the reel ess

And War Eagle spinnerbaits.

I bought my first chatterbait in black/blue because it was wintertime and the water was off-color. But it works year-round.

LOL. I didn't recognize him because he wasn't screaming down that catfish's throat. As for Roland...AWWW SON!

Then you have a bigger bladder than mine.

Yeah, but more about just urban fishing. The first episode is about stripers near NYC.

Thanks for reminding me of this premier. I looked for it on DVR a couple weeks ago but it was too far ahead then I forgot. I just DVRed it. Reminds me of this classic.

Same here. I fish a place that's about 1/3 cypress stumps and I use the trailer hook all the time. The weeds are more likely to foul the blades. If you're in a boat or kayak, you can usually go get the bait if it gets hung up. If you put the hook on with the point up and you pull the bait over a limb, that's the straight side of the hooks.

Bout time to change the hook. ? But seriously folks, if it has a white, light or orange belly, I doubt bass make any distinction before they strike it. Most of the baby bass patterns don't really look like a baby bass. It's just something irritating them.

I think that most people who don't use a trailer hook just haven't tried a trailer hook. A certain percentage of the bass I've caught on a spinnerbait were on the trailer. One of those could be your PB. People say they do this and that when they're short striking, but there are many times you'd never know they're short striking.

I have my best luck that way too. Even though I've always heard you should burn it (KVD) and keep it in your sight (Jimmy Houston), my best results have been slowly bumping it into stumps, limbs, dock pilings, etc. Houston also said that if the water is too cold for turtles to swim, it's too cold for bass to react to a spinnerbait. Not exactly true. I like the big single Colorado blade "night time" spinnerbait in the cold months. You just gotta reel it very slow and tap the bass on the nose with it.

No for me. But my fav spinnerbait is the War Eagle Gold Shiner. It has some longer strands in the skirt that kinda resemble a trailer. I always use a trailer hook. I wouldn't want a trailer to get in the way of the trailer hook.

This kind. Reason I like this kind is you can still feed the snap thru the line tie of a regular size Pop R. Some of the snap designs you can't. The snap helps the popper walk a little. It gives a more erratic forward motion. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-fast-lock-bass-snap

The Rebel Deep Wee R was the first hardbait I ever used. For years, I only used it and the 6" purple worm. My dad believed most baits caught fishermen, not fish. He would only buy me what he used.

In hindsight, this thread would have been a good poll question.

I used to be a crusader against the use of clips because I lost a good fish on a speed clip once. Now I use a good quality snap for my treble lures on one combo. That's because I start out with a topwater, sometimes change the topwater, then end up throwing a lipless crank. I just don't want to retie that much unless it's because I'm catching fish. It's getting harder for me to see the knot I'm tying.

There's a ton of info on the InterWebs about this. I just looked at YouTube and you couldn't watch all the videos on the topic in one day. But basically, more action in warm months and less action in colder months. I'd bet a lot of people use one, exclusively. I will until they quit biting it.

This happens to me quite a bit. The biggest bass I've caught on a jig sucked it in before it hit bottom. It wasn't moving but it didn't feel right so I set the hook and it took off into overhanging brush. I had to reel up to it because ti was deep in the brush. I got close then it took off to deeper water, breaking all the limbs. Thank goodness for 30# braid.

So far, my favorite is the 4" Chigger Craw. They make 3" ones if you like, but if you want a shorter one, you can just cut a little off the 4". It holds so much scent, I'm convinced fish will hold it longer and the scent stays on a long time. I've put some other leftover craws I had in the bag with these to soak up the scent. I like the GYCB hula and twin tail grubs, but you go through more of them. I'm still a novice at jigs, but I'll experiment with different ones in the different seasons. Black/blue is the ticket around here. If I'm ever confronted with clearer water, I'll try a brown jig. It seems like the only rains we've had this summer were torrential and the water, which is rarely clear, has remained turbid for summer. We have another tropical storm headed our way with the promise of 5" of rain in a few hours.

Did you use that fish as a line thru swimbait? I believe you. My dad and I caught the same bass at the same time in the days before cell phones.

I've been doing it every trip for about a year, catching one here and there, including a 6.92 lb. I stopped fishing T rigs to force myself to learn jigs. But the jig bite is usually nowhere near this good. So glad I didn't just load up from the first spot and go home. I would have except my family were shopping and I knew they'd be gone most of the day. The first place is where I caught my PB but it's hit and miss. It's about 30 acres so you get a lot of exercise paddling there. The second place is maybe 3 acres max. It has at least 1 5 pounder in it because I've caught it. It's the best catch-exercise ratio.

I went this morning to a local reservoir and caught 4 dinks, 2 on the jig. I loaded up the kayak and went to my friend's pond and caught 10 more. All but 2 were caught on a custom @cadman black/blue hand tied grass jig with Chigger Craw trailer. I got a lot of practice skipping, detecting bites and setting hooks. Most of them were between 2 and 3 pounds. The two biggest were solid 3 pounders. So, that's at least 10 on the jig today. I missed or lost several more, including another probable 3 pounder that got off at the boat. If you're ever in the market for custom jigs, Cadman's are really high quality at a good price.

I get fewer hookups on the weedless hook. Unless you're bank-bound, you can probably go get your hook back if it gets snagged. I use the Gammy finesse 2/0, but any hook like it would work. I have a few weedless, weighted wacky hooks that don't work as well. I have also taken my Trick Worm off the straight shank worm hook and wacky rigged it with that same hook. It works great but you have to pay attention to line movement or they'll get the hook either down the throat or near it.

I bought these Orvis with 1.5X readers a while back off Amazon for my birthday. I got the amber lenses. They're very good for fishing, tying knots and driving, but I still keep my others for walking. Sounds stupid but I feel like I'm always about to fall down walking in bifocals. I should probably just stop using the other pair and force myself to use the readers. https://designer-reading-glasses.com/orvis-midway-polarized-bi-focal-reading-sunglasses-in-matte-black/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9NbdBRCwARIsAPLsnFY8JOw99i9s5hJTkyrs61uThzIaPsBQ0M6Uhq4HC-wEFEvmKTVfUGUaAi1mEALw_wcB

And that Johnson Weedless Spoon! I have one of those in gold that I bought for redfish, trout and flounder. It's all scratched up from oyster shells. I only caught flounder on it, using a Gulp Mullet trailer.

Yeah, it was hard for me to start detecting the bites soon enough to set a hook. This plays a big part in catching instead of just getting bites. You have to expect fish to bite and be ready. Sometimes they won't give you as much of an opportunity to respond to them as they will with a worm. I guess it's the extra weight of the jighead. And, OP: SET THAT HOOK HARD! That's a thick hook with a weedguard usually going into the tough roof of the mouth of a bass who eats crawfish for a living.