Team9nine

A couple of our reservoirs get pulled 20 ft or more for winter pool. Amazing what you can find walking the banks if you're one of the first through the area. Been a good weekend so far, and planning on going one more time this week. Best trip this year was just over 400 crappie, but we've also had a couple 300 fish days, too. Can't complain at all. I still say it's the best way to get good at offshore fishing.

Crappie were biting yesterday - 125 or so to the boat in an afternoon. Enjoying this final open water fling. Planning on going again today. m

Sunset from the water yesterday

Damiki Vault

I get your point, and agree to some extent, about line drag being misleading, but have to disagree with much. Nylon is elastic, just not considered elastomeric. And it's a simple test to see nylon stretch with small amounts of force applied. Hang any piece of line from a solid object then add weights to the end of that line. Doesn't matter whether it's a couple ounces or a couple pounds, the line will stretch (just not yield). It only makes sense that when that same force is applied when fishing, the line will stretch accordingly. The 4 or 5 pound deadlift analogy is misleading. Good anglers (via proper technique) can certainly apply that much force on a hookset over shorter distances, as this has been tested thoroughly, and even more during the fight with a fish. If it wasn't so, we'd never break off fish.

As always, my one goal is not to make any goals again this coming year ?

Drove by half a dozen today on the way home and every one is still 95% locked up Will be a few more days from the looks of it. Boat is coming out Sun, Mon and Tues though on larger open waters chasing crappie. It will be all bass in ponds after that until we freeze back up the following week.

Cool water - late fall and early spring

Good question. A search puts it back at least a dozen years on this site, and from the context of the conversations in that thread, would suggest it goes back a little further. Raul actually takes credit for it, though I didn't dig through all the posts. There is almost nothing showing in wider web searches from that same time period and before.

Here's Barry's fish...

That's Mark Stevenson's 17# bass, "Ethel."

Lakes and reservoirs are big, why would you assume everyone is going to fish the same areas. One versatile guy could spend hours rotating through baits and presentations on a mediocre spot, and easily get outfished by a guy with just a couple baits on a better pattern or rotation of spots. See my previous post. Happens all the time. The guy with the most toys doesn't always win.

I don't view the bait monkey as high $ vs low $ baits, but instead more to your latter point of not being able to control impulse buying, or the buying of unnecessary baits. So my jerkbait arsenal is 75% Megabass, but I own less than a dozen in just a few colors, and only replace them as they break or wear out, often when they are on sale. So beyond a couple specific LC Pointers, you have my entire jerkbait collection I can take anywhere in the country and catch some fish with. Once upon a time, back in the day of Fishing Facts and In-Fisherman, fishing educators primarily taught how to catch fish...you know, F+L+P=S kind of stuff. Systems. Approaches. Now days, there is very little of that. Instead, as you suggested, mass info is all about the tweaks, subtleties and unique occurrences in an effort to sell you more baits you don't need (but they make you think you do). Everyone is dancing on branches. Once you learn that beyond location, depth and speed are the primary controls to getting bit, you quickly realize how few baits you really need to accomplish those three things and successfully catch fish.

jigs As soon as it's thick enough to walk on safely, just drop some jigging Rapalas down on them through a hole and hang on. Everything under 50 acres is frozen here, too, but today was day 2 of a warmup with rain the next two days, so I think small waters will be in play again by the weekend.

For spinning: Better handling better strength to diameter ratio Longer casting Better sensitivity Greater hooksetting power ...and the "weak spot" argument is way overblown if you have/use any sense of reasonable drag settings and good knots

I have my spells, and could go into a really long post on the subject, but one of the best compliments I ever got came from an FLW pro who told me, "I'm betting that you spend the least amount of money and catch the most bass per dollar of most anyone around." The more you know, the less you throw

About half of this 1400 acre reservoir was frozen over today, but we found an open ramp and went fishing anyway. Managed over 75 crappie and a couple bass in mostly 39 degree water. Was rather nice being the only boat on the water today. Come to think of it, didn't see another person in the entire state park

A little easier with a longer rod, but otherwise setup sounds good...keep practicing ?

Yes and no, though it's most likely due to you only having been using a baitcaster for a year and a half. If the rod/reel/bait are fairly well matched up, then you simply need to practice more. Nylon mono has more mass and is stiffer than braid, so it will act differently on the spool until you get more time with it. Once you've got it licked, then you can graduate to fluoro. Same type of increase in difficulty until you get better still.

Do both bank and boat fishing as open water allows. That's the big key (since I rarely ice fish). If you have open water still, then you have a realistic shot at catching bass. Smaller ponds and lakes will usually have the bass bunched up in the deepest water. If you can reach it with a cast from shore, you're good. Boat fishing you need to do some searching and some water elimination. Not as fast as other times of the year, but any bass is a good bass through the winter months. See other recent threads fir baits and techniques

Go BG Solar. Bass aren't the smartest fish in the water, and sometimes giving them a little help to know your baits in the area, maybe even a way for them to follow a trail right to it, seems to help ?

You can tie and use a Palomar knot with any line type. Works very well with mono.

SBR 812C does a lot of things well. One that hasn't been mentioned is being a killer blade bait rod. Also used it a lot for Spooks, and smaller/lighter jigs and worms.

Crayfish in Minnesota