Team9nine

Small shad bodies on 1/32-1/16 oz jig heads; casting.

Spent the afternoon chasing down the crappie and found the big pre-spawners staged up. Ended the afternoon with 8 over 2.0 pounds, including 1 over 3 pounds, a new PB. Also had about 8 between 1-2 pounds and a few shorter. Best 8 fish weighed a combined 20.27 lbs.

Congratulations!!

I didn’t show the boat deck or rod locker 😉

Finally got around to getting the rod racks installed in the garage. Pulled a few more rods/reels out of storage getting ready for the prespawn bite.

Coming off two inches of rain, a fast rising barometer, clear blue skies, and winds 10-12 out of the north gusting 20+. Then I lost a couple hours dealing with a dead battery. But finally made it out, squeezing in just over 2 hours. Water was high and a bit more stained than usual, but fishable. Caught about a dozen crappie and two bass. Best bass almost 4 lbs.; best crappie was 2.31 lbs.

Believe your hunch is right. There’s a slew of baits under various brand names online that all appear to be made by the same Chinese manufacturer that look exactly like it, though I haven’t seen that exact color, just similar ones with the row of spots down the sides. Guessing it’s one of those.

What strikes me as most interesting with these reports is the apparent polar opposites in the fisheries between guys like @Pat Brown or likely @PhishLI vs., say,@AlabamaSpothunter, due to fishing pressure from what they’ve written about and I can tell. The effort and ‘trickery’ the former two have to go through to even get bit at times is crazy, yet they still produce fish, and big fish fairly regularly, for that effort. @WRB and Casitas/Castaic was probably similar back in the day. In comparison, along the lines of what Katie mentioned, “TWO sevens and it's just another day for you!” down Alex’s way. @Zcoker ‘s Everglades fishery, as well as @ol'crickety ‘s Maine bog ponds might fit in this category as well. It’s an interesting perspective on the effects of fishing pressure and how it correlates with bass behavior, IMO. Most of us probably fish in a world somewhere “in-between” these guys on the scale most days, and correspondingly have to adjust our tactics accordingly, taking snippets of their baits, tactics and presentations as they might fit our situations.

Bass eat ducks… Ducks have bills (lips)… Crankbaits have bills (lips)… Match the hatch 😎 bass can’t tell the difference

Forecasters pushed the rain chances back, along with dropping the wind forecast down to about 10 mph, so I decided to hit the lake again. Heavy cloud cover, but air hit 60 degrees. Decided to let the crappie rest, so headed to a different lake, and pulled all but 1 crappie stick out of the boat, and threw a couple extra bass sticks in. Got off to a decent start, picking up a 2-3/4 lb. bass about 45 minutes in. Twenty minutes later, I stick one almost 5 lbs. Went another hour and a half without a bite, so decided to spend the final 30-40 minutes seeing if I could find a crappie or two. I’ve only ever caught one from this lake. First spot I pull up to I land one brushing the 3 lb. mark. Next two go 2.25 lbs or better before breaking one off. Finish with a 1.75 lb. fish, and then I have to go. Can’t wait to go back if the rain doesn’t blow things out.

It took a while, but you can rest easy knowing I just wore a nice tear in the left knee in this pair 😉 Just noticed it Wednesday. Let the catching begin

I’m like an MLF king 😆 I have the scale and camera ready to go, and these fish spend about 60 seconds out of the water before being released below the gunwale. The big ones are too special to take out in my world.

I’d love to chase bass, but our water temps are going nowhere fast (still high 40s), and these crappie have my attention at this point - so back to the chase for one more day before 3+ days of anticipated rain. Landed 25-30 this afternoon, topped by a 2.55 lb. fish, along with another about 2lbs. Had 12 total over a pound - big fun 😎

Another new crappie PB, nearly 17” and a shad shy of 3 lbs. (top 2 pics). Also got another 2 lb. fish (bottom pic), along with a handful between 1-2 lbs. Also caught two largemouth, but these two crappie were bigger than both - lol

Is your scale measuring pounds and ounces, or pounds and hundredths of a pound? You typed/posted them as the latter, but the video makes it sound like the former. Just curious. Crazy that you’ve got massive schooling and shad feeding going on with 50 degree water. Fish still think it's fall/winter and not pre-spawn 😆 Any idea how much longer that will last?

Why? But it’s your time, your money, and your mind. Go ahead and appease the monkey if it makes you feel better. I’ll pass…

Two times of the year I historically pulled them out and did well. The coldest depths of winter, and clear water, post-spawn wolf-packs or bank cruisers, but you can catch a few year round on them if you throw them regularly.

The mudholes can't even begin to compete with the Everglades The early bird gets the worm - those guys were the early adopters, the pioneers, so they get to reap the rewards. Even a guy like Jones, who had nearly 200 DD bass to the boat this year between him and clients, hasn't caught a 13+ ShareLunker himself since 2022. Notice the 10-12 lb fish are stacking up below that threshold though...kind of like 13-3/4" fish on a 14" minimum length lake The biggest fish are few and far between to begin with - stuffing all the "nearly" fish into wells for trips to scales and end-of-day social media pics isn't going to help with the numbers of giants. They need to hope for a big rain and Mother Nature to play her part to offset the pressure. Most of those guys still catching the bigs have moved on from the BB factories like Ivie anyway to less productive locations (relatively speaking) that haven't been beat to death already. Lots of lakes in Texas, but eventually they'll all succumb to the pressure. Over 30 years later and we're still no closer to breaking the Texas state record from what I can tell.

No, no, no - don't take the discussion point out of context. Bass fisheries, as a whole, are in most cases as good, or better, than ever, for a variety of reasons. It's a good time to be a bass angler. But what hasn't fared near as well, again, for a variety of reasons, are the population of big fish, especially the biggest of the bunch. Because one guy, under ideal weather conditions, who has lived his entire life on that one lake, and whose father, who happens to be considered one of the greatest bass anglers to ever compete, and who also has lived and competed on that same lake for around 50 years himself, happened to win a single tournament with a record catch proves nothing. Second place on down were well off the record pace and not even close. I look at it instead from the point that 224 boat anglers, along with another 135 non-boat anglers, spent up to 3 days, amassing nearly 6,000 angler hours on the water, in a state long considered by many as the best big bass location in the country, and on one of the premier tourist destinations for big bass anglers, during prime spring conditions, and if I read the results correctly, only a single 10 pound bass was caught. That's sad. But it's pretty reflective of what seems to be happening on a good majority of the waters across the country. There are a lot of reasons for that, but FFS and social media wannabes will not in any way help that situation out. The fisheries are fine - but the big fish in those fisheries are not. Size structure is taking a hit. And it's still early in the game, so I imagine things getting worse with time and not better, as what is happening now will take some time to play out to a greater degree across a good many waters.

Pretty much - it’s starting to show in the fisheries now, too (size structure).

Lol 🤣 I swear I was thinking the exact same thing after replying to his post.

Yep - rollcasts, casting accuracy, portability, but the big one for me is better control of certain presentations.

I didn’t find such a thread, but yes, use advanced search feature and “search by author” - just enter your own name, then enter your keyword(s).

Used to happen on my local lake all the time despite signs saying don’t block the ramps. People come on their lunch break and park right in the middle of the ramp so they have a nice view while they eat. Even had a lady once get out of her car and yell at me for messing up her view when I did what you did and went around her and launched anyway - lol. Or in summer, they back down and park at the waters edge and then let their kids use the ramp as their beach.

Coincidence...