A-Jay

This past holiday weekend, the weather was really nice. Almost too nice. As a result, I could not bring myself to join the flotilla that traditionally fills most of the larger local waters. Choosing instead to get caught up on some much-needed projects around our home. However, I am really chomping at the bit to get after some brown bass, so much so that it's actually negatively affecting my overall physical and mental health. OK, I may have overplayed my hand a little right there, but I do need to wet a line & soon. Sadly the forecast is not cooperating. I'm uncertain if I can endure another week without getting some Pro-V Bass seat time. Can someone help me—please? A-Jay

I began my September routine with a Leg 2 Workout. Step Back Lunges, Cable Sissy Squats, and Single Leg Calf Raises, and ended with Hanging Knee Raises. Basic but effective. #bornififtynine A-Jay

At this point I'm not for or against FFS. I just don't enjoy watching when they are using it. Now the Bass Pinball is a totally different deal. 🤪 A-Jay

If B.A.S.S. is concerned with the tradition, instead of a coin, perhaps they should consider boat flipping a bass. If it bounces off the wind screen it's an FFS derby, and if it misses, it is not. Now that's entertainment. Or they could do the old Rock, Paper, Scissors method. 🤣 A-Jay

Thanks. Once the first snow flies, I rarely take the blower blade right to ground zero. Instead, I allow a 1-2 inch base of packed snow to build up. Helps with the truck tire rucks that would inevitably develop. Which makes it feel like I'm snowblowing the moon. No fun. A-Jay

When making my bait selections there are a few physical characteristics I consider. All things being equal as far as running depth and speed or fall rate, I am looking at bait size, shape, profile, sound and finally color. I believe they all matter. I may be able to get bites with several different versions or color patterns of same bait. However I never feel like that's the best choice. Because In my mind every bass is an individual creature, with it's own likes, dislikes and preferences. So just like not everyone liked a certain food, bass might be in the same boat. When there is a wide open world class big brown bass bite on, I will fish what is working until it's not. But you can bet I will not leave without going a little off script to see if Mrs Jumbo would prefer something a little different. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Seems a different or even no sound on hard baits does the trick far more than a color change. Bottom line, does color matter ? In my fishing, Yes. A-Jay

So perhaps not exactly a landscape project per se. Maybe more like an accessory to the landscape. Either way, we took advantage of the favorable holiday weekend weather to reseal the drive. It was time and it needed it. We set aside one day for surface & edge preparation and the following day for the actual application of the product. Came out OK and certainly looks a whole lot better than it did. Just wish it lasted a little longer. The Before The After A-Jay

Hello and welcome to Bass Resource ~ The great thing about bass fishing is there really are no 'tips.' But there are plenty of opportunities to read and learn about bass's life cycle, bass seasonal movements, bass feeding behavior, and quite a bit more. Here is some information to get you started on the right path. https://www.bassresource.com/how-to-fish BTW, IME bass really don't care how long we fish for them or how many casts we make. It never seems to affect whether or not they bite. Good luck & have fun. A-Jay

Hard water season for me is always too long; however, somehow I manage to make the most of it. Tackle organization, bait & terminal tackle replenishment, and rod & reel maintenance takes up a good bit of my time. I am certainly not alone in this regard. Additionally, and far more important to me, is using those 4 or 5 months of non-fishing time, to take care of me. My version of this includes balanced nutrition and battling gravity every other day. If I put on just 2 or 3 pounds every winter, in just 10 years I'll be 20 or 30 lbs overweight. It adds up fast and takes twice as long to lose as it did to gain it. As we age, changing our long-standing poor habits can be quite challenging. So I say, develop good ones instead. Good health is the gift that keeps on giving. I can't fish, if I can't fish. A-Jay

Dial 1-800-555-BOZO #weirdness A-Jay

Nicely Done ~ A-Jay

Pull 1 workout today. Completed the scheduled working sets and ended each movement with a drop set. Emptied the tank a bit on this one. Accordingly, I'll be taking two off days to enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend. Stay Safe. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

When a solid producer is realized, duplicates become mandatory. A-Jay

First off, super glad to hear you're back in the gym and making it happen. Here are some initial thoughts: I cannot say exactly what will work for you and your objectives. Training programs are like medicine—taking mine might not help you and vice versa. Best results for me, regardless of the objective, have always come when I trained instinctively and performed what was best for me, and not someone else. That said, here are some very basic thoughts that I subscribe to that help me. I do not use the calendar and a 7-day week as a manner in which to develop my programs. It's just Day 1, Day 2, and so on. I don't care whether it's a Thursday or a Saturday. The days of the week are virtually meaningless to my training and especially the recovery. In order for me to get "stronger," I must eat more. There is no way around it. I cannot make the wall bigger without adding more bricks. And if I want to maintain that strength, I need to keep training hard & feeding it; otherwise, it will fade away. As far as training frequency goes, I can't offer actionable advice without knowing what you are doing now. So the exercises, the number of working sets, the frequency, and the number of scheduled off days are what I'm looking for. You can either just go ahead and post it here or send me a PM and we can dive somewhat deeper into this. Finally, I will tell you that I do prefer to be fit for life. Training for constant improvement over the long haul for me has been a lifelong journey. There's been plenty of ups and downs, but not putting a time limit on whatever my goals are has proven the safest route for me. It took me close to 40 years of 'trying' all types of training methods and programs to get to this point. And I'm still learning; especially as my humanness changes with age. Train Smart A-Jay

The paddle tail or boot tail swimbait can be a very effective deal for just about any kind of bass and in a super wide variety of applications. Not news. At this point its common knowledge that sliding one on a jig head can and does get bites pretty much anywhere in the country. Whether it be a solid or hollow belly bait, small, medium or even the larger versions, these baits seem to have some serious strike drawing power at times. Although I haven’t made an attempt to dive into this one yet, they do account for quite a few brown bass for me each year. So, I figured it was time. I’ll start off with ‘The when’; and this may be the easiest aspect of this one. Seasonally, as soon as there is open water here and straight through to hard water, I almost always have a swimbait on a jig head rigged up & ready to throw. This is the deal I’ll be discussing here and I’ll get to the where and how in a bit. But yea, when the local brown bass population is on the feed, they almost always seem fairly eager to choke one of these things. Now let me get into some of my more common ‘where’ scenarios. Right off the bat, the versatility of these things does lend them to be effective in a wide vary of ‘wheres’. So it can literally be one of those 3 feet to 30 feet deals. However for me, up in this clear water, regardless of season, time of day or body of water, a swimbait on a jighead is an effective way to cover water and it’s usually ‘deeper’ stuff. I’ll quantify that by saying I’m throwing them up on to or off of mid lake humps, up & off points, as well as drop-offs and into saddle areas. Usually targeting bass in 10-20 feet. Bottom composition and cover can vary but in super heavy soft cover (weeds) I am not probing them with this bait. I might swim one over and around it, but IME, they don’t fish very effectively through the slop. Great way to cover a big mid-lake flat though. Slow rolling one over the weeds can help find biters (and a bunch of Pike, unfortunately). On a hard bottom, I like the lift & fall technique, on both a tight & slack line, as well as the cranking it along slow and letting it deflect; trigger deal. On a sand bottom I am all about grinding the bait. Reeling it along in such a manner, and at whatever speed I need, to maintain constant contact with the bottom. This is one of my more productive approaches that also gets me a ton of by-catch; walleye mostly. A Football head is a solid choice. Now for the gear, and it’s really nothing special. I use spinning & casting gear, pretty much interchangeably. Almost always using 7 ft Medium action in both blanks. Spinning gear is done with 10-15 lb braid and an 8 – 10 lb FC leader. And the casting gear is straight 10-12 lb FC. I will say that the spinning gear is usually selected when I’m looking to keep the baits deeper, say below 10 – 15 feet and the casting gear often gets the nod in anything shallower. Incidentally, this is the same tackle I fish a tube with. The Jig heads & Baits ~ There is a plethora of good quality swim baits and matching jig heads to choose from now. On line vendors literally list what seems like hundreds. I’ve fished a dozen or so types & brands. To keep it simple, I’ve pretty much settled on two; listed below. I do prefer softer baits in the 3 to 5 inch size range, with something close to 4 inch being a big player. While clearly less durable, I seem to get more bites. Along with that, having the right action, especially on the fall, is a must for me. When it comes to jighead shape, design and the all-important hook, again I like to keep it simple but here I am fairly particular. Brand Name is my desired direction but will go with a Lesser-known deal when there’s merit. I am eternally looking for jigheads with a quality medium and medium light wire hook that is also The Right Length. Too stout here can be tricky to sink on the medium gear I use; especially on a long cast or very deep running bait. Additionally, too long of a hook seems to ‘mute’ and can even over power a bait. I seem to get the best action when the bend is coming out the top of the bait no more than half way back of the baits overall length. More than that is No Bueno. My favorite heads match up to baits when they only go in about a third of the way (if that makes sense). Colors I keep close to the bait color and my default is just a plain lead, black or tungsten. Head shape & design includes where the line tie placement is located on the head itself. The right local will allow the bait to swim nicely, especially along the bottom and on the glide without forcing the bait to pick up unwanted & bite killing debris. A decent keeper helps; a couple of different ones work for me. In a pinch (meaning I ran out of a certain weight size) I’ve even used my tube jigheads with decent success. Jighead weights range from 1/8 oz for the smallest and shallowest presentations up to ½ oz for the other end of the spectrum I’d say I use ¼ oz and 3/8 oz the most though. Strike King Rage Swimmer ~ Keitech Swing Impact FAT Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head Fish Hard A-Jay

PSA ~ Whatever you do NEVER hang a Zako on a spinnerbait ! That is all. 🙃 A-Jay

After a rain-shortened day on the water yesterday, I was back in the home gym today for a Push 1 workout. I've been able to gradually increase both resistance and volume since switching to this most recent training regimen. I really like that and it's something that keeps me motivated to live cleanly and prepare for the next training day. So far, 66 is treating me well. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

While I posted a tube of Megastrike above as my solution to 'followers.' That was made mostly in jest—mostly. A not-in-jest answer and a solid solution, in my experience, is when fishing in large, open water scenarios, especially with horizontal moving baits, the best approach is to move further away from that spot and make longer casts. I believe fish routinely follow/track moving baits before they hit them. Can be for some distance too. A shorter cast doesn't offer the fish time to 'follow' the bait before it sees me and my rig so it turns away. A longer cast give the bass the chance to scratch that tracking itch and strike the bait well before it gets anywhere near me. It is possible that all of this may be total bunk. But I've caught far more big fish since adopting this long-cast philosophy. than I ever did with shorter presentations. YMMV A-Jay

I do not fish for spawning fish, as they might represent the ultimate reload. However, there are a couple of different spots on a couple of different lakes I frequent that "reload." It's more of an early & late season reload than an all-season-long deal. This phenomenon likely relates to the location of the bass's food at that time. In this instance, the bait of choice is yellow perch. So for about 4 weeks, I guess, these spots attract some very respectable brown bass. The exact timing is different every year and, as much as I'd like to, all but impossible to predict. The early season areas are totally different from the later season areas and they all needed a lot of time on the water to find and learn how to put it all together. When it's right though, it's really right. https://youtu.be/zIqCmH_52IQ?feature=shared&t=2047 Finally for the past month I have been beating one of these places to a froth several times a week, waiting for the big fish to show. I'm still waiting . . . . . . A-Jay

Fishing the north woods in August can be different than some other places. A little cool this morning. A-Jay

Up and Atom and we are starting this morning out at 41 degrees. Let the layering of clothing begin. Which I always end up peeling off one at a time as the day warms up. Here we go . . . . A-Jay

Expect to be fishing the leading edge of a rapidly approaching front tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes. Might not be a slam dunk, but it's often better than FAC. A-Jay

Plan on being on Lake Menderchuck at first light tomorrow. Air temps here have cooled quite a bit, and it's been a refreshing change. The forecast indicates this trip will be pre-frontal. I might even be fishing the 'front' before the day is over. If the clouds, wind, and coolness come on like I'm expecting, I'll be chunking & winding something. Either way, I'm rigged & ready for whatever comes my way. I like Brown Bass. A-Jay

Completed Legs 1 workout today. I believe this video speaks for itself. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

I have been fishing from a canoe for over a decade and continue to do so whenever the mood strikes me. And I catch fish. I use an anchor—sometimes two. Using one definitely adds 'more' to my fishing. Besides the physical and time-consuming aspects, Anchor use improves my catch rate dramatically. I look at it like this: Before I make a single presentation or cast, my boat position plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of my fishing and the likelihood of a strike. One perfect cast will always trump 25 that stand no chance of ever getting a bite because they are off target, coming from the wrong angle, or because I'm moving all over the place, and I don't realize I'm getting bit. So it's my choice. Drift all over the lake, making a billion bad casts, or learn to use an anchor effectively and do what I came there to do. BTW - I use shallow water anchors (Talons) on my other rig). Good luck. A-Jay https://youtu.be/02fPoZHOri8?feature=shared&t=1151