Team9nine

It’s not a bad idea, it’s just a question of it is necessary to go to all that trouble. If you net every fish where it could be a headache and waste a lot of time untangling your bait from the net, or if you’re afraid of deep hooking yourself, then do it. Otherwise, there is no real good reason to…maybe if you fish weightless Senkos a lot and always seem to gut hook your fish might be another.

Easier to deal with in a net, and easier to deal with when buried in yourself, but otherwise, keep the barbs.

VMC Moon Eye jig - aspirin head and a great keeper wire all in one, not to mention some great color combos 😎 …and blue loctite gel (though I try to avoid it because it always dries out well before its gone).

A lot of variables, but I’ve fished a ton of small ponds over the years, most ranging from 1/2 acre up to about 3 acres, typically with max depths of 6-10 feet, and can throw a few ideas out of where to start. Any green weed growth left - in winter, this is a big positive. Some species like coontail and Chara/sandgrass will be the last to die back. If you can find it, fish it. Deep water - obviously, this is all relative, but the deep end or the deepest hole if there is one is always a good area to start. Some ponds are just bowls, but many have a shallow side/end and then transition to a deeper side/end. Inlets/drains - any place incoming water enters the pond can be a good area regardless of depth, though having a quick drop or hole of a few feet is best. This could be a tiny creek, a drain pipe, or even someones sump pump discharge (really had this on one pond). Any time during or right after a batch of incoming water enters can be good. Rain - a good warm rain, especially one that clouds the water a bit, can make for great fishing up shallow and close to the bank. The more active fish will pull right in, so it’s not a specific location, per se. The windblown side - again, not a specific location, but whatever warm water there might be in a pond will get blown around easily with the wind, so I always focus a lot of attention on the side that is catching the wind, especially corners and pockets. Kind of goes against the grain of avoiding current in winter, and finding sunny/calm banks, but I’d rank wind and fishing the windy side as probably my #2 most critical factor year round in small ponds.

If your hand is any clue, I’m guessing…8-08 🤔 😉 😆

I still have my “Bodacious Bass” VHS tape that I purchased from the Castaic Mini Mart back in the day. Always great rewatching it. Even got to converse briefly with Dan Kadota online this past year. So sad to see these great names in fishing history passing.

If its got a speaker, you’re being listened to at some point regardless of settings or agreements. “Oops, it accidentally got turned on due to a flaw in a recent update. Our bad. All fixed now.” 😉 You see these ‘accidents’ reported all the time in the news.

No one else comng in. Clunn and J Lee have the two available this coming year. The previous year, Clunn finished Top 70, so didn’t need the exemption - Nixon and Fritts took them per a Mercer post.

Spent the last hour of a 3 hr trip today chasing crappie after the sun peeked out and the wind completely died right before sunset. Spent the whole time chasing a big bite or two and wasn't disappointed - 1.61 lb (L) and 1.82 lb. (R). This could get addicting

Sunny at lunch, but some good cloud cover rolled in shortly after, so I started on bass today. Spent 2 hours chasing a scattered bite, but managed half a dozen on a trick worm, including a couple 15"-16" keepers...then I got distracted by the big crappie again

Nope - just using a single hook jighead with a crappie soft plastic. Caught what I figured was a new PB here and tossed him in the well, then caught an even bigger one about 30-40 min later. Everything released healthy back to the lake after pics.

Just my PB for SC since I moved down here, but the bigger one went a little shy of 15” and 1.81 lbs.

Slabs were biting today. Got a new SC PB - actually two in one day 😎

This ^^ If you’re a tournament angler, unless you just fish a single lake or two all the time, versatility has become much more important than it used to be. Otherwise, pick a few basics and become great/versatile with them, and you’ll be just fine - maybe better than most.

Back in the day, we used to buy Mann’s scented Jelly Worm oil and add it to our baits. Companies like LureCraft still sell something similar, and you can combine it with other scents or add your own extract to it to get whatever scent you like. Just plain old mineral oil would probably work, too.

You’d have to try them. I’m more swimbait, jerkbait, hair jig, blade bait myself, unless the water stains up and rises with some rain.

On my waters, we typically switched to things like float-n-fly and dragging plastics when the water dropped to the very low 40s or below.

Yep .. 😆😆😆

My fishing life seems to run in cycles, but I’ve spent some time on the river, and river-run impoundments, over the years - lol - the HOA ponds are now behind me again with my recent move - back to life on reservoirs.

Somewhat - peak as in most all the bass that are going to move to those areas will have done so by the time water temps drop to around 50 or below. The bite/activity level does tend to drop off on some waters it seems as temps get really low, say 40-43’ish.

I’m a fluoro guy when it comes to baitcasting, but if I had to switch everything to either braid or mono, I’d go mono except for 1 or 2 specialty outfits as others have alluded to.

I have the Levante Spinnerbait Special. Fun rod to fish with, and very versatile. Have thrown finesse jigs, squarebills, jerkbaits and lipless on them…and spinnerbaits - lol

Fish have probably been on the move and are starting to pile into wintering areas. Anything below 50-52 deg should be peak, all the way down to the low 40s. Generally, the only thing that might disrupt this is heavy rains; cold and muddy shutting things down, while high and warm might move them shallow, but still very close to deeper water.

Really seems to vary based on water body. Things like how far and how fast the drop all play a role. In Indiana, we had some reservoirs that just dropped a few feet to winter pool, while others went down 20-25 feet or more. Bass in the bays and coves would often just get pulled off the bank onto shallow flats, hanging around any cover or slight depth drop (channels/ditches) that might be present. Bass located on the main body of the reservoir often grouped up on cover like laydowns or blown/fallen trees, anything that spanned a connection from the shallows to the deep water. Fish already positioned off-shore on points and such just kept moving deeper, often in relation to channel drops or creek swings. The good news is, once you figure out what they do in your water, the location pattern tends to repeat itself year after year.

Living in Indiana, it was almost always weather dependent. Completed the challenge many a years, but Jan and Feb were always the questionable months due to lake freezing. Recent winters allowed for stretches of open water during those months, and catches were decent. During really bad winters, the only way to pursue and complete the challenge was to make the drive and fish on large rivers, preferably with a warm discharge of some sort, or through the ice on smaller ponds. Have done both at various times over the years, but finally moved to SC this year, so the challenge should be much easier going forward - lol