Team9nine

Our highs topped 50 degrees today, which turned out to be warmer than our water temps (49 deg.). Just a light breeze at times. Managed to catch 8 or 9 today, mostly on the jig and minnow. Best was a 4-1/2 lb. fish.

Back out one more time before they start dropping the lake and I can’t get on 😫 Nothing big, but a limit of chunky fighters on a mix of blade baits and shallow cranks (Bandit 100). Surface temp = 50 deg.

Just a handful of bites in 51-52 deg. water today, but a couple were good ones (7.73, 3.92). Air temp hit 46 with only a couple days over 50 this coming week. Both better fish came on Damiki Vault.

Spike It was the last company to own and sell it. I believe it has been discontinued. You don't see much talk about it these days - haven't for a while. It is fun to play with, and there are plenty of old ones available online. My general impression is most of the colors I threw in certain situations tended to match up with the charts, so I eventually stopped using it because it took time to constantly be checking every time you moved, the water color changed, or at various times of the day, etc. You can still make some assumptions just by using the chart itself as a reference.

That is the main panel of the Color-C-Lector, first introduced in 1984, and created by Dr. Loren Hill/Lake Systems. It was a tool that would measure the available light in any color of water, and at any depth, and then tell you what color(s) fish could see best for those conditions (based on largemouth). The industry bit HARD on the concept! It was on all the big TV shows (Dance, Roland, Lindner, Houston, etc.). Lots of arguments on whether it really worked or didn't at the time, but in a lot of cases, it verified what seemed like the best, or at least most popular, colors used by anglers in a variety of situations.

😎

Exactly what I’ve told the wife since moving from IN. Just trading frozen winter months off for summer heat months off…and I had gotten a bit burnt out (not from the heat - lol).

Took the entire summer off this year because of the heat, the longest time without fishing that I can remember in the past 35 years. But the boat is back up and running, and the window has just opened on a shot at a big crappie. Got the first 2+ of the fall/winter today along with a handful of smaller ones and a solid keeper bass.

If there is any regular fishing traffic, there is a halfway decent chance at least a few crappie are in the other pond. Guessing you are fishing from shore? If so, @Kev-mo reply above is a good one. One of the most consistent chances at a crappie bite in these ponds is a good early spring warming trend with a wind blowing into the small shallow pockets or bays on one side of a pond. Fish it with small artificials to see what bites, or throw more traditional crappie tubes, grubs, etc. The rest of the year is a crapshoot as far as baits, time or location. They tend to really scatter in ponds unless there is a decent population. The edge of weed beds or any submerged brush piles or laydown/fallen trees you might be able to find would likely hold a few. If you have boat access of some sort, use your electronics to search for small schools of fish in open water, or longline troll small curly tail jigs all over the place hoping you run into one, then be sure to stop and fancast the area good. A lot of times in clear ponds, they won’t bite well if you are close enough to reach them on a cast, so the longline trolling deal is often the better option.

My most expensive loss to date… …but I now own a custom glide bait that I paid 2X the Bull Shad for, so I may set a new record some day 😅

Put me in the ‘slower is better’ camp, generally, though things like water and weather conditions can affect that decision.

Best guess from the pic is either some type of burreed or Vallisneria (a.k.a. wild celery, eel grass).

Usually whichever I can get my hands on. I interchange 10# and 14# regularly based on availability. I have two reels spooled with 20# when I couldn’t get either of the lighter spools that I use for “heavier” stuff like shaky head, bigger wacky (Senko-type), etc. If I could just choose one, I’d probably lean toward 14# for that slight margin of cushion, but I’ve used both extensively for Ned and minnow shaking, as well as small blade baits, spoons, and micro jigs and can’t ever recall an issue with either of the lighter pound tests.

You can find it here: The Whole Flippin’ Story

Luhr Jensen Klawdad - likely another great Tom Seward design

I’ve only ever fished one lake where the quality bass were all built like linebackers. Never got a giant from this small lake, but the amount of thick, solid creatures more than made up for it. They were all “hump-headed!”

Handling is as good, or better, in my opinion. I have/had 2 or 3 reels spooled with 832 that I chose to respool with SS112 instead of more 832 when the time came. Abrasion resistance is decent, and I can't think of any instance where I’ve suffered a loss and felt it was the line’s fault, though I don’t specifically go fishing, looking for a fight in heavy cover. I feel like it is a great open water line that will hold up in those occasional instances you need it to. If I was specifically targeting fate with every cast, I’d consider reevaluating options.

Some of their lines are, but SS112 is not. Several different ways you can split the line in half with relative accuracy. I split all my spools to get 2 fill-ups.

They were $14.99 back in 2016/2017, so a 40% increase in that timeframe. Not certain which year(s) they jumped, though. Probably post-Covid and/or tariff related increases, so after 2020.

Coontail (edited reply above)

It is Coontail (Ceratophyllum) - has no true roots and kind of floats/suspends in the water column, often near the bottom, so it’s easy to pull up when snagged. Also pretty “crisp” or stiff. Milfoil has similar feathery “leaves” but is soft and collapses on itself like a wet noodle when removed from the water.

Yep, that’s it - Chara, sandgrass, muskgrass, skunkweed…all the same thing. Holds bass all year long. 😎

Not a great pic, but looks like Chara/sandgrass/muskgrass to me (just different names used for the same plant - technically an algae).

I now have 6 years worth of extensive time on the water with this YGK sinking braid version without issue. About the only spinning line I throw any more.

If my math is correct, and success correlates in a linear fashion, if you managed 15 bass on a 16% day, you should be able to land almost 94 bass on a 100% day Gotta' love those solunar tables...