basspro48

Bandit 100 series crank has been hot lately.

7' Medium Heavy Kistler Graphite Special, whooped a lot of big bass with this trusty stick 8-)

i'll second that ;D 8-) Speaking of that, Triton9 has a picture from our outing yesterday on the Pamunkey. It is a picture of the front deck of my Xpress with literally a pile of Shimano/Loomis combo's... It was awesome

Those Crucials are sweet rods, very light and sensitive. However, I would also look at the G-loomis GL2 it's only $10 more than the crucial at $140. I have 2 6'6" MH Gl2's and use them for everything from cranking to throwing weightless trickworms and senkos, great rods for the money!

My main jig rod right now is a 7' Medium Heavy Kistler Graphite Special, however when faced with heavy cover I will switch to a 7' Heavy Daiwa Tournament Flip'n stik. And when I'm throwing real light jigs, 1/4oz or less, I'll go down to a 6'6" Medium Heavy G-Loomis GL2. All casting rods, I really don't use spinning tackle anymore at all.

;D If you are fishing lakes or ponds then I suggest you find the deepest water you can and search that area for cover, I suggest starting by the dam. Fish are attracted to rock and riprap more in winter because it absorbs heat and provides slightly warmer water than the rest of the lake so whenever you come across a rockpile fish it hard! Other than that just fish slow and really pick apart any productive spots you find.

Great post Catt!!! One thing that I have noticed in the tidal rivers that I fish around me is that the fish rarely move deeper than 10 or 12 feet during winter, or any other season for that. But a really good pattern is to throw a jig around any thick brush you can find, I prefer my own 5/16oz finesse jigs in black/blue and watermelon/brown matched with a ZOOM super chunk jr. or smallie beaver. By thick brush I don't mean the regular ole trees and laydowns that line the banks of the river, I mean wood so thick it scares you Anyway, once you find the right cover pick up your finesse jig rigged on a 7' MH rod and AT LEAST 15lb fluoro or braid depending on your preference. Approach the cover from the down current side begin pitching to the edges of the brush, let the jig sink, then shake it and pick it up, let it sink, and pick it up again, then shake again. The one thing to remember when working a jig in the wintertime is S-L-O-W, work that thing as slow as you can possibly stand to. Once you've worked the edges of the cover then work your way to the center or "meat" of the cover. And when you come in contact with limbs and pieces of brush, don't just hop the jig over it, pick it up and let the current take it over the cover naturally. These are just some things that work for me.

I own a 2001 Xpress X18 and absolutely love everything about it. Plenty of storage, huge fishing deck, smooth ride, tough as nails, handles great, and she'll git up and go. 63mph with me, 1/2 tank, and all my gear 54-56 with 2 people, 3/4 tank, and all my gear 50 flat with 3 people, 1/2 tank, and a whole lotta gear Now pretty much all Xpress's come powered with a Yamaha, but I got mine with a Merc 150 EFI (which in a couple months will hopefully be a 190) I highly recommend these boats to anyone in the market, they perform like glass boats and have the ruggedness of a tin hull.

2/0 wide gap gammy superline.

The smallmouth in the local rivers stay shallow pretty much year round (0-12ft.) so the deepest I go is a Bandit 200 series or a Norman Deep Baby N. But I really have no need for those huge cranks that dive 20+ feet because around here, if you're fishing that deep you're not catching anything

I fished a small section of the New in the headwaters of Claytor lake this past summer, but I've been dying to float the "real" New River for a long time...

T9 recently turned me on to the Chigger craws and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite flippin baits 8-)

I'm a river fisherman so I am always facing current, 2 really productive year round baits for me are a texas rigged 4-inch tube and a 5/16oz finesse jig. I let the tube drift with the current around cover and crawl the jig slowly along the bottom.

I have handled the Cumara's at a local tackle shop and they are VERY light and seem like good rods for the money. I have not fished with one though so I cannot comment on whether they are comparable to say an IMX or a Helium LTA.

;D ;D ;D

alright buddy, now git out there and slay some bass

Dude that is awesome!!!! Have fun in your new toy, yall earned it!

I got a lot of friends that I just talk to at school, but I have about 2 or 3 real good friends that I hang out and fish with... But now I'm going through some things and I'm starting to find out who I thought my friends were and who really is a friend...

Look at this guy already trying to stir us up in our moment of glory! Shame on you! I know, I know, Im wondering if he is secretly Arod or Scott Boras... ;D ;D ;D ;D not quite, I'm not trying to start anything nor am I making stuff up, I actually did hear about this on sportscenter...

Welcome to the boards phil, I'm in Mechanicsville VA and fish Anna from time to time.

Man those fish would be a state record around here, awesome spots 4biz!!!!

Wow man that is one helluva peacock for Florida!!! Nice job 8-)

Dang man that sucks! A 6'6" M Shimano Scimitar was also one of my first baitcasting rods, I caught so many fish on that thing and I would still be using it but it got stolen at a pond I was fishing a while back >

Congrats to the Sox, but was there ever a more boring series? I mean come on, a 4 game sweep with not much excitement at all...you'd think the NL champs would put up a little more fight than that, poor showing by Colorado A little off topic here but did anyone else here about Josh Beckett possibly playing for the Yanks?

Jigs can be used to resemble almost any type of forage a bass eats... Bream- my favorite for this is a 3/8oz watermelon/blue/purple jig with a twin tail grub trailer. IMO the most important factor when imitating bream is to make sure the jig is very bulky and has lots of action, also dip the tails of the trailer in chart dye to make your presentation even more realistic. I usually use a fast bottom bouncing retrieve to resemble a feeding or frightened bream. Shad- A plain white jig will do just fine for imitating a shad, however my favorite is a 1/4oz white/silver flash/black jig with a pearl ZOOM swimming chunk trailer. Swimming is my most productive retrieve for imitating shad, just throw it out there and reel it back in with a couple twitches and pauses thrown in there. (just like you would a spinnerbait) But in cold weather, a slow bottom bouncing retrieve that looks like a dying shad can be productive. Helgrammites- This is more for smaller rivers and streams that are inhabited with smallmouth or spotted bass. I start out with a plain 1/16 or 1/4oz jighead and tie a small collar of black bucktail and then I add a trimmed Roboworm zipper grub in black grape as a trailer. This little combo is deadly when thrown out in the current and allowed to just drift around on the bottom.