the reel ess

I work from home and the schedule is pretty flexible. Yeah, I've taken many mornings and a few afternoons to fish. I usually make the time up. I asked my manager once and she said "This is not a prison. Just go."

I just renewed my fishing license because I may be forced to fish public waters. LOL. There have been years I didn't need one.

I meant 10 families. Fat finger error. And I'm an estimator. LOL

I grew up on Lake Wateree, SC. We had the property since before I was born. We used a pop-up camper, then had a trailer and later a house on it. It was my dad's dream to retire there. My mom got sick and died and he didn't even want to go there. So I maintained it and used it some until he died. I had to sell it after that. But honestly, the lake is now overcrowded and almost intolerable around holidays. It gets more polluted each year and there are permanent consumption warnings. Not to mention, the county dramatically raises taxes every few years. I never caught a bass over 5 lbs. in the 40+ years I fished there. I was ecstatic when I found this private place and had carte blanche to go as I pleased in daylight hours.

The average where I fish is a pound. But then there's always that class of exceptions that has the potential to get bigger. Most places either don't have the upper class bass or has it in smaller numbers. This place has shiners, minnows, bream, crappie. Plenty for big bass to eat. It has turned me into a mostly shallow water specialist. The issue with this place is it's owned by all the people who owned property when the Army Corps of Engineers flooded it. So that's like 10 different families. And there's a guy on the other side who appears to be developing an AirB&B business or something. I'm afraid the place was already going to the dogs. I've even seen a couple guys running their gas motor in it. It's all electric, but who's gonna stop them? But, yeah, I'll be fishing there until the property is under contract. The current owner told me that's fine and made sure I had a good key. I think they'll probably float the idea to the next owners that they only let like 2 people go in and we're very conscientious, even looking out for their welfare. I just know if it was mine and right behind my house, I'd think twice before letting anyone in.

I have been fortunate enough to get a gate key giving me access to a private 30+/- acre lake. All my big fish pics, including my PB have come from there. I've been into the gym lately and had not fished in over a month so I went Saturday midday. On the way out there were people cleaning up the property and I could see some of the owners' stuff was gone from the yard. I asked if they were going to sell and the answer was yes. They're getting up there and 41 acres is apparently too much work for them. I understand. But I'm going to lose access to it when they sell. I've caught 21 fish over 3 lbs. there since Jan 2021. It's an amazing fishery. No doubt one of the very best I've been to. It also has crappie and good bream. This is very sad news. But I'm going to try to go once a week until it's sold. I know some would say I should buy it. It's well out of my range. Oh, and I caught a 6-3 there Saturday on a frog in lilies. A few of my greatest hits from this place:

There are a few urban places you have to keep your head on a swivel.

Preferably a black worm. And rig a glass bead between the weight and worm so it clicks.

When I tried them they seemed to perform worse than a T-rigged craw. Could just be the place/time I tried them. Honestly, where I fish, BIG baits don't seem to do as well, even for large bass. They seem to be homed in on smaller shiners and craws.

Amazon. Have it in 2 days.

I've been fishing a place with a good many 5-8 lb bass. I've been fortunate enough to catch probably 20 in that range with 2 over 8 lbs. Only once in all that time did I catch 2 big bass close together, geographically. And that was an hour or more apart, same spot, same day, same lure. They weren't the same bass because one was 7-something and the other 5-something. Both on the Whopper Plopper for what it's worth. This goes to the OP's statement that big bass behave differently than small bass.

Getting the bait to the fish is probably what they fail to do. I remember routinely getting out-fished by my dad. If there weren't many he would catch them all. And when I caught more, he would catch the biggest one. I simply had to slow down and do exactly as he did. Early in my bassing "career" my dad only used T-rigged 6-8" mostly purple worms. He would say if they don't want the worm they aren't hungry. That taught me patience that eventually paid off. You almost can't work a worm too slowly. In fact, I have a friend who goes with me very occasionally who only uses a weightless Trick Worm and reels it as slowly as possible. He catches fish most outings. He's caught a couple 5 pounders.

That stinks. But when our hobby is dragging bass out of their habitat by a hook in the mouth there's going to be some carnage.

One of those Quantum spinning reels with the trigger bail flip. It came off and the bail was out of balance forever. I was broke at the time so I just made it my crappie combo. I also had a heavy Quantum BC 6'0" pistol grip rod. It was too stiff to cast one handed, but you couldn't get another hand on it. If you looked down the blank you could see it was not very straight. It got little use and eventually I gave it away.

I dug up some boxwoods in the front yard this afternoon and drank at least 2 liters of water. Sweated most of it out/ I was talking about that with the wife the other day. She said "Remember when you were a kid? You never thought about hydration. Now we get cramps when we aren't even dehydrated."

Put a craw or even a lizard on and throw it around deeper structure. When I was learning to jig fish I used a plain weedless jighead and Rage Craws. It will get more bites on average than the skirted jig and trailer.

The Rage Craw will also do the job.

Yeah the only place I get bites on a frog are depths where a bass on the bottom could detect a surface lure. I fished a very shallow pond last summer. It's in a nature preserve with no less than 6 old ponds in a chain so I was able to be alone. The place looked like a frog fishing postcard. I couldn't buy a bite on it. I ended up getting all my bites on a weightless stick worm. Sometimes they simply will not go for the topwater but they're still there.

My sister and I were latchkey kids as well. The best deal in all of fishing. I keep a spool in my bag and it has saved my trip before after a terrible birdnest.

The "chainiest" pizza restaurant we eat at is Ledo in Rock Hill, SC. It's thin rectangular pizza. It's a chain that originated in MD and my wife is from there. But this one is so far from any other Ledo that it's like a mom/pop operation. There is never a big crowd and they have the usual local drinkers. It feels like home. Alas, we're dieting and there's no way to go there and not gorge on the pizza. I would prefer one serving size slice. I like those cheap frozen Totino's pizza in classic pepperoni. They get so crispy. And one is a good serving without really going overboard.

And it occurs to me I could wear the hoodie with a wide brim hat over it .

I have both. But sometimes the hoodie still doesn't cover your face.

We have yet to hit 90 in upper-central SC, which is pretty unusual. I went on vacation in Florida last week. It was 90 with a feels like of 100+ all week. Came home Monday and it's been at least drizzling rain since. I dare say our bass are not in their summer pattern(s) yet.

Yeah, I'm at the point where a piece of white toast tastes decadent. LOL. We (the wife and I) have a cheat meal once a week or every two weeks if she has not lots enough weight. She weighs in at WW every Friday morning. When the weigh in is good we're rewarded with a cheat. I'm OK with not eating out much. It's getting ridiculously expensive to eat unhealthy.

And if there's anything vertical there to run the bait into like dock pilings, do that. I admit I don't use the buzzbait nearly enough. It catches bigger bass. Since the WP came out it has taken up a lot of my buzzbait time.