thediscochef

What I carry depends on where I'm going and how far I have to walk...and how close to 100 degrees it is outside. Days like today...it's 70-80 degrees out, I'm probably going to a spot that's close to parking because everything here is flooded to hell right now. So today, I will have my dad's old plano 6803, two rods, and a landing net. I have walked up to a mile with that gear before but it is a mule. For longer walks, it's a molle belt with pouches and flambeau 2003 boxes. This limits what I can carry, but I tend to only use about four or five baits total anyway. In the 6803 I have about 10-12 bags of plastics, three spools of varying leader, tools, a scale, and probably 25-30 jerkbaits plus lipless cranks, a Frog, a pop max, an a frame spin, a googan contender junior, chatterbaits, and moon eyes. I don't really need much else. I won't even throw half those types in a day, let alone a bunch of different colors. The belt carries all the tools and the scale, but about a third of the other stuff. Which again, is enough. It's hard though, I have a mountain of tackle sitting at home and there's times during a skunk that I wonder what in that mountain would shake it. Then the fomo sets in. But the more I think about my tackle the less I think about how I'm fishing, and the worse I do.

I've never caught a fish on a fluke that wasn't on a chatterbait. Nice!!

Yeah I got a little creative with my line experiments last year, when I started using casting gear this year I started all over basically. Leaders on casting stuff have so far been only a source of irritation for me. It's not always the knot that fails, but it's usually within one inch of the knot. A few folks on this forum told me to use mono to solve the issue...only just now accepting it lol I do not like working with mono at all and the hooksets are different. But of the stuff I used yesterday the mono did as well as anything and required the least amount of fuss.

I've never caught an lmb over 2ish# that looked good to eat

I've been kind of grappling with this a bit lately. I use rods with small guides so knot noise is an issue but for me I've found myself breaking leaders off on casts 5x more since I moved to baitcasting reels. It's not every week that I snap something off in the air, but it's way more than it used to be. Part of that is me using heavier lures than I was. But I also think that a leader knot will weaken after touching guides enough times. I've used double uni, crazy Alberto, and kreh style knots. I had issues with the Alberto coming undone for some reason, the uni is noisy as heck but stays tied better. Honestly? After watching yet *another* jerkbait go sailing into the lake...I just respooled my jerkbait combo with 10# sufix seige. My lipless combo has 14# sufix elite. Imo the mono gives me fewer nests and less overall concern about the integrity of my line and therefore more focus. I will say that I find the braid much easier to handle when nested though. While the braid certainly can add a noticeable extra cast distance...I can still just about spool out a tatula CT with 14# elite and a 1/2oz red eye shad during a cast. At some point being able to set a hook from that distance becomes a concern. There's one place I go where the extra distance would be of use, but that would also put a huge felled and submerged oak between me and my lure. So maybe it's not so useful. The place I think I will miss the 20# braid to 15# copolymer setup will be dragging treble hook lures through thick hydrilla. I may keep a combo set like that for that purpose. Otherwise I may not look back from mono.

This thread is older than most of my friends kids lol I have only ever kept one fish outside of guided trips. It's not that I have some moral whatever with it - it's that I fish enough to see how poorly some follow fishery rules and enough people at the fish cleaning station, etc that I know fish of all sizes are being harvested at a pretty solid pace. I don't see a need to contribute to that, especially when I don't enjoy cleaning fish. It's not going to kill the fishery for me to keep what I catch, but it sure is easier to just pack up and leave when I'm done at the water.

I caught a stinky 2.6lbs bass. There was a nice crappie and a smaller bass too. Lost a white bass and a decent lmb. Also lost three hardbaits. I had a good time.

I heard I could post photos of dinky bass here so I'm doing just that

Didn't have a lot of time and the weather was meh but I still got a nice little spotted bass. I'm jonesing for a big fish again, even after the big longnose gar I posted in the other species thread...

I'm only 30, but I haven't been kind to my body until lately. I'm definitely feeling it. Lost 80lbs a few years back, fishing the bank helps with exercise. Lately I've had some lower back/hip trouble that's kept me from fishing on a few occasions. I also have a bad knee and arthritis in the hands that can be brutal if I don't take days off from the baitcaster. I've found spinning tackle with a large handle knob to help with the hands on bad days. Years of playing upright bass with poor technique did the hands, weight did the knee. It all kinda seems to get worse if I don't exercise. This is gonna be a painful body in 20 years. Speaking of which it's time to go for a hike at the lake.

Sorry I hadn't followed up on this lately - been out fishing some other spots along with some back pain. We just got a heavy rain at the start of the week, most of the northside lakes are up a solid two feet from where they were last week. Hoping that stays up a bit, I like my water at 100% capacity

She's been Big Wendy out this way too, but I don't typically tap out until we get to 37mph sustained. When it's blowing like that it's a great time to chuck a red eye shad or a jerkbait. It's always a great time to chuck a jerkbait though. I love you, jerkbait. How many times can I say jerkbait? I fish it how I say it in more ways than one Anyway I do best in 5-10 but I'll toss around in 25 if I have to Nothing stops this train Nothing except wind over 37mph I think they said this was (so far) the windiest month in Dallas/Fort Worth since 1996, and the windiest April since 1961 I'd also say this all changes in a boat. I will handle weather in a boat but if I have a choice I want glassy water. Yesterday was the first true 5-10 I can remember having in probably a month or more

they could at least send you a nifty hat or something

Not my first bycatch of the year but by far the most notable. Good times. I was not equipped for gar fishing today. Ate a KVDJ300 in sexy shad. Neat

As stated above, typically I go by what is in the water historically. We don't really have Alabamas where I'm at, it's all spotties afaik. They don't get very big, lake record here is like 4lbs.

It's all over the place honestly. It mostly depends on how much life I'm seeing; if there's a ton of fish around and I'm still not getting bit...let's find what will get bit. But if the fish are slow and scattered then there's no guarantee that even 5 fish will see my lure in an hour and I will throw the same plug for hours if I feel like it; this is how I landed my best fishes of the year in 2022 so far, as well as my Christmas PB.

Got five today, two LMB and three spots. This was the "big" of the bunch, probably 1 to 1.5lbs. Not bad for a bright, sunny, calm day between 3pm and 5pm. Lake is up about two feet from some rain earlier in the week. The rest of my day was absolute dumpster-quality. But at least I caught some fishes. It's a good day.

Managed to get a nice hour in before the weather started rolling. As it did, I got the fish I came for, this 3.5lbs lmb. Anything over 3lbs is a good time. I think jerkbaits are good.

Nothing to write home about today, but I'm going to anyway. This was the only landed fish of decent size, about 1.75-2.25 estimated. Didn't feel like messing with the scale, didn't seem worth it. I took a day trip down to Lake Whitney, as one does, in hopes of a killer Wiper/Striper day but conditions did not cooperate and neither did the fish. I did catch a small striper and a small LMB though. I also had four really cool experiences: - the fish pictured chased probably four different jerkbaits before following through on the strike finally. The water was clear enough that I watched the fish come up and look at the bait very closely several times. Like at least five times. Eventually in that same spot it finally bit. It was cool to watch the strike happen. You don't get to see that very often from such close range (less than 12ft rodtip-to-lure). - a pretty sizable Spotted Gar chased my lure a few times but never bit which is fine by me. Those are such pretty fish, it's a treat to see one without having to deal with teeth. Whitney is full of them lakewide. - a 3ish foot longnose gar made it into my net before spitting my Vision 110 and hopping out of the net, which was woefully inadequate for a gar. I was trying to get its back half with the net and the front half with my lure which is always dangerous with a flopping gar. I was just happy to get my 110 back and not have to deal with teeth. It was also confidence inspiring as I managed that on 12# copolymer line. - a man oddly reminiscent of a shorter Roland Martin caught a 10-15lbs carp on shrimp and bacon at one spot I tried. I got to take his picture for him which was a cool moment. I was only at that spot for maybe 20 minutes. It was a good, relaxing day. Whitney never lets me down with cool experiences. Looking forward to going back already but it's Possum Kingdom up next...these Brazos lakes have been very kind

It ain't much but it's honest fish

I live 20 minutes from Lake Ray Roberts so it's tough for me to want to deviate from that, considering the nearest lake with a state park is on the other side of the metroplex. I will absolutely fish lakes without state parks, but I like the way the TPWD facilities are built - there's almost always a big pile of boulders for me to play with instead of that beachy nonsense. If I can go to a state park I will choose that over private parks any day. The nearest ones outside ray roberts are Joe Pool, Mineral Wells, and Texhoma. These are all roughly an hour to an hour and a half away. I have not made the trek to Texhoma in a while, it is on the list. A little further out is Cleburne, Purtis Creek, Tawakoni, Possum Kingdom, and Whitney. These are closer to 1.5-3 hours away. Y'all know Whitney and I have a thing for each other, I go there any time I can. I've honestly gotten a little comfy at Ray Bobs...I need to branch out. It's just tough when you feel like you have as good a spot as any. But those poor bass need a break from my harassment, I think.

That monkey is always around with a fix... The first rod I ever broke was actually on a fish...a very fast and light action low-end store brand rod on what I estimate to be a double digit flathead. It was early in my solo fishing days. I was trying to high stick it up onto the bank like a dingus. My rod tip broke off, it chomped my line, and took off. I felt worse about the light wire hook being left in its cheek than anything else. Cats handle that better than bass do but I still hate that it happened. I learned several lessons from that fish

Above suggestion is good, the southern access points at Lake Grapevine are not particularly fishing-friendly. I went to Lakeside Park and Meadowmere Park, this morning did not go to plan so I didn't take time to check out the topography and access points like I wanted to. Let's just say that I'm sure there's probably fish around there...but the gradient is so slow in both of those parks that you're sure to snap off some lures as I did today. I would not recommend either place. The only half decent spot I found to retrieve a lure was the Meadowmere Park Pavilion boat ramp. The one adjacent to it doesn't allow fishing within 100 feet of the ramp or pier. First time I've seen one of those signs. I'll visit the lake again on the north shore soon. I'm just pumped to see some local discussions, we don't get that a ton on this forum lol

I personally believe that golf spectators should be allowed to act like all other sports spectators. Like, yes, what those guys do is already impressive. I want to see them play it with some guy in a richard nixon mask squeezing 10 rubber ducks with a belt on the fairway. If basketball players can make free throws with 20k people yelling at them...I'm sure a golfer can learn to handle an air horn also i don't play golf

and I thought I was the dink king...I catch a ton of dinks but none that small!!