T-Billy

I roll with "Two Good" greek yogurt and a handful of almonds four or five days a week. Lots of probiotics and protein, only a few hundred calories, and low in sugar. Good stuff, especially for the gut. 8 cup pot of black coffee is a must, 7 days a week.

Awesome trip Dwight!!! Congrats!!!

^This^ I'll add, you want to fish fairly vertical. No bomb casts, you want to keep your line angle between 45 degrees and vertical. Your bait will come through much cleaner than if you make longer casts.

Doing my best to make @Team9nine proud this morning. 15" on the nose. Caught it on my flippin rig pitching laydowns. My best crappie in several years.

I got myself into a dinkfest again today. I don't keep count on days like this, but I had a pile of 23 torn up Sweet Craws when I got done, and I caught another dozen and a half or so on a tube. The little 3" Venom stubby tube caught the best of the day 3.89# pictured below. It was the only one over 2#. Dunno where the girls went, but the shallow wood and chunk rock are loaded with bucks. Surface temp was 62 this morning before the sun came up, and we're headed toward the new moon. I imagine the gals should be showing up soon.

ABSOLUTELY!!! 😁

I like mono/copoly for finesse presentations. It's more abrasion resistant than light braid, and I think in the proper diameter it makes light baits move more naturally.

This gets pushed hard in the muskie world. I think there's something to it, but not always. I've seen fish suddenly turn on around moon rise/set and overhead/underfoot often enough to believe it has an effect, but it often seems to make no difference in the bite as well. I get out when I can, and if I happen to be there when a lunar event goes down, I try to be on a good spot when it happens.

Try starting with a beaver type bait if you have any. If you don't, then get some. 😉 I like to fish it with fairly sharp "pops" most of the time and let it fall with just a bit of slack line. Sinker pegged. Lizard are another good option in spring. I'm a fan of the Big Bite Baits "Yo Momma" when it comes to beaver type baits. They sell them on their website in 100ct bulk packs. Actually on sale right now. The 3" size will get you both numbers and size. They advertise it as 3" but it's actually 3.5".

Bears poop in the woods. So do I.

Happens here in OH sometimes too. They get super spooky when they're up that shallow in clear water. A TRD bug on a 1/8oz jig head, 6# mono gets em biting for me sometimes. Other times I've had them run from that little thing like it was the Boogie Man when they see it.

As long as they're still eating them, keep throwing them Katie. You're bog bass aren't seeing a ton of pressure, plus some baits, especially soft plastics, don't rattle and flash etc. and give off a bunch of negative cues. Bass won't get conditioned to them and quit biting. Think about how long bass have been eating worms, and jigs, and tubes. They're all still top tier producers in heavily pressured waters after decades. In your shallow weedy waters, that Keitech rig and a T-rig are two baits I would always have tied on, ice out till ice over.

Shallow sun baked wood and rock with fairly close deep water is where I'd be looking.

My wife says I'm already a Major Dickason without adding this stuff. 😂 We pee in the lake... A LOT!!!

A big bowl of oatmeal keeps me full for hours, and keeps a warm breeze blowing inside my bibs in cold weather. 😁

Another Mag II and Ol Monster fan here. I also just picked up a LPO 6" grub mold. I bought it mostly to use for muskie bait trailers, but I have a feeling they're gonna be a hot bait for pitching deep grass this summer.

LM- 7' MH Berkley Lightning rod, Abu 4601, 20# Invisx. Jig & Craw. SM- 7'6" MH BPS Pro Qualifier, Browning Citori, 30# 832. Chatterbait.

68 years young is a better term in your case. You go girl!!! 😉

Yes and yes. ☝️Thousands of hours of the above.

The chatterbait is hands down my #1 night bait for both LM and SM. Jig would be #2. Sometimes a toad or buzzbait if there's lots of surface activity. I mostly fish weed edges and rock structure.

It appears the muskie are done spawning and moving into the trees. They'll use them until the weeds get up good. I was bass fishing today and caught a 36.5" out of a laydown on my flippin rig, and a 37" with a 3" tube on 8# YZH. Both fish are beat up from the spawn. That skinny 37" was pretty lethargic. Only took a few minutes to land it on the 8#. The muskie bite has been terrible lately with the spawn going on. Looking forward to the weeds getting up and the crank and blade bite getting going.

I like Sufix 832 for bottom contact. It's the most abrasion resistant braid I've found. Fins Infinity and XS Big Game are my favorites for chucking and winding. They're both very smooth, strong, durable, and MADE IN THE USA.

Ya hear that @TnRiver46? You need to respect ol rubber lips. @roadwarrior needs to start showing some respect to the mighty drum too. 😜

So, Piedmont finally came down enough to launch, and with today being post frontal, with high sun and light winds, I figgered I'd make the drive down and catch me a wheel barrow full of brown bass. 😎 Things started out just like I'd thought they might with a steady bite on a 3" tube, fishing shallow rock in spawning pockets. It was a dink fest, but they were biting. Mixed bag of SM, LM, and saugeye. I was stoked, thinking the bite would keep improving as the day went on, and the shallows warmed after a 30 degree night. WRONG!!! 😂 It steadily faded as the day wore on, with the last fish coming at about 1 o'clock. I called it at four. It was a fun morning, with a steady parade of dinks keeping me busy. Best fish pictured below. About 2# give or take a crawdad or two. Didn't find any of the big egg laden sows I was looking for, but I'm thankful for the beautiful day on the water.