Team9nine

Reverse your process? Given that water color, start on the bank and work shallow first (eliminate the shallows) before moving out deeper and trying to scope. And/or limit your time doing unproductive things (finesse scoping in this case). If no bites in an hour, try something else. No reason to go 3 hours w/o a bite doing the same thing all that time unless you’re simply committed to learning and willing to go biteless in the effort.

Another YGK fan here 😎

Haven’t kept a bass in longer than I can remember. Fortunately, there’s more than enough tournaments on lakes these days that kill enough bass to more than make up for anything I would ever keep if I did 😉

According to the stories I read, Loyd created his ‘Rat’ around 1974 after a few years of tinkering with plastics. Started out as a ‘local’ bait, but eventually got noticed by some pros. Became more popular, got featured on/in Bassmaster, then BPS wanted a huge amount. At that point, Loyd knew he couldn’t meet demand and sold off the rights to Mann’s. All this happened over a 15 year period (74-89), so all the Tallent originals would be pre- 89, and the Mann’s stuff ‘89 or later.

Tallent sold off to Mann's in 1989 from the reports I've read. He said demand got too great and he couldn't meet it. One newspaper quoted him, "I didn't want to have to put up with all the problems of getting bigger. I enjoy fishing. I'm a fisherman, not a bait manufacturer." Some of the early versions sold by Mann's included "The Ghost," "The Frog," "The Rat," and "The Super Rattlin' Rat."

Change of lakes, and found a cranking bite with a bit better quality. Also a pretty chunky channel cat as today’s bonus fish. No idea about the growth on that bigger one’s lip, but she has some battle scars on her.

My understanding, and I could be wrong, but GSM only bought the frog (Ribbit) bait portion of Stanley. Lonnie, and one of the Hale brothers (owners) both passed, and the remaining brother trashed the other Stanley stuff (sp’baits, jigs, etc.). If so, Stanley baits, as we know it, is gone.

Getting warm out there. Surface temps at 80 or above, and starting to look like the beginning of a thermocline, but still seeing bass fry. Caught half a dozen skinny post-spawners. Only one possible group of bass, but they scattered quick. Everything else just singles here and there. Might look elsewhere if I get out tomorrow. Bonus channel cat that was part of a group.

Chickamauga… it’s the only one that comes to mind with a reasonable shot at a 10 pounder I can think of. Lots of lakes that might have one though.

Interesting sunset last night over the Carolinas…

Small parasitic leech, Myxobdella sp. or similar. Pretty common, and studies suggest they do no harm to the bass. Regularly saw them in the pond bass I used to catch in Indiana. Study link

Already a long time owner, but would gladly jump in and use it to report visibility depths in reports as part of a group effort if it caught on.

Other than cutting it in half and using it as nice, durable (and flexible) stakes for tomato plants or similar, back in the 60s and 70s, there was a very popular live bait technique used for a variety of species (including bass) called "Nightcrawler Secrets." The primary rods used were 7'-8' fiberglass fly rod blanks converted to spinning rods and used to fly line crawlers on lightweight split shot rigs. It would probably be a perfect rod for that

Both - and there are studies to back up both positions. It all depends on the specific waterway and time of year. They seem to be mostly homebodies relegated to a single pool or two through much of summer, but often travel many miles in some waters during fall migration.

Never have turned a single unit off in over 35 years of constant fishing. They get turned on at the launch, then turned off when leaving the lake. Newer units with much higher power and frequencies are said to potentially be at issue, but I’ve never really heard of a failure during normal use. That said, @A-Jay’s advice is the way to go if you decide to play it safe.

Just a couple “schoolies” from my latest short trip out. Probably looking at early next week before I get another shot.

Took advantage of ideal conditions for a couple hours to chase after the crappie before getting stormed off the lake. Managed a dozen fish - even got a rare post spawn two-pounder. Here’s a few between 1.5 and 2 pounds.

In fisheries, there is a term called PSD (proportional stock density) that is used to classify a fishery based on the overall size distribution of the fish in a lake, which can then be used to make educated guesses as to the health and status of a fishery. You can Google the term for detailed specifics, if interested. Based on what you mentioned, the PSD of your lake would be 100, or very close to that, suggesting an imbalance in the size structure to more larger sized fish (a good ‘problem’ to have in a way 😁 ). High PSDs would tend to suggest little or poor recruitment, which usually leads to fast growth and healthy looking fish - not an excessive amount to create stunting or food shortages. As such, culling out some of the smaller bass would likely have little effect. The overall condition of the fish seems healthy, so they are apparently getting enough food of the right size to get to where they are. So why no big fish and why so many of the same size? One possibility is these are all (mostly) the same year class fish. If so, that might explain why no larger fish are showing up (they just haven’t had time to grow that large yet). Why/how this could occur could suggest a widespread winter or summer kill of most of the fish some year past. Another scenario might be a fantastic year class of fish from a great spawn that is dominating the fishery right now due to overall low productivity/recruitment. If either of these scenarios are the case, you should see steady increasing of bass size over the next few years as these fish continue to age and grow. If there is a major food bottleneck, or some age limiting factor to growth, at some point most of these fish will rather suddenly ‘disappear’ or die off, and fishing will become tough. You would also likely start seeing a lot of smaller bass showing up again in your catches. I’m also guessing fishing pressure and harvest is very light on this lake? I would tend to lean against some magic bait or location change as being ‘the answer’ to the problem. It simply sounds like there just aren’t a lot of big fish in the system at this time. But again, a couple more years and a lot more trips under your belt might start to shed some light on the reasoning. It’s all just guesses at this point from us. Just throwing out another option that hadn’t been mentioned yet.

I use the old basic 'Hound Dog' retriever tied to about 50 ft. of 100 lb. cord for anything my rod tip can't reach. It's saved me a lot of money over the years, though I imagine no retriever is perfect. Never cared for the chained versions myself.

Squeezed in a few hours this afternoon on a local reservoir. Started out with a swim jig fishing shallow to pads and pitching laydowns with nothing to show for it. Moved out into deeper water off the banks and finally found a few biters. Ended with 3 keepers and a couple nice bonus crappie. Water temps into the upper 70s at the moment.

I do it often when fishing shallow bank related cover, but honestly, I have more fun and enjoyment just pulling out and using only my old Lo-K-Tor from time to time 😎

Bassmaster article

Definitely a different action than a standard 110. I had one that caught me some really nice fish before something happened to it (lost, broke - can’t remember). The only other one I have hasn’t produced the same, yet.

Another vote for “people.” Fishing through the winter, mostly just on weekdays, and focusing on smaller community reservoirs helped. But now that we’re moving into summer, and with schools about to be out, I expect things will get much worse.

YGK G-Soul SS112 Sinking Braided Line (Yellow) in 10, 14 or 16 lb., whichever I can get my hands on at the time.