Turtle135

The hardest winter bass to catch is that first one. Years ago when I was trying to turn my bass fishing into a year round activity I can remember that first December when it seemed pretty hopeless. Three weekends of no bites and the water temperature was dropping towards 40 degrees. I was fishing a small swim jig on the bottom in 10' of water out in front of a beaver dam. I just kept mindlessly retrieving that jig, ticking little branches and sticks when I felt that pop of a bass inhaling my jig. I froze for a good 5 count not believing what had just happened but stared at my line moving off in a different direction. I set the hook and reeled in a lethargic 18" largemouth (they fight poorly in cold water). I could not have been more proud of catching that bass. The door had been opened, the next week I caught my last bass of the year and the first of the next year. The New Year's Day bass is something I always strive to make happen. I have come to really appreciate winter bass fishing. You have the lakes to yourself and the catches mean more to me. Yes, I get skunked and I have a lot of one fish days but because I get out there and grind away all day with a jig I catch some of my biggest largemouth of the year. I catch them in 37 - 38 degree water and when my lakes in Maryland freeze over I roll down to Virginia where you can almost always still find some open water. Here is a nice one from the day after Christmas a couple of years ago.

If you like catching smallmouth bass shaped like footballs from moving water pick one of the nice little towns north of Harrisburg, PA on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

When I am trying to dart something small in and out of the vegetation I use a bullet head swim jig. The one in the picture is 1/4 ounce. These are made by BOSS and I get them from Fishing Skirts. I buy the painted heads and tie the skirt. The trailer is the Netbait Tiny Paca Craw so it makes for a small finesse jig presentation.

Found an off shore hump with a log laying over the top. Sat there for over an hour just bumping the jig up and over that log.

Lew's SuperDuty. What I have found is that these are pretty bullet proof. Designed for deep diving crankbaits and A-Rigs they stay tight and solid with normal presentations.

A jig with a craw trailer is pretty much my go to presentation. I find that it produces larger than average sized bass in the pressured waters I fish. For my fishing in Maryland that is a lure I throw "into" cover. Fish it like you are trying to lose it. Early season my cover would be laydowns. Then as the season progresses (into post spawn and beyond) aquatic vegetation becomes the preferred cover. I fish a lot of green pumpkin jigs in lakes that have a sunfish, perch and crayfish forage base. I suspect many of the bass I catch see that green pumpkin not as a craw but as a struggling sunfish or perch.

Good deal! I have run up to Storm three times in the winter when everything was frozen solid in Maryland. A little bit of wind goes a long way on that body of water and I can't imaging what it was like with those wind speeds! Was there on a clear cold day with a fishing buddy. Couple of hours in and we were wondering why we were being pelted with hail. Whatever was coming from the smoke stacks that day was freezing and falling on us.

I looked at the manual for mine. I do not see an option to change that font color. Yours is black, right?

They are correct regarding the Humminbird needing the Zero Line Card ($ 99.99) as the unit will only record 8 hours of AutoChart Live Data. From the Humminbird site: "The Zero Lines Map card will give you years of record time as well as the ability to share maps with your friends". As an interesting side note, the first thing I did was chart some of my "A" spots on my two local reservoirs. One map made it clear by the bottom contour why it was such a productive spot almost year round. On another spot, I have no idea from examining the contour why this area holds quality bass. Go figure!

Just fyi, "All GPS-equipped G2/G2N HELIX models give you AutoChart Live". My Helix 5 on my kayak has AutoChart. So I paddle around and map my lakes, pretty cool feature!

Just an update. I may have only milked one weekend out of this pattern this year (usually get 3 weeks). Water temperatures dropped like a rock down to 53 degrees. I could still see some sort of forage fish on the Humminbird down in the 25 - 30 foot depths but I was not marking the large predators at all this weekend. Some other details on this pattern. These bass that I catch when this pattern is on are larger than average size fish but they are never the biggest in the system (those bigs come later in the year on a jig when the water is in the mid 40's). When the wind is really howling it makes for some of the fastest action of the year. If you can hold your position and get a lure down to them they do not discriminate on the presentation.

My take is that it is an advantage to understand as much about bass and forage behavior as possible. Stay ahead of the bass, the quicker you can find them the better. Plus I am rather fascinated by the science behind the behavior.

Great looking Pike, that one is built like a bulldozer!

I had a sit inside kayak back in the 1990's. The seat comfort problem I experienced was not lack of padding on the bottom of the seat but the fact that the "seat back" was so low. They keep the seat backs low on a sit inside kayak so that you can still install a kayak skirt (aka: spray skirt, cockpit cover). What gave me relief was dropping a portable stadium style seat right on top of the existing seat which gave my lower back the support it needed.

40s - jig 50s - jig 60s - jig 70s - jig 80s - jig or a 10" - 12" ribbontail plastic worm 90s - jig or a 10" - 12" ribbontail plastic worm

That should be the next innovation for the Wildy OS Pod. A little crank that allows you to raise and lower the puck just enough for the side imaging to function.

I have the Hummingbird Helix 5 with GPS and down imaging on my Tarpon 130x. I thought long and hard about side imaging but the peace of mind of having the puck completely protected (fish finder mounted in the OS Pod) was what I had been craving for years. My transducer arms that I used on my Ride 115 had a tendency to collect weeds and hang up on laydowns at the most inopportune time. As far as screen size goes I would consider is the 7" if your budget allows. On my 5" it is fine until you want to display multiple views at the same time.

I pretty much only use Netbait Paca Craws (mostly the baby and the tiny sizes) and Netbait B Bugs (in both sizes).

Interesting fall phenomena on my two local hydrilla reservoirs. Every fall I keep my eyes open for bass to start stacking up out in 25 - 30 feet of water. I had speculated that what pushed them deep is the grass dying off and burning up the dissolved oxygen, forcing the bait and the bass out of the grass. This year I am not so sure that is a valid theory. The grass started dying back early October (just like normal, due to reduced daylight hours) but this year the water stayed unusually warm. I looked all October but never marked any fish out that deep. This past weekend I am cutting across the mouth of a big cove and my fish finder lights up in 27 FOW. The water temperature just this week finally dipped down to 58 - 60 degrees. I normally see that water temperature sometime in October. I dropped a lipless crank down to the marks and caught six 2-3 pound largemouth and a couple of large crappie over the next 90 minutes before they stopped biting. There are still some small 12" largemouth in the shallower grass mats. These lakes have no shad so I never see that migration to the creeks. Forage fish in these reservoirs are sunfish, yellow perch, crappie and crayfish. Now I am wondering if this pattern is more driven by water temperature and the thermocline pushing deeper and deeper as we head towards the fall turnover. Perhaps that newly exposed bottom presents a feeding opportunity for forage baitfish? Anyone else experience a similar fall pattern on their water?

When that happens I take them out of the package and lay them straight and separated on a clean surface. A day or two of air drying and they will come back to normal.

You can get a schematic diagram for your reel here: http://www.abugarcia.com/AbuGarcia-reel-schematics.html and it looks like you can order a part if you need one here: http://www.abugarcia.com/AbuGarcia-parts.html

Zoom Baits Z-Craw?

I would throw a jig but that is my answer for all conditions! What really matters is what has been going on with the water temperature. Until you get those colder nights the water temperature in a large body of water can be stubborn and hold onto most of her heat.

If you have a kayak Chopawamsic Creek is worth getting the permit. Good largemouth bass fishing and the dreaded Northern Snakeheads are present.

Hmmm, according to Tackle Warehouse Trilene Big game is monofilament, Trilene XL is a copolymer and Trilene XT is monofilament. On Berkley's site they all come up under the monofilament sub category (they do not have a copolymer sub category). I always thought all three were just plain mono.