A-Jay

Sort of sad to see the 'Member Status' section discontinued. A-Jay

My Dad listened to music on tape from a reel to reel when I was a kid. Wish I still had that. I imagine replacing 'the tubes' might be a challenge 60 or so years later. Before I enlisted I used to install 8 track players in vehicles. Everything old is new again. 😎 A-Jay

Move north they said. It would be fun they said. Old Man Winter seems very determined to make up for the past few mostly meek & mild winters. As Bitter cold and more wintry weather is expected Sunday into early next week. Wind chill temperatures as low as -25 degrees are possible, leading to rapid frostbite times of 30 minutes or less. A-Jay

Bet cha there's some peeps googling Tarzan right about now . . . . A-Jay

Tell me about it . . . . I'm on that road as well. Hope you can keep it up. I say it's definitely worth it. #borninfiftynine A-Jay https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/198637-working-to-stay-lean-~/page/59/#findComment-3123107

Back around to Workout Day 1 today. Completed 3 working sets of the 5 scheduled movements. Showing that here. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

Might work in a bog that's 12 ft wide. But I would never make it to my next spot before dark. A-Jay

Hello Bill and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

Past week or so we've been getting our usually 1-2 inches of snow a day, sometimes 3 inches. Which on it's own, doesn't even really register here. However left unaddressed it does start to add up and that's where we're at now. So I've got 10-12 inches or so that I've been driving through, waiting for a 'warmer' day to blast it away. I'm not asking for much, just a bump up into the 20's would be OK with me. Unfortunately there's more snow on the way and the forecast calls for an extended even colder deal. Looks like this weekend will be my best bet. Anything outside for more than 30 minutes when it's below zero, starts getting old. Especially with that Old Man Winter Wind in my face. A-Jay

Hello Tom and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO ? The age old question. The one so many bassheads, including myself, ask themselves at least once a trip and often times it’s quite a bit more than that. I’m referring to when we are on a spot, whether it was producing or not, we’ve given it what in our own minds is ample opportunity to produce and it hasn’t. So, do we stay or do we go ? Let me back the truck up a little here and say, since this is The “Brown Bass Tools” thread, the following thoughts will relate most in that direction. Also, I do not fish competitively so “Time” has a different meaning to me. Clearly no hard and fast ‘rules’ can be drawn upon during these deals but here’s my version of it. I am going to start off with a couple of ‘deciding factors’ that often cause me to lean one way or the other. Seasonal pattern and what I’m fishing, so boat position. Early season before and of course during the spawn, fish are looking & wanting to come shallow. Not exactly a new flash and something we don’t even need FFS to figure out. This can be one scenario where I am often willing wait it out on a known or recently producing spot or area. And if I do chose to relocate, I’m generally not going very far, like maybe just 2 or 3 cast lengths one way or the other; depending on what type of structure/cover I working with. If I’m feel particularly confident that the fish are ‘coming to me’ (eventually), I may Talon down, shut everything off (electronics wise) and have a sandwich while the area ‘settles down a little.’ Might be just enough to have a few more fatties roll right into casting distance. Sometimes it happens by itself if I need to retie or perhaps change baits or hardware. On scene weather conditions can & do play a role here as well. Especially is skinny water;10 ft or less. Increase or decrease in cloud cover and or wind speed can effect my decision making matrix. Forecast or not, if it’s been a sun’s out bite and clouds move in, I may wait them out if I can see an end in sight. Reverse can be said if it’s been a cloudy skies deal. Bites in the wind rarely get better if it flattens out, so I’ll usually not put too much extra time into an area if it and when it goes flat calm. But going from calm to windy is a whole different ballgame and one I like to play. Chuck & wind baby. As the season progresses and the spawn is done & over with, the local brown bass population on the bigger inland lakes, makes themselves very scares by spreading out all over the place. This goes straight into summer and is the time of year where I do The Most moving around and will only stay on spots very briefly. Except for some early morning or late afternoon topwater off the end of long deep main lake points, I’m almost always fishing deep(er). Trying to focus on targets of deep bottom cover (rocks/wood) that could hold bait/bass. If I can get a bait in front of them, they’ll usually eat. Maxscent flat worm is a confidence bait here for me. Need decent conditions, some sun helps, boating traffic does not. It’s easy to admit that this IS the toughest fishing of the year for me. Accordingly I don’t spend a whole lot of time on these bigger lakes late June thru most all of July. But sometime in the first week or two of August, things get much, much better. Bigger bass start showing up shallow again. It’s almost always on flats. They seem to be a bit more scattered/spread out but there’s some real brutes up there. And they are looking to EAT. As the shallow weeds die back and the bait fish become more and more exposed, the fishing just keeps getting better. Almost becomes the same type of deal for me as in the spring. Fish are coming to me so I don’t move much. But that’s sort of a relative thing, I still need to cover water, but it's just over one or two special flats. So I’m not running all over the lakes, just doing a lot of casting. From August to say mid September, it’s all about horizontal moving baits. Could be topwater early and just about whatever you want to throw after that, Vibrating jigs, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, swim jigs, A-Rigs, Squarebills & rattlebaits. Some of the best flats are also the biggest. A basshead could spend an entire day just crisscrossing one flat with different baits at various depths. And this one does exactly that. So in this case – I stay. Come October, the weeds have died back completely, the waters cooled off considerably, the bass start looking deeper for their winter time haunts. If the the weather cooperates, and I can fish the deepest flats that have hard cover effectively, this can be the best time of the year for me for sheer numbers of 3-5 lb smallies. Blade baits & swimbaits on a jighead are Big time players for me now. I’ll stay on a spot long enough to get a couple of biters and then hop over to the next spot and do the same deal. It’s usually late enough in the season where boating traffic is not an issue (everyone’s deer hunting) and the few boats on the water are targeting walleye and rarely on anything I’m looking to get on. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Fish Hard A-Jay

Really Sorry my Friend. Your family and Lola were lucky to have found each other. Hope you guys can heal soon. Both Lynn & I are thinking of you. A-Jay

Funny thing is I don't fish crankbaits that much. But what most anglers use for cranks, I use a 'version' of that type of blank for most all my horizontal moving baits; treble hooks and single hook baits both. A-Jay

This is a line changing technique I don't see locally ~ https://youtu.be/yyNe7yUK7j4?feature=shared&t=763 A-Jay

Wait until I post up the complete updated 2025 line up. It's totally crazy talk. #2manyrods A-Jay

From the moment I leave, Tank waits . . . and waits . . . and waits for my return. Every Time. You can't make a dog do that. #tankslife #bestfriend A-Jay

There was a time when I would simply change the spool. Even on casting gear. Now I just switch rigs. A-Jay

So does that mean lots of yellow ice ? 🤓 A-Jay

Been a cold & snowy week. Far more typical for this neck of the woods than the past few years. These are the ones that make winter seem more like an occupation than a season. And for the large part of the population here, it certainly is that. I'm more of a part timer . . . . https://youtu.be/bU0t6-lb6U0?feature=shared&t=170 A-Jay

Been a cold & snowy week. Far more typical for this neck of the woods than the past few years. These are the ones that make winter seem more like an occupation than a season. With both the holidays and the winter solstice in the rear view mirror, I'm feeling a bit better about looking forward. Sort of like getting over the hump. While January can still be a long cold month, I'm hoping it's all downhill from here . . . . 89 Days and a wake up ~ A-Jay

Good Luck Don't forget about the 5 months of snow and lakes being iced over. A-Jay

What is Your Favorite Species and What Got You Set on It? Growing up and fishing in New England, it was mostly panfish and small LMB. Eventually I started catching some SMB and thought they were pretty cool. Didn't know then where that would lead. Throughout my life time I've been very fortunate to have had an opportunity to do a fairly wide variety of both fresh and salt water game fishing including Lakes, rivers, reservoirs, streams, inshore and off shore adventures. Blue water pelagic fish are a completely different deal. However what ever species(s) I would be targeting, I have always been a fan of "the Big Ones". And my 'favorite' is directly related to what's available where I'm at. I had a Serious Striped Bass addiction for about 15 years and chased them up & down the east coast from Maine to North Carolina. Usually from the beach or rocks and always at night. Lost a lot of sleep. Caught the Big Largemouth bass bug pretty bad once I started making trips south of the border. Gave me a chance to scratch an itch I'll never be able to do in the north woods. Since retiring to northern Michigan, the past 17 plus years, I've had access to several cool water game fish. Besides LM and SM Bass, these include pike, muskie, walleye and a few different trout & salmon species. And have caught a few of most all of them, but they were almost always by catch; except for the walleye (sandwiches). However I am mostly (OK Wildly) addicted to Smallmouth. I'm all about the preparation, the hunt and the execution. Trophy Brown bass are usually a very worthy opponent on the right gear and just look awesome all colored up ! Also they can be reasonably scarce, making them hard to find. This may be one reason why I'm often pretty lonely on the water. Which suits me just fine. A-Jay

Workout Day 5 today. Completed 3 working sets of the 4 movements scheduled. I'll be taking two off days. My next trip into the home gym will be 14 Jan 2025. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

I think the 1980 is the model number not the year. https://vexusboats.com/model/avx1980/overview/ A-Jay