A-Jay

Yes ~ SW My absolute Favorite in the early spring. And, In my mind one of, if not the most influential factors. A-Jay

Fishing History ~ There’s been a metric ton of stuff written about fishing history. Right here on this very forum and on just about every other bass fishing platform on the web. Some say do it, some say don’t and some bassheads are somewhere in between. I am not here to say anyone’s right or wrong. Instead, I’m going to relay some recent and not so recent, personal events that have reinforced what I have sort of always gone with when it comes to fishing history. And that is, remember it, use it and most of all, be flexible. That flexible part is generally not part of my own DNA. In fact, it takes a concerted effort on my part to even come close. So, here’s what I’ve got. How I chose which lake to fish, where to fish on that lake and exactly when to be there, is always something that I struggle with. Mostly because there’s plenty of great options here and just as many less productive ones. Recently, I had a pretty decent day on the water catching some pre-spawn brown bass. The reason I selected the lake that I did, the places I fished while I was there and the timing of it all, was based on the expected weather conditions, the seasonal pattern and what I had observed on this lake just a few days before. On top of all of that, I have to admit, I was also fishing history. You see, back in spring of 2017, I discovered this same deal and I had a really good day. The spots are all classic up north brown bass spots, at least for me, but the right bass are only there and biting during a very specific time and with very specific circumstances. I’m pretty confident in saying that because ever since that one particular outing so many years prior, I have tried to ‘force’ this bite literally hundreds of times. Including every single spring, summer and fall for the LAST SIX YEARS. Never panned out. Oh sure, I got a few here & there but they weren’t really the right ones. Additionally, I caught some nice smallies in other areas of the lake using an assortment of presentations. However none of that compared to what happened in 2017 and again this 3rd week of Apr 2024. So what does all this actually mean ? Not really sure, maybe nothing. Perhaps it’s all just a big coincidence and I’m just stupid, horse shoe in the butt, lucky. Either way, it’s something that happened and I thought I’d share it. Please – I’d really appreciate any and all feedback on how this effects your own brown bass fishing – if at all. Pulled this clip out of the archives. It’s the action from 2017. Some of its pre-GoPro. This is the recent deal. 7 years apart – To The Day. Fish Hard A-Jay

Been fishing 3 Daiwa Tatula MQ LT Spinning Reels (3000D-CXH) this spring. Mounted them on the new St. Croix Avid Series Spinning Rods 7 ft Medium. Mostly for throwing Jerkbaits but it's a set up that is extremely versatile. Reels are light, small for their 3000 size, powerful, silky smooth, cast great and manages the light braid I prefer perfectly. Nothing but happy with both deals so far. In fact, here's a recent clip of the reels drag getting a workout. (First Fish) A-Jay

Spent my off day on the water - great time. Took a 2nd off day to recover. Back in the home gym this morning for Workout Day 5. Completed 3 working sets of the 3 schedule movements and finished with some core work. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

You Gotta Believe ~ A-Jay

Look Bud, I was hoping you'd help me out. Be sort of a role model for me; Lord knows I need one. And I'm working really hard up here trying not to feed that greedy primate, BUT YOU'RE NOT HELPING ! Congrats on the new sticks though A-Jay

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

Go back in two weeks when there's NO (New) MOON. Run the same Program and I bet you do much better. A-Jay

Yup ~ Just like there's no such things as a free puppy . . . . A-Jay

There is no doubt that the winters in the north woods are harsh & long. And the summers never seem long enough. But for just a few brief weeks in the April / May, and again in Aug / Sept, I am surrounded by what can only be described as World Class Smallmouth fishing. And I don't even need a passport . . . Getcha Some ! 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