Team9nine

In case you need a reminder about how nothing old is ever forgotten, just shined up and rereleased after most everyone has forgotten (where’s my Ron Lindner quote?). I got this new bait release in my feed from Nishine Lure Works today. Remind you of a bait from the 1980s still considered one of the worst in bass fishing history, rereleased over a decade later by YUM to similar reviews? But maybe a new paint job, a semi-weedless hook design and a flashy spinner blade will turn it into the next great thing in 2025??? Edit: Found my Ron Lindner quote: “Lures and systems move in cycles. If you want to know what’s likely to make a big splash, just look back about 20 to 25 years, see what was hot then but fallen into disuse today, and there’s your answer. You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Just recycle an old jalopy, slap on a fresh coat of paint, and give it a sexy new name and vivid color scheme. If it worked then, it’ll probably work now. And remember, if the fish haven’t seen it the last 10 years, they haven’t seen it, period. Some old tricks never go out of style. Only out of fashion and popularity.”

No, they are all bad - lol. That said, the best rated versions I’ve seen are variations of the same knot that test out very similarly. The slightly stronger version is the Rapala knot shown below. There is a simpler version, nearly as strong, and that leaves your line tie cut pointed back toward the bait, making it more weedless. It’s called the Kreh Loop Knot (aka: Non-Slip Loop Knot). To tie it, you simply eliminate step 5 in the diagram below. You also, in step 2, go through the hole from the same side of the knot as you exited, then in step 4, go through the overhand knot in the exact opposite direction as you did in step 2 so that those 2 lines end up side by side going through that hole. I’ll try and find a diagram of that later today (video added below). Haven’t seen strength testing comparing that aspect of it, though, to verify that advice, but it appears to be what makes that tag line hold pointed back toward the lure and remain weedless. Video: Kreh loop knot

I’ve got jeans older than him, too, but I don’t get any love around here when I can’t crop them out of my pictures 🫣

It's that or don't fish This inflation has taken a toll on us retired people - lol

Property tax/registration (per year): $120 on the boat; $40 on the engine; $140 in lake permits

They were similar, but they were ‘segmented’ for lack of a better term and had a small flash blade attached to their rear end. Whopper Stopper made the Hellbender (see pic), but Bomber had their own version called the Waterdog.

It was a pearl 600 Series Bomber

Ummm, maybe one of only two 😉

Yep - I’d safely guess about 250 bass caught trolling these past two years 😎

Back in my tourney days, no doubt I was at least a 9. With older age, a smaller boat, and just trying to figure out the best bite for better quality fish on any given day, I’d say I’m now a 5 - that is, I’m just as likely on any given day to fish either style depending on the weather, water, lake, and how the fish are biting. Some days I sit and soak; others I’m constantly searching. It’s a coin toss, anymore.

Gapen’s Ugly Bug, introduced in 1969 by Dan Gapen and one of their best ever sellers. Still used and around today, but it was a killer river bait, especially when tipped with a piece of crawler for scent.

We’ve been fishing “fuzzy baits” in the Midwest with good success since 1969…

Just ran through the catches of the better quality fishes this year and 85% were captured on the following 5 baits; Ned rig finesse jig jighead minnow crankbait blade bait

What interests me about your numbers is why such a drastic cut-off at the 5 pound mark? Are most not living long enough to get that big? A hole in the forage base not allowing them to get much bigger? Or perhaps a massive year class of fish now in that 3-4.99 range that is simply overwhelming the catch of the fewer 5s and 6s, and if so, will it work itself out over the next couple years

They say it hit 50 briefly today, but it didn’t feel like it. The sun barely appeared though they said it would shine, and they claim the winds only blew NW @ 6-10, but they seemed stronger than that. Cold rain came through overnight, and water temps are now down to 43-44 degrees and still stained - and the Arctic blast and possible snow is now just days away. All that to say I made one more afternoon run to the lake. Only got one bite, but it was a decent fish over 3-1/2 pounds, cranking.

THIS ^^ Knock on wood, I’ve never had a depthfinder go bad. Most I’ve kept a good 10 years or longer and then sold eventually to someone else to keep using. And my LO-K-TOR works flawlessly and dates back to 1972.

Well, you landed the fish, got a witness - that's the greater accomplishment. Two and a half years is a drop in the bucket of time, especially on a lake that produces the quality of fish for you that it does, so it's just a matter of time. I've gone 35 years without any picture/video proof of my personal best fish, not even knowing the exact weight, and wondering if it was a true DD or not. There were no digital culling scales or cell phone cameras back then. Got a close measurement, a partner with me who saw the whole thing go down, and said my fish was definitely bigger than the 8-12 he landed and weighed the year previous. I'll never know, but have lived with those thoughts bugging me for most of my fishing life, so I kind of get the feeling of having one little piece of the big puzzle missing and incomplete...but I DID catch her, and recall everything about that trip all these years later

It will never fly. Twenty years ago, Ray Scott also advocated for light line (4 lb. test) tournaments to put the "fun" back in fishing competition, and that never gained any traction, either. His "no net" rule, though, has stuck around all these years, surprisingly. My guess is a year from now, you'll have another 19 people on board to go with the first 19 that supported this effort a year ago on the Change.org platform, making 38 of us in the whole country who still enjoy back-reeling

Just looked - both sites are run by Bruce Condello. He is still active on the Facebook site as he made a post there just 2 days ago, so should be able to get into that one easily enough. Once you do, you might message him to see if you can still create an account and get access to the bigbluegill webpage. You might be able to search the archived forums without registering though, so check that option first. Lots of great older stuff that is still relevant.

Bigbluegill.com is still around. It is mostly archived forums from its heydays, but there are some newer posts. Lots of great archived material though to search through. If you’re looking for lure fishing bluegills, search online for jigging spoons and bluegills. It was a big deal back in the day, and lots of detailed info should still be out there.

Do they even make non hi-vis braid? 😉 😆 lol Nearly all my Ned/shakey/finesse stuff gets hi-vis yellow braid.

Had to wait until the end of the season to post in this thread because, well...you just never know. I took a different approach this year than I have in the past in an effort to catch more quality than quantity. Bill Murphy might have been "In Pursuit of Giant Bass," but I was more like "In Pursuit of Better Bass." As an average nationwide, it's pretty well documented that somewhere in the range of 85%-90% of all bass in most lakes are under 18" in length, around 3 lbs. or less. Obviously there's a lot of lake to lake variability, but that's my 'over-under' that I was using to track and assess how well (or not) things went this year. Anything close to that mark got weighed and photographed so I could easily keep records throughout the year. Now that the year is over, I have the tally of my final results: Bass 3-3.99 lbs: 25 Bass 4-4.99 lbs: 10 Bass 5-5.99 lbs: 8 Bass 6-6.99 lbs: 1 Bass 7-7.99 lbs: 2 Considering I was fishing all new waters to me after having moved to another state just a few months prior (late 2023), I was pretty happy with the results. I'll post the pics of the two best fish below. As to how I went about targeting a better quality of fish, I believe my approach is pretty similar to what @Pat Brown posted previously and quoted above. I spent a good 95% of my time on the water this year fishing off the bank, specifically targeting isolated pieces of cover, structure or breaks/breaklines that I felt weren't getting near the pressure of the bank cover/shallow water bass in these lakes. I utilized FFS heavily, and it really helped out for the way I fished. I recently compiled a ton of stats for the area lakes I fish, calculating man-hours necessary to catch a bass of each class from 4 pounds and up, and it pretty much supports my conclusions/theories. So for 2025, I don't expect much change to my approach, and will again be tracking the same stats now that I feel I have a little better understanding of these waters with a year's worth of time under my belt. The only handicap to these numbers, much like last year, will probably be the amount of time and effort during peak pre-spawn that I will be targeting the big crappie again, and not bass.

Thought about not going out today, but we’re getting close to having a 2 week period of no fishing with the multiple Arctic fronts supposed to come through - so I went. It was 50 degrees when I launched, but that fell to 45 when I came in 3 hours later. The winds were why I almost didn’t go - west at 15-20, gusting 30-40 mph. Made a lot of the lake unfishable, but I was just hoping for one bite…and I got four. Lost one, but landed 3 on a combination of jigs and blade baits. Water was 46 deg., well stained, and 2 ft low.

On the board in 2025 😎 Beat the Arctic blast by hitting a local stained reservoir with 46-48 deg water. Pulled out a jig and actually fished the bank, focusing on treefalls and docks. Paid off with 3 keepers, and also snuck in a few crappie - I couldn’t help myself - lol.

Highs hit the mid 60s here today, but the price to pay for that was the SW winds gusting 25-35 mph. Still had to go though - might be a while before we see any temps close to that again. Changed to a murky water lake with 46-47 deg water and caught 4 small keeper bass and a handful of crappie. That’s a wrap for 2024 fishing.