Goose52

Well, I made my 2010 goals - get off the bank and on the water (got a canoe) and to catch 1,000 bass (I'm at 1052 as of today). For 2011 - I guess my goals would be to wean myself from my confidence baits and to learn new baits/techniques, to better understand and exploit underwater structure, to better understand and use my sonar, and to improve the quality of the fish caught (larger average size). Not as quantifiable as the 2010 goals, but goals nonetheless!

Well, I made my 2010 goals - get off the bank and on the water (got a canoe) and to catch 1,000 bass (I'm at 1052 as of today). For 2011 - I guess my goals would be to wean myself from my confidence baits and to learn new baits/techniques, to better understand and exploit underwater structure, to better understand and use my sonar, and to improve the quality of the fish caught (larger average size). Not as quantifiable as the 2010 goals, but goals nonetheless!

Well, I made my 2010 goals - get off the bank and on the water (got a canoe) and to catch 1,000 bass (I'm at 1052 as of today). For 2011 - I guess my goals would be to wean myself from my confidence baits and to learn new baits/techniques, to better understand and exploit underwater structure, to better understand and use my sonar, and to improve the quality of the fish caught (larger average size). Not as quantifiable as the 2010 goals, but goals nonetheless!

Thanks Big O ! Yep, there's a lot of smart folks on the board, it only makes sense to pay attention... I should do better next year. Maybe not in numbers, but in quality of the fish

Thanks Big O ! Yep, there's a lot of smart folks on the board, it only makes sense to pay attention... I should do better next year. Maybe not in numbers, but in quality of the fish

Thanks Big O ! Yep, there's a lot of smart folks on the board, it only makes sense to pay attention... I should do better next year. Maybe not in numbers, but in quality of the fish

Thanks DVT - I've always been big on keeping good records both with fishing and with my shooting stuff. They weren't all big fish, but I still made my 1,000 goal. To compensate for the small size, I nearly always use ML or M power rods...I only caught a handful of fish on MH rods and none on H.

Thanks DVT - I've always been big on keeping good records both with fishing and with my shooting stuff. They weren't all big fish, but I still made my 1,000 goal. To compensate for the small size, I nearly always use ML or M power rods...I only caught a handful of fish on MH rods and none on H.

Thanks DVT - I've always been big on keeping good records both with fishing and with my shooting stuff. They weren't all big fish, but I still made my 1,000 goal. To compensate for the small size, I nearly always use ML or M power rods...I only caught a handful of fish on MH rods and none on H.

You bet. I still have a Zebco 202 and a cheap 5 1/2' casting rod so I've already got the gear. I would like the option of having a better bait selection though... :

You bet. I still have a Zebco 202 and a cheap 5 1/2' casting rod so I've already got the gear. I would like the option of having a better bait selection though... :

You bet. I still have a Zebco 202 and a cheap 5 1/2' casting rod so I've already got the gear. I would like the option of having a better bait selection though... :

Score !

Eric - I couldn't find the JB-90 series on the Yo-Zuri web site nor at TW, BPS, etc. Hope you have better luck. BTW - I wish there Peacock bass when I lived in South Florida and was fishing on Tamiami Trail, Alligator Alley, the canals along Krome Avenue, etc. - but that was the 1960s! ;D

I don 't think I 'm going to change for something tamer; maybe it 's that I 'm not what I used to be ( tackle hoarder ) or that I have just too much of the usual meat & potatoes, my priorities have changed .... now instead of having a bunch of stuff I 'rather have less but really kool stuff , also I realized that I have lost many opportunities to purchase what really caught my eye and I always desired, let 's take for example the TD-Itö reel, man for years I 've wanted one and when it was available in the condition I wanted it I had no ca$h to purchase it cuz I spent the money in a bunch of other meat & potatoes stuff; nowdays the BM is leashed and muzzled, he gonna get his fix when I want and with what I want, right now I got a couple of reels on sight: Daiwa Pixy PX68 and Megabass Zonda, so .... I 'm still on the DARK SIDE Wow - from my perspective, that's the FAR side of the DARK Side... ;D ;D Enjoy!

Ummm - there was also one Yo-Zuri Hardcore JB-90SB suspending minnow (jerkbait) in the clearance bin. I didn't see this bait on the Yo-Zuri web site so perhaps it's been discontinued. I did find the bait on eBay...for $12.95 I paid $2.95 for it ... 8-)

I'll snag any Yo-Zuri bait in the clearance bin if they're marked WAY down...but at full price, they're above my price range :-?

It's not the air temps, but the water temps. I'm in Tennessee up on the Cumberland plateau and surface water temps just today got into the high 40s and the bite has REALLY slowed down. Down near Memphis, your water temps might still be in the 50s. In general, as it gets colder, you will want to fish slower, and usually deeper. I'm mostly fishing plastic worms, fished sloooooow and deep; and spinnerbaits slow-rolled near the bottom. Other folks would be switching to jigs about now, or perhaps plastic creature baits inched along the bottom. However, I'm still getting bit on faster presentations like lipless cranks. I caught two bass today - one on a lipless crank, and one on a spinnerbait and both of these were shallow - in less than 5ft of water, so you can't ignore the shallow water either ! Road Warrior lives in your part of the state and maybe he'll come along with some advice...

It's not the air temps, but the water temps. I'm in Tennessee up on the Cumberland plateau and surface water temps just today got into the high 40s and the bite has REALLY slowed down. Down near Memphis, your water temps might still be in the 50s. In general, as it gets colder, you will want to fish slower, and usually deeper. I'm mostly fishing plastic worms, fished sloooooow and deep; and spinnerbaits slow-rolled near the bottom. Other folks would be switching to jigs about now, or perhaps plastic creature baits inched along the bottom. However, I'm still getting bit on faster presentations like lipless cranks. I caught two bass today - one on a lipless crank, and one on a spinnerbait and both of these were shallow - in less than 5ft of water, so you can't ignore the shallow water either ! Road Warrior lives in your part of the state and maybe he'll come along with some advice...

It's not the air temps, but the water temps. I'm in Tennessee up on the Cumberland plateau and surface water temps just today got into the high 40s and the bite has REALLY slowed down. Down near Memphis, your water temps might still be in the 50s. In general, as it gets colder, you will want to fish slower, and usually deeper. I'm mostly fishing plastic worms, fished sloooooow and deep; and spinnerbaits slow-rolled near the bottom. Other folks would be switching to jigs about now, or perhaps plastic creature baits inched along the bottom. However, I'm still getting bit on faster presentations like lipless cranks. I caught two bass today - one on a lipless crank, and one on a spinnerbait and both of these were shallow - in less than 5ft of water, so you can't ignore the shallow water either ! Road Warrior lives in your part of the state and maybe he'll come along with some advice...

I usually fish Strike King Red Eye Shads, but also had a few of the Yo-Zuri's that I got on sale last year. So, I knew the Yo-Zuri bait was a fish-catcher and I couldn't pass up a $2.95 price...considering Rattl'N Vibes are usually around $8.

So the wife and I were in Gander Mountain the other day, looking through the clearance bins, and I see a Yo-Zuri Rattl'N Vibe in perch color so I snag it. Then I hear the wife say: "Oh, here's a pretty one, you can take the hooks off and I can use it as a Christmas tree ornament." So I look over and it's another Rattl-N Vibe in perch. No way could I let a great bait be degraded by getting turned into a Christmas tree ornament so I "appropriated" that one from her before that could happen. ;D It's a great looking bait for sure: And it works as shown below. AND, the price was $2.95. There's none left at the Gander Mountain in Knoxville TN - check your local stores !

Try a 5" weightless and weedless on a 1/0 EWG. Fish them anytime you think the fish are in water 4-5 feet deep or less (or at least are at the top of the water column). Cast, let fall for a few seconds, and twitch/swim them back. Or bring them back as a topwater. Should work - I've caught 761 LMB so far this year using grubs.... :

Maybe - but I know that a few weeks ago when I was cranking Mann's 20+ and 30+ crankbaits, I was glad that I was doing it on a 4.7:1 reel (the 5.2:1 would have done OK as well). Just sayin' .... :

I have good records but my data collection system is not that sophisticated ;D For lengths, when fishing from the bank, I wear a lanyard that has nailclippers (for line cutting) and a little 3ft tape measure. Everything that comes out of the water gets measured. This was something I started just to get an idea of the average size of the fish in these lakes and I just kept doing. If I'm in my canoe, I have a "bump board" that I put the fish on the get the length. For weights, at the beginning of the season, I was only weighing fish 18" or longer. Then, as the season when on and I was noticing how many skinny fish I was catching, I decided to start weighing all fish 14" or longer so I could start running averages. So, I have an electronic scale with me all the time - either on the bank or in the boat. For capturing data - this sounds kinda cheap but works really good. I cut up cardboard boxes (like cereal boxes) into 3"x5" cards. They are of course blank on the inside surface and are stiff enough to write on with no backing. From the bank, I just carry a blank card and write down info as I catch fish. From the canoe, I make the card up before I leave and create sections for the rods I know I will have with me (see example below). These cards will show water temp, catch, baits, etc. The data captured is recorded in an Excel spreadsheet. I have a number of worksheets (page/tabs) in the file. One for data on my rods/reels, local lake data, catch by year, and a page that automatically calculates average weights. The catch by year worksheet has columns for: Date, Place, QTY, Catch, Rod / Reel, Bait, Line, Water Temp, & Notes Below is an example of one of my "tote cards." Not very tidy is it! It was originally set up with 6 sections for the 6 rods that I took in the canoe that day. As I started fishing, you can see that I had to make some quick adjustments - especially for the rod that I was using for cranks (lower right corner. You can see that I caught 8 fish on a wiggle wart and two fish on a Norman Deep Little N. Overall, the card shows that I caught 10 fish on cranks, 3 fish on a 7.5" Yum ribbontail worm, and 5 fish on a Zoom Fat Albert 5" grub. It was the first time I fished that lake in the canoe so I recorded the maximum depth that I observed (11 feet - the smallest/shallowest of the 11 lakes that I fish). BTW - this card was for the outing when I went over 1000 fish - in the top left corner you can see that my 999th fish was a respectable 1 1/2pounder, but my 1,000th fish was an 11" dink ! Phew - that's the short explanation of my data system !