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

No #protectthishouse A-Jay

Maybe not but it sure provides a wicked big buffer zone between you and the other anglers. A-Jay

With 33 days to go, Two very positive events happened today. First, I purchased my 2024 Michigan all species fishing license on line today. Second, after a little more RECON, Local Lake Menderchuck appears to be 60 to maybe even 70 % open water. If this were April I would totally expect to be fishing in 2 days or so. But it's the 1st of March for gosh sakes, I have no idea what happens next. I'll start loading my rig with gear this coming week just in case. Middle of the this month is looking more doable than ever. 😁 A-Jay

Probably something like 6 or 7 for me. Just depends on how much commercial air fares are running. But you're a bit closer so you could probably add one or two. Worth it though IMO. A-Jay

Nice - Do they go over or under the Blue Blockers ? A-Jay

Been there ~ The muddier the Boat, Trailer & Truck are, the Better the fishing's been. Clean rig means - well you know, A-Jay

Still Back in Black ~ A-Jay

What's a 'city' ? A-Jay

Enjoying my second off day today, (feeling much better) but still chomping at the bit to get back into the home gym. Decided to use this as an opportunity to switch my training schedule up a bit. When you've been training for as long as I have, 'inventing' new ways to keep it funky fresh helps keep me motivated. Took a few minutes to build, but when the smoke cleared, this 5 day split was the result. So I'll be back at it early tomorrow morning (before breakfast) and will be starting this one out with Day 2. Planning on backing everything off (weight, reps & sets) to sort of start from scratch but will build it up as each week progresses. As always - I take an off day between each training day. A-Jay

Perhaps it was your clientele. #nicknewguy A-Jay