AlabamaSpothunter

I think you've seen my setup, it stays tied up to a dock with the trolling motor always on it.....had some racoon tracks in the boat before. Sure other critters can get in as well. Nothing has ever been damaged by critters. On the other hand, weather and wear and tear breaks it all the time. I've found the motors are pretty impervious to rain when stored outdoors, but I've ruined one motor when it got submerged. 100d summers and below freezing winters don't seem to harm mine. Batteries can be a real pain if using lead acid. Lithiums make life much easier if you have to transport and charge a battery every time out fishing. I'd go with the biggest jon boat you can get away with. Maybe store it close to waters edge. It's hard to have leg room and comfort or even fish two people comfortably with a small enough boat to be man portable and not trailered or left in the water. Maybe a 1452. Put some decks on it. Tinyboatnation has some nice looking kits and @MN Fisher is a great person to talk with who has built a similar setup.

I disagree Katie, your PB fish last year was ridiculously fat. The reason why I estimated her to be 8+ was the girth. You're the queen of fat Bass.........and yes I added a B in there 🤣 @N Florida Mike Appreciate it brother!

Lol Katie, great minds think alike, I remember holding that fish and thinking this reminds me of Clayton's recent fish, albeit not as fat. I can't wait to see what an 8lb fish from his lake looks like, just a matter of time until he posts one. As you know I'm an OCD numbers nerd, and I'd love to have all the lengths and girths to go with 7lb+ fish. Aesthetically speaking, I'd have to agree with you. I had trouble letting her go, I just kept wanting to admire her. @N Florida Mike Nice one brother! Hopefully a big ole' DD rolls up on that bed 😎

It's always a good day when thread regulars like @Greenpig are posting fish pics! Found a separate group of schoolers yesterday and tried some of the things suggested like the Spoon and Fluke. Couldn't get any bites but then again, I'm not a spoon or fluke guy. Fish in this school were bigger on average and a little more aggressive than first school but still couldn't catch any fish bigger than about 3.5-4lbs. I did however find a bait that the fish seemed to be totally uneducated on, a bait just the night before I remembered to grab out of my childhood tackle box because of its legendary wintertime prowess. The bait I grabbed was a Made in Ireland Shad Rap 6 in Crawdad. If you Bass fished in the 90s, you almost certainly owned this bait. The Crawfish colored Shad patterned bait is one of the most iconic lures of all time imho. So, at dawn I'm back at the location of the first group of schooling fish that frustrated me so much armed with a 30+ year old Rapala with OEM hardware taken straight out of the tackle box I fished with as a kid. I spent the first 6 hours stripping my thumb of all the skin with 1-3lb class fish. At least they're biting more consistently on the new bait, but at that point after 3 days on heavily schooling fish and not catching a single fish over 5lbs.......I'm starting to question the nature of the universe. Long story short, this majestic creature gave me a memory that will last forever. She was 8.7lbs, and about as short and fat as they come around here.

Heak yeah Clayton, that place is the stuff of big Bass dreams. The WR Striped Bass was caught not too far from me, and it was using a cheat code where warm water flows out of steam plant IIrc. I fished a hot water discharge area on Lay Lake which was good fishing in the winter but never seen fat fish like your lake. Those fish are crazy. eta: You'll get an 8 before summer if you get to fish it some more

Excellent stuff Catt, and #2 is at the heart of what I was talking about with regards to Crawfish. This was what I said to WRB: "I totally agree with you about big Bass loving Crawfish, but one thing to note that's super interesting is that out of all the forage items Bass predate on, the Crawfish ranks near the bottom in terms of protein. The current thought among biologists is that Bass predate on Crawfish less about hunger and more about anger." Both things can be true.....Crawfish can be high in protein, but rank way down the list when it comes to the amount of total protein ingested vs many other common forage items.

@Bluebasser86 Mother of Pearl!!!!!!!! Some of the fattest Bass I've seen! Man that's awesome. What's the lake record in that place? I'd fish that place 24/7 😎 @TnRiver46 Fantastic report and what a fun day! Those bream are beautiful too. I can only imagine how happy that drum makes Roadwarrior wherever he may be 🤣

Steven Bardin and Bob Lusk along with a host of other state fishery biologist that do lots of podcasts and put lots of info on the web. They all agree that Rainbow Trout are the highest protein meal a Bass can eat, and a Crawfish is near the bottom. Gizzard Shad are near the top as well. I doubt you'd agree that 1 adult Crawfish contains more protein than 1 adult Rainbow Trout or Gizzard Shad? Bass prefer Crawfish over Bluegill 9-1 according to Steven Bardin. The point I was trying to make is that Bass especially target Crawfish and I opined that's it's not because it's a great meal source, rather it's anger or "territorial" as you said. I'm not going to debate somebody who was there in regard to what the majority of big SoCal fish were taken on back in the day. I can however say that I've listened to a ton of Butch Brown's interviews along with many other guys who were there on the Big Bass Podcast, and they all say trout chunkers accounted for many of those high teen class fish. Butch said he would watch guys catch Trout in the lagoon and put them in livewells.

We've discussed this before, but I'm in total agreement with you on moving baits vs. realistic slow-moving baits. I consider an outlier fish to be greater than 8lbs. The vast majority of fish I've caught over 8lbs have been caught on reaction baits where I don't give that big, old, smart fish a chance to examine the bait. She's put into a position of either eating it, or letting it fly past her face. Going back to the live bait thing I mentioned in my first post, I just think big LMB have too big of eyes and have likely seen to many artificial baits to be tricked into eating a slow-moving bait during the daylight or at depths where plenty of light penetrates to. Night fishing is different, but even then, I still catch 90% of all my outlier fish during the day, and many when the sun is at the highest from about 10am-2pm. The bait most responsible for the highest numbers of trophy catches (8lb+) recorded in FL's program are from soft plastics like a big worm........so as usual there is always a counter example to any theory you hold in Bass fishing.

Great information Bob, and your thread serves as a testament to just how complex and difficult it is to manage a pond. The fact people try and can't grow a WR Bass in a managed pond or small lake with unlimited resources and funds reminds me once again that God is the grand architect. Only God and Mother Nature can grow a WR Bass it seems.

Haha, I fix that stupid motor seemingly weekly. Yesterday I broke a blade off a prop, and the day before the tilting mechanism broke. The term b.o.a.t. still applies to the S.S. Minnow too.....it's just b.o.a.d......bust out another dollar instead of thousand 🤣

Totally agree with the others, you can't catch big fish if they don't live in your waters. It's that simple and stupid. I also agree with @Jar11591 about depth. I'm a big believer in that big Bass spend most of their lives in or near deep water which is relative for different bodies of water. I think at some point Bass get so big and wise that it's almost impossible to catch them on anything but live bait. The trout chunkers of SoCal back in the day, along with modern big Shiner and Gizzard guides have proven this to me over time. Lastly, I think FFS is the ultimate big Bass tool. For the first time in Bass fishing history anglers can target these big fish in their proverbial beds. It's hard for me to view a DD caught using FFS the same as one without FFS. Nobody would know about O.H Ivie and JB Thomas without FFS. @WRB I totally agree with you about big Bass loving Crawfish, but one thing to note that's super interesting is that out of all the forage items Bass predate on, the Crawfish ranks near the bottom in terms of protein. The current thought among biologists is that Bass predate on Crawfish less about hunger and more about anger.

Those Leopard Sharks are awesome! My buddy who did saltwater aquariums for businesses back in the early 2000s put those Leopard Sharks in the big money tanks. Back then I think I remember him paying $5k for a pair of them. Now I don't really agree with the practice, but it was really cool watching those Sharks in the tank.

That's really cool info Bob! One thing I thought about reading that is the clarity of the pond. It might be worth checking the clarity with a Secchi Disc. Might be able to protect those fish and also train them easier if you add a little less clarity to water. Biologists that manage ponds will use a Secchi Disc religiously. This time of year can be tougher to achieve that, but in the warm water months a little fertilizing can really help, not to mention grow those Shad.

@TnRiver46, thanks for the tip on the fluke buddy! I'll hit them with that next time out. I give the spinnerbait a hard time like you, but occasionally a blind squirrel finds a nut 😁 @thediscochef Nice one buddy! Those power plant fish are interesting especially in regards to spawning

Thanks Scott, and that funny you bring those up because I remember asking you about them earlier and thinking I'd like to get some. I was actually going the opposite direction, trying to go slower and more dead action. The blade bait usually gets them when they won't eat the normal schooling lures, but I think I only caught a couple on the Dyna Response. I've got some spoons I'll try next time and report back, thanks again!

Thanks Katie, it's hard to describe the frenetic activity, as well as the numbers of shad and Bass but that little snippet of video I felt was the perfect representation of it. That went on for the 5 hours I was there, and I'm sure it was going on before I was there, and after I left. I tried two different underspins along with: 2 different jighead minnow combos Shimano jerkbait A-Rig 1/8th jighead/3.3" small paddletail swimbait Molix 1/2oz tailspinner Crush Flat 75x crank 3/8oz Vault 1/2oz Dyna Response 1/8th Flashback mini/3"armor shad Spinnerbait The fish certainly won that round.

Caught 28 + 2 Crappie + 1 big Channel Cat in the middle of what seemed like millions of shad, and hundreds of Bass. At one point I watched a wolf pack of 15-20 fish cruising on the surface. I knew they did that when corralling bait, but it's the first time they were close enough to the surface for me to witness. Bass will never stop impressing me, they're just such a supreme predator. I watched a 25-30lb sack blow up all around me for hour after hour but never even caught a single big one. I've said it a number of times in this thread over the last several years, but schooling Bass can easily be one of the most frustrating things I've experienced in life. Watching 5lb+ fish clear the water over and over and not being able to catch them is akin to being waterboarded 😂

Did you look in that incredibly juicy looking standing timber to the side of you? 😁

I really like Sunline 12-15lb braid to Sunline FC Sniper 8lb leader. I'd look for a 8 carrier braid. I like to have one setup with a sinking braid, and another with a normal floating braid. If I could only pick one, I'd go with a sinking braid.

Funny you say that, the only time I felt I got a bad spool of FC line besides some clearance KastKing stuff, was in fact Red Label. Happened multiple times from the same spool. Stuff is terrible in my experience.

I call that a scouting trip......I wasn't even trying to catch fish, just looking for bait 😁

I watched Founder last night, a movie about Ray Krok and the founding of McDonald's. He had a quote that summed up my fishing philosophy spot on. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” If I had a superpower it would be persistence. To that end, the more I'm struggling, the more I'm going.

That's interesting it's causing line twist.....I wouldn't have expected that. I just use it on spinning setups.

@bulldog1935 Is the expert on these reels, and especially modifying them, so I'll default to his judgement. Personally, I don't mind the stock knobs and still have them on mine. IIrc @T-Billy has one or two of these and he didn't like the OEM knobs and replaced them, maybe he can give a good suggestion.