Woody B

I love the smell of a pipe. My Grandfather (my Moms Dad) smoked a pipe. Most of my generation, at least around here are or were smokers. My other Grandfather (Dad's Dad) made it impossible for me to smoke. When I was 12 I had spent the night at his house, with one of my cousins. We got one of his cigarettes and got caught smoking it behind his building. He made us sit down and smoke a whole pack. (Pall Mall's with no filters). Smoking anything make me fell like I'm going to throw up. I would have probably have been a cigarette smoker had this not happened. I suspect this saved me a bunch of money, as well as some possible health problems.

I'm with @geo g You can't go back, but if I could it would be more about fishing friends than the water we fished in.

I got 12 cookie cutters today, all Spots, between 14 and 17 inches. First and last pictured. I've been lazy lately. I lost a decent Largemouth (guessed 3 poundish) on a jump. After losing it I checked my spinnerbait hook and it was about as sharp as a ball point pen. I also broke off my line once because it's too old. No fish was involved, my DT6 hit a rock, and my line broke near the rod. I was able to grab the line and retrieve my lure. I'll be changing line and sharpening hooks this week.

When I was younger I camped, fished and hunted quite a bit in and around the Linville Gorge. I also used to tube and fish several local rivers.

IMHO losing jumping Bass is a double, triple, quadruple, or even whatever comes after quadruple edged sword. Losing a Bass on a jump right after the hookset is probably either a hookset issue, or the Bass simply didn't take the lure in a manner were securely hooking it wasn't possible. With the exception of trying to get a Bass out of heavy cover, I think a slower rod helps keep fish pinned. However, a slower rod isn't ideal for a solid hookset. I also think the stretch in mono helps too. The stretch, as well as a slower rod helps keep from getting slack in the line. If you're using a noodle rod, and rubber band line the hook(s) have to be sharp. I think keeping the line tight is really important. If you're in a canoe or kayak I'm sure it's tough. If you're in a boat I believe your foot should be on the trolling motor pedal as soon as you set the hook. Move the boat away from the fish to keep the line tight. If you're on the bank, and have room step, walk, run away to keep the line tight. With timing, technique, and luck you and "surfboard" even a big Bass when it tries to jump. If you pull, reel, and run away (trolling motor in boat) at the correct time you can flip a big jumper onto it's side and slide it across the top of the water. I don't have weeds where I fish but I do fish a bunch of lay downs. I'm surfed big Bass (5 + pounds, big Bass by my standards) out of lay downs before they had a chance to get tangled.

I fished a few hours this morning. I caught 11 (kinda LOL). 9 were between 13 and 16 inches. The other 2 are my new "PW" (personal worst LOL). (one is the center picture) I didn't weigh them. I need to get a smaller scale. Both of the 3 inch Bass were hooked through the mouth. Were they actually attacking a DT6? It's hard to tell on Bass that small, but I'm pretty sure one was a Spot and the other was a LM. One of the 9 "real" Bass came on a DT6, a couple on a shaky head, and the rest on a spinner bait. The lake/water was....strange. We had a BUNCH of rain ~10 days ago. The power company lowered the lake some before the storm. During and after the storm it got up nearly to spillway level. (normal level is 3 feet below spilling) They kept moving water through all the lakes quickly. It's back down to normal level now. So in less than 2 weeks it's down a couple feet, almost spilling, then back down to normal, with a BUNCH of water going though it. The water color varies from dark green, to brown to almost black. It smell bad in some areas, similar to the fall turnover. It's hasn't turned over, water temp is still 84 degrees. I'd just say it's really mixed up. There were big lifeless areas. In areas where fish were they were concentrated. I'll go again tomorrow just before Sunrise. I was on the lower part of the lake today....going up river some tomorrow. There was nothing floating today, but I wouldn't be surprised to have floating debris in the upper section.

I took last weekend off to rest, recharge and get caught up on some stuff I've been needing to do. I'll be going early in the morning. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post tomorrow.

I've been told that "the speed" for an outboard flipping back into the boat is around 45 mph. The smallest outboard "The Leash" is made for is 115HP. IF I had a big/fast engine I'd have a leash on it.....but I have questions about it's effectiveness. Where does the "break" usually happen when an outboard ends up in the boat? Would a hard enough hit simply break the point where the leash is attached, or would it hold enough to prevent the flipping outboard? I think it's a good idea. There's no substitute for safe boating. A big outboard can absolutely flip into the boat. Last year a boater at Santee Cooper was killed when he hit a stump, and the outboard basically landed on him.

I bet if I had an $1100 swim bait I wouldn't need all this evil sonar equipment.

Many people who have never used it thinks you simply turn it on and fish start jumping in the boat. I saw part of a video the other day. It was some young guy, and some old guy. (I don't keep up with these people. I'm jealous of all of them. They get to fish, instead of working LOL) The old guy said the young guy should "put on his big boy panties" and learn to fish without FFS. The young guy said the old guy should "put on his big boy panties" and learn to use FFS.

Disclaimer, I'm certainly not an expert. I thumb my spool when setting the hook....but I keep my drag fairly loose. I set it by "feel" but I have checked it with a scale. It's usually around 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. I also experiment with knots, ect, and what it takes to break the line I use. Tie up your normal rig. Bury the hook in a tree limb or something. Practice hook sets, as well as see just how much pressure it takes to break your line. (don't break your rod) Try it with the same rig, after a fishing trip...meaning the knots/line ect have been fished with a bunch. Let it sit a week and try it again. I use mono 90+% of the time. Tom (WRB) and testing in my yard convince me that fresh knots are necessary. I suspect fresh knots are even more important with fluoro.

Tom mentioned DO levels. I think that's a very BIG piece of the puzzle, at least for me. I believe there's many facets of water quality come into play. 2 years ago I caught a BUNCH of decent Bass up the South Fork Catawba river. (Lake Wylie tributary) Winter before last we had really bad flooding. It was a year before I caught a single Bass more than 1/4 mile up the river from the main lake. I ask retired Bass fishing pro Guy Eaker about it. He said the flooding probably washed all kinds of "bad stuff" (his words) into the water, either triggering a fish kill, or at least running them down river. We had flooding last Winter, but not as quick, or as bad. I've caught a few Bass up the river, but no further than 3/4 mile or so. Guy said it may take a few years for Bass to move back up the river. Regarding shallow Summer Bass, at least where I fish. In spite of sonar advancements a vast majority of people fishing are "beating the banks". I believe this drives most or all of the decent Bass off shore. Every once and a while, on some magic occasion they'll move up on flats to feed. This usually happens at night during the Summer. The Fall when many people who are fishing now start hunting, going to football games, and participating in activities other than fishing the shallow bite will come back. Most days I can catch plenty of shallow Bass, but they're 10 inches long, and have hook holes in their mouths from being caught before.

And every body of water is different.

If the breakpoint is a knot, then it's a knot problem. If you have sharp hooks you don't need a hookset that almost capsizes the boat......but I'm guilty of that too at times.

I hate to be serious, but they wouldn't be able to get one of their transmissions to live behind a 5L V8.

I'm not intending to single any one person out. There's several doing this. Every time there's one of these threads it amazes me how people who've never used FFS talk about how easy it makes it to catch Bass.

From the original article I guess the people plunking down mega bucks for huge swim baits and the equipment to use them don't know about this.

I'm 60. I usually fish around 4 hours. I also work 45 to 50 hours per week. Lately probably due in part to the heat I've been tired all the time. I think I'm going to take a weekend off this weekend. I've got a few things I need to do around the house. I'll do this stuff early, before it gets up to 1000 degrees. This is when I'm normally fishing.

I didn't mention in my earlier post, I always talk to them. So far none have talked back though. I don't just talk to fish. I also talk to birds, Deer, dogs on any other animals I see.

I don't have many on my deck, and I'm careful how I set them down. If I get sloppy putting them down or picking them up they'll get tangled. I tried wrapping the line around a couple wraps, hooked on the guides. It kept them from getting tangled but I had a couple easy break offs that day. I figured I was nicking the line hooking it around the guides. It might have just been time to change line. I didn't lose any fish due to break offs, but my line broke way too easy a couple times when snagged. I changed line, and haven't tried wrapping them like that again.

Shallow water sight fishing rarely works in the dog days of Summer. I applaud the angler for adapting to the conditions. Catching Brown Bass is way different that catching Green Bass in Florida, where he's from. I'm disappointed with his attention seeking behavior. I believe he's simply trying to get his name mentioned a few more times.

Decades ago I think I caught the same Bass, at the same stump on Lake Norman a few times a year for several years. This was before Spots were introduced to Lake Norman. This was a Largemouth that had the normal Spotted Bass snake pattern on one side, but was pale on the other. It started out as a 2 pounder. Several years later it was up to 5 pounds. A big Bass surviving a 100 foot spillway is amazing to me. What would really be amazing is catching it again, back up in the Lake.

Probably texting. Texting while driving is the new drunk driving. I see almost wrecks on the interstate all the time going to and coming home from work with people texting/messing with their phones.

It might just be me but the brakes seem to adjust better on the XT. On my MGL It seems like there's very little difference between robbing casting distance and no brakes at all.

I need to get some or 'y'all to re teach me how to catch Bass. I went yesterday morning and caught one 14 inch Spot. I found a few scattered Bass but for the most part I couldn't even coax a look or follow. I decided to try at night. That was no better. I went last night around midnight and fished until 4AM. I caught one dink Largemouth. My night pictures are usually pretty bad so I didn't even attempt for a dink. Both were on points in 12 to 14 feet of water. Both were on a 6 inch Texas rigged "trick" worm with 1/8 ounce weight.