CDMTJager

I will share what worked extremely well for me last year while fishing from shore and wading. The cover I can reach from shore or wading in the lakes I do 90% of my fishing in is a mix of concrete thick weeds and lily pads. I learned best area to catch bass consistently were areas the weeds were still below the surface located between sections of lily pads. Also open pocket in the lily pads and long outside edges of lily pads were VERY productive. Only lure that worked here was obviously weedless soft plastics. The soft plastic that worked best was a jerk bait like a 5" Zoom Super Fluke or a 5.5" Hog Farmer Spunk Shad. I used a size 3500 spinning reel and a 7'3" MH/FA rod. I spooled it up with 20lb 8 strand hi-vis SuffX 832. I chose an 8 strand braid as I felt should be more fixable and hopefully would allow me farther casts and better lure action VS a 4 strand braid. For a leader I used 12lb Yo-Zuri copolymer and connected it to the braid using a size 0 or 1 stainless swivel. I have been using Yo-Zuri copolymer for at least 5 possibly 6 years now as my only non braided fishing line and are 100% happy with it in every possible way. After an entire season of using 20lb Suffex 832 on my spinning reel I feel confident recommending it for this application and I can not say enough good about Yo-Zuri hybrid copolymer.

Hit the local creeks for salmon and steelhead. I use to live for it, but got away from it last 5-6 years because so few off days and good bass lakes are a short walk or few minuets drive from home and the creeks are30 or more minuets from home. New department new same job, but now my job gives me 14 days off a month I will get back at it. I have $1k in rods and reels and OMG$ tied up in spinners and other lures sitting in my basement collecting dust dedicated to salmon and steelhead fishing. Forgot to add Promise to myself to start bass fishing ASAP after ice out any day it will remain above freezing. Last year I started fishing 2nd week of March first time ever and did very well and a few not all but a larger lakes by my house had been ice free for at least three weeks by that point.

See if you have any smaller fisheries where launching a boat is just not possible but a kayak is. I have a surprising number of such bodies of water near my home I never knew about till I did some research and several small rivers/big creek with little to no boat access and often to shallow for boats but not big bass and pike that I fished last year first time with my kayak and did so well I was shocked. You WILL BE shocked how small of a hole in a big creek will hold some pretty big bass or one or two pike. I found one such lake while deer and turkey scouting a public land hunting spot that was completely surrounded by thick woods and vegetation I had no idea was on the property. Google earth can be your best fishing friend.

You show me a consistently successful pro bass fisherman and Ill show you a man today with $10k-$20k or more invested in fish finding electronics, transducers etc. In my opinion a decent side looking down looking fish finder is a must have if fishing large bodies of water that have built in topo's of the lake so you can use that to hopefully narrow your search somewhat. I'm not saying as a purely amature and weekend angle you need to spend $5k on electronics but I certainly budget $500-$1k if I had a boat and access to nearby large good fisheries. If I were to go fish a big body of water talking 1000s of acres strange to me, if I had no electronics at all I wouldn't expect much successful fishing after they have completely spawned out and especially during bad fishing weather.

You boat angles got it made.

You want to see a computer screen FULL to max with fraudulent websites? do a search for: "gun powder and primers in stock" Two years ago I literally stopped looking for on line powder for reloading. I have enough bullets and primers for my great grand kids to reload but 3-4 years ago was a little light on a few of my favorite gun powders. Still to this day can not find H4198 ANYWHERE. The internet is literally DROWNING in Fraudulent websites. Unless I have bought from them before I don't buy unless I put their address through at least two fraud check websites.

Thanks for the info. Ill just have to take a ride to the zoo AKA my local walmart.

Must be in store only not on their WS

$250 for sunglasses? I only paid $260 for my no line bifocals with anti scratch, anti-glare ANSI rated lenses. How much farther do they allow you to see into the water VS less costly sunglasses? I started wearing UV protection clip on sunglasses at all times out of the house 20 years ago when my optometrist told me UV was the NO#1 cause of cataracts.

Thanks to all for so many responses. I actually have >90% of the colors suggested so I am well outfitted. Last year the color I used on <70% cloudy days in my local lakes that worked VERY well was a A 5" Zoom SF in Watermelon Red Pearl Swim baits it was a toss up between Ghost Shad and Bluegill Flash. And yes I tried a large number of different colors in both lure types till I found one that worked consistently. I asked because I just was wondering if there was a color that might work better than what I had been using or had tried. What surprised me was in the three lakes I fish most the Zoom Super Fluke and the BPS/Cabela's 5.25" Shady Shad hands down out fished my swim baits and this was all year regardless of all other factors or conditions.

During days with 75-100% cloud cover fished in more clear than dirty or stained water Rigged weedless weighted or unweighted what are your two favorite 5"-7" soft plastic fluke and swimbait colors. The fluke will be fished mostly as a soft jerkbait, the swimbait fished mostly with a steady but mild to very erratic reteve in water 15 feet or less with vegetation being the structure that holds fish 90%+ of the time.

May I suggest you include 5"-5.25" flukes like the Zoom Super Fluke White Ice, shad/ghost shad and Watermelon red flake pearl annihilated the bass all year for me last year. Lakes closest to my home by late May early June become choked with weeds and lily pad patches and a 5" fluke rigged weedless using 4/0 Owner or Gamak screw-lock hooks worked awesome for me as all non weedless lures become weed harvesters 8/10 casts.

Hadn't fished a spinnerbait in 4 or 5 years at least as I had so much success fishing chatterbaits yeah was throwing a tandem willow 2-3x a year but with very little success. Last year just for the heck of it during peak pre-spawn, threw a 3/8oz War Eagle tandem colorado with a paddle tail trailer and absolutely annihilated the bass with it. I love catching bass on chatter and spinnerbaits as I rarely do any serious harm to a bass and it is very very easy to get the bass unhooked and released ASAP. It doesn't get much more vintage old school than a spinnerbait. One vintage old school bait I always enjoy success with since I started fishing as an adult back in the early 1980's to this very day are several different sized and color Rapala minnow baits both solid and jointed. Had my best of my life 1 day catch night fishing (17 bass in 6 hours) of >3lb to <6lb bass on a Rapala 11 original floater WAAAAAY back in 1996. Will never forget that night. Was catching 3-5lb bass from shore in calf deep water.

I am honestly shocked at your lack of success using chatterbaits as they are among my most successful baits Starting as soon as the water gets over 40* and all year long but most effective from March till my lakes weed-up to much to use them. This is coming from a shore fisherman. I can not imagine how many more fish I would catch on chatterbaits if I could fish from a boat or kayak. I have enjoyed great not just good but great success catching fish with chatterbaits in IN, IL, and OH and catching multi species as I have caught bass, northern pike fresh water drum (sheepshead) and on a trip to Ohio caught channel catfish on 1/2oz chart/wht bladed jig including what I was certain was going to be my PB bass turned out to be an almost 9lb channel cat. I would respectfully suggest watching some of Matt Stefan's videos on how to rig and retrieve chatterbaits as his tips definitely helped increase my success fishing with chatterbaits. I'm sure there are other videos on how best to fish chatterbaits by successful pro bass fisherman that could prove helpful. I will tell you price of a bladed jig has in MY experience no bearing on their fish catching abilities as over the last 5 years of fishing chatterbaits my <$10 chatterbaits undoubtedly caught more bass than my $13-$15 chatterbaits.

For those interested Sun Dolphin id bringing back their Pro 120 for 2025