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I've caught plenty of fall bass within a block of goose hunters cracking off shots with 10 GA shotguns. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to bother the fish enough to interrupt their feeding. These fish aren't used to hearing the shots either, unlike the fish living near a military base.

Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, lipless crankbaits, jerkbaits, jigs, and shakyhead worms have been my most productive fall lures the last few years as water has been in the 45-65 degree range in the fall, with spinnerbaits and jigs being the most consistent. Lately, chatterbaits and small swimbaits have been the best, with water hovering around 65 degrees.

I had a middle-aged guy and his young daughter in a 14' aluminum boat troll within 20' of me with his outboard last week. He didn't even look at me, and just pretended I wasn't there. I was fishing a rockpile in the middle of a lake with a black buoy out, and he almost ran over the buoy. People are extremely inconsiderate on this lake. I've had numerous incidents in the 6 weeks I've been fishing the lake. It's just a small 70 acre lake, 50 miles away from home out in BFE with a really nice rocky hump that's about 110' x 40'. I guess the locals think it's THEIR rockpile, and they don't seem to want me parking on it. The two other incidents were a homeowner with a 300HP inboard pulling tubers at top speed within casting distance and doing figure eights 150' away while staring me down, and some crappie anglers idling up and dropping anchors 35' away with a big splash.

Verlander for MVP! I think it's in the bag. Leading the majors in wins, strikeouts, and WHIP (walks+hits per innings pitched).

The only DNR people I ever see are the young apprentices(?) sitting at landings, checking boats for invasive species and asking about which lakes we frequent. I have never spoken to a warden on the lake or at a public landing. There are a lot of lakes around here, and game wardens are spread way too thin. I almost never keep fish aside from a meal or two of crappies every year, but I feel like I could basically poach whatever and whenever I wanted and get away with it, and that's a shame. I mentioned my concern about this just yesterday to a young lady who was looking for zebra mussels on my boat, saying that I was surprised by how little DNR supervision there was locally, even on lakes with experimental regulations and very strict size and quantity limits. She told me that "it's pretty much an honor system" to abide by the laws and rules of conservation.

Even though both are 4 power rods, the DX744 fishes a little heavier than than the 734 because it has a faster action. The 744 is close to an extra fast, and the 734 is somewhere in between mod-fast and fast. The 744 is well suited for casting 1/4-3/4oz jigs into the 10'+ range, but I don't think it's heavy enough to be a pitching stick. The 735 is a very good option for pulling double duty, pitching and casting jigs, if you're interested. I haven't fished or handled the 743, but I wouldn't want a jigging rod lighter than the 744 for casting jigs, especially heavier(1/2oz+) jigs fished deep. I actually wish it were a tad more powerful, like the equivalent of a 4.25 power.

There are plenty of Tupperware-type containers with latches that will work perfectly. They come in all shapes and sizes and will run about $4-7.

Like Hooligan, I've never been a fan of paddletail swimbaits, but the Berkley Havoc Grass Pigs are starting to grow on me. I've been fishing them on the Owner Twistlock Light 6/0 3/32oz weighted hook that TW carries, on a Dobyns 734 and 12# Hybrid. Lately, they have been catching larger fish than other presentations, my 5 best fish from the last two days have come on this bait. They are pretty durable, too. With a little touch of Mend It before the bait gets completely torn up, I've been able to 6-7 fish out of a bait. I like that this rig can be fished on top like a toad through sparse slop areas with the rod tip high, and then fished subsurface on the edges. They also make a good pitching/skipping bait around docks.

Are you using the right kind of tube? Some tubes are meant for Texas rigging and others are meant for fishing with an internal jighead inserted into them. Those that are meant for the T-rig have about 1/4 - 3/8" of extra plastic in the tip that's meant to hold the worm hook more securely.

Just going from cloudy to sunny on back to back days will do that sometimes.

With whatever reel you choose, do yourself a favor and upgrade the bearings. They will make it much easier to pitch. Less effort = More control.

The Browns weren't half as pathetic as the Vikings in week one. 39 yards passing for the entire game for McNabb, and only two yards passing in the second half. The game looked like a 42-7 blowout to me, only the actual score wasn't as bad. I was thinking the Vikes might win 9 games this year. If this keeps up, they'll win about 5.

It's different every year, based on what's been producing the best. This year, it's been a 10" ribbontail worm with 5/16th oz tungsten weight. Last year, it was junebug 1/2oz jigs with action trailers, or black Ish's Phat Frogs. The year before, a 3/4oz double willow, gold shiner colored spinnerbait with a thinned out skirt, or watermelon Senkos skipped under docks

Many people, including myself, believe that you want to give a spinnerbait a very erratic retrieve, with frequent, short pulses and pauses, so that the blade is not just spinning, but constantly fluttering. Just a little twitch of the rod tip every half second or second, with a half second or 2 second pause thrown in about every 5 seconds gets the job done for me. I almost never retrieve a spinnerbait in a straight line, but I will give it a shot if the erratic retrieve isn't working.

I don't like to use FC heavier than 6# on a spinning reel, and even that needs to be stretched once in a while or dragged behind the boat at idle speed without a lure to let it unwind.

One must for me is having a nice, long distance between the reel seat and first guide. This makes flipping a lot easier. Compare a Dobyns 735 to a 766 and you'll see what I mean. It makes a big difference.

I have that same Moonsault crankbait and the lip is not painted. Unpainted LC knockoffs are easy to find on eBay.

Al Davis, hands down.

It doesn't take long for red hooks to get chipped up and turn gold, so I'm not a fan.

I've had good luck with them in mid-summer green lakes, fished on heavy Texas rigs, 3/8 oz and up. With the heavier weights and faster fall, the worms put off great vibration. I haven't had much luck fishing them on light T-rigs, on those I prefer straight or ribbon tail worms. These paddle types of worms seem to work best in low light or at night, or in dirty water. After the paddle tail worms get too ripped up for Texas rigging, they can be trimmed down to 4-5" to make an excellent swim jigs trailers or shaky worms.

I ended up getting through that sucker, I just needed a new bit. My gold Dewalt bit must be damaged or worm out because it wasn't doing squat to the metal sheets that are layered in the glass.

I've fished out of a boat that needed the bilge pump to be used even 45 minutes or so. It turned out to be a minor crack in the weld on the back, near the bottom. It was fixed and the bilge was never needed again unless it was raining.

Good points. Thanks.

Yeah, it drafted yesterday.

Nice video.