A-Jay

I'm going with near impossible. And at 64 yoa, just standing up and staying stable on the rocking & rolling forward deck all afternoon is remarkably physically demanding. Loved every minute of it though. A-Jay

I got out onto Lake Menderchuck around noon. It was clear blue skies but with a pretty stiff Southwesterly wind. Surface water temps were in the mid to high 40's. I was on this lake a few days ago and the fish seemed to be staging just a bit outside on the steeper drops. Very few had moved into where I like to hunt them. Well the warm sun & wind pushed a bunch right up into my lap. Action started around 1 PM and was a steady pick until I left right after 6 PM. It was jerkbait city. Other baits may have taken fish, but I have a bit of an addiction to the stick baits; so that's what I threw. There were a couple of big schools of 3 & 4 pounders roaming all over this one wind blown flat. I managed to weed through quite a few hoping to mine out some big bronze babes. My best 5 went 28.88 lbs, (5.02, 5.11, 5.35, 6.35, 7.05) including my 2nd ever smallmouth over 7 lbs. Fish was just a beast, I could barely hold her. Fish Hard 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

Cheap bourbon... 🤓 A-Jay

April winds and warming sun has helped the fish I'm looking for get all fired up. Past two trips have taken me straight through Trophy Town . . . . A-Jay

The Brown Bass Tools were effective today ~ Report with some insane video to follow. I had a day. A-Jay

Ignoring season patterns sounds fun. Especially when fishing bodies of water with a surface area of 15K-20K acres. When 90% of the fish are in 10% of the lake, the 'cast hard & hope' method starts to play into the law of averages. Good Luck with that. A-Jay

I have brought a few older rods back to life my replacing the wraps on the original guides and or replaced a few guides as needed. Clearly a pure novice and did quite a bit of learning on the fly. But, it's actually pretty easy. Ocne I had 'the supplies', I took my time and they came of OK. Not perfect but fishable. These two sticks remain in my quill and I expect to be using both later on today. Good Luck A-Jay

If there's going to be sun - there better be wind. And if there is going to be heavy clouds, wind seems to play less of a roll. Some trips a mix of everything through the day is the ticket. Hoping tomorrow plays out like that. 😎 A-Jay

Between the free 1st dealer oil change that come with the initial purchase, and then the GM 'reward points' that can be used for service/accessories and can even be used toward the down payment of the next vehicle, I haven't 'paid' for service in a while. I do my oil changes at the dealer in the spring & fall about 6 months apart. Weather's often at least reasonable - oil might have 4 or5 k on it. A-Jay

I don't fish much up here for LMB, mostly because the SMB are bigger. But they certainly get bites . . . A-Jay

Workout Day 4 this morning. Knocked out 3 working sets of the scheduled 4 movements. Went pretty good. Gotta keep moving, whatever the cost. #borninfiftynine https://youtu.be/knbLlpXifVU?feature=shared A-Jay

I am a POP MAX Fan Boy ~ Big time. I won't even get into what happens with that bait in Mexico. But up here in the north woods, the brown bass crush it. Need to be fishing it in the right place and at the right time but still, it's a big fish magnet for me. I do best on Flat Calm Flats, late summer, - hot, sunny and clean water 5-12 feet deep. The 'retrieve' is no retrieve. Just an accurate cast, maybe a single pop or two and then wait. Wait some more, wait some more and did I mention, wait some more. It's a stupid slow way to fish, but it get's big bites when almost nothing else will. https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?feature=shared&t=347 https://youtu.be/6Ds4Z22ywnY?feature=shared&t=119 A-Jay

Nicely Done ~ Fish seems almost as round as she does long ~ Congrats A-Jay

Scuppy McScupperson has been politicking hard for Dave Mercer's job ! A-Jay

While I can certainly applaud your willingness and enthusiasm. Remember that although night time does hide some of the boat’s & the lures negative cues, please know that night time is not some magic witching hour for bass where all the trophies become suicidal and will attack any & every lure with reckless abandon. This is simply not the case. Lures still need to be presented with the same Stealth & Care at night as they do during the day to be effective. And well before you recognize any benefits that being successful at night can offer, you'll need to actually get good at fishing at night. And in the beginning it's not 'easy'. If it were, everyone would be doing it, but the truth is, they don't. And believe me, it's a whole new kind of ball game. Totally doable but certainly not "rapid" by any stretch. It's just different and forces us to use skills that we might not really & totally key in on during daylight fishing. But at night, some of these are all we have. So going out and night fishing IS, IMO, very beneficial, but please know that there's a learning curve. Good Luck & stay safe. A-Jay https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/176285-night-bassing-~-a-jays-version/

Thanks ~ The max screen size I can flush mount on my rig, which is what I prefer, is 10 inch screens. That's what I started with and that's what I replaced the first units with. Both at the console & the bow. I am NOT a huge 'electronics' guy, mostly using the basics. I use mapping & 2D sonar the most. Don't use much split screen either, especially with SI or 360 displays. Half screen loses too much detail. If I could have flush mounted 12 inchers, I probably would have; especially as my old guy eye sight fades. A-Jay

You're welcome. I realize it's a tricky decision and can be pretty stressful too. But you know what's Not Stressful ? Why you're doing this . . . . https://youtu.be/MRZZqbN03Jg?feature=shared&t=11 A-Jay

You named the title of this thread 'Used well made bass boats recommendations'. Which rig fits that best ? Perhaps keep in mind that the Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long After the Sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten. btw, IME, you'll spend at Least 5K the first year on ' needed accessories' for your new rig. This list of item varies for each new boat owner and can end up being quite a bit more. So in the big picture of buying a rig, that $$ is already spent. You just don't know it yet. Good Luck A-Jay

No question @Dwight Hottle jerkbait selection dwarfs my own. I also made a concerted effort to narrow my own collection down a bit. Megabass (of course), Strike King, and a few special Lucky Craft baits, make up most of it. Personally, I still have way too many and although I try to fight the urge to do so, I'll still pick up a new color or pattern on occasion. But I'm better than I was. For the OP ~ I store all my hard baits in some type of Plano Hard box. Mostly 3700 size - some deep and some thin. Boxes are stored in the Pro-V bass side by side and on their ends. So labels go face up for easy ID. Baits are indexed all by type (silent) Running Depth (Reg or Deep) and each brand get's it's own box. (for the most part) ****Important tip - consider positioning all the baits that have plastic lips/bills (like jerkbaits), so that they ride around with the BILLS UP. Rattling down the highway & slamming across the lake takes a toll. When ALL the baits are positioned bottoms down in the box, and the bait's bills are not taking the load, they will last longer. If the boxes are stored "Flat" it may not matter all that much. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. This may or may not be all of it 😎 A-Jay

The crazy no snow - stupid early open water winter of 2023/2024 seems to have taken it's toll on many of the waters I frequent early season. Water levels are way down (no snow & I have to imagine some evaporation is to blame for that). Wild & often historic variances in both air & water temps have been head shakers. Either way, I've been getting out when I could and for the most part, it hasn't been pretty. Some of my very best stuff is either bare ground or just barely covered with water at all. It's had me scrambling to say the least. Had to come up with a whole new plan hope for the best. Took a few trips, a couple of different lakes and almost a month of bizarre fishing but yesterday I managed to get on something decent. If nothing else I learned a bunch, mainly that I like & want Lots & Lots of snow. And hard water that last's until mid April. Every winter. Because if this continues, it's going to get ugly. These ladies were not ugly however, a little plump perhaps, but not ugly. A-Jay

Spent my scheduled day off yesterday on Lake Menderchuck. That was fun but it was back into the home gym this morning. Workout Day 3 for the win ! #borninfiftynine https://youtu.be/8QsaYnSDeAY?feature=shared A-Jay

Thank you for your service @ButchA and Congrats on your pending retirement. Good Health & Happiness to you & yours moving forward A-Jay

I'm sure through all your years of wetting a line, you've come to your own conclusion. Personally the wind for me is neither a friend or a foe. When it comes to locating biting brown bass for me, on it's own, the wind is just about meaningless. It's ONE Single factor that when combined with the many others, might determine if I'm using my net or if I'm even on the water at all. Structure, cover, seasonal pattern, bait & boating traffic, just for starters, trumps whatever the wind is doing. At least in my book. Using this trip as a specific example: I believe the wind was helping to 'position' the fish I was looking to catch in very small specific 'spots'. These spots needed to be a certain depth, they needed to be oriented a certain way (especially if there was sunshine), the water temp needed to be at least 45 degrees, the angle of the drop off had to be a certain way, having a defined 'edge' where dark bottom (emergent weed growth) met clean sand, seemed very helpful and the WIND had to be blowing Right On it. I feel confident listing all that because most every fish I caught yesterday, came from such a spot or something pretty dern close. Areas missing much of that were fishless for me. Requires covering water, the 'spots are small' and usually quite a distance apart. Each held one or two biters. That's what was happening on this trip, the next one will most likely be completely different. Finally, when it comes to hunting down big brown bass here in northern Michigan, I will admit to 'using' that type or style of fish locating procedure, in every season and on most every body of water I fish. Sometimes it's repeatable and sometimes it's not. A-Jay