Paul Roberts

I don't own a single WP. How's it different from a Jitterbug, Crazy Crawler, or buzzbait? Retread, or whole new thing?

Ditto the floating Rapala's, both straight and jointed. Fished with twitches and pauses -subtle in the cold and on flat surfaces. Seems to be about 55F is when I can expect responses.

Amusing, which I think was the point. I guess what's meant by "luck" is -the things we can't control. "Skill" is what we can (or think we can) control. Here's one way I've looked at this conundrum: "Random" catching is what anyone (or a machine) chucking lures might have caught. Anytime we apply any amount of knowledge that takes us beyond random, can be put in the "I made a difference" category.

That's my thinking too. Yes, braid on spinning is a huge advantage distance-wise, in large part bc, once that weight is flying, it has little weight to pull behind it. But casting gear is different, as you mention. I do use braid on casting gear and feel I don't see much difference in distance. I have noticed that fill height can matter with braid, more so than with mono. The softness of it doesn't seem to slip out of the reel cage/line guide as smoothly as mono does. Only an issue when over-filled on some reels, which I've discovered. With braid, I'm sure to check the clearance when spooling up.

I guess the trick is to know when we're spinning our wheels. And that can be tough to do. Especially when we are doing much of our research by brail, and educated guesswork.

This kind of work is the way to really know. Thanks for taking the time to share this. Another way is to know what works when you're fishing. But that can get expensive! Been there. So, when I compare reels, I look at IPT over gear ratio. And when comparing lines, I'm looking at diameter over "break strength". Ditto on that. Another thing, braid and monos behave differently on a cast. Not sure exactly how it all falls out though. Braid is lighter so it will cause less drag in the air. It is also softer, which makes it more frictionless than more "wiry" mono's. However braid's softness (and texture) can also be more affected by wind when there's a lot of it out there on a cast. Dunno how these factors stack up. I'm sure the distance tournament casters have this all worked out.

Might be a tough sell. I've been having a tough time getting my son to read, even though he was read to -and a wide range of things- every night... until he could outrun me. When he's assigned a book at school, he'll read it nearly in a sitting. So he can read! But, videos are much more engaging -a multi-sensory thing I guess. But, as I might argue, to deaf ears, there's no comparing the "the book" and "the movie". Also, it was exciting waiting for that next issue to arrive. Now, it's exciting to... simply look over at your phone.

We used to fish for carp in the Barge/Erie Canal that bordered our backyards. One day we decided to air-inject some 'crawlers -and we immediately caught channel cats. We rarely caught cats with our bait directly on the bottom, and rarely caught carp with it suspended. That was a pretty cool discovery. Oh, yes... I went on to fish air-injected crawlers for Lake Ontario's trout and salmon, along with fresh roe sacks with styrofoam tied in. We just killed fish this way. I still have that stuff stashed away in a corner of one of my tackle boxes: a Lindy "Worm Blower", some syringes, and a range of "floaters", and "floats", for several fish types and scenarios.

MLF is just a great format, all around.

I came into fishing during the Fishing Facts period too. Then came In-Fisherman... and I was... toast. I painted, carpentered, constructed, reconstructed, produce managered, warehoused, landscaped, tackle retailed,... , and then got myself into a "good" school. Not bc I was smart, or wealthy; But bc I was motivated. Got into research: Fisheries, Wildlife (population and physiological ecology), and co-founded a fishing (ecology) education program. And I can honestly say that I have Perry, Pazik, and the Lindner's -and a rock bass caught 50 some years ago now- to thank for a chunk of that... motivation. Or a direction to point it. Not sure my wife would be entirely so thankful, but... those responsibilities got me into whole other lines of work. That are... far less fascinating. Still givin' it hell though. Yeah, things are different now; I think it's in large part bc fishing participation grew to be commercially viable, and careened head on into the hyper-development of consumer culture. And it, as a matter of course, grew to become more high tech. And with the tech goes participant's expectations, and the expenses incurred by that kind of participation. I was "in the industry" full time for a period, selling fishing tackle, but the "how to" was pretty much where my interest (ok... fascination) is still grounded. I'm guessing that's where most people's interest is based too. But, the costs of participation have made cashing checks more compelling. I'm trying to negotiate that line too, and stay focussed on my real passion. As I said above, I'm still giving it hell.

You got it! Very nice. That v-tube design is very customizable.

Yes, I'd say so. Except... when it gets down so low that it becomes impractical. My first response to the OP was simply to say... avoid a "toy" reel regardless of cost. 5:1 is AOK, provided the spool is large enough. If it's an UL or L reel with a tiny spool, I'd find out what the IPT (full) is. If its a "bass-sized" reel (~2500 up), I'd figure it will be fishable (for line diameters appropriate to a 2500 size reel). I bought two UL reels this year. Spool diameter is critical for such reels. One I bought at a shop where I could see the spool size. The other I bought on-line and looked at IPT to be sure I wasn't getting a "toy". Again, I want 24" give or take. That I can fish with. There are plenty of little spinning reels (and most spin-cast reels) that come in under 20". That makes things darn hard to fish with, in terms of presentation, and fighting fish. Not to mention racing your buddy to that BIG brown trout!

Would be interesting to know. However, it would also be pretty much academic. If it were me, I'd be putting that 14lb mono on a bigger spool. Or, as I mostly do now, go to braid. I actually have two spinning reels I've used 14lb mono on -they are both mega-spooled: a US Reels 240, and an old (but still good as new) Quick 440N. (That old Quick will still be good as new when my great-great-grandkids get it.) I think I get somewhere near 40ipt out of that thing. I actually back-reeled Chinooks with it -comfortably. It will also skip a Cordell Spot across the surface if I get too excited burnin' it.

Moot point, I think. What matters is how fast we can retrieve line when we're fishing. If that matters to us, then... we should not fish with half a spool. If we do plan on having our spool half full... then maybe gear ratio is our number. Then again, I don't think we can get an IPT number from an empty spool. More seriously, we'd have to lose a lot of line, before it affected our IPT appreciably. By then we'd be cursing about how close we now have to get to that lunker's hidey-hole, to get our lure in there.

Wow! That is a quality experience. I had the same question as BB86. By the looks of it, that is a river. With moving water, the bass would likely be consolidated in winter. I think you're right that fish migrate there. That is a true hotspot. You know it well. And how to fish it. So... where's the dumb part?

So its a spinning reel? Spool size will matter. I'd look at IPT (inches/turn). I find anything down near 20" is... near useless (unless maybe the rod is 8ft or longer). It has to do with keeping the line tight on fish, mostly. This is often the biggest problem with some UL spinning reels. Those little toy-sized ones are... toys. Also, a buddy of mine loved his closed-face under-spin reel for small stream trout fishing. It was mighty slow. One day, a hot-to-trot big brown followed my spinner up from the depths of a big pool, but turned away. It was a race between my buddy and I to get our spinners back out there. I won, by a long shot. Stuff like that sticks in your mind, or your craw, depending on which reel you were using.

It's not a hemisphere thing. You know the saying... "All politics is local." Same with fish. It's not "random" either. Fish really do know what they're doing. Bass are adaptable "generalist" hunters. A good chunk of their hunting involves cruising. In general, they only move as far as they need to find food. Once they are happy with a certain feeding rate, they may stay put (more or less). If not, they may do some serious wandering. This is how LM populations tend to find and make use of whatever prey types are available in a water body. Bass get to know where the food is, and bc they can be mobile, they can cash in when opportunities develop, and then leave it and find something else when a scenario falters. They know their waters very well. And they have good memories so they will revisit spots that provided opportunities in the past. These capabilities are known from a whole lot of research from a number of research fields. And my own observations, esp via video, show the same thing: That bass know where they are, and what's important; Maybe more so than many of us urbanized people do. For us, the lid is off! For bass the pressure cooker is still tightly capped. This is why its a good idea for us to get some fishing, hunting, and nature time worked in. (OK... enough sermonizing; I get this way when I've been writing, and documenting, a lot.) Keep watching those fish. And let us know what you see. That's where the really good questions come from. Here's to an awesome 2019, folks!

Wonderful story, Tom.

Is that a White, or Wiper?

@txchaser, I see pretty much the same thing, or nearly so, in my ponds too. My (Fall to) Winter videos try to explain what I suspect, and appears, to be happening for them. In some of my ponds, shorelines are where the primary cover is. So... everybody uses it. They then drop away from those shorelines as they become inhospitable. When I get the time I'll be adding to my Winter collection of videos on what more I've learned, or... think I've learned (Although, as we speak, I'm in the throes of finishing up the next documentary). During good thaws, some bass do come back to the shoreline cover, but, so far -like you've seen- they are juveniles. It's been fun keeping tabs on Brian's (@Team9nine) ponds over the years too, vicariously, via email. Same deal. Pretty cool. Since you're in TX, things may be a bit different for your fish, although winter is still mostly defined by water temps bottoming out. Here, in N CO, we have ice cover. Although my fish shrink away from shorelines as things get cold, they don't appear to abandon entirely until icing begins. Some bluegills however, at least the juvs, can be found in 2fow under the ice around cover. There's a reason for this. Bluegills are the most "labile" fishes in terms of temperature. And, they are primary forage, esp during winter, when the bass's performance falls. As to those little ones, in terms of feeding, or striking lures... Several things are happening -a perfect storm, so to speak: -Metabolism falls so need to feed goes with it. Winter is essentially about energy maintenance -stingily maintaining that body condition they managed to acquire post-spawn on. But, they can still lose body condition, so they will feed some. -Performance falls so they are less apt to try to tackle big, even "regular-sized", stuff. And they don't tend to chase. -Water density and viscosity is up, which slows them down. -Water clarity is up so they can scrutinize better. Watch some under-ice ice-fishing videos and see how that looks! -And other stuff... It just isn't a simple world out there. My ears are always to the ground.

Yes! Downright inexpensive they are too. Still kinda like the old days. The 6" twister is still a GoTo for me. I used to buy them in 100packs. Still have some.

I'd say no, only bc I doubt those fish are gaining that much weight roughly a week apart. Certainly not in my waters, anyway! If they might be growing that fast (water temps over 55 yet?), then, maybe. I do commonly re-catch individuals. As Team9nine said, photos can help ID them.

Thanks all. Dwight, I just received some saltwater "Twitch-baits" that come with single hooks, arranged as you describe. I've been debating the single hooks. It might be that they would swim through, and rip free of, vegetation better than trebles would. But I was concerned about hooking ability. So, I've got some with single's, doubles, and trebles, and... will wait for the ice to break. Thanks for your input. I've been playing with double hooks on lipless too, and single tail hooks, which I've used for BIG fish like salmon, pike, and muskies. Patrick Sebile claimed that double hooks hook just fine. And thanks, @Comfortably Numb. They look interesting. Look like a hardbait bodied weedless spoon. I found that website and found the BG color, which I'd prefer -although I suspect the bass wont differentiate, but, you know how it is. Thanks so much for the offer. Tom, I actually have some (ancient) weedless trebles, but I've never tried them out. I guess their bulk spooked me. Looks like I've created another project for myself: singles, doubles, weedless trebles, ... Curiosity, and iced over waters...

Many of my waters are very weedy. I've been playing around with hook arrangements for hardbaits to make them more weedless, but still hook fish well. There are some such lures out there with double hooks. Do they hook fish? Other ideas?

Ditto all the above. (Gotta work on A-Jay's suggestion some more though ). Also, tweaking and bathtub-testing lures. Which reminds me... I've got a question to post. Also... making videos. Working hard on my next Largemouth Bass Behavior documentary. This one is on the development of behavior, from egg to adult. Big subject, so I've broken it into three parts. Hope to have part 1 out at the beginning of the new year.