N Florida Mike

8.1 . Caught on july 19 on a 5 inch torn up senko. I think it was watermelon slice color.

The same thing happenned to me today. I got a 4.15 as the light was fading. Made a few more "last casts " , and had a pound sized fish get on to close out the year.

Today is the anniversary of my PB , caught many years ago. Decided to fish longer than normal, and fish " Old School " large plastic worms like the jelly worm I caught the PB on. I still have a box of them from the 70s and 80s. Before I left I cast a couple times at the nieghbors dock and got the first fish pictured. Caught it on a late 70s , early 80s vintage gold flake paddle tail worm. Caught 1 more on it later. Went to the island to get some shade and got another on a black with blue tail curly tailed worm. I stayed with various 10 inch worms, and caught another on the red shad culprit. Very slow bite, almost slick calm conditions . Fished very slow to get them . It was starting to get dark and I de cided to fish a little of the east shoreline going home. I had rooted around and found a 5 inch alabama craw yum dinger. Nothing for a long time, then finally got this 4 pound 15 oz fish. ( last pic ) On the lean side at 23 inch. Not the PB I was huntin', but I'll take it . Happy new year everyone !!!

Tried out this creek today near the house .Had one on a senko but lost it.

5 pounds

What I have experienced is good fishing 3 days before and after a full moon., and similar around a new moon but not quite as good. I caught a 6 pounder on a full moon once, but usually the day of the full moon isnt great. Bass definitely will be bedding more actively around full moons and new moons in spring. Ive seen them on beds as early as december, and as late as april or early may in my area. I rarely check on the moon anymore, except full moons in the above months. I believe the minor and major feeding times based on the moon is significant, but I just fish whenever I can and usually do alright .? If Im planning a trip out of town to fish, I check it to see what the best day(s) may be. I tend to spend more time on cloud cover and wind . Barometer is a hole 'nuther can of worms.

Not quite, but getting closer every day...

Currently I use " my brain " But I'll check into this other stuff ?

Got out again today for a few hours . Decided to take my worm boxes only. I wanted to fish the east side of the lake and tried but it was too windy. Did get a fish off a tree in the water. Got down south to some calmer water and picked up another fish. Both fish on the red shad culprit. Lost a nice fish and they quit for an hour or so. Changed to the watermelon red / chartruese tail trick worm. Finally picked up 2 nice fish on consecutive casts. The one pictured is the smaller of the two - That pic was even blurrier than this one. Not a banner day, but better than yesterdays attempt at jerkbait fishing.

I had what amounted to a pet bass at my dock. I caught him 5-6 times because he was so aggressive. Named him lucky. He was around 4 pounds. Then he just left, and as far as I know, I havent caught him again. Guess he got tired of getting hooked.

I was suprised I didnt do better. The lake is full of quality fish, and I thought they would be all over it. It has been colder recently up here though , I had bluebird skys , I had a brisk wind in the more open parts of the lake, and the sheltered areas were full of floating leaves, etc, so it was harder to not have the leaves get caught nearly every cast. Like I said, I fished a variety of baits and presentations, and depths but the fish just werent active.

Well, I tried several jerkbaits for several hours today. I was not skunked, but not by much. I caught these 2 on a small gold rapala, both with a moderate speed retrieve. Tried every kind of retrieve I could think of. No wakes, no blow ups , no misses. Even the fish that bit did not hit it very hard ( of course their size may have been a factor ) I diligently cleaned all the weeds off after every other cast. Even tried lipless crankbaits with no sucess. At least I did not turn to my plastics like normal. Think this is driving me to live bait before the end of the week ?

Thanks. Think Im going to go with only my jerkbaits and see what happens. Kind of excited about a new challenge. I know how they love plastics around here so itll be fun to try something they havent seen much. I plan to rig 2-3 different ones up and alternate until I see what they want. I'll report back. Will probably go later today or tomorrow.

I always get a little action from them but never can say Ive done well with them. If I made myself fish them more, Im sure Id do better. Do they seem to work better on a bright or cloudy day ? Calm or windy ?

Im with you on that. I do enjoy watching Grumpy ol men. But thats probably as close as I ever come to ice fishing. When ( if ) theres ice on the winshields here, its time to be huntin!!?

Fish the golf course ponds. ?. Best of both worlds ! Finally got my trolling motor running right. Itll go 3-4 mph. now ! I dont miss those days when I owned a bass boat. Something always needing attention. Sold that sucker , went right out and bought a JB with a little kicker, and kept the trolling motor off the bass boat. The older I get I want simplicity !!! But as Briscoe Darling would say " More power to ye " Merry Christmas brothers !

I have read through some of this thread and wonder if someone can dumb things down a bit.I have caught fish on jerkbaits and have a few in my box, but have never really done that well with them. It just wasnt ( isnt ) ? very popular in my area. Almost None of my friends here ever fished with them. I fish mostly shallow, weedy , moderately clear to stained lakes and just get tired of pulling weeds in with so many casts. And they dont cast as far as Id like them to. Most of the fish Ive caught with them have been on the surface fishing very slow. Normally, I'll catch a fish or two with them , then no more bites . So I go back to my plastics and start catching fish again. Looking to grow in this area, esp. that the weeds have died off some now due to our " winter " Does anyone have 3 or 4 tips to kind of steer me in the right direction with jerkbaits ?