Tokyo Tony

Nice fish I like the Flappin Hawg as occasional jig trailers (gives a large profile), and I've caught fish on them rigged on a 1/8 oz round jighead with weedguard. Oh, and plain t-rigged with a pegged weight & 2/0 hook, punching through the slop. Versatile little lure.

Similarly to the above post, I just use a Uni but run it through the eye twice instead of once. If you don't run it through twice, it will slip. Running in through twice, I've ruined many good laydowns by pulling them off the shore, and I've bent many hooks

Yes. It's much better for aggressive retrieves, and at least as good for slower retrieves. You simply have more options with braid, as far as retrieval versatility. Any little twitch of the rod transfers to the lure. With non-braid lines there's a bit of a lag, which may be good sometimes. However, you can also simulate that lag if you use braid. I use a flouro leader - it seems the hooks will foul much less on the cast with a flouro leader.

Great video 8-)

Beautiful fish and scenery. I spent a winter in Jackson Hole, WY, and the Snake runs right through there. Of course it was more white than green, but still beautiful. Maybe my favorite beer in the world is Snake River Pale Ale. Delicious.

Spring 2008 I was shorefishing a little man-made pond, and there's a path about 6 feet wide bordered by the water and a vertical wall about 15 ft high (soon to be a parking lot barrier). I walked through the path and was fishing the other side until dark. On my way back I noticed two geese sitting right on the path. As I approached, one of them started honking at me and flapping his wings. I thought it was funny until he took off and flew straight at my head, honking the whole time. Apparently they had made a nest in that area, and I was unfortunate enough to be able to pass by it when there weren't there, so I was stuck. I ended up climbing the wall where it was lower and walking past them, about 15 feet up. I was sure that if I fell and the fall didn't kill me, that the goose would peck my throat out. I couldn't believe how aggressive the thing was. I guess it's funny looking back, but it's not funny when you have a large, bloodthirsty goose flying at your head.

Thanks gents. Can't wait to get back on the Chatterbait bite this weekend 8-)

Nice fish Slow-rolling chatterbaits has also been great to me lately.

Well, very much the same as my last thread, "October Fattie," I tricked this five pounder with a 1/2 oz black/blue Chatterbait, the original brand. There is a 2 foot drop in this pond, almost right in the middle, and there are dying weeds on top, with barren muck on the bottom level. It drops from 7-8 to 10-11 feet, and it's been a real magnet for fish lately. The best technique I've found is making a long cast to the top level, letting the bait sink to the bottom, then reeling slowly and steadily, literally only just fast enough to make the blade vibrate, keeping it right along the bottom. The very first cast when I slowed down my retrieve, this fish took the lure with an authoritative "tap" It was the first fish of the day, and the only one worth mentioning. Caught some dropshot fish and some jig fish, the rest (about 15 between my brother and me) were under 2 lbs. Thanks for looking.

From now on, that fish in your avatar is what I will think of when I hear the term "football" Beautiful. My favorite lures in cold water conditions are suspending jerkbaits and jigs. I don't have much experience with jigs in moving water, but you can't go wrong with suspending jerkbaits as long as you're getting down to the fish.

Great fish, great post ;D Those are some beautiful markings. I need to catch some smallmouth. Your post gave me the craving.

Winter's a little different for some of us - if you're lucky not to have ice, you're dealing with temps in the mid 30's. I'm sure a fast-moving bait might catch a fish or two with those temps, but you can't go wrong with a jig or a dropshot. When the water is that cold, it seems that the fish are almost comatose. I could be wrong, but that's what it seems like to me... Oh - Roboworms for dropshotting, obviously can't go wrong with stickbaits. I like black/blue or black/purple.

Hookem - thanks for the video. That was awesome 8-)

Nice Nothin better than catching fish on light tackle.

I would have figured that was your pick-up line in those San Francisco area bars? :-X ;D Nice

Man, the way you hooked it is basically like a person wearing a harness - the easiest way to pull weight. I'm not surprised you almost got spooled ;D Great fish.

Awesome ;D Nice work man. It's always nice to catch fish using a new technique, especially an absolute monster.

IMO, the owner wacky hooks are far superior to the Gamakatsu weedless ones. The weedguard is more effective and it doesn't get screwed up after each fish. Unfortunately, the biggest size they make is 1/0: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0037619320392a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=owner+wacky+finesse&Ntk=Products&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1 These are tremendous for fishing wacky senkos in deeper water: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat20291&id=0053798320411a&navCount=1&podId=0053798&parentId=cat20291&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true

White 3/8 oz Terminator spinnerbait. (The cheap one from Walmart) Gotta love spinnerbait bass. Just reeling it in, feeling the subtle vibrations, then SMACK. Fish on ;D

Nice What'd you trick her with?

Nice fish Paul - I LOVE the coloration. I'd much rather catch really dark LMB than the lighter ones. Most of the ones we caught last Sunday lacked color. Some where almost totally white. Probably because they've been hanging out in deep, muddy water. And Tin - for low-light conditions (night, muddy water), I really don't think there's a single bait that is as effective as a slow-rolled black/blue Chatterbait (or Strike King Pure Poison, which was what I used for this trip).

That's a freakin' giant ;D Nice fish!

Giant! Nice bass there

Thanks guys It's funny how a good day of fishing can elevate your mood for several days after, and it just makes you want to fish more. I've definitely started losing "the bug" lately due to less than stellar fishing, but now I can't wait to get back out there next weekend.

Went out to my favorite local pond with fishizzle yesterday, and we were both expecting it to be an impossible day. It was the day after a big rainstorm, cold front, bluebird skies, muddy water that ended up being in the mid to high 50s. We were laughing about even going fishing on a day like that, admitting that there wasn't much chance of success. Well, it actually turned out to be a great day. We caught a bunch of fish, mostly around a 2 foot drop in the middle of the pond, either dropshotting (fishizzle) or slow-rolling a black/blue chatterbait (me). It was about my 3rd to 5th cast of the day when I landed this nice 5 lb 3 oz girl who decided my chatterbait looked like a tasty meal It was the biggest fish I've caught since mid-summer, and needless to say, it made my day. We probably caught around 25 fish or more between the two of us, 5lb 3oz the biggest, followed by about a 3 lber for each of us, another 2, and many smaller. It's not often that a day surpasses your expectations by that much, but it's nice when it happens