Troy85

I use 40lb powerpro braid, I choose 40lb simply because the price difference between 30lb and 40lb was about $5, the difference between 40lb and 50lb was about $13.

I probably release my bass about 2/3's of the time, but Fresh fish is just to tasty to not eat at least some of the time.

Because I'm not very creative.

I like these as well for a slow retrieve.

I used to read a lot of articles all about when to use specific lures or presentations, but I found it didn't really help me much. I like to know the science behind a particular presentation or bait. I have found it much more effective for me to read articles about bass habits and movements.

If they are anchored in/near the middle of the channel. I'd just slow down and idle past. If they are off the main channel, say near the mouth of a small bayou and I'm coming out of it, I'll drop the trolling the motor and troll by, I wouldn't go the other way though, if they were fishing a small bayou that I wanted to get into, I would wait for them to leave then motor in.

There is a lot of grass where I fish. I usually just reel steady and then rip it thru the grass.

Zoom

Interesting. About a year ago, I was trolling one side of a small canal, and another boat was trolling the opposite side. We were pretty much inline with each so we started talking. He was throwing a weedless plastic swim bait and he had a hit. I heard him say "oh he short struck it, watch this". He took out some garlic scent and sprayed it on his swim bait. Cast back to the same spot, as he reeled the bait over the same spot the fish had hit on the previous cast, it hit it again. This time though, it was a solid bite and the fish was hooked deep in the mouth. He claimed it was the garlic scent, I've had fish miss first time, then hookup on a recast. So I guess I'll never know for sure. I do carry scent in my boat now though.

Pretty much the same for me. Like someone else said, decrease the spool tension on reel when your pitching, just remember to adjust it back higher if you switch back to regular casting(especially when using heavier baits).

When my brother first started using a jig, he would throw the Strike King Bitsy Bug a lot. Its a small jig, so it gets a lot of bites(at least where I fish). It was good a way for him to build up confidence in his presentation and then move up to a larger jig.

I use them all the time, catch a lot of fish with them too. Usually Chartreuse/white or just white, 1/4 or 3/8oz.

JJ's Magic garlic chartreuse and Berkley Gulp Spray. I don't use it very often though, I usually forget that I even have it in the boat.

I don't think he's trolling you, I think he's just trying to make sure you have you forum display settings set correctly. You answered a question that was asked and answered 12 years ago. I think he's just making sure you have topics set to display most recent posts at the top of the list.

Been fishing large grass flats the past couple weeks. Fish have seem to be gathering in the larger holes in the grass, at least several feet wide, and almost always more than 1 fish per hole. Haven't had many bites in the smaller little pot holes, only the larger holes in the grass. Pulling a single blade spinner bait with a minnow, no skirt, its not totally weedless, but the bass don't seem to care. After the spinner bait played out in a particular hole, we'd switch to a TX rigged worm and sometimes we get 1 or 2 more to bite. Everywhere is different, but maybe this will help.

Not really weird, but I'd consider this to be pretty rare. Caught a catfish that had a hook stuck in its mouth. Crazy part is I hooked the eye of the hook that was already in the fishes mouth, I didn't actually hook the fish.

Thanks for the tips about the sure life videos. I watched a couple over the weekend. I also just added a re circulation pump to my livewell yesterday. Its not too bad now, but once the heat of the summer comes around, surface water temps will be in the mid to high 80s, you need all the help you can get when it comes to keeping fishing alive.

That's the truth, Bass fishing has to be the only sport in world where you can go from feeling like a pro, to feeling like you have no clue what you're doing about 52 times a year.

I inshore salt water fished almost exclusively until about 3 years ago(I'm 33). Then I got into bass fishing, it has a different appeal to it and it is definitely more challenging. I read a lot of articles, watch a lot of videos and participate on this forum. Most of my friends are into salt water fishing, so my "talking to other anglers" about bass fishing only really happens here.

I saw Please Release me at Academy yesterday. I'll have to pick some up next time I go there.

Do you have a separate battery for your pumps or do they run off your cranking battery? I would run them more, but I'm always afraid of running my battery down.

To have a house on the water................one day......one day

As far as commonly fished area's, closest launch is 10 miles, furthest is about 50.

I used to be bad about buying soft plastics, I'd get a worm in like 8 different colors. About 3 months I realized I had all these random colors of worms that I NEVER used. I looked thru all soft plastics and picked the 3 main colors I use, gave the rest to my brother because he loves throwing all those random crazy colors.

Depends on the spot. Sometimes I stop to fish a new area, I take 5 casts and pack up and leave, sometimes I'll fish it for 30 minutes or longer. It kind of depends on how I feel once I start fishing a spot. If I feel like an area has potential I'll try several different lures before moving on. When I find an area that has fish, after I've caught a few, I like to switch lures or presentations and see if they will still bite. If I don't get bit, I'll switch back to the original bait and see if start catching fish again.