Turtle135

I buy jigheads and I wire tie them myself. I use rubber skirt material pretty much exclusively. Cost per jig is less than a buck each.

I take a photo of any decent fish I catch. It is for personal historical data (where, when, caught on what, etc). Then I let the bass go in the same place that I caught it. Transporting bass far away from where they were caught or making another hole in their mouth with a culling device. Those factors will increase the delayed mortality rate.

do you mean you want to change the "split ring"?

I use bobber stops. They are cheap and work well. In heavy cover frequently you do not want your presentation and sinker to get separated. You want that sinker to pull the soft plastic straight down into that hole in the cover you have pitched into.

I throw my swim jigs on Trilene XT 17 pound test mono. This helps with two things I want from a swim jig. 1. I want to keep the presentation up swimming just under the surface and a "fat" line like XT helps keep the jig up on a slow retrieve. 2. Where I fish swim jigs the weeds are extremely dense. After a hookup I either yank the bass out of the weeds or they get bogged down and I paddle my kayak over to pull them out. With a line that breaks at over 20 pounds and has some stretch I find it helps keep those bass connected while I try to horse them in. To answer your question, I would think the heavier line would be best (as long as it does not hinder your casting distance).

any possibility that someone else is fishing this small pond really hard as well?

Those snakeheads put the death grip on anything they want to get a hold of.

JStevens : for the last couple of weeks I have been catching more bass pitching soft plastics into cover, have not been getting bit with horizontal faster moving presentations but that should change sometime in September as the water cools some. Nice snakehead! hope you got a few good dinners out of that one, Did she destroy the spinnerbait? Jtrout: did not weigh those bass, I have a scale but it has not made the cut for what I carry on the water of late, trying to travel lighter with just a couple of rods and whatever I can stuff into the crate

Was out on the Tidal Potomac River yesterday. The bass did not want to chase and they were in slightly deeper water than usual (four feet of water with scattered clumps of hydrilla and milfoil). Here are a couple of the better ones. Short pitches in and around the clumps and letting the presentation glide to the bottom. Kind of my favorite way to fish, short range, up close and personal fishing. A Netbait B Bug, texas rigged with a pegged sinker. for about 3 seconds I thought I had a monster bass on the line!

I think you are on the right track. I have been chasing largemouth from a kayak since 1991. In the beginning there were not a whole lot of options for a fishing kayak but now all the major kayak manufacturers have multiple lines designed for the kayak angler. My primary fishing kayak at this time is a Wilderness Systems Ride 115. It is well suited for the reservoirs and tidal rivers I fish. It is stable, tracks well and the ability to stand and stretch makes for a comfortable platform during a 12 hour stint on the water. A longer kayak would be faster but the ease of transport in the bed of my small pickup truck gets me on the water 3-4 times a week. That is how it works, the easier it is to get on and off the water the more frequently you will use it. If you are on facebook look around for kayak fishing groups or kayak bass tournaments in your area. In my area we have a fishing group that holds monthly outings and we have a kayak bass fishing tournament series. Either type of event would give you an opportunity to see what others are paddling and likely get a quick test paddle in.

I have not been using them but I have been considering trying them out with weightless flukes on the river for smallmouth bass. I think a nose hooked fluke might be a great application for a circle hook.

counts, congrats!

Are you able to right click on this image and save it? If so, try working with that file for your avatar. p.s. - nice largemouth by the way

Erin Burnett Outfront, I like my news smoking hot!

Well done! I think you will find that most times: 1. if you catch 5 on a jig, those 5 will out weigh 5 caught on any other presentation 2. a PB is always a real possibility when you have a jig tied on 3. a jig can be fished year round

I fish pretty much exclusively with round rubber skirts on my jigs. If I want less bulk or a faster drop I just tie them much thinner than you will find in a mass produced jig.

I do not recall ever catching a fish below the thermocline. I have caught some fish that could have been in that band of water but I am uncertain if they actually were. In Maryland our water does not get boiling hot like it can in the south so our bass seem to be found at any level above the thermocline. On my home lake the cline is currently down at 28 feet and the bigger largemouth are most commonly encountered in the 12 - 20 foot depths.

my money would be on a California Largemouth with a regular diet of trout

for me they are killer during the summer months on the Tidal Potomac River (shallow water with tons of hydrilla, milfoil and spatterdock pads) from this past Sunday

I'm not in law enforcement so unless it comes up in casual conversation I do not even mention it. I figure the percentage of anglers who willing violate the law are few and they are likely not skilled enough to do severe damage to the fishery. I do see it all the time. I fish a lot on a lake with a slot. No bass between 11 - 15 inches are supposed to be kept. So of course they always want to show me the 14" bass they are taking home for dinner.

My suggestion, carve out an hour or two of your fishing trip to throw a jig. Maybe just a little deeper than those shallow spots you favor but commit to it for at least an hour. The hardest bass to catch on a jig is the first one but once you get that first one you have that in your bag of tricks for the times when they just will not touch a topwater. Good luck!

I was laughing because I watched that gar clip the claws off my craw trailer. Gar do that all the time but they rarely get the hook in their mouth. I think when I paused to laugh that one got a hold of the jig. Very cool looking fish indeed. That is about as large of a specimen that I would prefer to deal with in a kayak.

A trip down to "Mallows Bay" on the Tidal Potomac River from the previous weekend. I find I catch most of my fish this time of year on a 1/4 ounce black & blue swim jig with a craw trailer. I swim it over and through the grass beds. The pointy nose on the jig allows it to slide through the grass without picking up debris and the light weight helps keep the presentation up near the surface. Most of the fishing is in 3 feet of water or less and as you can see the swim jig catches a little of everything. From a few after work trips on my local Maryland Reservoir. Typical summer patterns. Surface water temperature is running about 84 degrees. A 3/8th ounce football jig with a craw trailer and a 10" ribbontail plastic worm on a 3/8th ounce Confidence Baits Draggin Head. I look for the deep weed edge (which is about 12 - 15 down in this particular reservoir). Points and drop offs where the grass grows all the way out to the edge are the places I have been focusing on. Right around sunset seems to be the magical 30 minutes. No night fishing allowed here so I make the most of dusk when the fish seem to become active feeders.

Could it be coming from the brake pins and drum? Mine (Curado 200 I) was making some noise on the "cast" but as long as I put a drop of oil on that drum once every couple of weeks she stays quiet.

I am just guessing but: bluegill bluegill green sunfish ? that vertical stripe on the eye ought to be an identifier largemouth bass