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This post is a result of my indecision that lead to stressful overthinking. When I ask the following question, consider these factors: I fish one of the shallow finger lakes with lots of vegetation mainly eurasian milfoil, the best places to flip are in the milfoil and under boat docks, the water is ultra clear in the morning and throughout the day progressively gets greener (a light stain caused by gloeotrichia rising from bottom), flipping baits that I’ve used and had moderate success with: D-Bomb, Baby D-Bomb, Pit Boss, Bronco Bug, Sweet Beaver. I like one that has little to no action and glides like a traditional beaver, as well as one that has some more action to it but has less action than a craw style bait. The question: not including craws and tubes; if you could only choose 2 different beaver style baits each in 3 different colors to cover all the conditions listed above, what would you choose? And why?

The bluegills are starting to go full spawn mode in my neck of the woods and im sure in many of yours. Im still pretty new to catching greenbacks and am curious yalls favorite ways to catch them around bluegill beds! Its seems like they would be a hotspot for big bass going after fish on beds on the outskirts of colonies. I'm thinking wake baits, weightless worms, flukes, poppers, and chatterbaits. Any recommendations or tricks youre willing to share?

Lookin for some December tips for fishing the tidal areas below Richmond or any tidal waters for that matter. Where the fish like to hang out and what lures to throw this time of year. My last outing was unsuccessful, I've had a Jerkbait and Jig tied on but finding em has proven difficult, water temps are hovering in the upper 40's. How is everyone adjusting to the colder weather?

This spring I swear mother nature has turned bipolar. With temps up and down we never know what we're going to get. Last week we had unseasonably high temps, like record high temps. I believe last Wednesday was nearly 90* and all week the temps were in the 70's and higher. Ice on local lakes seemed to be melting so fast you could see it happen. Even though there are still a lot of little projects I wanted take care of on the boat before the season gets into full swing, this past Friday the urge was too great and instead of working on the boat I decided that even if there was ice left on the lake I was going to go fishing instead. I went to a local lake that normally opens up quicker than others in the area and luckily it was mostly ice free. There were still some floating icebergs, a few iced over bays, and some ice still stuck to the shoreline in places. Main lake water temps were running about 45-47 despite the ice cubes floating around. Day 1 I took some time running the boat around making sure everything still worked and was ready for action. It was fairly windy, but air temps were in the 80's so it felt pretty good. I started on a main lake point with a brush pile with no luck. Tried a little rip rap next to a bit of a drop, again nada. I then hit a few little pockets with the same result. Finally, I ran into one at the mouth of bay/creek on some timber and thought there might be a school there, but after working it over for a few minutes I was no longer convinced. I moved on and found some serious rust that needed to be shaken off. I was coming up to a blow down and pitched a jig at it, mind you this jig was still tied on since last fall...same knot, same trailer, same everything. I thought I saw my line moving, reeled down and set the hook only for my jig to come flying back at me. There was resistance for a second, but with the boat moving and with the wind, I chalked it up to the long winter removing some of my feel and thought I set the hook on a branch. Pitched back, thought I felt it get heavy, set the hook again and again my jig came back. On the same laydown this happened twice more and I started to think I was loosing my mind. Fished for about another 10 minutes and decided to change rods, so as I go to put my jig on the hook hanger...I realized I busted the hook clean off at the bend. The trailer was still perfectly in tack, jig looked great, minus the missing hook ?. As I moved back in this creek, the water temp is usually a few degrees warmer in the spring than the main lake, but the warm weather had me questioning if my graph was reading right. Water temps inside the bay/creek were anywhere from 58-60*!! When I ran into the warmer water I ran into the bass, ended up catching 9 bass, a crappie, lost a few, and had a handful of other bites. Most fish were caught on a Berkley Stunna, with the exception of one on a jig and the biggest one came on a lipless crankbait. Day 2 With rain possible in the forecast I waited until afternoon when it was supposed to have passed. I headed back to the same lake with my girlfriend and wouldn't you know it, a rain shower popped up right after we got on the water and the temp dropped about 15 degrees to the low upper 50's, the water temps were a few degrees cooler too. I thought with the passing front and the sudden wind direction change, it might turn them off a little, but was I ever wrong. Dialing it a little on what I did the day before, it took me about 5 minutes to catch the first one and started rolling from there. They were crushing a jerkbait and I feel like more fish came into the area as they weren't on every piece of cover, but the ones they were on, they were stacked up on. In 3.5 hours I ended up catching 20 bass, a bluegill and lost 2 bass not to mention another handful of bites. I wanted to try to expand on my pattern, but the temps and wind, mixed with being damp had my girlfriend sitting down huddled in every extra piece of gear I brought with kept us in the same area slightly protected from the wind. She did manage to catch one of the biggest of the day and only fished for about 15 minutes of the whole time we were out there. Overall, it felt great to be back out on the water again, and felt like a bit of redemption for how last year ended. Although I didn't catch anything massive, the vast majority of what I caught was above average and of the fish I caught only 2 would have been under the 14" size limit. Most productive tackle for the weekend was without a doubt the Berkley Stunna in Shad Fillet and a Spro McStick in Pro Blue I believe. All the baits pictured did produce though and put multiple fish in the boat. One of the smallest of the weekend, but it was the first bass of 2023 so there was no way I wasn't taking a picture of it along with some of the ice cubes! Below are some of the better ones of the weekend. P.S. Mother nature flipped her crap again, and we went from 70's and 80's last week to waking up to 17" of snow overnight with more coming down during the day. We ended up with about 20". ?‍♂️

Hello, I am going to Lake Powell for spring break and was interested in catching largemouth, smallmouth, striper, and northern pike as well as catfish. I was wondering if any angler who has had success at Powell have any lure and technique tips on how to catch any of these species? Thanks.

Hello everyone, I need help with keeping my buzzbaits on top of the water.. I’m throwing a 1/2oz buzz on a 7’1 heavy with40lbs braid & a 7.3.1 reel. I switch hands mid cast so I can start my retrieval as soon as the lure hits the water sometimes even a little bit before it hits. I’ve tried to speed up my retrieval & keep my rod tip high to no luck.. The buzzbait will stay about a foot under the surface until it’s maybe 5 ft from the bank that’s when it wants to surface & act like a buzzbait should act. Any help is greatly appreciated & I thank you all in advance. Tight lines everyone!!

I have fished Lake Livingston for a number of years but not that often. I have never really been able to figure out the lake and where to fish. The Trinity River feeds in to the northern part of the lake and is very muddy making the lake muddy as well. A couple years back, we did really well on the white bass using red painted little george's. No matter how much I try to use different baits, my dad always puts on the ole roadrunner and catches more fish than anyone. We tried 2 weekends ago. He caught 4 (2 white bass, 1 catfish, and 1 baby largemouth about the size of his palm LOL) using that thing. I caught 2 white bass (one on a spinner bait, and one on a little george). The temperature outside was 56-68 degrees. I tried fishing a fluke for a couple of hours, but took it the fish weren't seeing it because of the muddy water (3" visibility). He got 2 before I even got mine in the water and we thought we were going to slay them (this was all up in the Trinity River). I wouldn't consider 6 fish between 2 people slaying anything haha. I was wondering if anyone has some tips for Lake Livingston, or suggestions on good locations. Most of the banks on the main lake are lined with bulkhead. We are going again this weekend and plan on trying the dam and also over by some of the islands. Note: every time we ask the locals where or how to catch some good fish out there, they always tell us to go trolling, and I really don't consider that fishing or a good time. They are clearly trolling me lol. Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated. I hope to post some success pictures after the weekend. Thanks! Sam

Grab your favorite beverage, sit back and let me give you a recap of our week on Okeechobee. We left with dreams of monster bass and were willing to do whatever it took short of throwing shiners. Left Virginia 4am and stayed the first night in Palm Coast, Florida. Side note, I stayed in Palm Coast for 3 months when I was in Florida for work for 2 years and found a house to rent in JAX. Woke up the next morning to pretty stiff winds and decided to meet our local fisherman who was going to fish with us for the week, at C Scott Driver ramp on the north end of the lake since the south end was blown out and muddy. First day was a total bust. Zero fish. I attributed it to a couple of things including recalibrating to a totally different style of fishing, 16 hours of driving and the wind was howling. We couldn’t find clean water. Called it a day and checked in to Roland’s in Clewiston. 2nd day we hit South Bay and the water was trash from the winds but now the winds have shifted and were out of the south so we decided to put the boats on the trailers and head north again to try and beat the mud back further north and we put in at Harney Pond. Caught a few fish but the water quality was down. 3rd day we went south again and let me tell you the wind was just absolutely a killer. It shifted and changed directions multiple times during the day. We caught some fish in the reed beds outside of Boy Scout cut from the Rim Canal and some in Buckhead. By now we’ve got them figured out as far as baits but the challenge was finding clean water. We had caught some nice fish. Day 4 we decided to run the rim canal north and we fished Moonshine Bay. Tons of beds but no fish on them. Because of the winds, the lake was fishing really small and all of the clean water was picked over pretty good. 5th day we went back to our reed beds on the south end and did well. Overview: Overall we did really well considering we talked to a lot of locals and guides and they were not doing as well as we were. We took a poll on whether we would go back, our group had guys from Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Georgia and the only one who said he wouldn’t make the trip was from Mass and he was the least experienced of the group. Roland’s was a good place to stay, the tiki bar was convenient for food. We stayed in the motel and not the condos rooms were clean and had a mini fridge . If I went back, I would definitely book a condo and cook my own food. My only complaint was that boat/trailer parking is a little sketchy. There’s plenty of electrical outlets but no real rhyme or reason on how/where to park. Combination of open field with plug ins like an rv park and spaces outside rooms with plug ins. You could always find a spot, it just might not be as convenient as it could be. Baits that worked: 5 and 6 inch Senkos in red/green or blue/black colors. Weightless on 4 or 5.0 ewg hooks or with a 1/8th oz screw in nose weight for beds and vertical reed fishing and pitching pads. Swim Jig in bluegill colors and small paddle tail trailer in green pumpkin. Chatterbait in blue/black with a Zako trailer of the same color or a chatterbait in white chartreuse with a paddle tail Zako in Golden shiner. Yamamoto heart tail Swimbaits in various colors from golden shiner to darker rigged on a gamakatsu screw lock 1/8th weighted hook 4.0 or 5.0. SPRO Aruku Shad in Nasty Shad color. Frogs, both hollow body SPRO Popping frog and Solid body, Yamamoto Yamafrog. 1/4 oz Ned with. Yamamoto Kuttail worm, 5 inch. Now some fish pics. I have some vids of us running some trails and cuts that were sketchy at best. High pucker factors for sure.

I need help understanding how to effectively fish a jig (especially around docks)! My favorite way to fish is by fishing docks. Whether that’s skipping a senko or tossing a top water on the sides. I’ve been told that using jigs around docks are extremely deadly but don’t understand the concept. When tossing a jig under dock do you let it sink to the bottom and hop it or can you keep the jig suspended and work in the middle of the water column back to you. How do you guys fish jigs around docks? Thanks ?

I’ve fished for as long as I can remember, but haven’t bass fished for that long. My dad is a hardcore walleye guy, so naturally I did that most of my life. Walleye fishing made me fall in love with fishing, along with chasing northern pike, trout, and big panfish. I started bass fishing a couple of years ago, and have learned everything by myself. I feel like I’ve come a long way but i’d definitely like to gain more knowledge and experience. Recently I caught a new PB (7.37lbs, caught here in MN). I take my kayak out quite a bit and I’ve started to take the boat out on metro lakes, but sadly I am limited to my dad’s walleye boat. You guys got any recommendations for the metro area? Responses much appreciated Happy fishing!

Hello All, It has been years since I was on this forum. Unfortunately, I lost access to my other email (College email address) and am unable to recover that account. I am happy to be back on such an amazing forum with such a positive community. Bass fishing in Colorado is nothing like it was in Texas but you can still find a hog every now and then!! (See attached!) Happy to be back!

Hey guys, I've fished on and off since I was young but have recently gotten into it more with quarantine. I started from the shore and then actually got a kayak that was on sale and have been making modifications to it to make it more fit for fishing. I've caught a perch and a pickerel from the shore and caught a pretty decent (maybe a little over 1lb) largemouth my first day out in my kayak. It was a really crappy cold day with some rain but I wanted to get out there. I was trying a few different set ups and ultimately caught the bass with a drop shot rigged worm. It was right around the base of a dead tree stump. This was two weeks ago. I've gone out probably 10 times since then, around half from shore and half from the kayak and have gotten zero bites. I've tried texas rigs, carolina rigs, drop shots, crank baits, chatter baits and nothing seems to work. I live in central mass and have tried the same pond I caught the bass in the same, similar, and different areas as well as different water bodies. I know fishing can be on and off but after two weeks I'm starting to get really frustrated. Any tips?

Hey everyone, So i just moved into a new area (Fort Myers, FL), and it seems there are a ton of rock quarries in the area that are supposed to hold some trophy-size LMB. However I am used to fishing smaller farm ponds where I used to live, so I would love some tips/tricks that could get them biting. These quarries seem relatively clear, with some very steep drop-offs (can't see the bottom). Some sections are very rocky on the bank, some are grassy areas. What should I be throwing in both? I have had a little luck with senkos, but mostly have been fishing deep diving cranks (8-12ft. and 18ft.) PS. My buddy used an Alabama rig which worked great until he lost it in 20ft.+ of water ?

I am currently looking into a fishing tackle business. My main idea is to sell baits, tackle, and gear. For this I would like to know how to start and how to create my own fishing tackle. "Sort of like how googan squad made their own tackle and gear” Three things I want to know is. 1. Pricing for this shop (online shop with a warehouse) 2. Price to copy right/trademark my own logo 3. How to set all this up If anyone could help with ideas this would be great!