A-Jay

Most all of my best LMB swimbait fishing happens south of the border. The habitat is Tilapia heaven. The 6 inch Storm Wild Eye Shad is KING. The more unnatural it 'swims', The more & bigger bites we get. A-Jay

Nice job. But I can't really relate to any of that because I rarely exert myself at all. A-Jay

You can call me whatever you'd like Allen. A-Jay

@Nitro 882 Thank you for taking the time & sharing your thoughts. My personal feelings regarding FFS emulate your own very closely. While I do have a few less years on the water, I think the writings already on the wall. When I think about how Game Cameras & Drones have altered the very essence of 'Hunting' big game, there seems to be a close parallel with FFS and Bass fishing. The world changes and this is that. As a younger man, say 40 years younger, I do not believe I would feel the same about FFS as I do now. However at this point, FFS IMO 'looks good' but 'feels bad'. The world will go on, but it will be 'different.' So thankful that I grew up & lived the majority of my fishing life during the time frame that I did. I recently 'replaced' the electronics on my rig. Had a hard decision to make on which way I was going to go. In the end, I purchased new '3 year old' technology. Call me old fashion but it just 'felt right'. I will continue to do it my way, with no complaints, no apologies and no regrets. This topic has literally flooded the bass fishing world with some of the most drama I can remember. I'm tired of it already and look forward to getting out on the water again. Fish Hard A-Jay

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ Nice Intro A-Jay

There are some humans who seem to look at 'details' as a separate or perhaps even special aspect of every evolution. In my world there are NO details. At some point IT ALL MATTERS. So it's not obsession, but instead willingness. Takes more effort & focus to try and be always ready, and I could agree that it's almost impossible to accomplish, but I believe it's worth it in the long run. A-Jay

UFL's calling A-Jay

He's Baaaack ~ Been a minute. A-Jay

Day 3 workout this morning. Sticking to the plan. #borninfiftynine https://youtu.be/YrGGPmyA38Y?feature=shared A-Jay

Needs a name. Sorry, but Lake Menderchuck is already taken. 😃 A-Jay

There have been an inordinate number of changes throughout my life. Most of which I had little to no control over. The ones I liked, I embraced. The ones I didn't care for, I usually complained about. Never made a bit of difference one way or the other. Seems in the end, things turn out best for folks who make the best out of the way things turn out. Either way, I strive to preserve, relentlessly. I'm taking a 'wait and see' posture on this one. Fish Hard A-Jay

Been there myself ~ Started using these and that deal is over with. Comes in two sizes. I use both https://www.amazon.com/KastKing-Fishing-Wraps-Medium-Inches/dp/B07C3WRLBJ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2QOQLWHK82CMK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RaQ2kHpBfZuTF0gxo8ec7-15ZB0weGBsVO8xblavAaozAMzsSBt358j9kWdx8NiKV4WhI8XkM8db9_ImZCZdQgLC7sjinZrAeBKXSxCc8UAnJHo8EVdU3GFdVeXwI0qouDacF_SAmG0RR1ME33YrQzmS3WHINT9_roYu3tq1wYixtpfckURxIQeEm530IAfkbKdJSYOV3mZap1_Jfztztd7zPWsqCaNOHU2CM2o8Uz8_vzu8NxZ97yFsKs97a87PGoRglPZahY_nJf-IvxRmCK64d2Yx9DrDxUpUQFZXO-E.MdI2j2aVaWQOx1bhXvYU-rl_PH9jcuCzuomxzKlKNDI&dib_tag=se&keywords=kastking%2Blure%2Bwrap&qid=1709573747&sprefix=kast%2Bking%2Blure%2Caps%2C141&sr=8-3&th=1 A-Jay

Mesh for me - Color coordinated too. Because that's how we roll up in here . . . A-Jay

A-Jay

Wow, your kayak is much better equip than I realized Congrats A-Jay

31 Days to go ~ Sounds funny still saying that. Especially considering I could be making my first casts of 2024 some time next week. Getting some rain tomorrow but once that clears out I should be good. It's 'Tight Line Sunday', and I celebrated it by loading ALL the gear into the Pro-V Bass. So now we are both locked, cocked & ready to rock. It's been 89 days since I started this thread. Some of those days felt pretty long, but the weeks went by reasonably quickly. A-Jay

Nicely Done ~ It's a good feeling helping folks out of hairy situations, especially when you both know, you are their ONLY hope. Glad it turned out OK. Remove the life jackets from this story and it probably changes quite a bit. BTW- anytime we are 'helping' another boater(s), regardless of the conditions, it's important that we wear our life jacket as well. I'm sure you were. Again, great job. A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/?do=findComment&comment=3050040 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

Nice ! Happy Birthday and Congrats A-Jay

No one's missing anything. Just tired of reading about it A-Jay

As indicated previously, I started with Day 2. Training earlier will take some adjustment but not much. Did it for years and years in the past. https://youtu.be/Yk5vf0AAvLc?feature=shared A-Jay

I haven't really gone hog wild on any one super high priced reel. Most are in the 'middle' range price point. I suppose one of the better ones is the Shimano Bantam MGL 150A ~ I use it as a cranking reel on a LTB I actually 'won' in a drawing here on BR. A-Jay

Thank @steve carpenter I appreciate your support. And I'm very glad to hear you're back in the groove. Keep it rolling my friend. You are a real life hero. A-Jay

Funny thing is that other frozen percent, surrounds the only deep water boat ramp. So I'm still locked out ! A-Jay