sully420

I went the cheap route last year with the p line floroclear and its garbage. Use a good mono or floro. A clinch knot should have at least 6 turns not 2.

I would flip it with a skirted punch rig like this. Loos for areas where the pads are 2 to 4' deeper than the rest and punch away.

Ice is out on mpls lakes the impending storm shouldn't effect anything.

Definitely do the upgrade. All brands are really good so dont worry about that. Just spend the time on the water learning how to use it.

No there not super heavy, I have 2 sets one I use for work, i work outside all year in Minnesota, the other for fishing. I just wear Jean's and long johns under when cold. I use froggtoggs pants and a Colombia rain jacket in the summer I got for 20 bucks each.

I like the carhartt storm defender bibs and jacket should be around 250 for both together. There the most durable imo.

I pull my batteries and store them in my basement and rotate them on a portable charger on maintenance mode. I store my boat in my garage I like to sit in it and drink beer and hide from my wife.

Went out on Monday and caught some really nice bass fishing rock piles with a football jig and a dt14. Seems like the fish are acclimated to the water temp now and are feeding pretty good. The challenge it finding the bigger fish and figuring out what they want. @Jmhalvo I'll be bass fishing until there is ice. Just keep slowing down your presentation as the water cools.

I think the bite is on the verge of being explosive. Just make sure you get on the water as much as possible.

I love watching that guy fish.

50lb power pro will solve this issue

I like everything about this. Think of all the different lakes they will be able to fish and the whole country will be fair game even Mexico many. It's about time anglers got a chance to have ownership and input into the tour they fish. The financial incentive will allow everyone to fish to win. Edwin Evers was on BTL and made it sound like 2019 will be his last classic of he makes it. It also sounds like you fish MLF only. Can't wait to see how this plays out.

I love skipping docks and use a 1/2oz jig 90 percent of the time. I have never had a negative experience with an owner. Most of the time my interactions involve me giving a 10 min seminar on skipping jigs or owners telling me where the fish are or how nice of a day it is ect. I don't know how you could actually damage a dock or pontoon boat by hitting with a jig. If you are casting that hard you probably should not fish docks. As long as you use some common sense and don't cast to inflatables and make sure you retrieve any snagged gear I don't see the problem. I also don't fish docks when people are using them. It's important to respect people's property it is also important for owners to respect the fact that there property is on public water. Maby it's a Minnesota thing but people are just happy it's not freezing out and there not at work.

@punch thanks for that report great info and I've always wanted to fish lake Carlos. I also had some luck with a chatterbait and think I will try to see if it out performs a spinnerbait. I think it will, the vibration seems to pull bass out of the grass better than flash. @ThatOneBigKid I've been running the pattern you described for about 4 weeks now and its been awesome. I went out this evening and started on hard points 14-16' and got a 5 and lost a 4. I was thinking that this pattern was slowing down because the amount of bites was slowing down but I never thought of make the adjustment to a crankbait with no rattles. That seems like a big oversight on my part. Bass seem to be shallow, deep and mid depth ranges now. I think the trick is figuring out if they want to chase or nibble. Bigger baits are better for me either way. Tight lines!!!

I agree 100%. I fish low to mid priced rods and I can definitely feel cover better. Bite detection dosen't seem to matter between the two. The price keeps lead in my box. I probably lost 30 bucks of tungsten this season to toothy giants.

1/2 oz or higher I use tungsten unless I'm Carolina rigging or drop shotting. I use lead for those 2 rigs and any thing under 1/2oz. I use it strictly for the smaller size

100 hrs is longer than it seems. I do live in Minnesota so I only run April to Oct maby November some times. If you learn how to change your oil and change your gear lube you can save quite a bit of money. And I feel like I could go 200 hrs before changing me water pump impeller. Btw I own a 75hp merc 4 stroke.

No

@RiggityBop I love gummy bears. Are you going out to clear on sat?

Here's a fun fact I've never caught a smallmouth bass in my life. I really need to figure out how to catch some

@ThatOneBigKid oh I've got some hair jigs ready. I don't fish the fall like a pattern I fish it day to day. Lots of the fish that are deep now will stay deep and some will move on and out depending on weather wind and water color and bait movement.

@ThatOneBigKid same lake been fishing it after work lately. I've never fished north center. I think I'll fish Clearwater lake this weekend and see how that goes. Good luck tonight on n/c

@punch I hope to fish greenhorn next year. I don't think I'll be cleaning up at all but I'm excited to learn and compete with you guys in a competitive setting. The c-rig was my go to bait when I started bass fishing and I got away from it for a couple years. I've learned this year that subtle changes to presentation based on how fish are reacting to baits can really make the difference.

Sup guys, I was watching some old bassmaster videos last night on YouTube. I decided to watch one of my all time favorite videos, Paul Elias setting the all time record for weight in a elite series event at Falcon lake. I noticed he was using a c-rig to great effect to complement his deep crankbaits. So at lunch today at work I decided to tie one on myself and see if I could get some bites if the crankbait wasn't working. Boy did it pay off. I started with a dt14 and got some bites but the bass just really weren't committing to it, so I picked up the c-rig with a watermelon redflake game hog and caught this gal. Next cast I got bit after the first drag and got another biggin just like the last gal right up to the boat. I tried to flip her in and snap, my line broke, above the swivel where I had some glass beads between the swivel and my weight. Big mistake, I will never use glass beads ever again ever I'm positive that's what cut my line. Anyway I picked myself up shook it off after some expletives of course and started working a 3/4oz football head jig and the jenko tremor head. After about 45 minutes I made my last cast of the evening with the tremor and stuck this girl. Sorry the pic isn't great but this is probably my best bass of the season. I was fishing the edge of a point in 14' of water with some coontail surrounded with rock. The bass seemed to be positioned down wind of the grass on the hard spots.

@punch I like the booyah one it gets the job done.