thediscochef

here to agree with this 1000%

My usual spot has a healthy set of hydrilla plumes, with other grasses like pondweed. There's also a bit of filamentous algae but it's not thick. I usually start around the edges of the weeds by a few feet, and work my way in. Typically works out if there's fish there. But doing that from the opposing bank has certainly honed my casting skills, especially with a jerkbait

I got a good one this morning! I was speeding across my local reservior dam this morning, as one does, and I got a ticket from a state trooper. Didn't catch anything either. Just a waste of a day. I should have stayed home, now I have to keep my diatribes on the moral and philosophical pitfalls of speeding fines to myself. At least I'm going back to Lake Whitney on Wednesday. Oh also I coughed too hard while I had bronchitis and now I have back pain and peripheral nerve symptoms. Time for a doctor's appointment

There's a ton that's already covered in this thread, like suspendots and suspenstrips, hooks etc. I've been using the owner STX38ZN hooks, spro 32lb power split rings, and vision 110 sized/clone type jerkbaits almost exclusively. I'm not using stock hardware on anything if I can help it. The megabass 110 to me is just something with predictable action and a pretty paint job, I'm still finding myself replacing the hardware. for way less you can get a huge variety of "clones", like the academy brand ultimate jerk shads, the yozuri 3db, the 6th sense provoke 106x. Very few of these baits including the megabass have reliably suspended or sank for me, the suspendots and suspenstrips are a MUST if I'm leaving much of a pause in my retrieve. I still have a lot to learn, I've not even started with baits that dive below about 7ft. Hooksets are still a work in progress, I'm still losing about one to two fish per outing, but the landing percentage has gone from like 45% to probably 75%+.

Yaker was a jerk for mouthing off, you didn't do yourself any favors by more-or-less threatening the guy. Although I tend to fall in the "some folks need a good ***-kickin'" crowd, I tend to believe it's not my place and I never know who I'm mouthing back to. I just log on to BassResource and mouth about it here while quietly relocating without a fuss. I've dealt with plenty of rude people on the shore, kayaking, boating. Entitled, rude behavior is part of things and probably always has been. If I'm running into too much of it in one day, I just try to take it as a sign that I haven't found my spot for the day yet. I can catch a bass just about anywhere they're present, which at Ray Roberts and Lake Whitney is just about everywhere.

Well. I just can't stay away. I volunteered to do some logistics for my family today. My drive home took me right back by Lake Whitney. Gonna have to update my favorite. I did 15 bass in 3 hours, 12 stripers and 3 wipers. Heavy was a 3.7lbs striper. I hooked something heavy twice and had the megabass and 6thsense stock hooks both bend out on me. Gonna replace them with zowire. Also I love suspendots. Great little tool. Eventually the 35mph sustained/52mph gusts were enough to send me in. But I fished in 28/45 all day. I still plan on going back at least one more time next week despite the 4 hour round trip. It's so worth it, the fishing is great and the scenery is wonderful. I'll get back to largemouth this weekend lol

They really are, I had a blast with em. I did have two little wipers at first, I can tell because they look like Sandies with broken up lines. Six total in about 40 minutes of fishing, felt like I was hooking something just about every other cast. I wish black bass fishing was like that...

I know white bass tend to be proportionally taller than stripers, with only one stripe extending to the tail. Stripers have multiple stripes that meet the tail. Wipers I'm less familiar with; the wipers I could verify as a wiper in the past have had builds more like a white bass. My first inclination was that these are stripers, but I'm far enough inland that wipers seemed more likely. I do know that they hit like a FREIGHT TRAIN and fought HARD. BIG fun, I'll be back next week with a buddy. When I'm home I'll read up a bit. Any further input from the forum is always considered a cut above imo. Edit: these are definitely stripers, based on body depth alone. Wipers are deeper like white bass. Thanks for pointing me right @TnRiver46

They probably are stripers given the proportions I'm better at catching bass than I am identifying them lmao

Forum is aglow with beautiful bass. You love to see it. Congrats @HaydenS on your tournament success. That's freakin sweet! I went to pick my car up where it broke down in Waco over the weekend. Mechanic had her ready thankfully. Naturally this means a little bit of lake tourism - Waco is a solid three hours or so from my home, surrounded by different water primarily from the Brazos River system. I went to Tradinghouse Creek Reservoir, a decommissioned power plant lake. It's not really a great shore fishing lake from what I could tell, definitely a destination for the Jon boat. I saw plenty of signs of life, but the shore access didn't have the kind of gradient I need to work a jerkbait properly. Off to Lake Whitney - it never disappoints. I found a really cool spot right up against the dam with huge rock dropoffs to 40+ft that only come 2-3ft out of the water. The water in that area was soooooo clear; you could see huge buffalo and carps and gars swimming around. But obviously not the place for LMB this time of year. Me being me, I set up there just for kicks. I'm glad I did. I kept pulling 2-3lb wipers (edit: stripers) on a sixth sense provoke 106x. Four over two pound in less than one hour, two more that were little within that time frame. I guess I have a wiper/striper spot now. I think jerkbaits are good

This is an interesting thread. In the year I've been targeting LMB solo, I've not once used live bait. I've also never gut-hooked a fish. It hasn't happened. I dislike live bait for my own purposes for logistical reasons, as well as a general desire to avoid killing things unnecessarily too often. The main exception I make for this is venomous snakes. I'm not about to try and shame others from using minnows all the time, cause thats dumb. But I'm not going to use them much. I'm not sure that others using live bait affects my jerkbait fishing. I think the only real way that would be possible is if bass begin to associate a given area with dangerous food that is indistinguishable from non-dangerous food and just stop feeding there altogether. That would probably take some insane pressure and consistency, I would think. I get more upset with the folks dropping green lights off the fishing pier as I suspect that has a greater impact. That said...I may be getting my own light here soon to compete with those dudes on the pier. I have no experienced opinion on gut hooking or mortality with live bait vs lures.

I'm kinda sloppy with my C-rigs but my best of the year so far came on one. 3/8oz-1/2oz tungsten on a spro swivel, 2/0 EWG in a baby brush hog. gets great tail action and hooks up just fine. I mainline braid with a copolymer leader, tying the C-rig to the copolymer leader end, not the braid. detecting bites on a slow movement can be tough, but it worked for me at Lake Fork. My hookup rate was as good as it is with a jerkbait.

I'd rather be snapped at by a snake tbh There's at least antivenom and I'm in DFW, there's hospitals. Naegleria fowleri is 95% mortality *with* treatment. No thanks.

This is my biggest fear in summer fishing at DFW ponds...that water gets warm and it does happen. I don't throw much that I'm unprepared to lose

Y'all catch smallies that I dream about up there. Pretty fish, looks tasty!

Footballs ??? Congratulations and well done on your victory! You love to see it ?

@TroxBox was kind enough to lend me a spot on his boat today, which was awesome. Great guy, great angler! Canyon Lake, TX is absolutely gorgeous but SO CLEAR. We could see bottom in some areas 15 feet I think. We caught fish, had some jerkbait heartbreak but also much success, all mine came on a KVDJ300 and an Ultimate Jerk Shad in the Ghost Shad color. They liked the green. This was the big on the day. I also caught a smallmouth which is always special. I’ve had a good day!

Chunky. Great job, looks like a fun day!

I had a similar thought earlier as I was trying to locate a pack of senkos. I have like four full boxes of plastics. I know that's nothing compared to a lot of folks but I accumulated all that in just a year. I found the senkos in the trunk of my car. I'm only 30, let's not start this business yet ?

I think there's maybe 2.5% of fishermen that can translate the difference between a $200 and a $600 rod into more fish. I think it was WRB who said that first, though likely with different statistics. I'd actually tag him but I'm sure he sees these threads enough. I digress. IMO, if you can't catch a fish on a $250 combo...it's not the gear. I tend to think that combos beyond the $300 price point are more or less splitting hairs. Someone out there definitely needs to split hairs for maximum effect - but that someone is also definitely not most of us. Surely not me.

Ahhhh that makes sense...a few things just clicked for me. Thanks!!

They also have them listed on the website where you can customize the combo and order it for pickup at the store of your choice. You are only limited by what's in stock. This should be featured at all BPS if I'm not mistaken

I've not purchased one, but I know at my local BPS they have carbonlite rods with other reels that they can sell too - that way you can get the rod with a better reel. Tbh though for that money I'd go to academy and get an h20xpress tac40 They're $60 right now on closeout. Pair it with a good Lews casting reel that fits your price range. You won't regret it. For spinning gear, daiwa reels.

I'm very curious about what you're referencing here - can you expand a little? Maybe this is something I need to also be looking at