Catt

I can only do tuna in oil but not water & only for tuna salad. Don't cook it, I will leave the house. I spent teenage summers on a charter fishing boat, the smell of fish guts & diesel fuel ruined me. I'm a Coonass, seafood better be fresh!

Actually it was a phenomenal year, the low water constrated the bass on specific structure.

It may be as simple as rotating though 2-3 colors & as complex as opposite ends of the spectrum. Ain't saying this is normal

Uhh! Yeah ? I throw Zoom's Ultravibe Speed Worm alot, so does Mike, just another option. And what exactly is being changed?

They ain't dedicated enough! I got a whole stack of Toledo Bend maps from USGS along with survey maps from prior to the lake being impounded. Some state or counties will have servey maps. Before the WWW you had to be a gumshoe detective!

To paraphrase Rick Clunn & Gary Klein, we're giving to much credit to the lure & not enough credit to the angler. If you're good with a worm or jig, color & make ain't that important. @Mike L Have looked at Mr Twister's new 8" Buzz Worm?

@Glenn Dang Boss I still remember 1,000 like it was yesterday!

I've never locked down a drag on any reel I've ever owned. Not even when frogging or punching. Everyone talks about locking down reels that have 25 lbs of drag, my poor Calcutta only has 9.5 lbs drag max, I set it at 6 lbs. 11 lbs 3 oz caught in hydrilla, drag ain't slipped.

Winter, spring, summer, or fall, day or night, shallow or deep my lure selection doesn't change. Jigs: 1/4-1 oz from bank shallow out to 40'. Yes I'll throw a 1/4 oz in 40' & a 1 oz in 10'.

Seen times when color made all the difference. Seen times when color made absolutely no difference. Seen times when I had to change colors to continue getting bit. I don't believe in certain colors for certain water clarities. If you do believe that explain Merthiolate?

We gotta remember we're looking at the whole fishing deal through our eyes & interpreting it with our brain. Don't know why when we pick up a crankbait we gotta shake it. Kinda like blowing on a buzzbait's blade.

Someone round here been preaching that for years.

Hawg! ?

I don't like any fishy smelling fish period! My Dad loved sardines, I can't stand the smell. When we fished together he would beach the boat so I could get out while he ate sardines. Lot of people like cedar plank Salmon, I'll leave the room, that stuff stinks!

FYI: A flat is a form of structure A muddy or sandy flat also means bottom composition changes. Y'all don't target "bald" spots in grass flats? Food source doesn't necessarily mean baitfish. A lifeless dead zone to us can be teaming with life.

C'est Fini ?

Hale’s Craw Worm ?

Bass should be in pre-spawn & shallow. I me look at a map of that area.

Rat-L-Trap, that's what they were invented for. Square Bills, 6th Sense Movement 80X, I have some Bagley Balsa Bs

I was fortunate enough to be around Toledo Bend during the 70s. Tommy Martin: Rat-L-Traps & deepwater grass & matted grass with a Jig-n-Craw Larry Nixon: Texas Rigged plastics Lonnie Stanley: spinnerbaits & jigs Structure fishing: the three above & Elwood Buck Perry

Are we talking throwing it on the Hibachi Grill or making rice-n-gravy or making Fajitas or making beef stew?

Structure is the bottom shape of body of water, the cake if you will. The timber is the icing on the cake, the vegetation is sprinkles on the icing. Which one would you choose, cake with no icing or cake with icing & sprinkles? It nice to know how to identify different types of trees but y'all missed the real reason why. Conifers don't grow in the same bottom composition as hardwoods do. Hardwoods tend to grow closer to the creek, cypress, tupelo, gums grew in lower swampy areas.

Even though it's still winter & everyone is talking light slow moving techniques, it's time to dust off your Rat-L-Traps. While ripping Traps out of grass is highly productive I'm about a third of the way back in creeks fishing brush & timber. Yeah, ya gonna get hung up but try ricocheting your lipless of standing timber.

We spend hours on this site discussing the right hook, right line, tying the right knot, the right rod, the right reel...let em do their job. 11.3# in hydrilla that wasn't quite matted. Shimano Crucial 6'10" M/H X-Fast, 15# Big Game, Shimano Calcutta with drag set at 6#. She never slipped drag.