tunaman

^^^YEP… huge fan, and we were able to see them a couple of years ago down in So Cal and they did not disappoint live. As a bonus, Kesenia (sp?) is gorgeous and has an incredible voice.

Walmart lead-acid batteries were always one of the most popular go-to’s as the batteries were good quality, priced well, and there are Wally Worlds all over the country if you had a problem and needed a replacement. I bought a set for my old Z20 about a year ago.

Roboworm curly tail 5 1/2” FTW. I like big ribbon tail worms for t-rig also.

Yep… when I lived up on the California Delta, Cooch and I would regularly launch out of Vierra’s and fish the Sacramento River sections between Walnut Grove and Courtland - can’t count how many smallies we pulled in with them, and they were by far the most productive lure.

Just incredible fish - way to go sir!

Due to the bass eyes’ rods and cones, there’s a transition period from dusk where their eyesight needs to adjust. Once they’ve adjusted, they will become active again as evidenced by results from many night tournaments in the summer.

Congrats - enjoy your retirement as life is far too short. As a matter of fact, I just submitted my intent to retire yesterday, and I too am 63. I am in IT and will be retiring on the day of my 24 year anniversary as a full time employee. Best of luck to us both!

THIS. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t used a high quality pair. I first learned of the effects due to being heavily into photography and using a polarizing filter. As noted, the higher off the water the more pronounced the impact.

That will alleviate a lot of neck pain and bad posture. It’s coming…

Years ago I first heard the saying that “10% of the water holds 90% of the fish”. Seems to hold true no matter where I fish.

Just watched that vid last night and thought about this thread. I would have posted it if it hadn’t already been… If you look at the studies outlining how much of a lake’s population actually get caught each year, logic dictates that any impact is likely minimal or negligible. Adding in the amount of care most anglers take handling and caring for caught fish it is inconceivable (to me) that angling during the spawn is detrimental to a population. i enjoy bed fishing, and have since I first got into bass fishing more years ago than I’d like to admit… it is my favorite. I am fascinated by the whole lifecycle and it is a privilege to get a peek into the process.

I have a Lowrance ecosystem, and the integration and interoperability is mind boggling. Having the ability to network everything together, navigate routes and waypoints with the press of a button or two, operate and manipulate Power Poles, check status of your batteries via PowerPole Charge, Merc engine gauges, etc…, all from MFDs at the bow and console, is just incredibly powerful and useful.

Gotcha… didn’t see any emoticons or a sarc tag.

Why would you think there is a regular schedule for ‘elections’ for mods? AFAIK, mods are not ‘elected’ and don’t serve specific terms. I've moderated a few forums over the years, and the appointments were made between the forum owner and myself and were not some official process. Based on my participation and skills I brought to the table, they decided I might be beneficial as a moderator or admin and asked me to contribute. Not sure how things are done here, but I’d expect it is likely similar. You may want to reach out to a mod or site management privately if you are interested.

Did you also post this on Western Bass? A lot of Delta anglers over there. Good luck - hope he finds a good team partner!

It’s too strong when it is 5-8’ers on Mead in the middle of the basins… Fished with Aaron on the last day of the US Open the year he was going for 3 in a row, and coming back down from Overton it was nasty. Got a great boat driving lesson that day in his Angler of the Year Triton - we had to tack a whole lot, and got a whole lot of air along the way. For me these days, for fun fishing anyway, it is too much if it is going to be blowing more than 10. Tourneys, you have to take what you get.

It may be due to coil set - the line closest to the inside of the spool will likely have tighter coils that the outermost line. Some of that memory could be eliminated by stretching the line once spooled, depending on how long the line has been on the reel.

Fished a lot of straight braid when I lived in NorCal and fished the Cali Delta. What you spec’d is close to what I used for the donkeys and techniques there. However, I’m wondering why you feel you need such heavy braid where you’re at? Is there giants, or gnarly cover that you’re fishing? I suspect you’d be far better off downsizing your braid if you can… I currently use 10-15 pound braid on my spinning gear, along with a flouro leader, and 15-20# braid on my baitcasters (also with leaders). I’m fishing Mohave and Mead, which are notoriously clear, so different use cases, but I’d bet you could downsize and get better casting performance while maintaining resistance to break-offs and getting far more bites. Given that your water is extremely dirty you can likely get away without a leader, but the smaller braid will sink more (float less) and cast further.

Or when your parents came home unexpectedly early from vacation, and you had your third party in a row just starting up when dad calls to let you know they’d be home in an hour 😬 That was just enough time to half-ass clean up the mess and drive away just as they’re coming down the street. Unfortunately people kept coming up to the door until after midnight asking about the party that was supposed to be raging 🤣

Trolling, and ‘strolling’ is not permitted in tournaments as the angler isn’t imparting the action.

More often than not, under the right circumstances. When I see them close to, or at the bottom, a drop shot in their face is hard to pass up. When you see the spaghetti strands on the bottom, the ice jig/spoon or something mimicking the forage fished erratically seems hard to ignore.

Started doing this back in the early 2000’s… still remember the first time it worked - fishing a mark in 50’ of water on Diamond Valley reservoir, and was able to track my drop shot down and wiggled it in front of its face. I still remember the ecstasy of seeing the mark move aggressively towards the bait and feeling the resulting tick when it sucked it in. Done it a whole lot ever since… ice jigs at Casitas and Perris come to mind, but it is a beautiful thing when it sets up right and works out.

You didn’t mention what boat you have, what brand of electronics (presumably Garmin since you mentioned LS), what bodies of water, or how much you rely on your electronics… I believe those factors will dictate how satisfied you would be with a 16” unit running splits. I have a Ranger Z521L, so I have quite a bit of room to work with. I have a Lowrance ecosystem, and run two 12” HDS Lives at the bow and a 16” HDS Live at the console. I fish Mead and Mohave mostly, so they are deep and clear. I rely on all aspects of my electronics - mapping, 2D, SI and AT2. I have one unit more or less dedicated for AT2, and run various splits on the second bow unit depending on what I’m doing and where I’m doing it. The Lowrance units are fully configurable regarding split screens and adjustments, so I have a number configured for my console unit. Being able to adjust the splits almost infinitely is a huge advantage, and makes the single console unit a perfect fit for me. Due to this, I certainly believe I could run a single 16” at the bow, but prefer dual units. I may actually pick up a deal on a used 16” if I can find one and swap out one of my 12’s, but I’ll still run dual units. One of the best features of the HDS units is the configurable buttons for favorite pages… makes it simple to swap to specific screens with the press of a single button. Good luck with your decision, and Merry Christmas!

Check their teeth… when they are predominantly feeding on crawfish, the teeth will be worn down and smoother. When they are on baitfish, their teeth are much sharper. I've caught quite a few ‘dad eaters back in the day at Casitas where their mouths were quite red and their teeth were worn down, and they were puking up ‘dads in the livewell.

Often times under those circumstances you’ll need to square up more and move right (for right handers) when the lanes transition to catch more hook in the backend until that goes away, then make a bigger move left to catch back up. Im a tweener and have to do that often, as I don’t have the revs to get it back from deep.