paul.

i'd say absolutely give it a shot. you can learn something from every trip, good or bad, if you pay attention to what is going on around you. if your best efforts fail to produce, i'd say go out there and dedicate your time to learning a new technique or more than one, even if it's something that may not be very productive this time of year. that way you have it when the time for it comes. if your fishin' spots are not producing for you at other times too, it would be a good idea to also spend this time looking for new water. google earth and maps.live.com are good tools for scanning the area around you without wasting a ton of gas. you might just have some great honey holes a lot closer than you think.

sounds like a good day to me. especially for this time of year. sounds like y'all had to improvise a little bit too. way to make the most out of a less than ideal day!

not such a great day today guys. >. it was in the 40's and water temp was 46. not a cloud in the sky. they just seemed to be real finicky today. started out with the jig and got 4 keepers in about 2 hours when i got there. then nothing. it was very frustrating. it had rained a flood here this w.e. and it was a cold rain too. the lake had risen at least a foot probably. plus it got down in the 20's last night. the water actually got progressively colder as the day wore on. after the deep jig bite wore off (not that it was great to start with) they just got lockjaw for several hours. wouldn't bite shallow or deep. tried all my favorite stuff, jigs, spinnerbait, rattletrap, and suspending. nope, nope, nope, and nope. by 3:30, the only fish i had were still the four i'd caught earlier. my only hope was just to mentally put it in park for a minute, think things over, and start from square one. hmmm, let's see now. they weren't hitting any moving baits and the only thing they had touched was the jig (which they were ignoring now). figured it was gonna take something "like" a jig, but slower and smaller, so i t-rigged my favorite tube with a little 1/8 oz. bullet weight. it was gonna be this or back to the house as far as i was concerned. well after a few casts, i got a keeper, then another after a few more casts. caught one here and there until sundown. i finished the night with 13 fish total, 9 of which came on the tube in about the last hour of daylight. biggest was only about 3 pounds, rest were 1's and 2's. but that's 9 fish i wouldn't have caught if i had been stubborn and refused to change. sometimes you just gotta take what the lake will give ya i guess and not try to force it. now i gotta make sure i got plenty of tubes for the other tough winter days to come.

welcome new gal. these guys are super cool. great place to be.

welcome. these guys are cool. you'll like it here.

cool lunker! and on a jig too. yeah buddy! congrats.

that's great man! it won't be 80 here for another 4 months. keep up the great catchin' and semi-great picture takin'. ;D

just business as usual for craig. there'll be more, trust me. great job buddy! ;D

yeah i agree buddy. usually "downsize" is not in my fishin' vocabulary. ;D i didn't use anything smaller, it was just way lighter than the 5/8 oz. i was using. it was a full-size 1/4 oz. rattleback jig. now i just need a more sensitive rod to feel it better with. suggestions for christmas? ;D i woulda fished it all day if the wind hadn't been blowing earlier. you're right though about the slow fall rate being the key. man it takes some patience to fish that little sucker though! but obviously well worth it. i honestly don't think i woulda caught that fish on the heavier one. thanks again for reminding me.

hey y'all. i was able to get out alittle while today. temp in 40's and water temp about 49. started by catching 4 approx. 1-2 pounders on a deep wood edge with the jig. sun came out and warmed up the shallows and i noticed some bait activity in a shallow cove. proceeded to catch about 4 more 1-2 pounders in 3-4 ft. of water cranking a 3/4 oz. trap over a grassbed in a cove. when that played out, i went back out deep and caught some more keepers on the deep wood edge. about 3:30 the wind died and i remembered tin2win's reminder to use a lighter jig if possible. well i switched to a 1/4oz. jig and with only a few minutes before i had to leave, i got a solid thump. HAMMER TIME! drilled 'er hard and after a spunky fight had this nice lil' 5-7 chunk in the boat. thanks tin2win for your cool tip! i dedicate this piglet to you. ;D

really cool. keep 'em comin!

thanks for the kind words everyone. i'm hopin' for at least one more good one before '07 is over. best of luck to all y'all too.

AWESOME catches and pix guys, and great idea for a thread. if you click on the photobucket link in my signature line you can see some of the ones i was fortunate enough to catch - all from '07. here's hoping for a great '08 for y'all!

depends on the rod you are using. a flippin' stick or sometimes even a mh 7 ft. rod will snap 30 lb. braid pretty quick on a good hard hookset. i'd stick with the 50lb. for jigs and plastics. the 30 lb. should be o.k. for other things. that's just me though. i'm sure you're gonna get a lot of different answers on this one.

man, if anybody woulda told me there were bass in switzerland before i got to this site, i'da laughed at 'em and said they were crazy. just goes to show ya how much i know. not only are there bass there apparently, but some good 'uns too!!! and you guys obviously know how to stick 'em - even in tough conditions. that's awesome man!

i agree with everyone else! cali, texas, fla., ga., al., and even alaska! ANYWHERE BUT TENNESSEE!!!!!!! we don't have ANY big bass here. take it from me. don't even bother to look. no need to fish here at all. you'd just be wastin' your time. trust me. i wouldn't steer ya wrong. i promise. :

jigs in varying weights and colors. soft plastics - jig trailers, worms, lizards, flukes, creature baits, tubes texas and carolina rig sized bullet weights for the plastics hooks for the plastics spinnerbaits in varying sizes, colors, and blade types crankbaits in varying running depths lipless cranks suspending jerkbaits various topwaters - popper, walker, buzzer this covers all the basics that i know of. there are lots of good articles on this site about when and where to use what. hope this helps. good luck!

hey y'all. well, readin' bassn blvd's cool post last night made me wanna get and try something that i hadn't done in a couple of months - try to catch one with ul spinning gear. i did this with some success this spring and summer, but quit when i figured the stress of wearing one down might just be too much in hot water conditions. to be honest, i had just plum forgot about how much fun it was! so anyway, i went around lunchtime today with the bream buster and 6 lb. test. it was over 70 degrees 2 out of the last 3 days here, so i figured there would be some fish shallow even though it was only in the 40's today. started throwing the hardnose jerk shad - baby bass color. i managed to get a hook in this nice one about 45 minutes into the trip. she weighed 7-4 and made the little bream reel scream for mercy for a few minutes before i was able to get a thumb in her mouth. i'm tellin y'all it was a blast! of course i released her after some pix. funny thing was that after this fish, i tried for a few more minutes and a 1 pounder snapped the 6 pound line. go figure. : hope y'all are catchin' some too!

i read in your profile that you are from maryland. with that assumption in mind, your fish are probably in winter phase right now. pre-spawn is probably at least 2-3 months away depending on weather conditions. there are some other guys on here from maryland who may be able to help ya with location-specific strategies. but the main thing i'd do is read the many seasonal articles on this site. they're great!

yeeeeah buddy! dat's what i be talkin' 'bout! ;D AWESOME catch man - and on spinning too. that always adds to the fun. rock on!!! i gotta try that soon.

great day man and good post! congrats.

adrenaline - the basser's "drug of choice".

several others have already touched on this, but i think it's all relative to the place you are fishing. some places i fish, a 2 pounder is a good solid fish. other places it's below average. then of course there's the climate/growing season factor to consider. some places a 7 pounder will hardly turn any heads, but up north that same fish is an absolute monster - a "fish of a lifetime". but i guess a dink is a dink no matter where you catch it. i'm gonna go with the majority here and say anything less than a pound is a dink, or as i like to call 'em - a "squealer" ;D. or you could look on the bright side and just call 'em "future hawgs".

nice to meet ya and welcome to a great site!

hey y'all. wondering if y'all could help me with something. i have decided to try to upgrade the quality of the jigs i'm using. i never thought i'd see the day where i'd even consider spending 4 dollars on a jig, but i have seen 2 now that i am really impressed with. one is the evolution jig - advertised on this site. the other is the jig-x by vertical lures. has anyone used either of these? if so what do ya think? were they worth the extra $? has anyone used both? how do they compare? are there any other "premium" jigs out there that rate with these 2? thanks a lot for your help guys.