Goose52

Thanks! I caught 59 of these rainbow stockers last year in early spring but nothing this big. This guy was the first trout I caught this year and was really a surprise. We have surface water temps as high as 90 here in summer and I was surprised that this guy lasted for at least two summers (and maybe 3 summers). Deep lakes...

I have 6 PQs in all 4 ratios. Great reels for the money - especially when on sale. I also have a RevoS, Curado 200E7, two Curado 50Es, and other BC reels that see occasional service. The PQs (and my Carbonlites) are still my front-line reels. The PQs may not be as "smooth" as some of the others...but they work and catch fish. Exactly. Too bad there couldn't be a sticky on this. Poor Incheon Basser and Maurader Yak have corrected the misinformation about the origins of some of the BPS BC reels so many times but that info gets lost once a thread drops down to the 2nd page or older... Thanks Hooligan...

I'm pretty open on grub selection. I have some Kalins I got at a clearance price but haven't fished them yet. The grub line-up for this season (all fish - not just bass) is: 217 - Gander Mountain (I have a feeling these are made by Kalin) 185 - Zoom 44 - BPS 9 - Mr Twister

I'm not familiar with the utility gloves but I do wear the UA glove liners. Good down to about 40deg., not so good in the 30s. Thick enough to provide some warmth, thin enough to use a BC reel. Here's a link to a glove thread from last year that has some good info: Winter fishing gloves

Thanks! Yep - the grubs still catch fish but I'll have to admit that I went over to the dark side this year - fishing stick worms a bit (primarily where I needed casting distance over the weightless grubs) - I didn't fish a single stick worm last year. My numbers by bait (bass only) so far this year are: 445 - Grubs 218 - Lipless Cranks 164 - Stick Worms 51 - Spinnerbait/buzzbait/chatterbait 48 - Lipped Cranks 46 - Plastic worms (mostly ribbontails) 36 - Plastic craws Last year - my top 3 baits were grubs, lipless cranks, and plastic worms. This year, the stick worm took a lot of numbers off the ribbontails so they're now in 3rd place. Speaking of the boat gathering dust - a big difference this year is boat vs. bank (total fish, not just bass). 2010: Bank - 734 / Boat - 425 2011: Bank - 911 / Boat - 191 (to date) Since I haven't had the canoe in the water as much this year, I've really had to work a LOT harder for the fish. I catch quite a bit more fish on a per/hour basis from the canoe than the bank. I wanted to do more cranking this year and didn't get as much time in the boat as last year so the lipped crank numbers aren't that high. Still some days left this season. The spinnerbait, lipless crank, and soft plastic numbers (and maybe even a jig number!) will be a bit larger by the end of the year.

You betcha! Hey K_Mac - I sorta have an advantage - I don't take "trips"...I just hop in the car and have 11 lakes and 3 ponds all within about a 6 mile radius so I can get in a lot of fishing. The quality of the fisheries is not that great...you have to work hard for your fish...but they ARE convenient. The trout was indeed tasty!

Yeah - I had high hopes of a good lipless crank bass bite last night but got this trout at the 2nd lake I visited. Called it a day and took it home for dinner. Still had about 90 minutes of fishing time before dark so I may have been able to get some bass. BUT, it was a good dinner...

I'm gonna give it a try. We just had a cold front come through and surface water temps suddenly dropped 15 degrees. We have two near-freezing nights coming up as well. The bite is going to be tough. I did get a 19" 3 pound LMB this morning that put me at 1006 - that's a long way from 1100. Went fishing this evening and got another 19 incher...but it was a trout not a bass so that didn't help my numbers (although it made my dinner table - see Other Species forum - lol). I know my 11 lakes and 3 ponds better - can start to eliminate non-productive water. Getting better at bait selection and use although I still have some weak areas - especially JIGS ! Still not getting all I could out of my sonar when fishing from the boat. Also when in the boat I'm not doing enough to exploit offshore structure. Better and playing/landing fish. Quality of fish has improved - fewer dinks, more larger fish this year than last. I still consider myself a novice angler but getting somewhat better. Regardless of my progress or lack thereof, I still have fun and being out fishing is more fun that sitting on the sofa thinking about fishing... :lol:

(I guess these fish just don't realize I'm fishing for bass...) So I'm minding my own business this evening, working some water for bass with a 1/2oz Red Eye Shad and a cotton picking rainbow trout tried to steal my lure. On hook-up, I felt something different - not a bass kinda tug - it was a fish just going berserk. Got the fish about halfway back and saw it's color in the water and knew for sure I had a trout. Got it back to the bank and saw it was a good size trout - 19" / 2.5 lb. The last trout stock we had was in Feb. 2010 so this guy made it through at least 2 hot summers and given his size, might have been from the 2009 stock (we had no trout stock in 2011). This lake is 21 acres but has a max depth of 40 feet so he must have hid out deep over the summers. Just in the past few days, our surface water temps have dropped about 15 degrees and were at 54 degrees today so this guy was a bit more comfortable in the ~8 fow where he hit the RES. Oh, the penalty for trying to steal my lure - well, since this guy was about done-in on landing (these guys just seem to fight to exhaustion) it was only about 45 minutes from lake to dinner table...very tasty!

That's just the bass! Got a nice 19"/3.02lb LMB this morning so I'm up to 1006 bass for the season. But I also have 92 other fish caught (collateral catches while bass fishing - catfish, carp, crappie, bream, bowfin, chain pickerel) this season for a total of 1098 fish caught this year. Wow - 40-45 hours a week - I can't match that. I don't keep track but I'd guess my average is about 25 hours a week, give or take. That number will be going down about now with cold weather coming in. I love topwater too but this year I just didn't fish on top much. I have a few buzzbait fish this year and that's about it. I did have a nice 4.3lb LMB hit my little 5" grub as I was pulling it over some slop - the bass bulged then came through a hole in the matt and nailed the grub - a great rush. Sure - Excel spreadsheet. I can "shake and bake" the data to find out all sorts of stuff. Gives me something to play with in winter...

I'll try! The bite is tough right now though, fished 3 different lakes yesterday for a total of about 90 minutes and only had an 8" fish to show for it. It will be raining all day today but will try to get out and get at least one fish...

Thanks again to all. I must have a lot of prowess then...I bet I've got an average of at least an hour fishing time invested in each of those 1,000 bass... Just two years in a row. I only got back into fishing in late 2009 after I retired so I've only had two full fishing seasons since then. The 1,000 number is really just about a max effort. I only fish my neighborhood lakes and you really have to work for your fish. Next season I need to get back to some other interests and I think my 2012 goal might be just 750 bass. That is very, very true. I fell on the ice two winters back and ended up with a shoulder injury that left me with limited range of motion of my right arm - thousands of casts worked that out. Two years ago two fingers on my right hand were like claws and wouldn't close on their own - gripping a rod handle many hours a day worked that out. When I go fishing, I tell the wife that I'm going for physical therapy! Sure. Other than some saltwater fishing in the mid-80s, I fished very little between 1967 and 2009. Now that I'm retired, I'm making up for lost time.

Thanks guys! Given my meager skills as an angler, that number really represents persistence...rather than angling prowess...

My 1000th bass of 2011 turned out to be a dink...but at least I made my 1K goal! Caught it on the 'Wart shown in the photo about 8-9 feet down. Got to 1000 13 days earlier than last year though, and this year the 1000th was 12 inches - last year the 1000th was 11 inches... :lol: Still some good fishing days left before winter sets in, might make it to 1100 this year.

Like the folks above - the Culprit 7.5" ribbontail is a favorite of mine, I also use the 10" version. Red Shad usually, sometimes black. T-rigged on a 3/0 EWG with a 3/16 oz bullet weight on the 7.5", 3/16 or 1/4 oz weight on the 10".

Mostly Red Eye Shad, some Yo-Zuri. As of tonight, I've caught 204 fish this season on lipless cranks: RES-137, Yo-Zuri-53, Misc-14. All the recommendations for Aruku Shad have got my attention - if I can find some on sale...

I just used this one on Wednesday to pull a Mann's 20+ off the bottom in 18' of water: Lure Retriever There are also telescopic retrievers that some folks swear by if you have room on your boat for one (not an option in my canoe!).

No common carp in my 11 neighborhood lakes - only sterile grass carp (white amur) stocked for aquatic weed control. There are lots of common carp in other places in Tennessee...just not in my lakes.

No spawn for triploid grass carp - they're sterile....

Yeah - lip-hooked you can turn their heads around. On this one, hooked on the dorsal fin, I could at least pull it off vertical when it was running out at an angle - this could be why I landed this fish in only 15 minutes. The previous two big carp that I've landed were foul-hooked in the tail - allowing them to run straight away...these were much tougher fights - one was 24 minutes, the other 35 minutes. All 3 of these fish were caught on 7' mf BC rods with 10lb line - limiting how much I could muscle the fish. Thanks!

Do you HAVE to - no. Do you WANT to - maybe. Depends on whether you plan on doing any cranking with deep-diving crankbaits or heavy spinnerbaits with big blades. The lower gear ratios offer a mechanical advantage that makes retrieving those baits much easier than the higher gear ratio reels. I have a 4.7 (19 ipt) on my deep-cranking rod, and a 5.2 (21 ipt) on my heavy spinnerbait rod. Other folks use 25 ipt or higher reels for everything...

Same with me - I fish all year except when the water is hard.

BIG surprise! When I hook-up, my first thought is "big bass"! When the line starts peeling off the reel at warp speed, I think "BIG CARP...even better! (Although deep-down, I'm still wishing it's something like a 14lb bass... )

Might be small by flathead standards...but I'll take a 10 pound fish anyday!

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