Team9nine

Yep, built up over time from flooding/high water and growth along the bank before impoundment.

As you just posted recently, you just got to do "you" and enjoy the ride, whatever fish it might or might not bring Forums and forum posts, especially fishing reports, can really get you chasing down rabbit holes and away from "your game." If I can pick off a few while riding out a tornado, you know I'd try just to see if I could do it, and to see how the bass reacted

Post frontal today, and the bite was a bit slower. Was able to pick off 9 bass, all on Ned variations along with a pair of channel cats. Might be scary what I could catch if I just focused on the cats with ‘crawlers or chicken livers ?

The home of fish is deep water, the deepest water in the area. Please note when I talk about the sanctuary being in the deep or deepest water available I said, "in the area being fished". I did not say, "the deepest water in the lake". The importance of the old river or feeder stream channels cannot be stressed too much. They represent the deepest water in the reservoir. -Buck Perry

Out before the frontal line and accompanying storms today. Hot and muggy again. Managed 15 bass, but nothing of note size wise. Twelve came on Ned, along with a bonus crappie and gill, and 3 on swimbait. Supposed to be a bit cooler for the next several days now that the front has passed.

Thank you! I’ve been trying to up my fashion game while out on the water lately. Glad to know its paying off I’ve got some Orvis clothing on the way, too.

Last report I saw was upgrading testing equipment back in Feb., but haven’t seen an update since. Not sure what happened.

Short afternoon trip due to the heat; highs in the mid 80s with dewpoints in the upper 60s; just a slight breeze, and partly cloudy skies. Only caught 7 today, but decent quality as I had 3 fish that ran the size of the fish in the pics, topped by a 3.25 lb. fish. Ned did all the work again today, just like yesterday. Had stopped tracking trips/fish back in late April, but found out I didn’t delete the file, so going through and updating the records. Will be curious to see the updated totals after I get all caught up again.

Cast and retrieve (countdown), “DO-NOTHING” …or just fish it like any other weighted soft plastic, but that somewhat defeats the purpose of the head, though it’s fairly common these days.

Honestly haven’t tried their floating worm yet. If I’m going shaky head, it almost always a Zoom finesse worm on the rig which has plenty of weight to cast well.

Zman Finesse WormZ, which mostly float due to the nature of the Elaztech material. Any of their baits that sink do so because of the addition of salt for weight. That’s one reason why they cast best right out of the package. Once the salt dissolves, they float and don’t cast quite as well. But the bonus is you rarely lose worms because they come to the surface if they get separated from the hook. Countless times I’ve retrieved my worms back because of this - in some cases days or months later…and they’re still good as new. If you’re not trying to get a true floating surface presentation, then simply add weight in whatever form fits the presentation. It doesn't take much. There are also little casting tricks like using fluoro as your leader material, downsizing your main line diameter, or leaving an extra foot or two of line out when casting (rotational inertia, I believe). For a true floating worm, I use whatever brand I can find cheapest most times.

My No. 1 producer over the past half dozen years by a long shot - so incredibly versatile. I use Zoom, Netbait, Zman and Roboworm - that’s it (unless you include bubblegum floating worms as finesse - lol). As for rigging, Slider, weightless wacky, Ned, jighead wacky, shaky, split shot, drop shot, Texas, and even as a trailer on a finesse jig.

Another day, another dozen bass. Nothing special size wise except for the hybrid gill/green sunfish - he was 10.75” and bigger than some bass I’ve caught this year ?

The next best thing if you can’t talk to him personally ? He called me for input into its design based on a local custom buzzer my buddy and I used and had shown to him back when the three of us all fished together.

Ummm...the answer is zero (0), so I'd say 'minimal/barely noticeable' is a fair assessment One revolution of the handle is still just one revolution, regardless of how long the handle or length of travel. Tape a 12" ruler to one arm of the reel handle and then turn it one revolution using the ruler end and remeasure your IPT.

That's not an emergency, though in a real one, I’d buy a Cavitron if available - lol. In production models, I’m a fan of the Accent ‘Jacob Wheeler’ buzzbait - while admitting my personal bias in this situation ? I personally prefer the finesse over the ‘original’ due to its smaller blade, but either are good depending on your preference.

A third vote for the loop on top of the knot, but I differ somewhat from the previous two responses in that I simply pull both lines together at the same time to snug, then leave the knot as is, with no final cinching. I don't even wet the knot. With fluoro and mono, the line is stiff enough that the entire knot (loop and line) holds shape throughout the tightening process, so there is almost zero friction created by pulling/tightening the lines at the same time and pace - everything stays in good alignment and position. This is not the case with braid, where you’ll largely have to tighten by pulling primarily on a single line first, then cinching the other tight.

They have to come out to eat and mate sometime ? plus dig the burrows and push out all that dirt at some point. There was no hole in the ground when they started - lol. They are often nocturnal with their activities, and some bass become that way, too. The bluegill fry won’t get big enough until late fall - same with the shad fry that just hatched last month. Right now they’re just crappie food.

IME, it depends on the body of water and the available food source. Some lakes are just much better deep water lakes than others, while some are much better shallower lakes. Either can be good, though. We tend to have flatland impoundments with stained water and little to no submerged vegetation (but some emergents), so shallower is usually better. As Pat mentioned, we’re still coming off a crayfish and bluegill diet phase, so the bulk of activity has been to the shallower side of things despite the developing thermocline. Other species are starting to utilize it though.

This is one of my local lakes yesterday - crayfish burrows galore. Bass are opportunistic and will take advantage of the most prolific or optimally available food supply at the time. This will obviously change or be different between various bodies of water or sections of the country at any given time, but around here, it’s still the tail end of bluegill spawns and crayfish on the menu until all of the newly spawned fish grow larger.

Caught 16 yesterday and another 14 today, two different locations. Found all these crawdad holes (crayfish condos) within the Chara, so switched to a soft plastic crayfish imitation and it paid off. Had 6 fish in 6 casts at one point today…the first 6 casts of the day.

Drawdowns are usually not very effective against hydrilla, especially if it is already well established in the lake. Your location that far south also wouldn't help much due to a lack of freezing temperatures for any length of time, and studies show desiccation of tubers (drawdown, dry out) isn't a great option for control.

My current boat has some fancy self adjusting pressure cap, but on my previous one, I’m pretty sure I recall it being just the opposite of what you stated; I always stored it with the screw closed tight to not allow moist air into the tank for extended periods, but always ran with it open (unscrewed), otherwise the engine would eventually die out from lack of fuel because of the air restriction.

Partly sunny, low 80s, but muggy. Heaviest rain went north and south of us, so no big changes to water color. Very few bass hanging around the shallows, so went jighead wacky and fished just over the breakline in deeper water and caught 10. Nothing big (largest 17”) but very feisty and a lot of jumpers.