IndianaFinesse

Hm, I don't have any classic sale items in cart, so maybe it's voided for the sale period even if you aren't getting any sale items.

Dealt with the wind as best I could for about three hours today. I don't know where the weather guy got his info, it was way windier than the 25 mile an hour predicted. It was so windy my trolling motor couldn't keep me in place, and my anchors wouldn't hold, so I would motor up wind of the spot and put the trolling motor on full speed to slow the drift past the spot down. Didn't think I could safely get to the dam after spearing a couple waves and getting drenched, so I fished the upper end of the lake. Still managed 8 bass on jerkbaits retrieved with a 2-3 second pause, with the largest weighing just shy of 4 1/2 pounds. Seems like most of my bass over four pounds are caught in heavy wind, but it doesn't make it any easier to fish in. Tryed fishing in protected coves, but they are still on steep dropping shorelines and points in 8-17 feet of water today. Water temperature is 47 on the main lake and 52 in the coves, and the water clarity is about 3-4 feet.

Anybody know what the current 5$ off code at tackle warehouse is? The FHABAQ214 code isn't working.

Unless you are dropping a thermometer down on a rope, it is impossible to measure the temperature at the depth the bass are at. So we usually are just going by surface temps when we talk about temperature. While the light angle is the factor that seems to trigger the full scale migration to the spawning areas, water temperature is a decent guideline for when it will happen. They will spawn in the same time frame every year in your area/lake, plus or minus a week or two depending on the year. I use water temperature (surface) as more of an educated guess for how active the fish are, and how likely there is to be a small scale movement to the neareby shallows. In every region there seems to be a magic temperature that gets the bass moving towards the shallows and active, around here (and apparently in west Virginia also) it is about 50 degrees. That's when they usually start moving into the openings of coves and when more options are available than the standard winter baits.

First off, there is no single answer to your question "is this the most effective topwater method?" That depends on to many things to mention in a single post. Frogs obviously excel in thick surface vegetation, but I also skip them underneath docks and bushes hanging over the water. I call it "brush crashing", just skipping a frog as hard as possible into thick overhanging bushes and hoping it gets through them. Fish them on 30-80 pound braid, with fifty being a good compromise, and a heavy powered rod. Walk them in open water, and mix in some pauses. It is impossible to walk them on topmof the muck, so just make as much noise as possible with long pauses in holes inside the mats. They could be effective any time the bass are shallow and at least somewhat active, so usually summer but they can also be good during the spawn and in early fall.

What happened to Keith Combs? He only has 2-4 pounds and is sitting in a surprisingly low 40th place, I really expected him to do well.

A: Keith Combs, never wanted to pick anyone else except maybe Greg hackney. B: Michael Iccanelli, almost picked matt herren. C: Bobby Lane, had Ott Defoe in until last night and thought hard about Andy montgomery D: Jason Williamson, almost picked Stephen Kennedy E: Wesley Strador, had Alton Jones Jr. Until last night. Hope I'm not going to regret my two last minute decisions.

I noticed that on tw, but like you mentioned it's twice then price because they had to 3d print it. I think I'll wait on the four inch model till the price comes down in a few months when they start mass manufacturing it. I would bet they will put the regular four inch model on the market for I-cast this summer.

Senkolover, that looks a lot like my picks except for in C. Is anyone getting tons of emails about the giveaway for the correct classic winner guess?

I've got a few salt water fish, but the most interesting fish I've kept in a tank is a small 8 inch bass last summer. I have a fairly large tank, about fifty gallons, that I placed the bass in with some weeds, rocks, and a small chunk of a log. It was interesting to watch how he ambushed and attacked the small minnows, tiny bluegill, and crawfish that I fed it. It was also interesting to watch how much the bass slowed down after a cold front, it sat completely still on the bottom in the thick weeds, and didn't eat for a day of two.

Anyone else having trouble with D and E? I don't feel like anyone in those buckets are going to do well. However my picks turn out, I'm excited to see who wins the Classic.

I think Trevor semien actually did pretty well, but the bronco's need a better o-line to protect him and a running game. Hard to throw well when you don't have enough time and when the other team knows you aren't going to run, leaving them open to a blitz.

Yes, I throw it on a medium fast baitcaster and can still get good distance.

Good video. The only thing I'll add is that fishing a lake with very high numbers of fish, even if it's just full of dinks, is also helpful for gaining confidence. And something I like to do is when I am first trying a new technique, is to start out out with a smaller version of it. That way you will probably get more bites, so it tells you if you are doing something right faster. An example would be swim baits, you will gain confidence much faster if you start out throwing a small 3 inch swimmbait when compared to an eight inch swim bait, cause the little one is going to get more bites.

I meant either straight braid or braid with a leader, I don't think it matters which. I did not mean to imply that straight braid was necessary, just that having braid as a main line was beneficial for improved hooksets and control without having a tight line for the no-feel retrieves. Mono would be to stretchy and has to much memory for the ned rig. I usually use 6-8 pound braid with an eight pound mono or flouro leader, but will use straight braid sometimes.

I usually reach for the smaller worm when the fish are less active, such as early and late in the year in cold water, and while I tend to a stick with the smaller worms in the summer anyways, a larger worm will sometimes be e ticket in warm water. I will sometimes put a ten inch worm on a shaky head during the summer to, giant worms on a shaky head do work at times.

Is a thousand dollars really considered a "budget"?

Fished last Thursday, yesterday, and today. Last Thursday I fished for three hours with only one fish to show for it, until a good migration of fish showed up off of a point in 8-10 feet of water. Caught 15 bass in a space of 15 minutes (four of them were "keepers") , with five bass in row on back to back casts! For fifteen minutes, that was some of the fastest catching I've ever had. Then they shut off and moved back out again, just as fast as they started. Started catching them on a shaky head, but switched over to half of a zinkerz to reduce the amount of torn plastics once the bite started. Water temperature was 40 degrees and was very clear at five feet of visibility. Yesterday the water temperature had improved to 43 degrees, but I did not find any migration. Caught 7 stragglers in two hours, on the ned and shaky head fished in 6-12 feet of water. This afternoon the water temperature had further warmed to 46 degrees, and I was able to fish for two and a half hours. Only caught ten bass, but seven of them were solid "keepers" around two to two and a half pounds each. Most hit a jerkbait fished on steep dropping shorelines and off of points in 8-17 feet of water, and the vision 110 was fished with a five second pause. Numbers weren't great, I probably could have caught more on half of a zinkerz but wanted better size, but seven fish over fifteen inches in a 2.5 hour period is a good day in my book. Water clarity is around four feet of visibility.

Swim for it, heck I swam in 40 degree water for a 75¢ ned rig. Definitely worth getting cold and wet for a $700 phone, IMO.

Tried them, but I'm not a fan. They didn't significantly decrease snagging, and decreased the hooking percentage. The regular ned rig with a ~#2 hook and a roughly 1/16 ounce weight is already fairly snagless anyways, the small hooks and lite weights float and glide over snags easily.

Just didn't want to send the same question request twice, and I wasn't sure if I had missed the ask a pro a question video. Thanks for making the vid, I just wanted to clarify.

You are correct, people have started to use the terms flipping and pitching interchangeably, but they are in fact two different techniques.

I rarely let my neds deadstick on the bottom, I almost always swim it just above the bottom while subtly shaking the rod tip, so weather it floats or not matters little to me. They will lose the salt and float in about an hour of fishing, or you can soak the salt out if you want, but it doesn't really matter.

Bluebasser does pour his own, but he pours them on #2 and #1 hooks which are the same size as the shroomz's. I also pour my own ( I used to use the 1/20 oz. size shroomz's and 1/16, 1/32, and 3/32 ounce heads from Gopher tackle, poured on #4 and #2 hooks) and I now pour my own jigs on #4 and #2 hooks for 2.5 inch zinkerzs, and #1 for hula stickzs and finesse shadzs. Ned kahde usually gets his jigs from Gopher tackle, and uses a #6 hook for the 1/32 ounce size, a #4 hook for 1/16 ounce heads, and #2 hooks for 3/32 ounce heads. If you upsize the hook the bait will lose its action and snag more, without improving hooking percentage. Stay with the little hooks, and I would recommend using the 1/15 and 1/20 sizes depending you buy from zman. For the hookset, just reel quickly while raising the rod up higher. And use braid.

That must have been an expensive day... At least you weren't throwing megabass vision 110s at $25 a pop. Suspending jerkbaits with broken bills don't stay on top very well, but I have a few floating jerkbaits with broken bills that fish as spooks pretty good. One of them actually worked better after the bill had broken mostly off.