Team9nine

See this: https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/stupid-tube-fishing.html

Nope, fishing - beer ? Actually, anything minus beer - lol YMMV

I’m still sitting on a stash of 3-4 dozen left. Haven’t lost near as many since buying and using a plug knocker after years of just breaking them off ?

Much less than the number of casts wasted by non-Livescopers throwing to “nothing” water ? Eat, drink and be Merry! …then go catch some more fishes ?

In these micro-lakes, it’s pretty rare to find some of those pondweed species; they just don’t seem to establish well outside of a single plant here and there. Fun to fish when you can find it, though. I see it a bit more in some reservoirs around here, though still not in crazy amounts. Chara is a favorite of crawfish, so not unusual to find good Chara ponds hosting large crawfish populations. It stays green into Nov/Dec here, even January during mild winters, so it attracts a lot of bass. In those ponds that just contact spray, it’s often ‘out of sight, out if mind,’ and so often escapes some treatment efforts out in deeper water. When that happens, you get a great post-spawn/early summer bite in the stuff…and it simply gets overlooked by a lot of anglers, so those fish that use it regularly see less pressure in my mind.

^^ This ^^ …Also as a Chatterbait trailer

It’s especially good late fall into winter because it’s one of the last weeds to die back; usually around long after everything else has croaked…it and coontail.

Our last nice day before the heat hits us, too. Temp near 80 today, but heavy haze meant little sun. On the back side of a high pressure system, so just a light variable breeze; sometimes east, sometimes west, sometimes none - lol. Had a goal of catching 5 bass today and exceeded it by catching 15. A surprising number were decent sized for this location, running 14”-15”. No big fish though. But that gives me 2,011 bass for the year on just over 135 trips (crappie trips not included). And while my consecutive days fishing isn’t quite on par with dominator ? I have fished 59 of the past 68 days, so not too shabby. Ned for everything today (TRD, Finesse WormZ). Tomorrow starts our run of days in the 92-98 deg. range with expected heat indexes over 100 for many of those. Supposed to last at least through next Friday. Since I’m primarily an afternoon angler, I likely won’t be venturing out much unless I just hit it right before dark after the sun has dropped, Here’s a few from today. Also a shot of what Chara looks like, as that is about the only thing left in the pond that’s still green, and there isn’t much of it yet. Several threads on weed identities, so maybe this will help someone. No mistaking the smell when you crunch it up or rip it apart from off your bait. There’s a reason it has the nicknames of “skunk grass” or “muskgrass.” ? It has a very distinct garlic/pepper smell to it.

I’m no help - lol - I wouldn’t go out in those temps

Agreed - I use my second hand to hold the end of the wrapped lines away from the wrapped stack while the knot settles (so the wraps don’t untavel), then put it through the bottom loop. It only takes a couple seconds for the bait to align properly, then through the two holes/loops and cinch - I don’t even wet the knot anymore unless the line is brand new.

High pressure system moved directly overhead today, bring sunny skies, cooler air temps and almost no wind; and a NW breeze when it did ruffle. Had to work a lot harder than it might sound, but ended the afternoon with 25 bass, all on Ned. Used both a TRD and a TicklerZ, one green pumpkin and one in Junebug, but saw no difference in bites overall. I did catch more on the TRD though because it was able to be cast further, and today was one of those rare days on a micro-lake when it mattered, as nearly all fish were well off the bank. Most everything was cookie cutter 12”-14” fish, but still rather entertaining getting bit, feeling the bite, and setting hooks on a finesse outfit at the end of a 100+ ft cast ?

Razorback was Mann’s line of crankbaits in the 1970s, around the time of the rise in popularity of the ‘alphabet style’ plugs. They had both a shallow and deep diver, and eventually made a scaled down version called the Piglet. These morphed into some of the Hackleback lineup, and then eventually the Plus Series of crankbaits (10+, 15+, 20+, 30+) in the 80s.

Haven’t used a Senko in over 20 years, and the only other stickbaits I use are ZinkerZ cut in half for Ned rigging ?

Found the pics: less than 22 hours apart from nearly the same position on the same pond, both on Ned from about 4 or 5 years ago. No mistaking that tail : 12/26 at 3:55 PM 12/27 at 1:38 PM

Disco brings up another occurrence I have had and confirmed via photographs, that being catching the exact same bass from the exact same location on the exact same bait literally 24 hrs apart. I’d have to dig through the archives, but I might have even posted about it here.

Similar to Pat, this is my ‘pet’ bass from a small pond I fish, now caught/landed 14 times that I’ve been able to photographically document over a period of 4 years. No telling if some of the big fish I’ve lost here were her also (likely). I’ve caught her on a variety of baits, but the majority of the time she has come from just one end of the pond. I’m guessing she’s the biggest ‘dominate’ bass in the pond left. That said, I’ve never caught her twice in the same day (usually just 3-4 times over the course of a year).

High pressure system rolled right over my location today bringing sunny blue skies, and mostly calm conditions with the occasional variable breeze at 5-7 mph. The lake has been nuked, so cover is sparse and the water is clearing from all the recent rain. Needless to say, I grabbed the respooled finesse rig and tied on the “skunk buster” (Ned) ? Got 3 little guys pretty quick, moving me beyond any curse, then proceeded to catch 22 total. Bass were in small clusters, so when you caught one, you often could catch several more in the same little area.

Depends on a lot of variables; always worth checking first to see if they have, especially if the water stained or muddied up. Also if there is good shallow cover that got flooded. Many times they only move up to the old bank line, or from the outside weedline to the inside weedline. Just need to put in the time and figure out how they react on your specific lake, as it seems like every lake is different.

The Scorpion’s cousin was the Tarantula, which was nearly identical but featured a thinner skirt with less strands (vinyl/rubber) vs. the Scorpion.

Post frontal today as a high pressure system moves in, which was accompanied by NW winds gusting to 25 mph. Brought a couple “weighted” baits to throw under those circumstances and ended up with 15 bass, all mostly cookie/cutter in size. Nine came on finesse jig; four on a swimbait; and two on Ned. A little less wind so I could throw more Ned would be nice tomorrow. I even respooled the spinning reel with fresh braid since I was to the point of reaching my backing knot on a long cast.

Bass beds are individual and often isolated, bream are colony nesters and look like honeycombs. Very easy to spot on side imaging units. Bream will continue to use the same beds month after month, and it does seem like new or full moon periods generate the most activity. Depths of 12-18 ft sound a bit unreasonable though unless the water is exceptionally clear. The deepest I’ve ever found beds around here is 5’-7’ ft., usually about as deep as you can still see bottom or just beyond.

Heavy downpours on and off all day, finally clearing around 7pm. Went to the closest spot not certain what to expect. Water level had risen several inches, but not overly stained. Halfway expected a super shallow bite, but that didn’t appear to be the case. Only caught 7, one of which was on the bank. Everything else was sitting at least off the weedline or deeper. Don’t think fish have settled in good yet. Got 3 on vibrating jig, 2 on finesse jig and 2 on Ned.

Another point to keep in mind that everyone seems to overlook; nearly every big bass angler/guru in history has a story about THE big one they lost, usually of world record proportions - Hannon, Murphy, Westmoreland, Lau, Jones, and on and on. Everybody hooked the world record, but none of them landed it ? It’s not the gene - lol

Can you describe what this big fish gene actually does? Based on your comment above, it would suggest efficiency; simply landing most of the big fish you hook, versus, say, hooking a lot of big fish to begin with. But your issue isn’t genetics as much as it is physics IMO. More along the lines of what Pat wrote, the big fish gene sounds more like a recessive trait or a gene defect ? …those that have it expressed are the few who are willing to put up with not catching much in order to catch big - lol

Pretty much either all braid (spinning) or all fluoro (casting) here, and I usually only change out my line every few years. Braid when the level gets low (I use backing and just 80-100 yds of braid) from retying or suffering a deep wind knot. Fluoro when the level gets low on the spool or a severe backlash that damages the line deep into the spool. Otherwise… I will take the time to unwind the twist that builds up in braid over time somewhat regularly as that seems to help with preventing those deeper wind knots. Lots of times just sitting down with a good hook and some time, you can work those braid knots out before they lock in too deeply - but not always. Unfortunately they are a quick way to lose a lot of line.