Team9nine

Ditto the above comments. A weightless wacky rig with small wire weedguard also works surprisingly well in that exact circumstance.

Sensitivity is just one aspect. Fluoro can be touchy on spinning reels if not paired up well (spool size to line diameter). I'm about 80-90% braid on spinning reels myself, and ~90% fluoro on baitcasters.

Yes, but even after you develop "the sense" that comes with experience, you still can't get around the physical properties that make braid and fluoro more sensitive in many situations.

Palomar - now, then and always...braid, mono, fluoro. Best fluoro tip: become a better caster. It will solve most fluoro "issues."

Don't think I have any mono spooled on any outfit...except 1 crappie stick I rarely use. If it works for you, great! ?

Several of those date back well over 25 years. I think the old Redfins might have started it, at least those were the ones I was first exposed to by some of the great Ozark guides who used them on morning schoolers. You coukd take a heated knife blade and slightly bend back the lips to help keep the bait waking on top instead of diving. Using 20# mono helped too. Then there were the old original Bomber Long A's. You could dip the head half in boiling water and get the plastic to swell without cracking. This would keep the head more buoyant and allow you to wake the bait better. Clear water lakes and lakes with schoolers always seemed best for this tactic, though they also had their moments around the spawn-postspawn in some waters.

You would think for that price they could at least throw in free shipping! BTW, I've got a "like new" copy of the book I'll part with for the unheard of low price of $1,950 if anyone is interested...and yes, that is TYD

L.L. Bean Wicked Good Moccasins (slippers).

Central Indiana, but we're never done for the year completely. Have caught bass in open water every month this year, including Jan and Feb., and see no issue getting fish in December. When the ponds freeze, we move to the reservoirs. When the reservoirs freeze, we move to the rivers. If the rivers freeze, we move to the warm water discharges. By then, it's prespawn again??

Last fool, um...I mean boat off the water yesterday ?

I think I left her tied up to a dock next to a bass boat with a 250 Verado for too long this spring

It's a boy!!!! My Mercury just gave birth to a 6hp baby boy. Mom and child are both doing well and are anxious to get back out on the water

@OCdockskipper proposed that concept first (on this site) over a month ago. BTL guys just read it here and stole the idea. Read the original post first, then watch the BTL plan on BTLive, and see if you don't agree Team concept post

Hair jigs, jerkbaits and blade baits...

Yep - On the few rods I have that don't have them, I usually either use the first guide frame or the reel, depending on the reel (some are much more amenable). Can't say I've ever had a problem either way. Come to think of it, on all my crappie outfits (spinning), I always pop the jighead's hook to the first guide (ring). No issues ever there, either.

Start a crappie thread and I might post more there than I do on the bass forums Definitely one of my favorite fish to chase. Been half a dozen times in just the past 3 weeks or so - lol. Nice job, TOXIC

A more expensive way to play the game, but works perfectly fine. Don't compare pound test ratings as they are rated differently. Go off diameter and you won't see much difference between the two options. I often throw a tiny tippet spool in a shirt pocket to have just in case I need to replace a leader on my finesse outfits when not in a boat with all my gear.

There is no such thing as "too cold" for bass if you are willing to keep fishing. Last winter I caught them right up until ice. Some days the lake was half frozen over already, and other days it was literally freezing over as I fished, to the point that when I left, I could no longer fish what was a completely open pond just hours before. Then there were the trips in January and Feb. where a couple days of warm weather would open the ponds for a day or two, and I caught bass then, too. In the pic below, you'll see snow on the ground, and the pond edge completely frozen. I had to slide the bass over the ice shelf the last 5-10 feet just to land them, and then give them a good push to slide them back out to open water when released. I think they enjoyed the play time

A quick photo analysis suggests the fish is right around the 25" mark as stated, and New York DEC charts would put the weight at just over 7.5 lbs (for regional comparison), though several others, including In-Fish suggest 9 lbs. This is likely why the 9lb. suggested weight in the story. I personally don't see enough signs in the pic of the fish being overly fat and robust, instead more long, so I would lean toward the NY scale or lighter. That said, I, too, tire of these near record stories, and wish the persons would either be prepared and have some defined metrics captured, length/girth or weight, or simply keep the fish and get them correctly certified if truly record class.

Milfoil

You are getting into a bit of a semantics confusion based on how the term gets used. There is the process of turnover whereby the mixing is occurring and the thermocline is dropping, but technically, turnover hasn't completely happened until the water temps (and frequently oxygen content) are close to equalized from the surface all the way down to the bottom. Then turnover is complete. The 50 degree mark is just a generalization. As I posted earlier in this thread, if you look at my local lakes, the water at the bottom of them ranges from 49 deg. to 67 deg. Once surface waters cool to match those temperatures at the bottom of the lake, regardless of what that exact temperature happens to be, that lake will have completed turning over. Some lakes turn faster than others, just like some sections of large lakes will turn faster than others. There is no one magic temperature. While a lake is in the process of turning over, it is very unstable environment, and fishing typically suffers a bit. Once turnover is complete, the lake column stabilizes considerably, and fishing usually picks back up. Looks like you just got your answer, but it is very common for big storm events that have high winds to temporarily (or permanently) turn an entire lake, or section of a lake, over due to the extreme mixing forces. Shallower sections of large lakes can be completely turned over while deeper main basins have a ways to go. This is usually correlated to depth, and specific wind direction can definitely play a part as @J Francho mentions.

They're not gas bubbles. Gas bubbles aren't neutrally buoyant in water, they are constantly on the rise to the waters surface, with the transducer pinging them the entire time they are in the cone. This results in them almost always appearing as diagonal lines on your screen. There was a good discussion and screenshot of this posted about a month ago in this forum section.

Go 30# Power Pro (reg. or Maxcuatro) straight braid using a Palomar knot (or Fish-N-Fool) and be done with it

Doubt it...much too scattered throughout the water column in my opinion.

Snopes on the superstition And a great satirical video on the subject...notice they never even mention or appear to acknowledge the bananas on the boat