deep

Save you 50 bucks. IRod 754 Fred's magic stick. Fishes pretty much any bait in the 0.5-1.5 oz range, and fishes them well.

It matters when it matters. For juvenile/ small adult NLMBs- which is pretty much all I fish for lately- that's probably not very often. I do still fish my favorite colors and patterns though lol. P.S. Might sound funny, but my favorite colors are not a function of water clarity or weather conditions or any of that stuff. My favorite colors depend on the reservoir I'm at. Iaconelli wrote a recent bassmaster blog post about this, and I agree.

Shakespeare Synergy. 20 bucks

Gross AF/ Can't unsee.

My 2 cents on missing bites (on jerkbaits). I will add though that I do feel the vast majority of bites, and/ or the fish hook themselves, and/ or take off with the bait. By the same token, I don't know how many bites I never felt! I prefer to use fluoro, except during winter when I want/ need to pause the bait for a loooong time, and then I use mono. Also use mono when fishing from the shore.

Just need to watch that rod tip.. duh!

Strange day. Landed ~15, but had almost twice as many bites. Tick/ bump/ loss contact usually followed by a swing and a miss! I don't carry a lot of stuff with me, played around as much as I could with the limited resources at my disposal. Finally started connecting on pretty much every swing with a 3/16 oz jighead and a rage menace in the fourth quarter. Oh well, I hate fishing on weekends anyway. -Bass for dinner. -One of the ~10 that didn't make it to the table.

@WRB Dobyns 908! (don't have one). My 867 will cast baits upto 8-10 oz easily. I used to have a GGR medium and a GGR heavy (semi-customs). Both of them were absolute beasts! @12poundbass With the right rod (and the right handle length) it's not much different than casting a 1/2 oz jig + trailer on a heavy-fast casting rod.

You're a good man Raider. P.S. Any new tattoos or piercings?

Never really watched my rod tip, almost always run the line between my fingers. The *ticks* and the *thumps* are the easy ones to detect. If you've never set the hook on instinct or just because ~something~ didn't feel right, you're missing fish. Even on treble hooked baits. I don't fish cranks, but I do fish jerkbaits a lot. Once in a while, after a pause and before jerking again, I'll find the line wrapped around a hook or something. That was a fish that ate and rejected the bait and I didn't feel it; baits don't usually foul on their own. On certain days, I never even feel the bite, and the fish is just there when I get to jerking the bait again. Lucky! Once you really attuned to your rod reel line bait setup, it's easier to instantly find when something isn't right. That something is usually a snag or a fish... (Yes, I've set the hook on snags many many times too.) P.S. If you want to practice *losing contact* with the bait, find a riprap and fish it with a jig or a texas/ florida rig. Warning: You will lose baits.

Umm, sorry, but I think your 10# mono probably breaks at 15#, and therefore it's not 10# line.

You aren't using fluoro, right? Sorry, couldn't resist.

And sometimes they just like to suspend during a drawdown..

Like some of the above posters, I too like to start outside and work my way in to the mat. The outside edge may sometimes be under water!

Almost never. But then, every gamefish species here like my jerkbaits. So I do take an occasional break.

Are you marking any fish? What depth? I'd find some structure at that depth, and fish that..

Almost forgot what a bass looks like; so I had to go out and remind myself. Bluebird skies, no wind, fished from 1230-400 pm. It was pretty brutal. 7 dinks, and a 3# fish.

The fish are either in the shallows, or in the deep water, or somewhere in-between lol. Treat it as a new reservoir that you have no prior knowledge of.

Toothpaste removes rust spots pretty well.

Maybe post a topo map.

Just one: I dislike spinning gear, with a passion.

I have just one tip for you: Fish where (location and depth) the bass are hanging out when they're active.

Try GYCB DT grubs, Berkley Chigger craws and Zoom baby brush hogs too (in addition to the rage craws). I have had very little luck with beavers and smallie beavers. (supposed to be good in winter, just hasn't worked out for me). Even less luck with Rage Lobsters lol. Rage craws are my standard for average fish, DT grubs for (hopefully) bigger fish. There seems to be a preference factor, and I'm not just talking about the rate of fall (which obviously is important). Also learnt something from Matt Allen about zoom chunks a few years back, and I quote; "Rig it upside down (fat side up)* and push the hook all the way through from Front to Back and it should begin to kick." Caught a bunch of fish doing that, although in general I'm not a big fan of chunks. I do fish them though. * (P.S.) Pork trailers have a skin side and a fat side. The "correct" way to rig it is the skin side up. I have a nice sketch/ guide on trimming real pork trailers that Tom (WRB) shared somewhere. I can find and post that if there's any interest.

Stupid question, but have you asked your boater for suggestions?

Not sure about "dead time", but summer and winter are stable seasons, spring and fall are transitions between them. If the fish have moved, go find them.