Team9nine

Crunch with pliers. A little twist, if needed, will usually clear the barb. Maybe not the prettiest, but pretty quick and painless.

Separate northern vs. FL species recognition going forward - great. Vacating all existing historical IGFA LMB records to the northern category and opening up a new FLB category - joke.

I’m going with “tradition” and mental hurdles. “Junebug” just doesn’t compute (mentally or physically) as a great base jig color. I’ve seen it as a good looking accent color in some PBJ mixes, as well as a good trailer color in some combination, but an ‘all Junebug’ metalflake skirt just ‘looks’ wrong - lol - but I’ve tried them and caught bass using them…it just ‘felt’ wrong

Thought of this thread while reading through yesterday’s Musky Insider newsletter this morning. Apparently, some of the muskie pros seem to agree with the idea of FFS making muskie catches a little less mysterious on some waters. Opening quote from the story: Open Water Tips “Forward facing sonar has made it extremely easy (maybe too easy) for folks to locate and target muskies in the open water on smaller bodies of water. But, it’s a different ballgame on large acreage low density waters. It’s more about eliminating the “dead water” as quickly as you can. “Obviously, there’s a lot of debate right now about whether eliminating that “dead water” should be done with or without a line in the water and what kind of electronics you should use to do it.”

A 20+ inch crappie is a seriously big and rare creature. It is also, most likely, a white crappie. Black crappie, which all my big ones except one have been, are shorter but fatter - weighing more than a white crappie of equal length. I have measured several of my bigger fish, and they tend to run between 15”-18”. Here’s a couple pics. One is obvious; the other, look closely at the length number in the depression/middle of his tail.

My Spoonplugging friends always joke - Musky: the fish of 10,000 casts…or 1 good trolling pass 🙂 But I understand, it’s obviously going to be seasonal and situational.

Depends on whether you have FFS or not 😉

One more test for the umbrella setup today. High of 90, just a few clouds, and NE breeze at 5-7 mph. Definitely makes a difference when out in those conditions. Found a few bass on one structure that I was able to trigger on a deep crank. Couldn’t buy a bite on slower stuff. Also picked off a dozen crappie on a brushpile I found in the area. That will be it most likely until we drop back to 90 or below, which isn’t supposed to be until late next week.

I’ll try and remember that. Mostly for those sunny, hot, calm days (dog days) where you feel like you’re baking out in the middle of the lake 🫠

Trial run for the new boat umbrella setup - and everything worked great. Sets up and tears down in about 2 minutes. Made a big difference out on the water. High of 88 deg., partly sunny, NE breeze at 7 mph. Scored a couple largemouth on Ned and two dozen nice crappie. Only snagged the umbrella once 😉 @Blue Raider Bob

Will do - don't have a console or bench seat to attach to, so making a floor mount. Hoping to get the umbrella today if I can find the right sized one locally.

Still picking up a few bass in this heat from the local res, along with some slab crappie. Water temps 86-87 deg. Just about done with the boat umbrella addition to my rig - a pretty popular and common sight down here.

I always preferred to TR them with a traditional bullet weight when I used them, too. Works just fine that way.

The old original Eagle Claw Shaw Grigsby HP hooks, I’m guessing. Built around a Kahle-style hook before the EWG hook got so popular. Packs came with a neat insert weight featuring an open ring that made internal rigging easy. Now days, those same weights could easily double as a “free rig” alternative. Hook and clip worked well, especially on thinner plastics. Clip could be a little difficult to close on thick bodied tubes when using the weights. Also, once the tube head got torn up a bit, rigging with the clip could become difficult in some instances, but it took a while to happen, as the clip held the hook and bait securely together.

Straight from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. paper on livewell mortality that mentioned this issue (early 2000s). You rarely hear this concern raised these days, but if that was Gene G. on the podcast, that would explain him mentioning the subject.

Possibly fish something that can be burned back faster at the depth they're hanging - crankbait, heavy Trap, large hair jig, etc.. Often, as the water warms up, you have to increase the retrieve speed considerably at times to generate bites. Trolling can often be better than casting this time of year for that exact reason if you're into that type thing. Bill Murphy had an entire chapter on this in his book.

A few things I’ve learned over the years with braid on spinning outfits; not all reels/spools handle the same line the same way - some reels are just better at line management. Also, not all braid line brands work equally on the same outfit - some lines are just better handling lines. So playing with a couple different setups, both line and rod/reel in the beginning can be helpful until you find a good working combination. On the knot issue, generally speaking, direct connect knots (to your lure) are generally stronger than line-to-line knots, which is why it is common to have the leader knot break first in many instances. The balance is to either tie a stronger leader knot (FG, Alberto, ‘J’ knot, etc.), or a slightly weaker connecting knot to your lure. In some instances, the rate of pulling a snagged bait seems to make a difference - slow and steadily increasing pressure until something gives seems to offer the best outcome versus a faster or hard jerk to get something to break…FWIW.

Never been on the water, but within 5 minutes of the ramp for many years. Only negative is the convenience of a quick trip gets mighty comfortable, and you might find yourself rarely wanting to pull the boat somewhere else. After a few years, the same lake can become a bit boring if patterns repeat consistently - same old, same old. But that convenience to go on short notice or even for just an hour or two with boat mobility 😎

So you found 2 guys out of 102 that aren’t watching their screen 😉

Alberto is stronger, and is one I use regularly. Not a fan of the double uni, but some really good sticks use it and catch really big fish ( @A-Jay , among others) so if you can tie it well and like it - use it. I’m fairly convinced that if you have your drag set properly, the connecting knot used is largely irrelevant, because pressure never builds up enough for it to come into play.

Wasn’t quite that bad, but pulled into the parking lot yesterday of a local lake and saw a small aluminum tracker with a 10hp engine with 4 big screen Garmins (12s and/or 16s?); two on the console and two on the front deck - looked almost as ridiculous. Just shook my head and chuckled. They left before I could snap a pic.

Interesting that the convo took a sudden turn with many praising or defending the BASS ‘whistleblower,’ saying they (the org) would just cover up or keep everything under wraps if they could.

Sadly, the title should be changed to ‘Just another week in professional fishing.” Nice thread now 10 pages deep about the latest BASS controversy/drama on another site. Seems both organizations have been suffering all year with everything going on. Sport needs a major overhaul…or a long ‘time out’ 🤔

Sometimes they engulf the whole thing; sometimes they don’t. Other times they reject and engulf more than once.