Dwight Hottle

Google is your friend. Bass have crushers too.

Try them & find out. I caught my PB sea trout just over 8lbs while fishing a ball jig with a plastic grub. Everyone else were fishing jigs tipped with live shrimp.

It would not be much different than a jig & minnow presentation. Fish Chris a past member on BR used to use live craws to catch monster large mouth bass & smallies also mean mouth in California waters. Mostly sight fishing as I remember.

I totally agree. Do not wait until it’s too late because you only live once & there are no guarantees in life except death & taxes. My father had already passed before I bought my first boat in my late fifties so he never got to go with me after purchase. My only advice regarding boat purchases is don’t buy what you can not comfortably afford. Being old school I appreciate & have always practiced not to encumber debt I could not handle.

My guess is in the 4 lb range. But the solution to your question is always carry a scale with you.

Listen up all you brown bass enthusiasts. The man shares & communicates his thought process & experiences as a trophy smallie fisherman very well.

My suggestion is to swallow your pride & start trolling on a regular basis.

I almost always use spinning tackle for fishing jerk baits for smallies. I do use casting outfits for largemouth when fishing jerks simply because that’s what I have available. But for windy conditions the solution would be spinning tackle.

Very scary situation. Glad you got it sorted out & can get back to normal & go fishing.

Welcome aboard Pablo.

For me personally flouro sucks. I always use mono leaders when using leaders to braid. I always use back to back uni knots for the connections without failures. While up at the St Lawrence last week I had two leaders knots fail using saltwater yo-zuri 100% fluorocarbon 30 yard fluoro. The leaders were 10lb & 12lb joined to 10lb braid & 8lb braid. I cinched all my knots up with saliva & lip balm to prevent the knots from burning. Water temps were high 30's & low 40's which I'm sure might have contributed to the problem. Extreme water clarity is the only reason I even considered flouro. My buddy also had a leader connection at the knot to braid fail.

@T-Billy Great start to your season.

Well all I can say is welcome to the 60 point club. And the race tightens but be aware I have an ace up my sleeve.

Heal up fast but listen to the doc's timetable.

It's over $6.00 on the left coast.