thediscochef

I'm always using bass tackle but if I do throw a heavy rod for blues I try to find the freshest cut bait I can

Me, sitting on set waiting patiently to get on the road home...

I've also acquired some tubes, 3.5" BPS tender tubes, and some KVD coffee ones. 1/16oz and 1/8oz heads. I intend to bring the 1/16oz tubes to clearer waters than I normally fish...Ray Roberts is clear enough but I've done better on chatterbaits. I think tubes may do me better in clear, cool water. Need to get some shakeyheads too.

Also note that in some moving waters below blue cat lakes, you can and will catch them on bass jigs if you do it enough. That's how I got my PB cat actually I just use braid because there's also gar in those waters and they'll eat just about anything, plus I'm shorebound so I need the castability of braid over heavy mono or fluorocarbon. And I hate mono lol

Variable depending on the size of cats I expect to hook into and what bait setup I'm using. My heavy spinning combo has 40# power pro moss green. The upper end of what I usually expect is about 30lb. My PB cat is 19.1, caught on 20# braid with a 20# copolymer leader while fishing with chatterbait. If I was fishing deeper water or better cat areas I would for sure have a setup with some 80# on it.

Looking ahead to this weekend, I'm targeting tomorrow as excellent and friday to be good at any north DFW reservoir, and I intend to be in my usual place, flipping my chatterbaits and working rocks. DFW is looking at 70 in the day and 40 at night, west winds 0 to 5 Thursday and 5 to 15 friday should make the east side of lakes a good bet from the shore. Fish will probably be deeper and closer against rocks, Creek beds, docks etc as the weekend progresses. 47/29 Saturday, 20mph through sunday but warming back up through the beginning of the week. Not sure what the water is going to look like but I'm guessing the usual 2-4ft vis. I'm betting that our major cold snaps are over and a general warming trend is beginning. It's football season, you guys. Let's get em.

It depends. If there's an obvious reason why the bite is off, it's no sweat. Just makes me eager for better weather. On nice days that should be good days but aren't or if I lose fish without catching one, I tend to get a bit salty. It always just makes me want to get lines back in the water

This is a great answer. I learn the most with my line in the water. I started seriously fishing last year, I spent basically all of April and May trying to figure out how to catch a bass. In prime catch season. At one point I fished every day for three weeks straight. Eventually I figured it out a little as yall know, but it was not a fun couple of months to figure it out. I turned a huge huge corner rapidly when I hopped on BassResource, and learned Ned Kehde's Six Finesse Retrieves.

?‍♂️ I hear you though, this year has been a doozy of work for me so far - I've slept a total of 8 nights in my own bed this calendar year. I've fished a ton (relatively) of different water around Texas because of it, which is great, but much of that water is not known for its bass fishing. In fact, I have caught fish at less than half the locations I've fished this year, and probably 2-3x more skunk days than catch days. I would consider that to be a very poor average on my normal choices of water, kinda makes one wrongly question their abilities. Also makes me feel like I haven't really done much fishing this year. I'm also now realizing that I have come to expect a catch if the water is known to be decent bass fishing and weather is decent. Uh oh. I hope y'all northerners catch yourself some big, angry footballs every day for a month when it thaws. Something about making up for lost time on the water and remembering what it feels like when a bass slams that line.

I was at Choke in early January, it was down like 18 feet but I still managed a decent bass. I'll be at corpus in December, and Canyon + Buchanan probably sometime in May. I have family in San Antonio so I'm there semi regularly, I'll dm next time I'm down Thank you for your kind words ? and likewise, anytime yall are near Ray Roberts, hit me up. I don't have a boat, but it'd be cool to meet some B.R. folks!

Off to Lake Arrowhead

I'll hope to run into you there, I'm taking next month off and will likely be there every day

2/8/22 Isle du Bois Slow shore fishing. Water lightly stained tan-green with 2-4' visibility, 47-49 degrees. Today had west wind 10-20mph, causing 1-2ft swell on the east side of the lake, lesser on the west side. One quality LMB bit on watermelon pearl jam chatterbait minimax but was not landed. Looked and felt like about a 3-5lbs fish. Bites were had close up on rocks and timber about 4-7' depth within 10 feet of shore or structure. Quality fish can be had for the patient shore angler with fresh arms.

if there are no fish where I am fishing, likely i will reel in a PB. hopefully with J.

Same though, except when I'm on the road...then even I am busy except evenings. I'm gonna be in the panhandle soon, but no time to fish Lake Meredith ?? I drove across Richland Chambers Reservoir two hours ago but of course, no time and no place right now. I have a Lake Fork trip lined up and a cabin on a private lake in Wimberley on another trip. I have two goals this season, probably either/or type deals - every state park lake in Texas, or ray roberts over 150 times. 5-year goal is every publicly accessible reservoir in Texas with a bass recorded in it.

This is true of all reviews tbh, I tend to try and gauge the overall sentiment of the review section. I’ve done just enough internet retail that I tend to assume most negative reviews are operator error in some form - whether it be the product or their handling of the situation. The thing to really look out for is fake reviews. Might have something pumped to a 4.8/5 stars with 500 great reviews but it's just AI. Also when judging service in a review, note the date on the review. It is relevant.

Where you off to? Livingston?

Good. Better when it's not snowing. Caught my PB on Christmas. Waters stained, probably 2-4ft vis on average. 48 degrees water temp in upper lake last I checked though the ice storm likely dropped that a degree or two. Black Bass are slow on black chatterbaits but producing bigger fish when worked on rocks. White bass exist.

Pilot point is good. Kinda small on amenities but Jordan Unit is in town and it's close enough to Denton and Frisco that you can find stuff for the Mrs. Buck Creek Launch is maybe 10 minutes north and is well known for bigger fish in the TPWD fishing reports. The metroplex continues to grow at an extremely rapid pace. There's a lot of people but I don't really run into too much overcrowding at lakes unless it's a holiday, or unless it's the first "nice" day in weeks. Denton is beginning to see some of the crime that comes along with extremely rapid growth of a college town. Also Denton County is in the top 5 flooded counties in Texas. If you buy in Denton County, be mindful about the drainage of the location. I'd have to find somewhere else with an equal number of good waters before I'd even think about moving really. I'm not sure where else in the country I can be at a dozen or more large reservoirs in less than two hours. It would take a lot to move me out of here.

Hah, got em Been in Houston late week, missed most of the ice. Lake Houston is muddy. LMB are poor on everything. Carry on.

I have been following it...should be good in a handful of years. I will see you there. My goal is 100 visits this year ?

This is an older thread but naturally it's my home area so I feel obligated to comment. Lots if great advice here, I was going to suggest the east side of the Metroplex for maximum of both amenities and access to good bass water. East side puts you closest to lake fork, richland chambers, tawakoni, cedar creek, lavon, lewisville, ray roberts, grapevine, arlington, and ray Hubbard. West side has some older reservoirs and closer access to possum kingdom. Both sides are within a couple hours of Lake Whitney and also Texoma which are absolutely worth fishing. Smallies are probably best in the north half of the state but generally never get much above 7-8lbs max so your options for that are limited. But there's excellent LMB, Crappie, and Gar fishing out this way. And if you go down south you can seek out Guadalupe Bass. As much as the human population size here makes me insane, it is a pretty awesome place to live if you're into black bass and also Costco

Best day of the week so far. Still dreaming about spring. A nice 3.25 LMB and a good 2lb spot punctuated things today. I lost two very heavy fish for one reason or another, not exactly sure what species. One was taking drag like a fiend and made me quite nervous about the 12lb leader I had on. Easily the heaviest feeling fish I've hooked into at that spot and it's not close.

I feel you man, it's football season but the stadium ain't open. I just have to keep in mind that it's not me, it's the fish right now. Didn't help that I watched a guy hit a 9lb LMB on a jerkbait from the shore this week, but that's not the norm by any means. Of the people I've seen on the bank, my 4 fish in one day has been as good as anyone. I can't wait for March. I'm not cold out there but it sure seems like the fish are freezing.

Just the one today but she had a mouth on her ?