Munkin

This year was definitely colder than last for January and February. Last year I completed the bass every month challenge catching my first on January 2nd and my last on December 29th. Didn't even attempt to fish January this year do to work and family commitments. Caught my first bass on February 12th and a couple more that month on hair jigs. March has been up and down because of heavy rains flooding. When its not flooded small 2.5-3.25" tubes in black or really dark brown have been working. Hopefully my new boat registration comes so I can take the boat out in the next week. Allen

Spent 17 weeks at Ft. Leonard Wood for MPOBC and usually fished 6 days a week. The Big Piney is great except being from Maryland I was not ready for the Cottonmouth encounters. I fished every pond and lake on FLW along with the Big Piney. Actually caught several meanmouth bass while I was there that I had to ask the game warden what they were? Besides my time at FLW I had a job that sent me to St. Louis for like 3 weeks at a time. Fished the Meramac and caught my first flathead on a Team Daiwa jerkbait. For all the guys that live in Missouri it is a fishing paradise. Rivers, lakes, and ponds everywhere just full of bass. I remember driving down some small country road seeing doublewide trailers on 4 acres of land with a 2 acre pond. One of the FLW Game Wardens I befriended while I was there invited me to his house for some fresh fried bass. He had about a 2 acre pond in his back yard told me we needed 8 bass and gave me a rod with a buzzbait on it. Told me to go catch 8 bass, throw back anything under 12" and over 16" while he got everything ready. He was right about the buzzbait as I had those 8 fish in about 20 casts. Allen

Cold , muddy, falling water is the worst conditions I can think of to fish the river. Generally if these are the conditions I will hit a local lake . Allen

Guy was trapping squirrels at his house and then releasing them into the woods far away. Decided to put one in another guys livewell at an open tournament as a joke. The guy checking livewells that day I thought was going to have a heart attack when that squirrel launched over him during the check. Allen

See if you can find the Rick Clunn article on seasonal patterns. He goes into detail on where to find the highest percentage of bass based on time of the year and water temps. Additionally look for Rich Z's work on finesse fishing. Allen

Anyone that can pour an R-Bend can pour a twisted bend frame. Generally I don't use the twisted frames except for heavier weights. In the past when I used then I found the line got tangled up around the twist on casts. Allen

You can always use something like a skirt collar or plastic earing back to hold the trailer on. Allen

You ever fish Sleepy Creek? The road there sucks big time but that place held the WV state record LM for many years. There is an open tournament there Memorial day weekend that I usually fish. Haven't caught any big fish there yet just a bunch of 1-3lb fish. Great place to fish a frog in the summer though. Allen

Trying to get a grip on this myself? I am down from 119 Plano boxes to 79 full of hard baits. I just gave the Berkely High School Jr Bassmasters a box of lures that weighed 39lbs. Next step is to start more culling of soft plastics. Allen

What if I said I have some Terminator T1's NIP?😀 Allen

Youghiogheny Lake you want to fish in like May? They draw down the lake starting around then. I have fished there 4 times in May or June. Water level dropped about 10' in two weeks last time I fished it. Allen

We have the same crap with the Potomac River. Maryland owns the Potomac River except for the portion that flows through DC. Now say for me as a resident of Maryland wants to fish all the sections of the Potomac here is what I need. Western Maryland Potomac boarder with West Virginia I need a resident fishing license. With this I can even fish from the WV shore. MD and WV have a reciprocity agreement so both sets of residents can fish this section. Moving downstream into DC I now have to buy a DC license because they do not have a reciprocity agreement with Maryland or Virginia. Now at the Potomac below DC "which most people refer to as the Lower Potomac" I have to buy a second MD license as this portion of the river is tidal. If I signed up for an open tournament that now requires a VA license. While I can fish the main river I need a VA license to fish any of the coves on the VA side. Allen

5" Starflash Skirts - Barlow's Tackle (barlowstackle.com) 155 Crawdad 001 Black 787 Green Pumkin Black Glitter The 3 above are my personal favorites for heavy football jigs. The crawdad color on a 3/4oz football jig with a 4" GP doubletail grub is a big fish bait for me. Allen

Are we throwing out obscure JDM baits then: Team Daiwa minnow 1091 Jackal Squirrel 79 Imakatsu Riprizer Evergreen M1 Inspire minnow O.S.P Asura Allen

All depends on where I am fishing? River its Ned, Wacky, Drop Shot is almost unable to be used in 4' of water. Honestly I didn't even try the DS in the river it was all Hover rig. Lake I would rank them wacky, Drop Shot, and don't really use a Ned in lakes. Allen

For River SM this is what I found works at different temps: 33-39 Degrees Hair jigs, more hair jigs, maybe 2.5" tubes closer to 39. 30-44 Degrees small tubes 2.5- 3.5" fished slow. 45 Degrees is the magic number where I can start catching them on hardbaits. Jerkbaits and silent crankbaits start working. One of the best days I have had for SM on the Potomac was a mild winter, water temp 46 degrees, caught 32 on a LC RC 1.5 in Bull Bream. Allen

Livingrubber.com specializes in it. You may also want to look into Starflash skirts? They are round silicone, act like rubber, and don't melt together. Allen

(2) TEAM DAIWA 2 3/8" TD Floating 3/8 Oz Crankbaits TDCS1060FG09 Tennessee Shad | eBay Had luck on these over the past 10 years. The other bait that works is a Bandit Footloose. Allen

Shadish= White, grey, smoke silicone with double nickel willows. Night= 1/2oz black with a size 5 black colorado. Later I will take some pics of the exact baits I am throwing. Allen

Imagine Extreme Hoarders Bass Lures addiction show and I would be their pilot episode. Things I use day to day are organized but everything else is chaos in general. Allen

This is it, while I have caught fish on other lures in these conditions I stick with two lures. A 2.5 or 2.75" tube works a lot of days. The #1 bait period is a hair jig with bear hair working the best. I have caught several SM in the river at 34 degrees with chunks of ice hitting my boat on a bear hair jig. Bucktail, Fox, and others work as well still I will mix them with bear. Trailers, if you can find any a Uncle Josh Pork 101 is the best cold water trailer ever made and would bet money on that. Like others have said you need to find the wintering holes or where the fish can move from shallow to deep with the least amount of effort. If you are fishing a long shallow flat that is the wrong place unless there is no deeper water available to them. Try to find some deeper holes where they can just rise straight up from say 12" to 2' when it gets warmer to feed. Remember this is a cold blooded creature that has to swim constantly to survive. Allen

My favorite spinnerbait rod is a 6-8 Falcon Lowrider overall and in cases where I need a shorter rod their 6-4 Spinnerbait special. Tried using a Rainshadow MHMF bland and it was too moderate for me but works great for crankbaits. Allen

Just found Anglers Resource as well. Allen

Properly wouldn't be the word I would use but it does work great in my fire pit to burn up brush. Allen

Thinner hooks will do that and I just cut off the flashing with a dull exacto knife. Allen