 1/16 to 3/16 oz head is good. I like an old-school 6" mister Twister phenom worm on 1/8oz head.