Team9nine

Wind was supposed to blow a bit, but from a good direction that should have allowed me to fish the best area I found a couple days back. Turned out they were way off, and the wind was ripping (25 mph) right into most of the stuff I wanted to sit on. By the time I came off the water just about 3 hours later, they had already closed the ramp due to possible safety issues. Had to just scrounge around in a few protected areas I could find, and ended up with 4 small keepers. Did hook a nice channel cat that for a good 60 seconds, I thought was a bass that would have made the trip a big success 😆 Much cooler next week, so hopefully we’ll get to try again.

This ^^ Not a fan of ML in a baitcast, but have half a dozen or more ML spinning outfits that always go with me and get used every trip. I would probably shy away a bit with shakeys, but everything else is fair game (DS, Ned, sliders, small swimbaits, wacky, hair jigs, etc.).

Most days, fish don’t care. Easy to test for yourself. Lather up intentionally and then go catch you some. Just don’t get the stuff on your sandwiches.

Robinson lake record LMB is 13 lbs., 14 oz. It’s one of the larger community reservoirs at ~800 acres. Most are 300-450 acres and perfect size for kayaking.

Greer - most of these smaller reservoirs are hp restricted and perfect for kayakers, plus several smaller waters that are kayak only access. Many even have kayak rentals at the parks, and/or specialized kayak launch ramps/docks.

Option 2 Been here just over half a year, but have several neighbors (more than a handful) that pulled the plug on FL and moved here. FL is too hot in the summer, and quickly becoming a financial disaster from what everyone is saying (ins premiums, if your company hasn’t already pulled out of the state or dropped you, HOA fees doubling, etc.), plus the never-ending threat from hurricanes. Nice mix of bass options (good LMB, SMB and spots) to target, plus trout in the upstate and N GA and saltwater 3-4 hrs away. Also a lot of smaller community reservoirs within an hour or so (about a dozen come to mind) that get overlooked.

Hot and muggy with SW winds 14-20 mph. Really clear water made things interesting. Saw a few bass on beds along with a few roamers, but they were pretty skittish and non-committal. Finally figured out there was a better post spawn bite going on, and was able to put 10-12 fish in the boat, including a good one (over 5-1/2 lbs.). Water temps high 70s, and nearly a dozen rigs in the lot - a decent bit of traffic for a weekday.

Not a fan of Neko rigging. Seems like a technique in search of a problem and/or buyer. Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned.

Dislike & Can’t stand: ‘Dislike’ and ‘Can’t stand’ are basically the same categories for me. There are lots of baits I rarely, if ever, throw because of those two reasons. Senkos and Whopper Ploppers are at the top of this list. Maybe throw them in the ‘Dislike’ category since I pretty much won’t throw them at all, but I own a couple of each. ‘Can’t stand’, add the Texas rig, spinnerbaits, lipless vibrating baits and Carolina rigs to this list. They get tied on maybe once or twice a year, do catch a few bass on them, but they are all extremely situational for me. The Bass just don't want it: Underspins - have owned them ever since they came out…what, some 30 years or so now, and never even got a bite on one, let alone caught a bass. I’d gladly throw them all the time if bass actually showed a modicum of interest in them - lol.

There is no more guaranteed bass catching situation in life than fishing the immediate area where water is pouring into a lake/pond right after a huge downpour in my experience 😆 😎 @The Bassman

These ^^ I used the ones from Field & Stream. Used a pair of 1x2’s as a base, mounted to studs in the wall, then painted to match. Then used the included hardware to attach the base and holder frames to the 1x2’s, giving you the flexibility to space as needed, or alter easily in the future.

Agree with scheduling in-state guide trips with ‘trophy potential’ during any known time off. Sounds like the ideal option in your case to maximize your odds, time, efforts and money expended.

What is this “desired depth” you're trying to achieve? Most traditional shallow billed jerkbaits run 3’-6’, and the ‘plus 1’ versions run 6’-10’. Since you’re using 12# copoly, I’d expect you’re just hitting the shallower end of both ranges depending on model. I’d drop line test to something thinner, consider fluorocarbon, consider SuspenDots and strips, and also work the baits slower, with shorter twitches or longer pauses - all those things seem to increase effective running depth.

Rain held off, winds were calm, so squeezed in a few hours this afternoon. Managed a limit of bass and a couple bonus crappie. Water temps now in the upper 70s.

Lol - nice fish, and a good picture showing off her size We're already post spawn down here now.

Yep - at this point, you’re just a pawn in a game of financial chess, waiting to be built up and sold off to bigger and bigger private equity firms. It’s all about the 🤑🤑🤑 This is actually what the Milliken video was about, but it was Al Lindner who first ‘went off’ about this trend in the fishing industry.

A little birdie told me the site police will be more lax with enforcement going forward, so I figured I could get away without having to photoshop the pic this time 😉

Half a dozen green ones to hand today on a pretty nice post front day, along with about 60 crappie. Lots of swinging given the conditions.

With good line selection, near equivalent knot strength; equivalent stretch (to mono); equal or better abrasion resistance; near equivalent casting/handling; better refractive index; better density; better sensitivity.

Baitcasters: all fluoro except a few top waters (not all) and every once in a while a heavy flipping outfit. I simply prefer all the attributes of fluoro over those of mono/hybrids when I can get away with it, which is most of the time. All the supposed “negatives” can be offset with ability and proper tackle setup.

My definition of a good problem to have - when your crappie weigh more than your bass 😆

Hours and hours and hours and hours of time with the electronics, combined with hours and hours and hours and hours of fishing areas to figure out which were good and which weren’t, all built upon a structure fishing foundation.

Changed lakes today. Sunny for much of the afternoon with a steady but light breeze. Started on bass and caught 3, but no size to them. After an hour, I checked out a brushpile in the area and found the crappie were moving out and starting to regroup. Nothing but males on all the spots I then started running, but caught around 60 fish, so it was fun doing all that swinging for a change. The jigging rod got a good workout today

The bass didn’t want to play despite some great looking cover on this lake, but found some post spawn crappie (up to 1.5 lbs.) moving back out toward deep water, so still got to swing on some fish. Probably a change of venue next trip though.

Quite possibly the greatest river/creek crank bait of all time, but they don’t get a lot of love by the reservoir/green fish guys. I have no doubt it would still catch fish though cranking around riprap or gravel banks on those lakes. Still have a couple sitting around the garage tackle somewhere myself.