Team9nine

The interesting part of all this to me is that you can find as many articles and studies rejecting the hypothesis (worse weather patterns on weekends) as you can supporting it ? In reality, it seems that it is likely a regional effect, where it really is worse weather in some areas on weekends, and not any different in others, due to a variety of reasons.

Personally, I’d either do a swing arm RAM mount, or remove the windshield and mount centered over the dash.

Just saw these news headlines and remembered this discussion: L-E-S Acquisition

Been off the water most of the past week and a half. Finally pulled out a frog rod and hit a very slopped over pond the past two evenings before sunset. Cottonwood seeds almost made it not worth the frustration, but 2 dozen blowups overruled the headache of trying to keep the line clean and castable. Today, a different spot that was also getting out of control, but it’s obvious they’ve recently treated and everything is just starting to die and turn brown. NE breeze, but a jig to the outside weedline when it could be defined resulted in over a dozen bites, including one over 5 lbs. You can see the difference in weed/slop color between the two locations in the pics.

Ol’crickety: “Plus he has cool pants…”

Here’s my std routine (I don’t glue): Do the wraps Then 2 alternating half hitches Cinch everything down tight Cut the leader tag Then 2 more alternating half hitches Finish with a 4-wrap Rizzuto - cut braid tag

Nothing terribly complicated or technical. It’s surprising just how shallow these fish will hold, literally in inches of water or nose to the bank. So long casts really tight to the shoreline, and up and over snot moss along the bank gets a lot of work. Casting either the inside or outside weed edges is also very effective. Then throwing over any dark spots or holes in the shallow weed flats is another great option as that is frequently where the bass nest, though you can’t often tell until you walk right up on them. Retrieve is like a jerkbait or fluke, whatever personal style or flair you want to add to a twitch and pause type retrieve.

Probably my favorite bite of the year on these micro lakes. Still getting a few on swim jig, but have largely transitioned over to floating worms - such a killer when you only have 12” of water to work with and moss quickly filling up the shallows.

I didn’t come from money. When our Toughskins (Sears) got a hole in them, Mom patched them up and you kept wearing them. You didn’t just throw them away and go buy a new pair.

Who knows - different orgs, different rules. Aaron Martens fished and won a FLW national tour event without a valid fishing license and never was penalized by the org. If you go to the Bassmaster website and look through their 2023 boat wrap gallery, numerous boats don’t appear to have reg. numbers attached. Why would they publicly promote/show that if it somehow broke their rules? Just passing along what I was told until someone comes up with a better explanation.

Talked to one of my friends this morning that writes for Bassmaster and asked him. He contacted a boat company and asked them about it. Here’s the reply: “Believe, by law, you must display registration numbers on the hull. I run a permanent dealer tag, but still have to display the number on the hull and tag on the trailer. Would suspect those guys are lazy and haven't put the numbers on or they're betting they won’t get caught and not registering the boat so they don't have to pay sales tax.”

Not sure how much things have changed, but it used to be that guys with memo boat deals ran paper dealer plates (registrations). With the memo billed deal, the dealer arranged everything, and you didn’t have to pay for the boat for a year. As such, you technically never owner the boat, hence no state registration, so when you sold the boat at the end of the year to pay for it (before getting your next boat), you could sell it as a ‘new’ boat since it was still owned by the boat company, thereby making purchasing and financing for your buyer easier.

Agree with this ^^ Maybe my imagination, but I seem to do much better on smallmouth with the feathered treble, while largemouth don’t seem to care.

STAY HOME…

Quick trip before the line of storms hit. Slow bite - may be water clarity combined with my pressure, or water level. The cold nights haven’t helped either.

If it works for you, great The IGFA rated claim is false as explained in the SaltStrong video. I only use braid/leader on my finesse spinning stuff, but I’ll stick with FG and Alberto. I’m comfortable tying both at this point.

FYI, FWIW: That's the "bogus" version of the GT knot. Not sure what it's really called, but supposedly pretty weak compared to an FG and others based on this SaltStrong analysis a couple years back. "Fake" GT knot

Spent two days this week checking out the status of the crappie spawn in a local reservoir. Ended up with about 140 fish over the two afternoons. Fish are just hitting the spawning grounds here, but this burst of cooler, wet weather has most holding just outside the spawning areas in 4’-8’ of water. Next good warm spell should start the fireworks ?

It doesn’t matter. Just get the basic profile and retrieve correct, and you’re good. Been catching them here all week using 3” Charlie Brewer Slider Grubs and regular Roboworms as trailers.

Yep, not a pattern lol

Who knows Probably depends on the river. Studies on ours here in Indiana show that they rarely leave their main pools on smaller rivers, yet they seem to migrate quite a bit on our larger ones. The friend I was just discussing this with thinks they might feed nocturnally, and that’s why we run into them much less frequently after spawning.

Was just discussing this with a friend the other day. The males stay and guard, the females leave, but often times with northern SMB, the male is as large or larger than the female, and very protective of the nest and fry. So I’d just fish around the bedding areas and feel like my odds of a big fish are just as good.

One of those super obvious things that's easy to record in your log and think that you're on the path to bass fishing enlightenment. There are some incredibly detailed theories on fishing using barometric pressure, as well as some incredibly simple ones. Choose your path wisely, grasshopper.

My attainable goal every year is to try and not set goals, and I’ve pretty much been able to not disappoint myself going that route ? …but good luck to all

Depends on how you choose to fish them…