ww2farmer

When it's tuff, I throw a wacky rigged stick bait on a wacky jig head. When it's really tuff, I throw a wacky rigged finesse worm on a wacky jig. When it's really really.........really tuff. I tie on the heaviest tungsten sinker I own, peg it to the nose of the biggest, ugliest hunk of plastic I can find, and fish for single bites, in god awful places...............I might not get many bites, but they are usually good ones.

Grumpy old man time................................I hate these lame sayings. A bad day of fishing sucks. If I had known before hand the fishing was going to suck that day, I'd have chosen to work overtime, or go to the gun range. But you never know until it's done and over with. I also loathe the "at least it's a nice day" crowd. A brilliant, sun drenched , warm, and windless day is misery if the fish are not biting.

The previously mentioned smallmouth.

I am having a heck of a time posting pictures here...I used to do it all the time. What's changed? And why can't I do it now?

I fished about 2.5 hours Thursday night before dark. Did ok. Caught 8 largemouth, including two over 5. Nosdog was the hero of Silver Lake thursday, as he was whacking on my pets pretty good before I got there. But I'll let him tell you about his day. That brings us to today....................Ladys and Gentlemen, I have lived my entire life around this lake, fished it for 30+ years, and today................was the best day I have EVER HAD on the water there. BAR NONE. Over 100 keeper bass were put in the boat between 9am and 5pm, of those 100+, 11...................yes 11 of them were hung on a scale and weighed 5+ lbs. But the real highlight of the day wasn't 11 5lbers, the 100+ bass caught, OR the 6lb 2oz lunker largemouth of the day. Nope. It was a fish of a lifetime for this 800 acre mud puddle/over sized pond...........a new PB for me, a 6lb 5oz. SMALLMOUTH. That's a tank of a smallmouth for an inland lake...especially my little lake.

Fished for about 3 hours last night...targeted smallmouth the entire time. Not fast and furious, but the four I caught were decent. A 4-15, 4-11, 4-7, and 4-4

The water temps are sky rocketing, but the fishing continues to only get slightly better. I fished from 7:30 am yesterday to about 4:30 pm, with an hour or so for lunch/bathroom break. I caught 11 bass. Not exactly a barn burner. I started off fishing smallies, and after two hours and only two 2.5lbers to show for it, I switched to largemouth. They were not on fire either, by lunch I only caught 3 of those. After lunch, the bite picked up, but only slightly. I caught 6 after lunch. All largemouth. Size, for largemouth was ok today. With a 5-14, 4-1, 3-13, 3-10, and a 3-3 the highlights....I just wish there were more of them.

I went out for about 3.5 hours after work again on Thursday night.......I am usually off Thursdays, but I have to cover for a guy out recovering from surgery for a few weeks. I volunteered, they didn't ask. Anyways, the fishing. Not bad, but not on fire yet. I caught seven bass, and 2 pike. 6 of the bass were largemouth, including one over 5lbs, and two more over 4. And one lone 3lb smallmouth. Water temps have jumped up quick, almost as fast as I have ever seen them go from high 30's to low 50's on the lake, and mid 60's in the backwater areas, but the mass waves of bass are still slow to show up.....or if they are there, I am not there when they are really chomping.

I went out for about 3.5 hours afterwork last night. Caught 6 largemouth, 2 pike, and a walleye. No smallmouth.....although the largemouth were all in smallmouth spots, and caught while fishing for smallmouth. Four of them were "cookie cutter" 3.75lbers, the other two were small keepers.

My boat went in the water after work tonight for the first time in 2018. It still floats, everything (important) still works. I fished one area for about 45 mins before it started getting dark. One walleye, and one upper 3lb smallmouth.

I own and use both. The Aird X gets the nod for being a better looking, and lighter rod. Performance wise it's a coin flip. Slight edge to the Aird X. But when Lightning Rod Shocks are only $39.99 everyday at Walmart, they are still my choice. For another option in the same price ball park, take a look at the Abu Garcia Vengeance. The current generation Silver/greyish vengeance is the best one of that series yet, and I like them better than the higher priced veritas and vendetta rods from Abu.

My boat is out and ready to go. Probably after work sometime this week I'll drop it in and fart around

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I have gone away from using EWG trebles on things like jerkbaits, and lipless cranks in cold water where fish are not as aggressive and swipe at baits. I still run EWG's on my squarebills and deeper diving cranks, because IMHO, they come through cover better. I have not experiment with mixing the two styles on the same bait.

Yes. Spent about 6 hours out there today in my buddies boat. When we got there at 11ish, surface water temps were 39-42 depending on where you went. That was also on slick calm water. Once a little breeze kicked up, and slightly mixed the ever so slightly warmer top crust in, we noticed surface temps actually went DOWN to 38 as the day went on. Fishing was not on fire for us. I caught one 4lb smallmouth, one 2.5 lb largemouth, and one 30" pike. My buddy also had the same trio....a 3lb smallie, a 3lb largemouth, and a slightly smaller pike. Both smallmouth were caught on silver buddy style home made blade baits, my largemouth on a swim jig, his largemouth on a lipless crank, my pike on a lipless crank, and his on a jerkbait. I was nice to get out after this extended winter, but after seeing the current conditions, getting my boat out is less urgent than it was this morning LOL. It's not going to break my heart if I don't get it out until next weekend or so.

The bait monkey hasn't gotten me too bad this winter, as I spent most of my play money on reloading supplies, AR, 1911, and M1 Garand parts, and other shooting related junk. I did moderately stock up on several styles/colors/sizes of the Berkley line of hardbaits, for no other reason than I am bored with Strike King. Other than that I just topped off the stock of my staple soft plastics, jig components, and terminal tackle.

YMMV....but this is just my "system" Spinning gear: 10lb braid across the board. Casting gear: 20lb on M power rods, 30lb on MH rods, 50lb on H rods, or MH rods that get used around heavy cover. Been doing it this way for 10+ years with no issues. Using multiple brands of braid. Mostly original Power Pro, but also a lot of Spider Wire Stealth, and lately some Sufix Performance braid. IMHO, those three braids are all about the same, and I just buy what ever is handy and cheaper at the time.

My boat is not coming out of storage until the middle to end of this week...possibly next weekend/early next week depending on weather. But I am hitting the water for the first time in 2018 this afternoon with a buddy who's boat is out and ready to go. Last time out was mid Nov....seems like 10 years ago after this long winter.

That person was full of it. My motor has seen a steady diet of 1/2 a can of seafoam, once a month, for 10+ years (small 4 stroke motor,small gas tank) and it's fine. I don't always have easy access to non ethanol gas, and use the sea foam to deal with any potential moisture issues. During damp periods of weather, I will often use the whole can, and I make sure every time I gas up from Oct. - the end of the season, I have treated gas in the tank. In fact the only time I did have issues was when I forgot to add sea foam before I put it away for the winter. The next spring, my motor ran like crap until I used up the non-treated gas, and could get some sea foam treated gas into the system.

They will see you before you see them and take off, unless they are on beds. And even then, some will still get spooked and high tail it. Most fish are hard wired to be weary to threats from above.

I'm no fan of Rapala's customer service, but I am giving them some business again. My hard bait rotation the last 10+ years has mostly been Strike King, with a few misc. baits sprinkled in. This year I have a bunch of the Berkley hardbaits to try, and..............some Rapala's. Namely the Shadow Rap, and BX Brat square bill.

My lake is finally ice free......but it's still going to be a week or more before I get my boat out. I'm not sure I could even get to it with 4wd right now. I am pretty sure my first few times out this year will be on other people's boats.

On our small crowded lakes, 100 feet is sometime generous. I don't like it, I don't do it to anyone, but unless they get right on top of me, there's not much I can do about it. It's just how it goes on an 800 acre lake with 30 boats fishing a tournament on it. I feel like I get less of this than most guys, because most of the tournaments I fish in....I also run, and it's not wise to tick off the tournament director. But I also have to be on eggshells too, I can't be accused of "doing whatever I want" because I am the tournament director. My general rule of thumb is...........if I want to fish an area and someone else is in it I: #1 go to another area, I can catch fish anywhere on the lakes I fish. #2....if #1 is not an option, I will see what way the other boat is going, and get behind them a respectable distance. #3 If I get behind them, and they whip the boat around....it's a sign they are keen on keeping me out. So I leave. #4 if I see a guy working shallow in an area I want to go, I ask permission to fish deep, staying off their stuff, or vise versa, if they are fishing deep, I ask to slip by shallow, and won't bump out to deep water until I am well away from them and the area they are fishing. 99.9% of the time this is how everyone behaves around here, we all get along, we all catch fish, and no fights or arguments break out. I tend to conduct myself the same way fun fishing too, and most of the time it works out fine. The biggest problem I have, is when I am out on my lake fun fishing, and another tournament that I am not in is there. I try my hardest to stay out of the way. But have had other organizations anglers show ZERO respect for a local or recreational fisherman. That really gets under my skin, as I also do my best when in a tournament to respect the space of the non-tournament anglers on the water as well. Other fisherman acting like jerks on the water is my biggest pet peeve. They all should know better. I don't get to bent out of shape about the jet skiers, pontoon boating old farts, etc.....most of the time they are just ignorant of what we are doing, and a polite conversation addressing their behavior usually leads to an understanding of how what they are doing is discourtious to other people on the water.

Submerging a reel is one of the things that causes me to open them up and do maint. on them. These low end freshwater reels are not sealed up to any elements, and I have even had to dry them out and re-lube them after being on the deck of the boat and getting caught out during a really really hard rain storm. The water is going to displace and/or thin out any lube the reel has in it. Best case if you don't clean/dry it out and re-lube it is it will make weird noises and performance will rapidly decline, worst case is, it will do all that and it may lead to rust/corrosion forming in the bearings and other metal parts and/or have introduced grit and other particles to the inside of the reel which will rapidly wear things out. It sounds like your reel is due for a tear down, cleaning, dry out, and lube job.

I have go-to baits for situations and seasons, but not a one size fits all bait that I throw aimlessly at all times. I am not going to throw a lightly weighted 4" finesse worm in 35 feet of water in howling winds, just like I am not going to throw a 3/4oz. football jig into a shallow water laydown surrounded by matted grass.....even though both are "go-to" baits for me. Everything I have is a go-to or it wouldn't be in my boat. This is like asking a car mech. what his go-to tool is....and his response is "a hammer".

For me it's as simple as this: Is the bait offered in black and blue? If the answer is yes, then I buy black and blue. If the answer is no, but it's offered in June bug, then I buy June bug. If the bait is offered in both colors, I choose black and blue. With the exception of Yum dinger/Senko style stick baits (for those I prefer black and blue), I prefer june bug in worms, and black and blue for craws/creatures/jig trailers.